348 AMERICAN SHIPYARD APPRENTICESHIPS, 



presidents. As most of you, I hope, know, Webb Institute of Naval Architecture provides 

 an education free of expense. The only expense upon the boys is to provide their own 

 clothing — the institute provides the teaching, board and lodging, medical attendance if they 

 are sick, books, instruments, and everything of that sort. The entrance is by competitive 

 examination, and I speak of it in this connection, because while many of the large and 

 wealthy corporations (if there are any now, in view of present circuinstances) might be 

 able themselves to pay for the education of boys whose families could not afford it, I will 

 say that we admit some twelve or fifteen every year at Webb, and it is a wonderful oppor- 

 tunity for a bright boy whose people are not able to send him to one of the larger institutions 

 where he would have to pay. 



I hope that all the people connected with our shipyard and engine building concerns will 

 bear Webb Institute in mind, and, when any of their men have bright boys who have a high 

 school education, will tell them that we will be happy to have them make application to Webb, 

 and will give full information about where to take the examination. 



The Chairman : — It is unfortunate that clocks go on, and if there were more time 

 available I am sure we would all like to discuss these subjects further. There are two 

 communicated discussions which we will not have the time to have read here, but they will 

 be incorporated in the Proceedings. They are by Mr. Macalpine and Mr. Cathcart. 



Mr. John H. Macalpine (Communicated) : — I have read Mr. Bailey's paper with the 

 deepest interest and cannot commend too highly the enlightened and altruistic service which 

 will be rendered by the institution of the proposed scholarships. 



In the eighty's on the Clyde, and possibly other shipbuilding centers in Britain, the plan 

 of selecting by written examination the apprentices to enter the drawing office was initiated. 

 But there was no thought of a school in the works to train all the apprentices. The more 

 ambitious of those, who had no opportunity of university training, flocked in large numbers 

 to excellent technical schools which had both day and evening classes. But long hours in the 

 works and then evening classes made a very exhausting day and left little time for adequate 

 study. Nevertheless, this system gave great results. 



The opening of schools in the works, as is now common in this country, was a great ad- 

 vance in several directions. While the equipment and teaching force of such schools must 

 always be far below that of a good technical school, it can take in all the apprentices, reduce 

 the working day to a proper length, and give opportunity, to those who are earnest and am- 

 bitious, for study and preparation in the evening. This, with the daily practical shopwork, 

 will not only give us again the excellent mechanics which were the product of the old ap- 

 prenticeship system, now fallen into desuetude, but new men of broader training and 

 intelligence. 



Those works' schools are not intended to replace institutions of higher learning, and 

 could not possibly do so. Thus there was a step missing. But, as Mr. Bailey points out, they 

 make it possible to discover the brilliant minds and, by scholarships, supply the opportunity 

 which, frequently, want of means has withheld. In many cases the desire for learning will 

 be aroused for the first time. It is perhaps becoming too common for parents in good cir- 

 cumstances to believe that their sons should go to college whether ardent students or not. But 

 the plan proposed has none of this danger. Every day shipbuilding and engineering are 

 leaning more and more on science, and it is necessary for the advancement of these profes- 

 sions, and, through them, of the country, that those who are capable of attaining a mastery 



