Moreover this part of their training can be mastered elsewhere quite as well if not better than at college and it would be a waste of time and money to attempt to perfect it in the brief limits of the college course. In the course of study however a mere smattering of professional instruction would be far from satisfactory.

The history of the special industry should be carefully studied and each successive step in its development should be considered with reference to its present condition.

Every principle involved in its various processes should be thoroughly mastered and the defects of the present state of knowledge in regard to its facts and theories should be pointed out as a preparatory step for investigations looking to its future improvement.

On the practical side of this new education-such a full discussion of existing knowledge in regard to the industry in question will furnish the only safe foundation on which all movements in the direction of progress must rest.

With the liberal mental culture we have urged on the one side and the thorough mastery of existing facts and principles involved in the industry on the other-students will be truly fitted to become masters of the art they practice and raise it from a mere handicraft to the rank of a profession.

The great dangers that beset our industrial colleges and threaten to divert them from their legitimate sphere of usefulness-arise to a great extent from the confused notions that exist in regard to a liberal education in connection with an industrial art.

It is too often the case-even with intelligent men- that it is supposed to consist in that technical training that gives facility in the execution of merely manual processes.

This may exist without a knowledge of the principles involved in the various processes of the art and without that breadth and depth of mental activity that is needed in the front ranks of industrial progress.

There is also a tendency to specialize interests and to apportion the different departments of science among the several industries in accordance with pre-conceived notions as to what may be practically useful in each while losing sight of the fact that each department or sub-division of science touches upon and is inter-penetrated by all others and this to such an extent that the mere specialist in one department is liable to fail in obtaining the best results from his labors from lack of an appreciative knowledge of the others.

The exclusion of all science from a course of instruction but the single department that is supposed to be of practical use in an industry-and a too exclusive study in this special direction cannot fail to give a one-sided development that will lead to disappointment.

If the industrial arts are to occupy the high position that is claimed for them and take rank among the learned professions-those who practice them must be men of broad views and liberal culture and their college training must not be limited to the narrow study of a specialty—and the labor required in their course of study must have a higher purpose than the mere development of manual skill.

The course of instruction in an industrial college should be broad and full-providing for that thorough mental discipline that will furnish a rounded and symmetrical development of the man as its first and essential object—while the technical training should be such as will lay the foundation for future proficiency in a special direction that will result in the highest possible development.

If our industrial institutions of learning are to teach trades as their leading objects and confine their efforts to imparting technical training and manual skill, they must abandon their high claim of furnishing to their students the means of obtaining a liberal education and sink to the level of mere training-schools in the arts.

This tendency to excessive specialization in the courses of study in industrial colleges leads to another serious evil that should not be overlooked.

It gives narrow views as to what is needed for the full development of a special industry and we find as the result a multiplication of departments of instruction on paper grouped under the imposing title of "University," while the means at command are not sufficient to sustain in a creditable manner but a single department.

Under this system the many departments are languishing and slowly dying from inanition while the apology is made for their lack of success— that industrial education is not appreciated.

Industrial education will never attain the success its importance demands until this fatal diffusion of its energies and funds is abandoned and a concentration of effort is made in the direction of real progress by developing and perfecting some single Department in a way that will demonstrate the correctness of the principle on which the Congressional land grant was made.

Thus far we have considered the subject with reference to students who intend to pursue a full four-years' course of study-with the purpose of acquiring a liberal education while fitting themselves to engage advantageously in some special industry.

In our industrial colleges provision should likewise be made for the larger number of students who will spend but from one to two years in study before engaging in the active business of life.

From the short time this class of students remain at college it will be readily seen that they cannot acquire manual skill or dexterity in their special industry while engaged in their studies and the labor required of them should have reference only to illustrations of class-room exercises.

The manual of their trade must necessarily be learned in the shops or on the farm.

In these short courses the student cannot expect to acquire a liberal education or to become familiar with all the details of his trade.

The aim should be to fit to understand and read with profit the works pertaining to his business that he may have access to after leaving school. Mental training must be the leading object in his college course and this for his purpose may best be gained by making prominent the study of science so that he may become familiar with its facts and methods of investigation.

A thorough mastery of scientific principles will be of greater value to him than a detailed knowledge of some special department of science.

In these special cases a little smattering of some special department of science for the purpose of securing the advantage arising from its direct applications will only mislead the student and bring true science undeservedly into disrepute.

If our industrial colleges recognize the wants of this class of students and wisely provide for them, and at the same time furnish the means of obtaining a liberal education in connection with technical training to those who pursue the full course of study-they will be doing the work for which they were established and form an important part of our educational system. .

After the reading of the paper Prof. MILES made among others the following statements in answer to questions:-The time which each student should devote to labor daily differs with the student and with the season. Have not found three hours too much, and usually the best workers have been the best students. As a result of this system about 75 per cent of the graduates of Michigan Agricultural College are engaged in agricultural pursuits, while of other colleges only about 11⁄2 per cent engage in agricultural pursuits. The students work from one. till four o'clock in the afternoon. Formerly tried to have details relieve each other at intervals but this involved too much confusion and trouble.

