The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-05-29

.aTechnical training has another signI-
| 6cance and that is in the moral world
The proposition that pauperism and crime
are less frequent in well-informed com
munities will not, l suppose. be debated.
| II is true that the intelligent, skilled la
| borer is rarely found either in a penal
| or a charitable institution; nor is the
| nerson who has the elementary education
| sufficient to enable him to read, write,
and make his own calculations so liable
to be a charge as the one who has not
these qualifications. 1t is statistically
true that enough of knowledge to be of
value in increasing the amount and
quality of work done, to give character,
| to some extent at least. to a person s
tastes and aspirations, is better safe
guard against the inroads of crime than
any code of criminal laws. This state
ment we must concede. and not take time
IN examine the oft-repeated arguments
| in favor of It, We must admit that the
kind of labor which requires the most
skill on the part of the workman to per-
form it fnsures him most perfectly against
want and crime, as a rule. l believe that
the unfitness for productive labor wheth-
er it springs from lack of a trade or occu-
nation. or from personal antipathy to
work is a great and predisposing cause
Of both pauperism and crime. This pre-
dicates the necessity of skilled training.
With the progress of invention and the
consequent elevation of labor both paup-
erism and crime, so far as society is con-
cerned. have correspondingly decreased.
CDR. Y. r. Brockway, for many years
40 I Cryy a
EImira, N. Y. has borne testimony TO
this position time and again. Recently
he has said that we are familiar with the
various avenues to the subject OF the
treatment of prsoners-the anthrOpologl-
cal the theological, and now we have
come to the economical and it seems 10
me that is the true avenue OF approach
IN the whole question. l think, he furth-
err saws. we shall find in the study Oh
economics and the relations OF the prison.
or to the State and the real economic in
tarests of the State itself, as we'll as OF
the prisoner the ideal reformatory sys-
tenn for which we have been searching so
MANY wears. This will be enforced when
we think what class of men we get-hoW
defective. how ignorant they are, what
lack Of capabilities. / have for many
wears personally examined, one by one,
tbe prisoners that come to our retor1na-
tory until now we have examined ten
tbousand and | am able to say without
eyaggeration that not one man IN one
hundred whom l have examined on al
mission gives any evidence of ever hay
mo Thought about providing, by his work
Of TODAY, by his saving in the present,
for the future years. They are to-
tally improvident, and it seems to me that
this fact suggests the Importance of their
having some education in this direction
in prison. He further testities that
another indication of the desirability OF
economic training grows out OF the iact
of the large percentage of crimes against
nronnrtv over crimes against the person
or against good order At the E!mira
Reformatory over 81 per cent are GRIMES
against property, and a large percentage
of the prisoners who have come lhto
that reformatory have never had any
training whatever. :, Fifty per CENT nave
served in iails or juvenile asyums or
State Industrial schools, and % pei cent
have been domiciled in charitable insti-
tutiOns.
OR Broollway makes this startling
statement: Il have been led TO feel thaI
a very large source of crime arises from
the homing of children in charitdbi2 IN
stitutions where they. get no economical
stitution, where the officers are the best
people. where moral instruction ana
scholastic education are given, where love
is lavished, there is yet an utter absence
of any proper economic education; so II
comes to pass that when the boys go out
into the great swirl of activity and COM
petition they are utterly unpreparGd TO
get what they want by their own d'rec-
ton. The result is inevitable, and so
they come in in droves for stealing.
But is there any significance to tech
meal and trade education beyond mere
material welfare and the accumulation
which comes from it? Does such train
ing lead to the development of a still
higher and more divinely spiritual force
in society? While the first two, utilitar-
ian and intellectual results, are ample,
and more than ample to Justify all the
expenditure of money and time and effort
there is still what may be called the ar
tistic or aesthetic results to be consider
ed. Very many men will say, and have
said when, considering these unitarian
and intellectual advantages of technical
training. Yes. that is all true, but it de-
stroys the aesthetic instincts Of the hu-
man race do not believe this at all.
The German artist poet Platen has said;
A talent for any art is rare; but it is
given to nearly every one to cultivate a
taste for art; only it must be cultivated
with earnestness. The more things thou
learnest to know and to enjoy, the more
complete and full will be for thee the de-
light of living Our social well being
means a state of life which best fits us
for society, for companionship with our
fellows. Social we'll being means social
morality. and this can be secured only by
the practice of the purest ethics, the
laws of right living and the practical
employment of our powers.
Some time ago, in riding up In Ne"
York on the elevated happened to SIT
beside shop girl, Her whole attention
was engaged in studying a popular mag
| azine and my curiosity was excited te
the extent of watching her face and
learning the subject which was attracting
her. I found she was reading an article
relative to some of the great works OF
| our best artists and in studying the en-
! orovipos which accompanied 1t. At the