What Chambers of Commerce Can Do for

Vocational Education

ALVIN E. DODD Member Committee on Education, Vice-President "Under Forty" Governing Board, Boston

Chamber of Commerce, Director North Bennet Street Industrial School, Boston

WITH THE COLLABORATION OF

C. A. PROSSER Secretary National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education

ISSUED OCTOBER, 1913

NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION

105 E. 22ND STREET, N E W YORK CITY

FOREWORD.

This Report describing the ways in which chambers of com­merce in this country can help th.2 cause of effective vocational education has been prepared at the suggestion of the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education, for the purpose of interesting chambers of commerce everywhere in the great movement for the practical training of our wage-earners, to indicate the things that have been done by leading chambers of commerce, and to point out the things which it is possible for any chamber of commerce to do for the work. Mr. Alvin E. Dodd, the author, has been especially equipped by his long experience with voca­tional work and his intimate association with the Boston Chamber of Commerce to prepare this material and he has brought to the task painstaking attention and enthusiastic interest in the idea of what chambers of commerce can accomp­lish. This has resulted in this monograph which merits careful reading, and which should lead to prompt action by Committees on Education of local chambers of commerce and the general membership of these chambers as well.

C. A. PROSSER.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGE

Why the Aid of Business Men is Needed 5

What Can Be Done to Further Local Effort in Promoting Vocational Education? 8

What Can Be Done to Further State Effort in Promoting Vocational Education? 21

What Can Be Done to Further Federal Effort in Promoting Vocational Education? : . . . . 30

What Chambers of Commerce Have Done and Are Doing for Vocational Education in Various Parts of the United States 32

Aims, Purposes and Results of the Work of the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education 51

H & ^w

WHY THE AID OF BUSINESS MEN IS NEEDED FOR SUCCESSFULLY PROMOTING VOCATIONAL

EDUCATION.

Within two lifetimes the United States has grown to its present greatness. This growth, probably unparalleled in history, has been due in large part to the matchless resources stored by nature in the American continent and awaiting the power of man for their transformation into results. We cannot claim that the results so far secured in the expansion of business have been due in complete measure to scientific or thorough use of resources and opportunities. The American business man has no superior, but in the stress of modern competition he is face to face with new demands not only upon his personal efficiency, but upon that of his workers. The Twentieth Century has brought us face to face with the fact that many of our resources are in danger of exhaustion, and therefore the thought of to-day is strongly directed not merely toward efficiency in securing raw resources from the soil, but also increased efficiency in manu­facturing and in marketing both at home and abroad. It is this effort towards efficiency that accounts for the rapid manufac­turing development of the last few years and the increasing export trade.

But the continued maintenance of such efficiency is to be secured only by recruiting from the younger people, those who are prepared for the life work. Although the American work­man is the most intelligent workman on the face of the globe, under the changing conditions of our day he needs more guidance to realize his possibilities. In other words the conservation of our human resources will be a conservation of the greatest of all our natural resources. This gives the reason for the present widespread and persistent agitation in favor of Vocational Educa­tion. We can no longer depend upon the mere accident of

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immigration or of resources easily utilized. The leadership which the United States should expect to take among the nations of the earth, because of its natural advantages, is to depend not upon accident but upon intention. The aim of Education must be to prepare each child for self-support and thus make every school of the nation a place for life preparation. This is the underlying idea of every vocational attempt that is being made throughout the country.

Realizing this need, the thoughtful attention of business men is being increasingly given to problems of education and the life work preparation of young people. The furtherance of prac­tical education and vocational guidance is a matter of paramount importance.

It is doubtful if there can be found a more effective aid for a bettering of educational facilities of a community than that which may come from the interest and cooperation of the business men as expressed through the local commercial organizations. Almost every town and city in the United States to-day has its Chamber of Commerce, Board of Trade, or Commercial Club, in which the business men of the community are brought together to work for the benefit of the community as a whole. The value of this type of broad-minded patriotic effort has been demon­strated so clearly that within the last year the demand for broader cooperation and united action on the part of these local and sectional units has crystallized in the formation of a country­wide Federation, namely: The Chamber of Commerce of the United States. This Association is composed of more than 300 organizations from 43 States in the Union, representing more than 160,000 individuals and business firms.

At the first annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, held in Washington, D. C, January 20 to 22, 1913, there was passed the following, relative to Vocational Education:

"It is necessary that the youth of the land be educated to intelligent lives of service and efficiency in chosen occu­pations.

"Half of all our children now leave school by the end of the sixth grade with only the rudiments of education,

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which, in large part, they speedily forget, and with no preparation or guidance for lifework.

"The statistics are startling, and in sad contrast to the better practice of most of the nations of Northern Europe.

"Therefore, Resolved, Tha t the establishment of voca­tional schools of manufacture, commerce, agriculture, and home economies through the land is imperative, and to the end that action may everywhere be stimulated and wisely directed, Federal aid and encouragement is essential."* Wi th the increasing interest in Vocational Education on the

part of business men and the impetus given the movement by the Chamber of Commerce of the United States in its endorse­ment of the Page-Wilson Bill, urging Federal support for Voca­tional Education, there have come upon the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education many requests for definite suggestions on what Chambers of Commerce can do to aid in the furtherance of the movement.

The following suggestions are grouped in three pa r t s :

W H A T C A N B E D O N E T O F U R T H E R FEDERAL EFFORT I N

PROMOTING VOCATIONAL E D U C A T I O N ?

W H A T C A N B E D O N E T O F U R T H E R LOCAL EFFORT I N

PROMOTING VOCATIONAL E D U C A T I O N ?

W H A T C A N B E D O N E T O F U R T H E R STATE EFFORT I N

PROMOTING VOCATIONAL E D U C A T I O N ?

*Resolutions on Page-Wilson Bill (Senate No. 3) passed January, 1913, providing Federal Aid for Vocational Education.

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WHAT CAN BE DONE TO FURTHER LOCAL EFFORT IN PROMOTING VOCATIONAL

EDUCATION? 1. BY ESTABLISHING A C O M M I T T E E ON VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

OF A CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

This may be either a committee by itself or a sub-committee of the Committee on Education.

Since the field of education is one of great breadth, an Edu­cation Committee of a Chamber of Commerce should limit its activities to educational questions which bear more particularly upon industry and commerce.

It seems likely that the most effective work which such a committee can perform will be in cooperating with existing agencies, whose purposes are directly educational rather than to often initiate education programs entirely of its own.

The membership of such a committee should, of course, include some men directly connected with educational work, or those intimately associated with such activities in the community.

In cases where educators are not found in the Chamber's membership, they may be asked to serve as members of such a committee, regardless of membership, or listed as serving in an advisory capacity.

2 . ARRANGING M E E I N G S TO S T I R UP LOCAD I N T E R S T IN VOCA­

TIONAL EDUCATION.

By (a ) Holding of Conferences.

(b) Holding of Exhibitions on school work related to commerce and industry either from the local schools or from places outside.

a. Holding of Conferences.

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An Education Committee of a Chamber of Commerce is in a position of peculiar advantage for cooperating with school authorities in arranging conferences, which will interest business men in the work which the schools of the community are doing or should do along lines related to industry and commerce. School authorities are generally very appreciative of such interest in the schools on the part of business men, and in fact are fre­quently heard to comment upon the need for the encouragement and support which comes from such display of interest. The stimulus to pupils, especially of the young men of the schools, is sure to be large where they see an interest displayed in the kind of training they are receiving and the results they are showing in their preparation for life work.

In cases where conditions are not all they should be in local schools the Chamber of Commerce, because of its relatively dis­interested position, can serve as a powerful stimulus for bringing about a correction or improvement of those conditions.

Such conferences may be in the form of dinner meetings, at which men prominent in the fields under discussion may be invited to speak, or conferences of greater length, at which specific questions may be taken up and discussed, or meetings where persons may tell of visits of observation made to places where some notable work has been done.

The following example is taken from the 1910 Report, Boston Chamber of Commerce:

"A conference was held by the Committee on Educa­tion and other members with the boards of educational insti­tutions in Massachusetts, for the purpose of discussing the interdependence of the educational, commercial and indus­trial interests. Two definite subjects were considered. The first of these was the possibility of establishing in Boston a commercial museum, showing the products of New England and of the countries and cities with which she does business, combined with an information bureau and to aid in extend­ing New England's' foreign and domestic trade. The other was university extensions, a great work which is surely developing, and in which the Chamber will inevitably have great part, both as to responsibility and as to benefits."

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Encouraging educational associations to hold their meetings in your city and cooperating in making the meeting a success will prove well worth while. The Cleveland, Buffalo and Boston Chambers of Commerce have done especially notable work in the past in furthering educational meetings dealing with voca­tional and commercial problems.

b. Holding of Exhibitions.

Conferences may often be combined with the holding of exhibitions of school work done either locally or abroad, altho this combining of the two is not essential.

