The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-29
TEACH TIE BOY HOW
 ID USE HIS HANDS
Two Great Conventions Will
 Discuss Question
INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION
Deterioration of American Skill Is Feared-Always Jobs for the
 Highly skilled'-Many ln-
 efficient Officials.

New York September %.-tspecial)- Within the next two months two big gatherings of business men, educators, labor leaders. and general citizens are to be held to discuss what Is fast coming to be considered one of the most pressing needs of the United States combre- hensive system of industrial education.
 The first of these is the annual con yention of the Citizens Industrial asso- citation of America which meets at Battle Creek Mich, on October and $, and the second is the session ot the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education in New York City inNoVember. The purpose of the second or these or ganizations Is indicated by it's name. and it's meetings will be given Up entirely to addresses and discussions treating the subject of industrial traihing from vari- ous points of view.
 The convention of Citizens Industrial association is unquestionably the largest and most representative gathering of the year dealing solely with subjects related to labor. It is made up of employers and employees members of trade associations and a good sized representation of other citizens who come within none of these categories. 1t treats all questions which come before it from the viewpoint or the party which usually suffers most and IS most completely ignored in disputes E- tween employers and employed, the gem eral public. While other subjects, such as the growth of the open shop and the incorporation of trades unions. will be considered at it's convention, the question of industrial education will receive d large share of the deliberations. Addresses will be made by pr. s. C. DdckeY, head of the Winona Techniacl institute. w. NJ. Alexander of the General Electric com pany. vice president of the society for the Promotion of Industrial Education; Arthur Dean, supervisor of the depart ment of Industrial Education of the Y. M. C. A.. and by several large employers of skilled labor.
 Aside from these two large gatherings dealing specifically wiht this subject, the topic is actively discussed wherever the managers of large industries or students of industrial conditions come together Under the leadership of it's president, James w. Van Cleave, the National As sociation of Manufacturers has lately taken up the subject with the slogan Send the Whole Boy to School impress ing the need of educating the hands as well as the brain. In many places where
 
 thousands of worlSmen in large establish ments the owners of these industries arc co-operating with their employees and with local educators to solve their special prob lems either by the establishment of trade schools or by introducing some features of industrial training into the public school system. Such efforts, however, are sboradc and necessarily local in their ln- huence.
 One cause for a movement so Wide spread and manifesting itself independent ly in so many quarters is easy to discover. It is to be found in an alarming decrease in the efficiency of labor, a falling off that. contrary to precedent has accom- panied rise of wages From every part of the country comes the complaint that it Is impossible to secure an adequate Iupply of hgh-class labor and that. among the skilled operatives employed, the adaptabiity which was once the pride of the American mechanic, enabling d man to turn readily from the use Of one kind of machinery to another, has dls- appeared so that a scarcity in one llne of employment cannot be met by recruit ing from other lines.
 In the opinion of many business men and investigators this condition consti- tutcs the most serious menace to the commercial supremacy of America. Iiith-
 
 vcntive power and adaptability of Ameil- can artisans have been assumed as mat tors Of course and have balanced the ad- vantages enjoyed by the manufacturers of other nations in competition In the markets of the world With the disap- pearance of this advantage it is held that it will become increasingly difficult for American manufacturers to meet the con- petition of the cheaper and more apund ant labor of other countries
 '"rhe situation may be illustrated by a comparison of the relative positions of this country and Germany in the excel lence of the mechanic arts today and a generation ago. said q manufacturers whose products are sold in almost every country of the globe At the time of the centennial exposition in 1876 the Germ an commission sent over to observe the rela- tive merits of the exhibits of various countries reported that in comparison with the American exhibits of various countries reported that in comparison with the American exhibit the display ot their own country made a sorry show ing. 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 ther machinery the latter was unriValled in point of practical efficiency, in the opin- ion of the commission. 1t was largely as a result of this report and of the recon menda tions of the investigators he had appointed that Emperor William | instl- tuted the system of industrial education that has done more than anything else to put the German empire in It's present advanced position as a manufacturing na- ton
 1.-TWO years ago when another group of German investiga tors came over here they were able to report that their coun- try had nothing to learn from Us in the methods of training labor and they mai yelled that with the great amount of at tention paid to the higher education m engineering in the United States no sys- tenn of trade education has been adopt ed
 The situation, so far as practical train- ing the industrial arts is concerned is expressed in different and even more striking way by Secretary James A. Emory of the Citizens Industrial asso- citation:
 "rhe statistics of education show says