The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1914-09-11

! IHlHu one OF Lne UOSJ DTllllduJ men
this country has ever produced, points
out that despite the wonderful organi-
zation of the steel trust the product of
American steel mills is deteriorating
in quality because of the type of work
man it has become the policy of the
steel trust to employ. If that is true
of iron and steel, what about the
human product, citizenship?
We are studying this question of vo-
cational training in our own state If
my boy or girl is adapted to a certain
trade or profession, or your boy or
girl, we want them equipped. If my
boy is to be a mechanic, an iron work
er, / want him to know the history
of iron in the development of our
civilization | want him to know the
science of his trade as well as it's
mechanics. | don't want him to be a
numbered part of manufacturing
plant; l want him to have individual
ity, a creative mind, to know the JOY
of creating and fashioning, and medi-
ocrity, lily paid never joy gave to any
workman. Give me the boy or girl
who loves a trade or profession, for
the two-fold reason that he or she is
contributing to the best development
of a civilization and is receiving in re-
turn a compensation commensurate
with the giving, and I'll give back to
you the highest type of potential citi-
zenship
The people of this state are not Mig
gardly in the matter of appropriations
for educational purposes. l have heard
it stated on good authority that this
state spends as much or more for edu-
cational purposes according to popula-
ton than any other state. Our people
only ask in return that the money shall
be wisely expended, to give the great
est return in education for the amount
invested. The work being carried on
in our schools along industrial lines is
excellent and should be extended as
widely as possible In the elementary
grades particular attention should be
paid to studying the child's particular
bent and capacity. A child may i'm
agine it wants to make a certain trade
it's life work and yet be untitled for
that work. A real service in that case
to the child is rendered if its mind be
diverted from something for which it
is not adapted and turned into other
channels. Once a student becomes
really started along a certain vocation,
the cultural training goes with it nat
matics is necessary to mastery of
certain trade mathematics loses its
terror. I speak from experience, as
mathematics was to me a plague by
day and a haunting spectre by night.
Little more than the ground work can
be laid in our elementary grades, pre-
paratory vocational training coinci-
dent with elementary cultural training.
The practical side of mechanics, arts
and domestic science, comes later in
the advanced years of school work.
To my mind we are in need of a sep
arate state institution for vocational
work. We have our special schools
for surgery, dentistry, medicine, agri-
culture, law, where students are spe-
cially fitted for their life work. The
great majority of our children must go
out in later years to labor with their
hands at some form of manual occupa-
ton. Why should there not be insti-
tutions that specialize in industrial ed
ucation? I would have a state trade
school with equipment, trained instruc-
tors, dormitories, with cultural courses
essential to the vocations taught. l
believe that students would be largely
self supporting, as proper proportion
of the proceeds from the output of
such an institution could be applied
towards the students living while TAX
of the question to expect students of
such an institution to pay their own
way without some recompense for
their work as the students must neces-
sarily come from the working class of
the state that has not the means to
finance the education of it's sons and
daughters. No fee should be exacted
for tuition and only the bare cost ex-
acted for board and room. The under
lying idea of such an institution must
be one that offered facilities under
such conditions that the boy or girl in
humblest circumstances should be able
to grasp it's opportunities. We have
schools in plenty for those blessed
with this worlds goods it is the great
mass of young men and women to
which the state should unlock the