LB 
 
 1594 
 
 •Ms 
 
 Tnn Art CLy:5 
 
 OF 
 
 PmivADCL.PHIA. 
 
 4^ 
 
 The (^laims of Industrial Art in 
 Modern ;^ducation. 
 
 Philadelphia 
 
 Times Printing House 
 
 73$ Chestnut St 
 
The Claims of Industrial Art 
 
 m 
 
 Modern Education. 
 
 An Address delivered at the Art Club of Philadelphia, 
 February 7, 1890, 
 
 ir^WVMILlvER, 
 
 Principal of the Pennsylvania Museum and School of 
 Industrial Art. 
 
 Published by the Art Chib of 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 iSgo. 
 
(05 
 
The Claims of Industrial Art in 
 Modern Education. 
 
The Claims of Industrial Art in 
 Modern Education. 
 
 Never before, perhaps, has popular education, 
 its needs and its importance, both as a public 
 duty and as a measure of public self-protection, 
 been more generally or more earnestly dis- 
 cussed than it is at the present time, and 
 never probably in all histor}- have such splendid 
 endowments for it been made by private munifi- 
 cence or so much consecration of intelligent 
 and philanthropic interest been shown in the 
 stud%- of the problems involved. 
 
 It is really nothing less than phenomenal 
 the amount of earnestness and energy which 
 the movement has assumed of which we are the 
 witnesses, not only for the diffusion of education 
 among all classes and conditions of men, but 
 for emphasizing in educational discussion the 
 practical and industrial aims which have come 
 to form so conspicuous a part of its purpose. 
 
 Not only is industrial education, in some form 
 and to some extent, claiming a place in the 
 public school systems of nearty all the more 
 progressive cities, and finding earnest cham- 
 pions among the foremost superintendents and 
 other educators of the country-, but in several 
 American cities, recently and almost simulta- 
 
neously, separate endowments, the gifts of 
 single individuals in amounts to be stated only 
 in millions, have been devoted to this noble 
 work. Spacious buildings have been reared or 
 are in process of erection. Libraries and all 
 other appliances supplied, including workshops, 
 in which the use of tools and all the elementary 
 processes at least, of all the trades by which 
 men provide for each others' wants are syste- 
 matically taught, along with, or rather as an 
 indispensable part of the fundamentals of all 
 education, whether consisting of the common 
 English branches or of the higher and more 
 special studies in language and science. 
 
 I do not say in art, because while provision for 
 art education is not wanting by any means, it is 
 precisely the connection between it and industry 
 and which I have indicated as alread}' made 
 between industry and general elementary edu- 
 cation, which is still relatively unrecognized 
 and unprovided for. And it is because it seems 
 to me so important that this need should be 
 recognized, and this connection made, that I 
 venture to ask your attention for a little while 
 this evening. 
 
 Two phases of this new movement are appa- 
 rent, and claim, perhaps, about equal recogni- 
 tion in current discussion. 
 
 First. — The importance of industrial and artis- 
 tic training as a part of all education ; their 
 claims to consideration as necessary features in 
 the curricula of the schools provided every- 
 where for the instruction of children of school 
 age among all classes, all sorts and all condi- 
 tions of men. 
 
Secofid.— The direct relation of this educational 
 aim to the arts and crafts by which civilized men 
 minister to each other's comfort and enjoyment, 
 and the industrial prosperity which success in 
 these arts and crafts implies ; which success is 
 practically synonymous in several important 
 respects at least with national well-being. 
 
 I have confined, in the present instance, my 
 own imperfect study of the questions involved, 
 to this latter phase of the subject, knowins; that 
 the other and larger part of it would be pre- 
 sented in an abler manner by one of the lec- 
 turers who will speak to you later in the course. 
 You will agree with me, when I say that it 
 could not have been left in better hands. I 
 question whether any American educator is 
 better qualified for this work or is capable of 
 presenting the subject in its broadest aspect, 
 and on the higher ground, with easier or more 
 certain mastery, or with more of the eloquence 
 born of earnestness and conviction, than he, 
 and so while I congratulate you on the ground 
 that the matter will be presented so ably, I con- 
 gratulate myself on my own good fortune 
 in having this opportunity to speak before 
 Mr. McAlister. 
 
 The aims of what I presume it is not unfair 
 to call the ' ' new education ' ' are nothing if not 
 practical, and it is confessedly the desire to 
 directly promote the producing and wage- earn- 
 ing capacity of the generation that is coming 
 upon the stage, that the philanthropic purpose 
 and energy just alluded to are exercised. My 
 claim is that one phase of the whole question is 
 still comparatively neglected, is at any rate still 
 far from receiving the attention and support it 
 
deserves, and that much of this well-meant 
 effort will be little better than wasted until this 
 omission is supplied. I mean that the key to 
 the situation is really Art Education, properly 
 understood and properly associated wath and 
 applied to the industrial endeavor which is 
 already so pronounced. 
 
 And so I ask you to consider with me the im- 
 portance of giving in the discussion of this 
 almost aggressively practical question, a promi- 
 nence to Art Education ; to the diffusion of Art 
 Ideas, and the encouragement and development 
 of the artistic sense, which has not been accorded 
 to it, in this connection hitherto. 
 
