Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-16
TECH. SCHOOL AWARDS.
Graduates in Two Branches
Receive Their Rewards.
SEPARATE COURSES
SECRETARY WILSON TALKS OF
PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
Commissioner Macfarland Presides and
Commissioner West Delivers Diplo-
mas-Scholarship Certificates.

II would not give the snap of my finger
for the education you cannot apply, said
Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson, last
night, at the commencementexecclses of the
Mckinley Manual Training School at the La
fayette Opera House. This remark was ap
plauded to the echo by the members of the
graduating classes and their friends, be-
cause they considered 1t graceful tribute
to their school and it's methods.
The stage of the theater presented pref
ty scene with its decorations of palms and
other tropical growths as a back broun1 for
the misses In white who were to graduate
and the young men in their contrasting
dress suits of black. Overhead at the front
of the stage was mass of foliage, with the
legend in white immortelles. IN. T. S., '05."
On the stage besides the graduates were
Mr.. Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture; Com
missioner Henry l.. West and several men,
bers of the board of education, including
President j. Holdsworth Gordon, Mrs. John
R. Francis, chairman of the committee on
industrial training: Mrs. Henry L. West
and DR.. Richard Kingsman; Rev. J. ].
Muir, Supt. A. T. Stuart. Director of High
Schools Hughes, Director of Manual Train
ing Chamberlain, Principal Gardner and
members of the faculty.
At the conclusion of several musical num-
bers by the orchestra, Rev. ]. j. Muir
opened the proceedings with prayer.
The Opening Address.
Commissioner H. B. F. Masfarland, who
presided, then delivered the opening ad-
dress
I'VE begin tonight" he said, "the inter
esting and impressive series of graduation
exercises of the higher schools of our public
school system. One-seventh of the city's
popula tion," he added, lis in the public
schools, and at least another seventh is
made up of parents and friends directly ia
terested while all intelligent citizens real
ize that this is the Districts most impor-
tant interest. 1t has our future in its
power.
While only a small percentage of the
public school children graduate from the
higher schools Mr.. Macfariand said,
these schools are representative well
as necessary. and merit the attention given
them. Would that every taxpayer in the
District might attend these ceremonies, to
see these products of this field.
THE technical Industrial school, named
for President Mckinley, graduates tonight
the first class that has spent four years in
seventy-five graduates, twenty girls and
fifty-five boys, represent a constantly in
creasng number, who prefer this new
preparation to the old Everything is
criticised adversely by some one, but there
is less criticism of technical and Industrial
education than of any other, so that we
may safely assume that 1t has general ap-
prevail. The graduates owe much TO the
state and to their families and friends,
and we believe that the best of their train
ing is that 1t has taught them to recognize
and to pay that debt. by right living at
home and in the community, the true pa
triotiSm.'