OR SCH 
 IN WAR TIME 
 AND AFTER 
 
 DEAN 
 
 j<oo«s'
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Dr. ERNEST C. MOORE
 
 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR 
 TIME-AND AFTER 
 
 ARTHUR D. DEAN, Sc.D. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION, TEACHERS COLLEGE 
 
 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, AND SUPERVISING OFFICER 
 
 BUREAU OF VOCATIONAL TRAINING, NEW YORK 
 
 STATE MILITARY TRAINING COMMISSION 
 
 GINN AND COMPANY 
 
 BOSTON • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON 
 ATLANTA • DALLAS • COLUMBUS • SAN FRANCISCO
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY ARTHUR D. DEAN 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 GINN AND COMPANY • PRO- 
 PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A.
 
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 It is not an army that we must shape and train for war ; 
 it is a nation. . . . The whole nation must be a team in which 
 each man shall play the part for which he is best fitted. . . . 
 Each man shall be classified for service in the place to 
 which it shall best serve the general good to call him. . . . 
 The significance of this cannot be overstated. It is a new 
 thing in our history and a landmark in our progress. It is 
 a new manner of accepting and vitalizing our duty to give 
 ourselves with thoughtful devotion to the common purpose of 
 us all. — WooDROW Wilson, Proclamation, May l8, igiy 
 
 215144
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Bringing the War into the Schools .... i 
 
 II. War and Community Uses of our Schools . . 17 
 
 III. The Field for Industrial and Trade Schools . 53 
 
 IV. Our Colleges and Technical Institutes ... 80 
 
 V. The Opportunity for Manual and Household 
 
 Arts 115 
 
 VI. The Work Impulses of Youth 135 
 
 VII. Organized Boy Power vs. Military Drill . . 165 
 
 VIII. Red Cross and Other Community Work . . . 192 
 
 IX. Reeducation of the Disabled 211 
 
 X. Farm Cadets 234 
 
 XI. The Organization of a Cadet Camp . . . . 272 
 
 XII. A Summarized Program of Action 304 
 
 INDEX 33^
 
 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME — 
 AND AFTER
 
 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME- 
 AND AFTER 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 BRINGING THE WAR INTO THE SCHOOLS 
 
 The summer of 191 7 found America realizing 
 that the war which it had entered was not going to 
 be won by the mobiHzation of an army and a navy, 
 however strong and efficient they might be. In the 
 proclamation of Woodrow Wilson the whole nation 
 was called upon to mobilize with a clear, succinct 
 purpose of organizing those forces of industry, of 
 education, of woman power, which are back of every 
 successful struggle of a nation in peace or in war. 
 The ready acceptance of the slogan " Win the War 
 in the Air," with the public clamor for aviation, was 
 but an indication of the general awakening of the 
 public to the truth that the war must be won by 
 the use of forces as yet undeveloped, or undirected 
 towards national ends. 
 
 The mobilization which teaches the saving of 
 our national resources, which directs the thoughtful 
 distribution and wise use of our products, which
 
 2 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 cultivates the patriotic spirit of service in the boy 
 and girl power of the nation, properly belongs to 
 the field of education, not only in war but in peace. 
 To the schools of America, therefore, the war has 
 come as an opportunity for developing a closer re- 
 lation between education and life, between life and 
 service. 
 
 Our gradual entrance into the war and our dis- 
 tance from the conflict have given us the chance 
 of pausing and surveying the situation before act- 
 ing, — advantages which were unfortunately denied 
 England and France. At the beginning of the war 
 England apparently almost wrecked her schools, 
 and is slowly repairing the mistakes of hurried 
 action in suspending the attendance laws. France 
 is saving her schools that the nation may go on 
 after the war. It remains for America to use the 
 war to m.ake better schools. 
 
 The mobilization of our schools is not concerned 
 with the introduction of military drill, whether vol- 
 untary or compulsory. It is an experiment in work- 
 ing out the relation of education to war. We are, 
 all of us, empirics in this experiment; there is no 
 body of tradition and theory to help us. The an- 
 cient world offers us no parallels ; the modern Ger- 
 man system throws no light on it. America, equally 
 with the nations of the older world, is a pioneer in
 
 BRINGING THE WAR INTO SCHOOLS 3 
 
 the field. This is a novel experience for us who 
 have been originators only of free education in the 
 past or of administrative systems, not of types of 
 new education. Largely what we have to guide us 
 is some experience of France and England in what 
 to avoid. This negative counsel is valuable in re- 
 stricting our experiments, but is scarcely construc- 
 tive in its nature. One of its most valuable lessons, 
 however, is to show us that we must not take our 
 schools into the war, as England did, but bring the 
 war into the schools. 
 
 The fact that the problem is a novel one and 
 that it is experimental does not make it futile. All 
 education is experimental in adapting the individual 
 to his changing environment. 
 
 During recent years our schools have had to 
 consider the outside forces of the changing world. 
 It was in 1881 that the first manual-training high 
 school opened its doors under the hostile gaze of 
 incredulity and disapproval. Since then our edu- 
 cational system has been bombarded with essays 
 on the relation of education to life, on practical 
 aspects of education, on vocational guidance, on 
 trade schools, etc. We have only to look at the 
 vastly differentiated courses of our colleges (some 
 of which have lost all trace of the humanities), at 
 the variegated courses in our high schools, at our
 
 4 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 remodeled elementary courses, to realize that in 
 thirty years the whole attitude of the people towards 
 our schools has undergone a vast change. These 
 changes were regarded as revolutionary at first. 
 But it is no more revolutionary to introduce the 
 war into our schools than it was to introduce the 
 laboratory study of sciences, or agricultural studies, 
 or courses in millinery and home-making, — that 
 is, if we understand the meaning of war into the 
 schools. 
 
 It is not to be denied that the educational em- 
 phasis is different. The student who takes an agri- 
 cultural course, and thus prepares himself to be a 
 modern efficient farmer, is only indirectly doing 
 work of service to the State. His aim is individual 
 improvement, an advance which results in gen- 
 eral benefit to the State ; whereas a girl who does 
 Red Cross work in school, or a boy who works in 
 a war garden, benefits the individual through the 
 larger service of collective responsibility in serving 
 the nation directly. 
 
 We are not unmindful of the fact that war is a 
 temporary condition, and we must not crowd out 
 the fundamental studies to meet the needs of a 
 temporary environment, however urgent the need 
 may be. In carrying the war into our schools we 
 must emphasize those permanent elements which
 
 BRINGING THE WAR INTO SCHOOLS 5 
 
 are as necessary in war as in peace; we must use 
 the war as an opportunity to develop service to the 
 State, — service which may be vitahzing and enno- 
 bHng, full of purposeful appreciation of collective 
 responsibility. 
 
 In our study of the introduction of the war into 
 our schools we may properly shut out discussions 
 of elements which have no educational value. Many 
 of the proposals for the war uses of our schools 
 have been of a haphazard nature, called out by a 
 well-meant desire to meet the emergency. Much 
 of the legislation concerning itself with the employ- 
 ment of school children or of those under compul- 
 sory school age has been, and may yet be, harmful. 
 The suggestion of using the schools as recruiting 
 stations has lost value with the operation of the 
 selective draft. Ill-considered proposals to turn 
 over the vocational and manual-training depart- 
 ments to the government for the purpose of making 
 munitions have shown a lack of knowledge of their 
 meager equipment for an industry highly special- 
 ized with standard jigs and fixtures. A department 
 store, a clothing factory, a library, or an office 
 building would be about as fit for such a purpose 
 as a school building. The same may be said of the 
 use of our schools as hospitals. Our schools must 
 be retained as educative plants, — training munition
 
 6 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 workers, if we will, but not making munitions ; pro- 
 viding the government with skilled artisans and 
 scientists, but by no means converting their func- 
 tion of education into that of industrial production. 
 
 The war work of our schools is more easily 
 planned in those which have technical and voca- 
 tional departments than in those which contain 
 only the desk and office equipment. Distinctions 
 must be made, too, between schools in agricultural 
 and industrial centers. The experiments made in 
 New York with "farm cadets" show that the coun- 
 try boy has certain advantages over the city boy 
 in all forms of rural and garden employment. 
 We must not expect the same kind of work from 
 the high-school boys and girls in New York City 
 that we may exact from country children of the 
 same age. 
 
 The city boy may be needed in emergency ofHce 
 and factory work. Instead of contributing service 
 as a farm cadet, he may become a " cooperator," 
 giving part-time service to industry and to com- 
 merce and part time to school, as many of our 
 city boys are now doing. 
 
 In dealing with the institution of higher grade 
 we find as many distinctions in service. In the 
 college of the cultural type — the college of indi- 
 vidualism — it is the individual who serves the
 
 BRINGING THE WAR INTO SCHOOLS 7 
 
 State, how nobly may be seen in the English uni- 
 versities of Oxford and Cambridge. In the public 
 schools and socialized institutions with vocational 
 work, however, it is the institution which serves. 
 This service of the institution may be classified 
 under two heads. In the case of the elementary 
 schools to some extent, and of the high schools 
 to a greater extent, our war work should be 
 brought into them. In the technical, vocational, 
 and trade schools the institution should reach out 
 towards the war. In the first instance the func- 
 tion of the elementary and secondary school 
 should be to adhere to the purposes for which 
 they were created. The function of the higher 
 technical, vocational, and trade schools should be 
 to prepare the skilled students to take the places 
 of those who are called to military service; to 
 give scientific training, indispensable in war; to 
 assist, through courses for the blind and crippled, 
 in the reeducation of those disabled in war serv- 
 ice, — that is, our technical schools may be schools 
 of special preparation and industrial readjustment. 
 We shall observe, in working out the problem, 
 that we have offered to us by the war an oppor- 
 tunity to make our schools better by bringing 
 education closer to life, not only materially but 
 spiritually. If we have failed to train our youth
 
 8 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 in cooperation and service to the State in the 
 past, the war gives us a new motive. For to 
 impart skill in use of hand or brain without 
 teaching collective responsibility is to fail in our 
 national duty. To our schools we must look as 
 the agencies which are to carry on the great 
 work of education in service, a noble and pur- 
 poseful objective for which to work, directing 
 the growth of our children into an efficient and 
 devoted citizenship. 
 
 Someone will urge: "The war will soon be over 
 and we shall hardly get started in war service 
 before there will be no need for such service." 
 
 Of course those who believe, or at least seem 
 to practice the belief, that the schools are to lag 
 far behind every economic, industrial, and social 
 movement and are to be mere looking-glasses for 
 the workaday world, — such people would not be 
 expected to bring the war into the schools until 
 some historian had written a text setting forth the 
 dates, drawing the battle lines, naming the com- 
 manding generals, and picturing the final bound- 
 aries determined by some Hague conference. It 
 is such professional obstructionists who make no 
 provision for the millions of our foreign born to 
 learn the English language and American customs 
 through the establishment of up-to-date methods
 
 BRINGING THE WAR INTO SCHOOLS 9 
 
 in teaching the adult ilHterate. It is such laissez- 
 faire persons who allow children to slide out of 
 school unprepared physically, mentally, or vocation- 
 ally for the life ahead. It is such who insist upon 
 the disciplinary-value idea of subject-worth in the 
 face of modern psychological thought. It is such 
 conservatives who say that agriculture can be 
 taught only on the farm; that it is the business 
 of the factory to teach the trades; that girls may 
 learn to cook from their mothers ; that elementary 
 courses in woodworking and freehand drawing 
 constitute vocational training; that algebra, Latin, 
 ancient history, and trigonometry are essential 
 features of the curriculum for training capable 
 stenographers. It is these people who say that 
 " the public schools of America are bulwarks of 
 the nation," and consistently erect bulwarks against 
 every agency which actually reflects the social and 
 economic needs of the day. 
 
 But those who believe that the school should 
 study the past and live in the present and strive 
 for a better future will find that the war brings 
 out for the schools not only the lessons of a day, 
 but the needs and opportunities of a decade. 
 
 It has been stated that movements or men 
 unresponsive to the present world crisis and fail- 
 ing to meet present needs and opportunities do
 
 lo OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 not deserve to exist. Whether the statement be 
 exactly true or not, it is evident that the up-to-the- 
 minute man or the live school or the progressive 
 industrial establishment or the efficient department 
 of government is responding to the national need 
 in exact proportion to the response made to the 
 needs and opportunities existing before war was 
 declared. 
 
 It is this responding power which is testing 
 our men and women, our institutions of govern- 
 ment, our industries, and our schools. Nothing 
 makes this clearer than the daily news. We read 
 that since the Railroads War Board has been estab- 
 lished, the railroads have increased their operating 
 efficiency 26 per cent, with the result that they are 
 now handling twice the freight and have 75 per 
 cent fewer idle cars ; that aeroplane motors are 
 soon to be built as rapidly as a certain well-known 
 automobile can be ; that standardized destroyers 
 and merchant ships are to be turned out by the 
 scores; that dyes equal to those formerly imported 
 have been evolved ; that prominent men of means 
 have contributed their services to men in authority 
 in Washington ; that well-known social workers are 
 on their way to France and Belgium. 
 
 All these things and countless others show us 
 how a military necessity has brought out the best
 
 BRINGING THE WAR INTO SCHOOLS 1 1 
 
 that is within us. And the best of it all is that 
 there is nothing which we are doing in the way 
 of making standardized products or in extending 
 the services of useful men that cannot be perma- 
 nently useful after the war is over. Our mili- 
 tary necessity is teaching us new and permanently 
 effective standards of making things. Meanwhile, 
 are the schools of America to fail by not render- 
 ing service to a nation in time of need, by not 
 establishing permanently effective standards in the 
 making of useful boys and girls, — "boys and girls," 
 as Roosevelt puts it, "who realize that they are 
 a part of Uncle Sam's team" ? 
 
 The schools and colleges that were alive before 
 the war began are breathing the breath of life more 
 deeply now. Those which were asleep are waking 
 up and not only learning to serve, but through 
 this service learning to live. A little school in 
 Vermont in a report on what it has in the way of 
 war equipment states that it has only ten benches, 
 but adds that these have been used by sixty boys 
 who take manual training. A school system which 
 can be as efficient as that in time of peace may 
 naturally be expected to state, as it does in re- 
 sponse to a recent inquiry: "Our instructor has 
 been on the job all summer, helping especially 
 where the boys and girls are working on the
 
 12 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 farms or have gardens. He has also organized 
 canning and drying clubs and is giving instruction 
 to different groups of boys." 
 
 The university which has extension courses in 
 time of peace naturally has war extension courses. 
 The prominent business man of Massachusetts who 
 for years interested himself in state Y. M.C.A. 
 work would naturally be expected to enlist, as he 
 has, for Y. M.C.A. work in France. Now if the 
 college or institution or individual serves in time 
 of need because of a habit of serving, might it 
 not be equally true that a somnolent individual or 
 school, if once stirred to service, might through 
 such service learn always to serve? 
 
 At this time the government of the United 
 States is going to learn how to become efificient. 
 The state colleges of agriculture are testing their 
 former efificiency, — the test being the power to 
 serve. Schools may now learn what it means to be 
 eflficient by the service which they may now ren- 
 der. Not an activity is proposed nor a principle 
 of educational practice given in the chapters which 
 follow but should be brought into our schools in 
 times of peace. 
 
 We are going to sew now for the Red Cross 
 because it is war time. Later we shall sew for 
 institutions in our community. Now we are going
 
 BRINGING THE WAR INTO SCHOOLS 13 
 
 to develop part-time schools because industry needs 
 boys. Later we shall have cooperative courses be- 
 cause boys at work need further schooling. Now 
 we are placing city boys on farms because the 
 farmers need labor. Later we shall place farms 
 on the minds of boys because youth needs con- 
 tact with nature. Now we have current-events dis- 
 cussions about loans, submarines, aeroplanes, and 
 I.W. W.'s because the government needs support. 
 Later we shall teach the meaning of the same 
 things because thoughtfully trained people are 
 needed by the government. Now we are to teach 
 patriotism and thrift because the nation needs 
 them. Later we shall teach them because they 
 are essential in themselves. 
 
 Now we have extension courses in economical 
 cooking for adult women as a war measure. Later 
 we shall have it as a home measure. Now we are 
 bringing adult women into the schools to receive 
 instruction with their children. Later we shall 
 do the same thing because it is the only sensible 
 procedure under any and all conditions. Now 
 we think in terms of reeducation of disabled sol- 
 diers because of the immediate need of helping 
 these honored men. Later we shall turn what we 
 have learned to do for these men into better pro- 
 visions for making self-supporting our crippled
 
 14 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 and blinded children who are now in dependent 
 institutions being made still more dependent by 
 the very nature of the poor apology for voca- 
 tional training which is given them. Now we have 
 clearly before us the need for industrial education 
 because the government is crying for workers. 
 Later we shall see the need for industrial educa- 
 tion because those who are to work in the in- 
 dustries need it. Now we hold a child-labor law 
 before youth tempted by industry. Later we shall 
 endeavor to hold before youth better opportunities 
 for vocational, physical, and mental training in our 
 schools as an inducement to stay in them. 
 
 What are the schools and colleges going to do 
 about it all ? Certainly they will not intentionally in- 
 jure the cause of education by starting ill-developed 
 ideas of war service. But the desire to avoid 
 the bad should not by any means imply inaction. 
 This is the psychological moment for all of us 
 to justify our very existence as individuals or as 
 parts of an institution or a movement. One could 
 only pity a school man who recently said : " Really, 
 I am envious of some of my colleagues. They 
 have something to do at this time, while the subject 
 which I am teaching can make no contribution." 
 
 There has never been a time in our school life 
 when taxpayers, boards of apportionment, women's
 
 BRINGING THE WAR INTO SCHOOLS 15 
 
 clubs, state granges, boards of trade, could be 
 made more interested in having the schools broaden 
 out along lines of continuation-school and part-time 
 work, differentiated courses in our high schools, 
 physical-training courses, evening courses for adult 
 illiterates, thrift measures and school savings, teach- 
 ing of current events, more practical science work, 
 teaching of agriculture, unit courses in household 
 arts, and a score of other things which the school 
 men of America say they want and- which they 
 are always saying " the public will not stand for." 
 
 Shall we let the golden opportunity for enrich- 
 ment pass until after the war, when cities will 
 most certainly preach and practice poverty? 
 
 Now is the time to evaluate our school subjects, 
 to bring in the new if they are worth while, to 
 scrap the old if they do not stand the test of 
 national needs. If a community will not "stand for" 
 cooking when the H. C. L. rises like a specter 
 before our doors, it will never vote for household 
 arts after the war. If a city school favorably located 
 near the open country will not now extend its 
 educational program to include community garden- 
 ing when prices of farm products are excessive, 
 it will hardly broaden out when the crisis of our 
 material needs is over. If a state will not line up 
 with the Federal Board of Vocational Education
 
 l6 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 for national aid for its vocational schools when its 
 industries are crying for trained youth, it will 
 never move forward in time of a normal demand. 
 If we do not reorganize our schools to bring in 
 the best while we may, we shall in all probability 
 be required in the near future to discard some 
 things which we have, without having any oppor- 
 tunity to develop the new things which we have 
 stated in our conventions and teachers' institutes 
 that we earnestly desire. World conditions chal- 
 lenge our schools. What is their program?
 
 CHAPTER II 
 WAR AND COMMUNITY USES OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 An evaluating test for each of our school subjects 
 has at last been found. The test is the capacity 
 of the subject to resporid to a national need or a 
 national ideal. In many instances of the countries 
 concerned in this great war the schools as a whole 
 have amply justified their existence, and many of 
 the subjects taught have stood through this world 
 emergency the acid test of meeting national needs. 
 The scientific and efficiency spirit of Germany is 
 reflected in the posters spread over Berlin : " Send 
 your cherry, peach, and plum seeds to the school- 
 house with your children," seeds being used for 
 making fat and oil. The spirit of France has been 
 reflected, as will be seen in the following pages, 
 in the work of the teachers and the children for 
 the preservation of that wonderful nationalism of 
 France. The schools of England are reshaping 
 themselves — in fact, are being remade — as a 
 result of the shortcomings set forth by the war. 
 
 The schools of America are to go forward. Pa- 
 triotism now has a new meaning. The principal 
 
 17
 
 l8 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 from his school platform has opportunity for an- 
 nouncements and talks other than those dealing 
 with routine matters. The cooking teacher has 
 opportunity to develop new recipes adapted to 
 present needs. The teacher of history may redraw 
 almost every day the map of Europe. The teacher 
 of manual training may substitute problems in con- 
 crete for those requiring high-priced wood mate- 
 rials. The school buildings near soldiers' camps 
 may, like the Washington (D. C.) buildings, be 
 opened for educational purposes for soldiers, that 
 they may take up general or special educational 
 work. Teachers of English may have their pupils 
 study President Wilson's messages of state as 
 models of English composition and expressions of 
 American democracy. 
 
 The opportunity is before the schools and the 
 children. There are in our school system three 
 elements which may be of use in war: the build- 
 ing itself with its equipment, the school population 
 of boy and girl power, and the teaching force. 
 
 In England, during the first year of the war, all 
 three were called into requisition. Within a few 
 months over looo school buildings were in tem- 
 porary military use, and even on August i, 191 6, 
 180 elementary- and 20 secondary-school buildings 
 were still occupied for war work, — for hospitals,
 
 WAR AND COMMUNITY USES 19 
 
 billeting of troops, housing of munition workers, etc., 
 — the number of children displaced being 129,855. 
 In many cases the use was expected to be tempo- 
 rary, but many buildings have been retained perma- 
 nently. The children whose schooling was thus 
 interrupted, when too young for employment, gener- 
 ally drifted aimlessly into juvenile delinquency, 
 while those older, although below the established 
 employment age, went to farms and munition fac- 
 tories. That is, the taking away of the school 
 building was concomitant with the suspension of 
 restrictions on age of employment and hours of 
 labor. The children of the prosperous class were 
 likewise affected by the departure of over 50 per 
 cent of the teachers for military service. 
 
 These many interruptions in the carrying on of 
 educational work were the result of the short-war 
 fallacy; they were emergency measures adopted to 
 meet a condition which it was generally supposed 
 would last but a few months. When, however, it 
 was realized by statesmen and the public that the 
 interference with education and the suspension of 
 laws regulating employment were resulting in ir- 
 reparable injury to health and morals of an em- 
 ployed child population under 13 years of age of 
 150,000, and an idle younger population variously 
 estimated at from 200,000 to 300,000, corrective
 
 20 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 measures were adopted. American schools must 
 learn from English experience what to avoid. 
 There are many legitimate uses of schools which 
 England is now employing ; and the warnings of 
 interested English educators should keep our legis- 
 latures and municipalities from breaking down the 
 compulsory-education laws or converting our schools 
 into industrial plants. Our aim, as previously stated, 
 should be to bring the war to the school curriculum 
 for educational purposes, not to take the schools 
 into the war, losing sight of their definite function. 
 In France, at the outbreak of the war, many of 
 the school buildings were requisitioned, and 30,000 
 teachers were called to the colors. The hardship 
 to the young resulting from this patriotic sacrifice 
 was met as far as possible by the generosity of 
 private citizens who gave rooms or buildings for 
 classes, and by professional men, too old for service, 
 who volunteered to carry on the work of teaching. 
 France was swift to realize that education must be 
 carried on at all costs. In districts near the fight- 
 ing line schools were of necessity transformed into 
 hospitals, often with a staff of women teachers tem- 
 porarily acting as nurses and attendants; but it 
 has been the policy of the department of public 
 instruction to regard this service as temporary, and 
 the teachers as conscripted for education.
 
 WAR AND COMMUNITY USES 21 
 
 The trying circumstances under which the schools 
 have been carried on, serving nobly during the term 
 after hours and during vacations, make their achieve- 
 ments a record of honor. In the country districts 
 where all the local officials were mobilized, the 
 teacher became the sole agent of government, mak- 
 ing out passports, requisitions, relief lists, etc., pro- 
 curing food, operating a public kitchen, acting as 
 postmaster, doing guard duty, and rendering num- 
 berless other services to the community. One of 
 the first tasks of the primary schools was to under- 
 take entire care of children left without adequate 
 protection. In country districts the teachers were, 
 in default of newspapers, the dispensers of official 
 information, explaining government loans and giv- 
 ing talks on the progress of the war. Thus the 
 entire village was brought into the schoolhouse, 
 which became the real center of the community. 
 
 In the United States and Canada the schools 
 may well copy some of the measures initiated in 
 Europe. That we are 3000 miles from the actual 
 battleground ought, for the present, to keep us 
 from considering any lowering of educational bars 
 or from converting our buildings into purposes 
 other than educational. Europe advises us that 
 such transformation is of an emergency nature and 
 only to be made under stress of an invasion.
 
 22 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 It is the purpose of this chapter to consider 
 some general uses of our buildings, our equip- 
 ment (including the teaching force), and the activi- 
 ties of our pupils, which have been made in the 
 past two or three years, excluding and reserving 
 for the most part for later discussion the introduc- 
 tion of war work in manual-training, domestic-arts, 
 and domestic-science courses, and the part-time 
 agricultural labor. 
 
 An important use of our schools, and one which 
 should be made more general throughout the 
 country, is that of a distributing center for gov- 
 ernment pamphlets, information cards, etc. In 
 New York City the various welfare committees 
 appointed by Mayor Mitchel designated the public 
 schools as mediums through which to circulate 
 papers on "safety first," fire prevention, uses of 
 various food products, etc., and thus reach the 
 families of the vast foreign population through 
 their children. The city's pledges of national 
 loyalty to be signed by adults were circulated 
 by the pupils shortly after the declaration of war. 
 Wider publicity can be given to federal regula- 
 tions, tax measures, employment modifications, 
 etc., by the distribution of notices to pupils of 
 upper grades, following the explanation by the 
 teacher. While our people as a whole read, though
 
 WAR AND COMMUNITY USES 23 
 
 hastily, the newspapers morning and evening, and 
 may find in them all governmental measures, it is 
 nevertheless true that we shall be assured of a 
 wider distribution of information by using the pupil 
 as the carrier of it to the home. In England the 
 schools, as well as the Boy Scouts organization, 
 have served as national distributing agencies for 
 war-office notices. Parliamentary information, and 
 agricultural propaganda. 
 
 A portion of a letter from Sir Robert Blair, 
 chairman of the Education Committee of the Lon- 
 don County Council, to Superintendent Maxwell 
 of New York City, in May, 191 7, calls attention to 
 the service of the schools in this connection. 
 
 War has come upon us so unexpectedly that our people 
 not only did not understand the true position but on the 
 whole knew very little about the causes which had led to 
 the outbreak. The public press, bookstalls, and the public 
 libraries were considerably augmented by books and pam- 
 phlets on the subject, and it was a natural prompting that 
 gave rise to the issue to the schools of a considerable num- 
 ber of documents, memoranda, and pamphlets. These cir- 
 culars and pamphlets were mostly all issued within the first 
 year of the war. The first phase of the pamphlets is his- 
 torical, while the second became economical. The economi- 
 cal phase in its first stages was concentrated on war savings 
 for the purpose of war loans and in anticipation, by the 
 provision of " nest eggs," of the dislocation that might
 
 24 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 occur at the end of the war. In its later stages — within 
 the last six months — the economical phase has been directed 
 chiefly to economy in food, owing to the menace of the 
 submarine campaign. 
 
 A further use of the school population in hours 
 outside the daily session is that of giving help 
 in taking a census. In England school teachers 
 and pupils did most of the work of compiling the 
 National Register, a card census of inhabitants. 
 To some extent similar work has been done in 
 the United States, such as the taking of the agri- 
 cultural census in fifty-six counties (no census was 
 taken for the counties of Hamilton, Kings, Queens, 
 Richmond, and New York) in the state of New 
 York in April, 191 7. Under the joint auspices of 
 the State Food Supply Commission and the State 
 Education Department a survey was ordered of 
 the agricultural resources of the state and of the 
 requirements for increased production, the details 
 of which were worked out at Ithaca at the State 
 College of Agriculture. Through the appointed 
 county enumerators, instructions were transmitted 
 to the various school districts. 
 
 The actual work of this census was begun in 
 most counties on April 23, the records being prac- 
 tically all obtained by April 25, the teachers and 
 pupils in each district, assisted when necessary
 
 WAR AND COMMUNITY USES 25 
 
 by other persons, procuring the original facts from 
 farmers and making the summaries for their school 
 districts. From these records the state was within 
 ten days furnished with the complete amount of 
 seed and live stock wanted by farmers and for sale 
 by farmers ; with the statements of the transporta- 
 tion difficulties; with the itemized needs of labor, 
 fertilizer, and spray materials; and with the com- 
 plete enumeration of the state, — people, land, and 
 live stock. 
 
 Such work by pupils might well become an 
 established yearly activity. The practice of gath- 
 ering and tabulating information has an obvious 
 arithmetical value ; and the interest developed in 
 investigating the resources of the community has 
 an educational significance which should keep us 
 from limiting it to emergency periods. 
 
 The comparative table on page 26 (one of thirteen 
 developed out of the census) not only illustrates 
 facts which the children obtained, but also shows 
 the magnitude of the work they undertook. 
 
 One of the best community uses of the school is 
 as a center for instruction in conserving food prod- 
 ucts. With the absolute shortage of the world's 
 food supply, Americans must anticipate this short- 
 age in coming seasons and revert to the preserving 
 methods of their grandparents, — measures fallen
 
 26 
 
 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 into disuse in crowded cities because of lack of 
 storage room and the ease with which the fresh 
 products have been obtained, whatever the season. 
 
 ACRES OF CROPS IN 56 COUNTIES IN NEW YORK WITH 
 COMPARISONS FOR THE SAME COUNTIES IN 1909 
 
 Crop 
 
 Acres (U.S. 
 Census, 1909) 
 
 Acres grown 
 IN 1916 
 
 Acres expected 
 
 TO BE grown in 
 
 1917 
 
 Corn for grain . 
 
 511,339 
 
 336,543 
 
 495,469 
 
 Corn for silo . 
 
 
 
 
 259,082 
 
 362,413 
 
 422,867 
 
 Oats . . . 
 
 
 
 
 1,302,041 
 
 1,102,004 
 
 1,250,346 
 
 Barley . . . 
 
 
 
 
 79.955 
 
 92,422 
 
 II 1,634 
 
 Buckwheat 
 
 
 
 
 286,128 
 
 257,911 
 
 300,090 
 
 Winter wheat 
 
 
 
 
 289,126 
 
 344,278 
 
 387,813 
 
 Spring wheat 
 
 
 
 
 289,126 
 
 12,373 
 
 32,425 
 
 Rye. . . . 
 
 
 
 
 130,449 
 
 114,691 
 
 120,239 
 
 Field beans 
 
 
 
 
 115,695 
 
 194,053 
 
 275,790 
 
 Alfalfa . . . 
 
 
 
 
 35,343 
 
 160,985 
 
 181,912 
 
 Other hay . . 
 
 
 
 
 4,737,326 
 
 4,073,333 
 
 3,963,678 
 
 Cabbage . . 
 
 
 
 
 33,770 
 
 38,898 
 
 68,890 
 
 Potatoes . . 
 
 
 
 
 390,552 
 
 305,649 
 
 382,840 
 
 Canning-factory crops "] 
 
 
 44,098 
 
 60,155 
 
 Other vegetables and V 
 
 131,686 
 
 
 
 garden .... J 
 
 
 58,340 
 
 71,833 
 
 Miscellaneous crops 
 
 21,843 
 
 35,056 
 
 40,895 
 
 Apples 
 
 
 281,061 
 
 
 346,633 
 
 Cherries . . 
 
 
 
 
 4,211 
 
 
 12,414 
 
 Peaches . . 
 
 
 
 
 15,340 
 
 
 50,149 
 
 Pears . . . 
 
 
 
 
 13,378 
 
 
 36,802 
 
 Plums . . . 
 
 
 
 
 5,742 
 
 
 8,569 
 
 Vineyards . 
 
 
 
 
 52,999 
 
 
 52,350 
 
 Small fruit 
 
 
 
 
 22,388 
 
 
 28,171 
 
 Total . . 
 
 
 
 
 8,719,454 
 
 
 8,701,964
 
 WAR AND COMMUNITY USES 27 
 
 Even villages which have no gas supply may 
 follow the example of cities and towns in using 
 the school kitchen, already installed as part of a 
 domestic-science equipment or newly supplied by 
 popular subscription, as a community canning cen- 
 ter. Certainly schools are as well adapted for the 
 purpose as department stores and Young Women's 
 Christian Associations, which have been leaders in 
 the movement. 
 
 The teaching of methods of preserving is pri- 
 marily the function of a school, and every suitable 
 school building should be employed for it. The 
 old-fashioned preserving meant time, drudgery, ex- 
 pense, quantities of sugar, and doubtful results. A 
 demonstration of the newer methods and the oppor- 
 tunity for community canning should be given by 
 the school to the neighborhood. Community can- 
 ning induces a far more effective conservation of 
 food than is possible for the individual kitchen. 
 Few households can afford to buy and store the 
 vast kettles, the perfected drying and dehydrating 
 ovens, which can be included in the equipment of 
 a school teaching the scientific preserving of food 
 and vegetables. As this is done almost wholly in 
 the summer, it would not interfere with the term's 
 work of the pupils and, in fact, offers the high- 
 school girls an excellent opportunity to assist in
 
 28 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 civic service of a most practical nature. In the 
 summer of 191 7 Seattle maintained 20 centers for 
 home-economics teaching for adult women, the 
 government bulletin " How to Select Food " being 
 used as a textbook. 
 
 There have been wholesome experiments in com- 
 munity canning in Lakewood, and in Bernards 
 Township, New Jersey. In the latter in each 
 school was an experienced teacher to supervise the 
 work of preserving performed by high-school girls 
 of the neighborhood, the fruits and vegetables 
 being sold by the townspeople to the school or 
 brought by them to be conserved by cooperative 
 canning for their own use in the future. This 
 service of the girls was on an equality with that 
 of the boys who belonged to the agricultural army. 
 In Kansas City the surplus garden products canned 
 by schoolgirls were used for the school lunches. 
 
 England's schools now have " open days " on 
 which parents may be admitted to receive the in- 
 struction given to the children in the economical 
 cooking of the food which the food controller's 
 instructions show is likely to be available for gen- 
 eral consumption ; also (quoting from a letter from 
 Sir Robert Blair of the London County Council, 
 May 30, 1 91 7) the responsible mistresses of the 
 evening schools and the domestic-economy staff
 
 WAR AND COMMUNITY USES 29 
 
 employed in these schools are organizing traveling 
 kitchens in 29 boroughs within the county. These 
 traveling kitchens form practically a demonstration 
 set of apparatus by which the simplest forms of 
 cookery can be shown to 100 or 200 people. The 
 demonstrations are well attended, and the people 
 in small villages thus have the opportunity of 
 those in larger settlements to learn from experts 
 methods of making palatable the food products less 
 well understood. 
 
 It may be urged that community canning has its 
 place outside cities of the first class. New York 
 City certainly cannot be held to be the center of 
 an agricultural district, and yet valuable experi- 
 ments in food conservation are being made there. 
 One is concerned primarily with the prevention of 
 waste. Of the thousands of pounds of perishable 
 vegetables and fruit which are brought each day to 
 the produce piers, much is prohibited from being 
 sold to retailers because of injuries received in trans- 
 portation. When more than 20 per cent has been 
 injured, it has not paid wholesalers to salvage the 
 uninjured portion. As a result, a ruinous quantity 
 of produce has gone to waste, often being dumped 
 in the harbor for want of better disposal. The 
 loss as estimated by the board of health has been 
 225,000 pounds a week.
 
 30 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 To save this food by making quick use of it, in 
 July, 191 7, Mayor Mitchel's Committee of Women 
 on National Defense opened a conservation kitchen 
 in a disused school building in the Williamsburg 
 Bridge section. Here the uncertain quantity of 
 vegetables salvaged from the produce piers was 
 brought to the school, picked over, and sterilized, 
 partly by paid labor, partly by the volunteer labor 
 of members of the Women's University Club and 
 other organizations, or city women who were willing 
 to contribute their labor in the cause of food sav- 
 ing. This work was aided by the State Food Sup- 
 ply Commission and New York's board of health, 
 one of whose inspectors passed judgment on the 
 food used in the canning and drying experiments. 
 The salvaged food was brought from the piers to 
 the kitchens by Boy Scouts, ubiquitously useful in 
 any public undertaking. If it had not been that 
 the kitchen was opened in vacation, the school 
 population would have had its share of work to 
 do. To this kitchen any woman might go to be 
 taught processes or actually to can produce. 
 
 While it was not possible to use all the produce 
 brought in, even by keeping the kitchen as full of 
 workers as space would allow and cooking as much 
 as 480 gallons of food at a time, the work in this 
 old school building is illustrative of what can be
 
 WAR AND COMMUNITY USES 31 
 
 done in community centers to eliminate waste, and 
 is a vital example of the efficient use of a school 
 building in vacation. The cost in this case was 
 met by special contributions of organizations and 
 individuals. But in smaller places this work might 
 be maintained by the town itself on a less elabo- 
 rate scale. Such work should not be limited to the 
 war period. It is a practical and efficient plan for 
 all time. 
 
 The continued war will undoubtedly increase not 
 only the price but the scarcity of cotton and woolen 
 goods. Where it has hitherto not paid to make 
 over clothing repeatedly because of the cheapness 
 and ease with which new garments and children's 
 wear have been procured, it is now important to 
 understand thrifty saving of all kinds of fabrics 
 and apparel. 
 
 Home-economics women of Berkeley, California, 
 aided in collecting and making over old clothing. 
 In Portland, Oregon, a cleaner and dyer took as his 
 bit of service the cleaning and disinfecting of all the 
 clothing which was remade by the school children. 
 
 In England's county schools there have been 
 held exhibitions of thrift, to show children when 
 and how economies can be practiced. Some of the 
 examples shown under the heading of " Utilization 
 of Waste Material " were as follows : old linen
 
 32 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 collars and cuffs made into baggage labels, window 
 cleaners made from pieces of old gloves, house slip- 
 pers made from old felt hats, mops made of bits 
 of rags fastened to a nail. Ways were shown of 
 making use of scraps of wool left over from knit- 
 ting, the wasting of an inch of wool being regarded 
 as treasonable in the country's shortage ; methods 
 of refooting stockings were also displayed, as well as 
 many uses for pieces of worn table and bed linen 
 and old carpets. 
 
 In times of normal plenty such exhibitions would 
 not attract attention, but no greater evidence of 
 the reduced state of a nation at war can be had 
 than the seriousness with which these exhibitions 
 of household thrift have been viewed by the popu- 
 lation. A clipping from a newspaper of rural Eng- 
 land requests that children go into the pastures 
 and pick from the bushes the bits of wool which 
 the sheep have rubbed off. 
 
 For several years, at least, there will be high 
 prices and scarcity of materials. Our children must 
 be taught the necessity of preventing waste of 
 fabrics as well as of food. Millions of dollars worth 
 of cotton and wool have been destroyed in military 
 and munition use. But it is not only because war 
 conditions have made material scarce and high that 
 thrift in their use must be insisted upon in every
 
 Old-fashioned methods of preserving must again prevail. There is educa- 
 tional value in community conservation. Montclair (New Jersey) boys made 
 community evaporators, having a capacity of from five to eight bushels of 
 fruit a day, at a cost of only $io 
 
 A mowing machine is a problem in high-school mechanics, and these farm 
 cadets of New York State see, perhaps for the first time, a use for it
 
 A day's outing iui a puipusc. Albany and 'I'luy ^Xew York) orphan-asylum 
 boys on their way to " do their bit " in the currant fields 
 
 A lesson m sm \ k c geography. Boys liom Albany and Troy (New York) 
 
 picking currants, near Hudson (New York), which were preserved in 
 
 Yonkers Trades School for shipment to France
 
 WAR AND COMMUNITY USES 33 
 
 household ; we must remember that biUions of dol- 
 lars will be required to pay for this war and each 
 household will be required to make its contribution. 
 Expenditures in every direction must be curbed 
 and the wise disposition of every dollar must be 
 made. A year or so ago the Bankers Association 
 of America launched a campaign for thrift teaching. 
 We were then told that, as individuals, we must 
 save for the future. The present high cost of liv- 
 ing shows that we are obliged to save in the pres- 
 ent in order to live in the present, but the future 
 will tell us to save in order that we, as a nation, 
 may pay for the war. 
 
 Many community services may be rendered dur- 
 ing the war by the principal of a school. He may, 
 as has been done, organize patriotic meetings, en- 
 listing the aid of the churches and arousing the 
 interest of chambers of commerce, civic clubs, and 
 women's clubs in the Red Cross, the Liberty Loan, 
 and school war gardens. His assembly exercises 
 may be made vital through talks to the pupils on 
 opportunities for war service ; through platform rec- 
 ognition of boys and girls rendering special farm, 
 garden, Red Cross, and food-conservation help ; by 
 placing on a conspicuous bulletin a roll of honor 
 of graduates and students engaged in such work; 
 by keeping the school in touch with graduates who
 
 34 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 are enlisted in the army and navy by reading their 
 letters to the school and sending school packets to 
 them. He may advise economy in the use of foods 
 and clothing, the elimination of expenditures in 
 soda water, ice cream, and gum, and the sacrifice 
 of pleasure for national ends. He may urge the use 
 of savings in the purchase of government bonds 
 and war-savings certificates. Where the school has 
 been raising money for pictures or a phonograph, 
 he may suggest that the funds raised be used for 
 the purchase of one or more government bonds, 
 to be held by the school as an asset until the close 
 of the war, when the bond may be sold and the 
 money used for its original purpose of buying the 
 phonograph or pictures. In the case of some pri- 
 vate secondary schools, and large public schools 
 like the Washington Irving and DeWitt Clinton 
 high schools. New York, the pupils and teachers 
 have subscribed money and given entertainments 
 for the purchase of an ambulance, the gift of the 
 school to the American Expeditionary Force. In 
 one New York City school, through the efforts of 
 a student organization, Liberty Loan bonds to the 
 amount of ^479,800 were sold. 
 
