manifest relations to the trade taught, and should be grouped around it as a center. They should shed all possible light upon its higher phases, and especially upon its social bearings; for example, nature study should be the study of those natural objects that enter directly or indirectly into the work of the craft,—their qualities, origin, production, and uses. The history should be largely centered about industrial and economic conditions.

The study of these subjects differs from the study of the same subjects for their cultural value in that it is the incident, while the trade itself is the ever evident aim. But it is none the less important and valuable. The pupils themselves should be led to see that such study will insure them higher success in their chosen work, that it will give them a wider outlook upon the conditions essential to the highest attainments, that it will make them more intelligent, larger, and wiser men and women, and hence better and more efficient carpenters, or blacksmiths, or cooks, or milliners.

The range of activities of a trade school should be as wide as possible. As many trades should be taught as can be taught effectively. Otherwise there will be danger of unhappy economic disturbances due to the overcrowding of certain fields of work. The tendency seems to be to limit the work offered to a few trades. This will have to be corrected, or we shall have a large army of the unemployed in certain lines, and a consequent shortage in others.

Avoid the Guild Notion. But above all, every effort must be put forth to avoid the guild notion, for there is very real danger that trade schools, if generally organized

and largely attended, will have a tendency to increase the social differences of our citizens, and to fix them, producing permanent classes and castes.

One remedy for this is to intensify the cultural work of the trade schools. The larger the man or woman, the broader the outlook, the wider the sweep of purely intellectual attainments among manual workers, the less the danger of caste and social fixity. The great safeguard of a democracy is the social fluidity of its citizenship. The easy transition from one phase of life to another, the widest variation of occupation among members of the same families, particularly the choice of work by the children different from that pursued by the parent, save a nation from the prejudices which are the basis of all caste and class distinctions. This the democratic trade school must accentuate and develop to the fullest degree possible.

In this respect the problem before America is quite different from that in most European countries. Hence we must be careful in borrowing ideas from Germany, for example, where not only are permanent class distinctions prevalent, but where they are considered desirable by the ruling powers, and where their perpetuation is a distinct aim in public education.

Another caution that we must keep in mind is to avoid such training as will permanently limit the pupils' powers of expansion. They must be saved from the narrowing effect of doing one small thing day after day.

In this respect the trade school should have a distinct advantage over the apprentice system of learning trades. For the good trade schools teach all phases of a trade, and not merely a single one, while the tendency of the

employer is to keep the employee engaged upon a single operation easily learned. This makes men small, though perhaps very expert in the narrow range of activity open to them.

The Part Time School. But not all boys and girls who are ready to choose a trade can stay in school long enough to learn one. Economic conditions compel them to go to work to earn money. Are these unfortunates to be compelled to forego all training for their chosen work except the narrow round of a single movement given in the shop by the employer eager to turn the young brain and hand into ready money?

For these youths special schools should be provided, giving them, for an hour or more a day, high-grade broad technical instruction in their chosen crafts, and these should be daylight schools, not evening schools, and employers of boys and girls of limited education should be compelled not only to grant the necessary time, but to see to it that their employees of suitable age go to these schools.

Some of the more enlightened manufacturers of the country maintain such schools at their own expense, notably the General Electric Company, under the now famous leadership of Mr. Alexander at Lynn, Mass. They find that the gain in power, in better comprehension of the principles underlying the craft, and hence the better work done, more than compensate for the cost of the school.

But this is properly the work of the public, quite as much as maintaining schools for the more fortunate youth who can give their entire time to education. Moreover, the single hour a day would do wonders,

because every problem would have a meaning, and its solution would be applied immediately to the work of the shop. Besides, it would affect the social life of the pupils only for the better. As they would have made their choice of work already, the schools would qualify them for the higher ranks in this work.

Training Farmers. — There is one phase of industrial training that is receiving much attention at the present time, which needs special consideration; that is training for farming. The importance of such training cannot be questioned. It has two motives, to keep the boys and girls on the farms, and to secure better farming than is commonly found in this country. It is hoped, by showing the independence and the many other advantages of country life, to stem the tide of country youth toward the cities, and also to educate those who are to be farmers to a more scientific and profitable cultivation of the land.

To this end, in many states, instruction in the rural schools in the principles of agriculture is required by law. Also in some states township and county farm schools have been established, and elaborate colleges for teaching scientific farming have been appended to the state universities or created into separate institutions.

Rural Schools.-The farm schools and the agricultural colleges are undoubtedly admirable in purpose, and very useful. Teaching farming in the country district schools is of more doubtful value. The teachers in most of these schools are very young women. It is to be feared that the instruction given by them to farmer boys, even with the aid of good textbooks, will be either grotesque or humorous,

Proper Limitations.

Might it not be better to con

fine the work in the common rural schools to reading matter showing the charms of rural life, and the comparative independence of the farmer, and to nature study bearing especially upon farming, perhaps utilizing the school gardens, and by these means to persuade the boys and girls to attend agricultural schools? Is it not as true of training for farming as for the other industries that the trade school should be a continuation school, and that the elementary school should be devoted to giving a general education, with only such incidental reference to industries as will tend to create taste and enable the pupils to discover their aptitudes?

Industrial training seems destined to become a part of our public educational system. On the whole, it is to be regarded as desirable, but like all innovations it is in danger from its friends, and needs caution and wisdom to keep it in its proper place.