/s f JS^ ztna^^^^cgTgciggQs^c^ccgsggQCQ;:^ ^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, § Chap. .1. J.I.L.--- I UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. \ II PROCEEDINGS OPENING Williamson Free School MlEchanical TPrades. October 31st, 1891. c-o ii^'^' The original Trustees appointed by the Foundation Deed of I. V. Williamson, dated December ist, 1888, were: — John Baird, Edward Longstreth, James C. Brooks, Wii,i.iam C. L,udwig, IvEmuei* Coefin, Henry C. Townsend, John Wanamaker. The present Board of Trustees consists of the following : — HENRY C. TOWNSEND, Chairman, JAMES C. BROOKS, Treasurer, JOHN H. CATHERWOOD, IvEMUEIv COFFIN, SAMUEL B. HUEY, EDWARD LONGSTRETH, JOHN WANAMAKER. SECRETARY, AI^FRED HEI.MBOI.D, JR. CITY office: Room No. 39, Forrest BuHvDing, 119 South Fourth Street, PHII^, wisdom and fidelit}^ to duty, saved his countr}- from ruin, and of whom President Harri- son when recently standing in the room in which he died, at Mt. McGregor, said, in his apt and sententious phrase, ' ' The life of a man so great as was General Grant does not o-ooiit, it goes 0)1,'' and his able Lieutenants, Sherman and 52 Sheridan, and Meade and Thomas, and Hancock and a host of others distinguished for bravery, skill and patriotism. In law and literature, such names as Marshall, Story, Kent and Sharswood, Carey, Bancroft, Cooper, Longfellow, Haw- thorne, Bayard Taylor, Whittier and Lowell ; and in science, mechanics, invention and useful industries, such names as Fulton and Fitch, Oliver Evans and Eli Whitney, Professors Henry, Morse, Barker and Leid}^ and Erickson, Edison, Baldwin, Howe and Hoe. And in the accumula- tion of large fortunes honestl}^ acquired by lives of patient industry and devoted to purposes of education, the relief of suffering humanitj^ in all its various forms and many chan- nels of practical benevolence, such honored names as Stephen Girard, I. V. Williamson, George Peabody, Johns Hopkins, Asa Packer and Peter Cooper, who have passed on to their reward, and such living examples of the same virtues as our own Anthony J. Drexel and George W. Childs, and Enoch Pratt and Jacob Tome, of our neighboring sister state of Marjdand. ^ You are born to a goodly heritage. You have come into this world when it has reached an age of wonderful activi- ties and marvellous material development in all directions ; not merely to play a part in its performances or to enjoy its pleasures, but to discharge its duties and realize its respon- sibilities. You are citizens of a free republic with a territory of vast extent washed on either side by the two great oceans of the world, embracing every variety of soil and climate, a land 53 whose surface is large enough in area and rich enough in soil to raise crops sufficient to feed the whole human race, and underlaid with a mineral wealth be^^ond the power of figures to compute — a republic in which every man is a sovereign, the equal in the eye of the law of every other man and having an equal voice in the making of the laws to which all are subject — a country in which there is not only no interference by law with a proper and healthy competition among workmen for superiority or supremacy, but whose laws are so administered as to encourage every workman to excel his associates by greater industry or better knowledge. The only impediment to such deserved distinction as attends superior merit, is to be found in such practices as destroy the incentive of the individual to reach the highest standard by the cultivation of industry, sobriety and in- tegrity, in fixing the compensation for all workmen, the efficient and inefficient alike at the same rigid figure. The census of 1890 recently published shows that your country has a population exceeding 62,000,000 and an assessed valuation of $24,000,000,000 (Twent5^-four thous- and million of dollars) of property and according to the usual recognized and admitted difference between assess- ments for taxation and actual values, these figures indicate an aggregate national wealth of $62,000,000,000 (Sixty-two thousand millions) an average of $1 ,000 to each man, woman and child. These official statistics prove the United States to be by $12,000,000,000 the richest country in the world 54 exceeding Great Britain, which had previously been the first, by $12,000,000,000 and France by $16,000,000,000. The actual increase in wealth during the last decade from 1880 to 1890 being $18,000,000,000, a sum larger than the whole aggregate wealth of the country in i860 which then repre- sented the accumulations of seventy j^ears. The per capita share twice what it was in i860, one-third larger than in 1870 and one-fifth larger than in 1880. A country which within the last twenty-five years has reduced its national debt from $2,758,000,000 to $977,000,000, and in ten years from 1880 to 1890 has added $2,000,000,000 to its capital invested in manufactures alone, an increase of nearly 75 per cent., and in the same time increasing the annual value of its manufactured products from $5,300,000,000 to $8,600,000,000 or in other words producing manufactured