Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1907-06-05

sege in America. The nation is 10 Do
congratulated on the fact that the
congress at Washington has repeated
~ enacted laws designed TO aid the
several states in establishing and
maintaining agricultural and mechan-
lcal colleges. | greet such colleges,
through their representatives VINO
lave gathered here today, and bid
lhcm Godspeed in their work. | 20
less heartily invoke success for the
mechanical and agricultural schools;
and | wish TO say that l have heard
particularly good reports of the Mime
sofa Agricultural high school for the
way in which it sends its graduates
back to the farm TO work as prac-
teal farmers.
"As people there is nothing in
which we take a iuster pride than our
educational system. II is our boast
that every boy or girl has the chance
10 get a school training; and we feel
Il is a prime national duty TO furnish
this training free, because only there
BY can we secure the proper type OF
citizenship in the average American.
Our public schools and our colleges
have done their work WELL and there
Is no class of our citizens deserving OF
heartier praise than the men and wo-
men who teach In them.
NEVERTHELESS. - ost . gsaes-
ION we have bG0 <uhins to the
howledge that theUo 0ust be addi-
eonal education beyoAA that provided
-. ic ~ oaI
today Our school system has hither-
TO been well-nigh wholly lacking on
the side OF industrial training. OF the
training which fits a man for the shop
and the farm. This is a most serious
lack, for no one can look at the peo
pies OF mankind as they stand at pres
ent without realizing that industrial
training is one OF the most potent
factors of national development. We
Of the United States must develop a
system under which each individual
citizen shall be trained SO as to be
effective individually as an economic
unit. and fit to be organized with his
fellows so that he and they can work
In efficient fashion together This
question is vital TO our future prog
ress, and public attention should be
focused upon it. Surely II is eminent
ly in accord with the principles of our
democratic life that we should fur
nish the highest average industrial
training for the ordinary skilled work.
man. But IL is a curious thing that
In industrial training we have tended
10 devote our energies to producing
high grade men at the top rather THAI
In the ranks. Our engineering schools.
for instance. compare favorably with
the best in Europe, whereas we have
done almost nothing to equip the pr-
vate soldier Of the industrial MY
the mechanic. the metal-workcr the
carpenter. Indeed, too often our
schools train away from the shop and
the forge; and this fact together
with the abandonment Of the old APP
prentice system, has resulted in such
an absence OF facilities for providing
trained journeymen that in many II
our trades almost all the recruits
among the workmen are foreigners.
Surely this means that there must be
some systematic method provided for
training young men IN the trades.
and that this must be co-ordinated
with the public school system. No in
dustrial school can turn out a finished
journeyman; but it can furnish the
material out of which a finished jour-
neyman can be made. just as an en-
cheering school furnishes the train
ing which enables its graduates speed
lily to become engineers.
No Fear of Pauper Labor.
1--WE hear great deal of the need
of protecting our workingmen from
competition with pauper labor. have
very little fear of the competition of
pauper labor. The nations with pau
per labor are not the formidable indus
trial competitors OF this country. What
the American workingman has to fear
IS the competition of the highly skill
ed workingman Of the countries oi
greatest industrial efficiency BY the
tariff 'and by our immigration laws
we can always protect ourselves
against the competition Of pauper Ia
Dor here at home; but when we con
tend for the markets Of the world we
can get no protection, and we shall
then find that our most formidabl,
competitors are the nations in which
there is the most highly developed
business ability, the most highly de
veloped Industrial skill; and these arr
the qualities which we must ourselves
develop.
I'VE have been fond as a nation o
speaking OF the dignity OF labor
meaning thereby manual labor Per
sonally don't think we begin 10 un
derstand what a high place manua
labor should take and It never cal
take this high place unless II offer
scope for the best type OF man. W
have tended to regard education as
matter OF the head only, and the RI
suit is that great many OF on
people. themselves the sons OF me
who worked with their hands. seer
20 think that they rise in the worl
II they get into a position where the
do no hard manual work whatever
where their hands will grow soft, an
their working clothes viii be ker
clean. Such a conception Is boil
false and mischievous. There are. q
course. kinds of labor where the worl
must be purely mental, and there ar
other kinds of labor where, under eN
listing conditions, very little deman'
indeed is made upon the mind thouel
am glad TO say that think the pre-
portion OF men engaged in this wor
Is diminishing. But in any health
community, in any community wit
the great solid qualities which alon
make a really great nation, the bull
Of the people should do work whic
makes demands upon both the bod