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The discussion having lasted till a late hour, Prof. FAIRCHILD's paper (the following) was not read but was ordered to be printed in the proceedings.

SYSTEMATIC MANUAL LABOR IN INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. MR. PRESIDENT, GENTLEMEN:

In undertaking to present views upon so practical a question as the place to be given to manual labor in industrial education, I think it but fair that you should know the standpoint from which those views are taken, and the incentive to offer them for your consideration.

For more than twelve years past I have occupied a chair in the Michigan State Agricultural College, where manual labor has been maintained from its very foundation, twenty years ago. In this relation, my position has been that of interested observation merely; but the interest has been heightened by direct responsibility during a year's absence of the president of the college, and by previous familiarity with details through duties as assistant Secretary. Farther than this my favorite studies of Morals and Political Economy have stimulated investigation in this direction.

But with all these advantages for seeing "most of the game," as the adage has it, I should not think fit to address you, but for the earnest, almost compulsory, solicitation of your worthy president, Prof. MANLY MILES. Under this pressure, I crowd already busy moments with these few thoughts and opinions.

In the outset, it seems necessary to point out a distinction, not always appreciated, between trained, or skilled labor, and educated labor. The former comes from a definite and narrow line of training within certain fixed rules. The more confined and perfect the routine the more perceptible is the skill developed, whether in manual or in mental effort. It is for this reason that in some of the arts we have skill as the most noticeable feature, while in agriculture, which is less capable of extreme division of labor, we scarcely take skill into account at all. The tendency is, to put rules first and principles second, as mere confirmation of the rules.

All this is well. It must ever be that children must walk and obey by rule before they can comprehend principles, and so growing industries of all kinds must be maintained by methodical routine and express rules, always before, and sometimes without, any general knowledge of broad principles, or any general discipline of mind and heart.

Whether a community can yet afford to reverse the process and put principles and discipline in their logical place, is a problem upon which economists are not likely to agree. The experiment has been tried by individuals with success, and in some trades the advantage of a liberal education before mastering details is granted. Perhaps it might be more obvious if it were not the usual effect of college life to turn attention away from technical and toward professional or mercantile pursuits. Very few find time or inclination to keep up habits of manual labor during a course of study, and very slight opportunity is offered anywhere for a symmetrical education of head and hands together. The result is that those students whose hearts remain in sympathy with the world's great work of bettering the condition of the race, seek their usefulness in superior knowledge of

what nature and the world have done; while the selfishly ambitious students seek their living and their fame by devotion to their wits. True wisdom is not likely to follow the sharpness of the latter culture at all, and can come to the former only through long association with the every-day work of the world. Of the few who do find wisdom, what a small proportion find exercise for it in practical affairs! Indeed a practical man is at once assumed to be of little culture outside of experience. Yet all educated men who meet the rest of the world in any practical questions, feel the want of discipline of mind among the men who wield the forces of production. The great questions of political economy and political liberty are studied by practical men with the same narrow energy that they give to their business. An obstacle to their particular aim seems an obstacle to the world's progress, and they seek for an expedient, just as they postpone financial embarrassment by borrowing from day to day. In their specialties they have knowledge and skill, and even wisdom, but the ability to use these for general welfare is very limited. Still further, with such sensible men, the educated sharper has a wonderful power. He attaches. himself to their interests, catches their information, and uses his sophistry to make that appear a general truth, which is only a particular. So the very framework of society and civilization is fashioned to suit a few strong interests, while the truly wise and truly good must rank as only philanthropists and enthusiasts, and that for want of such a culture as enables them to hold firmly to the minuter interests of the toiling millions. The great benefactors of the race in every field of usefulness-spiritual, intellectual, or material-have been men whose sympathies with toil were kept fresh by circumstances, while a good degree of general culture was given by definite study. Names are needless here, where the history of religion, of popular education and invention are so familiar.

With this lengthy introduction then, I take it for granted, that the world needs, not merely more skilled laborers, but more educated laborers,―men who can master the details of a business, and still have a reserve of culture that shall help to mould the world's machinery to the world's wants. I assume, too, that our industrial schools, colleges, and universities are set for the task of furnishing such men for their work. To this end, I regard some system of manual labor essential, and estimate the value of any system by its adaptation to this grand purpose.

