obtain absolute figures on this point, but probably a fair average is as follows. Five draftsmen will keep from fifteen to twenty-five pattern makers busy, fifteen pattern makers will keep fifty to seventy-five molders employed, and fifty molders will keep from one hundred fifty to two hundred machinists. employed. Also to be considered is the fact that in approximately the same ratio the cost of equipment of the four trades advances. Thus, it is evident that first class machinists are far more in demand than the artisans of any other manufacturing trade. Also, it is evident that the equipment of the machine shop is the most costly. School board directors in cities and municipalities must face this problem fairly and not evade it. A city can well afford to retrench along other lines in order to advance the cause of industrial education. The cost of installation for all the building trades is considerably less than that of the fundamental manufacturing industries. So the equipment of our trade schools should be of the best available tools and machinery. The right trade school should be, not only a source of education to the apprentice, but also to the manufacturer in many ways. The trade school should stand for the highest and best along every line.

The third prominent element which enters into the success or failure of any trade school is the student himself. The best course, the best equipment, and the best teacher will not make a good mechanic if the material necessary for the proper foundation is lacking. He must have mechanical tendencies. With a reasonable opportunity, a person can generally be what he would like to be. As a rule, if a boy really desires to be a machinist he can become one. He should be a graduate of the public schools, not only because every American boy and girl should possess this minimum amount of mental training, but also because he will need it in order to grasp the full value of what the right trade school will have for him. He should be sixteen years of age. The average boy cannot use his time to the best advantage in an apprenticeship much earlier than this age: A problem almost as serious as the need of trade schools is what to do with the boy between the age of graduation from the eighth grade and admission to the trade school. These are years which may be used to incalcu

lable good or loss to the boy. With the country awakening to the need of industrial education it is to be hoped and with confidence expected, that proper provision will be made for the youth of the country during this period of his life.

There are some boys who have not quite the mental capacity to complete the grammar grade work, but who would make excellent mechanics. These should not be debarred from at least a probationary period at some chosen trade and there will be a large per cent of them who, with a new approach to old and previously unsolvable problems, will succeed. Where much is given, much should be expected. Only circumstances of absolute necessity should be allowed to deflect the boy from his course. His parents help, the tax payer helps, and he should help himself, if necessary at the cost of self denial. The manufacturer wants graduates and not partially prepared workmen.

The fourth prominent element, which enters into this problem is the teaching staff. This is, without question, the most important of all. The right teacher will do wonderful things with a class in which each boy is thoroughly in earnest. Trade teaching is new in this country. There are no normal schools to furnish trade instructors. These men must be sought for, found and chosen from the actual manufacturing life of today. They must be true men in every sense of the word, they must be skilled in the trade they should teach, and the work entrusted to their care must appeal to them in its deepest meaning. They must have skill and the ability to impart their knowledge, and should possess a thorough general education with a capacity and eagerness for growth. They must be leaders. These instructors must be able to do with ease what is difficult for the apprentice to accomplish, for they will be called upon to demonstrate this ability many times. daily. These men are now receiving the highest rate of wages in their trade, as journeymen or foremen, but they are worth more as teachers. It is harder work to teach one's trade than to work at it. The teacher of mechanical drawing should be a technically educated man who has had practical experience in drafting and designing.

Almost every boy, from fourteen to sixteen years of age is worth four dollars a week if only to run errands. This represents an income of two hundred dollars a year or the interest on four thousand dollars at five per cent for that period of time. In other words, practically every boy, from fourteen to sixteen, represents a working capital of four thousand dollars. The right trade school should send a boy out at the end of his two years' course with an earning capacity of, approximately, fifteen dollars per week, or almost eight hundred dollars per annum. This amount, on a five per cent basis, represents an investment of sixteen thousand dollars. Thus, the trade school increases the value of the boy to the community fourfold in two years. To do this requires good teaching; the better the teacher, the wiser the investment of the municipality in securing him. There is no part of the public instructional system which brings to the student, the tax payer and the employer such quick, lasting, and satisfactory results as the outlay of effort and money for industrial education.

There is but one place for the trade school and that is in the public school system. Privately endowed trade schools can do much towards solving the problem, but the number they can reach at most, will be but a small fraction of those needing aid. Practically all employees of skilled labor will be giad to shift the burden and responsibility of trade training to specialists. The advent of trade instruction in the public school system will not be so much a radical change in the grade. work of today, as a fuller awakening to what may be done. under the identical conditions which exist. We can begin early in various ways, direct and indirect, to impress upon our boys and girls the dignity of labor, and the thought that every man and woman should be an independent citizen by virtue of being skilled in some vocation. We can introduce in an interesting way, information about the world's great industries and describe them in detail. When studying history, we can make especial mention of the industries of specific periods, and in geography, dwell more upon what each country produces. In other words, we can do many things to make our entire system of education more practical and more attractive to the student.

The public trade school will permit of a more uniform entrance condition and thus, make better opportunities for the entire class all through their apprenticeship. Such a trade school will be more open to inspection than a private school. More interest will be taken in it by the parent and the tax payer. It will be less liable to be criticised by a labor organization. The latter are not opposed to the right kind of a trade school. No one is more eager to have first class recruits added to their ranks than labor organizations, and many of such groups of men are endorsing the establishment of high grade trade schools.

Tuition should be free to all resident students in a given school district, but the pupil should pay for the material he uses, if only for the moral lesson to restrain him from habits. of wastefulness. When there is room in the school, those who have passed the legal school age and wish instruction, should not be debarred even though they have forfeited their claim of free tuition by the municipality. For those who desire further instruction than the regular course, the opportunities should be given to secure it just the same as any other school cffers post-graduate work. The right trade school will not claim to send out graduates who are first class journeymen, any more than a university claims to graduate experienced lawyers, doctors, and ministers. This trade school should have saved the boy at least two years in his life, taught him a good trade in a first class manner, and sent him out into the world hungry for more and showing him how to obtain it. It should have taught him honesty, sobriety, and industry, and made him a better citizen and a better home maker than he would otherwise have been.

MILTON P. HIGGINS,

President Norton Companies, Worcester, Mass.

Our problem is not very complex, but it is of vital importance that we arrive at the right conclusion. Heretofore it has not been approached in a simple direct manner, judging from the voluminous talk and from the various haphazard attempts that have been made to solve it. If we select, say, ten American trade schools as sufficient for observation, we shall find that in most of them the manufacturer has not had a controlling hand, while the educator and philanthropist have been actively engaged. The result is that theoretical schooling has been made fundamental and skill with tools has been nade secondary. Hence our trade school is generally a school with a shop attachment, while it should be a shop with a school attachment. The educator is not to be blamed for this, because he has done what he could in the light of his training. He had the school-idea and he tried to attach to it the shopidea and call it a "Trade School." The school teacher undertook a task he was not fitted for.

Like a pair of scissors having two blades, the trade school consists of two parts; one is mechanical skill and the other is theoretical schooling. For years past the educator has listened to the just complaint that the graduate from the public school was not fitted to engage immediately in industrial life. The pupil was thoroughly drilled in arithmetic, but the complaint was made that he could not measure "a load of wood" or tell how much land "a pasture contained." In short it was said neither boy or girl learned anything in school that enabled either of them to be self supporting, and that they were unreliable, listless and inefficient. These complaints were true and indicated grave fundamental defects in our