 Allow me to insist a little in this place on 
 what I mean by this connection. I am not now 
 complaining so much of any dearth of provis- 
 ion among us for Art Education of a character 
 suflficiently advanced, perhaps, to exert the 
 desired influence if properly applied, as of the 
 need of proper association in educational 
 methods, of the industrial and the artistic, of 
 the technical method with the artistic aim. 
 
 What our industries lack is not inventive 
 ingenuity or mechanical skill. It is not for 
 want of deftness of hand in the management of 
 his tools that the American workman is at a 
 disadvantage, while for ingenious devices, and 
 mechanical appliances of every sort, all the 
 world gave us credit long ago for carrying off 
 the honors of the age. Decidedly and unde- 
 niably it is not on that side that the educational 
 needs of the day are pressing. 
 
 But we lack the aesthetic sense ; and our indus- 
 trial products are without the charm which the 
 cultivation of this sense can alone supply. 
 
It is true that the claims which we hear made 
 on every side are of another kind. No words 
 are oftener on our lips, perhaps, than those 
 which proclaim our boasted progress and the 
 depth of our interest in art industry-, indeed, if 
 we trusted the phrases of the bragging adver- 
 tisements with which our eyes burn and our 
 ears ring unceasingly, there is no other industry 
 at all. One would think that the possibility 
 which Napoleon pointed out had been realized, 
 and that the trades had all become arts and 
 existed now only in. that sublimated condition. 
 
 The word art has become the commonest of 
 adjectives and is tacked on to all sorts of names, 
 and used in the midst of associations so incon- 
 gruous as to indicate that the very sense of 
 absurdity has somehow been lost among us. 
 
 But all this does not alter or improve the 
 matter which we really have in hand. The 
 ugh' fact remains that we are beaten on everj' 
 hand in our own markets, by European manu- 
 facturers in lines of production on which we 
 have come to depend for most of that which 
 makes for the graces of existence. 
 
 As these are the things for which ever^-body 
 pays most cheerfully the economical aspect of 
 the matter assumes a good deal of importance, 
 and deserves, perhaps, a moment's considera- 
 tion in this place, although I trust that undue 
 importance will not be attached to it by my 
 audience, nor anxiety regarding material gains 
 distract the gaze which should be directed to 
 higher things. 
 
 But whether we overestimate its importance 
 or not, it will be worth while to note at what a 
 disadvantage we are working as compared with 
 
our European neighbors, how feeble a showing- 
 we make when the reckoning is made of how 
 the nations spend their time and energy, what 
 things they cultivate, what interests they 
 cherish, what they stand for among the peoples 
 of the earth, and how their service is rated. 
 
 It is at once our good fortune and our reproach 
 that the wealth of which we are so proud, and 
 which it must be confessed all the world envies 
 us, is a wealth in its crude form w^hich comes to 
 ns as nearly like a gift of nature as it is possible 
 for this world's goods to come. 
 
 We are rich in pigs and cattle, in cotton and 
 corn ; but as fast as the taste for higher enjoy- 
 ments than those which the possession of things 
 like these can bring is developed in us, we feel 
 the disadvantages under which we labor. 
 
 Look with me a moment at the material dis- 
 advantages of our position. 
 
 American taste is sufiiciently advanced already 
 to demand in man^- lines of production the 
 finest wares that European culture can produce. 
 
 The Treasury reports show that we imported 
 from foreign countries during the fiscal 3'ear 
 ending July i, 188S, the latest date to Avhich the 
 reports are complete, bronzes and fine metal 
 work to the amount of $3,419,938 ; 
 
 Of textile fabrics, $140,870,213 ; 
 
 And of works of fine arts as the reports read, 
 although a considerable portion of them should 
 undoubtedly have been classed as industrial art 
 work, $2,210,518. 
 
 And we learn from the same source that we 
 paid for these things in 
 
 Wheat 65,789,261 bushels. 
 
 Flour 11,963,574 barrels. 
 
Corn 24,278 417 bushels. 
 
 Copper 25,303.337 pounds. 
 
 Copper ore . . . .798,200,000 " 
 
 Cotton 2,264,120,826 " 
 
 Pork 732,016,656 " 
 
 Our whole export of meat and animal pro- 
 ducts, including beef, mutton, butter and cheese 
 for the same period, amounted to $93,058,080 ; 
 and there were of course other commodities not 
 tabulated here as nearly as possible in a state of 
 nature, and some, though not much, of the 
 heavier and coarser kinds of manufactured 
 articles ; but still with the whole balance of 
 trade so much against us, that w^e had to pa}' 
 about forty millions of dollars in American gold 
 and silver to square the account. 
 
 What I want you to note is the disadvantage 
 under which we labor in paying for such things 
 as these which I have named in the products, 
 of which I have just read a list. 
 
