The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-27
THE EDUCATIONAL SIDE
 OF THE MINING WORLD
y ETHEL ARMIES Author serhe Story of Coal and Iron In AInbnman

| (By Ethel Armes, Author of .'The Story of Coal and Iron in Alabama.') Don't talk no school to me-. the old miner puts down his pipe ''Henry's done had schooling enough an he's got to get I to work. I never aint had no schooling an Pm making good living enough Do you want him to dig coal all his l life, the same you?" the field man l for the correspondence school invariably
 returns. Do you want him to make | just what you're making? Or do you want him to try to get to be fire boss l Do you want to see him mine foreman
 some day? Do you want 60 see him an | engineer? Look at Carl Olson's son John. | Henry's been brought up with him. Look
 what he's making right here at this mine. 1 Well, now Henry can learn to be engi- : neer the same as John. He can even
 learn to be superintendent of this mine
 the same as Frank Smith. Mir Smith is 1 an l. C. S. man. But if your. boy won't
 take up some regular course of study
 connected with work he will never catch | up with any of em. Then it will keep 1 him from loafing and running around and give him something do dos nights It will make a man of himn'
 | If the boys father Is not impressed by
 all of this his mother is. And if she has
 to take in washing to get her boy ahead l she will do it. Dozens of women are do- Ing II today Q our camps.
 This is just one of the ways 1t is done,
 this getting students enrolled in the In-
 ternatonal Correspondence schools of Scranton-men and boys who live way out in the mining camps of the Birming- i ham district.
 | Said George B. Mccormack. president of the Pratt Consolidated Coal company l Hundreds of our men are taking these | correspondence courses, and l know they | n ic
 the greatest thing known in the educa- 1 tional line for the mining men. don know anything equal to it in Alabama, | The good it is doing-wel, you can't | measure it.'
 | Nothing Like It"
 | The chief mine inspector, c. H Nesbitt, l said; This correspondence method is the
 best training system on earth. For mines it's the only one. It gives a man his 1 one chance to learn how to work with
 skill and intelligence, and to improve as
 he goes along. Then, too, it's what you
 might call the poor mans school You
 can take a course for anywhere from
 $3 to s a month, and take your own
 time-five years at it if necessary
 Most any boy or man pitches that sum away in a month. Then another
 good point A persons age doesn't figure
 in that school Lots of men around the
 mines between 40 and 50 years old are i'taking different courses today, and their
 sons are doing the same"
 | number of the girls and women are | also enrolled, for the range of courses covers everything.
 | The time was when the l. C. S, student
 felt that he had to hide his alma ma ter assif | were the skeleton in his 1 family closet. Learned by cor-r-espond- ence did you?" certain would-be wise ! ones would sheer. Just go way back and sit down'
 And it took more or less moral courage for fellow to stand up to his guns and say: Yes, I did. l got my promotion on my I. C. $. certificate. and I'm telling
 every fellow l know about it. That's the way to get a raise-and something
 more than a raise. You'd better get busy yourself
 Nowadays it is all changing. The I. c. s. has made good. Its text books are be-
 ing used in every leading university of the United States. Graduates of these universities and also of colleges and uni-
 versailles abroad are enrolled among it's
 students in postgraduate work along
 special lines. It Is great trainer of the specialist and the practical man, of the
 graduate equally with the beginner.
 IL is spoken of today Just as Harvard, Yale, Cornell. Columbia and the rest are, as one of the great educational institu- tions of America. and an altogether unique and remarkable factor-in class. indeed, all to itself It is the teacher of
 the rank and file of the army and navy, of the mining boys and the railroad boys,
 not only of America, but of the whole
 world.
 A Great Moral Factor It does far more in Birmingham than the churches do. and even the Y. M. C.
 A. The local I. c. s. headquarters are in the First National bank building. in charge of J. C. Whelchal. a young man of unusual personal force and ability. He has his field men-some 15 20-out in
 the counties all the time. President Eos ter's idea of field man is a missionary of the right calibre Here is his ideal for his teachers:
 "The I. c. S. field man is a creator of character. whose daily business it Is to persuade men to forego idle pleasure and cultivate habits of sef-denial, study, in- dustry and thrift. He arousas the ambi-
 ton of persons Ignorant of or indifferent to the advantages of technical education; creates in them a desire for sel-improve- nient; convinces them that they can edu- cate themselves by home study; induces them to undertake courses of instruction, and afterwards encourages them in the cultivation of application. concentration and the study habit that they may perse
 were in their studies In making brain WOTkeTS Ot InOSe WnOSe tTdlHinS IS. 1iIillt- ed to their hands. he is encouraged by seeing about him everywhere men who have gained footing above the medocri- ty in which the great mass of working people are engufed And he is held in grateful remembrance by the thousands and thousands of men whom he has helped to advancement and promotion, and to better lives"
 Tn reefrence to the precise standing of of the coal mining students of Alabama as compared to other states, the follow
 ing letter from Rufus !. Foster. first vice, president of the l. C. s. at Scranton, Pa,
 has been received.
 Miss Ethel Almes. 140 St. Charles
 Street. Birmingham, Ala.
 My Dear Miss Armes-Owing to the
 necessarily large number of records re-
 uuired in our work the students enrolled in the various courses are not recorded
 as to the states and countries in which they are located and because of this 1t is impossible to secure absolutely accu- rate information from which to reply to your questions without going over many hundred thousand names.
 1 ,.I have. however, had careful ap- proximation made from which to arrive al conclusions. The total number of coal mining students enrolled in the United States and Canada to date Is between 24. .o0O and 250OO Of these about 2.000 are now active. the others having either com rleted their courses or dropped out I might add that a large number of stu dents, after becoming well versed in mathematics and elementary physics. do not send any work for correction. but continue their studies of the technical part of the course by themselves be- cause their education in mathematics has