goods at the rate of $3,300,000,000 a year above the pro- ducts of ten years ago. The increase in capital invested in manufacturing within the last ten years is greater than the entire amount of capital invested in that industr^^ only twenty 3^ears ago. And in the same period of ten years this countr}^ has built 73,500 miles of rail road, almost as much as the total mileage of 1880, at a cost for construction and equipment of $4,030,000,000. In regard to gold and silver coin and bullion and paper money secured by and redeemed in coin, regarded as one of the most positive and reliable tests of the actual wealth of a nation and indicative of the legitimate demands of business, it maj^ be stated from official sources that the aggregate on 55 July ist, 1880, was $1,205,929.17, being $19.41 per capita of population, and on July ist, 1891, these figures had been increased to $2,100,130,092, being $23.45 per capita. As compared with foreign leading commercial nations the following statement is made as to gold and silver coin and bullion carried by the representative financial institutions on October ist, 1891 : The Bank of England held $125,000,000; the Bank of Germany, $225,000,000; the Bank of France, $515,000,000 and the United States Treasurj^ and National Banks together held $845,000,000,000. The number of patents issued for useful inventions up to 1880 was 223,211, and from 1880 to 1890 there were issued 195,454, and the aggregate up to October ist, 1891, is 460,545. A country whose crop for the present year alone (1891) of what is known as cereal productions, used as food such as wheat, corn, rye and barley (apart from other productions of immense value such as cotton, hay, fruits, oil, metals and domestic animals) has amounted to 1,000,000,000 of bushels having an actual market value at present prices of $1,732,000,000 about $500,000,000 more than that of last year. And in this same year 1891 nearly $75,000,000 in gold has been furnished b}^ the United States to Europe upon a sudden call to that effect to relieve its bankers and capitalists from financial embarrassments, and another $100,000,000 it is estimated have been sent abroad to meet the expenditures made by American tourists and pleasure seekers, and all this 56 immense exportation of the gold of the country without producing any serious disturbance of its financial condition. No other nation shows such a growth in population or material wealth and progress ; and in this connection it may be remarked, if incidentally, with perfect propriety and entire truthfulness, that during these years of unexampled pros- perity and increase, the policy of the general government has been steadily in the direction of protection to American labor and fostering of American industries under what is known as the protective tariff system of imposing duties on foreign imports. The responsive assent from this large and intelligent audience to the truism expressed in the above paragraph, induces me to add that the Board of Trustees of this School as now constituted propose to teach as part of its course of instruction, three great principles, viz : patriotism, pro- tection and piety, but not in a partisan or political spirit, — a patriotism which shall be national not sectional , a protection which shall be' general and reciprocal, not special or limited, and a piety which shall be pure and practical and free from sectarian bias, as these were the principles which I. V. Williamson believed in and practised. You are a part of this great nation — 3"OU are to assist in keeping up and increasing its prosperity, and maintaining its character in the family of nations. Your success or failure in life is to a large extent in your own hands. It was the design and purpose of I. V. Wil- liamson, and it is the intention of the trustees charged with the duty of administering the trust committed to them, to 57 furnish you with all the means, facilities and inducements to make your lives successful. The Trustees of this school, with its President, Superintendent, corps of teachers and all other emplo3^ees will endeavor to do their full dut}^ to you in their respective positions as managers, instructors and care- takers, and they ask in return that you will do the same in your position as scholars — that 5^ou will be respectful to them and obedient to rules, that you will be diligent in the school-room, and industrious in the work-shop, judicious in 5^our amusements and recreation (for which ample time will be allowed you), correct in your habits, courteous in man- ner and unselfish in conduct to each other, pure in thought, chaste in speech, and above all, honorable and upright in sentiment and feeling, and truthful both in act and language. They also ask that when 3^ou have finished your course of three years, more or less, in this school, and leave its walls with a certificate of proficiency in your various trades, that you will carry into your daily lives, and manifest by your actions the results of your tuition and training here. That you will feel an honorable pride in your respective callings, that you will make your