THE RELATION OF EDUCATION TO INDUSTRIAL 

 AND COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT. 



BY HOWARD J. ROGERS. 



[Howard J. Rogers, educator; born in Stephentown, N. Y., Nov. 16, 1861; educated 

 in the public schools and at Williams college; superintendent of the New York 

 state educational exhibit at the World's Columbian exposition, 1892-4; director of 

 education and social economy for the United States commission at the Paris 

 exposition of 1900; chief of departments of education and social economy at the 

 St. Louis exposition, 1901-04; director of congresses at that exposition.] 



The rivalry of nations has become so intense that the 

 preliminary training of their citizens is a matter of unusual 

 moment. 



In older times this rivalry generally culminated in the 

 arbitrament of war, and as God was usually on the side of the 

 heavier battalions, and as the material of the battalions was 

 not of over vital import, provided it was good food for powder, 

 the necessity for the mental development of any class but the 

 ruling class was never keenly felt. But the rivalry of the 

 present day is not so much one of territorial aggrandizement 

 as of the development of trade and commerce, and war is con- 

 sequently a more remote resort. Were this spirit still one of 

 national aggression and territorial acquirement we should 

 now be turning out the common soldier and the officer; but 

 when the dominant activity of the world is turned to the 

 thousandfold phases of commerce and of industry, each re- 

 quiring special training, and each dependent on the flexibility 

 of mind and adaptability to conditions of its followers, the 

 drill and training of our rank and file becomes a vital propo- 

 sition. 



Granting, then, the industrial predominance of the present 

 age, the timeliness of the subject of this paper becomes self- 

 evident. In discussing it we need to consider two main 

 propositions: (1) The tendency of our national development; 

 (2) the kind of education of value to it. 



The initial years of the new century, are the annus mirabils 

 of material progress. They have broken the record of record 



300 



