New-York tribune., 1907-06-01

national development
We OF the United States must develop sys-
TEN under which each individual citizen shall be
trained TO be effective individually as an
economic unit, and fit to be organized with ms
fellows that he and they work in efficient
fashion together. This question is vital TO our
future progress, and public attention should be
focused upon il. Surely IL is eminenty in ac-
cord with the principles Of our democratic ne
that should furnish the highest average in
dustrial training for the ordinary skilled work
But it is curious thing that in industrial
training we have tended TO devote our energies
20 producing high grade men at the top IatneT
than in the ranks. Our engineering schools, Tor
instance. compare favorably with the best IN
Europe whereas have done almost nothing
TO equip the private soldiers Of the industrial
army--the mechanic, the metal worker, the car
penter Indeed. too often our schools train away
from the shop and the forge; and this fact. to-
gether with the abandonment Of the old ap-
prentice system, has resulted in such an an
sence Of facilities for providing trained journey
men that in many Of our trades almost all the
recruits among the wOrkmen are foreigners
ternatic method provided for training young men
in the trades and that this must be co-Ordinated
with the public school system. No industrial
school turn out a finished iourneyman but
81 can furnish the material out Of which a fin
ished journeyman can be made just as an en-
gineering school furnishes the training Whlcn
enables its graduates speedily to become en-
Eineers
LITTLE FEAR OF PAUPER LABOR.
We hear great deal Of the need Of protect
ing workingmen from competition with
competition Of pauper labor. The nations with
pauper labor are not the formidable Industrial
competitors Of this country. What the Ameri-
can workngman has to fear IS the competition
of the highly skilled workingman Of the coun-
tries Of greatest industrial efficiency BY the
tariff and by our immigration laws we can al
ways protect ourselves against the competition
of pauper labor here at home, but when we con-
tend for the markets or the world we can get no
protection. and shall then find that our most
formidable competitors are the nations In Whlch
there is the most highly developed business
al ifx he
skill. and these are the qualities which we must
ourselves develop
the dignity of labor, meaning thereby manual
labor. Personally I don't think that we begin TO
understand what q high place manual lapor
should take; and # never can take this hlgh
place unless il offers scope for the best type OF
We have tended 10 regard education as q
matter OF the head only, and the result is that a
great many Of our people, themselves the SONS
OF men who worked with their hands. seem 70
think that they rise in the world If they get into
a position where they do no hard manual work
whatever; where their hands will grow soft, and
their working clothes viii be kept clean
WORK OF BODY AND MIND.
Such a conception is both false and mischiev-
Gus. There are. Of course, kinds of labor where
the work must be purely mental, ana there are
other kinds of labor where, under existing con-
ditions, very little demand, indeed is made upon upon
the mind. though / am glad 70 say that / LINK
the proportion Of men engaged in this klnd OF
work is diminishing. But in any healthy com,
rnunity, in any community with the great soma
Qualities which alone make really great natloh,
the bulk of the people should 90 work WhlCh
makes demands upon both the body and the |
mind Progress cannot permanently consist in |
the abandonment of physical labor, but IN the |
development of physical labor so that II shai |
represent more and more the work Of the trained !
mind IN the trained body. To provide sucn |
training, 10 encourage in every way the produc-
lion of the whom 1t alone can produce Is
10 show that nation we have a true cohcep- |
tion Of the dignity and importance OF laDor.
The calling Of the skilled tIIer OF me sou, Gle
calling of the skilled mechanic, should alike oe
recognized professions, just as emphatlcaIy |
as the callings OF lawyer, Of doctor, of banker;
merchant or clerk. The printer, the electrical
worker the house painter. the foundryman |
should trained just carefully as the stenog-
rapher or the drug clerk They should be |
trained alike in head and in hand. They should |
get over the idea that to earn 81 a week ana
call it salary is better than to earn so
has the courage and the ability TO refuse TO
enter the crowded field of the so-called profess
sions and TO take TO constructive industry is al
most sure OF an ample reward IN earnings, IN
health, in opportunity to marry early and TO
establish home with reasonable freedom from
worry.
KIND OF TRAINING NEEDED.
We need the training the manual dexterty
and industrial intelligence which can be best
given in good agricultural, or building, or tex
tile or matchmaking. engraving, or mechani-
cal school. 1t should be Of prime OBJ
jects to put the mechanic, the wageWOrker who
works with his hands. and who ought work
in a constantly larger degree with his head, on
q higher plane of efficiency and reward, as TO
increase his effectiveness IN the economic
%,
ton and the power Of his position in the social
world. To train boys and girls in merely liter
ary accomplishments TO the total exclusion of
industrial. manual and technical training tenos
10 unfit them for industrial work, and in real
life most work is industrial.
PROBLEM THAT APPEALS TO ALL.
The problem Of furnishing well trained crafts
men. or. rather, journeymen fitted in the end te
become such, Is not simple-few problems
simple in the actual process of their solution
and much and forethought and practical
common sense will be needed in order TO work 1t
out in a fairly satisfactory manner. 1t should
appeal TO ali our citizens. / am glad that So
cieties have already been formed 10 promote in
dustrial education. and that their membership
includes manufacturers and leaders of labor
unions, educators and publicists, men of all con-
ditions who are interested in education and in
industry. II is such cooperation that offers
most hope for a satisfactory solution Of the
question as TO what Is the best form of industrial
school, to the means by which it may be artic
the way 10 secure for the boys trained therein
the opportunity TO acquire in the industries the
practical skill which alone can make them fin
ished Journeymen.
THE TILLER OF THE SOIL.
There is only one person whose welfare is as
vital TO the welfare OF the whole country is
that Of the wage worker who does manual labor,
and that is the tillep Of the so-the farmer.
II there is one lesson taught by history 1t is that
the permanent greatness of any state must ult-
mately depend more upon the character of its
country population than upon anything else. No
growth OF cities. growth Of wealth, can make
up for loss in either the number or the char
acter Of the farming population In the United
States more than in almost any other country
we should realize this and should prize our coun-
Try population. When this nation began its in
dependent existence il was as a nation of farm
ers- The towns were small and for the
most part mere seacoast trading and fishing
ports. The chief industry of the country was
agriculture and the ordinary citizen was In
n,,-a nav Il ,rrg&l,