The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1911-03-02

selves and 500, 900 by the easy pub
lie. We all know that the United
States is rich and powerful nation,
but the question is, how did she be-
come rich? Simply by robbing the
soil, looting the mines and skinning
the timber. In twenty years our
forests will be gone, in fifty years
our iron ore will be gone and in a
century and half you will be able
to gather all the coal in the United
States and place it gently in coal
bucket; and it won't be long until
the United States will be importing
her grain. Then what of her boasted
wealth and-her great balance of trade
when with youthful recklesness and
folly we have bartered away, for a
little yellow gold, the vast riches
which a bountiful Creator has stored
away in the treasure houses Of this
great wetsern world. Then Ameri-
cans. like other nations, will be
forced back upon their wits. The
battle for supremacy in the COM
merce of the world will be battle
of brains.
It is this vision of a dubious fu-
ture that has turned the attention OF
business to the conservation of our
resources and the development of
our industries. With unprecedented
genius for large organizations and
with vast abundance of raw material,
our big business tells us we should
be invincible in the markets of the
world, but like Achilles almost COM
pletely armoured, American industry
has it's own vulnerable point. Its
labor is unskilled: Scandinavia and
Germany, Switzerland and Austria,
are furnishing our mills, shops and
factories with their high grade labor,
but their children neglect the trades
and employments of their fathers
and, like other American children,
look to the day when they will be
managers, directors and presidents,
but not our skilled laborers. The
day of apprenticeship is passed and
nowhere can the lad who would be
machinist, plumber or carpen-
ter find place where he can learn
trade. To what source can the
directors of big enterprise look for
skill but to the schools? The result
has been that business is fast in
dustrializing education. Yet bust
ness was not wholly responsible
Educators have looked on while the
children dropped out of schools In
great numbers to take their places
in the most humble ranks of toilers
Year after year, children and youths
toiled on at occupations that required
more of the body than of the intel
| lect and their birth into independent
manhood was characterized by nc
greater event than an advance in
wages from SO to $40 per week. Al.
though they have attended school
from six to eight years, they seem to
have learned nothing except the
great modern falsehood that to work
with the hands is the misfortune oil
the other fellow. Few have sough1
the skilled trades, while the vas1
army of misguided children become
cash boys, bundle clerks, messenger
boys, elevator boys, ect., with nt
promise of advancement. Another
fact of still sadder import confronted
the educator. Graduates of our bes
schools and colleges were going fortf
feeble and inefficient. Where the.
had hoped to be strong, they fount
themselves weak; where they hat
looked forward to bright success
they met only dark failure; the door
of opportunity through which the.
had hoped to pass freely were closet
against them. Disappointment ant
despair settled over them, the sun 0
hope and ambition was blotted from
their sky. These new condition
, taught new duties and educators