Care should be taken that any such exhibitions given should be made with due regard to satisfactory display and in a form of presentation which will attract and hold the interest of the business men.

These exhibitions need not be large, but should be given in places easy of access to business men or in places where they are likely to congregate, such as at Luncheon Clubs.

At an industrial and commercial exposition held under the auspices of the Boston Chamber of Commerce the Education Committee of that Chamber secured the cooperation of public and private school authorities in planning and carrying out an unusual educational section to that Exposition.

In the idea of its presentation and the scope of the work shown, the exhibit was unique, not only in being a fairly com­prehensive showing of the opportunities for industrial education in Massachusetts, but especially in its presentation of these op­portunities by types instead of by individual schools, the separate institutions subordinating themselves for the sake of giving to the public a clear impression of the chief methods of meeting this important problem.

In connection with this same exhibit there was issued a joint circular presenting, in a brief form, the opportunities for voca­tional education available in Boston and vicinity, and as a further valuable result, there was brought about a joint movement among those in charge of such education to prevent unnecessary dupli­cation and to secure the benefits which come from cooperation.

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3. BY PREPARATION AND PUBLICATION OF STATEMENTS SHOW­

ING IN DETAIL THE FACILITIES FOR INDUSTRIAL AND

COMMERCIAL EDUCATION IN THE LOCALITY.

The idea of such a publication should be not only to give accurate information in convenient form to those seeking such education, but also by listing the various opportunities to differ­entiate between those institutions which are worthy from those which are unworthy of patronage and support.

Such information presented in a form that may be given out in manufacturing and commercial establishments with pay envelopes or mailed to lists of parents will be found of greatest help and command much interest.

Practically all Chambers publish for distribution various pieces of literature telling of other industrial and commercial advantages of their particular city.

4. BY INITIATING AND SUPPORTING INVESTIGATIONS AS TO THE

NEED FOR VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS.

The first step in starting a vocational school after the pub­lic interest and sentiment has been aroused should be a prelim­inary investigation to definitely find out the extent of the need for such a school and just what kind of a school should be created.

This investigation may be carried on by the Chamber of Commerce through the Committee on Vocational Education serving as a special commission on the problem, or in cooperation with other representative bodies, as the City Government, the Board of Education, or the Central Labor Union, or by securing the appointment of a special commission for the purpose.

It is important that such a commission consist of employers and employees from representative industries in the community; women of experience in social and industrial activities, or repre­sentatives of local civic and social organizations and of course members of the Board of Education or public school officials.

Massachusetts has conducted many investigations similar to those proposed above and from the experience gathered in that

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State the following are quoted as among the problems to be solved:

1. What is the need for industrial or commercial education in that community ?

2. What are the dominant industries to be served by the proposed school?

3. Which of these industries offer opportunity for skilled employment?

4. Which provide educational opportunities in themselves and zvhich do not?

5. In a given industry is there lack of opportunity to secure mechanical skill, technical knowledge, or both?

6. Are there schools or other agencies in the community zvhich do or could establish an opportunity to secure one or both of these?

7. What becomes of boys and girls who leave school at 14 years of age?

8. What are they doing three years after leaving? Five years after leaving?

9. Which groups are to be reached by different forms of industrial, commercial, household arts, or agricultural education?

10. What part is the "all day" school to play? The "part time" school? The "evening school"?

While the above questions apply more particularly to in­quiries made in cities, the same questions with slight modifica­tion can be applied to investigations made in communities with agricultural or other industrial interests.

Valuable help on such investigations as the above men­tioned is that which can be given by the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education which is dealing intimately with the problems involved; in finding out both which is the need of practical education in different cities and communities, and how this need can best be met. The National Society has already been called upon by school com­mittees and Chambers of Commerce in such cities as New York, Rochester, Buffalo, Decatur, 111.; Cleveland, Ohio; Hammond,

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Indiana; New Orleans, Springfield, 111.; San Francisco, as well as several of the states.

In the larger communities where it is reasonably certain that there will be a demand for certain types of vocational edu­cation, the Chamber of Commerce could well take a firm stand on the selecting in advance of a properly qualified director for such work who, in addition to other duties, could materially assist any commission in this investigation.

5. BY AIDING IN ESTABLISHING ADVISORY COMMITTEES OF

BUSINESS MEN.

The Advisory Committee idea is rapidly coming to the front in this country as one of the most valuable and effective forms for cooperation between the business men and the schools that has yet been discovered. Particularly has this been true in the promotion of vocational training.

The business man and the school master have been too far apart. The school master who has to do with the preparation of young people for life work and the business man who receives the product ought to have close relations, and a position of natural aloofness is untenable. Obviously here is to be found an oppor­tunity for the Chamber of Commerce to be of incalculable aid in bettering local educational facilities.

The aloofness of the business man and educator in this country is in marked contrast with the practice in several Euro­pean countries and of Germany in particular. Commercial edu­cation in Germany was the conception of the business man. The Chamber of Commerce of the German city is the "God Father" of the vocational schools. It is the business man and tradesman who is looked to for sponsorship and advice in the conduct of such schools. In Milan the Director of the commercial school is at the same time Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce. The Massachusetts state law provides that each industrial school receiving state aid shall have an advisory committee of em­ployers and employees. Five states have already copied this law in their regulations for vocational education and others are pre­paring to follow.

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In selecting an advisory board for a vocational school the Chamber of Commerce should play a most important part in standing squarely for a board which has practical knowledge of the vocations taught. These advisory boards should be made up of persons who have had actual successful experience in the occu­pations for which the school prepares. The efficiency of voca­tional schools must be measured largely by the ability of their pupils to meet the demands of the trades, industries and occu­pations for which these schools give preparation. Whether the schools give instruction in agriculture, home economics or indus­trial subjects, the vocational work must be such as to prepare the pupil for wage-earning by participation in actual projects and processes of a very real character. This requires an intimate and practical knowledge of actual conditions and practices in the work as it is carried on outside the school. Only those experienced as employers or employees can furnish this informa­tion. The task of establishing and maintaining these schools on a practical basis is so important and so difficult that the in­structors in the school, who must themselves have had such experience, need also the advice and assistance of those having this practical knowledge of the industry or occupation and the conditions peculiar to it in the locality.

6. BY AIDING IN PROVIDING SCHOLARSHIPS OR REWARDS FOR

F U R T H E R INDUSTRIAL OR COMMERCIAL W O R K AND E X ­

PERIENCE OUTSIDE OF T H E SCHOOL.

Such an effort has its largest value as a stimulus to the young men of the community and the interest and attention which it draws on part of business men to the work young men are doing in the schools.

Such scholarships may be given in the form of visits to and studies of commercial and industrial enterprises, or to coun­tries abroad, attendance at schools of higher technical training or in the making of special industrial studies and reports on such visits and studies.

An instance of the possible success of such a plan is shown in the cooperation of the business men's committee of the High School of Commerce of Boston.

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Two young men, members of the graduating class of the High School of Commerce, have been sent annually to South America to study trade conditions there. They have been well received wherever they have gone, and upon their return have given several talks before the Business Men's Committee and the School in which they told enthusiastically of their experi­ence. In the summer of 1910 traveling scholarships were offered to two young men who spent one month in the Kolonial Institut of Hamburg , an institution designed to train young Germans for service in German Colonial possessions. Another month was spent with a party of German students from the Berlin Com­mercial University, who were studying the textile and iron in­dustries in the Rhine-Westphalian district and in Belgium. The enterprise was in no sense a pleasure excursion, but an oppor­tunity for hard work for which the young men 'were held strictly responsible. The reports of the business men's committee indi­cate that Boston regards these traveling scholarships as of great value.

7. BY E S T A B L I S H I N G A P L A C E M E N T BUREAU FOR VOCATIONAL

SCHOOL BOYS.

Mutual efforts of the vocational school and business men to place boys in positions either temporary or permanent is one of the most worth while examples of encouragement to the local young people that a Chamber of Commerce can give. Voca­tional education and the investigations of industrial opportunit ies are throwing out splendid girders toward one another, but the meeting of the two at the central arch will never be consum­mated until placement is a part of the masonry. The logical goal of all vocational education, of teachers, of parents, and of pupils, the establishment of industrial schools, the compilation and distribution of charts and handbooks, the investigation of industrial opportunities should be the fitting of the child not only for but into his life work.

The first step in establishing such a Bureau should be to obtain the promise of business men to appeal to the Placement

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Bureau when needing assistance both of a permanent nature and for temporary periods during seasons when extra help is needed in shops or stores in which the school boys might perform the service required. Arrangements with the school authorities might well be made for excusing boys from class for such oppor­tunities for more practical experience and to allow credit for the same to the pupils in their courses. In order that such cooperation be made the greatest possible incentive to the boys, no boy should be permitted to do this who does not keep well up in his school work. When a boy is ready to be permanently placed, every effort should be made to see that he is placed right. To that end the person in charge of the Bureau should serve in the capacity of a vocational advisor. If a boy has worked with success during the temporary seasons mentioned above, it is likely that a place will already be available for him.

