The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-06-28
And It's Relation to Material
Advancement.
ADDRESS BYHON. s. r. LACY
Delivered Before the Teachers
Assembly at Asheville.
DAY OF THEAoPRENTlCE PASSED
Great Work of CiWIizing the World and
improving its Material Condi
ton IS Now Done by
30 CrbApIc
the Schools,

Mark Twain says, There are two
kinds of liars-the common everyday
liar and the statistician." And as l
desire your good opinion, although |.
am Commissioner of Labor Statistics,
[ appear before you to-day as a me-
chanic of the old apprentice school, and
not as a statistician, and, as such, Will
discuss the Relation ofTechnical Train
ing to Material Advancement
The State is to be congratulated
that this body OF people whose intiu-
ence and thought have had so much to
do with shaping and building up the
minds and characters of those who are
destined to make our State have
turned their attention to technical
training. What is technical training?
Even well informed people have very
confused idea and miX-up in their
minds regarding manual training,
trade schools, and technical training.
| Trade schools are those which teach
trades, manual training is the draining
Of the hands, and technical training IS
advanced manual training, teaching the
science and theory of mechanism.
| Technical training is to manual what
the college is to the school. 1t is far
| beyond and above simply training the
hands, it is getting the theory and pre-
pairing the minds in the lines which
| lead to mechanism.
Again, what is material advance
ment? This question is susceptible Of
great number of answers. Each per-
son viii think it relates entirely to the
line of advancement in which he is per-
sonallv interested, and like the shoe
maker who visited a magnificent statue
no one had found a defect or flaw,
| the head was perfeet, the limbs were
| beautifully proportional and were in
| graceful pose, but he turned away
| contemptuously, and when some en-
IFhusiastic admirer asked what was the
matter. he said: Look at that shoe.
| Did YOU ever see q shoestring tied in
that way?" Thus yoa see that each per-
son will let his own thoughts color his
opinion.
| Machinery has been the greatest pow.
er for civilization known, and the peo-
pie who invent, manage and control
this greatest force should have every
opportunity to acquire as much knowl-
| edge as possible in this line. 1t has
done a great deal towards Christianiz-
| ing the world. It's, tendency has been
to increase wages; and what may sound
paradoxical, but is absolutely true, IL
has shortened the length ofthe working
day at the same time. This is material
advancement in the truest sense of the
| word.
DAY OF THE APPRENTICE PASSED.
The time for the apprentice has pass
ed; he filled his place in the economy
of the world that was intended for him,
-, In II
progress has outgrown him, she needs
mechanics made not only on better
plan, but quicker one. The apren-
tice of today is nothing but helper,
a boy laborer, who is expected in four
years, by absorption, or friction, to
| learn enough to be called journey
Imam. If he shows a decided talent for
one special line of his trade, it is to the
interest of his employer to keep him
on shat class of work, neglecting that
which he does not do 50 well. This sys-
tenn is giving place to that of manual
training. and trade schools, which, in
a very few years, as soon as the edge
wears off and the young men begin to
find out that they are moi finished work
men, but are only in condition to be-
come so by putting theory into prac-
tice, and they come to the m0rtltylng
conclusion that they do not know IT
all, viii develop a class of mechanics
that will be as far ahead OF those
of the old system as the railroad car IS
ahead of the easy-going stage coach.
Col Carroll d. Wright, one OF the
greatest men Of this or any other age,
Isays: 1--WE are living in an ag- of mind,
as is illustrated by the results OF IN
ventive genius; it is the age OF intellect,
of brain-for brain is king, the machin-
cry is the kings prime minister This
being true. technical training is the
roval road to court. England appre-
ciated this when she llnighted Sir Hen
TX Bessemer for inyenting his process
OF converting iron into steel, which
revolutioniZed The mechanical world.
What we need in America is to put the
men who think for material advance
ment ON a par with other professions.
: There is zoo much looking down on me-
; chanics. Wen | remember how short
some memories became when l went
( o work in 1870 in a mechanic shop
Since that time there has been revo-
luton Of feeling The world is getting
I better, and this is proof OF IT. y
mans ability and character is begin
ming to put him on par with those
: who have wealth or ancestry to boast
of. Scott, in The Lady of the Lake,
makes his ideal knight say, Moves oul
I free course by such fixed cause as gives
! the poor mechanic laws? That was
the age of knighthood, when the mar
I who attendend most to material adj
vancement was looked down upon witt
contempt. and consequently they hae
, very little progress. Now the worlc
, is turning to those very people as thc
8 benefactors of-the race.
WORK OF TRAINING SCHOOL.
Now then, the first thing to do t.
: make technical training perform it,
part for the advancement Of civiliza
; ton is 20 inculcate in the minds of the
people. that work is ennobing, and is
: divine command. There are too many
that feel that being a mechanic is put
ting the mark of inferiority upon them
selves 1t is true that training thu
B, hands quckens the brain. Locke, near
II lv two hundred years ago, advised tina
= 4 dun boy be put to bodily labor t
$ quicken his mind Idiots are developed
D and trained almost entirely through
the use Of the hands. This should no
initiate against manual trimming, bu