The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1905-05-26

rate training in some practical line
Industrial schools aud industrial
training are as much necessity as
what may be called book learning, il
we would have our young people self.
sustaining and make them helpful
honest, prosperous and successful mer
and women. What more melancholy
spectacle than that of a boy just grad
uated from high school or college
tramping the streets Of your city ask.
ing for work, but unable to find a jot
because he doesn't, with all his educa
tion and his diploma, know how TO dc
any kind OF useful or necessary work
When our young people leave schoo
they ought to have something of value
to sell ia the labor market Of the
world. A few hours each week pro
perly spent under competent instruc
tion would make competent steno
graphers, typewriters, bookkeepers
skilled mechanics and artisans ready
to take up life work in some usefu
and gainful occupation. How much
modification, idleness and loss OF
time this would save.
If you over educate the head and
neglect the heart and character the
sobriety and morality of the next gen.
Grafton will suffer. II you over edu-
cate the brain and create false idea
of the value and respectability of hon
est labor, you endanger the success
and prosperityof the future. The South
to-day is forging ahead Of all other
sections in the building of manufacture
ing industries, opening mines and in
the development Of our vast resources.
Cotton mills are springing up in a
night, so to speak, on the side OF the
cotton field. Numerous iron furnaces,
rolling mills and steel plants are build
ing in every suitable locality. There
is ready employment at remunera-
tive wage and with a prospect for
rapid promotion for every skillfully
trained man, | long to see us take
this matter ia hand and in our schools
by proper technical training prepare
our youth to till these places. Why
should we longer send to other sec
tions for the superintendent and
managers of our factories, our mines,
our furnaces and our railroads. We
have as much high-class talent and
ablityas any people on earth. We
have as much energy and intelligence
and problty among our youth as can
be found anywhere. Then let us give
that careful training and proper pre-
paration in our schools which will fit
them to step from the school room
into some one of these numerous gain
ful occupations. There need be no
fear demonstrating the market with
skilled labor. | could cite to you a
vast number of cases which have re-
Gently come under my own notice
where men have said II would like to
add this or that additional line to my
factory or TO my business, but / can
not find competent, qualified man TO
put at the head Of that department
There are, comparatively speaking, so
far as / can find, In the South, no ap-
prentices learning any trade. DO you
know OF any young man apprenticed
to bla cksmith, or to carpenter, or
TO a wheel-wright, or to any mechan-
ical trade? All cannot Ee superin-
tendents of factories or large enter
prises, but IL industrial schools were
every year graduating accurately
taught, carefully trained mechanics
and artisans, just as the schools of
law and medicine and theology and
engineering are turning out technical |
ly trained men In their several lines,
our people would be happier, more
cOntented, more prosperous, and every
calling in life would be elevated.
On this subject / am almost a crank. |
realize that this much desired |
change In our educational system can |
not be brought about in a day. But |
we can and we should make a Begin
ming. Much work Of this kind is al |
ready being done in other sectiOns-a and |
1t is our duty to take it up at once
before we find ourselves left behind in |
the race.
Mr.. Washington paid a high COM
pliment to the manhood of the South,
which now comprises the purest
blood. unmixed with any
foreign element TO be
'ound on this continent. He said the
'afety and perpetuity of our institu-
ions in the future will largely depend
IA the preservation Of our racial in
jegrIty, and that great as our achieve
nents in the past have been, he felt.
when he looked upon such specimens
II manhood and womanhood as he saw
before him, and as he had found ali
,yer Tennessee, that we could safely
rust to the keeping Of the rising gen
ration our prosperity, our public and
Drivate welfare, our national honor
md our deeply cherished free institu-
ions, and that as our youth possessed
o many advantages Infinitely superior
o those enjoyed by their fathers, we
hould have no fear bat what they
would carry the nation on To loftier
leights, to grander deeds and to more