For placing young men and boys who are starting out for the first time, the business of such a Bureau would not be that of job getting, but should lay emphasis rather on the finding of persons to fit the job. Such a course means at first the listing of opportunities rather than listing of applicants.

Unless this method is followed, the Bureau will likely be overrun with applicants for whom it can probably do little that is worth while.

It is further felt that the Bureau should show success from the start and it is therefore necessary to find first of all a market before stocking up heavily with goods.

The effectiveness of this plan of wrork will, to a larger degree than is usually considered, depend upon the qualities of the man who is selected to be manager in charge.

Such a position is one requiring a high order of initiative, adaptability and judgment.

The manager must be a good judge of ability and have a knowledge of business conditions.

He must come to know business firms.

What opportunities there are in those firms.

What openings in those opportunities.

The sort of a fellow that would be accepted.

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He must be able to interest an employer and advise young men intelligently.

He must be able to interview applicants thoroughly and be able to sort them out.

While it is considered best to leave details of the working of such a Bureau to the person placed in charge, there is great importance in the follow-up work which the Bureau should do, and reports should be obtained from the employer on each appli­cant placed. This will aid in indicating to the employer bo th the interest and earnestness of the Bureau.

Reports should also be obtained from both employer and employee whenever a connection is severed. Any such plan as is suggested above should take account of the need for both advice and "follow-up" with placement. Examples of the formation and working out of a Placement Bureau somewhat as described can be obtained from the Boston Vocation Bureau, which is the pioneer in the Vocational Guidance movement.

8 . BY INTERESTING Y O U N G PEOPLE IN VOCATIONAL E F F I C I E N C Y

T H R O U G H FORMATION OF A YOUNGER D I V I S I O N OF T H E

C H A M B E R OF COMMERCE.

Such an organization might be called the Juvenile Club of the Chamber of Commerce and restricted to membership of boys between the ages of 14 and 18 years.

Various requirements for admission might be made, but the idea of whatever requirements are made should be the encour­agement of those qualities of character and efficiency which will make for success as a worker and as a citizen.

Meetings of the Boys' Division should be largely devoted to such subject matter as has direct bearing on the boys' preparation for entering the industrial and commercial world.

Dinner meetings of the adult members of the Chamber of Commerce with the boys once or twice a year with plenty of music and a good time program should be prominent features of such an effort to interest young people. At such a dinner given to sons of members by the Boston Chamber of Commerce, the speakers with their subjects were as follows:

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1. Aim of the Chamber of Commerce, President Bernard J. Rothwell.

2. Value of a Good Name, Hon. John D. Long.

3. Safe-guarding New England's interests, Dean LeBaron R. Briggs, of Harvard University.

4. Spirit of New Boston, Hon. John A. Sullivan, Chairman Boston Finance

Commission. 5. Loyalty,

Joseph Lee.

The dinner was a very lively, happy affair, with the singing of songs especially written for the occasion and the frequent appearance of various surprises, which both interested and de­lighted not only the young fellows, but all the fellows present.

A juvenile organization of a Chamber of Commerce to help the interest of boys must also be an active one. Real work must be given them to do. Two cities, Grand Rapids, Mich., and Winston-Salem, N. C, are reported as having shown most suc­cessful accomplishment with a Juvenile Division.

To become a member of the Winston-Salem Juvenile Club each boy is required to memorize the Athenian oath.

After a boy has appeared before the secretary of the Board of Trade and recited his oath he is presented with a certificate of membership, which states that the holder, having memorized and subscribed to the oath of the patriotic youth of ancient Athens, has been enrolled as a member of the Juvenile Club of the Chamber of Commerce and is entitled to all the privileges thereof so long as he shall prove true to his obligations.

A feature of the inquiries to be made by the Chamber of Commerce includes an inquiry concerning the trade opportunities open to boys and girls in the industrial establishments. The aim of this inquiry is to ascertain just what training should be given in the public schools in order that the boys and girls may be able to make a living in the city after graduation from the city schools, and also to furnish a trained labor supply for home industries. Heretofore the object of the schools primarily has been to teach the student how to live. It is far more important

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that in the future more attention be given to teaching the stu­dents how to make a living.

The industrial schedule which has been prepared for use in this work has been carefully arranged, and contains only inquiries that are absolutely necessary in the compilation of a full and intelligent statistical report of the industries of the city. This investigation of the industries can well be made by the boys themselves under the direction of the local Chamber of Com­merce Secretary.

Following is given the schedule used by the Junior Members of the Winston-Salem Board of Trade:

Industrial Schedule A—Statistical Report for the Calendar Year 1912:

1. Name of establishment (a) , names and titles of executive officers.

2. Character of articles manufactured. 3. Name and position of person furnishing information.

Inquiry 4—Capital.

(a) Total capital December 31, 1911. (b) Total capital December 31, 1912. (c) Total amount of capital invested in company.

Inquiry 5—Salaried Employee and Wage-earners.

(a) Number of salaried employees—total. Number of males. Number of females.

(b) Average monthly number of wage-earners employed during the year 1912. Number of males. Number of females. Number of skilled workmen. Number of unskilled work­men.

(c) Average monthly number of traveling salesmen employed during the year 1912.

Inquiry 6—Days in Operation and Hours Worked.

(a) Total number of days in year 1912. Establishment in actual operation.

(b) Number of shifts worked per day. Hours per shift. (c) Number of hours normally worked by wage-earners—per

day; per week.

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Inquiry 7—Salaries and Wage Payments. (a) Total salaries paid during the year 1912. (b) Total wages paid during the same year. Average wages

paid skilled workmen; unskilled workmen.

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WHAT CAN BE DONE TO FURTHER STATE EFFORT

IN PROMOTING VOCATIONAL EDUCATION.

1. BY KEEPING TRACK OF PROPOSED LEGISLATION.

A Chamber of Commerce can be a most important influence in keeping track of proposed legislation bearing on industrial and commercial education not only to help in promoting good meas­ures, but in defeating bad ones. A Chamber of Commerce com­mittee can act as the concentrating force in a legislative pub­licity campaign, by preventing a scattering of interest on many different bills and consequently missing fire on all. Some such central agency is needed to send out the call for letters to sen­ators and assemblymen; to keep the newspapers supplied with copy; use facts from other cities and states; get up public meet­ings, and arrange to have delegates at the state capital. Such a body, well known, non-partisan, with a fact foundation for argu­ments, can be the magnet for much wavering interest among individual citizens.

At the meetings of a Committee on Education, all proposed legislation could be carefully gone over by the members to see if the bills in question square with the best principles, policies and methods to be used in promoting such work. It is fair to assume that there is a best method so far as principles and pol­icies in legislation affecting vocational education are concerned. The best results will be secured only when details are worked out in states and localities in perfect freedom, but under well-organized general themes and principles.

An example of the possible effectiveness of a Chamber's ef­forts after a stand has been taken on principles and policies is illustrated in the following quotation from a report of the Boston Chamber of Commerce:

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"Early in the year it became evident that the donnict of authority and duplication of effort by the State Board of Education and the Commission on Industrial Education would lead to an immediate movement for a better plan. Realizing that it would be harmful to befog the issue by the consideration of half a dozen or more different bills which were contemplated by as many different parties, they succeeded in keeping these bills out of the Legislature, and in bringing the various parties to agreement on the bill which it drafted providing for a single State Board, with a Com­missioner and two deputies, one at the head of industrial education, the other in charge of cultural education. The New York Commissioner of Education and an eminent leader in industrial education in Ohio were brought to Bos­ton to discuss the issues before a meeting of members. The bill was passed and the system is now in operation with excellent results already secured."

2. BY CONFERRING WITH VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS AND BODIES

W H O MAY OR SHOULD BE INTERESTED IN VOCATIONAL

EDUCATION.

Whatever safe-guards the resources of the state or adds to the wealth of the state as a whole, likewise benefits every indi­vidual in the state.

As a "get together" agency the Education Committee of a State Chamber of Commerce or the Education Committees of several local Chambers working together can find perhaps their largest opportunity for service in furthering the cause of Voca­tional Education. Conferences for considering what steps should be taken in the state for furthering vocational education should be arranged with such bodies as the State Bankers' Association, State Federation of Labor, State Teachers' Association, State Grange, and other representative organizations.

At such conferences it would be well to have public men tell of what has been done in other states and hozv it has been done and what are the results.

Such questions as the following might well be made the basis of a program for such conferences:

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I. Does the state need education of a vocational character, and if so what forms are most needed? Industrial, agricultural, commercial or household, or all?

II. How can state interest in vocational education be best stimulated ?

III. How can the work be best carried on? IV. What legislation is needed to bring about a proper state

system of vocational education?