employer's interests 5"Our own — work for him and with him as if for yourselves — that you will show readiness to do not only your allotted tasks, but a willingness to go beyond them, and thus insure 3'our success by making yourselves so indispensable to him as to compel him to realize that he cannot do without j'ou, and thus com- mand your own terms as to wages. You are all now at the most impressionable period of 3"Our lives, just at that age when character is forming, and it is 58 reasonably certain that the lessons here learned, the habits here formed, the principles of thought and action here ac- quired, will mould and determine your future careers. ' ' In morals as well as in mathematics the straight line is the shortest distance between two points." Try to walk this straight, short line ; strive to be direct and honest in all things. Love Truth with a deep and absorbing passion. Make the obser^^ance of it the rule of your lives, avoiding even the slightest approach to falsehood and deception. This is the corner-stone and foundation upon which alone can be erected that structure in the moral being, known as character, which rests upon and grows out of correct princi- ples and pure thoughts, producing good acts and making a useful, noble life, which is in itself a living truth. " This above all : to thine own self be true, And it must follow as the night the day, Thou cans't not then be false to any man." In a recentl)^ published article from the pen of the accom- plished John Russell Young, giving some reminiscences of that distinguished statesman and patriot, Hamilton Fish, who still lives full of j^ears and honors, chief among which is that of having been for eight years the trusted personal friend and confidential official adviser of General Grant while President, he was asked by Mr. Young what he considered the dominant quality of Grant's nature, and he replied at once and with emphasis, "absolute truthfulness, complete, inflexible veracity." So that great as was General Grant in his courage, in his military genius, in his sagacity, his 59 magnanimity, his knowledge of men and affairs, the greatest of all his great qualities was his love for and devotion to pure and absolute truthfulness. All that has been said to you on this subject has been well condensed in some sound and sensible advice given to the scholars in Girard College b}^ one of its directors, himself a living example of what can be accomplished by a life of purity, truthfulness and uprightness, unselfishly devoted to good work. This good man and useful citizen, trusted and honored b}' the communit}^ in which he lives and labors as few men have been, who, although born of a distinguished family, was poor in this world's goods, beginning his business career in the lowest position in a store, has by the cultivation and practice of the principles to which reference has been made, risen to the distinction of being one of the most eminent bankers and financial authorities in the land. In one of the excellent addresses made b}^ him to the pupils of the College he says : ' ' I sa}^ then to j^ou boys , do your best ; be honest and diligent, be resolute to live a pure and honorable life, speak the truth like bo3^s who hope to be gentlemen, be merry if 3^ou will, for it is good to be merry and wise, be loving and dutiful sons, be affectionate brothers, be loyal hearted friends and when 5''OU come to be men you will look back to these bojdsh days without regret and without shame. " Something like this is my ideal of a boy. I am very desirous that your future shall be bright and useful and successful, and I, and others who are interested in your welfare, will hope to hear nothing but good of you ; but we can have no greater j 03^ than to hear that you are walking in the truth. Some of 3'ou may become rich men, some may become ver}- prominent in public affairs ; and reach high places ; 3^ou ma}' fill a large space in the public estimation ; 6o you may be able and brilliant men, but there is nothing in your life that will give us so much joy as to hear that you are walking in the truth. ' ' " Truth is the foundation of all the virtues, and without it reputation is absolutely worthless. No gentleness of dis- position, no willingness to help other people, no habits of industry can make up for want of truthfulness of heart and life. Some persons think that if they work long and hard, and deny themselves for the good of others, and do many generous and noble acts, and have a good reputation, they can even tell lies sometimes and not be much blamed. But they forget that reputation is not character ; that one may have a very good reputation and a very bad character, they forget that the reputation is the outside, what we see of each other, while the character is what we are in heart." There can be no more fitting conclusion to this address than the expression of the wish that you will all take to heart and profit by these words of sound wisdom and fatherly affection. Mr. HuEy said : The Trustees of the Williamson School are profoundly grateful to the other educational institutions of this country for their kindly sj'^mpathy and assistance while we have been deliberating and building. They early gave Us to under- stand that an}^ information in their power to give was at our service, and that they would esteem it a favor if we would call upon them freely for the results of their experi- ence. One of the most prominent of these, the University of Pennsylvania, further testifies its interest in us by sending one of its most eminent professors, who promptly responded to our invitation that he should address us this afternoon. It is with much pleasure that I introduce to you Professor George F. Barker, of the University of Pennsylvania. 