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TECHNICAL EDUCATION
INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS,
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE
TO
RAILROAD SERVEGE.
*
Report to the President B. & O. R. R. Company,
BY
DR. W. T. BARNARD,
ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT.
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company,
| OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT.
sERVICE
REPORT ON TECHNICAL EDUCATION
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE
TO THE
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Service,
- BY
D.R. W. T. BARNARD,
ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT.
OCTOBER 1st, 1886.
B.A. L TIMIO RE .
PRESS OF ISAAC FRIEDEN WALD,
1887.
|
*
º
:
§
“The time is not far distant when Science and manipulative skill must be
joined together.”—FIUMBOLDT.
“Whatever we wish to see introduced into the life of a nation must first be
'ntroduced ºnto our schools.”—EIUMBOLDT.
‘‘ What we need ºn this country is a corrBGT PUBLIC op1NION on the relation
of education to industry.”—Judge McARTHUR.
“No scheme of technical education is likely to be seriously entertained which
will delay the entrance of boys into working life or prevent them from contribu-
tºng to their own Support as early as they do at present.”—BUXLEY.
PIRE FA C E.
The solicitations of several prominent citizens of Balti-
more, earnestly interested in its welfare, and of other friends
specially concerned in the development of our American
railroad system, who, after examining the manuscript of
this report, believed that the data therein contained would
materially and beneficially affect the educational work of
Baltimore and of our railways generally, have determined
me to give these pages a wider circulation than merely
among the officials of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
Company, for whose information they were primarily
written. -
In doing this I should much prefer re-arranging this
data, so that the publication might show no relation what.
ever to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, but
other demands upon my time prevent this revision.
Though, for this reason, material collected for my own
purposes and deductions therefrom are embodied in an
official report, it is to be distinctly understood that no one
but the writer stands committed to the statements or
views therein contained; the responsibility for which he,
as a private citizen, solely accepts.
W. T. BARNARD.
BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD COMPANY.
Service Report On Tethnical Education
SPECIAL REFERENCE TO BALTIMORE & OHIO R. R. SERVICE,
Baltimore, October 1st, 1886.
MR. ROBERT GARRETT,
President Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company.
SIR :—
June 7th, 1881, the General Counsel of the
General COunsel
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company invited your attention c.
mends the estab-
to a scholarly and thoughtful address on technical educa-iſºmenºfºtech-
nical School for
tion, delivered before the Maryland Institute, June 4th, by ºr
chanical in Stru C-
Hon. S. Teackle Wallis, and, referring especially to so much; "
thereof as related to the establishment in Baltimore of a
technical school for scientific and mechanical instruction,
Mr. Cowen said :
“I have always thought that the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company did
not have enough of educated talent in its service, and that, among its artisans
and mechanics, there should be more scientific knowledge than can now be found
in our various departments. -
“It strikes me that there is no one in the city so much interested in the estab-
lishment of such a School as Mr. Wallis indicates in connection with the Mary-
land Institute as the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company.
“I presume you have a hundred or more apprentices at Mount Clare, and
have thousands of artisans along your entire road, who should have received a
first-class education at Some technological school, who have never received any
such education at any place of instruction, and have simply an empirical knowl-
edge gained from practical work. -
“As Mr. Wallis justly says, the ‘practical man,” so called, has had his day,
and is fast going to the wall under the law of the ‘survival of the fittest.”
“On all mechanical subjects there is an amount of learning which can be
obtained from schools, and cannot be obtained in any other way, and beyond
question the Railroad Company should endeavor to avail itself of the class of
mên who have had this early training. - t
2
No record Of
earlier CO1)Side l'a-
tion Of technical
education for B. &
(). employes.
Scientific in-
Struction ill nne-
chanic arts in its
infancy in U. S.
Techl)ical train-
ing provided for
by CongreSS in
1S62.
Vice-Pres’t Gar-
rett calls for Spe-
cial investigation
and report upon
the practicability
of technically edu-
cating R. R. Om-
ployes.
l:Stablishment Of
a Chemical and
playsical labora-
tory at Mt. Clare.
“There is no way in which this could be so well done as by having a com-
petent technological school in the city, the students of which could be taken into
our service from time to time, and would certainly elevate it very much by the
application of the learning derived from skilled instructors. \
“I wish you would look at the subject, both as an officer and a citizen, and,
see whether there is any way in which you can aid in the establishment of such
a place of instruction for the deserving artisans and mechanics of the city.”
A careful search amongst the voluminous records of this
Company fails to show that the necessity for a higher
standard of qualifications for its operatives had, before this
communication, found official expression, even if it had
engaged the attention of the Company’s officers. Indeed,
technical education in mechanic arts had then but slightly
attracted public attention in this country, except locally
and as the result of endowed institutions for combined
Scientific and manual training, such as the schools at
Worcester, Troy, Boston, Hoboken, et al.; this notwith-
standing the fact that, as early as July 26, 1862, Con-
gress—contemplating especially the promotion of practical
education of the producing classes—had made liberal
grants of land to the several States in aid of the establish-
ment of Schools for scientific instruction in agriculture and
mechanical pursuits.
Some time subsequently you requested me to make this
subject—thus forcibly brought to your notice—one of
special investigation and recommendation. My time being
then wholly occupied in organizing the Relief Association, I
was not able, at the moment, to give it more than cursory
and casual consideration, except as to some special points
upon which reports were, from time to time, rendered—e.g.,
upon the necessity for a laboratory for testing raw and manu-
factured materials used in construction, and for experimental.
work in engineering and in mechanical physics—resulting in
the establishment of the chemical and physical laboratory
at Mt. Clare. Meanwhile our present Vice-President, Mr.
Samuel Spencer, having been assigned to the direction of the
3
physical operations of the service, was enabled to correct
many (and to favorably influence other) practices which
were operating detrimentally to the Company's interests; so
that there seemed to be no special urgency for this report.
Since retiring from the executive management of the
Relief Association I have, as press of other engagements
permitted, given the subject of technical education IN ITS
RELATION TO RAILWAY SERVICE “the special investigation
and study’ you requested, and herewith submit, as briefly
as its importance permits, the results of my labors.
Also, at an earlier date, taking advantage of the erection
of a new passenger-car shop at Mt. Clare, I recommended
that sufficient space be included in its outbuildings to serve
temporarily as class-rooms for the theoretical instruction
'I'Stablish mellt. Of
of apprentices, and, having been so provided, those rooms; ;"
Struction. Of a p-
prentices at MIt.
are now utilized for the Employes' Circulating Library, and 8.
for instructing classes of apprentices in accordance with the
program announced in your Executive Order No. 6, of
January 15th, 1885, hereto appended [Exhibit A], which
was designed to be initiatory of the plan of instruction
recommended in this report.
At the threshold of an inquiry into the status of tech-
nical education at the present day, the investigator will be
astonished no less at the magnitude of the subject than at
the revolution it has caused in the trade relations between ...Rºyº
trade relations
competing sections of the same, and between different, i.
countries; always in favor of those utilizing its efficient
aid. One has only to peruse, in the leading English and
Continental newspapers and periodicals, the legislative de-
bates, governmental, municipal and trade reports and edi-
torials on this subject, constantly published, to realize the
overshadowing importance which, in Europe, is now at-
Interest taken in
it in England, Ger-
Tlally, etc.
4
tached to technical instruction, not only by manufacturing
and commercial interests directly affected by it, but per-
haps to a greater degree by the foremost statesmen and
political economists of the day; as witness the writings
of such noted authorities as Profs. Huxley, Ayrton,
Siemens, Kennedy, Solly, et al., the debates in Parliament,
and the attempts of Prince Bismarck, of Germany, of
Lord Salisbury and other English treasury officials, to
solve, through its agency, the great social problems affect.
Claracter Of in-
Yestigation into
Status Of technical
i 11struction.
Institutions for
technical educal-
tion in America.
Investigated.
1nstitutions for
techlichl Gduca-
tion in Europe in-
vestigated.
ing the masses of their densely populated countries.
In order to acquire such thorough knowledge of what
has been, and is being, done in this field as would enable
me to make intelligently the recommendations called for,
it became necessary to study an extensive literature, and
also, by inspection of home and foreign Schools, by per-
sonal investigation among the principals and workmen of
those accessible corporations and firms enforcing technical
instruction of a practical character, and by witnessing
their methods of applying it, to determine its economic
results. In this work I was ably assisted by Messrs.
C. W. Scribner and G. P. Coler, who, upon the inaugura-
tion of class instruction for apprentices, were appointed
instructors at Mt. Clare. The principal schools and
places visited and inspected in the performance of this
duty were: Stevens Institute, Hoboken, N. J.; Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Mass. ; Worces-
ter Free Institute, Worcester, Mass.; Columbia College,
N. Y.; Cooper Union, N. Y.; Philadelphia Manual
Training School, Philadelphia; Spring Garden Institute,
Philadelphia; Chicago Manual Training School, Chicago;
Maryland Institute, Baltimore; Baltimore Manual Training
School, Baltimore. Abroad, at London, the Central Institu-
tion of City and Guilds of London Institute, Finsbury College,
5
Young Men's Polytechnic Institute and the Birbeck Insti-
tute; at Manchester, Mather & Platt's Workshop School,
Owens College and the Manchester Technical School; at
Oldham, the School of Science and Art; at Leeds, York-
shire College ; at Newcastle, the Elswick School of
Science, connected with the extensive works of Sir William
Armstrong & Co.; at Bradford, the Bradford Technical
College; at Nottingham, the University College and the
People's College; at Glasgow, the College of Science and
Art, Allan Glen's Institution and Anderson’s College; at
Edinburgh, the Science and Art Museum; at Crewe, the
Science School of the London & Northwestern Railway
Company; at Paris, the School of Arts and Trades; at
Nuremberg, the Royal Industrial School; at Munich, the
Royal Industrial School and the Polytechnic School; at
Zurich, the Polytechnic School; at Mulhouse, the Trades
School, the Professional School and the School for Spin-
mers and Weavers. *
It is therefore to be understood that the recommenda-
tions herein contained for the application of technical
instruction to our own service are founded on careful
investigation and study of technical institutions at home
and abroad. Recognizing that a more forcible and con-
clusive presentation of such a complex subject would be re...;
recommendations
and COnclusions
secured by the citation of pertinent facts and conclusions ºn
Were reach od.
reported by or drawn from the experience of those who,
by reason of special training, study or unusual facilities
of observation, are acknowledged to be competent authority
on the subject, rather than by advancing personal views,
I have, in the preparation of this paper, freely used parlia-
mentary and U. S. Governmental reports, and other
authoritative publications on technical instruction.
Our researches—which, it will be noticed, have com-
6 v
passed a broad field—have so impressed me with the
Yºlºgo vital importance of technical education, not only to the B.
of loch inlciul Cºlu-
call on to go 110 ral
fºor. & O. Company, but to other industrial and commercial
ests. interests of Baltimore, and the United States in general,
and with the almost universal ignorance of its potency
displayed by those in our community whom it would
most beneficially affect, that I have deemed it a duty to
collate the salient results of our labors into a form that
may possibly exert a favorable influence upon other inter-
ests besides that in whose behalf those labors were under-
taken. To do this effectively such a report must take a
much wider range than was originally contemplated, and
even then the magnitude of the subject is such that it can
only be considered a sketch ; but it is hoped its matter will
compensate those interested in the subject for its length :
the uninterested would not peruse a less elaborate state-
ment.
(ſhtu l'ºuctor ſull (l For obvious reasons this report is divided into, first, a
scope (ºf 1.1\ls l'e- ve ſº wº ©
l, Ol't'. sketch of the effects of technical education in Europe;
second, a review of its progress and present status in the
United States; the third part will show the need of more
thorough and extended technical instruction in Baltimore;
the fourth, the advantages which the B. & O. Company,
in common with other railway interests, would derive from
a thorough system of this character; and the fiſth offers
a program for inaugurating systematic technical instruction
in our Service.
EFFECTS OF TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION IN EUROPE.
'L'ocli ill ctul O (lut-
º” In Europe the necessity of technical education for indus-
"( ) * '0, º e *
º's trial laborers, felt and freely acknowledged many years
competit lon. sº e tº .
ago, was forced into prominence through the increasing
rivalry between manufacturers and other producers com-
7
peting with like articles in the same markets. In order
to counterbalance the advantages some engaged in a given
industry enjoyed through the possession of cheaper raw
material, labor, prestige or favorable situation, their com-
petitors of foreign—and even of the same—nationality
were compelled to look to improved methods of manu-
facture or production for ability to hold their own, and
were thus brought to realize that educated labor and
technical skill were the soundest elements with which to
defend themselves in trade competition, in that they pro-
mote excellence of execution, inventiveness, enterprise,
and all the qualities required to successfully conduct pro-
gressive industries. Under this pressure producers and
manufacturers, through their guilds and other associa-
tions, were soon able to exert an influence upon their govern-
ments which has resulted in every European nation's making
greater or less provision for public industrial education;
until at this time not only England, France, Germany, tºº."
Austria, Switzerland, Holland and Italy, but all the minor".”
Continental States, have their governmental schools for
both elementary and higher technical instruction; and even
Russia—So far behind all other nations of Europe in
elementary education—has found it necessary, in order to
maintain her home industries, to make quite liberal pro-
vision for the maintenance of mechanical and manufac-
turing Schools, and has established two great Imperial
technical institutes—one at St. Petersburg and the other
at Moscow—which are classed as amongst the finest in
Europe in point of equipment and ample means. The
encouragement which that government is giving industrial
education has been supplemented by the action of leading
Russian railroads, which have established schools for their
people at their principal works.
8
While in France will be found the best examples of
Elementally Sci- what may be termed higher elementary schools, in which
fººtion the children of artisans, small shopkeepers, etc., are
afforded opportunities of obtaining an education which is
technical in so far as their studies are specially directed
towards the requirements of commerce, mechanical or
manufacturing industries, and while in nearly all the
modern French schools—of which that at Rheims may be
taken as the best type—the laboratories for teaching
practical chemistry, and the equipment of other special
departments which teach the technology of the trades form-
ing the staple industries of their respective districts, leave
nothing to be desired, it is in Germany and Switzerland
that the movement for industrial education has attained
its highest development. In the latter country the British
observations of Royal Commissioners found the value of its technical
the British Royal
$ºn schools—the beneficial results of which were elsewhere more
...º or less problematical—distinctly illustrated in the marked
inclustrial arts in
Germany and
§" improvement of manufactures; in the elevation of the
producing classes; in the diminution of crime; in the
popularization of education, and, generally, exercising a
most important influence upon the nation's industries and
welfare. In summarizing the results of their investigations
in Germany, they remark that the conviction is universal
among the German people that they can only meet the
competition of their rivals in other countries by training
their workmen in taste and skill, and that the prosperity
of their industries will increase only in proportion as they
keep up the efficiency of their schools and spread their
influence among the workers themselves. In support of
this conclusion, extended inquiry shows that Germany
and Switzerland, especially, are filling up with techno-
logical and polytechnic Schools, many of them of a very
9
high standard of instruction and usefulness. The poly-
technic institute at Zurich [Exhibit B] may be cited as
illustrative of this class of Schools, which aim to combine
theoretical and applied instruction in all branches of
industry where scientific knowledge and skill in applying it
are desirable. So successfully has this plan been worked
out at Zurich that students from all parts of the world
seek admission to its institute; and, referring to it, the
British Commissioners say they had opportunity of judging
of the advantages which it has bestowed, not only upon
Switzerland, but also upon Germany, by the number of
thoroughly trained scientific men it has educated who are
now holding important positions in various industrial
establishments which they visited. A similar institution
is that at Munich. [Exhibit C.]
The direct and indirect effects of technological schools pree, anama.
upon the industries of their respective countries were, º'
immediately upon their establishment, felt to be beneficial deScribed.
in the highest degree. Their graduates were eagerly
sought out to fill important and responsible positions in
manufacturing and commercial establishments, many of
which had sustained serious losses through the ignorance
and consequent bad management of administrative officers;
and this inquiry soon far exceeded the supply. As the
result of this appreciation of, and demand for, skilled la-
borers and supervisors, many enterprising corporations, and
even private firms, engaged in manufacturing and other
industries dependent for their successful operation and
development upon intelligent direction and skilled labor,
individually organized scientific schools and training classes
in connection with their works. Some of these private
Schools excel most governmental and municipal institu-
tions of similar character in enterprise, progressiveness
10
Development of
technological edu-
cation among pri-
vate firms and COr-
porations.
Testimony as to
what technological
education has a C-
complished.
At Crefeld, Prus-
sia, fol' its Silk in-
dustry.
and immediate practical results. The conductors of
many of them claim that the best results are obtained
where intimate relationship between the school and
the actual workshop is maintained, thereby facilitating
the adaptation of theoretical training to the needs of the
pupils and the character of the work on which they are
engaged. As illustrative of this method of combining
practical and theoretical education, I cite the schools in
successful operation at the mammoth works of Sir William
Armstrong at Elswick; at the great works of the London
and Northwestern Railway Company at Crewe (where
more than 9000 men are employed and 600 apprentices
and young journeymen attend the evening classes); and
that at the works of Messrs. Mather & Platt, extensive
iron manufacturers at Manchester. These are but examples
of a large class of schools conducted in connection with
manufacturing establishments which follow this system of
education, and it is reported that a large additional number
of corporations and firms, encouraged by the increased
profits realized by those who have adopted it, are arrang-
ing to inaugurate similar instruction at their works.
As the foregoing statements may contain somewhat
startling propositions to those who have given the subject
slight consideration only, it may be well to cite from
authentic testimony as to what technical education has
accomplished.
Crefeld, Prussia, a city of about 80,000 inhabitants,
relies almost entirely upon the silk industry for its support,
and its revenue therefrom amounts to more than £4,200,-
000 (over $20,000,000) annually. Its leading merchants
and manufacturers unhesitatingly affirm that this great
industry is very largely dependent for its success on the
influence of their technical school, which is one of the
11
best of its kind in all Europe. They declare that, among
other benefits resulting from the school, it raises the
tone and increases the knowledge of rising manufacturers
and foremen, and by spreading technical education broad-
cast among industrious and ambitious artisans, very
materially widens the field from which successful mana- A”
gers and specialists may be chosen.
Mulhouse, Germany, affords another illustration of the gºs.
fact that an industry may largely depend upon technical ****
education. Its leading manufacturers claim that their
textile museum, by its facilities for education, has exerted
a most important and beneficial influence upon the leading
industry of the district, some even going so far as to say
that the trade could not in any degree prosper without the
influence of this museum. Its principal citizens say that
the town owes its great prosperity to the commercial and
scientific knowledge principally acquired by its artisans in
technological institutions, and to the commendable public
spirit and enterprise of its citizens in promoting general
technical education among all classes; also that this action
has exercised a marked influence in suppressing trade tº:
jealousies, which have almost entirely disappeared from º
this community. * - -
Testimony to the same effect is given by employers at
Verviers, Belgium. They claim that technical education . At verviers, Bel-
gium, in maintaill-
is a great help to its industries. Their competition with ºr
other localities is very sharp, and the President of its”
Chamber of Commerce has publicly testified that their
chief hope in maintaining pre-eminence as spinners and
manufacturers rests on the superiority and not on the
cheapness of their productions. This community has felt
none of the evils of the late labor troubles in Belgium.
Chemnitz, Saxony, is another city that freely acknowl-sºles.
edges the benefits resulting from technical education. The "“”
I2
British Royal Commissioners declare that to the Chemnitz
weaving school should be credited the variety and excellence
of the textile manufactures of the district. The zeal of
the inhabitants of Chemnitz for technical education will be
appreciated when it is stated that up to 1883 they had
contributed over $440,000 for the support of their indus-
trial schools. In their conversations with managers and
foremen there, the Commissioners were informed that the
importance of technical education was everywhere acknowl-
edged in Saxony. One of its largest employers said that
the influence of the schools upon the industries of Saxony,
by increasing the intelligence and skill of the artisan class,
could not be too highly estimated. [Exhibit D.]
lºgº. In the city of Roubaix, France, considerable attention
* * has been given to technical education. Mr. M. Carlos
Delattre—a member of a commission appointed by the
Mayor to investigate its effect on the industries of the town
—said that during the ten years their technical weaving
and dyeing School had been in operation, great progress
- had been made in the dyeing industry; that in every
establishment where the sons of employers, foremem and
workmen attended the classes, good results followed;
that in the dye-works many of the young men can now
make their own preparations; that there is less need of
supervision ; that economy in production has resulted from
attendance at the school; and that fewer mistakes have
been made, and more reliable and efficient work has resulted
from its teachings.
Training schºol The training school for marine engineers at Amsterdam
for marine engi-
Ineers at Ann Ster-
ſlann. was established by private enterprise, in consequence of
the great need for skilled engineers in its merchant navy.
Owing to the ignorance and incompetence of the men who
had charge of the machinery of their vessels, shipowners
13
|
of Amsterdam suffered grievous losses, until they finally
decided to found a school for training men to take proper
care of their steamers. The originators of this school
gladly testify to its economic value. (Second Report of
Royal Com., Vol. I, p. 112.) t
France has, of late years, been particularly active in
making provision for technical education. An important rºº.
Trench industries
report on the wool industry of France states that so greatº”
have been the mechanical improvements during recent
years that since 1867 the cost of wool-combing has fallen
off 25 per cent.; that since 1851 the cost of spinning has
decreased more than half, while during the same period
the wages of spinners and piecers have increased 40 per
cent. The report, after stating that the improvement in
weaving has been still greater, says: “In 1851 the goods
were irregular and imperfect, while as early as 1878 they
had almost attained perfection, with half the manipulation
and double the wages paid to the workmen.”
It is commonly acknowledged by the proprietors and
managers of mines that young men who have been edu-ºº:
cated in technological schools heat their boilers better and **
with less coal than do the other workmen, and that their
scientific knowledge enables them to escape many accidents
and to avoid stoppage of machinery and repairs. They are
therefore very much sought after as firemen, and command
higher wages than common firemen, because their services
are more valuable to their employers. The Royal Com-
missioners mention the fact that several of the principal
colliery firms of Europe have organized mining schools in
connection with their works, and so convinced are the rest
of the Continental colliery proprietors of the beneficial
effects of this character of education that like schools are
being generally established in the coal districts.
14
The generally recognized superiority of German artisans
in the construction of roofs and bridges, both as to cost of
Superiority of
Germany in engi-
Ineering construc-
tion due to techni-
cal knowledge of
ller mechanic.S.
Depression of
English Woolen
Imallllfactures due
to superior techni-
Cal education. Of
rivals.
construction, safety and durability, is to be attributed to
the superior technical knowledge of her mechanics, which
enables them to secure the necessary stability with the
least consumption of materials and the minimum expendi-
ture of labor.
Comparing the worsted industries of France and England,
the British Industrial Commissioners admit that France
has far surpassed Great Britain in the manufacture of
woolen goods. They say that while English depression
in the woolen trade has been attributed to two causes—
viz.: the greater cheapness of labor in competing countries,
as represented by longer hours and lower wages, and the
Superior technical education of their foreign rivals—the
cheapness of labor had very little to do with the depres-
sion, the real difference being found in the superior training
and skill of the workmen of foreign nations, together with
some minor local advantages on the side of the French
manufacturers. They also say that since the establish-
ment of a technical school at Bradford, equipped with
various departments, qualified teachers, and the best
obtainable apparatus and machinery for teaching designing,
weaving and dyeing, the result has been that British all-
Influence of
technical training
upon the manufac-
tures of Notting-
ham and BelfaSt.
wool goods of several varieties are taking their stand in
English and foreign markets in open competition with
those French and German goods which, but four years
ago, seemed to enjoy almost a monopoly of public favor, and
that, as a consequence, Bradford manufacturers are now
operating as profitably as their rivals in any country.
[Exhibit E.]
The manufacturers of Nottingham are unanimous and
emphatic in their testimony as to the important influence
of technical training upon their industries. They say that
15
without this training some of their art-productions could
scarcely have come into existence. The limen manufac-
turers of Belfast acknowledge that their ability to compete
successfully with foreign nations in the more artistic pro-
ductions depends on the higher training of their employes.
The beneficial results of high scientific and technical
training on the chemical-color, beet-root sugar and alkali
industries are especially noted by the Royal Commissioners.
(Sec. Rept., Vol. I, pp. 222–9.) They say that the beet-root
sugar manufacture, which is a great source of wealth to
Holland and yields large profits to firms engaged in that nººn.
C and technical
º tº gº re & tº tº !alini l i-
business, often dividends of 100 per cent, is a striking ºn
illustration of the rise and successful operation of a most
important industry, depending upon the intelligent applica-
tion of the scientific principles of engineering and chemistry.
The firms and corporations of Europe that have been
foremost in Securing skilled workmen have been most skilled workmen
† & e tº improve methods
successful in their enterprises. As a result of improved ºn fºre &
de º increase profits.
methods of manufacture and new discoveries made by
their trained employes, large profits are often realized by
such employers.
In short, it is the testimony of all who have studied the
subject that technical schools, when rightly directed, give Technischools
promote scientiflc.
wonderful impulses to industrial pursuits by promoting;ion and
Scientific investigation and methods. Although at first
this influence affects only those who attend the classes, it
soon makes itself felt throughout the entire body of work-
men of the community to which the school belongs, and
the increased interest in scientific subjects on the part of
employes, thus developed, in turn reacts to the pecuniary
advantage of their employers; because mechanics who
have been trained in the scientific principles that underlie
16
The decadence
Of the Silk indus-
try in Lyons due
tO l'etention Of the
Old-fashioned me-
thods of manufac-
ture.
their handicrafts are thereby enabled to understand the
technical publications affecting their trades, and to utilize
new inventions and improved methods of work; while men
uneducated in the rudiments of science ignore such sources
of knowledge and, quite naturally, oppose all improvements
as innovations calculated to work injury to the laboring
classes. Cultivate a laboring man's intelligence to a point
where it recognizes improvements and comprehends their
nature; his opposition ceases, and he will himself likely
inventimproved processes, which willinure to his employer's
benefit.
The truth of this is exemplified in the history of the rival
silk industries of Lyons and Switzerland. The skill of the
Weavers of Lyons in the use of hand-looms was marvel-
ous, but they combined no intelligence with it, for they
had no scientific training. They clung tenaciously to
those looms—relics of their ancestors—long after the
introduction elsewhere of power-looms, and thereby almost
wrecked the silk industry of Lyons. A leading merchant
of that city, in speaking of this fact, recently said : “They
have all, however, both masters and men, fallen behind the
times in enterprise, clinging to traditions and old-fashioned
methods, while their competitors have been organizing
factories and teaching their workpeople the use of the
power-loom, and other economic inventions. During the
last ten years Lyons has, consequently, lost very much of
its trade.” Their enterprising Swiss competitors, on the
other hand, engaged highly trained teachers, who brought
to bear upon their work the scientific principles taught in
the polytechnic schools from which they graduated, and
introduced the inventions of which they there acquired
knowledge. As a consequence the cantons now surpass
Lyons in many kinds of weaving and in dyeing, as they
do other trade centres in various industries.
17
Technical education has been the means of attracting
capital not only to specific localities, but to countries, ºr
Indisputable evidence of this is found in Switzerland, and *
notably in Zurich, the manufacturing town above cited.
For years a technical school has been conducted in this
town at government expense, and when recently the
Federal Council was disposed to lessen the usual grant for
its support, the manufacturers showed, by undeniable
evidence, that this single institution had in a few years
been the means of bringing capital to the country to the
extent of millions of pounds sterling.
Other and even more forcible illustrations of like char-
acter might be cited ad infinitum, and can be furnished, if
desirable, but they are substantially covered by the British
Royal Commissioners, who, in summing up the results of
their study of the effects of technical education on the con-cº
ommis’ers testify
tinent of Europe [Exhibit F], say that they cannot repeat.º.º.
Scientific knowl-
edge and it.S gen-
too often how strongly they have been impressed with the jºio
general intelligence and technical knowledge of the masters, Special industries.
managers and workmen of Continental industrial estab-
lishments. They have found that both classes, as a rule,
possess sound and liberal knowledge of the sciences and
principles upon which their industries depend; that they
are familiar with every new scientific discovery and inven-
tion of importance, and can and do apply them to the de-
velopment of their special industries, adopting not only the
improvements and inventions of their own countries, but
also those of the world at large. t
They further testify that a few years ago the question, Technical educa-
iOn has passed its
of technical education in England would have been aºl.
debatable one, but that now no argument is needed to con-
vince English employers of its importance; that it has
been tried and has given the highest satisfaction; that in
18
Important Eng-
lish industrial cen-
tres that support
Science and art
SchoolS.
Testimony of
Prof. Huxley on
the economic value
Of Scientific knowl-
edge.
Of ProfessOl' WOIn
Helmholtz.
nearly all the great industrial centres—in the metropolis,
in Glasgow, in Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Bradford,
Sheffield, Nottingham, Birmingham, The Potteries, and
elsewhere—more or less flourishing schools of science and
art, of various grades, together with numerous art and
science classes, are to be found in successful operation, and
that their influence may be traced in the improved pro-
ductions of the localities in which they are placed; in
the decreased consumption of crude material, and in
saving of time required for the performance of labor.
In short, one cannot study the present condition of
European nations without being thoroughly convinced of
the great economic value of scientific training to their
industries, morals, and all that tends to shape the affairs
of the world to their advantage and to the happiness and
prosperity of their people.
Further testimony on the economic value of scientific
knowledge in connection with the staple industries is
furnished by the well-known Prof. Huxley, who, answering
the question, “What bearing do you consider that
superior general culture in Germany has upon the in-
dustries of Germany ” said:
“The bearing of it, if I do not misapprehend the matter, is this: The devel-
opment of industry under its present conditions is almost entirely the effect
either of the application of Science, or of the development of mechanical pro-
cesses of complexity, requiring a great deal of attention and intelligence to
carry them out ; and I do not think I am wrong in supposing that the advance
of industry in all countries depends on employers being able to find to their hand
persons of sufficient knowledge and sufficient flexibility of mind to be able to
turn from doing the thing they have been doing and to do something different,
according to the nature of the improvement that has been made. It is there, I
apprehend, that the advantage of such scientific training as can be got in those
small universities of Germany is manifested. Scientific training is of infinitely
greater importance in the case of such a man than literary training, because no
amount of literary training ever enables a man to understand what it is to deal
with facts at first hand ; it does not conduce to that habit of mind which is most
useful to a man in the practical affairs of life. Scientific training does conduce
to it, though it may not produce it.”
Prof. von Helmholtz also points out not only the general
advantages, but the absolute necessity, of employing, as
19
heads of departments, persons conversant with the theory
of their work, and able, by virtue of their scientific knowl-
edge, to anticipate results, and to calculate beforehand
the quantity and quality of material required, as compared
with those who, lacking such attainments, are compelled
to adopt—often at greatly increased cost—the more empir-
ical methods of repeated trial.
In short, it is almost universally testified by the observ-ºn-
nical SchoolS in
ant that technical schools have supplied a long-felt want;;.
for trained specialists, who have been, and constantly are, tºº"
the Source of unexpected economies; not alone because,
through their scientific knowledge, superior training and
habits of thought and observation, they are able to antici-
pate results, and to give intelligent direction to their
subordinates—inspiring them with interest, and often
enthusiasm, in the discharge of their duties—but also
because, through the utilization of the latest discoveries of
science, they improve methods of production, turning out
superior articles with marked economy. Through the
agency of such schools originality has taken the place of
Servile imitation; decaying industries have been revived,
and new ones promoted; while they have exerted a most
marked influence in developing the intelligence and skill,
and consequently in securing the permanent prosperity, of
the industrial classes generally—the people by whom the
work of the world is done, and upon whom national, no
less than corporate and individual, wealth depends—by
enabling them to develop the sources of wealth peculiar to
each country.
Ability on the part of laborers to understand something
of the principles that underlie their various handicrafts is
productive of good results, not only through lessening the ejº.
cost of production, but also in advancing the welfare of the jae
employes themselves, by enabling employers to pay better º
20
Education pro-
motes inclustry
alld thriſt,
wages for articles of superior workmanship and manufac-
ture, from which they derive greater profits. *
During its last session, the British Parliament was com-
pelled to take into “serious consideration.” the condition
of the overcrowded districts of London and other large
industrial centres, and the debates in the House of Com-
mons developed an almost unanimous opinion that only
through government furnishing, in some form or other,
additional facilities for industrial education lies the tem-
poral Salvation of their idle population—semi-paupers
through lack of knowledge of how to work. While our own
General Government is not parental, in the sense that Euro-
pean Governments are, our State and municipal govern-
ments do, in theory, very nearly approach that relation-
ship, and can exercise their functions in no more beneficial
way than by fostering the industrial education of their
people.
In his report for 1868, the French Minister of Public
Instruction gave testimony as to the valuable results of
technical training as follows:
“Science continues its discoveries, and every day places at the disposal of
industry new and Serviceable agents; but in order to be applied, those agents,
which are sometimes very delicate and sometimes very.powerful, require to be
skillfully handled. This is the reason why, in the present day, industrial prog-
ress is so intimately connected with educational progress, and why questions
which it is the duty of the University to examine and to solve have acquired so
great an importance as regards the material prosperity of a nation.”
A most noteworthy example of the truthfulness of this
statement is found in Switzerland—a country beautified by
Nature with lakes and mountains and a climate that have
made it the beloved of artists and poets, but denied ports,
navigable rivers, canals, mines, fertility, or those other
70tural gifts which are the usual foundation of the
prosperity of other civilized States. Yet from among
those sterile rocks there are yearly exported industrial
21.
products not only in excess in value of all the importations
of the cantons (including the two hundred and odd millions
of francs' worth of goods which they purchase from France
alone), but more than sufficient also to cover the cost of
internal administration. Industrial education alone can
claim the credit of elevating this nation—which in former
times cultivated mercenary warfare as its sole occupation—
to the first rank in those manufacturing industries requiring
individual skill and intelligence.
I cannot more forcibly close this section of my report
than by the following quotation from the work of the
eminent Scientist, engineer, builder and educator of Great
Britain, J. Scott Russell, on SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCA-
TION FOR THE ENGLISH PEOPLE, 1869:
‘‘I may add that in every country where technical education has taken root
and had time to bear fruit, I also find unquestionable proofs of the rapidity with
which increased intelligence and enlarged knowledge bring increase in employ-
ment and remuneration. From my personal experience, I may say that within
the last twenty-five years I have seen large branches of commercial trade leave
one Country and plant themselves in another, because the workers of the one
were educated and those of the other uneducated. And I have watched nations
rising into importance and power by education and by the order, organization
and efficiency which education bestows; and other nations lagging behind and
losing their place by reason of their unwillingness to educate either the higher
or lower classes of their people.” (P. 76.)
DEWELOPMENT OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED
STATES,
If the results of an educational system can be ascer-
tained from a close inspection of those industries in which
the mass of a country's population is engaged, and in
which their knowledge is displayed by the fruits of their
labor, it will be found that the national system of popular
education in the United States fails entirely in accomplish-
ing its mission, in several important particulars. For ex-º
America, fail to pre-
ample, in the public schools our youth are, as a rule, ...”
entirely untaught in even the rudiments of industrial
22 t |
School training
should be supple-
mented by techni-
cal knowledge.
Public Schools"
turn Out CODSull-
ers, not producers.
occupations, and upon passing from the school-room are
generally utterly incompetent, unassisted, to earn a liveli-
hood in any trade or pursuit requiring manual dexterity.
Even our high schools leave their graduates to drift, by
accident or unintelligent direction, into avocations gener-
ally foreign to their abilities, and, as a rule, with few ex- .
ceptions, unequipped with that character of knowledge or
expertness without which a comfortable living becomes
difficult—prominence impossible. It is commonly accepted
as fact that a good elementary education such as is
afforded by our public-school system gives a child that
which will carry it well along in life; but this is true only
of agricultural, or at most of sparsely settled districts,
and is then true only within limitations. In the crowded
countries of Europe, and in our own Eastern and Middle
States—wherein labor and industrial problems already
closely approximate those in Europe—there is an in-
creasing recognition of the fact that, though good school
tuition is always important, to be effective it must be
supplemented by such technical knowledge and training as
will enable the student to survive in the battle for ex-
istence—which is deadliest in those sections where dense -
populations cause the sharpest and most active competi-
tion. In other words, the tendency of our public schools
is—by elevating pupils above their actual or probable .
stations in life, and prompting in them desires and aspira-
tions of which there is little chance of fruition—to turn
out a large class of consumers, who fail utterly of success
in the professions and kindred occupations, under condi-
tions which, had their efforts been directed to mechanical
or other industrial pursuits, would have made them efficient
producers. Most of the education acquired under our com-
mon-school system is temporary and only preparatory for
23
such higher studies as do result in business qualifications;
whereas, to be of immediate benefit to the masses, school
education should of itself give the graduate an earning
capacity. Says Judge MacArthur, in a recent and inter-
esting treatise on popular education : “To graduate one
taught to think only, is like sending a ship to Sea in charge
of a navigator, without a single person on board who can
understand or execute his commands.”
Knowledge and mental discipline alone do not con-
stitute all of education. To be practical and useful tou.
On Should include
the cultivation Of
most of those who must earn their own livelihood, educa-ºrity.
tion must also afford physical dexterity, with special
reference to the industrial pursuits of life. As the result
of this absence of instruction of a practical character, a
remarkably small percentage of our public-school gradu-
ates in the Middle and in the Southern States engage in
any kind of manual labor.
Recognition of this lack of utility in our educational
system has, of late years, become quite general, resulting
in variously directed efforts to engraft upon our higher- EIighel' educa-
grade institutions industrial and scientific instruction, and tº
should combine in-
the colleges and schools whose curricula embrace those flºº.”
subjects which fit our boys and girls to participate in the
practical work of life are now rapidly increasing. There
have long existed in the United States a certain number of
educational institutions wherein special attention is given
to technical and scientific training in mining, civil and
mechanical engineering, applied mathematics, physics and
the natural Sciences, which are fully equal to the best of
similar Schools in Europe. Among the most prominent
of these are the School of Agriculture and Mechanical
Arts of Cornell University, the School of Mines of
Columbia College (N. Y.), the Massachusetts Institute of a;..."
Scientific instruc-
Technology, the Lawrence School of Science in connection”
24
Elementary
Science—how
taught in Our Col-
leges, academies
and high Schools.
Popularity of
Innanual training
Schools.
with the Harvard University, the Pardee Schools, the
Stevens Institute at Hoboken, the Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute, and the Sheffield School at Yale; but the high
tuition fees charged by these and similar schools make
instruction therein available only for the wealthier classes.
In addition to those institutions which afford special facili-
ties for advanced instruction and original research in science
and the mechanic arts, in most of the States elementary
science is now taught in numerous colleges, academies and
high schools. While this instruction, in point of cost and
preliminary educational qualifications, is generally within
the reach of the masses, the subjects taught and, as a
rule, the manner of teaching them, have but little practical
bearing on industrial pursuits. However, in the last few
years considerable progress has been made in introducing
a substantial help to industrial education—that of manual
training schools—and already their feasibility and desira-
bility as a feature of popular education have been practically
demonstrated. Well equipped schools of this character
are to be found in St. Louis, Chicago, Toledo, Philadelphia
and Boston.
The secret of the popularity of this kind of education
is to be found in the natural and practical combination it
makes of intellectual and manual training. Both thought
and action are developed equally, and the skill acquired
at school, together with the respect for industrial pursuits
there fostered, makes their pupils useful, wealth-producing
citizens.
The success of the manual-training schools at Chicago
and St. Louis, and most other points where inaugurated,
success depend has far exceeded the Sanguine expectations of their origi-
ent upon a thor-
Ough understand-
ing of objects for
Which the School
iS instituted.
nators. That our own Baltimore school, as appears by
the dissensions in its management, to which so much
25
publicity has recently been given, has not been equally
successful, simply proves that the objects for which it
was instituted, and the methods by which practical tech-
nical education is to be accomplished, have not been
understood by those controlling its policy and operations.
The results that have already been achieved elsewhere
by kindred schools prove that efforts to combine mental mº:
mental and manual
tº gº tº e tº º traini t Vision-
and manual training are not visionary, while the liberal.”
patronage which such schools, properly conducted, have
uniformly received, is abundant evidence of the demand
that exists for the training they afford. But these
schools can each provide for only two or three hundred
boys at most, while there are thousands more—equally
anxious to receive the same kind of instruction and equally
meritorious—who are denied, through lack of facilities,
their equal rights to public mechanical instruction.
A few years ago the United States Commissioner of
Education requested a number of large and experienced
employers of labor, and others qualified to form reliable
opinions on the subject, to express their views upon the
comparative value of educated and uneducated labor in
America. Answers were received from many men whose
acknowledged ability and experience entitle them to con-
sideration as authorities upon the subject of this report,
and I therefore invite your thoughtful perusal of the few
selected answers printed in Exhibit P. The evidence thus
accumulated by Commissioner Eaton shows a very general
concurrence on the part of our farsighted employers in the
foreign testimony above outlined; but there seems to be
far less appreciation in the minds of our statesmen and
educators of the fact that, by making public-school instruc-
tion—which has by elevating the general intelligence
measurably increased the productiveness and efficiency of
26
labor—preparatory to special technical training, they will
not only directly promote the nation's industries, but also
make general education far more popular with the masses.
Report of Mr.
Wm. Mather, of
England, on tech-
nical education in
the United States.
Pursuant to the idea of avoiding eac-parte evidence in
this report, in further analyzing the state of technical
education in the United States, I am fortunately able to
avail of the labors of Mr. William Mather, who, as the
representative of the British Royal Commissioners charged
with an examination into industrial and technical education
in America, patiently and exhaustively investigated, not
long ago, the educational and industrial institutions of the
United States. Mr. Mather is an accomplished expert in
technical education, and from no higher source could dis-
interested and unprejudiced testimony on the subject be
obtained. Extracts from his report are given as appendices,
and a few of his observations upon our educational system,
peculiarly pertinent, are here quoted.
Says Mr. Mather:
“It is much to be deplored that in the majority of institutions in America
where Science is taught in the abstract, there are no departments arranged for
such technical training as exists in some I have described.
“The demands made upon those which give technical instruction are greater
than they can Satisfy. This accounts for the high fees charged, and also for the
fact that the advantages of such technical schools are in the main confined to
the Sons of wealthy manufacturers or professional men.
* ::: º: ::: : : º: $ *::
“All these evidences of Scientific skill (American mechanical contrivances)
speak well for the methods of education in the recent past, so far as it goes; but
other influences, such as ‘necessity the mother of invention,” and the presence
in America of foreign experts, will account for much of the rapid growth in the
mechanic arts.
g % * * ::: ::: ::: º: $
“It is, of course, in the more recent structures and modern mechanical
appliances that the evidence of scientific truths and methods is observable.
The rough-and-ready contrivances of early railroad development indicate
originality and ‘mother wit’; but in the waste of material and crudeness of
design may be noticed the absence of technical or scientific training on the part
of those who conducted extensive engineering or mechanical operations in those
days. The gradual diffusion of science is very marked in the rapid reconstruc-
tion, during recent years, of the great railroads of the past, and in the new main
lines. Also, in railway plant generally the old is being replaced by the new,
and the latter exhibits high theoretical knowledge combined with practical
ingenuity. -
sº
:::
\
27
“The Americans undoubtedly owe to European engineers the rapid advance
they have been able to make in their public works. The conservation of water-
power for the use of the mills at Lowell and Lawrence, in Massachusetts, is due
to the eminent hydraulic engineer, Mr. Frances, an Englishman, who practised
for 40 years in America. The water-rights of a district are held in trust for the
whole community by a board or corporation elected for the purpose. The power
is distributed according to the share which may be purchased or rented by the
users, but regard is had to the rights of all, and its utilization requires great skill
and knowledge to prevent loss of power. Mr. Frances has had charge of this
important work for many years, and is deservedly esteemed as the highest
authority on hydraulic engineering in America. Although a lucrative field was,
in the early days, open to European engineers and machinists having a thorough
scientific knowledge of their profession, yet it is evident that they found apt
scholars, who, as they acquired some theoretical Science, launched out into new
paths untrammeled by the traditions of the older countries.
“It would appear that employers and foremen no longer value the labor of
boys under 17 years old in machine shops. There is, in fact, a marked dis-
couragement shown by managers of most of the works I have visited to the
employment of boys. The assistant manager of the Edgar Thompson Steel
Works “thinks boys under 18 years old ought to be at school.” He was educated
at the School of Mines, Columbia College. The whole tendency is to engage
boys as they do men, only for what they are worth. The evil of this will be
severely felt in the future, if not mitigated by great changes in education, for
the reason that many boys are obliged to leave school at 14 or 15, and if they are
not allowed to enter the skilled trades they will be thrown upon casual employ-
ments or unskilled pursuits for temporary gain and a livelihood. Thus a mass
of incompetent and unskilled laborers would grow up incapable of going out
West, and would become a drug upon the labor market of the East. It is un-
doubtedly a shortsighted policy on the part of employers to discourage the
employment of boys, without aiding those movements which, in the form of
industrial Schools, would enable a boy to qualify for service at 17 years old at
a higher rate of wages than he could probably get at that age but for this
training.
$: # # : # 3% # # $
“The future development of American industries will depend upon a population
not compelled to dare and endure and experimentalize for ‘very life.” In the
past the waste of material has been excessive. To make the best use of a given
quantity of material requires a sound knowledge of its properties and of its dis-
posal in the arts and manufactures by Scientific methods. In this direction the
technical and science schools already instituted have accomplished much in
providing foremen and managers, chemists, miners and intelligent employers in
the engineering and manufacturing industries. Some extensions of these institu-
tions are now being promoted. One significant indication of progress in this
direction was afforded me during my travels. I attended a convention of about
a thousand teachers, professors and principals of Schools and colleges, at Sara-
toga, and another similar gathering in the White Mountains. The discussion
of technical and industrial training was the chief feature of the conventions.
I was much impressed by the high qualities of culture and character which
distinguished this truly ‘Grand Army of the Republic’ in its 300,000 teachers,
as represented at these meetings. If this force should be directed by a change
of tactics, so to speak, in the Schools, to Scientific and technical instruction, and
to less concentration upon purely literary subjects, there can be no doubt that
America will solve the industrial-education question more rapidly than any
other country, and utilize it in the further development of her inexhaustible
I'êSOlll'CeS.
“It must not be supposed that Nature has bestowed her gifts over this continent
in such wise that they can be enjoyed without much skill and labor in the
28
gathering of them. No country offers more difficult problems to the engineer,
the agriculturist and the manufacturer. A climate of extremes; a scarcity of
water in the West ; the difficulties of cheap transport and distribution, all require
the highest qualities of Self-reliance and endurance, with Scientific knowledge,
in the progress of the future.
“It is remarkable that, in the great centres of the mining and iron-producing
districts, where also a large amount of mechanical construction is carried on, as,
for instance, in Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Philadelphia, so
little has been done by the owners of large establishments, or by the town or State
authorities, in the direction of technical schools or evening science schools.
These industries represent a large proportion of the working population in those
large cities, and yet the owners of works have to rely upon the scientific knowl-
edge obtained through many institutions remote from these districts. Pittsburgh
is lamentably devoid of facilities, either in the shape of libraries, museums,
Science Schools or technical Schools, notwithstanding that the manufacturers
have enjoyed the benefits of, and accumulated vast wealth from, highly protected
industry. There is not even a public library in the city, although there is a
population of about 200,000.
“In Cleveland a movement is being promoted to establish a technical school.
I have already stated that Chicago is building a manual-training school.
“It is a noteworthy fact that, among all the many munificent gifts which
have been made by private individuals for the cause of education, amounting in
the aggregate to many millions sterling, very few have emanated from those
who have derived their wealth from the scientific industries, all of which, have
been protected and owe much of their success to foreign skill. On the other
hand, merchants, bankers and professional men are largely represented in the
noble list of benefactors connected with some of the best educational institutions
of the country.
“I have not met with any institutions for technical training having any
bearing on the textile industries. The knowledge of chemistry acquired at the
Various institutions which I have described is, of course, utilized more or less in
dyeing, printing and bleaching; but there are no schools in which the knowledge
of the nature and qualities of fibres, and of the various processes in working up
the raw material — silk, cotton or flax-is taught. In all the manufactures
into which taste and design enter, the Americans have to rely almost entirely
upon European aid. It is intended, however, so I am privately informed, to
establish, in one of the centres of textile industry, a large institution in which a
thorough and comprehensive industrial training will be given in textile manu-
facturing, together with that theoretical knowledge which is necessary to the
production of the highest quality of fabrics. -
“I have not included the Southern States in my investigations by a personal
visit to the various important towns, for the reason that education, for the
present, is at a low ebb in that part of the country. There is, however, a very
strong movement already apparent for the promotion of mechanical and textile
industries in the South. The enormous resources of some of the States—Alabama,
for instance—where mineral wealth abounds, have attracted capital for the rapid
development of various manufactures. This, together with the proximity of the
cotton-growing districts, points to a development, in the near future, of many
industries which, until recently, were unknown in the South. * * * The
different colleges established by the assistance of the ‘Land Grant' appear to
have done good work, in connection with agriculture, in the South, in teaching
the elements of Science and in providing a liberal education for those students
whose means have enabled them to attend. The mechanical arts have had less
attention in Such colleges than in similar institutions in the North, in consequence
of the difference in the occupations of the people.
“The institutions for the advancement of the workpeople, other than schools
and colleges, are not numerous in America. The long hours of labor (at least
60 hours a week) leave but little leisure for the working classes either to study
{ 29
or to seek recreation. There is no half holiday on the Saturday. There are
no holidays during the year of more than one day at a time, and that only a few
times in the year. Libraries and reading-rooms, although amply provided in
most cities and towns, are not available as universally as in England. Clubs
and recreative institutions, promoted by the employers for the employed, are not
prevalent. There is not much interest manifested by employers generally in the
social condition of the people. This may be accounted for by the number of
joint-stock companies.”
If the few institutions affording technical education now
in operation in the United States have been able, in a
short time, to accomplish so much in those branches of
mechanical industry in which Americans are confessedly
pre-eminent, as is shown in the testimony from which
extracts are appended to this report; if, through our
inventive and mechanical ingenuity we are, as Mr. Mather
and other intelligent foreigners say, taking high rank in
those arts and manufactures to which fertility of resource
and invention is most effectively applied—and that, too,
notwithstanding our totally inadequate provision for in-
dustrial education—with what hope might we not look
forward to equal or greater pre-eminence in other arts and
industries of which their technical schools have given
foreign countries a practical and profitable monopoly 7
That our national prosperity has been greatly promoted -
by the pre-eminence of certain of our manufactures in the our º,
markets of the world is undeniable, but that this successful *::::::::::
competition has been due not to the superior intellectual”
cultivation, or even the manual skill, of our native artisans,
but to very different causes—such as abundance and quality
of crude material; superior facilities for economical manu-
facture; the aid of imported skill, and those natural and
untaught qualities to which Mr. Mather and others pay
such high tribute—is likewise easily demonstrable; and it
is sad to reflect what greater success might have been
achieved by combining therewith that high degree of
intelligence and skill that European nations, under the
*. 30
compulsion of competition, are sedulously cultivating in
Achievements of
industrial schools
in Europe show
What might be
accomplished by
Similar Schools in
U. S.
their industrial classes. We must soon place greater
dependence upon the quality, finish and unique designs
of our exported products for success in unprotected
foreign fields, and it will be well for us to profit now by
the experience of our rivals across the Atlantic. It is
wiser and cheaper to discount defeat than to repair its
effects. The season of prosperity is the best time to
provide against the depression which, with certainty,
follows; and the knowledge and skill of the specialist are
most efficiently and economically applied to an industry in
its infancy or when it is in a depressed condition.
From the foregoing it will be noted that the careful,
thorough and extensive investigations of the English
Government, supplemented by the published observations
of individual students of recognized ability and accuracy,
have resulted in the uniform testimony that polytechnic
and other science schools in Europe and the United States
have, without exception, stimulated national and local
industries, manufactures and trades, and, in a large pro-
portion of instances, have transplanted or developed new
industries. Even the few—and not selected—illustrations
of this fact which the compass of this report permits to
be made therein, bear forcible testimony to the achieve-
ments of such schools [Exhibits F, O, and Q], and are sug-
gestive of the profit which our more populous districts—
and especially those seaboard cities which, as the termini of
our great trunk lines, become the focus for many manu-
facturing, mechanical and other interests dependent upon
the products which they transport—might derive from
the investment of a reasonable amount of corporate and
individual wealth in the establishment of similar schools,
adapted, of course, to the wants of our peculiar industries
and institutions.
31
While it may be said, with some show of truth, that
the most practical technical schools are great workshops, m.º.º.;
2 In Ot, COmbine men-
tail and malnual
still the ordinary workshop does not yet combine mental tºur
instruction with manual training, while our science teach- ; too
ing is of too high a grade to be assimilable by the ordinary
mechanic and mechanical apprentice, and is too theoretical
to be adaptable to the current work of our shops. Not
only is there too little application of science to our various
handicrafts, but there is, for the most part, a sad lack
of intelligent effort to teach apprentices in our work-
shops that manual dexterity which, at least, they are
supposed therein to acquire. Now that the old system of
apprenticeship is rapidly becoming obsolete, the question, sº;
ed to take place of
of what shall take its place in the way of educating and ...;"
training the youth of our working classes becomes an
important consideration for all who are interested in our
national welfare and in the development of our industries
Skilled labor must be had from some source, and we can-
not afford to import it in bulk, if for no other reason than
its expensiveness. Our own people have the first claim
upon our industrial occupations, but if we are to compete How to make our
for foreign trade they must be so trained as to make and :*
keep them, in knowledge and skill, at least the equals of IO €ll.
foreign workmen. The most practical way of affording
them this training is to build up special low-grade science
schools, where the instruction shall be of such a character
as will directly bear upon our arts and manufactures; for
if any lesson can be drawn from the study of technical
education abroad, it is that progress and success are most
readily and cheaply attained by means of combined theo-
retical and practical instruction, and that our designers,
our superintendents and our foremen, at least, should be
scientifically and practically trained experts. [Exhibit
G.]
32
Without dwelling further upon this point, however, the
foregoing and the several exhibits hereto sufficiently dem-
onstrate how much the United States already owe to
those schools wherein the application of science to the
mechanic and useful arts is practically taught [Exhibit Q];
as also that, as a people, we have been singularly backward
in discovering how potential a factor in internal politics and
in our domestic and foreign trade relations the systematic
cultivation of our laboring classes in technological knowl-
edge could be made.
It is obvious that to supply the missing link in our sys-
tem of national education there must be either a modifica-
tion of the curriculum of our public schools, as suggested
tº by Mr. Mather, or we must establish schools intermediate
System. between our grammar Schools on the one hand and our
high Schools, academies and colleges on the other; which,
while affording our youth those opportunities and facilities
for technical instruction that are absolutely necessary to the
development and success of many languishing industrial and
manufacturing interests, will also fit them for the higher
duties of American citizenship.
In 1880 the United States contained 189,000 elementary
schools, having 9,720,000 pupils. Our national and State
..º.º.º. expenditures for the support of public schools now largely
cation. exceed $100,000,000 per annum, and the value of our
school property is not less than $200,000,000. These
expenditures exceed those of England and Wales nearly
five times, and those of France nearly four times. In the
number of pupils and the expenditure of money on our
public schools we lead the world, and yet neither our
State nor national appropriations in aid of industrial
education for the working classes have been sufficient to
make more than an impression upon the great mass of
technically uneducated labor of the country. [Exhibit L.]
33
Says Judge MacArthur, in his excellent work on Edu-
cation in its Relation to Industry:
“To compete successfully with foreign work we must have a class of artisans
as highly cultivated in workmanship as those we import from over the sea, and
this skill can be acquired only by practice in their respective handicrafts. It is
true that with us applied science and mechanical powers have superseded, in a
great uneasure, the burden of heavy labor; but the quick eye, the expert hand
and the acute taste can never be dispensed with in the manual processes of the
arts and manufactures. To meet this imperative demand for first-class work-
men, without submitting to the exactions and competition of foreign work, we
must educate the constructive ability of our youth during the period of life
which is now devoted to study alone. We have developed, in a high degree,
the arts of manufacture, but we are nearly without any American artisans in
the trades connected with design, and are consequently deprived of the acknowl-
edged sharpness and ingenuity of our countrymen in helping on American
industries. This wide and remunerative field of labor is left to be occupied by
partly educated and skilled foreigners. We have excellent schools for all sorts
of instruction in the essentials of mathematics, history, literature and philosophy,
º we fit nobody with either skill or knowledge in any particular habit of
industry.
“The period seems to have arrived when institutions of industrial science and
education can no longer be postponed in our country, and when they must be
tried on as extensive a scale as those witnessed abroad. There seems no reason
why the institutional system should not be adapted to the tradesman, the artisan
and the manufacturer, as well as to the more pedantic professions, in which men
are so thoroughly trained. The reform of our taste has commenced by the
purifying influence which proceeds from, and which will gradually make its way
through, the community from the universal teaching of drawing. An appeal
must now be made in behalf of teaching the processes of production, as well as
the principles which shall guide the work. The use of tools and machinery does
not come by intuition, and industrial knowledge ought to include instruction in
their use.”
With a very few exceptions there is, in our country, a
g tº e tº e A * º
conspicuous absence of institutions for combined generalcºhºlia.
e gº * & ... tions for COmbined
and mechanical education of the character which, in general and nº
* e d ſº a Challical education.
France, Germany and in other Continental nationalities, are *
regarded as the great source of national wealth, and which
are beginning to play a most important part in the promo-
tion of those trades and manufactures with which England
is coming to the front. *
Though Congress, by its act, approved July 2, 1862,
setting aside a large portion of the territorial wealth of the
nation for industrial education, inaugurated a sagacious
scheme for “teaching the processes of production,” and nº.
ing for industrial
their underlying principles, which, wisely and emergetically º
34
followed up, would in a short time have placed the United
States in the foremost rank of civilized nations in the
theoretical knowledge and skilled training of its work-
people, and have developed many old and created new
industries, thereby more rapidly enriching the country,
most of the provision made by that act for industrial
and scientific teaching of the masses has, by reason of
the paramount importance attached to agriculture in most
sections, been absorbed in the endowment of agricultural
colleges—so called. Whilst these colleges, as first con-
lººs templated, were to have departments for teaching mechanic
... trades, most of them have drifted away altogether from
“"“ the original intention of the authors of the act, and there
is in them, generally, little or no effort to combine
theoretical instruction with practical mechanical training
in other than those branches of knowledge closely related
to agricultural pursuits. Much remains to be done before
they can be of any material advantage to manufacturers
and others requiring skilled labor. If their managers are
to fulfil the design of Congress, they must, much more
than at present, turn their attention to the training of
experts in mechanical and industrial arts; for it is only
in schools devoted to instruction of this character that the
poor youth of our country can obtain such instruction
and training as will enable them to acquire and maintain that
supremacy over foreign rivals in important arts and manu-
factures to which our many advantages entitle us. It is
true that agricultural colleges have, per se, a great mission
to fulfil, especially in our Western and Southern sections;
but as Congress, by express terms, provided and intended
jºin its appropriation of school lands to inure to the advantage
...”* of all industries equally, and as many important interests
of the country require that technological instruction
35
should be placed above mere dependence upon individual
support, the remodeling of those colleges is necessary to
bring them into harmony with national legislation, and
such action would probably stimulate State and muni-
cipal authorities to effectively supplement national appro-
priations. l
At present our most efficient institutions for affording tech-ºº:
are those Sustained
by endowment of
nical education are those established and sustained, wholly; ºis,
or in part, by the endowments of private individuals. It is
not to be inferred, however, that this assertion implies that
Government and State schools might not be made equally—
and even more—efficient than similar private institutions.
But it happens that, as a rule, endowments have been left
under conditions and instructions more specific than in the
case of Government and State grants, and have therefore
been less easily diverted from their legitimate objects, and
are, besides, less susceptible to those influences which with
us almost uniformly prostitute public educational funds to
political or sectional purposes. Still it is a stern fact that
should be recognized by all would-be founders of educa-
tional institutions, that this character of trust. especially, aº
Ynol's executing
affords much opportunity for misapplication, even under ºwn "nº
the most carefully guarded legal phraseology, and that
the most conscientious trustees and managers are not
proof against the temptation of construing, and even
forcing the construction of ambiguous terms, in harmony
with their individual predilections. Moral – Execute
your own benefactions, •, ->
In just what manner private appropriations and city
systems of public instruction should deal with industrial
education is a grave problem, but the labors of the Bureau
of Education at Washington have resulted in the collation
of a mass of data, not only upon the needs of the country
36
Collclusions of
Dr. Philbrick upon
the Sułyject of
Industrial educa-
tion in the U. S.
in this regard, but also in reference to the many experi-
ments and efforts (mostly successful) to inaugurate tech-
nical education in various localities, that will greatly
aid in its solution. Among other of this Bureau's reports,
Circular of Information No. 1, 1885, containing the obser-
vations and views of John D. Philbrick, LL.D., State
Superintendent of Public Instruction in Connecticut and,
later, Superintendent of Boston Schools, upon the city-
school systems in the United States, is of special value
and interest to boards of education, school superintendents
and educators generally. Extracts from those pages of his
report devoted to the consideration of industrial educa-
tion, and the necessity for it in the United States, are
appended hereto, and their careful perusal is earnestly
recommended. [Exhibit N.] -
Summing up his conclusions as to what should be done
for industrial education by city systems of public instruc-
tion, Dr. Philbrick says:
” Without abating our zeal or contracting our scheme of provision for general
education, there remains much to be done by our city-School systems in pro-
viding that kind of instruction and training which fits persons, in part at least,
for some particular mode of gaining a livelihood. The provisions for this pur-
pose which seem desirable in the present stage of pedagogical experience and
opinion are here briefly enumerated :
“(1) A modification of the curriculum of elementary instruction which will
render it better, not only for the purposes of general education, but also better
as a direct preparation for many industrial pursuits. This modification consists,
in brief, in throwing overboard a considerable mass of the useless details of Some
of the branches now taught, in applying more practical and comprehensive
methods of teaching all the subjects, while always aiming at the shortest and
most direct means of communicating and enabling the pupils to acquire useful
knowledge, and at the same time ignoring processes and exercises merely for
the sake of what is called symmetrical development of the mental faculties; thus
making room for drawing (both freehand and mechanical), the rudiments of
bookkeeping, the rudiments of practical geometry, physics, chemistry and
natural history, modeling and carving for boys, needlework for girls. I omit
the workshop for boys, because I think that up to fourteen years of age the
above studies, in connection with gymnastics, would be more profitable as a
preparation for apprenticeship, and I think boys ought to complete their ele-
mentary education at fourteen years of age, and, if they have not, the more
reason why they should not then divide school work with shop work.
