The weekly tribune and the Cape County herald. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1914-1918, 1917-01-25

ness in the world and at the same time
benefit humanity.
'In my opinion it is not Of the
most meritorious bills considered by
this House in either session of this
Congress. / hope my amendment will
be agreed to, and that the bill will be
passed"
In concluding his speech Mr.. Rus
sell offered the following letter from
W. S. Dearmont, upholding the bill:
Dear Mr.. Russell: / have to ask
another favor of you, in addition to
the many that you have granted. l
am informed indirectly through the
Hon. Hoke Smith, Senator from Geor-
gia and chairman Of the Commission
of National Aid to Vocational Educa-
ton, that the commissions bill will be
reintroduced in the present Congress,
in the Senate House, and that strong
efforts will be made to secure the pas
sage of this measure Offering aid to
vocational education.
l have read the commissions report
very carefully and the bill as intro
duced in the last Congress. feel sure
that the measure of national aid pro-
posed in this bill is very much needed.
This is especially true in the Southern
States, and the commissions own in
vestigations and thoroughly reliable
Investigations made by other commits
sions and associations show that there
are at the present time in the United
States fully 100000 boys and girls
between IA and Is or II years old who
are undertaking to earn livelihood
in various employments without hav-
ing received an education that will
make it possible for many Of them
ever to become self-supporting citi-
zens. In other words, these 100000
boys and girls for lack of a proper
education are wholly unable to in
crease their earning capacity and to
advance themselves in life to the posi-
ton of self-supporting and self-re-
specting citizens. These 100000 boys
and girls must at best remain through
out life on the border line between
self-supporting and self-respecting
citizens and the great body of the sub
merged classes who are always more
or less dependent upon society for
their support. No doubt very large
proportion of them will fall into the
ranks of helpless pauperism, and many
of them will enter the ranks Of tn
criminal classes.
Unless more adequate provisions car
be made for the better education O.
the working classes in this country
this large body Of our people, who
are absolutely unable to become self
respecting and self-supporting citizens
without better education opportunities,
must continue to grow still larger
from year to year. Many Of the COM
munities in which there is this lack
of educational facilities could no doubt
supply the need for themselves. In
many other communities it is we'll
night impossible for the local commu-
mites to meet this need fully. Under
the circumstances it seems to me that
it is only wise and proper that, know
ing all the conditions so fully, the Con-
gress of the United States should
come to the aid of the States, for the
present at least, and, through the bill
recommended by he Commission on
National Aid to Vocational Education,
furnish part of the money needed in
order that the several States and local
communities may be brought to re-
alize the Importance of this work and
may be moved to join with the United
States Government in providing for
the more adequate education of this
large body of boys and girls whose
needs at present are being neglected.
We hear very much just now of the
need Of preparedness" on the part of
the people of the United States to
meet certain possible future contin-
gencies. l think that if the great war
in Europe has taught one lesson more
than another, it is the fact
that the best possible preparation that
a nation can make, for war even, is to
develop its people to the highest pos
sible degree in their industrial eff
cheney. Industrially, think the most
efficient people on earth today, per
haps, are the Germans and the French;
and the industrial efficiency Of these
people has not only contributed to the
national wealth, so necessary in war,
but has contributed very largely to the
ability of both the Germans and the
French to manufacture the necessary
war munitions and ornaments. and no
tinn of ire merits I hone Won will give