The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-06
STATE HELPS SAVE THE WASTED YEARS Important Work To Be Done In
 Massachusetts AN IMP0R eM0VEMEN l The Boys Time Between "A and Is Years Is Being PracticaIysL
 Technical Education
 Demanded.
AN IMPORTANT. .M0VEMEN I

Boston, october 5.-(Speeial )-HdW to save 5000o years! That is the problem that the commonwealth of Massachusetts is facing and promises to solve. It is one oi the most important problems that Massa- chusetts has ever tackled and It's solution will mean industrial supremacy.
 Massachusetts began active steps to- ward solving the problem following a re- port of the state commission on indus trial and technical education made in 1906 which stated.
 Tt has been said that the years from fourteen to sixteen are the wasted years of the chld's life The application was made to the child who enters upon his industrial career at such age, and when we find that 25 000 of the children of the state of Massachusetts are at work or idle at those ages, are led to believe that this is the most important question which faces the educational world today
 Investigation showed that the children who left the public school al the age of fourteen had no schools offering practical training until they were at least sixteen CT eighteen. Industries which would af- ford them opportunities to pick up trade were not open to them under sixteen or eighteen years while few of the so-ca1led apprenticeships receive boys under eigh- teen. The result was that thousands of children were drifting into unskiled in- dustries or industries undesirable in char acter
 Massachusetts set about trying to save the two wasted years of 25000 children That meant 10000 years thrown away ln- stead of being productive. law was passed by the state legislature to en- courage the establishment of free public trade schools by municipalities, for chil- dren of fourteen. and already half doz- en of the large industrial centers are moving toward the establishment of such schools.
 The condition found in Massachusetts is no eXaggeration of the condition through out the country. It is safe to say, ae- cordng to stalistician. that there are some 25000 children who are wasting these two valuable formative years, and unless widespread measures are taken to meet this condition educators declare that we shall gradually be overwhelmed fn- dustriany by the school trained manu- featuring Germans. Many German com munties have found it to be to their in- terest to make attendance at the trade or agricultural schools compulsory for boys and girls between the ages of four teen and sixteen years. In twenty of the so-called German states, with a popuia- ton of 5.I6l .0S7 there were. according 10 a report of the T.. s. Bureau of Educa- ton, 2.4S7 special schools. dndustrial. com mercal and agricultural open to boys ever fourteen years of age.
 For many years facts like these have been a source of worry to Americans who made study of industrial economies. More recently the manufacturers and la bor leaders began to worry over the mat ter too, and the result was. last year. the formation of the national society for the promotion Of industrial education. This organization has on it's board of directors prominent business men such as Frede- rick P Fish, president American Tele- phone X Telegraph company, and Frank A. Vanderlip of New York; prominent labor representatives such as John Gold en, general president United Textile Workers of America, James O'Connell, president International Association of Ma chinsts and F. J. McNulty, grand pres ident International Brotherhood of Elec trical Workers; and educators and so- ciologsts such as Jane Addams. of Hull House, Chicago: Robert A. Woods. of Boston. and Mrs B. B. Munford, pres- dent Richmond Educational Association, Richmond, Va. The president of the or ganization is Henry s. Pritchett. presi- dent of the Carnegie Foundation
 The organization is pledged to advocate and agitate the trade school idea until It has "caught" throughout the length and breadth of the United States. It will hold a big convention in Chicago. Oct 5-7 at which the matter of industrial education will be thoroughly discussed and from which it is believed. valuable sugges lions will be forthcoming for the building up in all the states. of the system of training children for useful work that will rescue the United States from fal,- ing back in the worlds industrial pro cesson.