“(2) To teach girls, in all grades of public instruction, Sewing and cutting
and fitting, and, besides, special schools should be established for instruction
in the advanced branches of needlework, cutting and fitting, and perhaps
millinery.
--- 37
“(3) To establish everywhere, in small cities as well as large, thoroughly
equipped evening industrial drawing schools. |
“(4) Evening high schools should be widely disseminated, giving instruction
in more or less technical branches, such as bookkeeping, commercial arithmetic,
Stenography, practical geometry, drawing, etc.
“(5) Evening schools devoted exclusively to technical branches, like those
in France.
“(6) To establish in the larger cities one or more apprentice Schools like that
in Paris, on the Boulevard de la Villotte.
“(7) The establishment of simple manual-training schools, as they may be
required, like those in New Haven, Boston, and Peru, Ill., for boys who have
completed their elementary studies and for boys already in the grammar
schools who wish to attend them out of school hours, whether in the evening
or daytime.
“(8) To establish in the larger cities manual-training Schools, after the
pattern of the St. Louis school and the school of mechanics connected with the
Boston Institute of Technology.
“(9) The general establishment of schools of practical cookery for girls, after
the pattern of those which have been so successful in the city of London.”
Reference has been made to departments in our principal
universities for technical and scientific training in mining,
civil and mechanical engineering, physics, and the natural
sciences, and to other and more directly technological insti-
tutions for teaching low-grade science, and the character
and plan of instruction therein pursued are illustrated at
length in the appendix [Exhibit L]; but all these schools
and departments, aggregated, are insignificant in number, present provis.
and in most of them instruction in the mechanical arts hasº"
not been strictly adhered to, having been obscured by"
the literary and art-science sides of education, as therein
taught. That this tendency is a very grave danger in
technological schools generally, is very apparent from a tº ig-
study of those in England, where most of the institutions.”
established purely and simply for technical instruction are
already drifting into devotion for the higher branches of
the natural sciences and mathematics, to the exclusion of
drawing, applied science, and mechanical teaching.
Judge MacArthur says that while we have schools for
all sorts of instruction in mathematics, history, literature
and philosophy in abundance, they fit nobody with either
knowledge or skill in any particular branch of industry.
38
In the absence of provision for manual training and for a
practical application of theoretical knowledge there is, of
Lack Of mall ual
training.
Schools devOted
to mathematics,
philosophy, litera-
ture, etc., Create
distaste for
manual labor.
course, no acquisition of skill, but there is a notable
tendency to beget dislike for those pursuits that require
manual labor. It is high time that those interested in
public education should display a danger signal in con-
nection with our national system of elementary educa-
tion, which also drifts to the literary side with a
rapidity that should alarm our social economists. The
storing of the memory with a multitude of extracts from .
books which, for a brief period after school life, may
be retained and repeated as a proof of education, is alto-
gether misleading and useless for boys and girls who must
face the stern realities of making their own living. The
character of teaching in the public schools of America is .
rapidly creating a distaste for manual work and industrial
pursuits in general, and it would be well for our public
teachers to make an earnest attempt to modify their
instruction, in the direction of devoting more time to sub-
jects of a practical nature, thereby promoting tastes for
Defects in exist-
ing schools afford-
ing industrial
training. .
Too expensive.
industrial pursuits based upon knowledge of the principles
of the natural sciences applicable thereto.
Reviewing briefly the voluminous data showing the
status of technical training in the United States, it is to
be noted that, while provision for some kind of industrial
education is now made in many of our universities and
colleges, it fails to meet the greatest demands of the times
in the following respects:
1.—The instruction is too expensive for workpeople.
But few of our mechanics and artisans could afford to pay
the high tuition and meet the other necessary expenses,
even if they had the means of support during the three
or four years necessary to complete the course of instruc-
tion.
!
2.—The course of studies in these institutions is much
too far advanced for the mass of our people—the con- Beyond reach of
ditions of admission being so rigid and far-reaching that workpeºple.
only those persons who have already had superior school
facilities are able to comply with them. Hence most of
those universities and colleges that do make some pro-
vision for technical training are practically closed to the
great majority of our laboring classes, who, being unable
to pass examination on all the numerous subjects required
for admission, are excluded from any of their departments
of study. There are also radical defects in present
methods of ascertaining the fitness of young people for pur-
suing technical studies. Those methods generally only
develop how much cramming has been done by and for
the candidates, whereas far greater consideration should be
given the native ability, the previous educational facilities,
the present circumstances, and the probable future career
of the applicants. Many who, from lack of preliminary
training, may not be able to take up and complete all of
a prescribed course might still make good headway in
special studies, if they could only be admitted to the classes.
3.—The instruction in most of our institutions is too Too theoretical.
theoretical. In order to benefit workmen and employers
it should be better adapted to practical ends. Students in
industrial classes should have greater facilities for visiting
shops, factories and mines, and for studying their opera-
tions, and should be examined with reference to their pro-
ficiency in applying scientific principles to the numerous
mechanical processes they witness, just as students of
botany visit fields and forests and study flowers and plants,
or as students of medicine go to the dissecting room to
learn the human body, and to the laboratory for practical
study of chemical compounds. For a mechanic to be able
40
Students not
taught to Observe
alld to ClO.
AbsellCe Of
e Welling Schools.
to dissect a machine that he has to run and keep in order,
and to understand the nature of the material of which it
is made and the office of each part, so as to be able to take
the machine apart, mend that which is broken or out of
shape, and put the whole together again, is just as essen-
tial as that the surgeon should understand the materials,
construction and functions of the human body, in order to
repair it intelligently and well. But the students in most
of our college classes know machinery only as they see
cuts of it in their text-books. They study about wheels
and pulleys and levers and screws, but rarely see them in
operation. They learn the laws of electric force, without
acquiring the mechanical power to properly arrange a
battery when the materials are put into their hands.
They learn the formulae of chemistry, but are unable to
undertake the simplest experiments without endangering
their own lives and those of others.
4.—Another important deficiency is the absence of pro-
vision for evening instruction of the masses of mechanics
who are compelled to labor during the day for the support
of themselves and families, many of whom would gladly
attend evening classes for theoretical instruction, if acces-
sible at reasonable cost. That this is true is proven by
the large number of workmen in Europe and in sections
of our own country who, of their own accord, attend
evening classes when opened in technical schools, univer-
sities, etc. That many of these men and boys make
commendable progress in their studies, even after working
hard all day, is shown by the testimony of those having
charge of such classes. Those of our colleges and univer-
sities having class-rooms, laboratories, apparatus and
libraries already equipped could, generally, without great
expense, make arrangements for evening classes. In Owens
ar
41
*
College, Manchester, an institution of about the same rank pººls
in Owens College,
London Polytech-
as the Johns Hopkins University, several of the instructors;
- tº ſº & tº COOpel: Iustitute,
of the day classes also give instruction to evening students, of New York.
who number about six hundred. The class-rooms of the
Polytechnic Institute at Regent Circus, London, are
crowded to their utmost capacity every evening of the
school year by young men and middle-aged mechanics
who spend the day at work in shops. This school has
accommodations for about three thousand students, and
hundreds of applicants are refused admission every year
because there is no room for them. Many who do gain
admission to the classes succeed in passing the Government
examination in Science, or the city and guilds examination
in technology. The fact that hundreds of workpeople in
our own country avail themselves, with great profit, of
the evening instruction afforded at Cooper Institute, New
York [Exhibit Lj, and at the few other evening schools
of merit in our cities, adds to the proof that there is a
demand for increased facilities for practical instruction in
evening classes.
In a recent special and comprehensive report on the
present status of industrial education in the United States
—from which I have gained much information—the Com-
missioner of Education at Washington says:
“The manufacturer is aided by industrial education through the improvement ...
of his products. His success depends on the demand for his goods at reasonablem.....".
prices. This demand is regulated by the needs of customers. They ask for cation, Washim.
durability of material, attractiveness of design and excellenge of workmanship tº upon indus-
in whatever they purchase for permanent use. Manufacturers’ business improves * *
as they become possessed of these and similar qualities, which can be economically
secured only by the application of technical knowledge. Durability arises from
excellence of raw material, and is retained by the selection of the right processes
by which to convert it into the state in which it finally appears. The quality of
raw material is not unfrequently to be determined by chemical tests, and many
of the processes of its manufacture are regulated by chemical principles. The
science which guides in the determination of these processes must be the one
which will lead to their improvement and perfection. Hence courses in chemistry
are established in our principal polytechnic schools, as well as in colleges of .
agriculture (to which science chemistry makes liberal contribution), and in
42
f
schools of mining and metallurgy. For a similar purpose engineers are taught
to determine the strength of materials used in building railroads and bridges,
houses and, machines. Investigations in the domain of physics and chemistry
have frequently taught the skillful application of new and Serviceable agents to
the production of labor. Men thus taught have laid out our railways, opened
our mines, started and improved our manufactories and built our houses. They
have aided in increasing our industries 35 per cent. in the last decade and in
compelling an English confession that ‘the United States will probably pass us in
the ensuing decade' in the value of her industries. -
“The elevation of the working classes is an inevitable result of educating
them in industries. The direct effect upon the intellect is great and beneficial.
The immediate moral influence is of the best. A manly feeling is awakened and
kept alive by the consciousness of power and skill to do. An incentive to fru-
gality and enterprise is set forth. It has been laid down as a rule by Prof.
Edward Atkinson that—
“‘Other things being equal, high wages, coupled with low cost, are the necessary
result of the most intelligent, application of machinery by the arts, provided the
education of the operative keeps pace with the improvement.of the machinery.”
“Industrial education dignifies labor as well as opens doors to its skillful and
remunerative performance. If labor has a noble end and purpose ; if it employs
intellect ; if it abundantly rewards its servants, then it is worthy to be crowned.
“The perfection of our manufactures, the facilitating of commerce, the un-
earthing of mineral wealth, the economizing of the fertility of farms, the dis-
semination of practical knowledge—these are ends which are being served by
the graduates of our industrial institutions. These ends do not lack nobility.
These forms of labor require the exercise of high intellectual powers. The
attainments are of no mean order which enable a man to perform the great feats
of engineering for which our country is becoming known, or which are required
of superintendents of extensive factories. Even the doing of a single thing
understandingly and well brings the doer respect from himself and his neighbor,
and dignifies his calling. ‘It is the privilege of any human work which is well
done,’ says Emerson, to invest the doer with a certain haughtiness. He can
well afford not to conciliate whose faithful work will answer for him.” *
“The diminution of crime is to be expected from the diffusion of industrial
education. The percentage of criminals who have received even the elements of
an education is small. An authority on the subject has said that “one-third of
all criminals are totally uneducated, and that four-fifths are practically unedu-
cated.” Yet when the relative number of convicts who are illiterate is compared
with the number of those who have not learned a trade, it is found to be much
smaller. It is stated by Dr. Wines that in Baden only 4 per cent. of the prisoners
are unable to read when received, and that they are for the most part fond of
reading, but that 50 per cent. have not learned a trade ; in Bavaria, 12 per cent.
are illiterate, 29 per cent. ignorant of a trade. Mr. Charles F. Thwing a few
years since claimed that 60 per cent. of the inmates of the Michigan State Prison
had no trade, while less than 25 per cent. could not read, write and cipher ; that
in the Prison of Minnesota, 37 of 235 prisoners could not read and write, 130
never learned any business; and that in the Iowa Penitentiary the ratio of
illiterate convicts to those unskilled in a trade was about 1 to 6.
“Whatever may be the reliability of these figures, it cannot be denied that the
lack of technical training is a prolific cause of crime. This lack is being Sup-
plied to some extent by some recently established schools, which both afford
ºpºrtunities for such training and draw public attention to the existing need
of it. --
‘‘The introduction of industrial features into educational institutions has a
tendency to relieve education of the accusation that it is unpractical. There are
those that ask of our schools more than they are intended to furnish. Their
43
voice in years past called into being manual-labor and half-time schools. Since
the failure of these means to realize the expectations of their advocates, believers
in education for industrial labors have been uncertain what course to adopt in
carrying out their views. Now, it may be said with safety that the mass of .
citizens are convinced that the educational systems and institutions of th
country are above reproach, and will be modified by the introduction of new
features as they are needed. A minority are disposed to be critical and assert
that education is unwisely conducted, and that governmental aid might be
applied more reasonably to the establishment of public farms and workshops
for training purposes than to public schools. s
“Finally, protection to American institutions demands the industrial educa-
tion of our youth, that they may carry our ideas of obedience to law and our
republican principles into the midst of the multitude of foreigners that crowd
our factories and our mines and perform much of our labor.
“Ours is a peculiar nation. In it the principles of morality prevailing in
civilized countries are upheld with warmth and reason. Our political principles
are distinctive and characteristic. Daniel Webster enumerated them in one of
his great speeches. They are the establishment of popular government on the
basis of representation; the recognition of the will of the majority, fairly ex-
pressed, as having the force of law ; the supremacy of law as the rule of govern-
ment for all, and the existence of written constitutions founded on the authority
of the people. He asserted his belief that the influence of town meetings in
which American principles were recognized and followed, made those who went
from them to dig gold in California more fit to make a republican government
than any body of men in Germany or Italy.” If there be added to the lessons
of our political gatherings and elections education in the essentials of govern-
ment, instruction in the sciences contributing to human prosperity, familiarity
with the languages of civilization, sound rules for the conduct of life, and training
for an ennobling and enriching occupation, then American youth will be prepared
oftener to fill leading places in industries, will win respect for their skill, learn-
ing and wisdom, and, being respected and trusted, will be enabled to enshrine
American liberty more securely in the hearts of laboring men. So our land shall
be the home of a safe and permanent nation, ‘where an industrious population
advances like a victorious army, where the poor find work, the laborer becomes
a proprietor, the proprietor grows rich, and all have the hope of a prosperous
future,’ and the ends of our industrial education will be accomplished.”
Common sense and experience combine in declaring that,
to attain to eminence in science, art or literature, nations
and communities must make liberal provision for institu-
tions devoted to their study and investigation. A rudi-
mentary principle of political economy is that, in direct
proportion as money is invested in the endowment of such
institutions with free professorships and scholarships, and
the means for original research and experimentation, is its
value compounded by their rapid advancement in those
branches of knowledge which are the foundation of
national prosperity. In recognition of this principle, the
several States of the Union have not been backward in
endowing universities and colleges devoted to the study
44.
l)evelopment of
flew ill Cluštries.
The useful altS
the foll ladlation of
industrial Gnter-
|) rise.
and investigation of one or more special subjects, and the
natural increase of those institutions is sure to provide for
the maintenance and the reasonable advancement of our
literary and abstruse scientific status among the nations.
Let greater provision, therefore, be made for the practical
application of scientific and technical knowledge to our
useful arts and trades, which are languishing in every
branch. Whatever the cause of this depression may be,
improvement in the quality of our products would go far
towards stimulating demand and in restoring prosperity,
just as it has done abroad in less favored localities and
under more adverse circumstances. Besides, there are
numerous new industries awaiting development and the
assistance which technical knowledge alone can give.
Society tires of the old and a depression in business.
ensues; it clamors for the mew and novel, in which, when
produced, it is always ready to invest millions; thus
affording employment to many workmen, the disbursement
of whose earnings in sustenance, clothing and shelter for
their families has a far-reaching effect in stimulating other
industries. Witness the application of the recent dis-
coveries and inventions in the domain of electricity.
It has been shown that, in Germany, France, Switzer-
land, Belgium, Holland, and, later, in England, the pro-
motion of the useful arts is acknowledged to be of the first
importance, as lying at the foundation of all industrial
enterprises, and in all those countries many of their ablest
citizens devote their lives and scientific knowledge to
improving methods of manufacture and the attractiveness
and utility of staple products; to the discovery of new
designs and to the origination of new industries; while
great polytechnic and less pretentious institutes exercise a
healthy and stimulating influence in the same direction.
45
A respectable class of our citizens, both young and old, ºn tº
applied science
and technical turts
men of ability, devote themselves to a single branch or .
phase of literature, the ornamental arts and the pure
sciences, while, considering the size and population of our
country, the number who devote themselves from similar
motives to applied science, technical arts and education—
i. e., not related to the social professions and fine arts—is
really insignificant. When, in addition to some such plan
as that outlined by Dr. Philbrick, our agricultural colleges
are given the breadth, and are equally devoted to the several
branches of instruction, intended by Congress; and when,
by the rearrangement of present and the establishment of
additional polytechnic schools, sufficient industrial instruc-
tion is afforded to meet even present needs and demands,
the more important, at least, of our industrial trades will
take their true positions as of equal respectability and
value as the professions and the higher commercial pur-
suits, and then the (to us now utopian) condition will be
fulfilled when our mechanics and artisans, like the peasants
around Groningen, can cast “compassionate glances at all
that population of shopkeepers, clerks, professors, officials
and proprietors who, in other countries, are envied by
those who till the ground, but here are regarded by them *
in the light of poor people.”
INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL NEEDS OF BALTIMORE,
The foregoing statement of the development and present comparison of
condition of technical education, abroad and in the United º
States, though only a brief and incomplete historical sketch,
affords a basis for comparing Baltimore, commercially and
mechanically, with other localities where higher scientific
methods are practised in corresponding industries. Such a
46
comparison seems absolutely necessary to awaken an in-
terest in, and a demand for, more thorough and widespread
scientific knowledge, the power and effects of which, in the
arts, manufactures and trades, are portrayed in the preceding
pages of this report; for it is to be observed that where
the lack of scientific instruction and technical training is
greatest, the want of it is least likely to be felt by those
who are deficient in it. Realization of the need is gener-
ally followed by sufficient agitation to secure it.
It must be painfully apparent to a large number of our
business men, as well as to other thoughtful citizens that,
notwithstanding her superior natural and artificial advan-
º' tages and resources, Baltimore is not only not progressing,
as compared with even less favored sections, but is not
maintaining her former position in the commercial and
manufacturing world. Whatever the causes of the general
apathy that is paralyzing her business enterprises may be,
they must be analyzed, the facts brought to light and their
uſ.” effects understood, before intelligent measures can be de-
vised for producing a different state of affairs. Although
it is never an agreeable task to criticise, in any relation,
the community in which one lives, yet here, as in surgery,
the diseased part must be bared and its condition made
manifest before proper remedial measures can be deter-
mined. The interests of our service are so interwoven with
the commercial prosperity of Baltimore; the poverty of her
youth in intellectual attainments and mechanical skill has
been so painfully manifested in the preliminary examina-
sºlº tions held the past year in connection with the technological
;..."; classes at Mt. Clare, as well as in the current mechanical
Baltimore. operations of the service that, in view of the intimate
relations that must always exist between the educational
facilities of the city and any technological institution that
Not an agreeable
task to criticise.
47
may be established within or near its boundaries, a dis-
cussion, in this report, of the needs of the city in the
matter of technical instruction and its advantages, be-
comes pertinent—indeed necessary. Neither from profes-
sional education nor experience am I able to treat the
subject exhaustively. But what is hereinafter cited is
patent even to superficial observation, and if, through
this citation, such general interest can be awakened in
Baltimore as shall result in placing her industrial and
technical educational facilities—which are of paramount
importance to her prosperity—upon a par with those
offered by rival cities, a great boom will have been con-
ferred upon the community in general, and the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad Company and all our other manufac-
turing corporations will enjoy the reflex advantages accru-
ing from the increased intelligence and skill that her
working-people will soon acquire.
If those public-spirited citizens who recognize our defi-
ciencies in this respect, and whose professional or business
attainments place their qualifications and motives beyond
cavil, can be induced to unite in devising and in securing,
Necessity of uni-
edi eſſort to restore
the acceptance of an intelligent and practical measure for Pºpe".
reviving and extending the industrial interests of the city,
its commercial and manufacturing advantages are unques-
tionably such that it would soon not only recover its lost
prestige, but would rapidly advance beyond the prosperity
of many of its now successful competitors. At this time
there are indications of the birth of a new South—a
South that shall become famous and wealthy, through the
development of its immense resources and the application
to its industries of scientific methods, which elsewhere
will be of slower growth, because they will supplant and
make worthless the expensive plants of present processes,
Indications of a
The W South.
48
f
Standing as we evidently are at the threshold of another
*...*.* era of national prosperity, in which the South and other
of national pros-
perity.
Methods hereto-
fore proposed to
Secure prosperity
have not met with
general favor.-
All interests may
profit by technical
training.
sections naturally dependent upon Baltimore (as the con-
necting link between the North and South) for manufac-
tured products must participate, the present is an oppor-
tune time to make provision for industrial education com-
mensurate with the needs and resources of the city.
The causes that have combined to relegate Baltimore
to a rank so far beneath her true status as a commercial
and manufacturing centre become readily apparent from
a study of her industrial history. It is unnecessary to
enumerate them here, but it is pertinent to remark the
almost invariable lack of appreciation, at times actually
assuming an attitude of unreasoning antagonism, with which
the efforts of those who have sought to promote her
material prosperity have been received. Considering the
widely divergent and irreconcilable views developed upon
the presentation of many plans from time to time devised
for the improvement of her trade and commercial rela-
tions, it is manifestly useless to hope now for fruitful
result from any similar proposition which has not the
merit of promoting at least the principal business interests
of the city.
Municipal industrial education, however, offers a program
upon which every business interest may harmonize, with
equal certainty of sharing in the ultimate prosperity which,
as experience has shown, uniformly follows its general
adoption in a trade centre, and which it can hardly be
questioned would, in the case of Baltimore, prove equally
—and probably far more–valuable than could reasonably
be hoped for from any of the measures for increasing our
general prosperity to which allusion has been made; while
at the same time promoting the material, intellectual, and
moral welfare of the masses of our population. **
49
During the period between the close of the Revolu-
tionary War and the War of 1812, the city of Baltimore
enjoyed its greatest prosperity, and at the end of the
latter conflict it gave promise of becoming pre-eminent
among the most prosperous commercial and manufacturing
cities of the country. It was then that its growth was
most rapid; new enterprises were readily undertaken, and
its commerce was, relatively, if not actually, greater than
ever since. After the opening of the Erie Canal, its most
astute business men, realizing that without more rapid and
direct freight communication with the west, Baltimore
must suffer greatly from the increased competing power of
New York, as early as 1820 began an agitation for in-
creased traffic facilities to the west, the outgrowth of
which was the organization of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad Company. Though constantly subjected to the
attacks of rival corporations, to home opposition born of
prejudice and jealousy, and to the more vexatious in-
difference with which its efforts to maintain and stimulate
languishing industries have been met by those it sought to
benefit, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company is to be
credited with diligent and consistent efforts to foster and
Historical retro-
spect of Baltimore.
Organization of
B. & O. Company.
enlarge Baltimore manufactures and commerce, and it is
interesting to observe that, to the extent it and its affiliated
interests have been conducted in a liberal and progressive
spirit, they have expanded and prospered amid a general
decadence of the city's industries.
While substantially at its door are water powers capable
Superior matural
e ſº c ſº {º d t; d re-
of furnishing motive force for many times its present manu-jºi."
IſlC)16},
factures; while the advantages of its superior geographical
relation to a large and productive section of country are
preserved by its being the terminus of an extensive trunk-
line system tapping that section at many points; and while
50
it has within easy reach enormous reservoirs of the finest
steam-making coals found in America, as well as generous
supplies of iron, copper, hard woods, cotton, tobacco, and
other material suitable for manufactures—in fact, all the
staple raw materials, the conversion of which into manufac-
tured products builds up those large industries and com-
mercial interests without which no city can be great or
prosperous—Baltimore has practically lost all claim to
1...…. pre-eminence or even prominence in any manufacturing or
.*.** mercantile pursuit. Not only do many industries developed
elsewhere, and which should be prospering here, not exist,
but it has been impossible to maintain those we had, and
yet the apathy of the community is such that no substantial
response is made to the most urgent appeals for financial
encouragement and assistance in increasing our commerce,
reviving old or establishing new manufactures or kindred
enterprises.
To be more specific, I may remind you that Baltimore
Loss of west has, apparently through pure lack of energy, lost the
" * “West India sugar trade, and her iron industries are little
short of the throes of dissolution. The gravity of the
loss of this sugar trade is shown in a recent pamphlet.
prepared under the instructions of Mr. C. Morton Stewart,
which sets forth the total value of the city’s imports of
sugar and molasses in 1874 as $10,598,227; decreased in
lºstent of this 1884 to $107,041, but even these figures by no means
represent the net loss to the city, in one decade, from this
single item—the ten millions of imports merely representing
the raw material brought here; to which should be added
the commerce supported by its transportation, the repairs
to vessels, the labor and the manufacturing industries
incident thereto; all of which, when summed up, show
a loss much more serious and far-reaching than that indi-
cated by these bare figures.
51
Were Baltimore now able to manufacture those articles, Hºegun
for which West Indian products are exchanged, at prices
and of quality that would compare favorably with the wares
of rival manufacturers, thus directly exchanging manufac-
tured goods at a profit for those products, instead of pay-
ing for them in specie and compelling incoming vessels to
look elsewhere for return cargoes, we could, in a large
measure, again attract this lucrative trade to our port.
Baltimore has entirely lost her reputation and renown Diminished
in maritime pursuits, which at the close of the war of º' "
1812 was world-wide, without gaining compensating
advantages. Possessing a fine, harbor and first-class
shipbuilding facilities (including a dry-dock hardly sur-
passed in size and equipment by any other on our
coast), she is yet debarred, through the unskillful work
of her artisans, their trade agitations and prohibitory
labor tariffs, from securing the construction of even the
few coasting steamers registering at her port, while her
shipbuilders are, from the same causes, compelled to decline
bidding on the few ocean bottoms offering for construction
here. The Abbott Iron Works, after a prosperous business Abbot iron
career, have been idle for a long time, and are now about."
being sold and the valuable plant thereof distributed,
The same general cause accounts for the depression in
other branches of trade, with the details of which all
citizens who, like yourself, take an active interest in the
welfare of the city, must be familiar. -
But it is unnecessary to multiply illustrations of neglected
opportunities for enhancing our wealth and increasing our
corporate and commercial importance, or of absolute loss
of established trade, apparently from a species of dry-rot,
incomprehensible, but very satisfactory to our more push-
ing rivals; for no one better than yourself appreciates the
** 52
great disadvantages under which Baltimore now labors
in her competition with other cities. It is sufficient for
the purposes of this report to point out that, because of
the city’s commercial apathy, the Baltimore and Ohio
B. so revenues Railroad Company has frequently been compelled to hazard,
Often lyazarded º tº e
sºmes and more than once to sacrifice its revenues, in order to
º;', prevent the practical suppression of the trade of the port,
CO]]]]]] el'Ce. in which the business interests of the city are common
with its own.
misamples of To cite recent examples of this, you will remember
that when, less than a year ago, the Baltimore emigrant
business was threatened by her Northern rivals, the Balti-
more and Ohio Railroad Company found it necessary to
surrender the profit of the business in order to secure
the maintenance of the few steamship lines running to this
port.
Also, that though many attempts have been made to
retain our coasting trade, such was their lethargy, that it
> was very lately found impossible to induce our merchants to
subscribe sufficient money to insure even a line of steamers
between Baltimore and Charleston.
nºr. Probably I cannot more forcibly illustrate our city's
º poverty in respect to business enterprises generally, and
port of Committee • © -
jºi... to manufactures specifically, than by quoting at some
length from the Report of the Commission on the
Establishment of Manufactures, made to the Mayor
and City Council of Baltimore in 1877, which contains
much valuable information on the subject of which it
treats, but which seems to have received much less con-
sideration than its merits deserve. From p. 20 et seq. are
extracted the following quotations: g
These tables, which have been very carefully prepared, disclose the poverty
of Baltimore as a manufacturing city with painful distinctness. Baltimore is
(by Table B) shown to be far below the industrial average in the proportion of
\ --
her workingmen to the entire population. There is one operative in every 5.2
persons in Wilmington ; 1 in every 5.04 in Philadelphia; 1 in every 5.5 in
Boston ; 1 in every 5.8 in Cincinnati; 1 in every 3.6 in Newark, New Jersey ; 1
in every 7.6 in St. Louis, while Baltimore has only 1 in every 8.1.
This deficiency of manufacturing hands is more than accounted for by a still
greater deficiency of capital per capita invested in industrial pursuits. In this
respect Baltimore ranks the lowest of any of our large cities—lower even than
Louisville, Kentucky. In Philadelphia the capital in manufactories is $252 per
capita ; in Wilmington $235 ; in St. Louis $194; in Cincinnati $197 : in Boston
$188, while -in Baltimore there is only $97 capital per capita, so invested—less
than half as much as Cincinnati has ; just half as much as St. Louis has ; only
a little over half as much as Boston has, and not a great deal more than a
third as much as there is in Wilmington and Philadelphia. The tables of bank
capital and savings-bank stock and capital will show that in Philadelphia,
Cincinnati, St. Louis and Chicago, the money which our citizens lock up in bank
stock, ground rents, private discount banks and such securities, is by preference
invested in productive industrial enterprises. In those cities, as the tables show,
capital is used to buy materials and pay wages, and returns in the shape of values
received for products manufactured. In Baltimore, on the other hand, capital
is used to produce interest. While in neither case can it be truly said that capital
is barren (since the hiring of money may be as useful as the hiring of sewing-
machines or any othèr sort of tool or Service), yet it is quite apparent that money
used in manufactures and other forms of active production is more fertile than
money put at interest, or in ground rents or land, to reappear in permanent im-
provements distributed over a period of years, or in houses and buildings.
Capital in manufactures must turn itself over at least once a year, and it will
be seen by comparing the column of capital (Tahle B) with the column of
“materials,” that more than the total capital of all manufacturing establish-
ments is every year invested in the purchase of raw materials for manufacturing,
and more than a third of the whole capital of such establishments is annually
disbursed as wages. --"
Wages added to cost of material and the sum deducted from gross product
gives gross profits of manufacture, expenses of course not being allowed for.
Tested by this, we find that in Philadelphia manufactures in 1870 paid 47 per
cent. on nominal capital, in Cincinnati 43 per cent., in San Francisco 47 per
cent., in Baltimore 48 per cent., in Chicago 50 per cent... in Louisville 50 per
cent., in Boston 61 per cent., in Wilmington 71 per cent., in New York 74 per
cent., and in St. Louis 120 per cent. Unquestionably, these figures show an
excess of capital to product in Philadelphia and Cincinnati, and a deficiency
of capital to product in St. Louis, but they also show that manufactures
are less profitable in Baltimore than elsewhere, when we come to deduct the
heavy taxation and other charges to which they are subject here, and from
which they are free in Philadelphia.
If now we turn to Table A, we will find our deficiencies set out in detail in
comparison with smaller cities, and with rival and competing ones. Your com-
mission do not need to do more than call the attention of your honorable body
to the array of facts presented in this table, showing how we are surpassed,
even in manufactures which we ought to monopolize, by the most inferior towns
and cities. There is only one particular in regard to which your commission
will dwell upon in the figures in this table, and that is in respect of the manu-
factures which are needed to keep up our mercantile business and domestic com-
merce with the South and with our own counties. In the item of agricultural
implements, for instance, Chicago makes seven times as many, St. Louis five
times, and Louisville three times as many as we ſlo. In the item of fertilizers
we are surpassed by Wilmington, not to speak at all of other and larger places.
In the item of boots and shoes, leaving all New England out of the question.
Philadelphia makes four times as many, and St. Louis, Newark and Chicago, all
three, equal our production. Chicago manufactures more than four times as
54
Baltimore Can-
not escape compe-
lition.
many bricks as we do, in spite of our facilities. In the making of carriages,
etc., Cincinnati manufactures more than four times as much as We do, New
Haven six times, and Wilmington and Chicago three times as much. In con-
fectionery, while no city can rival Philadelphia, Chicago makes three times as
much as Baltimore. Our cotton manufactures are not yet quite on a level with
those of New London. In flour and meal Newark, Wilmington and Louisville .
are our equals, while Chicago makes three times and St. Louis fourteen times as
much as we do. Chicago and Louisville beat us in furniture. The glass manu-
facture of Pittsburgh is fifty times as great as ours. In iron manufactures,
leaving out the great centres of this industry, we find ourselves inferior to
Chicago, and not much above Louisville, Newark, New Haven and Wilmington.
In leather manufactures we are completely outstripped by all the large cities,
by every city in the country, in fact, which has half our population. In liquors,
distilled or malt, even Newark surpasses us. In machinery we are not equal
even to small cities like Newark, New Haven, New London, Louisville, Wil-
mington, etc. In sugar refining, leaving out Boston, New York, Brooklyn and
Philadelphia, we find St. Louis beginning to be our rival. Of paints we manu-
facture $400,000 worth ; St. Louis $2,000,000. St. Louis makes ten times as
much patent medicine, ten times as much saddlery and harness, ten times as
much manufactured tobacco, as Baltimore ; while Cincinnati makes twenty times
as much soap and candles, and St. Louis four times as much as we do. In
stoneware we make $127,000; Cincinnati $3,600,000. In sash manufacturing
our products are a beggarly $145,000, against $2,300,000 for St. Louis, $800,000
for Newark, $500,000 for New Haven, $250,000 for Wilmington, etc. In short,
the exhibition is in the highest degree painful and mortifying, and must cause
serious apprehensions in the minds of all persons who know that it takes trade to
make trade.
lt will not be denied that this is an anomalous condition of things. Equally
it will not be denied that manufactures bring wealth and population to cities in
more certain and speedy ways than any other form of labor.
As Amasa Walker said upon this point: “It is without question true that in
an equal manufacturing population will be found a greater accumulation of
wealth than in an agricultural or commercial population. One important
reason of this is that a larger share of the population are engaged in production.
and a larger amount of capital is employed. Women and children, who could
earn but little in agricultural labor (and none in commercial), can earn much in
manufacturing. Manufacturing need never stop, summer or winter, cold or hot,
wet or dry.”
These facts are not pleasant to contemplate, but they
must be faced whenever an earnest effort is to be made to
increase the prosperity of Baltimore, be the time present
or distant. It is idle to expect to escape competition with
other cities, and equally idle to expect success therein
under existing circumstances, or to depend for municipal
growth upon sporadic seasons of national or local pros.
perity; for in these days of rapid travel, cheap and quick
transportation, those centres best equipped with plant and
skilled workmen will inevitably, in seasons of prosperity,
substantially absorb the profits of quickened trade. In
55
the United States seasons of great prosperity are succeeded
by periods of stagnation of trade, which subject our insti- Baltimore surº
tutions to great strain. During these recurring periods of ;.
business depression, and because of the dearth of staple **P*.
and diversified industries of magnitude, Baltimore suffers
disproportionately to other centres of trade. I am told
that this strain was particularly severe when, during the
labor disturbances of 1877, traffic was interrupted on her
principal remaining element of commercial prosperity—the
Baltimore and Ohio trunk-line system. Had the earning
capacity of the city accrued, in any material degree, from
manufacturing industry, the depression would not have
been so great.
Mr. Mather, in commenting on the industry of our city, Mr. Mather,&om-
ments Un Balti-
says: “Baltimore does not possess any large distinctive.”
manufactures; her trade is chiefly that of grain and
timber export.” Though a mere statement of fact, this
quotation contains a reproach to our city, whose great
opportunity is that of distinctive manufactures, and whose
great want is an increase of productive capacity. It
cannot be too often reiterated that we need greater indus- ofº"
trial activity to afford employment to our citizens, to add to trial activity.
the value of our property, to increase municipal income, and
to attract capital and men of business to our city. But at this
time to what industry can our people point as, in a visible
degree, drawing foreign population for permanent residence
within the limits of their city ? Or what inducement do
they hold out to capitalists to bring wealth from other
localities and settle here with a view to engaging in indus-
trial pursuits? Our own citizens are phenomenally back-
ward in investing in extended business enterprises, and in
the absence of special inducements it is useless to expect
aid from foreign business men or capital. Commercially
56
our city will remain nothing more than a second or third-
rate exporter of raw material until, within its corporate
limits, this raw material is converted into manufactured
products.
Some cities depend for their prosperity upon the manu-
facture of special products, as witness Manchester, which
so long enjoyed pre-eminence through its cotton textile
fabrics, though it imported all the constituents thereof;
Crefeld, a wealthy Prussian city, which depends for its
prosperity almost exclusively upon its silk manufactures;
Sheffield upon its cutlery, and Lynn, Mass., upon its manu-
Baltimore can factured products of leather. But, as has been said, Balti-
not depend upon ge s tº g
jºint more can boast of no distinctive manufactures. Our only
hope of industrial prominence lies in the inauguration of a
multiplicity of varied industries.
There is abundant testimony to show that a city's
prosperity may result from a great demand for some
local natural production, or even from limited markets
where there is no competition. Of this we have an ex-
ample in the city of Pittsburgh, whose wealth is dependent
upon the iron and coal trade; as also in the oyster trade,
of which Baltimore for many years enjoyed a substantial
monopoly, and which is still of sufficient magnitude and
financial importance to count as a chief element in the
ºr city's prosperity. But this oyster trade can by no means pro-
clining. vide support for our large population, and even respecting
our oysters it is to be remarked, parenthetically, that for
want of care, proper legislation and development, the beds
of the Chesapeake are rapidly decreasing in yield, and
already the oyster industry of Long Island Sound has
become an active and powerful competitor of, and bids
fair to eclipse, our home trade. Unless, therefore,
efficient means are speedily taken to replenish our waters,
57
the time must soon come when “Baltimore oysters” will
be as rare as “Baltimore clippers.” *
. In times past, a city like Baltimore, possessing within
its boundaries (or by reason of cheap transportation, or
favorable location, holding tributary to it) abundance of...ºf
raw material all Cl
cheap manufac-
cheap raw materials might, if it possessed, additionally, ...ºn.
facilities for cheap manufacture, successfully compete withº"
less favored rivals, without much regard to the quality
and finish of manufactured products. But in these days,
when rival transportation lines distribute crude materials
to competing points upon substantially equal terms, with
little regard to long or short hauls, and when the cultivated
tastes and luxurious habits which result from increased
wealth create an active demand for superior quality and
finest finish, such centres as are best prepared to turn out
first-class articles will control the market. It is just here
that educated and skilled labor becomes a factor of the
greatest potency, because, as has been shown in the first two ºr
sections of this report, while improving quality, it uniformly”
cheapens production to such an extent that the control of
such labor has enabled many cities to overwhelm trade
competitors who possessed cheaper raw material or better
natural facilities. That we are totally unprepared to avail
of any artificial means of bettering our condition is patent
from the Report of 1877 already referred to, which in
very strong terms sets forth our deficiency in regard to
manufactures. However great the national and foreign
demand for manufactured products might be, were all
other factors present, the dearth of skilled and trained
laborers in Baltimore is so great that it could not, to-day,
compete with other cities in the manufacture of special—
and not even of many staple—products.
Low rents and taxes and favorable laws have very great Low rents and
taxes COUSidered.
attractions for capital, and hence many towns, without
y § 58
possessing any special natural advantages, have received
! the impetus which resulted in their becoming large manu-
facturing centres purely as the result of a liberal municipal
policy. But while exemption from taxation and other
special privileges are influential in building up new and
reviving and extending old enterprises, by inducing the
investment of capital, yet, in the present era of active com-
petition and small profits, a factor more important to their
permanency is the assurance of skilled and intelligent labor,
an abundance of which has been shown to attract capital far
comparison be more than the other advantages enumerated. Comparison
º; between Philadelphia and Baltimore aptly illustrates this.
*" For commercial purposes no better, and for manufacturing
purposes not so advantageously, situated as Baltimore,
Philadelphia, first by offering special exemptions from
taxation and other inducements for the investment of
capital in manufacturing works and, later, by the establish-
ment of such technical and industrial schools as the
… Mechanics' Institute, Spring Garden Institute, Franklin
ºf Institute, the Philadelphia School of Design, the Pennsyl-
vania School of Fine Arts, the Pennsylvania Museum and
School of Industrial Art, the Mechanical Department of
Pennsylvania State College, Girard College, and the
Philadelphia Manual Training School, has grown into and
maintains its position as the second city in the Union, and
as pre-eminent in its manufacturing and allied industries;
while Baltimore, practically without technical institutions,
Baltimore practi-
º; except the meagre facilities of the Maryland Institute,
and until lately with onerous and unusual taxation, has,
as stated by the city's commissioners on the estab-
lishment of manufactures, substantially starved out its
old, and prohibited the undertaking of new, manufac-
turing enterprises. We may deepen our harbor and make
59
valuable additions to our natural and artificial facilities for
trade and commerce, but, as Mayor Latrobe aptly remarked
in his message (1877), “We should remember that it is not
commerce alone, but commerce and manufactures together,
which will insure the future prosperity of the community.”
Comparison between the present condition of Baltimore Baltimore's
back Wardness re-
and the industrial status of many European cities that have ºi.
experienced its vicissitudes only goes to corroborate the *
conclusion herein announced—that the backwardness of the
former results from the insufficient technical education of
our artisans and laborers. [Exhibits D, E and F.] Neither
our immense resources in the shape of raw materials, our fa-
cilities for manufacture, our advantages in the way of cheap
living and healthful climate, nor the offering of low taxes and
rent, nor all these combined will effect, at this late date and
under existing conditions of trade, the restoration of Balti-
more to its normal position among the industrial and
commercial centres of the country. But if we crown all
these advantages with that most potent of all agencies for
promoting industrial prosperity, a combination of superior
skill and intelligence on the part of our managers and
workpeople, we may then hope to stimulate new business
ventures and to see Baltimore once more taking rank with
the first cities of the nation. It is very generally conceded
that no enterprise turning out products for sale can success-
fully compete in our own and foreign markets unless
superior skill and intelligence can be secured to conduct
it. Certainly then it is only reasonable to suppose that if New industrial
enterprises will go
special schools are essential to success in any industry, sº
men who desire to engage in that business would rather vided."
go to a city where such schools are already provided than
to a city like Baltimore, where, before they can hope for
success, they must be at the expense and trouble of estab-
60
Abulldal)ce Of
l'aw material
tributary to Balti-
IIRO]"C.
Capital seeking
in Westment.
lishing or helping to establish technical schools. We have
an abundance of crude labor, as well as of cheap and crude
material; but preliminarily to converting that material
into attractive and useful products we must so train our
artisans as to make them at least the peers of foreign and
home workmen following kindred pursuits. Then, when
men of means and enterprise realize that we offer them
not only raw materials and the same concessions and
liberal policy that have proven so successful in promoting
the corporate prosperity of Philadelphia and other cities,
but likewise the necessary skill and intelligence to transform
those materials into marketable commodities, we may
reasonably count upon the assistance of outside capital in
starting a host of manufacturing and kindred enterprises.
In every field where American enterprise has entered, it
has asserted itself and has been fully recognized—especially
in labor-saving inventions for agricultural purposes. What
has been accomplished in agricultural machinery can be done
in metallurgy, textile fabrics, wood-work, railway appliances,
etc. Nowhere are there cheaper or more extensive deposits
of minerals, timber and other raw material than in the
vast mountainous regions of Maryland, Virginia and West
Virginia, tributary to this city. Ample capital is seeking
investment in any business in which profit is reasonably
certain; machinery embodying the latest designs of the
inventor's skill can be procured; markets are accessible;
what is needed is skilled and educated laborers to direct and
carry on the industries which convert raw material into
manufactured products. But skilled and intelligent work-
men are not found to hand; they must be made.
The foregoing may appear to be trite remarks, more
suitable for trade reports or the proceedings of civic
banquets than for embodiment in a report of this character,
61
but they bear gravely upon the condition and prospects of
Baltimore, which it is but too apparent to those who travel
extensively is, nationally considered, a provincial town. It dº.
is a sad commentary upon our commercial importance that: tº
one seldom sees our special wares announced beyond
local markets, nor paraded in the effective manner in
which centres of far less size and wealth make known their
productions or commercial advantages. During several
extended visits to the Pacific coast I seldom heard Balti-
more mentioned in business circles beyond the Mississippi
river, save as the place whence oysters come and where St.
Jacob's Oil is manufactured. Very recently the executive
officer of the Board of Trade of Portland, Oregon (the second
city in importance on the Pacific coast and claiming to be the
wealthiest, per capita, in the country)—himself a Balti-
morean—advised me that, though his office is constantly
supplied with all the trade publications of every other ex-
porting city of the Union, it was with the greatest difficulty
and only after repeated efforts that he had succeeded in pro-
curing for his board any statistical information concerning
Baltimore's productions and exports.
The obvious deduction to be drawn from the foregoing
facts respecting the city of Baltimore is that our manufac- why our manu.
turing arts are languishing as much from the want of ºf are
skilled and intelligent artisans and managers to direct
their operations, as from the lack of capital, cheap raw
material, or natural facilities for production, and, from what
has been stated in the first section of this report, it is evident
that, in order to stimulate our manufactures and trades into
greater activity, we must afford our people additional and
better opportunities than now exist for acquiring industrial
training and technical knowledge of our established indus-
tries, and of others which might be inaugurated here, with
profit both to capital invested and to the city at large.
62
\
As one of the first steps toward securing much-needed
to... additional facilities for the technical training of Baltimore's
training. youth, there should be radical changes in the present
methods and character of public instruction. I fully
recognize how much easier it is to point out errors of
Diſficulty of sug- administration than to suggest wise remedial measures,
ºmº and how unbecoming it would be in any one to make such
suggestions without special preparation and recognized
fitness for the task. To change the character of public
instruction in a great city like Baltimore is a very
serious undertaking, and no proposition contemplating such
action should receive serious public consideration unless
sustained by irrefutable facts and arguments. But while I
conceive it to be altogether outside my duty, even on behalf
of the material interests of our service, to propose lines for
...tº municipal policy, and while I believe your instructions
º; is will have been measurably executed when I shall have
* given you a clear idea of the character, extent and effects,
in general, of technical training, and specifically of the
beneficial results that may, with reasonable certainty, be
counted upon to follow the inauguration of technological
instruction in the Baltimore and Ohio service, I also feel
that the character of tuition under the public-school
system of Baltimore and the State of Maryland is of as
paramount importance to any technological work at Mt.
Clare as is the commercial prosperity of the city to the
revenues of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. If,
in order to secure in its staff and in the rank and file of
its service the same (if no greater) skill, intelligence and
consequent efficiency that our Northern and Western rivals
enjoy, the Baltimore and Ohio Company is unable in
the future, as during the past year, to procure from the
great mass of population in Baltimore enough candidates
63
for apprenticeship possessing the minimum elements of a
grammar-school education to meet the requirements of the
service, but must undergo the additional expense and labor
of instructing its apprentices in those rudiments of English
education which are absolutely essential as the ground-
work for even the most superficial technical training, it
will be well to consider whether economy and the best
interests of the service will be promoted by continuing Mt.
Clare as a construction station; and whether greater
economy and more satisfactory plant will not be secured
by distributing its machinery among the company's repair
shops, and depending for articles now manufactured at Mt.
Clare upon those outside works which—by reason of their
employes having acquired a higher knowledge of the scien-
tific laws that underlie their trades, and greater skill and
higher intelligence than prevail among the artisans of
Baltimore—turn out with economy the highest grade of
such products as we now manufacture.
It would seem that, in view of our large expenditure for
free public schools, there should be no difficulty in secur-
ing educated boys for apprentices. The appropriations for
the public schools of Baltimore aggregate about three-
City School 8ta-
fourths of a million dollars annually, out of which nine *
hundred and sixty-three teachers are employed to conduct
the schools. The estimated population of Baltimore at
the present time is 400,000. The number of children and
young people of school age (between 6 and 21) at the
last enumeration in 1879 was 86,961 (it is now probably
100,000), of whom 52,970 were enrolled in the public
schools in the year 1885–6, and the average daily attend-
ance was 34,217. There are no statistics showing the
number in attendance at the various private schools in
the city. Of the 100,000 children and young people who
64
}
ought to be in school, perhaps 95 per cent, of the males,
and a large proportion of the females are destined to
gain their own livelihood—a majority in the trades and
manufactures—and many must, wholly or in part, con-
Necessity of tribute to the support of others. The Overshadowing impor-
ºne tance of so shaping our system of education as to convert this
people. - tº a $ tº tº Q tº * ſº
* great army of future citizens intointelligent and law-abiding
men and women, who shall be able to maintain their self-
respect by at least providing for their own wants, induces
me, not only on account of the needs of our own service,
but also from a consideration of the future well-being of
the laboring masses and of the city of Baltimore, to unite
with General Counsel Cowen in invoking your active efforts,
“both as an officer and a citizen,” in solving the important
question how best to afford our working-people that
character and quality of knowledge and training which
will qualify them for conducting successfully the occupa-
tions of industrial life as they exist to-day, and which all
interests, individual, corporate, municipal and national,
alike require they should enjoy. In view of the peculiar
Nºyºnº identification that exists between Baltimore's political and
ted action in bring-
tº educational systems, it is apparent that, to secure any sub-
instruction. stantial or valuable change in existing methods of educa-
tion, will require the active countenance and support—
without respect to political bias—of our entire business
community, as well as of all other citizens of responsibility
possessing knowledge of the conditions and needs of the
city. Already many intelligent working-people are begin-
ning to realize that if any improvement is to be made in
their material condition, it will be through the proper
education of their children in industrial occupations, and
that therein, far more than in the false movements and
agitations of trades unions, lie those elements which,
65
properly fostered, will insure the permanent betterment of
their condition. It has been wisely said that “from
domestic economy rather than from political economy
will come the solution of the labor question.” In thrift
and industry, and in recognition, on the part of employers,
of the justice and necessity of encouraging, in a practical Bºlanº
capital may profit
way, all legitimate efforts of workpeople to improve their ºth"
Of educatiºn.
condition, Surely lies the true solution of the great problem
of labor versus capital; for you will have observed, from
the historical sketch constituting the first part of this
report, that in those localities where industrial education
and technical training have been most promoted by employ-
ers, there, also, are the least friction and the least agitation
of the complex and vexed questions constantly arising else-
where between employer and employe. In this connection,
I extract from the September number of the New Princeton
Review, for the current year, the following citation from
the proceedings of a New England Workingmen's Club:
“We have examined the reports of attendance, and the courses of study, of ..., , , º,
many of the public schools in manufacturing towns in various parts of the pºº.".
country, and the impression made upon our minds is that the arrangement of men's club upon’
studies is, in the main, adapted to the wants of pupils who take the full public- º ()ſ
school, or high-school, course, so as to be prepared, or nearly prepared, to enter.”
college. -
We also find, by extended inquiry, that a large proportion of the children
of laborers, especially in manufacturing and mining communities, leave school
finally before they are fourteen years of age. It appears to us that the educa-
tion of these children is, usually, peculiarly inefficient, and, as a preparation for
practical life, of little utility, from the fact that they have been employed mostly
in beginnings in various branches of knowledge, and have acquired but little
that is complete in itself. The studies for pupils under fourteen years of age
seem to be, in great measure, only a preparation for the work of the more
advanced classes, and they are therefore of uncertain value to those who must
leave school at the age mentioned.
We recommend that the club invite the co-operation of workingmen who are
interested in education in the effort to arrive at some practical conclusion regard-
ing the particular education which working-people need—the kind of knowledge
or training which can be obtained at School which will be of most worth to them
in mature life—and we suggest that it would be well to obtain and compare
opinions as to a course of study, or different special courses of study, for boys
and girls who must leave School at fourteen years of age.
We will add that it appears to us that such inquiries will be more likely to
yield valuable practical results if some division is made of the subject of educa-
tion, than if it is taken up as a whole, or in an abstract or general way. Th
following is suggested : }
66
Scope and meth-
(Cls Of Oul' School
System.
^
1. It is desirable that the children of working-people should obtain at school
knowledge and training which shall be, in some measure, complete in itself and
available for use in after years regarding means and methods for the preserva-
tion of their bodily health. That is, they should receive specific instruction as
to healthful ways of living, and in the care of their eyes, teeth, digestive organs,
and other bodily faculties. The ordinary methods of teaching physiology in
Schools seem to us rather vague and ineffective, and, at any rate, not suited to
the needs of the class of pupils we now have in mind. They should be taught the
value of pure air and of pure water, and of some measure of out-of-door enjoy-
ment, in relation to health of body and mind.
2. Laborers of all classes need far greater readiness in “the use of figures,”
in ordinary business operations with numbers, than is usually attained, even by
the advanced pupils of our public Schools. Our children should be trained to
thorough efficiency in the use of the tables and rules used in measuring or ascer-
taining quantities of all kinds in actual business, such as brick-work, stone-
work, and everything connected with building operations; in the measurement
of articles of merchandise, of surfaces and solids of various kinds, and in the
methods of computation for interest, percentage, etc. ---
3. They should be taught whatever will be in the greatest degree serviceable
in enabling them to make life interesting for themselves and for those about
them, and should be early taught that they must depend mostly upon them-
selves for this object. As one of the best means to this end, they should be
taught to understand, enjoy and respect the powers of the English language,
and should be trained to speak and write it with directness and sincerity, so that
while they subsist by the labor of their hands, the life of working-people may
lie made attractive and interesting to themselves by thought. We believe that
the inefficiency of education, and the vagueness and uncertainty of thought or
mental vision which it produces, are highly injurious to the interests of the
working-people of our country.”
In order to suggest intelligent direction for your efforts
and those of other public-spirited citizens whose active
occupations and pursuits forbid their giving this subject
the close investigation and thought its importance and
great scope demand, it is proper briefly to enumerate the
proposed objects and methods of our school system, as at
present conducted, and then invite attention to the views
of those best qualified to make suggestions and recom-
mendations for improving our present method of public in-
struction “in the interest of those working-people of limited
means who wish their children to look forward to manual
labor as the means by which they are to obtain a liveli-
hood,” and fitting it to the industrial conditions that must
exist hereafter. It will be sufficient for this purpose and
will prevent unnecessary enlargement of this report to
review, very cursorily, the educational facilities and
67
institutions of Baltimore; the character of instruction
afforded and its bearing upon the industries that it seems
essential to our interests to improve and promote—refer-
ring you to our annual school and other municipal reports
for more detailed information.
First and most important among our educational insti-
tutions stands the system of public schools. These com-
prise primary grades, enrolling last year 24,511 pupils; , Enrollment in
& ſº gº . , the public Schools.
grammar grades, enrolling 13,381 pupils; city high
schools, enrolling 1163 girls; the City College, enrolling
630 boys; the Manual Training School, enrolling 120
boys, [Report of Commissioner of Public Schools, page 56.]
The subjects taught in the primary grades are reading, subjects taught.
spelling, elements of arithmetic, penmanship, drawing, and
vocal music. The same studies, with geography added,
are pursued in the grammar grade, which requires five
years for completion, and physiology, history, grammar
and composition, algebra, geometry, and elementary
physics, are begun toward the close of the grammar
course. The subjects taught in the City College, in city college.
addition to the common English branches, are English
history, book-keeping, chemistry, natural philosophy,
Latin, Greek, French, German, literature, algebra, geome-
try, trigonometry, calculus, astronomy, mental and moral
philosophy, logic, and Constitution of the United States.
The advanced studies in the girls' high Schools are girls, nia,
elocution, French, physiology, etymology, music, algebra,”
drawing, literature, rhetoric, natural philosophy, geometry,
history of United States, mental philosophy, book-keeping,
and astronomy.
The other public and endowed institutions accessible to e...”.”
residents of Baltimore are the McDonogh Institute, within Baltimore. "
a capacity for about 100 pupils; the Maryland Institute,
68
with very inadequate accommodations for perhaps 500 or
600 students; the University of Maryland, for students
of law and medicine ; the State normal school and colored
normal school for training teachers; and the Johns
Hopkins University, which affords higher instruction to
such students from different parts of the world as possess
the high standard of qualifications necessary for admis-
sion to its classes.
With the exception of drawing in the public schools,
but little is taught that serves to fit pupils for industrial
n...:*handiwork. Of the schools professing to teach, in a
* practical way, the science and arts underlying the indus.
tries of this country, there are only the Maryland Insti-
tute, the Manual Training School, and the McDonogh
School. The first of these has to do with the arts and
with drawing, while only the latter two pretend to teach
applied science; and together, they afford instruction to
fewer than three hundred boys, many of whom are in
these schools for only a secondary purpose, expecting,
ultimately, to become clerks, shopkeepers, or professional
IſleIl.
At the present time in the city of Baltimore almost
e nothing is being done in the way of affording evening
nº" instruction to young people who are engaged in labor
during the day. The attempts that have been made
towards doing something in this direction by the public
schools have not been very successful. No doubt one of
the principal reasons of the failure is that the instruction
offered to boys and girls has not been sufficiently practical
to induce them to put forth the exertion required to enable
them to profit by it.
jº's in From these scanty statistics and citations it is readily
ited facilities fol:
P" "é seen that only a few schools, with very limited capacity
69
and insignificant financial support, can be classed as afford-
ing our working population a knowledge of the Sciences as
applied in industrial pursuits, and, therefore, the members of
this large class necessarily enter the usual occupations of life
untaught in technical knowledge and untrained in manual
skill. Lacking the technical knowledge and the manual
training to perform intelligently and skillfully the operations
of the manufactures and other kinds of industrial work they
expect to pursue all their lives, they must waste years that
should be devoted to school or to earning wages, in acquiring
sufficient manual dexterity to make their services valuable
even in this market, and in doing this they forget much of
the temporary information acquired at school. Manifestly,
therefore, in order to supply the missing link in our public-
school system, something must be done to provide facilities
for imparting information and affording training of a char-
acter that will fit the workingman's children for acquiring
such scientific knowledge as can be utilized in their
various occupations. Of the $715,362 appropriated by
the city of Baltimore for public-school instruction for the
year 1885, only $12,800 or 1% per cent. was devoted to con-
ducting the Manual Training School, and this is the only
purely industrial institute provided for under our public-
school system. The remainder of this very large sum is pºulºs,
divided into sub-appropriations for the several grades de-" "
voted mostly to literary training. Included in this general
sum is $6000 for conducting evening schools, which, how-
ever, are devoted entirely to the common English branches.
While only $12,800 is devoted to special industrial educa-
tion, about $75,000—or more than 10 per cent. of the
school appropriation—is annually expended in maintaining
two high schools and the City College, which do little
toward fitting their pupils (about 1800 or less than 4 per
70
cent. of the enrollment) for handicrafts—their curricula
being intended to qualify pupils for clerkships and the
learned professions.
As the Johns Hopkins University is exclusively devoted
to higher education; as the Maryland Agricultural College
is practically a cipher in affording technical training; as
sº the Manual Training School, even were it an efficient insti-
* º tution, as in point of fact it is not, could instruct only 150
º boys, or less than three-fifths of one per cent. of our public-
School enrollment; as the Maryland Institute, with its
meagre facilities and insufficient support, affords only special
instruction in art and drawing, it may properly be said
that Baltimore, with a population of nearly 400,000, a
school enumeration of nearly 100,000, and an annual school
expenditure of nearly three-quarters of a million dollars, is
practically devoid of facilities for fitting her working classes
for their life work. In view of these facts, I apprehend it
is not overstepping the bounds of propriety to suggest, in this
report, that those children whose circumstances or inclina-
tions clearly point to an industrial career should have facili-
ties for special training bearing on their life work relatively
equivalent in extent to the facilities that are now afforded
in our City College and high schools to those who expect to
follow avocations of a different character. It is not intended
by these remarks to claim that public-school instruction
should fit persons for industrial pursuits alone, nor that it
should attempt unduly to dispose children towards those
pursuits, but that it should afford opportunities for qualify-
ing those whose circumstances and dispositions or genius
point directly to industrial occupations, for that sphere of
labor, just as it now fits others for literary work or the
learned professions. That technical education has a claim
on our municipal schools equal to that of literary educa-
71
tion, and that industrial training deserves a place in our
schools both as a necessary complement to intellectual
training and as a preparation for pursuits involving
manual labor, ought to be patent to all.
Without undertaking to discuss at greater length the
efficiency or practicability of the instruction in our free
schools, attention cannot be too strongly drawn to the fact
that the whole tendency of our teaching is the imparting tendency of our
of temporary information to children, less than 4 per cent.”"
of whom pass into the High School, and probably 90 per
cent. of whom pass from our primary and grammar Schools
into various industrial occupations before reaching fifteen
years of age. On this point I cannot more forcibly and
gracefully present the deficiencies of its common-school
system than by applying to the city of Baltimore the
language used by Mr. William Mather, of England,
in his testimony before the Senate Committee on Educa-
tion and Labor, whose report on labor and capital has but
recently been published. This testimony is a valuable
exposé of the practical relations of our educational system
to our industries and, besides being fertile in suggestions
of value in reference to the American school system
generally, bears directly upon the question now under
consideration—the educational needs of Baltimore. Mr.
