The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-03-02
MEET ITS GRowING NEEDS.

MEET ITS GROWING NEEDS.
No department of our free school sys-
tenn has appealed with such favor to
the parents of st. Paul as that represent
ed by the Mechanic Arts high school.
From it's inception to the present time
it has continued to grow in favor And
its growth has kept pace with the Won
derful advancement that has gone on
in recent years in productive pursuits.
This is the era Of mechanical advance
ment; and the forms of educational
training which makes no account of that
potent fact are daily losing prestige.
The professions are full to overlooking
Industrial development is steadily cutting
eff the avenues Of advancement in those
professions which have not direct refer
ence to the wonderful material progress
which is being made all around us. There
is less need of lawyers than ever before,
and more for engineers, civil and me-
chanical. The tremendous force of cleo
tricity is reckoning toward her domain
youthful Intelligence, training and skill.
The boy with the trained hand and eye
can find employment and the certainty
of advancement in industrial pursuits
where the boy who has had an academic
education and no more is disregarded,
or is condemned to a life of clerical
drudgery
These are some of the facts which are
being brought home to parents every
day. making them seek something more
for their boys than knowledge of his
tory of the ancient languages, of Eng
lish literature. And these parents have
been turning in this city to the St. Paul
Mechanic Arts school, and in other cities
to corresponding institutions to get for
their boys the lines of instruction they
know are most promotive of the boys
advancement in life 1t is because of this
that the strain has been increasing ev-
cry day on the resources of our own
Mechanic Arts school. It was not pos
sibie to foresee the, tremendous advance
in public favor which was in store for the
idea of manual training when the St
Paul manual training school was estab-
lisked years ago. Good provision was
nevertheless made and, considering the
demands of the day, the provision made
might properly be called liberal. But
what was liberal then is inadequate to-
day. The Mechanic Arts high school
has been every day for two years or SO
going farther and farther beyond the
point where it's facilities were equal to
the growing demand made upon them.
Within a year they will be absolutely
behind the requirements necessary to
proper instruction, and as well in com
plete disregard of the sanitary welfare
of the pupils
The present enrolment in the Mechan-
ic Arts school is $50 pupils. At the be-
ginning it was about $50. 1t is increasing
at about a ratio of % per cent every
year Within a wear it will be between
GOO and 7O0 if not over Within three
O''A'' AiOAi- 1i4iAt Ii4l11 II 10 not uHHBely
that the pupils enrolled in this splendid
institution if proper additional space is
furnished will not be less than 1000 in
number. This shows the soundness OF
the public Judgment. Everything that
a high school gives in the way of academ-
ic training the arts school supplies. And
in addition to that it trains its boys in
the work which there is demand for.
Year after year the school finds itself
unable to supply to employers both in
the mercantile and the productive call
ings anything like the demand made up
on it for young men. The supply is far
from likely to be ever in excess of the
demand
The city has made liberal provision
of late for the overcrowded condition
of the graded schools. They must do
the same and do it promptly for the
Mechanic Arts high school unless the
efficiency of this arm of our educational
system is to be impaired In the judg-
ment of TIL Clio b the next serious
undertaking Of the board Of school in
spectors should be to provide eitl@r new
or greatly enlarged quarters for this
admirable institution of learning.