Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1901-08-11

The Register has been the steadfast
champion of Industrial schools.--this
means progress step nearer light
but how long will the constant asser-
walton of the truth be required before
light dawns upon the powers in con-
troll?
The problem is so very simple, and
the untold good 50 manifest that it
seems strange that In an age like this.
that we would still follow the decayed
and moss crown school system of a
thousand years ago. The difficulty IA
to get out of the deep mired rut. Then
again. literature and geography would
not like to give way TO the strong
armed teacher who instructs in car
pentry masonry. modelling, and con-
struction ;-education that means in
telligence and a means of livelihood.
80 tl
As 1t is now, what do our children
learn? Are they mechanics or pro-
fessional persons after graduation?
They are neither. They are destitute
of the simple knowledge OF how to
make a living,-unless Of course they
turn pedagogue and turn out pupils
as ignorant of life as themselves.
80
Take an example. A young man has
passed through the schools; he wants
an occupation to earn livelihood. He
makes application to a merchant. The
merchant has all the clerks he needs.
But" says the applicant. II can 10
cate every country on earth geograph
ically. / can analyze and prose any
sentence in the English language.
know some Latin, Greek. botany and
geology" Then the merchant gives
him a place at 500 per month. Does
he? OF course not. Then he resorts
to the trades. What then? The same
thing over again. He must begin at
the bottom and learn the intricacies
of the craft. He wonders what he
learned at school anyhow.
~
A theoretical education is good for
one who expects to live life OF indo-.
lence,-one who engages in profess
sion that his father followed. with
competence back OF him,-one who ex-
poets to shine at social gatherings and
idulge in small talk and cheap wittic-
isms,-who has no use for the muscle
and brain that God gave him,-be-
cause it's exercise is unnecessary.-be-
cause he has wealthy father or an
inheritance back of him. But how
about the millions who must toll and
sweat?
We have In the United States some
thing over $50, 900 persons who attend
colleges and universities they ex-
pect of course to engage in profess
sions,-not that they are capable of be-
ing professional men, but because their
fathers were successful in business
they are the non-producers, the par
asites that must exist upon the labor
and production of others. And what is
the value of the collegians in business?
Henry Clews, the great financial au-
thority, says they are useless in bus
mess concern, and then candidly
speaks of his six foot SOU at college,
who must exist on what his father
his earned.
But how about the more than 15,-
000, 600 of children who attend public
schools in the United States? Did you
ever notice the small percentage that
even graduated? We have in Wheel
ing here, something over 1000 of
school enumeration. How many grad
yates each year? An average perhaps
of 80 or 30. Think Of it! Out of 1000
this little number! What becomes OF
them? Go to the factories and see the
young girls and boys. Then you will
wonder why the theoretical education
which taught the distinction between
verb and an adverb Is impotent.
People must work in an age like this.
We knew good and benevolent
principal of schools in Georgia, whose
most important duty was to draw his
salary and go at intervals to the
schools and talk on moral philosophy
and religion. He became inbued with
an over-powering idea of the import
ance of anatomy. Hence he prepared
a lecture on the human eye, and went
to all schools under his control and ex-
planned to infants of to IL years all
about the tunica conjunctiva, the seller
otto coat, the ciliary oculi. the trach-
lea, &C. OF course this was well re-