Evening star., 1923-03-30

1 rience of the expert press printers or
the bureau of engraving and printing.
After they had spent the prime years
OF their lives as experts in hand
printing the introduction Of improved
machines throws them out OF employ
ment. That is cited only as an Illus
tration of the tact that merely learn
ing q trade-uSeful as that may be,
after one has disciplined his mind ard
learned the elemental studies-tha
trade is an unsafe reliance without
the foundation of sound general cdu-
cation.
What boy or girl of fourteen to six
teen years of age knows what EIg ..
her life work is to be? What man
who has reached mature years is nov
working along lines he expected to
follow when he was Il child? Is Sec
rotary Davis, the iron moldcr?
1t is all very well to train ,the
hands to obey the will, even BY be
ginning manual training in the
grades, but it is folly to substitute
trade teaching in schools in SUCH
way that it interferes with the
three RS" and a general knowledge
tory and present ideals. This by no
means advocates classic training q
college courses for all. but while it.
would be folly to force the natural
mechanic" to waste four years in
college, il would be greater folly
TO stultify that natural mechanic
brains by depriving him Of the funda-
mentals OF science. which Will enable
him to grasp the problems Of to
morrow. Tomorrow is going t
day, in all trades.
Where is the village blacksmith,
Of yesterday?
Where is the wheelwright OF yes
terday.
What carpenter fashions the win
dow frames now?
How are the rivets Of the sky
scraper driven"
Who makes sleighs, wagons and
shoes?
seded the former Individual hand
worker, and the boy with trade
! only is not fitted. except for learning
all over again. just as an unsk!lled
| laborer. TO do the simplest operations
! in the great factories. The man Of
mental training is needed for the
superintendency. the management and
the proprietorship.
x i ::
The immediate future-the daE
| when the boys OF the present will bc
| in productive periods OF their MAJ
| hoods to be a scientii; age. W:re-
less power from central sources, Ike
Muscle Shoals and Niagara Falls ard
the tides Of the sea, viii drive II!
machinery. OF what use then W
be our man whom the schools trainea
! to run a stationary engine?
Houses will be poured concrete.
stone or brick. or in invent. Eve yoar-
there will be no more lumber Wha'
Will the carpenters be doing? FU~-
niture will be Of steel or bronze.
Yesterdays black smith IS now
working As hand in a machine shop.
Secretary Davis is right in SAYING
that 'educa.ted hands and educated
brains go together, and on their
| its supremacy will depend" BG.
educate the brains. and "all these
things will be added unto you" H.
dustry never has been in such A state
of'1fux as il is today, and the on !.
man who will he prepared for al
agile enough TO adjust itself to t.
| rapidly and radically changing con
ditions
Secretary Davis proposes 10 grad
uate from the high schools a. the d =
of sixteen boys fully equipped VII.
| a. trado as we'll as with d full course
of elemental and high school studies
That shortens the course two years
besides adding practically four
year trade apprenticeship TO tho cu.-a
riculum. That is INA agnificcnt"--but :
| Napoleon explained that all things
| that were ma gnifcert' were not the
| real article.
Copyright. 1928. by p. V. Coil;nsl