The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-07-17

Boston, July 15.-With the present discussion of some of its more serious features that the average citizen nas never before known anything apout' the magnitude of Uncle Sam's under taking in building the Panama Canai is just beginning to be generally ap- preciated. That 1t will require millions upon millions of dollars and years upon years of labor by hundreds of powerful machines and thousands Of human hands all of us have understood In hazy sort of way. For the rest. we have taken 1t for granted that Amvt, can engineering skill could accomplish this as 1t already has wrought scores of wonders. ficial, interoceanfc waterway IS tno most difficult task to which our ensi- neers have ever been called. Propaoly if is even the most difficult task ever set before the engineers of any nation. It is noteworthy. however. that tne world has never. for an instant. ques tioned that the Panama Canal would De built-and built satisfactorily. too.- since the United States took the mat ter in hand The discouraging out come of previous attempts by Euro means raised no doubts of Amerlcas ability in the mind of any one. rms is not only because the tremendous re- sources of our country are instinctiVeIy recognized, if not fully understood, py eoraipners nowadays, but also because there Is hardly a corner of tho earth whither our engineers have not been called to perform their modern mir acles.
 The wonderful railway that crosses the Andes, sometimes mounting io'Voo feet above the level of the sea, Is the product of American brains and scien- Ga q able bridgework that has made possi- ble the great Siberian transportation highways and the railroads Of Indla. John Hays Hammond and William Fer kins gained America a worldwide rep utation by their development or mln- ing engineering in South Africa; ana the list might be prolonged almost in- definitely were 1t to include the scores of young Americans who have furnished the skill and the energy that haVe' Tn other lands as well as their own, set present-day achievement far on its way.
 There can be no doubt that this su- periority is due in large measure 10 the differences in methods of training here and abroad. In fact Sir William Mather, the British expert. who came last month on his second visit. to the United States, having tourneyed rom England chiefly to receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Prince ton, makes frank and generous ac- knowledgment of Americas lead In the technical professions and the prepar- ation of It's young men for them. He has made the subject of technical edu- cation a life study and Is Chairman of the Froebel Educational Institute or London and a member of the Council Of Owens College and Victoria University. He was a Member of the committee appointed in 1901 to effect the reorgan- ization of the British War Omce and has thrice been elected to Parliament; and he is no theorist, but very prac- tical man, being part owner of the Sal ford Iron Works. where. in 1893, he established the eisht-hour day.
 As the result of my visit here. after an absence of more than twenty years" Sir William said in an interview with your correspondent, T feel the convic- tion that you are moving ahead some ten times as fast as we are, and when I think of what American schools are doing for the people and for the State feel discouraged as to our progress. The trouble at the bottom of technical education in England is the fact that the English are slow to appreciate the advantage of secondary schools. l might also say that in England we nave nothing to compare with your positive pdSSlOn TOT HI NhAS NNeAss s' During my present visit l went out West and was actually amazed at the widespread eagerness there among all classes of people to see that the young were properly prepared for the great struggle of life. That is one thing that strikes the foreigner in this coun- trp-the deep p-seated desire of the people to take full advantage of their magnificent school systems.
 T have been an earnest advocate or technical schools for many years. In 1883 as a member of the Royal Com mission on Technical Instruction, I visited the United States for the pur- pose of securing ideas on which to base, a system of technical education in Eng land. Other members of the Commis- sion visited European countries. The result of our visits was the Technical Instruction Act. passed by Parliament in 1889. which established technical schools, under government supervision and supported by a special tax in all the municipalities and towns In Eng land. Since the passage of that act the friends of technical education among us have been striving to see that 1t was properly enforced. but regret to say that our efforts have met com- paratiyely little success.
 Aside from the general indifference as English parents to the complete edu-