of their hands. If 92 per cent. of those who complete the elementary school course go into some form of bread-winning occupation where the efficiency of their service and their wage-earning power will depend upon skill of the hand, should not the elementary school seek to become more closely articulated with the life into which its graduates must go to find their livelihood? Add to these graduates the large number of those who fall out of the elementary schools from the fourth grade on, and we have a vast army of young people going into the bread-winning occupations with no specific training therefor.

In ages more or less remote, the ideal in education seemed to be to get a very small percentage of our young men thru college and university courses in order that they might enter the learned professions-medicine, law, and theology, and almost no thought was given to the vast majority, possibly 98 per cent., of the youth of the land who for one reason or another could not reach the end of a university course. There stood out before educators only these three goals toward which they urged on the more favored of their students in ability to do scholastic work. Indeed, it was often considered somewhat of a stigma to make so great a failure in school, college, or university work as not to reach one of these goals, and fall into the base occupation of trade or still baser occupation of industry. It mattered little what the young man's earning power was, or the efficiency of his service to mankind, if only he could become a limb of the law, a doctor of medicine or a young theologian. And if, after vainly struggling for several years, he could not earn his daily bread in one of these professions, he might honorably try school teaching. The less fortunate boy who fell by the wayside, and, donning his overalls, went to work at some industrial occupation, where in time his wages might amount to as much as twenty-five dollars a week, was looked upon with disfavor by the young man in the gentler walks of life whose "salary" was no more than twelve dollars a week. This increased earning power of the young man of overalls represents a higher degree of intelligence and efficiency of service to mankind in his industrial occupation, as surely as the lower earning power of the other represents the lower degree of intelligence and efficiency of service to mankind in the gentler walks of life.

The wonderful achievements in engineering, manufacturing, commerce, and agriculture are forcing the American people to regard these occupations as in every sense quite as highly honorable as the so-called learned professions. And the schools are coming to recognize more and more that those studies, even elementary studies, which prepare the youth for successful experience in these occupations, have as legitimate a place in the school curriculum as any of the humanities. In the earlier days industries and trades were often taught in the good old farm homes, not only to the inferior classes, but to the children of many of the best people of the country. Before the building of great cities and the vast network of railroads, the farm home often had its carpenter shop, saw mill, blacksmith shop, cooper shop, tannery, shoe shop, and many other industries; and the boys who had little schooling often had

valuable training in these industries, and in the little world about the home they contributed for a term of years in some special industry valuable service that came from such crude specialized training.

And I dare say that such training had as much to do with the development of the men who in the larger cities, in after years, became leaders in commerce, in manufacturing or in statecraft, as any formal school training they might have received. I have in mind a man who belongs to one of the foremost families in the South and whose wise mother in such a home saw to it that not only he but that all of his brothers had special training in some one of these industries. His specialty was cobbling. That man, after reaching his majority, settled in a city of the South and is today its most successful banker and manufacturer, a man who is regarded by everyone as pre-eminently the first citizen of his city. The training that was given in this crude way in the old farm home should, in the passing away of these old homes, be given in the schools of the land.

The most hopeful sign in this educational renaissance is our growing willingness to break away from tradition. The social ideals or dominant life of a people must influence the schemes for education. Now that industrial America, with its governmental protection to the industrial, has been outstripped by Germany with its universal industrial training, we are being forced as a people to give serious study to the reorganization of our schools to meet the demands upon them for industrial efficiency; and this is a problem for the joint solution of educational leaders, statesmen, and captains of industry. Too many American boys and girls have been slipping thru the meshes of the elementary schools and going out to join the vast army of bread winners without adequate training. Many of those who leave the schools have a feeling, based upon observation of their bread-winning friends, that the preparation they are receiving in the schools does not give them earning power. The aim of the schools has been to develop passive living power, but living power without commensurate constructive earning power is un-American. The truly typical American is one who can wear overalls as gracefully as he wears a dress suit.

The problem of rural communities is that of adequate agricultural training for the masses of young people who should go into agricultural pursuits. The problem of urban communities today is that of adequate training for the masses of young people who must become bread winners in industrial and commercial pursuits.