 It has been estimated by competent authorities 
 that while a pound of raw cotton is worth about 
 ten cents, and a pound of plain cotton fabrics 
 about fifty cents, cotton fabrics of the highest 
 class — ^of the class, that is, on which the greatest 
 amount of taste and skill has been expended — 
 are sold for, and are worth in the markets of the 
 world about five hundred dollars ; that while a 
 pound of raw wool is worth fifty cents, it is 
 possible to produce fabrics from it that sell for 
 five hundred dollars a pound ; and that while 
 raw silk is worth five dollars, the highest class 
 of fabrics produced from it are worth not less 
 than five thousand dollars the pound. 
 
 These are startling figures I know, but I 
 believe they may be trusted. They have been 
 
recently prepared for me by my friend Mr. Lorin 
 Blodgett, of this cit}^ than whom I believe no 
 one among- us has given more thought to the 
 matter, or is more competent to speak with 
 authorit}- regarding it. 
 
 I am indebted to the same gentleman for most 
 of the statistics which I have presented, or have 
 to present, in connection with this subject, and 
 for the estimates and comparisons which accom- 
 pany them, and I am convinced that they are 
 only too true. 
 
 The whole subject is exceedingl}' complicated 
 and difficult, it is true, for an}' one not really 
 living in the midst of it to comprehend or give 
 trustworthy accounts of. 
 
 But the entire organization of the Treasury 
 Bureaus, and of their service of export and 
 import reports, as it was accomplished in 1863, 
 is due to the efforts of Mr. Blodgett, under 
 whose immediate direction the work was carried 
 on during all the years which inter\^ened between 
 1863 and 1879, during most of which time he 
 was Appraiser-General, and I doubt whether 
 any living man understands the matter in all 
 its bearings and in all its details so well as he. 
 
 Moreover, as the organizer of the Board of 
 Trade of Philadelphia in 1858, and for many 
 3'ears its Secretary and Manager, he had long 
 prior to his connection with the Treasury 
 Department exceptional facilities for prose- 
 cuting the inquiries involved, and for thirty 
 years at least, whether recognized and rewarded 
 or not (and I am sorry to say that he has barel}^ 
 been thanked for much of his most valuable 
 service), have been largely directed toward 
 awakening American manufacturers to a reali- 
 
zation of their position, and to directing their 
 attention and their energies to the necessities 
 of the case which they have to face. * 
 
 The idea which he has always enforced and 
 illustrated by such formidable arrays of facts 
 and figures is, that we produce and export vast 
 quantities of raw material at ver\- low prices^ 
 and import small quantities of the same material 
 enormously enhanced in value and cost by 
 manufacturing, and especially by artistic 
 industr}'. 
 
 That we export, for example, a million tons of 
 cotton fibre in a year, for which we receive 
 $220,000,000, but that for the insignificant 
 fraction of this same cotton which we buy 
 back again in manufactured articles we pay 
 $40,000,000, and that while we sell twenty-five 
 million pounds of copper and 40,000 tons of 
 copper ore in a year, it takes all this to pay for 
 the relatively inconsiderable amount of bronze 
 and other fine metal work which we buy abroad 
 during the same time. 
 
 Mr. Blodgett estimates that the million tons 
 of cotton which we exported to Europe last year 
 had its value enhanced fully twent}- times by 
 the treatment it received at the hands of Euro- 
 pean workmen ; not onl)^ this, he shows that 
 the American demand for the finer and higher 
 quality of wares is steadily and, from the 
 economist's point of view, alarmingly in- 
 creasing. 
 
 In the 3'ear ending July i, 1878, for instance, 
 our importations of ornamental or decorated 
 pottery amounted to only $637,485, out of a total 
 importation of pottery of about four millions (to 
 be exact they amounted to ($3,996,737) ; but the 
 
 13 
 
amount of artistic wares imported has increased 
 very regularl}^, and without a single break, 
 until it footed up for the last fiscal j'ear to 
 $4,247,001, or about two-thirds of our entire 
 pottery importation of $6,476, 199. These figures 
 show conclusively, I think, and a study of them 
 in detail and by separate 5'-ears only confirms 
 the conclusion, that all the tariff" laws that have 
 been enacted, or that can be enacted, have 
 proved, and will continue to prove, perfectly 
 powerless to prevent the influx of foreign wares 
 of the kind and character whose purchase 
 abroad means the greatest drain on native 
 resources, and which it is most desirable on 
 many other accounts to have produced at home ; 
 most desirable if for no other reason because 
 the merely material advantages of handling 
 wares which represent a maximum of value in 
 a minimum of bulk are certainly considerable. 
 Questions of transportation, of location, of fac- 
 tories, of ground and floor space, of motive 
 power, and that formidable list of expenses 
 known as fixed charges, sink into insignificance 
 by equal steps with those which mark the 
 diminution of the bulk of the objects which 
 represent a given value. So that just to the 
 extent that our manufactures are coarse and 
 clumsy do we approach in following them, the 
 disadvantage of the farmer who pays for his 
 French clock and the bronze which surmounts 
 it by at least six times as many days' work as 
 are represented by the clock and the bronze. 
 
