The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-07

education of the day? And, now, with in the last half a century. the masses have asked equal rights with the classes. The artisan has arrived upon the educational stage, the mechanic, the farmer, the doer of things, as well as the thinker of thoughts, demanding training for his own special life work. Perhaps the most significant factor in your educational life today is that edu- cation known as industrial or voca- 1 tional.
 METHODS ARE DIFFERENT The aims and methods and results of this industrial education are entirely different from any of the old literary or classical traditions of education. It's aim is to dignity manual labor and to fit men for the practical business of life. "To equip a boy or girl with prac- tical profession or trade which places them upon their feet and issues an honest livelihood by productive, con structive work; to increase the prod uct of economic goods in all their forms; to understand and direct the great physical and chemical forces of nature for the use and advancement of humanity; to contribute to the materlal physical comfort and happiness or man these are few of the practical aims of the education of which l speak that is industrial education; aims, as have said, that, until within a half cen tury, have not received the emphasis that their true importance demanded. Let us consider for a moment the great profession of agriculture. In the first place, I note that, though the glgan- tic increase of our urban population mas caught the imagination of the nation With it's colonial aggregation of sky-scrapers and weltering acres of humanity for eX- ample the peaks of brick and stone on Manhattan Island and the miles or sup terranean caverns below), yet the lact remains that 50 per cent Of the So,Vuo,uoo people in the United States llNe Tn the rural regions where one-third of the Ia borers of the nation draw their liveli- hood from the soil. In Alabama, over 50 out of every 100 of our children pelohs to the rural regions. Indeed, agrlculture is the basis of the wealth of our state. Not more than one man out or loo IS lawyer, physician or teacher, and while their interests are of vital lmpof- tarce yet how insignificant seems the
 welfare of any small segment of our pop ulation compared with the great basal
 element of agriculture
 ,"A grave aspect of the abandonment of
 the farm and of agricultural life IS the
 economic aspect-the immense dlmlnutlon
 of the amount of the farm products on
 the one hand, and on the other the con
 sequent ever-increasing cost of living.
 The man who goes to market today With
 the daily wage of 20 years ago brings
 back to his pantry basket only nair
 full. Without all exaggeration the sltu-
 ation daily becomes more critical ana or
 genuine concern. For instance, with the
 population increasing at the rate Of 2o
 per cent in Alabama, and the production
 of meat products decrasing in the nation
 at the rate of IS per cent, we can read
 fly understand the widening gap between
 the hungry man and the rasher Of bacon.
 Possibly the chief advantage to be
 derived through the mechanical educa-
 ton of our youth, and the acquisition and
 mastery by them of the mechanic arts, is the advantage that comes to the com
 munity at large from the general nm
 provement of the industrial qualities or it's citizens It seems to me that one of the great defects Or our southern civ
 ilization is the lack of 8 mechanical skill, not through an inherent or in
 nate lack of aptitude, but through lack of opportunity for training, and certainly if we wish industrial progress in the south this defect must be remedied. The
 great prizes of modern industrial life are awards of efficiency, and efficiency means maximum of production with minimum amount of mechanical force and technical skill, with a minimum amount of mere muscle.
 
 'vThe chief obstacle to the immediate progress of this movement of industrial education, as we know is the lack of properly trained, competent instructors; but the obstacle is not insurmountable The agricultural colleges normal schools and agricultural and county high schools are already remedying the defects, and the widespread demand and handsome salaries offered for vocational teachers | ;%11~l 1rtr N1,n C1ro cessful teacher of tomorrow will be one not only yersed in theory and in books, but one who can project his knowledge into the interests and activities of that 1 life beyond the door of his schOolroom, as an active factor in all phases of com
 munity life Already there are many high school principals in the state of Alabama 1 that measure up to these new require ments.
 With the development into electrical l energy of the water power along the banks of the Coosa and Tennessee river, Alabama seems to offer a wonderful field for the application of mechanical, indus l trial skill.
 "Why may not the day come when we shall see the work of the home and l farm yard done by electric motors chopping the food supply for the cattle,
 pumping the water, driving the sewing machine, swinging the churn and rocking 1 the cradle-thuS Supplantlng the mana ! that rules the world?
 "A prosperous, intellectual and content l ed rural population-tnIs is a thing de- | sired.
 1 "A 4-acre farm, not a large plantation, with careless tenantry; every man under his own vine and fig tree; crops well l titled; cattle and horses fat and with
 sill1en Hanks; pigs and poultry of the | finest strain; a neat schoolhouse on the hill with good teachers within; cozy church nearby; good roads stretching off | to neighbors not too far away; or to mar /! lSet: rural delivery; rural telephone; a house full of the air of comfort and newly painted; children and housewife in- telligent, busy, thrifty. happy-this is the ideal of our southern country regions,
 a great industrial democracy.
 l And with proper attention to the prep
 aration to the boy and girl by the schools of the land for life work, the ultimate consummation of this ideal-of this great industrial democracy-can surely be ac- complished. Conditions for the consum- 1 nation of this end in Alabama seem most suspicious. With our splendid system 1 of new educa tional law, duly put into effect, with the adoption of the local tax
 measure that we confidently feel will
 come to pass, with the fine spirit of vital l educational progress abroad in the state,
 largely unhampered by prejudces, there
 may be prophecied immense results for
 industrial education in Alabama within
 the next decade.'