Arizona republican., 1907-10-04


 discover. It is to be found in an alarm ing decrease in the efficiency of labor, a falling off that, contrary to prece- dent, has accompanied a rise of wages. From every part of the country comes the complaint that it is impossible to secure an adequate supply of high class labor and that, among the skilled operatives employed, the adaptability which was once the pride of the Amer ican mechanic, enabling a man to turn readily from the use of one kind of machinery to another, has disappeared so that scarcity in one line of em- ployment cannot be met by recruiting from other lines.
 In the opinion of many business men and investigators this condition consti- tutes the most serious menace to the commercial supremacy of America.
 Hitherto the greater output and supe- rior inventive power and adaptability of American artisans have been as- sumed as matters of course and have balanced the advantages enjoyed by the manufacturers of other nations in competition in the markets of the world. With the disappearance of this advantage it is held that it will be- come increasingly difficult for Ameri- can manufacturers to meet the compe- tition of the cheaper and more abun- dant labor of other countries.
 "The situation may be illustrated by a comparison of the relative positions of this country and Germany in the excellence of the mechanic arts today and a generation ago" said a manu- facturer whose products are sold in al- most every country of the globe. At the time of the Centennial exhibition in 1876 the German commission sent over to observe the relative merits of the exhibits of various countries re- ported that in comparison with the American exhibit the display of their own country made sorry showing. Both in quality and appearance the German mechanical products were be- hind those of other countries and while some of the other countries were ahead of the United States in the finish of their machinery the latter was unriv- alled in point of practical efficiency, in the opinion of the commission. It was largely as a result of this report and of the recommendations of the investi- gators he had appointed that Emperor William I instituted the system of in dustrial education that has done more than anything else to put the German empire in its present advanced posi- tion as manufacturing nation.
 Two years ago when another group of German investigators came over here the, were able to report that their country had nothing to learn from us in the methods of training labor and they marvelled that with the great amount of attention paid to the higher education in engineering in the United States no system of trade education has been adopted"
 The situation. so far as practical training in the industrial arts is con- cerned. is expressed in a different and even more striking way by Secretary James A. Emory of the Citizens Indus- trial association:
 The statistics Of education show" says Mir Emory. that between 5.000.- 900 and 6.000.000 children entered the schools of this country in the early weeks of September. Of this great army less than 100000 will enter the and institutions of higher edu- cation. Less than 25O,O0O will continue into the high schools. The great ma jo-ity. numbering probably 5.000.000. will leave school from choice or neces- sity between the ages of ten and six teen, most of them at twelve to tour- teen. Of these a small proportion will