 The principal in country districts should make 
 himself fully informed of the details of the federal 
 farm-loan plan, the sources of available seed supply,
 
 WAR AND COMMUNITY USES 35 
 
 the posters and bulletins of nation and state re- 
 garding the mobilization of schools and colleges, 
 and, of course, he should be especially active in 
 encouraging the home-garden projects. 
 
 A correspondent in the London Times, June 14, 
 191 7, writing of that indispensable teaching of thrift 
 in household affairs, of making the present genera- 
 tion of young girls intelligently self-sufHcient in 
 domestic and industrial life, cries, '' This brings us 
 to the crux of the whole situation : Who shall teach 
 the teachers ? " The government and state bulle- 
 tins on food production and conservation, the liter- 
 ature sent out by state councils of defense and 
 public safety on improved methods of preserving, 
 the pronouncements by banking houses on thrift 
 measures and means of attaining them, the Boy 
 Scouts, Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. leaflets on war 
 gardens and food economies are, in America, 
 beginning to answer this question. 
 
 Assuredly the war places an additional burden 
 on the teachers and gives them a new opportunity 
 for educating the pupils. A teacher does not 
 have to belong to the department of domestic 
 arts and science to organize Red Cross circles 
 nor to instruct girls in food conservation. A ten- 
 minute talk each morning by teacher or pupils, 
 before the opening of school, with discussion on
 
 36 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 such topics as " Why a man with a hundred dol- 
 lars to invest should buy a Liberty Bond," " New 
 occupations open to women because of the war," 
 " The reason for the scarcity of certain prod- 
 ucts," " Home substitutes for various manufac- 
 tured necessities," and many others suggested by 
 new conditions should be very helpful. 
 
 An unusually significant experiment known as 
 the " War Savings " movement has been made in 
 English schools. On May 5, 1916, the Board of 
 Education issued a circular asking for the assist- 
 ance of local education authorities in making 
 known through public elementary schools the 
 facilities afforded by the issue of War Savings 
 certificates. Then, with the cooperation of these 
 authorities and teachers, special lessons were given 
 on the subject, and copies of a leaflet explaining 
 the purpose of the War Savings Association were 
 widely distributed to the parents through their 
 children. As a result a large number of War Sav- 
 ings associations were formed in direct connection 
 with the schools. The success of the movement 
 is evident from the records given in the report of 
 the Board of Education for 191 5-1 9 16. In one 
 populous midland county the great majority of the 
 schools have established associations ; in another, a 
 northern county, some 70 per cent of the schools
 
 WAR AND COMMUNITY USES Z7 
 
 have taken part and record nearly 10,000 sub- 
 scribers. In one midland town a school of about 
 1400 children purchased certificates to the value 
 of £S^S ii^ three months. But it is not only 
 in large schools that the pupils have contributed 
 generously; a remote little school in a northern 
 county, with only 10 children on its register, has 
 10 subscribers to its credit and has saved ;^35, 
 buying 43 certificates. 
 
 In view of the fact that successive issues of bonds 
 must be made by the United States and other gov- 
 ernments of the world, this method of making sub- 
 scription to the war loan popular is worthy of 
 attention. The public schools have, as never before, 
 the opportunity of showing the practical value of 
 investing, in peace as well as in war time, in gov- 
 ernment and other bonds. Pupils should realize 
 the difference between money invested in a way 
 to be beneficial not only to the investor but to 
 his state and country, and money invested in 
 ordinary channels. 
 
 New York State teachers had an opportunity 
 similar to those of England. The Regents of the 
 University of the state of New York gave formal 
 approval of a plan by which teachers throughout 
 the public schools of the state could aid the Liberty 
 Loan committee of the Federal Reserve Bank in
 
 38 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 giving instruction and information about the second 
 Liberty Loan. A special committee was appointed 
 by the Board of Regents to act in a supervisory 
 capacity to keep the State Education Department 
 in touch with the large financial interests con- 
 ducting the loan. The secretary to Commissioner 
 Finley, as the representative of the Regents and 
 the State Education Department, was assigned for 
 temporary services in the office of the Loan 
 committee. 
 
 The program in brief was to have the teachers 
 act as agents for subscriptions for the Liberty Loan. 
 They distributed blanks to pupils in the school, 
 who in turn took them to their parents. They 
 were encouraged to subscribe themselves. They 
 did not handle any money or checks, but turned 
 the subscription blanks over to the local bank,' 
 which was, of course, in direct touch with the Loan 
 committee in New York City. 
 
 A primer of instruction for teachers was pre- 
 pared in the simplest possible terms. As published 
 by the Publicity Bureau of the United States 
 Treasury Department it was called " A Source 
 Book of the Second Liberty Loan." This primer 
 explained in detail the nature of the bonds, their 
 security, and the terms and prices ; it described 
 the nature of bond markets in general, the sources
 
 WAR AND COMMUNITY USES 39 
 
 from which interest is paid, the previous records 
 of United States bonds, and all other matter which 
 was of value in elementary financial instruction. It 
 was all set forth in a way which was very helpful 
 not only in assisting in the sale of bonds but in 
 the larger sense of furthering instruction in bonds, 
 interest, discounts, etc., in connection with work 
 in arithmetic. And in what better way could arith- 
 metical instruction be furthered ? 
 
 It is highly probable that this plan of informing 
 the public relative to government issues of bonds 
 and certificates, initiated in New York, will extend 
 to all parts of the country in connection with the 
 next Loan campaign. 
 
 How the responsibility of the teacher has been 
 met in France is in part suggestive. The teachers 
 have collected large funds to finance the enterprise 
 of caring for thousands of families of Belgian and 
 French refugees. They also collected from the 
 civilian population several millions of francs, the 
 teachers taxing themselves according to a fixed 
 schedule. They have been especially successful in 
 bringing to light for investment stores of hidden 
 gold in the homes of provincial savers. Surpris- 
 ing results have been attained through their 
 persistent, methodical propaganda. In one large 
 provincial town, after a talk to the older pupils by
 
 40 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 the mistress of the school, in four days an amount 
 equal to 7200 francs was brought in. In the same 
 school the following composition was given out to 
 the pupils as part of an admission examination 
 in penmanship. 
 
 THE GOLD OF FRANCE ^ 
 
 France has need of its gold to defend its invaded ter- 
 ritory. It is a sacred duty for every French man and woman, 
 rich or poor, to send to the coffers of the State the hundreds 
 of louis from their strong boxes, the few louis hidden in 
 the linen chest at home, even the single louis in the chil- 
 dren's toy bank. To keep in one's own possession, self- 
 ishly, the money which could serve our dear France is a 
 crime against patriotism. So, little girls, do not hesitate 
 to break open your banks, even if they have only a half 
 louis inside, and gladly take in exchange the note which 
 the Bank of France will give you. More than that, in your 
 vacation in the country, set yourselves to get grandmother 
 to empty her stocking, — she is sometimes rather stingy 
 with her money. But you know well enough how to coax 
 those who love you when you want a toy, or ornament, or 
 bonbons. Use your influence with your grandparents now, 
 so that they will bring into the public treasury the gold 
 of France. In this way you will have contributed to the 
 coming victory that we are all hoping for, you will have 
 helped our brave soldiers to clear away the German whose 
 presence defiles our land. Go, then, all of you ! Hunt out 
 all the money that is lying idle. It is for France ! 
 
 1 Edouard Petit, De I'ecole a la guerre, p. 175. Paris, 1916.
 
 WAR AND COMMUNITY USES 41 
 
 Thus the schools have worked to bring to light 
 the hoarded gold of thrifty peasants for investment 
 in the national loan. 
 
 Tangible as this service of the teachers has been 
 to France, of greater importance has been their 
 work of making clear to the villages the cause of 
 France. In November, 19 14, the Department of 
 Public Instruction sent out an appeal to the 
 professional and volunteer teachers in the second- 
 ary schools, saying that the schools must adapt 
 their program to the duties and needs created by 
 the hostilities. 
 
 The teachers will do their best to make the schools 
 serve in the national defense. In the evenings the old 
 men, the youths, and the women will gather together, and 
 the teachers will tell them the news, explain things that 
 happen, speak to them of patriotism, and read to them 
 from our writers whose pages are inspired with the glorious 
 deeds of our history past and present. 
 
 It is reported that in the girls' schools in France 
 war has changed the whole aspect of education. 
 History, geography, lectures on literature, subjects 
 for literary composition or moral instruction, — in 
 fact everything, — is treated from the point of view 
 of country and of patriotic duty. In music practically 
 nothing is sung but the " Marseillaise," the " Chant 
 du Depart," and the national songs of the Allies.
 
 42 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 Reading is confined often to official military orders 
 and reports, while drawings are usually of war 
 material or characters. 
 
 It is no less the duty of our teachers to make 
 clear to their pupils the " cause " of America. Soon 
 after the opening of the European war a United 
 States senator traveled through the belligerent 
 countries. His articles on Europe at war com- 
 mented caustically on the ignorance of the English 
 working people of the cause of the war, and of the 
 purpose for which the Allies were fighting. An 
 article on America at war could truthfully con- 
 tain like criticism of a considerable portion of 
 our population. 
 
 Shortly after the United States entered the war 
 a teacher in one of our largest city high schools, 
 where a large proportion of the pupils are of either 
 foreign birth or foreign parentage, asked 200 pupils 
 of from 14 to 18 years to write a brief statement of 
 what they considered to be the cause of America's 
 entrance into the war. While these answers covered 
 an incredible range of inaccuracy, not one showed 
 an understanding of the events which led to the 
 declaration of April, 191 7. " Congress has declared 
 war so that the rich folks can get richer," " We 
 are at war because this is a rich man's country," 
 predominated as replies. When asked what a citizen
 
 WAR AND COMMUNITY USES 43 
 
 owed his country in return for political and reli- 
 gious freedom, students replied in as vague and 
 cynical a way as to the first question. 
 
 To combat this ignorance of national motives 
 the teacher distributed copies of President Wilson's 
 address of April 2, with the ostensible purpose of 
 analyzing it as an exercise in argument and expo- 
 sition, — a study which finally resulted in enabling 
 these students to make intelligent, if occasionally 
 unsympathetic, answers to questions regarding the 
 nation's action and policy. 
 
 Now to residents of favored parts of the country 
 where the population is English speaking and 
 largely American born, inheriting American ideals 
 and traditions, the ignorance of these high-school 
 pupils seems exceptional, but educators know from 
 experiments made in colleges and secondary insti- 
 tutions that the majority of students are not intel- 
 ligent on modern events of national significance, 
 any more than is the average worker. Nearly all 
 high schools have in their curriculum the study 
 of current events, whether in history or oral Eng- 
 lish courses. It is the duty of the teacher to use 
 the study in such a manner as to obtain a patri- 
 otic reaction to the topics presented and discussed, 
 and in this manner to make clear why we are 
 fighting and what we are fighting for.
 
 44 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 Out of this war we must obtain a new spirit of 
 patriotism. Now is the time to strike. Events 
 depicted in the daily press show how great is the 
 need. In this connection the Council of Defense 
 of Connecticut, in an effective campaign working 
 through the schools, states in a recent publication: 
 
 The war is bound to have a deep influence on American 
 life and thought, and we should be watchful to direct this 
 into right channels. The country is shot through and 
 through with the one-sided philosophy that the State is an 
 institution to be leaned upon and filched from, but not to 
 be served. The schools should train the children in the 
 fundamental contract between citizen and State. The idea 
 of mutuality should be developed. The State owes duties 
 to the citizen, but the citizen owes reciprocal duties to 
 the State. 
 
 In September, 19 14, as soon after the declaration 
 of war as military and agricultural conditions would 
 permit the schools to open, the French Minister of 
 Public Instruction sent an official circular to all of 
 the schools. He stated that the first lesson in every 
 school should be devoted to France: to its present 
 danger and its heroic resistance ; to the ideals of 
 humanity and justice for which she fought ; to the 
 memory of the valor of her soldiers ; to the justice 
 of her cause. He desired to make certain at the 
 earliest possible moment that every school child
 
 WAR AND COMMUNITY USES 45 
 
 in France take his part spiritually and intellectually 
 in the epic conflict which France was waging for 
 right and justice. 
 
 His decree outlining the first lesson for every 
 child of France expresses so clearly the French 
 attitude and feeling that the following free render- 
 ing of the circular letter is well worth reading. 
 
 The lycees, colleges, and public schools are about to 
 open everywhere except where the superior need of impro- 
 vised hospitals in school buildings caring for our glorious 
 wounded renders this impossible. 
 
 I decree that on the opening day in every city and in 
 every class the first words of the teacher to the pupils 
 shall be designed to bring the hearts of the pupils into 
 accord with the sacred struggle in which our armies are 
 engaged. 
 
 Throughout the entire country at the same hour the sons 
 of France shall pay respect to the spirit of their nation and 
 shall pay tribute to the heroism of those who are pouring 
 out their blood for liberty, justice, and human right. 
 
 The words of the teachers on this occasion should be 
 simple and to the point. They should be adapted to the 
 age of their hearers, some of whom are children, some 
 youths. Each of our schools has sent its quota of combat- 
 ants to the firing line, — professors, teachers, or pupils ; the 
 words of the teacher to the class should call forth the 
 noble remembrance of the dead, in order to exalt their 
 example and engrave it forever in the memory of the chil- 
 dren. Moreover, in its broad lines, calmly, clearly, they
 
 46 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 should tell the causes of the war, — the aggression without 
 excuse, — and how before the civilized world, France, eter- 
 nal champion of progress and right, has been compelled to 
 prepare herself, with her valiant allies, to repel the assault 
 of the modern barbarians. 
 
 The furious conflict which we are carrying insistently to 
 victory adds each day to the glory of our soldiers a thou- 
 sand deeds of heroism from which the teacher may take the 
 best part of this lesson. He should prefer these supreme 
 models of action to the vain repetition of phrases, in order 
 to make a fit impression on the minds of the children. 
 
 A vivid recollection of this first school hour ought to 
 remain imprinted forever in the spirit of the pupil, who 
 is the citizen of to-morrow. The teacher who has known 
 how to make this impression will remain worthy of the 
 confidence of the republic. 
 
 America too will have its lesson sheets, and a 
 most timely one on " Lessons of the Great War 
 in the Classroom " has been prepared for teachers 
 of history by the National Board for Historical 
 Service (Washington, D.C.) with the distinct pur- 
 pose of suggesting certain aspects of history, ancient 
 and modern, which have gained a new interest in 
 the light of the great war. The following excerpts 
 are extremely suggestive of special opportunities 
 and obligations for teachers in school service : 
 
 There is the duty of keeping, for teacher and for pupil, 
 the habit of at least trying to see things as they really were
 
 WAR AND COMMUNITY USES 47 
 
 and are. . . . Every great war is fought not merely by 
 armies and navies, but by the governments at home which 
 direct the fighting forces. ... No one can take an intelH- 
 gent part in a great conflict for the safety of democracy 
 under an orderly system of international law unless he is 
 really interested in and knows something about other nations 
 than his own. . . . There is some connection between the 
 conditions which made the valleys of the Tigris and 
 Euphrates one of the great seats of ancient civilization and 
 those which are making Mesopotamia to-day one of the 
 chief theaters of the great war. . . . This terrible catas- 
 trophe, with its wholesale destruction of the finest products 
 of human civilization, its life and death struggle between 
 opposing nations and opposing ideals, has seemed a reason 
 for thinking not less but more of the great mysterious forces 
 which brought about the rise and decline of the ancient 
 empire. . . . Great campaigns are again carried on where 
 Xenophon marched with his famous Ten Thousand, where 
 Alexander the Great led his armies to the conquest of 
 the East. . . . The opportunity must now be seized to 
 study the whole of Europe and its influence on and con- 
 nections with the rest of the world. . . . Some account 
 should be given of the way in which the ruling class in 
 Prussia has been able to use science, modern business 
 methods, and social legislation in the service of the military 
 state, . . . War is the business not only of governments 
 but of the nation as a whole, and there are few kinds of 
 human activity which do not have some relation to its suc- 
 cess or failure. . . . We are fighting partly, indeed, to 
 defend international law on the high seas, but partly also to 
 make the zvorld, not merely America, "safe for democracy."
 
 48 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 Teachers are recognized as the instructing force 
 of America. If they are not, who is? If the coun- 
 try sorely needs clear, definite, authentic informa- 
 tion on the situation of the world and our own 
 position as a belligerent power, who is to give it 
 if not the teachers ? It is they who must inform 
 and arouse. It is they who ought to participate in 
 a speaking campaign which should be as deep as 
 the danger, as wide as the country, and as high as 
 the patriotic spirit of the people. They should be 
 distributing agents for printed material which ana- 
 lyzes the subject, and should be able to refer to 
 the best and most available authorities and to put 
 before pupils and the public the texts of the most 
 important speeches, diplomatic notes, and other 
 approved material to back up statements of fact. 
 
 Strange as it may seem, it is the children's con- 
 victions which take effect not only when as chil- 
 dren they carry word to their parents but also 
 when they come out of childhood into adult life. 
 
 Was the boy in the New York high school right 
 when he said, '' It is a Wall Street war" ? Are our 
 enemies justified in charging us with the same 
 motives of self-interest and the abasement of other 
 nations which animated themselves ? Are we really 
 at war for conquest or seizure, or for the benefit 
 of commerce, or for defense against aggressions
 
 WAR AND COMMUNITY USES 49 
 
 that have not yet been made? And is it a dollar 
 war for bankers and ammunition makers? 
 
 It is to answer these and other questions that 
 a systematic effort to inform and arouse the Amer- 
 ican people should be taken up and carried into 
 effect by public-school teachers, having in mind 
 that the most effective and most important work 
 may be done in the classroom in connection with 
 lessons in civics and history. To wait for text- 
 books on the present European war is to wait until 
 it is over. To wait to put the study of the present 
 war into a course of study in its chronological 
 sequence is to wait until the next generation of 
 children come upon the stage. No, now is the 
 time for our schools to include the teaching of 
 the war and to discuss ofHcially proposed peace 
 plans, when the street is alive with soldiers, when 
 the newspapers display huge headlines and the bill- 
 boards are covered with recruiting posters, when 
 magazines furnish helpful material for teachers, and 
 when the whole world is charged with feeling. 
 
 The National Security League (New York City) 
 has outlined a plan for public addresses and lec- 
 tures, and it has printed a little book entitled 
 "Wake Up, America." The following topics have 
 been selected from an outline furnished by this 
 league :
 
 50 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 Foreign military systems and international relations. 
 
 Spirit of the American people as shown in our history of 
 liberty and democracy. 
 
 Causes of the war between the United States and Central 
 Powers. 
 
 First two and one-half years of the war in relation to the 
 principles of the foreign policy of the United States. 
 
 Universal military training and service as now provided by 
 Congress. 
 
 Organization and work of the army and navy : selection ; 
 supplying needs. 
 
 General military preparations in the country at large : ma- 
 terials, transportation, and public finance. 
 
 Duty of the citizen in relation to obligations of all citizens 
 as an offset to benefits of citizenship. 
 
 Service outside of military and naval ; as, for example, the 
 munition work, transportation, building of ships and 
 machinery, farming, etc. 
 
 Faithfulness of foreign-born citizens. 
 
 Need of efficiency and economy in local, municipal, and 
 state governments. 
 
 Description of modern warfare as defining the immediate 
 task of the American people in regard to organiza- 
 tion and action of the various services ; as, for example, 
 men in the trenches, health protection, Red Cross, etc. 
 
 Accessories ; for instance, patriotic music and recitations, 
 flag marches, and parades. 
 
 Illustrative material, such as maps and charts illustrating 
 the problems of recruiting ; slides and movies ; posters 
 in public places ; exhibitions of foreign posters.
 
 WAR AND COMMUNITY USES 51 
 
 These topics as outlined here are not sufficiently 
 related to the actual conflict. They are excellent 
 from the formal point of view, but they fail to get 
 at the center of living interest in the vital present 
 moment of history. Often when it has been asked 
 of the children in France : " What are you study- 
 ing ? " " What are they teaching you ? " the answer 
 has been: "The war, madam." "The war, mon- 
 sieur." And if the question was taken up with 
 the teacher, the answer has been : 
 
 By means of our war map on which is marked the 
 present position of the French and German troops, the 
 particular spot in the line in which the parents of our 
 boys and girls are fighting, we teach not only current 
 history, but in the most vital way geography and many 
 related subjects. 
 
 By means of our use of great contemporary political 
 documents, by the speeches of Viviani, Deschanel, Ribot, 
 and the other statesmen, by the famous orders of Joffre, 
 Petain, and our military leaders, by the interpretation of 
 the war by our great philosophers, — we teach in the most 
 vital way the need of the country, the ideals of France, 
 and much of the history of France. By reason of the 
 war work instituted in every school as part of the regular 
 curriculum, we teach commercial geography, economics, 
 and many branches of science as they are actually related 
 to human life and experience, and not in the abstract 
 manner in which they are treated in the textbooks.
 
 52 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 Mr. Albert Sarraut, Minister of Public Instruction 
 in France in 19 14- 191 5, said in a public address: 
 
 If there remains in the schools of France a single 
 teacher who has not been profoundly touched by the war 
 and who goes about his usual occupation of teaching in 
 the same way that he did prior to August 2, 19 14, teach- 
 ing the same subjects in the same way, doing only the 
 ordinary, familiar school tasks, whose work has not been 
 entirely transformed and inspired by the war, we have yet 
 to hear of him or her, and we do not believe that 
 such exists. 
 
 It is inevitable that many of our school subjects 
 will change their emphasis after the war. To some 
 teachers the awakening will be cruel, to others a 
 blessing in the form of new opportunity.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE FIELD FOR INDUSTRIAL AND TRADE SCHOOLS 
 
 For ten years a group of men in America have 
 been trying to convince Congress that we should 
 set up a national program of secondary vocational 
 education. As a precedent we have had a system 
 of agricultural and mechanic-arts education of 
 collegiate grade in existence for the last fifty 
 years. But we have had in the past no system of 
 national aid for promoting and maintaining a type 
 of vocational education in agriculture, mechanic 
 arts, and home-making, which would reach a much 
 larger clientele than could possibly be touched 
 through any land-grant college system. It has 
 been an up-hill fight to get Congress to see the 
 importance of providing vocational education for 
 industrial workers. Bill after bill was introduced 
 providing for national aid. These bills defined 
 vocational education as including all types of in- 
 dustrial, commercial, agricultural, and home-making 
 schools, between the upper grammar grades and 
 the college, whose controlling purpose is to fit for 
 specific profitable employments and which receive 
 pupils 14 years of age and over. 
 
 53
 
 54 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 President Wilson in his second inaugural mes- 
 sage called the country's attention definitely to 
 the fact that a vocational-education bill was before 
 Congress and that it ought to receive favorable 
 consideration, not only on the grounds of educa- 
 tional advantages contained in the bill, but also 
 on the grounds that it fitted in with a national 
 economic and industrial policy. 
 
 Perhaps the measure would have met the fate 
 of its predecessors if war had not been declared. 
 Friends of the measure feared lest discussion 
 incident to national preparedness should over- 
 shadow the vocational-education bill, but fortu- 
 nately Congress saw that vocational education and 
 national preparedness were linked together, and 
 the bill passed almost unanimously. 
 
 The full significance of the Smith- Hughes Bill, 
 as it will always be known by those who worked 
 for it, can hardly be appreciated. On the surface 
 it merely creates a Federal Board of Vocational 
 Education and provides that federal grants shall 
 be made for the purpose of cooperating with the 
 states in the promotion of industrial, agricultural, 
 and home-making teaching. But if we scratch the 
 surface we shall see that the federal money is not 
 paid to local communities except after their work 
 has been approved by a state board of control on
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND TRADE SCHOOLS 55 
 
 the basis of this federal act, and the principles and 
 policies which were adopted after conference be- 
 tween the Federal Board and the state boards of 
 control. It furthermore limits federal aid to definite 
 vocational training and eliminates all aid to any 
 dilettante or superficial types of practical-arts edu- 
 cation which do not meet the idea of preparing 
 young persons over 14 years of age for useful and 
 profitable employment in agriculture, in the trades, 
 in industries, or in home economics. It has been 
 stated in preceding chapters, and will be empha- 
 sized more than once in succeeding chapters, 
 that the schools which are able to serve most 
 effectively in time of war are the schools which 
 are serving or may serve in times of peace. It 
 has been and will again be shown that school 
 methods usable in meeting a war emergency are 
 the methods not only usable but desirable under 
 normal conditions. 
 
 There is absolutely nothing in the following 
 discussion of the field for war service for indus- 
 trial and trade-school education which does not 
 have its direct application in promoting and ad- 
 ministering a national system of vocational edu- 
 cation. Definite suggestions are given for organiz- 
 ing day-industrial, trade, part-time and continuation 
 schools, evening vocational schools, trade classes,
 
 56 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 and off-time courses ; for transferring the teaching 
 equipment into the factory; for transferring the 
 technical-supervision equipment of the factory to 
 the school; and for making commercial products. It 
 will be seen that the service of our industrial and 
 trade schools differs from the service of the in- 
 dustrial and household-arts courses in the regular 
 schools. A comparison of what is suggested for 
 war service with what is required by the terms 
 of the federal grant shows that the two are in 
 accord. For example, the latter requires that all- 
 day industrial schools must have at least half the 
 time given over to the actual practice of a vocation 
 on a useful or productive basis; that agricultural 
 schools shall arrange for directed or supervised 
 practice in agriculture either on a farm provided 
 by the school or on other farms for at least six 
 months a year; that part-time schools or classes 
 must be established if the state and the com- 
 munity expect to receive the full benefits of the 
 federal grant for the salaries of teachers of the 
 trade, home-economics, and industrial subjects ; and 
 finally, that evening classes for industrial workers 
 are provided in which the instruction is required 
 to be supplemental to the daily employment. How- 
 ever, for the duration of the war, at least, the last 
 requirement needs modification.
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND TRADE SCHOOLS 57 
 
 War preparedness undoubtedly influenced Con- 
 gress to pass the Smith-Hughes Bill. War service 
 of our vocational schools will undoubtedly influ- 
 ence the vocational-education movement along right 
 lines more than anything else which could possibly 
 have happened. 
 
 Industrial and trade schools stand ready to 
 make their contribution for war service. Some 
 rather unwisely, and certainly unthinkingly, sent 
 telegrams to Washington, offering their equipment 
 to the government. Others said that they would 
 make ammunition. Still others announced that 
 they would wait for the government to tell them 
 what to do. In the early stages evidently most of 
 them forgot that their chief, if not only, business 
 must be, as it has been, that of training recruits 
 for industry or giving trade extension work to those 
 already in a chosen vocation. 
 
 Of course we are all aware that new tasks of 
 stupendous proportions are being undertaken by 
 the country as measures for national defense, and 
 that while a large army is being recruited and 
 trained, a still larger army is being drawn into 
 industrial production to equip and support the 
 army and navy directly on the lines of defense. 
 We know that $600,000,000 has been appropri- 
 ated for aeroplane construction; that from 50,000
 
 58 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 to 100,000 shipbuilders are needed for our shipbuild- 
 ing program ; that tool-makers and gauge-makers 
 are needed in large numbers; that the govern- 
 ment military service will require large numbers 
 of mechanics in its quartermaster's, engineering, 
 signal, aviation, and navy corps. 
 
 In other words, there is convincing evidence that 
 there are bound to be not only increased demands 
 for labor but also changes in the relationship of 
 labor demand and supply. There is going to be 
 an enormous increase in the demand for specialist 
 workers in metal, and considerable increase in the 
 call for skilled all-round workers in metal ; a ma- 
 terial increase in the demand for woodworkers 
 in shipyards ; an increase in demand for workers 
 in manufactured clothing and army equipment ; a 
 great increase in demand for electrical workers in 
 all lines, including operators, field men, telephone 
 and telegraph service. We know that there will be 
 a demand for automobile mechanics, gas-engine op- 
 erators, plumbers, horseshoers, wheelwrights, steam 
 engineers, bakers, cement workers, and gas and 
 steam fitters. It is probable that there will be a 
 diminution in the demand for printers ; for women 
 in dressmaking, millinery, and novelty lines; for 
 laborers on public works, including streets, sewers, 
 water systems, public buildings, canals, and bridges.
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND TRADE SCHOOLS 59 
 
 In short, we know that the war emergency will 
 create an extraordinary demand for some kinds of 
 labor, attended by a probable diminution of demand 
 for other kinds, and there will be occasion for much 
 shifting of labor from one occupation to another. 
 It is obvious, furthermore, that many readjustments 
 must be made by public and private industrial and 
 trade schools in these days of war pressure. 
 
 To determine what adjustments are most urgent, 
 those in charge of these schools should go directly 
 to the industries and confer as to what service is 
 the most desired. It is practically useless to wait 
 for industrial managers to come to the schools for 
 help. In many cases they will not appreciate the 
 fact that the schools can be of help. If, in times 
 of peace, industry has hardly recognized the full 
 possibilities of public vocational training, it is not 
 likely that it would recognize it in the stress of 
 increased production. Sir Robert Blair of London 
 states that unless the educational staff of England 
 had made it its business to satisfy the manu- 
 facturers that it could train semiskilled workers, 
 the vocational-training shops would have been 
 obliged to close soon after the war started. He 
 states that in the earliest days of the work of 
 these training shops, the manufacturers were in- 
 disposed to believe that industry had anything to
 
 6o OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 learn from trade or technical schools. The manu- 
 facturers said that these schools were "academi- 
 cally right and practically wrong." 
 
 What industrial and trade schools can do for 
 manufacturing plants will, of course, vary in each 
 community. Each manufacturing center has its 
 own sets of activities. Proper military authorities 
 should be approached by administrators of indus- 
 trial schools to determine what can be contributed 
 toward providing the training which is needed. 
 Letters to military authorities in Washington will 
 not bear so much fruit as a personal visit to a 
 local recruiting station, camp, or cantonment for 
 definite advice as to how schools may best serve. 
 It is expected, however, that the National Board of 
 Vocational Education will be helpful with sugges- 
 tive material. 
 
 At the present moment the most effective con- 
 tact between the school that may give the training 
 and the place that needs it can be brought about 
 through cooperation either with cantonment author- 
 ities or with local manufacturing plants. Industrial 
 and technical schools in England in the early days 
 of the war formed connections with government 
 arsenals and began the manufacture of gauges for 
 shell-making, mostly of the inspection type. At first 
 the technical institutes were very diffident about
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND TRADE SCHOOLS 6i 
 
 undertaking the work, the standard of skill re- 
 quired being so high; but after a few appeals on 
 the ground that it was a great opportunity for 
 trade education to show its value, the institutions 
 started the work, so that there are now something 
 like a dozen such schools working on the manu- 
 facture of these instruments. It is to be understood 
 that the majority of the workers thus employed 
 were metal workers before they took up this work. 
 Others were manual-training teachers in the ele- 
 mentary schools. They have turned out approxi- 
 mately 50,cxD0 inspection gauges, and it is the 
 opinion in England that the trade institutes never 
 undertook a better work. 
 
 In general terms the shortage of help in the 
 industries is going to be met by training opera- 
 tives selected from unskilled workers; by training 
 foremen of those operatives who will be selected 
 from the skilled help; and by training highly 
 skilled specialists who will be selected from the 
 workmen already skilled. The training plan in 
 the New England Westinghouse plant will be 
 interesting in this connection. In this ammunition 
 plant 80 per cent of the workers are listed as opera- 
 tors, the majority of whom are trained from carefully 
 selected unskilled labor. To train these operators 
 skilled machinists are employed as instructors. One
 
 62 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 instructor is in charge of a group averaging about 
 thirteen men. In other words, 7^ per cent of the 
 force in the operating departments are on the 
 instruction staff and known as foremen, Hnemen 
 (set-up men), and instructors. Instruction is given 
 incidentally in turning out the regular product. 
 No equipment is set aside primarily for instruction 
 purposes ; any equipment in the plant may be thus 
 used. This method of instruction is called the 
 group-instructor plan, in which one instructor or 
 foreman has charge of teaching a group of opera- 
 tors working on an assigned task. While under 
 instruction the group is employed on regular 
 production. The instructor is not required to pro- 
 duce, but gives his entire time to group teaching. 
 In the tool-making department, men of mechani- 
 cal ability, not necessarily all-round machinists, but 
 in some instances from other trades, are trained 
 in making jigs and fixtures. In these cases the 
 ratio of instructors to workers is less than one 
 to thirteen, the helper plan being used. The 
 helper plan is that in which a skilled worker is 
 employed in special work, such as tool-making or 
 gauge-making, and has under him from one to 
 three helpers. In this case the man who gives the 
 training does not confine his entire efforts to in- 
 struction, but is required to work at his particular
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND TRADE SCHOOLS 63 
 
 occupation. If satisfactory results are to be secured, 
 only a very limited number of helpers can be 
 assigned to one worker. 
 
 The industrial schools will prove to be a small 
 factor in training operatives, in view of the fact 
 that industry itself is able to train them quickly 
 and satisfactorily. It takes only a few days to 
 make a Polish farm hand of Connecticut into an 
 ammunition worker in Bridgeport. Foremen and 
 specialists may be trained through evening and 
 day part-time courses. Of course it is assumed 
 that these schools will have equipment requisite 
 for training in the kind of work for which help 
 is needed. The Springfield (Massachusetts) Voca- 
 tional School expects to shift some of its pupils 
 from house to ship carpentry in view of the new 
 demand for men with a knowledge of shipbuilding, 
 — a demand which will extend, undoubtedly, over 
 a term of years. 
 
 At least, one way for a trade school to be of 
 service and yet not purchase additional equipment 
 is to lend its skilled instructors to a local manu- 
 facturing plant where an organized plan for training 
 foremen and specialists exists. This has been done 
 by the Quincy (Massachusetts) Industrial School, 
 which cooperates in furnishing part of the instruc- 
 tion given in the Fore River shipbuilding plant.
 
 64 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 This company is giving instruction to a selected 
 group of workers under pay for a full industrial 
 day of ten hours. A night shift of training for 
 eleven hours is also given to another group of 
 men. Instructors are training an assigned group 
 of operators on regular production and under usual 
 employment conditions. Some part-time instruction 
 in technical subjects, and in some cases on special 
 operations, is also given to certain groups of selected 
 workers while under employment in the plant. This 
 plan has a significance worthy of attention after 
 the war. 
 
 General Manager Smith of this company, at a 
 conference of state administrators of vocational 
 schools held the middle of July in New York City, 
 made an interesting statement as to the need of 
 trained help in the shipyards. A summary of his 
 remarks follows : ^ 
 
 For shipbuilding purposes men trained in the building 
 trades offer little advantage over intelligent untrained men, 
 as the character of work in the shipbuilding industry is so 
 different from that in the building trades. 
 
 However, industrial and trade schools can give prelimi- 
 nary and thorough instruction to ship-fitters and loftsmen. 
 The course for the latter should include ship-drafting. 
 
 1 Taken from bulletin of the National Society for the Promotion of 
 Industrial Education, for August, 1917, "War Demands for Industrial 
 Training."
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND TRADE SCHOOLS 65 
 
 More limited instruction can be given in other ironworkers' 
 trades and in the shipwright trades. 
 
 Trained instructors are needed. Instructors may be em- 
 ployed in the plant and, if so, should have full power to 
 instruct and should not be employed on production, as the 
 best results in instruction can only be obtained by having 
 the instructor concentrate his mind on his work. 
 
 Shipbuilding in the United States has been one of our 
 smaller industries. If the present crisis is to be adequately 
 met, the industry will be one of our most important ones. 
 
 Of the large amount of money to be spent in shipbuild- 
 ing, practically one half will be expended on labor in the 
 shipyard ; the remainder is for material purchased from out- 
 side parties, but which at the works of such subcontractors 
 is again largely labor. Of the labor expended in the ship- 
 yard about one third is for ironworkers, and it is in this 
 trade that the greatest shortage occurs, as there is only a 
 small percentage of men for the ironworkers' trade now to 
 be found in this country. 
 
 In the past very little instruction in the specialized ship- 
 building trades has been given in the United States, and 
 the number of men who have served apprenticeship in these 
 trades is small, a great supply of skilled men in these trades 
 coming from Great Britain. There is an imperative need 
 for a supply of men in the ironworkers' trade. 
 
 Some instruction must always be given in the ship- 
 building plant, but it is possible to give a great deal in 
 the industrial schools, and, as the wages are good, men 
 should be readily attracted to the shipbuilding trades. 
 
 While ironworkers' trades consisting of loftsmen, ship- 
 fitters, riveters, chippers, calkers, reamers, bolters, packers,
 
 66 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 and some others are peculiar to shipbuilding as well as 
 the shipwright's trade, the trades of plumber, pipe fitter, 
 coppersmith, etc. are very materially different in the ship- 
 building trades from what they are in the building trades. 
 
 On the other hand, it is possible to send instruc- 
 tors from the factories to the school. In several 
 instances in England the manufacturers supplied 
 the schools with instructors and all the necessary 
 material in order to teach women and boys the 
 identical operations which they would be called 
 upon to carry out in the factory. In this way a 
 number of schools combining manufacturing with 
 training were able to supply local factories with 
 boys and women trained in the special operations 
 involved. This plan is also significant and has 
 an important bearing upon the administration of 
 public vocational training. 
 
 The question whether industrial schools should 
 make ammunition or equipment pertaining to war 
 service will come up. Having substantial amounts 
 of available equipment, they will doubtless at times 
 be tempted to use their organized day and evening 
 classes for purposes of emergency productive work. 
 In machine-shop schools, for example, the teachers 
 being skilled machinists and the pupils capable 
 of turning out a substantial amount of productive 
 work, inducements to subordinate educational ends
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND TRADE SCHOOLS 67 
 
 to those of an economic nature may be expected. 
 It is therefore suggested that industrial-school 
 authorities resolutely resist all attempts to subor- 
 dinate their rightful purpose of giving industrial 
 education. It is clear that a certain amount of 
 production is necessary for purposes of education, 
 but it is important that this should never be made a 
 primary purpose in any industrial school. A letter 
 from Director W. C. Smith of the Troy (New York) 
 Central School illustrates the productive work of 
 one school which retains educational value. 
 
 A Troy corporation is engaged on a large contract with 
 the government for uniforms. Its shops are taxed to the 
 limit, and it has found it necessary to utilize every avail- 
 able shop in town for making various machines used in 
 cutting cloth for this contract. It has entered into an 
 arrangement whereby our complete machine-shop equip- 
 ment is turned over to its use under the supervision of 
 our own instructor. Our graduate boys are employed in the 
 shop and are now at work perfecting twelve machines for 
 use in different parts of the country on this contract. 
 
 The public vocational schools must face, sooner 
 or later, the question of shop production on a 
 commercial basis. They exist, primarily, to train 
 producers and not to make products. Are the two 
 inconsistent.? Perhaps the war service of these 
 schools will bring this debatable issue to a head.
 
 68 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 Obviously the industries engaged in the making 
 of automobiles, aeroplanes, machinery, and ammuni- 
 tion have for some time past absorbed the available 
 supply of skilled help. With the emergency of 
 war preparation upon us, we must find ways of 
 pressing thousands of workers into lines of work 
 with which they are almost altogether unfamiliar. 
 Except with boys who are fourteen to sixteen years 
 old, it will be of little avail to think of giving all- 
 round trade training. The labor supply which we 
 now need must be trained immediately and inten- 
 sively. From what has already been stated it is 
 clear that workers may be trained in three ways : 
 first, in day industrial or technical schools; second, 
 in industrial plants such as have been mentioned 
 in the case of the Westinghouse Company; third, 
 through part-time employment in industry, with part- 
 time attendance in industrial or technical schools. 
 
 The industrial-school authorities should send into 
 the factories capable instructors who have had 
 trade experience, in order to learn the needs for 
 trained help and to analyze the trade processes for 
 which men need to be trained. In this way the 
 school may determine whether it can best meet the 
 situation by training the youth in its day schools to 
 go to work in industrial plants upon leaving school — 
 although this is not a very immediate way of meeting
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND TRADE SCHOOLS 69 
 
 the emergency — or whether it would be better to 
 move the classes, so to speak, over to the plant 
 and have the instructors teach a group of unskilled 
 workers on the group-instruction plan. Perhaps 
 the school could perform its best service by giving 
 trade extension courses to those already engaged 
 in productive work. Anyhow, these alternatives 
 must be fully considered. 
 
 These instructors or trained experts, when visit- 
 ing typical yards or plants in a specific industry to 
 learn of the needs for trained help, must be able to 
 reanalyze the trade processes in terms of training 
 as distinct from terms of production, and out of this 
 analysis to draw up suitable schemes for giving 
 such training. The question of whether this train- 
 ing should be given entirely in the school or entirely 
 in the plant or partly in the plant and partly in the 
 school should be left to experts, who know best the 
 possibilities of each of these schemes. 
 