 I wish my auditors to think of these things, 
 and to realize the extravagance and waste which 
 their continuance implies (and a very little 
 investigation will convince you that it is not 
 
 14 
 
only continuing, but is rapidl}^ increasing.) 
 But I do not want 3-ou to think of this as 
 the only phase of the subject which deserves 
 consideration. Possibl}^ we shall some da^' 
 awaken to a knowledge of the fact that the 
 moral aspect is of still more importance ; that 
 these products which represent the most of 
 human interest, and owe least to the material 
 from which they are fashioned, represent also a 
 dignity and delight in their work on the part of 
 those who fashion them, and a consequent 
 content and elevation of mind in the workman 
 to which he is sadly a stranger to-day. 
 
 jNIeantime these figures may serve not onl}'^ to 
 direct our attention to the extent of the drain 
 on our national resources which is constantly 
 going on, but to emphasize the fact to which I 
 alluded just now, that the demand for beautiful 
 things, or what stand for beautiful things at 
 different stages of our development, is quite as 
 real and as constant a part of our nature as the 
 need for food and shelter ; that it asserts itself 
 as vigorously, and is complied with as cheer- 
 fully, as the grossest of the primitive instincts, 
 possibly much more so. 
 
 For consider a moment how much, or, rather, 
 how little is fairly to be included in the expres- 
 sion " the necessaries of life !" How simple a 
 shelter, what primitive clothing, and how plain 
 a fare are necessary to satisfy all merely bodily 
 wants, and realize how much of what our 
 so-called " living " costs is given for something 
 else rather than use, in the strictest sense of 
 the term. 
 
 To such a point is this feeling characteristic 
 of the race, that such arts as building and dress 
 
 15 
 
probably owe their origin, if we could trace 
 them so far, rather to a love of display' than to 
 any regard for utility. The savage man wears 
 his clothing for ornament, and laj-s it carefully 
 away in bad weather ; and probably the first 
 house was built more for the dignity than for 
 the comfort and security which it conferred 
 upon its occupant. 
 
 I speak of the savage, of course, onU^ because 
 the primitive instincts of the race are best 
 studied in him ; but what is true in Zululand 
 to-day was just as true in Greece, and that, too, 
 in times very near those which have exerted 
 the most potent influence on all succeeding 
 civilization. 
 
 In the sculptures.on the early Greek temples 
 the heroes of Homeric story fight naked as they 
 were born, except for the stately helmets that 
 adorn their heads. They have not even sandals 
 to their feet, and no protection for their bodies 
 except the small shield upon one arm. But 
 resplendent in this and the well wrought metal 
 work upon their heads, whose fineness of work- 
 manship the art of succeeding ages has hardly 
 surpassed, they rush joyously into the fight. 
 
 And so in a somewhat different way it is to- 
 day. Men will go to the theatre and the concert 
 though they go hungry ; the French clock keeps 
 its place of honor on the mantel-piece long after 
 it has ceased to keep time, and in prudent 
 households all over the world still is the broken 
 china "wisely kept for show." 
 
 The sources of interest which are associated 
 with and due to artistic, rather than to utilitarian 
 effort, are perennial and everlasting. They are 
 the things which constitute enduring worth in 
 
 i6 
 
the objects with which, as civilization advances, 
 we surround ourselves, and on whose culti- 
 vation, therefore, industrial success must largely 
 depend. 
 
 Now, with all our boas'. ed progress, this is the 
 direction in which we have either not advanced 
 at all, or have advanced the least, during the 
 century or so of our history as a nation which 
 has passed already. 
 
 I cheerfully concede, without argument or 
 reservation, all that its most enthusiastic 
 advocates would probably claim regarding our 
 progress in mechanical invention. I know all 
 about the ingenuity and skill that have 
 been developed and expended in constructing 
 machines that " would do everything but talk," 
 and that have been finally brought to do that 
 too. I know how man}' steps are saved and 
 how many tasks lightened by these appliances, 
 and how comforts have been multiplied and 
 enjoyment diffused by their means ; and if I 
 thought that there was anything incompatible 
 between the requirements of good taste and the 
 artistic spirit on the one hand, and the distri- 
 bution of comforts and conveniences for which 
 the multiplication and perfection of mechanical 
 appliances stand on the other, I am afraid I 
 should have thrown up my case before beginning 
 my plea. 
 
 The inventions of which we are so proud, and 
 which have rendered such signal service in the 
 progress of the centiir}' which is drawing to a 
 close, form a conspicuous part of the service of 
 science in advancing the condition of humanity. 
 
 The attempt to obstruct her progress with 
 sentiments, however cherished, is to blockade 
 
 17 
 
the locomotive with flowers, and whatever 
 among our fondest dreams or fairest fancies are 
 fated to perish that she may advance, her right 
 of way is certainly secure, and as I once heard 
 an eloquent preacher express it, " in the Palace 
 Car of Science will yet be recognized the 
 Almighty's chariot of fire.'' 
 