THE PARTICULAR OBJECTS Sought in such a system are worthy of enumeration, as emphasizing its importance, and suggesting the methods best adapted to its ends.

I place first the encouragement of respect for manual labor. The young man who, while getting his education of brain and heart, has kept before him all the facts of honest toil, gains a respect for earnest workers, that comes in no other way so well. The energy, perseverance, devotion, and skill of the craftsman can be appreciated best by putting yourself, partially at least, in his place: and the actual drudgery of toil is known only as it is felt. Only actual work can bring a sympathetic understanding of the workman's needs, in either his business, his home, or his society: yet even a moderate experience with the quickened intelligence of student life enables one to hold fast his respect for any honest mode of toiling. This every student needs, whatever his tasks in life.

Second only to this is a preservation of such habits of body and mind as lead one not to shrink from labor of the hands himself. At the age when students attend college, habits of all kinds are to be formed for life; hence the need of so strict and regular a routine as everywhere prevails. If this routine prevents manual labor, one can seldom recover the habit in after life, however much it may be needed; but if room is made for this, it can seldom be utterly lost. The necessary muscular development too is provided for, and in the normal way, that cannot interfere with the lightest culture of brains.

Third in the scale, I place a cultivation of the sense of duty to be useful. To keep one in sympathy with the work of the world by his doing a part of it, is to help him to see how much there is to do and how important it is that his share be a real one. It diminishes the tendency to be a mere parasite of humanity in any capacity, and encourages to proper occupation.

Fourth, it should give such a general conversance with various practical affairs as to insure gumption in connection with learning. We all have heard complaint of educated idiots,-unable to use their learning to any practical advantage; and while we know that the complaint is in general ill-founded, there is enough of reason for it to damage our best defence of education for practical purposes. Now such familiarity with the details of any trade, or calling, as our system of labor can bring, develops a care for little things, that prevents such ridiculous lack of common sense as some very learned men have shown.

This, like the other, is a general object with a view to making education more useful in practical affairs, and more influential with practical men. There are others more specifically connected with industrial pursuits and education for them.

So we may place fifth, the giving of knowledge in applied science. Pure science depends largely upon illustration for fixing its principles and formulæ, and a mere theory of applied chemistry or physiology or botany can scarcely be thought of. The illustrations are the main bulk of science in practice, while the rules are few and concise. Real illustrations are found only in the laboratory work of the student in which his task is to find the actions and reactions, and explain these according to principles already learned. We never think of giving a knowledge of arithmetic by showing the pupil the rule, and a sample solution or two, to illustrate it; he must work problems himself, till he can make them. How then can we expect any genuine knowledge of Agricultural Chemistry without any handling of the soil and seeds? How can one learn the principles of physiological Botany as applied in Horticulture, with no experimental efforts and successes? Agriculture and mechanic arts no one thinks of teaching, but by a series of experiments which make an apprenticeship. Any industrial education that is true to its name must give, in a labor system, some clear prominence to this need. Failing in this, it fails to put industries alongside with the sciences, as it professes to do, and even fails to give the sciences a place above machines for cultivating the memory, or gratifying curiosity. But, when the labor becomes a means of instruction, it is still to be a part of a general conrse of study, as broad as it

can be made and serve its purpose, as a means of discipline. To confine the labor to some one defined art, and then narrow the course of study to suit the illustrations, is the very opposite of education in any liberal sense, and can only develop skill. Our object is gained only when sufficient variety of labor is given to illustrate a general course of scientific study.

This leads to the sixth object; to encourage habits of observation in every part of human effort. We know that many a hardship in the life of laboring men exists only for want of thoughtful observation as to remedies: much of the waste of effort, so much deplored, arises from inattention to well-known principles. Now, the habit of laboring with the expectation of illustrating one's studies, does encourage thoughtful attention to minutiæ: eyes and ears are quickened, and every intelligence is but in the right direction. Such a habit, once formed is not likely to be lost in after life. The details of a trade or a business are mastered sooner and better, while fitness for scientific observation in any field is secured earlier in life. The grand result must be a closer union between trained intelligence, and the manual labor of the world. Possibly, it might help to fill up the chasm which every now and then yawns between employers and employed.

