The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-28

educational system of thh country, and thea to report with special reference to the bearing of the educational systems of their country and ours upon Ger man and American industry and trade. Here iS the report in substance:
 The Commission declared that Amer lea Is abundant in resources, filled with energy. exceedingly quick witted and independent: that a vigorous people is possessed of such mighty and largely undeveloped physical resources and has such splendid advantages in coast lines and commercial situation. that un- doubtedly it will have to be reckoned with in the trade and commerce of the somewhat distant future; but that the
 United States is so seriously handicap ped with manifest disadvantages. of
 which Americans are unconscious, that no American industrial competition at any early day need be taken seriously by the German nation, That there is . feeling of complacent satisfaction with everything American" an expec-
 tation that, without much planning. without much philosophical study, or concerted action, or cooperative effi- right when the need for 1t arises They emphasized the entire absence of pro- vision for public schools supplying systematic instruction in craftsman ship. and asserted that this lack is suf- hcient to overcome any natural advan- tages In resources or geographieal sit- uation. This Commission was com posed of teachers. merchants. nanufac- turers, economists, publjcists and con- ptructionlsts. They were thinking of German trade and they advised their people not to be disturbed about any American interference with 1t at an early day.
 Very probably the boundless mate- rial resources of the United States have contributed to our indifference, to the confidence that whatever situation we get Into, we will get out of 1t when we must. It has been possible. thus far, for the nation to prosper and ad- vance withou exact industrial trains Ing. It IS . strain upon the character of nation, as of an individual, to have a superabundance of the worlds goods We waste more than would sustain the same number of people In any other country In the world. and we are doing less than other nations are doing, or than our fathers did, to make the most of our possessions and of ourselves, through the training of our children for care, skill and assid- uity in the labor of the hand. And 1t goes without saying that as more and more people live in our territory. as the land is more and more exhausted and particularly as the more general and exact industrial training in other lands turns the balance of trade against us. a decisive new departure must be taken. both in the production and eco homie use of materials, and the extent and competency of our labor.
 report from the United States Gen. sus Bureau of the exports in domestic manufactures from Germany and from the United States from 1880 to 1908, in- elusive, show an almost equal ratio of increase in the two countries. notwith- standing the fact that Germany is an old. densely populated country, with nearly stationary economic conditions while the United States has expanded marvelously In all the factors of indus trial productivity, unless 1t be in craft Fnanship. in that time In other words. if looks as though the Germans had met our natural advantages In re- sources. machinery and markets, by multiplying the number of their skilled workinen and adding to the kinds of manufactured products which find world markets. This must certainly prove that neither wits, abundance of materials. machinery, water power, eoal. nor artifcial protection through tarfh. without a schooling and a man. ner of life which seeks to make every individual man or woman e producer of something worth while. can long save us in competition with q country which uses the common power to make the most of the labor of every workman in the empire. ss, -, VI
 The American public has done prac- tteally nothing about training the children of the wage- earners in indus trial vacations. What little has been done in this line has been unsystematic and done largely through private en- terprlse. Thus the public school sys. tenn is one-slded. unjust to the greater number and iAefnefent in meeting an overwhelming phase of the nations ed- ucational need.
 In. the beginning in this country, there was no thought that the com mon schools should teach anything but the three R's." Farming was the most common, occupation. In the towns there was system of appren- ticeshlp by which boys were bound out to tradesmen' and artisans for a term of years to give service in return for instruction in a trade. Colleges were attended only by the rich and gave only classical instruc. ton. There was no connection be- tween the college and the common