Mather says:
In my travels through your country in pursuit of my inquiries, I have visited Mr. Mather's
about twenty-two cities, and stayed at each for a while making inquiries. I sup-gºnents and,
pose I have visited over one hundred institutions of various kinds, particularly;...".
Schools and colleges, and I think I have a pretty fair notion of what you are tem. -
doing in the direction of education, both generally and specifically. My opinion
is, in regard to the question raised by your inquiry, that you would have an
immense effect upon the condition of the working classes here if you would alter
the methods of teaching in your primary and grammar Schools, and very much
also in the high schools.
After having given reading, writing, arithmetic, and those rudiments of edu-
cation which you give thoroughly and intelligently—you seem in that respect
to ground the children thoroughly well in the rudiments of education—you then
seem to pile upon them a lot of studies which do not enter into their lives after-
72
ward, when they come to work, and you utterly ignore in all your public schools
that element of industrial training which seems to me so necessary for every
people—particularly a people like the Americans, so mechanical and industrial
in their occupations.
Looking at the course of education of the grammar school, the graduates of
that school everywhere appear to me to have spent a great deal of time on the
refinements of grammar and of literature—education of very little consequence
to them when they pass into their life-employments—and during that time they
have no opportunity of acquiring knowledge of the natural laws or elements of
chemistry, physics, or the various sciences that underlie all the industries that
abound in the country, and into one or the other of which these children are
passing. That is all a dark and unknown land to them, and I think it is a mis-
fortune to the working classes of this country that their education runs so much
to the side of literature, and not to the industrial and scientific side.
To illustrate how readily children can acquire such information, we have
adopted in England, in our new “Board ” schools, quite a different system. If
you examine a boy of twelve to fourteen years of age in our new “Board ”
schools throughout any of our large cities, you will find that he will at that age
know as much about the elements of simple mathematics, mechanical drawing,
physics, chemistry, electricity, magnetism, and all those general elements of
science, as many of your boys and girls do in the high Schools when they are
sixteen or seventeen years of age. That is not owing to the fact that our boys
and girls are any smarter or more intelligent than yours, but is owing entirely
to the system of education adopted. We are endeavoring to bring this natural
system of education in our country to a point where it will be of use to the
working classes chiefly ; and we endeavor to teach them those subjects that will
have a direct bearing on their future employments. Without teaching them a
trade, or any particular handicraft, all the tendency of the teaching is to make
them either commercially or industrially a success, in the way of having some
scientific knowledge which they can utilize as they pass into their various occu-
ations.
p I find in this country what I should call lamentable want in this respect. I
think it only requires that your public men, your educators, should take this
into immediate consideration, in order at once to alter the curriculum of the
grammar Schools, so that a large portion of the time should be devoted to these
more important subjects, and less given to the facts of ancient history or remote
matters, which the children will probably never think of when they once pass
out of school into the ordinary occupations of life. * * * * * * * *
|Under the ordinary arrangements we are now trying to introduce industrial
occupations generally, and we have thus far tried it to the extent of joinery or
carpentry classes. We have in several of the Manchester schools put up sheds
for carpentry classes, fitted up with benches, and turned every boy in the
School, molens volens, who is as much as ten years of age, into the carpentry
class for three hours every week, dividing the time into three lessons per week,
There all the various timbers from all parts of the world are collected, and a
little lecture is given to the boys as to the character of the woods and what they
are good for. Then each boy must take his tools and cut from a log a certain
piece of timber, under the instruction of the foreman of the department. So
each boy goes through the different lines of work in the department, always
under instructions. This has had a wonderful effect on pupils, and has really
increased their intelligence, so that the three hours lost from the other depart-
ments of the School are not, in fact, lost, as the boys keep well abreast with the
others in the other studies.
Q. You find this industrial education quite as beneficial to the intellect as the
pursuit of the studies in the literary department?
A. Yes; it would almost seem to have revealed to us already that the proper
method of training the intellect is to join industrial work to the teachings of the
school. We find these boys are more capable of understanding the oral teaching
73
and they understand better what they read. Their minds are made more
reflective and receptive by the fact that they have depended more upon them-
selves, and put into operation the knowledge that they have before acquired in
the schools. That experiment has been tried, as you are probably aware, very
extensively in France since the Republic was established there, and with very
remarkable results. On seeing, in some cases, the benefits to be derived from
that plan, we have made some experiments in England, and we think they are
So Satisfactory that we shall endeavor to bring to adoption in all our public
Schools Some plan of industrial or mechanical training to go side by side with the
intellectual courses. g
Q. Will you be kind enough to give us the results of your investigations, if you
please? We shall not often have opportunity to get it from So authoritative a
SOUll'C6.
A. Well, I hardly think it would be quite pertinent to the question we are
discussing. All I need to say is that I think the opportunities in France,
Switzerland and Germany for technical training have of late years become
quite extensive. In all large cities the training is very thorough. If they err
at all there, it is, as I think, that they theorize too much, and cause their
students to imagine that, in passing through their technical schools, they have
already acquired all the knowledge uecessary to make them engineers, chemists,
miners, etc., and that actual, practical work in shops, mines and laboratories is
not necessary. That is the evil that is encountered by their methods of teach-
ing, and is one that I think neither Americans nor the English are likely to see
in their own systems when they adopt anything of the kind.
As you know, your country does possess already a considerable number of
very remarkable technical Schools, which certainly are not surpassed by any
School in Europe. They are schools, however, that are not available for the
working classes, as are those of Germany, France and Switzerland, and what
little we have done in England. They belong to a higher rank in society, and
therefore you have not felt them in your ordinary life. But for the training of
skillful managers, foremen, and even proprietors of large industries, about a
dozen of the schools and colleges of this country are not surpassed by anything
in Europe. I need only to refer to the technological institute at Boston, for
example. That form of school is purely technical, and, in the branches which
they adopt for their course of teaching, they have a practical method of carrying
out all the occupations, industrial and practical, in a simple form before the
students which I think is much more to the purpose than anything done in Europe.
The American mind is essentially more practical than the German or the French,
and in these Schools we see the effect of the difference. They keep their eyes fixed
upon one thing—that these young men are to become masters or captains of
industry—and, therefore, all the teaching has a strong practical bias. The State
universities in this country—those coming under the national grant—would, of
course, become excellent sources for technical and industrial learning, which
might he utilized largely without costing much money, either to the State or to
the community.
You seem to have a widespread—almost universal—opportunity for all the
people here to get a technical and scientific education. All that you wa t is a
shuffling of the cards to alter the curricula of the various institutions. There
is more spent in this country for education than in any other country in the
world—both I think by private beneficent individuals who have left money for
certain colleges and universities, and, of course, by the generosity of your towns
and cities in the public-School system—that is a fact of world-wide notoriety.
I do not think the working classes here have anything at all to complain of in
regard to education, except that it does not have a strong enough and close
enough relation to the industries which the working classes pursue.
When you turn out nine-tenths of all the boys and girls in this country from
the Schools at the grammar-school age—fourteen or fifteen—you can see how im-
portant it is that at that age they have not been carried through that precise
74
course of study which those may reasonably pass through who intend to pursue
education up to the age of eighteen in the high school. I suppose it would be
a very simple matter to make such regulations in regard to primary and indus-
trial schools for those children whose parents intend they shall leave at fourteen
or fifteen years of age, and not pursue the high-school studies; that in those
cases such a change could be made in the curriculum of all the grades that the
teaching should be more of an industrial character, and afford the information
and training that will enable them to pursue their occupations more intelligently.
That, I think, is a thing that the workpeople have a right to claim here—a
revision of the course of instruction in the public schools. -
One thing I have heard remarked by many Americans, and observed myself
as I have gone through the country—that boys and girls just arriving at the age
for entering into occupations involving manual labor rather seek what we call
in England polite employments—to be clerks, or to be in stores, or some work
that does not involve manual labor. Frequently there is considerable difficulty
in some of the mills and manufactories in keeping there those who may have
commenced to learn a trade or occupation, because they find manual labor un-
interesting, as they are sure to find it when they have no knowledge whatever
of the meaning of all this, labor, or of the scientific truths underlying it all.
Their respective powers are not interested; hence manual labor becomes a
drudgery, and they soon leave those industries if they have opportunity. Most
of your employers say they cannot keep American youths at this work. They
do not like manual labor. .
We want to elevate and exalt the idea of manual labor in England. We do
not want our public-school system to give the children of the working-people
the idea that labor is low, uninteresting and vulgar. We want to avoid that by
giving them opportunity to take interest in the sciences that underlie all our
industries, and so imbue them, through that instruction, with an intelligence
that will give them an enjoyment of life unknown to their fathers. That char-
O pillion. Of
pl’Onlinent educa-
COTS.
acter of instruction it is not possible to get at such schools as I have described.
At a joint meeting of the National Teachers' Associa-
tion and the American Institute of Instruction, held at
Saratoga in 1882, there was a report on Industrial Educa-
tion by a committee previously appointed, consisting of
General Francis A. Walker, President of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology; President M. C. Fernald, of Maine
College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts; President M.
H. Buckham, of the University of Vermont; Prof. William
H. Brewer, of the Sheffield Scientific School, Yale College;
William B. Weeden, of Providence, R. I., and John S.
Clark, of Boston. This committee reported as follows:
Your committee chosen to investigate the subject of Industrial Education, and
to report thereon to your association, beg to submit the following as their con-
clusions and their recommendations: -
Your committee are of the opinion that there should be incorporated in the
present scheme of public education broader provisions than now exist for impart-
ing to our youth the elements of knowledge and skill required in the industrial
75
arts; not alone for the development of those arts, but also as a part of the
general system of public education, having for its object training for citizenship
through the normal development of individual power.
To this end they would-recommend:
JFirst. The introduction into public schools of proper appliances for the devel-
opment of the Sense-perception of pupils, in regard to color, form, proportion, etc.,
by contact with models and with natural objects. r *
Second. The introduction into grammar schools of simple physical and chemical
experiments for the purpose of acquainting pupils, through original observation,
with the elements of chemical and physical Science and their common applica-
tions in the arts.
Third. The teaching of drawing, not as an accomplishment, but as a language
for the graphic presentation of the facts of form and of matter; for the repre-
Sentation of the appearance of objects; and also as a means of developing taste
in industrial design. -
Fourth. The introduction into grammar and high schools of instruction in the
use of tools; not for their application in any particular trade or trades, but for
developing skill of hand in the fundamental manipulations connected with the
industrial arts, and also as a means of mental development.
In view of the fact that much misconception exists in regard to giving instruc-
tion in the several features recommended, and of the desirability of more informa-
tion in regard to their practical introduction into schools, your committee
Suggest a further examination into the general subject of industrial education
and its relation to public education.
This testimony, officially published by so representative
a body of practical educators as the National Teachers'
Association and the American Institute of Instruction,
hardly needs supplementing, though much more testimony
to the same effect can be furnished, if needed, to serve the
purpose in view. In lieu of more extended comment, I
herein make a simple reference to Judge MacArthur's late
book on “Education in its Relation to Industry,” Charles
Ham's new book on “Manual Training,” and C.B.Stetson's
work on “Technical Education,” remarking that all of their
testimony is in perfect harmony with the strictures con-
tained in the quotations from Mr. Mather's report [Ex-
hibit Mj and those made by Dr. Philbrick [Exhibit N] in
the report on the City School Systems of the United
States, which is in itself a compendium of the subject.
In concluding the discussion of our public-school system
I may remark that, broadly speaking, our lower and middle
classes get no educational training beyond what is afforded in
76
lll fluon C() ()f
I) ublic-School in-
Struction in detel'-
mining the future
career of pupils.
the public schools, and the direction given their studies
greatly influences, if it does not entirely shape, their future
career and, consequently, in the aggregate, our social, indus-
trial and national life. This statement is simply a reitera-
tion of the fact that if our school instruction, broadly con-
sidered, is to fit young people only for literary pursuits
and the learned professions, our industries must languish
for want of qualified persons to direct them, and lack of skill
and intelligence in the performance of the labor necessary to
their successful development. On the other hand, if our
schools are such as to fit young people for industrial
pursuits, as well as for professions and clerkships, thus
placing the professions and occupations requiring manual
labor on an equal footing in point of dignity and qualified
operatives, we may expect a systematic development of
our national welfare. By giving more attention to scien-
tific instruction, and to the training of the hand and eye,
our public schools would not only do much towards
meeting the present requirements of industry, but the
reaction upon the schools themselves would be highly
beneficial, and intellectual training would assume a high
value in all grades of society. Teach the boys in our
public schools that to be a carpenter, a machinist, or a
moulder, is just as honorable, requires no less skill, and
may be more profitable, than to be a clerk, or a doctor, or a
lawyer, and there will be hundreds of qualified applicants
for apprenticeship in our best shops, and soon educated
labor will take the place of uneducated labor, and intelligent
mechanics will displace those who refuse to learn more
than they already know. But as matters now stand,
with scarcely any facilities in our school system for
even the most elementary technical training, few boys
who leave the higher grades of our schools have any
77
disposition to enter a workshop as apprentices; not be-
cause they have no mechanical genius or capacity for
artisanship (for oftentimes their bent of mind is more
in the direction of such pursuits than otherwise), but
because their education has been such as to prejudice them
against pursuits requiring manual labor, and to predispose
them towards some other sphere of activity which they
look upon as more dignified, and as giving them a higher
social standing.
It may not be gainsaid that Baltimore is sadly in need,
Need of facilities
r higher techni-
of additional facilities for those of her youth who are to cal training.
become active managers of shops and factories or special-
ists in industrial occupations. While there are many con-
siderations which should induce the State or our munici-
pality to take immediate action in the direction of provid-
ing for the great educational want that has been shown to
existin our midst, one also not unnaturally looks for efficient
help in the direction of the great University which has
already become so conspicuous a part of our educational
system. There certainly are cogent reasons why the
Ičeasons Why tile
- e e e © t Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins University should co-operate to this end; intºnia
p
romote indus-
prominent among which is the undeniable fact that its;...""
Baltimore.
trustees are charged with the administration of a bequest
that was primarily intended by the testator for the practical
education of the youth of Maryland and the South. Upon
casual reflection only, an extended reference to the character
of instruction in that institution might not be considered
especially pertinent to such a report as this, but as one of
its principal objects is to secure for our service a sufficient
number of young men possessed of such general and varied
knowledge and technical training as will fit them for the
many positions of responsibility in this service, in which
vacancies are constantly occurring, and as many of these posi-
78
Relations of
Johns Hopkins to
B. & O. R. R.
MIl'. Mathel''S
tions call for greater skill and a higher grade of education
than are at present contemplated in connection with our Mt.
Clare school, the curriculum and methods of the Johns
Hopkins University become, as a matter of fact, of great
moment in this connection. Such reference is further
justified by the close financial and executive relations
which the founder of that University sustained to the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, and by the factº
that the greater part of its endowment is vested in the
Securities of that Company, whose successful and economi-
cal administration is vital to its own prosperity and exist-
ence. If, therefore, some part of the large annual income
which the University enjoys through this Company’s opera-
tions ($136,236), and some portion of the services of its
organized corps of experienced teachers and of its extensive
equipment can be secured in aid of the higher training in
mechanical and industrial pursuits of those to whom we
must look for skilled and intelligent operatives, and of
the children of our workpeople generally, than our limited
facilities can afford, the interests of the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad Company, as well as of all other manu-
facturing corporations, and of the city generally, will
be materially promoted ; while the University itself would
achieve great renown as the champion of high industrial
education for the masses, and its trustees would, at the
same time, relieve themselves of the blame which now
attaches, in the minds of many of our respectable citizens, to
their method of administering the Johns Hopkins bequest.
The citizens of Baltimore are not alone in thinking that the
managers of the Johns Hopkins University Trust have mis-
judged, not only the intention of its founder, but also the
spirit and the want of the nation and of the present age.
crºſsmºohns In this connection, Iagain call attention to that exhibitin the
Hopkins Univer-
Sity methods.
appendix of this report (Exhibit M) in which Mr. Mather
79
regretfully refers to the devotion of this University to the
highest mathematical, physical and medical sciences, and
to its decided and especial bias towards original research
and scientific discoveries in pure science and other theo-
retical rather than practical branches, and also to his
further remark that “One might expect from So richly
endowed an institution a more direct relation to scientific
industry than now appears to be the case. With an income
of $225,000 a year, it would appear possible for a larger
amount of work to be done among the people of the city
without in any degree diminishing the high class of in-
struction in the advanced stages of literary and Scientific
study.” It is unquestionable that its splendid endowment
has stimulated literary and scientific education; but, in view
of Mr. Hopkins's well-known practical turn of mind and of...º.º.
those terms of his will which are susceptible of different con-ºses toº
structions, it is important to consider the character of “
work to which the University is now devoted, in order to
gauge its powers and influence in affording educational
facilities to the youth of the States of Maryland, Virginia,
and North Carolina, whose preparation for the practical
pursuits of life and instruction in branches not taught
under our common-school system, for which, in specific
terms, it was incorporated and which it is also the testi-
mony of his intimate associates the institution was founded.
The present income of the Johns Hopkins University is amºng als.
(closely approximated);225,000 per annum, derived from an §,
endowment of about $3,500,000; of which $2,207,900 is in “” ”
Baltimore and Ohio securities. Making liberal allowance for
the cost of buildings, apparatus, etc., it is ascertained that an
average of considerably more than $100,000 has, yearly,
since 1876, been expended for instructing an average each
year of only 188 students; that the annual cost of instruction
---
80
perstudent has been at least $700, and that each of the several
teachers has had an average of not more than six students to
instruct, for which services they have been paid salaries
varying from $2000 to $5000 per annum. While these
figures are approximate, it is certain that since the insti-
tution was opened for students more than $1,000,000 have
been expended for the instruction of less than one thousand
individuals, for an average of less than two years each.
Considering the magnitude of this fund and the almost
unparalleled expenditure per individual student, one might
certainly look for encouraging results in those lines for
The COur Se Of
instruction in
Johns Hopkins
University does
110t flt for indus-
trial callings.
What, Llne Presi-
dent, and Trustees
may claim as the
result. Of the Uni-
versity work.
which the trust was primarily founded; but, as a matter of
fact, out of the 923 students who have matriculated during
the ten years of its existence, fewer than fifty have fol-
lowed the occupation of merchants, engineers, electricians,
manufacturers, or engaged in other industrial pursuits;
while all the rest were educated for professions not directly
related to our industries. Even the few who have gone
from the University to engage in practical industry have
done so by chance or from previous inclination, as the
training received there did not particularly fit them for an
industrial calling. Certainly those in whose behalf Mr. Hop-
kins's magnificent bequest was made have a right to expect
greater results than these from the proper management of
that fund. If the President and Trustees are asked what the
University has done for the public, they will doubtless say
that it has provided a large staff of able teachers, well
equipped laboratories, and carefully selected libraries; that
it affords broad and liberal courses of study; that it encour-
ages original research and investigation, and that important
discoveries have been made in science; that several serial
publications are sent out for general and special informa-
tion; that gratuitous courses of lectures have been afforded
8]
the public; that the University offers a number of free
scholarships and fellowships to the meritorious; and,
finally, that an average of nearly two hundred students
annually receive instruction in its various departments.
The public certainly have a right to ask what some of these cºś.
important discoveries have been, and to know what prac-ºº:
tical bearing they have had upon the welfare of the com-" Pºp"; "
munity at large. The beneficial results of these discoveries
have not yet been seen or felt in Baltimore. Most of the
University's serial publications do not profit the general
public of this city, because the matter contained in them con-
sists largely of glittering generalities in science, mathematics
and literature, that are of no interest or value to most people,
while its public lectures are said to be of such a character
as to be understood and appreciated only by those who are
themselves specialists, and who might easily go to original
Sources for the information thus afforded. Likewise it
may not be out of place to ask who are the students upon
whom the resources of this institution have been expended
so lavishly. Are they from Maryland and the Southern
States? Are they the sons of poor parents? Are they
young men who have to work their way up in the world 7
Very few of them indeed have been drawn from the labor-
ing classes or from those who are likely to take any part
in industrial pursuits. As far as I can ascertain, they are
the sons of the wealthy; they are young men who have
already received a liberal education in preparatory schools
and in colleges, and most of whose parents are amply able
to send their sons to any of the already numerous high-
class literary universities, such as Yale, Harvard, or
Michigan. At any rate it is from this latter class that
those who fill the Hopkins scholarships and fellowships
are mostly drawn. * * .
82.
The University
does not meet the
most urgent edu-
cational needSIOf
the country and Of
the present age.
The present tendency of the Johns Hopkins University
management savors too much of the classic and meta-
physical scholasticism of the Middle Ages. In their efforts
to imitate or surpass the great European universities,
its President and Trustees seem not only to have ignored
the educational needs of Maryland and the South, but of
the entire nation. Our country is comparatively new. Very
few of our citizens have leisure for the higher study of
the classics, for speculative philosophy, or for the study
of pure science for its own sake. The time has come
when education ought to mean more than it once did.
Proficiency in speaking Greek, in composing Latin verse,
or in displaying dialectical skill, ought no longer to be the
sole or leading purpose of a university training. As edu-
cation ceases merely to lead a favored few into the realms
of classic and philosophical thought, and begins to elevate
whole classes of society by increasing general intelligence,
and to dignify their labor by uniting the power of the
mind with the skill of the hand, it will become a blessing
as well as an ornament to society. The continuation of
vigorous and healthful national life and development
depends largely upon the aid which such education as
this alone can afford. A hundred years later we
may need to afford more extensive facilities than can
now be had in our universities for the highest classical
and philosophical culture of men and women, who
may then be in a position to devote their whole lives
to study and metaphysical discussions; but now we need
educational facilities of a different character. Most
of our citizens have to labor in some way in order to
gain a livelihood. We have vast resources of wealth that
are awaiting development. Specialists highly trained in
industrial science are needed to direct our manufacturing
83
and engineering enterprises. As a people we have a bias
for the practical. Our citizens have a genius for invention.
So great is their ability in this direction that, with
scarcely any scientific or mechanical training, they have
wellnigh led the world in the number and usefulness of
their inventions. If now to this native bias we were to
add the power that would result from intelligent training
in applied science, and if we could give our artisans a
chance to attain the highest skill and intelligence in the
execution of their work, for what might we not reason-
ably hope in the way of national development?
Why should not the Johns Hopkins University sustain, sº
a department for higher technical training in industrial;" |
pursuits? There are many reasons why such training can
be better afforded in a great university than in a special
technical school. The same library, apparatus, laborato-
ries and class instruction would answer for both, in many
departments of study. The association of the students in
the regular University classes with those pursuing techni-
cal studies would be mutually beneficial to the students
themselves and the country at large. This is shown to be
true in the experience of such leading universities as Cor-
nell and Columbia, where classical and technical students
are daily brought together. Whatever serves to do away
with antagonism, whether between labor and capital, or
between industry and culture, ought to be availed of as a
social and national blessing. In certain branches, as chem-
istry, physics and biology, there are no more capable the President
º & - te - e à, d F l f
instructors anywhere than in the Johns Hopkins Univer-ji:
sity, and I have no doubt that they would cheerfully *:::::::::::::::g.
render to the city and to this Company the assistance they
are so capable of affording, in any commendable effort for
promoting industrial education. It is gratifying to be able
84
The Trustees
have it in their
' power to forge the
missing link in
our educational
System.
to note, in this connection, that President Gilman and his
Faculty seem to be in accord with the general idea here
advanced. Professors on his staff have expressed and
taken great interest in the question of technical train-
ing in Baltimore; some have delivered lectures to the
working classes; papers on economics and kindred sub-
jects, calculated to bring the University into intimate
relations with the people of Baltimore, have been pub-
lished, while its President has directly expressed his
willingness to use the institution as a source of technical
training as soon as a practical scheme to that end could
be devised. [Exhibit M.] Is it, therefore, too much to
hope that, all things considered, the governing body of
this institution, recognizing that there is not now an ex-
tensive demand, in our locality, for such high-grade liter-
ary and philosophical study as is afforded in the Johns
Hopkins University, will change their present policy (which
appears to look to founding a university that shall favor-
ably compare with the great literary universities of
Europe), and will, aided by the city or through their own
corporate individuality, forge the missing link in Balti-
more's educational system, by establishing, in connection
with the present course of instruction, a department of
higher technical training, and thus more directly benefit
Baltimore is a
desirable location
for a technical
university. .
the hundreds of thousands of our citizens, who can never
hope to derive any practical benefit from the University as
at present conducted 7
Besides the great demand in Baltimore for facilities for
higher technical training, there are many circumstances
that combine to make it a desirable location for a high-
grade technical university. It is situated nearer than
any other city to Washington, and the teachers and
advanced students of such a school could have ready and
85
comparatively easy access to the Smithsonian Institution
and the Patent Office. These places would contribute much
towards the success of an industrial course in the Univer-
sity, or of a separate polytechnic school. Washington is
not sufficiently of a manufacturing city to sustain such
a school. Baltimore is the only city that is close enough
to the Capital to profit, educationally, to any great extent
by the collection of models, scientific apparatus, and
specimens that abound therein. In point of healthfulness,
and moral and social influence, Baltimore is probably
not surpassed by any other city of its size in the country.
Situated here, midway the Atlantic seaboard, a high-, advantages o
-- o - having such a .
grade technical school would attract students from the ºf a
North and the South, thus bringing about a better sec."
tional feeling and widely disseminating knowledge of
the resources of both the Northern and Southern States.
The effect upon our own city would be beneficial in many
directions. We would have finer architecture (in which
we are sadly deficient at the moment), better sanitary
measures, and a greater manifestation of public spirit in
all deserving enterprises on the part of our citizens. A
polytechnic school, or technical department in the Univer-
sity, would supply a gap in our educational facilities
between the education afforded by the common schools
and the high scientific and literary education offered by
the Johns Hopkins University. It would exert a very
healthful influence upon the public schools of the city,
by modifying their course of study, by furnishing trained
specialists to teach technical subjects, by stimulating
young people to avail of their advantages so as to pass
into the technical school, and by demonstrating that edu-
eation is an important factor in fitting young people for
skilled labor and industrial pursuits generally, as well as
86
Extracts from an
addres3 Of HOn, S.
Teackle Wallis.
in fitting them for clerkships or soft-handed professions;
and thus those callings involving industrial dexterity and
knowledge would, in point of dignity and of qualified and
intelligent operatives, soon secure an equal footing with
what are popularly known as the “learned professions.”
A good high-grade technical school in our midst would
do much towards supplying competent teachers and sug-
gesting a practical course of study for our evening schools,
and for secondary technical schools that would spring up,
and the more ambitious of the pupils from such schools
would have something to stimulate them to greater exer-
tion; for, besides competent teachers and suitableinstruction,
there would be the additional incentive of making sufficient
advancement to secure admission to the higher technical
school. It is well known that many young people in Europe
fit themselves for the higher technical institutions by attend-
ing evening schools. Finally, with facilities for both higher
and secondary technical training to supplement the general
education now afforded in our public Schools, we might
reasonably hope that the frequent labor troubles resulting
from the apparent antagonism between capital and labor,
or rather the real antagonism between capital and unedu-
cated labor, would cease; for educated labor would soon
supplant uneducated labor in all our leading industries.
Intelligent mechanics will do more for themselves and
their brethren than any number of “labor agitators.”
I cannot better close this section of my report than by
quoting the following from the address of Hon. S. Teackle
Wallis, before the Maryland Institute, June, 1882, to
which Mr. Cowen called your special attention: *.
“Can we let our people go untaught of the arts of construction and design,
when all the sister communities with which we rank ourselves are straining every
nerve to teach them? Are the mechanic arts so small an element in our pros-
perity that we can safely let them run or rust in the worn-out grooves of thirty
87
years ago? When the demand all around us is for skilled workmen, are we to
settle down without skill? Are the people who are born to the necessity of
labor to be furnished with no means of lightening and refining it? Do the best
we may, we can never dispense with the proletary and the drudge; but in
heaven’s name let us help him, if we can, to something better—let us make the
hewers of wood and drawers of water as few as may be. This is not only the
duty of a republic and Christian community, but its best interest as well. Think
of the weariness that will be lightened by art labor of those who are weak and
yet must toil. Think of the penniless and helpless women who will have
pleasant and congenial work away from rude contact with piteous temptation.
Think of the young men of poor estate whose tastes will be developed, whose
natures will be refined, and to whom avenues of independence and perhaps
distinction will be opened. Can any man look another in the face and say that
these things are not to be coveted ? And yet how shall we attain them 2 The
children of toil cannot educate themselves. Of the many even to whom work
brings comfort it brings but little more. As maturity comes on the son takes
up the father’s tools, and his education for the most part ends. What the
workshop teaches him, more or less rudely, he learns, and little else. Unless
Some one helps him to improvement and development, it is only exceptional that
he ever reaches them. Individual help may serve in individual cases, it is true,
but a large and public need can only be supplied by public effort and the public
hand. * * * In this city of ours, and this year of grace, there is not one
single public academy of art of any sort except that within whose almost naked
walls we are. The elementary instruction in drawing which is given in our pub-
lic schools is necessarily limited, and a large portion of the pupils are compelled
to leave at an early age, as the report of the Commissioners explains, in order to
learn trades for their future support. * * * -
“It has long been my own conviction that one of the most direful needs of
education in this State is the establishment of a technical school for scientific
mechanical instruction. There is absolutely nothing of the sort upon the Soil
of Maryland—a blot indeed upon the intellectual and the business record of a
community whose productive and mechanical capacity is so large and varied as
our own. The class for whom such instruction is needed are the very ones who
cannot afford to seek it at a distance; and except out of Maryland, no Maryland
man can find it. Every one who is at all familiar with the subject knows that
in the large enterprises where mechanical agencies are needed, the demand is
now for mechanics, not only skilled, but thoroughly and scientifically educated.
The so-called ‘practical man,’ whose knowledge is simply empirićal, and whose
facts lie isolated in a vacuum, is fast being pushed to the wall. He is a victim
of the survival of the fittest. Our mechanics are at a sad disadvantage, from
the absence of opportunity to qualify themselves for this new order of things.
An honorable and lucrative profession, which may well be classed among those best
deserving the appellation of ‘learned,’ is thus practically closed to a large num-
ber of the most vigorous intellects of our State.”
ADVANTAGES T0 RAILWAY INTERESTS OF SCIENTIFIC
TRAINING OF WORKMEN
All that has been set forth in the preceding sections of º
this report may be considered as paving the way for an railway interests.
intelligent consideration of the bearing of scientific and
technical training upon railway interests per se. The
88
wide scope and the importance of the subject bewilder
the investigator who seeks to know why technical instruc-
tion has not more rapidly advanced and prospered in this
country, where the field of industrial enterprise is so wide,
and what its effects are upon interests with which rail-
roads are directly identified. An early recognition of the
difficulty of securing a proper appreciation of the necessity
for more thorough and widespread scientific knowledge
among railroad people, led me to afford you a comparison
of how it has affected manufacturing and kindred interests
in those localities where it has been sufficiently and syste-
matically cultivated, with other places approximately
similarly situated with respect to trade facilities and com-
petition, but which have despised or disregarded its aid.
This preliminary presentation materially narrows the dis-
cussion of technical education from our particular stand-
point, and yet I approach this division of the subject with
great diffidence, and with full recognition of the pitfalls sur-
rounding one who, lacking experience in many practical
details of railway operation and of those industries that have
to do with the production of railway plant and appliances,
attempts or suggests reformations or modifications of time-
honored methods and practices. .
Considering its importance and magnitude, there has
been a singular dearth of discussion and testimony upon
the subject of technical training for railway officers and
employes. While there seems to be a general agreement
that, because of the enormous capital and allied interests
involved, and of the technical knowledge and skill neces-
sary to successfully conduct its varied and far-reaching
operations, railroading has acquired the dignity of a pro-
p."*** fession, fully as exacting and requiring equal professional
skill and intellectual attainments as the liberal professions,
89
I fail to find that any of our railway managers have a dºll.
es for thorough
and Systematic
proper appreciation of the situation, or that there has been;...a,
any well-digested effort in the direction of educating:“”
railway officials or employes upon systematic lines, such
as, for example, produce at West Point and Annapolis
corps of young men whose basic education and training,
with a little experience, fit them for any position of
responsibility and trust in our military and naval service.
Unquestionably there must be in many of our large railway
organizations those who have long recognized the need of,
and would warmly welcome, this educational factor in rail-
way management, and doubtless many of them are, from
previous education and long experience, peculiarly qualified
for making a forcible presentation of the advantages of
and in view of the great changes that scientific discoveries
are making in methods of production and transportation,
and the new industries that are continually springing up,
I may say the absolute necessity for—a combination of
scientific and technical education for the operatives of the
transportation service of the country. But, unfortunately,
men of this type are, as a rule with few exceptions, over-
tasked with responsibilities and harassed with anxieties
that leave few opportunities and little inclination for ex-
pressing their views on any subject foreign to their specific
duties. . .
Having accepted the task of investigating this subject, I
shall endeavor to crystallize for you the testimony of such
well-known authorities as, though not actually railroad men, mºś,
Of technical in-
have themselves been connected with the details of indus- tººls.
tries more or less related to railway interests, and who are,
therefore, competent witnesses; and I shall further endeavor
to set forth as clearly and succinctly as possible, such conclu-
sions and considerations as have been evolved from a careful . . . .
90
All appointments
. Of railroad Officers
in line of promo-
based upon high
Standard Of quali-
Scientific know-
ledge secures eco-
In Omy in all rail-
road departments.
and somewhat prolonged inquiry and study of this subject
from various standpoints. I do this in the hope that my
labors will be fruitful of results in the direction of at
least stimulating those in our service who have its welfare
at heart (and especially those officers who are charged
with making net results) to inaugurate a new policy,
which shall require of all candidates for all positions,
however insignificant, that are in the line of promo-
tion, a reasonably high standard of qualifications, and
shall then look to fostering and developing the youth of
the service into a corps of educated operatives, mentally and
mechanically skilled in their various handicrafts, with at
least sufficient breadth of knowledge and capacity to ren-
der unnecessary and unjustifiable the selection of men
outside the service to fill the highest positions of responsi-
bility and trust, even in the administrative and execu-
tive staffs of the company. Such a policy would not be
chimerical, but one easy of accomplishment with (consid-
ering the interests involved) an insignificant expenditure,
if accorded the hearty good-will and co-operation of those
upon whom devolves the duty of developing our resources
and increasing the net earning capacity of our system.
If the testimony previously set forth affirmatively shows
that scientific and technical education stimulates, devel-
ops and Secures economical processes in the manufactures
and other industrial avocations, a much stronger case can
be made out in favor of broad technical education in con-
nection with our railways; which, collectively, employ in
the production and repair of plant, more workmen than
are engaged in any other class of commercial business.
In the same ratio that our extensive railway system
surpasses all other branches of industry in the magnitude
of its business, the number of its departments and the
9]
interests affected, is there greater need for economy of
administration and greater necessity for the application
of the highest obtainable scientific knowledge and manual
skill to its various operations. It has become the almost
universal practice of our great railway corporations, and
especially those whose lines are reaching out into unde-
veloped and sparsely settled territory, to assume the
entire repairs of their plant, even when they amount
to practical reconstruction, and there is also a steady
• gº * ſº Railway corpora-
tendency on the part of such companies in the direction of;me
manufacturing their own equipment from raw materials.
This places them in the category of manufacturers, and
makes them amenable to the laws and factors regulating
production, and, further, makes applicable to them much
of the testimony heretofore given as to the value of tech-
nological instruction in mechanical pursuits. Because of
the nature of their service, involving the transportation
and care of many lives and valuable property, no less than as
a matter of economy, is it of prime importance to such cor-
porations that, in the construction and in the repair of their
rolling stock and appliances, they should employ work-
men of exceptional competency. It is unnecessary, in
this connection, to comment upon their great responsi-
bilities as guardians of life and property, but from a
merely sordid point of view a few illustrations will dem-
onstrate that, in their extensive mechanical operations,
economy and credit result from the employment of in-
telligent laborers, who understand the theory and pur-
poses of their work, and who have the scientific knowl-
edge that gives them, beforehand, a realization of the proper
quality and quantity of material to be used, and enables
them to anticipate the results of the labor they must
expend upon that material to produce given results; per
92
contra, that corresponding danger and loss result from the
employment of workmen who, lacking this knowledge,
are compelled to experiment upon their material, and
who require constant supervision, instruction and re-
instruction. -
Methods of trans. The fact is that with the discoveries or, more properly
portation revolu-
#º speaking, inventions of Watt and the introduction of steam
inventions and in-
.** as a motive power, began a new and eventful era in the
history of mechanical science. The wonderful development
of land and water transportation that followed the inaugu-
ration of steam locomotion created a demand for a class of
operatives, artisans and mechanics before unknown. En-
tering upon a new field of operations wholly unrelated to
their previous experience, without preparation or presentin-
struction, save what they absorbed in the performance of
exacting duties on the railway, in the workshop and in the
engine and boiler-rooms, men who had been “picked up.”
from many walks of life, and who altogether lacked scien-
º, tific training, would naturally be guided solely by “ rule-of.
thumb" practice, and their lives were sure to be narrowed,
until they acquired a pride in being known as “practical"
men—a term nearly synonymous with the habitual but
unreasoning work of many familiar species of the brute
creation. The railroad workman of to-day is largely the
outgrowth of this condition of affairs, and yet is not wholly
responsible for his educational deficiencies. When learn-
Defective meth- . , º 2. e - tº
sºninger ing their trades railroad apprentices were generally placed
under “railroad men’’ of the “practical ’’ type I have
described; who despised or affected to despise scientific
knowledge and scientificmethods of operation; generally not
because they understood or were able to weigh their bear-
ings and value upon their pursuits, but because, knowing
absolutely nothing about them, they thought thus to disguise
93
their ignorance. Under such circumstances apprentices
received little if any special instruction, but were mostly
left to pick up their trades as best they could. Of course,
under such a system, instead of having their special apti-
tudes developed they, in turn, became “practical” men;
and of this type is the present rank and file of railroad
operatives. It is therefore not remarkable that blunders
and accidents frequently occur : that the lives and property
of the public should be entrusted to men whose limited
knowledge frequently does not enable them to judge of or
to reflect upon the responsibilities attached to their several
duties, painfully illustrates the recklessness and indiffer-
ence to public duty that characterize our age and country.*
Perhaps no large class of men are more subjected to
public observation and criticism than the employes of
transportation companies, and there is certainly no other
* That this is neither an unjust nor groundless statement can be easily proven
from the abundant evidence before me, and also from personal experience. In
too many shops apprentices are looked upon as convenient lackeys, and although
they may have strong predilections for certain kinds of work they are more
likely to receive rebuff than encouragement in attempting to utilize their
abilities. It is very probable that much industrial usefulness both to employers
and Society has been blighted in the bud from lack of recognition and wise
direction.
A very interesting article, opportunely appearing in the November number of
the Century Magazine (Vol. 33, No. 1) as this report is passing through the
press, very fully discusses “THE NEED OF TRADE SCHOOLS,” and especially this
particular point of apprentice education, and in that connection I commend it
to your notice. -
Mr. Robert Thomas Eadon, an English manufacturer, says: “I am fully
impressed with the importance of technical education. Some time ago I was in
Bradford, and I saw that preparations had been made worthy of the town. There is
no trade, however wanting it may be in taste or form, that does not benefit in the
hands of a tasty man. One great reason why technical Schools should be
encouraged is because of the very great division of labor that takes place in some
of the largest engineering establishments. There is a great tendency to put a
boy at one machine, and he understands but little beyond that machine. The
result is, though he has been in an engineering shop, he has no idea of the work
carried on as a whole, when he comes out. He is a helpless man if you take him
away from that one machine. It may not be always to the interest of excellent
workmen to inculcate their skill in the minds of the boys under them ; in fact,
they may not have time to do it; but the advantages of a college or school of
this kind will be that if a youth has a desire to improve himself, the facilities
will be offered, and at such a rate as would be attainable.”
|
94
RailWay Com-
panies dependent
for Success upon
the courtesy and
intelligence of
their employes.
class that can more materially promote their employers'
interests by the exhibition of such courtesy, manly spirit
of accommodation, and general information upon current
topics as a fairly liberal education manifests, and yet
you cannot have failed to notice—and as a railroad
manager to regret—what is so commonly commented upon
by the observing: the intellectual deficiencies and narrow-
mindedness of this very class. That our railway opera-
tives are one-ideaed is small matter for wonder; it would
be more remarkable if, as a class, they were otherwise.
I have already pointed out that the operating depart-
ments of a railroad which most expose their employes to
public observation are those which require the longest
and most exacting apprenticeship for the acquisition of
that degree of knowledge and expertness which secures
the performance of their functions as public carriers with
safety and dispatch ; that the heads of administrative and
operative railway departments, who must of necessity be
men of technical knowledge and familiarity with all the
intricate workings of their respective branches, which can
only be acquired by progressive service, generally com-
mence their careers in the lowest grades, with little or no
preparatory education; and yet their duties throw them
into constant contact with a public which is indifferent to
the measure of their experience, but which judges them
by the standard of business men, and demands of them
gentlemanly courtesy and general and varied knowledge,
and which, I may add, favors or obstructs the operations of
a railway company according as its officials are judged
worthy of commendation or condemnation. The managers
and owners of railway property are the ultimate sufferers
from the deficiencies and derelictions of subordinates in
this regard, and yet they are mainly responsible; for if,
95
instead of exacting a high standard of qualifications on the
part of applicants, they open their service to uneducated
boors and then fail to provide them with facilities for
acquiring, with manipulative and technical skill, at least
the rudiments of those branches of knowledge and the
opportunity for extended observation without which no
man can be intelligent, liberal, progressive, how can it be
expected that those employes, when taxed with the cares
and anxieties of an active business, shall display such
enlightenment and refinement as will reflect credit upon
themselves and service 2 - -
Many of our railroads employ armies of people, all of
whom are supposed to be technically expert in their various, ºral
and technical
knowledge among
avocations;–and they need to be. Even a good track laborer.
is not found ready made. It is a well-known fact that in many
railroads only one or two men in a road gang know how to
properly tamp a tie so that it will not require resetting the
same season; and I know of extensive lines that do not
possess a foreman—perhaps not a Supervisor—who can
adjust a curve with instruments. Does it not behoove
executive and administrative officers who are entrusted
with such vast interests as those of railroads to look well
to the qualifications of their operatives? A recent and
generally accurate writer has fixed the value of railroad
property in this country at one thousand millions of
dollars. Another writer says that the number of skilled
laborers required in the operation of railroads is much
greater than is commonly supposed, embracing large num-
bers of men not usually classed as railroad operatives.
In such extended enterprises the efficiency of the unit—
the individual workman—becomes an item of grave econo-
mic consideration; for if it be true that the value of the
individual's work (whatever it be) is increased through
96.
The economic
Walue of Special
training for rail-
way operatives.
r
greater intelligence and special training, though it be only
by a few cents per day, the total is of no inconsiderable
moment, when his services continue through a series of
years and when, instead of one workman, thousands are
employed. If even a slight deficiency in the skill and
intelligence of one workman makes a few cents’ or a few
dollars' difference in the cost of the products of each week's
labor ; if the incompetency of one foreman or one manager
lacking scientific training does usually—as so positively
stated by competent authorities—net an appreciable loss;
multiply the result to corporations like, for instance, our
Eastern trunk lines (one of which employs at least 50,000
people on that part of its system east of the Ohio River,
and more than half as many more west of it: others may
exceed or nearly equal this enormous force); realize that
in such extensive organizations few if any of the practical
details of the operating departments can be accurately
gauged by those whose interests are most vitally concerned;
comprehend how many important matters, involving grave
consequences in their execution, must be entrusted to sup-
erintendents, master mechanics and foremen; then obtain
a correct measure of their education and general knowl-
edge (to say nothing of their scientific attainments), and
you will begin to appreciate the importance and bearing
of this question of technological education, and the enor-
mous losses the lack of it yearly entails upon investors in
railway securities. * - -
* It is a great misfortune to our railroad properties that their owners are not
brought into contact with the staff and rank and file of their operative depart-
ments, so as to appreciate their value and deficiencies or their needs and aspirations.
Says Mr. Kirkham, in his work on the Maintenance of Railways, p. 35:
“No one who is dependent upon the goodwill and fidelity of others for the
maintenance of his interests can afford to shun their acquaintance or permit
them to remain in ignorance of his good intentions towards them. On the
contrary, his duty and interest alike demand that he should cultivate such
relations with them as may be necessary to assure them of his constant and
97.
That most of those who have risen to positions of re-cºlºne
sponsibility and trust in railway service in this country ..."; an
are honest and faithful, goes without saying; but integrity”
and industry are not sufficient: they should also, as aforesaid,
be men of intelligence, and should possess not only a special
knowledge of their own departments, but also an accurate
understanding of related departments of the service. By
intelligent direction of those under him a foreman may
largely increase the efficiency of a score of workmen; and,
on the other hand, by failure to comprehend the scientific The value of the
BerviceS Of fore-
principles involved in the work he superintends, he mayºr
rail Way Officers
dependent upon
cause constant loss or make destructive accidents possible. §§
And what is true of a foreman applies with greater force
to his superior officers. Where is the intelligent railroad
official who has failed to realize the many problems yet
to be solved in the matter of railway operations and appli-
ances, and who is not also conscious that, for the most
friendly regard and the beneficence of his purpose. When it is necessary that
men should entrust the immediate and general management of their property to
others they must do so unqualifiedly and heartily, but such delegation of power
should never extend so far as to relinquish the right and duty of enquiry into
the status of subordinate employes. The proprietor will ever consult his wel-
fare by such manifestation of interest in his servants, and any general or pro-
longed neglect on his part to fulfill this cardinal duty of ownership will redound
to his great and permanent injury. By many owners such manifestation of
interest is thought to be subversive of discipline, and it is possible that they have
been encouraged in this monstrous delusion. It is a sufficient answer to say that
where the owner of a railroad cannot come in contact with his employes without
jeopardizing the discipline of the organization, it ought not to require an outbreak
among his servants, or the destruction of his property, to convince him that there
was a radical defect somewhere in its method of administration. The discipline
of an organization that is dependent upon terrorism, upon ostracising or seques-
trating the employe, upon Separating him from the acquaintance or sympathy of
the owner, is manifestly a gross perversion of responsible methods of government,
and wherever practised evinces mismanagement, and may be accepted as evidence.
of discontent and insubordination and outrageous disregard of the rights of
owners by those who encourage or practice it. If the tendency of corporate
history in the United States teaches one fact more clearly than another it is that
the owners of such property will find it to their advantage to manifest immediate
and personal concern in its affairs and in the affairs of those who operate it, lest
their personality be lost and their property alienated or its value seriously im-
paired. The possession of property presupposes the duty of guardianship, includ-
ing a paternal interest in those who operate it, and its preservation to the owner
will ultimately depend upon the general and wise exercise of this duty.”
-- 98
part, railroad officers and operatives are much more likely
to fail in appreciation of, and even to oppose, improvements
and contrivances of merit in this field worked out by others,
than to originate them?
The exigencies of railway service require men of special
training, of peculiar qualifications, of minute practical
knowledge. There are no important exceptions to this
rule in any of the departments or branches of the business.
Technical exper- To perform their duties wisely and efficiently supervisory
tºº.º.º. officials must be relatively as well skilled as the general
plemented by gen-
*** manager. They must possess a general knowledge of the
- branches of the service to which they are assigned, as
well as a particular acquaintance with the peculiarities
that are special to the immediate positions they hold.
This general and particular knowledge involves an inti-
mate acquaintance with the property, its defects, its
resources and its peculiarities, and presupposes prolonged
association and years of observation and thought, without
which such knowledge is not attainable. * *
Testimony of . In a recent work on “Railway Expenditures; Their
Mr. Kirkham as to -
tºº. Extent, Object and Economy” [p. 111], Mr. Marshall J.
loSS incident to the ſº
i.º.º.º. Kirkham says:
The W ºper- -
eacea oncers “Those not familiar with the practical operations of railroads can hardly esti-
mate the innumerable mishaps and unrecorded losses that occur to a property in
consequence of the introduction into its life of new and inexperienced officers,”
of officers unacquainted with the duties they are to perform, unacquainted with
the manner in which these duties have been performed in the past, or the scope
and circumstances that are expected to characterize them in the future. The
result is always disastrous, no matter how great the ability or how upright the
intention of the new official. Under the most favorable circumstances he is
placed in the position of a man called upon to act without possessing the definite
and trustworthy knowledge necessary to enable him to act intelligently. He
has everything to learn, from the arrangement of his files and office furniture to
the unrecorded policy that has governed his predecessor. He has to learn the
local and foreign geography of the line, its peculiarities, traditions and prospects;
what it possesses and What it does not possess; its contracts, agreements and
leases; the officers and employes who operate it, and the people who give it
*And they never will be able to appreciate these mishaps and unrecorded
losses, for the reason that it is the interest of the class who precipitate them to
conceal the real facts from the owners of the property.
Support. All these things must be learned by rote before a new officer is either
valuable or trustworthy. In the acquisition of his knowledge he is harassed by
doubts, and his path is otherwise beset by obstacles.”
I have already referred to the increasing tendency of
railroad corporations to repair and even to manufacture their
own plant. This seems to have been the traditional—as it is -
certainly the present—policy of the Baltimore & Ohio Com- º
pany. Itispatent that if everything, or most of theimportantº
things, needed in the operations of the service could be
manufactured from the raw materials, in our own shops,
by our own employes, of as good quality and character of
construction as can be had elsewhere, and always with
economy, the interests of our stockholders would dictate
that policy. But, in order to produce in the shops of
corporations of such extended and diversified interests as
railroads, work of a high order, with economy, very nºrm
material progress must be made over the situation as I now º'
regard it. We have seen that no productive enterprise can
in our day be made an economic and commercial success
without intelligence and skill, and that, other things being
equal, it will be profitable just in proportion to the degree
in which those elements are utilized. Surely, enough
has already been said to establish these two elements as
of the highest importance in the production and in the
operation of railway plant and appliances. I presume no
more difficulty is experienced in procuring for railway
service men who have manual skill, and who are frequently
superior artisans in their several occupations, than it is to
obtain them for other pursuits; and I know that many
railway shops contain many such men, whose worth as
mechanics cannot be denied, and who have doubtless made
the best of their opportunities. But the great want in rail- . The demand is
* g © ë * e & © fol' Skill combined
way service is men who combine technical skill with dis-yºg
technical knowl-
ciplined minds and broad intelligence; men who, with *
J . . J.
- - J- *.
2 * (, - , -
J " . " -
100 -
professional experience and knowledge, possess minds
disciplined to accurate observation and logical thought—
qualities that come from sustained mental application,
and are not likely to exist without it; men whose qualifi-
cations make them worthy of promotion, and guarantee
efficient and economical management. I cannot too often
emphasize the statement that, to the extent such qualities
Scarcity of edu-
Cated tâlent ill
R. R. Service.
are lacking in heads of departments, and intelligent service
is lacking in the rank and file, railway operations will be
conducted crudely, inefficiently and with high percentages
of operating expenses to gross revenue. While this is so
patent as to be undeniable, it is certainly a fact that we
have not generally been successful in securing enough of
educated skill and intelligence to even leaven the mass of
“practical” men who constitute the operating forces—to say
nothing of other departments—of our railways. Whether
this be because the managers of railway interests are appre-
hensive of the disapproval of their stockholders if they
pay more than the lowest market price for labor, or
personally entertain too indifferent notions respecting edu-
cated talent to induce them to compete for it with private
firms and local corporations that do value it at its com-
mercial worth, is not for me to say; but I do assert that it
is folly for such long-lived corporations as railroads to
hazard their future prosperity for temporary profits, as
they do when allowing and encouraging their administra-
tive officers to seek and to prefer uneducated—because
nominally cheap—labor. If we expect to operate such
properties on business principles, and not for mere specula-
tive results, our railway managers must provide for the
better education of the rank and file of their employes.”
*The purchase of low-grade materials because they are cheap and can be made
to Serve present purposes is even a lesser evil than depending on low-grade labor.
Parenthetically, a writer already quoted says:
e. g
, * * e
I01
Historically considered, the first servant of a railroad in Types of railway
ServantS.
whom technical knowledge is an essential qualification is
the locating, followed by the constructing, engineer. Our
colleges and technological schools are yearly turning out, in
increasing numbers, young mining, civil and mechanical
engineers—the latter in less numbers than the wants of the
country require. Electrical engineers and industrial chem-
ists are also making their appearance, and as electricity,
mechanically applied, is coming to the front as an important
accessory of railway service, and will soon form an essential
part of our transportation operations, this class of specialists
ready made to our hands will, when competent, easily find
lucrative employment, and it will be many years before they
overstock the telegraph and railroad markets alone. The
industrial chemist is also destined to play no insignificant
part in the railway management of the future. But none
(or at least very few) of the members of any of these, or, in
fact, of any other classes, enter upon professional life
understanding, or qualified to meet, the necessities of rail- a........
way service. It might, indeed, with some reason be:...º.
nish the kind. Of
assumed that a competent civil engineer, at least, would #:
needed in railway
be qualified to undertake railway engineering, but a rail-service.
“Only an experienced and farseeing manager, I have remarked, can with-
stand the seductive influence that envelops an article of prime necessity to his
company when offered at a low rate. The fact that its ultimate cost will be
out of all proportion to the temporary Saving is lost sight of or ignored by some.
The immediate and visible reduction in the cost of operating, and the notoriety
that will attach to him for effecting such reduction, are too strong for a weak
man to withstand. This would not be the case to the extent it is if so great a
proportion of the loss which a company must ultimately suffer in consequence of
the purchase of inferior material was not unavoidably blotted out or covered up
under foreign headings, and remained, in consequence, unknown. . . . In con-
sidering the cost of car and locomotive wheels, axles, frames, springs, bolts, nuts,
and kindred appliances, we find the relative cost between the good and the bad
article is not alone manifest in the price paid for the article itself. It will be
discovered that the use of the inferior article materially swells the disbursement
accounts for deaths and injuries from accidents, for losses and damages, and all
the multitudinous expenditures enumerated above in connection with the use of
inferior lubricants, including the cost of repairing tracks torn up by derailed
trains, the interruption of business and its manifold losses, the swelling of the
account for wages, and finally the cost of repairing the injured equipment.”
I02
way engineer is not, to the present time, the creation of -
any educational institution in this country. Upon this
single point, a paper just read before the Society of Arts
of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (one of the
best conducted in the country) is exceedingly interesting,
and I therefore append it hereto as Exhibit T; recom-
mending it to your careful perusal. Much of what is
therein said may be taken to apply with equal force to
other branches of railway service, and it will well repay
the reading. . -
In railway service, especially, there is frequent necessity
for sending to a distance, and beyond supervision, one or
Competent men
Of varied attain-
ments a necessity
in railway Ser-
Vice.
!
Young men of in-
telligence may be
entrusted With re-
Sponsible duties.
more thoroughly competent men, who shall not be simply
mechanics, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, but
who shall be able to turn their attention to work coming
under their notice, whether they have before done
that thing or not. I think we are all prepared to admit
that at present such men are rarely found enrolled in the
rank and file of railway mechanical departments; yet it is
testified by many manufacturers who have afforded their
employes the advantages of technological instruction, that
they have no difficulty in filling such positions with boys
of 20 or 21 years of age, whom they send long distances
and place in their hands work with which they have had
little or no previous acquaintance, and by their intelligence
they not only give the greatest satisfaction, but frequently
develop into competent teachers of others.
Quite enough has been said in this report to show the
necessity of technical knowledge on the part of machinists
and other artisans employed in constructing and repairing
railway equipment. As a class, the men thus employed
are doubtless of average skill in their several trades, but
it is apparent that in such a hard service as railroading,
103
where machinery, rolling-stock and roadbed are, as a rule,
taxed to their maximum strength and capacity, even a
slight lack of appreciation, on the part of mechanics and
those supervising them, of the special and technical require-
ments of their work will result in the failure of their
productions at critical moments, always to the pecuniary
loss of the owner and sometimes causing serious disasters.
Mechanical trades are at present acquired in this country
through very general instruction or in shops devoted to tº º º
special construction. When work is stagnant in one lººk
branch of a trade it is generally active in other directions,
and the mechanic must, from necessity, often drift from
that kind of work in which he is educated to others to
which he can apply only manual skill, with a smattering
of general knowledge, perhaps altogether inadequate to
the proper performance of his new duty. Even our fore-
men, master mechanics and supervisors, who are, almost
without exception, men of practical knowledge and long
experience in their particular lines of work, have very
seldom received such general or technical instruction as
would enable them to appreciate the effect, upon their own
productions, of changes in methods of operation such as are
constantly occurring in all transportation service and to
meet them. - * -
Every one understands why locomotive engineers should sausation of ea.
be well educated, and yet we know quite well that very*
few have enough education to enable them to respond to
emergencies requiring higher qualities than mere mechan-
ical skill, courage and local knowledge.” In our road
* Says Mr. Wm. Fairbairn, of Manchester, F. R. S., and an authority on the
subject: - -
“The locomotive-engine drivers and stokers have only been known to us for the
last twenty years, but they constitute at the present moment an important branch
of the industrial community, and so far as their acquisition of knowledge and
respectability of character are concerned, we are all, individuals as well as the
104
departments very few foremen or supervisors understand—
or if they understand can intelligently describe—the causes
which deteriorate their track or bridge structures, or other-
wise affect their every-day work.”
I might in similar manner go over the whole list of
railroad operatives, but it is unnecessary. The reason for
all their educational deficiencies is apparent when we con-
sider how few opportunities they have for acquiring theory
and practice in the same place or at the same time during
public, deeply interested. Engine drivers and stokers, above all others, should
have a regular and rigid course of training. They should have a keen eye and a
clear perception ; they should be taught care and attention to signals, and every
minutia connected with the rules and government of the lines on which they are
employed, and, above all, they should be instructed in the management of the
engine, the value of time, and the absolute necessity of working the distance
according to the time table and those established rules by which they and the
public are to be governed in their departure from and arrival at the different sta-
tions. A driver should also be acquainted with the principles upon which the
steam in the boiler is generated, its elastic force, the security and free working
of the safety valves, and, in fact, in order to prepare him for public service, he
should attain his degree and character in the Workingman’s College before he
is considered eligible to mount the foot-plate or to handle an engine. Lastly,
other classes, such as blackSmiths, carpenters, masons, bricklayers, turners,
tilers, moulders, etc., exclusive of innumerable others, such as spinners, weavers,
dyers, printers, etc., employed in the manufacture, might each of them reason-
ably demand to be included in a national system of industrial education.”
* In this connection the following is suggestive: -
“The acquisition of knowledge, as every one has occasion to remark, is not of so
much value for the specific thing that we learn as for its contingent revelations,
the correlative ideas that it suggests ; and so it may be possible that even an
imperfect conception of the fixed expenses of a railroad may afford suggestion
to those who are not disposed to regard the information itself of especial value.
Thus, while we may not care what relation the fixed expenses bear to contingent
outlay as a whole, if we knew accurately the effect of wear and tear of traffic
upon particular classes of expenses, and the percentage of deterioration from
natural causes, there can be no doubt that the knowledge would prove of value.
to particular men, if not to railway men as a whole. The truth of this bears apt
illustration in the case of track-rails. .
“Practical men with whom I have communicated as to the relative deterioration .
of rails from climate and traffic, have stated that a rail will remain fit for use
forever if trains do not run over it; others put the deterioration from natural
causes at two per cent. ; others at five per cent., and so on. As a matter of fact,
the deterioration of rails due to climate, while not great, is marked and cumu-
lative. The deterioration from climate in the case of other materials is, as a rule,
much greater. It is not necessary, nor would it be proper, here to enter into
a minute or scientific statement of the effect of climate upon different classes of
material. The subject belongs more properly to scientists. I merely cite the
case of rails to illustrate the lack of information on such subjects by those whose
duties are connected wholly with the care of such property.”—[Marshall M. Kirk-
ham, “Maintenance of Railways.”] - º
105
any period of their lives. It has been shown that so wideis, ºº,
ence divorced by
º t bli
the chasm between our schools and our workshops that those:::::::::::::.
in the one seldom pass directly into the other, and conse-
quently manual skill and intelligence remain divorced.
By means of workshop-schools, properly conducted, a rail-
way company may not only obtain intelligent help cheaper
than it could otherwise be secured, but it may also so shape
the instruction therein as to exactly adapt it to the require-
ments of its service, and thus give it a special value not
attainable elsewhere at any price. Such schools also seem
Advantageous
to offer the easiest and cheapest solution of the problem effº.
how to secure a corps of workmen and operatives combining ;..."
technical skill and general intelligence in a high degree
with that special acquaintance with the needs and details
of operation so important in railway service.
Again, it is matter of common observation that our univer-
sities, colleges, academies and high Schools turn out, in super-
abundance, young men possessing theoretical knowledge
and dialectical skill in sufficiency, but who, lacking
manual expertness and practical knowledge, are com- ;
paratively useless for industrial purposes. Similar com-º railway
plaint is also very generally made against all our techno-
logical Schools—that their graduates are too theoretical
and not sufficiently practical, and this must necessarily be
So wherever such schools are unconnected with shops
operated as bona-fide industrial enterprises. On the other
hand, it is difficult to procure at any price men who combine
superior skill, comprehensive mechanical knowledge and
general intelligence in such proportions as to make them
valuable as foremen, managers and specialists in mechanical
pursuits or in the operating branches of railway service.
