The third is at a meeting of the local chamber where the matter is discussed and voted upon. Occasionally the board of directors themselves will study the subject and vote. Those are the three methods of voting. The chamber is not committed unless two-thirds of the votes cast are in favor or against a proposition. If it has not got a two-thirds majority one way or the other, it has no position on the subject. I am referring to the national chamber. The CHAIRMAN. If there are no other questions, Mr. Wright, will you call your next witness? Mr. HASTINGS. Mr. Wright, I have forgotten what the annual appropriation by Congress is for vocational training. How much is it? Mr. WRIGHT. The appropriation now is a little over five millions for vocational education. It increases until 1927, when it reaches a sum of seven millions. Then it remains permanent thereafter. The appropriation for the rehabilitation of disabled civilians, upon which the House just passed the other day, extending the period over four years, is $1,000,000. The CHAIRMAN. So your total appropriation now is $6,000,000? Mr. WRIGHT. Yes, sir. Mr. HASTINGS. Mr. Wright, I was going to ask you if, during the hearings this morning, you had planned to have some one outline showing how this act is administered in the several States. I am referring to the vocational training act; how the money is used in a practical way out through the States? Mr. WRIGHT. I had not planned that, but I can readily give it to you. Mr. HASTINGS. I do not want to interfere with your program, but I was just in hopes that you had some one on your program that would discuss that. The CHAIRMAN. What you meant, Mr. Hastings, was the method through which the work of the vocational board is conducted? Mr. HASTINGS. The way it is administered: yes. The CHAIRMAN. I understand Mr. Wright will bring that out, because he is here to show us that we ought not to interfere with the Vocational board. Mr. HASTINGS. I am very much interested in knowing how this is administered, how this fund is used. Mr. HOLADAY. I am very much interested in that, too. Mr. WRIGHT. With your permission, I will insert in the record the following statement in reply to your question: THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN THE STATES Through an act of Congress approved by the President February 23, 1917 (now known as the vocational education act or the Smith-Hughes Act), the United States has established the principle that the Nation as a whole has a share of the responsibility for the vocational education of persons who have entered upon, or who are preparing to enter upon, a trade or industrial pursuit, the work of the farm or home, and for the preparation of teachers of such classes. At the same time the principle is established in this act that direct responsibility for carrying on the work of vocational education rests upon the States. This act does not provide for any direct organization or immediate direction of vocational education by the Federal Government or its agents, but does provide substantial financial assistance to the States for the promotion of vocational education. The sums appropriated by Congress are to be allotted to the States in the proportion which their population bears to the population of the United States. Three appropriations are made annually: 1. For the payment of salaries of teachers, supervisors, and directors of agricultural subjects. 2. For the payment of salaries of trade, home economics, and industrial teachers. 3. For the preparation of teachers of trade and industrial subjects, teachers of home economics subjects, and teachers, supervisors, and directors of agricultural subjects. The first appropriation is allotted to the States in the proportion which their rural population bears to the total population of the United States. The second appropriation is allotted to the States in the proportion which their urban population bears to the total urban population of the United States. The third appropriation is allotted to the States in the proportion which their total population bears to the total population of the United States. Provision is also made so that the annual minimum allotment to a State from the first and second appropriations shall be $5,000 each; and from the third appropriation $10,000 each, with the further proviso that for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1923, and annually thereafter the minimum allotment to a State from each appropriation shall be $10,000. The total appropriation to the States for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1918, was about $1,500,000. This increases annualy until for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1926, and annually thereafter, the total appropriation will be over $7,000,000. The law further provides that each dollar of Federal money must be matched by at least another dollar to be expended under the supervision and control of the State board for the same purpose that the Federal money is being expended. The sums thus made available by the Federal Government seem very small in comparison with the size of the problem, and experience goes to show that the State and local communities have supplemented these appropriations with amounts far in excess of those appropriated by the Federal Government. FEDERAL AND STATE ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCIES The Federal administrative agency designed by the act is the Federal Board for Vocational Education. This board consists of seven members, four ex officio and three appointed by the President. They are the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Commissioner of Education, and three citizens who represent, respectively, the manufacturing, commercial, agricultural, and labor interests of the Nation. The State administrative agency provided in the act is a State board for vocational education designated or created by the legislative authority of the State, and consisting of not less than three members and having all necessary powers to cooperate with the Federal Board for Vocational Education in the administration of the provisions of the vocational education act. HOW STATES MAY SECURE ALLOTMENTS In order to secure its allotment the State must accept