 This is no time for industrial schools to stand 
 on their dignity and claim that they can do all 
 that is necessary in their day schools without 
 cooperation with those who employ. It is readily 
 granted that, generally speaking, directors of in- 
 dustrial schools know their job quite well when 
 it comes to giving trade-preparatory training to 
 youth before it enters industry; but at a time
 
 70 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 when the country needs thousands of workmen we 
 are quite sure that the better plan for training 
 operators and semiskilled workers is directly in the 
 plant itself. In a time of great emergency this in- 
 tensive, immediate training must be given in large 
 part by the industries themselves within their own 
 plants. They have the equipment, they have the 
 men who need the training; all they lack is the 
 proper instructing force, as they cannot take men 
 away from production for instruction purposes. It 
 follows that the instructors of our schools must give 
 their instruction in the plants or must have the 
 unskilled operatives and helpers come to the school 
 for part-time work. 
 
 The present all-day industrial schools, even in 
 normal times, need this direct contact with industry 
 to save themselves from shop methods which savor 
 of manual-training schools. 
 
 It is assumed that the regular all-day industrial 
 and trade schools will continue. Of course they 
 are now largely attended by comparatively young 
 students, and it is quite likely that the enrollment 
 will diminish, as there is an unusual demand for 
 boys in every branch of industry and commerce. 
 It will be increasingly difficult to hold such boys in 
 school in the face of financial returns rather extraor- 
 dinary when one considers their youth.
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND TRADE SCHOOLS 71 
 
 In the interests of conservation of youth and the 
 training of a suitable supply of skilled workers for 
 the future, there should be no diminution of effort 
 to develop and extend day-school work, even though 
 the young people thus trained will be too young 
 to contribute definitely to the present emergency, 
 unless, of course, it should last more than a year 
 or two. Nevertheless, the enrollments are likely to 
 be less. A partial compensation for this situation 
 is that groups of more mature workers coming 
 from the industry itself on a part-time basis can be 
 accommodated for special instruction, or groups of 
 young men who are now elevator boys, messenger 
 boys, clerks in stores, office boys, can be induced, 
 perhaps, to come to the all-day school, and through 
 short, intensive courses be put into the way of earn- 
 ing, in some factory making war supplies, a sum 
 equal to from two to three times what they are now 
 earning. No attempt should be made to hold such 
 youths in the school beyond the period necessary to 
 give them immediate and intensive training. 
 
 After the war it will be an open question whether 
 intensive courses should not be more generally 
 adopted in our day industrial schools. 
 
 Obviously the largest immediate service that can 
 be rendered by industrial and trade schools will be 
 through the readjustment and extension of evening
 
 72 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 and other off-time courses. As usual, the espe- 
 cially important function will be the training of 
 men already in the trades for more skilled tasks or 
 for directive work. Ways must be found for extend- 
 ing the evening-school facilities. One way is to 
 operate the evening courses throughout the entire 
 year. Most of our industrial schools operate only 
 from October to April, but in this time of pressure 
 they should be open continuously. The other way 
 would be to carry on trade extension work not only 
 in the evening but also early in the morning or late 
 in the afternoon. These are technically known as 
 off-time courses and came into existence originally 
 in some cities which made provision for training 
 workers from plants operating night shifts. 
 
 Fundamentally, even in times of peace, there 
 is no sound reason for ever completely closing a 
 day industrial school. It might run during the 
 summer as well as the winter; in the late after- 
 noon and early morning as well as in the evening. 
 In the middle of June, 191 7, President Wilson ad- 
 dressed a letter to Secretary Redfield making the 
 suggestion that the vocational-training schools of 
 the country should be open during the summer, 
 when it would be possible to train a large number 
 of young men under military age, either to fill the 
 places in our industries left by men who enlist
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND TRADE SCHOOLS 73 
 
 or are withdrawn for military service, or to carry 
 on special occupations called for by the war, such 
 as inspectors of material and apparatus. In this 
 connection, where the President speaks of " inspec- 
 tors of material," it may be said that one of 
 the prominent industrial-education experts of the 
 East has been asked to train a group of men 
 selected for special government inspection work. 
 These men will then be responsible for organiz- 
 ing a force of assistant inspectors in the plant to 
 which they are assigned, and of supervising the 
 work of the assistant inspector under their personal 
 direction. 
 
 The course of inspectorship training is made up of two 
 units : one dealing with the business and accounting side of 
 inspection and the other with the technical instruction which 
 is given through participation in the actual work of inspection 
 at the arsenal, observation of the manufacturing processes, 
 and direct group instruction. 
 
 The first unit is given at Washington and usually requires 
 from four or five days to a week for its completion. The 
 second unit is given at the Rock Island arsenal and covers 
 eleven days as a minimum. Only the most experienced men, 
 however, complete it in this length of time. The men enter 
 the school at irregular intervals in groups of four or five at 
 a time. The number in training at any one time varies 
 from thirty-five to fifty. 
 
 The men are moved from department to department on 
 a fixed schedule. When a man completes his training he is
 
 74 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 assigned to a plant in accordance with his quaHfications as 
 indicated by his previous experience and his record at the 
 school. Further plans for training the inspector after he has 
 been assigned to the field have been proposed but have not 
 yet been put into effect. Many of the candidates for this 
 training are instructors in vocational training,^ 
 
 The opportunity for promotion of skilled w^orkers 
 was never so great as at present, and the oppor- 
 tunity for schools to train them will never be 
 greater than at present. The schools may well 
 organize intensive short courses in practical train- 
 ing, as well as other courses designed to advance 
 qualified workers to positions of directive work in 
 the factories. 
 
 While the part-time plan offers excellent oppor- 
 tunities for advancing selected workers in order 
 that they may acquire certain technical knowledge, 
 it is doubtful whether much of this work during 
 this emergency period can be done in the public or 
 private industrial and trade schools. We all know 
 that certain industrial concerns have established 
 part-time schools in their plants. These classes in 
 the works are especially adapted, in the present 
 emergency, for training selected workers to be- 
 come specialists and foremen. If the school is near 
 
 1 " Vocational Education and Government Service," News-letter issued by 
 National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education, October, 191 7..
 
 War needs open new fields for schools. After the war, stereotyped courses 
 
 in trade schools and technical institutes will have lost their hold. Uunwoody 
 
 Institute (Minneapolis, Minnesota) is one of the few schools having a 
 
 training course for bakers 
 
 An example of an effective adaptation to a national need. Dunwoody 
 Institute meeting a shortage of army bakers
 
 Kclucational efficiency as measured by its response to a national need. Dun- 
 woody Institute is one of the several institutes teaching radiography and 
 power testing to navy men
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND TRADE SCHOOLS 75 
 
 the plant, so that industrial workers can attend for 
 part-time day instruction for a period of six or 
 eight hours a week without loss of time or without 
 interfering with production, it may be possible to 
 develop some part-time courses in the schools, but, 
 generally speaking, it would be better for the in- 
 structors in these schools to go directly to the 
 plants themselves and give this part-time instruction 
 there. In another chapter mention will be made of 
 a feasible part-time system and the necessity for 
 some such system, but it refers only to boys and 
 girls between fourteen and sixteen years old who 
 belong primarily in school and not primarily at 
 work. It is assumed that the group of which we 
 have been thinking is the older group of workmen 
 who wish to become foremen. 
 
 Sir Robert Blair, in his report already referred 
 to, speaks of the manner in which technical and 
 trade schools in and about London train semi- 
 skilled workers for munition work. 
 
 At first we gathered together all the metal-working ap- 
 paratus of our elementary schools and placed it in two of 
 our technical institutes. Shafting was put up, power was 
 installed and the lathes started, and they have been run- 
 ning ever since July, 191 5, for twelve hours a day in three 
 periods of four hours each. At first the period of training 
 was for one period a day for six days a week for six weeks,
 
 76 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 or a total of 144 hours, but later, to meet the demands, the 
 manufacturers took upon themselves the training of more 
 highly skilled turners, of machine erectors, of milling- 
 machine hands, and so on. We began to train women for 
 tracing in drawing offices and subsequently for mechanical 
 drawing. We trained lead-burners for employment in fac- 
 tories making explosives. We trained gauge-makers for em- 
 ployment in tool rooms of our shell factories (many of these 
 men have been drawn from the jewelry and silversmithing 
 trades). The more skill we gave the training, the longer it 
 took to train these people, and so the number produced 
 weekly has diminished, but in two years we have trained, 
 certified, and placed 6000 workers. 
 
 And again he speaks of other training apart from 
 furnishing additional munition workers. 
 
 One institution has done a great deal of work in train- 
 ing in cold shoeing over 1000 men belonging to the Royal 
 Field Artillery, Royal Engineers, and the Army Service 
 Corps. The same institution has also been used for the 
 reception, inspection, and dispatch of many of the horse- 
 shoes required by the army. At another institution over 
 3500 students have been trained for Red Cross duties, and a 
 great work has been done in recruiting men for the skilled 
 sections of the Royal Flying Corps. Besides we have trained 
 men for tinsmithing, copper work, and wireless telegraphy. 
 A third institution took on the general direction of the prep- 
 aration of synthetic drugs in the chemical departments of the 
 technical institutes, and the medical organization of the army 
 was largely indebted to these chemical departments for the 
 production of the much-needed drugs.
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND TRADE SCHOOLS 'j'] 
 
 Assuming that administrators of industrial edu- 
 cation are interested in the welfare of factory 
 workers, — something often apart from instilling 
 technical skill and knowledge, — it will be neces- 
 sary for them to provide courses for men and 
 especially for women workers, giving instruction 
 in the laws of health with which every employee 
 in factory life should be familiar. In England the 
 memoranda of the British Health of Munition 
 Workers Committee have demonstrated conclu- 
 sively the great necessity of this teaching of 
 hygiene : that the causes of ill health of workers in 
 munitions factories were not alone the result of 
 fatigue from long hours, but quite as much the 
 result of insufficient or ill-prepared food, inadequate 
 sleep and ill-ventilated sleeping quarters, and failure 
 to appreciate the consequences of disregarding 
 safety devices. 
 
 It may not be amiss in this chapter to say a 
 word about our government naval schools, for 
 some may not be aware that the government has 
 for a number of years been maintaining a very 
 efficient system of trade education. The purpose 
 of the naval trade schools is to train young men 
 for various trades or occupations required on ship- 
 board. In going over the list it is likely that 
 administrators of industrial education will see an
 
 78 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 opportunity to connect the work of their schools 
 with the work of the naval schools. In addition to 
 the practical instruction given at the training sta- 
 tions where these schools are located, a course of 
 academic instruction is conducted throughout the 
 naval service. This instruction does not stop at 
 the training station, but continues on shipboard, 
 and every encouragement is given for advancement. 
 Electrical schools are located at the Brooklyn Navy 
 Yard and at Mare Island, California. The course of 
 instruction comprises machine-shop work, reciprocat- 
 ing steam engines, steam-turbine engines, internal- 
 combustion engines, magnetism and electricity, 
 dynamos, motors, motor generators, alternating- 
 current batteries, etc. Members of the radio class 
 are trained in the duties of a radio operator and are 
 given constant practice in the use of the mechanism 
 employed in recovering and sending messages. 
 
 The artificer school is located at the Norfolk 
 Navy Yard, and is composed of classes for ship- 
 wrights, ship-fitters, blacksmiths, and painters. 
 
 The machinist and coppersmith schools are lo- 
 cated at Charleston, South Carolina, and are open 
 only to reenlisted men who have certain experience. 
 
 The aeronautics school is located at Pensacola, 
 Florida, and is divided into two courses : mechanics 
 of aeronautics, and flying.
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND TRADE SCHOOLS 79 
 
 Gasoline-engine instruction is given at Charles- 
 town Navy Yard in connection with the machinist's 
 school, preference being given to reenlisted men. 
 
 Commissary schools for ships' cooks, bakers, and 
 stewards are located at San Francisco and Newport. 
 
 Musicians' schools are maintained at Norfolk, 
 at Great Lake, Illinois, and at San Francisco. 
 
 Seaman-gunner schools are located at the Wash- 
 ington Navy Yard and at the torpedo station at 
 Newport. 
 
 All of these schools give short, intensive courses 
 ranging from three to eighteen months in length. 
 The students are paid wages, and all expenses are 
 met the same as with other enlisted men. 
 
 Seven free marine-engineering schools and thirty 
 free navigation schools are being started on the 
 Atlantic, Gulf, Pacific, and Great Lakes coasts to 
 train men already having some experience for bet- 
 ter places at advanced pay as engineers and deck 
 oflficers in the new merchant fleet. The graduates 
 are being placed as fast as they are graduated. 
 The need for their services is expected to last for 
 many years after peace is restored. 
 
 For several years our industrial continuation 
 schools have had as their motto " Earn and Learn." 
 But the naval technical schools have shown a way 
 whereby young men may both serve and learn.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 OUR COLLEGES AND TECHNICAL INSTITUTES 
 
 It is to be hoped that if we can realize, as England 
 did not, that education, to quote Arnold Bennett, 
 " is the very last thing that we ought to economize 
 in," we shall spare ourselves some of the unnecessary 
 calamities of war. England, France, Italy, and the 
 Central Powers have thrown into battle a very large 
 percentage of their educated and trained men, in- 
 cluding most of the young professors and instructors 
 in their universities and colleges, gymnasiums, and 
 lycees. Their colleges and universities are almost 
 empty. The young men who would under normal 
 conditions be receiving the education and training 
 necessary to prepare them for leadership in the 
 future development of these countries are fighting 
 and dying in the trenches. 
 
 In view of the fact that all of these countries 
 must needs go through a long period of reconstruc- 
 tion, industrial and otherwise, it is a pity that the 
 sacrifice of its best youth had needlessly to be made. 
 As a matter of fact, we see now that no university, 
 
 college, or technical school that can possibly avoid it 
 
 80
 
 COLLEGES; TECHNICAL INSTITUTES 8i 
 
 should permit its faculty or student body to be 
 scattered or its energies dissipated. All concerned 
 should redouble their energies and concentrate 
 them upon those things which will be of the most 
 service in the progress of the war and will prepare 
 the students for the most effective service when 
 the war is over. 
 
 President Wilson, three months after the severing 
 of relations with Germany, in response to a request 
 for an opinion on the continuance of a college or a 
 technical-school education during the war, wrote 
 this letter : 
 
 The question which you have brought to my attention is 
 of the very greatest moment. It would, as you suggest, 
 seriously impair American prospects of success in this war 
 if the supply of highly trained men were unnecessarily 
 diminished. There will be need for a larger number of 
 persons expert in the various fields of applied science than 
 ever before. Such persons will be needed both during the 
 war and after its close. 
 
 I have therefore no hesitation in urging colleges and 
 technical schools to endeavor to maintain their courses as 
 far as possible on the usual basis. There will be many 
 young men from these institutions who will serve in the 
 armed forces of the country. Those who fall below the age 
 of selective conscription and who do not enlist may feel 
 that by pursuing their courses with earnestness and diligence 
 they also are preparing themselves for valuable service to 
 the nation.
 
 82 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 I would particularly urge upon the young people who are 
 leaving our high schools that as many of them as can do so 
 avail themselves this year of the opportunities offered by 
 the colleges and technical schools, to the end that the 
 country may not lack an adequate supply of trained men 
 and women. 
 
 It must be said that while students were restless 
 and anxious to perform a service, the college author- 
 ities themselves adopted a very hopeless and helpless 
 attitude toward the war in so far as it reacted on the 
 internal economy of these institutions. Commence- 
 ment exercises were abbreviated and shorn of their 
 customary festivities. College presidents and execu- 
 tive committees of alumni associations began to 
 " talk poor " and to wax lugubrious over the small 
 senior class of 1918. These men even wanted to 
 drop athletics, which, to the facetious layman outside, 
 constitutes the main reason for a college's existence. 
 The general action of the colleges in this matter of 
 abandoning so many athletic and other activities 
 drew from President Wilson a letter deprecating 
 such action and advising that the colleges main- 
 tain all their usual sports if they did not detract in 
 any way from the military purpose of the nation. 
 In an address at Princeton University, Major 
 General Wood deplored hasty action of students in 
 enlisting for service in the army and navy, urging
 
 COLLEGES; TECHNICAL INSTITUTES 83 
 
 them to complete their school work for the year, 
 and that they mark time pending the carrying out 
 of provisions of the selective-draft law. 
 
 It is clear, on one hand, that many college author- 
 ities, especially those of the older type, passed 
 through a state of academic institutional hysteria, 
 while, on the other hand, their student bodies trans- 
 lated the emotions of the moment into a deep 
 conviction by enlisting. 
 
 At the same time the spirit of mobilization was 
 present in many a university, college, and technical 
 school. In the cultural college it was the individual 
 who enlisted, as the institution was not of the type 
 whose work directly and definitely counted for 
 important war service. In the universities where 
 courses are given in agriculture, in medicine, in 
 technology, and in practical arts, the institution itself 
 enlisted, in that it offered war-emergency courses. 
 
 It is perhaps interesting at this point to see how 
 response came from these two types of institutions. 
 In the first instance it came from individuals in the 
 college, which was no more than could be expected 
 of classical colleges, which have for years laid 
 emphasis on the benefits of individualistic training. 
 In the second instance the vocational colleges, as 
 they are sometimes disparagingly called, responded 
 from the viewpoint of collectivism ; that is, the
 
 84 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 college as a whole, because of its service depart- 
 ments, was able to offer to the state and to the 
 nation a course of training of immediate military 
 value to the country. 
 
 But thoughtful people can never again speak 
 disparagingly of any university or technical school. 
 While the movies have been filled with the citi- 
 zens of our democracy, and the cafes crowded with 
 people to whom war was something apart from 
 existence, and the white-light gayety of the streets 
 has been apparently undimmed, the youth of our 
 colleges — the best youth in the world — have en- 
 listed in Plattsburgs, joined the Naval Reserves, 
 taken up signal-corps work, entered the research 
 laboratory, followed their instructors into the med- 
 ical corps, joined a school of aeronautics, or donned 
 overalls in the shipyards. 
 
 Doctor Finley, Commissioner of Education of 
 the state of New York, in an address delivered 
 before the Illinois chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa, 
 speaks of his visit to Oxford just before the war 
 and of a visit to Cambridge, England, a few weeks 
 after it had begun. At Oxford he found the calm 
 of the cloister, with its memorials of poets, scholars, 
 statesmen, princes, and soldiers, where there were 
 ancient academic conventions that paid no heed 
 to the passing customs of the world outside. Only
 
 COLLEGES ; TECHNICAL INSTITUTES 85 
 
 six weeks later at Cambridge — a Cambridge 
 which had a month or six weeks before been as 
 Oxford — the town was filled with men in khaki. 
 In this charming address Doctor Finley speaks 
 of a portrait of Samuel Butler which he saw at 
 Cambridge, — a portrait of the man who described 
 in his book " Erewhon " a land where criminals 
 were treated as sick, and the sick as criminals; 
 where there were " Colleges of Unreason," colleges 
 in which students were promoted for excellence in 
 vagueness and were plucked for insufficient trust 
 in printed matter, colleges where the principal 
 courses were those in hypothetics, colleges in 
 which mediocrity was fostered, colleges whose 
 graduates almost invariably suffered from atrophy 
 of individual opinions. And Doctor Finley says 
 that as he stood before this portrait, in a hall 
 almost deserted, he thought of those students of 
 courses which Butler had called " hypothetical " and 
 " atrophying," who had gone forth to prove the 
 valor of their cloistered and unpractical learning. 
 The university which apparently had paid no 
 heed to the passing customs of the world outside 
 had now mobilized herself; and this has been true 
 of the colleges and technical schools of our own 
 country, — truly a mobilization of the spirit of sud- 
 den forgetting of self-concerns for a selfless service.
 
 86 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 The college of individualism, as has already 
 been suggested, mobilized through its individuals, 
 while the college of service mobilized itself. In 
 the spring of 191 7 I happened to be in a West- 
 ern university. The campus was practically de- 
 serted. Instructors in foreign languages had joined 
 the government interpreters' service ; some of the 
 professors of science had gone to government re- 
 search laboratories, while a chosen few were off 
 in some secret place working under government 
 direction in scientific research concerning subma- 
 rine warfare. The older students had enlisted, and 
 the younger ones were marching in squads on 
 the athletic field. Truly a mobilization, but largely 
 individualistic. 
 
 I came East to another college where more 
 than 2000 students were devoting their time to 
 a series of special short courses dealing with the 
 various problems of an educational, social, and 
 practical nature which the war had thrust upon the 
 country. In this way the institution — Teachers 
 College, Columbia University — had mobilized itself. 
 Special arrangements had been made by the col- 
 lege authorities whereby all but a very few students 
 could participate in these emergency courses with- 
 out seriously deranging their regular courses. 
 
 In general, the aim of these emergency courses
 
 COLLEGES; TECHNICAL INSTITUTES Sy 
 
 was not merely to meet those conditions which 
 exist at or near the battle line but to help in the 
 solution of the hundred and one urgent problems 
 which must be solved by that great majority of 
 teachers and social workers whose service will 
 of necessity be given in home communities. Ac- 
 cordingly, courses on social relief were offered, and 
 among others the following topics were considered : 
 " Administration of relief in time of war and emer- 
 gency," " Care of orphaned and neglected children." 
 Under the organization of rural communities were 
 discussed " Conserving the food supply," " The 
 health problem of the rural community," and " The 
 organization of school pupils for agricultural serv- 
 ice." The matter of social service in military 
 camps was thoroughly gone into and reports and lec- 
 tures were given by men who had actually worked 
 with the soldiers themselves. The Boy Scout and 
 Camp Fire Girl movements were also discussed in 
 special courses, and the practical questions of the 
 amateur gardener were carefully considered. 
 
 In the School of Practical Arts special attention 
 was given to the making of children's garments, 
 the sewing of Red Cross material, and the reno- 
 vating of millinery and clothing. In addition to 
 lectures on thrift in food the department of cook- 
 ery gave a course on emergency cookery for men,
 
 88 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 which was especially designed for army cooks and 
 Boy Scout leaders. There was also a series of lec- 
 tures and demonstrations by a government expert 
 on the preservation of food, including canning and 
 drying. Other courses considered the essentials of 
 diet planning and of how to buy in large quantities 
 for camps and hospitals. The departments of chem- 
 istry and biology gave special instruction in the 
 analysis of water and of milk, and in the tech- 
 nique of diagnostic bacteriology. The fine-arts 
 department made some rather unique contribu- 
 tions, including a study of protective coloring with 
 reference to ca^noufiage for military purposes, the 
 designing of posters, and topographical sketching. 
 There was a course on tin-can work for home 
 and camp, in which, from discarded tomato cans 
 and powder boxes, were produced all sorts of 
 useful things — coffee pots, camp stoves, hot-water 
 bottles, lanterns, and candlesticks. A special course 
 in photography for hospital and field work was 
 offered. In the modeling class the manipulation of 
 plaster of Paris was demonstrated for nurses and 
 Red Cross students, to be used in connection with 
 occupational work for convalescent soldiers. An 
 extremely interesting series of projects in plastic 
 material was worked up, particularly some clay 
 models of trenches and dugouts.
 
 COLLEGES; TECHNICAL INSTITUTES 89 
 
 Another .course which attracted some hundred 
 and fifty students was the emergency instruction 
 given by the physics department in automobile 
 mechanics. The object of the instruction was to 
 equip the average student with a stock of general 
 information that would enable him to operate a 
 car, to make minor repairs, and to diagnose 
 trouble intelligently. Some of the matters dis- 
 cussed were the four-cycle engine, carburetion, 
 transmission and differential, and the storage 
 battery. For experiment and demonstration pur- 
 poses the laboratory was supplied, among other 
 apparatus, with a detachable boat motor and two 
 automobiles. The latter were thoroughly dissected 
 and then reassembled from spark plug to tires, and 
 in every possible way the mechanism was examined 
 and experimented with. 
 
 The departments of nursing and health and of 
 physical education offered some ten courses in 
 all, including home nursing and emergencies, sur- 
 gical dressings, care of children, public-health prob- 
 lems, first aid, medical gymnastics, and invalid 
 occupations. 
 
 The department of music offered three courses 
 designed especially to prepare students to lead 
 music appropriate to patriotic meetings and to 
 present selections at hospitals and camps.
 
 90 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 Two courses were offered by the department 
 of speech: one planned for those intending to do 
 emergency speaking and lecturing, and the other 
 arranged to meet the demand for entertainment 
 for little children, the sick, and soldiers during 
 the war. 
 
 In addition to these technical courses there was 
 a series of lectures on economic problems con- 
 tributed by various Columbia experts, and another 
 series of special lectures by such speakers as 
 Mr. Joseph McCabe, the noted English author, 
 and Mr. Frederick C. Wolcott, director of the 
 Polish War Relief Commission. Finally, there 
 was a wonderful and never-to-be-forgotten address 
 by Ignace Paderewski, in which he reviewed the 
 long and troubled story of his native land and in 
 impassioned words pleaded for the restoration of 
 Poland's ancient liberties. 
 
 It may be said without exaggeration that in all 
 some millions of people throughout the United 
 States will, directly and indirectly, profit by this 
 emergency instruction at Teachers College, for the 
 students who attended are for the most part ex- 
 perienced teachers, who, in their turn, will organize 
 and instruct their home communities in similar 
 preparedness courses. 
 
 At the same time another university, unique in
 
 COLLEGES; TECHNICAL INSTITUTES 91 
 
 its way, — the University of the State of New 
 York, — was holding, through its Board of Regents, 
 a meeting to determine academic standards of the 
 schools and colleges of the state in a war crisis. 
 This university was modeled upon the University 
 of France, the constituent units of which have 
 proved themselves wonderful instruments in the 
 waging of war. The universities represented have 
 organized themselves into a civil army, preventing 
 the wastes of duplication, misdirected endeavor, 
 and isolation so common everywhere. 
 
 In the building where the Board of Regents met, 
 two conferences were being held, one representing 
 the schools and colleges of the state, the other rep- 
 resenting the agricultural and industrial interests. 
 In one place men were discussing how the aca- 
 demic status of professional schools and colleges 
 might be maintained, and in another room men 
 and women were participating in a discussion of 
 public markets, food conservation, services of agri- 
 cultural teachers, the taking of an agricultural cen- 
 sus, the releasing of boys from school, the organizing 
 of canning clubs, and all those affairs of the state 
 and its schools which might contribute to the 
 nation's welfare. These two meetings offered a 
 picture of two lines of work which must always 
 go together in time of war.
 
 92 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 As Commissioner Claxton has said: 
 
 Students should be made to understand that it is their 
 duty to give to their country and to the world the best and 
 fullest possible measure of service, for both country and 
 world will need more than they will get of that high type 
 of service which only men and women of the best educa- 
 tion and training can give. Patriotism and desire to serve 
 humanity may require of these young men and women 
 the exercise of that very high type of self-restraint which 
 will keep them to their tasks of preparation until the time 
 comes when they can render service which cannot be rendered 
 by others. 
 
 On the other hand, these same colleges and 
 schools must contribute out of themselves that 
 important vocational service so necessary in time 
 of war, and the gathering at this meeting of agri- 
 cultural and household-arts teachers, of farm-bureau 
 men and county agents, of representatives from 
 granges and women's clubs, of bankers, and of 
 publicists was after all typical of the other half of 
 the university or school contribution. 
 
 At this meeting of the Regents the following 
 resolutions were adopted on the recommendation 
 of the administrators of schools and colleges who 
 were in conference with the Regents. These reso- 
 lutions are given in full because they express sig- 
 nificantly the point of view of the 36 colleges and 
 964 secondaiy schools in New York State.
 
 COLLEGES; TECHNICAL INSTITUTES 93 
 
 1. Realizing that one of the most urgent needs of the 
 country in the present crisis will be the training of officers 
 for military service, and that it is the peculiar duty of colleges 
 and universities to contribute in supplying this need, we 
 recommend that the several colleges and universities in the 
 state establish one or more units of the Reserve Officers 
 Training Corps, as provided in general order No. 49, in- 
 cluding courses leading at the same time to a commission 
 and to a college degree. 
 
 2. In order that the extraordinary burdens and sacrifices 
 of war may be shared in just proportion by all the nation, 
 and that the calamitous experiences of the past under the 
 voluntary system may be avoided, it is our judgment that 
 in the raising of the necessary military forces the principle 
 of universal obligation to service be applied by a process of 
 selective conscription. 
 
 3. That members in good standing of the graduating 
 classes of the professional schools of the state who shall 
 have been accepted for military service by the government 
 be granted their degrees without special examination. 
 
 4. That members in good standing of the graduating 
 classes in the undergraduate departments of the colleges 
 and universities of the state who would normally be gradu- 
 ated in June, 19 17, and who shall be accepted for military 
 service by the government should be granted their degrees 
 without special examination. 
 
 5. That members of the graduating classes in the high 
 schools of the state who would normally be graduated in June, 
 191 7, and who have been accepted for military service shall 
 be granted their diplomas, and that the colleges of the state be 
 requested to honor these diplomas for purposes of admission.
 
 94 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 6. That college students in good standing pursuing 
 medical preparatory courses who enlist or are called into 
 military service before the completion of the college year be 
 granted certificates of completion of their year without 
 examination. 
 
 7. That absence from college or high school by reason 
 of enlistment in military service shall not prejudice the 
 award or the retention of university scholarships. 
 
 8. That while the immediate service which women may 
 perform in connection with the war will be in medicine or 
 nursing and other work for general public welfare, and that 
 while the greatest service for which they may eventually 
 be called will be the supplying of positions vacated by the 
 enlisted men, we recommend to the United States govern- 
 ment the appointment by the Council for National Defense 
 of a commission which shall outline an appropriate policy 
 for women students in our colleges, with respect both to 
 their college studies and to their enlistment for national 
 service. 
 
 9. That this board approve the plans of the National 
 Research Council and proffer our hearty cooperation. 
 
 10. That students in colleges and universities of the 
 state who are liable for military training under the military- 
 training law be exempt from the training prescribed by the 
 Military Training Commission if they pursue courses in mili- 
 tary training under approved instruction at their respective 
 institutions. 
 
 Further, that as there are numerous resources in both 
 the elementary and the secondary schools of the state which 
 can be used to advantage at this time, — among the most 
 important of which resources are the use of high-school
 
 COLLEGES; TECHNICAL INSTITUTES 95 
 
 pupils for the farms and for necessary clerical and other 
 work that can be done by pupils who remain in school, the 
 use of teachers for summer work, the services possible 
 through industrial and household-arts departments, and the 
 enlistment of upper-grade children for home gardens, — 
 the board adopts the following resolutions : 
 
 1. That the State Agricultural Department in conjunc- 
 tion with the State Education Department formulate a plan 
 for enlisting and placing high-school boys upon the farms, 
 for directing and supervising the work of such boys, for 
 determining qualifications as to age and fitness, for deter- 
 mining compensation and school credit, and for the adjust- 
 ment of any other problems connected with the safeguarding 
 of these boys who enlist for farm service. 
 
 2. That the State Education Department secure through 
 the necessary sources a statement of the needs that might 
 be met through the industrial and household-arts depart- 
 ments and other resources of the schools herein stated, and 
 transmit such a statement to the schools of the state, to 
 the end that these resources may be used intelligently and 
 through regularly constituted channels. 
 
 3. That the State Education Department consider the 
 practicability of securing some provision by which during the 
 summer vacation and at other times of the year boys 1 2 years 
 of age or over may be employed if a certificate of proper 
 working conditions can be furnished. 
 
 It is impracticable to outline even briefly all that 
 the various colleges and institutes have contributed 
 to war service. The Massachusetts Institute of 
 Technology is hardly mentioned in what follows,
 
 96 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 and yet it is conducting a score of activities of 
 immediate emergency value. Drexel Institute has 
 contributed not only courses but also its president, 
 Doctor Godfrey, who is serving as a member of 
 the National Council of Defense in special charge 
 of war needs as met by education and science. 
 
 To name all the institutions which are serving in 
 one way or another is to call the roll of nearly every 
 college and technical institution in the country. 
 To give here a brief account of what a few are doing 
 will show the range of the activities and the nature 
 of the service. 
 
 Early in May Columbia University inaugurated 
 a series of emergency courses of a military, naval, 
 and general nature arranged for the purpose of 
 training students who desire to serve the national 
 government in time of war. They were classified 
 as intensive courses and were opened without 
 restriction to all those who desired to be trained in 
 any of the various subjects offered. These courses 
 included military map making, field-service regula- 
 tions, general telegraphy, radio telegraphy, camp 
 sanitation, map reading and map interpretation, prac- 
 tical navigation, and electrical devices of the navy. 
 
 Harvard University has many achievements to her 
 credit, for example: advanced training for selected 
 ofHcers under the leadership of six French officers ;
 
 COLLEGES; TECHNICAL INSTITUTES 97 
 
 a cadet school for ensigns ; a naval school for wire- 
 less operators ; a course in orthopedic surgery ; 
 the furnishing of the medical personnel for four 
 base hospital units ; and war service by depart- 
 ments of dentistry, medicine, psychology, and for- 
 eign languages. 
 
 Iowa State College gave a six weeks' course 
 in special military and military-engineering work. 
 Regular two-year noncollegiate courses were offered 
 electrical workers and stationary engineers, me- 
 chanical draftsmen and mechanics, structural drafts- 
 men and building superintendents, surveyors and 
 road makers. 
 
 At Cornell University all professors and instruc- 
 tors in the marine-engineering department and all 
 the senior students of marine engineering were 
 in either private or public shipyards on or before 
 graduation day. 
 
 The University of Wisconsin, anticipating that 
 a large number of persons who had been trained in 
 the administration of stores would soon be needed 
 in the civil section of the Quartermaster's Depart- 
 ment, in the Ordnance Bureau of the War Depart- 
 ment, and in the Quartermaster's Officers' Reserve 
 Corps, decided to aid in training for these services 
 by offering special courses in the classification 
 and handling of stores for those departments.
 
 98 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 This university also planned a summer session 
 with courses in wireless telegraphy, first aid to the 
 injured, Boy Scout movement in theory and prac- 
 tice, and gave a course of war lectures especially 
 designed for teachers, and a course for Red Cross 
 volunteers who wished to take part in civilian relief 
 work. This last course was in cooperation with the 
 Red Cross organization, which, as explained in an- 
 other chapter, will have much to do with relieving 
 families deprived of their natural heads. The men 
 and women in this course studied the basis of 
 family life, psychological and economic principles 
 underlying bodily health, the resources of the state 
 to preserve the family group, and methods of social 
 service and friendly visiting. 
 
 Aviation schools for training candidates for the 
 aviation corps were established at the University 
 of California, Cornell University, Georgia Institute 
 of Technology, University of Illinois, Massachusetts 
 Institute of Technology, Ohio State University, 
 Princeton, and the University of Texas. The first 
 navy aeronautic school has also been established re- 
 cently at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 
 
 The College of the City of New York offered 
 an emergency war course in bookkeeping and ofhce 
 practice to help fit men and women to fill the 
 positions made necessary by the increased work
 
 COLLEGES; TECHNICAL INSTITUTES 99 
 
 of the national government, and to train people 
 to take the places of those who responded to the 
 call to arms. It also offered its regular winter 
 courses during the summer in order to speed up the 
 graduation of young men already enrolled in the 
 college who might be drafted. 
 
 This college also placed in every armory and 
 military headquarters in Greater New York a 
 teacher of conversational French. This work was 
 very popular and highly successful. 
 
 The University of Kentucky offered to women 
 and civilians two special courses in its College of 
 Electrical Engineering: a course in automobile en- 
 gineering especially designed to teach women how 
 to drive and take care of motor ambulances, and 
 a course in wireless telegraphy. 
 
 The Pennsylvania State College offered a six 
 weeks' course in storekeeping under the direction 
 of the Quartermaster's Department. 
 
 In Massachusetts, through the extension de- 
 partment of the State Board of Education, lessons 
 were given in conversational French in the armories 
 and encampments. In one armory as many as 
 five instructors were engaged in this service. The 
 vocabulary of the soldier being quite unlike the 
 French dictionary, the military terms and expres- 
 sions actually used were emphasized. Necessary
 
 ICXJ OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 French slang and words used commonly for dis- 
 tances, rations, arms and equipment, money, meas- 
 ures, and military orders were dwelt upon. Spoken 
 French for doctors and nurses who are going to 
 the front has been given in cooperation with the 
 Metropolitan Chapter of the American Red Cross. 
 
 A six months' course in wireless telegraphy for 
 women was offered at Hunter College, New York 
 City, the course of training being in three divisions: 
 laboratory work, technical work, and the use of code. 
 This course was given with the expectation not 
 that women wireless operators will be placed on 
 ships of war or on transports, but rather that they 
 will be placed in land stations and on coastwise 
 steamers, thus releasing men for more active serv- 
 ice. It is understood that on the mechanical side 
 the work is harder for the women, but that on the 
 code work they are much quicker than men. 
 
 The field for service of a college is not neces- 
 sarily limited to extending the usefulness of its 
 vocational departments to meet the war-emergency 
 demands. As has already been noted, the depart- 
 ment of French may give courses in conversational 
 French in armories and in cantonments. Sir Robert 
 Blair writes: 
 
 We had this plan in England, and as volunteering grew 
 to very considerable dimensions towards the close of 19 14
 
 COLLEGES; TECHNICAL INSTITUTES loi 
 
 and there were tens of thousands of soldiers grouped within 
 the near neighborhood of London, an arrangement was made 
 with the war-office authorities for the teaching of French. 
 
 Courses in mathematics applicable to war needs 
 may be given. The college may send tutors to 
 cantonments to give instruction to undergraduates 
 who have not completed their college work and 
 who would like to receive a college diploma. Col- 
 leges can cooperate with the Y.M.C. A., to which 
 has been given the privilege of looking after the 
 recreational features in cantonments. American 
 college boys and others will not be satisfied with 
 formal military training. They will want health 
 talks, entertaining and educational lectures, and 
 instruction as to many things helpful in civil as 
 well as in military life. 
 
 There is a large opportunity, in a field as yet 
 hardly touched, for departments of psychology in 
 universities to help in selecting men for different 
 branches of war service and to give vocational 
 guidance to men who leave the service unfitted by 
 war work to reenter their former occupations and 
 perhaps untrained to enter a new service. A staff 
 of psychologists is now at work in each of our 
 cantonments applying intelligence ratings. 
 
 There are two distinct uses for the ratings which 
 are given the men as a result of the psychological
 
 I02 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 examinations. One of these uses is military and 
 consists in furnishing a commanding officer with 
 the rating of each man in his command, by which 
 he may, if he chooses, be guided in selecting men 
 for promotion, or for special duties requiring more 
 than average intelligence and mental quickness. 
 The other use is medical and is the thing specifi- 
 cally sought — to find men who are so markedly 
 below the average in intelligence as to demand 
 consideration for discharge or for assignment to 
 simple manual work under careful supervision. 
 
 The general method of the test is as follows: 
 The men of each company are divided into 4 
 groups of 75 to 80 each. Each group is first given 
 a simple literacy test which takes about five minutes 
 and shows only which of the men can read and 
 write. The illiterates are withdrawn at this point to 
 be given examinations for manual skill. All those 
 who can read are then given the " group-intelligence 
 examination." 
 
 Those who do not get good ratings are now re- 
 examined in a group to discover whether they are 
 merely slow or are of low-grade intelligence. If 
 any fail to make a satisfactory showing, they are 
 grouped with the illiterates who were separated 
 from the rest of the group after the preliminary 
 examination.
 
 COLLEGES ; TECHNICAL INSTITUTES 103 
 
 All these — illiterates, and literates who have not 
 done well in the group examination — are given 
 tests for manual skill and ingenuity. These tests 
 are such as putting together dissembled mechan- 
 isms, etc. After further individual examination 
 those who receive the poorest rating are likely to 
 be considered for discharge or as suited only for 
 manual work under supervision. 
 
 Those who display special mental or manual 
 ability are brought to the notice of their company 
 commanders as men who may be given assign- 
 ments for superior intelligence or skill. 
 
 The aims of the entire psychological examina- 
 tion are to measure native intelligence and ability, 
 not schooling; to disclose what a man can do with 
 his head and hands, not what he has learned from 
 books; and to help the medical officers quickly to 
 discover and sift out the extremely incompetent, 
 and thus prevent the inefficiency and injustice re- 
 sulting from putting men in places which they are 
 not qualified to fill. 
 
 Of course there is a tremendous opportunity for 
 the college to help people understand the causes of 
 war. This has already been referred to in the chapter 
 on " War and Community Uses of our Schools." 
 
 Colleges having teacher-training departments will 
 have the opportunity of giving short courses to men
 
 I04 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 and women who will take the places of those who 
 have gone to war. There is also a field for great 
 service in discovering ways and means of improving 
 our public-school systems through lessons drawn 
 from the war. 
 
 Every college and university has a large library, 
 and this should be examined with a view to dis- 
 covering its possible contribution to national de- 
 fense in war time. Aside from their functions of 
 supplying fresh news and judgments of current 
 events, libraries surely have a vital part in that 
 work of organized research which is behind Ger- 
 many's scientific and industrial efificiency. Success- 
 ful research rests as much upon adequate and 
 well-organized book resources as upon laboratories 
 and trained men. The plain and immediate duty 
 of a college situated near a cantonment, or having 
 a portion of its student body enlisted in a camp, 
 would seem to be to build up a military library 
 adequate as a center of military information for 
 those who are studying new methods and instru- 
 ments of attack and defense. Such a library 
 would be a technical library assisting the large 
 number of specialized schools and fields of train- 
 ing for officers and men in every branch of the 
 service and even in different duties in the same 
 branch. Medical libraries of colleges should be
 
 OUR COLLEGES 105 
 
 available, with new and important material on mili- 
 tary hygiene, medicine, sanitation, and surgery, and 
 this material should be given the widest publicity 
 with reference to its usefulness for the military, 
 medical, and hospital corps. 
 
