240 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



number, and in most of them instruction in the mechanical arts has 

 not been strictly adhered to, having been obscured by the literary and 

 art-science sides of education. That this tendency is a very grave 

 danger in technological schools generally, is very apparent from a 

 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 mathe- 

 matics, 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. There is even a tendency in them to 

 beget dislike for those pursuits that require manual labor. Our na- 

 tional system of elementary education is also drifting to the literary 

 side, and tending to beget a distaste for manual work and industrial 

 pursuits in general. Among the defects charged against existing pro- 

 visions for industrial training, are that the instruction is too expensive 

 for work-people ; that the conditions of admission are too advanced 

 for the mass of the people ; that the instruction in most of the schools 

 is too theoretical ; and that, for the lack of evening instruction, the 

 masses of mechanics who are compelled to labor during the day are de- 

 barred from availing themselves of their advantages, such as they are. 



A dark-shadowed picture is drawn of the condition of the trade 

 and the manufacturing industries of Baltimore. The former has de- 

 clined in an alarming degree, and the latter have never been developed 

 to any notable extent. Facts are presented bearing on some of the 

 particulars of these categories, and evidence is given from which the 

 conclusion is deduced that the manufacturing arts of the community 

 are languishing as much for the want of skilled and intelligent artisans 

 and managers to direct their operations, as from the lack of capital, 

 cheap raw material, or natural facilities for production. 



Johns Hopkins University, from which much might have been ex- 

 pected, lacks departments for training in practical industries. "With 

 an income of 8225,000 a year," says Mr. William Mather, an English 

 observer of our schools, " it would appear possible for a larger amount 

 of work to be done by this university among the people of the city, 

 without in any degree diminishing the high class of instruction in the 

 advanced stages of literary and scientific study." 



In no field is more room afforded for the application of such skill 

 and knowledge as technical training gives, than in the management 

 and operation of railroads. Railroading has, in fact, become a pro- 

 fession, fully as exacting and requiring as high degrees of professional 

 skill and intellectual attainments as the liberal professions. Yet Dr. 

 Barnard has failed to find that "any of our railway managers have a 

 proper appreciation of the situation, or that there has been any well- 

 digested effort in the direction of educating railway officials or em- 