the provisions of the act through legislative authority and the State board must provide a plan of work for the State which is approved by the Federal board. Each of the 48 States at present has a State board for vocational education which is cooperating with the Federal board in the administration of this act. The plan submitted annually to the Federal board for approval must show the kinds of schools and classes for which it is proposed the allotment shall be used, the plan of administration and supervision to be followed by the State board, the qualifications of teachers, the courses of instruction, the methods of instruction to be used, and the plans for training supervisors and teachers. It is the duty of the Federal board to examine these plans and approve the same if believed to be feasible and found to be in conformity with the provisions and purposes of the Federal act. The Federal board must certify on or before the first day of January of each year to the Secretary of the Treasury each State which has accepted the provisions of the act and complied therewith, including 94041-24-42 the amounts which the State is entitled to receive. Once the plan of the State is approved by the Federal board the administration of the act in the State is in the hands of the State board for vocational education, with the Federal law and the State plan as the plans and specifications to guide the work. STUDIES AND INVESTIGATIONS It is the duty of the Federal Board for Vocational Education to make or cause to have made studies and investigations and reports with particular reference to their use in aiding the States in the establishment of vocational schools and classes and in giving instruction in agriculture, trades and industries, commerce and commercial pursuits, and home economics. Such studies, investigations, and reports include agriculture and agricultural processes and requirements upon agricultural workers; trades, industries, and apprenticeships, trade and industrial requirements upon industrial workers and classification of industrial processes and pursuits; commerce and commercial pursuits; and requirements upon commercial workers; home management, domestic science, and the study of related facts and principles; and problems of administration of vocational schools and of courses of study and instruction in vocational subjects. GENERAL PROCEDURE As pointed out in the preceding statement there exists in each State an authorized State board for vocational education, which under the State act is charged with the responsibility of administering vocational education. Each of these State boards is operating under a State plan which has been prepared by the State board and approved by the Federal Board for Vocational Education. Each plan has, of course, taken into consideration the particular conditions and situations which exist in the State, so that in general each State is operating under a different plan so far as the details go, although all plans conform to the requirements of the national vocational education act. These boards in their official capacity deal only with vocational education of less than college grade. Each State has provided either by State appropriation or by appropriations by local communities or by both a fund at least equal to the allotment from Federal funds, and in many cases exceeding it. Each State has employed a technical staff to carry out the provisions of the State plan and the Federal Board for Vocational Education employs a staff consisting of (1) an executive staff, comprising a director and four chiefs of service, and (2) a number of agents for each service who are technical experts in their respective fields. The general duties of this staff are: To assist the States, more especially the technical staffs of the States, in carrying out the provisions of the State plan in the most effective way. This responsibility is discharged through working in the closest cooperation with the State officials and almost entirely on request, and includes such matters as interpretation of policy, advice and suggestion as to the carrying on of the various kinds of vocational education, and suggestions for the improvement of the work. The second general duty of the staff consists in the conducting of research work and making the results of that research available to the States through the publication of bulletins, through individual conferences with State representatives, or through State and regional conferences. This work is also carried on in close cooperation with the States. It is evident that the successful carrying on of all of this work depends upon the establishment and maintenance of most friendly cooperation between the States and the office of the Federal board. It is through the establishment and maintenance of such cooperative and friendly relations that the board has been able to successfully carry on its program. PROGRESS The progress of this work as carried on by the States has been truly remarkable. The facts concerning such progress, the character of the research work conducted, the cooperation and assistance which has been rendered to the board by agricultural, commercial, industrial, and home-making organizations are fully set forth in the publications of the board, especially in the annual reports made to Congress for the years 1917 and 1923. STATEMENT OF MR. EDGAR WALLACE, LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVE, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR, WASHINGTON, D. C. Mr. WALLACE. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, the American Federation of Labor is on record as favorable to a department of education. We are bound to recognize the fact that at present we have no department of education and when we do get a department of education, we feel that if the Vocational Board should go under that department that the other interests that are closely concerned, should be considered by that department. In other words, that the present Vocational Education Board as constituted recognizes the interests of labor through the Department of Labor, of commerce through the Department of Commerce, and of agriculture in vocational education. We feel that as at present constituted the Vocational Education Board is doing a splendid work. We would ask for more adequate representation of labor, but we would be very much concerned if this board now should go under a bureau and be a part of a department. We do not feel that a bureau could cooperate with the other interested departments as well as a complete department. So we would ask that the Vocational Education Board be continued in its present way. It is in its experimental stage. It has not developed as far as it may develop, but considering the time it has been in action we believe that it has done splendid work and is going along in the right direction; that is, considering the interests of the various parties; labor, because it is necessary that no one calling should be overcrowded; commerce, inasmuch as commerce should have adequate help and men educated to give that help, and agriculture along the same line. So we commend the present board as now constituted; and even if we had a department of education we would consider that the interests aforementioned should be represented or should be consulted with by that department. I believe that is all, unless there are some questions. The CHAIRMAN. Will you call your next witness, Mr. Wright? Mr. WRIGHT. The next witness will be Mr. John Linn, representing Mr. John Purcell, assistant to the vice president of the Sante Fe Railway, Chicago, Ill. STATEMENT OF MR. JOHN H. LINN, REPRESENTING MR. JOHN PURCELL, ASSISTANT TO THE VICE PRESIDENT, SANTA FE RAILWAY, CHICAGO, ILL. Mr. LINN. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, during the past year the Department of Education issued a bulletin which showed that of the pupils entering the fifth grade of the public schools, 2 per cent finished college. I think the figures show that 14 per cent entered our high schools, and 7 per cent completed a high-school course; that 34 per cent completed the work of the eighth grade in common schools. Those figures, I presume, refer to boys and girls jointly. While I do not have the figures, it would be my opinion that the percentage of boys finishing the eighth grade would be much less than that. The per cent of all is one out of three that enter the fifth grade finished common school. Whether those boys-it is the boys in whom I am mostly interested-dropped out through mistakes in the curriculum, through other errors due to conditions of the public-school system, or through the personnel of the teachers that particular boy happened to meet, is immaterial. The fact is that those boys did not even finish the work of our common schools, and they can not be made to go to those common schools. Many industrial concerns have felt the need of bringing the schools to the boys, and I think this committee ought to know something of the work of the corporation with which I am concerned is now engaged in in connection with vocational training, to at least offset the opinion you might have gathered from the first speaker's quotation, which was very good, about the Mud-Sill people. So, with your permission, I will read a statement prepared by Mr. Purcell, assistant to the vice president of the Santa Fe Railroad, the man who has charge of the mechanical operation of the business. It will only take a few moments. (The statement referred to is as follows:) STATEMENT SUBMITTED BY JOHN PURCELL, ASSISTANT TO VICE PRESIDENT, THE ATCHISON, TOPEKA & SANTA FE RAILWAY SYSTEM, CHICAGO, ILL. The following statement is submitted for insertion in the record and consideration by the committee, in reference to proposed legislation affecting the administration of vocational education and civilian rehabilitation as now carried on by the Federal Board for Vocational Education. So firmly does the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway believe in the value of vocational education that for more than 16 years it has maintained, at its own expense, a modern up-to-date apprentice-training system. The training of apprentices really began about 30 years ago, but the educational system as now conducted was not inaugurated until the year 1907. Since that date it has been carried on continuously with even increasing results. The purpose of the apprenticeship system is to train mechanics for the company's shops. This it has done, more than 700 of these graduates being now in the service of the company. This number will be greatly increased in the next few years. These men are not only first class, skilled, all-around mechanics, but are men familiar with the company's methods and practices, its aims and policies, thoroughly trained for the particular work they are called upon to perform. At the present time 2,000 young men between the ages of 16 and 22 are receiving training as apprentices in the various shops of this company, learning one of the following trades: Machinist, boilermaker, blacksmith, sheet-metal worker, electrician, and carman. The plan of training given these apprentices consists of both school and shop instruction. The apprentices work in the shops side by side with other shop employes on the regular work of the shop. There is an apprentice shop instructor for about every 20 or 25 apprentices, or one for each man with ability to lead and guide young men. He is held responsible for seeing that each apprentice in his charge receives experience and thorough instruction on all the work of his trade. He starts the boy out on a simple machine or class of work, gradually advanc ing him to more difficult work. He instructs each apprentice as to the care and operation of each machine or class of work, teaching him proper methods of performing his work and seeing that he understands what he is making or repairing and the purpose for which it is to be used. Nothing is left undone to see that each apprentice at some time during his four-year apprenticeship receives full variety of experience on all the work of his trade. In addition to the instruction given apprentices while they are at work in the shop, apprentice schools have been established by the company at each point where apprentices are employed. The schoolrooms are located in the shop yards, away from the noise of the shop but sufficiently near for convenient accessibility. They are built and equipped and maintained at company expense. |