 The college library might well lend to a canton- 
 ment a member of its library staff for the develop- 
 ment of not only a technical library but also a 
 general reading library for those soldiers who desire 
 only general reading. 
 
 The geological department of a college can help 
 in deciding on foundation conditions for army- 
 work constructions, on the location of camp sites 
 with reference to topography, drainage, and water 
 supply, and on the location of trenches with refer- 
 ence to dryness, underdrainage, and rock deposits. 
 Such a department can participate in the study of 
 earth vibrations in connection with heavy artillery 
 discharges for the accurate determination of the 
 distances of enemy batteries. It can also help the 
 government in giving more exact training to young 
 men in the interpretation of geological and topo- 
 graphical maps. 
 
 It is obvious that the technical college and the 
 technical institute may render the greatest govern- 
 ment service through its faculty and student body. 
 Armour Institute of Chicago has a large number
 
 io6 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 of its graduates and older students in concerns 
 which are producing munition supplies and war- 
 ships. Many have entered the signal service, and 
 a large class in marine engineering has been spe- 
 cifically organized to prepare men for service with 
 the government. 
 
 Wentworth Institute in Boston, under the direc- 
 tion of Principal Arthur L. Williston, has been 
 giving instruction in various branches of military 
 engineering to the First Regiment of Engineers 
 of the Fifth District, U. S. A. This regiment was 
 originally an infantry regiment, but the men vol- 
 untarily elected to train themselves to become an 
 engineering regiment. The commissioned ofHcers 
 and non-commissioned ofiicers and all the enlisted 
 men gave three nights a week to the work for 
 several months. In addition some sixty of the men 
 in the regiment voluntarily resigned from business 
 positions in order to devote eight to ten hours a 
 day, six days in the week, to the work. This insti- 
 tute instilled what Mr. Williston calls "mechanical 
 gumption " into the enlisted men through short 
 unit courses in mapping and surveying, topographi- 
 cal sketching, and map reading ; gasoline-engine 
 operation, repairing, and maintenance ; portable 
 steam-power plant construction and operation ; 
 electrical-power plant operation ; field telephony ;
 
 Technical colleges and institutes believe that education is the very last 
 
 thing in w^hich they ought to economize. Illustrations of class work in 
 
 national-emergency courses for the army and navy given by Pratt Institute, 
 
 Brooklyn, New York
 
 ROYS ^'^^^'^^'^ 
 
 ^^: 
 
 INDUSTRIES 
 
 NEED YOU 
 
 m 
 
 A poster which accomplished its purpose. War time, even more than 
 normal times, requires an educational appeal to the work impulses of youth
 
 COLLEGES; TECHNICAL INSTITUTES 107 
 
 electric-line construction and maintenance; timber 
 construction, including pontoons, timber trusses, tim- 
 ber suspension-bridge construction, machine-gun 
 shelters, dugouts, and dugout tunneling and fram- 
 ing ; strength of materials ; concrete construction, 
 including culverts, bridge abutments, gun-carriage 
 and engine foundations ; acetylene welding and 
 demolition work ; thermite welding and emergency 
 repair ; machinery erection and alignment ; forging, 
 hardening, and tempering ; hydraulics and drainage, 
 especially trench drainage; and rigging. The time 
 was too short to give any elaborate theoretical 
 training. The instruction was given through brief 
 and intensive courses in a very practical way. In 
 many instances it showed men who had practical 
 experience and ability how to adapt their particular 
 kind of skill to the special needs of the given 
 service. Many of these men already had skill, but 
 they needed to have it adapted to military ends. 
 
 Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, has been 
 conducting 8 evening classes in machine-shop prac- 
 tice, 6 classes in machine-drafting design, i evening 
 class in elementary ship drafting, and day courses 
 for a large body of enlisted men from the navy 
 electrical school and from the signal reserve corps. 
 Those who come from the signal reserve corps are 
 being trained for active service in telegraphy, the
 
 io8 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 institute furnishing the technical instruction in ele- 
 mentary and applied electricity, and army officers 
 furnishing the military and field-service instruction. 
 A mess for the men of this corps is conducted at 
 the school of household science connected with 
 the institute, and here details of men are trained 
 for this work through a course in army cooking. 
 The men from the electrical school are quartered 
 at the navy yard, and spend five and one-half 
 hours a day at the institute taking courses in 
 machine-shop operation, steam-engine practice, ele- 
 mentary electricity, armature- and field-coil repair 
 work on electrical machines, elementary chemistry, 
 and batteries. It is interesting to note that Pratt 
 Institute made a special effort to hold intact its 
 student body of the regular courses, on the theory 
 that the thoroughly trained mechanic or technician 
 in service is many times more valuable to the 
 nation than a private in the ranks. As a result of 
 this effort, very few of the students of the day 
 school dropped from the regular courses. 
 
 The William Hood Dunwoody Institute of Min- 
 neapolis began immediately on the severance of 
 relations with Germany to ser\^e as a recruiting 
 station for the United States Engineers' Enlisted 
 Reserve Corps, the United States Signal Enlisted 
 Reserve Corps, the United States Quartermaster's
 
 COLLEGES; TECHNICAL INSTITUTES 109 
 
 Enlisted Reserve Corps, the United States Civil 
 Service Commission, and the United States Navy. 
 
 It also outlined a scheme for taking a census of 
 mechanics and technicians for the state of Minne- 
 sota, which is now being carried out, and on the 
 basis of which recruiting will go forward for every 
 branch of the government service. 
 
 It made arrangements for bringing to Minne- 
 apolis, on the first of August, 425 recruits from 
 the Great Lakes Naval Training Station at Chi- 
 cago, and' distributed them among the following 
 classes in training at the institute: general electri- 
 cians, radio electricians, carpenter's mates, machine- 
 shop operators, gas-engine operators, blacksmiths, 
 coppersmiths, cooks, and bakers. 
 
 The institute is training more than 200 novices 
 in day and evening classes in telegraphy. Of these 
 about 60 per cent are girls and women, this course 
 being offered in response to a direct request from 
 railroad and telegraph lines in the vicinity of Min- 
 neapolis. It is also giving some instruction in 
 operating-foremanship work for a prominent local 
 steel and machinery company, as this company has 
 renewed the manufacture of munitions and needs 
 operation foremen. The institute was called upon to 
 select the most promising men and to train them in 
 one process of which they are later to have charge
 
 no OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 in the shop. Director Charles A. Prosser in making 
 a report to the secretary of the National Society 
 for the Promotion of Industrial Education said : 
 
 We have 154 people taking radio work in day and eve- 
 ning classes. This group is made up of a number of different 
 types. First, there are the amateurs with licenses who have 
 enlisted in our first radio company of the United States 
 Signal Service and have gone into that class to improve 
 their speed. Second, there are other young men who have 
 gone in to learn the work so as to be recruited into another 
 radio company of the United States Signal Corps or into 
 the naval service, and there are, in the third place, young 
 men who have gone in with the idea of offering their serv- 
 ices to the Marconi Company, either for land work or for 
 duty on board the merchant ships which are being built. 
 
 Somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 mechanics and 
 technicians have been sent into different branches of the 
 government service by Dunwoody Institute. This number 
 is made up in part of our own students from our school — 
 particularly from the evening classes, although some of our 
 day boys have gone — and in part of mechanics and techni- 
 cians throughout Minnesota who have gone into the service 
 through Dunwoody Institute, where we conduct a recruiting 
 station and where we are recruiting into the service every 
 Wednesday, apphcations being taken in the interim. 
 
 We have sent into the service i motor-truck company ; 
 2 others are in process of organization. We are sending out 
 I radio company, which is ready to go, and are about to 
 organize another. We are also organizing i wire company, 
 I baking company, and i company of cooks. In addition
 
 COLLEGES; TECHNICAL INSTITUTES iii 
 
 we have sent men to the Brooklyn Navy Yard and are send- 
 ing men to the Puget Sound Navy Yard. We have also 
 put men in touch with the Civil Service Commission and 
 sent them into the service in this way. 
 
 The response of these and other colleges and 
 technical institutes justifies as nothing else could 
 their past claims that they train not only for the 
 spirit of service but for the life of service. 
 
 The effect of the war on the college curriculum 
 cannot be hastily measured. Institutions of col- 
 legiate grade are slow to make radical changes in 
 the requirements for the bachelor's degree. Some 
 have already shortened the college course to three 
 years. Others have decided as a war measure that 
 students ought to be through college by the time 
 they reach conscription age. Some are offering 
 opportunity for all-the-year-round work. Others 
 are allowing war service to count toward a col- 
 lege degree. The English universities are already 
 thinking of strengthening their courses in science 
 and laboratory research, of giving more attention 
 to modern languages, and of developing vocational 
 courses. 
 
 Certainly in America there will be an immediate 
 and greater demand for so-called "practical " subjects. 
 It may be that one of the effects of the war will 
 be the sharpening of the differentiation and an
 
 112 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 increase of competition between the idealistic and 
 the practical groups of studies. This will be un- 
 fortunate. There should be no sharpening of dif- 
 ferences of opinion. They had much better be 
 dulled. There is no real necessity for antagonism 
 between the cultural and the vocational subjects. 
 People only think there is a need for constant 
 justification of the one against the other. Such 
 thinking has become a habit of mind. 
 
 The French have a way of saying that the cul- 
 tural subjects are merely the moral conditions, the 
 ethical history, and a judgment as to the ethical 
 value of the world complex of vocational and eco- 
 nomic life ; for this reason any conflict between cul- 
 tural and vocational subjects is impossible, and the 
 more vocational education is developed, the more 
 will the cultural aspects be needed and the more 
 highly developed will they become. The French 
 point out that what we term cultural subjects 
 developed in two civilizations which were very 
 highly practical, vocational, and militaristic ; namely, 
 Greece and Rome. They speak of the humanities 
 as being essentially the abiding lessons of those 
 civilizations which in vocational and military ef- 
 ficiency stood much higher above their fellows 
 than Germany stands in those respects above 
 contemporary civilization to-day.
 
 COLLEGES; TECHNICAL INSTITUTES 113 
 
 Vocational subjects are direct-service subjects 
 always. By their very nature they respond imme- 
 diately to an emergency. The cultural subjects 
 are more indirect in their effect. They could not 
 be otherwise. I often wish we could get into the 
 habit of speaking of liberal subjects in the sense in 
 which this term was used in the older days of our 
 colleges, when the term " liberal " implied that the 
 subjects classed under this head were liberalizing; 
 that is, they liberated, or set free, the minds, spirits, 
 and bodies of men and women from prejudice, 
 selfishness, tradition, passion, cruelty, and so on. 
 I have never seen how one could elect culture, 
 for it is always a by-product coming out of think- 
 ing and living. To study the language of an 
 ancient people and to learn nothing of their gov- 
 ernment or ideals is useless. To study this gov- 
 ernment and these ideals of an older civilization 
 and to see no lessons for the world of to-day is 
 almost valueless. To study the past in terms of 
 problems of human society is liberalizing. 
 
 New meanings of the realities of war are before 
 us. New concepts of two great ideals of govern- 
 ment confront us. New methods of making war 
 more horrible strike our eyes with every news 
 issue. New schemes for patching up human life 
 that it may go forth again to battle or return to
 
 114 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 industrial warfares of peace are heralded every 
 week. New societies for the relief of human suf- 
 fering due to the war are chartered constantly. 
 New alignments of political groups committed to 
 reform are in the making. New groupings of 
 nations not formerly allied stand before our eyes. 
 New methods of combining activities of great 
 corporate interests for government needs are pub- 
 lished daily. New trade possibilities now latent are 
 prophesied as being inevitable. New ideals and 
 new ideas gathered in the trenches are appearing 
 over battle lines for new governmental practices. 
 New advances in the field of government control 
 of prices startle us continually. 
 
 Out of it all there looms up a new science of 
 chemistry, improved methods of transportation in 
 the air, a still greater standardization of making in- 
 dustrial products, a new conception of government 
 control of trade and industry, a system of govern- 
 ment insurance for individuals and corporations, 
 new concepts of legislative authority and action, 
 and a score of other things all heading up into a 
 new sense of nationalism, — and who knows but 
 even a sense of internationalism ! 
 
 Is it credible that education alone will remain 
 unaffected by these world changes?
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE OPPORTUNITY FOR MANUAL AND 
 HOUSEHOLD ARTS 
 
 A new spirit of teaching practical arts is upon 
 us. The aims, materials, and methods of instruc- 
 tion in manual training, cooking, sewing, agricul- 
 ture, and commercial branches are changing. They 
 have been influenced by the vocational-education 
 movement, and because of it practical arts in gen- 
 eral education must justify themselves or else be 
 put into the scrap heap. 
 
 The development and organization of differenti- 
 ated courses in industrial, agricultural, and house- 
 hold and commercial arts adapted to junior and 
 senior high schools — more particularly in connec- 
 tion with the education of children from 12 to 
 16 years of age — offers a new field of service to 
 teachers of these subjects who, up to now, have 
 been following methods unsuited either to the 
 needs of vocational training or to the needs of 
 general education. Already the set of wood and 
 iron models taken from the Russian system of the 
 early seventies has disappeared, and the sampler 
 
 "5
 
 Il6 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 book in sewing has passed away. The era of the 
 coat hanger and sleeve board in manual training 
 and of the set of doll's clothes and models of 
 undergarments is doomed, and the cooking outline 
 which starts out with making cocoa in September 
 and in the thirteenth lesson takes up the making 
 of an angel cake will soon meet the fate of flower- 
 pot holders, doll's aprons, and book agriculture. 
 
 But there is a great field for the practical arts 
 in general education, — a field which no scheme 
 of vocational training can possibly occupy. Each 
 has its place. Vocational training is fitting young 
 persons for profitable employment in chosen voca- 
 tions. Practical arts in general education consists 
 of varied lines of activity taken from the fields of 
 agriculture, commerce, industry, and the household 
 and taught in the school for the purpose of devel- 
 oping capacity to deal with concrete things and 
 of arousing social and industrial interests in the 
 workaday world. 
 
 In the early years of the child's life practical- 
 arts work has a strong motor and social value. 
 In the middle years, say from 12 to 16, it has a 
 social and vocational-guidance value. The chapter 
 entitled " The Field for Industrial and Trade 
 Schools " gives a number of suggestions as to 
 the work which boys and, to some extent, girls
 
 MANUAL AND HOUSEHOLD ARTS 117 
 
 may offer as their service contribution in time of 
 war. However there are fewer than 100 industrial 
 and trade schools in the country. The majority of 
 our youth are taking some practical-arts work as 
 a part of general education in either the ele- 
 mentary or the secondary school, and surely these 
 young people will want to do something in this 
 emergency. And certainly the teachers of sewing, 
 manual training, cooking, and agriculture will de- 
 sire to do their part, not only because they can 
 be of service at this time but also for the reason 
 that through war-service work they will be able to 
 improve upon the practical-arts work and make it 
 conform to the new spirit. The whole spirit of the 
 new methods is based upon getting away from 
 individual models created out of the mind of a 
 teacher and imposed upon an unsuspecting stu- 
 dent body which follows a " course in models " in 
 about the same way that it takes a course in 
 arithmetic. 
 
 The present scheme of teaching practical arts 
 is based upon the project plan and not upon the 
 model or exercise plan. It no longer depends 
 upon the teacher's course of study founded on 
 tool exercises or logical sequence of processes. 
 It now comes out of a need which is as clear 
 to the student as it should be to the teacher.
 
 Ii8 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 The progressive teacher of manual training starts 
 out with such a project, for example, as a garage. 
 This involves making a sketch, working up a bill 
 of materials, finding out the cost of lumber, cement, 
 and so on. It involves work in concrete, laying the 
 floor timbers, putting up the sides, laying out the 
 roof, setting in the window and door frames, put- 
 ting on the tarred paper or shingles or galvanized 
 iron, and painting and staining. 
 
 The progressive teacher of domestic arts no 
 longer thinks of catering merely to the personal 
 decorative sense of young girls. She no longer 
 has the girls spend the entire year making gradu- 
 ation dresses, or dish towels, caps, and aprons. She 
 thinks in terms of quantity and in terms of social 
 service which the domestic-arts work may render. 
 She discovers that a hospital needs towels, aprons, 
 caps, and bed linen, or that the orphan asylum near 
 the school is sorely in need of children's garments, 
 and then she tells of this need to the girls in her 
 charge and the latter take up the problem in the 
 same way that the boys take up the problem of 
 building a garage. Each girl works in conjunc- 
 tion with others for a common purpose which all 
 recognize as being worth while. 
 
 Progressive teachers of cooking are realizing that 
 the idea of 20 cooking units in a schoolroom,
 
 MANUAL AND HOUSEHOLD ARTS 119 
 
 where little batches of 20 model biscuits are made 
 and where at the close of the lesson each girl has 
 one of these small eatables, is far behind the prac- 
 tice of those manual-training teachers who are mak- 
 ing drawing tables, benches, and looms, or laying 
 concrete walks, building outdoor gymnasium appa- 
 ratus, and so on. Some of the teachers have insisted 
 on having a flat or tenement or entire house near 
 the school, where girls taking domestic science can 
 go to learn to make real beds that are really slept 
 upon, to clean bathroom bowls that are really used, 
 to cook meals that are really eaten by people who 
 pay for what they eat, to shake real rugs that be- 
 come really dirty, and to shop at stores where they 
 come in contact with actual commercial conditions 
 and at the end of a week discover that it really costs 
 money to run a real home. A few teachers, and in 
 time there will be many, desire to go still further. 
 They believe that homemaking cannot be taught 
 without having some babies around, and so they 
 have established day nurseries in connection with 
 the homemaking classes. 
 
 It is because of these things which have been 
 mentioned in some detail that I was glad, as 
 director of the Division of Agricultural and Indus- 
 trial Education of the New York State Education 
 Department, to send out a circular letter early in
 
 I20 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 April, 19 1 7, to our manual-training and household- 
 arts teachers, in which I stated that every teacher 
 of manual training, sewing, or cooking should be 
 thinking in terms of mobilization service, and that 
 any teacher of manual training who was conducting 
 his course of models, instead of thinking and work- 
 ing in terms of food production or industrial war 
 service, was absolutely out of touch with the needs 
 of the day. I advised him to turn his shop work 
 over to home and community gardens, to increase 
 the time allowance given to manual work, and 
 help fill the cellar and pantry. I advised him to 
 give his Saturdays and afternoons after school and 
 even his vacation period to supervising garden 
 work in the community. I said, furthermore, that 
 any teacher of sewing who was not thinking in 
 terms of Red Cross, and of mending, darning, and 
 repairing, was as far away from the service idea 
 as she possibly could be. I told her that with the 
 increase in price of materials and with the scarcity 
 of dress goods there would be necessary repairing 
 and making over which would give her an oppor- 
 tunity to do some real things. I even told her 
 that she might drop some of her sewing and help 
 the cooking teacher in organizing classes in pre- 
 serving. I told the teachers of cooking that if 
 they were running through their outlines with no
 
 MANUAL AND HOUSEHOLD ARTS 121 
 
 reference to the food shortage of next winter and 
 the year after, they showed a lack of compre- 
 hension of the meaning of their jobs. I stated 
 that the early summer and fall suggested lessons 
 in preserving, while the winter season conveyed the 
 idea of conserving. I asked whether they were 
 planning to stop their work in June, before the 
 canning season really began, and leave everything 
 idle until school should open, when the canning 
 season would be nearly over. I wondered what 
 provision had been made in the community for 
 using the summer service which they either had 
 offered or, I hoped, were about to offer. 
 
 A few weeks later word came from England of 
 how the manual-training teachers had been urged 
 by those in authority to do garden work. A portion 
 of these directions follows : 
 
 Surely wood and metal work have not the monoply of 
 the educative value in manual operations. The harvesting 
 of an orchard of fruit or a field of potatoes by a class of 
 school children, accompanied by an enthusiastic teacher im- 
 bued with the right ideal of his work, can be made to serve 
 other purposes than merely that of simple mechanical utility. 
 A discussion started at first hand between child and teacher 
 on such matters as variety and quality of produce, the de- 
 structive fruit pests and diseases encountered, the crating, 
 packing, and distribution of produce, the weighing and 
 measuring actually performed, the calculating of the value of
 
 122 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 produce and of labor, and a knowledge that the cooperative 
 effort is in response to a call of England's need, would 
 provide open-air lessons in nature study, geography, arith- 
 metic, and civics quite as educative as any obtained in the 
 elaborately equipped manual-training centers. 
 
 This is true, especially the phrase "a knowl- 
 edge that the cooperative effort is in response to 
 a call of England's need," which embraces the 
 socializing value of the manual-arts principles, — a 
 value which we often talk about and as often fail 
 to attain. 
 
 Teachers of cooking, in this food crisis now upon 
 us and the greater one which may come, ought to 
 suspend temporarily some of their work in teach- 
 ing children and turn their attention to teaching 
 adults. To be sure the girl of to-day will be the 
 mother of to-morrow, bul the mother of the imme- 
 diate to-morrow is also the mother of to-day, and 
 the food crisis will be over, it is to be hoped, by 
 the time the girls in our present cooking classes 
 have grown into motherhood. These courses to 
 adults should be intensive and in short units. 
 The printing schools should print leaflets giving 
 practical and helpful recipes to be distributed to 
 the adults. If the women will not come to the 
 school, then the schools should go to the women. 
 By this it is meant that classes can be organized
 
 MANUAL AND HOUSEHOLD ARTS 123 
 
 in churches, vacant stores, and settlements. In this 
 connection it may be of interest to quote from 
 the Leicester (England) education committee: 
 
 Arrangements have been made in connection with the 
 local food campaign whereby the ordinary schemes of work 
 at the domestic-science centers have been temporarily sus- 
 pended and special short courses in cookery instruction pro- 
 vided instead. These courses have been designed primarily 
 as a means of instructing as many women and older girls 
 as possible in the method of preparing and cooking suitable 
 substitutes for bread and potatoes. In addition to the rooms 
 equipped for cookery instruction, those normally devoted to 
 the teaching of laundering and housewifery are being used for 
 this special work. The course is arranged to cover 4 lessons 
 given on consecutive half days to each group of attendants, 
 and at the conclusion of each course the women and girls 
 attend one evening for a review lesson including a practical 
 demonstration to which outsiders are invited. Leaflets have 
 been prepared and sent to the schools for distribution. The 
 children themselves write out the scale of rations as applied to 
 individual families and take their copies home, thus becoming 
 the active agents in the food campaign. 
 
 In Albany, New York, the regular work in cook- 
 ing was discontinued early in June for the school 
 year of 191 7, and a special course of 10 lessons in 
 food conservation was given at 4 domestic-science 
 centers. The course consisted of i lesson in the 
 preservation of eggs, 3 lessons on canning, i on
 
 124 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 making soap, i on butter substitutes, 2 on jellies 
 and marmalades, and i on the drying of a number 
 of agricultural products. 
 
 Not only may the domestic-science teacher go 
 to adults by the way of churches or settlements, 
 but she may go directly, — in the rural districts, 
 at least, — with demonstration kitchens mounted 
 on automobiles. In Lindsay County, England, for 
 example, a domestic-science lecturer arranged an 
 experimental course of lectures and demonstrations 
 on economical cookery, and equipped with neces- 
 sary utensils a traveling kitchen at a cost of ^100. 
 She covered each of the larger villages in the area 
 selected, spending one day in each place, the morn- 
 ing being given over to traveling. In the after- 
 noon, exhibitions of wheat-flour substitutes were 
 arranged and demonstrations given that were based 
 upon left-overs from her preceding evening's lesson. 
 She also gave short talks on beekeeping, horticul- 
 ture, fruit bottling, and so on. In the evening she 
 gave a cooking demonstration. 
 
 The " van " used by the women of Long Island, 
 New York State, consisted of a train of cars be- 
 hind a steam locomotive, from which demonstra- 
 tions were given in fruit and vegetable preserving. 
 The County of Nottingham, England, gave similar 
 demonstrations and in addition gave lectures to
 
 MANUAL AND HOUSEHOLD ARTS 125 
 
 mothers on the necessity of taking unusual precau- 
 tions with reference to the health of babies at this 
 period. It was customary in much of the work in 
 England to have an agriculturist go with the 
 teacher and give talks on spraying, elimination of 
 pests, and conservation of garden products. 
 
 One of the greatest services that the domestic- 
 science teacher can render, whether she labors in 
 rural or in urban fields, is the organization of can- 
 ning clubs. The canning club enlists the services 
 of women, girls, and even boys. It can be made 
 as much of a social institution as corn husking and 
 barn raising were formerly. But the teacher must, 
 in most instances, move out of her domestic-science 
 kitchen with its little gas stoves and quart sauce- 
 pans. In the country district the equipment will 
 be the stove in the village church, with a wash 
 boiler, galvanized vat, washtub, or other vessel with 
 a well-fitting top, which can easily be transformed 
 into a home canner by making a false bottom with 
 lifting handles. In a village or small city it may 
 be necessary to beg, borrow, or buy the necessary 
 cooking utensils, and to obtain free use of a vacant 
 store, asking the local gas company to install, free 
 of charge, some gas ranges. The boys will prepare 
 the fruit ; the women and girls will can it or dry 
 it, as the case may be. To dispose of the product
 
 126 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 is a simple matter. It may be sold and the pro- 
 ceeds divided. It may be taken to the homes and 
 the expense of producing shared. 
 
 In the city the domestic-science teacher serving 
 as a leader of the canning club must watch closely 
 the market and buy when the price is right, particu- 
 larly when there is a surplus that may otherwise 
 be wasted. It will be a new experience for many 
 domestic-science teachers. It is a rather different 
 proposition from canning a few baskets of straw- 
 berries, cherries, or currants in a classroom. 
 
 Naturally other containers than glass jars or tum- 
 blers will have to be used. In fact, the canning 
 club after one season of experimentation is likely 
 to resemble, with its larger and more efficient 
 equipment, a miniature canning factory. 
 
 In Berkeley, California, the children of the entire 
 city had a Jar Day, when they went out and col- 
 lected every discarded and undesired jar. These 
 were cleaned and sold and the money was turned 
 into a " service fund." Many jars, also, were filled 
 with surplus vegetable products to be used for the 
 poor in the winter. 
 
 Of course the old drying methods of grand- 
 mother's days must be rejuvenated. Mr. Fred P. 
 Reagle, supervisor of manual training in Montclair, 
 discovered one of the old-fashioned evaporators and
 
 MANUAL AND HOUSEHOLD ARTS 127 
 
 had a large number made up by the boys in his 
 school and passed out to neighboring communities. 
 Here is an old home industry which may be revived 
 in the home or the community. 
 
 Mr. Reagle, in describing his evaporator, writes: 
 
 I was obliged to build something which could be used 
 anywhere regardless of the availability of steam heat, elec- 
 tric fans, or coal. Furthermore, it was necessary to con- 
 struct from common stock material and to use some stock 
 stove. I hit upon the idea of using a common laundry 
 stove which could burn either wood or coal. I made 
 20 frames, covered with galvanized wire, to hold the 
 fruit. The control of the air circulation was obtained by 
 means of an adjustable sliding door beneath the stove. 
 The heated air passes around and over the stove and 
 through the fresh food products, taking out the moisture 
 and going out through the adjustable ventilator at the top. 
 The evaporator has a capacity of from 5 to 8 bushels of 
 fruit and vegetables a day. 
 
 Another activity for domestic-science teachers of 
 more experience will be in the training of cooks 
 for the army, or, as the director of the School of 
 Practical Arts (Teachers College) believes, "in the 
 training of people to train cooks." 
 
 The following quotation from a letter written 
 by Sir Robert Blair of London to Superintendent 
 Maxwell of New York City shows what was done 
 in London :
 
 128 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 In the summer recess, 191 5, 264 of our domestic-science 
 teachers volunteered part of their hoHdays in order to help in 
 the work of training 2500 soldiers to cook and to meet the 
 ordinary requirements in this line of the private in the field. 
 The War Office drew men from different units from all over 
 England and brought them to London in two great groups 
 and paid 1/93 day for the up-keep of the men. The 
 soldiers were billeted in the school buildings and the prep- 
 aration of their food formed the basis of the cookery in- 
 struction. Each group was taken for a period of ten days. 
 The War Office was most appreciative of the work done by 
 these domestic-economy instructresses. The War Office did 
 not ask us to repeat this the following summer, although it 
 was repeated to some extent in other parts of England. 
 The War Office, however, did ask us to lend them 30 care- 
 fully selected teachers of cooking for the purpose of visiting 
 army canteens and giving advice both on cooking and (what 
 I believe is more important) on quantities used. 
 
 Still another service can be rendered by the 
 cooking teachers, especially in our large cities and 
 in our industrial villages. This service consists in 
 giving meals to children w^ho are in want. Of 
 course at the present moment we see little need 
 for this work, but the pinch of poverty has come 
 upon England, France, and Germany, and our 
 ow^n land may not always be one of plenty. When 
 the need arises, teachers should be prepared to 
 furnish lunches to the children and possibly even 
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 MANUAL AND HOUSEHOLD ARTS 129 
 
 dislocation of many ordinary trades and lines of 
 business, the taking from the home of the family's 
 means of support, the increased cost of food and 
 provisions, and the prevalence of sickness due to 
 neglect may necessitate the feeding of children in 
 school. In London the list of children to whom 
 meals were given daily increased rapidly from 
 something like 32,000 in July, 1914, up to 75,000 
 about the middle of September, 19 14. Fortunately, 
 however, as trade and industry became better ad- 
 justed there was a steady decline in the number 
 of children that were fed, so that in May, 191 7, 
 there were only about 12,000 — the children then 
 on the list being mainly the children of widows 
 who were forced to go out to work. The number 
 of meals provided per week in the schools of Eng- 
 land in July, 191 5, was 200,000. In a year this 
 number had dropped to 120,000. 
 
 The drawing departments might well have their 
 students design posters. Those designed by Ameri- 
 can illustrators for the first Liberty Loan were 
 surprisingly ineffective. Only one stood out — that 
 with the reproduction of the Statue of Liberty 
 with the accompanying symbol and direct wording. 
 Our enlistment posters have been crude, lacking 
 in psychological appeal as well as in design. It 
 is questionable whether recruiting is aided by a
 
 I30 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 picture showing a naval officer lounging under a 
 palm tree while in the distance a marine is seen 
 standing amid bursting shells on a battleship. 
 There has been and will be an opportunity for 
 students to design posters for Red Cross work; 
 for enlistment as farm cadets; for enrollment in a 
 home-service unit for girls, in community canning 
 clubs, in Boy Scout work, in school, home, and 
 community gardening; for patriotic meetings and 
 a score of other occasions. Good posters have an 
 almost incalculable influence on civic life at any 
 time. Within the last year there have been held in 
 many cities various competitions in poster work of 
 pupils with such subjects as " Red Cross," " Thrift," 
 "Safety First," " Fire Prevention," " Pure Milk," and 
 " Liberty Loan." 
 
 There is plenty of work for the manual-training 
 teacher. Mention has already been made of garden 
 work, not so much in school gardens, however, as in 
 community gardens, for, like the canning-club work, 
 here is a splendid opportunity to bring adults and 
 children together. In a number of small cities in 
 the country where tillable land could be obtained, 
 the manual-training teachers directed a community- 
 garden project. The boys built the tool house; 
 the Boy Scouts took turns in acting as watchmen; 
 plots were laid out on a family or individual basis;
 
 MANUAL AND HOUSEHOLD ARTS 131 
 
 seed was purchased in bulk and distributed at cost ; 
 experts, hired by the day, plowed and harrowed the 
 ground ; stakes marking the plots were made in the 
 school ; and the manual-training instructors, or, as 
 they were termed, the garden directors, spent their 
 summer vacation in a useful service. 
 
 The manual-training teacher may help the Red 
 Cross chapter in packing supplies into the boxes 
 which his boys have made. He can be planning 
 the hospital furniture which he may be called 
 upon to make, as in France, where the boys 
 built furniture for improvised hospitals and in- 
 stalled electric lights. He can be thinking how 
 he shall, if required, make hospital-bed racks, 
 cots, tables, and simple reclining chairs. Perhaps 
 he may have to supervise, as have the manual- 
 training teachers in England, the making of hand- 
 grenade bags, chaff bags, dummy cartridges for 
 the training of troops, or sand bags. In a single 
 secondary school in Bradford, England, more than 
 1 200 articles — including splints, crutches, bed-boards 
 and rests, screens, rollers, trays, etc. — have been 
 made in the manual-training department in one 
 year. Perhaps in the early spring latrines can be 
 designed and built for the farm cadets, as was done 
 in the Newton (Massachusetts) school, or shacks 
 for troops, as was done at Plattsburg, New York,
 
 132 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 by the boys from the Stuyvesant High School, 
 New York City. The teacher may have his part 
 to play in giving vocational training to maimed 
 soldiers (see chapter on " Reeducation of the 
 Disabled "), as all of the instructors in manual- 
 training schools of the Dominion of Canada are 
 now doing. 
 
 A manual-training teacher in Nashville, Tennes- 
 see, Mr. John M. Foster, has his boys make jig- 
 saw puzzles, checkerboards, and bandage winders 
 for the use of our soldiers in France. During the 
 summer of 191 7 he organized a boys' auxiliary of 
 the Red Cross, and the group made packing cases 
 according to official specifications. The organiza- 
 tion included a shop foreman, a timekeeper, and 
 a stock man. Lumber and other materials were 
 contributed by local dealers. 
 
 Perhaps the manual-training instructor will coop- 
 erate with the teacher of domestic science, as male 
 strength is needed, in providing comforts for the 
 soldiers, such as socks and mufflers made on knit- 
 ting machines, and in helping with the packing 
 and crating. In this connection there is another 
 quotation on the work of London children : 
 
 At the end of the first year of the war we began to 
 organize efforts to provide clothing and other necessities 
 for Belgian and Serbian children. In a few months the
 
 MANUAL AND HOUSEHOLD ARTS 133 
 
 schools were able to furnish 10,000 complete kits made 
 to the pattern and color and size supplied by the two 
 embassies. It is reported that the making of these kits 
 was one of the best exercises in planning, cutting, and sew- 
 ing which the schools ever undertook, and probably nothing 
 has done more to foster the school esprit de corps in the 
 history of municipal schools since their origin, in 1870. 
 
 In France a number of schools, when the build- 
 ings were turned into hospitals, equipped either 
 the entire hospital or a considerable number of 
 beds at their own expense and by their own work. 
 Hospital service was largely organized by these 
 schools. One school would be responsible for the 
 linen, another for mending, another for table serv- 
 ice, another for cooking, and another for sending 
 and receiving packages. A workroom established 
 by the school girls in one of these hospitals had 
 sent to the front in a year and a half 25,330 
 packages. One little village school of only 30 
 pupils in a short period collected 2542 eggs for 
 the wounded soldiers and made socks and mufflers 
 in addition. In another small district each of the 
 schools specialized in some kind of work, one 
 making up parcels for war prisoners, another knit- 
 ting sailors' gloves, another making clothing for 
 refugees, and still another providing candles for 
 troops in trenches.
 
 134 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 A small country school in the Midlands of Eng- 
 land, in addition to weekly contributions of vege- 
 tables to the local hospital for wounded soldiers, 
 has made 26 bed cradles and a dozen crutches, 
 while the youngest boys have made splints. 
 
 A report from a northeast-coast district of Eng- 
 land mentions manual-training centers where bed 
 tables, toilet tables, bed rests, and clinical-chart 
 carriers are made for the local hospital. Even the 
 girls have made splints and bed tables. Of course 
 hundreds of sand bags have been made in the 
 schools. 
 
 The report closes with these significant words: 
 " The effect of all this work has been most remark- 
 able. Even districts where formerly little interest 
 was taken by the children seem suddenly to realize 
 the value of it all." This is what might have been 
 expected, and what we in America may expect 
 when we make our practical-arts work socializing, 
 useful, and contributory to some great cause that 
 the children see is worth while.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE WORK IMPULSES OF YOUTH 
 
 Since August, 19 14, there have been presented 
 to us new aspects of the relation of children to 
 industry. Up to that time the only consideration 
 for those who had the welfare of children at heart 
 was the child himself; but with the war, the wel- 
 fare of the child became tied up with the problem 
 of the welfare of the country and its demands for 
 service on the whole population. The endeavor to 
 adjust these two in nice balance has resulted in 
 experimental legislation or in action without legis- 
 lation, both of which have often been of no genuine 
 or lasting benefit to either interest concerned. 
 
 In America, in the first half of 19 17, many of 
 our states appeared to be following the lead of 
 England in abrogating the compulsory-attendance 
 law, urging the same reason for permitting children 
 within school age to work in fields and factories. 
 Everyone is familiar with the facts presented by 
 farmer and industrial employer. In sections whose 
 activity has been stimulated by the production of 
 war products, such as Bridgeport, Connecticut, other 
 
 135
 
 136 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 industries and mercantile establishments have found 
 it impossible to run as usual owing to the presence 
 of munition plants, which attract an abnormal num- 
 ber of workers. 
 
 Not only is neighborhood business affected by 
 the presence of war industries, but the farm short- 
 age is aggravated ; for the supply of intermittent 
 labor, the kind demanded for berry picking, har- 
 vesting, and canning, is not forthcoming when the 
 workers are offered steady employment in munition 
 and textile plants. In 191 7 many small canneries 
 were threatened with the prospect of closing and 
 letting the adjacent crops spoil in the fields ; hence 
 their call for schoolboys to assist them in cultivat- 
 ing and harvesting. This resulted in an unprece- 
 dented rush of children between 14 and 16 to 
 obtain employment certificates, and a clamor from 
 those below 14 to be allowed to leave school and 
 go to work. 
 
 With the nation and the state urging farmers 
 and food producers to make every exertion to 
 increase the food supply, legislatures must render 
 assistance in solving the labor-shortage problem. 
 It need hardly be pointed out that the farmer 
 cannot be expected to plant additional acres unless 
 he is reasonably sure that it will be possible for 
 him to have his acres cultivated and harvested.
 
 THE WORK IMPULSES OF YOUTH 137 
 
 England as early as September i, 19 14, was feel- 
 ing the shortage created by the numbers of men 
 enlisting, and every Local Education Authority was 
 being besought by farmers and manufacturers to ob- 
 tain modifications of the law which, generally speak- 
 ing, held children in school up to 14 years. An 
 order of the Board of Education to the Local Edu- 
 cation Authority in Northamptonshire, answering 
 such a plea, stated: 
 
 While the Board of Education have no power to give 
 any general directions overriding the ordinary law with 
 regard to school attendance and the employment of 
 children, ... a Local Education Authority is under no 
 obligation to take proceedings in respect of nonattendance 
 of a child at school if they are satisfied that there is a 
 reasonable excuse for nonattendance. 
 
 The " reasonable excuse " was found in the over- 
 powering clamor of farmers and munition makers 
 who were suffering from lack of workers, as in 
 Staffordshire, where the petition sent to the Edu- 
 cation Authority by the bolt-and-nut manufacturers 
 at Darlaston stated that owing to the enlistment of 
 men in various branches of his Majesty's forces 
 and because of the fact that the firms concerned 
 were largely engaged on work of great urgency 
 for the naval and military services, " it was desir- 
 able, in order to prevent delay in the execution
 
 138 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 of this work, that the school-attendance by-laws 
 should be relaxed for the duration of the war so 
 as to permit of the employment of boys over the 
 age of 13 years." ^ 
 
 It cannot be stated too strongly that England 
 has realized too late the practical impossibility of 
 recovery for school of the children thus released, 
 and the dangers to the nation of allowing the 
 junior population to go into industry without super- 
 vision. There will be introduced into our legis- 
 latures in 19 1 8 and later many bills which will 
 parallel English action, and the various states must 
 watch carefully to see that in their zealous attempts 
 to increase food or necessary manufactured supplies 
 they do not create and sanction disastrous condi- 
 tions for the health and morals of the young. 
 
 Now action in regard to our schools may be 
 of several types. First, there may be passed laws 
 which abrogate the existing compulsory-attendance 
 law; such legislation would be that permitting 
 children below compulsory school age to leave 
 school. Second, it is possible to have the existing 
 laws interpreted so as to excuse absence from 
 school, as in North Dakota, where the attorney- 
 general in an open letter to school officers, April, 
 
 1 Quoted from correspondence of the Board of Education to the Local 
 Education Authority in Northamptonshire.
 
 THE WORK IMPULSES OF YOUTH 139 
 
 191 7, interprets the section of the school law ex- 
 empting children from school attendance in cases 
 of necessity to apply to children of school age 
 actually engaged in tilling the soil. A third type 
 of action is that which suspends the compulsory- 
 attendance law under certain conditions; such a 
 law is the so-called " Brown Bill," chapter 689 of 
 the Laws of 191 7, New York legislature, to which 
 reference will be made later. Action may also be 
 taken in regard to shortening or lengthening the 
 established school year, shifting vacations, and 
 changing hours of session. For instance, the 
 Bureau of Education at Washington has suggested 
 keeping school open twelve months, and this advice 
 may be taken in some localities ; it is possible, also, 
 that a continuation of the demand for agricultural 
 labor of students may result in a different allot- 
 ment of vacations in the apple- and peach-growing 
 sections, so that students employed in harvesting 
 may lose a minimum of school attendance. 
 
