The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-01-22

The Herald is not inclined to credit
the intimation which has come from
several sources that less attestion IS
given to Industrial ana agricultural
training in the Agricultural college OF
Utah than TO classical and philosophi-
cal courses. These departments should
not and could not verT well be slightei-
While a liberal education is always
desirable. and instruction in the
classics and sciences IS required by Jaw
II agricultural colleges created and
maintained in part by the general gov
ernment. II is Nevertheless true that
esNeial attention to practical eduea-
ton, to industrial training. is the main
object Of such Institutions
Never before in the history Of
modern civilization were so many
avenues open and opening for the work
Of skilled hands. Never was the de-
nland SO great for a technical knowl-
edge Of the practical affairs Of life. It
IS a commercial and industrial age.
The day Of cobbling and crudity in
manufacturing, in tlling the soil, in
solving the problems and supplying the
necessaries Of life, is passing rapidly.
Our public schools are supplying that
which was only found in the higher in
stitutions Of learning a half century
ago Children are preparing for the
realities Of existence at an eaflier age
than once they did While the coll
leges and universities are better
patTonized than ever, and they are
deserving Of even more patronage yet,
it has been deemed necessary to estab-
/ fish manual training schools. indus
trial and agricultural colleges. where
with mental discipline the student who
can not afford a finished education may
at least acquire a practical one.
The demands Of business. the
rapidity Of industrial development. the
scramble for commercial supremacy,
the necessity of entering the race as
early IS possible in ones career, has
been widening the distance between the
standard of practicabiHty and the
educational standard 50 long main
tanned.
Manual training. instruction in the
useful arts of industry, does not mean
trade-teaching any more than classical
instruction means the teaching of
pupils to become poets. But It has its
advantages over a liberal education in
this; It is within the reach of more
people; it combines intellectual de-
velopment with the development Of
SKILL through which the mind may
work: it is a war upon physical IazineE
without permitting the mind to be idle;
1t brings the muscular and nervous
systems to a mutual understanding; it
oompels bodily exercise and preserves
greater symmetry in the growth of men
and women than work d:sassociatei
from study or book learning alone
makes possible.
Agricultural and industrial colleges
are not intended, however. to supplant
other insitudons Of learning: but they
were called into being for a special pur-
pose; they have features distinctively
their own; they are an outgrowth Of
the times: they are a part Of the ma
/ tiOnal growth; they are an answer to
a popular demand; they are essential
TO the masses; the Industrial machine
can no longer be fed without discrimi-
ration. Machinery has improved and
labor must keep pace with it. Widen
ing opportunities and the ever in
creaang responsibilities and require
ments Of men who employ on oversee
labor call for manual training, for in
dustrial education, and the man OF
woman who can answer that call and
meet those requirements has success in
/ reach.
If interest in the studies Of agricul-
ture, dairying. housekeeping, cooking
and other industrial arts or domestic
sciences is waning in the Agricultural
college Of Utah it is a mistake which
the faculty and the board Of trustees
should lose no time in correcting.