 But no such blockading is implied. Art and 
 Science are sisters — not rivals bent on each 
 other's destruction. There may be a little 
 innocent racing between them now and then, 
 but nothing more serious than an occasional 
 harmless spurt on the road ; there is no danger 
 that anybody will be run over, and there can be 
 no collision, for both are going the same way. 
 And leaving our figure of speech to take care of 
 itself it will not do to forget that our industrial 
 progress in the artistic direction has been 
 by no means commensurate with that on the 
 mechanical side, while actual decline in certain 
 respects is by no means hard to trace. How 
 much of the more recent building in this city,_ 
 for example, will bear comparison on artistic 
 grounds with the best of that which was done a 
 century ago ? How much of modern German- 
 town, where the compirison may perhaps be 
 more readily made than in any other American 
 town, is not fairly shamed by the quiet elegance 
 of the old houses which still give dignity and 
 grace to its streets and lanes. Heaven preserve 
 them! but I tremble for them every time I go to 
 Germantown. 
 
 And how about the furnishings inside ? Are 
 the new chairs and tables, or vases and pitchers, 
 and pots and pans, any better able to bear the 
 comparison with the old ones ? Compare the 
 
piano that is in any of your parlors to-night 
 with the spinet or harpsichord on which your 
 great- grandmother played. Its tone is better, 
 I admit ; but its tone does not depend upon its 
 ugliness, and you yourself admit that it is the 
 clumsiest and awkwardest object in your house, 
 instead of being the most beautiful, as it ought 
 to be, and would be if its outward aspect was 
 at all worthy and expressive of its mission and 
 the character of its service. Your grand- 
 mother's instrument was gracefully shaped 
 and delicatel}' wrought. It was made of beau- 
 tiful woods of various colors, its legs and feet 
 were daintily carved, and the large plane sur- 
 faces were inlaid in quaint and pretty patterns ; 
 but 5-ours is unrelieved by any touch of color, 
 its lines and the turn of its machine-made 
 mouldings have no more refinement in them 
 than those of the brewer's wagon that just 
 trundled past on the cobbles, and in place of 
 dainty carving and quaint inlay there is only 
 stupid polish, which stands for no nobler effort 
 and the exercise of no higher powers on the 
 part of the workmen who executed it than 
 scrubbing, such as the door-step gets ever}' 
 morning. 
 
 No, I am afraid that in most of these cases it 
 is with industry as with wine, and the Master's 
 words, which I hope I may quote without irre- 
 verence, are as applicable regarding them : " No 
 man having drunk the old straightway desireth 
 the new ; for, he s^th, the old is better." 
 
 And this is so true that it is undeniable, I 
 think, that the most satisfactory, if not the onl}' 
 real progress which we are making to-day in 
 connection with art industry, is coupled with 
 
 19 
 
and based upon a modest and respectful study of 
 what is excellent in the old work. 
 
 The ground on which industrial education is 
 usually advocated (quite apart, of course, from 
 the question of its value as a part of general 
 education, with which it is no part of my present 
 purpose to deal), is something like this. The 
 apprentice system has died, or is dying out. 
 Our industries suffer from the want of the skill 
 and experience in all branches of the different 
 trades which the apprenticeship S3-stem sup- 
 plied ; for which state of things the division of 
 labor, due partly to the perfection of machinery 
 and partly to better economical organization, 
 and the spread of trade unionisin, are about 
 equally to blame. The remedy being the pro- 
 vision of organized instruction in the elements 
 of all the trades, in the hope that this will fill 
 the place left vacant by the apprenticeship 
 system that is gone, and shall be by its philan- 
 thropic and educational character secure from 
 the assaults of the wicked trade unions. 
 
 Now, without going very deeply into the 
 discussion which these statements invite, I ask 
 my audience to note that they fail to touch the 
 real root of the matter. In the first place the 
 apprenticeship system (so far as it is really 
 gone) did not pass away a moment before its 
 time. We need waste no sympathy over it, or 
 fling away any regrets after it. Master and man 
 alike are better off without it ; and in the second 
 place we have done, and have so far shown 
 a disposition to do, next to nothing to fill its 
 place. 
 
 This is not quite the right way to put it, 
 because it is not so much its place that we 
 
have to fill as the work to do which it failed to 
 accomplish, or which at any rate it could not 
 have accomplished under the changed conditions 
 which have come over the industries them- 
 selves, or as the increasing demands which 
 advancing standards imply are made, upon the 
 workman. 
 
 The need of the hour in America, if our 
 industries are to prosper, is organized and 
 thorough instruction— not in the elements of 
 all trades, but in the trades themselves, carried 
 as far as it is possible to carry it, and in art as 
 applied to the trades. 
 
 I am sorry to say that in most of the discussion 
 which the subject has hitherto received, neither 
 of these seem to have been accorded anything 
 like the prominence which they deserve. In 
 a vague and general kind of way, it is true, 
 the feeling has often been expressed that our 
 industries were deficient in design, and more or 
 less earnest efforts have been made to supply 
 this deficiency by the establishment of schools 
 of design, in which verj^ good work has often 
 been done no doubt ; but it has been for the most 
 part either of so general, not to say elementary, 
 a character, and with its efforts so diffused over 
 the whole field of art study, that its industrial 
 purpose is hardly apparent ; or it has been so 
 purely technical, so much o'-cupied with teach- 
 ing the mere methods of the designer, as to 
 deserve no recognition as art instruction at all. 
 