An appreciation of this fact, and of the necessity for
educating their workpeople to an understanding of modern
I06 -
Policy of Penna.
R. R. in employing
College graduates.
railway machinery, appliances and methods, has led a
number of managers to seek the services of the graduates
of technical schools as assistant foremen, assistant super-
visors, assistants to engineers of roadway, master me-
chanics, etc. After some actual experience these young
men are put in line of promotion, and inquiry shows that
generally they stand well in their respective corps, but
even after going through the shops, such graduates con-
tinue more theoretical than practical, and this constitutes
the great objection to railroads taking into service techno-
logical school graduates, instead of educating their own
young mem.
As already shown, combined mental and physical educa-
tion alone give satisfactory results, and no substitute for this
method will yield a railroad the highest value of its
talent.* The Pennsylvania Railroad pursues the plan of
exacting of the graduates of technological institutions enter-
ing its service a novitiate in the construction and repair
shops at Altoona before they are permitted to enter active
service. Many young graduates of technical schools so
highly value the opportunity of studying the scientific
methods and enjoying theinstruction of the Altoona shops as
—it is said—to disregard pecuniary compensation, in a
wise desire to avail of the fine training obtainable there. At
the same time, if I am correctly informed, this instruction
is neither so specific nor so thorough as it should be, nor
can any method by which it is sought to qualify young
* Dr. Quincke, formerly Professor of Physics in the Berlin Polytechnic School,
and now Professor of Physics at the University of Heidelberg, pointed out to
the Royal Commissioners the error made by many in believing that any poly-
technic course of instruction could by itself teach a student (for instance) to
erect an engine, work a blast furnace, or manufacture sulphuric acid ; the real
object of a technical school being to facilitate the transition from pure Science
to practice by means of appropriate lectures and laboratory work, which are
obviously insufficient to prepare the student for carrying on actual work where
practical experience is needed. * - -
107
men as railroad officers be successful which does not pro-
vide for theoretical instruction in those branches of knowl-
edge that comprise what may be designated as railroad
science, pari passw with actual commercial shop-work;
the latter illustrating and confirming the former. This
method of combining theory and practice so as to give
both an educational value has during the past year been
The method now
in force at Mt.
Clare for securing
educated appren-
pursued with signal success in preparing the apprentices”
at Mt. Clare for cadetships in the B. & O. Service,
under the program announced in your circular of January
15, 1885. When it became publicly known that techno-
logical instruction had been inaugurated at Mt. Clare,
we were besieged by applicants for admission to the
school whose social status, scholarship and culture were
infinitely superior to anything found among the 147 appren-
tices already in service, whom we had examined under
the terms of that circular. Many of these young gentle-
men entered as regular apprentices, without favorable
discrimination as to hours of work or pay; in fact,
they accepted low wages for services far more valuable
to the company than those of the average uneducated
apprentice. By supplementing their shop-work with the
class-instruction which was specially adapted to it, they
have achieved excellent records, and now possess a very
solid foundation for a higher technical course, in which
theoretical instruction may predominate, and after a year
or two of further study they will honor the service in
whatsoever positions may be assigned them.
With educated and intelligent workmen and operatives, Intelligent work.
railway companies will have fewer accidents, and the
Saving on this single account would doubtless often more
than cover the cost of a liberal educational provision.
Of the graduates of a technical school at Lille, M.
manship Will re-
duce accidents.
108
. Imethods.
Hovarez says: “Those engaged in working mines soon
perceived that workmen who came from this school heated
their boilers better and with less coal than did the other
workmen, and that they escaped many accidents and
repairs and stoppage of machinery.” If this be true of
simple stationary engines, how much greater must be
the effect upon such complicated machinery as railroads
operate On this point Judge McArthur says that tech-
nical and scientific education becomes a subject of universal
interest; that— -
|
“The Ordinary accidents to which we are exposed arise in too many instances
from Some error in the work of the draughtsman or the machinist. The unexpected
fall of buildings, and their bad construction, as developed in cases of fire, are
sometimes attended with horrors that curdle the blood and sweep away precious
lives by the most excruciating deaths. The wheel or axle of the locomotive may
be unsound in material or model, and the train in its rapid flight be plunged over
a viaduct or embankment, bruising and maiming its living freight and sending
our best and most beloved ones into the grave without warning or preparation.
Boilers explode, machines are shattered, owing to defective work of some kind,
and the newspapers publish a daily catalogue of disasters more appalling than the
carnage of war. The lesser evils are also considerable.”
Many of the discoveries of the day are not used because
workmen do not understand them or are incompetent or
w.e., unwilling to utilize them, and there is also an acknowledged
à.” deficiency in the ability of railroad employes to determine,
with scientific accuracy, the shapes and dimensions which
are best adapted to stand the strains of the various work-
ing parts of the locomotives and other machinery used by
railroad companies. Though much has been done in this
direction by specialists, it is more than probable, from their
testimony and from the deficiencies of such machinery, that
scarcely a tithe of the facts that may and ought to be
maustrial prob- known in this matter are yet discovered, or, where known,
lems may be eco-
ºf availed of Such investigations, owing to the scarcity of
in conjunction tº º . * º
with school work, men combining both practical and theoretical knowledge,
are so costly and uncertain, and require so much skill and
technical training to conduct them, that manufacturing
109
companies cannot often afford to hire specialists or bear
the expense of experimenting; but in a school connected
with railway shops, under competent guidance and instruct-
ors of ability, much may be done, as a part of the school
and shop-work instruction, that will, at the same time,
accomplish desirable results in other fields. It is the
testimony of many of our best educated engineers that the
engineering profession in all its departments is continually
hampered by the want of more extensive and more accu-
rate experiments. They say that “in far too many
matters they have nothing to rely on but the imperfect or
imperfectly reported results of antiquated experiments.”
The difficulty is that most of their experiments and
observations have necessarily to be of short duration, and
that they have insufficient data upon which to base their
conclusions. If, now, we can introduce the scientific method
of original research and experiment into our workshops;
if, instead of one experimenter, there may be dozens of
wideawake, observing and energetic men in search of
scientific and mechanical truth; if, instead of one experi-
ment at a time, there may be several under different cir-
cumstances going on at the same time; if, instead of
continuing a single day or a single week, these experiments
in the workshop may be continued through months and
even years; if, in other words, our workmen, or a large
number of them, can be taught to regard the workshops
themselves as great laboratories for continued research,
experiment and observation with a view to gaining original
information for practical purposes; then there need be no
more complaint in the realm of applied science about in-
adequate data and uncertain conclusions.
But there are other important considerations which
should induce railway managers to promote the education.
110
of their people. The advance of our civilization is seen
in an awakened eagerness for scientific discoveries, and dis-
position to use scientific investigations, not alone as a method
of mental gymnastics, but as a torch to illumine great fields
of productive and commercial industries and to shed light
upon the pathway of the laboring masses. What the out-
come of this spirit of invention and discovery in the realm
of applied science will be can only be conjectured, but
Scientific inves-
tigation of indus-
trial problems
profitable to rail-
WayS.
whatever other industries may be affected by it, none
are more likely to reap rich harvests from its encourage-
ment and growth than those railroads that, in point of
Qualified managers, scientific specialists and intelligent
and skilled workmen, are best prepared for promptly
utilizing such developments. No industry has fixed
boundaries, nor can any be said to have reached matu-
pity. The inventions of to-morrow may necessitate
radical changes in the processes and in the kind and
manner of manipulating the machinery of to-day. We
have seen how combined scientific and technical educa-
tion conduces to economy and net results, by culti-
vating habits of thought and observation, and devel-
oping special aptitudes; thus enabling workmen to utilize
improvements and inventions at large, and encouraging
them in attempting inventions and seeking for more
Bow improve-
ments in mechani-
cal processes are
achieved,
economical methods of work, which inure mainly to
the benefit of the employer. Original mechanical con-
trivances; new—and improvements in existing—processes
and methods of manufacture, are seldom the result
of accident or the fruit of a low degree of intelligence.
Analysis of the history of industrial and mechanical prog-
ress demonstrates that the large majority of inventors
who belonged to the artisan class were deserving, faithful,
investigating and generally well-educated men, whose
1II
minds, through technical training, had acquired flexibility,
and whose faculties were stimulated by study. If our
workmen do not make inventions and develop economical
methods of labor, others in the employ of rival companies
will do so, and the active competition of the age will give
those corporations that are advanced enough to cultivate
the intelligence of their employes material advantages over
others. Even if, in order to neutralize this superiority, we
are willing to pay well for the privilege of utilizing im-
provements and inventions owned by antagonistic interests,
we may still lack the power, through want of intelligence
and skill on the part of our own people. Because of the
lack of scientific knowledge that would have enabled its alºng
managers to appreciate the value of a meritorious improve-º" by "
ment, a railroad company with whose affairs you are
familiar, now has to pay a rival corporation for the use
of a slide-valve for its locomotives, invented a few years
ago by one of that company's employes, who, for a nominal
consideration, would have licensed it to manufacture this
very valve for its own use and for sale to other companies.
. . In this connection I again quote from Professor Huxley's
declaration that “the advance of industry in all countries tº
testimony as to
dependence of in-
depends on employers being able to find to their hand per-jºº.”.
sons of sufficient knowledge and sufficient flexibility ofasakºvlease
mind to be able to turn from the one thing they have been
doing to something different, according to the nature of the
improvement that has been made ’’; and that “the develop-
ment of industry under its present conditions is almost
entirely the result of the application of science to the
development of mechanical processes of complexity, requir-
ing a great deal of attention and intelligence to carry them
out.” º
In this connection, the citation of two curious circum-
112
stances, bearing on a branch of trade in which we are
greatly concerned; will interest you. The iron and steel
So-called practi- & . tº *
ciº" workers of Cheshire and Lancashire are the most skilled
Fº " manipulators of the common metals in the United King-
- dom, and their mechanical instinct has been hereditary for
centuries. The first Earl of Chester was Master-of-Arms
to William the Conqueror. His workmen resided in the
villages of those counties, and when the use of armor was
discontinued they were still notable workers in iron and
steel. Their descendants still call their tools and imple-
ments by Norman-French names. They possessed hereditary
skill and knack such as no other workingmen in the King-
dom, had; yet from all this body of skilled labor no inventions
came; they were and are satisfied to go on as their fathers
and forefathers had done, and the inventions which have
made this the age of steel came from those who were des-
titute of their practical skill. The introduction of the hot
blast in the furnace; the application of the cold blast in the
Bessemer converter, which changed liquid iron into steel;
the production of steel direct from ore on the open hearth, and
the discovery of the basiclining, by which phosphorusiselim-
imated and all grades of iron made convertible into steel,
revolutionized the mechanic arts; and yet it is remarkable
that only one of the inventors of these processes was
directly connected with the iron trade, and not one came
from all this body of workmen whose skill in manipulating
iron had descended to them through many generations.
The hot blast was discovered accidentally by an engineer;
...to, Sir Henry Bessemer was an engraver; William Siemens was
** a mechanical engineer and electrician, unconnected with
iron industries; Gilchrist Thomas was a member of the
Civil Service; James Watt was an instrument maker; so
that the iron and steel industry owes its development to
113 \
science, distinct and apart from itself, and in no material
degree to its rule-of-thumb workers. g
The rapid and important improvement of machinery
and mechanical appliances has placed many of our older
railway companies at a disadvantage, in respect to economi-
cal construction and repair, in that their shops are filled Disadvantage of
using antiquated
with machinery and appliances of obsolete patterns, mºtiºna
Crude WOrkman-
costly and slow in action, while works more recently ºn railway
established are generally equipped with the latest and best
the market affords. Mechanical processes enter so largely
into railway operations, and the results of using crude help
or plant so directly and seriously affect the percentage of
operating expense to gross receipts, that one unacquainted
with the history of railway management would naturally,
but vainly, look to railway shops for the latest improve-
ments in processes and machinery there used ; for prob-
ably few managers would have the temerity to propose
the periodical replacement of obsolete for the latest ap-
proved practice and inventions in shop-work, though able
to prove the wisdom and economy of such a procedure.
I might almost indefinitely multiply testimony respecting
the difference in efficiency and economy between educated
and uneducated labor; but I apprehend it is only neces-
sary to prompt the minds of those experienced in handling
labor to the line of reflections above suggested, to lead them
to convictions respecting the economy in time, material,
supervision, and value of products turned out by educated
help fully as strong and emphatic as those I have quoted.
At least those employers and supervisors of labor who possess
the kind of knowledge that can only be acquired from the gº.
combined reading of books and extended observation knowłºś."
that at the present time most workmen in America have
little general intelligence and less general skill; that most of
114
them see machinery in motion governed by laws of the
existence and nature of which they are totally ignorant;
that they see operations performed the nature and scope of
which they are incapable of understanding; that they are
accustomed to make parts of machinery which, together
with other parts of machines made by other workmen, go to
make up an organic whole, and yet neither know nor care
to know how to put those parts together, nor how to
operate them when combined. It is needless to comment
upon the results of such ignorance, except to point out
that, aggregated, it must entail enormous losses.”
How best to remedy this condition of affairs is a problem
of very serious import; but I have written this report in
vain if it has not at least demonstrated that, if we are to
continue manufacturing our own plant, it will be cheaper to
Cheaper to edu- manufacture also our own skilled artisans, mechanics and
tº other operatives out of the crude materials which abound
than to purchase
Skill and intelli-
gence in the in the shape of applicants for apprenticeship, than bid for
Imarket. them in the market; especially as, thereby, we will secure
a corps familiar with the needs of, and attached by various
ties to, the service. -
Let me here add a little to the testimony in the first
section of this report as to what technological schools are
capable of accomplishing, especially in aid of railway in-
terests. I call your attention to the mass of evidence
contained in the Exhibits to this report, and in further and
*While labor with hand-tools and machines should be wisely blended, yet,
since machinery has a constantly increasing share in the conversion of material
~ into useful forms, the educated mechanic should know how to design, construct
and assemble the parts of a machine, as well as how to make its product; and
excellence in construction is to be sought as a most valuable factor in instruction.
The power of the engineer to decide upon general grounds the best form and
material for a machine, and to calculate its parts, is vastly increased by blending
with it the skill of the craftsman in manipulating the material, and the fact that
the product is to be tested and used kindles interest in its manufacture and
furnishes additional incentive to thoroughness and exactness. [Catalogue of
Worcester Free Institute.] .*
115
effective support thereof I adduce the testimony of Mr. J.
Scott Russell, the eminent English engineer and builder,
and other intelligent directors of labor. Although a highly
educated man and an able scientist, whose scholarship has
received recognition from several of England's learned socie-
ties, Mr. Russell is not a mere theorist on questions relating
to manufacturing and constructive industries. When a boy
he served a regular apprenticeship at a mechanical trade,
after which he long followed the business of practical
engineering; gaining such prominence that the building of
the famous GREAT EASTERN was entrusted to his superin-
tendency. The testimony of a man who thus combines
great intelligence and learning with experience in the
workshop, in the art of originating, and in the supervision
of workmen, ought to command careful consideration from
those who are largely interested in enterprises requiring
constructive and mechanical ability.
In his “Systematic Technical Education for the English
People,” a book published in 1869, Mr. Russell says:
“It seems to me almost an axiom that intelligent men must do better work
than boors; that trained, skilled men must do better work than clumsy and
awkward ones; and that the more any man knows of the objects and methods of
his own work, and the work of all those who around him are engaged in co-oper-
ation, the more likely he is to do his own part well, so as to exactly fit into and
form one with his neighbor’s work. Thus I think that an intelligent community
of workmen will get through their work quicker, will fit its parts more micely,
will finish off everything more sharply, will waste less material by trial and
error, and so give higher value as well as quality and durability to all their
work, than ignorant, unrefined, uneducated men. 's
“Unhappily, mechanics, when taught to workingmen, is generally either
taught superficially, unphilosophically, or with little or no reference to the busi-
ness of their life. Economy of bodily strength, best ways of handling things,
best ways of helping each other, best ways of carrying, lifting, shifting things—
these are seldom taught. Some algebraical formula, or abstract geometrical
diagram, is put before the poor mechanics and called science; as well call it
magic l’’
* ºf * $ 3% * $ * * $
“I will now come to practical matters which show directly the results of
What technologi-
cal Schools acconn-
plish.
Testimony of J.
Scott RuSSell.
technical education in the production of one of its chief objects—the creation of Bearing of tech-
wealth. It is notorious that those foreign railways which have been made by
nical training On.
rail Way construc-
the people themselves, in the educated countries of Germany and Switzerland, tiºn.
have been built far cheaper than those constructed by us in England ; it is
known that they have been made by the pupils of the industrial Schools and tech-
116
nical colleges of these countries; and I know many of their distinguished men
who take pride in saying that they owe their positions entirely to their technical
schools. I find everywhere through their work marks of that method, order,
symmetry, and absence of waste which arise from plans well thought out, the
judicious application of principles, conscientious parsimony, and a high feeling
of professional responsibility. In the accurate cutting of their slopes and
embankments, in the careful design and thoughtful execution of their beautiful
but economical stone masonry, in the Self-denying economy of their large span
bridges, the experienced traveler can read as he travels the work of a supe-
riorly educated class of men; and when we come down to details, to the con-
struction of permanent way, arrangement of signals, points and sidings, and
the endless details of stations, we everywhere feel that we are in the hands of
men who have spared no pains, and who have applied high professional skill to
minute details. It is well known that many years before we could follow their
ECOnomic value
iO employerS and
"to society of edu-
cated Workmen.
strengthens a man for his specialty, be that however rude.”
example, the engineers of the German railways had introduced a system of con-
‘structing and uniting to each other the iron rails of the permanent way which
made them cheaper, safer and more durable than those employed in England.
* * * It is remarked by every traveler that the work of their railway
stations is, when compared with ours, much more beautiful, convenient and fit,
both within and without ; the construction of their trains, the proportions of
their carriages, the fitness, convenience, and comfort of their internal arrange-
ments, all tell to the disadvantage of ours, and the only thing in which our
railways excel theirs is in high speed. Theirs, on the other hand, are econom-
ical in capital and high in revenue.”
$ : ::: # # # # * % *
“To return to the mere vulgar usefulness of educated human beings. I will
venture a remark from personal experience in my profession, which l trust may
illustrate the vast importance to us of educating not only governors, or masters,
but of extending a high Scientific education and skilled technical training to the
workingmen of all skilled occupations. It is this: The community at large are
deprived of the use of enormous treasures in mechanical invention, and enor-
mous progress in scientific arts, by the fact of the general want of education in
those who practise them. It may not be known, but it is yet true, that the
mechanical power employed in all our manufactures is infinitely more costly
than it need be. It is equally true that some skilled men of such professions
know thoroughly how to produce immense economy in the production and use of
mechanical power, but that we dare not put the means into the hands of the
uneducated masters under whose control they would be applied. I am not now
speaking of a loss of five, ten, twenty, or thirty per cent. : I say that I know that
we are only utilizing one-tenth to one-twentieth of the power we employ and
'waste, and that an economy of one hundred, two hundred, three hundred, and
four hundred per cent. is quite within our power so soon as a better informed,
higher skilled, more perfectly trained class of men and masters shall arise, who
are fit to be trusted with the use of instruments and tools at present utterly
beyond their comprehension, control or application to use. Special knowledge is
not sufficient to produce even the best special results. The best workman is
always the one who has a knowledge of tools and principles beyond the direct
requirement of his work, whatever that may be. The best scientist is always the
one who acquaints himself with other departments of Science than the one to
which he is specially devoted. The best artist is always the one who does not
limit himself to his specialty, but studies the whole circle of art. This breadth
of study and work gives a breadth of knowledge and training which decidedly
n m # ::: º: º:
‘‘I am continually asked why a man whose business it is to turn a furrow, dig
a ditch, wheel a barrow, move bricks, saw trees, plane boards, quarry stones, get
coals, or hammer hot iron, need know anything more than how to handle a spade,
117
l
use his arms, or manipulate his hammer ; and whether more knowledge than that
would not spoil their minds and set them above their work.
“To this I can answer that, taking the matter on the very lowest grounds, I
never Saw any kind of labor in which the man of greater intelligence could not The educated
do more work in shorter time, to better purpose, and with less waste, than the mººn makes the
mere uneducated savage of civilized society. I have seen at the plough the clod-S."... ."
hopper, little more intelligent than the well-fed brutes in front of him, let his most vulgar pur.
clumsy plough wriggle on with small care how it went, and little thought as to suits.
how its work were done; and I have seen the skilled ploughman, with half the
number of horses, and with no greater toil to them, cover double space on the
same kind of land with clean, straight, even, well-finished work. The one knew
all about the draft on his team, the strains on his harness, the adjustment and
action of his plough, and felt at his fingers (instinct with intelligence) every
variation of direction or force which indicated whether his own slight pressure on
the plough-stilt should give it bias one way or the other. The one man avoids
difficulty because he sees it beforehand; the other endures it because he is in the
middle of it before he knows it, and so must go through it. The intelligent
ditcher who lays out wisely his day’s work before he puts a spade in the soil, has
So forecast and arranged it that every bit of earth is moved out of its old place
into its new the shortest way, over the least distance, with the least force. The
skilled navvy can do double the work in the day of the equally stout but un-
skilled rustic ; and if this be the case in the lowest operations of moving earth, it
needs no iteration on my part to show that in every succeeding stage of work—
in getting stone or getting coal—even before we come to shaping, selécting, fit-
ting, fixing and finishing articles of workmanship, the more intelligent and bet-
ter trained man will use his mind to apply his strength and wield his tools so as
to spare his strength and material either for himself or his master. Estimated,
therefore, on the lowest Scale of social value, education means economy, profit, .
absence of waste.” - * *
Mr. John W. Nystrom, at one time Acting Chief Engineer,
U. S. Navy, who received his education in the Royal Tech- resumon, or
Ohn Nystrom on
nological Institute at Stockholm, in which theoretical tº
tion.
training is supplemented by workshop and laboratory
practice, in a report advocating a Techno-Naval Academy,
says:
“There is now a very distinct line drawn between scientific and practical
men. The more we study and cultivate the branches separately, the more dis-
tinct will this line become and the less will they understand each other, and
may ultimately fall into irreconcilable estrangement. The prejudice against
science is in our day a very serious evil. *
“A blind man can walk on roads and streets, but when he finds an obstacle
must stop ; at a ditch he may tumble into it; he cannot turn from his accus-
tomed track. Such is the case with many practical and otherwise most valuable
men working without a knowledge of physical laws. In order to follow up
the improvements of the age, the track pursued by our fathers must often be
abandoned and a new one selected and surveyed for ourselves.
“Without the application of science we go ahead without knowing where we
are going. In verification of which we have many examples in engineering
blunders, sometimes submitted to a committee of inquiry, which may result in
the discharge of the engineer, accompanied by extravagant abuse of the depart-
ment concerned, and the evil only temporarily remedied by substituting
another, who will most likely not repeat the same blunders, but will do some-
118.
thing worse. There is yet no attempt made to permanently remove these evils
and secure success in our enterprises by proper institutions: #
“At the present time scientific attainments and true practical knowledge are
very little respected ; physical laws established by the Creator of the universe
are often derided as theoretical ; ignorance has taken the lead, and rules in
the ascendant, and often adopts that which is opposite alike to science, experi-
ence and common sense.”
º; # , ; - #: ::: 3% $ # # 3%
“We must in all ages and in all countries expect active and operative minds
to come forward with ingenious contrivances, sometimes with wild ideas, ridicu-
lous in design, and wrong in mechanical principles; but then it is the function
of science and knowledge to step in and correct their aberrations, or, if necessary,
to guard against or prevent their further introduction until developed to an edu-
cated design, which otherwise might lead to destruction of life and property.
“On the other hand, mostingenious and valuable ideas are sometimes submitted
to the opinion of scientific men with no practical knowledge, who may condemn
them from an imperfect perception of their merit. It is only a knowledge of
combined theory and practice that can accomplish justice in all cases.”
“We have numerous examples in Europe, particularly in Russia, where engi-
neers are educated to only scientific attainments, and who, when they enter a
machine shop or engine room, are incompetent for the proper conception of
work, but are, nevertheless, entrusted with responsible stations, where their
practical achievements only lead to mischief.
“Our experience throughout life teachesus that a practical man without science
seldom makes such serious blunders as a scientific man without practice. The
merit then of the Techno-Naval Academy would be in the education of engineers
in the practice, and not with mere scientific precepts of professors.
“The writer has often observed the career of students from colleges, and regrets
to say that too few of them turn their attention to work. Those who have
received scientific education generally prefer to become professors, scientific
advocates, patent agents, lawyers, philosophical secretaries, etc., etc., while the
practical operations of our workshops suffer in the extreme. Every once in
a while we have a steam-boiler explosion, killing off a great number of men,
with great destruction of property; we build vessels which will not float ; are
often disappointed in the performance of vessels and machinery; we waste great
amounts of fuel, and we make extensive and costly experiments in steam engi-
neering without consulting the physical laws involved in the operation.
“In iron foundries castings are often made with too little metal, and some-
times too much ; the hydrostatic action of the fluid cast iron in the mould is rarely
understood ; the laws of shrinkage, strain, direction of crystallization, and sink-
ing in castings of irregular form, are not generally comprehended ; and many
defects of experience exist which often cause the loss of valuable castings, for
want of applied Science. When the casting turns out a failure, it is generally
Said that the foundry superintendent is not skillful, or has not experience enough,
which often means that he has not made blunders enough to secure success.
“The general impression about the business of moulding and casting, as well as
all other branches of mechanic arts, is, as has been repeatedly told to the
writer, namely, that ‘the profession cannot be brought within the scope of
science, and must be learned by experience alone.’
“On the other hand, scientific men without technical education, entrusted with
practical problems, are generally not familiar with important circumstances
involved in the operation, which accordingly results in blunders; they are then
.derided as ‘scientific men.'” *
England has long had a large body of skilled workmen,
II9
by whose labor she has attained commercial and manu-
facturing pre-eminence. But mere “rule-of-thumb' work, toº:::::::::::::”
without general intelligence and scientific knowledge, was .
insufficient to hold that pre-eminence, which has several #º.
times been in jeopardy, and is now maintained only through
recognition of the fact that her laborers must be intelli-
gent, and that their technical and scientific education is a
national work. In this connection I call your attention to
the following and to other quotations in Exhibit M about
the waste of material, etc., in construction, due to lack of
educated labor. -
In the report relative to technical education by the
Schools Inquiry Commission of 2d July, 1867, Mr.
McConnell, one of the English jurors, is quoted as saying:
“In the class for which I was juror for England, I made a very careful exam-
ination and comparison of our locomotives, engines, carriages, railway machinery,
apparatus and material with those exhibited by France, Germany and Belgium
(which governments support Schools of technology). I am firmly convinced that our
former superiority, either in material or workmanship, no longer exists. wº
Unless we adopt a system of technical education for our workmen in this country,
we shall soon not even hold our own in cheapness.”
The Royal Commissioners make frequent mention of
the fact that in the most enterprising and successful facto-
ries and shops of Europe they found men peculiarly fitted
and trained for their special duties placed at the head of Trained Special-
the various departments and shops as managers and fore- tºº.
men. But they particularly noticed that very many of s
these firms had been compelled to make provision for the
training of their own managers and foremen, so as to
secure men specially adapted to their particular industries.”
*It will be noted that the British Commissioners’ report expresses astonishment
at the great progress on the Continent of industrial methods and the successful
application of scientific principles to manufacture since the Paris International
Exhibition in 1878. [Second Report, Vol. I, p. 505, et seq.] They say that
the great industrial establishments are almost perfect in their management and
efficiency of production, especially in France, in Germany, in Belgium and in
Switzerland, the countries where technical education has been most effectually
tried and adopted. In 1878 the English nation was conceded to be far ahead of
120
In his testimony before our Senate Committee on Edu-
cation and Labor (Exhibit R), Mr. Mather said that,
as the result of the long and thorough study of our
institutions which he had made preparatory to reporting
to the Royal Commissioners on the industrial and educa-
tional facilities of the United States, he had recognized the
“native ingenuity” of Americans in contriving helpful
devices in various industries, and particularly in matters
of transportation; but he had also seen that, notwith-
standing their enterprise and ingenuity, Americans owed
much of their rapid advance to technically educated Euro-
peans, and that in so far as their achievements are the
result of native efforts, it is due to lately established
technical Schools. I quote his language on this point:
*-* ~ “The workmen of America have been educated and brought up under conditions
uß. different from those prevailing in Europe. It is impossible to traverse this vast
• Senate Committee continent (America) without witnessing the evidence of originality of applica-
QºI abor on indus-tion and of a growing development due to education in the scientific arts. In
** the railroad system, from the locomotive to the baggage car, there are original
design and naked. ingenuity in every contrivance; in bridge-building, great dar-
ing and ready devices for temporary, yet safe, structures; in the navigation of
rivers there are boats which differ from all European systems. The shallow rivers
like the Mississippi, in Summer, are navigated for thousands of miles by steamers
drawing less than twelve inches of water. The Ohio conveys thousands of tons
of material from Pittsburgh by boats drawing nine inches of water. Towns like
Chicago, Denver and San Francisco were built under difficulties which require
an entire departure from all old methods of applying science. The produce
of the great agricultural regions suggested new methods of tilling, Sowing and
reaping, and in agricultural machinery the Americans showed how quickly and
directly science could deal with vast products, which would rot in the field but
these countries in the production and manipulation of machinery, but the Com-
missioners now admit that much machinery of all kinds is produced abroad
equal in finish and efficiency to that of England, and that it is applied to manu-
factures with great skill and intelligence.
When we remember that England has heretofore taken the lead in European
manufactures; that she has decided advantage over her Continental rivals in
the abundance of crude materials and cheapness of fuel ; that heretofore her
machinery has been acknowledged to be far superior to that used in the factories
of other European countries; that the concessions above referred to are made
and published to the world by a commission consisting of English manufact-
urers, legislators and educators; and when we consider further that not until
very recently has England done anything worthy of mention for the education
of her artisan class, while Continental nations have made strenuous efforts
to this end through the establishment and munificent endowment of polytechnic
and other industrial Schools, the economic value and great importance of tech-
nical education appear in a most striking light.
12I
for mechanical skill to preserve them. The same aptitude that dealt with the
overwhelming abundance of the West has turned to account the sterility of the
East, where in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont the mechanical skill of the
farmer in devising economy has contributed as much to his support as his knowl-
edge of cattle and crops. .
“It is, of course, in the more recent structures and modern mechanical appli-
ances that the evidence of scientific truths and methods is observable. The
rough-and-ready contrivances of early railroad development indicate originality
and ‘mother wit,” but in the waste of material and crudeness of design may be
noticed the absence of technical or Scientific training on the part of those who
conducted extensive engineering and mechanical operations in those days. The
gradual diffusion of Science is very marked in the rapid reconstruction, during
recent years, of the great railroads of the past, and in the new main lines. Also
in railway plant generally, the old is being replaced by the new, and the latter
exhibits high theoretical knowledge combined with practical ingenuity.
“The Americans undoubtedly owe to many European engineers the rapid
advance they have been able to make in their public works. The conservation
of water power for the use of the mills at Lowell and Lawrence, in Massachu-
setts, is due to the eminent hydraulic engineer, Mr. Frances, an Englishman
who practised for forty years in America, and who is deservedly esteemed as the
highest authority on hydraulic engineering in America. Although a lucrative
field was, in the early days, open to European engineers and machinists having
a thorough scientific knowledge of their profession, yet it is evident that they
Soon found apt scholars in America, who, as they acquired some theoretical
Science, launched out into new paths, untrammeled by the traditions of older
countries. -
“Even the science of foreigners, when applied here, takes different methods.
The Englishmen and Germans become bold and self-confident to a degree only
manifested by rare men in Europe. The everlasting thirst for something new
excites, stimulates and drives men to venture into untrodden paths of applying
their knowledge.” }
“All these evidences of scientific skill (in America) speak well for the methods
of education in the recent past, so far as it goes, but other influences, such as
‘necessity the mother of invention,” and the presence in America of foreign
experts, will account for much of the rapid growth in the mechanical arts. The
future development will depend upon a population not compelled to dare and
endure and experimentalize for ‘very life.” In the past the waste of material
has been excessive. To make the best use of a given quantity of material
requires a sound knowledge of its properties and of its disposal in the arts and
manufactures by scientific methods. In this direction the technical and science
schools already instituted have accomplished much in providing foremen and
managers, chemists, miners and intelligent employes in the engineering and
manufacturing products. (For schools referred to see Exhibit L.)
‘‘It is remarkable, however, that in the great centres of the mining and iron-
producing districts, where so large an amount of mechanical construction is carried
on, as, for instance, in Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Philadelphia,
So little has been done by the owners of large establishments, or by the town or
State authorities, in the direction of technical Schools, or evening science schools.
These industries represent a large proportion of the working population in those
large cities, and yet the owners of works have to rely upon the scientific knowl-
edge obtained through many institutions remote from these districts.”
Mr. Mather is only one of many who have seen and
regretted—and have called attention to—the lavish waste
of material and reckless expenditure of time and money,
122
knowledge eco-
and even sacrifice of human life, that have resulted from
our lack of scientific knowledge and failure to appreciate
the economy of its application to productive industries.
The facts cited in his report form an eloquent appeal for
its greater application to our arts and manufactures.
Elementary knowledge is most easily, economically and
thoroughly acquired in youth, when the mind is free from
cares and distractions inseparable from manhood. Upon
this point Mr. John B. Jervis, a civil engineer, who has
lately written on the construction and management of
railroads, well says:
Elementary
nomically acquir-
ed only in youth.
“Though there are exceptions, it is a general truth that it is expensive to
learn a new occupation in maturer manhood; and consequently, the railway.
company that commit their business to unskilled or uneducated men, must be
at the expense of educating them during their supervision of business, and while
they are learning its arts and duties; meanwhile depending on advice, trusting
to the guidance of others as they may chance to find out matters beyond their
powers of criticism. Can there be a doubt that the proceedings of the pupil will
often be undecided, wavering, and wanting in that system indispensable to the
efficient and successful conduct of intricate and important business? Now, it
has happened that such men have in some cases eventually acquired a good
knowledge of business, but it is obvious that this education has been of the
most expensive kind, and, what is particularly important, it has been at the
expense of the proprietors, who paid a salary while the incumbent was obtaining
the qualifications that would enable him to earn it.
“It will be admitted that training of some sort is necessary for every depart-
ment of labor or business. -
“A man who is educated to a particular business—whose time, is devoted to a
full understanding of its requirements—and who is stimulated by the considera-
tion of professional reputation, is more likely to conduct affairs advantageously
than one who picks up his ideas at random, and though doing some things very
well, will often fail in respect to others. Certainly the important matter of
Capacity of tech-
nological school
graduates for
WOrk.
maintaining the track and machinery of a railway should be committed to the
most competent hands.”
I also repeat that it is the universal testimony of em-
ployers that the graduates of good technological schools
have a greater capacity for work than otherworkmen of aver-
age intelligence, and that they easily adapt themselves to
changes of employment, oftentimes to the great financial
advantage of their masters.
It has already been shown that many manufacturing com-
panies in Europe have recognized the importance of
123 \
affording technical training to their employes, and I have
also called your attention to many workshop schools in -
various parts of Europe that are wholly or partly sup-pº.
erS Of the value Of
ported by proprietors. So valuable is such previous tech-ºmnia
nical training recognized to be, that I have learned of a
large number of instances where employers are in the habit
of sending to home and foreign exhibitions, at their own
expense, those of their young people most advanced in tech-
nological study and of quickest perceptions, in order that
they may study new inventions, machinery, etc.; while
many others allow their apprentices and young men to leave
their work an hour or more before stopping-time, on
class-nights, without abatement of their wages. Many
European manufacturers and the managers of Some for-
eign railway works now call the particular attention of
their workmen to new designs, improvements in machin-
ery and methods of work, and to successful inventions
that have been made by other workmen trained in
technical schools. Such workmen, partly as a result tº...?.
of greater intelligence, recognize and are stimulated by tº
the great possibilities that are constantly opening up
to them, and partly through a love of study and in-
vestigation acquired in technological schools are con-
stantly on the alert for opportunities to accomplish some-
thing above the performance of mere routine duty;
whereas, lacking scientific knowledge and technical train-
ing, they would probably not only have contentedly fol-
lowed in the footsteps of their predecessors, willing
subjects to the tyranny of routine, but would, in all prob-
ability, have opposed the introduction of improvements
made or suggested by others.
Valuable information in the same strain is furnished by
a number of the leading manufacturers of England, who
124
ºn state that, as one beneficial result of the instruction given
... *their employes in classes and evening schools, they have
perceptibly advanced in intelligence and, understanding
better the directions given them, and the objects had in
view in the work assigned them, their usefulness and
value have been materially increased. That whereas,
before they received a technical training, their workmen
would have to return to the shops to get personal instruc-
tions on every emergency or case of difficulty, the same
workmen, after acquiring the ability to make sketches and
to reason about their work, now make suggestions them-
selves and remedy such difficulties without delay; also,
that instead of requiring a draughtsman or foreman to
look after every separate shop, the young fellows who are
growing up under their system of technical instruction
are making their own drawings, working from them,
fitting their work together and erecting it with great
economy, because one man now does what it used to
require a separate man in each department to accomplish ;
and, generally, that their workmen are, at a much earlier
date than formerly, acquiring intelligence and ability to
understand and to execute their tasks, and at much less
cost to the manufacturer. [Royal Commission, Second Re-
port, Vol. II, p. 430; Vol. III, pp. 217–18.]
m;..." One of the most valuable and effective agencies for
of drawing. increasing the intelligence and efficiency of workmen is
instruction in drawing. The habit of working from draw-
ings and from careful measurements; the ability to make
drawings and to construct machinery and other products
according to scale (which may readily be acquired in a
school of technology by any one of ordinary intelligence)
will always be a source of profit and economy to employ-
ers, and is probably of greater importance in railroad shops
125
than in any other branch of industry. Very few of our
artisans (and in this general term are included carpenters,
shipbuilders, masons, machinists, etc.) know enough of |
the principles of projection to be able to read the working
drawings placed in their hands, to say nothing of the skill
required to make such drawings, and are therefore obliged
to work under constant supervision and at reduced wages.
While in some few cities drawing is taught in the common
schools, it is an exceptional case where enough of the
theory and application of projection is taught to meet this
universal want of artisans; while, as a matter of fact,
no school-child of either sex can well afford to dispense
with the peculiar discipline which is derived from instru-
mental drawing and free-hand practice. A finished
draughtsman must, for many years to come, be the pro-
duction of special schools. Professor Thompson, of the
Worcester School of Technology, says that—
A boy who spends two hours a week in drawing and the rest of the time in
working at the bench, learns his business faster and becomes more skillful in it than
one who works all the time, and he calculates that the productive efficiency of
every machine-shop would be increased thirty-three per cent. if, every journey-
man could read any common drawing and work by it.
Professor Ware, of the Boston Institute of Technology,
says:
“Drawing is an invaluable element in a general education. To the workman
it is of the greatest practical use. It makes him more intelligent and serviceable.
If he attains to real skill in the use of his pencil. and develops the tastes and
talents that cannot without this training be either discovered or made use of, he
becomes a valuable person at once. Every branch of our manufactures is suffer-
ing from the want of just this intelligence and skill.” e
That technological schools adapted to the wants and
standard of our workmen will do much to prevent and over-
come labor troubles, is self-evident. Such troubles fre- Labor troubles
quently occur through the inability of the workman to |º
understand the mutual relations existing between labor
and capital. Dense ignorance makes men the easy and
126
ready tools of demagogues, while the influence of a few
well-educated, thinking mechanics, scattered among a mass
of workmen, is an invaluable nervine in labor agitations.
That such training as is here advocated will also be a
source of profit to railway corporations, by diminishing
the tendency to dissipation on the part of workmen, and
thus increasing their efficiency in the shops and on the
line, is easily demonstrable. It is not putting it too strong
lººsa. " that ignorance is the great centre from which radiate
º of intemperance, coarseness, brutality, vice, conceit, arrogance,
irregular habits, and almost every other trait of character
that a good workman should not possess. An ignorant and
unskilled workman can never be anything more than “a
hand,” often untrustworthy and troublesome to his employ-
ers and to the community in which he lives, while an edu-
cated laborer is a valuable citizen in any community, and
likely to be the helpful adviser of those availing of his
services. In both Europe and America many promising
enterprises are rendered unprofitable by the bad character-
istics of employes, and capitalists abroad are beginning to see
that the surest remedy for this evil is the education of the
laboring classes. In Chemnitz, Saxony, one of the greatest
centres of European industry, where the standard of edu-
cation among all classes, including the poorest, is excep-
tionally high, there is a corresponding high standard of
decency and self-respect among the laborers. Very little
time is wasted through intemperance, and the workmen
attend their tasks with great regularity. (Royal Commis-
sion, Vol. I, p. 304.) The same kind of testimony comes
from Windisch, Switzerland, and from many other places,
where the employers look after the education of their
laborers. It is claimed that in Windisch dissipation is not
known to the managers of shops. (Vol. I, p. 273.)
127
Mr. William Anderson, a member of the Institute of
Civil Engineers, and also of the Institute of Mechanical
Engineers, says:
“When we established works in 1864, we used to have great difficulty
as regards the drinking habits of the people, and we had great difficulty in
managing them generally. Monday was a blank day, for instance; but that is
completely changed now, since the establishment of Schools. The young men
now engaged in the works, who have passed through the Schools, are of a very
different character from those we used to have. Instead of having letters from
our men that we can hardly decipher, we get well-written letters, sensible in
every way: and this improvement in elementary education has improved the
whole moral tone of the class from which our workmen are derived. We are
getting a better raw material to deal with, and the young men are beginning to
show a desire for self-culture and self-improvement.” -
It is not surprising that men whose intelligence is
so little developed that they have no source of pleasure
or enjoyment within themselves, should easily acquire ;
habits of dissipation. The workman who is incapable On in WOrknen.
of deriving enjoyment from useful reading and elevating
thought; whose home is probably nothing more than a
place to eat and sleepin, possessing none of the comforts and
social attractions that emanate from culture, and whose asso-
ciates are not of a type calculated to elevate or inspire him
with aspirations to do something and be somebody, is handi-
capped in the march of morality and civilization, and
naturally falls an easy victim to habits of vice and dissi-
pation. It is the universal testimony of managers of labor
that the usefulness of workmen diminishes in proportion -
to the frequency with which they spend their evenings in º:
places of dissipation. This is natural, for after a night or
even an evening spent in such haunts, a workman must
resume his work dissatisfied with himself and with his
surroundings; his brain will be dull, his hand unsteady.
He will be irritable and unwilling to receive instruction or
advice; indifferent as to how he does his work, or, if he
can escape the penalty, if he does it at all. Of course I do
not mean to intimate that all ignorant laborers are dissipated
128
Culture guaran-
tees fidelity and
enhances a, WOrk-
Iman’S uS0fullness.
or predisposed by ignorance to vice, but it is an estab-
lished fact that the mass of people who are vicious and
dissipated are, if not wholly without mental training,
mentally and physically unskillful, and that an educated
man is not nearly so apt to indulge in dissipation as
an uneducated one. A man whose mind has been culti-
vated as his hands become skillful, finds enjoyment in
his work; pleasure and profit in reading useful books
and papers, and in innocent social pleasures of a higher
type than can be found in bar-rooms or on the street-
corners. His home, however humble it may be, is likely to
be tidy, and to afford him an appreciable degree of comfort
and enjoyment. Such a man is free from many tempta-
tions, and the probabilities are strongly in favor of his
leading a sober and useful life; which, of itself, is a
guarantee of fidelity to his employer. Instead of diminish-
ing his ability for efficient work he will, in all probability,
when out of the shop, bestir himself in acquiring useful
information and in taking that rest which nature demands,
and which will enable him to resume his duties with effi-
ciency and satisfaction to himself and to his employers.
It follows, therefore, from this point of view alone, that
the necessary result of educating laborers will be increased
profit to the capitalist and the elevation and greater
remuneration of the laboring classes. .
Trade schools, by providing useful and congenial employ-
ment for the leisure time of apprentices, have an especially
beneficial effect upon their future; keeping them from idle-
The advantages
of trade Schools ill.
educating and pre-
serving the mor-
ality of appren-
tices.
ness and dissipation; increasing their self-respect and
moral tone and confirming them in studious and steady
habits at a critical period of their lives. One of the
greatest advantages that comes from operating evening
schools, or classes that require evening preparation of
129
lessons, in connection with shops employing many appren-
tices, is that such schools fix the knowledge and continue
the habits of thought and mental application acquired in
school-life, at a time when all previous school-acquired
learning would otherwise become so indistinct as to exert
little if any influence in forming or confirming in them
tastes for useful work and enjoyment.
Says Mr. J. Scott Russell:
‘‘I am hopeless in the matter of educating the ‘workingman’ who has grown
up into manhood without education. For the most part, such men are too old to
learn. I have never Seen, but exceptionally, much good come of trying to drive
figures and geometrical problems, and mechanical theorems, and light and shade,
into the head of a full-grown workman who had failed to get a good education
when young. There have been brilliant exceptions—how brilliant how few l’’
I also quote again from Mr. Nystrom :
“It is not expected, neither is it necessary, that the student shall become an
accomplished mechanic, but the object is to concentrate his mind on the work
about which he is studying and calculating. When confined only to books and
blackboards, his conceptions rarely extend any further. He acquires the knowl-
edge by routine, as it were ; the study becomes tedious to him ; and when brought
to bear on practice, the most simple problem may confound him. When a student
is brought up in the combined Science and practice, however, he generally
acquires a taste for work—good workmanship and proper proportions—and the
application of his science becomes a pleasure. He studies mathematics at the
same time he learns drawing ; physics and mechanics at the same time he makes
his tools and models for machinery. His Science is applied as fast as it is acquired,
and he will never forget it. When a student is thus equipped for the journey of
life, he is able to bring such physical laws into action as to secure success in all
his enterprises. He will be able to record and report back to the institute his
future experience, by which the most thorough connection may be kept up be-
tween Science and practice. -
“As things now stand, a man of most valuable information is not able thus to
record his achievements; in fact, he may not know himself the very laws of his
success; his experience and valuable knowledge die with him ; his toiling suc-
cessor will reiterate his blunders, and gain new experience by a new series of
expensive trials and errors.”
There are many other advantages that workshop Schools tºº..…,
have over others. Easy access to machinery, and the ...”
direct application of principles and theory learned in”"
the school-room to work in the shops having a com-
mercial value, would make such instruction practical
in a high degree, while the tendency of the usual
technological schools which use mechanical plant (gen-
erally limited in quantity) for illustration and manual
130
exercise only, is toward the study of science, without
regard to its practical application.* Workshop schools
would also make it possible to bring science to bear upon
mechanical pursuits in a way and with a power that has
heretofore been impracticable, because thereby it is possible
to have long-continued, closely inspected and carefully
verified experiments bearing directly upon practical work.
So great has the demand for learning become, and so numer-
ous and diversified the occupations of life, that to be suc-
cessful it is now necessary for men and women to specialize
and expend their intellectual energies in particular fields of
thought and investigation. In accordance with the prin-
º:ciple of economy from division of labor, it is necessary
alized. that the same degree of specialization shall be applied to
technical education. But no School, as such, can accom-
plish what is needed in this direction that does not afford
opportunity for practically applying the knowledge gained
in class instruction, and the only way to accomplish this is to
have schools intimately connected with, and under the
management of, industrial corporations.#
* The great difficulty I experienced in getting tangible and conclusive evi-
dence of the utility of workshop schools abroad arose from the degeneration of
their original programs into purely theoretical instruction and the teaching of
principles without applying them. I know of but one English school where
any consistent efforts are made to apply School instruction in the shops—that
of Mather & Platt, Manchester, whose teachers are employed in the shops and
personally direct the theoretical instruction of their pupils to shop-work.
The absence of this combination of theory and practice, under intelligent
direction, constitutes the great weakness and seriously impairs the usefulness of
such schools. To teach the principles of mathematics, physics, mechanics,
machine construction and gearing, the formulae of chemistry, etc., without
fixing those principles in the Scholar’s mind by illustrative experiments, the
actual handling of apparatus, machinery and tools, is an impractical method of
instruction-which, as aforesaid, has in a large measure destroyed the usefulness
of technological as well as of public schools.
f In the October Century, President Gilman, of the Hopkins University, places
himself on record in favor of industrial education, and formulates his views of
what may be done for its promotion in our educational institutions of every grade.
Doubtless Baltimore would receive wise counsel and substantial aid from him
and his experienced coadjutors in remodeling our School system so as to make it
more nearly conform to the recognized needs of the city and age. The Guilds of
13]
Trade schools are especially valuable for training the sºlº
enable tho young
to earn thoir livoli-
young of our industrial classes, because they are thereby ...".
enabled to earn a livelihood while acquiring theoretical “
and practical knowledge, pari passu ; each supplementing
and assisting the other. As no boy can well acquire the
manual skill of a good workman except in the workshop
(or in the field, so to speak), where all the details and
appliances of a trade are regularly used, and where the
methods and processes of that trade are to be seen on a
business scale, so no boy can well acquire the theoretical
knowledge pertaining to a trade where his attention is
constantly distracted by material sights and sounds, more
attractive to the young than mental application. We all
know that scientific principles are easiest fixed in the mind
in youth, and by the illustration and practice of rules
in actual work, to which the responsibility of value
attaches. When a boy can be got to comprehend the
elementary principles of a science, he has put himself in
the way of mastering that science in after years. But before
he can make any solid advance in scientific knowledge, he
must have a basic education such, for instance, as should
be furnished by our grammar and higher public Schools.”
London afford valuable precedents and a wide experience upon which to found an
intelligent and practical scheme of trade education ; and should the city show
such a spirit of advancement, the Johns Hopkins University might be disposed to
supplement it with a school of applied science similar to those of Harvard or—
better, because more practical—of Cornell or Columbia.
* He who has studied, reflected, learned and arranged his knowledge in system
and order, is able to gather other stores of knowledge and add them to those
already acquired. In order to knowledge, therefore, reflection is indispensable.
The reflective faculties, we see, are eminently practical. They are not so much
for speculation as for life. Not even the simplest work can be well done with-
out them. The chief difference in all workingmen is that some put their brains
into what they do, others do not. It is so with woman’s work, too—with
sewing, housekeeping, cooking. How invaluable is thought in all this, and,
alas ! how rare. That is why we say, “Let boys and girls in our schools be
taught to think ; let them not be drilled so much in remembering as in reflect-
ing; lay more stress on processes than on results.” There is an objection often
urged against these higher reflective faculties in their exercise for common
objects—that they give theoretical rules which are not practical. Thus, if one
132
Wisdollh Of l'e-
Quiring of appli-
cants for alppren-
ticeship a llìgh
standard of quali-
ficationS.
Even where it is not deemed wise to inaugurate work-
shop Schools, as such, much can be done by managers of
railroads towards securing higher grades of apprentices
and helpers, by fixing a proper standard of qualifications,
to which all boys applying for service must, as a condition
precedent to appointment, demonstrate they have attained,
and then requiring them to attend evening-class instruc-
tion of a technical character, which can be maintained
at trifling cost, or even to attend public evening schools.
not actually engaged in teaching suggests any new view intended to improve the
processes of education, he is apt to be told that this is not “practical.” It is
sometimes even assumed that theory and practice are opposed to each other.
We often hear it asserted that a notion may be “true in theory, but false in
practice”; that is, useless for practical purposes. I, for one, esteem prac-
tice. I trace all real knowledge to experience. I care for no theories,
no systems, no generalizations, which do not spring from life and return to
it again. Practice and theory must go together. Theory, without practice
to test it, to verify it, to correct it, is idle speculation ; but practice without
theory to animate it is mere mechanism. In every art and business, theory
is the soul and practice the body. The soul without a body in which to
dwell is indeed only a ghost, but the body without a Soul is only a corpse.
When the waterworks in my house get out of order I want a theoretical plumber
as well as one who is practical. I want a man who understands the theory
of hydrostatic pressure; who knows the laws giving resisting qualities to lead,
iron, zinc and copper ; who can so arrange and plan beforehand the order
of pipes that he shall accomplish the result aimed at with the smallest amount
of piping, the least exposure to frost, the least danger of leakage or breakage;
and this a merely practical man, a man of routine, cannot do. The merest
artisan needs to theorize—i. e. to think—to think beforehand, to foresee ; and
that must be done by the aid of general principles, by the knowledge of laws.
An intelligent man, a man of general culture, whose mind has been quickened
with ideas, will often be able to show a mechanic how to do his own work.
When we are young, we have a superstitious faith in the knowledge each man is
supposed to have of his own business. We outgrow this after a while. If you
wish anything done about your house, Send for a mechanic ; but overlook him :
do not leave him to himself. You will presently find that you can suggest
something to him in his own work which he has never thought of. All success
depends on practice, but all improvement on theory. Let neither despise the
other. The saying that anything “is true in theory, but false in practice,”
involves an impossibility. The theory indeed may be plausible, but false, and
then it will not work, and its not working is the proof of its being false. It is
neither true in theory nor in practice. On the other hand, a theory which is
true may not work at first, because the true way of working it has not been
found out. It is not false in practice, but practice has failed at first ; but you
cannot say they were “true in theory, but false in practice.” They had not
been really put in practice. If anything is seen to be certainly true in theory, it
will come right by-and-by in practice. Fulton's steamboat would not work at
first, nor did Stephenson’s locomotive, nor Daguerre's sun-painting, nor Morse's
electric telegraph ; and no doubt a great many people said, “Oh that’s true
in theory, but false in practice.”—J. F. Clarke in “Self-Culture.” -
133
The good effects that have followed such a procedure
have been shown in preceding pages. Mr. Thomas Clegg,
of Manchester, testifies in the same strain :
“I have, from quite a boy, attended and taught night schools, and seen a good
deal both of the working and results of them, and believe my convictions have
arisen partly from this, and in a great measure also from being a considerable
employer of workpeople ; from fifteen years of age probably never having fewer
than one hundred under my individual management. My two brothers and my-
self have now probably not less than from 1200 to 1500 people in our employ. I have
always maintained against all my friends that those parties that have been edu-
cated in the schools that I have been connected with will always do more work
for the same momey and do it better and with less trouble than those that are not
educated ; and I have always been in a position to prove it so.”
The system of examination of applicants for apprenticeship
inaugurated by the Baltimore and Ohio Company nearly two
years ago, was regarded as a hardship by many people, and a.iº.
especially those who had uneducated sons they wished ºn ".
admitted to the Mt. Clare shops. They did not consider that
with lack of intelligence is always combined an absence of
ambition on the part of a boy to make anything more than
an ordinary mechanic of himself; that much more time
is necessarily consumed in teaching a trade to an unedu-
cated boy than to an educated one; that the former is not
nearly so useful during apprenticeship as the latter, and
that when he has acquired the manual skill of his trade,
the uneducated workman will still be the less useful of the
two, because lacking those valuable habits of careful obser-
vation and systematic thought that result from scholastic
training, and are hardly ever otherwise acquired.
Upon the inauguration of compulsory class instruction
at Mt. Clare, the same sort of protest was freely indulged
in by opponents of the measure, who argued that corpora-slº..."
Structioll ºf a p-
prentices in B. &
tions have no right to compel their apprentices to attendº
evening school after a day's work, and that anyhow the
results of compulsory attendance would be disappointing;
for although boys might arbitrarily be compelled to attend
134
Influence Of
Skilled alld edu-
cated WOI’klyn ell
u DOI). Other WOrk-
Pll eIl.
evening classes, they could not be made to learn against
their will. The answer was made to such arguments that
it is a common practice with firms and corporations else-
where to compel the attendance of their apprentices at
evening schools; that where applicants for apprenticeship
understand this to be a condition precedent to their employ-
ment and yet accept it, there can be no injustice in enforc-
ing the rule; that experience has shown that though
boys may at first attend class instruction reluctantly, they
usually soon become interested in their studies and unwill-
ing to give them up, and that those who obstimately refuse
to learn always turn out to be poor workmen, whose services
are unprofitable and should, in the interest of the service,
be dispensed with. The results of class instruction at
Mt. Clare have abundantly demonstrated the correctness of
this position. .
It may with much reason be expected that the good
resulting from workshop schools will not be wholly con-
fined to their pupils, but that their influence will extend
to the journeymen and others with whom the students
associate. The educational influence of a number of spe-
cially skilled mechanics upon the larger mass of workmen
surrounding them will be great; their superior skill and
zealous interest will inspire those who witness it with a
desire to improve, and this influence will spread and per-
petuate itself. That the industrial interests with which
they are associated will be promoted by their correct and
accurate methods cannot be doubted.
While the reasoning and illustrations in the preceding
paragraphs refer especially to mechanical pursuits, they
apply with equal and in some respects with greater force
to other branches of railroad service.
In short, I thoroughly believe that the greater efficiency
135
which a railway would soon secure over its entire system ººlºgical
instruction in rail-
through the study and application of Scientific and economic ...
principles having a direct bearing upon its various depart-
ments, would make a technological school specially de-
signed to meet its requirements far more profitable than
any other investment of the money that would be required
to conduct it.” As our railroad shops are now conducted,
there is little or no systematic instruction of apprentices,
and, as a rule, it would be difficult to find in such shops
foremen capable of giving scientific instruction, even if
they had the time and inclination. But through the
agency of such Schools as herein described our shops would
eventually be supplied with competent foremen, and a spirit
of progressiveness and healthy emulation would gradually
permeate the whole service. I do not doubt but that if
our American employers could be brought to realize the
value of such schools, they would follow the general
European custom of requiring, as a condition of indenture,
that apprentices should attend shop or other night schools, stººd
and this simple requirement would result in a practical to attend school.
educational movement the beneficent effect of which upon g
the nation's industries and prosperity is now incalculable.
* Answering by letter an inquiry Mr. Coler made of him concerning the economic
value of workshop-school facilities to railroads, General Manager Webb, of the
London and Northwestern Railroad, whose shops are at Crewe, among other
things says:
“The provisions under this head (theoretical workshop instruction) are very
much appreciated, as you will doubtless notice by referring to the Annual
Report which I had the pleasure of handing you when here.
“With regard to the economic results, there is no doubt that the railway
company, by supporting such an institution, are able to retain the Services of
thoughtful, steady men in their employ, not only for their own Sakes, but it
supplies an educational medium for their boys; and, also, the theoretical instruc-
tion imparted, if only to the comparatively few, must have some effect on the
intelligence in the shops, which has been found to be the case. Many of those
who have received instruction in our classes have, through their application, been
intrusted with work in the engine-works requiring mental exercise who would
otherwise have been still at the bench.
“This, I think, is, in an economic view, an advantage to the employers, as it does
not necessitate their going outside, and consequently giving high Salaries to
persons required for such employment.”
136
º, In the preceding pages of this section it has been shown
... that, while, in its early history, the railroad business of
this country was conducted with fair results by officers
and employes who, of necessity, had no previous technical
training or experience, but who absorbed practical knowl-
edge as the business expanded, it has now grown to such
vast proportions, both as regards its physical operations
and its executive management, as to call for great skill,
thorough training and broad experience in its operating
officers and, in a less degree, also in the rank and file
from which they are drawn; while of its executive, ad-
ministrative and traffic officers it demands a varied and
comprehensive knowledge and executive ability fully
equal to what is needed to secure success in any other
profession. It has also been shown that, generally speak-
ing, our railroad officials have reached their present posi-
tions through successive promotions in grade, as the result
of long experience and service; which, however, was ac-
quired at the expense of culture equally necessary and
important in, at least, those who come in contact with the
public. Also that in the active competition between rival
corporations, those which earliest recognize the necessity
for high-grade talent, and provide accordingly, secure
direct and material advantages over those that do not.
...ºf On the ninetieth page of this report I expressed the
i.e., desire to see the Baltimore and Ohio Company which,
I'ule.S. admittedly, holds a progressive position among American
railways in respect to its treatment of employes, inaugu-
rate what is familiarly known as a civil-service policy—
believing that thereby it would secure greatly increased
efficiency and net results. Since penning that paragraph
there has been brought to my attention an article in the
Railway Review of October 25, 1884, on the subject of
137
PROGRESSIVE PROMOTION BASED ON QUALIFICATION AND MERI-
TORIOUS SERVICE, As WELL AS ON LONGEVITY, which so fitly
supplements what has been said respecting the education
of railroad apprentices and employes of higher grade, and
rounds off this section so harmoniously, that I quote it at
length. In my judgment, however, it would be a fruitless
task to undertake to inaugurate such a system of progres-
sive promotion among the rank and file and subordinate
officers now in our service,—the basic material for such a
program not existing therein; but I think that the system
of technological instruction of apprentices and railway
cadets inauguarated by your circular of January 15, 1885,
if carried to its logical sequence, would soon develop that
material in abundance.
The knowledge and ability with which railroad officials of to-day perform the Extract, from
many responsible duties that now devolve upon them are mainly the result of long . ºn”
experience in the service. Such knowledge as this cannot be acquired from ...e.
books (useful as good books are to every man); the railroads cannot look to any vice.—Railway Re-
institutions similar in nature to law schools or medical colleges to furnish them view, Oct. 25, 1884.
the necessary supply of competent and efficient officers. Without the slightest
desire to reflect in any way upon colleges or technical schools, it is maintained
that but a small proportion of railroad officials or employes (excepting those
connected with the engineering department) now or in the future will have more
than a good common-School education [unless given by railroads themselves].