 Events moved very rapidly in the spring of 191 7. 
 We were called upon by national and state gov- 
 ernments, by chambers of commerce and boards 
 of trade, by bankers and railroads, to raise crops. 
 We were told that America must be the pantry 
 for all Europe and that, do the best that we might, 
 we should not do overmuch. Obviously, with such
 
 I40 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 authority back of a movement for increased agri- 
 cultural production, it did not take very long for 
 state boards of agriculture and state departments 
 of education to respond, to say nothing about the 
 propaganda set forth by settlements, women's clubs, 
 the Y.M.C.A., the Boy Scouts, the National Secur- 
 ity League, the Women's Patriotic Service League, 
 and a score of other organizations, that put a 
 psychological persuasion into the situation which 
 was hard for school authorities and school children 
 to resist. 
 
 The following data relative to the action of 
 a number of the states were compiled by the 
 National Child Labor Committee. In general the 
 data showed no provision made for supervision, 
 for physical examination, for wages, or for defini- 
 tion of "passing grade." In some instances there 
 were even no age limitations. 
 
 California. During continuance of state of war, state 
 board of education with approval of governor may reduce 
 school term to six months when necessary '" for the plant- 
 ing or harvesting of crops or for other agricultural or 
 horticultural purposes." 
 
 Indiana. Letter from state superintendent of public in- 
 struction to county superintendents, April lo, 191 7, saying 
 in part : " It is my wish and order that you permit such 
 high-school girls and boys, and also such eighth-grade girls
 
 THE WORK IMPULSES OF YOUTH 141 
 
 and boys as may care to engage in Home Projects work 
 looking toward the increase of our agricultural output, to 
 engage in such work and to receive therefor full credit on 
 the school records, provided this work is done to the satis- 
 faction of the county agent and the county superintendent." 
 Plan formulated later by principals and state superintend- 
 ents for supervising, certifying, and accrediting such work 
 did something to stop a general exodus, but came too late to 
 do much good. 
 
 Illinois. State superintendent wrote to local superintend- 
 ents, April 10, advising that all boys eligible for working 
 certificates be excused from school May i and receive a 
 working certificate upon assurance that they have employ- 
 ment on a farm or in a garden, credit to be given for work 
 upon guarantee that summer months have been spent in 
 farming or gardening. 
 
 Kansas. State board of education advised local school 
 officials, April 17, that it would "approve granting a full 
 year's credit to pupils who have passing grade and who find 
 it necessary to withdraw from school before the end of the 
 school year either to enlist in the military service or actually 
 to engage directly in food production." 
 
 Maine. Boys 16 and over excused from school attend- 
 ance, June I to October 31, for work on farms under super- 
 vision of Y, M. C. A. official. (See chapter on "' Farm Cadets.") 
 
 Maryland. Superintendent of schools, Baltimore County, 
 in open letter to school officials, May 1 1 , authorizes the 
 employment on farms of "boys and girls who are old 
 enough to be of real productive value." On days when not 
 so employed they are required to attend school. Children
 
 142 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 over 1 3 who have attended school one hundred days during the 
 year may be employed without permits ; those who have not 
 attended one hundred days must have permits. Children 
 under 13 must have a permit, "which should not be issued 
 to a child who is too immature to do work for which the 
 permit is asked." Permits issued for twenty days or less 
 may be renewed upon application of parent. 
 
 Similar plan was discussed by state board of education 
 but not approved on ground that it might lead to abroga- 
 tion of the laws on child-labor and school-attendance. 
 
 Missojiri. State superintendent of public schools wrote 
 to local officials April 13, suggesting that they "excuse at 
 once from high school all boys over 14 years of age who 
 will go to farms and work. Give them full credit for their 
 year's work at the end of the school year, with the stand- 
 ing they have at present. Have the boy who gets the 
 credit give evidence satisfactory to you as to his work on 
 the farm. Include boys who live in the country and boys 
 who will go to the farm to work. Extend the same privilege 
 to girls where you deem it advisable." 
 
 New York. (Referred to later in this chapter.) 
 
 North Dakota. Attorney-general in open letter to school 
 officers, April, 1 9 1 7, interprets section of school law exempt- 
 ing children from school attendance in cases of necessity to 
 apply to children of school age actually engaged in tilling 
 the soil. 
 
 State superintendent of schools in open letter to school 
 officials, April, 19 17, recommends that schools should not 
 open earlier than October i, with a spring vacation of four 
 or five weeks, and that the school be kept open through
 
 THE WORK IMPULSES OF YOUTH 143 
 
 June and July when there is less and cheaper farm work to 
 do. " This would make available, and with a minimum loss 
 of school time, some 5000 of the older boys at a time when 
 labor is scarce and wages are high." 
 
 Pennsylvania. State board of education, April 19, issued 
 circular letter stating that farm and garden work should be 
 considered valid excuse for absence from school, and for 
 children 12 and over in good standing such work should 
 be credited in lieu of school attendance. 
 
 New Jersey. State board of education sent out a circu- 
 lar letter to superintendents and principals in which it was 
 stated that credit towards graduation might be given in place 
 of school work during the time a pupil was actually engaged 
 in farm work as a member of the Junior Industrial Army, 
 or while called out in the service of the state or of the 
 nation as a member of its organized military forces. (Boys 
 and girls over fourteen years of age are allowed to enroll in 
 the Industrial Army in the agricultural or home-garden or 
 the girls' service division.) 
 
 Possibly no great harm was done by the action 
 of these state officials and state boards. Yet the 
 action affords food for thought; and perhaps the 
 best way to bring about reflection is to pass imme- 
 diately, without comment, to a quotation taken 
 from the London Times of July 19, 191 7, — a quo- 
 tation which gives a picture of the end of the road 
 on which some of us in this country started in 
 the spring of 191 7.
 
 144 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 The reply, last week, of Herbert A, L. Fisher, Minister 
 of Education, to a deputation of the Committee on Wage- 
 earning Children was sympathetic and not merely a com- 
 mon-form shelving of the issue. The deputation asked for 
 legislation restricting the labor of school children out of 
 school hours. The extent of the evil was indicated by the 
 deputation, but it is doubtful if even the educational public 
 know how widespread and deleterious it is. On October 5, 
 191 5, we pointed out that nearly half a million children 
 between the ages of 12 and 14 years were receiving no 
 education, or no education worth having, and that all of 
 these were at work which led nowhither at the very age 
 when their moral and physical development was at stake. 
 Since then the conditions which we condemned have passed 
 from bad to worse. Many thousands of children under the 
 age of 12, under the ages of even 10 and 11, are at work, 
 and willingly at work, since the younger the child, the more 
 readily it responds to the demand for helpfulness. Mr, Fisher 
 cannot but realize the evil of this exploitation of young chil- 
 dren by parents and tradesmen. It is an evil affecting not 
 only the efficiency of school life but our whole economic 
 system. There never was an economic need for this child 
 labor, and the Board of Education admitted in their circular 
 to local authorities last week that there is no economic need 
 in rural districts for such labor even now. This circular 
 was a letter from the National Service Department and 
 dealt with the pressure on education authorities in rural 
 areas to release boys and girls under 12 for service on 
 the land. The letter definitely states that, in view of the 
 labor released from the army and the number of women 
 now available, "" it would appear that there should be no
 
 THE WORK IMPULSES OF YOUTH 145 
 
 necessity for such a serious interruption as is contemplated 
 of the education of the nation's children." 
 
 This should suffice to determine the policy of the rural- 
 education authorities. But the position in towns is even 
 more urgent, and Mr. Fisher and the government might give 
 additional powers to local authorities to deal with the labor 
 of children in full-time school attendance. It was certainly 
 a mistake in the legislation of 191 3 to make it possible for 
 the street trading of such children to receive official recog- 
 nition. But street trading is not the chief cause of anxiety. 
 Another is the employment of little children by shopkeepers 
 and distributing agencies before school, in the dinner inter- 
 val, and after school. The local authorities should be empow- 
 ered to forbid all employment for wages of children under 1 2 
 and to restrict within very narrow limits the employment of 
 children at school under 14. 
 
 Naturally Mr. Fisher must not overburden or imperil 
 his bill, or interfere with the labor necessary for the war. 
 He cannot be expected to change the face of England in 
 a moment. But he can strike deep without disturbing the 
 organization of society. He can transform from below by 
 ameliorating the conditions of very young children. The 
 country is ready now for changes that seemed Utopian 
 two years ago. By means of nursery schools the nation is 
 dealing at last with the raw material that is to be the Eng- 
 land of to-morrow. The same principle should be followed 
 in the case of children between the ages of 6 and 1 2 years. 
 The physical welfare of these children is of the first 
 importance. Yet between these ages thousands, through 
 the carrying of heavy weights and other means of over- 
 strain, are receiving life-long physical injury. All efforts
 
 146 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 for educational reform are being balked by their employ- 
 ment. The elaborate scheme of the Half-Time Council, 
 which was reported in our last issue, depends, as indeed 
 practically all of the reform schemes and Mr. Fisher's own 
 proposals depend, on the physical efficiency of the children. 
 The deputation asked that provision should be made for the 
 education of children abnormally employed during the war. 
 
 Out of all the literature which has been put 
 forth on the relationship of children to industry in 
 war time it would appear that Dr. Claxton, United 
 States Commissioner of Education, most adequately 
 states the fundamental principles, in his circular 
 letter to the educational authorities of the country 
 issued in June, 191 7. Portions of his letter bear 
 directly upon employment of children in time of war. 
 Other portions are closely related to statements in 
 other chapters. It is well worth quoting in full : 
 
 It is of the utmost importance that there shall be no 
 lowering in the efficiency of our systems of education. 
 Schools and other agencies of education must be main- 
 tained at whatever necessary cost and against all hurtful 
 interference with their regular work except as may be 
 necessary for the national defense, which is, of course, our 
 immediate task and must be kept constantly in mind and 
 have right of way everywhere and at all times. From 
 the beginning of our participation in the war we should 
 avoid the mistakes which some other countries have made 
 to their hurt and which they are now trying to correct.
 
 THE WORK IMPULSES OF YOUTH 147 
 
 If the war should be long and severe, there will be 
 great need in its later days for many young men and 
 women of scientific knowledge, training, and skill ; and it 
 may then be much more difficult than it is now to support 
 our schools, to spare our children and youth from other 
 service, and to permit them to attend school. Therefore no 
 school should close its doors now or shorten its term 
 unnecessarily. All young men and women in college 
 should remain and use their time to the very best advan- 
 tage, except such as may find it necessary to leave for 
 immediate profitable employment in some productive occu- 
 pation or for the acceptance of some position in some 
 branch of the military service, which position cannot be 
 so well filled by anyone else. All children in the ele- 
 mentary schools and as nearly as possible all high-school 
 pupils should remain in school through the entire session. 
 
 When the war is over, whether within a few months or 
 after many years, there will be such demands upon this 
 country for men and women of scientific knowledge, tech- 
 nical skill, and general culture as have never before come 
 to any country. The world must be rebuilt. This country 
 must play a far more important part than it has in the 
 past in agriculture, manufacturing, and commerce, and 
 also in the things of cultural life — art, literature, music, 
 scientific discovery. 
 
 Russia and China are awakening to new life and are on 
 the eve of great industrial development. They will ask of 
 us steel, engines, and cars for railroads, agricultural imple- 
 ments, and machinery for industrial plants. They will also 
 ask for men to install these and to direct much of their 
 development in every line. England, France, Italy, and
 
 148 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 the central empires have thrown into battle a very large 
 per cent of their educated and trained men, including most 
 of the young professors and instructors in their universities, 
 colleges, and gymnasia, lyc^es, and public schools. Their 
 colleges and universities are almost empty. The young 
 men who would under normal conditions be receiving the 
 education and training necessary to prepare them for lead- 
 ership in the future development of these countries are 
 fighting and dying in the trenches. All these countries 
 must needs go through a long period of reconstruction, 
 industrially and in many other respects. Our own trained 
 men and women should be able and ready to render every 
 possible assistance. It should be remembered that the 
 number of students in our universities, colleges, normal 
 schools, and technical schools is very small as compared 
 with the total number of persons of producing age — 
 little more than one half of i per cent. The majority of 
 these students are young men and women who are becom- 
 ing more mature and fit for service. The older of the 
 60,000,000 men and women of producing age are grow- 
 ing more unfit and are passing beyond the age of service. 
 It should also be remembered that the more mature the 
 young men who volunteer for service in the army, the more 
 valuable their services will be. 
 
 Therefore a right conception of patriotism should induce 
 all students who cannot render some immediate service of 
 great value to remain in college, concentrate their energies 
 on their college work, and thus be all the more ready and 
 fit when their services may be needed either for war or for 
 the important work of reconstruction and development in our 
 own and other countries when the war shall have ended.
 
 THE WORK IMPULSES OF YOUTH 149 
 
 All schools, of whatever grade, should remain open with 
 their full quota of officers and teachers. The salaries of 
 teachers should not be lowered in this time of unusual 
 high cost of living. When possible, salaries should be 
 increased in proportion to the services rendered. Since 
 the people will be taxed heavily by the federal government 
 for the payment of the expenses of the war, teachers 
 should be willing to continue to do their work, and do it 
 as well as they can, as a patriotic service, even if their 
 salaries cannot now be increased. All equipment neces- 
 sary for the best use of the time of teachers and students 
 should be provided, as should all necessary increase of 
 room, but costly building should not be undertaken now 
 while the prices of building material are excessively high 
 and while there are urgent and unfilled demands for labor 
 in industries pertaining directly and immediately to the 
 national defense. Schools should be continued in full 
 efficiency, but in most instances costly building may well 
 be postponed. 
 
 During school hours and out of school, on mornings, 
 afternoons, Saturdays, and during vacation all older children 
 and youth should be encouraged and directed to do as much 
 useful productive work as they can without interfering with 
 their more important school duties. This productive work 
 should be so directed as to give it the highest possible value, 
 both economically and educationally. For children and youth 
 in schools of all grades there will be need of more effective 
 moral training, and provision should be made for this. 
 While the war for the safety of democracy is in progress, 
 and when it is over, there will be greater need for effective 
 machinery for the promotion of intelligent discussion of the
 
 I50 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 principles of democracy and all that pertains to the public 
 welfare of local communities, counties, states, and the nation. 
 To this end every schoolhouse should be made a community 
 center and civic forum with frequent meetings for the discus- 
 sion of matters of public interest and for social intercourse. 
 
 One phrase in Commissioner Claxton's letter is 
 especially significant. It is This productive work 
 should be so directed as to give it the highest possible 
 value, both economically and educationally. In this 
 whole question of children and industry in war 
 time, we are brought face to face with several facts. 
 The first is that industry, both agricultural and 
 manufacturing, will demand the services of children. 
 Second, that organizations like state and national 
 child-labor committees, which have fought for the 
 welfare and development of American children, will 
 continue to oppose all attempts to break down the 
 school system through relaxation of the enforce- 
 ment of compulsory-education laws, or to break 
 down the labor laws either by giving young chil- 
 dren special permits to work or by exempting cer- 
 tain establishments from the laws limiting hours 
 of labor. Third, that the children themselves will 
 desire to work rather than go to school. The com- 
 paratively high wages which will exist during a war 
 emergency will call them as can no course of study. 
 Fourth, that families whose earning member or
 
 THE WORK IMPULSES OF YOUTH 151 
 
 members are off to war, and who feel in addition 
 the higher cost of hving, will look upon their chil- 
 dren as being a possible added source of income. 
 And fifth, that school authorities will thus stand 
 amidst half a dozen fires. Some will back against 
 the wall and say : " I don't believe in closing the 
 schools," " Under no conditions will the child-labor 
 laws in this state be relaxed," " The war hysteria 
 makes me enforce child-labor laws more vigorously 
 than ever," " Children have plenty of time to garden 
 after school." Others will, under pressure, lose their 
 heads, and shut their eyes to the fact that children 
 are working illegally. Some may seek for a " reason- 
 able excuse," and they can find plenty of such ex- 
 cuses by referring to the action in England. Still 
 others will go on peacefully without thought or 
 action one way or the other. But the rest, and it 
 is to be hoped that their numbers are legion, will 
 try to discover some means of making this emer- 
 gency count in an educational way. Here are some 
 of the factors which enter into the situation. 
 
 In the first place, children like to work, that is, 
 outside of school, and these work impulses of youth 
 ought to be organized to contribute to the edu- 
 cative process. It is readily enough granted that 
 they have not been in the past. In fact, these 
 work impulses have been exploited for private gain.
 
 152 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 Now, on account of the war, they are aroused to 
 a high pitch, and we ought to be able to organize 
 them in connection with the new work opportuni- 
 ties for higher economic efficiency as well as for 
 higher social efficiency. 
 
 In the second place, it is doubtful whether we 
 can much longer continue the policy of increasing 
 the regular attendance of youth at school without 
 giving some consideration to the educative value of 
 labor. The educative process taken in its largest 
 sense goes on for twenty-four hours a day. It con- 
 cerns health, character, mental capacity, citizenship, 
 and useful work. To most people the educative proc- 
 ess merely centers around the schoolhouse, and such 
 think of education in terms of schooling. To them, 
 to increase the number of years that youth is 
 obliged to go to school is to increase the number of 
 years given over directly to the educative process. 
 But the child goes to school for about five hours 
 a day for five days in the week for about thirty-six 
 weeks in the year, and in this time he deals largely 
 with books; and many find it a reasonable excuse, 
 because they are " going to school " and " getting 
 an education," to avoid any useful work. Now some 
 kinds of work are wholesome and educative. Most 
 farm work comes in the class of useful and profit- 
 able employment. When the hours are not too long
 
 THE WORK IMPULSES OF YOUTH 153 
 
 and the factories and stores are sanitary and the pay 
 is reasonable, work in these places may be profitable 
 to youth. Because this is not always the case is no 
 reason why we should not attempt to make it so. 
 
 It would seem that educators now occupy a stra- 
 tegic position from which they may exert a tre- 
 mendous influence in the direction of standardizing 
 the work of juveniles in terms of the deepest social 
 significance, and a good start in this direction may be 
 made in meeting the war emergency. The subject is 
 so large and the previous discussion of it so limited 
 that we have not very much background on which 
 to work, and it is not advisable at this time to do 
 more than merely hint at some possible procedures. 
 
 First, why not have the rural schools for children 
 up to 12 years of age open early in September and 
 close the first of August, and make provision for 
 stopping the school work of the youngest children 
 during the winter months in those parts of the 
 country where it is difficult for them to reach 
 school } Why not organize classes in dandelion 
 digging, berry picking, currant picking, and even, 
 once in a while, weeding, by having a series of field 
 and harvesting days under the direction of the 
 school teacher with the cooperation of the parents ? 
 Why not have able-bodied boys in these rural 
 schools released from book work in April and
 
 154 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 remain out of school until the first of November, 
 and then require them to attend school faithfully 
 for six days a week during the rest of the year? 
 Why not have the boys between 14 and 16 drop 
 out of school in June and July to pick small fruits 
 and berries and to work in vegetable gardens ? 
 Under certain conditions, in regions where such 
 service can be used, — which is not often, — they 
 might stay out in September to pick fruits and 
 gather small crops. 
 
 Of course it is to be expected that the answer 
 to all of these questions will be a most emphatic 
 No. Yet they have not been set up primarily 
 because the farmer tells us that he needs labor, 
 but rather because it is felt that boys need labor; 
 that is, useful labor. 
 
 Second, why not devise in cities a scheme of 
 part-time education for youths between 14 and 18 
 years of age who will be needed in the war 
 emergency in factories and stores, as well as for 
 youths who need useful labor as a part of the 
 educative process? If the war falls heavily upon 
 us in America, we shall find that these children 
 will go anyway. We shall find that the male 
 teachers who teach them will be drafted. We may 
 even find — although it is hoped not — that the 
 school buildings will be taken over for military
 
 THE WORK IMPULSES OF YOUTH 155 
 
 purposes. But I am not thinking particularly of 
 war needs. I am thinking of child needs. England 
 proposes to reintroduce into the school system 
 children who are now abnormally employed in 
 the war. It further proposes to develop out of 
 its war experience, on a large scale, the part-time 
 and continuation-school idea. It is reported that 
 in France a part-time and continuation-school bill 
 will be introduced in 19 18. 
 
 Now why not take hold of this whole matter 
 of juvenile employment in a constructive way? 
 As long as war is upon us we have better oppor- 
 tunity than ever of passing through the legislature 
 part-time and continuation-school measures. We 
 have at the same time, out of all the experience 
 of England, every opportunity to formulate laws 
 for the employment of juveniles in a way which 
 will not break down the educative process, but 
 will rather build it up ; and above everything else 
 we ought to enforce strictly all child-labor and 
 compulsory-education laws which we have on the 
 statute books. We may modify them, if we will, 
 to meet war emergencies, if it appears absolutely 
 necessary, but better than that, we may reconstruct 
 them in the interests of the educative value of 
 labor when combined with proper rules and regu- 
 lations relative to the employment of children.
 
 156 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 Furthermore, why not find some way of bring- 
 ing agriculture into the educative process of the 
 city boy ? Would it not be a good idea to establish 
 country branches for city schools, providing for the 
 older boys a winter course of study in the science 
 of agriculture, together with the ordinary academic 
 branches of secondary-school education, followed in 
 the spring by practice in an agricultural training 
 camp ? Later on in the season they would go out 
 to work individually or in groups for farmers. (See 
 chapter on " Farm Cadets.") The older of these 
 boys would make admirable assistant teachers and 
 supervisors for the younger group of 14-year-old 
 to 15-year-old boys who would be sent to these 
 camps after schools had closed. We cannot much 
 longer avoid the question of bringing agriculture 
 to the city boy or, rather, taking the city boy to 
 agriculture ; and the past summer's experience with 
 city boys working on farms brought forcibly to our 
 attention the advantages of a closer relationship 
 between city children and country life. 
 
 Mention has been made of the modification in 
 191 7 of the school-attendance law of New York 
 State. Three sections of the act by which these 
 modifications were made are quoted in full, as they 
 represent legislative action as well as discretionary 
 powers of the state educational ofiicial.
 
 THE WORK IMPULSES OF YOUTH 157 
 
 Section i. The provisions of Art. XXHI of the educa- 
 tion law, relative to the compulsory education of children, 
 may, in the discretion of the Commissioner of Education, 
 be suspended for the period between the first day of April 
 and the first day of November of each year, or any portion 
 thereof, during the time that this act shall remain in effect, 
 for the purpose of aiding and performing labor in the culti- 
 vation, production, and care of food products upon farms 
 and gardens within the state. Such suspension shall be 
 subject to such conditions, restrictions, and limitations as 
 may be imposed by the Commissioner of Education, and 
 shall be subject to rules and regulations to be prescribed 
 by him. In case of such suspension, provision shall be 
 made for the welfare and protection of the children affected 
 thereby, and during the period of such suspension and while 
 engaged in such work, they shall be under the supervision 
 and direction of the school authorities of the city or district 
 in which they reside. . . . 
 
 Section 4. A pupil in the public schools or in any 
 state school or institution who is relieved from school work 
 and is engaged satisfactorily in agricultural service during 
 the present school year shall be given credit for the work 
 of the present term without examination, on the certificate 
 of the person in charge of such school or institution that 
 his work therein up to the time of engaging in such service 
 is satisfactory. A pupil in such school or institution who 
 engages in such service during the present school year shall 
 not incur any loss of standing or credit on account of such 
 service. All pupils in public schools who are candidates 
 for college-entrance diplomas or other credentials to be 
 issued to them at the close of the present school year shall
 
 158 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 be granted such diplomas or credentials on the certificate 
 of the principal of the school that their work up to the 
 time of engaging in such service is satisfactory. The 
 Regents of the University shall make rules for the purpose 
 of giving credit to pupils in the public schools who have 
 been in attendance at school during the present school year 
 and who have left the schools for the purpose of rendering 
 agricultural or industrial service. 
 
 Section 5. The Commissioner of Education shall cause 
 appropriate certificates or badges to be prepared and issued 
 to pupils in the schools of the state who shall perform satis- 
 factory agricultural or industrial service under rules and 
 regulations of the Commissioner of Education. 
 
 It will be noted that the compulsory-attendance 
 law was suspended only between certain periods 
 and at the discretion of the Commissioner of Edu- 
 cation, and for the sole purpose of permitting 
 children to labor in the cultivation, production, 
 and care of food products upon farms and gardens 
 within the state. 
 
 This bill did not authorize the employment of 
 girls in general domestic service. No provision of 
 the labor law was repealed, suspended, or modified, 
 and the provisions of the labor law relating to the 
 employment of children in canneries or in any 
 factory or mercantile establishment still remain 
 in force. It is true that a bill suspending tempo- 
 rarily in whole or in part, at the discretion of the
 
 THE WORK IMPULSES OF YOUTH 159 
 
 Industrial Commission, provisions of the labor law 
 •in relation to any employment in the state passed 
 the two legislative bodies, but this was wisely vetoed 
 by Governor Whitman. 
 
 It will be further noticed that the children thus 
 employed within the dates mentioned are to be 
 under the supervision and direction of the school 
 authorities in the city or district in which such 
 children reside. The Commissioner of Education 
 thereupon issued certain regulations relating to 
 children who might be employed within the com- 
 pulsory school ages. A brief summary follows: 
 
 Boys only, 1 5 years of age and above, residing in cities. 
 
 Boys only, 14 years of age and above, residing elsewhere 
 than in a city. 
 
 Girls, 1 4 years of age, and above, residing outside of cities, 
 may work at home in the district in which such girls re- 
 side, or at a place sufficiently near such girls' homes as to 
 afford supervision by their parents. 
 
 No child shall be employed or permitted to work on 
 farms and gardens until such child shall obtain a farm- 
 garden permit. 
 
 No child shall receive a farm-garden permit who does 
 not present to the issuing officer the written consent of his 
 parent or guardian and who is not found to be physically 
 competent to perform the labor proposed. 
 
 In the chapter on "Our Colleges and Technical 
 Institutes " reference was made to resolutions of
 
 l6o OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 the Board of Regents and to the fact that the 
 State Education Department formulated a plan 
 for enlisting and placing high-school boys on the 
 farms, for directing and supervising the work of 
 such boys, and for the adjustment of school credits. 
 With this resolution in mind the Commissioner 
 of Education sent out, on April i6, the follow- 
 ing letter to all school superintendents and school 
 principals of the state. 
 
 To meet the present national emergency, the New York 
 State Education Department, after careful consideration, 
 issues the following regulations concerning matters that 
 vitally affect the interests of the pupils of the secondary 
 schools of the state. 
 
 1. The June Regents' examinations will be given as 
 previously announced for all pupils who remain regularly 
 in school and also for pupils who may enlist for service 
 and who wish to take the examinations and are situated so 
 that they can do so. For the latter class the time require- 
 ment will be waived. 
 
 2. Announcement is made to all the schools of the state 
 that any pupil who enlists for military service or who enlists 
 for and renders satisfactory agricultural or industrial service 
 will be credited with the work of the present term without 
 examination on the certificate of the school that his work 
 up to the time of enlistment is satisfactory. 
 
 3. Candidates for college-entrance diplomas who are in 
 the graduating class of 19 17 will be granted the diploma 
 on certificate of the principal that their work up to the time
 
 THE WORK IMPULSES OF YOUTH i6i 
 
 of enlistment is satisfactory. The average standing will be 
 computed on the basis of the examinations already passed, 
 
 4. Appropriate certificates will be prepared to be issued 
 to those pupils in the schools who shall enlist for agricul- 
 tural or industrial service and who shall present satisfactory 
 evidence of such service. 
 
 5. That all other questions regarding conditions affecting 
 the 19 1 8 high-school class be held in abeyance to await 
 developments. 
 
 It is believed that principals, teachers, and pupils in all 
 secondary schools of the state will appreciate the vital im- 
 portance of prompt action in the present crisis and that 
 each will esteem it a privilege to "do his bit " for the 
 common good. 
 
 As soon as the schoolboys of the state knew 
 of this letter, they all seemed to hear very suddenly 
 of jobs on farms, but some, rather unfortunately, 
 failed to continue to hear this call when the end 
 of the school year came and they could no longer 
 receive school credit for work on the farm because, 
 of course, school had closed. It being likely that 
 there would be the same general tendency for the 
 boys to discover work on farms about the first of 
 September when the schools open, it was thought 
 well to have a clear understanding of the condi- 
 tions of release of boys for farm work in the fall. 
 Of course a great many boys were out of school 
 during May and June and continued to work all
 
 l62 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 summer on individual farms or in camps with 
 other boys, but " slackers " wanted to stop as soon 
 as they received their school credit, and the same 
 slackers might be just as slack in returning to 
 school, hence the following letter issued by the 
 Commissioner of Education on August ii, 191 7: 
 
 To Superintendents, Principals, and Boards of Education : 
 
 In answer to many inquiries as to releasing boys for 
 farm service this fall, and in response to the appeal of the 
 Food Supply Commission, which states the imperative need 
 of such labor as the youth of this state can give in harvest- 
 ing the crops, I would urge the educational authorities of 
 the state in those sections where the need exists to make 
 all possible provision for the special tuition of those pupils 
 who may, under the labor laws of the state and the com- 
 pulsory-education laws, legally engage in such service. Such 
 special instruction, either after hours or in holiday periods, 
 may be the special patriotic contribution of some teachers 
 to meet the need which seems at present to demand what- 
 ever cooperation the school authorities can give. This will 
 be most easily arranged by limiting the enlistments, as far 
 as possible, to the upper classes, and by arranging for work 
 in relays, so that the period of absences may not be unnec- 
 essarily long. We ought not to remit in the slightest our 
 educational requirements and disciplines, nor take children 
 or youth out of the educational processes, but we ought to 
 do all that we can, on the other hand, to make it possible 
 for the boys of proper age and strength to perform this 
 service when it is of real public necessity.
 
 THE WORK IMPULSES OF YOUTH 163 
 
 The department, wishing to cooperate to this end, makes 
 the following determination, effective until November i, 1917 : 
 
 The time of study requirements for admission to the 
 Regents' examinations, in January and June, 19 18, may be 
 waived in the case of any pupil who presents evidence that 
 
 a. He was regularly registered in school at or near the 
 beginning of the term in September, 19 17. (Boys already 
 at work at a distance from the school may, with the permis- 
 sion of the local principal, register by mail.) 
 
 b. He was released by the principal from school for agri- 
 cultural service. 
 
 c. He was actually and satisfactorily engaged in needed 
 agricultural service while absent from school. 
 
 This privilege should be interpreted conservatively. 
 School authorities should excuse pupils from this service 
 only where the need is urgent and where it is possible to 
 maintain such supervision that certificate of the facts can be 
 made from certain knowledge. 
 
 During the summer and fall of 191 7, schoolboys 
 from Maine to California responded to the nation's 
 call for increased food production. Other seasons of 
 scarcity of labor, with the shortage of farm and 
 garden products and resultant high prices, are 
 doubtless before us. Indeed, we are told that for 
 five years at least we are to continue to feel the 
 stress of labor shortage due to war and other condi- 
 tions. The United States Boys' Working Reserve, 
 through state councils of defense and state and 
 national departments of labor and agriculture, will
 
 l64 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 continue to issue proclamations calling upon youth 
 to serve the nation. Legislatures will pass or amend 
 laws permitting absences from school for industrial 
 and farm service. State educational officials will 
 issue edicts interpreting legislative action. Schools 
 will devise methods of giving school credit for useful 
 service. Boys will again leave school to earn and 
 serve. Parents will continue to speak with pride of 
 the earning of their lads or complain about their 
 treatment. Farmers will recall their first experi- 
 ences with city boys. Everything will center about 
 products, laws, rules, school credits, and dollars. 
 
 Few of us will think of the deeper significance of 
 what is behind. We shall hardly realize that the law- 
 makers have thought only of a possible increase of 
 acreage under cultivation, or increased production 
 in factories ; that the farmers and the manufacturers 
 had visions merely of good labor at a low figure; 
 that the parents saw only an opportunity for a 
 "change for the boy"; that the boy had in mind 
 only a spending account and release from school. 
 
 We shall forget our unscientific experiments, the 
 light handling and selfish exploitation we have 
 given to that wonderful possession of youth — the 
 work impulses. And the question we should ask 
 ourselves is, What educational justification have we 
 for this service which the boys have rendered .f*
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 ORGANIZED BOY POWER VS. MILITARY DRILL 
 
 The war has already brought about drastic eco- 
 nomic changes in Europe. The recall of men from 
 the trenches to perform a more useful professional 
 and industrial service behind the lines has demon- 
 strated the importance of the supporting civilian 
 army. From the viewpoint of the individual, nothing 
 can equal the supreme sacrifice of a life. "What 
 good," wailed a Yiddish woman on the East Side of 
 New York City, " is a free country to me if my Abie 
 is killed ? " But in the judgment of the nation the 
 garment worker, Abie, who is drafted into service in 
 the army is of no greater value than his friend the 
 skilled machinist who is allowed to remain in his 
 present occupation. The military exemptions of men 
 in European armies, the adoption of the selective 
 draft in the United States, are acknowledgments of 
 the equality of the military and the civilian occupa- 
 tions indispensable to military activity. To include 
 in our educational law such a recognition, adopting 
 a measure permitting the substitution of types of 
 
 vocational training for military training, is but to 
 
 165
 
 i66 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 follow the lead of the national government in declar- 
 ing such exemptions a military necessity. New York 
 State has made a beginning in this direction. 
 
 In 191 6 the legislature enacted the so-called 
 " Welsh-Slater " bills, making military and physical 
 training compulsory in the secondary schools of 
 the state for boys above 16 and under 19 years 
 of age. Such military training is to aggregate not 
 more than three hours each week between Sep- 
 tember first of each year and June fifteenth of the 
 next. The law further provides, within the limits 
 of appropriation, for the establishment of military 
 camps with attendance of from two to four weeks. 
 While the operation of these camps and, indeed, 
 the introduction of military drill, have been imper- 
 fectly carried out, owing to the lack of suitable 
 state appropriation to carry on the work on the 
 necessary and large scale for a working boy and 
 schoolboy population of 240,000, it is the intention 
 of the Military Training Commission to insist on 
 the requirements of the law. 
 
 The law as passed in 1916 contained a significant 
 clause relative to the excusing of boys exempted 
 by the Military Training Commission. It was felt 
 by the critics of the bill that, although the law 
 requiring military and physical training was a move- 
 ment in the right direction, it left much to be
 
 ORGANIZED BOY POWER 167 
 
 desired. The ambiguous word " exemptions " is one 
 subject to fine distinctions. Furthermore, it was 
 felt that the law was essentially one of discrimina- 
 tion. The schoolboy of 16 to 19 was in an exclu- 
 sive military class, set apart, in his capacity to be 
 trained for national service, from the employed boy 
 of the same years. 
 
 It is not easy to justify the selection of the high- 
 school pupils of the state as the only young people 
 who shall be the recipients of military training. The 
 report of the New Jersey commission appointed 
 to study military training in its relation to high 
 schools covers this point admirably. 
 
 The duty of the common defense is one which belongs 
 properly to all who are physically capable, and none should 
 be deprived of the opportunity of qualifying himself, if such 
 opportunity is offered to any, to perform this duty effec- 
 tively. It cannot be claimed that the boys of the high 
 schools are exceptional, and that they are the only ones 
 who can receive this instruction profitably. If there is any 
 advantage in it, all boys equal in age and physique to high- 
 school boys can receive it with equal probability of profit. 
 If it is claimed that the reason for providing this instruc- 
 tion for the high schools is that the pupils can best afford 
 the time for it, it must be answered that very many of 
 these derive an income from labor out of school hours 
 which enables them to attend school. These are as worthy 
 of exemption from military instruction as those who leave
 
 1 68 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 school because they lack the ambition to continue their 
 education, or because they are compelled to do so by circum- 
 stances. Whether this instruction is compulsory or optional 
 with pupils of the high schools, if required or offered at 
 all, it should apply to all boys, out of school as well as in 
 school, of prescribed ages and strength. 
 
 Military training and service, if they are necessary, are 
 obligations of citizenship, not of education alone. 
 
 It is difficult to contemplate with satisfaction or even 
 complacency the social cleavage which is bound to result 
 from a system of military instruction which is applied to 
 high-school pupils and not to other boys. To assign or 
 reserve the privilege, or duty, or obligation, however it is 
 regarded, of preparing to fight for the country to the better- 
 educated class is just as repugnant to democratic ideals as 
 was the practice in days long gone by of leaving it to the 
 nobility. To select high-school pupils for this training is 
 open to the same objection as would be a plan of selecting 
 adults for actual military service solely on the basis of their 
 occupations or professions — a plan which would receive no 
 consideration. 
 
 Military authorities admit that the fundamental aim of 
 every form of military training must be to cultivate physical 
 health and strength. As Dr. George Fisher, secretary of the 
 Physical Department, International Committee, Y.M.C.A., 
 and a member of the New York State Military Training 
 Commission, puts it, " In the training camps in England 
 it takes a full year to get the men in condition after they 
 enlist. England's experience in this war indicates that the 
 big problem is not primarily the training of the men on mili- 
 tary tactics or drill, but conditioning the men. Therefore
 
 ORGANIZED BOY POWER 
 
 169 
 
 the lesson to us should be to discover what methods can best 
 be used to put and keep men in good physical condition." 
 If any evidence of the accuracy of this opinion were 
 needed, it is necessary only to consult the records of the 
 United States War Department. The following table shows 
 the number of applicants for enlistment in the United States 
 army, furnished by the several recruiting districts, together 
 with the number accepted or rejected in said districts, fiscal 
 years ending June 30, 191 1 to June 30, 1915 : 
 
 
 Total 
 Number 
 OF Appli- 
 cants 
 
 Accepted 
 
 Rejected 
 
 
 Number 
 
 Per cent of 
 total appli- 
 cants 
 
 Number 
 
 Per cent of 
 total appli- 
 cants 
 
 Total for five years 
 
 747,704 
 
 157,043 
 
 21 
 
 590,661 
 
 79 
 
 In order, therefore, that all citizens may be properly 
 trained and prepared to perform effectively all their duties, 
 no matter what they may be, we recommend and strongly 
 urge that the necessary steps be taken to provide for all 
 the schools of the state a complete and thorough system 
 of physical training. This system should be compulsory for 
 all pupils, and should include carefully selected exercises 
 adapted to the different ages of pupils, and designed to 
 protect their health, stimulate bodily functions, and promote 
 physical strength. It should apply to all girls as well as 
 boys. It should aim to prevent bodily abnormalities or de- 
 formities, or to correct them if they are found to exist. It 
 should include personal and community sanitation, first aid 
 in emergencies, bandaging, and all forms of instruction in 
 personal safety. It should encourage outdoor activities. It
 
 I70 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 should provide abundant games for all pupils in which group 
 activities are prominent, and in which appeal may be made 
 to the spirit of competition. It may include those features of 
 military drill which properly serve the purposes of physical 
 training, but which must be regarded as subordinate to these 
 purposes. It may even include practice with the miniature 
 or the service rifle, if such practice is regarded as necessary 
 to develop steadiness of nerve, bodily control, and accuracy 
 of sight. In the case of such exercises the educational error 
 does not lie in their use, but in the exaggerated military 
 purpose which they are made to serve. All the features and 
 exercises of the thorough course of physical training which 
 we recommend should be intimately connected and interre- 
 lated, on the one hand with the moral or character-forming 
 instruction of the schools and on the other with the com- 
 plete provisions for medical inspection which have already 
 been made compulsory by law. 
 
 Now boy service should be democratic. The ex- 
 emptions, whatever they are, must be made on a 
 basis of the equality of the schoolboy and the boy 
 engaged in wage-earning. A boy should not be 
 excused from his rightful preparedness training be- 
 cause he happens to be employed as a bell boy in 
 a metropolitan hotel. Such work is not industrially 
 productive, nor could any devised system of mili- 
 tary equivalents make it a substitution for personal 
 contribution to national preparedness. 
 
 In the spring of 191 7 the legislature amended 
 the law to include all boys — a drafting of the boy
 
 ORGANIZED BOY POWER 171 
 
 power of the state in much the same way that the 
 European nations in conflict make provisions for 
 the full utilization of man power. An additional 
 amendment, as stated in chapter 49, Laws of 191 7, 
 reads : 
 
 Such requirement as to military training may, in the 
 discretion of the commission, be met in part by such voca- 
 tional training or vocational experience as will, in the opinion 
 of the commission, specifically prepare boys of the ages 
 named for service useful to the state, in the maintenance 
 of defense, in the promotion of public safety, in the con- 
 servation and development of the state's resources, or in 
 the construction and maintenance of public improvement. 
 
 The commission was given power to establish 
 a bureau of vocational training. This, through 
 careful inspection of the work of boys of the ages 
 named in industrial, commercial, and agricultural 
 pursuits, will determine the types of vocational 
 training or vocational experience which, in the 
 opinion of the commission, specifically prepare 
 boys for service useful to the state. 
 
 Such a bureau would, under normal conditions, 
 appoint a few inspectors and investigators to study 
 conditions in order that carefully laid plans might 
 be made for carrying out the provisions of the 
 amendment. But war emergency in the matter of 
 food supply gave the Military Training Commission
 
 172 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 an opportunity to organize at short notice one 
 branch of mihtary-equivalent service, that is, the 
 farm-cadet unit, and it extended an offer of assist- 
 ance to the Food Supply Commission to organize 
 farm-cadet bureaus in each of the six miHtary 
 zones of the state. Through these the MiHtary 
 Training Commission has been useful in placing 
 boys upon farms, and in following up such farm 
 service with a view not only to determining its 
 merit as an equivalent or partial equivalent for 
 military service but also (with the cooperation of 
 church and business organizations, the Y. M. C.A., 
 and the Boy Scouts) to giving the task which 
 these boys have been doing on the farms its 
 proper place in relation to the physical, mental, 
 and social ideals which lie outside the hard and 
 often unfamiliar round of field w^ork. 
 
