72 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



decided vantage-ground who is at the same time familiar with the 

 schools and at home in the workshop. For whatever department in 

 the arts a youth may be designed, he must, to insure success in the 

 future, be taught not " in either the school or the workshop" the alter- 

 native formerly offered him, but in the school and the workshop. 



Here, then, arises the necessity for Technical and Trade Schools, 

 in which, if properly conducted, knowledge is imparted so as not only 

 to train the mind to habits of thought and study, to give it capacity for 

 logical deduction and the rapid acquirement of information, but in such 

 manner as shall at the same time make the student familiar with the 

 principles of the art which he is to practise, and shall prepare him to 

 learn the lessons taught, in the workshop and in the manufactory, rap- 

 idly and well. 



It is the tardy recognition of these facts, of this vital necessity, 

 that has placed a great nation, formerly far in advance of all others in 

 manufactures and the useful arts, in a position relatively to her neigh- 

 bors that is causing the greatest uneasiness to the more intelligent of 

 her people and to all her statesmen. They see other nations, who were 

 formerly far behind, now rapidly overtaking her, if not already taking 

 the lead, in consequence of their earlier adoption of a system of techni- 

 cal instruction for their people. 



Two hundred years ago, Edward Somerset, the second Marquis of 

 Worcester, the inventor, whose work has become familiar to us, ad- 

 monished his fellow-countrymen of the growing necessity of such a sys- 

 tem of education for the people, and urged the establishment of tech- 

 nical schools. For this he deserves higher honor than for his improve- 

 ments in the steam-engine. But the system first took a definite shape, 

 a century ago, upon the Continent of Europe ; and, during the past 

 half-century, it has grown with the growth and strengthened with the 

 strength of the western European nations, until, to-day, it has become 

 a most important element of their national pow r er. 



In our own countrj', this great need has long been recognized ; but 

 the policy of our Government has not permitted it to institute systems 

 of teaching at the expense of the nation, as has been done in European 

 countries, and it has remained to a great degree unprovided for. It is 

 to our sad deficiency in this respect, and to the tardy and unconcerted 

 action of our educators and our legislators few of whom seem to have 

 the calibre of the real statesman that we are to-day so seriously behind 

 Continental nations in the industrial education of youth, and are threat- 

 ened with serious evils in the future. Without general and systematic 

 technical and trade education, the most enterprising people on the 

 globe, brought into competition in the markets of the world with bet- 

 ter-educated people and with nations of trained artisans, must inevi- 

 tably become a great nation of paupers. 



Such education cannot be provided at the small cost that the work- 

 ing-man can afford to pay ; and, even if that were possible, it is doubt- 



