56 



some honest lawful calling, labor or employment, either in hus- 

 bandry or some other trade, profitable to themselves and the 

 Commonwealth, if they will not or cannot train them up in 

 learning to fit them for higher employments." In 1683, Penn 

 proposed the following resolution, which was adopted by the 

 Provincial Council, " That all children within this province of 

 the age of twelve years shall be taught some useful trade or 

 skill, to the end that none may be idle, but that the poor may 

 work to live, and the rich, if they become poor, may not want." 

 How different would have been the history of Yirginia and 

 South Carolina, with their sunny climate and greater natural 

 resources, had the founders of those States preached and prac- 

 ticed these sentiments which have been the source of the thrift, 

 growth and prosperity of the iSTorth. Elizabeth Thompson 

 well says : " Honest labor is the need of the hour, alike 

 demanded by the physical, mental, moral and financial condi- 

 tion of the nation. Industrial education alone can bring about 

 this reformation by joining with labor skill, dignity and 

 honor." Industrial schools are now more needed than new 

 colleges. "The danger is not of over education, with earnest 

 aims and in the right channels, but of a genteel and lazy dilet- 

 tanteism." 



I have discussed this subject partly in order to invite the 

 attention of wealthy men to its importance, and ultimately secure 

 liberal endowments for industrial education. The extract from 

 the will of David Watkinson, given below, and the liberal offer 

 of one hundred thousand dollars hj Hon. T. M. Allyn for the 

 support of an industrial school in Hartford, show that this need 

 has long been felt. If the Loomis Institute with its large 

 endowment shall be devoted to the purpose of industrial educa- 

 tion, it will meet a great and growing want, which no existing 

 institution in the State attempts to supply. If the liberal offer 

 of Mr. Alljm should be continued and accepted, it would be a 

 nucleus around which other gifts would gather till the school 

 should prove a great benefaction to the State. Such, at least, 

 was the result of the donation of Mr. Boynton in Massachusetts. 



The Worcester Free Institute was started by the gift of 

 $127,000 by John Boynton. This beginning led Ichabod 

 Washburne to consider the pressing demand for industrial 