 Important as this farm-cadet service has been in 
 the matter of looking toward increased production, 
 a more significant work to be developed by the 
 Bureau of Vocational Training is that of interpreting 
 the spirit and purpose of the amendment already 
 referred to, which states that provisions for the 
 military-training requirement may be met in part 
 by certain types of vocational training or vocational 
 experience. The whole program of physical, mili- 
 tary, and vocational training is most significant,
 
 ORGANIZED BOY POWER 173 
 
 wholesome, and far-reaching. It is a program of 
 universal training which will be serviceable for war 
 and peace alike — a program which will require every 
 boy to prepare himself to offer some service in case 
 of need, and which stamps that service as equally 
 patriotic with the narrower military service in which 
 most of the world's supreme valors have been re- 
 corded. As John Finley, Commissioner of Educa- 
 tion in New York State and one of the members 
 of its Military Training Commission, puts it : 
 
 In this amended law we have a program providing, on 
 the one hand, for the defensive training of the soldier and, 
 on the other hand, for the effective mobilization of the re- 
 sources of the nation in training boys for vocations — which 
 training of itself exalts and identifies as patriotic service all 
 the effective activities of our everyday life. It is a con- 
 structive provision for what would have to be done other- 
 wise in time of need through exemptions. 
 
 England has had to reach such a program through an 
 exempting provision in her plan of cooperative service. 
 France has had to come to it by taking men from the 
 front for service behind the lines, Germany is finding it 
 necessary, in the midst of war, to organize her entire man 
 power. 
 
 It is most important that this vocational training 
 or experience should be conscious service. The boy 
 who offers it must clearly understand why it is 
 accepted in part for the required military drill.
 
 174 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 To fail to inform him is to take from his miHtary 
 equivalent the educational value given it by the law. 
 Dr. Finley, in his inimitable way, expresses 
 this conscious service as it might apply to an adult 
 loyal citizenship: 
 
 I make this idea graphic to myself by thinking that 
 every man has an imaginary uniform (as every German 
 soldier and French soldier had in waiting his green-gray or 
 his blue and red uniform), an imaginary uniform of his 
 own measurements always in readiness in home or shop or 
 office or in some public locker, that he may don at call of 
 his community, state, or nation, or perhaps at world need, 
 when under compulsion he goes to vote, to pay his taxes, 
 to fight against dishonesty, inefficiency, or waste, to inform 
 himself upon public questions, or upon his public duties, 
 just as one studies tactics in order to help in his country's 
 defense, or goes to school as an alien to learn the language 
 and institutions of a new land, or joins his neighbors in 
 promoting the health of his community, in conserving re- 
 sources, in securing means of healthful recreation for chil- 
 dren and youth, in improving the highways — when, in 
 short, he performs any one of a hundred offices that are 
 required of him as an efficient unit in an organized society. 
 
 Those who oppose military training in the 
 schools will be less critical of its requirements 
 when they are open to the broader interpretation 
 suggested in the amendment of 191 7. Those to 
 whom the thought of training the young in the
 
 ORGANIZED BOY POWER 175 
 
 carrying of arms is repugnant may here see the 
 educative value of universal service. Early in 
 the war Germany discovered that the relation of 
 industrial to military service is 2.7 per cent ; that 
 is, to keep one man in the field, nearly three men 
 must work in those occupations, industrial and 
 agricultural, which support the nation at war.^ It 
 is the work of the New York Military Training 
 Commission to select as a partial military equiva- 
 lent such vocational training or vocational experi- 
 ence as will, in the present or in the future, 
 serve the nation. 
 
 What shall the nature of this work be ? The 
 decision is to be left to the state Military Training 
 Commission. It is easy to weed out those occu- 
 pations which have no national productive or de- 
 fensive value, but there will be difficulty in selecting 
 those vocations which may or may not be military 
 equivalents, which under war conditions may belong 
 to the work of an industrial or agricultural army, 
 when in peace they seem entirely separate from 
 national service. Such an occupation is that of a 
 junior telegraph operator, which is not of a pro- 
 ductive nature, and yet a very necessary factor in 
 war equipment. The case of a printer's apprentice 
 
 1 Authorities differ widely; some even state that the ratio is now as 
 high as one to eight.
 
 176 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 is less equivocal. Only in rare cases could his 
 work be accepted as a partial substitute for the 
 required service. 
 
 The problem is not to separate the useful from 
 the useless occupations, but to discriminate between 
 those which may be called upon to serve the state 
 and those which have value only to the individual. 
 All the productive and useful occupations are not 
 socialized ; and in selecting those which are partial 
 equivalents for the required military drill, we have 
 to make a distinction which has not been hitherto 
 considered in economic classification of occupations. 
 
 To Ruskin's generation his suggestion that 
 Oxford and Cambridge undergraduates should 
 serve short periods as builders of roads for the 
 empire seemed little short of fantastic. And yet 
 the turn of time may even bring about the con- 
 firmation of this anomaly. 
 
 There is a parallel between the economic sub- 
 stitution for military drill and what William James 
 in an astonishingly pertinent essay written in 19 10 
 calls the " Moral Equivalent of War." 
 
 If there were, instead of military conscription, a con- 
 scription of the whole youthful population to form for a 
 certain number of years a part of the army enlisted against 
 Nature, . . . the military ideals of hardihood and discipline 
 would be wrought into the growing fiber of the people. . . .
 
 A farm camp is not merely a recreational camp, although it may re-create 
 
 the city youth in terms of country life. A group of Long Island Food 
 
 Reserve Battalion boys with the working impulse strong 
 
 Even hot-in- r((iuircs s[)ccial training and was one activil)' in the pre- 
 
 vocational course in agriculture given at the concentration and training 
 
 camp for Junior Volunteers of Maine
 
 Instruction in mechanics, electricity, friction, heat, horsepower, etc. nowadays 
 
 centers about an automobile. This work at Wentworth Institute (Boston, 
 
 Massachusetts) has a military-equivalent value 
 
 To learn a trade in an essential industry is to enlist in national preparedness. 
 
 A corner of a Buffalo (New York) vocational school, teaching plumbing 
 
 and steam fitting
 
 ORGANIZED BOY POWER 177 
 
 To coal and iron mines, to freight trains, to fishing fleets in 
 December, to dishwashing, clothes-washing and window- 
 washing, to road-building and tunnel-making, to foundries 
 and stokeholes, and to the frames of skyscrapers, would our 
 gilded youths be drafted off, according to their choice, to 
 get the childishness knocked out of them, and to come 
 back into society with healthier sympathies and soberer 
 ideas. . . . Such a conscription, with the state of public 
 opinion that would have required it, and the many moral 
 fruits it would bear, would preserve in the midst of a pacific 
 civilization the manly virtues which the military party is so 
 afraid of seeing disappear in peace. 
 
 Liberty Hyde Bailey, author and farmer, formerly 
 director of the New York State College of Agri- 
 culture, in a chapter of a recent book on " Univer- 
 sal Service " expresses in concrete terms a similar 
 thought from the angle of the open country. 
 
 Not of all persons will be required the same duty. What 
 one is, that shall one give. Society will learn of every man 
 and woman what these gifts may be. Some day it will be 
 expected that every able person will report himself, at deter- 
 mined occasions, for definite service, without pay, in one 
 or more of the following privileges, and other privileges, 
 under orderly management and recognized public authority : 
 
 I . To clean up the earth and to keep it sweet, — streets, 
 roads, paths, byways, vacant lots, stream banks, woods, fields, 
 and all open, or public, properties and public works. The 
 clean-up days now becoming popular are the beginnings. Of 
 course this does not mean that the work of street-cleaning
 
 178 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 departments and the like is to be taken over or interfered 
 with ; but there are times for special house cleaning. If 
 every person felt it devolving on him to help in keeping 
 the earth decent, he would be likely to exercise a proper 
 restraint in befouling it; and as charity begins at home, so 
 should his restraint begin on his own premises, even extend- 
 ing to the parts out of sight of the public. 
 
 2. To take part in the construction of halls and premises 
 for community activities. 
 
 3. To aid in the making of beautiful and public places 
 accessible and to protect them. Every community with a 
 rural environment, and practically every small city, has 
 a near-by area that could be reserved and opened by coop- 
 erative action of the people, — days set aside when paths 
 should be made, bridges built, retreats discovered, trees and 
 streams put in shape, insects destroyed. Such reservations 
 are not really public until the people volunteer to help in 
 them. 
 
 The farther places, the real backgrounds of the race, will 
 some day be opened as well as reserved, and made of much 
 use to very many people besides casual visitors and sight- 
 seers. We shall learn how to project whole counties and 
 cities, and even larger units, into the making and keeping 
 of them in a way that is not yet visioned. This can be 
 accomplished as easily as armies can be sent into the field, 
 but it will require a type of organization at which we have 
 not yet arrived. It will be worth while to develop public- 
 service armies. 
 
 4. To demand the freedom of the earth for its inhab- 
 itants, under proper recognition of vested rights. The 
 conception of the freedom of the sea has had an interesting
 
 ORGANIZED BOY POWER 179 
 
 evolution, — the escape from the old sea fear, the long 
 years of piracy, the buccaneers, letters of marque and re- 
 prisal, treaty ports, smuggling, and all the rest ; finally has 
 come the demand of equal opportunities for all and the 
 open door. We must have the open door to fields and 
 shores, to commanding hills that should not be exclusive 
 property ; find trails and walks and avenues to places the 
 people ought to know. All this requires exploration, tramps 
 far and near, maps, propaganda. All scenic parts will be 
 marked. The public shall know all good places. 
 
 5 . To protect the products of the earth ; and to protect 
 the earth itself. The products to which I now refer are 
 those not the property of individuals, — the birds, the beasts, 
 the fish, the vegetation. The bird sanctuaries now so well 
 accepted are good beginnings, as also the wild-flower preser- 
 vation societies, the nature-study groups, and many others; 
 but the individual is not yet sufficiently impressed with this 
 feeling in his own action. 
 
 To protect the earth is to save its fertility. This is the 
 fundamental conservation. Not all persons can participate 
 here, but every citizen can be mindful of the necessity of 
 it and aid in creating public sentiment. I wait for the com- 
 ing together of new organizations or societies that shall 
 have for their purpose the conservation of fertility. These 
 will be much more than agricultural and rural organizations, 
 and their work need not be technical or occupational. They 
 may include all persons, and the discussions and interests 
 may run the range of man's relation to land. 
 
 To leave his piece of earth more productive than when 
 he took it is the obligation of the good farmer, for there 
 are constantly more persons to be supported. In the large
 
 i8o OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 sense every one of us is a farmer, for the keeping of the 
 earth is given to the human race. We begin to understand 
 vaguely what relation the good keeping of the land bears to 
 national questions. 
 
 6. To keep the public health, — to protect it by keeping 
 one's body well, by taking care to commit no nuisance, to 
 contaminate no source of public infection, and to lend one's 
 self to participate in the correcting of abuses. 
 
 To be physically fit and uncomplaining is a public duty. 
 Maybe we shall find ways to demand physical training of 
 the people as effective as that afforded by military training 
 but without its sinister intentions. 
 
 Society will take over unto itself the oversight not only 
 of physical training and of providing that children shall be 
 well born but also more and more the oversight of the treat- 
 ment of disease, as a public necessity. We shall train the 
 sound to care for the unsound. 
 
 7. To come with personal succor as well as with money and 
 goods in time of flood and disaster, to visit the sick and the 
 afflicted, to relieve the poor and unfortunate. We shall learn 
 how to organize the vast resources in men and women who 
 are willing but do not know how, who are undiscovered and 
 untrained, yet who could be shaped into a great army of 
 assistance. 
 
 8. To respond promptly to the call of societies or groups 
 that act in the public interest ; to participate in the many 
 neighborhood cooperations. 
 
 As an illustration of the manner in which a 
 military equivalent may be determined, an illus- 
 tration has been taken from some agricultural
 
 ORGANIZED BOY POWER 
 
 i«i 
 
 activities. Before considering the military equiva- 
 lent in farm work it is necessary to give a brief 
 description of the basis upon which the Military 
 Training Commission will probably work in this 
 matter. The basis, in brief, is the " man work 
 unit " idea as developed by Dr. George F. Warren, 
 Professor of Farm Management, New York State 
 College of Agriculture. 
 
 A man work unit is the average amount of work 
 accomplished by a man in ten hours. A horse 
 work unit is the average amount of work accom- 
 plished by a horse in ten hours. For New York 
 conditions, an acre of the following crops repre- 
 sents the man and horse units indicated below. 
 In a majority of cases the numbers which follow 
 are based upon cost accounts. In some instances, 
 where data were limited, the results are more or 
 less an estimate. 
 
 Man Units 
 
 Horse Units 
 
 Crops 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 Corn for grain husked from shock (New 
 York method) 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 Corn for grain husked from standing stalks 
 (Western method) 
 
 S 
 
 6 
 
 Corn for silage 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 Fodder corn 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 Sweet corn 
 
 lO 
 
 lO 
 
 Potatoes 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 Field beans
 
 l82 
 
 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 Man Units 
 
 Horse Units 
 
 Crops 
 
 lO 
 
 10 
 
 Cabbage 
 
 20 
 
 7 
 
 Tobacco 
 
 5° 
 
 8 
 
 Hops 
 
 15 
 
 12 
 
 Roots (field beets, mangels, etc.) 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 Buckwheat, oats, barley, wheat, spelt, rye, 
 field peas, and mixtures of these 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 Hay for cutting, alfalfa, clover, timothy 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 Oat hay, millet, and other grains cured for hay 
 
 15 
 
 5 
 
 Apples, bearing, when cared for in a commer- 
 cial way 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 
 Apples, bearing, when little or no care is given 
 
 15 
 
 5 
 
 Other tree fruits, bearing 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 Fruit not of bearing age 
 
 20 
 
 5 
 
 Berries 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 Peas for canning factory 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 Seeds (alfalfa, clover, timothy) 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 Sorghum 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 Cotton 
 
 10 to 35 
 
 2 to 10 
 
 Truck crops 
 
 For live stock listed below, the man units and 
 horse units are as indicated. 
 
 Man Units 
 
 Horse Units 
 
 Live Stock (Basis of One) 
 
 IS 
 
 2 
 
 Cows, ordinary dairy (majority grades) 
 
 20 
 
 2 
 
 Cows, pure-bred dairy (majority pure-bred) 
 
 15 
 
 15 
 
 To be added per cow when milk is retailed 
 
 2 
 
 O.I 
 
 Heifers, calves, bulls, steers, and colts when 
 running loose 
 
 2 
 
 O.I 
 
 Steers or other cattle, fattened or only win- 
 tered 
 
 0-5 
 
 0.05 
 
 Breeding ewes and bucks (covers work on 
 lambs)
 
 ORGANIZED BOY POWER 
 
 183 
 
 Man Units 
 
 Horse Units 
 
 Live Stock (Basis of One) 
 
 0.2 
 
 0.02 
 
 Other sheep or lambs, fattened or only win- 
 tered 
 
 3 
 
 0.05 
 
 Brood sows (covers work on pigs till weaned) 
 
 0.5 
 
 O.I 
 
 Boars 
 
 0.5 
 
 0.1 
 
 Other hogs raised during the year 
 
 0.15 
 
 0.02 
 
 Hens and other poultry 
 
 0.15 
 
 0.02 
 
 Pullets, etc., raised during the year (covers 
 work on cockerels) 
 
 I.O 
 
 0.05 
 
 Bees, per hive 
 
 6 
 
 0.0 
 
 Day-old chicks per 1000 
 
 In order to interpret the man-work-unit idea in 
 terms of the miUtary requirements of New York 
 State that 1 6-year-, 17-year-, and 1 8-year-old boys are 
 to participate in such mihtary training or as a par- 
 tial equivalent may offer farm experience or farm 
 training, it is necessary to translate the number 
 of hours required for such military instruction into 
 crop values or, to use the term already understood, 
 man work units. 
 
 Since there are 288 days or 41.1 weeks in the 
 required military-training period (September first to 
 the fifteenth day of June next ensuing), a boy must 
 drill 123.3 hours. This represents on the average 
 12.33 rnan work units. 
 
 For example, if a boy grows 1.2 acres of potatoes 
 or takes entire charge of .6 acres of berries, includ- 
 ing cultivation, picking, marketing, etc., for a period
 
 1 84 
 
 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 of one year, he has spent in productive agricultural 
 work the number of hours required for military drill. 
 
 Man Units 
 
 Military Equivalent 
 
 6 
 
 2.05 acres corn for grain husked from shock (New York 
 
 
 method) 
 
 5 
 
 2.46 acres corn for silage 
 
 6 
 
 2.05 acres sweet corn 
 
 lO 
 
 1.233 acres potatoes 
 
 4 
 
 3.08 acres field beans 
 
 lO 
 
 1.233 acres cabbage 
 
 20 
 
 .616 acres tobacco 
 
 5° 
 
 .246 acres hops 
 
 15 
 
 .822 acres roots (field beets, mangels, etc.) 
 
 2 
 
 6.16 acres buckwheat, oats, barley, wheat, spelt, rye (field 
 
 
 peas and mixtures of these) 
 
 ' I 
 
 12.33 acres hay per cutting (alfalfa, clover, timothy) 
 
 2 
 
 6. 1 6 acres oat hay, millet, and other grains cured for hay 
 
 15 
 
 .822 acres apples, bearing, when cared for in commercial 
 
 
 way 
 
 3 
 
 4.1 1 acres apples, bearing, when little or no care is given 
 
 15 
 
 .822 acres other tree fruits, bearing 
 
 2 
 
 6. 1 6 acres fruit not of bearing age 
 
 20 
 
 .616 acres berries 
 
 3 
 
 4. 1 1 acres peas for canning factory 
 
 I 
 
 12.33 acres seed (alfalfa, clover, timothy) 
 
 3 
 
 4.1 1 acres sorghum 
 
 lo to 35 
 
 1.233 acres truck crops 
 
 In the case of live stock a boy can do all the man 
 work necessary in caring for 6 heifers or 82 hens or 
 approximately one ordinary cow in the time which 
 another boy may be giving to military training.
 
 ORGANIZED BOY POWER 
 
 185 
 
 The exact military equivalents are shown in the 
 second column. 
 
 Man Units 
 
 Military Equivalent 
 
 15 
 
 .82 cows, ordinary dairy (majority grades) 
 
 20 
 
 .616 cows, pure-bred dairy (majority pure-bred) 
 
 2 
 
 6.16 heifer, calves, bulls, steers, and colts 
 
 1 
 
 6. 1 6 steers or other cattle, fattened or only wintered 
 
 0.5 
 
 24.66 breeding ewes and bucks (covers work on lambs) 
 
 0.2 
 
 61 .6 other sheep or lambs, fattened or only wintered 
 
 3 
 
 4. 1 1 brood sows (covers work on pigs till weaned) 
 
 0-5 
 
 24.66 other hogs raised during year 
 
 0-5 
 
 24.66 boars 
 
 0.15 
 
 82 hens and other poultry 
 
 0.15 
 
 82 pullets, etc., raised during the year (covers work on 
 
 
 cockerels) 
 
 0-3 
 
 41. 1 hives of bees 
 
 6 
 
 2.05 thousand day-old chicks 
 
 Military equivalents as related to farm training 
 or farm experience appear to be much easier to 
 develop than those concerning mechanical training 
 and experience, especially where the work of 16- 
 year-old to 19-year-old boys is concerned. 
 
 At the present writing there seems to be on 
 the part of the public no very clear understanding 
 of the government's policy relative to exemption 
 for persons who are performing industrial and 
 farm service. If it is difficult to determine an ex- 
 emption policy for drafted men, it is very evident
 
 i86 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 that when boys of i6, 17, and 18 years of age have 
 become industrial drifters and have not decided 
 upon a vocational career, the determination of a 
 military-equivalent policy for them is a problem 
 much harder of solution. 
 
 Again, a study of boys' occupations reveals the fact 
 that only a very small proportion of those "above 
 the age of 16 years and not over the age of 19 
 years" who are at work in our cities are engaged 
 in occupations that will specifically prepare them 
 for service that has productive or defensive value. 
 Under the auspices of the Committee on Voca- 
 tional Help to Minors the Bureau of Attendance 
 of New York City made an extended survey, dur- 
 ing the summer of 191 5, of 5000 children who 
 had left school between the ages of 14 and 16 
 and entered industry. Because of the vast amount 
 of labor involved in tabulating the data that were 
 collected, a random sampling was made of 150 
 boys and the same number of girls from each of 
 5 attendance districts. The 5 districts were selected 
 to represent as nearly as possible the general char- 
 acter of the city. Each of these 1500 cases, 750 
 boys and 750 girls, was given a key number so 
 that when the information was tabulated it would 
 be possible to identify each case and verify the 
 information. Of the 750 boys 546 were within
 
 ORGANIZED BOY POWER 187 
 
 the ages designated by this statute, 188 were 
 under 16 years of age and 16 of the boys were 
 19 years old. 
 
 Half of the boys were either errand-messengers, 
 clerks, or ofhce boys. There were 213 in the 
 errand-messenger service, 107 clerks, and 55 office 
 boys. Another 100 were either stock boys, wagon 
 boys, or packers and wrappers. The largest trade 
 group was made up of 14 boys who were classed 
 as machinists' apprentices, and the second largest 
 trade group, that of electricians, had but 5 boys. 
 
 The departments in which these 750 boys were 
 working indicate the nature of the employment. 
 There were 265 in offices, 134 in the shop depart- 
 ments of factories, 165 in shipping and delivery 
 departments, 92 in salesrooms, 35 in stock rooms, 
 31 in other departments, and 28 cases where the 
 investigator had failed to secure this information. 
 
 A careful study of the work done by each of 
 the 750 boys resulted in the selection of 32 who 
 seemed to be doing work that might give them the 
 specific training indicated as essential. The result 
 of this study can be summarized under the headings 
 of the trades the boys were learning. 
 
 Blacksmith. The one boy apprenticed to this trade had 
 been working in the shop for seventeen months, was 
 earning ^13 a week, and was perfectly satisfied with his
 
 l88 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 work. So he was likely to continue until he learned 
 the trade. 
 
 Brass worker. Of the two boys of this group, one had 
 served twelve months and the other twenty-four months 
 at the trade. They earned respectively ^5 and $6.50 a 
 week and both intended to remain at the trade until it 
 was learned. 
 
 Carpenter. There were two boys serving as carpenter's 
 helpers. With one it was simply a temporary position. 
 The other had been working at the trade for a year, and 
 although he was receiving but ^4 a week, he intended to 
 remain at the trade. 
 
 Electrician. Three of the five boys working at this 
 trade had been employed for over eighteen months as 
 electricians' helpers. The other two had had four months 
 and two months respectively of such experience. The 
 five all expressed a determination to remain long enough 
 to learn the trade. 
 
 Ship fitter. The one boy in this group, although out of 
 school over a year, had been working at the navy yard 
 but two months. 
 
 Locks7nith. With only ten days' experience this boy 
 was ready to quit. 
 
 Machinist. The average time spent by the 14 boys 
 classified as machinists was less than three and one-half 
 months, and not one of the group had worked as long as 
 a year. Three were running drill presses, i was clean- 
 ing the wheels and pipes of a feather-bone machine, 2 
 were not employed. Most of these were dissatisfied and 
 looking for other work. A boy who had been working
 
 ORGANIZED BOY POWER 189 
 
 eleven months on a screwing machine, i who had worked 
 nine months repairing autos, and i who had worked eight 
 months as a machinist's helper — 3 out of the 14 — had 
 worked long enough at the trade to know that they liked 
 it, and expressed the intention of learning the trade. 
 
 Plumber. Three of the four boys classified as plumbers' 
 helpers had worked over a year and a half at the trade, 
 liked the work, and expected to follow it. The fourth boy 
 was using it as a temporary job. 
 
 Solderer. The one boy in this line was dissatisfied with 
 the job and with his pay. 
 
 Sheet-metal tvorker. The one boy serving as a tin-roofer's 
 helper had worked for the firm for a year and was per- 
 fectly satisfied with all conditions. 
 
 There seem to be 14 of the 750 boys who had 
 been working long enough at a trade and were 
 sufficiently pleased with the prospects for the 
 future to make one safe in saying that they 
 would probably complete their apprenticeship — 
 although this conclusion may not be justified. 
 These 14 were distributed as follows: 
 
 Blacksmith i 
 
 Brass worker 2 
 
 Carpenter i 
 
 Electrician 3 
 
 Machinist 3 
 
 Plumber 3 
 
 Sheet-metal worker i 
 
 Total 14
 
 I90 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 This study of Mr. Chatiield's shows that not 
 only were very few of the boys between the ages 
 of 1 6 and 19 receiving vocational experience that 
 would train them to be useful to the state in the 
 maintenance of defense or in the other interests 
 of the state as outlined in the bill, but also boys 
 of these ages are likely to change their work rather 
 frequently. There were 184 of these 750 boys 
 who had been out of school between three and 
 four years when this study was made. Of these 
 184 boys 41 were still working at the job they 
 first had when they left school, 47 were on the 
 second job, 41 were on the third job, and 13 had 
 made eight or more changes. 
 
 I know of no study which more clearly points out 
 the " blind alleyness " of the employment of chil- 
 dren. However, some of us, including Dr. David 
 Snedden of Columbia University, feel that a better 
 term than " blind-alley occupations " would be 
 " occupations involving juvenile employment." To 
 us the evil of errand-messenger, clerk, or office-boy 
 service is not that boys wander into or are thrust 
 into a line of work which may be a blind alley, but 
 rather that 710 provision is made in tJie public-school 
 system for giving the boys a short preparatory 
 training helpful to them, in this tem^porary service^ 
 and that no training which would help them, to get
 
 ORGANIZED BOY POWER 191 
 
 out of such work is given them in the office^ store, 
 or factory. If society would frankly recognize that 
 there are juvenile employments and that boys might 
 well work in them while they are juveniles and yet 
 be trained through such work, and apart from such 
 work in continuation schools, to discover themselves 
 and to prepare themselves for other work, we might 
 develop a constructive educational program. 
 
 This study certainly shows the waste of the boy 
 power of the state and proves conclusively that 
 there is need for the state to grapple consciously 
 with the problem of conserving its youth ; and 
 when one reads this summary of an accurate and 
 previously unpublished report, one is led to believe 
 that William James, John Dewey, Liberty Hyde 
 Bailey, and John Finley are right in their conten- 
 tion that there should be a mobilization of the boy 
 force of the state looking toward conservation of 
 the boy power that it may lead into training for 
 skilled work, into citizenship, into sturdy health, 
 and into right living.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 RED CROSS AND OTHER COMMUNITY WORK 
 
 Thoughtful people are becoming disposed to 
 criticize the present methods employed in many 
 of our sewing, cooking, and millinery classes. It 
 is felt that the girls in these classes, through the 
 work which they do, think of themselves first, last, 
 and all the time. They spend time on embroidery 
 to cater further to decorative instincts long estab- 
 lished by custom without much thought as to 
 artistic values. They spend half a year making 
 graduation dresses which they may wear before 
 admiring parents. They copy the latest fashion 
 in hats without thought as to utility or beauty. 
 They knit feathery neck pieces and neglect stock- 
 ing darning. They laboriously sew by hand articles 
 which had better be made on a machine. 
 
 Our girls must learn to think of others than 
 
 themselves. Their sewing and millinery must get 
 
 away from the individual-problem idea. Of course 
 
 girls must learn to sew by hand, especially when 
 
 the home in these days teaches so little in the way 
 
 of hand sewing. But after they have learned to 
 
 192
 
 RED CROSS WORK 193 
 
 sew by hand, they should not continue to use 
 hand sewing on work that should be done on a 
 sewing machine. Of course it is wise to train 
 girls to make some of their own clothing, but to 
 make this clothing without regard to study of tex- 
 tiles or adaptation to personal needs or the eternal 
 fitness of things is not in accord with the educa- 
 tional purpose of our schools, which is to train 
 personal character as well as to develop skill in 
 domestic arts. When the family hosiery needs 
 darning, and the small children of the family need 
 clothes, and the schoolgirl needs a middy blouse 
 or a school uniform, it is unwise to spend so 
 much energy on continuing a type of domestic 
 art which lacks the socialized appeal necessary 
 to conform with modern social needs and modern 
 industrial methods. 
 
 The teachers of household arts are beginning 
 to see the need for reform. Many are bringing 
 into the school life such problems as the mending 
 and darning of the family clothes; cooking school 
 luncheons; managing day nurseries for babies of 
 working mothers; making table and bed linen for 
 hospitals; making jams and jellies for charitable 
 societies. Such teachers have welcomed the oppor- 
 tunity offered by the present war to forward the 
 new idea of socializing domestic-arts work. They
 
 194 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 have been impatient of the dilettante work which 
 they formerly did when their girls practically 
 wasted hours of school time in making things 
 which could be bought for less than the cost of 
 materials, to say nothing about the cost of time 
 of the girls themselves, who are in school but a 
 few years at best — years when they should be re- 
 ceiving instruction in subjects which have real 
 training values. These progressive teachers have 
 desired that their girls develop more speed; that 
 they receive training helpful in meeting the actual 
 trade conditions in dressmaking and millinery 
 shops ; that they learn to work together on some 
 common problem which all may see is worth while 
 and for a purpose which is larger than themselves. 
 Red Cross work has given these teachers the op- 
 portunity which they sought. They believe that 
 the Red Cross work during the war may easily be 
 converted into community work after the war is 
 over. Hospitals, charity organizations, orphan asy- 
 lums, and homes are always with us. The great 
 appeal now, obviously, is Red Cross work. The 
 permanent appeal is always the need of the home 
 and the community. 
 
 An activity which has been very general through- 
 out the country, as well as in France and England, 
 has been the voluntary contribution of the work of
 
 RED CROSS WORK 195 
 
 women's organizations to the Red Cross Society. 
 The making of hospital supplies belongs more 
 peculiarly to women than do many forms of war 
 work, and it is easily incorporated into the sewing 
 courses of our elementary and secondary schools. 
 A feature that makes it especially adaptable to 
 schools is the standardization by the present busi- 
 ness manager, under whose direction blue prints, 
 photographs, and written and pictured specifications 
 have been prepared. 
 
 Those of us who are interested in the methods 
 employed in vocational schools to turn out standard 
 products appreciate the benefit to the girl of learning 
 to work from well-planned directions and of turn- 
 ing out a product exactly corresponding to specifi- 
 cations. It is believed that this manner of doing 
 the work holds an educational value which entitles 
 it to a place in the sewing course of every school. 
 Both technique and speed elements are necessary 
 for the condition of need which the Red Cross is 
 meeting. As pupils are called upon to respond to 
 this demand for quantities of garments and hospital 
 supplies, as well as for accurately made articles, 
 they will become trained in speed and accuracy 
 while rendering a distinct service to their country. 
 
 In the state of New York about 3000 girls in 
 sewing classes began work for the Red Cross on
 
 196 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 March i, 191 7, under the direction of Anna Hedges 
 Talbot, state speciaHst in girls' vocational work; 
 the work being done voluntarily by both schools 
 and pupils. To obtain materials, arrangements 
 were first made with local Red Cross chapters; 
 but in many places the lack of a chapter or its 
 lack of funds prevented the cooperation with the 
 schools, and material was supplied by liberal con- 
 tributions from women's clubs, which realized the 
 necessity of making use of the offer of the girls' 
 services, thus causing more work to be turned 
 into Red Cross channels than would have been 
 possible without this financial aid. In organizing 
 the work the various localities sent an authorized 
 school person, generally the teacher of household 
 arts, to confer with the Red Cross people as to 
 what articles were needed and how they should 
 be made, and to bring back to the school written 
 specifications, paper patterns, and models. In many 
 places the teachers took a course of instruction 
 under some Red Cross nurse specifically qualified 
 to give sewing instruction. 
 
 In this careful way the schools proceeded, and 
 within six weeks returned reports to the State 
 Education Department showing that every kind of 
 article which was needed, from the simplest surgical 
 dressings to the most carefully fiiiished surgeon's
 
 RED CROSS WORK 197 
 
 gown, had been made by about 3000 girls working 
 on an average of one or two hours a week during 
 their regular school time. That none of this work 
 had to be ripped or done over when it reached the 
 Red Cross headquarters reflects credit on both 
 girls and instructors. 
 
 One comparatively small sewing class in the 
 vocational school at Mount Vernon, New York, 
 filled a box for the Belgian Relief, according to 
 Red Cross specifications, as follows: 
 
 1 8 hot-water-bag covers 9 pairs slippers 
 
 54 sheets 9 convalescent gowns 
 
 36 pillow cases 36 pairs socks 
 
 27 wash cloths 18 pairs bed socks 
 
 27 pairs of pajamas 18 bath towels 
 
 36 hospital-bed sheets 36 face towels 
 
 In addition this class shipped in a few months over 
 2000 separate articles to Red Cross headquarters; 
 as, for example, 
 
 75 children's dresses 14 chemises 
 
 149 tampon bags 403 body bandages 
 224 baby bootees 42 eye bandages 
 
 219 ward shoes 373 bathing suits 
 
 76 hospital nightshirts 1 2 air cushions 
 
 62 crocheted trench caps 77 pneumonia jackets 
 
 597 slings 50 bath towels 
 
 19 petticoats 
 
 All the schools of the state inquired if they 
 might go on with this work when the schools 
 opened in September. Schools which were not able
 
 198 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 to do the work in the spring were ready to begin 
 on the first day of school in the fall. The work, 
 however, has hitherto been neglected except in 
 the curriculum of schools which have vocational 
 courses, so that only girls electing domestic arts 
 have had the opportunity of doing it as a part of 
 their school program, but there is no reason why 
 it should be limited to these girls. Those who are 
 taking academic courses in high schools — and 
 they greatly outnumber the vocational students 
 — should have a chance to render service through 
 the schools. In this connection it is well to say that 
 the burden of doing productive work in war service 
 should not be limited entirely to students in voca- 
 tional courses. It will be a mistake to throw the 
 burden of useful service upon a special group and 
 in this way help develop the notion that those 
 who take classical courses have nothing to do but 
 look on, while those in vocational courses are to 
 do the work. 
 
 Voluntary after-school clubs were organized in 
 a great many schools, but no voluntary work can 
 be systematized or directed so well as courses 
 incorporated in the curriculum, and it is suggested 
 to the schools of the country that special Red Cross 
 courses be offered and that all girls be expected 
 to devote a few hours a week to the work.
 
 RED CROSS WORK 199 
 
 • ^ 
 
 The following quotation from Edouard Petit's 
 book " De 1' ecole a la guerre " on what the normal 
 schools of France are doing ought to be enough 
 to inspire our American girls. 
 
 The girls of the normal schools of France are working 
 very hard, knitting, sewing, making hospital supplies, in 
 the intervals of their school work ; also acting as laun- 
 dresses, secretaries, bookkeepers, etc. They are not old 
 enough to be nurses. In addition to the work for the 
 armies, they give a part of their time to work for other 
 students. They are providing for the girl students of the 
 normal schools in the invaded districts, many of whom 
 were obliged to make long journeys on foot, clad in sum- 
 mer clothes, with no chance to carry even a change of 
 clothing with them. The school at Fontenay appealed to 
 the normal schools for aid for its students ; other appeals 
 followed, some from schools in the districts from which 
 the invaders were driven out. Very soon in all the normal 
 schools of France girls were cutting and sewing, providing 
 new garments, or garments from their own supply, to be 
 sent to the towns in the north of France. Some of these 
 supplies are held in reserve for the towns that are still to 
 be liberated. One teacher writes : " Our young girls are 
 glad to come to the aid of their fellow students who are not 
 known to them but who are coming to seem nearer as I 
 have them learn about the schools, read the letters that are 
 received, etc. Anything which makes real and tangible the 
 responsibility of this friendly help ought to be encouraged." 
 
 As the need arises, our secondary-school girls will respond 
 in like manner.
 
 200 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 The preparation needed to initiate Red Cross 
 work in any large way in the schools of a state 
 is considerable. There is a good deal of organi- 
 zation and consequent detail connected with it. 
 The domestic-arts teachers of a school district or 
 county ought to be called together and instructed 
 in the minutiae of garment-making and surgical 
 dressings. With the blue prints, photographs, and 
 written specifications already issued by the Red 
 Cross headquarters at Washington these teachers 
 could then work out a full set of directions for 
 each article which would be specific and graphic. 
 These could be printed by the state printer or, 
 better, by the boys in a vocational school. In 
 addition, moving-picture reels of processes carried 
 on according to the most modern methods of 
 workroom procedure could be shown to those who 
 have not been in contact with present-day modes 
 of work. 
 
 In order to excite interest on the part of the 
 community in rural districts where this work has 
 not as yet penetrated to any extent, moving pic- 
 tures of processes of making surgical dressings, 
 pajamas, surgeons' gowns, or children's dresses 
 could be exhibited as illustrating what other sec- 
 tions of the state are already doing. These moving 
 pictures could be taken of girls at work in an
 
 RED CROSS WORK 201 
 
 up-to-date New York City factory, and the reels 
 could be either purchased outright or rented from 
 an educational-film company. In Washington the 
 Department of the Interior has a number of reels 
 which have been put at the disposal of the Red 
 Cross, and will make more if the occasion demands. 
 Slides too could be made showing special opera- 
 tions, special garments, and special methods of 
 arranging work. When public interest has been 
 aroused at a public meeting in a small center, the 
 school will find it easy to take up the work and 
 push it forward. The person in charge of the work 
 would have to keep in constant touch with the 
 Red Cross headquarters as to the needs for gar- 
 ments and hospital supplies, as well as to the 
 changes that from time to time have to be made 
 in the kind and quality of supplies. A chart could 
 be made of the capacity as to equipment and num- 
 ber of pupils, and the present grade of their work- 
 ing ability, for each place where a school is located. 
 Brief reports could be sent to a state director from 
 these schools as to what they could make, when 
 they could make it, and when specified articles 
 could be finished. Thus there would be a line 
 out from a central supervisor to each school in 
 the state where pupils are old enough to do any 
 work of this public-service nature. Along this line
 
 202 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 would travel the information as to what was being 
 done and what would be the next thing to be done. 
 
 Knitting by hand is one of the occupations 
 which many girls and women are taking up. 
 One drawback to hand-knitting is that it takes 
 a good deal of time, and in the case of socks, 
 at least, the results of amateur work may be 
 uncomfortable to the wearer. It is suggested that 
 schools put in knitting machines. One school at 
 Yonkers, New York, has such a machine. It en- 
 ables its operator to finish a sock every twenty min- 
 utes, or 12 pairs in an eight-hour day. It is possible 
 to knit wristlets and sleeveless sweaters on these 
 machines. The Vacation War Relief Committee 
 of New York City has been responsible for the 
 sale of 980 of these machines, on which over 85,000 
 pairs of socks have been made during the past year. 
 
 A letter written to me by Mettie B. Hills, Director 
 of Girls' Work in Troy, New York, relative to her 
 Red Cross work is so full of human interest and 
 gives in such detail the excellent methods which 
 she employed that I quote it in full. It will serve as 
 suggestive material for other equally enthusiastic 
 and competent teachers. 
 
 My office has been turned into a cutting room. Girls 
 are now at a large table cutting hospital bed shirts with 
 just as little waste as possible. Smaller girls are snipping
 
 RED CROSS WORK 203 
 
 the few waste pieces, and one little girl at the end of the 
 table is filling a fracture pillow with the snips. In my 
 machine-sewing room the girls are making hospital bed 
 shirts. Each girl has a different operation. The shirts 
 move through the cutting room to this room and from 
 one machine to the next just as they do in a factory. They 
 finally reach the inspection table, where they are inspected 
 as they are folded, and an inspection card is placed in the 
 pocket. They are then piled up for that final inspection 
 which I give every article before it goes to our stock room. 
 Here we hold all articles until we have enough to make 
 the moving worth while, and then they are taken to 
 Red Cross headquarters in the city truck. The chairmen 
 of each Red Cross division of our local chapter are notified 
 beforehand that things are coming and they are at head- 
 quarters to receive our work and sign for it. I tell you, 
 it is a big day for all when the school work is turned in. 
 I hear about it for weeks afterward. 
 
 The girls do not stay at one operation. As soon as they 
 are ready, they are promoted to the next. [And in this con- 
 nection may I call the reader's attention to the chapter which 
 brought out the new spirit of teaching the household arts ?] 
 
 The little jacket which is hanging in my clothespress is 
 only the beginning of a big piece of work which I expect 
 to push during the winter, a piece of work which I believe 
 will do more to standardize the girls' work than anything 
 we have yet done. 
 
 Another room is given over to knitting, and the girls 
 pass from one type of work to another. We have a teacher 
 from the Red Cross rooms who is showing the older girls 
 how to make oakum pads. The work is really fascinating,
 
 204 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 and fortunately we no longer have to think of the money 
 for the materials, as the work done in the schools has been 
 of so much higher standard that the local chapter has voted 
 me ^500 in order that there might be no danger of our 
 stopping the work. I am inclosing a list of what our schools 
 have done in the past three months. 
 
 I. For the Red Cross Society 
 
 1. Hospital Supplies 
 
 Hospital boots 48 
 
 Hospital shoulder wraps 36 
 
 Hospital shirts 156 
 
 Pajama suits 48 
 
 Surgeons' operating gowns 6 
 
 Surgeons' operating caps 12 
 
 Surgeons' operating helmets 48 
 
 Slings 492 
 
 I -inch bandages 12 
 
 2-inch bandages 13 rolls 
 
 2. Surgical dressings 22 
 
 Oakum pads 20 
 
 Fracture pillows 20 
 
 n. For the Soldiers' Welfare League 
 
 1. "Housewives" for Second New York Regiment 48 
 
 2. " George Washington kits " for Second New York 
 
 Regiment 
 
 3. Neckerchiefs for Second New York Regiment . 120 
 
 4. Pajama suits 32 
 
 in. For the National Navy Comforts League 
 
 1 . Knitted mufflers for the army and navy . . 
 