6i Address by Professor George F. Barker, of the University of Pennsylvania. I do not quite understand wh}^, save by the kind partiality of ni}'^ friend Mr. Townsend, I should have been asked to say a word upon this interesting occasion, unless, perhaps, for the reason that a portion of my early life was spent in the workshop, and that in consequence of this apprenticeship, I have a warm sympathy with my young friends before me who have just entered the Williamson Free School of Me- chanical Trades to fit themselves for the work of life. I should not be true to my own feelings therefore, if I did not respond to this invitation and say this word to-daj''. If I did not avail myself of this opportunity^ to express, in the first place, my gratification at what I see here, and to rejoice, not only in the benevolence of Mr. Williamson, but also at the highly satisfactory^ way in which the Trustees have car- ried his intention into effect, and, aided by President Shrigley and Superintendent Crawford, have provided these excel- lently arranged and well equipped buildings. If I did not also express the cordial good wishes of the great University with which I am connected, for the success of this move- ment for the education of the hand as well as the head. If, finally, I did not say what I could to assist and encourage you who are taking to-da}^ the most important step of your lives. With you, I have listened with great pleasure to the ad- mirable address of Mr. Townsend. So complete is it that I 62 feel, that in speaking to you, I can hardly do more than echo his words of advice and counsel. At such a time as this the thought involuntarily arises ; what are the results that should be obtained in such an Institution as this, endowed so liberally and furnished so abundantly with all the appli- ances needed to carry on its work ? Education, it should ever be remembered, is the development of the student's powers by his own exertions. The most competent instructors, the best machines and tools, no matter how liberally provided, can aid the work only by furnishing opportunities. To at- tain the coveted championship, the athlete must himself enter upon a course of training, and must develop«^ his mus- cle solely by his own exercise of them. The same is true of education. Physiologists tell us that in the brain there are cells of gra}^ matter in which all mental and nervous power originates. Some of these cells are devoted to the control of muscular action ; others to the production of thought. The education of these cells is a process which consists sim- ply of a repetition upon them of impressions from without. By these repeated impressions, the cell is modified in its struc- ture and residua are left within it, in virtue of which it responds more and more promptly with each repetition, and reproduces more exactly the originating impressions. How slow and irregular for example are the motions of a child when it is learning to walk ; how uncertain at first are the movements of the hands, when a beginner is learning to play the piano. But as, by repetition the cells concerned in these actions become educated, the required operations are 63 performed, not only certainlj^ and rapidl}^ but often auto- matically and without conscious effort. Perhaps it will be useful for us to-day to consider a little more, at length, the difference between thought-cells and motor-cells. Thought-cells are concerned in pureh'' mental operations ; they enable us to think and to reason. Motor- cells furnish the impulses by which muscular actions are originated, and motions of the bod}^ or its parts are per- formed. Hitherto in the past, education has consisted mainly in producing impressions upon the thought-cells and in organizing residua in them. This operation constitutes the intellectual education of the college and the university. In these latter days, however, the motor-cells are claiming a share in the educational movement. Hence, industrial schools have arisen, the object of which is to train these motor-cells that the responses, both muscular and sensorial, which they make to the calls upon them, shall be prompt and effective. But this is only a portion of the truth. Precisely as in intellectual education it is found desirable to some extent also to train the sense to perceive and the hands to execute, so on the other hand industrial education, intelligence in the use of mechanical appliances, requires a collateral education of the intellect. It is in the intelligence of the American Mechanic that this superiorit}^ lies. Hence, as I understand the matter it is the object of this Williamson School to teach the students who come within its walls, the intelligent use of tools. 