Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-17
Committee Charges Extrava-
gance in Use of Power and
High-Speed Machinery.
PUPILS COMPETITION
WITH WORKERS CHARGED
Typographical Members Hold
Methods Are Far Beyond Needs
of Instruction Purposes.

Criticism of the public school print
shops for their "extravagant" equip
ment and their policy of doing finished
work which otherwise might be executed
| in commercial shops, is carried in the
report of the Columbia Typographical
Unions committee on vocational edu-
| cation which has Just been compiled
| following a study of the school shops.
In the report, copies of which have
| been sent to the members of the Board
| Of Education, 1t is pointed out that there
| are in the school shops power machines
which "can be justified only by the
| necessity for rapid production" and
which, in the opinion of the commit
tee, have no place in the schools where
| equipment is supposed to be used for
| Institutional purposes.
| 1t Is contended further that motor
driven paper cutters, presenting con-
| slant menace to the students, have no
| place In the schools as long as the
shops are designed only for the in
struction OF printing.
Do Finished Work.
! 1t is charged that many of these
| school shops do work for the school in
/ which they are located, for the Frank
| lin School, for the parent-teacher as
| sociations, citizens associations and the
Armstrong (high SCHOOL, seems to make
a practice of doing considerable work
for the District Repair Shop"
This report is expected to be received
with surprise In school circles. since it
was through the activities of the Gen.
trail Labor Union largely that the cur
rent exhaustive study of vocational
training in Washington schools was in
itiated. The Central Labor Union,
through its spokesman at open meetings
of the Board of Education. charged that
/ the District had no vocational train
ing, but had vocational diversified
ton" instead
Commenting upon the equipment In
the schools, the report cites examples
of what it terms extravagances.
In Tech High Schol," it Is pointed
out, the linotype machine is entirely
superfluous, this fact being substanti-
ated by the absence of an instructor
competent to either instruct or operate
the machine"
The report continues:
There is other equipment in Tech,
the installation of which approaches
extreme extravaganza Not only the
proof-reading desk. but motor driven
high-speed presses, linotype and motor
! driven cutting machine, goes beyond
mere extravaganza into the realm OF
ignorance OF what public money should
be used for"
In view of the situation it describes at
Mckinley High School the committee
declares in its report that the enc years
credit now allowed by the Typographical
Union for three years work in printing
at that school will be Withdrawn until
course equal to the apprentice course
of the International Typographical
Union is established. In this connection
1t is contended that the best type of
Instructor for such course would be q
man drawn from the trade IF a salary
for the school year could be provided
equal to the wage scale in the trade"
Instructors of this type already are in
the schools, the committee declares, but
who are ineligible to teach at Mckinley
because college degree is required.
The repor includes the following
general information: That printing
is taught in Is public schools, in
Guiding three white high schools,
seven white Junior high schools,
four colored junior high schools,
one white vocational school, one colored
manual training school, one white pre-
vocational school and one colored trade
school. Exclusive of Mckinley High
School and the Langley Junior High
School, approximately 781 white and
543 colored students are receiving print
ing instruction. The report contends
that the potential tradesmen as esti-
mated by the various instructors abb.
to give figures from their observations
total SO, including SIS white students
and 43 colored students.
The teaching of printing to so many
students is seen as a menace to the
trade by the committee.
Trade Problems Differ.
Boys studying woodwork. sheet
metal work, electricity, painting and
auto mechanics can use the knowledge
gained to advantage in everyday life,
their report declares. while instruc-
ton in printing, especially if improperly
given, could easily result in a menace
to the trade, creating class of incom-
petent workmen with little knowledge
OF the trade and more of the So-called
bed room print shops operated after
hours spent at other employment"
The report concludes with the sum-
mary lis merely the result of observa-
ton of the chairman of the committee
from the Typographical Union, and the
father of five boys, all of whom will
have taken printing instruction in the
1t is also the result of Is
years teaching experience from the
fifth grade up to college, including pre-
vocational vocational, Junior high.
senior high. and SO years trade ex-
perience."
The chairman of the committee is
Everett W. Lawrence, while the five
members are Duncan McLaren, Kenneth
M Hawkins and w. w Scott, all teach
ers IN the schools at present, Frank 3.
Smith and F1ovd n cJa,,nh