 On the other hand, such efforts as have been 
 made to furnish instruction in craftsmanship 
 pure and simple, have, curiously enough, been 
 dominated by a determination which has been 
 reiterated so often, and in so many quarters, 
 
that there can be no doubt of thedeep-seatedness 
 of the error for which it undoubtedly stands, 
 that the trades themselves shall not be taught, 
 only smatterings and beginnings, onh* rudi- 
 ments and fundamentals ; only the use of simple 
 and primitive tools, and the application of the 
 most general principles and processes. 
 
 Now, I do not wish to be misunderstood, and 
 so I hasten to say in this place that it is just 
 here that the distinction to which I alluded at 
 the beginning of this paper is to be insisted on. 
 What is known as the Manual Training idea I 
 thoroughly approve of as a part of general 
 education, and I regard the school that bears 
 that name and forms part of the public school 
 system in Philadelphia as one of the most, if 
 not the most, valuable and important improve- 
 ment that has been made in our school system 
 in recent years. But I am pleading for industrial 
 education, not for the enrichment and extension 
 of general education in the industrial direction, 
 and until those who desire to promote industrial 
 education, and are willing to make, as several 
 benefactors of their kind have already done, 
 generous endowments for this purpose, — until 
 they realize the necessity of doing .something 
 more than is implied by the multiplication of 
 Manual Training Schools whose work belongs, 
 and will be better done if left in the hands of 
 the public school authorities, there will still be 
 a chance to do some missionary work among 
 them. If there are not enough of these public 
 schools already (and there are not, numbers of 
 earnest and well qualified pupils having to be 
 refused admission to our Manual Training 
 School each 3'ear), then let us use our efforts to 
 
hold up the hands ot the Superintendents and 
 other authorities who are pleading for more 
 support and more means for carrying on this, 
 their legitimate and proper work, instead of 
 starting rival schools to weaken the influence 
 and diminish the usefuhiess of the public school, 
 which, as I have just said, is already doing, and 
 doing better than the special establishment can 
 hope to do, this general and fundamental work. 
 
 The special effort should have the special aim. 
 The need of the hour is for trade schools that 
 shall carry their pupils far in the trades them- 
 selves, that shall instruct them in doing as well 
 as it can be done, the work which the trades 
 represent. The industries do not need begin- 
 ners who are willing to learn, and have been 
 started in the way of learning, but masters of 
 their craft, trained as only modern scientific 
 methods can train them in a knowledge of 
 approved methods and the reasons for their 
 approval, — men trained to a high degree of skill 
 under the eye and the example of those who 
 have gone farthest in these crafts already, and 
 saturated with the influence of the best pro- 
 ductions of the ages which are gone. 
 
 It is all nonsense to say, as I have heard it 
 said lately, that trade schools are not practicable, 
 and have not succeeded where they have been 
 fairly tried. Europe depends on them to-day 
 for leadership in her skilled industries as we 
 depend upon the sun for light and upon the 
 earth for food. 
 
 Go with me into almost any district with 
 which a special industry is identified, and I will 
 take you to the trade school in which that 
 industry is thoroughly and practicalh' taught. 
 
 23 
 
Look at the schools for wood-car\ang in the 
 Tyrol, for watch-making in Switzerland, for 
 furniture, and cabinet work, and jewelr^^ and 
 mosaic, and pottery, in Paris ; for the silk 
 industry at Lyons, for other classes of textile 
 manufacture in Germany, and so on through a 
 list which I need not extend. 
 
 Such schools are not elementary institutions 
 for familiarizing the pupils with the tools used 
 in these industries ; they are true conservatories 
 of the crafts which they represent, and bear to 
 them the same relation that our schools of law 
 and medicine and engineering do to these 
 professions. It is for similar schools that the 
 industries are starving in America to-day. 
 
 I should be very glad to be corrected if my 
 statement is not true ; but I am not aware that 
 a single school with a similar aim to that of 
 these European ones, carried on with anything 
 like a similar thoroughness, exists among us, 
 with the exception of the Textile School, which 
 forms one of the departments of the Pennsyl- 
 vania Museum and School of Industrial Art in 
 this city. The department was established, and 
 has been conducted by the members of the 
 Philadelphia Textile Association without the 
 use of a penny of public money until this 
 department shared with the rest of the Insti- 
 tution the annual appropriation which has been 
 made by the State since 18S7. 
 
 That other departments are not established in 
 the same institution in which other industries 
 are taught as thoroughly and carried as far as 
 this one, is due simply and solely to lack of 
 means. We need a school of pottery, a school 
 of furniture and cabinet work, one of gold- 
 
 24 
 
smith's work, and one of stained glass and 
 mosaic quite as much as we needed this one of 
 textiles, if these industries are to flourish in 
 this countr\^ Meanwhile the school does what 
 it can in giving to all its art work as distinct 
 and practical an industrial character as possible, 
 and does, let us hope, a not unnecessary or 
 uncalled for work in this way. 
 
