New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1914-04-11
THE NECESSITY FOR VOCA-
TIONAL EDUCATION IN
THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

The necessity for vocational
education in the public schools
lies in the fact that it is prac-
tically impossible for us to make
any further progress, or even TO
hold our own, withut it. lndlvld-
ual workers, without vocational
training cannot competa with
those who have it, nor can ma
tons or peoples without it com
pete with those who have. IN
the long run the workers best
prepared for work get the work
to do.
"Made in Germany" "Made
in England, are printed on So
many things we buy that we are
all familiar with them. Every
time the American workman
reads either of these he should
see in it a reason for the neces-
sitv of vocational education as a
means of self defense. In Ger
MANY. Austria, Italy, Switzer.
land France, Holland, Belgium,
England. cotland and Ireland,
the people have come to look
upon vocational education as a
public obligation just as much as
is elementary education. These
countries are not now naturally
rich in the materials OF industry
as some of them once were. But
what thy lack in soils, and woods,
and metals, and coal, and oil,
they make up for by vocational
training--by training for super
ior workmanship. In Munich,
Germany, the city system OF CO.
educational training provides for
nearly seventy trades, and IN
Berlin for over two hundred.
This education is not merely IN
industrial processes, but includes
hygiene, industrial history, civics,
and the conditions Of industry
and law that concern every man,
both as worker and a citizen
A recent traveller in Germany
asked business agent for Ger
man manufac turers in London to
what he attributed the tremend:
ors industrial DEVELOPMENT OF
Germany. His unhesitating re.
ply was, "Technical education. y
The same traveller reports that
whenever in western Europe he
asked men what value they at
tached to industrial education
thew had but one reply: 1T is
indispensable; our condition
without it is unthinkable."
The advanced standards and
costs of living in our day neces
state that every one must be
able to earn a good wage or sui
fer the want of many things
From figures compiled by the Blu
reau of Commerce and Labor, il
is found that the average weekly
wages for unskilled workers II
the five main branches OF the
building trades are $1O.45
week, for the skilled. $22.27
week; similarly, for five Of tn
machinery trades, the wages o!
unskilled workers are 5000
week, for skilled $17.7O a weel
as an average. Here are differ
ences of $11.92 and 1901 respec
lively; the wages of the skilled
workers are practically double
those of the unskilled. Thu
average wages of graduates O.
the Williamson Free School O
Mechanical Trades six month
after graduation, in five trades
are between $1,000 and $500
week. This high wage, almos
equal to that Of the skilled jour
neyman worker, this graduate
has become able to earn through
three years in the trade school
For him. the work has really bu
just fairly begun. He will prob
ably advance in wages RICH
along for good many years
For the usual shop-trained ma,
there will be little advance pos
sible. A table and chart hav
been worked out to show com
parison between the earning ca
pacity Of shop trained men AM
school-trained men. each begin
ming at sixteen, as follows:
Ave. Age. Shopltrained Schoo
traine'
16 s 800