The time necessary to secure any better school-education than this can probably
be spent to better advantage in obtaining that knowledge of details that can only
be acquired by actual service in minor positions.
Accepting the foregoing as correct, it can be safely assumed that the railroads
will have to look to their own ranks for their officers of both high and low degree.
If this is So, it is clearly to the interests of the railroads to do all they can to
elevate the standard of railway service.
So much for the general railway service of the country. And now to come down
to the relations that should exist between the individual railway companies and
their employes.
If the railway officials of the country must be taken from the lower grades of
Service, and it therefore is to the interests of the railway system to endeavor to
keep the Supply of competent men equal to any probable demand, is it not judi-
cious for every railroad company to have among its own employes trained men
who are familiar with its own peculiar mode of management, in order to meet any
emergency which may arise ?
The foregoing has not been written simply to show that it is to the interest of
the railway companies to do all they can to promote the efficiency of the service,
but to demonstrate that there is a certain identity of interest which should act
as a bond between them and their employes, securing to one faithful service and
to the other considerate and equitable treatment. The interests of the two are
So closely allied that any permanent benefit to one of the parties must necessarily
138
be to the advantage of the other. It is to the advantage of the railroad com-
pany that its employes should serve it faithfully; it is to the advantage of the
employe that his services should be considered valuable. But, to stimulate the
ambition of any man, an incentive is required. No man will specially exert him-
self or endeavor to increase his usefulness to his employer unless he feels satisfied
that at some time he will reap some reward for his increased exertions. Why
should he As a matter of fact, without such assurance his Services are more
likely to deteriorate; he will perform his duties in a perfunctory manner, per-
fectly satisfied so long as he escapes dismissal. But, on the other hand, let him
see that his initial efforts at improvement are recognized, and he is stimulated to
still greater efforts. *
The railroad service is like an army: while every private cannot, of course,
become a general, if he is entitled to promotion by reason of his personal merits
he should be made a corporal, at least, on first opportunity, or in some other
way receive due recognition for his meritorious conduct. Again, every recruiting
officer likes to secure first-class recruits; but to do this he has to show that the
service for which he desires to obtain their enlistment possesses special attrac-
tions. Now, considering the railway service to be like an army, in what way
shall it show its appreciation of meritorious conduct of its employes, and what
special attractions must it present in order to secure the enlistment of first-class
material 2
Permanency of employment is what every workingman desires. Therefore,
every employe should have good reason for feeling confident that so long as he
performs the duties of his position in a conscientious and faithful manner he is
secure in his position ; that he need have no fear of dismissal excepting for
good and sufficient cause. What the railroad companies should endeavor to
impress upon the minds of all employes is, that in entering the railway Service
they have adopted a permanent occupation in the same Sense as a physician or
lawyer adopts his particular profession—as a life-work, in which, under ordinary
circumstances, he must expect to attain whatever success in life it may be his
good fortune to have allotted him. As far as practicable, officials should dis-
courage the employment of any one who is only desiring to secure temporary
employment, while awaiting a more auspicious opportunity for engaging in some
other pursuit. This class of men are of no practical benefit to the service, as
they have no desire to become acquainted with the business; and if they had,
would be likely to leave the service before they had acquired even a limited
knowledge of their duties.
However, to induce any man to enter the service with the intention of making
it his business during life, something beyond the mere fact that he will probably
have permanent employment is needed. He must not only feel assured of per-
manent employment, but he must also be satisfied that he will be likely to better
his condition as he becomes more familiar with the business, and when, as a
natural consequence, his services are more valuable. Any bright and intelligent
young man, full of energy and sanguine to the highest degree, is very likely to
think that if his first position in the service (which, in consequence of his lack of
experience and technical knowledge, must be a minor one) is to be the one in
which he is likely to remain for a long period, and that he stands but a slight
chance of advancement, whatever his merits may be, he had better start in some
other business which presents better promise of future personal advantage. In
his inexperience of the vicissitudes of life, and his unlimited self-reliance in his
own matural ability, he is fully convinced that he is predestined to attain success
in something, although he has but a very hazy idea of what that something is to
be. But let him have reason to believe that there is a very fair probability of
his securing advancement in the railroad service, if he is willing to work for it
and merit it, and in his confidence in himself he will be willing to enter the
service and anxious of having an opportunity of proving his ability.
For these reasons—to encourage present employes and to attract the right
139
kind of material to the service—it is very desirable that all vacancies that may
occur in any company’s Service should be filled, as far as practicable, by the
promotion of worthy employes from lower positions, instead of giving the posi-
tion to any outside party, or to Some favorite of the higher officials. Let it be
fully understood by any company’s employes that all vacancies will be filled
from their own ranks, and that no favoritism or partiality will be shown, the
appointments being made on the strict merits of each particular case, and the
result will in all cases be beneficial. Of course, even when the vacancies are
filled in the way suggested above, there will be more or less dissatisfaction on
the part of certain disappointed employes, who think that they are the best
entitled to the promotion; still, if the promotion is justly made, this will be
Soon recognized by all the other employes, and will have the effect of Securing
for the railroad management the confidence and esteem of its subordinates.
It must be admitted there are often cases where, in order to secure some par-
ticular party who is exceptionally qualified to meet the requirements of the
position in which the vacancy exists, it is necessary to go outside of the com-
pany’s own staff to make the appointment; but, while this for a time will cause
considerable feeling, if the appointee possesses the special qualifications with
which he has been credited, the fact will eventually become so patent that even
the greatest Soreheads will have to admit the wisdom of the company’s action.
However, cases like the one just mentioned are comparatively few ; and if each
company will make the proper efforts to increase the efficiency of its own
employes, they will become still ſewer. -
While it may be impossible to lay down a fixed rule as to how promotions
should be made which would apply to all cases and that would be just under all
circumstances, a general outline of some of the principles which should govern
can be given. Mere length of service cannot be taken as the only consideration
which should determine what employe should be appointed to fill the vacancy;
although, everything else being equal, Seniority of service should have the
preference. It is an undoubted fact that all men do not possess the same natural
ability, and do not acquire a thorough knowledge of practical details with equal
facility; and it is therefore often necessary, in order to do justice to the interests
of the employer, to promote one man over other employes whose term of Service
has been much longer than his. The equity of this must be admitted by every
one who is willing to view matters in their proper light, and so long as the pro-
motions are fairly made from the ranks of the employes, they will not, or at least
should not, complain.
Let any company adopt this policy, and select its engineers from its best fire-
men, conductors from brakemen, station agents from clerks, track overseers
from section men, and so on through the different branches of the service, and
its general officers from officers of lower grades, making each appointment
purely on the plain merits of that particular case, and it will have adopted a
policy that cannot fail to result in a permanent elevation of the standard of all
grades of employment : which fact will be fully proven by the consequent in-
creased efficiency of the management.
TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION IN THE BALTIMORE AND OHIO
- RAILROAD SERVICE,
The commercial success achieved by the Baltimore and success of B. & O.
Co. achieved de-
Ohio Railroad Company has in no sense resulted from iº
tional defleiencies
the superior skill or intelligence of its subordinate *****
140
officials, or of the rank and file in its several depart-
ments, but rather in spite of their deficiencies and through
the force of character and capacity for affairs of its
executives and staff. It is interesting to speculate upon
the greater results that might have been accomplished
had the executive ability, energy and money expended to
secure its present position been supplemented by a corps
of officers and operatives whose general education had been
of a high order, and had been supplemented by technical
training such as makes original thinkers.
In the B. & O. service there are now more than 24,000
operatives. The rapid extension of our lines, and the more
ºº: than correspondingly rapid development of the Company's
tions. business, will make it necessary to largely increase this force
from year to year. Referring to what has already been said
on the subject of railroad companies manufacturing from raw
materials, I invite your attention to the fact that of this
force, about 8,000 men are engaged in the transformation of
crude materials into rolling stock and other railway appli-
ances or in their repair. I assume that the present policy
has been found wise and satisfactory, and that the Company
will hereafter do a still larger proportion of its own
manufacturing and continue to do all its repairing. Under
these circumstances the improvement of our mechanical
force, as well as of the machinery in our shops, is a subject
well worthy your most earnest consideration.
The fact is that the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Com-
Explains why the pany has been peculiarly fortunate, in the Sense that the
...tº geographical isolation of its main stem and branches has
ºf most resulted in the gradual formation of a corps of operatives
who, by descent, tradition and personal attachments, may
be said to belong to the Baltimore and Ohio. These
people are Sui generis. From their earliest youth they
141
looked forward to an active participation in the operations
of the road as a means of livelihood, and all their aspira-
tions and ambitions are associated with its service. This
condition has been fostered by the custom, which for many
years had the force of unwritten law, and which at the
inauguration of the Relief Association was enacted into
corporate law, by the official pledge of our President and
Board of Directors to regard the children of meritorious
employes as entitled, by right of their parents' faithful
Service, to priority of appointment, other things being
equal, to all positions in the Company's gift. This promise
has been reiterated and confirmed by yourself, by giving
exceptional privileges to the families of employes, such as
reduced rates of transportation, recognizing their applica-
tions to fill helpers' and apprentices' positions at all points
on our lines, free tuition in the preparatory classes at
Mount Clare, etc., as well as by your contemplated action
in connection with the Mount Airy Home. Undoubtedly
all this has resulted in creating and maintaining a corps of
operatives of exceptional devotion and loyalty, and has in
many other ways advantaged the service; but it has also,
in some ways that were unforeseen, proven prejudicial to
the Company's interests. For example, it is well known
that the inhabitants along our main-stem divisions are dis-
gracefully destitute of educational facilities, and this,
coupled with the aforesaid sense of proprietorship in all
minor positions in the service, with the prevalent idea that
any education or knowledge beyond the bounds of his trade
is of no practical use to a mechanical workman, and that
an uneducated boy makes just as good if not a better
mechanic than one who has an education, has created an
indifference as to whether their children get even such
elementary instruction as may be at their command, and
142
IResults Of inves-
tigation into edu-
Cational Clualiflca-
tions of B. & O. ap-
prentices in 1885.
is fatal to the future of boys, especially; who, inheriting
the same pernicious belief, combine with it a natural dis-
position to have a good time when the day's work is done.
It was an understanding of this condition of affairs that
prompted Mr. Cowen to make the appeal quoted on the
first page of this Report, and that finally led to the
establishment of the preparatory school at Mt. Clare.
For several years prior to the issuance of your circular
of January 15, 1885 (Exhibit A), the claims of each appli-
cant for apprenticeship and helpers' places at Mt. Clare
had been passed upon by a board of high and intelligent
officers of the Company, and those selected on the score of
fitness and merit, as well as to reward long and faithful
service of their parents, were supposed to have materially
elevated and leavened the younger element in the Mt. Clare
shops—and, so far as I have learned, had done so. Yet,
when I inaugurated a series of examinations not more diffi-
cult nor more technical than those which test the fitness
of children to enter the grammar schools of most of our
Northern cities and towns, it was ascertained that out of
one hundred and forty-seven apprentices then in service,
not one was able to pass those examinations, even after due
warning and reasonable preparation. These examinations
(the character of which is indicated by questions given in
Exhibit X) developed the fact that a majority of our appren-
tices could not have entered an intermediate public school in
—say—Washington, where the standard is certainly not too
high; and yet the education of our Baltimore apprentices
may, with reason, be assumed to be higher than that of the
other apprentices scattered among the shops along our main
stem and its branches, where school facilities are meagre and
unsatisfactory. Our service is filled with men who must
have been boys of just the type I have described, and I
143
think you will not fail to perceive the gravity of this
statement, upon recalling the testimony heretofore pre-
sented of the serious loss and other disadvantages of
employing ignorant labor, and reflect upon the further
fact that, where tastes for reading and study are not
cultivated in youth, they are seldom acquired in later
life by those engaged in manual occupations. In proof
of this, I cite the fact that, though there is a commodious
library and reading-room at Mt. Clare, fairly equipped
with works on Science and industrial mechanics, and
where all the important scientific journals are displayed
for the especial benefit of our employes, the record
shows that, during the past year, out of an average of
3,000 workmen at Mt. Clare, fewer than 50 visited the
library at all, and fewer than 15 utilized these journals; thus
conclusively showing that they have not sufficient educa-
tion to appreciate these valuable means of further im-
provement. Out of 16,120 books circulated during the year,
but 1,816 were of a strictly educational character, and they
were almost exclusively drawn out by young men and boys
attending our class-instruction. A very careful canvass
last year demonstrated the fact that among this great
mass of labor only one man subscribed to a technical
journal, and that man was an ordinary mechanic. A
logical deduction from this record is that our people have
little or no knowledge of current improvements or of the
results of scientific investigations of mechanical subjects
and, as a rule, they only know methods crude and generally
obsolete elsewhere, and observation confirms this.
If the foregoing statements satisfy you—as I thoroughly
believe myself—that it would have been greatly to the
Failure Of Mt.
Clare employes to
utilize educational
facilities at thoſlº
command.
Necessity of edu-
cating B. & O. cm-
advantage of our company if not only its apprentices and gº..."
journeymen, but also many of its officers, had received a
by presont and
contemplated ex-
tensions.
144
History of tech-
nical instruction
at Mt. Clare.
scientific education, or at least a liberal technical training, my
object will have been accomplished, and it will only remain
for me to point out that what is true of the past has greater
force as regards the future, by reason of the extensions
and expenditures that are so rapidly expanding our system,
and to suggest such a program for technological instruction
in our service as will commend itself to your judgment.
TECHNOLOGICAL SCHOOL AT MIT, CLARE,
On the 15th of January, 1885, you issued an Executive
Order (No. 6) providing for the school-instruction of the
apprentices at Mt. Clare and other Baltimore and Ohio
shops in Baltimore (Exhibit A), and making an appropria-
tion for that purpose. -
Prior to the establishment of school-work at Mt. Clare,
the Baltimore and Ohio apprentices had neither incen-
tive nor opportunity to develop into intelligent work-
men, so that on starting the classes it was with great dif-
ficulty and only by absolute compulsion that the attend-
ance of about forty shop-boys was secured. They were,
with few exceptions, rude and almost unmanageable in
the class-room, uninterested in the instruction, and scarcely
able to await the hour of dismissal, when they would
vacate the school-room rudely and in haste. Then the
class-instruction was confined to the most elementary sub-
jects, and the boys were unable or unwilling to read
technical or scientific books with any show of profit. Now
there are under school-instruction seventy-five as orderly
and polite boys as are to be found in any high school of
the country, and among the very best of them are boys
who a few months ago were conspicuous for rudeness and
insubordination. We have had classes of apprentices in
145
geometry, algebra, physics, locomotive engine, mechanics,
mechanical drawing, free-hand drawing, geometrical draw-
ing, English and history, and a valuable method of in-
struction by special reading, selected and recommended
by the teachers to each pupil, with special reference to his
talents and the state of his education.*
* BALTIMORE AND OHIO TECHNOLOGICAL SCHOOL CIRCULAR.
WHAT TO READ.
BALTIMORE AND OHIO EMPLOYEs’ FREE CIRCULATING LIBRARY.
“Reading makes a full man.” -
This list is intended to suggest books that may be read with interest and profit
by the students of the Technological School during the summer months.
Other employes may, however, use the list to good advantage in choosing books
for themselves and their families. &
It is desired that all apprentices in the school should report, when the school
opens in the fall, how many and what books they have read.
It may require an effort to become interested in some of the books named on
this list, but they will, any of them, amply repay a careful and thoughtful read-
ing, while the effort and application that are required will constitute a
wholesome mental discipline. The best way to become interested in a book that
at first seems dry is to read some in it every day. If, however, after giving
it several days’ trial you fail to get interested in it, you had better return it
and draw another book; but be sure not to give up too soon. -
The best way to profit by what one reads is to read little at a time, but to
read often and think Inuch. It is an excellent plan to take notes of what you
read.
BOOKS OF MECHANIC ARTS AND TRADES.
Locomotive-Engine Driving ; Model Locomotive Engineer; Locomotive-Engine
Running; The Locomotive Engine; Catechism of the Locomotive ; American
Locomotive Engines; Hand Book of the Locomotive; Practical Steam Engi-
neer’s Guide; The Steam Engine; Catechism of the Steam Engine : Steam
Boiler Explosions; The Boiler Maker; Use and Abuse of the Steam Boiler;
Pattern Maker's Assistant ; Mechanic’s Tool Book; Workshop Manipulations;
Brass Founder's Manual; Manual of Wood Carving; Wood Working Tools;
Complete Practical Machinist; The Young Mechanic; Slide Valve and Link
Motion ; Road Master’s Assistant ; Electro Magnets; Dynamo-Electro Machinery.
BOOKS OF INVENTION,
Great Facts, a Popular History of the Most Remarkable Inventions; Indus-
trial Biography: Iron Workers and Tool Makers, by Smiles; Edison and His
Inventions; Life of Richard Trevithick, with an Account of His Inventions;
Growth of the Steam Engine.
BOOKS OF SCIENCE.
How Plants Grow ; Cook's New Chemistry; Wonders of Science; or, Young
Humphrey Davy; Manual of Assaying ; Forms of Water; Faraday as a Dis-
coverer; The World’s Foundations; Geological Sketches; Lessons in Physics;
Telegraphy in Theory and in Practice; Light and Electricity; Wonders of
Electricity; Lessons in Electricity; Earth and Man ; Volcanoes; Health and
Good Living ; History of a Mouthful of Bread; The Art of Prolonging Life.
Note.—Similar lists on History, Biography, Travels, etc., etc., have been
furnished scholars from time to time.
146
sºon. Last year, as a rule, we had to compel boys to take up
... algebra and geometry; at this time many are promising
promptness, regularity and other inducements to secure
admission to those classes, and a number have become so
urgent for higher science and mechanical studies (which
the limited appropriation now at our disposal prevents us
from inaugurating) as to create some embarrassment on
our part, and some discontent on theirs.”
Many of these boys regularly spend their noons study-
ing works in science and mechanics, going from shop to
shop and from machine to machine, studying the princi-
easºn. Pº involved in their construction and operation. Every
§..., examination for apprentices brings in a better class of ap-
the Service. plicants; as the result of which the standard upon which
admission to the service is predicated is being gradually
raised. -
I have used this home illustration to show that, while it
is true you cannot force a boy to learn (for education is a
growth that comes from within, and no amount of compul-
sion or outward pressure can directly force profitable
assus of som, results), yet, where instruction is intelligently conducted,
łºśces voluntary interest on the part of scholars and speedy
improvement are almost sure to follow. The rapid ad-
vancement of the apprentice class at Mt. Clare, in point of
* This is partly due to the fact that the classes in mechanics and physics are very
interesting, and many apprentices who were not allowed to enter them until they
acquired a certain perfection in algebra and geometry, have been promised
technical and scientific class-instruction next year if they achieve that proficiency.
We have had no trouble in interesting boys in drawing, because they, in com-
mon with other workmen and the foremen at Mt. Clare, recognize its direct help
in their trades, and a strong sentiment at Mt. Clare has always favored that
department of the school. The same sentiment is just as strongly against the
teaching of mathematics, pure science, etc., doubtless because the direct influ-
ence of such studies upon their interests is not perceived. When, however,
mathematical and scientific studies are associated with class-instruction in such
technical subjects as the locomotive engine, steam, workshop appliances, methods
of working iron and steel, and kindred subjects, an immediate interest and appre-
ciation is developed. - - -
147
ability and willingness to sacrifice pleasure to strict appli-
cation to study, is very marked, and sufficiently proves the
foregoing assertion. This instruction, though more general
and less connected than would be desirable under a per-
manent organization, has, in a marked degree, promoted a
Sentiment of regard for and interest in knowledge of the
principles upon which mechanical work is based. Many
who previously were content to know how to do things, are
now inquiring into the reasons for what they are doing.
It is not, however, to be understood that the foregoing
statements apply to all the apprentices who were in our
Service in Baltimore at the inauguration of instruction at
Mt. Clare, or that the present classes are wholly composed
of such apprentices. Of those boys examined under your
order of January 15, 1885, only 40 were found amenable pº
to school-discipline and sufficiently grounded in the common º §:
English branches to justify the hope that, with such
further academic training as our facilities afforded, they
could profit by the proposed technical course to the extent
of even qualifying themselves for graduation as mechanics;
while, as aforesaid, not one of this large class of appren-
tices possessed sufficient elementary knowledge to permit
of his entering upon the higher studies necessary to qualify
him for an officer's position in the service. It being
thus manifested that we had no material from which to
manufacture efficient officers, nor were likely to acquire
any under the then existing system, a general order was, Regulations gov-
at my instance, issued by the General Manager, promul-º
gating regulations for the future admission of apprentices,”
and prescribing the minimum qualifications of candidates;
which, while neither onerous nor of a high grade, pro-
vided a sufficient foundation for the technical instruction
necessary to make a fairly educated mechanic. In the
148
Lines upon which
instruction has
beell COllducted.
Preliminary ex-
amination prohi-
bitory to unedu-
cated SOInS Of em-
ployeS.
same general order (which had your personal approval)
the lines upon which it was then and is still proposed to
conduct the educational work at Mt. Clare were defined in
general terms, though no provision has ever been made for
commencing the higher instruction therein contemplated.
This general order is quoted in Exhibit U. While, owing
to the exigencies of the service, it has not always been
found expedient to reject all applicants for apprenticeship
who failed to pass satisfactorily the preliminary examina-
tion, all recently appointed at Mt. Clare have been sub-
jected to this ordeal; the result being that the new ap-
pointees are far more intelligent, better educated and
generally come from a better class than perhaps had ever
before been admitted to your shops. For the reasons above
given, this course has been almost prohibitory to the sons
of old employes, only 32 of whom, out of a total of 95, have
passed the examinations since March, 1885. Theimmediate
effect of this is that our employes are beginning to realize
... that the present is to be a permanent policy, and under this
EmbarraSSments
attending class in-
Struction.
stimulating knowledge they are much more generally than
formerly compelling their sons to attend school. As afore-
said, the mere public announcement of the proposed tech-
nological school at Mt. Clare attracted to our monthly
examinations a very superior class of young men, many
of whom, having entered under the apprentice regulations,
are now prepared for the cadet course as soon as it is
inaugurated.
The capacity and the elementary knowledge possessed
by the individual members of a large class of boys collected
under such varying conditions as those narrated above,
differs very greatly in degree, and it therefore became
a serious problem how to arrange their studies so as to
bring them under general class-instruction. It was clearly
149
futile to expect any material advancement in scholastic Orci...,
rease efficiency of
technical knowledge of the mass of apprentices then in theº.º.º.
Organizing Separ-
ate class instruc-
service, and yet where so much material was going to wasteºli
it was our evident duty to attempt to enhance its ultimate grades.
value to the company; therefore, the course of instruction
was framed with special reference to its practical utility in,
first, advancing the entire force of apprentices within
reach of its influence in their several mechanical pursuits;
secondly, in advancing the theoretical instruction (as
far as might be practicable with the limited means at
hand) of such apprentices as past examinations had shown
to be possessed of sufficient common-school education to
justify the hope that, without additional school-training in
academic branches, they could be educated to the standard
of good officers or, at least, of first-class mechanics; and
thirdly, in giving such special instruction of a higher
character, as our means afforded, to those who, entering the
service under the new order of things, were found suf-
ficiently advanced to receive it with profit. .
It was deemed of paramount importance that, so far as
might be practicable, the work of the school should have pºol
a direct bearing upon, and an immediate connection with, ...”
the various duties in the shops with which those under in-”
struction were or might be charged. Realizing how
materially the value even of an otherwise uneducated
mechanic is augmented by facility in making and reading
working drawings, an effort was made to give systematic
instruction in drawing to as many apprentices as Our limited
number of teachers and small class-space permitted. I
have already reported that this part of the teaching was
well received and has been measurably successful; about
60 boys taking two drawing lessons each week, aggregating
eight or nine lessons per month; and this alone cannot
fail to increase their usefulness to the Company.
150
Difficulty of com-
bining School and
Shop instruction
With Out. COllflict Of
authority.
Reports of in-
StructOrS On 8chOOl
WOlºk at Mt. Clare.
It was a simple matter to provide for such academic
instruction as it was deemed expedient to give apprentices,
and also for the examination of those wishing to enter the
service, but very difficult to devise a satisfactory yet
efficient plan of shop-instruction which, while bearing
directly upon the apprentices’ daily duties, should not
conflict therewith. As the result of repeated conferences
with the General Manager and the heads of mechanical
departments, a series of regulations was formulated, defining
the jurisdiction of the technological instructor and the shop
authorities respectively over apprentices, and promulgated
by the General Manager (Exhibit W). This order was
measurably effective, though, as was to be expected from
a dual authority, opposition was engendered, and the in-
structors have not received such cordial support from some
of those immediately in charge of the mechanical opera-
tions of the shops as would have made their labors
effective in the highest possible degree. If you conclude
to continue technological instruction at Mt. Clare, this
phase of the subject will need further careful considera-
tion and revision.
It is not an easy task to present novel educational
methods through the medium of reports which cover a
limited experience; while many beneficial and potent
results cannot be shown at all by such means. In fact,
though we see that education affects people morally,
mentally and physically, and that where intelligence
abounds there are prosperity, general contentment and
happiness, while superstition, perversity and dissipation
are the handmaidens of ignorance,—it is one of those in-
tangible things which, though potent in results, is not to
be measured by any material standard. Still it is very
necessary that you and others who may be called upon
151
to consider the expediency of continuing and enlarging
this instruction, should thoroughly understand what has
been accomplished by the expenditure already made, and
perhaps I cannot give you this information more accur-
ately than by referring to the reports of the several in-
structors, covering the entire period of instruction at Mt.
Clare, and they are accordingly appended to this report as
Exhibit W.
I think the facts shown in that Exhibit and in Exhibits
U and V will convince you, or any other fair-minded man,
that, despite the difficulties inherent in the undertaking
itself; the misunderstandings and, in some cases, the out-
spoken opposition of some of our shop officials, and the
educational deficiencies of the boys who were first brought
under School-discipline, much absolute good has been
accomplished by the tentative instruction at Mt. Clare, Money appropri-
and that your appropriation has been well expended, with ºt
substantial benefit to the service. Had the school re-
ceived that hearty co-operation and encouragement it
deserved, the results would have been more tangible
and far more valuable; but quite enough is set forth in
these reports to prove, without the aid of testimony or the
cogent arguments cited in the preceding pages, that this
plan of technological instruction would, if elaborated and
permanently established, be productive of economic re-
sults. .
Your attention is especially invited to the dozen draw-
ings accompanying this report, which are the work of
regular apprentices, all of whom, with one or two excep-
tions, have entered the service since the school com-
menced, and most of whom are apprentices of less than a
year's service. They show something of the work of
one department only, but are by no means exceptional in
152
Instructiºn at Mt. their excellence. The results of our instruction in science
Clare has devel-
Oped aptitudes and
...” and mechanics, and in other branches, though less tan-
Walnced Student.S. ſº & wº
gible, are equally as great; the former especially having
developed habits of thought, observation, inquiry and
definite expression that far surpass what I had supposed
possible under prevailing conditions.
Of course much remains to be thought out and experi-
mentally applied before an harmonious practical curriculum
for a technological railroad school can be perfected; but
Results attained any further money appropriated in this connection will, pro-
* portionately, be much more remunerative in valuable
results than what has already been expended, and the
experience gained by our teachers will enable them, here-
after, to avoid many mistakes and to master many diffi-
culties that to the novice might seem insurmountable. It
is also to be borne in mind that the preliminary work
already performed in the Mt. Clare School has largely been
original (for the experience of neither our universities,
Mºś colleges nor technical schools could be of much service to
in character, and
lºgº us in combining school and shop-instruction). There were
Of connecting Shop
WOrk and School
instruction. really no precedents to guide us in shaping a course of
instruction for railroad shops; for while in Europe there
are numerous technological schools, most of them bear on
industries of a different type from railroading, and even the
few that are directly connected with railway corporations
have been in operation only a short time and are formu-
lated on foreign methods and necessities, and their courses
of study could not effectively be introduced in this country.
It is, therefore, gratifying to be able to state that several
well-known and experienced scientists and educators have
expressed the view that, in many respects, the Mt. Clare
School is successfully working out problems in the line
of connecting shop-work and school-instruction, and the
153
direct application of the latter to the former, that no
attempts had previously been made to solve.
As might naturally be supposed, the shop and class-
instruction of the apprentices at Mt. Clare during the past
twenty months has afforded us not only an insight into the
methods of administration and practice of those works, but Instruction at Mt.
Clare peculiarly
also a full realization of the difficulties which will beyºr
encountered in planting a permanent system of techno-" "
logical instruction in the Baltimore and Ohio service. In
this experimental work our teachers have acquired pecu-
liarly valuable experience and knowledge of the lines
upon which that instruction, to be successful, must be
conducted. This knowledge is unrecorded, and, were it
certain you would continue this educational work, might
profitably be incorporated in this report; but it can
speedily be formulated upon call, and I therefore close
this particular branch of the subject with some general
considerations. -
What has been said in general terms as to the method
of educating apprentices in the Mt. Clare shops applies
with equal force to our entire mechanical department.
The old system of indenture in this country involved a
definite responsibility on the part of the employer for the
skill of the boys who graduated from his shops, which
in fact has long ceased to exist, and, generally speaking,
all that remains of the apprentice system of former days
is an erroneous assumption in the public mind that,
at the expiration of four years' service as a so-called
apprentice, a boy possesses the skill and is entitled to a so sºme
the compensation of a journeyman. So far as the Balti-;.
more and Ohio Railroad is concerned, the observations of"""
six years convince me that this term “apprentice” is an
entire misnomer as applied to the boys in our shops, who
154
can only be classified as “helpers” and “laborers’; for they
do not receive such instruction as is necessary to make them
intelligent mechanics, and though, from the nature of their
work, they necessarily, in four years' service, acquire a
certain amount of manual dexterity, few of them have,
at the expiration of that term, attained to such a degree of
expertness and general knowledge of the several branches
of their trades as would justify a great corporation certi-
fying them to the world as skilled workmen.”
Much of the light and low-grade work in the manufac-
turing and repair shops of a railroad can be economically
and successfully performed by uneducated boys and, in an
ºn emergency, much of the current work of such shops could
temporarily be undertaken by them. But mere expertness
in running a few machines (which may be acquired by
mere repetition), even when supplemented by manual dex-
terity in some branches of a trade, does not take such help
out of the category of uneducated labor. Helpers and
laborers only they are, and helpers and laborers they will
remain to the end of the chapter, under the system of
tiº'. º handling apprentices now in vogue in our shops. Indeed I
understand that no difference in pay is maintained in our
Mt. Clare shops between “helpers” and apprentices. Of
course I know that it would be unwise, in the present con-
dition of the labor market from which this Company draws
its supply, to reject the services of every mechanic who did
not come up to a high standard, but nevertheless the Com-
pany loses money by employing such people, and should at
* “Investigations in the shops, by conversation and observation, have de-
veloped the fact that many boys or young men had completed or nearly com-
pleted their apprenticeship in the machine-shops without being able to tell the
difference between cast and wrought iron"; without knowing whether steel is a
native or manufactured product, and equally ignorant of many other simple,
though important and significant, facts which are intimately related to their
trades.”—[Wide Report Tech. School Principal, Ev. W.]
155
least make a well-defined distinction between the pay and
rating of a properly educated artisan and of one whose only
qualification is manual skill. In order to secure substan-
tial improvement in our mechanical service there must be
a point of departure, and I think you will find nome better
than that here indicated.
To make a practical application of this view, I submit
that no young man, whatever his length of service with
the Company may have been, should receive the designa-
ReCOmmenda-
tion or the pay of a journeyman, until it is demonstrated. º
by examinations, as well as by actual work, that he pos-ºn of ºppren”.
sesses the theoretical knowledge as well as the manual
dexterity which in advanced mechanical centres is accepted
as the standard of a skilled artisan. Also that the rule
which requires all boys applying for service at Mt. Clare
to pass an examination equivalent in grade to that which
admits boys to our intermediate schools (or at the maxi-
mum to our grammar Schools), shall be continued and
extended over our entire system; that where the exi-
gencies of the service require the employment of a larger
number of boys than can be found qualified for this
examination, all applicants shall nevertheless be examined
and their status and permanency in the service thus deter-
mined. In other words, that all boys found lacking in the
prescribed mental qualifications, but whose services are
needed, shall be rated as helpers or laborers, on a pro-
gressively lower scale of wages than apprentices of same
length of service receive; that while the sons of our em-
ployes shall still have the preference of appointment, when
their education is ascertained by an examination to equal
that of their competitors—and not otherwise, after admis-
sion their examination and scholastic records shall determine
their advancement, or retention, should a reduction of force
156
occur. The present form of indenture of apprentices should
be modified to accord with General Order No. 5 of January
15, 1885, General Manager's Office, and by further pro-
visions that no apprentice shall be entitled to additional
wages at the expiration of each year's service, until he
has passed the annual academic examinations of his grade;
that no apprentice shall be rated or paid as a journeyman
until, in addition to completing the usual shop-course, he
obtains a certificate of graduation from the journeyman's
course of school-studies. The wisdom of such provisions
is too patent to need illustration.
In this connection, it is important to recall to your
Biscusses desira; mind what has been said about employing the graduates
bility of employing
graduates of tech-
nological institu-
tions in railroad
Service.
of technological institutes in railway service, because
that has a material bearing upon the proposition to estab-
lish a school devoted exclusively to the education of
railway officers and apprentices. At the present moment
especially, our system is undergoing a reorganization, and in
many respects a development, that offers an exceptionally
favorable opportunity to supplement the practical experi-
ence and technical knowledge of those subordinate officers
charged with the details of our transportation, mechanical
and road departments, with modern practice as taught in
our best technological schools. By this I mean that the se-
lection of a limited number of technological-schoolgraduates
for special instruction in the cadet course abové outlined
would, at a comparatively early date, provide the service
with assistant foremen, supervisors, etc., who would elevate
and educate those immediately above and surrounding them,
while the conservatism of their superior officers would neu-
tralize their inexperience in technical details, temper their
Zeal, and reduce their theories to practical applications serv-
iceable to the Company. While, for the reasons already
157
stated, it is believed the appointment of technological
graduates to positions of responsibility in railway serv-
ice would not prove as satisfactory as the policy of
securing boys well grounded in elementary studies and
then educating them as specialists in railway theory and
practice, there is much that can be urged in favor of
their appointment as cadets, as combining the elements of
economy and immediate results which, in our present situa-
tion, commends that course to your favorable consideration.
This report contains conclusive testimony as to the facility
and rapidity with which intelligent technological scholars
absorb and assimilate a practical knowledge of the trades
and professions with which they become associated, and
I think no one who has read it would doubt that this plan
would at least yield a profitable return, through the
elevation of the personnel of the service and the intro-
duction of scientific and modern mechanical processes to
our practice.
To reinforce this view, let me ask you to reflect upon
the results that would surely follow the assignment to
each of our Mt. Clare shops, after some specific instruc-
tion in railroad matters, of one or more assistant fore-
men, selected from the higher graduates of our best
mechanical Schools. You cannot fail to realize that
Technological
School graduates
WOuld make desir-
able Subordinate
OfficerS and teacherS.
such a policy would soon produce a revolution in the
social status and in the practical mechanical operations of
those shops which would greatly advantage the service
generally. Another result would be that this corps of
assistant foremen and supervisors, who would soon acquire
practical experience and the theories of economy which
form the groundwork of your administration, would furnish
just the talent now needed for teaching the younger
element of the service—i.e. teachers combining theoretical
158
Approves con-
tinuing plan Of
instruction all-
lıounced in Janu-
ary, 1885.
Explains what
and technical knowledge with such experience as would
give them an appreciation of the lines of instruction that
would yield the most practical and economic results.
General Order No. 5, of January 15, 1885 (Exhibit U),
though purposely made general and tentative in character,
in order that we might profit by future experience, still
very well expresses my judgment as to the lines upon
which the proposed educational work should be conducted.
The plan outlined in that order contemplates:
1. Instruction (in the apprentice class, of such boys
now in or hereafter admitted to the service as can pass the
examination therein indicated), of a character that will
make them skilled and intelligent mechanics. Such ap-
prentices as, in this course, developed a fair amount of
ability and fidelity would, naturally, graduate into the
Rºº second or Cadet class. This first class course should,
full no ulıçod in Jun-
uſury, 1885,
* however, provide within itself all the elements of technical
instruction necessary to complete a journeyman's edu-
cation.
2. The Second or Cadet course should also be complete
within itself, and should provide such technical instruction
in all the departments of railway service as would fit its
students for all subordinate positions of responsibility and
trust in the service—corresponding to what is known in
European Schools as the foremen's course of study. This
course, while involving more thorough and wider theo-
retical instruction than the apprentice course, should, to
the greatest extent possible, be framed with reference to
the practical mechanical operations of the shops and of the
service generally. - -
Unless very radical changes can be effected in the
common-school methods practised in Baltimore, I appre-
hend that a very small proportion of the apprentice class
159
will be able to take this higher instruction, and that we ...lººmººnot
furn IBh on Ough
will have to look to the graduates of technological and .º.
Clont ºut,ttlin in G 11 tº
to ſll] § Ill.) Ordinal.0
science schools in other sections of the country that do lº
afford industrial education to their citizens, for the material
to constitute our cadet class. I look with regret upon this
prospect, having a strong bias towards the development
of local talent; but in this connection public considerations
must be made subservient to our corporate needs. The
widespread interest developed outside of Baltimore in the
technological work at Mount Clare, and the numerous
applications for admission to that School from the graduates
of technological and Science Schools and others of equal
mental discipline, give full assurance of an unlimited
Source of supply, and that this class will not only provide
subordinate officers in sufficient numbers to meet the
utmost demands of the service, but also men whose
primary education will qualify them for still higher
positions. --
3. It will be the object of the Third or Cadet Officers' course
to give to those who graduate with honor from the second
class (and who have therein shown themselves possessed
of ability and educational qualifications above the average)
further technical training, of a still higher and more com-
prehensive type, which, when combined with familiarity
with the operations of the various departments of the jº"
service, will go far towards qualifying the students of that º
course for the highest positions in the Company's gift. Fairviſºritions.
To this end, opportunity should be afforded the pupils of
this course, in its last year, to actively participate in the
production, care, repair and improvement of railway plant
and in the practical operations of the service. This could
readily be done—and with advantage to the service also—
by distributing these students among the several depart-
160
ments as assistants—at the same time maintaining their
connection with the school for further educational pur-
poses. I have already shown how such an infusion of
new blood into our mechanical and operative departments
would inure to the benefit of the Company.
In the apprentice course, School-instruction should be
made secondary to shop-work, while in the higher courses
shop-work should always be secondary to mental training.
Although the foregoing relates especially to instruction
in Baltimore, the plan has been drafted in a more general
sense, and contemplates the gradual extension of this
educational movement over our entire system. While
ºn Baltimore will always be the centre of such a movement,
inaugurated at
...” I apprehend no great difficulty in extending the apprentice
*** course, at least, over the entire road, by establishing
might-schools for drawing, mathematics, and elementary
science, or securing the introduction of our boys into such
schools as are already in operation, and the modification
of their curriculum in the manner indicated. A cheap
provision for such elementary instruction can be made by
gradually transferring the young graduates from the Mt.
Clare School to our divisional repair shops as assistants,
and requiring them to take charge of these night-schools,
and of the shop-instruction and supervision of apprentices,
under a similar plan to that now in force at Mt. Clare—
with, of course, such modifications as local differences and
experience may suggest as desirable.
The statement in Mr. Coler's report (Exhibit W) that
Reasons why an not one of five hundred apprentices examined in and out
applicants for iº ū * dº
ºceship of Baltimore was able to pass a very simple examination,
Should be ex-
a mined. gives great force to his recommendation that the present
system of a preliminary examination as a condition of
apprenticeship (which has been in operation in Baltimore
161
for the past two years) shall be enforced in all the shops
of our service. This preliminary examination has worked
admirably and, if enforced throughout the service, will
secure a class of workmen of greater intelligence than now
operate your shops; and lead to improvements in machin-
ery, economical methods of labor and avoidance of accidents.
Even though you may not finally determine to inaugurate
the educational work herein proposed, this system of
preliminary examination should be maintained and ex-
tended as a condition of apprenticeship.
In the course of my investigation of this subject I have
accumulated a large mass of data relating to the organiza-
tion, management and results of technological and science
schools, which it is not necessary to incorporate in this
report, but which would be of material assistance should the
Baltimore and Ohio Company decide to convert the present
experimental teaching at Mt. Clare into a permanent
bureau or department for educating officers and skilled
artisans for its service. In the event of favorable action o
Suggests limes up-
In Which techno-
logical work should
upon this school-question, I would recommend that ºdºd.
the details of organization, the preparation of courses
of study, etc., be entrusted to a commission; some of
whose members should be the most experienced and
successful educators that can be found in the techno-
logical field, while others should not only have a wide
mechanical knowledge, combined with practical experience
in the application of mechanics to those industries con-
nected with railway service, but should likewise be thor-
oughly conversant with the methods and requirements of
that service as conducted in this country. Such expert
talent can be had and, if the subject is to be pursued at
all, its importance demands that no pains or reasonable
162
What Mt. Clare
School should aim
to accomplish.
expense should be spared in getting a right start. Indeed
the ultimate success of such a measure would mainly de-
pend upon the wisdom and discretion of those who planned
its details. Such a commission (aided by the local and
technical knowledge of intelligent representatives of our
administrative and operating departments, and by the
experience of the teachers at Mt. Clare, which, in this
connection, would be invaluable); performing its labors
with courage, yet caution; realizing that the value and
therefore the life of such a school depended altogether upon
its usefulness in increasing the efficiency and economy of
railroad operations, could, I doubt not, devise a system of
instruction that would accomplish fully as great practical
results as have ever been achieved in the field of industrial
education.*
The great aim of the Mt. Clare School, if it is to be
maintained, should be a combination of theory and practice,
by the daily application, in the workshop, of the theoretical
instruction received in the school-room. I cannot impress
upon you too strongly the impracticability of attempting to
teach trades, or to fit youth for the practical work of life
by such theoretical instruction and casual practice as are
given in most of our so-called trade schools. Our Mt. Clare
classes in physics and mechanics are now taught to apply
principles for themselves, so far as time and apparatus will
permit, somewhat after the order of the common-school
instruction practised on the Continent, and described by
* Dr. Hall, of the Hopkins University, in response to a request of one of our
teachers for advice on the subject of a suitable course of study for Mt. Clare
apprentices, said in substance that the Subject involved one of the hardest and
most peculiar questions in education; that to formulate such a course would not
only require an intimate knowledge of the wants of the Company and of the
service of its various shops, as well as of the work and results of the leading
industrial schools of the country, but would also take at least six months of his
undivided time. I cite this statement of one of our most experienced educators
merely to show that the subject is one of great complexity, that cannot be safely
entrusted to any but the learned and experienced.
163
Matthew Arnold in the October number of the Century,
and this practice has given satisfactory results, though not
such as would have been secured by a cordial co-operation
between the shop authorities and the school instructors.
If the school is reorganized with more space and apparatus,
and on a practical plan of supplementing class-instruction
with work in the shop, or, more properly speaking, of
systematically adapting School instruction to the current
work of the shops, you will soon see a marked improve-
ment in the mechanical operations of those shops.
I have gone into this matter at length, because it is
important you should fully realize that our great want is the
technical education of our people; that to educate for railroad
work, even the best course of technical study must be supple-
mented with practical instruction in the workshop and in
the administrative and operative offices, and that no tech-
nical course for railroad people could profitably be con-
ducted in any school without immediate access to workshops
and plant in all phases of operation, construction and main-
tenance; that, in its corporate interests, the Baltimore and º.º.
R. R. Can rea,SOInably
do to promote tech-
Ohio Company could well afford to provide this practical.º.
knowledge and a certain amount of school-instruction, upon
the plans outlined in connection with the Mt. Clare works;
but while that plan contemplates a selection of studies
from the different engineering courses in connection with
other subjects that bear directly upon railroad interests,
this company cannot be expected to take the place of our
colleges and universities in developing special aptitudes.
I have elsewhere (pp. 77–87) alluded to the material
influence which the Johns Hopkins University should
—but does not—exert upon our service. I have also
shown how the vital interests of the former are involved
in the prosperity of the latter, and have referred at
164
Relationship of
Johns Hopkins
University to B. &
O. CO. and What it
should do to aid
latter in its educa-
tional movement. .
length to the intimate relations existing between the
Johns Hopkins University and this Company. Had that
intimate connection not existed, I should not have felt
justified in criticising, in this report, the policy and methods
of its management; but as that association does eacist in fact,
and as I consider the objects this reportisintended to sub-
serve are—in a reflex sense—as vital to the Hopkins Univer-
sity as to the railroad itself, I have felt as free to comment
upon its methods as upon our own. The prime need of the
University is the greatest attainable income from its endow-
ment compatible with security. The greater portion of its
capital being invested in Baltimore and Ohio Securities, it is
fair to assume that the first desire of its trustees is the per-
manency and commercial success of that road. The great
influence of technical education upon the prosperity and
net earning capacity of industrial corporations (among
which must be classed the Baltimore and Ohio) is so clearly
and unquestionably shown in this report, as is also the low
educational standard of the community from which this
service draws its main supply of labor, that it seems only
necessary to point out the relations which these interests
bear to each other and the need that exists for the aid
which the University could so effectively give, to secure
the hearty approval and co-operation of its trustees and
faculty in judicious efforts to elevate our service. They
are eminently qualified to appreciate the value of intelli-
gent and Scientific methods, and I need hardly point out
that, as it is very doubtful if the University could get a
better investment for its endowment than that it now holds
in our securities, the best way to make their endowment
highly remunerative and permanently secure is to follow
the lines herein indicated, and that any expenditure or
sacrifice they might make in this connection would be a
wise insurance of their capital against depreciation.
165
From an outside point of view, it would seem as though
so large a shareholder in the Baltimore and Ohio Company
should take a more lively interest in the affairs of that
corporation than it has done, and that pride, no less than
Self-interest, should prompt it to supplement our efforts by
remodeling its curriculum so as to afford better facilities to
the general public of Baltimore, and especially to those in
our service who may develop a capacity for higher instruc-
tion than will be obtainable under the proposed Baltimore
and Ohio program; which, while providing a very sub-
stantial foundation, cannot undertake to give advanced
instruction in engineering and other higher branches of
scientific and mechanical knowledge.” Certainly neither
this community nor our country at large would be the
losers if, in order to inaugurate such a course, it was found
even necessary to curtail its present program, which is
currently recognized as aiming to devote the University to
original research and to finishing (in its highest sense) the
education of the graduates of our other universities.
In conclusion, I beg to say that, while of course I de-
sired and earnestly endeavored to obtain the most practical
* That a railroad company as such would not be justified in furnishing means
for such an extensive course as would accomplish all the objects herein viewed,
and that, without public or private assistance, its efforts must at best be devoted
to affording thorough instruction in those elementary branches which will give
the most practical and immediate return to the railroad, is made patent by the
following considerations:
Engineering, though important, is only a part of what must be taught in a
course intended to fully qualify young men for the higher walks of railroad life,
and yet to provide the necessary buildings, apparatus and a corps of suitable
instructors to teach that branch alone, in its advanced stages, would require a
very considerable annual appropriation.
In Cornell, as I am informed, the faculty of civil engineering alone includes
nine teachers, while Stevens Institute, which provides only for a course in
Mechanical Engineering, has a corps of twelve teachers, and Rensselaer Poly-
technic Institute, Troy, N. Y., provides a corps of nineteen teachers for advanced
instruction only in Civil Engineering—the conditions of admission requiring
students to be well grounded in elementary studies. True, some of the instructors
in Cornell teach in other departments, but then the students of engineering get
part of their instruction in allied departments. A course in any one kind of
engineering would require the full time of at least six teachers. To secure first-
class men for these positions would necessitate a large expenditure.
166
Yºot results for the Company, in return for its expenditures,
º your order of January 15, 1885, had, to my mind, a much
tº greater significance than attached to a course of mere
torest.S. experimental instruction of ignorant apprentices. I clearly
realized that this attempt to influence the methods and
practices of a great industry, by carrying systematic mental
instruction into its workshops, was really inviting a public
determination of the question whether or not systematic
technological instruction, under corporate auspices (and
therefore under the most favorable conditions) was practicable;
and if practicable, economical and otherwise desirable. If
an experiment, conducted as this was to be, under the
supervision and control of a great corporation, whose
wealth, thorough organization, commercial, manufacturing
and transportation operations and interests, combined with
its well-known desire to elevate its employes, failed of suc-
cess, no other railroad or other large industrial corporation
would be likely, in the near future, to renew the attempt
to graft upon our democratic institutions the system of
technological instruction pursued abroad with material
advantage to all concerned. -
Another consideration which gave me great concern in
this connection was that the program announced in your
order was substantially novel in this country, both in respect
alº.º. to educational and industrial practices, in that it contem-
*śnd plated, on the one hand, reversing the present steady ten-
WOrk. dency of our technological and Science schools towards the
theoretical rather than the practical in mechanical and
kindred studies, while, on the other hand, it proposed making
school-instruction directly supplemental to the usual shop-
work of apprentices and others—professedly for the purpose
of elevating and diverting the mechanical and other
operations of a great corporation from obsolete to modern
167
practice—a plan that, so far as I am able to learn, has never
before been practically attempted in this country. The idea
of such a school is just as new in the line of school-work and
education as railroading was in the line of transportation
fifty years ago. If, under this program, it could be clearly
demonstrated that a bureau or department established for
the specific education of railroad officers and artisans
to a higher than the current professional standard was
really a practicable and economic adjunct to the opera-
tive, administrative and executive departments of American
railways, it would not be extravagant to hope for
a general industrial educational movement, not only on
behalf of the half million men engaged in railroading,
but such an one as has been vigorously advocated
by a large number of our wisest citizens, irrespective of
class and profession, as well as by intelligent workmen in
What it may lead
various sections of the country (vide p. 65). A move-º national
SCIlS0.
ment that, though originated by the potent agency of Self-
interest, would finally reach beyond all sordid considera-
tions and result in improving the entire mass of our
laboring population, and in elevating the United States
more nearly to her proper rank among the industrial
nations. -
Reference has previously been made to the analogy
between railroading and our military and naval services.
Analogy between
the military, llaval,
An intimate acquaintance of many years with the details.” Pº
ſešSiOnS.
of military organization and service, and a more general
yet practical knowledge of the systems under which our
navy and railroad properties are operated, has perhaps
specially qualified me to appreciate what is common to
them all, and I have been greatly impressed with the
belief that the educational measures and methods which
have made our military and naval officers professionally
168
so efficient, would prove equally efficacious if applied, with
necessary modifications, to railroad service.
In closing this report it is proper to express my sincere
regret that my own want of experience and fitness for the
task has necessitated the preparation of such a lengthy
paper, in order to intelligently place before you information
that others better qualified could have more clearly and suc-
cinctly stated. On reviewing these pages, I observe that they
bear evidences of spasmodic effort, and, in a certain sense, of
evolution of thought, which is additional matter for regret;
but the subject is of such a character as to demand for its
satisfactory presentation a consecutive research and study
ººf which press of other and onerous duties altogether pre-
pºureof other cluded me from giving it. The same causes operated to
prevent an earlier conclusion of my task.
In thus relinquishing all further responsibility and con-
nection with this very interesting but exacting subject, I
desire to say that, in stating facts fearlessly and expressing
my own views frankly, I have been governed solely by a
desire to elevate the morale and efficiency of the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad and its allied interests and, incidentally,
to advance the industrial education—and as a necessary
consequence the material prosperity—of this community.
Respectfully submitted:
W. T. BARNARD,
Assistant to President.
EXHIBITs.
Exhibit A.
BALTIMORE & OHIO RAILROAD COMPANY.,
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT,
BALTIMORE, January 15, 1885.
ExECUTIVE ORDER No. 6.—The inauguration of a Baltimore and Ohio Tech-
mological School for the promotion of a higher course of instruction for ther.
apprentices of this service than that now pursued, with headquarters at Mt. iiºn ºf j iſſ
Clare, Baltimore, and conducted under the superintendence of a board of seven struction at Mt.
directors, appointed annually by the President of this Company, is announced. 9”.
MESSRs. JoHN K. Cowen, E. J. D. CRoss, DR. CHARLEs M. CREsson, ANDREW
ANDERSON, DR. W. T. BARNARD, BRADFORD DUNBAM and CHARLEs SELDEN are
hereby appointed such directors for the calendar year 1885.
The course and method of instruction in its several departments, and the
operations of the Technological School, shall be governed by regulations pre-
scribed by its Board of Directors. -
In furtherance of the objects for which this school is founded, and to secure
uniformity and discrimination in the employment of apprentices in all depart-
ments, the General Manager will promulgate rules regulating their appointment
and service.
In the establishment of a technological School the Company affords the youth
in its employ opportunities for obtaining a liberal technical education far superior
to those enjoyed by the employes of other railroads. The examinations pre-
scribed in the course of the Technological School will be very thorough, and will
require from the apprentice a close and persevering attention to study, without
evasion or slighting of any part of the course, as no relaxation of any kind can
be made by the Board of Examiners; and, as the Company will hereafter
endeavor to advance the graduates of the Technological School to positions of
responsibility and trust in its service, only those who demonstrate willingness
and ability to qualify themselves for advancement will be retained.
The General Manager will convene a Board of Examiners, consisting jointly
of two medical examiners of the Relief Association and three instructors of the
Technological School, whose duty it shall be to examine and classify all appren-
tices now in service in accordance with the standard of qualifications prescribed sº
in his General Order on the subject. This board will visit each station where
apprentices are employed, and finally report, in Writing, to the General Manager
the result of their labors.
ROBERT GARRETT, President.
Exhibit B.
The Polytechnic School at Zurich, Switzerland, is one of the largest and most ~~~~~
successful of its kind. It was established in 1854, and the magnificent building alº;"
which it occupies is one of the leading features of Zurich. Its citizens are justly land. "
proud of the noble edifice and of the great work accomplished by the school in
developing their industries, attracting capital to their city, attracting hundreds
of students, and sending forth trained specialists to all parts of the world, and
generally in improving the condition of all classes of Society.
This institution supports a large number and variety of laboratories, libraries,
industrial museums, collections of apparatus, and objects of Scientific and artistic
interest, which of themselves exert a wonderful educating influence upon the
thousands of students that resort to them for instruction and training. It
4
makes provisions for more than two hundred distinct courses of lectures, given by
as many as sixty different professors, many of whom have a world-wide reputa-
tion in their respective departments of Science. These professors are assisted in
giving instruction by numerous tutors, curators of museums, and other servants
employed to assist in experiments and to take care of the apparatus.
s - The object of the school has from the first been to impart the greatest possible
Its object and in amount of scientific instruction to the artisan classes, and to direct thought and
fluence. scientific research to the development of industrial arts and trade. In this way
there have been brought about a mutual interchange of ideas between science,
and the actual application of its principles to manufactures, etc. The direct and
| indirect benefits thus resulting to the industries of Switzerland and Germany are
. numerous, and the School receives the hearty support and indorsement of manu-
facturers, merchants, legislators, and the intelligent citizens in general of both
countries. In the most successful factories and commercial establishments of
Switzerland and Southern Germany, and often in France, are found managers,
foremen and leading workmen who have received their education and preparatory
training at the Zurich Polytechnic University. These men have not only become
experts in their special departments, as a result of their training in this School,
but they have learned to study the history, progress and present condition of the
industries of their own and other countries; and this knowledge is especially
valuable to those whose establishments and commercial interests they conduct.
Oftentimes proprietors of large establishments are themselves graduates of this
school, and are thereby qualified to perform much executive labor that would
otherwise be entrusted to men whose services could be secured only by the pay-
ment of large salaries. -
But the influence of the Zurich Polytechnic School is not confined to Switzer-
land and Germany. The impetus that it gives to industrial pursuits is felt and
acknowledged in more remote countries. Students come from all parts of the
world to profit by the instruction it affords, and, having completed the prescribed
course of study, return to their native countries to enter upon careers of industrial
labor in which they fully utilize their attainments. Last year six students from
different parts of North America entered this school. The English Royal Com-
missioners testify that in almost every country visited by them graduates of the
Zurich School were found in the leading industrial institutions, or were teachers
in numerous technical schools. +
Exhibit C.
The Technical High School at Munich is similar to the Zurich School. . The
Technical High magnificent buildings in which this school is conducted were erected at a cost of
School at Munich. Over $775,000, whilst the cost of its various collections exceeded $180,000, and
the annual expense of maintaining the school is $100,000. This great institution
was founded and is operated with special reference to the higher education of
the industrial classes, and one of its notable features is the numerous subdivisions
into which the various subjects taught are divided, each special branch of a
subject being taught by a separate professor, who, by limiting his investigations,
is enabled to master every detail of his chosen specialty. Thus in the depart-
ment of engineering forty-five distinct courses of lectures are given by thirteen
professors. The school is well supplied with laboratories, in which all kinds of
experiments are tried, the results of which are carefully tabulated by the
students and recorded in their books. The students in the engineering branch
determine the strains and modulus of elasticity of different substances, make
numerous tests of the various kinds of wood, stone and other building material,
and carry on series of investigations to ascertain constants, to verify formulae,
and to test the strength of metals of various sections, including experiments as
to torsion, tension, compression, and the effects of long-continued concussion on
the fibre of metal bars. -
5
This testing laboratory, besides having afforded instruction to hundreds of
students since it was founded in 1868, has been largely utilized by numerous
manufacturers and builders in all parts of Germany, who frequently send
materials there to be examined, tested, and reported upon.
Notwithstanding the great capacity of this school in the way of teachers,
laboratories, apparatus and class-rooms, some of the departments are over-
crowded, and numerous students seeking admission are annually turned away.
Exhibit D.
In 1856 a weaving School was founded at Chemnitz, Saxony, by Way of an Technical educa-
experiment in technical education. Here practical weaving has been taught for tion in Chemnitz,
almost thirty years. Mr. Felkin, who wrote a book some years ago on “Technical Saxony. -
Education in a Saxon Town,” asserted that “the school had been of great benefit
to the trade of the town and district,” and the British Royal Commissioners, after
having visited the schools, say that Mr. Felkin's statement is corroborated by many
influential citizens of Chemnitz with whom they conversed, and add that there
was a general concurrence of testimony in favor of the school on the part of all
manufacturers with whom they talked. The classes are attended by merchants
and distributors of goods, and by the sons of manufacturers, as well as by
managers, firemen, designers and other workmen. There is not a manufacturing
establishment in the town that has not one or more men in its employ whose
training was received in the school. Of late years English students have been
attending the classes, having selected this School as the best place to receive a
preparatory training for the factory. Some enterprising manufacturers from dis-
tant cities have sent their managers to take a course in the School at the expense
of the firm. A leading feature of this school consists in its provisions for in-
structing merchants and salesmen in the quality, design and material of textile
goods, So that they may be better able to buy intelligently, by detecting faults
and imperfections in the mature of the goods, by judging of the merits and de-
merits of new designs. This feature of the school-work is sometimes opposed by
the manufacturers. - - - * es'
So great has been the success of the school at Chemnitz that numerous other
weaving Schools have been established and modeled after it. Such schools are
to be found at Glauchan, Meerane, Loessnitz, Oederan, Milwerda, Hainichen
and Frankenberg, all of which places are adjacent to Chemnitz, and where
Weaving is the principal industry.
Exhibit E.
The citizens of Bradford, England, a few years ago organized a technological
college adapted to the wants of the principal industries of that manufacturing Bradford (Eng
centre. The new buildings were opened by the Prince of Wales in 1882, and Technological
though the original plan has by no means been perfected, the cost of the build-Soh991.
ings and apparatus therein has already exceeded $200,000. When complete it
will be one of the best institutions of its character in Europe. Concerning this
institution the Royal Commissioners say: “The formation of the college was
the result of the prevailing feeling in the minds of many of the commercial
community at Bradford that, in the competition of the world’s industries, it has
become more and more needful to develop, to the fullest extent, the technical
knowledge of the employers and operatives in the various industries on which the
prosperity of the district depends. It was therefore determined that an insti-
tution should be founded in which instruction should be given in the principles
underlying the numerous industries of the city and vicinity.”
Y
•;
6
COnclusions of
the British Royal
Commissioners.
Effect. Of Scien-
tific and technical
training On Euro-
pean industries.
Progress of Eng-
land’s industrial
system.
- Exhibit F.
The conclusions of the British Royal Commissioners, as
summed up in their report, though somewhat voluminous,
are so thoroughly a digest of industrial development that
they will certainly repay careful perusal in full by those
interested in the subject; but even the résumé of their de-
ductions embraced in the extracts herein quoted illustrates
the value of the subject.
Eact racts from the Conclusions of the British Commissioners as to
the Effect of Technical Edwcation on ndustries.
* * * It will have been seen from the preceding pages of this report that we have
attached considerable relative importance to that portion of our commission
which directed us to inquire into the condition of industry in foreign countries;
and it is our duty to state that, although the display of Continental manufactures
at the Paris International Exhibition in 1878 had led us to expect great progress,
we were not prepared for so remarkable a development of their natural resources,
nor for such perfection in their industrial establishments, as we actually found in
France, in Germany, in Belgium and in Switzerland. Much machinery of all
kinds is now produced abroad equal in finish and in efficiency to that of this
country, and we found it in numerous instances applied to manufactures with as
great skill and intelligence as with us.
