Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 54, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 March 1917 — One of Duties of the Government Is to Fit Its People to Earn a Living [ARTICLE]

One of Duties of the Government Is to Fit Its People to Earn a Living

By REPRESENTATIVE GEORGE HUDDLESTON

of .Alabama

It is the highest duty of governments to concern themselves with the education which will fit their people for citizenship. Such education no less includes the ability to earn a livelihood than* the knowledge of letters which gives the individual a larger outlook on life. Man s first necesgityis for bread. That he must-have.- It is a mockery to take up tire child’s time with a training whqjj.l leaves him at its end unable to earn a living. A minimum of necessaries of food, clothing and shelter is essenr tial to peace, good order, and the public welfare. Every interest of public health, economics and spirituality is botfad up with the well-being of the humblest member of society. Education needs to be practical and for a certain and definite purJ‘ose._ College men are often scoffed at as being unfitted for any useful vocation, as having been taught a smattering of many things with a thorough knowledge of nothing. Education as a whole is less popular with the masses because of the general impression that it is based on faulty principles. There is much ground for this criticism. Too close have we adhered to the idea that education is designed to make “a scholar and a gentleman'’’ instead of a useful man. Too closely have we followed the old ideal of seeking by our schools to duplicate the type of the English country squire, an amiable, accomplished, brave and high-mjnded parasite on society. I have often feared that certain sections of America have followed the.old ideals in education more closely even than the people of the Old World. We have been more conservative even than they. Too much, are our boys encouraged to enter the professions. More brains is frequently required in business and industry than in professional life, and the rewards are greater. Frequently a high-class and useful mechanic is spoiled in the making of an indifferent physician or lawyer. Ridicule is sometimes heaped on professional men that they are more poorly paid than a good mechanic; but this is not a matter for sneers nor even for comment, for often the mechanic is the more useful citizen, and frequently expends more talent and energy in his work than the professional man in his calling. Everfour trade schools are devoted too much to teaching theory instead of practice and to fitting men for superintendence and the higher branches of industry. The vocational education that I contend for is that which fits the youth of the land to make its way in the world, that teaches horse sense and good judgment as applied to the business of earning a living. Such training should produce better mechanics, better-kept homes, better farmers and more fruitful- it the workingman, will increase. Ms output and must be secured in a larger wage and shorter hours of labor for a day’s work. By it the yield of the farm will be enhanced so that the cost of 1i v ingw il lberedu ce d, farm incomes multiplied and reflected in better farm dwellings, more of the comforts of life, rural life made more attractive, and the farming population increased.