Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1908-06-06

fellows who might be busy learning trade
as matter of fact there are merely fritting
their time away still worse developing into
pooroom loafers and saloon buns. There are
scores of useful trades that these young men
might be learning and although most avenues
are pretty we'll filled man with trade or two
to fall back upon has more of chance than
the man who has nothing of that kind to
commend him. Besides, if has it in him
to excel there is always plenty of elbow
in the top circle. We fear that there is too
much of the feeling among our young men that
honest toll is something to be stunned, some
thing beneath their "dignity.' Some of them
probably have had little schooling and they
have got the notion into their noodle that
they are just little better than the common
run and that the world owes them something
better than the ordinary vocation of the aver
age man. It is not necessary to dwell upon the
falacy of such reasoning. The world &C
knowledges no such debt and if you intend to
prosecute such claim you must turn your
own collector and hustle for a settlement with
all the power at your command
Zone reason why many young men refuse
to learn trade is no doubt that the work is
they feel that their precious time should not
be wasted in labor that brings not immediate
returns in dollars and cents. Maximum wages
from the start is what these want and if
they not get that they wont "Consider tn e
These men have not the faculty
of taking pains, they have not the patience ne
cessary to master a subject. Just because a
man learns some trade, it does not necessarily
follow that he must live by that trade all his
life. President Garfield learned the carpenters
trade in his youth and was also proficient in
several other useful vocations. He frequently
gave this excellent advice: ':Young man, be fit
for more than the thing that you now
doing" Garfield never afraid of work and
he never considered the learning of useful
trade something beneath him. Men like
that seldom out of employment and when
there is promotion to be made they are gen
orally the ones to get the lift.
The reluctance with which to
useful trades, and the opportunities for useful
ness to themselves and the commu unity that are
thus lost, emphasizes the Importance of in
dustral education i'll public schools. Our
school systems neglect the training of the hand
and put all the energy and effort trainng
the head. We do not want to be understood as
mental training but it occurs to us
that much time is often put a poor head
with very discouraging results while skill
full pair of hands is allowed to go without the
training that would have made their owner a |
master in some useful craft. The difference |
between skilled and unskilled labor is merely |
knowing how to do a certain piece of work and |
not knowing how to do it. So much of the |
worlds work has still to be done by hand that
It is of the utmost importance that the hand be |
trained. Why should not portion of the pub
iC school time be given up with training the |
young men and the young women in matters
IF SO great i'm portanCe those here considered? |
our pub bile schools will have to go out into the
world to their living by the work of their
hands. Agriculture, business, the trades must
furnish these people with the labor that is to
bring them subsistence. Is it then anything
>ut of reason to demand that the years spent in
school shall in practical way qualify these
youths for the work which lies before them?
IF our schools were operated on some basis
the importance of elementary in
lustrial training and making some effort to
meet the necessity of the case there would be
ever idle boys and young in our cities
md towns; fewer young men looking upon the !
he man who tolls with his hands as beneath