298 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLV. No. 1161 



under the direction of the Misses Hewitt. 



Industrial technical museums would give 

 not only the employer and the foreman, 

 but each workman, a knowledge of, and 

 create an interest in his profession or trade, 

 no matter how humble it may be. How 

 many men know anything about the his- 

 tory, the development, the successive stages 

 of the profession in which they labor or 

 the material with which they work? How 

 many bricklayers know anything about the 

 origin of a brick, how it ought to be laid, 

 how it will best hold? How many cement- 

 mixers are there that thoroughly under- 

 stand the fundamentals of cement and 

 mortars, how they are made, and where 

 obtained? Few carpenters and cabinet- 

 makers know more than one or two woods, 

 and those not thoroughly; whether a wood 

 can be stained, or oiled; whether it is 

 adapted to indoor work or outdoor work. 

 Leather, one of our greatest commodities, 

 is understood no better. 



These, and all the lines of mechanics, 

 electricity, etc., should be illustrated in 

 such a way that the artisan would become 

 more skilled. The result would be to raise 

 the amount of his production, increase his 

 earning capacity and make him less of a 

 clock-time server. The production of the 

 country would be correspondingly in- 

 creased, greater resources being created 

 with less effort. One should understand 

 the industrial conditions of the country; 

 where the resources are, and where they 

 can be developed. Not only nations in 

 Europe understand this about their neigh- 

 bors, but some Asiatic countries as well. 



In the preparedness for peace, we find a 

 splendid field for the utilization of our pro- 

 jected museum of peaceful arts. There is 

 a growing tendency to broaden and diver- 

 sify our school system, by the introduction 

 of many elements of instruction outside of 

 the narrower school course and the school 



precincts, and this has found expression 

 in the Gary plan, so successfully intro- 

 duced in many places. Our museum of the 

 peaceful arts would enable us to give a 

 wide development to this phase of educa- 

 tion. For we know that nothing impresses 

 a child or a young person more strongly 

 than a direct visual appeal. A complete 

 concrete object set before children, ade- 

 quately explained and, if possible, set to 

 do its work before their very eyes, wiU be 

 not only better understood by them, but 

 also far longer remembered, than any wood- 

 cut with a text-book elucidation can pos- 

 sibly be. 



This real grasp of the matter will prove 

 of inestimable importance when the young 

 person begins to undertake practical work 

 in the industrial or art calling which has 

 been chosen. The rate of progress will be 

 much more rapid and exact practical re- 

 sults will be much sooner attained than 

 under the old system. 



As so much depends upon the expansion 

 of our foreign trade, especially in South 

 America and in Asia, a great desideratum 

 is that a certain number of our young men 

 should be given a special training in this 

 direction. Such a training could be best 

 acquired by means of a commercial school- 

 ship, which would make semi-annual trips 

 to various parts of the world, stopping for 

 a longer or shorter time at the principal 

 foreign ports. The commercial students, 

 under the direction of competent instruct- 

 ors in the various branches of trade, would 

 thus have the opportunity to study all the 

 commercial proceedings at first hand from 

 actual observation. They could learn in 

 the most impressive way all the difficulties 

 encountered in passing goods through the 

 various foreign custom-houses, how the 

 goods should be packed, in what shape the 

 foreign importer most likes to receive them, 

 and what are the rules and practises of our 



