The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-22
COUNTRY'S NEED IS
 MORE EDUCATION Governor John A. Johnson Speaks To Manufacturers BEHIND OTHER NATIONS Skilled Workers Are Needed In Eyesrxa very, Department of American Industry and Educated Hands and
 Heads Everywhere.
BEHIND OTHER NATIONS

Richmond, Va, May 21.-Gov. John A. Johnson of Minnesota, as guest of the American Cotton Manufacturers associa- tion spoke here tonight. He was heard by an audience of several thousand and was given very generous applause. Lieu tenant Governor Elysson presented the speaker.
 Governor Johnson made only two indi- rect references to his candidacy for Pres Ident.
 At first, he said. "I could not under stand why 1 had been invited here to address these manufacturers l thought that probably because had been iit- tie bit in the public eye politically I was brought down here to satisfy the curiosity of the people of the southeastern region. Since the returns have been coming in from Alabama and other states l am not sure that there Is any curiosity to be satisfied. or probably it was satisfied be- fore I got here" There was another ref erence to his possible candidacy when the governor was calling the names of the great men of old Virginia. But Minne- sota,y he added, has no desire to wrest from Virginia her honors of maternity so far as Presidents are concerned"
 Needed Improvements. "One of the needed improvements of our country is that of industrial edu- cation" the governor continued, both for the field and the factory. The pro- ductive power of nation Is measured by the capacity of the industrial unit the industrial worker. Agricultural col leges and experiment stations are doing a great missionary labor, but agricultural local schools to more thoroughly reach the children of the plantation hands are urgently required. In the factory the necessity of industrial education is still more greatly marked.
 What Germany Is achieving by her famous system of industrial education ell competing nations today widely and deep ly appreciate, and some to their commer- cial sorrow. America. the land alike or the free school and of the earths great est industrial resources. cannot long lag behind Indeed, the awakening has be- gun and the foundations for an Amer ican system of industrial education are now being laid.
 Skilled Workers.
 "Emerson has said that 1t takes sew erals generations to make a scholar, and the old world points to the advantage of A start of several generations in the pro- ducton of a skilled factory hand. But what the nations of ancient history re- uuired centuries to accomplish, and what Europe needs generations to achieve, we In a land of free institutions and equal opportunities, of virgin American re- sources and virile American push, are in the habit of bringing to pass in decade; and, in less than decade, I predict the United States will show mankind sys- tenn of industrial education thoroughly up to the standard of the American ideals, which Is to turn out the best and the biggest thing on the earth.
 Another great need is that of adequate and cheap capital for the development of our industries. The peonage of the cotton producer under the shackels of usury and the lien system has been the heaviest handicap to the development of the south, end the improvement of conditions along this line Is one of the greatest factors in the south's recent miracle of industrial progress. But the financial conditions of the cotton industry demand a broader and national recogniation.
 Ties That Bind.
 West and south, north and east, we are bound together not only by industrial
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