 2. Knitted sleeveless jackets for the army and navy 
 
 3. Knitted wristlets for the army and navy . . 
 
 4. Knitted caps for the army, navy, and aviators 
 
 5. Knitted hospital socks 
 
 313 
 25 
 40 pairs 
 
 2 
 
 7 pairs
 
 RED CROSS WORK 205 
 
 IV. For the Surgical Dressings Committee (French) 
 
 1. Slings 
 
 2. Fracture pillows 
 
 3. Eye binders 
 
 V. For Belgian Relief Committee 
 
 I . Kits for small children (full set of clothes) 
 
 VI. For National League for Woman's Service (adults) 
 
 1 . Two commissariat classes 
 
 2. Motor classes with 30 enrolled 
 
 Of course the Red Cross work need not be 
 limited to girls and women. Boys under 14 are 
 able to pick over oakum and to do other work that 
 girls of the same age can do. The older boys 
 can adjust and tend the knitting machines and 
 pack and deliver the finished product. 
 
 Men and women in many of the state institu- 
 tions will be glad to contribute a share in service. 
 Thomas Mott Osborne, while warden at Sing Sing, 
 organized through the Mutual Welfare League a 
 large class of men who enthusiastically gave up 
 their evening periods of recreation in order that 
 they might knit for soldiers in foreign fields. 
 
 A number of young boys, none over 14, from 
 Troy and Albany orphan asylums were taken in 
 auto trucks 30 miles into the country to a currant- 
 producing section, where they picked 5000 quarts 
 of currants which had been donated to the county
 
 2o6 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 Red Cross organization. These currants were 
 shipped in a refrigerator car 90 miles down the 
 river to Yonkers, New York, where the girls made 
 them into jelly and currant juice, the sugar being 
 donated by a local refinery. 
 
 Possibly the largest service that boys can render 
 will be the making of Red Cross splints. As has 
 already been stated in another chapter the Cana- 
 dian schoolboys are doing a great deal of this 
 work in connection with their manual training. 
 An article in a recent issue of the Manual Train- 
 ing Magazine describes in detail the work of the 
 manual-training centers of British Columbia. These 
 splints are made merely for first aid, and are used 
 where it is not necessary that they conform exactly 
 to the contour of the limbs or body. They are 
 padded a little with cotton or cloth and fitted on 
 the injured part of the soldier. 
 
 A general conception prevails that Red Cross 
 work is limited to battle-field relief, but it must 
 be remembered that this organization also carries 
 on civilian relief. It is very likely, as time goes 
 on, that the schools will come to realize that there 
 is probably no better agency than the Red Cross 
 with which they can associate themselves in allay- 
 ing the suffering and relieving the distress in the 
 community. It must be remembered that the Red
 
 RED CROSS WORK 207 
 
 Cross is splendidly organized, with its great central 
 headquarters at Washington, its division head- 
 quarters in larger groups of states, and its local 
 chapters in every county. There is no activity of 
 the Red Cross which a child cannot duplicate in its 
 own sphere of life, and the American school may 
 well become a center of interest in Red Cross work 
 in time of war. One of the departments already 
 organized is that of Home Service, which exists 
 to help families maintain their standards of living. 
 School-service work under a Junior Red Cross has 
 been organized in order to bring the schools into 
 direct touch with the work. The schools can give 
 lessons in first aid, elementary hygiene, and home 
 care of the sick, in home dietetics, and in the 
 preparation of surgical dressings. It can make 
 the necessary supplies for local soldiers who are 
 in mobilization camps. It can make supplies for 
 the soldiers' families, especially during the winter 
 months. It can raise money by means of enter- 
 tainments of an educational nature, and here op- 
 portunities are often presented to correlate the 
 work with history and English. In short, during 
 the stress of war, with its rising cost of food, its 
 industrial changes, its uncertainties in living con- 
 ditions, with the home often handicapped by the 
 withdrawal of the chief wage earner, there will be
 
 2o8 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 an excellent opportunity for the school to come in 
 with its aid. The diet of the family, both in quality 
 and variety, may be improved through the helpful 
 advice of the teacher of home economics; children 
 who are in need of medical care may be sent to 
 the dispensary. The Home Service Department 
 suggests that teachers may do helpful vocational- 
 guidance work ; for in the absence of father and 
 older brothers many a boy and girl can be helped 
 by a teacher's encouragement to go into occupations 
 where there is a future, where skill can be acquired, 
 and where there is a chance for advancement. 
 
 The following quotation from the London Times 
 of some Red Cross work in France pointedly illus- 
 trates what home and school service in the Red 
 Cross movement may mean in America. 
 
 The most detailed enumeration would hardly exhaust the 
 activities of education in the common cause — voluntary 
 contributions to the national funds deducted from the sala- 
 ries of teachers ; hberal subscriptions from pupils ; partici- 
 pation in the collection of gold ; the dispatch of packets to 
 soldiers, and of books to the children of reconquered Alsace ; 
 help given to orphans whom a school or class has taken 
 under its charge ; manual labor on behalf of soldiers at the 
 front, the wounded, the lame, and prisoners ; material or 
 moral assistance to refugees ; a welcome given to all aban- 
 doned children, Belgian or French, in the families of 
 masters or of friends of the school ; correspondence with
 
 Service recognizes no school grading. Girls of the lower grades are snipping 
 
 waste pieces for fracture pillows and working with the older girls who are 
 
 cutting hospital bed shirts, Troy, New York 
 
 -.-■" 
 
 1 ^^■■11 tm^^m 
 
 
 ■r ^ ^^ 
 
 
 li t 
 
 J 
 
 iHHM 
 
 The new spirit of household arts in the schools is based upon the project 
 
 plan and community service. War needs create new school practices. Troy 
 
 (New York) girls at work on Red Cross supplies
 
 »■ 
 
 V.|g 
 
 A country school need not be idle during the summer. This one housed a 
 group of farm cadets 
 
 Plying squadron leaving' carnp on an emergency call for berry pickers at 
 Highland, New York
 
 RED CROSS WORK 209 
 
 soldiers at the front, wounded, and prisoners ; attendance at 
 the funeral of soldiers who have died of their wounds ; the 
 public reception by schools, lyc^es, and universities of col- 
 leagues or old pupils wounded, promoted, or quoted in dis- 
 patches ; befriending soldiers who have no family to look 
 after them ; the institution of workrooms for men and women 
 who are out of work ; participation in the celebration of Bel- 
 gian Day, the Serbian Day, the French Day, the Day of the 
 75, the Day of the Orphans, and so on, — tasks which will 
 have to be continued during the coming school year, because 
 the need for them will still be present, and doubtless, for 
 some of them at least, during the years immediately after 
 the war, when the school will still have before it a splendid 
 opportunity for social service. 
 
 President Wilson has honored the school children 
 of our country by a proclamation dated September 
 18, 191 7, in which he calls upon them to do their 
 part in the war by joining the Junior Red Cross, 
 thus assisting in the mercy work of the senior 
 organization. A portion of his message is quoted : 
 
 The school is the natural center of your life. Through it 
 you can best work in the great cause of freedom to which 
 we have all pledged ourselves. 
 
 Our Junior Red Cross will bring to you opportunities of 
 service to your community and to other communities all 
 over the world, and guide your service with high and reli- 
 gious ideals. It will teach you how to save in order that 
 suffering children elsewhere may have the chance to live. 
 It will teach you how to prepare some of the supplies which
 
 2IO OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 wounded soldiers and homeless families lack. It will send 
 to you through the Red Cross bulletins the thrilling stories 
 of relief and rescue. And, best of all, more perfectly than 
 through any of your other school lessons, you will learn by 
 doing those kind things under your teacher's direction to 
 be the future good citizens of this great country which we 
 all love. 
 
 Our President is a master of good pedagogy as 
 well as a leader of men, and he expresses the very 
 best in modern educational thought. He tells the 
 children to think of their school as the natural cen- 
 ter of their lives ; to serve the community in which 
 they live; to reach out through service and study 
 to the larger world outside ; to have behind all 
 action high ideals ; to save that others less fortu- 
 nate may have ; to learn how to do and through 
 doing how to grow ; to learn directly of the world 
 of action while it is in action ; to work with their 
 elders for a common purpose, — the common pur- 
 pose of being useful citizens of our great country.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 REEDUCATION OF THE DISABLED 
 
 In all probability not one person in a hundred 
 ever heard the word "reeducation" before reading 
 the very recent newspaper accounts of the gov- 
 ernment's plans as announced by Surgeon-general 
 Gorgas for rehabilitating and reeducating the dis- 
 abled soldiers. We have been in the habit of seeing 
 blinded and crippled men selling lead pencils at 
 street corners, and we have given our pity and our 
 penny. We have seen the wonderful rugs woven 
 by the blind (assisted in the designing and setting 
 up by people who could see), and we have bought 
 them, impelled by a sympathetic interest in a 
 charitable cause. We have heard some exceptional 
 person, who has overcome tremendous physical dis- 
 abilities, describe her methods of studying college 
 subjects and competing successfully with those 
 who are unhandicapped, and we have said " How 
 wonderful ! " and stopped thinking at that point. 
 
 As a nation we have failed in our duty to make 
 the physically handicapped economically self-sup- 
 porting and normally strong. It is an educational
 
 212 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 problem as great as, if not greater than, that of 
 assisting the mental defective. 
 
 Only within two years have the vocational schools 
 of our country even thought of instructing their 
 pupils in the general principles of safety. Only 
 since workingmen's compensation laws and indus- 
 trial insurance have come into the foreground in 
 legislative halls have public men considered the 
 appalling need for " safety-first " instruction in fac- 
 tories and in technical schools. 
 
 For the duration of the war our thought of safety 
 appliances for industrial life in peaceful times sinks 
 into the background, and we think only of devices 
 for preventing suffocation by poisonous gases, of 
 means of withstanding liquid fire, of deflectors for 
 bullets and camouflage for marching troops. But 
 notwithstanding all these precautions, the inevitable 
 results of war are before us. 
 
 The multitude of men who have been injured 
 in the present war is out of all proportion to the 
 number injured in any war with which history or 
 experience makes us acquainted, and the fitting of 
 them to be economically self-supporting is a task 
 of stupendous proportions. For the problem of the 
 support of these men cannot be met entirely by pen- 
 sions ; even if this were possible, the man would thus 
 become a dead weight for the rest of the country
 
 REEDUCATION OF THE DISABLED 213 
 
 to carry, an unenviable position from all points 
 of view. In the case of the professional man, he 
 may, even if handicapped, carry on his work; but 
 the man with a trade, when maimed or blinded, 
 must be taught some other vocation or be provided 
 with some mechanical substitute for his loss in legs 
 or arms and often with special tools and other 
 apparatus which will enable him to carry on his for- 
 mer occupation or a new one. It will not be possible 
 to place all these men as ticket sellers, news vendors, 
 gatemen, and in other positions hitherto appropri- 
 ate for the industrially disabled ; and our vocational 
 schools, the medical profession, and the national 
 government must cooperate in a study of the 
 reeducation of injured soldiers with the aim of 
 putting them on the pay roll. 
 
 On July 31, 191 7, announcement was made 
 through the press of the United States that a 
 government system for the rehabilitation and reedu- 
 cation of men disabled in the fighting abroad would 
 be made an adjunct of the proposed scheme for 
 the federal insurance of soldiers and sailors, and 
 that the plans for the rehabilitation of these men 
 would probably, like those in Canada, be modeled 
 after the systems in use in France and England. 
 It is, of course, part of the government's duty to 
 provide for the future of men crippled in its service.
 
 214 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 It is not the province of the several philanthropic 
 agencies which in the past have commendably 
 endeavored to care for the blind and the crippled 
 by teaching them the handiworks of weaving, brush- 
 making, etc. The work must be done on a sound 
 and scientific basis, and be adjusted to economic 
 conditions on a vast scale such as no philanthropic 
 society can hope to maintain ; that is, it must not 
 be relief work, it must be governmental construc- 
 tive work in reeducation which shall teach the dis- 
 abled man how to overcome the disadvantage of 
 his infirmity in reentering the industrial world. 
 
 To learn the extent of what may be done in this 
 work of rehabilitation, England, Canada, and the 
 United States look to France, — to the municipal 
 vocational-training school for soldiers at Lyons 
 known as L'Ecole J off re and the many schools 
 patterned after it in other cities; to the Institution 
 of St. Maurice, at Paris, which has been estab- 
 lished by the French government to be a model 
 for other institutions ; to the Laboratory of Research 
 on Vocational Work, in Paris, directed by Dr. Jules 
 Amar; and to the Anglo-Belgian hospitals, especi- 
 ally that at Vernon. It has been announced that the 
 United States will pattern its training school after 
 the Institution of St. Maurice, which is a clearing 
 house of experiments and research for the continent.
 
 REEDUCATION OF THE DISABLED 215 
 
 There are also in France, as in England and 
 Canada, convalescent homes for disabled soldiers, — 
 many of which are supported by private benevo- 
 lence, — where trades are taught. At the Institute 
 of Les Amis des Soldats Aveugles, in the suburbs 
 of Paris, the blind soldiers are taught the trades of 
 basket-making, bootmaking, brush-making, netting, 
 harness-making, and bookbinding, the course taking 
 about six months before the pupils become profi- 
 cient. The institution runs its own printing estab- 
 lishment for literature in Braille (the print for the 
 blind). The blind are peculiarly incapacitated, and 
 the occupations open to them are consequently 
 limited. Private benevolence has done much to 
 lessen their economic misfortune, and the govern- 
 ment must do more. Some French doctors believe 
 that tobacco manufacturing and matchmaking are 
 adapted to the blind because of their well-known 
 delicacy of touch ; many hospitals are giving them 
 lessons in the art of massage, for the same reason, 
 believing that the blind man can qualify for this 
 employment in a few months. The work, how- 
 ever, is still in the experimental stage. But the 
 most progressive work in France has been done 
 in the municipal and government training schools 
 in equipping the maimed and crippled for work, 
 and it is this of which this chapter will treat.
 
 2i6 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 The government institution of St. Maurice fol- 
 lows the lead of the now famous L'Ecole J off re, 
 which in turn learned much from a school at 
 Charleroi, maintained before the war for victims 
 of industrial accidents. L'Ecole Joffre was the pio- 
 neer which has blazed the way for the technical in- 
 struction of the wounded. It was founded under 
 the direction of the city of Lyons, with the mayor 
 of the city, Edouard Herriot, most active in the 
 undertaking, and Maurice Barres to spread its 
 fame with winged words. To house it, an old 
 disused chateau in a populous part of the city 
 was put in order late in 19 14, and early in 1915 
 the men discharged from the hospital and pro- 
 nounced suitable for training entered upon their 
 course of instruction. The first one hundred 
 cases received were restricted to those disabled 
 but cured of wounds, the partially paralyzed, and 
 those recovered from amputation. To direct the 
 technical work. Monsieur Baseque, a professor in 
 the industrial-accident school at Charleroi, was 
 chosen. The success of the school was immediate, 
 and by September another was opened in the 
 outskirts of the city to accommodate 80 men. 
 
 Naturally, at first, experiments were made, and 
 the experience of L'Ecole Joffre is most valua- 
 ble to us. Three schemes were inaugurated : one,
 
 REEDUCATION OF THE DISABLED 217 
 
 called placement a domicile, where an allowance 
 was made the man, who was to live in his own 
 home while he entered a workshop to learn a 
 craft of some sort ; another, la mode de rexternat, 
 where the man pupil lived at his home or in 
 lodgings while attending classes daily, receiving 
 at the school at noon a canteen meal in order to 
 save the time which would otherwise be taken in 
 going home ; and a third, le regime de rinternat, 
 where he lived in the institution as a pupil in a 
 boarding school. Experience developed that this 
 last method was the only one which might be 
 adopted with any assurance of success, the others 
 subjecting the men to possible discouragement, 
 through the jealousy shown by other shop workers, 
 the necessarily slow progress, the inequality of pay, 
 the varying degrees of instruction, and insufficient 
 supervision. Canada too, after investigation, has 
 found that the men throughout their training must 
 live at the school and be under supervision, in 
 order to avoid discouragement and the forming of 
 bad habits of idleness and alcoholism, and to insure 
 continuity of interest in their work. 
 
 The condition of entrance to L'Ecole Joffre 
 in Lyons is that the man must be pronounced 
 permanently unfit for military service. Next he 
 is examined to ascertain his fitness for industrial
 
 2i8 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 work, a matter determined by his freedom from dis- 
 ease, his previous work, his general education and 
 abihty, the employment preferred, and the occupa- 
 tions open. Whenever possible, the man is kept 
 in his former employment. This principle is sound 
 economically and psychologically, and must be 
 adhered to in our schools. The employments for 
 which training is given are bookkeeping, short- 
 hand and typewriting, paper-stitching, bookbinding, 
 toy-making, shoemaking, woodworking and draft- 
 ing, tailoring, wood carving, gardening, and machine 
 adjusting. Office work offers special opportunity 
 to the one-handed and the crippled, as stenography 
 and typewriting do to the blind. The course with 
 commercial subjects, it was found, had to be care- 
 fully restricted, for many without sufficient educa- 
 tion wished to take it up, and there was danger of 
 sending too many men into occupations already 
 well supplied with competent workers. 
 
 L'Ecole Joffre is a municipal undertaking, a 
 free school, the men pupils paying no board or 
 tuition. It is in a measure subsidized, for the 
 school receives from the Ministry of War a grant 
 of 3 francs 50 centimes for each pupil for each 
 day's attendance. The other funds to support the 
 school are provided in various ways — popular sub- 
 scriptions and grants by provincial organizations
 
 REEDUCATION OF THE DISABLED 219 
 
 and other official bodies. As for the men them- 
 selves, they do not, while in training, receive the 
 government pension of i franc 70 centimes a day, 
 but the school makes each man an allowance of 
 I franc 25 centimes a day from its own funds, so 
 far as they permit of such liberality. 
 
 The work done by the city of Lyons has been 
 followed in many localities, — Bourges, Bordeaux, 
 Marseille, Rouen, and others, in most cases 
 endowed by the municipalities. At Bourges addi- 
 tional classes are held in silver-engraving, hair- 
 dressing, and locksmith work. 
 
 In the similar school in Marseille, tinsmiths, 
 foundry workers, jewelers, and metal workers are 
 trained. At Cluses, in 19 15, seventy partially dis- 
 abled men were serving an apprenticeship in 
 clock-making. This is sitting work, but it demands 
 the possession of one hand and at least two fin- 
 gers on the other, and an exceptionally good eye, 
 so it is not so generally taught as other trades. 
 At Cluny a course of training has been established 
 for the former workmen who wish to become mas- 
 ter workmen and designers; that is, the school 
 specializes in training those whose ability is above 
 the average. 
 
 It must be remembered that in French provinces 
 there are many more hand processes in use than
 
 220 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 in the United States. Joinery and carpentry, for 
 example, employ tools to make parts which in 
 this country are turned out in factories. The 
 industrial difference is evident in some of the 
 photographs of the rehabilitated French workmen 
 who are shown ingeniously at work with artificial 
 " hands and arms " on processes for which there 
 is no field here. Many French soldiers, too, find 
 employment in toy making, a real industry for 
 France and Germany, but one which is unlikely 
 to be developed here to any extent. In America 
 we must fit our disabled men to tend machines, 
 and not make the blunder of preparing men for 
 operations which are out of date in our standard- 
 ized machine industries. In a very moving little 
 book, " Les jeunes filles fran9aises et la guerre " 
 (Jules Combarieu, Paris, 191 6), we read of a man 
 who was employed in a joinery establishment after 
 suffering the amputation of both hands. His left 
 arm was furnished with a leather glove to which 
 was adapted an ingenious instrument for holding 
 nails. His right arm was fitted with another 
 glove arrangement to which a hammer was at- 
 tached. With the left he took the nails ; and 
 with the right he pounded them into a piece of 
 wood. Marvelous as the achievement may be, in 
 America this workman would belong to the class
 
 REEDUCATION OF THE DISABLED 221 
 
 for whom special relief workshops must be main- 
 tained. Work in reeducation must naturally be 
 adapted to the demands of the vicinity; the 
 French towns of Nancy, Clermont, and Montpellier 
 have not the industrial conditions of Pittsburgh, 
 Worcester, or Birmingham. 
 
 In Paris the model government institution of 
 St. Maurice contains both a convalescent hospital 
 and a training school for discharged patients. It 
 has the advantage over L'Ecole J off re of uniting 
 hospital and school, giving an opportunity of com- 
 bining physical with industrial reeducation. It is 
 therefore possible to have at St. Maurice, under 
 the direction of Dr. Bourillon, physiotherapy by 
 massage, electricity, medical gymnastics, and mech- 
 anotherapy, which prepare the man for his reedu- 
 cation. Dr. Bourillon affirms that this preliminary 
 medical care reduces the effort which the patient 
 must make to learn and exercise a trade. 
 
 The French government also maintains at Paris 
 the Laboratoire des Recherches sur le Travail Pro- 
 fessionel, — an establishment for the scientific ex- 
 amination of wounded men, particularly to ascertain 
 the percentage of their disability in the labor mar- 
 ket. The question of how many disabled men are 
 capable of reeducation is one not rigidly deter- 
 mined. There are, of course, some hopeless cases
 
 222 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 which will have to be entirely dependent on the 
 government for their support, whether by pension 
 or other means under discussion. But the figures 
 of Dr. Jules Amar, director of this laboratory of 
 industrial research, a man who has devised me- 
 chanical apparatus for developing the capacities of 
 injured limbs, show that of the maimed cases which 
 have come under his observation at least 80 per 
 cent are capable of vocational reeducation. Of this 
 proportion 45 per cent succeed in earning normal 
 salaries after a training including some specializ- 
 ing; 20 per cent are partially restored to normal 
 wage earning; while the remaining 15 per cent 
 can only obtain work in shops maintained especi- 
 ally for the disabled, such as a toymaking studio. 
 Of the reeducation of this 80 per cent Dr. Amar 
 says: "It is a question of science and method; it 
 demands the organization of training schools. . . . 
 It unites medical and technical knowledge to the 
 end that artificial limbs shall be adapted to satisfy 
 physical and vocational capabilities. The propor- 
 tion of men dependent upon relief is then re- 
 duced ; and one must endeavor, without ceasing, 
 to diminish it."^ 
 
 The method in the Paris schools is scientific. 
 "In the training schools," he continues, " the object 
 
 ^ Special Bulletin of Military Hospitals Commission, Canada, April, 1916.
 
 REEDUCATION OF THE DISABLED 223 
 
 of the instruction is to supplement the dimin- 
 ished physical capacity of the disabled man with a 
 greater knowledge of his trade, superior technical 
 instruction, or better vocational adjustment." 
 
 The first responsibility falls on the medical ex- 
 aminer. To reequip the maimed physically, an 
 indispensable prosthesis (an addition of an artificial 
 part to supply the missing member of the body) 
 is made, the dynamical prosthesis — not the kind 
 which replaces the member, but that which reestab- 
 lishes or repairs XSx^ functions. What the wounded 
 man needs is not an admirable imitation of the 
 missing arm or leg, ingenious and often fragile 
 appliances, but a practical working tool, — a socket 
 into which a variety of tools can be fitted. 
 
 Next, in the laboratory of the school an analysis 
 of the workman's movements is made in relation 
 to their regularity, direction, speed, and according 
 to the force they expend. The measure of the 
 man's physical incapacity is deduced from impres- 
 sions gathered in this analysis, and from it the 
 method of training must be devised. Furnished 
 with his card of qualifications, the man passes from 
 the hospital laboratory to the workshop, where ex- 
 perts instruct him in theory and practice. The first 
 thing to determine is whether a man cannot per- 
 form the operations of his former trade. In many
 
 224 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 cases a man imagines that the disability caused by 
 amputation of fingers, hand, or arm makes him 
 unfit for the work he did previous to the war. 
 But where the school is attached to a hospital 
 and the man's disability can be accurately known, 
 the union of medical skill and technical instruc- 
 tion makes it possible to restore him to useful- 
 ness with the minimum of effort and waste. 
 
 Dr. Amar recommends for special relief work 
 for the 15 per cent who are not capable of any 
 great degree of reeducation, shops which will exe- 
 cute orders for easily manufactured articles, involv- 
 ing such processes as light cooperage, stamping, 
 plaiting, toymaking, — work such as is offered at 
 the shop in Rue de la Durance, Paris. 
 
 Another institution whose methods are similar 
 to those employed at St. Maurice and by Dr. Amar 
 is the Anglo-Belgian Military Institute, at Port 
 Villez, Vernon, under the technical director Major 
 Haccourt. It accommodates over 800 men, and is 
 self-supporting, the land where it is situated hav- 
 ing been originally covered with forests, the sale 
 of which financed the undertaking at first. Forty- 
 three trades are taught here, and a large farm is 
 maintained on which horses wounded in war are 
 cared for and made useful. The workshops pro- 
 vide for commercial courses, telegraphy, wall-paper
 
 REEDUCATION OF THE DISABLED 225 
 
 designing, the manufacture of motor vehicles and 
 electrical machinery of all kinds, plumbing and 
 tinsmithing, rabbit and poultry farming, fur curing 
 and dyeing, etc. The shops make fuse boxes for 
 munitions, and various army supplies. At Vernon 
 the men pupils are regarded as still in the Belgian 
 army, receiving military pay ; they have no option 
 as to entrance, since they are under military disci- 
 pline, but enter as soon as they are discharged 
 from the Anglo- Belgian hospital at Rouen. In this 
 school the services of the best professors in different 
 trades are obtained without trouble, for the director 
 can requisition any man in the Belgian army for 
 any required purpose. Before the war Belgium had 
 a large proportion of highly trained workmen ; and 
 with compulsory reeducation and military discipline 
 the operation of this institution is much simplified. 
 
 In working out plans for reeducation in the 
 United States we must have in mind certain prin- 
 ciples. There is the necessity of making our train- 
 ing thorough. Our problem will be not to find 
 employment for the period of the war, during which 
 there is a constant demand for workers, but to train 
 the disabled for an occupation in which they can 
 hold a place after the temporary shortage of labor 
 created by the war conditions is over. It is obvious 
 that if the men are incompetent and ill-prepared
 
 226 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 for their work, they will be weeded out as soon 
 as skilled men are available. Their work is barred 
 from that demanding manual strength ; nor can it 
 hope to belong to that highly specialized kind 
 which would demand an arduous and elaborate 
 training. But there is a wide range of semiskilled 
 occupations where a handicapped man can earn 
 more than if he should enter after a long course 
 of training the highly skilled trade where he would 
 meet the competition of the physically normal. 
 
 There are at least three kinds of disabilities our 
 schools will have to deal with. First, there is the 
 man who has lost his right arm. This man must, 
 whenever possible, be taught to use his left hand in 
 his trade, although it is sometimes easier to learn 
 a new process than to change right-hand to left- 
 hand methods in the old operation. In carpentry, 
 turning, and machine trades, however, the one- 
 armed man may continue to be employed, and 
 our vocational schools should incorporate courses 
 in left-hand training. Here also we find another 
 need : there must be built for the disabled left- 
 hmid machines. 
 
 Next there is the case of the man who must be 
 instructed in an allied trade because his former one 
 is pronounced by medical examination and the 
 tests of mechanotherapy to be impossible. And
 
 REEDUCATION OF THE DISABLED 227 
 
 last there is the case of the man whose injury 
 makes necessary the fitting of dehcately adjusted 
 prosthesis and a course of expert training before 
 he can become a wage earner. 
 
 Our chief difficulty in our work of reeducation 
 will be to secure the right kind of teaching force, 
 and it is clear that our government must establish 
 schools to train our technical instructors how to 
 adapt their knowledge of trade teaching to the kind 
 of work demanded in giving instruction to the 
 physically disabled. The selection of the proper 
 type of teacher is vital to the success of any scheme 
 of reeducation. The ideal instructor must not only 
 know his trade but be able to suit his methods to 
 the individual case so as to get the best response 
 from each man under his direction. At present it 
 seems as if there would be no way of training in- 
 structors except by sending chosen trade teachers 
 to St. Maurice to study the French methods, that 
 they may return to this country properly equipped 
 to select and instruct others, until such time as 
 a government school of the right type is well 
 established in this country. 
 
 As for the schools themselves, they must be 
 undertaken by the government, even if additional 
 hospitals and laboratories for research are main- 
 tained by private benevolence and bequest, for
 
 228 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 there should be no Hmit to the funds available for 
 carrying on this work of the economic rehabilita- 
 tion of the men injured in the service of the coun- 
 try, and it must keep pace with the progressive 
 work in France and elsewhere. Branch schools in 
 municipalities may be organized under government 
 control and subsidized by federal money. Some of 
 our trade and vocational schools and their equip- 
 ment may be taken over by the government for this 
 purpose. Our trade and technical schools must 
 also include courses in training teachers for this 
 special work, the course to be supplemented by a 
 special preparation prescribed by the government. 
 In Canada the Military Hospitals Commission 
 has made a careful study of the French and Anglo- 
 Belgian treatment in the restoration of disabled 
 soldiers, and has equipped the Central Military Con- 
 valescent Hospital at Toronto with the mechano- 
 apparatus similar to that used in France by 
 Dr. Amar and Dr. Bourillon. Profiting by their 
 observation of the foreign hospital schools, they 
 have determined to consider the men in training 
 as still in hospital and under military rule, for in 
 Europe there is absolute unanimity of opinion that 
 the influence of convalescent homes and benevolent 
 support is bad, conducive to lax discipline and idle- 
 ness. Canada has agreed that the earning power
 
 REEDUCATION OF THE DISABLED 229 
 
 subsequently acquired by a pensioner in training 
 will not lessen his pension. To pass upon the 
 cases eligible for reeducation, Canada has a board of 
 three: a member of the Provincial Advisory Com- 
 mittee, a vocational ofificer, and a medical man, thus 
 combining with technical and medical aid advice in 
 the industrial choice and placement of the man pupil. 
 Realizing that reeducation is a new idea to most 
 soldiers and, indeed, to the public generally, Canada 
 has put forth a propaganda of making popular the 
 training courses. A bulletin has been posted con- 
 spicuously in public buildings and a printed card 
 circulated bearing the same information, " What 
 Every Disabled Soldier Should Know." Aside from 
 encouragement and directions of where to obtain 
 help, etc., we find the following: 
 
 That his strength and earning capacity will be restored 
 in the highest degree possible. 
 
 That if his disability prevents him from returning to his 
 old work, he will receive free training for a new occupation. 
 
 That full consideration is given to his own capacity and 
 desires when a new occupation has to be chosen. 
 
 That neither his treatment nor his training nor his 
 transportation will cost him a cent. 
 
 That his maintenance and his family's will be paid for 
 during his training and for a month after. 
 
 That his home province has a special commission to 
 assist him in finding employment on discharge.
 
 230 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 To further the pubUcity of the work in Canada, 
 moving-picture films have been prepared, system- 
 atically illustrating the treatment and reeducation 
 of wounded soldiers in England, France, and Can- 
 ada, and showing their progress up to the stage 
 of final recovery. These films have been shown in 
 hundreds of theaters throughout the Dominion. 
 
 It is encouraging that occasionally in France and 
 Canada the vocational training in connection with 
 hospitals places a man in a better position financially 
 than before. The following examples are given out 
 by the Canadian Military Hospitals Commission and 
 are testimonials of the possibilities of rehabilitation. 
 
 Letter received is from an ex-private in the 13th Bat- 
 talion, Before enlistment he was getting $12 a week as 
 driver on a city milk round. "' I always had a liking for 
 drawing," he says, " and I felt that if I ever had the chance 
 I would take up a course in mechanical drawing." This 
 opportunity came to him at one of the commission's con- 
 valescent hospitals. After six weeks' application to the 
 work there, he was able to secure an appointment begin- 
 ning with $75 a month, with good prospects of advance. 
 
 A locomotive fireman had enlisted, was severely wounded, 
 and had to have his left arm amputated. Under the com- 
 mission's scheme of reeducation, which is offered to all men 
 incapacitated for their former work by service, he received 
 special training in telegraphy and railway routine. As a 
 result he secured an appointment as station agent and 
 dispatcher at $110 a month.
 
 REEDUCATION OF THE DISABLED 231 
 
 In England the high sheriff of Lancashire has 
 formulated a scheme for listing the employments 
 open to the disabled. First, the employer is asked, 
 whenever possible, to give the returned soldier his 
 old job. Next, certain employments are listed as 
 being within the powers of partially disabled men, 
 and with the help of labor exchanges and of other 
 agencies, these are reserved for them. 
 
 It is for the economic interest of the State to 
 make possible the employment of the disabled. 
 The amount of a pension is not the measure of the 
 cost of the pensioner. The nation cannot afford to 
 let any human power go to waste or lie idle. To 
 reequip the maimed is to make him partly forget 
 his infirmity, — an indispensable mental advantage. 
 France is now discussing whether reeducation of 
 one form or another shall be compulsory, as in the 
 Anglo-Belgian hospital. " But obligatory or not," 
 says A. L. Bittard,^ "the industrial reeducation 
 must be above all a national work. We should 
 regard it as a debt owed to the wounded and as 
 an effective preparation for the future of the 
 nation. . . . The State alone is capable of giving all 
 the mutilated the maximum equality of treatment, 
 where private initiative would be totally incapable 
 of realizing the minimum." 
 
 1 A. L. Bittard, Les ficoles de Blesses. Paris, 1916.
 
 232 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 The war simply makes the question of reedu- 
 cating and rehabiHtating the disabled a striking 
 one. But we must not forget that the problem of 
 the injured is always with us. It may not be amiss 
 to point out that 54,001 men and women were 
 actually killed in the United States during the year 
 191 3. This means one killed every ten minutes. 
 Over 2,000,000 men and women are injured in the 
 industries in the United States each year. This 
 means one injured every sixteen seconds. The 
 economic loss from accidental deaths and injuries 
 is nearly $500,000,000 annually, and the loss from 
 preventable accidents and diseases would more than 
 pay the cost of maintaining all the public schools in 
 the United States. These are appalling figures. 
 
 At present the great fear of every boy who goes 
 to war and of every sister and mother of such a boy 
 is that he may go through life maimed and de- 
 pendent. But we never think of the ever-present 
 danger to these boys of being handicapped physi- 
 cally by merely going to work ; and yet there are 
 more persons so disabled through accidents in indus- 
 trial life in normal times than are disabled by war. 
 
 When our boys come back from the war, physi- 
 cally disabled, and through the government work 
 in rehabilitation and reeducation are made self- 
 supporting and self-respecting members of society,
 
 REEDUCATION OF THE DISABLED 233 
 
 we shall begin to appreciate that we have been ex- 
 tremely negligent in the past in limiting our efforts 
 to help the crippled and blinded to the good offices 
 of charity and philanthropy. It is a public matter. 
 It is a problem of education. It is an opportunity 
 for service for the teachers of vocational training, 
 for the experts in vocational guidance and direc- 
 tion, for the directors of placement and employment 
 bureaus, and for the designers of special tools and 
 machines for the handicapped. It is an imme- 
 diate problem in this time of war ; it is even more 
 significant in time of peace.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 FARM CADETS 
 
 We can afford only one fad in war time, and that fad is 
 to be farming. It will be useless for little William Corning 
 Smith, aged 1 2, of Kankakee, Illinois, to stick his little spade 
 into his back yard before his admiring parent. Individual, 
 unorganized work on land not properly prepared for agri- 
 culture may be worse than useless ; it may be wasteful. 
 Random efforts not coordinated in a general scheme for the 
 utilization of school children in large units will be foolish, 
 misdirected effort. State, county, and even national organ- 
 ization are required to make available this latent power. 
 Purely isolated effort will be fruitless, both as aids to the 
 nation and education for the child. Organized work will 
 bring the greater moral advantages of developing the power 
 of concentration along with the interest in national and com- 
 munity service. It will evoke an esprit de corps which may 
 be capitalized for national use and shift the usual interest in 
 gangs and athletics, both normal and natural, to work which 
 opens the way to loyal industrial educational training.^ 
 
 This was written by John Dewey early in the 
 spring of 191 7 in a message addressed to the prin- 
 cipals and teachers of America on how school 
 children may be so organized for farm service as to 
 
 1 Columbia University War Papers. 
 234
 
 FARM CADETS 235 
 
 Aid the nation ; 
 
 Increase the food supply of the country in war time and 
 during a world-wide shortage of food ; 
 
 Conscript the national enthusiasm for athletics to national 
 usefulness ; 
 
 Assure a vigorous and healthy rising generation ; 
 
 Reap the advantage of organized effort with its moral and 
 educational results ; 
 
 Develop constructive patriotism. 
 
 As may be gathered, Dewey's idea was not only 
 to organize the rural and village children for farm 
 work but also to send the city children into the 
 country in camps and tent colonies. He said 
 further that the plan was not a dream and that 
 it could be done. 
 
 A friend in writing to me of his attempts in 
 Massachusetts to make the dream a reality said, 
 "It is like nailing a jellyfish to a board." Refer- 
 ring to the diiificulty of obtaining competent boys, 
 on the one hand, and of convincing farmers of the 
 value of city-boy labor, on the other, he further 
 stated that it was a difficult proposition to sell 
 something we did not have to somebody who did 
 not want it. 
 
 Few, if any, of us knew very much of the experi- 
 ence, in this direction, of England, France, and 
 Germany. To be sure, we had heard that France
 
 236 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 had attempted in a large way to use children at 
 farm labor, but had given it up and had replaced 
 them with old men, women, and partially crippled 
 returned soldiers ; and we knew that with the alarm 
 of the scarcity of labor and the diminishing number 
 of the world's acres under cultivation England and 
 Germany had called upon women and boys below 
 military age to help meet the needs of the situation. 
 But we in America did not realize, to quote Dewey 
 again, " that we could enlist the school children in this 
 work in such a manner that they could serve with 
 results as beneficial to themselves as to the nation." 
 
 Before considering in some detail the idea of 
 using agricultural labor of children in America (and 
 it is a subject worthy of elaboration, for even if 
 the war closes to-morrow, we shall be short of farm 
 labor for many years — perhaps always), let us see 
 what England and Germany have done to utilize 
 school children for farm work. 
 
 In England many of the boys of 14 to 16 in 
 the public schools have volunteered for vacation 
 and holiday agricultural work in hoeing, planting, 
 and harvesting; some of this was gratuitous labor, 
 these boys coming from the prosperous classes 
 and therefore being able to give their services. 
 
 In July, 1916, the Education Board published 
 a report showing the number of children excused
 
 FARM CADETS 237 
 
 from attendance at school for the purpose of agri- 
 cultural employment in England and Wales on 
 May 31, 1916. The total number so excused was 
 I5'753' of which number 546 were between the 
 ages of II and 12; 8018 between 12 and 13; 5521 
 between 13 and 14, and of the remaining 1668 
 cases the ages were between 12 and 14. Figures 
 quoted relate solely to agricultural employment 
 and do not show the full extent of withdrawals 
 from school. They also relate to withdrawals of 
 children who are not qualified for total exemption 
 under the law. The report also states that " the 
 board has no information as to the number of 
 children who have been excused from school attend- 
 ance for purposes of industrial employment or 
 employment other than agriculture." 
 
 Early in 191 7 several of the county education 
 committees formulated plans for using the labor of 
 children who were to be excused only for holidays, 
 special periods, and part times, the general senti- 
 ment being, even in the emergency, that no more 
 children must be permanently excused for agricul- 
 tural or industrial employment. These schemes 
 are worthy of attention as endeavors to retain 
 children in school, at the same time modifying 
 the arrangement of the educational requirements 
 to allow them to perform farm and garden work.
 
 238 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 The Education Committee for the Lindsay division of 
 Lincolnshire considered, at a meeting held on April 13, 19 17, 
 the desirability of taking steps to secure that the school 
 holidays this year are fixed at such times as will enable the 
 children to be of most assistance to the farmers, and it was 
 resolved that the finance committee should be requested to 
 consider the preparation of a scheme enabling managers to 
 amend the school time-tables in such a way as will give the 
 maximum of opportunity for the older children to work on 
 the land during the spring and summer. . . . They further 
 considered . . . that in view of the present emergency and the 
 need of additional labor, especially in agricultural work, the 
 board will give favorable considerations to proposals for 
 extended or additional holidays in rural areas under certain 
 conditions. Two schemes were presented, setting forth alter- 
 native methods which managers might be authorized to 
 adopt by which advantage can be taken of the concessions of 
 the board, as follows : (i) A scheme to give a number up to 
 eighty additional afternoons on which the older children can 
 be employed on the land, managers to be informed that a 
 school year of not less than 320 attendances will be accepted 
 as fulfilling the requirements of the board, instead of a 
 minimum of 400 as heretofore. On up to eighty days, older 
 children, above prescribed age, may be released at noon for 
 employment on the land, whilst the school will be open as 
 usual for the younger children, and their attendance recorded, 
 though not in the official register. (2) A scheme to allow 
 up to eight weeks extra during which the older children 
 may be employed on the land, managers to be informed of 
 the number of attendances required as in scheme one. Older 
 children, above a prescribed age, who are to be employed
 
 FARM CADETS 239 
 
 on the land, need not attend school for a period up to eight 
 weeks in addition to the ordinary holidays. The school will 
 be kept open as usual during such weeks for the younger 
 children, and those attending will have their attendance 
 recorded, but not in the official register. Under either 
 scheme it will be necessary for the managers to fix the 
 period or periods for the year during which the scheme 
 would be in operation, and in some of the larger rural 
 schools it might be possible to release a teacher as well as 
 the older children. 
 
