TRADE SCHOOLS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES.

Trade schools in many countries are taking the place of the apprentice system. Austria, in 1898, had ninety-six trade schools giving instruction in almost all crafts. The most important of these institutions is the Technological Industrial Museum at Vienna, where over 1,300 pupils receive instruction in metal and wood industries.

Belgium has a fine system of State-aided industrial schools, with merely nominal or no tuition fees.

Canada has fifteen trade schools supported by the government.

France has a well-regulated system, comprising schools of advanced industrial education, schools for decorative and industrial art, practical schools of commerce and industry, national trade schools, trade schools for several trades, trade schools for single trades, general industrial schools, trade and technical continuation schools and courses, and industrial drawing schools.

Germany has a type of school that does not exist in other countries. The pupil is trained to be a skilled artisan, foreman, superintendent or manager, or employer, in some one trade. For example, if a boy decides to be a foreman he is given special instruction in that line in some particular trade. These schools are supported by the State after they are organized. The schools may be classified as follows: technical colleges, schools and museums of industrial art, schools for foremen, schools for the building trades, schools for the textile trades, trade and industrial continuation schools, and industrial drawing schools.

In England there are scarcely any purely trade or apprentice schools that claim to fit a boy for journeyman work. It is held that trades can not be taught in a school nor yet without a school. In Birmingham, an institution known as the Municipal Technical School exists where pattern-making, carpentry, masonry, plumbing, brass-founding, and sheet-metal work are taught. Graduates state that they get good remunerative positions, and employers state that their school-trained men are their best workmen.

TRADE SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES.

In our own country not nearly as complete a system of trade schools exists as in most European nations. Aside from the instruction given in colleges in connection with the different engineering courses, comparatively little has been attempted along this line. Most of the States, however, are giving more attention to industrial education than was formerly the case.

In New Mexico, the College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts is devoted to practical instruction in agriculture, mechanical arts, and natural sciences connected therewith, as well as a course of instruction in all branches bearing upon agriculture and other industrial pursuits.

It is supported by the proceeds of the sale of college farm products, by students' fees, taxes, special appropriations, etc.

But little has been done as regards industrial training in Hawaii. There is an industrial department connected with the State University of Louisiana, but no schools of this type exist alone.

New York has the largest and best equipped trade school in the United States-the New York Trade School. Its purpose is to turn out mechanics of the highest skill. Both the theoretical and the practical parts of trades are taught, but speed and experience are left to be acquired at real work after leaving school. Among the trades given are house and sign painting, blacksmithing, steam and hot-water fitting, bricklaying, plastering, carpentry, pattern-making, printing, electrical work, plumbing, sheet-metal and cornice work. There are several other trade schools of minor importance in New York.

While Massachusetts is not as well supplied with trade schools as is New York, the State compares favorably with the average. The principal trades taught in the schools of this State are bricklaying, carpentry, and plumbing.

The Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades in Pennsylvania is well known. Carpentry, pattern-making, cabinet-making, bricklaying, machine trade, and steam-fitting are taught. Pennsylvania also has a manual-training school for colored boys.

Of the industrial schools for the training of colored youths, the Tuskegee Institute, in Alabama, is the best known.

Many trade schools of less importance are scattered throughout the United States, including schools in specialties, such as dairying, brewing, watch-making, etc.

The length of time required to finish a course of training in this country is considerably less than in Europe, as is also the time served by apprentices. In many instances boys are indentured for as long a term as ten years, and some continental schools require seven or eight years to complete the course.

THE TRADE SCHOOLS OF CALIFORNIA.

As has already been seen, the apprentice system prevails largely in California, although the number of pupils in the industrial schools is increasing and these institutions are growing in importance. The two principal institutions of this nature are the California School of Mechanical Arts and the Wilmerding School of Industrial Arts, both located in San Francisco. The former was provided for in the will of the late James Lick. Any boy or girl of the State who has completed the eighth grade of the grammar school may be admitted free of tuition. The idea in the mind of the founder was: (1) To give the student a knowledge of the details of one industrial pursuit from which

he can earn a living; (2) To make his acquaintance with tools and materials broad enough so as to allow of fullest development in his particular line; (3) To develop intelligence that will prepare him for duties of active citizenship. The course covers a period of four yearstwo years preliminary and two at the trade. The industrial branches. are made up of three elements: tool work, freehand and mechanical drawing, and household art and science. The graduates are taken by employers as fourth-year apprentices and at the end of a year are rated as full-fledged journeymen.

The second of the above-mentioned schools is the gift of J. C. Wilmerding. Here the building trades are taught carpentry, cabinet-making, bricklaying, blacksmithing, plumbing, wood-carving, clay-modeling, architecture, and electrical work. The course is four years in length and no tuition fee is charged. Any boy who has graduated from the eighth grade of the grammar school, or who has completed the seventh and is 16 years of age, may be admitted. As yet no class has graduated.

As has been mentioned above, these two schools constitute almost the entire system for the State aside from a few private institutions. They are very intimately connected in work and government as well, the same man being at the head of both. For all practical purposes they may be considered one institution, the study of which will give a very nearly correct estimate of the condition of industrial education in California.

The California School of Mechanical Arts (Lick School) has an average enrollment of 400, and the Wilmerding 187, making a total of 587, of whom 487 are boys. These students come from thirty-five different counties. While in the nature of things a large percentage come from the district contiguous to San Francisco, yet a considerable number come from the interior-about 55 per year, or about 37 per cent of the total intrants per year; but this class of boys comprises but 20 per cent of the total enrollment, showing that the country boys do not, on an average, attend for as long a time as do the boys from San Francisco and vicinity. In other words, a smaller percentage of the boys from the interior graduate. Of the 365 country students who have entered the Lick School since its founding, but 68, or 18.6 per cent, have graduated. The average length of attendance for the remaining 297 is 1.7 years. The management of the school, having in mind this shorter term of the country students, has made an arrangement whereby they may do considerably more work of a practical nature during the first year than is permitted the students from the bay counties, to the end that the country boy may return to the farm as completely master of the rudiments of the trade as is possible for him to become during his brief term. Statistics from the Wilmerding School point in the

same direction, although this school has not been established as long as the Lick School and the enrollment is not so large. The average length of attendance in the Wilmerding School has been 1.4 years.

The number of journeymen in California engaged in the occupations covered by the curriculum of the Lick and Wilmerding Schools is approximately 30,290. The average number of students graduating yearly from these schools is about 30, or less than one to each one thousand journeymen. This may fairly be said to represent the number of journeymen that may be credited to these institutions. The remainder, putting in from one to two years at learning a trade, go back to the farm or the store, and the net result is the ability of the young farmer to attend to the sanitation of his farm buildings in a more creditable manner, to hang his gate, repair his fence, etc.-things that, without this training, would either be done in a very discreditable manner or left entirely undone.

LABOR ORGANIZATIONS OF CALIFORNIA.

A great deal of care and time have been used in obtaining the following list of labor organizations in California, which includes, with perhaps a very few exceptions, every organization in the State.

In a considerable number of instances no replies were received from secretaries who were communicated with, making it incumbent upon the Bureau to obtain the desired information otherwise, when possible. With a view to keeping a complete and reliable directory of all labor unions, where it can be at all times at their service, it is very desirable that the various secretaries keep this office advised of any changes in the present existing unions or the organization of new ones.

104. Amalgamated Sheet-Metal Workers San Francisco 121 N. Montgomery street. 279. Amalgamated Sheet-Metal Workers San Francisco --927 Mission street.

309. Amalgamated Sheet-Metal Workers San José

10167. Baggage, Messenger and Transfer

Phelan Hall.