The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-14
Technical Schools Needed for Educa
 tion in the South.


 ton in the South.
 If we would develop with the greatest profit to ourselves and the world any small part of the large and varied re- sources of this vast Southern empire of nearly million square miles--as large as Austria Germany. France. Spain, the combined, and much richer in natural res sourceS-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 nave few great polytechnic schools, and many technical and trade schools for teaching the theory and practice of every industrial art, from the intense cultiVa- ton of the soil and the care of forests to engineering and the manufacture of the finest fabrics and the most delicate machinery. And there must be commer- cial schools such ase all the great com mercial countries of the world are estab- fishing and maintaining.
 German, France. Switzerland, Den- mark, England, the New England and Northern States have their hundreds of such schools, on which they lavish mil nons Of dollars, every million returning its ten millions. It is these schools and the knowledge and skin gained in them that have made Denmark, with It's few acres of sterile soil and its northern cli- mate, the second country in the world in per capita wealth; enabled the Swiss peasants and mechanics to deposit in their savings banks $100 000, ,0O0-about SIS per the German people, burdened with an immense army and Q uouble system of royal governments, to wealth, power and industrial and commercial supremacy; en! abled France to pay war indemnity oth- erWiSe runouS and leave her people un- impoverished; assisted England in regain. ing her place, which she was rapidly los- ing, at the head of European nations; ana enabled our own manufacturing states to compete successfully with Flu and territory. Brains, skill, the power to make and use machinery, and to control the forces of nature count 1or much in the production of ~sal:h.
 Nor is this kind of education valuable alone for the increased power of produc- ton 1t brings to the individual and the community. It gives real culture of mind and heart as well, increasing beyond measure the power to see straight and think to definite purpose, and giving a firm and sure foundation for morals. Not hearing alone, but doing gives the rock firm foundation that resists the floods and storms. Froebsl was not far wrong when he asserted that this working out with the hsnds the images of the soul, the thoughts of the mind, he desires of the heart-this busy. powerful activity-con- stitutes the real kinS Sdom of God on earth. MT. Page, in The Worlds Work for June, 1901, says the wonderfully rapid develop ment of technical education and the rapid extension of manual and industrial train ing as a means of mind culture as well as hand culture are the most striking facts in present educational progress. "lt 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 noteworthy movement in educational work in the near future seems likely to be based on this fact. It is movement straight towards common sense and toward the strength ening of democratic character" And again he says, 'tfhe race has found its development by doing things. By doing things 1t has learned its wisdom and built its institutions, Common sense express ed In action-that Is the American char acter as 1t has been the English charac- ter behind 1t for a thousand years.