3. BY OBTAINING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A COMMISSION TO

STUDY PROBLEMS OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AS APPLIED

TO A PARTICULAR STATE.

One way to inaugurate the movement in a state is to get a commission appointed for making a survey and a report including proposed legislation. Massachusetts had such a survey in 1906, Wisconsin in 1911, Indiana in 1912, and other states have started or are about to start surveys as this is being written.

Here the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education can be of service in suggesting how such a survey may be best carried on.

4. BY GETTING LAWS PASSED MAKING POSSIBLE A STATE SYSTEM

OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION.

Such laws should be drafted only after a conference of in­terests in which the Chambers of Commerce might well be the leaders. At such conferences certain definite principles and policies should be adopted which should underlie any laws to be later framed. This is of greatest importance, and after such principles and policies are agreed upon by the cooperating inter­ests, every effort should be made to obtain wide publicity of such principles when bringing them before legislators and the com­mittees of the legislature, and further, earnest watchfulness should be exercised to see that the ensuing laws follow the spirit and purpose of the principles and policies laid down.

All that has before been said about the need of expert service for local communities in dealing with problems of vocational

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schools is just as" true for the state in dealing with problems of legislation.

In the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education any Chamber of Commerce will find the expert and reliable aid so necessary in efforts to promote state legislation furthering vocational education.

Already the National Society is in the field with prestige, having set up the principles and policies to be followed in state legislation that have been adopted by Indiana, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts, and which will undoubt­edly be soon followed by other states.

Because of their great importance in their bearing on legis­lation for furthering vocational education, it seems well to here present the principles and policies above mentioned which were adopted by the society and which have already served as a basis for legislation in the several states mentioned:

PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES THAT SHOULD UNDERLIE STATE

LEGISLATION FOR A STATE SYSTEM OF VOCATIONAL

EDUCATION.

Definition of Terms.

1. State aid is necessary to stimulate and encourage com­munities to carry on work in vocational education. At the same time legislation should provide that local communities should be permitted to initiate and maintain vocational training, if desired, entirely apart from state support and supervision.

2. Vocational education includes all forms of specialized education, the controlling purposes of which are to fit for useful occupations.

3. The fields of vocational education considered here are industrial education, agricultural education, commercial educa­tion, and household arts education.

4. Industrial education denotes the field of vocational edu­cation designed to meet the needs of the manual wage-worker in the trades and industries and the household.

5. Agricultural education is that form of vocational edu­cation which fits for the occupations connected with the tillage

24

of the soil, the care of domestic animals, forestry, and other use­ful work on the farm.

6. Commercial education denotes the field of vocational education designed to meet the needs of the wage-earner em­ployed in such business and commercial pursuits as bookkeeping, stenography, typewriting, clerical work, salesmanship.

7. Household arts education is that form of vocational education which fits for non-wage-earning occupations connected with the household.

Cooperation.

8. Vocational schools as referred to in this document, in­clude all agricultural, industrial, commercial and household arts schools, the controlling purpose of which is to fit for useful occu­pations, and which deal with pupils above fourteen years of age and below college grade, as indicated below.

9. An all-day vocational school is a school giving training to young persons over fourteen years of age who can give one or more years to such preparation before entering employment.

10. A part-time vocational school is a school for persons engaged in useful employment which affords instruction during a portion of the working time of the pupils that is supplementary to such employment.

11. Evening schools or classes in industry are schools or classes attended by persons over sixteen years of age, already engaged in useful employment, which provide instruction directly related to such employment.

12. Evening schools or classes in household arts are schools or classes giving instruction in home-making to pupils over six­teen years of age, however employed during the day.

Financial Support.

13. The proper expenditure of state moneys for vocational schools should be fully safeguarded, while, at the same time, the initiative in adapting measures to local conditions should be left to the local authorities. The relation of the state to the com­munity in the matter of industrial education should be that of partners, in which the non-resident partner has the right of

25

inspection and approval in return for partial support of the edu­cational venture.

14. State aid should be sufficient to induce localities to take up the work and to justify reasonable participation on the part of the state in control and administration; but on the other hand, state aid should not be so large as to sacrifice local initiative and support. Experience seems to show that the best results are secured when the local community is required to furnish the plant and equipment and pay approximately one-half of the operating expenses.

15. Payments to local communities by the state should not be made automatically, but only with the approval and recom­mendation of the state board of control for work actually accom­plished. In passing upon the school, the state board should have the power to approve every feature of its work, including all such items as locations, equipment, course of study, methods of instruction, qualifications of teachers, and expenditure of money.

16. Legislation should be so drawn for this purpose that a large amount of discretion is left to the state boards of control in the definition of principles and standards for the inspection, supervision, approval, and reimbursement of the work.

17. Attendance should be free upon a state-aided vocational school for all persons in the state otherwise eligible, whether they are or are not residents of the community in which the school is maintained. In order to meet j:he case of pupils non-resident in the community, provision should be made for meeting the tuition costs of such pupils by the joint contribution of the com­munity in which the child resides and the state.

Administrative and Executive Functions.

18. Administrative and executive functions. For the pur­pose of this statement of principles, it is necessary to distinguish sharply between the functions of the administrative authority and those of the executive or expert employed by the adminis­trative authorities.

19. Administrative control is that exercised by a board such as a State Board of Education or a State Commission on

26

vocational education, or a local education authority, as to rules and regulations concerning such matters as expenditure of mon­eys, courses of study, employment of teachers, etc., which in gen­eral might be described as legislative as contrasted with executive functions.

20. Executive functions are those exercised by a superin­tendent of schools, commissioner of education, or the director of an industrial school, in carrying out the decisions of the board of control and other necessary executive work.

21. Effective administrative control, on the part of the state, of both vocational and general education, requires the existence of a State Board possessing sufficient powers effectively to super­vise all forms of education receiving financial aid from the state. Should such a board not exist, in any state, or should it be found that an existing board is unprepared to deal effectively with the establishment and promotion of vocational education, then it is expedient and desirable that a special administrative Board of Control for Vocational Education shall be established until such time as a state board properly qualified to deal with all forms of state-aided education shall exist.

22. Effective administrative control on the part of the local community of both vocational and general education requires the existence of a local school board or committee possessed of ample power to establish and maintain, under proper state super­vision, general and vocational schools. When the existing local administrative authority for general education does not provide for the establishment and promotion of adequate vocational edu­cation, legislative provision should exist, enabling industrial and other occupational interest, under proper restrictions, to procure the creation of a special Board of Control for Vocational Edu­cation.

23. To secure effective administrative control of vocational education, wherever practicable, representation of employing and employed interests should be provided in administrative boards. In cases where vocational education is carried on by the regular school board or committee, it is strongly urged that the local authorities give adequate representation on such boards or committees to the employing and employed interests.

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Elements of Effective Control.

Effective executive or expert control.—The following fea­tures should be recognized: (1) The creation by law of a sepa­rate department for vocational education, whether under the regular State Board of Education or otherwise; (2) The placing at the head of this department of a competent deputy commis­sioner, superintendent, director, or supervisor, who shall be an expert in vocational education and shall be familiar with indus­trial conditions; (3) A salary sufficient to attract and hold a competent man, and such conditions of tenure of office as would remove him from the ranks of political employees; (4) The dele­gation to this official of large powers and responsibilities for superintending the work.

25. These same principles should be recognized and applied to the local administration of vocational education.

26. Efficiency in vocational education requires different methods of school administration, different courses of study, dif­ferent qualifications of teachers, different equipment, different ways of meeting the needs of pupils, and a much greater flexi­bility in adapting means to ends than is possible of development under the ordinary routine of the public school system.

27. Separation of vocational and general education.—For these reasons, whether administered by regular public school authorities or a separate board of control, and whether conducted in a separate building or under the same roof as the regular school, the work in vocational education should be carried on separately and independently from that of general education, so that it may be left free to realize the dominant aim of fitting for useful employment. This requires a separate organization, un­der a separate head or a distinctive management, and separate equipment, course of study, pupils, and teachers who shall have had extended practical experience in the industries or occupations they are employed to teach.

28. Separate schools best.—Experience seems to prove that where conditions admit, this work can be best prosecuted in separate schools, whether under the control of the regular board of education or otherwise.

29. Cities of more than 25,000 inhabitants should probafrly

28

be required to meet the need of vocational education by separate schools rather than in departments of regular schools.

30. Separateness and dominance of vocational aim.—Should the state desire to give aid to vocational departments in the regu­lar schools, such a department should be defme'd in the law as a department having a separate head or director, who should be treated as an expert in dealing with the problem of vocational education, and having separate organization of classes, teachers, and courses of study, and separate facilities for carrying on shopwork. The academic work should be such as meets the needs of the pupils of this department, and be subject to the approval of the state board of control as a condition of state aid.