64 The practical man of to-day, however, must do more than execute. He must originate. He must not only do work which others have done before him and do it better than they have done it, but he must devise and solve new problems never before considered — he must contrive new and better methods of producing desirable results. Now, it is in the thought cells that the faculty of originality resides and hence the power to invent new devices and to supply new methods results from education of the intelligence. His value as an employee it maj^ be, lies in his power to execute ; but his value to the community as a mechanician lies in his power to originate. True the genius of invention is often tardily recognized and at the outset at least goes unrewarded. Edison as a telegraph operator, was easily among the first in his calling, but his originality and fertility in invention which have now made him the foremost inventor of the day, cost him more than once his position as an operator. That eminent Philadelphian, Joseph ^xton, whom Professor Bache pronounced ' ' the greatest mechanical genius the world ever saw ' ' and who finally attained to the honor of membership in the National Academy of Sciences, was for many years un- recognized. Although he made the clock which now keeps time in the tower of Independence Hall , yet it was in I^ondon that he subsequently made the first magneto-electric machine and obtained the first magneto -electric spark. He was recalled from Europe to build the first machinery of the Philadelphia Mint and he constructed the dies which were used at that Mint during seven years, and was finally appointed Superin- 65 tendent of Weights and Measures in the United States Coast Surve}^ in Washington. There he constructed the Govern- ment standards and made a balance which would weigh to a three-millionth part of its load. James Watt, the illustrious inventor of the steam engine, when onl}^ six years old, was observed one day drawing all sorts of lines on the floor with a piece of chalk — a friend of his father's remonstrated, saying " Why do 3^ou allow that bo}^ to waste his time. Send him to the public school," before you criticise, replied his father, ' ' examine what he is doing. ' ' It turned out that he was attempting the solution of a problem in geometr5^ Even at the age of fourteen his grandmother said to him , " I never saw such an idle boy as joxx are. Do take a book and emplo}^ yourself usefully, upwards of a half an hour has elapsed without 5' our sajdng a single word. Do you know what you have been doing all this time ? You have taken off and replaced and taken off again the tea pot lid, and you have alternatel}^ held in the steam that came out, first a saucer and then a spoon, you have busied yourself in examining and collecting together the little drops formed by the condensa- tion of the steam on the surface of the china and of the silver ; is it not disgraceful to waste your time in this manner ? ' ' and yet out of these simple experiments, by which the boy was educating his thought cells, came that wonderful machinery which has done as much to advance civilization as an3^ device invented by man. Herodotus tells us that to build the Great Pyramid required the work of 100,000 men for twent}' 3' ears. B>" the aid of one of the immense steam 66 engines now in common use in our ocean steamers a single man could complete this amount of work in six weeks. . It may perhaps appear to you that I have not been fortu- nate in my selection of illustrious examples, since neither Watt nor Saxton, nor Edison ever had more than a few months of education, and that only in the common school. But I have mentioned these names advisedly. They attained their high positions in the world in spite of their early disad- vantages. Watt, owing to feeble health, and Saxton and Bdison because of limited means, were not able to avail themselves of the education of the schools. Because of the great power given to them by Nature, which enabled them to train their thought-cells, themselves unaided by out- side appliances, they were able to achieve success. No such success is possible without this cell education. It may be obtained by laborious self-study without assistance, or it may be obtained by the use of all available appliances. Great as many men have become who have educated them- selves, it is impossible now to believe that they might have been even greater had the helps of the world also been available and availed of. Hence, the wisdom of creating schools for the education of the eye and the hand as well as the mind. In this Williamson School the Watts, and Sax- tons, and Edisons of to-day can find the education they de- sire, and more than all, can find it at a price they can all afford to pay. The object of education then, my young friends, is to im- prove the natural talents with which you