The daily Nome industrial worker., 1917-05-11
VOCATIONAL TRAINING.

lied with the systems Ol euucdtlOl in vogue. They want it to be such as will equip a youth who has pas sed through the schools better for the struggle for existence. It is all very we'll 10 learn Latin and Greek and other languages, more or less quickly forgotten, but they are no aids to those who received them in making a living.
 Hence vocational training is urged. Hence it is argued that 1t is better to learn the use of tools than to wrestle with Latin genders, and to master a trade than to en- compass the mazes of the irregular verbs in a dead language. So it is urged that all these classics should be relegated to the rear of recog- nized inutiities, and instead the mind sharpened by and the hand adapted to use of such means as will benefit enc Tn after life.
 Certainly the, point is well taken in one respect. Thus, there is no no question that an electrical work CT gets more wages than the worker who has no trade, and uses pick and shovel but indifierently, even if he have a knowledge of the clas- sics at his fingers ends.
 Certainly also the skilled laborer is the man who gets the best pay and the man who is less likely to stagnate in the labor market for want of a boss. In point of fact these things can just now in no wise be doubted.
 But, the real question too it Is, will vocational training better this condition any if all are vocationally trained.
 Suppose we admit for the mo- ment that a knowledge. however keen. of a dead language is an in, utility: suppose we admit that the man who has little Latin and les' Greek" oftentimes moves ahead, ir the struggle for existence, of the man who has much of one and more of the other. Suppose we admit thai the skill it is, which commands a higher wage than the lack Of 1t yet reasonably enough we may in uuire the reason for this before go ing over wholly to those who would establish vocational training.
 The reason why skill is remu nerated more highly than lack O skill in the labor world Is because of the relative scarcity in relation tt the demand. The pick and shove man is picked up more easily thai the carpenter; the ditch digger Il more plentiful than the electrician the newer of wood and drawer o water is readier to hand than thu mechanician. Those are most obvi ous facts. If an engineer with grea skill is hired tomorrow. he canno off hand be replaced. If shove artist is discharged, one can reaci across into the average labor mar ket and fill his place most easily The worker with labor power to SC. takes it to market and the nor elaborate that labor power is tn more highly technical it will be the greater price will have to b paid. One buys wheel barro' more cheaply than a Mergenthaie machine, and the relation betwee skilled and unskilled labor as con modities are exactly fulfilled 1 that parallel.
 Accordingly we may agree tha because carpenters are not so pier tiful as wheel barrow engineers they get more pay than their UT skilled brethren. Accordingly W may agree that If we would equip youth for the struggle of life,
 were best to make him skillful mind and hand in some trade, tha making him learned in some langl age which can be of no earthl use to him. But that is only whe other things remain the same as { present and he is one out of man untrained.
 Suppose on the other hand voc; llxr do nf Suppose in every school in the Ian the children are taught trad' Suppose that every boy graduatin from the schools or while learnin