In some branches of industry, more especially in those requiring an intimate
acquaintance with organic chemistry, as, for instance, in the preparation of arti-
ficial colors from coal-tar, Germany has unquestionably taken the lead.
The introduction by Solvay, of Brussels, of the ammonia process for the manu-
facture of soda, and the German application of strontia in sugar refining, con-
stitute new departures in those arts. In the economical production of coke we
are now only slowly following in the footsteps of our Continental neighbors,
whilst the experiments which have been carried on for nearly a quarter of a cen-
tury in France for recovering the tar and ammonia in this process have only quite
recently engaged our attention.
The ventilation of deep mines by means of exhausting fans was brought to per-
fection in Belgium earlier than with us, and, although our methods of sinking
shafts served for many years as models for other countries, improvements thereon
were made abroad which we are now adopting with advantage.
The abundant water power in Switzerland and in other mountainous districts
is utilized for motive purposes by means of turbines perfect in design and
execution. •
The construction of the dynamo-machine by Gramme gave the first impulse to
the general use of electricity for lighting, and to the various new applications of
that force which appear likely to exercise so great an influence upon the industry
of the world; and in all these applications, at least, as much activity is exhibited
on the Continent as with us.
In the construction of roofs and bridges, more especially in Germany, accurate
mathematical knowledge has been usefully applied to the attainment of the
necessary stability with the LEAST consumption of materials.
The beginnings of the modern industrial system are due in the main, as we
have indicated, to Great Britain. Before factories founded on the inventions of
Watt, of Arkwright and Crompton, had time to take root abroad, and whilst
7
our own commerce and manufactures increased from year to year, the great wars
of the early part of this century absorbed the energies and dissipated the capital
of Continental Europe. For many years after the peace we retained almost
exclusive possession of the improved machinery employed in the cotton, woolen
and linen manufactures. By various acts of the last century, which were not
repealed till 1825, it was made penal to enlist English artisans for employment
abroad; the export of spinning machinery to foreign countries was probibited
until the early years of Your Majesty's reign. Thus, when, less than half a cen-
tury ago, Continental countries began to construct railways and to erect modern
mills and mechanical workshops, they found themselves face to face with a full-
grown industrial organization in this country which was almost a sealed book to
those who could not obtain access to our factories.
*
To meet this state of things, foreign countries established technical Schools Continental coun-
like the Ecole Centrale of Paris, and the polytechnic schools of Germany and ºries compelled to
Switzerland, and sent engineers and men of Science to England to prepare them-
selves for becoming teachers of technology in those schools.
Technical high Schools now exist in nearly every Continental State, and are
the recognized channel for the instruction of those who are intended to become
the technical directors of industrial establishments. Many of the technical
chemists have, however, been, and are being, trained in the German universities.
Your Commissioners believe that the success which has attended the foundation
of extensive manufacturing establishments, engineering shops and other works,
on the Continent, could not have been achieved to its full extent, in the face of
many retarding influences, had it not been for the system of high technical
instruction in these schools, for the facilities for carrying on original Scientific
investigation, and for the general appreciation of the value of that instruction,
and of original research, which is felt in those countries.
With the exception of the Ecole Centrale of Paris, all these schools have been
created, and are maintained almost entirely, at the expense of the several States,
the fees of the students being so low as to constitute only a very small proportion
of the total income. The buildings are palatial, the laboratories and museums
are costly and extensive, and the staff of professors, who are well paid according
to the Continental standard, is so numerous as to admit of the utmost subdivision
of the subjects taught. In Germany, as we have stated in a previous part of our
report, the attendance at some of the polytechnic Schools has lately fallen off,
chiefly because the supply of technically trained persons is in excess of the present
demand ; certainly not because it is held that the training of the school can be
dispensed with. The numerous young Germans and Swiss who are glad to find
employment in our own manufactories have, almost without exception, been
educated in one or other of the Continental polytechnic schools.
Your Commissioners cannot repeat too often that they have been impressed
with the general intelligence and technical knowledge of the masters and mana-
gers of industrial establishments on the Continent. They have found that these
persons, as a rule, possess a sound knowledge of the sciences upon which their
industry depends. They are familiar with every new scientific discovery of im-
portance, and appreciate its applicability to their special industry. They adopt
not only the inventions and improvements made in their own country, but also
those of the world at large, thanks to their knowledge of foreign languages and
of the conditions of manufacture prevalent elsewhere.
The French and German schools for miners, and the one which has been quite
recently founded in Westphalia for workers in iron and steel, differ from the
preceding schools for foremen, inasmuch as they are reserved for the theoretical
instruction of men who, having already worked practically at their trades, have
distinguished themselves by superior intelligence and good conduct. Most of the
German schools of this kind are founded or maintained by the manufacturers,
and will, we feel confident, repay the trades which have had the foresight and
public spirit to create them, by training young men to become foremen and lead-
ing hands, willing and able to carry out with intelligence the instructions of
their superior officers.
found technical
SchoolS.
Fruitful result:S
Of these Schools.
General indus-
trial intelligence
Of masterS and
managel'S On the
COntinent.
8 . }
In several of the more important industrial centres of the Continent there
Societies for pro- exist societies, such as the Sociétés industrielles of Mulhouse, Rheims, Amiens,
::::::::::::::::. etc., the Société d’enseignement professionnel du Rhone, which has its headquar-
ters at Lyons, and the Niederoesterreichischer Gewerbe-Verein of Austria, one
of the chief objects of which is the development of technical education among
workmen and other persons engaged in industry by means of lectures and by
the establishment of schools and museums of technology. These associations
are supported mainly by the merchants and manufacturers of the district to
which their operations are restricted. In many cases they are founded and Sup-
ported, or are greatly assisted, by the Chambers of Commerce; these bodies
abroad, being incorporated, and having, in France, considerable taxing powers
over their members, are generally wealthier and more influential than thosein our
own country. In addition to these Sources of income, the associations receive help
from the municipality, and sometimes from the State. In Mulhouse, besides
promoting education, the Society sees to the material well-being of the workmen
by erecting, on a large scale, laborers' dwellings (la cité ouvrière), and by
organizing Savings banks and other economic arrangements; undertaking, in
this respect, on a smaller scale, what is done in this country by self-sustaining
associations, like building and co-operative Societies of the workpeople themselves.
The Society in Lyons has established numerous evening classes for elementary
and technical instruction, which are attended chiefly by workpeople ; and the
South Austrian Trade Society, which has its central office in Vienna, has organ-
ized several technical day and evening schools for operatives of every grade,
which are now under State control, and receive subventions from the Government.
The report of Mr. William Mather to your Commissioners, on his six months’
Mr. Mather's re- tour throughout the United States of America and Canada for the purpose of
port on United studying the schools and factories of that continent, deserves the most careful
*** perusal. It will be seen that Mr. Mather assigns greater influence on American
manufactures to the general education of the American people derived from their
common schools than to their technical schools, the importance of which latter,
however, in the training of civil engineers, has been experienced for some years,
though it has only more recently become recognized by those who are engaged in
mechanical engineering and in metallurgical and manufacturing establishments
of various kinds. This recognition is, however, now becoming universal. A
decided preference is being given in the United States, for the positions of
managers and heads of departments, to persons who have received a scientific
training in a technical school, and the plan is followed in these schools of com-
bining instruction in “application ” with instruction in pure science. Although
the conditions of American industry differ in many respects from our own, there
can be no doubt that we may derive great advantage from a careful study of
what is being done in the way of technical instruction in the United States, as,
together with the elementary education of Canada, it is so graphically described
by Mr. Mather. We may add that the accuracy of his statements and conclu-
sions is generally confirmed by the accounts of technical instruction in America
which we have received from other competent judges.
Not many years have passed since the time when it would have still been a
matter for argument whether, in order to maintain the high position which this
country has attained in the industrial arts, it is incumbent upon us to take care
that our managers, our foremen and our workmen should, in the degrees com-
patible with their circumstances, combine theoretical instruction with their
acknowledged practical skill. No argument of this kind is needed at the present
day. In nearly all the great industrial centres—in the metropolis, in Glasgow,
li iºº: in Manchester, Liverpool, Oldham, Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, Keighley,
. ... Sheffield, Nottingham, Birmingham, the potteries, and elsewhere—more or less
trial corporations. flourishing Schools of Science and art of various grades, together with numerous
art and Science classes, exist, and their influence may be traced in the produc.
tions of the localities in which they are placed. The schools established by Sir
W. Armstrong at Elswick; by the London and Northwestern Railway Company
9
at Crewe ; and those of Messrs. Mather and Platt, of Salford, in connection with
their engineering works, testify to the importance attached by employers to the
theoretical training of young mechanics. The efforts of Messrs. Denny, the
eminent shipbuilders of Dumbarton, for encouraging the instruction of their
apprentices, and for rewarding their workmen for meritorious improvements in
details applicable to their work, are proofs of this appreciation. The evidence
of Mr. Richardson, of Oldham, and of Mr. Mather, of Salford, is emphatic as to
their experience of its economical value.
Without more particularly referring to the valuable work in the past accom-
plished by the numerous mechanics’ institutes spread over the country, many of
them of long standing, we may point out that they are now largely remodeling
their constitutions in order to bring up their teaching to the level of modern
requirements as regards technical instruction. The example of the Manchester
Mechanics’ Institute may be studied in this connection. -
Moreover, as evidencing the desire of the artisans themselves to obtain facilities
for instruction both'in science and art, we must not omit to mention the classes
established and maintained by some of the leading co-operative Societies. The
Equitable Pioneers’ Society of Rochdale has led the way in this, as in so many
other Social movements. It is much to be wished that the various trades’ unions
would also consider whether it is not incumbent on them to promote the technical
education of their members.
The manufacturers of Nottingham speak with no uncertain voice of the
important influence of the local school of art on the lace manufacture of that
town. Without the Lambeth School, the art productions of Messrs. Doulton
could scarcely have come into existence. The linen manufacturers of Belfast
are becoming alive to the necessity of technical instruction, if competition on
equal terms with foreign nations in the more artistic productions is to be rendered
possible. The new generation of engineers and manufacturers of Glasgow has
been trained in the technical schools of that city. The City and Guilds of
London Institute owes its existence to the conviction of the liverymen that tech-
nical instruction is a necessary condition of the welfare of our great industries.
Natural Science is finding its way surely, though slowly, into the curriculum
of our older English universities and of our secondary schools. It is becoming
a prominent feature in the upper divisions of the elementary board schools in our
large towns. There are scarcely any important metallurgical works in the king-
dom without a chemical laboratory in which the raw materials and products are
daily subjected to careful analysis by trained chemists. The attainments of the
young men who have been trained in the Royal Naval College at Greenwich
recommend them for remunerative employment by our great shipbuilding firms.
In our relations with public bodies and individuals in this country during the
progress of our inquiry, the greatest anxiety has been manifested to obtain our
advice as to the mode in which technical instruction can be best advanced, and
We have to acknowledge the readiness of the Education and Science and Art
Departments to receive and act upon suggestions in matters of detail from indi-
vidual members of the Commission which it would have been pedantic to delay
until the completion of our task. Amongst the suggestions which, have thus
been made was that of an exhibition of the school work of all nations, which
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has consented to add to the Health
Exhibition of 1884. This exhibition will be an appropriate illustration of the
account of foreign Schools contained in the previous parts of this report. Your
Commissioners, during their Continental visits, received from the authorities of
technical Schools numerous assurances of their cordial support and co-operation
in such a display.
In considering by whom the cost of the further development of technical
instruction should be borne, we must not forget that, if it be true that in foreign How the cost of
countries almost the entire cost of the highest general and technical instruction schools should be
is borne by the State, on the other hand, the higher elementary and secondary 9°49.
instruction in science falls on the localities to a much greater extent than with
10
us; whilst, as to the ordinary elementary schools, the cost in Germany and
Educational
Value of museum S.
\
- Free libraries.
Manual training
as a part of School
- WOrk.
English technical This
schools.
Switzerland is almost exclusively borne by the localities; and this was also the
case in France and Belgium until the people of those countries became impatient
of the lamentable absence of primary instruction on the part of vast numbers of
the rural, and, in some instances, of the town, population; an evil which large
State subventions alone could cure within any reasonable period of time. With
the exception of France, there is no European country of the first rank that has
an Imperial budget for education comparable in amount with our own. In the
United Kingdom at least one-half of the cost of elementary education is defrayed
out of Imperial funds, and the instruction of artisans in science and art is almost
entirely borne by the State. Hence, it will be necessary to look, in the main, to
local resources for any large addition to the funds required for the further
development of technical instruction in this country.
We cannot dismiss this branch of the subject without calling attention to the
educational value of the museums of natural objects now found in many of the
modern elementary schools of the Continent. Probably the best examples of
such collections are those of the Normal School of Brussels, and of the element-
ary Schools of Zurich. Collections of natural objects, pictures and diagrams
are of the greatest assistance for illustrating object lessons in rudimentary Science
to children of the earliest years. - -
Many persons who have paid attention to the working of free libraries in our
large towns, are of opinion that the benefit of these might be extended to
elementary Schools by placing at the disposal of such schools books of , a
character calculated to interest children of school age. Amongst these books
Some suitable technical works, especially illustrated ones, might be included.
These school libraries would be of the nature of the branch libraries which are
now attached to many of the free libraries of our large towns.
Your Commissioners, after having had the opportunity of further considering
the value of manual work as a part of primary instruction, and after having seen
such work introduced into elementary schools of various grades in other coun-
tries besides France, are able now to express a stronger opinion in its favor than
at the time of their first report. They do this with greater confidence because,
in consequence partly of the suggestion contained in that report, the experiment
of introducing manual work into primary schools has been successfully effected
by at least two School boards in this country—viz.: those of Manchester and
Sheffield. They have had the opportunity of inspecting the manual work of the
pupils both at the Manchester Board Schools and at the Central School in
Sheffield, and they are satisfied that such work is very beneficial as a part of the
preliminary education of boys in this country who are to be subsequently engaged
in industrial pursuits, even though it should not, as, however, it probably will
do, actually shorten the period of their apprenticeship.
Exhibit G.
ENGLISH'ScIENCE SCHOOLS AND THE CITY AND GUILDS OF LONDON INSTITUTE.
The English Government is beginning to make liberal provision for the higher
training of artisans. Its great international exhibitions have served to arouse
a spirit of national pride among the English people. They have seen themselves
outstripped in the race for national supremacy in articles of manufacture, but
they are resolved to regain their former prestige as a nation of first rank in art.
spirit of national pride, combined with that indomitable enterprise which
is so characteristic of the English race, and which is just now quickened by the
depression in trade and the intense rivalry that results from sharp competition
with Continental nations for control of the greatindustries and home and foreign
commerce, together with the necessity of making some provision for the employ-
ment of the thousands of men and women who are dependent upon their daily
11
earnings for their livelihood, and of making such a disposition of the children of .
those people as will prevent their becoming paupers, vagabonds and criminals, has
taken a practical turn by endeavoring to place the means of acquiring a special
training for some field of productive industry within the reach of all. But the
English Government does more than merely provide schools and apparatus. . It
has a great university of science and art at South Kensington, where the ablest t jº. Kensing-
instructors that the nation has produced are employed and furnished with every ...”
needful facility to train special teachers for the highest departments of artistic .
manufacture, and for the various schools of industry that are being established
in every industrial centre. The Government also holds out inducements in the
way of prizes and Scholarships as incentives to young people to enter the Schools
and complete the prescribed courses of study.
The great tendency of the Government schools, however, is to provide for the
teaching of pure science only, or of applied science only in a theoretical way. To
supplement this theoretical instruction by making a direct application of the
Science thus taught to the development of the numerous national industries,
efforts have been put forth in various directions to provide for a corresponding
development of skill by training the hand, the eye and the taste of persons
engaged in manual pursuits. The greatest of these attempts is the one that
has been made by the numerous guilds of London. These organizations have .
been accumulating great stores of wealth for several generations, and of late
years they have wisely determined to utilize their hoarded treasures by establishing
and sustaining schools for both the secondary and the higher training of people
who, like themselves, are engaged in industrial avocations. Accordingly they have
formed what is known as the City and Guilds of London Institute, the purpose of city and Guilds
which is to provide for and encourage education adapted to the requirements of of London Insti-
all classes of persons engaged, or expecting to engage, in manufacturing and ºute.
other industries. Recognizing that the teaching of pure science is so extensively ty
provided for by the Government, this Institute makes no attempts in that direction,
but confines its efforts to technical education in the true sense of that expression
—i.e., the development of skill and the acquisition of manual dexterity in industry
—by uniting manual training with science teaching, and basing all shop instruc-
tions upon scientific principles. -
The guilds are organizing a number of technical schools in various parts of
London for the education of the artisans of the great metropolis, and to serve
as models of schools to be founded in other cities and towns of the kingdom.
These schools are to be supported in part by fees and local efforts, and in part by
grants, conditioned on results, from the Government and from the guilds. The
Institute also aims to induce existing educational institutions to make provision
for technical education, and they make yearly grants to these institutions,
providing the education they furnish is of such a character as to satisfy the
Council of the Institute. When the existing institutions make provisions suffi-
ciently varied and extensive to meet the requirements of a community, the guilds
make no effort to establish a separate school there. -
The guilds also encourage the formation of evening classes, in which boys and
men engaged in the performance of their duties during the day receive special
instruction in the principles of Science, and in the application of these principles
to the various processes that engage their attention in the shops and factories.
They now assist in the support of evening classes in technology, as distinguished
from the Government classes in science and art, in nearly all the large centres
of industry. - ſ --
The guilds of London have also established, and propose to maintain, a great
central institution at South Kensington, near the National Industrial Museum Central institu-
and the South Kensington School of Science and Art. This central institution ton at South Ken-
is similar in many respects to the polytechnic schools of Germany, Switzerland ** .*
and Italy, and to the Ecole Centrale of Paris. It is designed to supply the
instruction and training that cannot be obtained in any of the smaller technical
Schools, and to give the highest possible training to manufacturers, managers,
12
foremen, and teachers of technology. This institution will afford an opportunity
to many ambitious young artisans to secure the highest technical training who
otherwise could not do so, as their circumstances would not permit them to
attend any of the polytechnic schools on the Continent. .
The City and Guilds of London Institute is thus one of the most potent educa-
tional organizations in Europe, and if it continues as it has started out, its
achievements in behalf of industry and the industrial classes will be without a
parallel in the history of the world. Its magic influence is already felt and
acknowledged throughout the length and breadth of the kingdom.
* Conspicuous among the schools in England sustained by industrial corpora-
Notice of a few, tions for the benefit of their employes are those of the London and Northwestern
tº: Railway Company at Crewe, of Sir William Armstrong & Co. at Elswick, and of
porations. Messrs. Mather & Platt, extensive iron manufacturers, at Salford, near Man-
chester. The object of each of these schools is to enable apprentices to study
the sciences allied to their trade. The first two of these schools do not make
attendance compulsory, but as the companies sustaining them each employ about
ten thousand workmen, the evening classes are attended to their full capacity
by Voluntary students. At Crewe the number enrolled in the school for the last
year exceeded six hundred, which was as many as could be accommodated in the
large school building which has been erected and equipped by the London and
Northwestern Railway Company. Among these voluntary students were many
journeymen who were ambitious to surpass their present educational attainments.
Mr. Webb, the efficient General Manager of this company, was the moving spirit
in the organization of the School at Crewe, and he continues to be an earnest
advocate of technical training for railroad employes.
Messrs. Mather & Platt require all their apprentices, as a condition of employ-
Attendance at ment, to attend the evening classes in the technical school which the firm has
schoºl a condition established, and the manager of their works claims that the boys make better
of employment of headway in acquiring their respective handicrafts by acquiring the related
apprentices. technical knowledge at the same time.
The theoretical instruction in all three of the schools just referred to is very
much the same, including mathematics, mechanics, physics, chemistry and
engineering. Instruction is also afforded in drawing, machine construction,
building construction, and the use and care of tools.
Exhibit H.
Mr. Alexander Stephen, in a speech before the graduating class of the Allen
Testimony of Mr. Glen’s Institution, Glasgow, made some pertinent remarks on the subject of
Stephen, of Glas- technical education, the substance of which was that it is only within the last
gow. few years that the importance of teaching science subjects in the Schools of the
country has come to be realized, and it is satisfactory to observe that the desire
for this teaching is increasing from year to year. In past generations facilities
for obtaining a knowledge of science subjects were very limited, but now there
are institutions and Schools where the studies can be carried on which lay the
basis and give the taste for Science training, so that when the student goes
forward to the practical work of daily life, he is the better fitted to take a leading
part in the performance of its duties. If the young student can be got to master
the first principles of any science to which he may have given his attention in a
technical school, he has put himself in the way of being able to prosecute
scientific studies successfully in after years, and may even rise to distinction or
confer a boon upon Society as a consequence of his researches. At the same
time the boy is acquiring manual skill he should have an opportunity to continue
his elementary education, which will otherwise be of little value to him. The
technical school affords this opportunity, and while the boy is taught to do he is
also taught to think accurately on scientific subjects. Science teaching becomes
more and more necessary for the development and success of the manufacturing
13
and other industrial interests of the country. It is a fact that, owing to the
greater attention that other countries have given to technical teaching, we have
been obliged to have recourse to foreigners to fill positions as designers in our
factories. I am informed that this is so in Glasgow, but I think that we are now
on the road to overcome this necessity.
In the report of the Royal Commission on technical instruction it is stated,
alluding to schools in other countries, that the best examples of higher element-
ary schools are to be found in France; and in these schools it is said that “the
children of artisans and of Small shopkeepers have opportunities of obtaining an
education which is technical in so far as these studies are directed toward the
requirements of commerce, mechanical or manufacturing industry—mathe-
matics, Science and drawing constituting the main subjects of instruction. And
in nearly all the modern French schools—of which that at Rheims may be taken
as the best type—the laboratories for teaching practical chemistry leave nothing
to be desired. In these schools the workshop instruction is carried to a much more
advanced stage than is possible or desirable in the elementary schools; and there
are special departments, replete with models, apparatus and specimens, for
teaching the technology of the trades which form the staple industries of the
district in which these schools are situated.” The Germans are considered to be
much ahead of us in technical training, but, now that we have made a start, I
trust that we shall soon be ahead of them. Improvements and new discoveries,
whether in engineering science or in other mechanical contrivances, are most
likely to be made and applied in the light of scientific knowledge.
Exhibit I.
TEIE MARTIN SCHOOL, LYONS, FRANCE.
[EXTRACTS FROM REPORT of BRITISH CoMMISSIONERS.]
This school was founded 50 years ago by a bequest from Major-General
Martin, who left Lyons a poor boy, fought against the English under Tippoo
Sahib, and entered the service of the East India Company after Seringapatam
had fallen. More than 20 years elapsed before the city of Lyons could recover
his legacy from the Indian courts, and the school was at length established in
1830 on the remnant saved from the lawyers. The school was intended to give
to the poorer classes of Lyons an education which should enable them to improve
their position in after-life. M. A. Monmartin thus sets forth the object which
the founders of the Martinière had in view in creating this industrial school.
“The intention of this school is to instruct the son of the workman, of the
artisan, of the small manufacturer or the tradesman of Lyons gratuitously in
the Sciences and arts applied to industry; to develop in him, on the sole condi-
tion that he is intelligent, moral and industrious, those aptitudes which will
most surely conduct him to well-being, if not to fortune, and to create new
elements of productive force and of future prosperity to the country.”
The building, adapted and furnished at a cost of $200,000, contains good
class-rooms, each capable of accommodating 80 pupils, a very large drawing-
room, in which all the pupils of the different divisions can work at once, work-
shops, laboratory, museum, library, council-room, director’s office, etc., together
with several dwelling-houses for the head master and other officials.
The School is presided over by an administrative commission composed of seven
members, who are nominated by the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce on
the recommendation of the municipality. The appointment is for seven years,
and one member retires annually, but is eligible for re-election. The Mayor of
Lyons is the ea;-officio President of the Commission, and the trustee of the fund,
under the will of Major-General Martin, is the Vice-President. This committee
appoints and dismisses the teachers, selecting them as far as possible from the
14
old students of the School, but they must have completed their instruction as
masters, and have obtained the diplomas of Secondary teachers, and, for em-
ployment in some branches, of superior teachers. .*
A principal, a Vice-principal, and five superintendents form the administrative
Staff, and the instruction is carried on under the care of 40 masters and 10
assistant teachers. These latter constitute a division of masters in training, and
form an integral part of the organization for teaching, as well as for disciplinary
purposes. There are also a registrar and a chemical assistant. * * * ,
The Professional School of Rheims is a school of a somewhat higher type than
the foregoing, and is one of the best of the higher elementary schools which the
Commissioners have seen. It was founded on the model of the schools of Mul-
house and Nantes, and differs from the Martinière school by the further develop-
ment of manual labor in the shops.
The school was established in 1875, in order to impart to the youths of the
city of Rheims special practical knowledge of manufactures, and to train them
early to satisfy the requirements of her trade and commerce. A municipal com-
mission composed of city councilors, leading manufacturers and tradesmen of
the district came to the conclusion that professional education ought properly to
be the continuation and the normal development of primary education, and that
such a school as this should draw its pupils from those children of the elementary
Schools who had passed a Satisfactory examination.
There is an entrance examination for those who do not possess the leaving
certificate of the primary School. The boys enter the school at about the age
of thirteen, and the course of study extends over three years. During the first
two years all the pupils pass through the same course of theoretical and prac-
tical, instruction, and the course up to this point Serves also as a preparation for
the Ecole des Arts et Métiers at Châlons. Very few boys leave at the end of the
second year. There is an examination at the end of each year to determine the
promotion to the Superior division.
In order, moreover, in the brief space of three years to train up these boys so
as to be capable of rendering real Service on quitting the school, it has been
found necessary to enable them to supplement their theoretical studies with
practical work analogous to that which they will have to practise in their future
professions, and to place at their disposal a complete and well-organized plant
for this purpose. Rheims has spent $80,000 to $100,000 on this plant, and has
thus placed her schools in the first rank of similar institutions. .
The school has quadrupled its number of students since its foundation in 1875,
and the number of boarders would be largely increased if sufficient, funds were
available to defray the cost of another boarding-house. This school received
the gold medal at the Exhibition of 1878. .*
THE PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL OF ROUEN.
The Professional School of Rouen is another school, much of the same type
as the foregoing, but in which more attention is paid to mechanical industries.
This school, which was also visited by the Commissioners, was founded in 1853.
The director is M. Delarue. The special object of the instruction is to prepare
youths to enter the Ecole des Arts et Métiers, but a certain number of the pupils
leave the school to enter at once into practical work. The bulk of the pupils
are the sons of the small tradespeople of the town ; some of them enter with
scholarships given by the Government, or by the municipal authorities. There
are six exhibitions given by the city of Rouen, twelve by the Department, and
four by the State. The education at this school became gratuitous under the
law of July, 1881. The school expenses, hitherto paid by the town, have amounted
to about £1120 annually. The school course, which combines both theory and
practice, extends over three years, and is conducted in very indifferent premises.
The boys must be at least twelve years old on admission, and must have the
amount of knowledge necessary for the primary-school certificate. Prizes and
15
medals are given to deserving pupils at the end of each year. Frequent visits
are paid to works and factories. . There is a chemical laboratory, but the in-
struction in this subject seems to be inferior to that of the Rheims school. In-
struction in the English language is given to all the pupils. There are about
140 students, half of whom are boarders, and there is a preparatory course for
the younger boys. The hours of theoretical study are from 7 in the morning
till 6 at night, with three hours of recreation, and in the evening two hours of
manual work. They therefore have eight hours of class work and two hours of
manual work per diem. The practical instruction consists in working in wood
and iron. The handicraft work is carried on in a large room lighted from the
top, having desks for drawing down the centre, and working benches against the
walls; all the pupils work in this room at the Same time. The pupils are put
through a graduated Series of manipulations; for example, in Smiths’ work and
turning of iron, each pupil has to make in succession every one of the hand-tools
mentioned in a list and figured on a table hung up in the Workshop. The board-
ers pay from £24 to £26 per annum. Many of the pupils, after having passed
through the school, ultimately obtain situations as foremen ; others enter the
Government Schools of Châlons or Angers. At a recent examination, ten pupils
from this school presented themselves for the entrance examination for Châlons,
and nine were admitted, being one-eleventh of the total admissions for the year.
This fact was quoted to prove that the School is a good one.
The director stated that the object of the education was not to form foremen,
but rather to give a general education, calculated to serve as the basis for many
trades. He pointed out a school museum containing specimens of various prod-
ucts for object lessons, and stated that similar museums were about to be formed
in all primary and higher elementary Schools in France. Amongst the speci-
mens, the Commissioners noticed a Prussian Soldier’s helmet. On being asked
why it was placed there, the director stated that it was picked up during the
German invasion, and added that it was his custom to point out to his scholars
that France lost her best provinces through the Superior education of the invad-
ers, and the helmet served as a constant warning and stimulus to the students.
Exhibit J.
Westphalia, Germany, is a great centre of iron and steel manufacture. In
order to supply their shops with competent managers, foremen, and workmen,
the employers have succeeded in establishing a number of schools designed to
combine theoretical scientific instruction with workshop practice, and the success
of this attempt has been very Satisfactory. At Bochum is situated one of the
best of these schools. It was the result of private enterprise, and is gaining in
efficiency each year. Instruction is given in moulding, steel-working, iron-roll-
ing, Smithing, fitting, turning, and pattern-making, together with drawing and
both elementary and higher Science. In order to insure that the instruction
should not run into the purely theoretical, no student is admitted who has not
served a year or more as workman in Some shop. This preliminary service, it
is claimed, leads students to appreciate and apply the instruction given in the
school.
The employers of labor in Westphalia lay great stress upon attendance at the
evening schools, requiring all boys under 18 in their employ to attend the classes
two or three evenings of each week. A register of attendance is kept, and this
is daily inspected by an overseer, whose duty it is to look after all absentees and
see that they give a satisfactory account of themselves. It is said that parents
willingly co-operate with the employers in Securing regularity of attendance at
the schools, and that the boys usually appreciate the instruction afforded
them.
Exhibit K.
J. G. Fitch, an English educator of acknowledged
ability, says: +. 8 . -
We shall, I hope, ere long, come to the conclusion that the true way to recog-
nize the claims of what are called modern subjects is not by the erection of
Separate modern departments, but rather by taking a wiser and more philo-
Sophical view of the whole range and purpose of school education. |
It is not good that the boy who is to be a glassical scholar should grow up
ignorant of physical laws. Still less is it good that the boy who shows a leaning
toward the natural Sciences should be debarred from the intellectual culture
which literature and language give. * * *
There comes a time, no doubt, when it is clear that we should specialize, but
this time does not arrive early; and, until it arrives, it is important that we
should secure for every Scholar a due and harmonious exercise of the language
faculty, of the logical faculty, of the inductive faculty, as well as of the powers
of acquisition and memory. * * -
In this connection the following quotation from the
catalogue of the Ohio State University is very appro-
priate: - ſº -
In nearly every department of life the demand for knowledge and skill is
constantly rising. The public is learning to appreciate quality in work. Facility,
precision, finish, are acquiring new value. As a consequence the chances of the
untrained and the ill-trained are rapidly diminishing, and those who presume
to adopt pursuits without the requisite preparation find themselves placed under
disadvantages that grow more serious every year. t
To meet this increasing demand for a higher order of training, new educa-
tional methods are being introduced. That men may be well equipped for their
work, it has been found necessary to make their preparation for it a part of
their education. The young man who is to become a civil engineer should
receive practical training as an engineer. If he is to become a chemist, he
should receive practical training in the laboratory. Many look no farther than
this ; but technical training should be based on scientific training. The civil
engineer should not be content with knowing how to handle his instruments,
but he should be a mathematician of extensive attainments and ready skill, and
should be master of the principles of physics and mechanics. The chemist
should not rest in a knowledge of processes and manipulations, but he should
be well versed in chemical philosophy. In medicine, in law, in teaching, on the
farm and in the shop, in every occupation which involves human interests and
requires the application of human intelligence, empiricism should be supplanted
by scientific knowledge. - -
There is no employment in which intelligence is not worth more than mere
manual dexterity. A man of Scientific knowledge and training, other things
being equal, will even shoe a horse better than one who lacks them. The
educated hand is a hundred times better than a hand without education. But
the educated hand is made a hundred times better by being placed under the
direction of the educated brain.
17
Exhibit L.
NoTE.—This exhibit contains a brief account of the ... sºlº Hoy
afforded in U. S.
for technical
nature, organization, and work of most of the leading in-ji.
dustrial schools of the United States, including the industrial
departments of some of the great universities. It aims
to show to what extent facilities for technical education
are now afforded in our country. The information has
been obtained from various sources. In some instances
extracts have been made from reports without giving
credit. - - *
THE ROSE POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE.
The Rose Polytechnic Institute at Terre Haute, Indiana, is one of the best
endowed and most promising of all the schools supported by private endow-
ment, and providing for higher technical training on an extensive scale. Mr.
Chauncey Rose, its liberal benefactor, placed over half a million dollars in the !
hands of trustees for the endowment of an industrial educational institution to
be located at Terre Haute. He instructed the trustees to obtain all the informa-
tion they could relating to European and American Schools, and then to incor-
porate the best features of these into the school they were about to establish.
The institution has now been in operation for about ten years. It has an annual
income of $30,000, and a reserve fund of $75,000. It is an institution of great
promise, and will undoubtedly result in great good to both laborers and employ- * f
ers within reach of its beneficence. The trustees of this school have lately
given evidence of far-seeing wisdom by the election of Dr. T. C. Mendenhall
to the presidency, and in giving him large liberty in shaping the policy and
managing the details of the institution. Although they have to pay Dr.
Mendenhall a salary of $5,000 a year, yet his attainments in Scientific and
mechanical knowledge are so great, his experience in teaching and in original
scientific research has been so extensive and successful, and his characteristic
energy and executive ability are so desirable in a school of this kind, that his serv-
ices as president will be well worth that amount. With its liberal endowment
and able management, the country at large has a right to expect great things
from this young institution.
THE COOPER INSTITUTE.
The Cooper Institute of New York City, established and supported by the
munificent bequest of the late philanthropic Peter Cooper, is one of the most
practical technical schools in America. It affords free technical instruction to
both sexes, and is especially designed to meet the wants of the working-classes
by affording them practical instruction in science and art. The spirit that per-
Vades the management of the institution is such as to be in keeping with the
object for which the school was founded. ... That the working-people appreciate
the opportunities of improvement thus afforded them is proved by the large
number of students who annually attend its classes. In 1882 the number of
pupils was about 4000, and more than half of these attended the evening classes
after having been engaged in the discharge of other duties during the day.
18
There have been more than 3000 students in the evening Science and art classes
at one time. The science teaching is done by able instructors, and is designed
to be especially useful to artisans by relating to the various occupations in which
they are engaged during the day. The labors of the students are of a practical
character, and the finished products that are possessed of merit are disposed of
to various business firms of the city, the proceeds of the Sales going to the stu-
dents who turn out the products. In one year the students earned $40,000 for
work executed in the school at the same time they were receiving instruction in
science and art.
The library and reading-room are a prominent feature of this institution, and
the average daily attendance at these places is 1500 persons.
MECHANICs’ INSTITUTE, CINCINNATI.
At Cincinnati, Ohio, there is a Mechanics’ Institute, established in 1829, for
the purpose of furnishing educational aid to mechanics, manufacturers and
artisans. Efforts are now being made to organize in connection with it a com-
plete School of technology.
CLEVELAND AND TOLEDO.
Both Cleveland and Toledo have industrial schools that have been quite
liberally endowed, the one to the extent of $125,000, and the other $100,000.
PARDEE SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL.
. The Pardee Scientific Department of Lafayette College, Easton, Pa., has an
endowment of $200,000, and buildings and equipment that cost $300,000, all
the gift of one man. This endowment was made with special reference to the
promotion of Scientific education. In some departments of science, such as
metallurgy and engineering, instruction is supplemented by practice.
MILLER MANUAL LABOR. School.
The Miller Manual Labor School, Batesville, Albemarle County, Va., has only
lately been organized. It is richly endowed, to the extent of one million dollars,
by the will of the late Samuel Miller, of Batesville. It is designed to afford poor
children an opportunity to obtain a practical education. Manual labor is re-
quired of all the pupils in the Several departments of industry. Already in-
struction is given in carpentry, telegraphy, farming and gardening.
WoRKING MAN's School,
The Working Man’s School, another institution of New York City, is designed
to meet the wants in a practical way of the laboring classes. The school is
designed to educate children for industrial pursuits in such a way that they may
become thoroughly intelligent and dexterous working men and women in some
particular department of industry. The projectors of the school are endeavor-
ing to carry out what they call the creative method in School training. The
plan is to continue the system of kindergarten training, only adapting it to the
various ages of the pupils. The education of the brain is to result from the
training of the hand and the eye. Pupils are to learn by doing. The workshop
and the school-room here become practically the same thing.
This school, which has now been in successful operation for a period of about
seven years, is supported by the “Society of Ethical Culture.” -
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING IN CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
- $
The industrial departments of Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, are per-
haps the most practical and efficient of any that are maintained in the higher
institutions of our country. Although designed for only advanced students, the
courses of study are so judiciously arranged, and the conditions of admission so
liberal, that the instruction is really accessible to a large number of promising
students. There are courses in agriculture, mechanic arts, civil engineering,
mining engineering, applied mathematics, electricity and electrical engineering,
free-hand drawing, chemistry, and physics. The farm contains 120 acres, and
is used for experimental purposes. Students of agriculture spend several hours.
each week in the performance of manual labor on the farm, thus having oppor-
tunity of reducing their theory to immediate practice.
In connection with the department of Mechanic Arts there are a brass
foundry, a blackSmith shop, and various kinds of machines and tools, and these
are frequently used by both teachers and students. No other institution of So
high standing is doing so much in the way of advancing the industries and en-
couraging the development of our great resources of wealth as is being done by
the industrial departments of Cornell University. About one-fourth of all the
students in the institution are receiving technical instruction.
SCHOOL of MINES, COLUMBIA CoILEGE.
The School of Mines of Columbia College affords excellent practical instruc-
tion of an advanced character to students of mining, engineering, architecture,
and certain kinds of machine construction. It is one of the very best schools
in America for young men of means and talent who desire to fit themselves for
the management or other prominent positions in the great industries. Students
in mechanical engineering are required to devote a certain amount of time to
shop practice, in which they are taught the use and care of tools, besides
acquiring some skill in practical work. “The professors take out companies
of students to mines, smelting Works, iron works, and machine shops, to dem-
onstrate their theoretical teaching by practice on a commercial basis. Students
are encouraged to seek actual employment in various works during vacations,
and many do so.”
THE MASSACEIUSETTS INSTITUTE of TECHNOLOGY.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has deservedly attained a world-
wide reputation. It was organized in the year 1861, under State charter, as
an “institution devoted to the practical arts and sciences, having the triple
organization of the Society of arts, a museum or conservatory of arts, and a
school of industrial science and art.” The object of the institution was the
advancement, development and practical application of Science in connection
with arts, agriculture, manufactures and commerce.
Unlike the industrial departments of Cornell University, the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology has courses of instruction adapted to intermediate as
well as to advanced students. Boys may go directly from the public schools into
this institution and take a course of technical training of two or more years
that will enable them to enter at once upon an industrial career with prospects
Of Success.
The equipment of the class-rooms, laboratories, workshops, museums and
libraries in this school is better for the kind of instruction attempted than can
be found in any other technical institution in our country.
That the school is eminently successful is evident from the large number of
promising students who seek admission to the classes, and from the great de-
mand that always exists among employers for the Services of those who have
20
3
received the training which the school affords. Graduates of this institution
are to be found occupying positions of prominence in almost every part of the
United States.
WoRCESTER County FREE INSTITUTE of INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE, MAss.
This technical school was chartered by the Massachusetts Legislature in 1865
and opened in 1868. In its general plan it follows the polytechnic schools of
Europe, but gives special prominence to practical work.
Candidatesfor admission must have attained the age of 16, and pass an entrance
examination in history of the United States, geography, grammar, arithmetic,
algebra and French. Candidates can enter advanced classes by passing the
necessary qualifying examinations.
Residents of Worcester County are educated gratuitously, and there are also
20 free studentships open to persons resident in other parts of the State of Massa-
chusetts. Other students pay $150 annually.
The instruction is based on mathematics, living languages, the physical
Sciences and drawing, together with a practical familiarity with some branch of
applied science, and serves for the training of mechanics, civil engineers, chemists
and designers. The courses extend over three years of 42 weeks each, except
the mechanical engineering course, which is one of three and a half years. After
half a year’s attendance at the school each student must decide upon the special
branch of study which he will take up—viz.: chemistry, civil engineering, physics,
or drawing. The mechanical engineering students commence work in the shop
immediately on entering the school. -
Certain studies are common to all departments, the School aiming at giving a
complete general education. e
The Institute grants degrees to students who pass with distinction through its
COUlrS6S.
Over 90 per cent. of its graduates have easily obtained honorable and lucra-
tive employment. * . -
The most interesting feature of this school is the Washburn machine shop, in
which the mechanical students spend two days per week of five hours each under
the tuition of skilled workmen. This shop is a manufacturing establishment,
and so the students work under manufacturing conditions, and with the best and
most recent tools and machinery. In the wood-room the students go through a
course of bench work, wood turning, and machine Sawing and planing ; and
in the iron-room through a complete course of vise and lathe work, milling,
planing, screw cutting and tool making; finally receiving instruction in design-
ing machinery and undertaking the construction of complete machines from
their own drawings. It is expected that at the end of his course the student
will have a mechanical aptitude equal to that of any ordinary apprentice of
the same years’ standing, whilst he will have received at the same time a sound
scientific education. -
This school is said to have a yearly income of about $25,000, while the average
excess of expenditure over income is about $3000.
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY MANUAL TRAINING SCHOOL, ST. LOUIS, Mo.
In addition to the previously existing collegiate and professional departments
of the University, a Manual Training School was established in 1879. The land,
building and equipment have cost in all nearly $65,000, the money having been
contributed by private individuals. -
Candidates for admission must be at least fourteen years of age, and must pass
an examination in arithmetic, geography and English composition. The course
of instruction extends through three years, and embraces arithmetic, algebra,
geometry, plane trigonometry, book-keeping, physics, mechanics, mensuration,
mechanical drawing, physical geography, English language and literature,
21
- |
practical ethics, political economy, music, and shop work. The shop work
occupies two hours each day, and includes carpentry, Wood turning, pattern
making, forging and machine work in iron.
Besides the students of this school, students in other departments of the Uni-
versity are allowed and advised to take shop work. At present there are 170 in
all who have shop exercises.
In arranging the work, regard is paid to its educational, and not to its Com-
mercial value; and no choice is allowed to the student in work or in the studies,
as the object is not to teach any particular trade, but to lay a good general broad
foundation for subsequent special pursuits.
GIRARD COLLEGE, PEIILADELPHIA.
This institution possesses property which has increased in value rapidly and
very largely, and the college now maintains and educates over 800 orphan boys.
Shop work in iron was introduced in April, 1882. The manual instruction is
proving very acceptable and beneficial. It finds an unquestionably appropriate
place here, since the college does not aim at the highest standard of instruction
in literature and science, but seeks rather to prepare those under its tutelage for
making their own living by industrial pursuits.
STEVENS INSTITUTE.
The Stevens Institute of Technology was established in 1872. The aim of the
school is to afford a thorough technical training in mechanical engineering, by
combining theory and practice in the instruction. Great stress is laid upon
mechanical drawing, original designing and mechanical construction. The
school is well supplied with workshops furnished with all kinds of machinery
pertaining to the subjects that are taught. The shop instruction includes actual
practice in moulding, casting, turning, planing, drilling and fitting. No attempt
is made at teaching trades, but students are so thoroughly instructed in the use
of tools and the principles involved in engineering that they may very readily
learn to be efficient mechanics and managers in the works where they obtain
employment. This school furnishes another instance of the practicability and
desirability of combining theoretical and practical instruction.
RENSSELAER POLY TECHNIC INSTITUTE.
This is a school of theoretical and practical science, at Troy, New York. As
a school of engineering it holds deservedly high rank. Its graduates have taken
a prominent part in some of the greatest engineering feats of this country. In
railway construction, waterworks, bridge building, and in large industrial estab-
lishments, they have demonstrated the great value of practical Scientific knowl-
edge and training. The engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge was educated at this
school.
MECHANICAL Course, PURDUE UNIVERSITY, LAFAYETTE, INDIANA.
This University provides for a technical and scientific course. It has a well-
equipped chemical laboratory, a large physical laboratory, a choice museum of
natural history, a large geological cabinet, and other appliances for Scientific
training.
The first two years of the mechanical course afford technical training for
machinists and other mechanics, and are a good preparation for a course in civil
and mechanical engineering. The course provides for two years of shop practice
(two hours daily), and one year’s instruction in mechanical drawing, besides
instruction in mathematics, Science and English. -
t
ExtractS fl'Ol)]
Mr. Mather’S l'e-
port.
A
Technical and
Science SchoolS in
America.
22
.*
SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE AND MECHANIC ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
This is one of the most important schools of practical science in America. Its
students enjoy the benefits of a splendid library of 20,000 volumes, as also of
extensive and well-equipped laboratories and museums. Engineering, mining,
and agriculture are the principal technical subjects that are taught.
Exhibit M. - sº
Mr. Mather, in concluding his report to the British
Commissioners on Technical Education in the United
States, says:
It will be seen, from the foregoing description of the technical and science
Schools, that there exist in America a certain number of high-class institutions
for technical and Scientific training in mining, civil and mechanical engineering.
I am of opinion that in these branches, judging from my own observation, there
is nothing better of the kind, though such institutions are more numerous at
present in Europe. The advantage of the training in the best of them is its
practicalness. The students feel that careers are open to them if only they have
acquired the art of applying their knowledge; hence their ambition is excited,
and every one of them appears to be working for a definite purpose. There is
nothing pretentious about these students. Some of them are poor, but they
must have shown marked ability in order to get the advantages of the free, or
partially free, instruction. Thus a limited number of clever sons of working-
men have the road opened up for a thorough scientific training, if they can
afford to give the time.
It is much to be deplored that in the majority of institutions in America
where science is taught in the abstract there are no departments arranged for
such technical training as exists in some I have described.
The demands made upon those which give technical instruction are greater
than they can satisfy. This accounts for the high fees charged, and also for
These schools
Caullot Supply the
demand för indus- the fact that the advantages of such technical Schools are in the main confined
trial training.
to the sons of wealthy manufacturers or professional men.
The lower-grade science schools connected with the numerous colleges in
every State, and semi-private institutions, as described under the head of
“ Universities and Colleges,” are rendering considerable service in the direction
of Science-teaching to a less wealthy class in the country. Their courses of
study, however, require remodeling. To each one of them ought to be attached
departments similar to those at Cornell University and Washington University,
with ample provision for the admission of free students. -
There appears to be excellent provision-made in America in such colleges as
the Johns Hopkins of Baltimore, and Columbia College of New York, and the
like, for the training of able professors and for the continued development of
original research in all the sciences. The “Sheffield School of Science,” con-
nected with Yale, and the “Lawrence Science School” of Harvard University,
may also be classed amongst institutes aiming at the higher education in Scien-
tific knowledge.
There are also sufficient schools and colleges, aided by the taxes of the people,
to supply, if properly used, ample opportunities for the whole industrial popula-
tion—proprietors, foremen and workpeople—to acquire, in early life, a sound
Scientific education by means of a technical course of studies. The only change
required is in the curricula of such institutions, and the broadening of their
systems to the wants of the age. . .
23
There can be no doubt that America owes much already to the schools which
exist for technical education, though not actually helping the artisan class. , Mugh his been.
Many hundreds of young men have been furnished from these sources for the . * *
superintendence of railway works, mining operations, machine shops and the
textile industries, besides chemical work, glass manufactories, building opera-
tions, agriculture, etc. I have met in almost all the manufactories I have
visited—from mining, iron and steel manufacturing, through all the mechanic |
arts, up to watchmaking and sewing-machine manufacturing—evidences of the • ‘
influence of the technical schools. - e
g º * * *** & «t
# * , # : : z; # % ::: #:
From many conversations with owners of industrial establishments, I find the DisbOSition t
prevailing idea to be that everything appertaining to education is to be done in dº...he
the public School. Moreover, the general aptitude, inventiveness and industry schools.
of the American young men, animated always by ambition, and backed by the
ability to read, write and reckon well, have furnished employers with intelligent
mechanics after a comparatively short service in the workshops. All Americans
have, more or less, the mechanical faculty. It is the characteristic of the race.
The problems involved in settling the country have been more mechanical than
political. In early times almost all men and all women were engaged in manual
work and in exercising their wits to avail themselves of the forces of Nature. - !
To this natural bias the public-school education gave the means for higher de-
velopment. The demand for mechanical contrivances to save labor held out the
promise of great reward, and the protection of cheap patents gave confidence
and security. Thus the workingmen of America have been educated and brought
up under conditions different from those prevailing in Europe.
It is impossible to traverse this vast continent without witnessing the evidences *
of originality of application founded on scientific principles, and of a develop- Aºtº.
ment due to education in the mechanical arts. In the railroad system, from the nuity. g th
locomotive to the baggage-car, there are original design and marked ingenuity in
every contrivance ; in bridge-building, great daring and ready devices for tem-
porary, yet safe, structures; in the navigation of rivers there are boats which
differ from all European systems. The shallow rivers, like the Mississippi in
summer, are navigated for a thousand miles by steamers drawing less than
twelve inches of water. The Ohio conveys from Pittsburgh thousands of tons
of material by boats drawing nine inches of water. Towns like Chicago, Den-
wer and San Francisco are built under difficulties which require an entire de-
parture from all old methods of applying science. The produce of the great
agricultural regions suggested new modes of tilling, Sowing and reaping, and in
agricultural machinery the Americans showed how quickly and directly science
could deal with vast products which would rot on the field but for mechanical
skill to preserve them. The same aptitude that dealt with the overwhelming
abundance of the West has turned to account the sterility of the East, where,
in Maine, New IIampshire and Vermont, the mechanical skill of the farmer in
devising economical methods has contributed as much to his support as his
knowledge of cattle and crops.” - .
It is, of course, in the more recent structures and modern mechanical appli-
ances that the evidence of scientific truths and methods is observable. The fº of
rough-and-ready contrivances of early railroad development indicate originality ... j
and “mother wit”; but in the waste of material and crudeness of design may only in more re-
be noticed the absence of technical or scientific training on the part of those 9°nt structures.
who conducted extensive engineering or mechanical operations in those days. .
The gradual diffusion of science is very marked in the rapid reconstruction,
during recent years, of the great railroads of the past and in the new main
lines. Also, in railway plant generally, the old is being replaced by the new,
and the latter exhibits high theoretical knowledge combined with practical in-
genuity.
24
‘. . Almelicans OWe
much to Europe.
The Americans undoubtedly owe to European engineers the rapid advance
they have been able to make in their public works. The conservation of water-
power for the use of the mills at Lowell and Lawrence, in Massachusetts, is due
to the eminent hydraulic engineer, Mr. Frances, an Englishman, who practised
Technical
Science Schools es-
, Sential to future
development.
for forty years in America. The water rights of a district are held in trust for
the whole community by a board or corporation elected for the purpose. The
power is distributed according to the share which may be purchased or rented by
the users, but regard is had to the rights of all, and its utilization requires great
skill and knowledge to prevent loss of power. Mr. Frances has had charge of
this important work for many years, and is deservedly esteemed as the highest
authority on hydraulic engineering in America. Although a lucrative field was,
in the early days, open to European engineers and machinists having a thorough
scientific knowledge of their profession, yet it is evident that they found apt
scholars, who, as they acquired some theoretical science, launched out into new
paths, untrammeled by the traditions of the older countries.
Even the science of foreigners, when applied here, takes different methods.
The Englishman and German become bold and self-confident to a degree only
manifested by rare men in Europe. The everlasting thirst for something new
excites, stimulates and drives men to venture into untrodden paths in applying
their knowledge. In the manufacture of machine tools and every kind of
mechanism where the interchangeability of parts would be an advantage, the
design and construction have been made subservient to this law. It may be truly
said that the Americans have carried to its utmost limits one of the greatest
improvements in modern times in mechanical construction—namely, in their
extensive introduction of the principle of the interchangeability of parts in ma-
chinery. Watches, sewing-machines, tools, agricultural implements, printing-
presses, firearms, etc., are made with an accuracy so fine as to approach the
theoretical, and yet more cheaply than the rudest and most imperfect work. All
these evidences of scientific skill speak well for the methods of education in the
recent past, so far as it goes; but other influences, such as “necessity, the
mother of invention,” and the presence in America of foreign experts, will
account for much of the rapid growth in the mechanic arts.
The future development will depend upon a population not compelled to dare
and endure and experimentalize for “very life.” In the past the waste of ma-
terial has been excessive. To make the best use of a given quantity of material
requires a sound knowledge of its properties and of its disposal in the arts and
manufactures by scientific methods. In this direction the technical and science
schools already instituted have accomplished much in providing foremen
and managers, chemists, miners, and intelligent employers in the engineering
and manufacturing industries. Some extensions of these institutions are now
being promoted. One significant indication of progress in this direction was
afforded me during my travels. I attended a convention of about a thousand
teachers, professors and principals of Schools and colleges at Saratoga, and
another similar gathering in the White Mountains. Theºdiscussion of technical
and industrial training was the chief feature of the conventions. I was much
impressed by the high qualities of culture and character which distinguished
this truly “Grand Army of the Republic” in its 300,000 teachers, as represented
at these meetings. If this force should be directed by a change of tactics, so to
speak, in the schools to scientific and technical instruction, and to less concen-
tration upon purely literary subjects, there can be no doubt that America will
solve the industrial-education question more rapidly than any other country and
utilize it in the further development of her inexhaustible resources. • -
It must not be stipposed that Nature has bestowed her gifts over this continent
in such wise that they can be enjoyed without much skill and labor in the gath-
ering of them. No country offers more difficult problems to the engineer, the
agriculturist and the manufacturer. A climate of extremes; a scarcity of water
in the West ; the difficulties of cheap transport and distribution, all require the
highest qualities of self-reliance and endurance, with scientific knowledge, in
the progress of the future. 3; # * :: # : $ . ; #
•se
25
This splendidly endowed institution (the Johns Hopkins University) is taking
rank amongst the highest universities of America. The regular curriculum of a
university course is followed here. The University was opened seven years ago.
The bequest of Johns Hopkins amounted to £700,000. The interest was allowed
to accumulate until a sufficient sum had accrued to enable the trustees to erect
handsome and commodious blocks of buildings on land bequeathed by the founder.
% : *:: <!º. º: ::: # : Jºº.
This University is devoted chiefly to the highest branches of education in mathe-
***
***
matics, physics and medical science. It is conducted on the lines of Owens Col-
lege of Manchester, with a bias more specially to original research and scientific
discoveries, both in chemistry and physics, than to preparing for industrial pur-
suits. There are no night classes, so that all the teaching is confined to those
who can afford to pass through all the courses in the day classes. Dr. Gilman
informed me they had some instances of workingmen having, at great self-
sacrifice, come to them to obtain a thorough scientific education. The total fees
for all subjects amount to £16 per annum.
Dr. Gilman, in answer to my inquiries, stated that some of their professors
had delivered popular lectures to the working classes, but he did not regard
these as having much influence on working-people generally, in relation to their
Occupations. He would gladly use the institution as a means of technical train-
ing, but did not yet know of a scheme that was practicable there.
§ # $ 3% :: # ::: % ::: :
One might expect from so richly endowed an institution a more direct rela-
tion to scientific industry than appears now to be the case. With an income of
£30,000 a year without fees, it would appear possible for a large amount of
work to be done among the people of the city without in any degree diminishing
the highest instruction in the advanced stages of literary and scientific knowledge.
Baltimore does not possess any large or distinctive manufactures. The trade :
is chiefly that of timber and grain export, with workshops for railway purposes.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railway shops employ 3000 artisans, for whom there
is little provision for science instruction beyond the drawing classes I have
described.
I found much interest displayed in the question by the authorities of the rail-
way to whom I was introduced, and they expressed their desire and intention to
provide suitable science schools for their workpeople.
IExhibit, IN.
Perhaps no views are better worthy careful considera-
tion than those of Dr. Philbrick, of whom the Commis-
sioner of Education says:
It is acknowledged the world over that to him is largely due the excellence
of the Boston schools. A thorough man of affairs, accurate and broad in his
Johns Hopkins
|University.
scholarship, in the fullest sympathy with American institutions and ideas,
not only watched and guided the Boston schools that grew under his hands for
twenty years, but, by travels and studies in different parts of this country, and
two visits to Europe—one of which included official duties in connection with
the Exhibition at Vienna, and the other the special organization, care and
management of the American Exhibition of Education in Paris in 1878—he had
the wastest opportunities for extensive personal observation elsewhere in school
matters, and for philosophical deductions therefrom. In his retirement, and
with his accumulation of literature, of observation and of experience around
him, he has consented at my request to prepare the following report on education
EX-Commis-
he SiOner Eaton’s
Opinion of l)r.
Philbrick.
26
\
in cities. * * * Every one will see that, to secure the fullest benefit to the millions
What is meant
by industrial edu-
CaliOll.
interested in the wise administration of education in our cities, and the millions
yet unborn to be affected by it, the writer of this report (is) possessed of rare
qualifications for the undertaking. * * * I may add that I know of no more
valuable study of city systems of public instruction than that presented by him.
ExTRACTS FROM DR. PHILBRICK's REPORT ON CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS OF-
THE UNITED STATES.
Industrial Education.
It may be well, in the first place, to define what is meant here by the term
industrial education, which is used rather loosely in the current discussions on
the subject. Some writers use it in the same sense as technical education;
better usage makes a distinction, however. J. Scott Russell, in his masterly book,
“Systematic Technical Education for the English People,” gives to technical
education a broader meaning than that which belongs to industrial education,
making it include all that education which teaches the knowledge required to
fit men for some special mode of gaining their livelihood, and thus embracing
the instruction of the highest professional Schools, as well as that given in Schools
designed to form the handicraftsman of the humblest degree. Non-technical or
general education, on the other hand, is that which has for its object to train
and send into the world able men of matured intelligence and ripened powers,
good for all the vocations of life and prepared to enter upon its duties with
sound bodies, developed ability, and formed character; but it is not designed
to communicate that special knowledge or to develop that special skill which fits
a man for the particular calling or profession which he will have to choose as his
life-work. This general education is the necessary basis and accompaniment of
efficient technical education. Large education, broad development, a generous
general training, are the best possible foundations of useful after-life, but they
TWO divisions Of
technical educa-
tion.
are only the foundations of the knowledge and skill requisite for professions and
trades. This knowledge and skill it is the function of technical education to
impart ; it gives that special training which renders the educated man both self-
supporting and directly useful to Society. I willingly adopt the signification
given to technical education by so eminent an authority, although my choice
would be to call all that education which is not general, professional, after the
nomenclature of the French pedagogy. ".
Technical education in this comprehensive sense is composed of two tolerably
well-defined divisions, the one being that which is concerned with the Social
professions and those relating to the fine arts, while all other occupations
and pursuits requiring the application of Science, art and manual skill are
included in the other division. This province of technical education is what we
mean by industrial education, which has for its Scope to impart the knowledge
and skill requisite for success in the three great departments of practical life—
namely, agriculture, manufactures, and commerce ; or, in other words, in pro-
ducing the raw material from the ocean, the mines, the forest and the field, in
converting these materials into useful forms, and in their transportation and
exchange.
In its widest sense industrial education comprises not only all that a man does
for himself, but also what is done for him by others to bring him nearer to per-
fection as a worker in any branch of industry.
In a more limited sense industrial education is that which is designed to
impart the knowledge and skill requisite as a preparation for successful work
in that department of practical activity which is concerned in changing the raw
material into useful forms, or the manufacturing industry. -
In former times knowledge and skill in industrial pursuits were almost exclu-
sively acquired by means of apprenticeship. This held true not only of the
mechanical trades, but of the liberal professions as well.
27
That state of things has passed away. An auxiliary instrumentality has been
created by the demands to advance civilization ; that instrumentality is the
technical School, in its elementary, secondary and superior grades, and in its
ever-increasing diversity of aim and purpose. Industries made but compara-
tively slow progress while they were carried on by persons whose instruction was
limited to apprenticeship. Gradually, and in more recent times, the idea has
made its way that the progress of an industry depends especially upon the degree
of instruction of those who exercise it. This led to the establishment of industrial
Schools. The competition of industries is rapidly multiplying these schools, and
from present indications these schools are destined to a development far beyond
that as yet attained in the most advanced community. Industrial education is
of two kinds: first, that which consists in imparting a theoretical knowledge
and the applications of science and the principles and rules of the useful arts,
Such as may be given in the class-room and laboratory by the teacher and pro-
fessor; Second, that which consists in imparting the manual skill and the appli-
cations of Science and the rules of the arts necessary to form the handicraftsman, Theoretical
of whatever grade. This is the education of the shop. The school for imparting ºwledge and
this branch of industrial education is therefore primarily and essentially a work: ; ***
shop, supplemented to some extent with the theoretical training of the school-
room and the manipulations of the laboratory. The considerations relating to
industrial education here submitted must be limited to that portion of it which
is imparted in Schools, and, moreover, such schools as properly come within the
Scope of city school systems.