Mr. ABORN-I think there is a strong disposition to crowd too much in a single course of study, as classical, scientific, and practical studies into one course. None too much time was found for the old courses when they included only Greek, Latin, and Mathematics, though it has since been seen that some sciences might well have been inserted. Now we are attempting not only to get these but practical training also into the same course. I would devote most of the time to the chosen specialty with some of the more closely related studies and let the student follow up these latter afterwards if he wished to.

Prof. MILES:-I would give the student a broad general culture and then some training in special studies, and then let him follow up the latter in post-graduate course if so inclined.

Motion was made and carried to open the meetings of this Department to-morrow and next day at 3 o'clock P. M.

The President appointed Mr. ABORN and Prof. PENDLETON a committee to report on the nomination of officers for this Department.

The Department then adjourned at 5 o'clock.

Second Day's Proceedings. ·

TUESDAY, JULY 11, 1876.

The Department was called to order pursuant to adjournment at 3 o'clock P. M., and the regular order of the programme proceeded with. The paper of Prof. WM. C. RUSSELL of Cornell University was read by the Secretary, as Prof. RUSSELL was unable to meet with the Association. It was as follows:

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO SECURE A LARGER PROPORTION
OF EDUCATED LABOR AMONG OUR PRODUCING
AND MANUFACTURING CLASSES?

As the world moves out of the old darkness and slowly comes towards the light, the question of education gains more and more attention. Hitherto the education of the individual has seemed the individual's chief interest, but now the education of society is beginning to claim his duty. Wisdom no longer satisfies itself with the old way of furnishing the faculties of the man, but insists on the preparation of the masses to do the work of the whole. The rights of men are found to involve a right to be fitted for duty, and nations are studying the best ways of making every man most efficient. Attention formerly paid to armies is now claimed for schools, and more security is looked for from cultivated intelligence than from forts or navies. Monarchies that formerly staked their claims to superiority on battles, are now seeking it in education, and what was once extorted by force or filched by diplomacy is now sought in technical education. The supremacy of England has been shaken to its base by the intelligence of the workmen and workwomen of France; and Germany is now asserting a superiority to either, more honorable than the glories of Weissenburg or Sedan. While this contest on the other continent is going on let us learn from it that if America is to have any equal standing in the future market of the world, she must seek it by equally good work. The treasures of the material world are under our feet but they need to be worked up into useful forms. Our people are intelligent and energetic; but neither intelligence nor energy of themselves give skill nor economy nor prudence. We have natural advantages greater than those of any other country; but we shall fall behind unless we supplement those advantages by educated labor equal to theirs.

By technical education or the education of labor, we understand the training of men to do in the best way the thing which they may undertake in life. It is teaching the elements of knowledge which underlie work, that the workman may understand what he is about, and the reasons for his tools and manner of working, and the shortest, safest, and cheapest methods. It shows the farmer where the profits of his business are, the structure of the plants he is to cultivate, their wants, how to supply them, and the economy of different ways of doing so. It explains to the manufacturer the machines he is to use, the difficulties to be encoun

tered, the advantages offered by Chemistry here, or by Commerce there. To the machinist it sets forth the principles on which the strength and speed of his work depend, verifies these by mathematics into convictions which cannot be shaken and puts into his hands tools which he may use and enjoy because he knows the reason of their power. To him who is to work in any application of science to material objects, it offers to show the principles, instruments, ways, and profitableness of what he is to do. If it be true that a man enjoys his work in proportion as he understands it, and that a workman who understands and enjoys his work will do it better and more of it than one who is ignorant and indifferent, and if the prosperity of a nation depends on the proportion in which she produces more than she consumes, then certainly to every man of enlightened self-interest, of benevolence, or of patriotism, and to every nation as a whole, it becomes a matter of intense interest that the working people should be educated to the last attainable point in their work. How this can be done may well engage an hour of our session.

At this time the best way of securing the largest technical education is not our subject. What might be done under other circumstances, what ought to be done if our people were wise and just, or what could be done if we had the knowledge and the money, are not the questions for discussion here to-day. On another occasion it would be very wise and very profitable if some one should show the American people what their duty is and their highest prudence is in this matter. At present they are very ignorant of how much they need this kind of education, are not prepared to adopt any system, and such an exposition might quicken them. In the meantime let us see if anything can be done in our present condition. All that I propose now is to consider what that condition is, what organization for educational purposes already exists, and what modifications it admits of leading to a very good beginning and an appreciably valuable share of technical education.

While painfully aware of great defects in carrying out our educational plans, and of the lamentable shortcomings of the results, we may all admit that the system of education in this country is admirable. In the rural districts we have our district schools where the principles of all education, writing, reading, and ciphering, are taught. To these succeed our Academies or Graded or Union Schools in which pupils may learn Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry, English Grammar and Composition, the ancient Languages, French and German, and the elements of Physiology, Physics, and Chemistry. These institutions generally give their instruction gratuitously. Above these we have Colleges where in addition to the languages, Literature and History, Mathematics is generally carried to a high degree and the elements of all the Sciences are taught. The system culminates in the University where everything ought to be taught as far as the point reached by the latest investigations.

The want of technical education, however, in all these institutions except the last is very great, and if the University fails to give it, is almost total. For the others nothing can be claimed on that score. The fact however remains that here we have a series of institutions for the education of youth from the primary elements upwards. The school-houses,