Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1898-10-27
MANUAL TRAINING.
Burnett" Visits Menomonie
Where More Boys Graduate
Than Girls.
SENATOR STOUT'S ACTIVITIES.
His $4,000 School Building Girls Learn
to Cook and Sew-Good Roads, Rare
Pictures, Libraries and Other Method,
of Frightening Country Life.

of Frightening Country Life.
| Madison, Wis, Oct. 1S.-Menomonie, in
Dunn county, the capital scat ard thir-
teen miles from where a. +. Hall, anti
| pass champion comes from, is famous
! as the seat Of Senator Stout's manual
training school.
In this little city of 5000 people on the
Big Cedar river, two and one-halfhou
ride from st. Paul, plated in 1859 and
almost wholly hineing on the saw arG
| erist mills and fancy stock farms and
other activities of the multi-millionaires
| Of Knapp, Stout & Co.. is manual
training school, than which there Is no
finer equipped in the United States. 1t
is Senator Stout's gift to the city. The
| plant cost $4,000 without the equip
ment. Through it every boy and girl
| Of hepublic schools of Menomonie Sits.
| a fine building was burned Feb. 2, 1896,
| Whereupon Senator Stout cheerfully
| built another one-finer still. Wiscon-
sin has been slow in adding industrial
training to the curriculum, but the OBJ
| ject lesson in the little lumber city in
the western part of the state is slowly
doing its work. Two years ago the
| legislature appropriated $500, to be di-
| viued among ten cities which should
meet the requirements in manual train
ing in connection with high school work,
and that number of cities are receiving
$3.50 each. But many cities like Madi-
son, with 5000 children, who should be
| learning the use Of tools and acquiring
skill with eye and hand, report moth
ing, except little kindergarten, when
asked what is being done in the way OF
this great innovation in education.
More Boys Graduate Than Girls.
| Menomonie has been using 1T since
| 1893 l asked for some visible results
to prove it's effectiveness. Two i'm
| portant facts We're cited:
1. The successive graduating classes
in the high school show more boys than
| girls.
2. The military company from Menom-
| onie in the late war reports more men
assigned to special dutes-engneerin
| armorers, artiticers, carpenter work,
| cookery-than all other Wisconsin COM
| panies combined.
| ut was the training school that gave
| us the advantage" said the soldiers
| when they returned, and a great part
| of them had enjoyed the benefits of the
| school
| Senator Stout is the president of the
| school board. His good sense and pa
| thence admirably supplement his gen.
crosby. He is a rare man for his city
| and for Wisconsin. His business cares
| are relegated to others, so that his
| time is free for the public service. He
| Is state senator, regent of the uni
| versity, a member of the commission
| building the historical library at Madi-
son: member of the state library
| commission. and a trustee of the Dunn
| county insane asylum: poor commits
| sioner and president of the Menomonie
| schools. He is at the training school
every day and looks after the details
| OF engine room and the sodding like
| the business man he Is. He Is quiet and
| modest and extremely sensible. The
respect accorded him in Menomone
| whittier he went from ST. Louis in 1889,
| Is marked. He lives in a palace of n
| house, as do the Tainters and the
| other partners of the big lumber firm
| He has a wife and three children. The
| family are Unitarians.
A Millionaire's Good Sense.
was struck by the good sense re-
| quisite to being successful philan-
| thropist. Senator Stout did not build
| a big school and support 1t indefinitely
while his poorer fellow citizens laid
| down and enjoyed it. He said to them:
Now, let's have a modern high school"
| So they bonded the city for $50 900 for
| the high school, and the ladies formed
| an organization to raise money to beau
| tfy it and the grounds The city pays
| the teachers IN both the training and
| high schools and the other bills. and no
| doubt when the city has eVinCed its
| thorough good faith Senator Stout will
give them his building. He early rec
ognzed the Importance of kindergarten
work. But the citizens We're slow to
| take hold. SO for some years he him
| self quietly paid the bills. Today this
| little city has 273 children under trained
| Undergraduates record probably un-
excelled in the United States. And now
the city pays the bills.
We went thorugh the training school
| In it each pupil of the high school
| spends an hour a day, and in 1t, too,
| the younger children, boys and girls.
have an hour: or else the teacher goes
| to the various ward schools and in
structs them. So there is manual train
| ing for all. from the earliest years
when the kindergarten unconsciously
merges into manual training. The OBJ
lection that manual training encroach-
| es ON the regular" curriculum is
! pointless. because this hour per day is
extra-~it enCroaches on their play
| time. or rather 1t is regarded as d.
version We looked in the forge room,
where hpys in the third year of the high
| school work. There We're twenty-five
| FORCES. with the patent under draft.
| obviating the necessity for individual
chmneys. In the machine shop were
| n dozen t6-iuCh lathes. and bigger ones
and smaller There was a room where
tools We're given out on check, as in
factory. There We're facilities for
chipping and filing metals. In the mold
ing room they make castings. having
| first drawn and made the patterns.
| There were iron and brass furnaces
from which they drew the molten ma
te-ials. The woodworking ard pattern
| snaps would delight the boy who makes
4 at %