No school question is at present more agitated among us than that of making
manual training a branch of instruction in the common school. Some extremists
maintain that trades should be taught in the schools in connection with the
common branches now required, so that when the scholar graduates he will be
prepared to earn his living as an artisan on leaving school. Others, more
moderate in their views, would not undertake to teach trades in School, aiming
only to exercise the pupils in the use of the principal tools in working wood and
iron. So far the different theories on the subject have been put into practical
application only to a very limited extent. The two important practical questions
in this connection which claim our attention are, first, what has been already
accomplished in the direction of industrial education in our city school systems?
second, what does experience indicate as desirable improvements to be undertaken
in the department of industrial education? # * * -
Bandicraft as a Branch of Public Instruction.
There are two modes of giving instruction in handicraft in schools: First, by
annexing the workshop to the school for general education, whether elementary ... The Wºrkshop
or higher. This mode is sometimes called the putting of the workshop into the #.º.º.
School. Second, by establishing technical schools for apprentices, consisting workshop.
primarily of the requisite shops, with appliances for giving the theoretical
instruction applicable to the trade taught. This mode has been denominated
the putting of the school into the workshop. * * * -
Superintendent Marvel, of Gloucester, Mass., in referring in his report to an
experiment tried in the schools of that city, remarks as to its results as follows:
“This attempt to combine intellectual and manual training will tend to dignify
manual-labor in the opinion of many young people just at that critical period
when so many are now wasting opportunities for practical education in a vain
endeavor to accomplish purely intellectual work for which they are totally
unfitted. Recognition in the public Schools that mechanical occupations are
equally as important as the professions or as mercantile pursuits, and that the
scheme of public instruction is broad enough to afford an education adapted to
the needs of all classes of citizens, cannot fail to have a marked effect upon the
succeeding generation. Boys and girls will deem it no less honorable to be found
in the fields and workshops than in stores and offices, so long as they are engaged
in legitimate and honorable occupations.”
28
Exhibit o'
As supplementary to their investigations into the influence exercised by tech-
nical and other schools on the efficiency of foremen and other employes engaged
in the principal industries of England, the Royal Commissioners secured the
views in writing of a large number of manufacturers and other employers of
labor upon the following points: - -
1. As to the influence on industries in which these employers were engaged
of the science and art classes, and other sources of technical and general in-
struction that are available to apprentices, workmen and foremen ; and 2. As
to any means whereby such instruction may be rendered more useful.
Attention is invited to the appended extracts from a few of their replies, which,
summarized, were to the effect that the schools are exerting a decidedly beneficial
influence upon both the industries and the laborers through whom they are de-
veloped. These statements, coming as they do from men who are immediately en-
gaged in the industries which the schools are designed to improve, are significant
in their testimony concerning the direct and indirect value of technical educa-
tion. They are from men who are likely to take a practical view of matters,
and who are accustomed to decide upon the merits of things solely with refer-
ence to their economic results. - -
Notice should here be taken of the fact that English technical Schools are not
nearly so efficient as those on the Continent. Most of them have not been long
in operation. Many are poorly equipped, and others badly managed. The best
schools are the ones that have only lately been established, and consequently
they have not yet had time to make their influence very extensively felt in the
factories and shops. Besides this, it is only very lately that employers have
taken interest enough in the schools to encourage and require their employes to
attend the classes. Yet, notwithstanding all these adverse considerations, it
will be seen that the opinions expressed in the letters referred to are decidedly
in favor of the maintenance of science and training schools in industrial com-
~ munities, and it is safe to predict that this sentiment will increase when the
Night schools
attract young
Plle Il.
Advantageous to
foremen and
Others.
schools are made more efficient and have had a longer time in which to make
results. *
Only such parts of a portion of the answers are given here as relate to the in-
fluence of the schools upon industry.
FROM MESSRs. KELSON & Co., IRON-WoRKERs, LEEDs.
“There is in our works a growing tendency, on the part of the hands em-
ployed, to greater intelligence and earnestness in the execution of the work
allotted to the respective departments. The night classes at the Leeds Mechan-
ics' Institute have long been an attraction to many of our young men.” -
FROM HoRRocKSEs, MILLER & Co., COTTON MANUFACTURERs, LONDON.
“Many occupying leading positions in our employ owe their general compe-
tency to such advantages.”
FROM JAMES DIxoN & Son, METAL-WorkBRs, LONDON.
“We are of the opinion that these schools have had from the beginning a very
beneficial effect upon the foremen and workmen of our district, and that the
amount of benefit that is accruing to the trade is increasing year by year. As
the men who were old scholars are more intelligent and artistic workmen, their
influence has a corresponding effect upon their apprentices, and induces them to
send them to the Schools.”
| - 29
FROM SIR WILLIAM ARMSTRONG, SHIPBUILDER AND MANUFACTURER OF GUNs,
NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE.
“The technical instruction given in the institution attached to these works Technical
has undoubtedly a beneficial influence on the industries in the locality. Our schools develop
experience of the classes is that they not only develop thought and intelligence, ;..."
but they also tend to foster studious and steady habits and to raise the tone of foster studious
the students.” habitS.
FROM JAMES HUMPHRIES & SON, CARPET MANUFACTURERs, KIDDERMINSTER.
“We have an excellent school of art, which has proved of great use in assist- Art training
ing to raise efficient draughtsmen and designers for our principal industry in this raises up ..
town—namely, the manufacture of carpets. Whereas, some years back, we were draughtsmen an
compelled to go to France and Germany for designs, we are now practically *
independent of other countries, as far as carpet-designing is concerned.”
FROM THOMAS TUPLING & Co., CARPET MANUFACTURERs, LONDON.
“The influence of art classes in raising the style of design and workmanship
cannot be too fully appreciated and encouraged.”
FROM MESSRS. HUNT & RUSKELL, METAL-WorkBRs, LONDON.
“The influence of the science and art classes on our artisans is of the highest schools raise
value, for they develop ideas of conception and taste that would otherwise lie workmen above
dormant, and the training afforded by these classes raises the workman above the ºmeghanical
tº te * e * * g . drudgery.
mere mechanical drudgery of his employment. We believe the same influence
‘awakens a desire to cultivate refinement in the execution of his work, a senti-
ment that might have been lost but for the exterior educational aid afforded by
the classes.”
FROM MESSRS. CROSSES & WENKWORTH, COTTON MANUFACTURERS, BOLTON.
“We regard the science and art classes carried on in Bolton as having con- Benefit to the
ferred incalculable benefits on the industries of the town and district, and we town and district.
look to them principally for the improvement in general knowledge of our work-
men, and to fit them to become foremen.”
FROM J. K. GIRDWooD, LINEN MANUFACTURER, BELFAST.
“At present there are only the classes held in the Workingmen’s Institute
and the School of Design available for workmen and foremen, both of which
classes have been of great assistance to many of our employes attending them.”
FROM EDWARD STEEGMAN & Co., LACE MANUFACTURERS, NOTTINGBAM.
Influence de-
“The influence of the classes is decidedly good, and the Science classes are cidedly good
very well attended.”
Exhibit P.
This and the preceding exhibit are designed to show the
importance that employers attach to technical schools, and
the comparative value of educated and uneducated labor.
-30
Educated labor
needs less super-
vision and resultS
in better products.
Labor-saving
improvements the
result Of cduca-
tion.
Scientiſlo knowl-
edge would in-
crease production,
In answer to inquiries concerning the value of educated
labor lately proposed by General Eaton, United States
Commissioner of Education, some very suggestive let-
ters were received from employers and others interested
in industrial pursuits. -
General Samuel Thomas, of Columbus, Ohio, who
employed 500 laborers in his extensive iron-works,
answered the inquiries referred to as follows: -
Men who have education require less Supervision. The saving to employers
in this way alone amounts to fully 10 per cent. Employers suffer constantly
from ignorant employes doing their work poorly, and doing less of it for the
same wages. This amounts to fully 10 per cent. more.
A knowledge of chemistry, geology, working of mines, and, in fact, all the
physical sciences, would add to the efficiency of all laborers in our employ. Not
that I expect all to advance to the higher departments; but, with their common-
school education, they should have some knowledge of the sciences I have named.
In many ways men with such advantages could produce more in twenty-four
hours with no more labor, and, as a consequence, command higher wages.
All the labor-Saving improvements are the result of education awakening the
mind to struggle for Something to save much and throw the labor upon machines
of iron and wood, so far as I have observed in our works. The ignorant man
imitates Some one else, and, if he is watched, continues to do so day by day, and
by these means earns his living ; but he is a great tax upon capital. We pay
20 per cent. more wages to a skilled laborer in our employ, with an education
that makes him worth it to us, than to an uneducated man struggling to fill the
same kind of place, but not worth so much. -
I would not employ as a superintendent or foreman a man who could not read
and write; all other things being equal, I consider a man better and better
Qualified for Supervision of labor as his education increases.
The man with Some education or some mental training shows his superiority
Over the ignorant man at home, and by his social and moral influence, to a
greater degree than in the shop or at labor. He is more moral, less disposed to
be vicious, more industrious. As a class they live in better houses, have better
Surroundings, and seem to be happier men in every way. -
Mr. S. P. Cummings, of Boston, Mass., Secretary of the
Massachusetts Grand Lodge of the Order of St. Crispin,
Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Inter-
national Labor Union and of the State labor party, wrote
as follows to General Eaton : -
The value of skilled labor over unskilled, both as to productiveness and com-
pensation, is fully 20 per cent.
A knowledge of the scientific subjects would increase production and wages
fully 20 per cent, over the present, inasmuch as the effect would be to stimulate
laborers to produce better articles, and consequently increase their means of
enjoyment.
* {{* §§ {} *} łł §§ # {# *
31 }
\
§
I have a large personal acquaintance among manufacturers, and they gener-
ally agree that their foremen's money value depends largely on the education
they possess.
Inventive culture, as a rule, increases the self-respect and improves vastly
the social habits of working men. *
Educated workingmen live in better houses, have better surroundings, and
are in all respects superior to those whose education is limited and defective.
They are less idle and dissipated than the untaught classes. As regards econ-
omy, morality, and social influence, educated laborers are pre-eminent among their
fellows. I may add one general observation—that while I was foreman of a shoe Intelligent work-
factory employing forty hands, I always got better work, had less trouble, and, men do better
as a general rule, paid better wages to the more intelligent workmen. The more §§.
ignorant hands were continually giving me trouble, either by slighting their rant mom.
work or by failing to appear in a fit condition to work after pay-day. They were,
many of them, coarse and vulgar, drank liquor, grumbled, and were in all
respects disagreeable.
I am so well satisfied of the inestimable value of education to the laborer that
I would make it compulsory. No man should be allowed to go into the arena of life
unless he has at least a decent English education. A class of uneducated laborers
in a community or State is an ever-present element of danger and injury, not only
to labor, but to the State itself ; therefore, sir, I am much pleased to see that
you are collecting statistics for the information of the Government and people
on the subject.
Another valuable opinion is that of Cyrus Mendenhall,
President of the Kenton Iron Company, Newport, Ky. :
I rejoice that the official attention of the General Government is being turned
to the subject of your inquiries, and cannot but hope that, sooner or later, it ...Tº Wºlºſ.ºll-
gº ~...~ l 4. . w e ! 4. f - te nically educated
will result in Some practical benefit to the country. The want of a higher grade ...
of instruction in the Science of their business for the managers of the different makes the differ.
departments of the manufacture of iron—Say in mensuration, geometry, the ...'...";
mechanical powers, hydraulics, hydrostatics, chemistry, etc.—has been severely ...".
felt by proprietors. The want of competent men in such positions often, I terprise.
believe, makes the difference to owners between success and failure.
A. J. Mundella, Esq., member of the British Parliament
for Sheffield, England, who had employed a large number
—as many as three or four thousand at a time—in the
middle counties of England, as knitters, weavers, finishers,
and machinists, wrote to General Eaton as follows:
I would say that an educated man invariably acquires a knowledge of his work
with greater facility, and executes it with less cost of supervision, than an unedu-
cated man.
The mere rudiments I do not rank very high. If a man can barely read and
write he has not attained to much. To read and write fluently is a great advan-
tage in conducting the ordinary affairs of life. Evidence has been given before the
British Parliament from my own districts showing that grave mistakes in chemi-
cal processes, such as bleaching, dyeing, etc., are constantly occurring through
the ignorance of the workmen, they not having the ability to read writing. I
have often witnessed natural powers in a person entirely uneducated which would
have been turned to the benefit of himself and his employer if he had only
received a thorough elementary education. I have recently seen in Massachu-
setts, Englishmen whose wages their employers would have willingly doubled,
by appointing them overseers, if they had only been educated sufficiently to keep
accounts. I think it is impossible to estimate how much education would
increase the value of their services. If the labor is merely mechanical, such as
tending a machine that is making so many revolutions per minute, it requires
little education to perform it; but if the labor is something where the whole
manipulation depends upon the intelligence of the workman, it is a very different
thing. The division of labor in England is so minute that the artisan who begins
and continues the same work for years becomes a mere machine himself. The
value of education, both to the workman and employer, is something that it is
exceedingly difficult to estimate. The educated man will better understand the
influence of those economical laws upon which his art depends than the unedu-
cated ; and my observation leads me to the conclusion that many of the strikes
among workmen are the consequence of gross ignorance on their part, and that
almost invariably the outrages and intimidation resulting from strikes are the acts
of ignorant men. The more flagrant cases of violence and intimidation in Eng-
land have been in connection with those trades unions where the education of the
workman has been grossly neglected. -
I believe that technical education is of great importance; that the success of
Switzerland and Germany in manufactures, and their superiority over others for
the last thirty years, have been owing to the excellent elementary education they
have given to their workpeople, to which has been superadded, with great
advantage, in my opinion, a large amount of scientific and technical education.
Art training in England has exerted a marvelous influence in improving the
designs for every description of manufacture in which taste is required, and con-
sequently in increasing the demand in foreign countries for such manufactures.
For example, the result is seen in better styles of carpets, laces, dress goods,
crockeryware, furniture, ornamental iron work, and in every manufacture where
decorative art is of value. I think the great want in this country is such educa-
tion. I have known instances where a youth who has received art training has
been able, at twenty years of age, to earn more than all the rest of the working
force of his father’s family. There is one case among my own workmen where
such a lad is getting very high wages, and the effect is that the whole household
is elevated. -
The greater the improvements in machinery, the more intelligence is required
on the part of the workmen who manipulate it. It has been found in Eng-
land that for working the improved agricultural machines a higher class of intel-
ligence and skill is required to manage them than the old peasantry possess. An
intelligent workman will always produce a larger amount of work from a clever
machine than an ignorant man can, and will keep his machine in better working
condition. - *
3% #: ::: ::: #: # ::: ::: ::: %
Certainly, I should prefer those who had the very best education for responsible
situations. In my opinion a youth cannot be too highly educated for business
purposes. I believe there can be no greater mistake than the old and common
error that a boy may be made above his business by education.
My experience of workmen, on the average, is, that the better a man is edu-
cated, and the greater intellectual resources he possesses, the less is he disposed
to sensual indulgence, and the less inclined to any kind of intemperance and
excess. Those trades most characterized by intemperance in England are those
wherein the workmen employed have the least education. I have employed in
various departments of my own business intelligent workmen earning lower
wages than ignorant men employed in coarser branches of the business; and the
intelligent man educates his children, lives in a comfortable house, and has much
refinement and many pleasant surroundings; whereas the ignorant man, with
higher wages in Some other department of labor, is more addicted to intemper-
33
ance, his wife and children are worse clad and worse cared for, and his home, in
all respects, is less comfortable. Perhaps the best illustration of this would be
the contrast between a clerk earning £80 a year, who is a gentleman in education,
tastes and surroundings, and an ignorant laborer earning the same sum. In
England intelligent workmen are generally the men who are distinguished for
economy and thrift. They take the lead in all useful associations; they are the
managers of the mechanics’ institutions, the teachers in the Sunday-Schools, and
the founders of co-operative Societies. - -
In the same connection Mr. John W. Browning, brick-
layer, President of his trade union and Secretary of the
National Labor Union, New York City, replied as follows:
I have not infrequently worked with members of my trade who have labored
years at the business and, yet remain ignorant of the simplest, though very im-
portant, materials in the building line. For instance, anchors are fastened to
every fourth or fifth beam, and must be, or should be, well secured in the wall,
by which means there is a bond between the two walls, or four walls, as the case
may be ; the walls are strengthened, the building is firmer and less liable to
settle. The men I allude to build around and over these anchors, wondering
what they are there for and paying no regard to security. Such mechanics are
half their time unemployed, and they attribute it to hard luck, or something of
that kind; but they do not seem to take heed and get on, and they become dis-
couraged. But it is not so with the mechanic who understands the theory of his
business, or who has studied sufficiently to discipline his mind. He understands,
or will understand, that the anchor must be set snug in the wall. He knows
why a fireplace is built on the outside of a gable. He knows what a key-
stone is for. In short, he knows the uses of the materials and the designs
of the specifications, and he is able to earn his wages, and in many cases
Superior wages, besides enjoying steady employment during the building Season.
The latter class of our trade are the students of our business; they lighten their
labors and the labor of others by new inventions. A year ago 1000 brick a day
was considered a fair day's work. It is the basis of estimate at the present time ;
and yet an ordinary bricklayer can lay from 1500 to 2000, while I have known
men to lay 3000 a day on a twelve-inch wall. I think any one who has adopted
any means to discipline the mind, either by studying at school or elsewhere, is
preferred to one who never gave himself to reasoning.
In my business a foreman, superintendent, overseer or journeyman cannot
know too much, and those who are entrusted with the plans are skilled and as
intelligent as can be had. |
I am in favor of free day schools for the children, free night Schools for
apprentices, free libraries and reading-rooms for all who wish to avail themselves
of their benefits; believing that it will add to the industry of the nation, elevate
Society, and make us, morally and religiously, a better people and better citizens.
Exhibit Q.
Mr. Mather wrote letters to several prominent educators
of the United States, asking what effect the educational
institutions with which they were connected were having
on the commerce and industries of the nation. A few of
the answers that he received are inserted here.
34
LETTER FROM PROFESSOR TRow BRIDGE.
School of Mines, Columbia College,
" * - Corner 49th Street and 4th Avenue,
DEAR SIR : . New York, October 30, 1883.
In answer to your question, “What effect is the School of Mines exerting on
the professions and manufacturing industries of the country 2” I will just state
that my answer will apply, I am quite Sure, to all the institutions in this country
in which the applied sciences are thoroughly taught, and where, at the same
time, proper instruction is given in the technical applications of these sciences to
civil and mechanical engineering, and to the agricultural, mining and manufac-
turing industries. - .
The effects produced on these professions and industries are felt more and
more each year, in the attainment of greater economy in production, as well as in.
new and progressive developments in engineering practice, and in the principal
arts and industries. These effects are accompanied by, and perhaps are largely
due to, a general diffusion of Scientific knowledge among the people. All classes
are becoming impressed with the value and importance of national Scientific
methods, especially when they learn that these methods harmonize with the
results derived from experience and observation. The knowledge thus diffused
is fast breaking down and destroying the false antagonism—formerly supposed
to be radical and insurmountable—between theory and practice. -
The business man is becoming a better judge and critic in matters of science
and engineering applicable to his own affairs, while the farmer, the artisan, and
even the common laborer, are learning that in proportion to their increased
knowledge of true scientific processes their labor becomes more efficient; they
can secure better results at less cost and with greater certainty than formerly.
You can readily understand that bringing Scientific knowledge, even in its
elementary forms, to bear on industry in this manner, promotes material progress
and growth, and secures public confidence in enterprises or improvements which
receive the sanction of well-educated scientific men. -
For this increase and diffusion of knowledge and this public confidence we are
indebted largely to our scientific Schools, and to the men sent out from them. I
need only suggest the direct influences which these men exert through their own
labors when they are scattered through the country among the mines, the manu-
facturing and engineering establishments, and the engineering works in progress.
. Very truly yours,
Mr. W. Mather. (Signed) W. P. TRowBRIDGE.
LETTER FROM DR, HOMER. T. FULLER.
- Worcester Free Institute, Worcester, Mass.,
MY DEAR SIR : October 25, 1883.
In reply to your inquiry as to the effect of the training given at the Worcester
County Free Institute of Industrial Science upon the industries of the country,
it may be said that the school was not founded to create new industries, nor
specially to build up those that were waning. It has helped to meet an increas-
ing demand for men who were trained in both the theory and applications of
Science, and who, hence, could assist in developing and promoting enterprises
requiring more than ordinary intelligence and skill.
It educates mechanical engineers, civil engineers, chemists and designers.
Fifteen per cent. of its graduates are partners in business firms or superin-
tendents of important business enterprises; 20 per cent. are foremen or
draughtsmen, chiefly in shops for construction of machinery; 7 per cent. are
skilled workmen in such shops; and about 20 per cent., comprising most of
those trained in civil-engineering, are employed either in railway construction or
in other civil-engineering work. Fifteen of them have filled responsible posi-
*
35
tions on a single railroad; six on another road. Besides these, the chemists have
done good Service in dye works and metal works, while about 10 per cent. of the
whole number, including most of those who have given special attention to drawing
and designing, have become teachers. Its graduates have usually quickly found
employment, and some have been offered remunerative situations before complet-
ing their course of study.
It should be mentioned that this school is yet young, none of its graduates hav-
ing been in practical life over twelve years, and the majority only four or five
€8,TS, .
y The educational influence of the school has been considerable. Several other
schools recently founded, or now projected, are adopting substantially its plans
and methods of training. Such are the Rose Polytechnic at Terre Haute,
Indiana, and the Miller School at Batesville, Virginia; and a committee of the
Legislature of Georgia, after visiting the more important of the technical Schools
in the North in July last, reported a bill providing for the establishment of a
State technical school, in which the course of training was indicated to be “as
nearly as practicable like that of the Worcester Free Institute.”
I am, etc.,
Wm. Mather, Esq. (Signed) HoMER. T. FULLER,
. - Principal, etc.
LETTER FROM PROFESSOR GREENE.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N. Y.,
October 22, 1883.
MY DEAR SIR, *
I have to acknowledge the receipt of your kind letter of the 19th instant,
containing a request that I send you a brief reply to your inquiry as to what is my
opinion and experience of the effect exerted by the training in this institution
upon the engineering works of this country. - .
It gives me great pleasure to comply with your request.
The Institute was the first school of its kind established in the United States.
It was founded in 1824 by the late Hon. Stephen Van Rensselaer as a school of
natural and applied Science. Its founder, long a member of the Board of Canal
Commissioners, had been actively interested and largely instrumental in the con-
struction of our first great work of internal improvement, the Erie Canal, which
was completed in 1824. During the execution of this work there were no edu-
cated engineers in the country, and for this reason great difficulty was experi-
enced in securing the Services of persons competent to direct the necessary sur-
veys, location and construction. , Men were taken from various occupations and
educated practically as the work progressed. Mr. Van Rensselaer thus had
occasion to realize the pressing necessity of providing for the future requirements
of the country, during the development of its vast and varied resources, a body
of trained scientific men. -.
Engineering as a profession was unknown and, of course, unrecognized in
the country. There were no railroads, no waterworks, no great bridges, and
but few works of any description which could properly be called engineering
works.
At such a time and under such circumstances the Institute was founded. Dur-
ing the 60 years which have elapsed since its foundation it has been closely identi-
fied with the marvelous growth and development of our country. From 1824 to
1840 its graduates largely became professors, geologists and manufacturers, a
few only entering the field of engineering, for the reason probably that there was
only a small demand for engineers.
With the introduction and growth of railways and other engineering works
there came an increased demand for engineers, to meet which, in 1850–51, the
course of study and practice at the Institute was modified and enlarged to meet
36
existing and future requirements; and it then became exclusively a school of
civil engineering. - -
About this time and for the same reason engineering courses were established
in various colleges, and since that time many technical Schools have been organ-
ized throughout the country, all based upon the same general plan, and all owing
their origin to the rapidly growing demand for, and the more widely and generally
recognized importance of, technical education.
At the present time there is scarcely a State or a Territory which has not its
engineering or technical School.
The Institute has furnished many professors for these institutions. As a rule,
however, the graduates of the Institute enter at once upon the active duties of the
profession of civil engineering, in which very many have become eminent, not only
as designers and constructors, but as managers of great railway and manufac-
turing corporations, while many others are growing up in various subordinate
capacities, and are thus becoming fitted for the more important and responsible
duties of the profession.
The field of engineering is rapidly widening, and the specialties of hydraulic,
steam, bridge, mechanical, mining and electric engineering have been promptly
entered upon and occupied by the graduates of all our technical Schools. In all
of these the reputation of the Institute is nobly sustained by its graduates.
I believe it is not too much to say that the marked success of every educated
and thoroughly trained engineer, in any branch of the profession, creates a
demand for, and supplies, three more having similar qualifications and for similar
Service.
Although our numbers are constantly increasing, there are times when we are
quite unable to respond to applications for our graduates.
You, my dear sir, have had an opportunity to see something of our country,
and to become agguainted with its enormous extent and resources. You have
seen its public works, and have learned much in relation to its manufacturing and
mining industries. You have also witnessed the activity and enterprise of our
people. Wherever you have been, and whatever you have seen in our country,
whether it be the great structure spanning the East River between New York
and Brooklyn, the steel arch spanning the Mississippi at St. Louis, the Pennsyl-
vania Railway (the model railway of our country), or the public works of Boston,
New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and other cities, you have wit-
nessed, and can yourself bear testimony to, the effect of the training in our insti-
tution upon the engineering of our country. We cannot, and of course do not,
claim exclusive credit for these or other important engineering works. We
merely represent that the Institute has been and is represented in all of them.
I therefore state, in conclusion, that experience justifies me in expressing the
decided opinion that the training of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, as well
as that of other similar Schools, has exerted a most marked and important influ-
ence upon the engineering works of America.
- g I am, etc.,
W. Mather, Esq. (Signed) W. M. GREENE,
Director, etc.
IExhibit R.
ExTRACTS FROM MR. MATHER’s TESTIMONY BEFORE THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON
EDUCATION AND LABOR, WHOSE REPORT was PUBLISHED IN 1885, AND WHICH
CONTAINS MUCH VALUABLE INFORMATION.
In answer to questions by Senator Blair, Chairman of
*
the Committee, Mr. Mather said that he lived in Man-
37
chester, England, where he was the owner of extensive
machine shops, and stated that he had been an employer
of labor all his life. The purpose of his visit to this
country was to ascertain, on behalf of the Royal Commis-
sion on Technical Education, what opportunities are
offered to the people of this country and Canada to acquire
industrial training and technical knowledge. Mr. Mather
further testified : -
The appointment of this Royal Commission to inquire into the technical education Reasons for the
of all the countries in the world arose out of the fact that in England we have not appointment of the
many opportunities nor institutions which afford to our working-people, or eyen; soy"oom-
to our middle classes, the means of acquiring a knowledge of the sciences before ”
they enter the usual occupations of life. We have felt for the last ten years
very acutely, as you know, the competition which has sprung up in all parts of
the world with English industries, and it has been supposed by Some public men,
and by large numbers of the community generally, that our manufactures of
the simplest kind would for the future have to yield to a higher class of produc-
tions if we are to hold our place in the world as purveyors of clothing and the
various articles which we have hitherto shipped from England. The countries
of Europe have, of course, ceased to take from us gray cloth and the simplest
forms of machinery, and in a hundred ways ceased to need our services in mat-
ters for which, twenty years ago, they were absolutely dependent on us.
In consequence of this we find it necessary to improve the taste in all arti-
cles we manufacture, and to bring to bear a higher knowledge of the scientific
laws that underlie all the industries, and to educate our people into still greater
skill—a skill derived from higher intelligence. Our opportunities hitherto, in
England, to impart this sort of knowledge to our apprentices, and to men who
desire to learn after they have entered upon the Ordinary duties of life, have
been very few, and have been of a voluntary character. On the Continent of
Europe industrial and technical Schools have been in existence—in Germany,
France and Switzerland particularly—for a considerable number of years, and
the benefits accruing from these have at last invited our attention. -
The industries of England have flourished chiefly, hitherto, upon the great
demand which all the world has made upon us for Qur products, and on the
facility with which, owing to the abundance of material, we have manufactured
all our machinery and textile goods.
During the last ten years that demand, as I have said, has very much *
decreased, and we have now to pass on to a different kind of manufacture. Our
people cannot respond to this higher demand made on them. ... We have not had
the art schools or science schools to enable them to understand the laws or prin-
ciples upon which this higher industry is based.
In order to meet this, we hope to establish in all our manufacturing districts
certain institutions—you may call them technical Schools—in which not trades
shall be taught, but the Science that underlies every industry shall be imparted
to the children of workingmen, at the same time that they are somewhat trained
in industrial skill to manipulate, to pass through and understand the opera-
tions which are necessary for the various kinds of manufacture that we desire
to improve.
º; : :; $: # º; ºf: º: % º:
I will give you my own case. I have a number of engineer apprentices in my
own works. I felt the necessity of having these young fellows employ the time
38
Mr. Mather's more to their own benefit and profit, and also more to the interests of my con-
Shop School. cern, so we built a school inside the works and made it compulsory on every
apprentice to attend that School during the evening two hours in the week. If
they do not attend that School they are discharged from our employment; and
- this applies to all our apprentices. -
Trade Unions. I am happy to Say that trades unions with us have become part and parcel of
our life. We have accepted them now as one of the proper Societies for the work-
ing classes to form, and, conducted as they are by able and, I think, in the main,
conscientious and respectable men, we have joined with them rather than sepa-
rated from them. Employers of labor generally have lost that violent antagonism
which, you know, existed at one time; the trades unions have moderated many
of their demands, and whatever demands they now make, they at any rate make
in more moderate language and in more polite ways. The capitalists and labor-
ing population have both learned by experience, and, I think I may say, have
come to see that none of the interests of capital or labor can be served when there
is an antagonism between them. On the other hand, I think the laboring classes
see that capital has certain difficulties and trials and experiences of which labor-
ers know nothing, and by frequently comparing ideas, as we do under the arbi-
tration courts that are sometimes established between masters and workingmen,
- a great deal of information is passed from one side to the other.
Strikes are not The consequence is that our strikes now, though they may be long, are not violent;
Violent. though they may be stubborn on the part of the men, who will not see that trade is in
* such a state that higher wages cannot be granted; or, on the other hand, on the
part of the masters, who have their own stubbornness sometimes, and try to with-
hold from the laboring-classes the amount of wages they ought to give them when
trade has improved. While these two positions will always, of course, to some
extent, exist (for there will always be some obstinacy on both sides), yet, as a
rule, violence and passion have departed from those disputes, and all questions
are settled with good feeling. - -
In all trades, aside from the textile industries of our country, we have for
many years been, for the most part, entirely free from strikes. In all engineering
difficulties, disputes have been settled freely and without any ill-feeling. The
engineer class with us are the most intelligent, and therefore the most reason-
able. The engineer trades with us include pattern-makers, moulders, Smiths,
fitters, turners and directors of machinery—everything connected with machinery
we call engineer trades. -
The building trades have a strike occasionally, but, compared with the number
of differences that they settle by arbitration and conference, the strikes are not
of much importance. They have had long-continued disputes from time to time,
but, as I have said, there is no violence connected with them. After a certain
amount of suffering on the part of the men (for, unhappily, it generally terminates
that way with us), the difficulties are settled and they go to work. Ithink we have
Labor difficul- bridged over many difficulties by this simple remedy of arbitration. We have
ties avoided by lessened the hours of labor, and have brought nine hours a day to be the stand-
elmployers mani- e . - w - t
festing a practical ard, instead of ten hours a day. Employers generally have endeavored to show a
interest in the sympathy with the social life of all our working-people by establishing provident
welfare of their dispensaries for their succor or assistance when either injured in their work or
... laborers. stricken down by disease. We have nurseries, institutions carried on under the
superintendence of our wives, who go down into the lowest parts to find and aid
distress. This is common to every manufacturing town in the country. The
wives of the manufacturers, merchants, and employers generally have found that
the lives of the people, after their hours of work are over, are matters of their
highest regard for the sake of their own interests. Hence various institutions
have been established by public subscription and are managed by the manufac-
turing class for the benefit of the laborers. -
You may readily understand that any virtuous and good act brings its own
reward. That is an axiom that we have all accepted. But when I spoke of their
interests, I meant that from quite a material point of view, leaving out the phil-
39 -
;
anthropic motives and the higher relations of men, and speaking of it merely as Material inter.
a matter of business. Wherever the employers of labor have manifested this ests of employers
interest they have found it to be of advantage in a business point of view. What-" "“”
ever difficulties might arise between them and their employes in consequence of
wages have been more readily adjusted, and, at any rate, the motives of the
manufacturers are not misunderstood. The men only require to be convinced of
the exigencies of trade, and to see that the thing which is stated to them is
really true, to induce them to yield. This sympathy, this endeavor to elevate and
improve the working-classes all round, Sometimes by individual manufacturers,
at other times by manufacturers combining together to make a district the centre of
some means of reaching and improving the Working-classes, is having the most
excellent effect. - -
For example, the establishment of Coffee-houses, all over our cities, to form a Comee-houses,
sort of antidote to the public-house, to give workingmen a nice room in which public parks and
they can meet their fellows and sit in comfortable chairs and have a smoke and a º entertain-
talk together, and an opportunity to take this harmless beverage and creature tº
comforts of that sort, to the exclusion of spirituous liquors—all that has had a
great effect. The public parks have also helped. The musical entertainments
in the open air during the summertime—many of them encouraged by our cor-
porations and supported largely by the employers—all that work is well-directed
outlay for the enjoyment of the people.
The reduction of the hours of labor from sixty hours to fifty-four has allowed Hours of labor
all the working-people to have a holiday, leaving their work on Saturdays at 12 per Week.
o'clock. It gives them an opportunity to make their purchases in the daytime,
and to take their children out into the parks and enjoy the fresh air. The working-
hours are such that the workingman has practically got daylight all through the
year for his work, and then during the summer months, of course, there are long
evenings of daylight, and the half hour less labor at each end of the day gives the
workingman an opportunity to wash, and covers the time when he would be going
home, and is a great consideration to him. In consideration of this extra time
allowed for recreation, we find that men are attending reading-rooms more than
they did. . *
We have free libraries and reading-rooms established in each ward or district Libraries and
of our towns. If the ward is very large we divide it into districts and establish a reading rooms.
reading-room which does not cost much money (three or fourthousand pounds), and - -
there we keep the papers of the day and Scientific and literary periodicals and
some standard books, and we find that the working-people are appreciating these
advantages just in proportion as they get more time to devote to them. They
have more leisure now, and many take advantage of their time to pursue some
studies. . s
And because of this, we think our evening Science schools, which we are Evening Science
endeavoring to improve, will be better attended, and we shall therefore get Schools.
some science and art teaching into the adult working-classes who have already
begun their life-labor, who have almost always the desire to become better
informed, and will in this way be able to Satisfy that desire.
If you will allow me to, I should like to make another remark as a result of
my observation in America. I do not wish to say anything to intensify differ-
ences of opinion, but, having said it to several employers of labor, it may not bein-
appropriate to sayithere. I believe that all American working people have greater, i. Of labor in
activity, greater nervous energy than our people have, and I believe they do ****
more work, and can do more work, from that spirit of intense desire which they
have to accomplish something, to accomplish more, even, day by day, than they
have done before. This is the spirit of your people. They work harder while
at work, and I therefore say that nine hours of labor here, with the intensity of
diligence which your people display, would, I think, count for more than ten
hours of our people's work. Undoubtedly the condition of the working-classes
in this country is superior to ours, all round. The very fact that you have food
just as cheap as we have it—in some places they say it is cheaper, but at any
40 .
rate it is just as cheap as our working-people enjoy—that you pay Wages varying
from one-half as much again to double as much again for similar employment;
that you have or have had, hitherto, as I think, more constant employment than
our people have, and therefore the aggregate earnings in the whole year are
greater than they are with our people—all these indicate that there is more pur-
chasing power in the hands of the American workingman than an English
workingman enjoys. -
High rents in The one subject which strikes me as being very difficult to comprehend, and
America. most oppressive, I think, upon your working-people, is the enormous amounts
* - they pay for house-rent. I do not think I overstate the case when I say that
rents are double, all through this country, for the same degree of comfort, that
they are in England. That is so even in Pullman City, which is a model city.
It has always struck me as being a very remarkable and almost unnatural con-
dition of things that in a country where there is so much land, and where the
resources of the people are so much greater, and material therefore ought to be
so cheap, the habitations of your working-people cost so much. It is certainly
an indisputable fact that rents are double here what they are in England.
In this country waste of raw materials is the normal condition of things.
You waste your forests, your metals, your food and your drink. There is so
much waste here that it is not noticed.
All the institutions for the aid of the working-people are kept up by the
employers—all our hospitals and dispensaries—to give cheap medical advice
and cheap surgical aid, and relief in time of need. We have workingmen’s
clubs established by philanthropic people ; we have coffee-houses where the
workingmen can come and read. Into these, members of the committee come
from time to time, and take an interest in the young people.
I think what you require here is a larger interest in the working-classes by
your wealthier people. You require more institutions for their intellectual
enjoyment, for their entertainment and their recreation. You require less hours
of labor, certainly. - -
I think you ought to reduce your hours of labor to nine—it would be for the
benefit of the whole country, employers and employes—so as to give a full, Solid
half-holiday each week for the entire mass of the working-people. They would
enjoy family life more, and would have less temptation to indulge in vicious
habits.
Industrial train. .” # 7% common-school system, by introducing industrial education
injãº. side by side with intellectual education (and it would not hurt intellectual edu:
troduced into the cation, but would help it), you would have a larger number of people who would
Public schools be willing to go out into the far West, and, meeting the forces of Nature, subdue
them in a territory, that is apparently unlimited and as rich as it is boundless.
All that spirit would be evoked by these simple changes, which would be very
easy to make. It would only require probably the resolution to do it, and it
would be done. - - -
In all other respects the working-classes of this country are infinitely better
Comparison be- situated than any people abroad. They have in their form of government no
tween the condi hindrances of any kind, either from tradition or feudalism ; they can acquire
, tion ºf American land easier—it is almost given away in many parts of this country. They have
.** an equality among themselves and their foremen and managers that you do not
- see in any part of the world. I am particularly struck by the respect which the
managers and foremen here seem to have for their workmen, the civility they
show them ; all of these are advantages to the workingmen, apart from their
civil rights, which, of course, are universally admitted here ; all these make up
a social condition superior to anything we have in England. And if the Work-
ing-people were only by their habits to show that they were capable of taking
the advantages offered them by Nature and by your free institutions, they ought
to be the happiest and most prosperous people in the world. Government need
do nothing more for them, I think; but society requires to do a great deal more
for them.
41
I have heard a gentleman say here that corporations were not distinguished Public opinion
for their sympathy. That is true; and that is why I point out that society in º *.*.*.
America, in all the great centres of industry, has a duty laid upon it that I think jojº.
it is not performing in the full sense of its responsibilities. In these great corpo- dition of the lab-
rations the shares are held, I presume, by wealthy persons, representing probably oring classes.
the culture of your cities, and probably occupying public positions. It would
be a very simple matter for any of those corporations to appropriate, by their
shareholders, from year to year, such amount of money as they might wish to
appropriate for the benefit of the working-people. And if public opinion in this
country were directed toward the amelioration of the condition of the working-
classes all around, it would not be an uncommon thing for certain sums of
money, probably every year, to be given for their benefit. That is not uncom-
mon with us. We are tending somewhat ourselves, you know, to turning all our
concerns into joint-stock companies; but I am very happy to be able to say that
We often find that spirit of humanity among our corporations—not so much, per-
haps, as with individuals, but there is coming, more and more, to be an
acknowledgment of the fact that any employer of a large class of people is bound
to regard those people on the social side as well as the industrial side.
IExhibit S.
ExTRACTS FROM AN ADDRESS ON TECHNOLOGICAL INSTRUCTION, BY PHILIP MAGNUs,
SECRETARY AND DIRECTOR of THE CITY AND GUILDs of LoNDON INSTITUTE.
Workmen, generally, make a great mistake in taking a very narrow view of
their own educational requirements. Instances of this are continually coming
under my notice. It is difficult, for example, to make them understand that a
knowledge of intimately associated and cognate branches of their trade is likely
to prove Serviceable to them ; that in order to become efficient foremen it is
necessary that they should possess an intelligent and comprehensive acquaintance
with the entire area of the work in which they are engaged. It is partly to
Correct the cramping influence of the extreme division of labor that technical
instruction has become necessary. - -
Speaking from my own experience, I should say that workmen generally care to
learn in the School very little more than they might learn in the shop; they only
want to learn it more quickly. This desire of workmen to learn those parts only
of a subject which seem to them to be intimately connected with their special
Occupation reminds me of a fact told me by a medical friend, that among his
students of anatomy was one who expressed his decided unwillingness to dissect
the abdominal cavity, because, as a surgeon, he intended to devote himself exclu-
'sively to diseases of the eye. This narrow view of the scope and objects of
technical education needs to be steadily and persistently discouraged, and it is
one of the objects of this college to bring home to the workman the advantages
of a wider and more comprehensive system of instruction.
A similar difficulty is experienced in inducing adult artisan students to attach
sufficient value to a knowledge of the elementary principles of the sciences
bearing upon their industry. This is due partly to the method of science teach-
ing commonly adopted, which does not distinguish between the requirements of
School-children and of adult workmen, and partly to the fact that such students
are too impatient to see the immediate applicability, at each successive stage, of
the knowledge they are gaining to their particular work. It is possible that the
fundamental principles of Science are not always presented to the artisan student
in as attractive a form as they might be, and that he is not made to see, at a
sufficiently early stage, the connection between the instruction he is receiving
and the occupation in which he is engaged ; but of the value and the importance
of this elementary knowledge as preliminary to, and as an essential part of, tech-
Ilical instruction, we must take care never to lose sight. -
42
/
These and other difficulties will doubtless be found to gradually disappear in
the training of young apprentices, who will constitute the workmen of the future,
and whom, in the interests of trade, quite apart from the material advantages
which they themselves may derive from such instruction, it is most desirable to
carefully educate. In Belgium, and in some parts of Germany, where technical
teaching is better systematized than in this country, the class-rooms, in the
evening, are filled with young students who attend five or six nights a week and
follow the Several courses of instruction in the order in which they are recom-
mended to them ; and, in the hope of being able to introduce a somewhat similar
System into this college, courses of instruction have been arranged, adapted to
the requirements of apprentices engaged in various industries, but affording, at
the same time, an education in the true sense of the word. These curricula have
been drawn up with special reference to the educational wants of the mechanic,
the electrician, the metal-plate worker, the cabinetmaker, the carpenter, the
bricklayer, the plumber, etc., and are intended to supplement without interfering
with his workshop training.
In the Ordinary teaching of pure science the preliminary stages of instruction
are such as afford, or are intended to afford, the best basis on which the super-
Structure of higher knowledge can afterwards be raised, and where the pupil has
a long course of study before him, to which he can devote himself before being
required to apply his knowledge to any special art or industry. No better method
of instruction can be devised. - -
But the case is different where the pupil’s period of study is necessarily
limited, and is not long enough to enable him to attain to that higher knowledge
which would justify the time spent in preparation for it. Indeed, in this respect,
the practical educator may take a lesson from the builder, who adapts his founda-
tions to the Superstructure to be raised upon them. This question of time is an
important factor in the consideration of all schemes of technical instruction
necessitating the early specification of the student’s work. For we may take it
for granted that the pupil requires not only a knowledge of the principles of
Science and of the details of practical work, but the ability to apply the one to
the other; and for this reason it is essential that theory and practice should be
ºned in his instruction, and that both should have reference to his particular
WOrk.
In this college all the subjects of instruction will be taught, as far as possible,
with reference to the career or occupations of the students; that is to say, the
teacher will keep steadily before him the purposes to which the student will apply
his knowledge in the instruction which he gives him. Indeed, the technical
teacher ought to be so constituted as to be able to keep one eye on the general
principles of Science, and the other upon the industry which his pupil intends to
follow. Instruction of this kind must overlap ordinary science teaching and the
teaching of a trade, and must yet be distinct from either. Between the ordinary,
or the scholastic, teaching of the elements of physics, and the instruction, for
example, that might be given to a novice in the manipulation of a telegraphic
instrument, there is a wide difference ; and it is within this difference that a
technical teacher is called upon to do his work. So, too, between the teaching of
Euclidian geometry and the rules that would be given to an apprentice for the
construction of a particular kind of joint, or the cutting out of a sheet of metal
to a given pattern, lies the border-land for technical instruction in the applica-
tion of geometry to joinery and to metal-plate work.
Speaking generally, the method of teaching science in this college will be based
on the well-known educational principle that all teaching should proceed from
the concrete to the abstract, from the known to the unknown. The student will
be brought into contact, first of all, with the actual working machine, and he
will then proceed to analyze it into its different elementary parts, and to deduce
the laws of their action. In this way the principles of science will be derived
from the mechanical contrivances exemplifying them, just as the laws of growth
and decay are inferred by the student of biology from the observations of living
43
animals and plants. This method of Science teaching has been tersely described
by Professor Ayrton as the analytical, as distinguished from the synthetical
method ; and it is satisfactory to know that in this college it will receive a fair
trial. To the adult student the advantage of this system of instruction must be
plainly manifest, for he, being already familiar with the general character of the
machinery he uses, will arrive at a knowledge of the abstract principles of
Science by a natural and easy method of inquiry into the causes that explain the
processes he sees ; and, apart altogether from the material advantages he may
derive from this higher knowledge, he will be enabled to reach the state of happi-
ness ascribed by Virgil to the similarly educated agriculturists,
“—quº potuit verum cognoscere causas.”
It is scarcely necessary to add that the teaching in this school will be essen-
tially practical ; that more will be done in the laboratories, in the drawing-
rooms and workshops than in the lecture theatres. Indeed, it may be rather
Said that the lectures will form a commentary on the practical work than that
the practical work will serve only to illustrate the lectures.
It must be remembered, in considering this difference of method, that the
main purpose of the teaching to be given in this Institution is not to make
scientific men, nor to train scientists, as the Americans call them, but to educate
technikers, as the Germans say ; to explain to those preparing for industrial
work, or already engaged in it, the principles that have a direct bearing upon
their occupation, so that they may be enabled to think back from the processes
they see to the causes underlying them, and thus substitute scientific method for
mere rule of thumb. It is almost Superfluous to remark that instruction of this
kind can be given by those only who possess a wide and deep knowledge of their
subject, and a full and accurate acquaintance with the practical and commercial
details of the industry or trade to which their teaching refers. Indeed, it is now
generally recognized that technical teachers must be familiar with the processes
of the factory or workshop. Teachers of this kind the President of the British
Association must have had in view when, in his opening address at Southampton,
contrasting them with the ardent students of Nature, the “High Priests of
Science,” he said : “It is not to them that we must look for our excellence and
progress in practical science; nor must we look for it to the rule-of-thumb prac-
titioner who is guided by what comes nearer to instinct. It is to the man of
science, who gives attention to practical questions, and to the practitioner, who
devotes part of his time to prosecution of strictly scientific investigations, that
we owe the rapid progress of the present day.” Such men, of whom the writer
himself is so illustrious an example, are difficult to find ; and yet the progress
of technical education in this country depends upon their supply.
The teacher who is to inspire confidence in his artisan students must address
them in the language they understand, and must show that he is not beyond
appreciating practical difficulties which occur to them in their daily work. Dr.
Siemens further tells us that “theory and practice are so interdependent that an
intimate union between them is a matter of absolute necessity for our future
progress”; and certainly none are more alive to the truth of this proposition, as
regards educational progress, than artisan students, for it is to them a constant
source of regret that they are unable to see the relation of scientific truths, as
they are generally imparted to them, to the work in which they are engaged ;
and in this complaint, which is so often heard, is found the protest of workmen
against the divorce of practice from theory in the instruction which they fre-
quently receive. With the view of indicating the requisite qualifications of the
technical teacher, the Council of this institute have inserted in their programme of
technological examinations a paragraph stating that persons having a practical
acquaintance with their trade, acquired in the factory or workshop, and possessing,
at the same time, such knowledge of pure science as enables them to teach under
the Science and Art Department, will be registered as teachers by the institute.
Of the four departments into which the college is divided, that of electrical
* t
44
engineering promises, for some time at least, to be the most attractive to
students. The applications of electricity to telegraphy, telephony, illumination,
machinery and locomotion are among the most recent of the practical develop-
ments of science, and seem to afford a glimpse, if nothing more, of the wider
field of invention which is yet to be explored. The appetite for wonders grows
with what it feeds upon, and never before, perhaps, was the world more willing
to believe in the possibilities of science than now. This universal credence
almost constitutes a new faith. The numerous discoveries fetched within the
last few years from the seemingly boundless world of physical science verify and
give a special significance to Cicero’s words: • , -
“Omnibus fere in rebus, et maxime in physicis, quid nom sit Citius quam quid
Sºt, diacerim.” -
Although electricity may be regarded, just at present, as the most popular
of the sciences, the discoveries which have recently been made in other
branches of knowledge are scarcely less important. The skill and the invent-
ive power of the mechanician have been called into requisition with every
advance in physics and in chemistry. Indeed, it is only when the inventions
of physicists and chemists are capable of being adapted to machinery that
these inventions can be said to be practically serviceable. The great discov-
eries which have recently been made in chemical science, in the application
of which to industrial purposes the Germans and the Swiss have left us so far
in the rear, are among the causes that have given rise to the demand in this
country for the technical instruction which the City and Guilds of London
are engaged in providing. It may reasonably be supposed that many of the
students of this college will entertain the laudable ambition to have their
names enrolled among those who have pushed discovery one step further,
and have added something to the sum total of human knowledge ; and it may
be encouraging to these students to be told that they will here receive a
preparatory training that should help to place the power of discovery within
their reach. For discovery in science, like design in art, does not depend
entirely upon, although it is greatly aided by, inspiration and genius. Any one
who is carefully trained in the methods of research, who is shown the processes
by which the system of organized knowledge, known as science, has been
gradually built up, may reasonably hope to unravel fresh secrets of Nature,
and to add something to our knowledge of what is or may be. Except, per-
haps, in the region of chemistry, it is not the masters of acquired knowledge,
the professors of abstract science, but rather those who have made science
minister to art—practising first and then calling theory to their aid—who, as
discoverers, have exerted most influence upon the material progress of the
World, and have chiefly assisted in the development of its trade and commerce.
Exhibit, T.
MASSACEUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY..—SoCIETY OF ARTs.—EDUCATION FOR
RAILROAD ENGINEERING.
The 351st meeting of the Society of Arts was held at the Institute of Tech-
nology on Thursday evening, Oct. 28, President Walker in the chair.
After reading the records of the previous meeting, the President introduced
Mr. C. D. Jameson, of the Institute, who read a paper on “Railroadlºngineering
Education.” --
Mr. Jameson said: “The duties of the first railroad engineers were much
more general than those of the present engineers. They located and built their
railroads, designed their locomotives, rolling stock and bridges, and when com-
pleted managed the road with success, and this without the aid of experience or
precedent. Usually they were men who had had no early education or training in
railroading, but possessed an indomitable will, unlimited patience and a good
stock of common sense.
45
“We undoubtedly do things more quickly now than then, and in many re-
spects do them better; but this is due to the fact that we naturally profit by their
experience, and also at the present time no one man does the whole of anything,
hence he can do his particular part better. -
“In many branches, however, we have made little, if any, advancement.
This is particularly the case in the matter of location, where we seem to have
copied the earlier engineers in their errors, but not in their habits of careful
observation and study. -
“The majority of our railroads are uneconomically located, and not only was
the first cost of construction more than it ought to have been, but the loss in the
operating expenses is enormous, and increases with increasing business. This loss
is not, in the majority of cases, due entirely to the engineering profession, but to
the mistaken policy on the part of the management of the railroad companies.
“The expenses of the engineering parties on preliminary work and final loca-
tion are very great, and for much of this expense the management can see no
direct return, and there seems to be an idea abroad that most of the money spent
in this way goes for theory and is of very little practical use to the company.
Therefore the salary of the locating engineer is comparatively small, and his
ability is frequently small in proportion. The number of his assistants is kept
as low as possible and the result is inferior work. The vital principles upon
which the economic location of a railroad depends are not considered at all, or,
at the most, in a very slight degree, and the Smaller details upon which, to a
great extent, depends the ultimate financial success of the road, are left entirely
out of account. -
“After the road is located the management secures the services of the best
construction engineer possible. This is as it should be ; but no matter how great
may be the abilities of the construction engineer, or how much he may save in
overcoming the defects in location, still the greater part of the money merely
passes through his hands as a paymaster, having been actually expended months
before by the locating engineer. .
“In order that the railroad engineer of the future may be thoroughly compe-
tent, both in the “theory of economic location' and in the details connected with
the work in the field, too much attention cannot be paid to this branch of educa-
tion.
“We are in an age of specialties. The engineering profession has been sub-
divided, so that we now have civil, mechanical, mining, hydraulic, sanitary,
bridge and railroad engineers. In order to reach distinction a man must confine
himself to his specialty, and if that be railroading, his time either as a student
or as a man in active work will be amply filled in keeping pace with the age.
“There seems to be a tendency among certain classes to sneer at an educa-
tion, considering the time that is spent at college wasted, and that it might
have been spent to much greater advantage in actual work in the field. Many
instances are cited by these people in corroboration of this belief of persons who
have risen to the head of their professions by their own exertion, without the
aid of a college or technical education, and also of a large number of men who,
having graduated from our finest schools, have accomplished nothing. The
reason for this is not that these unsuccessful men lost anything by going to col-
lege, but they were greatly inferior in energy and ability to the others. Colleges
do not profess to make brains, but simply to teach the man to use what he has
to the best advantage, and the man who is successful without a college or
technical education would, with this aid, have ſound the path to success much
easier and shorter.
“In the years which intervened between the first railroad engineers and those
of the present they were considered a necessity in locating and building the road
only. The road was then turned over to business men to manage. As long as
the roads were small, and the repairs and renewals slight, this worked well. As
the number of roads increased, and long lines and systems began to be formed,
the increase of traffic demanded a large increase in the size and weight of the
46
locomotives and rolling stock ; this in turn necessitated renewals and additions
to the roadbed and track, the replacing of the old bridges by new and heavier
ones. This reconstruction in the form of renewals will never cease, and with it
all the railroad companies have come to see the necessity of a permanent and
reliable engineering corps. Thus the field of work for the railroad engineer has
broadened from the transient work of locating and constructing the road to per-
manent positions on established roads, where there are abundant opportunities
of making good use of his ability. But in order to take advantage of all these
opportunities there is need of a much broader education in what we may call
‘ railway Science,” which includes many branches as yet very little taught in
our technical schools. t
“Let us now look at some of the items that should be included in a course of
instruction in “railway science,” or, as it is commonly called, a ‘special course
for railway engineers.” The length of the course should, if possible, be five
years instead of four. The first two years should be devoted to laying a firm
foundation in the general studies, particular attention being paid to mathemat-
ics, chemistry and physics in their more elementary forms; the third year to the
general study of civil engineering, and the last two years to a special study of
railroads in all their branches. The third year’s course should contain thorough
instruction and practice in the field work of the railway engineer, in both loca-
tion and construction. When the weather will permit, the field work should be
pushed even to the point of sacrificing some of the work in the class-room. The
field methods should be taught exactly as they are now used in the best practice;
the same terms used, the same organization of parties, and, most of all, the same
discipline and strict attention to business. The greatest possible attention
should be paid to the subject of location in all its details in the field, and when
the student has mastered as far as possible the principles that govern a railroad
location in regard to the geography of the country and understands the actual
work of putting the line on the ground, then, and not till then, should he be
instructed in those finer details and principles of the work called the ‘Theory
of Economic Location,” and upon which the true location of a railroad de-
bends.
pen This ‘Theory of Economic Location should be taught in the last two years.
Also there should be given a course of instruction in every branch of railroad
construction, which should contain an amount of hydraulic and Sanitary engi-
neering sufficient to enable the person to build and maintain stations, shops,
etc., and the proper handling of all the water that may be encountered in the
construction and maintenance of the road; the ‘maintenance of way' in all its
details, both in theory and practice ; the proper management and economical
distribution of large and Small gangs of laborers; railway management as it
applies to the operating of the road, such as internal management of the sepa-
rate departments and their relations to the general management; the making
up and running of trains; running and repairs of locomotives and rolling stock;
station and terminal service; the relation between the railroad and the public ;
the financial management as to bonds, stocks, leased lines, consolidations, pools,
etc.; and all the questions of railway transportation, legislative interference
and State ownership.
“In the instruction in any branch of engineering the one thing to be kept
prominently before the student is economy of design and construction. It is not
enough to be able to design and construct a bridge of a certain length which
shall Safely hold up a given load, or a station that shall accommodate a given num-
ber of passengers and trains, but this should be done at the least possible cost.
“If a person examines the courses of instruction in the different branches of
engineering in the various technical schools in this country, he will be struck
with the antiquated ideas and methods that still prevail in a majority of them.
With but one or two exceptions there is no instruction given in railroad engi-
neering proper, and the merest outline of the principles of location and con-
struction. There are undoubtedly some reasons why the schools are so much
47
behind the times, and one of the most common and at the same time the most
serious is the lack of money. Another is the low standard of admission, in con-
sequence of which the whole of the first year is occupied in teaching what ought
to have been learned before entering. The standard of admission is often low-
ered to attract students, but it is a suicidal policy and soon ruins the reputation
of the school. Every school should have an endowment large enough to pay all
salaries and running expenses without depending in the least on the tuition of
the students. Students should not be admitted until they are eighteen years of
age, so that they will be able to .ully appreciate the advantages offered them.
“Still another reason is in the fact that the faculties of many of the technical
schools have allowed themselves to get into ruts, from which it is difficult to
move them. With the exception of the first, these reasons may be classed under
the head of bad management, and the trouble can be easily corrected.
“Every advantage should be placed at the disposal of the student. All the
apparatus necessary for experiment of every kind should be provided ; a good
library containing every book of worth bearing on the different subjects; a
good, quiet reading-room where all the engineering periodicals of the day are
accessible. The student should be encouraged to do as much reading from a
literary standpoint as possible. It teaches him how to think and to express his
thoughts in a clear, logical and grammatical manner. -
“He should be taught habits of application and the power of being able to
concentrate the whole mind for the time being upon whatever work he has in
hand. In other words, he should be taught to study so that when he leaves he
will not only be able to profit by his own experience as it comes slowly, but,
what is far better, to profit by the experience of others, and thus at once advance
to a point which it would take him years to reach by himself.
“During the years spent at the Institute the student should examine as much
as possible all engineering works that can in any way interest him while in
process of construction.
“In conclusion, let me say that the student should be so drilled that when he
graduates he can have not only the diploma of the school, but, what is of more
importance to him, can accept any position in his profession that offers, prove
himself of use, and therefore a necessity to his employer, and earn a living for
himself.” - -
The paper was followed by a lengthy discussion, in which President Walker,
Professor Swain, Hon. J. A. Dresser, Mr. George R. Hardy and Mr. Dwight
#. took part. The meeting adjourned with a vote of thanks to Mr.
8, UdeSOUl.
Exhibit U.
BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD COMPANY.,
GENERAL MANAGER’s OFFICE.
GENERAL ORDER No. 5. BALTIMORE, January 15, 1885.
Executive Order No. 6, dated January 15, 1885, from the office of the Presi-
dent, is republished for the information of those concerned [see Exhibit A]:
In accordance there with, the following general regulations governing the
appointment, admission and service of Apprentices of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad Company are announced, superseding all previous regulations relating
thereto :
SECTION I.
1. On and after this date all Apprentices will be embraced under the following
general designations, and graded into three classes—viz.:
1st (Junior) Class, B. & O. Apprentices; 2d Class, B. & O. Cadets; 3d (Senior)
Class, B. & O. Cadet Officers.
2. The term of service in the several classes will be: First class, 4 years;
Second class, 3 years; third class, 3 years.
48
3. As the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company undertakes the expense of
educating Apprentices and Cadets passing the physical and educational exami-
nations, it will expect the privilege of availing of the services of such as are
competent for its purposes, at fair Salaries, for at least three years after
graduation.
4. Apprentices and Cadets will be amenable to the discipline and regulations
of the Company, and violation of its rules, neglect of its interests, destruction
of its tools or waste of its property, will be cause for dismissal. But, while
liable to suspension by their immediate official Superiors, Apprentices and Cadets
cannot be dismissed except by the direct action of the General Manager of the
Company; his decision as to dismissal being final and conclusive.
5. The pay of Apprentices and Cadets in the several classes will be:
FIRST CLASS. SECOND CLASS. THIRD CLASS.
1st year, $.70 per day. || 1st year, $1.00 per day. || 1st year, $1.50 per day.
2d “ .80 * * 2d “ 1.12% “ 2d “ 1.75 “
3d “ .90 * * 3d “ 1.25 + . 3d “ 2.00 “
4th ‘‘ 1.00 “ .
commencing with the date of their admission into the service. As an incentive
for efficiency, fidelity, industry, energy, and care of its property, the Company
will give to each of its Apprentices, on the completion of his term of four years'
service in the first class, and to those Cadets passing through the full courses of
the Second and third classes, whose record for that time has been praiseworthy
and Satisfactory, a sum equal to eight and a half cents per day for each full day
they serve in the first class, and twelve and a half cents for each full day they
serve in the second class. -
6. The Cadets of the second and third classes—and all students of the Techno-
logical School—will be required to wear in the School, on all public occasions,
and at any and all other times designated by the General Manager, a prescribed
uniform, all the parts of which will be of like pattern and will befurnished by
the Purchasing Agent—the first suit free, and all renewals at cost price; pay-
ment being arranged in instalments to suit the means of the Cadets.
