The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1908-04-22
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.
Davis Bill Is Strongly Urged at Pull
man.

man.
STATE COLLEGE, Pullman, April
20.-ln the greatest assembly of ed
ucators ever convened in the Pacific
Northwest. the Inland Empire Teach
ers' association, meeting fortnight
ago in Pullman as guests of the state
college, declared in favor of agricul-
tural and industrial education, and
in its closing session, with great en-
thusiasm, adopted a resolution sup
porting the industrial high school
bill of Congressman C. r. Davis of
Minnesota which is now before con-
gress at the national capitol. The
resolution is worded as follows:
Resolved, That we approve the
spirit of the Davis bill insofar as it
aims at the training of teachers for
agricultural and the mechanic arts
in secondary schools; but we would
deplore any detail of arrangement in
such legislation which would make
duplicate system of public schools.
We would heartily approve the es-
Enlistment or extension of the ma
chinery of public education in the
direction of agricultural and indus
trial training"
Committee on -Presi
dent A. Bryan, Pullman, Wash.
J. A. Churchill, Baker City, Ore;
G.. A. Axline, Albion, Idaho.
Under date of February %, Presi-
dent Theodore Roosevelt is quoted IN
support of the Davis bill, as follows:
I'VE should strive in every way
to aid in the education of the farmer
for the farm, and shape our school
system with this in view; and so
vitality important is this that, in my
opinion, the federal government
should cooperate with state govern
ments to secure the needed change
and improvement in our schools"
in the recent meeting at Pullman,
eleven hundred teachers from Idaho.
Washington, Oregon and NJ ntana, as
| we'll as several educators Of nation
al fame, endorsed the new movement
in favor of agricultural and indus
trial education. Prominent in this
movement is Judge Ben F. Lindsey
of Denver. Colorado; Dean James e.
Russell, Columbia university, New
York; and State Superintendent of
Schools, ]. H. Alderman of Oregon:
all three of whom were present at
the sessions of the Teachers asso-
/ citation.
The Davis bill provides for techni-
cal. industrial and practical educa-
ton, as distinguished from the old
theory of educating all alike, regard
less of his type, or the life he is 10
lead" said President Bryan. discuss
| ing the work of the association.
"This is an idea that is prevalent in
many countries, and in the opinion of
many of our greatest educators, must
| in the near future, be the dominant
theme of modern learning. 1t is in
| tended to provide for the education
of the farming class. and others en-
gagged in technical or industrial oc-
equations. 1t is less conferred about
the literary and the non-industrial.
Through technical training in the
practical affairs of life, it seeks to
keep the youth of the nation out of
the peasant, or submerged slass."
Discussing the efficiency of the
new method of education. Dean Rus
| sell of Columbia university said:
"Wurtemburg is small state in
/ Germany, little larger than the In
/ land Empire of eastern Washington,
but having a population of about two
million persons. Thirty years ago,
| Wurtemburg began to realize that
| her population was beginning to
dwindle; that something had to be
/ done to maintain the integrity of her
state. So she set about building up
system of schools for all the peo-
| pie; that would help the boy who
| wishes to be carpenter, a plumber,
or a farmer, in the same degree, ac-
cording to his needs, that they would
the youth who desired to be a law
yer. an engineer, or a physician.
To-day Wurtemburg has a univer-
sity giving courses of worldwide
fame; technical schools, weaving and
manufacturing schools; two hundred
and thirty industrial schools in towns
and villages; schools for metal work.
ers, and workers in the textile
trades; schools of art. of agriculture,
of preparation for household manage
ment: and numerous farm schools,
and high schools throughout the
state.
"Wurtemburg, state but little
larger than the Inland Empire of
Washington. supports all these lnsti-
tutions. and has an income of but $40
per head OF population. What would
the citizens OF Washington think. II