The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-05-22
THE FUTURE OF I@
COMMON LABOR.

Duluth News Tribune: That the
schools of today educate boys away
from common labor is a truism. Ev-
cry one admits this; a great many APP
plaud it. Yet there must always be
common labor; must then ignorance be
continuously imported to fill it's ranks?
A good many thoughtful men are
asking this question n on the iron
ranges with their splendid schools,
among the most advanced in methods
and most completely equipped in the
United States, it is asked with a great
deal of seriousness.
The mining interests have net only
willingly, but as a settled policy, paid
the far larger part of the cost of these
schools. But the boys from them do
not follow their fathers into the mines
to do manual labor, What is the cure
for this condition2 Is it a fault Of ed
ucation or is it a good omen?
A mining superintendent recently
said that at the same cost of produc-
ton a machine was preferable to men.
Why? Well, one reason is that a ma
chine is never educated above it's bust
ness; another is that it is always de-
pendable.
But Just why should a boy gradual
ed from a high schol refuse to start
with a shovel and a pick to work out
business success? Is there n such
thing in right thinking as unskilled Ia
Dor? THERE'S a right way and a wrong
way to handle eve these commonest
of tools, and to regard the material
handled. The right way is that of in
~telligence, the wrong way that of 1g-
Boys left the farm largely because
all soil to them was just dirt; all farm
work was but manual routine, a COW
was q cow, a horse was a horse,
planting was but a labor process ana
growing grain had no meaning.
Today education has put meaning
into all of this. Intelligent understand
ing has given it all interest. There is
no longer a right place on a farm for
Ignorance and from the plow to the
thresher brains are in demand for ey-
cry item Of hanSe work
that has brought this change will
bring a similar transformation every
where else whether in the mines or in
the ditch. There should be nj such
thing as unskilled labor and any boy
that is willing to take his trained
brains into the mine or ditch will find
plenty of interest and continuously de-
yelop them. and a fitting reward.
Mining captains, superintendent,
managers and presidents have come
largely from the ranks OF those who
worked lin the ore with their hands.
| This is equally true In alls3the indus
tries and it is more important to i'm
press this fact upon boys in school,
than it is to give them courses OF
study which have no meaning and no
relation to- their everyday life.
1t is of first Importance to teach
school boys hat the first essential in
success, the only sure way to success
is to do whatever they have to do SO
well that they will haVeAa personal
pride in the result. One thing done
carefully, thoroughly and completely is
worth as training and as preparation,
a dozen half done or thoughtlessly
done.
We believe every school boy should
have a certain amount of manual work
/ to do not only in the shops, but out OF
| doors. 1t is just as essential that a
boy should know how to mix and lay
concrete. dig the ditch and make the
foundation, should learn to drain, ex-
cayate, build, to handle a shovel, q
WheeIbarroW and the other s~o-called
common tools, as that he should learn
to make a table, or desk or tool or Bit
Of ornanlental iron.
There is artistry in the one as well
as in the other. There is mental dis
cipline in the one as well as in the
other and there is that true culture
that comes only with thoughtful thor
oughness, with thinking which is the
basis of all culture.
Boys can be trained to put skill III
lnskilled labor; they can be taught to
do the most ordinary work in a way
lthat Will make At a source of prida and