 No, with all our philanthropy and earnestness 
 of purpose, the needs of the hour lack appre- 
 ciation and recognition still ; the movement on 
 whose success better things depend lacks leader- 
 ship, and the leaders it has lack support. 
 Industrial art education means not schools of 
 design merely, but schools of artistic industry 
 carried far enough to set high standards of what 
 such work should be. Schools of design alone 
 cannot meet the requirements of the time ; no 
 matter what is designed, it is on what is accom- 
 plished that advancement depends. It is not 
 alone artistic design but artistic work that is 
 needed, and improvement in this last must come 
 from within ; you cannot produce much effect 
 on it from without. Every architect or other 
 designer who hears these words knows well 
 enough that in the things with which he has to 
 deal design keeps fairly well ahead of our 
 appliances and ability to execute work designed- 
 It is on the executive side that we need 
 reinforcing, quite as much, at least, as on that 
 of design, and improvement in one direction 
 demands rather than causes improvement in the 
 other. 
 
 How are these needed extensions of our edu- 
 cational system to be made ? How far is private 
 generosity and the public spirit of individuals 
 
 25 
 
to be relied on, or expected to accomplish this 
 necessary work ? And how far are the questions 
 which I have presented in this imperfect way, 
 matters of grave public concern which deserve 
 an amount of serious consideration at the hands 
 of those who have the direction of public affairs 
 which has never been accorded them hitherto ? 
 
 Does it never occur to the assembled wisdom 
 of the Commonwealth, I wonder — either of this 
 Commonwealth or the neighboring ones, or even 
 of the assembled Commonwealths at Washing- 
 ton — that a little less reliance on tariff discussion 
 as the only thing worth talking about in con- 
 nection with American industry, and a little 
 more serious attention given to the claims of 
 industrial education as a factor in the problems 
 presented, might be worth while ? 
 
 In other words, will not the wise men on 
 whom we depend for guidance, and to whose 
 hands we trust the reins of government, learn 
 before we waste much more time and monej- on 
 half measures in our efforts to secure industrial 
 independence, the importance of taking hold of 
 the other part of the problem, and, b^' making 
 a sufficient provision for technical and industrial 
 art education, train the next generation so well 
 that we shall hear no more of this talk about 
 our dependence upon Europe for the higher 
 kind of taste and skill ? We have a good 
 deal to learn, and the sooner and more earnestly 
 we go about learning it the better for us. 
 
 The State is fairly committed already to the 
 principle of educating its children, and of doing 
 what it can to promote its own industrial welfare. 
 If it can regard its duty to the child as dis- 
 charged when he is through the primar}' school, 
 
 26 
 
it must still feel that its own welfare demands 
 that his education should be carried much 
 farther. And this is the thing- which it is to be 
 hoped we are not too proud to learn from our 
 neighbors across the ocean. In Germany the 
 school is hardl}' less conspicuous as a part of 
 the machinery of government than the army, 
 and this is sajdng a good deal, — not the primary 
 or at most the grammar school alone, as with 
 us, but the technical, the scientific, the trade and 
 the art school as well. Flourishing drawing- 
 schools, practically free, are found scattered not 
 only through all the cities, but over the whole 
 country, hardly a village being without one. 
 And what is true of Germany is true of Austria, 
 of Switzerland, of Belgium, to a certain extent 
 of England, and, most conspicuous of all, of 
 France, which undoubtedly is well ahead of all 
 the rest of Europe in its generous provision for 
 popular higher, special and technical education. 
 Indeed while other countries, Bavaria, for 
 example, may have done as much relativel}- as 
 France for art and industrial education, as far 
 as the establishment of museums and special 
 schools of a high character is concerned, France 
 may almost be said to be the only one which 
 has earnestly set herself to the work of extend- 
 ing the advantages of this instruction to the 
 mass of the people . Her example in this respect 
 is magnificent, and quite sufficient in itself to 
 give the lie to those who still fail to see that she 
 knows what she is about, and is abundantly 
 able to take care of herself. What France has 
 been to Europe for more than a century as the 
 standard-bearer of liberty — ever since, indeed, 
 the despairing cry of parted Poland arose, 
 
 27 
 
" Heaven is too high, and France is too far " — 
 she certainl}^ is to-da}^ in this matter of 
 education. 
 
 It is, I believe, quite the fashion among 
 Americans who ought to know better, to lament 
 the Empire, and to draw most forcible contrasts 
 between the ' ' strong ' ' government which took 
 such good care of people then, and the some- 
 what unsettled state of things which has some- 
 times prevailed since. This kind of talk is all 
 humbug, every word of it. Paris is not quite so 
 brilliant as it was then, perhaps, but those who 
 know as well as the Empress Eugene did what 
 sort of a substructure this "brilliance" had, 
 will say as she is reported to have said a few 
 3^ears ago, as she stood on the steps of what is 
 left of the Tuileries and looked over the place 
 where the rest of the palace used to stand, 
 ' ' I like it better as it is." Although Paris may 
 spend less now on her outward appearance than 
 was spent for her then, it is not without a certain 
 significance that she spent five times as much 
 (about 30,000,000 francs) in the maintenance of 
 free schools in 188S as she did in the last year of 
 the Empire. The system of education in vogue 
 is everywhere eminently practical and outspoken 
 in its aim, which is to fill French industry with 
 a set of workmen well trained for their work. 
 School systems, as such, may be as complete 
 in other countries, but nowhere are industrial 
 educatioii and art education made to such an 
 extent an organic part of the system as in 
 France. This is not, perhaps, the place to 
 discuss the methods employed in the actual 
 conduct of the schools, but.it may not be out of 
 place to say that manual training and object 
 
