DAIRY MEETING. 1 59 



What is practical life? The most obvious answer every one 

 has in mind. It is an occupation in which the hands, perhaps, 

 are used more than the brain. That is not the correct answer; 

 it is not my answer, it is not yours when you stop to think. 

 Anybody says a machinist, a blacksmith, a farmer, a newspaper 

 man is a practical man. Most people would say off hand that a 

 lawyer, a physician, a minister, is not a practical man. I offer 

 this as a suggestion. The definition of a practical man is any 

 one who lives in the world and produces anything of use to him- 

 self and the rest of the community. A man who lives in the 

 world and does not produce anything either from his brain or 

 from his brawn, I think perhaps is out of the class of practical 

 men; but a practical man may be just as well a physician as a 

 farmer, just as well a lawyer as a blacksmith, if he produces 

 something. 



Now, then, does the practical man need the technical training? 

 Is knowledge all sufficient for existing in the world and having 

 the responsibility of earning a livelihood, and of caring for the 

 lives and the health and the property of children? Of course 

 it is not. A knowledge of a subject is not all that is necessary, 

 by any means. A man may know the theory of almost any 

 business, but unless he has command of the tools and of the 

 materials, his knowledge may be almost useless to him. It cer- 

 tainly will be useless to others, if it is not useless to him. 



There are two purposes in technical training. There may be 

 more, but two are obvious. One is for the protection of the 

 public and the other is for the success of the individual. Cer- 

 tain laws have been enacted which compel every one who will 



practice the physician's art, or who will practice before the 

 courts as a lawyer, or who will dispense drugs from a pharma- 

 cist's store, to have gone through a certain series of technical 

 lectures and practices in some school or institution established 

 for the purpose. He has to pass an examination which proves 

 that he has prepared himself in these lines. No man may pre- 

 scribe for a fever, may amputate a limb, may plead before the 

 courts except in his own behalf, or may compound medicines 

 legally who has not had this training in some authorized insti- 

 tution and who has not a diploma or a certificate to show upon 

 demand to those who would employ him. This is necessary for 

 the protection of the public. We all demand it. We do not 



