Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1917-11-21

not noted by the ordinary passerby.
The path is being worn deeply, now
ever, by the feet of officials and others
who come and go daily.
often Visits the Departments.
Every day or two the president fol-
| lows the old time presidential habit, a
particularly marked habit in Lincoln's
| day, of visiting the different depart
ments of government in order to con-
fer with the chieftains and to learn
at first hand just how the work is pro-
crossing Some OF the interior hall
ways of the department buildings are
dark, or twilight lighted" at the best,
and so it is that the president fire.
quently walks through the corridors
unrecognized by the messengers oc-
cupying chairs outside the various
rooms, and not infrequently by army
and navy officers who go by him in the
cleaning taking him to be only one of
the thousand civilians who daily go
to the departments on business bent.
Every morning in the office of Jo-
seph P. Tumulty, secretary to the
president, there is prepared a list of
the visitors who on that day have ap-
pointments with the president. The
list always is a short one, and it can
be taken for granted that on it APP
pears the name of no visitor who has
not business of high Importance with,
the chief executive.
On Sunday Woodrow Wilson does
not play golf. He goes to church with
his wife like other good American hus-
bands, or on some occasions his wife
goes with him, the order of this pro-
cedure depending upon whether the
church attended is an Episcopalian or
q Presbyterian church. The president
is Presbyterian while his wife is an
Episcopalian.
Vocational Education Plans.
"Just as soon as Uncle Sam can do
the job, there will be a night school,
a part-time school, or a continuation
school for every boy and girl between
fourteen and fifteen who wants to be
aimed in vocation. This is the sum
and substance OF Jaw known as the
Smith-Hughes Act recently passed by
congress, whose provisions have Just
become effective"
The foregoing paragraph has come
to me in response to a request made to
a representative of the federal board
for vocational education for infOrma-
ton concerning the working status of
the vocational educational law. Be-
low is given the working intention of
those responsible for the Introduction
Of the new system of learning and of
teaching. The findings are as they are
presented by a representative of the
vocational board, and they are given
here without prejudice.
"Nearly 100000 of federal money
goes to the states this year to pay for
the training of teachers in vocational
schools and to pay, also, the salaries
of these teachers. This federal money
is met, dollar for dollar, by an equal
amount of money raised by the states.
In Washington sits board called the
federal board for vocational education,
which administers the law. By the
year 1926 the appropriation from con-
gress reaches the three million dollar
mark. For the next eight years Uncle
Sam has set aside $3S,000,000 for this
purpose.
Will Spread Through the Union.
'In this way the schools of the ma
ton will be gradually enlarged and
extended so that within a very short
time there viii not be city or town
of any size but has q first-class pub
lie trade of vocational school, and the
country communities will have schools
where boys and girls, men and women,
can secure the best training in the
best and latest methods of farming.
Throughout the Union the war is
demanding trained men-men trained
in arms, men trained in making am
munitiOn, men trained in biography,
in every branch and trade of every
necessary manufacturing process, men
trained to do all the manifold various
things which modern nation fighting
for the ideals of modern civilization
requires. There is a shortage of these
trained men. The government cannot
find all the men it needs to work be-
hind and on the lines. There is a
shortage of skilled labor.
1.-THE reason is that the nation has
hardly begun the job Of educating
practically the millions who year after
year have entered industry. 1t has
been authoritatively stated that in the
whole country there are fewer trade
schools than are to be found in the
little kingdom of Bavaria with pop
ulation not much greater than that of
New York city. In Munich alone more
workers are being trained at public
expense than in all the larger cities
of the United States, representing a
population of 100000 Out of the
nearly 100000 persons who accord
ing to the last census were engaged
in agriculture alone, it is estimated
that only about 1 per cent had ade-
quate preparation. Is it any wonder
that there is shortage of food? Out
of the 100000 engaged in manufac-
turing, not one in a hundred was
trained. Is it any wonder that we are