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be a corps of teachers and a regular course would require four years. Upon entering, the student would spend the first nine months in a series of shop work which would correspond very closely to the courses given in the manual training schools and technical schools of the country. This would include elementary wood work, patternmaking, some foundry work, a few weeks in the blacksmith shop, and a little machine shop practice. This portion of the work would be accompanied by an elementary course of lectures or some study from suitable text-books.

When a boy enrolled he would be expected to deposit one hundred dollars. During the first nine months he would receive no pay for his services, and if at the end of that period he decided that he did not wish to learn a trade, he would be allowed to go, and one half of the money he had deposited would be returned to him without interest.

If at the end of the preliminary course, the boy elected to learn a trade he would be started in the department which he had chosen and would receive wages from that date. These wages would be arranged so that they were sufficient to support the boy and would increase at certain stated periods during his course. Careful account would be kept of the work of each one, and when the quality and quantity of the boy's work warranted it he would be given a raise or paid a bonus. This raise or bonus, however, would not be paid to him in cash, but would be held until he completed his apprenticeship.

During the entire course a certain number of hours each week would be devoted to recitations, the matter

for which would be prepared outside of the working hours, though the recitations themselves would come within the regular working hours. Especial care would be taken to instruct the boys in the underlying principles of the work which they were doing, and to develop so far as possible individuality and the ability to devise means and rigs for doing work. In the machine shop this would mean the ability to design jigs and fixtures; in the foundry, the ability to equip molding machines, design special molding rigs, etc. In like manner each department would present its problems and the boy be taught to meet them.

The amount of instruction given in connection with such a course would be about equivalent to a practical high school course.

No attempt, however, would be made to make draftsmen of the men, or to take them beyond the work for which they were intended. The entrance requirements would be such that the applicant must have had a good common-school education. In starting the school it would be necessary to start it as a factory employing journeymen, but as the boys advanced the proportion of journeymen could be cut down, though it would always be necessary to have some. Such an institution as this should be self-supporting after the first year, as while the boys would undoubtedly spoil considerable material, this would be in a large measure offset by the fact that they would work for work's sake; in other words, would not soldier. While such a plant as this would not have any dividends to pay, it would nevertheless have to support the teaching force, which would probably be equivalent to a fair dividend on the capital invested.

The recitations of the boys would be so arranged as to alternate in such a way that a certain proportion of them would be out of the shop all the time; for instance, one class would have their recitations on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings; another on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings. In like manner the others would have afternoons on alternate days. The plant would run six days a week throughout the year, with the exception of a shut-down for ten days or two weeks at the holidays and the granting of such other holidays as Decoration Day, Independence Day, Labor Day and Thanksgiving.

Such a school as this would make an excellent preparatory school for our technical schools and colleges, and while the graduates from this trade school would go to the technical schools conditioned in foregn languages, they would receive credit for shop work which would more than balance this deficiency in language.

For boys who wish to become foremen and managers it might be well to arrange a fifth or post-graduate year during which a course on shop management, shop systems, etc., would be given. The students in this fifth year would be given positions as foremen, or assistant foremen, in different departments of the works. It might be found best to insist on the men's spending at least two years working at the trade in some outside manufactories before they were allowed to return and take the post-graduate course.

When a boy finished his course he would be given a suitable certificate or diploma, paid back the original one hundred dollars which he deposited with four per cent. interest, and paid all bonuses which might be due

him. In many cases this might amount to several hundred dollars. It is quite likely that in most departments it would be found best to furnish each boy with an individual kit of tools which would be charged to him at the lowest possible rate, and would be paid for at the end of his course.

One very important feature of this system would be the necessity of preparing a special set of text-books to fulfill the exact requirements of the case, and upon the preparation of these text-books the success of the enterprise would largely depend.

The ideal location for such a school should receive careful consideration. If it were placed in or near a large city it would be possible to arrange visits to other works and the libraries of the city would also be available for the students. On the other hand, the distracting influences of the city might, and probably would, more than neutralize all advantages to be gained from such a location. If the plant were located in a small town at least twenty-five or thirty miles from a large city the high city taxes would be avoided, there would be less going on at night to take the boy's attention from study, and it is also probable that the works could be built on a somewhat more extensive plan, with ample yard room, dumping ground, etc.

It would be necessary to construct commodious and well-arranged dormitories for the students, and to provide some form of recreation in the form of gymnasium, etc., though the necessity for these would be only for recreation and not for physical development, as the shop work would probably be sufficient for that.

THE SUPPORT OF SECONDARY TECHNICAL

SCHOOLS BY THE STATE.

BY FREDERICK E. TURNEAURE,

Dean of the College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin.

At the Buffalo meeting of this Society held in 1901, a paper by Professor J. D. G. Mack, of the University of Wisconsin, set forth the plans then projected by the late Dean J. B. Johnson for a six weeks' summer course for artisans and apprentices, to be given for the first time that year. The success of the undertaking was sufficient to lead the authorities to continue the school and it is now entering upon its fifth session. The plan being unique it was thought worth while to present to this Society the general results of the work up to date, together with some considerations touching the problem of secondary technical education in general. Higher technical education, such as developed so widely and on the whole so satisfactorily throughout the country has received its share of discussion at the hands of this Society; and while there appears to be wide differences of opinion among the members on some questions, we are not, after all, far apart on the ideals towards which we are striving. It is plain, however, that with all that can be accomplished in our numerous institutions for the training of engineers there is a wide gap in technical education which is as yet almost wholly unfilled.

It was the appreciation of the need of instruction of a lower grade that led the late Professor Johnson to estab

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