31. State and local autonomy.—In developing measures for industrial education for the different states, it is essential in order to secure the best results that each state shall, subject to the foregoing principles, adopt the plan for the administration of this new form of education which is best adapted to its own needs and which will provide the best results under its particular social, economic, industrial, educational, and administrative con­ditions.

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WHAT CAN BE DONE TO FURTHER FEDERAL

EFFORT FOR VOCATIONAL EDUCATION.

1. BY SUPPORTING LEGISLATION FAVORING FEDERAL GRANTS FOR

EDUCATION.

It can be said that the idea of vocational education is spread­ing through the United States with extraordinary rapidity. Social workers, economists, statesmen, employers and employees, and educators all see in the movement for vocational education a means of decreasing the number of children who grow up into ineffective life. They also see in the movement a means of giving equal opportunity to all children to make the best of their lives. In this sense the movement is regarded as truly democratic and national.

As has been previously mentioned there are in various states commissions studying the question, and both in state and nation plans are being worked out for the training of teachers for the vocational education of children.

As supplementing this general agitation in the states there has been a steadily increasing conviction that national aid could fittingly be extended to the states in transforming and improving their educational systems. Precedents for such aid are found in the history of the Morrill and Hatch acts, which led to the establishment throughout the country of agricultural and mechan­ical colleges.

This proposed legislation became widely known first as the Dolliver-Davis Bill. Then the work was taken up by Senator Page of Vermont and the bill, somewhat changed, became known as the Page-Wilson bill—Wm. B. Wilson, at present Secretary of Labor, having introduced the bill in the House during the Sixty-second Congress. The principles of the Page bill have been

30

endorsed by nearly twenty-five national organizations, both of organized labor, of organized manufacturers and of business men, including the Chamber of Commerce of the United States.

The result of all this has been to make almost certain the coming of Federal aid for vocational education as soon as the best plans may be worked out.

A method for harmonizing a number of varying opinions on national aid to vocational education is now being worked on.

It is in the working out of these plans that Chambers of Commerce Committees working with the National Society and through the Chamber of the United States can be of inestimable help.

It now seems almost certain that a Federal Commission on Vocational Education will be appointed and that the labors of this Commission will result in legislative measures.

The Vocational Educational Committee of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, working with the National So­ciety, will need the cooperation of local Chambers everywhere in securing united effort for safe and sound national legislation. When a bill has been finally drafted which meets the approval of the various Chambers of the country, an active campaign should then be carried on by committees of local Chambers in getting their members to use personal influence by letter, telegram or interview with members of Congress to bring about the passage of the act.

Education Committees of Chambers of Commerce should follow very closely the developments and let it be known that they are watching closely and interestedly to see that no money for vocational education shall be given out for spending by states as a pure gratuity or bonus, or under such conditions as will cause it to be wasted.

By insisting that Federal legislation shall square with the best principles and policies already adopted in so many of the states, the Chambers of Commerce may be largely the determin­ing factor in making certain that Federal money is honestly and wisely expended in effective vocational schools.

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WHAT CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE HAVE DONE AND

ARE NOW DOING FOR VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE UNITED STATES.

These examples are not an attempt to record all work done by. Chambers of Commerce in furthering practical education, but rather to present such efforts and records of accomplishment as may give encouragement in attempts to carry out the suggestions presented in previous sections of this pamphlet.

These illustrations show two types of organization. One is the continuous committee of business men, either working toward a definite point or constantly in touch, making suggestions and offering help to the school authorities on all questions. The other is the club which does not keep up its interest throughout the year, but is willing to help at a crisis. Of course, the sup­posed reason that a business man or organization is at all inter­ested in schools is that the product of them must be used in business, and a certain familiarity is desirable with the mechan­ism which turns out the product—equipment, conditions of work, and course of study. Pleasant, cordial relations with superin­tendents, principals and teachers, especially those in business and trade courses, are most readily maintained through a committee or an individual delegated to keep in touch.

1. LEGISLATION.

Many of the commercial organizations have already taken part in legislative efforts when the desire was to secure changes in school laws that would permit a more efficient administration of present schools and the undertaking of further lines of educa­tional effort.

Many of the following reports are given through the cour­tesy of the NATION'S BUSINESS, published by the Chamber of Commerce of the United States.

32

In the Boston Chamber of Commerce, national legislation under which public education in agriculture, industry and the household arts, is to receive, under proper restrictions, generous Federal aid, is a matter upon which the Committee on Education has devoted much time and thought. Such legislation is em­bodied in the Page-Wilson bill, and the directors have passed a vote approving the general purposes of the bill. While the Fed­eral aid available for each state under the provisions of this bill would be considerable, the most important effect would be the far-reaching stimulus which it would give to the promotion of industrial education in every section of the country.

The Chicago Association of Commerce reports that-their Committee on Legislation has given consideration to the proposed bill for establishing a system of vocational schools for Illinois, said bill having been already endorsed by the Educational Committees of the Commercial Club of Chicago, The Association of Com­merce, the Hamilton Club and the Civic Federation of Chicago.

The following resolution was passed by unanimous vote of the Committee at its meeting, held in February, 1913:

Resolved, That your Committee beg leave to recommend for your approval the proposed bill on vocational education, which is based on the following statements of principles:

"Definition: Vocational education includes all forms of specialized education, the controlling purposes of which are to fit for useful occupations, whether in agriculture, com­merce, industry or the household arts.

" 1 . State aid is necessary to stimulate and encourage communities to carry on work in vocational education, but local communities should be permitted to initiate and should partly maintain such courses or schools.

"2. The vocational schools should not compete or inter­fere with the present public school system, but should sup­plement it by providing practical instruction on vocational lines for youth between fourteen and eighteen who have left the present schools.

"3 . The proper expenditure of state moneys for voca­tional schools should be fully safeguarded, while at the same time the initiative in adapting measures to local conditions

33

should be left with the local authorities. To secure these ends the general management and approval of these courses and schools should be left to a state commission, while the local initiative and direct control should be exercised by a local board composed of employers, skilled employees and educators.

"4. An efficient system of vocational education requires different methods of administration, different courses of study, different qualifications of teachers, different equip­ment, different ways of meeting the needs of pupils and much greater flexibility in adapting means to ends than is possible under the ordinary system of public school admin­istration. For these reasons these schools should be under a separate board of control, whether carried on in a separate building or under the same roof with a general school, so that they may be free to realize their dominant purpose of fitting for useful employment."

Your Committee wishes to say further, and more or less in repetition of the above, that this bill does not contemplate the establishment of schools that shall rival or in any way come in competition with the present public school system. The bill rather contemplates the furnishing of another or further oppor­tunity to such boys and girls as the public schools have failed to reach or have failed to hold; such schools to be established on demand of the local community as the necessity shall arise; the number attending these proposed schools will be compara­tively small.

The Business Men's Association of Putnam, Connecticut, recently secured favorable action in the state legislature permit­ting the establishment of a trade school in Putnam.

The Chamber of Commerce of South Bend, Indiana, was occupied through its Educational Committee during the past year, in drafting and presenting to the legislature a bill for the gov­ernment of local school affairs. The Committee studied the school laws of twelve or fifteen states for the purpose of evolv­ing a bill which should remove the affairs of the schools from political influences. The bill provides for a school board to

34

serve without pay, to be named by petition, and to be elected by non-partisan ballot. This board was to be a legislative one, with the executive functions and responsibilities delegated to experts appointed by an official responsible to the board.

The Cleveland, Ohio, Chamber of Commerce has always urged that adequate funds should be provided for educational progress and has repeatedly cooperated with the school author­ities in securing additional tax levies to be used not only for the construction and proper equipment of enough public school build­ings to provide for ever-increasing attendance, but also for ade­quate instruction in all branches, including vocational training, the grade schools and technical and commercial high schools.

Some years ago when the state legislature was framing a code for the uniform government of schools throughout the state, the committee on education of the Chamber of Commerce devoted a large amount of time and conspicuous ability of its members to the study of the best educational systems, and with great care drafted a code which was submitted to the legislature. A determined fight was made for the enactment of this code, and while the effort was not wholly successful, the code as en­acted preserved the essential features of the Cleveland code, namely, the option to elect at large a small board, the definite separation of the executive and legislative functions of school government, and the independence of the superintendent of instruction in the performance of his duties.

The Commercial Club of Wheaton, Minnesota, cooperated with the Board of Education of that city in securing the benefits of the Putnam act for special aid from the state for industrial and agricultural departments and these are now added benefits which can be secured through the high school of that city. All educational matters in the city interest the Commercial Club.

The Chamber, of Commerce of Columbus, Ohio, interested itself in the educational problem of the whole state and secured an amendment to the state laws permitting the establishment of technical and trade schools. As a result, there are now in the State of Ohio forty or fifty schools of this character.

