Oxford eagle., 1903-02-05
SOUTHERN
EDUCATION
TECHNICAL SCHOOLS NEEDED.
They VIII Assist With Greatest
Profit the Development of
Our Varied Resources.

est W QlStlNSc 1llNs VIC Ncti
any small part of the large and varied
resources of this vast southern en-
pire of nearly million square miles
-as large as Austria, Germany,
France, Spain, the British Isles, and
the New England states combined,
and much richer in natural resources
then we must not only educate all
our people in general way, but they
must be given specific knowledge and
skill to do particular kinds of work.
We must have few great polytechnic
schools, and many technical and
trade schools for teaching the theory
and practice of every industrial art
from the intense cultivation of the
soil and the care of forests to engi-
neering and the manufacture of the
finest fabrics and the most delicate
machinery. And there must be COM
merical schools, such as all the great
commercial countries of the world
are establishing and maintaining.
Germany, France, Switzerland, Den
mark, England, the New England and
northern states have their hundreds
of such schools, on which they lavish
millions of dollars. every million re-
turning it's ten millions. 1t is these
schools and the knowledge and skill
gained in them that have made Den
mark, with its few acres of sterile
soil and its northern climate, the sec
ond country in the world in per capita
wealth; enabled the Swiss peasants
and mechanics to deposit in their saw
ings banks $500, ,000, ,000-about S75 per
capita for the entire populations;
helped the German people, burdened
with an immense army and double
system of royal governments, to
wealth, power and industrial and
commercial supremacy; enabled
France to pay a war indemnity other
wise ruinous and leave her people un-
impoverished; assisted England in re-
gaining her place, which she was rap
idly losing, at the head of European
nations; and enabled our own manu-
featuring states to compete success
fully with European countries within
their own ports and territory. Brains,
skill, the power to make and use ma
chinery, and to control the forces OF
nature count for much in the produc-
ton of wealth.
Nor is this kind of education valua-
BILE alone for the increased power of
production it brings to the individual
and the community. 1t gives real cul-
ture of mind and heart as well, in
creasing beyond measure the power to
See straight and think to definite pur-
pose, and giving firm and sura foun-
dation for morals. Not hearing alone,
but doing gives the rock-frm founda-
ton that resists the floods and
storms Froebel was not far wrong
when he asserted that this working
out with the hands the images of the
soul, the thoughts of the mind, the
desires of the heart-this busy, pow
erful activity-constitutes the real
kingdom of God on earth. Mr.. Page,
in the Worlds Work for June, 1901,
says the wonderfully rapid develop
ment of technical education and the
rapid extension of manual and indus
IrfdI Training dS Il uled1lS VI lllllu Cul-
ture as well as hand culture are the
most striking facts in present educa-
tional progress. ''It seems to have
been clearly demonstrated that pupils
who are taught to do things with
their hands do better work also with
their minds than those who do not
have manual training. The most note
worthy movement in educational
work in the near future seems likely
to be based on this fact. 1t is a move
men, straight towards common sense
and toward the strengthening of
democratic character" And again he
says, 1.-The race has found its develop
ment by doing things. By doing
things 1t has learned its wisdom and
built it's institutions. Common sense
expressed in action-that is the Amer
lean character as it has been the En-
glish character behind it for thou
sand years.