The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1907-10-19
10
GREAT VALUE or
!. .s5 MANUAL. lining
FOR RISING ENERATION
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in the shop under contract with his
master mechanic, which bound him to
his service for d term of years and
also compelled his master to allow MIN
to attend the village school. These
were the two main elements in the
original education system of New
England and they went in together
for many generations without any con-
fict, each effective in it's own way. In
tellectual and general training was
given by the schools, Industrial and
professional training by apprentice
ship.
Effect Of Machinery,
The apprenticeship system has dis
appeared. to a great extent, with the
multiplying machines that need only
one operator where before there were
hundred hand workers. The propor-
ton Of apprentices to work,nen is re-
markably small. The United States
census Of 1900 gives total of S1.482
apprentices and helpers in sixteen
trades and "other miscellaneous in
dustries." Comparing this number of
apprentices with the. total number Of
persons employed in the occupations
referred to, we find that the appren-
tees constitute only 2.45 per cent. The
highest proportion of apprentices is
among maehinists, $3.50 per cent, and
among plumbers and gas and steam
filters, $40 per cent. In the whole
field Of the building trades in Mass
achusetts the percentage of appren-
tices to workman is only Ia per cent
The small number of apprentices can
not be charged to the restrictions of
labor unions, for no union restricts
the ratio Of apprentices to journeymen
to less than seven per cent, and it is
ordinarily twenty per cent. While
there are local instances Of unions re-
stricting the number of apprentices,
their restrictions are in no large
measure responsible for the appren-
ticeship situation.
Remedy Proposed.
What substitute can we offer for
the delaying apprenticeship system?
Numerous correspondence schools do,
In certain measure. fill this demand,
but splendid as many Of the courses
are, they are of value chiefly to the
exceptional man with a sufficient edu-
cational training, a student mind,
power of concentration and will to
pound them through alone.S Evening
tared schools for mechanics, however
numerous and exclusive they may be,
cannot fully supply what is the real
bases of success for the boy or girl,
| who mas an industrial career ahead
an extension Of public education along
industrial and technical lines.
Writing in "Charties and The Com
MONS" Charles F. Warnes, principal of
the Mechanics Arsts High High school
Of Springfield, Massachusetts,, makes
these suggestions: First: There
should be introduced into the elemen-
try schools a large amount of practi-
cal work, and this should be given as
much of an Industrial bent as Is con-
sistant with the idea of general train
ing which these schools must MAIN
tain. Second: Our high schools of
the manual training: type should be
multiplied, enlarged and generally
supported. They should be technical
schools worthy Of the name, and they
should be for girls as well as for boys.
The work is drawing, both free hand
and mechanical, in design. in shop
work, In the household arts, and in
laboratory science should be intenst-
fed, brought up-to-date, and kept up
to-date. All this should be done with
out any loss of strength in the pro-
pram of academic studies. Fourth:
There must be trade schools in which
our youth may be trained as appren-
tees, according to the modern under
lem that Is now being worked out in
standing Of that term. That Is a prob
Massachusetts b a. commission on
Industrial education, appointed by
Governor Guild"
Objections have been raised by
trade unionists that the development
Of such complex, system for train
ing Industrial workers will mean the
flooding of the labor market. On the
other hand, the trade school is really
another machine, which from a short
range may be threatening to the work.
ing wage standard, but In the long
run can only enhance the interest Of
| all concerned by stimulating both
raising the whole standard Of intelI-
gence and capacity.
DR.. MHenry s. Pritchett, president
! OF the National Society for the Pro-
motion of Industrial Education and
former head Of the ssachusetts In
stitute of Technology, sums up the
case for painstaking trade training as
follows:
LAS one looks over the composite
American nation and takes into con-
| sideration the fact that ninty-ave per
cent Of all boys and girls leave school
| at the end Of. the grammer school
period, and considers further the fact
that no apprenticeship system is open
to these youths, the years between
fourteen and eighteen being spent in
}sthe main in the occupations which
have little formative power, one will
be disposed to admit frankly that the
class Of the community most interest
! ed In some form Of effective indus
I trial education ia that part which de-