mand of the industries and so better enable them to obtain employment; the other to give them such breadth of training as will equip them for further development in their future careers.

Industry inevitably makes for specialization and tends toward the narrowing of the worker's experience and resources. The hope for freedom on the part of the worker and a chance to keep his footing in the vicissitudes of employment consists in securing an equipment that will give him a sound basis of general principles, a wide acquaintance with materials and processes and so make possible the development of industrial intelligence and, in consequence, of industrial adaptability. Such a training, it is needless to say, would make for self-respect and independence and good citizenship. Unless both of these aspects can be attained through school training, it would seem difficult to defend the proposition of industrial education at public expense.

The hope of the industrial school of intermediate grade lies in the possibility of providing such a training for a large number of children that now leave school at 14 years of age, a training that will give them an advantage whether it be to enter upon the work of the mill or factory or to take up the task of learning a skilled trade. The emphatic indorsement of this type of school by both employers and organized labor should constitute a great encouragement to the educators who are endeavoring to develop such schools in different parts of the State.

The question of these schools is intimately related to the childlabor problem. The operation of the law restricting the hours of employment of minors under 16 years of age to 8 hours a day, between 8 A. M. and 5 P. M., has practically closed the door to steady industrial employment to such boys and girls in this State. It is evident from the reports of investigators that the effect of the law has not been to any large extent to retain or to return these children to the schools, but that it has served still further to accentuate the problem of wasted years by forcing them more than ever toward the temporary job or into idleness. On a number of occasions, when the investigators inquired as to what had become of the children discharged because of the operation of the law, they were shown groups of children playing in the mill or factory yards. These facts, which come from a large number of

sources, make it evident that the legislation represented by the law in question is but a negative and restrictive side of a humanitarian movement which needs the complement of constructive educational measures to bear full fruit.

The replies by groups of industries to the question, "Would practical day trade schools giving a specialized training of one year or more after the age of 16, help to meet the problem of skilled employees in your business?" are as follows:

The order in which trade schools are favored by the groups of industries is as follows: Machine and metal manufacturing, building trades, leather manufacturing (chiefly boots and shoes), wood manufacture, printing trades, textile industries, clothing trades, manufacture of cigars.

In spite of this pronouncement in favor of trade schools on the part of employers, the practicability of such schools in any considerable number is by no means demonstrated. The great economic difficulty of non-remuneration of the student worker under which the trade school labors will probably always act to restrict the numbers that can take advantage of such schools to the comparative few. Another fact that has a very important bearing upon this question is that a trade school training is a thoroughly valuable asset only in such trades as are not highly specialized. The trade school can furnish a broad training in the fundamentals of a trade, but where the industry is highly specialized in different establishments it can hardly compete, even as a preparatory training, with training obtained in commercial establishments.

The returns from labor union officers in answer to the question "Do you favor public trade schools for boys and girls between 16 and 18, that would give two years of practical training together with drawing and mathematics provided the graduates of such schools should serve two years more as apprentices or improvers ?" as given below will undoubtedly prove of much interest.

These replies indicate, apparently, that organized labor has reached a point in New York State where it is taking a position of discrimination in regard to the question of trade schools. The feeling of opposition to trade schools in general is being replaced by an attitude which favors a trade school administered by public officials that will stand for thoroughness of training and for an after-period of practical experience in the trade before the journeyman's status is obtained. The opposition of organized labor toward the school which gives a brief and superficial training and sends out the graduate to compete with the journeymen is shared by most fair-minded employers and other students of the subject. On the other hand, all experience makes it clear that organized labor need have no fear of large increase in the supply of skilled labor through trade schools that limit the age of the student and which provide thorough and comprehensive eourses of instruction.

One of the great difficulties under which the trade school ques

tion labors at the present time is the undefined status of its graduates. No trade school can take the place of the old apprenticeship system. It can only, in the case of certain industries, supply a training that will advantageously take the place of the first one or two years of apprenticeship and prepare the learner to gain a larger benefit from further years of experience or apprenticeship before he reaches the status of skilled journeyman. Only when such status as to wages and period of further apprenticeship is agreed upon by the employer and the labor union will the trade school have a fair trial. Only then will it have a chance of successfully demonstrating its value and obtaining a recognized place in the industrial order. Whatever its development may be, it does not seem probable that the trade school will become the medium for training large numbers for the trades, but rather that its office will be restricted to training a superior workman and men of the foreman type.

It would seem clear that the trade school as a mere expedient to evade the restrictions of organized labor in regard to apprenticeship is doomed to failure. The same restrictions would inevitably be applied with equal force to the trade school graduates. The trade school must demonstrate a larger value, it must demonstrate that it can perform the function of training beginners in certain trades more efficiently and on the whole more economically than this can be done in other ways before it can take any large place as a factor in industrial training.

The industries in which the trade school would seem to have the largest actual possibilities are, first, in the machine and engine building trades, which demand some knowledge of drawing, elementary mathematics and science for their full mastery and which open up exceptional chances of advancement to the ambitious, intelligent and inventive workman, and, second, in the building trades, where the conditions under which work is prosecuted make it particularly difficult to train beginners effectively in commercial practice.

The replies of employers to the question (A), “In your judgment, could the last-mentioned schools [trade schools] be advantageously administered by the State or community at public expense and operated on a non-commercial product?" and to the

question (B), "Would such schools, if conducted by industrial establishments or a combination of such establishments and operating on a commercial product, be practical?" are indicated below:

It will be seen that, except in the case of the manufacture of leather and of cigars and confectionery, employers express the belief that such schools could best be administered by the State or community.

The replies to the question "Would practical evening or half time trade schools be of value in helping unskilled workers or those of low-grade skill to advanced positions requiring high grade skill?" are summarized below:

Evening schools represent, at the present time, by far the largest channel through which education directly touches the industries. Instruction in such schools deals, for the most part, with drawing, science, mathematics and technical subjects related to the industries, but the number of institutions providing