DISCUSSION

STARR CADWALLADER, superintendent of sanitation, Cleveland, O.-After all that has been said during the sessions today concerning the importance of industry in life and of industrial education, it seems scarcely possible to add anything which shall have significance to this audience from the standpoint either of the industrial need or of the educational program. But it has seemed to me that in this and other similar discussions the human point of view is not presented with the fulness which it merits. On the one side the

subject is ably and technically handled. The difficulties and possibilities of including industrial courses in the regular school program are very skillfully set forth. On the other side the subject is also well stated. Statesmen, manufacturers, and others concerned about industrial supremacy, demand that the number of those trained to do things with their hands be very greatly increased. You, who are educators, have in the past accomplished the arrangement of a program measurably suited to the needs of various communities and I have confidence to believe that you will again succeed. I have also very great confidence that what the captain of industry wants for the advancement of his particular business he will get. But what of the great mass of school children of whom you have spoken? What will they get? Will they be able to attain a more comfortable, happy life, or will they become only more fit tools?

The subject for this particular part of the program says: "The industrial aspect of social life affords a varied and significant body of subject-matter." As to the industrial aspect of social life-you have all been proving that industry is at the basis of things. It is necessary to earn a living. You have shown that the methods of production and distribution determine, to a considerable extent, forms of social organization. True, changes in the methods of production and distribution have, within the last century, remodeled the forms of social organization. But the industrial process, the way in which industry is conducted, does not by any means comprehend the social life of a people. Industrial effects are quite as important as industrial processes. Industrial processes, which may be very effective in so far as the making of a product is concerned, may be absolutely detrimental to the life of a community

In the consideration of this subject, certain limitations have been overlooked. There are limitations within the school. We are pretty generally agreed that the public school has not, for a large majority of the children who enter it, the effect, the influence that it ought to have. It does not give them even the traditional kind of education. The short period during which the average child remains in school seems insufficient to attain this result. The difficulty may be in the child, in the method, or in the quality of teaching, but the fact remains that the success is not what it might be or what it ought to be. Now, if industrial courses are added, will the 92 per cent. who leave school after four or five years more surely be given an industrial training, sufficiently effective and valuable, than they are now given the traditional education? A portion of them, doubtless, will be benefited, but the benefit can scarcely be postulated for them all. There are also limitations outside the school. Suppose the 92 per cent. are given an efficient industrial training, that they become skilled hand workers, does any man or woman live in a community where 92 per cent. of the school children thus equipped could go out and tomorrow be certain of earning a living under existing conditions? A percentage of those graduated from the various schools now earn their living. The vital question for the vast number of children and the families from which they come is by how much the other kind of training will increase this percentage.

There is no longer much difference of opinion as to the method of school instruction. Apparently the wise educators have come to the conclusion that a child is not a receptacle, a passive instrument, or thing. A child is recognized as an active organism. He gains most of his knowledge as well as his general development, not by absorption but by activity. But I presume that for a long time the school program will provide for the transfer of information from the teacher to the pupil. Now in connection with the industrial training which is to give skill of hand, well-developed body, quickness of mind and eye, what information is to be given which will make this training a factor of social efficiency? It seems to me that there is a vast body of subject-matter of the greatest importance, which is neither touched by the present school curriculum nor by the plans proposed to develop manual skill. It can be provided for in that portion of the program set apart for the transfer of information from teacher to pupil. Food, clothing, and shelter are essential to life. The quantity and quality of these things attainable by the mass of people have

a direct bearing on social efficiency. The real object of training is not, to my mind, industrial supremacy but human supremacy. The child is to be trained not so much that he may make more or even better things; but that he himself may more surely secure and more wisely use the means of life. It is important then that he should have information concerning the conditions surrounding the industries which he may enter. The hours of labor, the chances of injury or premature death, the chances of permanent or occasional employment, and the rate of wages in particular industries are all of concern to him, and should form a part of his instruction. It is important to instruct the child not only in regard to conditions in particular industries, but also in regard to community conditions. If certain industries afford some leisure, reasonable safeguards to life and limb, and a fair wage, the child should know what probability there is that the worker in these industries can, in a given community, obtain pure food, good clothing, decent housing, and wholesome recreation. Further than this, is it not the duty of the school to point out whether the best kind of industry for a child is to be found in the locality where he is? The school teaching, for example, should impress upon the city-born child, growing up under conditions which demand powers of endurance and resistance which his environment has denied him, the possibilities of life elsewhere.

