. 103 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 
• than 3 per cent, of those whose vocations are remunerative 
and Nearty 50 per cent, are engaged in agriculture, while 
the combined industries give employment to upwards of 80 
per cent, of all those who, by their own labor, eit cr me ^ 
or physical, add to the wealth and prosperity of this great 
republic^ ^ ^ be true , as is claimed by many, that the 
course of study in our high schools is equahy well adapted 
to the needs of all classes, it would be expected t 
over t ner cent, of the graduates would attempt to b am a 
5 S professional services. Either this must be true 
or else there is a demand for a greater piopoition I 
fessional men, which no one believes. 
What are thefacts ? , 
More than 60 per cent, of the male graduates ecomc 
professional men. The vocations present and prospective 
of the male graduates of several high schools which 
believed to represent fairly the high schools of Illinois, are 
as follows: Ministers, 14 per cent.; teachers, 24 per cent., 
lawyers, 14 per cent.; mechanics, 10 per cent; P^ 1 ^; 
11 per cent.; merchants and mercantile clerks, 14 pci cent., 
undecided, 10 per cent.; farmers, 3 per cent. 
One high school in Northern Illinois, than which few 
rank higher, numbers among its graduates during the past 
twelve years, 128 persons, of whom thirty-two are males o 
these three are mechanics, and one is a farmer And yet 
they tell us that the course of -study m our high schoo si 
equally well adapted to the' needs of the farmer, the 
mechanic, or the lawyer. , * 
Another school, which, in point of popularity, has no 
superior, boasts of 29 male graduates ; of this number three 
nre farmers, and one is a mechanic. 
Of the male graduates of either of these schools, no 
t a tjer cent become handicraftsmen ! . . 
Send a young man into one of these schools in order o 
make an intelligent farmer of him, and before the course is 
half completed he will tell you he wishes to study law 
The tendency.of our high school system is away from 
the farm, away from the workshop, and towards the pulpit 
alld Our present system of public education is a long and 
costly stairway, near the bottom of which may be found t e 
