New Britain herald., 1926-09-09
SEES WAY ID END
 WHITE COLLAR ERA
Trades Must Be Given Dignity,
 Engineers Are Told

LdSluMlO hI6 lUlu
 New Haven, Sept. g - Speaking on The District Apprenticeship Systen," Harold s. Falk. vice president of the Falk corporation of Milwaukee. Wis, today told the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, In its technical session at the machine exhibition being held at the Sheffield Scientific school of Yale university that the industrial trades must be given a new dignity and made more at tractive if boys of the right caliber were to be attracted into the in- dustrial field.
 Youths Avoid Shop Work
 Everyone knows that the aver age American young man Is not much disposed to go into indus trial work, nor can 1t be expected under modern conditions" Mir. Falk said. The American ideal seems to be the commercial and financial genius. If we are to judge from the agencies which influence the public mind. Every advertise ment directed towards the Ameri- can man shows him seated at a desk in an office. The workingman is never idealized, in fact, 1t is not so many years since teachers threatened lazy pupils by telling them that they would never be more than mere workingmen if they did not pay more attention to their school work. Parents, how ever humble In life, will insist that their sons become professional men because sons of friends of theirs have become professional men and nothing less will do for their own children. Is it any won- der, in the face Of this, that Ameri- can young men do not ordinarily go into the trades unless they are forced into them by circumstan- ces?
 Trades Must Have New Dignity
 The trades must be given a new dignity. They must be made more attractive. The personal require ments for most trades are as high 8 for ordinary commercial work. The machinist Is as good man as the bookkeeper and he gets as much pay. It still remains to make him as highly respected in the community as the boekkeeper is. Boys will not go. into the trades in sufficient numbers until they, and especially their parents, feel that the trade work is just as desirable as clerical work; until the molder and patternmaker are just as inn portant in civic organizations and clubs and in the eyes of the young ladies too as the bank clerk and the. insurance office man.
 MT. Falk urged manufacturers to unite fin one great organiza- ton" to advertise the trades and apprentice training for the trades throughout their respective cities. He said that people in all classes of life must be taught to take ap- premiership for granted.
 Apprenticeship must be so thoroughly established that every boy, from his earliest days. will mink no more of escaping an ap- prentice course than escaping at- tendance at school,' he said. "AIl this is not mere theory. It has been proved by actual experience. The metal trades industries of Milwaukee have been engaged in a district apprenticeship program for number of years and, while mere beginning has been made, the results justify the most extrava- gant predictions for the continued and increasing success Of appren- ticeship training. The people of Milwaukee understand that the metal trades shops offer real op- portunity to young men, and boys Of all classes are taking courses in the various shops. In achieving this result the industrial commission of Wisconsin which administers the apprenticeship law Of the state and the Milwaukee vocational school have been of invaluable assistance. The latter institution, with 6 week ly attendance of about 15,000 young people, has been the center of the apprenticeship movement and ac- tivity Of the city. There, more than anywhere else, probably, have the young people of Milwaukee be- | come convinced of the necessity of organized experience as well as or ganized education"
 Mir. Fa!k stated that if American industries are to overcome the diff | ficulties which confront them they must begin by overcoming the diff l faculties which confront the people | employed in their shops. ''As long as countless thousands of partly . trained, dissatisfied workingmen are permitted to drift about the 1 country from one locality to an- other there will be labor troubles | and. more than that, there will be ! business depressions, because in ! the long run the manufacturers | customer Is his employe," he said. | If American industries are to have | a steadily widening market for | their wares they must build up a great class of stable, well-satisfied | and prosperous employees men who are well educated, thoroughly trained for their work, who settle down, establish homes of their own. and bring new generations into the world with the same chara cteris- tics. Apprenticeship will bring this about. Apprenticeship destroys un- rest and dissatisfaction because 1t creates an interest in work. More- over it will bring about a stability of population in all centers because each district will produce its own and thus largely destroy the temptation to drift from place to place."