In the above enumeration I have made no mention of the means afforded indigent students to help themselves through college, or of the manly independence encouraged by efforts of this kind. Both are incidental advantages in our system, but not the essential reasons for establishing such an institution, or for maintaining a system of manual labor. There might be less expensive means of gaining these ends. We ought, however, to take into account, so far as it operates, the attraction offered to laboring men who would not otherwise seek education. If a farmers' college raises the desire for education among farmers' sons, as we think it does, a system that promotes this desire is worth maintaining; and the same may be said in behalf of education for other industrial pursuits. Other incidental advantages, as those to the teacher, in the necessity for keeping apace with the rest of the world and for adaptation to practical wants, and the opportunity for direct usefulness which these give, I pass without notice, and hasten to the most noticeable

METHODS.

In general, I think, the labor must conform as nearly as possible to the character of genuine work, and the more fully students feel that what they are doing is real, not play-work, the better all the ends are served. I have noticed that the idea of permanency in any result, adds to interest and efficiency in the work itself. So I would have all the machinery of the system bear the impress of reality, and business-like methods of managing it. But it may be well to particularize also in methods.

First, let the work be actually connected with the world's great workshop by bringing its results to the same market. The idea of competition with others outside the every-day routine is a prominent means of success. Of course there must be waste and failures, and some of the work must be devoted to mere training; but let the kind of work be the same as the

world needs and is paying for. If there can be no market test applied, as in needed care and improvement of grounds, let especial pains be taken for comparison with similar work elsewhere, upon the basis of cost and accomplishment. Such a stimulant is a healthy one, and without it the interest flags for want of motive.

Second, I would put, a pecuniary interest in results on the part of each student, and take especial pains to adjust this as nearly as possible to actual accomplishment. This is a task of no small dimensions, but I doubt if the best results can be reached without it. So far as the labor results in education alone, it should earn nothing of course. To pay a man for the privilege of teaching him is out of the question. But if the first particular in methods is observed the great bulk of the work may give a return of value, that entitles those who do the work to wages. Any system that ignores this will have to be confined to such kinds of work as involve the nicer elements of taste or ingenuity, and border upon the domain of fine art. So the real ends of a labor system will be lost sight of. Third, in my scale, stands responsibility for reputation. Labor, quite as much as study, invites distinctions, and such distinctions as the laws of wages cannot reach. A skilful overseer learns to make these, and to devise ways of making them serve as incentives. A judicious praise goes farther than money and a cautious reprimand often does better than “docking." The unconscious praise of public opinion, where it can be used, serves the purpose best of all. Such an adjustment of the labor, then, as makes repute of use, needs to be studied; but it operates just as elsewhere in the world.

Fourth, the sense of duty needs to be cultivated. Each student, from the time he matriculates, must be made to feel himself a part of the working force, whose absence at roll call interferes with the welfare of all. He must know that for certain hours of the day his services belong by agreement to the college, as much as if he were hired by the month or the year. Thus the certainty and regularity of the tasks take away half of the temptations to slight it. This involves on the part of the authorities a care to provide the necessary work to do,—a care among the most burdensome of all. And yet, so essential does this regularity of employment seem, that every effort should be made to compass it. If, after all, full employment cannot be had, a reduction of the number of hours per week is better than no method of adjustment.

Fifth, strict business rules as definite as possible should be enforced. This does not mean a despotic iron rule of law, that has no judgment and no soul: but certain settled principles should decide each of the manifold questions arising, after a fair hearing. "Circumstances alter cases" quite as much with students as with any human beings. So the most definite rules must have enough elasticity to show a sympathetic appreciation of a student's necessities.

Sixth, some systematic effort must adjust the line of labor to the line of study. Some of our greatest failures have come from want of such adjustment. If prominent illustrations of a study precede the study or follow it at too great interval of time, the loss can scarcely be compensated. The most vital relations of learning and labor rest on such adaptation and the atten

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