Just a word in regard to industrial efficiency. It does not seem to me that industrial efficiency is synonymous with social efficiency. Industrial efficiency may be absolutely anti-social. It makes for a larger production of things, makes also for a better production of things; but social efficiency, as I understand it, makes for a larger and better comfort and happiness of human beings-human beings, all of whose time and energy is not consumed in earning a living, but a part of whose time and energy is released for the things of the mind and the spirit, developing right human relationship.

THE IMPORTANT FUNCTION OF CONSTRUCTIVE ACTIVITIES IN EDUCATION IS TO REVEAL THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITIES

WILLIAM NOYES, TEACHERS COLLEGE, NEW YORK, N. Y.

Modern industry, as compared with mediaeval industry, is characterized, in the first place, by its relation to scientific knowledge. Tested knowledge and high technical skill have taken the place of guess work and of the "ruleof-thumb" skill of our ancestors, and the result is a revolution in industrial processes. One after another of the sciences, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, geology, geography, etc., has put its resources of knowledge at the disposal of industry, and the result has been that these sciences have so far impressed their character that industries are now beginning to be classified according to the sciences which have been applied to them. Chemistry gives its name to one group of industries, biology to another, and various branches of physics to still others. Modern industry, in other words, is applied science. But no less truly is modern science dependent upon modern industry. Great as is the contrast between mediaeval and modern industry in respect of its application of scientific methods and principles, it is no greater than the contrast of method between mediaeval and modern science. The typical mediaeval scientist was the alchemist, working alone and in secret; the typical modern scientist is the inventor, working on a grand scale and with enormous appliances. Not only is it true that modern industry is applied science;

modern science includes, in turn, enormous industries devoted to research. Only a few years ago the study of electricity could be carried on by a single man with a few Leyden jars; today an electric plant with its lines, whether of light or power, covers miles of territory and employs thousands of workers, and this is the form in which the modern student of electricity must study it.

The interdependence of science and industry characterizes them both, and they vitalize each other. To speak in a figure, the hermit Science has come out of his cell and married the drudge, Industry, greatly to the glory and usefulness of them both.

Another characteristic feature of modern industry, alongside its scientific character, is its social character. Like mediaeval science, mediaeval industry was distinctively individualistic. Every man for himself was still the golden rule which survived from primitive life. To be sure industry and life were far more socialized than before, but the social revolution made its vastest forward stride with the industrial revolution. The industrial reorganization of the past century involves a change in human relationships, and that change we call socialization.

And not less but more than industry has science become socialized. Modern science is social knowledge, impossible for the individual to acquire alone. What would any great modern scientist be by himself without the host of scientists and other workers, devoted men, toiling beside him to accumulate data and verify results?

Mr. H. G. Wells, in his illuminating book, New Worlds for Old,

writes:

The whole difference of modern scientific research from that of the middle ages, the secret of its immense successes, lies in its collective character, in the fact that every fruitful experiment is published, every new discovery of relationships explained. In a sense scientific research is a triumph over natural instinct, over that mean instinct that makes men secretive, that makes a man keep knowledge to himself and use it slyly for his own advantage. To "keep shut" and bright-eyed, and to score advantages, that is the wisdom of the common stuff of humanity still. To science it is a crime.

The medical profession condemns as a quack and a rascal the man who uses secret remedies. No sooner does a scientist make a discovery than he publishes it broadcast.

And still less is modern science capable of individual application. For example, a few years ago the world needed better artificial light. The discovery of Karl von Welsbach that thorium and cerium were brilliantly incandescent, when heated together, was not enough to furnish the light. A curious mineral called monazite sand has to be brought from Brazil and scientifically and rigorously purified; ramie, a China grass, has to be cultivated in India and in Italy to be woven into mantles; long-fibred asbestos, scientifically made in Belgium, furnishes the loop; the oxides of berillium and aluminum are used to vitrify the upper end of the mantle; and the label is painted on with uranium nitrate. The efforts of ten thousands of men are employed to utilize rare