are endowed. To 67 do this, you must avail yourselves of ever}'- opportunity to exert upon the brain-cells those impressions which you are likely to want in 5'our life-work, either as such or as con- stituent elements in the new combinations 3^ou desire to produce. In future j^ears 5^ou are likely to have splendid opportunities offered you to make both reputation and for- tune. How unfortunate would it be, if when you seek in the brain-cells for the stored knowledge necessary to enable you to utilize these opportunities, you should find these cells empty, through neglect of the educational facilities here sup- plied to you. lyike Mother Hubbard, you find the cupboard bare and disastrous consequences follow. Let me urge you then to make ever>^ use of the opportunities here offered. Believe your instructors when they assure 5^ou that every- thing which you are taught in this school will have impor- tant applications in 5^our future life. Some years ago a writer in the British Quarterly Review made the statement that a bar of iron costing but one pound sterling could be made into horse shoes worth two and a half pounds, into table knives worth thirty -six pounds, into needles worth seventy-one pounds, into penknife blades worth six hundred and ninety-seven pounds, or into the balance springs of watches worth fifty thousand pounds. But iron is passive and can only be worked upon. You are active and must do yourselves the work of education which is needed to increase your value. You are in every sense the arbiters of your own fortunes. You alone can say whether you shall be worth to the generation in which you live fifty thousand times as 68 much as you were when you entered the Williamson School, or whether you shall be worth only two and a half times as much. Which shall it be ? At the conclusion of the address Mr, HuEy said : With the permission of the audience the students will now retire, and thirty-five of them will go at once to the work- shop and take their places at their benches. After they have left the room the friends present are invited and urged to make a thorough examination of the grounds and build- ings, and to inspect the shops in so far as the}"- are equipped. Everj^thing is open to you and we trust that you will avail yourselves of this opportunit}^ to become thoroughly acquainted with what is being done here, and appreciate the kindl}^ thought of the man who made this School a possibility. Mr. Townsend addressing the boys, then said: You and we are honored by the presence on this platform of one of the original Trustees of this School, who in its organization and early working gave faithful and intelligent attention to the duties of the position until he was called to a higher plane and wider field of action , in which he is serv- ing the country with signal ability and usefulness. He too, is another conspicuous example of a self made man. His start in life was as an ofiice boy upon a very slender salary, but by the exercise of the qualities referred to in the address to which }^ou have listened, he has achieved an enviable distinction. He has been known to the community in which he has lived and labored for more than thirty years as an 69 upright, successful merchant and consistent Christian, and in later years has achieved a national fame as an intelligent, indefatigable and honest cabinet minister. He was a near and valued friend of the founder of this school. His good heart is always with us, and, although a very busy public man, he is with us here to-day to show his interest in our work. I take great pleasure in introducing to you Post- master General John Wanamaker, who spoke as follows : Address of Hon. John Wanamaker. Mr. President, — I respond at your command, though I was not appointed to speak to-day. The speakers who have preceded me have therefore had the advantage of me and I am without a manuscript or any notes. But my whole heart is beating so fast with its old love for the little, quiet Quaker man, whose face looks down from the wall upon us, that I must give expression to my sense of gratitude for this great benefaction he has spread around and over these boys who are hence- forth his children. We who are guardians are but step- fathers. He was, and is, the real great hearted father whose memory will brighten as the years roll on. In your admirable address, Mr. Chairman of the Board, you spoke of him as a country boy, doing the usual boy's work about the farm . I wonder if he ever planted a tree ? Among all the country boys that ever blessed our city, by their examples of diligence, uprightness and usefulness. 