 28 
 
lessons having particular reference to the pro- 
 ducts and the industries of the country are given 
 a very prominent place in all public schools — 
 kindergarten, primary, grammar, and high — 
 quite a nice little collection of objects called 
 a " school museum " being furnished for this 
 purpose. Apprentice schools for special trades 
 are operated successfully in the larger towns. 
 The thorough study of drawing in all schools, 
 beginning with those for the smallest children, 
 is compulsory. Great importance is attached to 
 it, and great care is taken to provide the best 
 instruction and to have the schools furnished 
 with the best aids and appliances— models and 
 casts — for teaching, for the old drawing from 
 copies is prett3' thoroughly done away with 
 now. In the higher classes, anatomj^ and per- 
 spective must also be scientifically taught. 
 This means that a considerable body of trained 
 specialists must be provided, not only to teach 
 the lower branches, but also to instruct the 
 teachers and supervise the work of the lower 
 schools. ^ This normal work to which so great 
 importance is attached over there, is something 
 which, for very obvious reasons, there is no hope 
 of having attended to here until these things 
 are taken hold of by the State. 
 
 And this brings us back to the question of 
 how much of all this work ought to be done by 
 the State, and must be if it is to be done at all. 
 If European example and experience are worth 
 anything, the State must do a good share of the 
 whole, from the most elementary and general to 
 the most advanced and special. There is prac- 
 tically' no difference in the way this technical 
 education is provided for among the various 
 
 29 
 
countries of Europe. The municipality usuallj'' 
 furnishes the building ; running or incidental 
 expenses are often paid by local organizations 
 or public-spirited citizens ; but the instruction 
 given is at the expense, as it is under the 
 control, of the central government. The general 
 expense of public instruction in France is at 
 present rather more than three hundred million 
 (300,000,000) francs, of which sum the Minister 
 of Public Instruction and Fine Arts dispenses 
 130,000,000 francs, the rest being contributed by 
 municipal and township funds. These amounts 
 do not include the money contributed by the 
 Minister of Commerce and of War for special 
 training schools under their supervision. 
 
 It is hard to .see how similar work is to be 
 done in America in a very different way from 
 that which has been found necessary- in Europe. 
 The philanthropy and foresight of individuals 
 is naturally somewhat in advance of that of the 
 government, and they can always be relied upon 
 to make beginnings and to point the wa3^ The 
 historjr of this same technical and art education 
 shows that it has been just the same in France 
 and Germanj^ and Belgium as it is to-day in 
 America, viz., individuals and societies have 
 ■ headed the movement, have gotten schools and 
 museums started, and have conducted the enter- 
 prises long enough to demonstrate their useful- 
 ness and importance ; and then the city or the 
 State, or both together, have either adopted 
 them as their own, or granted them such 
 substantial support as v/ould enable them to 
 carry forward and enlarge their work on a scale 
 and to an extent which was impossible before. 
 In discussing these matters I meet with but one 
 
 30 
 
opinion among all classes and conditions of men 
 regarding the necessity of greatly extending 
 our educational work in the direction indicated 
 in this paper. Everybody admits that if our 
 sons and daughters are to know how to do 
 things well, they must be systematically taught 
 in well organized schools. Regarding the duty 
 of the State to see them so taught tjiere is 
 (unfortunately, as I think) not the. same 
 unanimity of opinion. It is certainly time, 
 however, that the matter was freely and fully 
 discussed. For my own part I cannot doubt 
 that if it were to be so discussed but one answer 
 would be returned, for but one is possible. 
 
 I have come before j^ou this evening, as you 
 know, as the representative of the Pennsylvania 
 Museum and School of Industrial Art. What- 
 ever I myself have been able to accomplish since 
 I came to Philadelphia is identified with the 
 work of this institution, and it would hardly be 
 becoming for me to dwell at length on this work, 
 of whose worth or extent others must be the 
 judges, and so I have preferred to speak rather 
 of the idea for which the institution stands, 
 than of what it has accomplished. 
 
 I may be allowed to say, however, that we 
 think this institution does stand in this com- 
 munity for these ideas in a sense that no other 
 organization aims to do. 
 
 Founded in the flush of enthusiasm that 
 attended the Centennial Exhibition, it per- 
 petuates the impression and enforces the lessons 
 of that event, and has, we hope, performed its 
 share of the work of this kind that has been 
 done so far. We believe that it has earned the 
 confidence, and deserves the support, which will 
 
enable it to extend its influence, and to accom- 
 plish, in the lines which are broadening every 
 hour, the work on whose advancement progress 
 depends. 
 
 32 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 019 744 221 9