The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1918-03-01
VOCATIONAL TRAINING
AIDS RECONSTRUCTION
Law Urged by President Wilson OPP
ems New Opportunities 10 American
WorI>ncn - Rising Generation
Helped.

! bill which established Il national SyS
TEN of vocational education. The
significant thing about this bill is
that it has added to and vitaliZed
our public school system in such q
way that all American boys or girls
who go to work for a living will here
after be able to attend free schools
in which they may learn to become
efficient in their chosen trade, or else
prepare for a trade which they have
desire to learn. Organized labor,
! organized capital, and organized and
far-sighted educators had for years
striven to secure this enactment from
Congress. On February %, 1917 the
bill became law, and with almost I'M
believable rapidity the law was put
into operation.
Both as war measure and as a
measure looking to the up-building
of American industry in the first
! reconstruction days and after, when
/ the fierce economic struggle between
nations begins agair n renewed ear
| nest, this legislatis is designed to
! place the United States in the fore
| front of the producing nations of the
world
The Smith-Hughes or Vocational
| Educational Act opens a door of OPP
| portunity to the American workman.
! 1t extends and enlarges the existing
| inadequate public school system so as
| to give every hey and girl over four
! teen years of age chance to learn
| his or her trade or vocation. When
| the system of part-time and evening
| schools, which the act promises, shall
! have been developed, every youngSter
! who really wants to learn trade
and learn it from top to bottom in
| its historical perspective-will have
a place to go. The Vocational Edu-
| cation Act likewise opens up new OPP
! portunitieS to the skilled workman.
! The State Boards for Vocational Ed
ucation, created to cooperate with
! the Federal Board, are calling for
| teachers for new industrial classes in
! schools, and the ranks of the skilled
| industrial workers must supply the
| large majority of these teachers. To
! the workman who desires to keep
| abreast of new inventions and meth
! DDS of shopwork, the vocational
schools established by the Vocational
| Educational Act will be OF the great
est value. They will be open at con-
venient hours and there will be no
| charge for the instruction, which is
/ under public administration and
control
| Every opportunity will be made by
! the present administrators of the No-
| catioHal Education law not TO train
| an excess of workers in any given
| line of industry. 1t is expected th3t
supply and demand will regulate We
training.
In each State State Board of
| Vocational Education administers
| the Vocational Education Act locally,
! subject to the approval of its plans
/ by the Federal Board, as well as to
inspection and supervision of its
schools and method of expanding
Federal money.
| The guiding principle of the Voca-
| tional Education Act is that the edu-
! cation to be furnished shall be under
public supervision and control and
that it shall be designed to train
! persons for useful employment in
the common wage-earning occupa-
| tons. 1t may be given to boys and
girls who have elected a vocation to
/ prepare them for entering upon it as
Y y g eestT frefsi OF buys and girls
| who, having already taken up wage
earning employment, seek training
as a means of acquiring efficiency in
that employment; or to wage earn
| ers established in their trade or oc-
cupation, who seek to increase their
efficiency and their wage earning ca
| pacity, and to advance to positions of
responsibility No instruction OF
academic grade is comprehended in
the scheme of vocational education
! defined in the Vocational Education
Act.
For the year 1917-1S the total
Federal appropriations for the pay
ment of teachers and for the train
ing of teachers of all kinds is ST.
100000. Out of this, $4,000 will
be used for the training of teachers
in agriculture, trades, industries, aAd
home economics, and $566,000 fof
the salaries of teachers in trade, in
dustry, and home economics. Since
all the States have accepted the pro-
visions of the act. twice these sums
are available. The appropriations
increase yearly until the total for al
purposes of $780, 900 is reached in
1885. This sum continues at this
rate annually thereafter. In 1926
and thereafter, the portion of the
total appropriation for the salaries
of teachers in agriculture is S3,027,
600; for the salaries of teachers IN
trade, industry, and home economics
$1,000, 900; and for the training OF
teachers in all subjects, S1,090,OOO
The appropriation for the Fedora
Board for Vocational Education re
mains 100000.
The machinery established by the
act is designed to secure effective
co-operatio min promoting vocational
education. To provide an agenc.
which shall represent the interests o.
the Federal Government, the law
calls for the appointment by the
President of a Federal Board fol
Vocational Education. The mem
bership of this board comprises the
Secretary of Agriculture, the Secre
tary of Agriculture, the Secretary o.
: Commerce, the Secretary of Labor
and the Commissioner of Education
together with three citizens, Jane:
p Monroe, Charles H. Greathouse
and Arthur E. Holder, who repre-
sent respectively, the manufacturing
and commercial interests of the ma
ton, the agricultural interests, anC
the labor interests.
One member is elected annually
by the board as chairman. To pro
: vide agencies representing the States
the act requires that the State
Boards of not less than three mem
bers shall be created by the State
legislatures Each State Board is
TO work in cooperation with the
Federal Board in carrying out the
provisions of the act as regards the
given State.
Before the passage of the Smith,
Hughes Act the United States was in
a bad state of unpreparedness. II
was tagging behind every man-sizeo
nation in the world. Germany over
fifty years ago had laid the founda-
lions for her future economic effici-
ency by providing facilities for the
trained man and woman in every
walk of life. Belgium had done
likewise France and England haC