New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1914-05-23
Change in Education Necessary.


living have taken place throughout the
civilized world. These changes require
corresponding change in preparation
for life. including, of course our systems
of education Germany has been the
one nation that has fully appreciated
this fact and has developed supple
mentary system of schools to prevent
as far as possible the loss involved IN
the evolution of modern systems OF pro-
duction. She has endeavored to con-
serve all her resources both natural and
human by her systems of education.
The change in her relative position II
the modern industrial and commercial
world is ascribed by careful students
both in Germany and in France and
England, to her far-sighted educational
policy. Mr.. Watson, distinguished
English critic, after careful study OF
Cermany's advance and of her system
of advanced technical schools, gives the
following picture of the situation there;
German1s Fine Methods.
"The larger technical agencies apart,
however. invaluable results are often
achieved in Germany by the simplest
and most inexpensive means-by the
humble village class conducted in the
winter evening hours by the light of the
Gil lamp in the low-ro6fed schoolroom;
by the travelling exhibition of samples of
skilled handicraft which sets provincial
ambitions aglow: by the itinerant teach
er who carries vitalizing store OF rudi-
mentary technical knowledge from ham
let to hamlet and from farmhouse to
farmhouse in the seauestered mountain
districts where home industry is the
main support of the population during
half the year For the most impressive
fact about technical education as de-
veloped in Germany is its comprehen-
siveness, it is supplied to every occupa-
ton in which it is better for work
man to have it than to be without it,
America Must Train Workmen
America has a great foreign COM
merce. including mainly raw materials
and slightly manufactured articles COM
ing from agriculture and from her mines.
She sells these goods because she can
produce cheaply, not because she can
produce so well; because she has cheap
raw materials. ingenious labor-saving
machinery, and capacity for organiza-
ton. The raw material, is, however, be-
coming constantly dearer, and other ma
tons are modelling their machinery after
ours and learning our methods of organ
ization Germany is making up for her
lack of natural advantages by training
her workmen. We must follow her ex-
ample if we hope to maintain our COM
mercial position in the modern indus
trial world.
Conservation OF Human Resources.
In recent address delivered before
the Society for the Promotion of Indus
trial Education, Professor Carver, OF
Harvard University, called attention to
the most important form of conserva-
ton for Americans. He said: "In the
present conservation movement 1t is high
" important that we realize two things:
first, that our most valuable resources
are our people, and second that we are
wasting people more than we are vast
ing anything else. If we forget either
of these things, we shall probably find
ourselves trying to save at the spigot
while we are wasting at the bung hole"
Speaking generally, one 10 safe in say
ing that no nation ever did prosper -
compared with other nations except by
reason of Its superior conservation of
the human factor in production. In
view of these large facts II 10 reason
ably safe to say that the most destruc.
tive form of waste Is the waste of labor
power. 80
The Great National Waste.
IF one will look carefully about the
will see, in any community, 50 many
ways in which labor-power is being
wasted ~ to convince him that here 10
the greatest Of all forms of national
waste, though il Is much greater in
some communities than in others. One
will find, for example, four characteris-
tic forms of waste labor-power, all Of
them of considerable magnitude. There
are, first, the army of the unemployed,
OF the involuntary idle; second, the inn
perfectly employed, or the untrained;
third, the improperly employed, or the
rather than productivity
employed; and fourth, the voluntary idle,
commonly known as the leisure class"
This is Easily Seen.
The industrial school deals directly
with the waste due to the imperfect en-
ployment of labor resulting from the
lack of training, and indirectly with the
waste due to involuntary idleness. Pro-
fessor Carver's convincing analysis is
doubtless familiar to you. f by means
Of training you can transfer unskilled
labor into the more highly skilled labor,
or the skilled labor in the scarcer and
more needed work of management, you
provide a demand for the army of un-
employed and increase the productive
power of the community" As Profess
sor Carver says upon the redistribu-
ton of labor power upward from the un-
skilled and overcrowded occupation to-
ward and into remunerative occupation
depends, more than upon anything else,
the expansion of our industries. It takes
no miracle to see this; it requires only
education" He doubtless means an
education of q new type, which will con-
tinue and supplement what we now
have.
The terminating of our period of COM
pulsory instruction at fourteen is one
fundamental defect in our present school