New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-05-06
SPEAKS UP FOR CITY BOY
Don c. Seitz Stirs Lecturers at
Annual Dinner.

The red. white and blue electric lamps
which in big letters spelled out. the word
Pax above the toastmaster's head at The
annual dinner of the public school lecturers
last night in the Hotel Astor came near
going out when Don G. Seitz. business
manager of The World delivered his ad-
dress. 1t was the sense of humor of the
diners that sustained the lights, or per-
haps it was they which helped the guests
receive Mr.. Seftz's remarks with such good
nature
The speaker who followed the eulogies
on the free lecture system delivered by DR..
Leipziger. head of the corps of lecturers.
and Egerton /. Winthrop, tr., president Of
the Board of Educa ton. with his brief
speech. thought there were two sides TO the
question Of its usefulness. 1t reminded him
Of the story of a Yankee farmer in small
New England community who wished to
increase the depth of his well, and who.
the work OF excavating at the bottom of
the well being distasteful, conceived the
idea Of piling earth around the top.
by educating the parents of the school
children" said he. aren't you attempting
to deepen the well by piling earth around
the top? I spent three hours this afternoon
with the committee of the printers union
trying to come TO some agreement with re-
gard to- a new scale of wages The thing
that offended me the most about the whole
negotiation, although it wasn't an unpleas-
ant session at all, was the insistence on the
restriction of apprentices. The rules OF the
union allow only one apprentice 10 twenty
journeymen, and provide that in no case
shall any one office have any more than
four learning the trade in It. So in an Office
with $50 printers on the payroll We have
only four boys learning how to print
New York boys get no chance at all in
the trades. The argument of the unions is
that they are being constantly subjected
to the pressure from the country, where the
boys learn the trades and then come to the
city. But what are our city boys TO do?
Shall they all grow up to be cigarette
smoking clerks and Ioafers? L would like
70 see some practical use made of the
manual training facilities in the schools
for which the city has put out so much
money. Teach the boys in the schools the
useful trades. We can't all be clerks. We
can't all be bookkeepers, we can't all Of
US even be lecturers. Some must work
DR.. Leipziger wanted the schools opened
for political discussion as well as for other
public uses. Mr.. Winthrop thought the
shouln be open for the pur-
pose of general discussion, but said the
time was not yet ripe for political agita-
ton within their walls. That part Of his
speech which made a hit with Mr.. Seitz
had to do with the new rule allowing the
teachers of shOpwork to keep their shops
open from 3 to o'clock in the afternoon.
He said there were now three hundred
classes of boys using the shops within
those hours.
Dr.. Willis Fletcher Johnson was toast
master at this. the twenty-f1rst annual re-
union of the lecturers. Among the other
speakers were Horace E Dresser. chair
man of the free lecture committee of the
Board of Educat ton. and William II. Nc
Elroy. There were some three hundred
diners present.