In Nebraska, the Commercial Club of McCook, which re­gards "the middle West as the bread box of the country," agri-

35

cultural training in high schools is regarded as the most impor­tant educational question before the people. The club in question is doing all that it can with the State Legislature to bring about the application of such training to the needs of the community.

2. RAISING FUNDS.

A very impressive feature of the work undertaken by com­mercial organizations is that which has involved in many com­munities the raising of large amounts of money either for endowment, for a gift of land, or for suitable buildings. This particular form of organized work as affecting education has elements in it that cannot always be duplicated by others. The inclusion of this information in the general survey of educational activities is to show what organized effort can do in such directions.

Gifts of $10,000 have been made by business men in Colum­bus, Georgia, for primary and secondary industrial schools, "to fit boys and girls to earn their own living/' and an advisory com­mittee was formed for these schools.

The Chamber of Commerce of Pittsburg, Kansas, has de­voted itself to securing appropriations for buildings and mainte­nance to be used by the State Manual Training Normal School, located in Pittsburg.

The Commercial Club of Ashland, Oregon, supported the Ashland Polytechnic and Business School by securing a suffi­cient number of scholarships to warrant its opening of the school.

The Commercial Club of Bloomington, 111., assisted in secur­ing a bond issue for $250,000 in the interest of vocational educa­tion and manual training.

Bond issues were voted at Warsaw, N. Y., for $60,000 through the efforts of the Board of Trade, in order to improve the entire public school system; the Commercial Club of Grove City, Pa., backed a bond issue of $75,000 for general educational improvement; and for this same purpose the Chamber of Com­merce of Goldsboro, N. C, helped to secure a bond issue of $40,000 in that city.

Active participation in securing bond issues for educational

36

improvement has been carried on by trade organizations too numerous to mention.

The Boston Chamber of Commerce was instrumental in securing funds for traveling scholarships for sending members of the High School of Commerce to South America.

Buffalo Chamber of Commerce raised $10,000 for establish­ing a Vocation Bureau to act in cooperation with the schools of that city.

Through the active campaigning of the Chamber of Com­merce of Santa Ana, California, a bond issue of $200,000 was secured for the erection of a Polytechnic High School.

The Commercial Club of Albuquerque has expressed its deep interest in manual training and domestic science by backing a bond issue of $100,000 to be used in teaching these branches.

3. EDUCATIONAL SURVEYS.

An effort has been made by a number of commercial or­ganizations to ascertain just exactly the present educational con­ditions of the locality each serves and to define more clearly for the organization and for the public just what needs have to be met. This is a form of campaign that can with advantage be undertaken in any community, since only by watchfulness and close scrutiny can the educational facilities of a city be made to keep step with the educational needs of a city. The following brief quotations may prove suggestive:

The Chamber of Commerce of Dayton, Ohio, in cooperation with the Bureau of Municipal Research, joined in an educational survey of the city schools just prior to the end of the last school year. Reports are not yet ready for announcement, but the type of research was so thorough that extended mention of it will doubtless prove of value to other organizations.

The educational survey of Dayton was divided into six parts, each under the direction of one or more selected men.

Community Conditions.

The duties under Number 1, "Community conditions," were to make a complete survey of the opportunities for employment

37

of the product of the Dayton schools. This involved a state­ment of the number of industries, the trades represented, the number of men represented in each trade, the number of appren­tices in Dayton and in each trade, how these apprentices are taught, their age, employment opportunities outside of school hours, employment opportunities outside of regular trades, the employment of illiterates, and a special study of the colored popu­lation and its opportunities for employment.

What We Are Doing.

Under Number 2, "What we are doing," the duties were to make a complete school survey which involved, of course, with­out going into details, all the facts as to permanent and annual cost of schools, teachers and their training, school population, average attendance, medical inspection, school mortality, private schools and business colleges and all other facts that would shed any light upon the educational conditions in Dayton.

What Others Are Doing.

Under Number 3, "What others are doing," the duties were to make a survey of educational conditions outside of Dayton. Research was made relative to industrial education, trade schools, extension schools, the Wisconsin law of 1911, the Wisconsin experiment and the results of school surveys in other cities.

Our Future Needs.

Under Number 4, "Our future needs," the duties were to classify and correlate the data accumulated under Number 1, 2, and 3, and to furnish a vision of future needs. The main points of these duties might be summed up in four chief lines: (a) more bread and butter education; (b) uniform text books; (c) federal and state aid; (d) more school gardens.

How to Apply Our Findings.

Under Number 5, "How to apply our findings," the duties were to outline methods of procedure looking to the findings of

38

the committee. The research is expected to answer these ques­tions : Can we have better trained teachers ? Can we have better paid teachers ? How shall a closer cooperation be established between teachers and industries ? How may the schools aid in community welfare work? What are the necessary laws, muni­cipal, state and federal ?

In the fall of 1911 the New York Chamber of Commerce appointed a committee to study commercial training and schools of commerce in London and other cities, with a view to suggest­ing changes in the teaching of commercial subjects in New York. The preliminary findings of this committee justified not only the appointment of a permanent committee to study the same ques­tions, but also a special meeting of the Chamber for discussing the findings. Specific recommendations were made, among them that a system of commercial examinations be conducted in coop­eration with the school authorities. Under this plan successful candidates will receive from the Chamber a certificate for a certain grade of proficiency. It is expected that this will inspire students to an extra effort in order to pass the examinations. Arrangements will also be made by which holders of these certifi­cates will be preferred for employment by merchants. Special courses in Spanish, a free employment bureau for certificate hold­ers, a scholarship fund for students wishing to take advanced courses in commerce and foreign language, are other plans out­lined by the Chamber's committee.

In Denver the system of manual training, ending in the big, new trade school, was due to the enthusiasm of a business man, then a member of the board, who made a special trip to visit all the Eastern schools which gave any sort of handwork.

In Harrisburg, Pa., "two years ago the need for another high school building became urgent. The people were divided on the question of separating the sexes and on the question of installing some of the newer equipment, which seemed to be a part of the modern high school plant. In order that the people, before voting on the proposed bond issue, might have the benefit of the soundest advice on the question that it was possible to secure, the Board of Trade, at a cost of several hundred dollars, employed a well known school expert, to make a survey of

39

Harrisburg with different recommendations as to the proper location for a new school building and the necessary equipment and paraphernalia for special work."

The Detroit Board of Commerce has just issued an eighty-page recreational survey of the city of Detroit. This report not only covers the needs of school children, but is primarily made to show the needs and requirements of children and young men and women engaged in factory life. The Board of Commerce has always taken a keen interest in educational matters. The Committee was in cooperation with the Board of Education dur­ing the period of equipping the Cass Technical High School. The Board has also been in active touch with manufacturers relative to permitting their young men to attend the Cass High School three half-days weekly with pay in order to improve their value to themselves and to their employers. Some of the larger firms are sending fivt or six of their young men to school under this arrangement.

4. ADVISORY COMMITTEE.

At a gathering of representative business men held in Bos­ton in the autumn of 1906 the new high school of commerce was the subject of an interesting discussion. The consensus of opin­ion was that a successful school should be developed by coopera­tion between the city and the business men. The chairman of the Boston School Board suggested that a committee of business men be formed. Representatives of the Merchants' Association, the Associated Board of Trade, and the Chamber of Commerce were chosen to formulate a plan which was adopted by the Board of Education. From twenty-five representatives of vari­ous business activities five were selected as an executive body to meet monthly. A year later the business men's committee proposed a series of recommendations which, as thev hoped, have proved of vital assistance in the development of the school. Schoolmen and business leaders alike are enthusiastic.

The Boston Chamber of Commerce has, besides its educa­tional committee and its advisory board to the High School of Commerce, an advisory board to the Trade School for Girls, to the Mechanical Arts High School, and the Vocational Bureau.

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The Chamber of Commerce of Quincy, Illinois, has a stand­ing committee a part of the duty of which is to visit the public schools twice a year and report on the needs. As long ago as 1906, at the instance of the Chamber of Commerce, the Quincy Board of Education added the Spanish language to the list of regular studies in the Quincy High School, in which that study has been taught ever since. Quincy being such an important manufacturing city, with a substantial and increasing export trade, with the Latin-Americas, the Chamber of Com­merce thought that the teaching of Spanish would have a favor­able commercial influence.

A most interesting statement has been received from the Business Men's Association of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, relative to the problems presented by the continuation and industrial schools. Because of their suggestive value to other cities that may be promoted to take up continuation work, the essentials of the problem are included here.

The Sheboygan Continuation and Industrial School was started September 3, 1912, under the Wisconsin Industrial School Law, passed by the Legislature of 1911.

The first step in this direction was the appointment of an Industrial Board by the regular Board of Education.

