The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1901-09-21
OUR BOYS.

late Artemus Ward, prince of Amer
lean humoris,s, improvsed lee
ture entitled, "What Shall We Do
With Our Girls?" While the lee
ture did not contain the rcmotest ref
crence to girls, the title was suS-
oestivc and directed popular atten-
ton to one of the problems of the
day. The dawn of the twentieth
century forces to the forefront the
question, What shall we do for our
boys under the changed conditions
created by the industrial revolution?
The demand for higher education,
fostered by the founding and en-
largement of universities and col
Iescs endowed by mulli-milllonaires
with almost linitless incomes, has
caused the ovcrcrowdiug of the pro-
fessions by young men who enter the
professional world equipped with
unmarketable knowledge and spoiled
for hard work by association with
young men whose wealth enables
them 10 indulge in habits unsui;ed
to those having limited incomes.
Every year the American univer-
titles and colleges graduate many
thousands of incipient doctors, law
yers, preachers and men of letters
out Of all proportion in number to
the demand in the professional field.
Thousands of these highly educated
young men find themselves com-
PEELED to struggle along in their
chosen professions from year to year
in order 10 gain bare subsistence.
Many thousands Of these young men
are spoiled for common every day
work in the field and factory and are
incompetent for efficient service as
statesmen, book keepers or clerks IN
the store or business ollie. In the
contest with other bread winners
they rank at the bottom OF the scale
because their best yeats have been
given TO mental culture when they
would have been more probably en-
pIoyed in acquiring the dizziness of
the skilled mechanics or business OF
the merchant or commercial Traveller.
The ave. .ge earnings Of profess
sional men in american cities are far
below the earnings Of skilled mechan-
les in our factories and mills and in
the building trades. The highest
incomes in .tr ric. to-day are paid
to men who graduated from the
workshop rather 'iirn from the col
Iege. Among this class are the gen
eral managers Of railroads, the pr'sl
dents Of locomotive works and Il
heads Of great manufacturing con.
Germs, whose success depends upon
the executive ability and thorough,
knowledge Of detail rather than
profound knowledge Of Latin, Greek
or philosophy.
Tue lesson taught by experience
is that the most desirable education
for the great majority Of the boys Of
the twentieth century is that which
will impart to them mechanical skill
rather than that which will fit them
for professional or literary career.
Next to the mechanical training per-
haps the most promising and most
profitable field for the boys is to be
found in an education in applied
science that develops our great me
chanical and electrical engineers and
chemists.
The most successful men in Amer
lea to-day are the sclt-made men
whose careers were begun in tue
workshops and in the section houses
and whose education was acquired
by contact with men of brains ard
the constant friction OF the current
affairs of every day life. These con-
ditions are not pointed out as an
argument against higher education,
but rather to indicate the new dam
gerous tendency to overcrowd the
professions.