7. Apprentices possessing the qualifications and standard of attainments
required of students of the Technological School at Mt. Clare, Baltimore, and
all Cadets, are entitled to enter that institution. Students of the Technological
School, either of whose parents have been in the employ of this Company for
five consecutive years, are entitled to free tuition and use of text-books and
apparatus. Other students, Sons of employes of less than five years' service, are
entitled to free tuition in the first class, and to tuition in the second and third
classes at half the rates fixed for other students by the regulations of the Tech-
mological School. Apprentices and Cadets appointed outside the service, while
under pay from the Company, will be charged full tuition fees for instruction in
the Technological School. -
8. Apprentices or Cadets of one class can, in the discretion of the General
Manager, be promoted into a higher class before the expiration of the full term
of their respective classes, on the certification by the Corps of Instructors of the
Technological School of their having satisfactorily passed examinations entitling
them to such promotion. Such examinations shall be graded, and those of
higher grade shall first be promoted. But no Cadet Oſſicer will be graduated
until he shall have taken the full course of instruction of the third class.
9. In filling vacancies in the second class, other things being equal, profer-
ence will always be given Apprentices, in order of merit, over other outside
applicants for such cadetships.
49
10. No appointment shall be made in the grade of Cadet Officers except from
Cadets of the second class, in the order of merit, as certified by the Corps of
Instructors. …
11. On the completion of their courses, members of the several classes will be
entitled to a final examination by a Board composed of members of the Corps of
Instructors and Railroad Officials appointed for this duty by the President of
this Company, and upon passing Satisfactorily such final examination, will be
awarded diplomas setting forth their qualifications and entitling them to prefer-
ence over all other applicants not thus graduating, in appointments to the higher
classes or in filling vacancies in positions of responsibility in the gift of this Com-
pany, as they may elect, and as the Board may recommend.
12. Regular attendance upon the Sessions of the Technological School is obliga-
tory upon all Cadets and upon all Apprentices located at Baltimore as the Board
of Examiners may determine are fit to enter the School, and they will be equally
amenable to the discipline and regulations of the School as to those of the
Company.
13. Students at the Technological School will have the privilege of purchasing,
in small instalments, such of the tools, implements and text-books used in the
• course of instruction there as they may desire and as may be deemed useful to
them after graduation. - *
14. Apprentices and Cadets are required to become members of the Baltimore
and Ohio Employes’ Relief Association, the same as other employes, and are
entitled to all the privileges of its Savings IFund and other features.
15. Through the Free Circulating Library at Mt. Clare, Apprentices and
Cadets residing outside of Baltimore can obtain the free use of text-books and
apparatus to enable them to ſollow the course of the Technological School.
APPOINTMENT OF APIPRENTICES AND CADETS,
SECTION II.
1. Apprentices and Cadets are not bound by indenture, but those who com-
plete satisfactorily the terms for which they are engaged will be given certifi-
cates of general character and ability. *
2. The number of Apprentices and Cadets will be regulated by the General
Manager, who, under these regulations, will have the exclusive appointment
thereof and their assignment among the various departments and stations of the
service. All applications for appointment should be addressed to him.
3. Other things being equal, preference in appointments will be given sons of
employes of long and faithful Service, and especially the sons of employes killed
or disabled in the service. To enable the sons of employes to enjoy this privi-
lege to its fullest extent, free transportation from points on this Company’s lines
nearest their homes, to the place of examination and return, is offered them ;
candidates paying their own travelling expenses. -
QUALIFICATIONS OF CANDIDATES.
SECTION III.
1. Candidates for admission to the first class must be between 15 and 21 years
of age, and to the second class between 17 and 22 years of age.
2. Candidates must, at the time of examination, be physically sound, of robust
constitution, and generally free from any deformity, hereditary or acquired
tendency to disease or infirmity which may render them unfit for the active
service of this Company. .
3. Candidates must be well versed in reading, writing, including orthography,
in arithmetic, and have a knowledge of the elements of English grammar, and
of descriptive geography, and of the history of the United States.
50
4. Candidates will be examined: first, by two Medical Examiners of the Relief
Association. whose decision as to their physical qualifications shall be final ;
Second, by one or more Instructors of the Technological School, whose decision
as to their educational qualifications shall be final.
5. The Examining Boards will meet at Mt. Clare Station, Baltimore, on the
first Monday of each month, when there are candidates for examination. No
candidates will be allowed re-examination within three months of last rejection
by either Board.
6. Candidates who pass the physical and educational examinations will be
required to become members of the Baltimore and Ohio Employes' Relief
Association.
[An illustration of the character of examination which applicants for appren-
ticeship will be expected to pass is appended to this order.]
SECTION IV.
1. In the order of seniority of examination, and as vacancies occur, candidates
will be assigned to probationary duty in the particular branch of the mechanical
or other operating department in which, through inclination or aptitude, as ,
determined by their examination, they are most likely to succeed.
2. At the expiration of six months they will be re-examined, and those passing
will receive warrants of appointment, and will be assigned to the respective
classes their qualifications entitle them to enter. Those found to be specially
advanced or apt will, with their consent, be detailed to duty at the Company’s
works, Mt. Clare, Baltimore, where, in the Technological School, they will have
special opportunities for technical instruction.
SECTION V.
A Board for the examination and classification of all Apprentices now in the
service is hereby convened. Messrs. — and are designated
as the members of the Board to conduct the examination as to educational
qualifications, and the Secretary of the Relief Association will detail two Medical
lºxaminers to serve thereon. The Board as thus constituted will immediately
enter upon its duties.
The Board of Examiners will convene on the first Monday of each month at
Mt. Clare, Baltimore, for the examination of candidates ordered before it by the
General Manager. As the finding of this Board will be final, and as a sound
body and constitution, good natural capacity and aptitude for study, industrious
habits, perseverance and an orderly disposition, together with a correct moral
deportment, are essential qualifications, candidates knowingly deficient in any of
these respects should not subject themselves and friends to the chances of future
disappointment by entering upon a career which, lacking these qualifications,
they cannot successfully pursue.
B. DUNHAM, General Manager.
ILLUSTRATION OF CHARACTER OF EXAMINATIONS.
SECTION VI.
PHYSICAL EXAMINATION.
Every candidate will be subjected to a rigid physical examination, and if
there is found to exist in him any of the following causes of disqualification, to
such a degree as would immediately, or at no distant period, impair his efficiency
for the active service of this Company, he will be rejected :
1. Feeble constitution and muscular tenuity; unsound health from whatever
cause ; indications of former disease ; glandular Swellings or other symptoms of
scrofula. e
51.
2. Chronic cutaneous affections, especially of the scalp.
3. Severe injuries of the bones of the head; convulsions.
4. lmpaired vision, from whatever cause; inflammatory affections of the
eyelids ; immobility or irregularity of the iris; fistula lachrymalis, etc., etc.
5. Deafness; copious discharge from the ears.
6. Serious impediment of speech.
7. Want of due capacity of the chest, and any other indication of a liability
to pulmonic disease.
8. Impaired or inadequate efficiency of one or both of the superior extremities
on account of fractures, contraction of a joint, deformity, etc.
9. An unusual excurvature or incurvature of the spine.
10. Hernia.
11. A varicose state of the veins of the scrotum or spermatic cord (when large),
Sarcocele, hydrocele, fistulas. .
12. Impaired or inadequate efficiency of one or both of the inferior extremities
on account of varicose veins, fractures, malformation, permanent lameness, con-
traction, unequal length, etc., etc.
13. Ulcers, or unsound cicatrices of ulcers likely to break out afresh.
EDUCATIONAL EXAMINATION.
The following outline, problems, and questions are given as illustrating the
nature and scope of the educational examinations. While these illustrate the
character of the examination, it should be distinctly understood that different
questions will be used at each examination. The examinations will be part
written and partly oral.
ARITHMETIC.
, a. Fundamental rules, with methods of proof and reasons for processes.
b. Factoring : G. C. D. and L. C. M. and their applications ; common and
decimal fractions, their kinds, Solution, and reduction from one to the other,
with both the rule and the reason for each operation.
c. Denominate numbers; tables; reduction, ascending and descending ;
changing denominate numbers to equivalent decimals.
d. Ratio and proportion, their kinds, methods and applications.
e. Mensuration of lines, surfaces, and Solids, and their representation by
drawings.
f. Percentage and its applications.
g. Involution and evolution, and their applications.
h. Analysis of mental problems.
Illustrative Problems and Questions.
1. Write in figures one hundred and sixty billion three million seventy
thousand and five. Write in words 246004050. Write in Roman numerals
40, 90, 144 ; and in Arabic numerals L., XIV, LIX, CVIII and DCCLXXV.
2. Add two and five-tenths, eighty-six thousands, twenty-four ten-millionths
and 8-tenths, multiply the result by .0002, and divide the product thus obtained
by .00004. -
3. Find the cost of 20 acres, 3 roods and 30 perches of land at $62.50
)el" &CI’0. .
} 4. A man sold 24; bushels of wheat at $2; per bushel, and received in pay-
ment apples at $3% per barrel. How many barrels of apples did he receive
5. Reduce 6 furlongs 20 rods to decimal of a mile.
6. Reduce .0256 to a common fraction and is to a decimal. -
7. Add {, 1%, ##, #, and divide the result by 3. Also reduce to its simplest
} + 2}
form ºf 2i.
7
52
8. Define fraction, common fraction, decimal fraction, proper fraction, mixed
number, division, greatest common divisor, least common multiple, cancellation,
long division, and denominator.
9. Find the prime factors of the following: 256, 312, 63, 280, 289 and 1386.
10. Divide the least common multiple of 240, 720 and 150 by the greatest
common divisor of the same numbers. -
11. Find the interest on $240 for 3 years and 6 months at 8%.
12. How must I sell cloth that cost $4 per yard so as to gain 20% 7 *
13. A and B together have $540, and A has twice as much as B. How much
has each 2
14. # of 24 is 3 of what number 2
15. What number divided by .024 will yield a quotient of .25? Prove.
16. Find the area and hypothenuse of a right-angled triangle whose base is 240
and altitude 75.
17. How many men would be required to cultivate a field of 23 acres in 5%
days of 10 hours each, if each man completed 77 Square yards in 9 hours? .
18. If 5 cubic feet of gold weigh 98.20 times as much as a cubic foot of water,
and 2 cubic feet of copper weigh 18 times as much as a cubic foot of water, how
many cubic inches of copper will weigh as much as # of a cubic inch of gold 2
19. What is the effect of dividing the denominator of a fraction by a whole
number, and why? "
20. What is the effect of annexing a cipher to a decimal, and why 2"
21. If the same number be subtracted from both terms of an improper fraction,
what will be the effect 2 Why? - -
22. Give the rule for reducing a common fraction to an equivalent decimal,
and explain why the resulting decimal will be equal to the common fraction
from which it is obtained.
23. Give the rule for dividing one decimal by another, and explain why the
decimal point in the quotient is placed where the rule directs.
GRAMMAR AND ITS APPLICATIONS IN CONVERSATION, IN LETTER-
WRITING, AND IN COMPOSITION.
Outline.
a. The parts of speech, with their properties and inflections.
b. Analysis of ordinary simple, complex and compound sentences, and the
fundamental relations of subject, copula, predicate, object, etc.
c. Punctuation, capitalization, spelling, etc., in original composition or from
dictation,
d. Corrections of improper use of words, constructions and sentences, in ordi-
nary conversation, and in composition and letter-writing.
Illustrative l'avercise in Grammar.
1. Name the parts of speech and define noun, adverb and conjunction.
2. Name the properties of the moun ; of the verb.
3. Decline boy, he, it and who. .
4. Conjugate the verb to throw in the indicative mood, past tense, passive
W. O.100.
5. Write the plural of lady, turkey, this, that, box, house, potato, mouse,
sheep and father-in-law. -
6. Name the relative pronouns and compare good, little, old, happy, big, thin
and likely. -
7. Parse all the words in the following sentence : The birds sing merrily in the
green trees. .
8. Correct the following and give reasons:
a. Elim and me will come.
b. He saw John and I in the garden.
53
c. Who did she marry 2
d. Between you and I there is but little difference.
e. I laid down and slept because I was to tired to set up.
9. Capitalize, punctuate and correct the following sentences:
a. the Groves were gods first temples
b. when will You and i get there -
c. john left New york i cannot tell when he will git Home.
d. John, and me and James went to school. at Boston last winter. We
got home on thursday.
10. Write a description of this room and its furniture: Be careful to capi-
talize and punctuate correctly.
GEOGRAPHY.
1. Give the distance in miles around the earth ; also the length of its diameter.
How wide is the Atlantic Ocean P. How far would you have to travel in going
across the United States from east to west ? from north to south ? When you do
not know the exact answer, put down about what you think would be the correct
3,1] SW CI’. -
2. Name the grand divisions in order of their size; of their population. Where
do the most highly civilized nations live 2 -
3. Bound Europe and name five of its principal rivers, telling where they rise
and empty. Also name and locate five of the principal cities of Europe.
4. Name the principal mountain systems of Asia ; of Africa; of South
America. - - -
5. Name the States of the United States that border on the Atlantic, and
give the capital and metropolis of each. Also name the largest State of the
United States; the smallest ; the most populous.
m; Give the leading products of Georgia ; of California ; of Pennsylvania ; of
}I) ORS. -
7. Locate the following and tell what they are: Sahara, Washington,
Columbia, Portland, Blanc, Nile, and Mexico.
8. Bound the United States, and give its area and population.
9. Name the political divisions of South America.
10. Write fifteen lines about Africa. .
11. Bound your native State, giving its capital, metropolis, and principal
products. -
12. How are United States Senators elected, and for how long a term 2
|UNITED STATES HISTORY.
Outlºve.
. Aborigines of America. -
. European settlements, when, where, and by whom.
. Colonial history, and inter-colonial wars.
. American Revolution, its remote and immediate causes and results.
. Constitution, why and when adopted; its departments and powers.
The Presidents and events of their administrations.
. War of 1812; Mexican War; Civil War.
. Current events.
i
Illustrative Questions.
1. Tell something about Columbus, stating where and when he lived, what he
discovered, what voyages he made, etc. What do you think of the treatment
that he received ?
2. Name the different European countries that tried to get possession in
America, and tell which three were the most successful. -
3. Give an account of the French and Indian War, telling what it was about
and how it terminated. -
54
4. Write thirty lines about the American Revolution, telling its cause, naming
five principal battles, three generals on each side, etc.
5. What was the Declaration of Independence 2 Who wrote it 2
6. Name the Presidents of the United States and give the leading events of
Jackson’s administration.
7. Tell something about Franklin, Wolfe, Morse, Fulton, Longfellow, Emer-
son, Arnold, and Alexander Hamilton.
8. What cities have been the capital of the United States ?
9. What happened in 1492 * 1565 2 1607 ? 1620 2 1776 2 1876 2
10. How long did the war of the Rebellion last, and during whose adminis-
tration did it take place 2 State the provisions of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Amendments.
11. What is the objectionable feature of Mormonism, and what measures have
been advocated in Congress to eradicate this evil?
12. What event is there talk of celebrating by an International Exposition at
Washington in 1889 2 In 1892?
13. What is the use of International Expositions?
NOTE.-lt is suggested to candidates for admission to the Corps of Appren-
tices and Cadets that, before leaving their places of residence, they should cause
themselves to be thoroughly examined by a physician, and by a teacher or
instructor of good standing. By such examinations any serious physical dis-
qualification or want of educational preparation would be revealed, and the
candidate spared the expense and mortification of a useless journey and rejection.
But it is to be understood that such examination is solely for the convenience and
benefit of the candidates, and in no manner affects the decision of the Official
Examiners of the Board.
IExhibit, V.
BALTIMORE AND OHIO TECHNOLOGICAL SCHOOL.
CIRCULAR No. 1.
EALTIMORE, October 1, 1885.
. In view of the necessity of postponing for the present the initiation of the
Technological School program in its entirety, the present course of instruction
will be conducted with special reference to its practical utility:
First. In advancing the entire force of apprentices within reach of its influ-
ence in their several mechanical pursuits; and
Second. In advancing the theoretical instruction, as far as may be practicable
with the limited appropriation at command, of such apprentices as past exami-
nations have shown possess sufficient common-school education to justify the
hope that they can, without additional school-training in academic studies,
qualify themselves for positions as officers in its service. So far as may be practi-
cable, the work of the School shall have a direct bearing upon, and immediate
connection with, the various duties in the shop with which the apprentices are or
may be charged. To this end the technological and academic instruction will be
carried on under separate instructors, each responsible for the conduct and suc-
cess of his particular department, and each reporting to the undersigned, as
representing the Board of Directors of the Technological School.
To Mr. C. W. Scribner, as a specialist in technology, and as senior instructor,
is assigned charge of the práctical instruction of apprentices in the shops and
drawing-room. He will be at liberty to maintain such separate class-instruc-
tions in purely technical subjects as he deems necessary to promote the interests
assigned him, and as will not interfere with the apprentices’ shop and academic
duties. In the performance of this duty he will spend not less than six hours
per day in the shops, and not less than two additional hours in the drawing-
room, and in such class-instructions as he may inaugurate, Sunday excepted.
55
His duties as technological instructor will consist:
First. In exercising a general supervision over apprentices in the shops and
in applying their theoretical knowledge to their labors.
This duty will be performed in accordance with a plan to be agreed upon
between the instructor and the several foremen ; which plan must be of such
character as will give the instructor proper facilities for overseeing and directing
the labors of apprentices, so far as they are learners, and to question and counsel
any boy or boys while at work, in order to determine their understanding of
what they are doing, to make explanations and to direct their operations in
Such way as to enable the apprentices to gain comprehensive and practical
knowledge of the scientific principles involved in what they may be doing.
In exercising this duty, the instructor will have no right or authority to
antagonize or interfere with the orders of the foreman in charge, so far as they
relate to the Company’s work, nor to interfere with its proper performance; nor
shall he, for the purpose of instruction or examination, unnecessarily, nor for
any great length of time, even when necessary, retard the work which the
apprentices are doing. To prevent confusion in the Company’s work, it is to be
understood that the foremen have the undisputed right to decide what work is to
be done by apprentices and when it is to be done; the recommendations of the
instructor in the matter of the assignment of apprentices shall be made first to
the foremen, and shall be carried out by them unless they are clearly in conflict
with the interests of the service. In each case where the instructor and foreman
fail to agree, either in formulating the plan for the joint management of appren-
tices or upon the proper interpretation and scope of this arrangement, the
question or dispute shall be referred to the Master Mechanic or Master Car
Builder, to whom the foreman reports, and if he cannot satisfactorily adjust the
difference, the whole matter will be referred to the General Manager for settle-
ment.
The foregoing applies to all apprentices at Mt. Clare Shops.
Second. A certain number of hours per week, not fewer than three, shall,
by agreement between the instructor and foremen of the various shops, be set
aside, in which the technological instructor shall assemble the apprentices of the
first class for the purpose of explaining the scientific principles that are involved
in the work on which they are engaged, of suggesting and illustrating the most
economical methods of work, of showing how diſferent parts of machinery are put
together, and of pointing out the office of each part. He shall explain why some
other way of constructing or doing such work would not do just as well, and be
as economical as the way he suggests. He shall point out difficulties that are yet
to be overcome in the construction and operating of machinery, and, in short,
make the instruction of such a character as to set apprentices to thinking and
devising for themselves. He shall also give instruction on the nature of the
materials, and in the use and care of tools and machinery.
In the performance of these duties he shall have authority to utilize the
machinery in the shops where the same is not in use.
The technological instructor shall study the machinery and methods of work
now in vogue in the shops, and shall make recommendations to the foreman or to
the Master Mechanic or to the Master Car Builder, as the case may be, of any im-
provements in the method of work, in tools, in machinery, or anything that in
his judgment will increase the efficiency of the shops. -
He shall also study the shop-work with a view of recommending to the under-
signed what academic subjects might be taught in the school, and the best methods
of teaching them with a view of their immediate application in connection with
the shop-instruction. *
He is expected to study and make note of the capabilities and the aspirations
of the various apprentices, and the joint recommendations of the instructor and
the foreman to the General Manager, through the intermediate officers, as to the
aptness, progress, skill and commendable traits of any apprentice, shall determine
whether his apprenticeship shall continue for a longer or shorter period than the
56
usual time prescribed (ſour years); but no boy whose standing in the school-
studies is habitually low shall have the time of his apprenticeship reduced to less
than the usually required four years, however expert he may become in the shop.
The shop-instructor shall, during the academic year (being guided by his ex-
perience and observations in the shops), make a classification of the regular
kinds or pieces of work which are constantly required to be done in the shops,
and on which apprentices should have practice, and arrange them in the order
in which it is best to have apprentices take them up in learning their trade, sub-
mitting the same to the Master Mechanic and Master Car Builder.
He shall also, during the academic year, outline methods of instruction and
recommend the academic studies that, in his judgment, are most suitable for the
apprentices of each trade, and for the students of civil and mechanical engineer-
ing, with a view to preparing a permanent program and prospectus for the
succeeding year. -
In all matters relating to the school he will report direct to the undersigned.
To Mr. Coler is assigned charge of all academic studies, which will for the
present be confined to the several sections of first-class apprentices.
Under this arrangement he will spend not less than eight hours per day in the
discharge of his duties. Of this time he may devote one or two hours daily to
the shops, in order to observe the needs of apprentices, the work and equipment
of the shops, so as to make the school-instruction both practical and interesting.
by drawing his illustrations in teaching as far as possible from machinery and
operations in the shops where the boys are daily employed.
The academic department shall include three sections of apprentices. The
first grade shall consist of all those who are qualified to meet the requirements
of General Order No. 5 for admission to the first class therein mentioned.
The second section shall consist of such apprentices now in the service as may,
with a reasonable amount of teaching, be qualified for admission to the first
section. -
The third section shall consist of all other apprentices whose time of appren-
ticeship does not expire before January 1, 1887.
All apprentices who receive academic instruction (Sections 1 and 2) must take
Drawing at least two hours each week. The technological teacher may also
require apprentices who are not in these sections to take Drawing. t
The subjects for academic instruction for the first class are Algebra, Geome-
try, and English and Elementary Science.
Apprentices who are preparing for admission to the first section are to be
Rnown as second-section students.
These shall take Arithmetic in addition to Drawing as required studies, and they
shall choose a third subject from the following: History, Geography, English,
Elementary Science, Steam and Steam Engine, and Mensuration.
Apprentices of the third section are required to take Drawing at least two hours
per week. They may at any time enter either of the other preparatory sections,
provided those sections are not already full. and provided they are qualified to
.."; by the instruction to be given in the class, which last is to be decided by
[r. Coler. . -
Students of the third section must attend the free city night schools nearest
to their homes, and it shall be the duty of Mr. Coler to see that this requirement
is fulfilled. - t • * * ~ *
Each teacher shall make a weekly report of how much time he has spent in
each shop and school-room, the character of teaching, results, etc. -
Each to report directly to me, but to recommend jointly anything that relates
to their two departments. * - .
W. T. BARNARD, Asst. to President. l
57
IExhibit, W.
SCHOOL REPORTS, .
. January 30, 1887.*
DR. W. T. BARNARD, Assistant to President. -
Dear Sir –In compliance with your request for a special report, showing
what has been accomplished by the Technological School from its inauguration
to the present date, I respectfully submit the following :
From the Circular of January 15, 1885, setting forth the management and
policy of the School, and from your subsequent instructions, we have understood
the purpose of the school to be threefold:
1. To maintain an educational examination as a condition of admission to
apprenticeship, and to afford such elementary technical instruction to all appren-
tices as would make of them intelligent journeymen ; the apprentice instruction
to be known as the Journeyman’s course ; this course to be free to all appren.
tices, and to serve as preparatory for the Cadet course for young men whose
ability and character are good, but who need preparatory training.
2. To organize a class of Cadets for advanced technical instruction in such
subjects as bear upon the departments of railway service in which they are to
engage; the object of this course being to fit young men to become foremen and
for other subordinate positions; this class to be composed of apprentices or other
young men who shall pass a required examination and present testimonials of
ability and character; a reasonable tuition to be charged for this course.
3. To secure to the service as Cadet officers a limited number of young men
possessing superior ability and educational qualifications, to whom thorough and
comprehensive technical instruction should be afforded, while at the same time
these young men should get a comprehensive and practical knowledge of the
various departments of railway service and the mutual relations of these depart-
ments; the object of this course being to fit the students for the highest posi-
tions of responsibility in the service.
It is with these ends in view that we have been guided in the management
of the school, and our plans have all along contemplated an early organization
of the Cadet Class. With reference to the Cadet Officers’ Class, we have under-
stood that it was your policy not to admit young men to that course of study
until they shall have completed the Cadet course and thus have demonstrated
whether it will be profitable to the company to continue instruction to them.
We have not, therefore, undertaken, except in a general way, to forecast the
subjects of study and the management of that class.
That there are substantial reasons for the apparently slow progress we have
made, and that we have nevertheless worked out results and gained experience
that will be far-reaching in their economic value and otherwise beneficial conse-
quences, providing it is thought best to continue the School, will appear from
considerations and facts to be set forth in detail in what follows.
In February, 1885, one hundred and forty-seven apprentices, then in the
service at Mt. Clare, were examined by Mr. Scribner and myself, and in July
and August of the same year Mr. Scribner and Mr. Sullivan examined about
three hundred and fifty apprentices in the shops along the line. The results of
these examinations went to show that not one of the five hundred boys and young
men in the various repair and construction shops was sufficiently advanced to
pursue technical studies with profit to the Company and to himself. We
were greatly surprised that among so many boys there should be found such
uniform deficiency in the most elementary school-studies. Combined with this
lack of elementary knowledge was a corresponding lack of inclination on the
* Although my report is dated October, 1886, the last sections were unavoidably delayed,
so that School reports of this date are-inserted. W. T. B.
58
part of these apprentices to make of themselves anything more than ordinary
routine and rule-of-thumb mechanics. It must be evident that such apprentices
will require constant supervision in even the simplest details of their trades, and
that when they become journeymen they will be untrustworthy and unprogressive.
Thinking that perhaps a few of the most promising boys might, by receiving
preliminary training in night-classes for six months or a year, be prepared for
the more elementary technical studies, we determined to give them instruction in
the rudiments of grammar-school branches. Having secured an order from the
General Manager to this effect, we required about forty boys to attend night-
classes from the first of March to the twentieth of June, 1885. This was done
with the hope that all might profit to a certain extent by the elementary instruc-
tion thus afforded, and that from these forty boys there might be a dozen or
more who would work their way up so as to profit by the technical course we
had in view for apprentices; but a short experience convinced us that for the
most of these boys the attempt was made in vain. Some would if they could ;
others could if they would. Only three out of these forty apprentices have
made commendable progress in all the school-studies, though none of them are
any the less valuable to the service for having been required to attend the
classes, and several have done well in drawing in spite of their deficiencies in
academic studies. -
It would be wrong to attribute the failure of these boys to advance in
theoretical studies wholly to their inability or unwillingness to profit by the
class-instruction that was offered them. It should be remembered that in
addition to their not having previously formed habits of study—a fault of
their parents and former teachers—these boys came from daily associations in
the shops, the very atmosphere of which was discouraging to efforts for mental
improvement; for the idea that a workman should pursue school-studies has
almost invariably been ridiculed in the shops, and ridicule is apt to dampen the
ardor of students who have not advanced far enough in studies and experience
to appreciate the importance of education. Moreover, the work of instructing
apprentices was new to the teachers, and we made some mistakes, one of which
was an attempt to put all boys through precisely the same kind of training
without regard to individual aptitudes. I think, too, that the work at first
attempted was too severely mathematical for apprentice studies. Dry, abstract
mathematical drill will not interest apprentice boys, nor make intelligent, think-
ing mechanics of them. With the exception of drawing, we did not succeed in
giving the instruction enough of a tangible and practical bias to encourage boys
to take an interest in our classes.
From my own experience and study of the subject since my connection with
this school, and from the testimony of teachers and employers in Europe who
have made similar attempts, I am convinced that while it is possible and desir-
able to educate apprentices in technical subjects during apprenticeship, even
though the instruction be wholly confined to night-classes, it is equally certain
that to try to educate boys who have not formed habits of study before entering
upon apprenticeship is a useless waste of time, patience and money. Although
there may be exceptions, the results are usually very meagre and unsatisfactory.
Since March, 1885, there have been, in accordance with your plans and
instructions, regular educational examinations every month, except July, 1886,
of applicants for apprenticeship ; and, with two or three exceptions, no boys have
been admitted to apprenticeship at Mt. Clare without first trying this examina-
tion. At first we had to make the standard of requirements very low, in order
to get enough boys to supply the demand for apprentices; but there has been a
gradual, though decided, elevation of that standard, so that at the present time
none can be admitted without a fair knowledge of the rudiments of elementary
English branches; nor then without demonstrating some ability to think, and
expressing a willingness to avail of the School-instruction by regular and prompt
attendance at the classes if admitted to apprenticeship,
As the result of these examinations, we had, when the school year began in
59
October, 1885, about thirty apprentices capable of pursuing more advanced
studies. Guided somewhat by our experience the preceding term, and profiting
by observations that I had made in the management of workingmen’s and
apprentice schools in Europe, we made some decided changes in the subjects and
methods of instruction. Classes were formed in drawing, in mathematics, in
the study of the locomotive engine, and in physics. Instruction was also given
in English and in history, and a few classes were still sustained for the element-
ary instruction of the forty boys who had been in the school the previous term.
These classes, with some changes and additions, were sustained during the school
year ending in June, 1886, and about eighty different boys, more or less advanced,
received instruction during that year, all of whom were required to take drawing
and to choose at least two academic studies. In addition to the general class-
instruction, boys were encouraged to read many books on general and technical
Subjects, and a few of them were induced to take an interest in the scientific
and mechanical journals which come regularly to our library. We also had a
number of science lectures illustrated by simple experiments. These exercises
proved both interesting and instructive to the boys. -
For a more complete and detailed statement of the academic work undertaken,
and which with some modifications was carried out in the school year ending
June 1, 1886, I respectfully refer you to my report of October 9, 1885, a copy of
which I hand you herewith.* . But the work accomplished by the school for that
year was by no means confined to academic studies and class-instruction.
*MT. CLARE, October 9, 1885.
DR. W. T. BARNARD, Assistant to President.
Dear Sir:-The following is the course of academic study which I have marked out for
the present School year. It contemplates tWO terms—One to end February 1, and the other
at the close Of the School year. I have arranged the course With reference to the three
classes of apprentices indicated in your school clºcular of October 1 (Exhibit V):
1. Those in the First Section of the regular technical course—First Term : Algebra,
Physics, Steam, the Locomotive Engine, and Drawing. Second Term . Practical Geometry,
Physics, English, and Drawing.
2. Those who are not now prepared for the First Section, but may be so prepared with
a reasonable amount of teaching and encouragement. t
First Term : (1) All required to take Drawing one night each week. (2) Each boy
required to choose two studies from the following: Arithmetic, History and Geography,
Elementary Physics, Steam, the Locomotive Engine, and Lnglish.
Second Term : About the San] e aS First.
3. Apprentices Who Were not likely to be able to prepare for advanced studies. These
Were to be required to take Drawing one or two mights each week at Mt. Clare, and to
attend the city night-schools. f. r *
In justiflcation of our attempt to introduce technical studies with so little preliminary
preparation on the part of Students, I would call attention to the following considerations:
1. That in English Schools boys With no better elementary education than many of Our
boys possess, Study these subjects in night-schools after working all day, and some of
them pass the GO vernment's examinations in Science, and the City and Guilds of London
examination in technology, with honor. . *
2. These Studies will produce just as good, if not better, educational results, and have
more practical value, than the Study of the Ordinary elementary School-branches.
3. The study of elementary science experimentally illustrated, as we intend it shall be,
Will do much toward awakening an interest in, and showing the utility of, more abstract
Studies, and the boys Will learn more mathematics with the science studies then they will
Without them. The Science studies will also go far toward creating an interest in the
Scientific and mechanical books and papers that are in our library, and prepare the boys
to profit by such reading.
At flrst thought, it may not seem so desirable to have science taught to apprentices as
dra Wing. The dra Wilng produces visible results and its value is therefore much more
readily appreciated. But if we had some graphic method of representing the results of
Science-teaching—the habits of thought, observation, intelligent inquiry, and deflnite
eXpression that are thus developed—I believe the vote of those collcerned would be to
Continue the Science-teaching along With the instruction in drawing.
f It was found later that this was impracticable. As before stated, experience soon
Showed that it was useless to waste time on boys who had not previously formed some
habits of Study, and so many boys were coming into the service under the provision of
the educational examination that it Was decided to devote all the time and resources of
the School to their advancement. G. P. C.
60
It has been our constant endeavor to carry the instruction beyond the School-
room into the shops after the manner set forth in your School circular of
October 1, 1885. [Exhibit V.] Owing to difficulties which are obvious and in-
herent to such an undertaking, our progress in this direction has been slow.
Something has been done, however, in the way of supervision and systematic
instruction of apprentices in the shops, and our experience in this direction I
regard as invaluable, so far as it has gone. * t
Investigations in the shops by conversations and observation have developed
the fact that many boys and young men had completed or almost completed
their apprenticeship in the machine-shops without being able to tell the differ-
ence between cast and wrought iron, without knowing whether steel is a native
or manufactured product, and equally ignorant of many other simple though
important and significant facts which are intimately related to their trades.
In the performance of his specified duties as shop-instructor, Mr. Scribner
made a study of the various trades, machines and processes in the shops, and of
the successive steps in apprenticeship, with a view to recommending a course
of shop instruction that should be parallel to the theoretical studies taught in
the school. By short, pointed conversations with the boys while at their
machines, which did not at all interfere with the work they were doing, the
shop-instructor was enabled to set boys to thinking intelligently about the
machines and the work upon which they were engaged. In this way the class-
room instruction could often be immediately applied, and apprentices were
directed to books and mechanical journals where they could get still further
1<nowledge.
Mr. Scribner also took groups of boys from machine to machine and from shop
to shop for the purpose of studying machinery and mechanical processes in
detail and in their relation to each other. Attention was called to the uses of the
machines and the scientific principles involved in their construction and opera-
tion, and one class of advanced boys were thus permitted to supplement their
class-room study of the locomotive engine by seeing its parts and the successive
steps of its construction.*
4. It cannot reasonably be expected that the progress in study by apprentices who work
all day in the shops will be anything like as perceptible and eſſleient as is the progress of
young men in such schools as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Only a
few hours ench week are devoted to shop-work. But by choosing such science studies as
have the most direct boaring upon the work in the Shops, and push ling these Studles,
some progress can be made. While we will not give as much theory as is given in other
schools, we will give much more practice, and our present system of shop-instruction
contemplates an inn mediate application of theory, whereas much of the theory in Other
Schools is never applied. I believe that, So far as the interests of the employer are con-
cerned, more good will result from a technical school in which practice predominates over
theory, than in One Where the reverse is true. A School as such looks for the highest
good in each boy, and this is right; but in such a School as we are seeking to build up,
the problem is how to make the instruction of such a character as to justify the employer
in maill till ning the School. This, I believe, can be done by carrying the instruction not
merely up to the shops, but directly into them. Yours truly,
G. P. COLTER,
Instructor in English and History.
* (The following extracts from reports of Mr. Scribner, who was principal of the school
till June, 1886, will aſſord a general idea of the work that was attempted in the way of Shop-
instruction.—W. T. B.)
MT. CLAIRE, November 28, 1885.
DR. W. T. BARNARD, Assistant to President.
Dear Sir :—My time at Mt. Clare has been taken up much as during the week previous,
a rather large share being still required for Drawing, as will be the case until we are well
started. We organized an advanced class of those who have had Drawing before coming
here, selected from Our Wednesday and Tuesday afternoon classes. These are to take up
T)escriptive Geometry, and will meet for the present on Friday afternoon at 3 o'clock.
Every member of the school, some seventy-flve in all, is now having one lesson weekly in
Mechanical Drawing, the I'll'st Soction meoting for throe hours in the aſternoon, and the
Other sections for two hours, at night only. The progress this week has been even more
Satisfactory than last week, and as soon as we get our instruments and some other neces-
Sally equipments, the Department of Drawing Will be fairly on 1ts feet. In the Shop I
61
It seems to me that judicious and systematic shop-instruction will do more
toward bringing about visible economic results than any other feature of the
School. I am firmly convinced that it is possible to arrange parallel courses of
continued the instruction on the locomotive, taking another set of boys, and expect to be
able to do Still more Of this Work 110xt WOOk.
* & #: %. *}: #: :: #: #: #: $: :};
Besides the shop-instruction I have during the past week turned my attention espe-
clally to that part of our present program [IXhibit V] which refers to studying “ the capa-
bilities and aspirations of the various apprentices,” beginning with those who constitute
our First Section. I spent some time in talking with each personally, and find that by
calling their attention to tho real purpose of their coming here, and the means they must
use for their own advancement, it is always possible to arouse groater interest in their
shop-work and their studies. Another result of 8 uch questioning is to point out the need
of instruction in special subjects which are very important.
As an example of this, I found that some very lintelligent approntices had no very clear
idea of the difference between wrought and cast iron—a knowledge which is essential to
progross and eſſleiency in shop-work. Of course, even with no instruction whatever, they
could not remain in the shops very long without getting some notion of this diſſerence,
and in certain very practical directions a far better idea, perhaps, than any one has who
has nover worked in a machine-shop. Yet it is manifest that clearer and truer notions
On such subjects than can be picked up in the Shop are needed, even at the outset, and
will prove in waluable to them as they go on in their Work.
#: *]: * - . It #: t}: iſ: 2}: :: #: :: iſ: ;:
Another point which I have taken up this week is referred to in our program in these
words: “The shop-instructors shall make a classiſ cation of the regular kinds or pieces of
work which are constantly required in the shop,” etc. Here I have commenced where
our approntices begin, at present. *
The regular arrangement has been to have them spond a long time at flrst in turning
Out the bolts used in various parts of the locomotive and olsewhere. I have obtained from
the Draw ling-room special information about the kind and number of these bolts—some
700 in the ordinary locomotive—and upon the necessary work which these bolts require,
in the machine-Shop, I propose to formulate such a course of instruction as Will make the
Work at the “bolt-lathes,” which Some boys now ſlind tediously long, a source of interest
and usefulness by giving thom cll Stºln ct idou.S about tho uses of these bolts, the sort. Of
ſlnish they require, and the quickest and best Ways of making them. This will be, it is
true, an experiment, but a little study shows it quite possible ; for the great variety of
uses for these bolts calls for different degrees in the nicety of ſlt and ſlnish to be given
them, and this should exercise the boys as to the time onch should have, although at ſlrst
this call not, Of courso, be loft, wholly to them. And then, if their attention is called to it,
the very variety referred to is itself of value, illustrating the many uses of “ the bolt.”
So, too, with other parts of our program that have special bearing on the work of this
particular shop, practical methods of Work can be outlined. Meanwhile, I need not
neglect the other shops, though for particular attention they will have to wait their own
turn. Very respoctfully Submitted,
C. W. SCRIBNER, Principal.
MT. CLAIRE, December 19, 1885.
DR. W. T. BARNARD, Assistant to President.
Dear Sir :—With reference to organization of shop-Work, I have, during the hours not
spent in individual instruction, been Working on three diſſerent lines: (1) In arranging
pleces of Work made into a shop-course ; (2) In arranging a deflnite agreement With fore-
men; (3) In determining the way in Which instruction in the use of tools can best be
given in our shops.
On the latter point I ſlind that much time is used to small purpose if I talk to apprentices
separately on this subjoct, instead of to classes. I have, therefore, decided that, While I
can continue this to some extent, my best plan will be to teach in small classes wherever
posslble; this plan also making the use of a ſlxed system much ensler. To this end the
two points flrst named relato. And (1) the cataloguing of Stºvndard Shop-plecoš has been
continued, ſund I purpose to have Sketches of them arrºl inged In a book, noting On the
page opposite the name and use to be made of each pleco, the machine-tools to be used
in ſitting it up, the various cuts to bo made and the cutting-tools to be used with each
machine-tool. This done, they can be classiſled into soveral parallel progressl ve courses ;
and though all this consumes time, it will in the end savo far more by securing a working
System so arrangod as to give better instruction, to se voral boys at a time—unduestionably
a better plan than to give individual Instruction only. But all this would a vall little, if
each piece used as an exercise had to be done only under Orders from the fore men, to be
rushod through when time could be ill aſſorded for requiring the boy’s attention to the
form of his cutting-tool, and for explaining the reason why each part should be shaped
as it is, or perhaps at a time when the instructor could not be present, ; in either case
morely verbal directions and no working drawings being furnished. But, While convinced
that to work in this way I must have sole control of certain machines at Certain hours, .
and of the work to be done on tho “ instruction-pieces,” I was not ſlrst to suggest it, as I
had to be sure that such a plan would not delay the work; and While one clause Of Our
Shop program gives the instructor the use of idle machinery, another States that “the
62
instruction for the school and for the shops of such a character that the shop-
work will create and intensify interest in the school-work and vice versa.
In the management of the Mt. Clare school we have endeavored to get boys
interested in reading the history and development, and in knowing something
of the present status, of their several trades and industries. It is reasonable to
expect the workers of iron and steel to have some knowledge of the history of
the iron and steel industries; that electricians should know the past, present,
and prospective future of electricity; also, that engineers should know about
the history of the steam engine and the various steps in the invention and
improvement of it. This method of special historical study and investigation
of industrial subjects will serve the two-fold purpose of promoting intelligence
and stimulating and directing invention. The workman who has inventive
genius will be much more likely to develop it and to avoid wasting his time on
what has been already worked out, if he knows what has been done in past ages
in the field of his specialty. -
One of our great difficulties is to find books that will furnish both in-
teresting and profitable technical reading for boys who are to..become railway
mechanics or operatives. A literature for apprentices needs to be written.
Another hindrance to our work is the absence of text-books bearing on railway
industries. The efficiency of any industrial School is dependent upon the adapta-
tion of text-books to the purpose for which the school was established. Our
teachers have had to work up new subjects for class-instruction, and they often
feel the need of text-books on these subjects. If such schools become common,
suitable text-books will no doubt be forthcoming from enterprising publishers.
Instruction for apprentices must at first deal with things immediately around
them and proceed from these to things more remote and general. I am quite
certain that the way to success in such a School as we want to establish at Mt.
Clare for regular apprentices, and even for Cadets, lies not so much in the class-
room drills, valuable as these may be made, as it does in each teacher's ascer-
taining the special aptitudes and inclinations of the different boys, and then,
when that aptitude runs in the direction of the teacher's specialty, in its being
developed to the highest possibilities by class-instruction, by a judicious course
of reading, by shop practice and instruction, and by personal influence in con-
versations and otherwise, of the teachers upon the students.
With reference to what the school is accomplishing this year, I am glad that I
can report satisfactory results, considering the disadvantages under which we are
compelled to work. As the result of the educational examination and the induce-
ments which the Technological School offers to aspiring boys and young men, we
now have at Mt. Clare, in the shops and enrolled in the school, about seventy ap-
prentices whose ability is good and whose early education has not been wholly
neglected. Instruction is given in Drawing, Descriptive Geometry, Physics,
Mechanics, Algebra, and Geometry. There is a strong demand for classes in
foremen shall have undisputed right to say what work shall be done by the apprentices
and When it shall be dOne,” and that the instructor’s recommendations in Such matters
Shall be made first to them. I am glad to Say, therefore, that such recommendations as I
have made have been followed, not as yet by the foreman’s enforcing them, but by his
suggesting, himself, that it would be much better and simpler to detail certain machinery
at certain hours for instruction-purposes, fully assenting to the value of a fixed course of
teaching when done in this way on selected pieces to which time could be given. I then
proposed this plan to the Master Mechanic, Who not Only at Once assented, but said he
felt Sure that this method would give the best results, and was in fact the Only one to
follow. And now, since this proposition has come from the shop, I can feel sure that it is
the most practicable for us, and the most practical, too, at least in the Sense of giving
Satisfaction to all.
I referred above to the fact that the boys used no drawings. I now intend that all this
special work shall be done from drawings exclusively, and later on the boys can work
from drawings which they have themselves made in the school—not, of course, their
designs, but made by them from measurements of the finished piece and approved by
the head draughtsman of our works. Thus all boys so trained will be able to do all their
Work from Standard shop-drawings, Whenever Such a system shall be brought into more
general use in Our Shops than is at present the case.
Very respectfully submitted,
C. W. SORIBNER, Principal.
63
Steam, the Locomotive Engine, Mensuration, and other technical subjects, as well
as for systematic shop-instruction, but the limited fund at our command prohibits
the employment of teachers for these classes. For the advanced instruction that is
now in progress I may refer you to the reports of the Instructor in Drawing, and
of the Instructor in Mechanics and Physics, both of which are enclosed here-
with. In addition to the class-instruction, books are given out to be read and
reported on, and attention is frequently called to the mechanical journals on the
library table. Some of the boys draw back numbers of these journals from the
library in order to read them at their homes. . It is our purpose to continue the
illustrated lectures on Scientific and mechanical subjects. These occur every
week or every two weeks, and at the close of the lectures opportunity is afforded
for asking questions and discussing the points that have been presented. Stu-
dents and other employes at Mt. Clare attend these lectures. Occasionally a
half hour after the lecture is spent in a Social way, so that teachers, students
and visitors are enabled to become acquainted. In this way much is done
toward begetting a feeling of esprit de corps on the part of all who are pres-
ent. Although, on account of the pressing demand for new engines, many of
the apprentices are this year required to work in the shops from two to four
nights each week, our classes have, nevertheless, made commendable progress in
their studies—their advancement and interest this year being by far the most
Satisfactory to the teachers, of anything that has been known since the school
was organized. -
The fact that boys of ability will enter the shops to get a trade and an educa-
tion at the same time, and that they can and will learn under circumstances so
discouraging as those resulting from our limited facilities for instruction and from
the requirements of night-work in the shops, goes to show the desirability and the
economic value of school-instruction in connection with workshops.
That progress in School-studies was at all possible under such circumstances
is to be attributed to the Superior ability and praiseworthy perseverance of the
apprentices that have lately entered the service. -
Many of these young men are soon able to do a journeyman's work and to increase
the efficiency of the shops in numerous ways by their intelligence and quickness of
perception. They are willing to accept apprentice wages for their services in
order that they may advantage by our class-instruction. But I very much
doubt whether we can hold the best of these young men unless they are afforded
more instruction than they now have. Some of them are talking of going else-
where to enter school, and I cannot blame them for their dissatisfaction with our
present school facilities.
Of the young men who have become apprentices since the inauguration of the
school, our records show that the number who have been at least two years in
their several institutions are as follows: Baltimore City College, 5; other high
schools, 7; McDonogh School, 2 ; University of Alabama, 1 ; St. John’s Col-
lege, 1 ; Johns Hopkins University, 1 (one year only); Naval Academy, 1 ; St.
Louis Manual Training School, 1. Three boys have come from the Baltimore
Manual Training School. A number of other boys have attended academies or
good grammar Schools, and not a few have come from the country. Although
the previous school advantages of these country boys have not been very great,
they are nevertheless among the most faithful and earnest workers in the Mt.
Clare school and shops, and are making good headway in their school and shops.
We have constantly endeavored to do the most that could be done, with our
limited facilities, toward advancing the individual interests of boys who have
come here for the purpose of obtaining an education while learning their trades.
But we have not lost sight of the fact that in a school of this character, sus-
tained by a corporation in connection with its shops, the highest good should
be looked for in the furtherance of the material interests of those whose money
goes to pay for the instruction. Our efforts to make the instruction practical
and, as far as possible, of immediate usefulness to the Company, have already
been recognized and appreciated by some of the heads of departments. We
have been asked to recommend young men for positions requiring intelligence
64
and skill, and the demand for young men specifically qualified for certain posi-
tions is now greater than we can supply.
The educational requirements for apprenticeship have greatly improved the
character and ability of apprentices at Mt. Clare. That industrial corporations
should recognize the value of common-school training to such an extent as to make
educational qualifications a condition of admission to their shops for the purpose of
learning a trade, is an important movement in both education and industry. I
would recommend that the monthly educational examination be extended, under
the management of the School, to shops along the entire line. This can be done by
sending the questions each month to the managers of the various shops, who
should see that they are submitted to applicants for apprenticeship. The papers
could then be sent to Mt. Clare to be looked over, graded, and returned to the
proper authorities. The standard would of course have to be very low at first,
but it could be elevated from month to month. The expense in this matter
would be insignificant compared with the important economic results that
could thus be attained.
In conclusion I will briefly summarize what has been accomplished by the
school and its management since it was inaugurated :
1. The examination of 147 apprentices at Mt. Clare, and of 350 apprentices
along the line, who were in the service when the School began.
2. The maintenance since March, 1885, of an educational examination as a
condition of admission to apprenticeship at Mt. Clare.
3. The instruction in drawing and in elementary subjects dº about forty appren-
tices who had been received into the service before the inauguration of the
School.
4. The admission to apprenticeship of more than 100 boys, many of whom had
already laid the foundation for technical training. Some of these young men
do the work of journeymen, for which they are willing to receive very low wages
on account of the school-instruction.
5. For more than a year we have been giving these young men the very best
technical training in drawing, descriptive geometry, physics, mechanics and the
locomotive engine, besides in the more general subjects of algebra, geometry,
history, English, etc.
6. Our teachers, in their endeavors to make their instruction practical, have
gone into the shops to study the machines, trades and manipulative processes,
and to become acquainted with the boys while engaged in the performance of
shop-duties.
7. Shop-instruction and supervision on a practical and systematic basis has
been attempted, and to a certain extent carried out. The experience thus gained
will be invaluable in future.
8. A number of problems, drawings, etc., have been prepared by our teachers
from data gathered in and about the shops, and the use of these enables the
instructors to make the instruction much more interesting and profitable than
it would have been had the instructors relied solely on the use of text-books.
9. The nucleus of a physical laboratory for class-instruction and experiments
by students has been formed. -
10. A classification of the various steps of apprenticeship has been attempted.
and some headway has been made toward that end, with a view to correcting
errors in existing methods of apprentice-work and adapting the school-instruction
to the wants of the shop. Efforts have also been made toward working out
systematic plans of shop-instruction for educational results.
11. An important and extensive collection of scientific and mechanical books
and magazines has been carefully made for the library. - &
12. Apprentices have, through the school, been brought into intimate relations
with the library, and have thus been induced to do a considerable amount of
useful reading. - -
13. Although we have not yet succeeded in putting the Cadet classes into
operation, much prejudice has been overcome, and many who at first did not
65
believe in such a school have been led to see that School-instruction as supple-
mentary to apprenticeship is both possible and desirable.
14. The knowledge of the maintenance of such a School by the Baltimore and
Ohio Company has spread through the community and the country at large, and
has given the company credit for manifesting a tangible interest in the welfare
of its employes, and for thus adopting efficient and practical measures toward
the effectual solution of labor problems. .
Already other railway companies have indicated their intention to adopt
certain features of our School-work in their shops.
15. Finally, the managers and teachers of the School have gained much
practical experience that will be of great Service in the future management of
the school. The way has been prepared for the organization of the Cadet
classes, and young men are ready to enter upon advanced courses of study as
Soon as these classes can be organized.
Very truly yours,
G. P. CoIER, Principal.
DEPARTMENT OF DRAWING.
G. P. CoIER, Principal.
Dear Sir :—When the instruction of apprentices in drawing first began, but
little could be accomplished, owing to two causes: 1st. The character of the
students; 2d. Lack of facilities. With only a few exceptions the students
then in the school were those who had been for Some time in the service, who had
entered simply for work, and not with any idea or desire for “schooling,”
and who had been conditionally admitted to the School on an entrance grade
far below the regular passing-mark. Their capacity for instruction was so
limited as to render any attempts at it very discouraging. No drawing instru-
ments were obtained for some time, and consequently no mechanical drawing
was done at first, and the instruction consisted entirely of free-hand drawing.
Since then the condition of affairs has changed very much for the better.
Drawing instruments were purchased and other facilities provided. The work
in free-hand drawing is now equipped with a set of Prang’s Drawing Models, a
partial set of compressed paper “modèles en relief,” and a few other models
made at the school. The work in projective drawing is illustrated by a set of
models showing the intersections of various geometrical Solids by planes or by other
Solids. The most of these last-mentioned models were made by myself, and the
list is rapidly being increased. The work in machine drawing is aided by a set of
Thorne's working drawings which illustrate the best methods of practice.
The grade of the entrance examinations is now more rigid, and the larger part
of the old students have either left the School, completed their apprenticeship, or
have been dropped from School-work for incapacity. Raising the grade of the
school-work is having a very noticeable result in the corresponding improvement
in the character of the apprentices now in the service. Of those who have entered
the service since the organization of the school, the majority are young men who
would never have entered as apprentices except for the school, and it has come to
my personal knowledge that Some of the best of them are only continuing in the
Service in the hopes of the speedy enlargement of the facilities of the school.
There are some cases of students showing an aptitude for drawing amounting
almost to genius, and who already do work which, on the score of meatness, will
compare favorably with that of the majority of professional draughtsmen, and
who only need additional training in the technicalities of draughting to make
them proficient draughtsmen, and valuable material from which the company
may recruit for their drawing-rooms. One of the apprentices has already been
advanced from the machine-shop to the draughting department, and only recently
We had occasion to recommend another apprentice in answer to a call for another
student for the same purpose.
66
On February 1, 1886, there were 78 students in the drawing classes of the
school. Of these, 30 are still in the school. The remaining 48 have either left
for cause, or have been dropped from School-work because they showed an
incapacity or unwillingness to learn that made it impolitic to waste further
energies on them. There are at present 58 students in the various drawing
classes. The number is steadily increasing, the additions being invariably of a
much higher grade than any of the apprentices were at the formation of the
school.
The course in drawing now consists of a first-year classin geometrical drawing,
a second-year class in projective drawing, a third-year class in machine drawing,
a class in free-hand drawing, and a class in descriptive geometry. The instruc-
tion is almost entirely “individual’’ instruction rather than “class” instruc-
tion—this plan rendering it possible for each student to progress as fast as his
ability warrants, and allowing his work to be slightly varied as his future
requirements may demand. The drawings sent to you not long ago are a fair
exponent of the system of drawing at present followed in the school. As soon
as a proposed sectional model of a steam engine can be obtained, the instruction
in machine drawing will be amended to include the making of working drawings
direct from the models. The class in machine drawing is now engaged on
the subject of spur gearing, and this will be followed by work in bevel and worm
gearing. It is intended ultimately to give a systematic course in machine
design. tº Very respectfully,
. WALTER L. WEBB,
December 31, 1886. Instructor im Drawing.
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICS AND PEIYSICS.
G. P. CoIER, Principal.
Dear Sir :—lnstruction in Science was not begun until the school had been in
operation for some time. A class in physics was first formed, and this year one
in mechanics was organized. In addition to this regular work, occasional lectures
have been given to other classes or to the whole school. My connection with the
school began February last. There have been under my charge about seventy
apprentices, in classes ranging from twelve to thirty members. -
The aim has been to impart a knowledge of some of the elementary and funda-
mental principles and laws of the subjects considered, to illustrate them by
experiment, to direct attention to their important applications, and especially
to awaken an interest in this kind of study and cultivate habits of thoughtfulness
and a desire for an intelligent understanding of the things which fall immediately
to the notice of the student, such as the principles involved in the machinery he
uses. It has been borne in mind also that these subjects are the necessary
foundation for subsequent study of mechanism, the steam engine and other
advanced and technical subjects, and especial attention has therefore been given to
those topics which are of most importance as preparation for such subjects.
The method of instruction has been rather an experimental presentation of the
Subjects at hand, together with questions and class discussion, than ordinary
text-book recitation. The boys have naturally shown a particular liking for
experiments, and this has been encouraged by the introduction of such experi-
ments as have been practicable. They are not made mere shows, but are pre-
sented in such a way as to demand careful consideration of the methods employed
and the results obtained. The class in mechanics, for example, arrives at
principles and laws as the result of experiment ; these are then applied to the
Solution of problems, many of which are to be determined both by the law and
as the result of special experiment. Among the latter may be mentioned the
determination of the pressures of variously loaded beams upon their supports,
and of the tension on the tie-rod of a crane of given form when supporting a
known weight. A considerable part of this work is performed by the boys
67
themselves. This, besides giving clear understanding and increased interest,
serves to make a direct connection between actual and theoretical work ; it shows
the way in which theoretical study may benefit the practical workman, and also
leads to habits of considering and methods of dealing with real and practical
problems at first hand.
Several causes have tended to make the results less Satisfactory than they
might otherwise have been. Many of the boys have had no previous study or
training in this kind of work and are prepared only for what is most elementary ;
the classes have not been well graded, and that which is too advanced for some
is already very familiar to others; the attendance has been made irregular and
the time for study (which is meagre at best) has been seriously interfered with
by night-work in the shops; there has been almost no apparatus except that
constructed with limited facilities by the instructor. One of the most valuable
results, however, is the change in the attitude of the boys as a class toward study
and school-work. At first it seemed that the boys attended their classes simply
because they were compelled to do so; they manifested little desire for anything
better than not to go to School. It was then a difficult matter to even hold the
attention of a class. During last year there was marked improvement in Scholar-
ship and interest, which was, I think, furthered by Occasional visits to the shops
and short talks with the boys concerning their school and shop-work. This year
opened with fresh earnestness and spirit. The improvement made by those
attending last year, and the Superior class of apprentices who have recently
entered the service (many of whom have done so especially to avail of com-
bined shop and School advantages), render the instruction much more Satisfactory,
both as regards the grade of the work and the spirit with which it is done.
The marked change which the school has undergone during the past year is,
in my estimation, a matter of congratulation and gratifying Surprise. The
influence of the school in raising the character and general intelligence of the
apprentices, their ambition to improve, and their increased earnestness, cannot
but lead to most satisfactory results in their value and efficiency as workmen.
x, Very respectfully,
CHAs. F. SCOTT,
December 31, 1886. Instructor ºn Mechanics and Physics.
IFExhibit, X.
This exhibit contains a graphical representation (pp. 68–9) of Baltimore's
school system as it is and as it should be. It will be seen by the first diagram
that the provision for industrial training is practically nothing, and that there is
no connection between our school system and the university. But little more than
one-half of the children who enter the primary grades ever pass into the grammar
grade. Some of the others enter private Schools, but very many of them quit
school to reinforce the ignorant, the vicious, and the criminal classes. One
reason of this is that their parents do not see much in the grammar-School
course that will be of use to children who have to make their living by manual
labor. In addition to the subjects that are now taught in the grammar grades,
there ought to be practical instruction in industrial drawing, experimental
science, and physiology and hygiene. Instruction should also be given in the
grammar grade to girls in cooking and Sewing, and to boys in the use and care of
tools. With such additions to the grammar-school studies, more boys and girls.
would be induced to complete that course, and thus be fitted for high-School
studies. Those who from inclination or force of circumstances left school after
completing the grammar-school course, would enter upon their life-work with
a fair amount of elementary education and with habits of study sufficiently
well fixed to make self-improvement possible. -
BALTIMORE SCHOOL SYSTEM.
Diagrams representing by areas the attendance as it is and as it should be.
AS IT IS.

J. H. University.
| 97. i.
High School. & e
Manual Training
School.
1,800.
Gramma^' Grades.
15,000.
Primary Grades.
24,000.
Scale 4,000 to square inch.
*The diagrams show the University in its relation to the city school system, without
regard to other sources from which students are drawn.
AS IT SEHOULD BE.

7:TITUniºrgiºſ 5,
º 1,000.
§ 23 $$
| 5 § #|3.3
3*| 3 || $3
is s.3|3%
º
§§§3|#3
Sº I S. S5
High School.
Industrial. Literary.
3,000. 3,000.
Grammar Grades.
24,000.
Primary Grades.
32,000.
*See footnote, p. 68.
Scale 4,000 to Square inch.
70
The grammar School should fit boys and girls for either a literary or an indus-
trial high-school course, and for Such art Schools as the Maryland Institute.
The literary high School fits young people for commercial pursuits, for law,
medical, or theological studies, and for college courses. It is certainly only fair
that the school system should make equal provision for the preparatory training
of those who are to become mechanics, architects, engineers, etc., and thus fit them "
for the higher training that is afforded in purely technical schools. The literary
high schools of Baltimore cost $75,000 a year, while only $12,000 a year is
allowed for industrial training in the Manual Training School. º
The literary high-school course should continue as it is, with some slight
modifications. An industrial high School should be provided for on a scale as
large as the literary high School now is. The course of study should include
manual training, industrial drawing, applied Science, mechanic arts, book-
keeping, and history, government, etc., together with some literary studies.
There ought to be a close connection between the literary and industrial high
schools, so that students could change readily from one to the other. Some of
the classes might be in common with mutual advantage. * -
The Johns Hopkins University should be considered as a part of the Baltimore
school system, and its crowning glory. To maintain this position it should
afford instruction in applied as well as in pure Science.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
|||||||||||||||
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