Immediately after the organization the Board began to plan, and soon realized that it was dealing with an entirely new prob­lem in education and that new interests had to be awakened. It also realized that without the support of the business interests the school would not succeed. It therefore immediately turned to the local business organizations; chief among these, the Busi­ness Men's Association and the Manufacturers' Association. These two were very cooperative and immediately appointed com­mittees to confer with the Board of Industrial Education in re­gard to this school. The conferences with the committee of these organizations were of distinct value in the establishment of the school and gave stability and support to the movement, which cannot be overestimated. These organizations have also been back of the Industrial School during the entire first year and the success of the school is, no doubt, in a large degree to be attributed to the backing of the Sheboygan business men. The

41

business men of Sheboygan have come forward patriotically to support an institution that will in due time be a great credit to the city as well as a benefit to the industrial interests, both from the standpoint of the employer as well as the employee.

5. VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE AND PLACEMENT.

The effort made by the Commercial Club of Pueblo, Colo rado, in finding positions for boys during vacations is worthy of general consideration.

"A list of the employers of the city was prepared and in addition to a general letter signed by the chairman of the Com­mittee, each member of the committee took a certain number of the employers who were personal friends of his and wrote them letters on his own stationery, urging the employers to make a special effort to employ the school boys during the summer vaca­tion. The students applying for positions were registered as carefully as possible. In this way, boys were introduced to positions that might be along the line of their future life work. It further has assisted the school authorities in preparing a cur­riculum that will prepare their boys for positions in their home city. It has been found that there is a tendency to teach young men in school a vocation that will necessitate the going away from home for a livelihood. It is the purpose of the Commer­cial Club to use its influence toward keeping the boys in Pueblo and in Colorado/'

Systematic Continuation Work.

The Junior Association of Commerce of Grand Rapids, Michigan, is acting as a clearing house for the youths of the public schools who must work and the employers who need workers; trying to find the right kind of boy for the right kind of a position in an effort to prevent misfits. Grand Rapids be­lieves it should have a system of placement whereby the best results may be obtained from the ability of boys who have been trained in the public schools.

Similar work is being done by the Board of Trade of Wash­ington, D. C, where steps are being taken to establish a voca­tional bureau.

42

The idea of the bureau is to find by a close observance and study of the individual boy the work for which he is most fitted. Then the boy will be recommended to the firms in the city who are in that business.

"When the boy is placed, it is incumbent upon the firm to report every three months about the success of the boy, and if it is found that he is unsuited he will be placed in work which may be more fitted to him. In this way the bureau helps the boy, the employer helps the boy, and the boy helps himself, so that the employer will gain a good employee, and the boy will not ^ raste several years trying to find out haphazardly the work which he should make his life work.

"Beyond this, if the employer reports that the boy is not doing well, the social part of the bureau will investigate his home surroundings, and if they are not satisfactory, efforts will be made to correct them."

Perhaps one of the most unusual efforts towards educating city boys in country affairs is that which has been made by the Business Men's Association of Auburn, N. Y. It conducts a Farm Labor Bureau, and this summer has sent out fifty men and boys to those who apply for help. This method is undertaken because it educates the high school and college boys, and those in the shops who have their summer vacations, in harvest work and farm work, and is expected to have a tendency to send some of the city men back to the farms permanently.

The Committee on Education of the Chamber of Commerce of Syracuse, N. Y., is studying a plan for directing the boys and girls of the city to the vocations for which they may be best suited.

6. T A K I N G SCHOOLS TO T H E VOCATIONS AND B R I N G I N G T H E

VOCATIONS TO T H E SCHOOLS.

"The Hamilton, Ohio, Chamber of Commerce has devoted considerable attention to the question of industrial education in this community. Hamliton is essentially a manufacturing city, having upwards of 130 industrial institutions and producing an­nually more than $25,000,000 of manufactured product. Here­tofore we have taken little pains to train our young men in tech-

43

nical vocations. Our public schools maintain a very well devel­oped manual training and domestic science department, but it was the opinion of the Chamber of Commerce that this did not meet the industrial requirements of our young men. A large propor­tion of the boys of Hamilton were leaving school before entering high school and many of them embarked upon a casual career of self-support without definite plans or special training.

"To offset this condition and to provide a more certain sup­ply of skilled labor from local sources, this organization took up the question of industrial education by the cooperative or part-time method. We secured the agreement of the Board of Edu­cation to engage a practical instructor and arrange with the prin­cipal factories to permit their apprentices to attend school one-half day each week on the company's time. This arrangement has been fully worked out, and will be carried into effect as soon as the Board of Education is able to secure a competent instruc­tor. We believe that the field of industrial and vocational train­ing through the public schools should engage the attention of every commercial organization in the industrial centers of the United States."

In Springfield, Mass., also, industrial education has been fostered by the Education and Arbitration Committee of the Springfield Board of Trade. The plan worked out by the assist­ance of this committee is one that adapts itself to the needs of the pupil. In some cases the pupil is allowed to work a day in the shop and a day in the school, or a half in the school and a half day in the shop. If neither of these variations is possible, night work is carried on in the school, so that the pupil having to work in the shop all day, is able to attend the school in the evening.

The Commercial Club of Richmond, Indiana, entertained the Education Commission of the state, which was investigating the needs for vocational training, and assisted in the campaign over the whole state for vocational training in the public schools. ' In keeping with the Indiana campaign, the Commercial Club of In­diana Harbor and East Chicago is now endeavoring to rearrange manual training work to make it more distinctly industrial and thus comply with the industrial education law of the state. Man-

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ufacturers and other business men in the Commercial Club are giving their cooperation and sympathy in the work undertaken by the Vocational Guidance Committee of the club, which consists of the industrial teachers and principals of the city.

The Board of Trade of Fitchburg, Mass., has an Educa­tional Committee composed largely of active educators, and this committee has supported the plans of the School Board of Fitch­burg in developing what is called the Fitchburg Plan of Coopera­tive Industrial Education.

One well equipped industrial school is now to be found in Bayonne, N. J., and others will follow. This first school is largely due to the efforts of the Civic Association of Bayonne.

In Burlington, Iowa, the interests of the Commercial Ex­change in the manual training department of the public schools is kept up by the frequent report of progress in manual training-work. This report comes from the Director of the department. Public sentiment back of the manual training work can be traced to the efforts of the Commercial Exchange.

"We have made quite an extensive advancement on indus­trial education. We have succeeded in having the Board of Education of Erie during the past year establish two separate schools on manual training and a continuation school,, thus pro­viding for the advancement of the industrial features of education and accommodating about 600 more pupils. The schools are now at work, and soon a"s money is available, the School Board will carry out local ideas in establishing two more.

"Night schools have actively interested business men in thirty-one cities. In one of these, Montgomery, Ala., an educational committee of a business men's organization, with the State Super­intendent as chairman, started night schools in the factory dis­trict. This work is now part of the school system.

"In Topeka the Commercial Club has arranged for addresses on trade schools, and* made an effort to establish an industrial school through which the Board of Education may cooperate with manufacturing establishments.

"The New Haven Chamber of Commerce, through two com­mittees has done much work in betterment of the city's public schools.

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"Older of the two is the Trades School Committee, which has been at work for three years to educate the city to the need of a trades school for boys and girls. We have already an admirable manual training school, but the new school, to open in September, will be per se a trades school. It was opposed, and the movement therefore delayed, by organized labor men until recently, when they seemed to become better satisfied.

"The school was planned for 100 boys and girls as a starter. But more than 400 applications are already in hand and the department will have to be enlarged at once.

"Another, but more recently started committee, is that giving its attention to the Commercial High School department. It is at work to make the course of study there more modern, more efficient in office practice, and more thorough.

"In the Southwest, the Commercial Club of Stamford, Texas, worked to secure a department of practical agriculture added to the high school course. The school owns and operates a fifty-acre demonstration farm. By means of this tract the students are gaining knowledge of agriculture not only by books but by actual performance of the work. In addition to the remarkable fact mentioned above, the Stamford Commercial Club is encouraging the teaching of elementary agriculture in the rural schools. A quotation will indicate the breadth of pur­pose actuating this organization.

7. PUBLICITY.

"The Board of Trade in Kearney, Ind., has a publicity com­mittee which gives to the papers a weekly story on special school topics. By this method press leadership on school questions is stimulated. For example, when the superintendent's last report was published, the Board of Trade wrote a newspaper story about the most important phases of school administration to be watched next year.

"In New Haven, Conn., Trade School agitation has been much helped by the example of manufactured products of the city shown in their Manufacturers' Exhibit, started by that Chamber a year and a half ago, and now participated in by more than seventy-five of their leading manufactories. It occupies

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an entire building with more than 10,000 square feet of floor space, is open every day in the year, and free to the public."

8. TALKS TO PUPILS.

There is perhaps no simpler way for the average business man to cooperate with public schools than to tell groups of school boys about business, and what is necessary to achieve success in business. There are many things that a boy needs to know, things which will have more effect coming from one who is in the field than from a teacher.

