Abstracts from an Address delivered by Wm. Barclay Parsons before the National Educational Association.

Not being engaged in education, I approach the topic of this evening's discussion, namely, "The Practical Utility of Manual and Technical Training. " not as an educator, but as one engaged in practical work, where both manual and technical training play their parts, and I shall speak, therefore from the point of view of results achieved and of ends to be attained.

The statement is almost axiomatic that, any particular educational work, precisely the same as work of other kinds, must pass the supreme test of practical efficiency if it is to assume a permanent place.

Unless special educational training can show some actual value in making men or women better able to meet the ordinary demands of life, no matter how desirable it may seem, it has no reason to exist and must in the end give way to other work or to other subjects that will employ the student's time more profitably. It is, therefore, by actual results that we are to judge of the value of any teaching, and by this same standard, of the practical value of manual and technical training. The question is, whether students are sufficiently improved thereby to compensate them for the time spent.

Subjects that are taught in our schools and colleges may have one or both of two values: they may be useful in developing the reasoning faculties, thus fitting the student to deal later with the actual problems of real work in the same way as gymnastics develop the muscles of the body, and are thus useful, though one may not become a gymnast; or the subjects may have a direct value, per se, as do all subjects that will later have bearing on actual daily vocations. It is not for me, in a gathering of educators to discuss the relative importance of any subject of the former class. Others who will address you will cover the value of manual training from the standpoint of mental devolopment- if that phase of the question requires any consideration or argument - while I, within the narrow compass of this paper, will invite your attention to a considera tion of the subject solely from the standpoint of practical utility, and with regard to better fitting young men for the actual demands of work to come.

When manual training was first brought forward, it as with a view of its use as a means of mental development; it has, however, a much wider field, a more precise application, and an actual educational value of great practical utility. We are all conscious of the tremendous progress in mechanical development that has taken place within the last fifty years, more especially during the last twenty years, and that is still going on at an increasing ratio. It was not so very long ago that the great source of wealth was in agriculture, where work was performed by the most rudimentary unskilled labor, while even in mining and in the mechanical arts, implements were of the crudest form. On the strength of men's legs, arms and backs was the main reliance for power. Today it is hard to call to mind a single trade in which machinery of intricate form does not enter in some degree, and usually to a great extent, machines requiring on the part of the operative some knowledge of mechanics, some experience in manipulation, and some skill in manual dexterity.

The hand needle has given way to the sewing machine, the farmer's foot loom and spinning wheel, to exceedingly complicated machines of great capacity, engine driven; the telephone is used in place of the messenger; a machine and not a pen writes our letters, while our stables are repair shops for motor cars. Such are but few of the many examples in our every-day life that occur to one, where mechinery is displacing hand work, and where skilled labor is taking the place of the unskilled.

A measure of the number of persons dependent upon mechanical pursuits can be obtained from the reports of the United States Census Bureau. The report for the decide ending 1900 shows that there were then 29,000,000 persons engaged in various occupations. Of this number there were no less than 8,000,000, omitting entirely all those engaged in agriculture, employed in occupations where tool and machine knowledge formed the basis of work, while in nearly all of the others some such knowledge was desirable and in many cases essential. It is not an exaggeration to say that machine and tool work form a large part of the daily vocation of a majority of the working classes in this country; that there is not a single calling where the worker is not required to show some familiarity with tools and where some proficiency in mechanical dexterity will not lead to his advancement. In fact, it would seem that after the great foundation of all education, reading, writing and arithmetic, there is no one subject of so widespread practical benefit as that of teach -ing the art of using the hands. With the masses an education that develops the thinking power alone is of small value; it produces a development that is ineffective, that cannot be used. Give a man a rudimentary education, with an understanding of how to do things, and the educational foundation of productive capacity has been laid, which capacity governs the wage-earning power. The practical utility of manual training is the instruction of the rising generations in the use of tools, the education not only of the the mind but of the hand and eye, and in teaching a subject that will later be an actual portion of the life of the majority of students.

The limit to which manual training should be carried is to be considered from three points of view : the elementary work in the lower grades, the specialized work in the trade schools, and the higher in the technical colleges. As to its practical value in our technical colleges, we must differentiate between the technical college and the highest grade of trade school, especially in the matter of manual training. The one aims to turn out the professional engineer, educated not only in the technical sciences, but in the liberal arts as well, to whom time and money spent in procuring an education are quite a secondary consideration as compared with an education itself; the other aims to develop the highest grade of mechanic and general foreman.