70 which of them all ever planted such a tree as this, the fruit of which, will, in all the ages to come, be shelter, education and inspiration to thousands of the boys of Pennsylvania. You fine fellows who have been honored to be the first on the roll and who are to head the procession and set the copy by 3^ our endeavors and successes, for the long line of boys that are to follow, are fortunate in not having been born too soon. By the use you make of your opportunity will the influence of not only your lives, but of this long thought of and carefully planned school, be felt throughout the land. One day, in New York, when the Cooper Institute was in course of completion, there came in to one of the rooms, where painters were at work at a ceiling, an old man wearing a slouch hat, to whom the painters called, " Say, old man, will you stead}^ this scaffold a little, while we finish the work up here ? ' ' and the old man quickly took hold of the ladders on which they stood and kept them from falling while they worked. That old man, though they knew it not, was Peter Cooper, the philanthropist, who was putting his money into that great building which was to be a great scaffold on which young men were to stand while they worked hard to get an education for their life work. When was it that Peter Cooper would 'nt lend a hand when he could help his fellow -men ? This building and the others that cluster about it and still more to come shall be the scaffolding that Isaiah V. William- son will hold up for boys to put unfading color and character upon their lives . While our benefactor lived , there were some who looked upon him walking the streets, to and from his little office, clad in old fashioned, well worn, but well kept clothes, who said that he was a mean man ; but to-day you see by all these signs about 3'ou what kind of meanness it was that animated his life. He saved his mone}^ that he might save boys, who would need an education, that he once knew the need of himself. Down along the Potomac River, twenty miles below Washington, at Indian Head, at this very hour, the Secre- tary of the Navy and many scientific men are engaged in testing the nickel-plate armor, intended to encase the battle-ships of the Government. Some of our gentle hearted, peace loving Quaker friends, may think our Nation does not need war ships, but it may be handy to have them around, whenever our foreign relations grow in any way " chilly." The experiments with the armor are to ascertain how far it will resist our great guns, that throw cannon balls against it. The results of these tests of armor will be watched all over the world, and so this becomes a doubly historic day, by the additional event of the opening of this Industrial School, intended to project against this world, in days to come, forces of the most tremendous power, to promote its peace and order. You are the great guns to be loaded in this magazine with the powers of cultivated minds, trained eyes, skilled hands and uplooking hearts, by which your well rounded lives will be irresismble when you come in connection with the world. The greatest want of this age is men. Pennsylvania has never been wanting in some such like Matthew Baldwin, John Welsh and I. V. Williamson, but she does wisely in planting here some of her best boys, that they may grow into the right kind of men . But the making of a good man requires a good boy ; an idle, careless, wasteful boy is not likely to be much of a man. The last thing that I think my old friend, Mr. Williamson, would care to do, would be to waste a thousand dollars on a ten cent boy, trying the impossible thing of making a man out of him. We are your friends to help you all we can , but your chief help must, under God, be yourselves. You shall not lack for cheer and counsel. The Chairman of the Board of Trus- tees, whose wise words to-day, I trust, will be printed, that each bo}^ who comes into the school, may know its history and its aims, will always be your sympathizing, true friend. Mr. Cummins, who of all others was possibly the nearest friend of Mr. Williamson, is deeply interested in you and his friendship is worth your having. Whenever you see him, take off j'-our hats to him, as you would to the founder of this school. And now, then, in conclusion of this already long, impromptu speech, in the evening of this beautiful Indian Summer day, I charge you, young men of the school, entering upon a new era of your lives, to so use these recitation halls and workshops, that your industry and high resolves, while you strive together here, may be to you all, the sunrise of noble lives. Mr. Huey : We hoped to have with us to-day Col. Richard T. Auchmuty, founder and principal of the New York Trades 73 School, who was the pioneer and is a successful leader in the work in which we are interested, but being unable to be present in person, he has sent the following letter : lyENOx, Mass., October 23d, 1891. President John M. Shrigley, Dear Sir : — I regret that it will not be possible for me to avail myself of the kind invitation of the Trustees and Officers of the Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades, to be present and make an address at the opening exercises on Saturday, October 31 St. May all of us who have undertaken the training of our young countrymen in the mechanical art, remember that this country not only needs and can have the best skilled work- men in the world, but that it also needs workmen who will be good citizens, loyal to our institutions and believing in American ideas of liberty and justice. Yours very trul}^ RICHARD T. AUCHMUTY.