Members of school boards or local boards can arrange to have friends talk in high and upper grammar schools, to have meetings in the evening which discuss business opportunities, and to connect these talks with the need of vocational guidance as felt in each school.

Weekly lectures by business men are given in the high school in Greenville, Ore., and in Portland, Ore., representative business men are occasionally asked on patriotic days to make addresses to children. Here also the Commercial Club once a year calls for volunteers to speak in schools for fifteen minutes on matters pertaining to business careers. "There have always been enough speakers." Children are also asked to help the Commercial Club "boom" the town by writing letters to Eastern friends describing the advantages of Oregon.

The three qualities necessary for business success. Recognizing an opportunity. The boy who makes extra effort. How the new office boy is likely to fail. What the average employer wants. The opportunities waiting for boys in business. In Schenectady, N. Y., the Agricultural Club, which is an

auxiliary of the Board of Trade, holds monthly meetings, to which the school children are regularly invited to learn about growing gardens and raijsing poultry. The agricultural side of education has received tfie earnest support of the Commercial Club of Delevan, Wis.; jthe Commercial Club of Scotts Bluff, Neb., and the Business glen's Association of Rutland, Vt.; the Commercial Club of Sioiix Falls, S. D.; the Commercial Union

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of Gulfport, Miss.; the Commercial Club of Mankato, Minn., and the Chamber of Commerce of Alpena, Mich.

The Commercial Club of Provo, Utah, through its Committee on Education, has regularly obtained speakers on agricultural subjects. It has worked with the extension department of the Agricultural College of Utah and on one occasion handled an entire week of meetings. During this week experts held three sessions daily in the Commercial Club Rooms and brought to more than two hundred farmers of the vicinity the latest informa­tion on soil fertility, animal husbandry, irrigation, domestic science, and the domestic arts.

Only a few commercial organizations have recognized the value to the community of using the schools and their assemblies as a means of imparting to the pupils intimate knowledge of the resources of the community in which they live.

This is practical work that also guarantees the life of the commercial organization; for if the children of the community once learn the viewpoint of their elders and the meaning of the possibilities of the community in which they exist, they will rise to better citizenship than if their studies are through book knowl­edge largely directed towards faraway things.

On this point the Jackson, Miss., Board of Trade says: "The Board of Trade believes that boys and girls should

enjoy a closer comradeship with the grown people, and should be formed into 'Juvenile Auxiliaries' and given whole­some talks and lectures at stated times by leading men and women in the various communities, and, by that means, be led to see the broader and higher purpose of life." The Chamber of Commerce of Weatherford, Tex., states that:

"Through lectures delivered by some of the influential members of the Chamber of Commerce to the High School faculty and pupils, greater interest is being manifested in local educational conditions than we have heretofore had."

The Chamber of Commerce of Oakland, Cal., makes the fol­lowing comments:

"The pupils of the public schools are invited to our rooms and upon occasion the Secretary lectures upon the

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resources, agricultural and industrial, of Oakland and the east bay shore cities, and of Alameda County. We hope to greatly enlarge this department of our work. We have also requested the Superintendent of Schools of Alameda County, of Oakland, of Berkeley and of the City of Alameda to re­quire each term a composition from every pupil in the public

* schools, upon the resources of the country and upon the advantages of the city in which he or she resides. Each pupil is also requested to send a letter to some friend em­bodying the facts accumulated for this composition."

Educational Conferences.

Some of the most wide-awake organizations make special efforts for educational conventions. The Chamber of Commerce of Atlanta, Ga., in 1908, entertained the National Association for the Advancement of Technical Education. This year its Com­mittee on Education has recently held an elaborate convention in celebration of the Twenty^fifth Anniversary of the Georgia School of Technology. This was undertaken for the purpose of emphasizing the work done by an institution which is one of the finest polytechnic schools in the South. The Commercial Club of Albuquerque, New Mexico, has given time and effort to pro­moting the attendance of teachers at the annual meeting of the New Mexico Educational Association. In one year the attend­ance increased from one thousand to fifteen hundred.

The Chamber of Commerce of Oakland, Cal., promotes pub­licity for the summer school of the University of California. In Corvallis, Ore., the Commercial Club cooperates with the rail­roads in getting as many young men as possible to attend the Annual Military Inspection and thereby drawing them into touch wdth the higher educational advantages of Corvallis.

The Committee, and through it the Boston Chamber of Com­merce, as a whole, has cooperated in carrying out very successful meetings of the National Education Association and of the Na­tional Conference on Vocational Guidance and the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education. The Con­ference on Vocational Guidance was the first to be held in the country; and that on industrial education was the most successful

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in point of members and in the value of the discussions of any of the four which have been held. In connection with this last conference the Chamber took charge, jointly with the officers of the National Society, in holding their annual dinner.

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NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION.

105 E. 22ND STREET, NEW YORK CITY.

AIMS OF THE SOCIETY.

As a promoting agency, bringing to public attention the importance of industrial education as a factor in the industrial and educational development of the United States.

As a forum of discussion, affording opportunities for the frank, thorough-going study and discussion of the many and varied phases of the problem of providing effective practical edu­cation for this country.

As a cooperating agency securing a meeting of minds and effective team-play between national, state and local organizations and the friends of practical training, getting good laws and good schools everywhere.

As a clearing house of information, making available and workable the results of experience in the field of practical educa­tion, both in this country and others.

As a constructive agency standing for sound principles and policies, which experience has justified, and aiding state and local authorities everywhere to put them into effect.

RESULTS SECURED DURING YEAR OF 1913.

1. Led the fight for NATIONAL AID for VOCA­TIONAL EDUCATION at Washington. Fight won, only ques­tion now is as to best way of carrying out pledges of party plat­forms.

2. Wrote or instigated the writing of practically all the favorable declarations of the platforms of great National parties.

3. Set up a bureau for the REGISTRATION of TEACH-

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ERS of industrial and household arts education, which has already placed a great many persons, most of whom were mem­bers of the Society, in desirable positions, as principals and supervisons or instructors, in all parts of the country. These calls have reached as far as the Philippines and the Hawaiian Islands.

4. ESTABLISHED close and helpful working relations with many different NATIONAL organizations—National Metal Trades Association, American Federation of Labor, National Association of Manufacturers, American Home Economics As­sociation, Chamber of Commerce of the United States, Interna­tional Committee, Y. M. C. A., American Bankers' Association, National Conservation Congress, National Education Association, American Institute of Engineering, State Teachers' Association— Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Missouri. State Boards of Education: Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Indiana; Russell Sage Foundation, Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, Public Education As­sociation of New York, Permanent Census Board; educational authorities in many such cities as Rochester, Richmond, New Orleans and Springfield, 111.

5. Set up declaration of PRINCIPLES and POLICIES to be followed in State legislation, which has already been followed by Indiana, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Massa­chusetts.

Acting in cooperation with the BUREAU OF EDUCATION at Washington in the publication of material on vocational educa­tion, most of which is being suggested out of this office. Acted in consulting capacity in the study of part-time and continuation schools for Massachusetts.

COOPERATED with the INDIANA COMMISSION in their report on the subject.

COOPERATED with the State authorities of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Indiana in the preparation of the bulletins giving the rules, regulations and suggestions by the State Department of Education in each State in carrying out this new legislation.

Wrote or assisted in the writing of the following legislation,

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which has passed with more than 2,000 legislative votes in its favor and only 7 votes against it in the four states:

INDIANA—A law creating a system of state-aided vocational education. A law establishing the Ohio plan of local option in passing on the question of compulsory part-time education. A law requiring children leaving school after 14 to meet a fifth grade test. A law requiring all children over 14 either to go to work or to school.

NEW YORK—A law increasing the amount of state aid and ex­tending it to cover part-time and continuation schools. A law establishing the Ohio plan of local option, authorizing the local school authorities to establish compulsory part-time and continuation schools.

PENNSYLVANIA—A law creating a system of state-aided voca­tional education.

NEW JERSEY—A law creating a system of state-aided vocational education.

CONNECTICUT—Law amended so as to authorize towns and cities to operate industrial and trade schools, which, when approved by the State Board, got one-half the cost of operating ex­penses from the State.

Held a two days' conference of the state educational authorities of New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Penn­sylvania and Indiana, to consider the best ways of carrying out the legislation in these states, all of which is based squarely on our declaration of principles and policies as drawn up at Philadelphia last December, and practically all of which has com­mon provision and problems.

STUDIES and INVESTIGATIONS—The National Society office is dealing intimately with the problems involved in finding out both what is the need of practical education in different states and communities and how this need can best be met. This requires cooperation with state boards of education in such states

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as Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Louisiana and California. With school committees and chambers of commerce in such cities as New York, Rochester, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Indianapolis, New Orleans, Springfield, 111.; and with many private organizations and foundations.

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PRESS OF CLARENCE S. NATHAN, 9 AND 11 FRANKLIN STREET, N. Y.

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