 At a meeting held on April 27 it was resolved to issue the 
 schemes to the managers, impressing upon them the fact that 
 the one object is to secure increased production of food,^ 
 
 At Grimsby a committee was appointed to con- 
 sider the employment of children on gardens, allow- 
 ing an acre plot to each school, and 25 children, 
 under a teacher, to work in cultivating it. All 
 these children are required to attend school in the 
 morning, and the consent of their parents must be 
 obtained by them before they are permitted to 
 begin afternoon work. Since, as in Lincolnshire, 
 the aim of the work is increased food production, 
 the crops derived from the cultivation of the land 
 acquired by the town are to be divided among 
 teachers and scholars engaged in the work. 
 
 In Hull, also, the Educational Committee, besides 
 encouraging work in school gardens, has authorized 
 
 1 London Times, Educational Supplement, May 17, 191 7.
 
 240 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 the labor of schoolboys in cultivating spare land in 
 various places as a substitute for their usual manual 
 training in the school shops. 
 
 In Hertfordshire there are school gardens for the 
 production of potatoes, parsnips, beets, and onions, 
 with school instruction in gardening given the 
 pupils. During the period for planting there is a 
 schedule of half-time attendance. In Bradford the 
 successful vegetable gardening is correlated with 
 the school work in nature study, composition, arith- 
 metic, and drawing, and emphasis is placed on the 
 educational value of the productive work. 
 
 It is difificult for America to see the food crisis as 
 do the nations which are near the exhaustion point. 
 While everyone must deplore the wholesale excus- 
 ing of children to work without supervision, we 
 ought to watch with interest all schemes which 
 will increase production and yet will keep younger 
 children in school for full time and will permit those 
 older to work part time. This part-time work should 
 be confined to the years of 14 to 18, except possibly 
 in the case of work in the school garden, where 
 younger children may labor for short periods. 
 
 The appeal of Neville Chamberlain, the Director- 
 general of National Service, in the spring of 191 7, 
 for volunteers from such boys as were able to 
 make the sacrifice, connects the need for agricultural
 
 FARM CADETS 241 
 
 labor with the necessity for providing proper super- 
 vision of the boys. His plan for utilizing the labor 
 of English schoolboys has many features similar to 
 devices employed in Massachusetts, New York, and 
 New Jersey. 
 
 It is well understood that an abundant supply of labor 
 for the land during the coming summer months is an urgent 
 national necessity. Many schemes have already been organ- 
 ized for the employment of soldiers, women, and prisoners 
 of war, but it is desirable to form a reserve of labor so 
 organized as to be available at short notice. For this 
 reserve I turn to the boys at our public and other secondary 
 schools. During the last two years many of them have 
 given valuable help in hoeing, harvesting, and timber cut- 
 ting, and at the present crisis I confidently hope that all 
 for whom it is possible will make their services available 
 both in summer holidays and, if necessary, during the 
 coming term. I have accepted the offer of the Cavendish 
 Association to place at my disposal their organization, 
 which will act in conjunction with a committee — repre- 
 sentative of schools and masters — having its headquarters 
 at St. Ermin's, and working under the director of the agri- 
 cultural section of this department. Full particulars of the 
 arrangements and procedure will shortly be issued by the 
 committee. The main points are as follows : 
 
 (i) The age of the boys permitted to volunteer should 
 not be below 16 except in the cases where the school 
 authorities consider boys of 15 sufficiently strong to under- 
 take the necessary work. (2) The boys will be organized in 
 squads of varying sizes, each in charge of a master or other
 
 242 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 responsible person. (3) It is proposed that during term 
 time the period of continuous whole-time service should not 
 exceed two weeks. Every effort will be made to find work 
 for schoolboy volunteers in the neighborhood of the school, 
 but if the work lies at some distance from the school, rail- 
 way fares will be paid and careful provision will be made 
 for board and lodging. No boy will be expected to volun- 
 teer for service during term whose school work is of imme- 
 diate importance ; for example, a boy who is preparing for 
 a scholarship examination. I recognize that this part of the 
 scheme may present some difficulties to all but the large 
 public schools, but I hope that some of the larger state- 
 aided secondary schools may be able to join in it. Before 
 doing so, however, they should communicate with the Board 
 of Education. (4) In the holidays they will work for not 
 less than three or four weeks, and it is hoped that, if neces- 
 sary, they may have leave of absence from school until the 
 end of September, (5) The whole working hours will be 
 carefully proportioned to the average strength of each squad, 
 and the wages adjusted accordingly. If the total sum 
 earned does not meet the cost of living, the deficit will 
 under special conditions be made up. 
 
 I trust that when the call for boys' help comes, parents 
 will recognize its urgency and will not hesitate to allow 
 their sons to render this service for their country. 
 
 In Germany there has been a systematic con- 
 tribution from schools to agriculture since March, 
 191 5. Authority was given to the respective school 
 officials to grant the necessary leave of absence 
 to older children for farm and garden cultivation.
 
 FARM CADETS 243 
 
 With the increasing need of securing a sufficient 
 supply of food for the nation, excuses of pupils from 
 school increased. An additional service of pupils 
 was required by an order issued on May 15, 191 7, 
 relative to combating fruit and vegetable pests. 
 
 Looking forward to future scarcity, Germany, with 
 the help of the teaching staff and government 
 leaflets, next enlisted school children in the work 
 of collecting field and forest edible products. Chil- 
 dren were engaged in the work of gleaning, and 
 in the summer of 191 5 the gleanings amounted to 
 approximately $50,000, the greater part of which 
 was turned over to the Red Cross as the children's 
 contribution. In the summer and autumn of 191 5 
 the children aided, too, in gathering fruits. During 
 the following winter the schools gave instruction 
 in the substitution of fruit products for fat and pro- 
 teid. These were pointed lessons both in frugality 
 and in public spirit. 
 
 Additional requirement of the children's services 
 was made when the continued scarcity of fats made 
 it imperative to conserve acorns, horse-chestnuts, 
 and seeds containing oil, the gathering of which 
 was impossible without the aid of school children. 
 An order of August 21, 191 6, authorized the em- 
 ployment of children to take part in the extraction 
 from trees in the state forests of resin needed chiefly
 
 244 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 for the paper industry; and in the same season 
 children were called upon to engage in the collec- 
 tion of kernels of cherries, plums, and apricots in 
 enormous quantities for oil extraction. 
 
 The school administrators and teachers of Amer- 
 ica knew little, if anything, of the farm-placement 
 ventures of European countries. But they were 
 told most emphatically in the spring of 191 7 that 
 the military force was but one factor in national 
 organization, and that the ultimate decision as to 
 victory might well be with the farmer. So in 
 American fashion we started at it; New Jersey 
 with its "junior industrial army," Massachusetts 
 with its bronze-badged boy farmers, and New 
 York with its "farm cadets." 
 
 We all thought we were original, and perhaps 
 we were ; and yet it is certainly not new for school- 
 boys to work outside the school session when of 
 proper age. Whether for the father or a neigh- 
 borhood employer, boys 14 and over have worked 
 in stores and gardens, in summer hotels, in offices, 
 garages, and manufacturing plants. Nor is it un- 
 usual, for that matter, to have the outside work 
 coordinated with the school and receiving due credit 
 in the curriculum. The cooperative high-school 
 and vocational courses in many cities — Fitchburg, 
 Beverly, Providence, Hartford, Indianapolis, Chicago,
 
 FARM CADETS 245 
 
 and New York — are well known to those who are 
 familiar with the extension and cooperative efforts 
 of our vocational schools. 
 
 Furthermore we are familiar with the two types 
 of camps: the adult-labor and the recreation camp. 
 The work camp is much the older, dating back 
 to the building of railroads and the opening of 
 lumber districts. In the past decade the recreation 
 summer camps have become a potent factor in 
 secondary-school life, making a complement of 
 the school year's work by laying stress on the 
 physical development of outdoor woodland and 
 country experiences. Some of these camps, while 
 primarily recreational, have had courses in manual 
 training, college preparation, arts and crafts, and 
 languages, yet so clearly is their play nature of 
 chief importance that no one thinks of them as 
 work camps. 
 
 Now the farm-cadet movement involves the farm 
 labor of the schoolboy, who is sent out and credited 
 for his work by his school and is added to a camp 
 life where in a squad of his fellow schoolboys he 
 is looked after by an appointed leader as if in 
 a Y. M.C.A. camp. Thus we have, out of familiar 
 ingredients, a new compound, bringing into relation 
 the boy, the parent, the supervisor, the employer, 
 and the school.
 
 246 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 This agricultural movement in connection with 
 the schools had its inception at the Philadelphia 
 meeting of the Eastern Arts and Manual Training 
 Teachers' Association early in 191 7. At once three 
 Eastern states — Massachusetts, New Jersey, and 
 New York — began to formulate plans for its oper- 
 ation.^ For it was not to be the simple expedient 
 of excusing boys from school to work on farms, as 
 has been the practice in many localities, but a plan 
 whereby the boy was to be retained in the school 
 system, substituting in his course during a portion 
 of the year agricultural work for the academic and 
 vocational studies of the regular curriculum. 
 
 In analyzing the problem it was found that 
 there were three types of boys to be considered : 
 (i) the boy in a farming district, who could be 
 employed on the farm of his father or a neighbor; 
 (2) the boy in a town near an agricultural center, 
 who could be employed within a radius of a few 
 miles of his home and school ; (3) the boy from 
 a city, who would have to be sent to distant farms 
 and whose welfare would not be in the charge of 
 his school principal and parents. The case of the 
 first boy is very simple ; the second is also easy 
 of solution ; but if the third boy is to be used, 
 
 ^ California and Indiana developed plans about the same time. Before 
 the first of July, 1917, the movement became quite general in America.
 
 FARM CADETS 247 
 
 there will need to be a carefully worked-out plan 
 for his placement, record of work, accommodations, 
 and general welfare. It is for the third boy that 
 the camp must be established, where he will be 
 looked after by a responsible person who will see 
 that he has the proper tent, board, work, and 
 sanitary arrangements. 
 
 The plans of the different states for utilizing 
 boy power, while aiming toward the one desirable 
 end of increasing our food production, have dif- 
 fered widely in detail, owing to the variation in 
 the compulsory-attendance laws, to the latitude 
 exercised in some states in excusing boys pre- 
 maturely, and to the varying degrees of investiga- 
 tion of placement, record of work, and supervision. 
 All states agree in giving the boy who is excused 
 for farm work credit in his school work. Canada, 
 too, excuses boys over 14 for farm work, allowing 
 them full school credit for three months' labor. 
 While it may be urged that it is not pedagogically 
 sound to give credit in one subject for the work 
 in another, a way out of the difficulty might be 
 found in a rearrangement of the school year and 
 vacations in districts where there is a large per- 
 centage of excused boys; or special classes could 
 be devised for these boys when they return to 
 school. In the large high schools shorter intensive
 
 248 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 courses could be included in the program so that 
 the boy who was preparing for college would not 
 lose his work in such subjects as English, history, 
 and mathematics. In the case of language and 
 science there must be a loss which it is difficult 
 to repair. If the present conditions persist, admin- 
 istrative inigenuity can solve the question of work 
 and credits. It is not one of the serious aspects of 
 the problem, provided always that there is no release 
 of children below the compulsory-attendance age. 
 
 In Massachusetts the work of mobilizing school- 
 boys for farm labor was in charge of the state's 
 Committee on Public Safety. Their principles in 
 acting were as follows : 
 
 Mobilize the schoolboys ; keep those under 1 6 at home to 
 work on home, school, and community gardens ; enlist the 
 high-school boys between 16 and 18, too young for military 
 or naval service, but old enough to render real service ; move 
 them where farm labor is needed ; make them understand 
 that enlistment for farm service is in all ways as patriotic 
 as any other service for the nation's defense. 
 
 With the appointment of a subcommittee to for- 
 mulate the detailed scheme of placement and su- 
 pervision, having Frank V. Thompson, Assistant 
 Superintendent of the Boston schools, as chair- 
 man, the plan for the cooperation of schools with 
 agriculture is, for boys 16 and over, as follows:
 
 FARM CADETS 249 
 
 1. {a) The farm-labor service is to be recognized 
 by a bronze badge containing the seal of the com- 
 monwealth and inscribed " The Nation's Service " and 
 " Food Production." {b) An honorable discharge, 
 similar to a discharge from the army, containing the 
 signature of the governor, will be issued to boys 
 who successfully complete their service on farms. 
 {c) Tufts, Boston University, Massachusetts Insti- 
 tute of Technology, and Massachusetts Agricultural 
 College have agreed to give a trial term or year to 
 such candidates as present an honorable discharge, 
 without further entrance requirements, provided 
 their school work was satisfactory up to the time 
 of leaving and the principal so recommends. 
 
 2. The existing school organization is used to 
 conduct the enterprise. For each 25 boys enlisted 
 a supervisor is appointed, a male teacher of strong 
 ability in the local school, — in towns where there 
 are several supervisors, either the superintendent 
 of schools or the principal of the high school. 
 A general head supervisor in charge of the state 
 work has an office in the Statehouse. Each local 
 head supervisor and each supervisor of 25 boys 
 receives the same sum (^100), the money being 
 obtained from a local contingent fund, from an 
 additional appropriation, or by subscription. 
 
 3. The minimum wage of the boys is fixed thus:
 
 250 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 first week, no wages, but allowance of $2 for ex- 
 penses etc. ; thereafter (a) boy living on farm, not less 
 than $4. a week and board, {d) boy living at home, 
 not less than ^6 a week. Six days constitute a week. 
 
 4. The enlistment card and the issuance of 
 honorable discharge are controlled by the general 
 head supervisor (Committee on Public Safety). 
 
 5. The enrollment for the period of May i to 
 October i is made by the boy, with the parents' 
 consent and the school physician's indorsement. 
 When the boy is enlisted, a numbered badge is 
 lent to him, for which he signs a receipt ; it is 
 to be returned in case of unsatisfactory conduct 
 or service. He receives full credit for the year's 
 school work. 
 
 6. Inspection of the physical and moral condi- 
 tions of the place of employment, the choosing of 
 the boys from enrollment lists, and seeing that 
 both boys and farmers are satisfied, are part of the 
 work of the appointed supervisors. 
 
 7. Camps for the boys, when local conditions 
 require, are established under the direction of the 
 medical expert for the State Board of Labor and 
 Industries. An expert on camps has supervision 
 of the work of the executive committee in stand- 
 ardizing and inspecting camps and obtaining the 
 equipment, layout, and food supplies.
 
 FARM CADETS 251 
 
 With the cooperation of farm bureaus thousands 
 of circulars and labor-contract forms were sent to 
 Massachusetts farmers. By June 16, 191 7, there 
 were camps established at 18 points, and arrange- 
 ments completed to employ 500 to 600 boys from 
 these camps. In addition there were at least 500 
 other boys released from school to work on home 
 farms, or living in farmers' homes. 
 
 An interesting feature of the Massachusetts 
 scheme was the working out of camp plans by the 
 drafting students in the Newton Technical High 
 School, with detailed equipment of dining tent with 
 wooden-horse tables ; sleeping tent with double-deck 
 bunk ; latrine ; cook shack ; etc. 
 
 In its system for handling the supply of boy 
 labor, the state requires the farmer to sign a defi- 
 nite application blank for the amount of boy labor 
 which he requires. It is understood that while 
 the boys are enlisted for the entire period up to 
 October i, the farmer may take those boys for 
 long or short periods of not less than a week in 
 duration, to begin or end at any time, as the 
 farmer's necessity requires. This application made 
 by the farmer is also an agreement to pay the 
 wages stipulated by the Committee on Public Safety 
 and also to employ the boy on rainy as well as 
 fair days, using his services on rainy days under
 
 252 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 cover if possible. Further agreement is made, in 
 case the boy is unsatisfactory, to give him one 
 week's notice or one week's pay, providing him 
 with a statement in writing of the reason for his 
 discharge. Whenever, in the opinion of the local 
 supervisor, the conditions of living or of labor are 
 not satisfactory, the boy may be withdrawn without 
 prejudice to him. These arrangements insure that 
 there shall be a cooperative responsibility of farmer 
 and state in caring for the boy. 
 
 In establishing the camps in Massachusetts the 
 money to start the work was chiefly supplied by 
 individuals. In the case of the New Bedford con- 
 tingent in Coonamesett camp, on an estate of 
 ii,ooo acres, the boys were housed in militia tents, 
 lent by the state, — two boys to a tent. For their 
 tent furnishings the boys supplied whatever they 
 needed. A mess house — a rough board building 
 75 feet long by 17 feet wide, providing eating 
 quarters for the boys and at one end a cook room 
 — was in part erected by the New Bedford Indus- 
 trial School boys, working under the direction of an 
 experienced carpenter. The laying of the 2500 feet 
 of pipe to carry water to the camp was also the 
 work of the same school. The catering for the 
 boys was under the direction of an experienced 
 woman and two Japanese cooks. In the morning
 
 FARM CADETS 253 
 
 the boys started for the various farms, those at a 
 distance being called for by an auto truck. In this 
 camp, for an eight-hour day and a six-day week 
 each boy received a maximum wage of ^4 a week 
 and board, the weekly payment in charge of the 
 supervisor. The camp was fortunate in having as 
 its directors the city superintendent of schools and 
 a physical instructor, the latter living in the camp. 
 
 In New York the placing of boys on farms has 
 been the joint work of the Food Supply Com- 
 mission, the State Education Department, and the 
 State Military Training Commission. While younger 
 boys have been released for agricultural work by 
 other agencies, the state placement by the com- 
 mission is concerned only with the boys of military 
 training age — 16 to 19. One of the first actions 
 of the latter commission was to divide the state 
 into 6 military-training zones: New York City (in- 
 cluding Manhattan, Bronx, and Richmond); Long 
 Island, including Brooklyn ; Hudson Valley, with 
 center at Albany ; East Central, at Syracuse ; West 
 Central, at Rochester; and Western, at Buffalo. 
 Next, a description was obtained of the character 
 of the work in each zone. For example, the Hudson 
 Valley Zone as far as Albany requires labor in 
 harvesting small fruits and general farm work, 
 while the West Central Zone work is that of muck
 
 254 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 farming, large-fruit farming, and general farming. 
 Each zone center has its individual office through 
 which placements are made. Meetings were held 
 the latter part of April by zone supervisors and 
 farm-bureau managers, and attended by farmers' 
 and fruit growers' associations who stated what 
 they needed and what they would contribute in 
 wages and housing for boy workers. 
 
 The inducements for enlisting offered by the state 
 to boys released from school work were the chevron 
 given by the Military Training Commission, to be 
 awarded after thirty days' satisfactory work; the 
 military-training-equivalent value of the service; and 
 the promise of proper pay and care by the employer. 
 As to credits, so important in the New York 
 system, farm cadets were permitted to take the 
 Regents' examinations though the course lacked a 
 few weeks of completion, the time requirement be- 
 ing waived in their case. Any pupil in the schools 
 of the state who enlisted for military service 
 (this applied to the colleges) or who rendered 
 satisfactory agricultural service was credited with 
 the work of the term without examination, on the 
 certificate of the school that his work up to the 
 time of enlistment was satisfactory. 
 
 New York is an agricultural state, with a great 
 variety of kinds of farming and many districts
 
 FARM CADETS 
 
 255 
 
 remote from centers of the supply of labor. The 
 agricultural census, to which reference was made 
 in Chapter II, supplied data for determining the 
 districts where and when labor was most needed 
 and where schoolboys could be most useful. For 
 example, in Orleans County, in the Western Zone, 
 the demand varied from 163 laborers needed early 
 in May to 1521 needed in October, an indication 
 that there was really more reason for excusing boys 
 in October than in May for work in peach- and 
 apple-harvesting districts.-^ Conspicuous among the 
 types of New York farms where labor was sought 
 were the great fruit farms, such as the Sodus Fruit 
 Farm, with a house on the shore of Lake Ontario 
 able to accommodate 100 boys, where it was planned 
 to harvest the entire peach and apple crop with 
 schoolboy labor; the vast tracts owned by the 
 canning companies, with thousands of acres of 
 
 1 The following statistics for Orleans County show how agricultural 
 help is needed, as indicated by the census taken by school children : 
 
 May 10-20 163 Aug. 21-31 
 
 May 21-31 165 Sept. i-io 
 
 June i-io 227 Sept. 11-20 
 
 June 11-20 257 Sept. 21-30 
 
 June 21-30 271 Oct. I-IO . 
 
 July i-io 518 Oct. 11-20 . 
 
 July 11-20 526 Oct. 21-30 . 
 
 July 21-31 523 Nov. I-IO . 
 
 Aug. i-io 486 Nov. 11-20 
 
 Aug. 11-20 554 Nov. 20-30 
 
 573 
 1157 
 1308 
 
 1317 
 
 1521 
 
 1500 
 
 143s 
 
 38 
 
 13 
 
 I
 
 256 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 tomatoes, beans, and corn under cultivation; and 
 the farms such as those in the South Lima district, 
 where there was muck farming and where the 
 work included the cultivating, sorting, and pack- 
 ing of onions, lettuce, celery, and spinach. Calls 
 were sometimes made upon the state for as many 
 as 1500 boys to assist in harvesting. It was there- 
 fore necessary for the state to work on a large 
 and definitely planned scale. 
 
 Naturally the first boys to be placed were those 
 residing in or near farming districts. When, how- 
 ever, the supply of these boys was exhausted, the 
 call came, even from remote districts, for city boys. 
 In these cases the problem of transportation be- 
 comes serious, as well as the housing and care of 
 the boy in the new environment, where association 
 with other help is apt to be harmful. 
 
 The following description of a New York State 
 camp is offered not only because it has proved to 
 be highly successful but also because it affords 
 an excellent illustration of the " farm-working, or 
 labor-distributing, camp," which is defined in the 
 chapter following. 
 
 It was called The Erasmus Hall High School 
 (New York City) Potato Growers' Association, and 
 was organized by F. A. Rexford, a teacher who is 
 much interested in agriculture and in boys.
 
 
 
 Working and living in the berry fields. One of twenty-five camps in the 
 Highlands of New York State
 
 Agriculture on a Western basis brings lessons in organization, cooperation, 
 
 and economy to Eastern boys. City boys working on a large farm near 
 
 Phoenixville, Pennsylvania 
 
 Employing able-bodied bu).> wi >.ii\ liigh schools for farm production may 
 
 become permanent. It may lead to the development of country annexes to 
 
 our city schools. Camp near Phoenixville, Pennsylvania
 
 FARM CADETS 257 
 
 The object of the association, which was formed 
 in the school, was originally fourfold: (i) to teach 
 the farmer that the alert city boy can and will 
 perform agricultural tasks; (2) to increase the food 
 supply; (3) to relieve the help situation by organ- 
 izing a group of boys to work by the hour or 
 day, and to recruit boys to work by the month 
 for individual farmers under supervision; (4) to fit 
 boys for military service if needed. 
 
 Ten boys from the school left New York on 
 May 5, each armed with the money necessary to 
 pay such expenses as carfare, food, laundry, rent of 
 an acre of land, seed potatoes, phosphate, team hire, 
 and spraying materials. They went to Mr. Rexford's 
 farm, located up-state. The New York Tribune con- 
 tributed some money, and one of the teachers in 
 the school advanced ^60 for the boys to grow 
 potatoes for him. Some frail boys, whose parents 
 wanted them to go for their health, were refused. 
 
 At first the farmers were skeptical. The boys, 
 however, went to work on the land which they 
 had rented from Rexford. In a week they began 
 to attract attention and farmers began to hire 
 them. Rexford knew some of these farmers by 
 reputation. He believed that men who cannot 
 keep their own boys at home cannot succeed with 
 boys from the city. He was in the habit of having
 
 258 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 a straight talk with the employing farmers, telling 
 them that the boys must be treated squarely. 
 
 A large milk-distributing corporation offered to 
 take eveiy one of his boys, but he argued that it 
 could afford to hire men and did not need boys, 
 as did the farmers who could not obtain other help. 
 It is evident that large farmers have capital and 
 backing, while it is the individual farmer struggling 
 with hard conditions who must have help. 
 
 Most of the boys who are with farmers by the 
 month come back to the main camp every Sunday 
 morning for physical examination, general assem- 
 bly, and to go to church. This coming back to the 
 camp keeps before them the idea of a camp for 
 farm cadets. They return to their work Sunday 
 night. For those boys who go out by the week 
 the teacher makes an arrangement whereby the 
 farmer brings them back to the camp on Saturday 
 night and comes for them the following night. 
 
 The people in the community in which the camp 
 is located have established a nonsectarian church 
 in an old cheese factory which has been purchased 
 for $200. Occasionally a minister from a near-by 
 town comes and speaks. 
 
 The camp has a professional cook, who was 
 obtained from a college fraternity, and the boys 
 pay pro rata. The first expense was about $2.50
 
 FARM CADETS 259 
 
 a week for each boy, but prosperity has provided 
 means for the boys to spend more. 
 
 All vegetables which the boys raised and which 
 they did not use on the table were canned by 
 the cook and Mrs. Rexford, and they will be used 
 in the early part of next year, before the fresh 
 vegetables are available. 
 
 Local store men have cooperated in giving the 
 lowest prices, feeling that otherwise the trade of the 
 camp would go to the city, and therefore choosing 
 the opportunity of large business with aggregate 
 large receipts on small profit. 
 
 Breakfast consists of fruit, cereal or eggs, and 
 milk, cocoa, or postum, and sometimes corn bread 
 or griddle cakes. The boys carry a cold lunch 
 with them, consisting of a pail of cold cocoa; 
 four good thick sandwiches of peanut butter, meat, 
 or jam ; a piece of frosted cake ; and a banana. 
 Sometimes they take a pot of jam, which is dis- 
 posed of by the group. For dinner they have a roast 
 or steak; potatoes and other ordinary vegetables 
 (beans, peas, lettuce, carrots); shortcake or pie or 
 pudding; cocoa, postum, or milk. 
 
 The boys take care of their own beds, wash 
 the dishes, and keep the place clean. 
 
 They have a study hour every evening from 
 eight until nine, and the same is true of the boys
 
 26o OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 placed out with farmers. One boy, going to 
 Princeton in the fall, kept up his studies and took 
 the Regents' examinations at the country school, 
 passing them with as good a mark as he would 
 have obtained at his home school. 
 
 After drill on Sunday morning the boys at 
 camp have a baseball game. They have had 
 entertainments for the benefit of the Red Cross. 
 In the group at camp are the gold-medal orator 
 of the school, two excellent pianists, four man- 
 dolin players, and a whistler. All the boys are 
 good singers. 
 
 Rexford's application blank asked for the weight, 
 age, previous experience in farming, church pref- 
 erence, and habits as to smoking. 
 
 The teacher had the cooperation of the farm 
 bureau. The farmers wrote to the bureau for help ; 
 Mr. Rexford and the farm-bureau manager went 
 to each farmer, looked over the situation, and if 
 everything was satisfactory, furnished the workers. 
 Mr. Rexford will not leave boys on any farm 
 without proper supervision. He visits the boys 
 once every week, neither the farmer nor the boy 
 knowing when he is coming. 
 
 At first no wage scale was set, the arrange- 
 ment being that the farmer should pay what the 
 boy was worth. If he was worth nothing, then it
 
 FARM CADETS 261 
 
 was all right, and the boy ought to be the first one 
 to know it. However, most of the boys started 
 at 20 cents an hour; soon this was raised to 25 
 cents, and now the pay is 30 cents. 
 
 Most of the farmers in the vicinity had never 
 done any spraying. They now apply to Mr. Rexford 
 when they want such work done and he sends out 
 two boys and horses and his own spraying outfit. 
 The work is done at a cost to the farmer of 
 about 70 cents per acre for spraying potatoes, in 
 addition to the material; that is, 25 cents per acre 
 for each boy's work and 20 cents expense on the 
 spraying outfit, for nozzles etc. 
 
 There was no illness among the boys during the 
 summer, not even colds. Sometimes the boys got 
 wet through, but came home, took a dip in a hole 
 in the creek, and followed it by a good rub. 
 
 Meanwhile quite a number of New York City 
 men teachers under the leadership of two camp 
 supervisors, H. W. Millspaugh and H. J, McCreary 
 and acting under the authority of the Board of 
 Education, started out "to sell something they did 
 not have to somebody who did not want it." But 
 these men had the courage of their convictions 
 and the results of their work (over twenty camps 
 in two counties) give ample evidence of the success 
 of their venture.
 
 262 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 Imagine the surprise of the fruit growers of the 
 counties named when they received the following 
 circular letter: 
 
 It is proposed to bring a large number of boys from the 
 high schools of New York City to pick fruit in the fruit 
 belt of Orange and Ulster counties. In carrying out this 
 plan it will be necessary to have the full cooperation of 
 fruit growers, school authorities, parents, health authorities, 
 and others. The part of the fruit grower will be roughly 
 as follows : 
 
 He will provide housing facilities, stove, fuel, refrigera- 
 tion, either by ice box, cellar, or spring, convenient water 
 supply, toilet facilities satisfactory to the board of health, 
 straw for mattresses, cooking utensils, working conditions that 
 will enable the average boy to earn a respectable wage, and 
 a sympathetic attitude toward the comfort and health of the 
 boys. 
 
 Each boy will provide his carfare to and from the fruit 
 section, provide his own knife, fork, cup, plate, spoon, wash 
 basin, tick for mattress, pillow, blankets, etc., and pay for 
 his food and cooking. Boys will mess in groups of 12 to 
 25 or even more. Each group will have a capable boy cook 
 and in camps of over 20, two boys. The first boy will re- 
 ceive $4 a week besides his meals, the second boy $2.50 a 
 week and may earn some more by picking fruit. A teacher 
 supervisor will supervise one large or two or three small 
 camps and advise as to preparation of food, buy supplies, 
 and act as camp director. 
 
 Regarding cooking outfit to be supplied by the fruit 
 grower, it may be said that all except stove and ice box can
 
 FARM CADETS 263 
 
 be purchased new for about ^10. It is desirable that these 
 be ordered by the camp director, who will judge the size and 
 kind and take advantage of wholesale rates. An oil stove 
 and oven is recommended unless a suitable stove is on hand. 
 Inexperienced boy cooks cannot be expected to satisfy a 
 score or more of hungry boys with equipment discarded by 
 the skilled housewife. 
 
 It is further understood that these boys will not work on 
 Sunday nor will they be located on farms where farm help 
 is not treated with consideration. 
 
 An illustration of a "concentration and training 
 camp " is that established by the state of Maine. 
 This state, in cooperation with the state Young 
 Men's Christian Association, developed a state 
 camp for the purpose of enlisting and training 
 boys and young men to supply the extra demand 
 for farm labor made necessary through the in- 
 creased-acreage propaganda. The boys were or- 
 ganized under the title of "The Junior Volunteers 
 of Maine." They were virtually farm soldiers of 
 the state, and were sworn to obey all rules of the 
 camp before and after leaving it for the farms on 
 which they were placed. 
 
 The boys are sent out in squads to work in 
 different sections of the state, as opportunity may 
 offer, under the direction of competent adult leaders. 
 These leaders have full charge of the boys until 
 they return to the mobilization camp.
 
 264 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 When a boy comes to the camp he is examined 
 for his moral and physical qualifications, and then 
 is assigned to a company and to a tent. The 
 adjutant general provides necessary tents, uniforms, 
 and camp utensils. The boy is instructed with 
 others in the squad how to pitch a tent and pack 
 camp utensils, and he is also given lessons in 
 sanitation and the elements of military drill. He 
 has a lecture every day given by a professor of 
 the state agricultural college. He also works on 
 the Y. M. C. A. farm, which is being used for this 
 purpose, and is taught the use of machinery, and 
 how to manage and care for horses, sharpen tools, 
 and milk cows. 
 
 It is not claimed that a week of this sort of 
 training makes the boy a finished farmer, but it 
 does go a long way in that preliminary educa- 
 tion so essential to farm-mindedness. By the time 
 the boy gets to the farmer he is in excellent 
 shape to understand the orders of his employer. 
 In the words of the director of the camp, " He is 
 ready to begin actual service as a trained novice." 
 
 Before the boy is admitted to the camp a 
 searching examination is made into his character 
 and antecedents, and some responsible person 
 must answer certain confidential questions relative 
 to the boy's physical, mental, and social habits.
 
 FARM CADETS 265 
 
 After the boy is admitted to the camp he takes 
 an oath in which he states that he will serve as 
 a junior volunteer for farm service in Maine until 
 the last day of October, unless sooner released by 
 the governor of the state of Maine. 
 
 A charge is made on the farmer of ^i a day for 
 each of the six working days, and it is expected 
 that if the boys show themselves worthy of more, 
 the farmer will recognize this and make a satis- 
 factory adjustment with the leader. In addition 
 to the minimum charge of $1 a day the farmer 
 is required to furnish board. As a rule, however, 
 the boys sleep in near-by tents with their leaders. 
 The farmer is not required to pay transportation 
 or other charges. 
 
 The farmer's agreement is with the state and not 
 with the boy, as the scheme works on the basis that 
 the young men have been engaged by the state for 
 farm service and as employees of the state receive 
 their pay through the regular state channels. 
 
 On the first of July more than 450 boys had been 
 trained and sent out to various points in the state. 
 
 The following letter from the director-general 
 
 of the camp gives in a word his experience with 
 
 these boys: 
 
 We feel that this movement can be justified from any 
 one of a half-dozen standpoints. We are taking city boys
 
 266 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 and in a few weeks giving them a few carefully selected 
 fundamental principles relating to practical farm activities, 
 which has enabled them to go out to the farms under our 
 leaders and give satisfaction. We have not had a single 
 complete failure yet. Only 3 boys out of 600 employed 
 for the season have been changed because they could not 
 fill the requirements. The way these city boys have taken 
 hold of farm work has been wonderfully gratifying. In 
 connection with this training, we are conducting our camp 
 along lines similar to camps of National Guardsmen. The 
 whole organization is nearly identical with the regular army 
 camps. While the training is not so extensive, the boys 
 are given the fundamentals in correct form. The spirit 
 and general training at the camp will be of great value if 
 any of these boys are ever called into the service. 
 
 Another important possibility, and from my experience 
 with city boys, a probability, is that some of these boys will 
 become sufficiently interested in agriculture to choose it as 
 a vocation, while others will choose it later in life as an 
 avocation, because of this experience. 
 
 Another mobilization camp of the " labor-distri- 
 bution " type, with some training features, was that 
 of the Long Island Food Reserve Battalion. This 
 organization was initiated by the Nassau County 
 Y.M.C.A. and supported financially and morally 
 by the Long Island Railroad, the state agricultu- 
 ral school at Farmingdale, and by local residents. 
 A detailed description is unnecessary. There were 
 6 camps under this organization scattered over
 
 FARM CADETS 267 
 
 the island, in each camp 48 boys under a supervi- 
 sor, a miUtary instructor, and squad leaders (i squad 
 leader to approximately every 7 boys). The last 
 camp was developed at the state school of agri- 
 culture with a group of 96 boys working in two 
 shifts, one beginning at 6 a.m. and stopping at 
 12 noon; the other beginning at 12 noon and stop- 
 ping at 6 P.M. A regular course of agricultural 
 instruction was carried on at all the camps. Lec- 
 tures have been given in entomology, farm chemis- 
 try, and marketing. During the first month of the 
 first camp it was difficult to place the boys. The 
 idea was not well received by the farmers, who 
 claimed that the presence of boys would '' demor- 
 alize " their regular help, and that the boys would 
 not recognize the different vegetables and would 
 hoe out corn as quickly as they would pigweed. 
 (One boy in a New York State camp did carefully 
 hoe out and pull up every corn plant for a half-day, 
 leaving weeds.) 
 
 During the height of the season these same 
 farmers were driving to the camps and offering from 
 ^2 to ^2.50 a day for the same boys that they had 
 laughed at hiring for ^1.25 a day at the beginning 
 of the installation of the camps. 
 
 The " flying-squadron " idea is unique. An auto 
 truck, with a trailer for tentage and supplies, is
 
 268 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 always ready to respond with its load of boys to an 
 emergency call to save some particular crop. The 
 group composing this squadron is made up of 
 " hand-picked " boys who are qualifying for squad- 
 leader positions. 
 
 An example of a camp which was conducted in 
 such a manner that the boys lost the minimum of 
 school work is that of the Bushwick (Brooklyn, 
 New York), High School " Camp Squire " near 
 Hicksville, Long Island. The organization of this 
 camp is interesting, not so much because it was 
 established with the purpose of making it self- 
 supporting, but rather because it provided definite 
 opportunities for continuing with school studies. 
 The initial amount of about ^175 was subscribed 
 by teachers, and the tent and mess house, intended 
 formerly for harvesters, was lent by the farmer on 
 whose grounds the camp was placed. The leader 
 of this camp, a teacher in the same school from 
 which the boys were recruited, planned, after the 
 schools opened in September, a day of work and 
 study, coaching the boys in their school subjects, 
 so that with at least three hours of study per day 
 the boys were enabled to keep up with their 
 classes while at work harvesting until the middle 
 of October. In this, as in other successful camps, 
 the boys formed a unit organization before going
 
 FARM CADETS 269 
 
 to camp, and had the advantage of a sympathetic 
 instructor of academic and agricultural experience 
 to enforce voluntary school discipline. The boys 
 were paid 20 to 25 cents an hour, working for 
 neighboring farmers from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. The 
 rest of the day was divided into silent study, con- 
 sultation, and recreation hours. It is expected that 
 this camp, which will doubtless be permanent, will 
 become self-supporting in its second or third year 
 and the initial outlay will be returned. 
 
 The farm-camp idea is here to stay. Of that we 
 are sure. The purely recreational camp is a thing 
 of the past. The days of the purely work camp of 
 ten to twelve hours a day ought to be over. Work, 
 play, and study in the future will be brought to- 
 gether in the summer time as effectively as during 
 the so-called "regular" season. Next year, and in 
 the years after, we shall organize this work around 
 some educational ideal and not merely around a 
 necessity for food-production. The two are by no 
 means incompatible. 
 
 This year we have learned " how not to do it," 
 as one camp leader put it. In some instances the 
 boys went home with less money than they had 
 at the start. In brief they paid the farmer for the 
 privilege of picking berries. Particularly in berry 
 picking there was much piece work, and such may
 
 270 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 carry with it nearly all the evils that it does in the 
 factory. Mr. Keller, a thoughtful leader of a New 
 York camp, says in this connection: "Judging the 
 fair wage from the earnings of the expert is mani- 
 festly unfair. It means that the average boy must 
 be speeded up beyond his point of endurance, or 
 that he must receive less than a living wage. The 
 possibilities of speeding up are limited, and so 
 the alternative is longer hours." 
 
 Furthermore it is necessary for the government, 
 state or national, to take a hand in the distribu- 
 tion and the sale of farm products. It made me 
 sick at heart, on a trip of inspection to 25 camps, 
 to see hundreds of boys at work picking berries 
 under the hot sun in a service supposedly patriotic, 
 and then to see the same berries, which had been 
 sold by the growers at a price not much above that 
 of other years, resold to the consumer at double 
 the. price of other years, — and always with the 
 remark : " You know labor is scarce this year, and 
 the farmers cannot get help." The result of it all 
 has been that the consumer, for whom the work 
 was done, has been disregarded. 
 
 From the point of view of social reconstruction, 
 education, food production, and conservation only 
 the surface has been scratched. The state must take 
 the initiative, assuring the consumer a moderate
 
 FARM CADETS 271 
 
 price for the product, and the farmer, the dealer, 
 and the boy a fair return for their service. 
 
 The boy is not merely a labor unit in the conser- 
 vation of food. He is the essential feature of an 
 educational program. The experience of the past 
 summer proves that with centralization, organiza- 
 tion, and an educational vision as fundamental sub- 
 divisions of a far-sighted state policy the placing 
 of boy labor on farms could become a valuable and 
 permanent by-product of the war.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 THE ORGANIZATION OF A CADET CAMP 
 
 In organizing camps for supplying cadet labor 
 it is well to keep in mind that they are to be estab- 
 lished on the basis of a business proposition ; that 
 they are not primarily play camps or recreational 
 camps ; that they are not to be located on a river 
 or lake because there happens to be a good place 
 for boys to swim, if there are not paying jobs near 
 that river or lake on which the boys may work ; 
 that they are not to be established at random with- 
 out reference to the continuity of work during 
 the season, or without any real knowledge of the 
 local demand for labor. 
 
 Out of considerable experience during the past 
 year it has been discovered that there are three 
 great elements: first, the boy; second, the farmer; 
 and third, the job. In addition there are the ele- 
 ments of leadership, of housing, and of cooking. 
 Of course there must also be considered the ele- 
 ments of recreation, religious observances, and the 
 general social life of the camp. 
 
 With reference to the boy it would seem that 
 
 he ought to be one of a group which belongs to 
 
 272
 
 ORGANIZATION OF A CADET CAMP 273 
 
 a public-school system, or to an institution, or to 
 some society or organization which is ready to coop- 
 erate in placing him in a farm camp. We are 
 hardly prepared as yet to take individual boys, 
 unassociated with any organization, and bring them 
 together in a camp where the lack of unity will 
 give the leader little hold. A number of boys 
 from New York City were picked up at random 
 and sent out to a distant place up-state under the 
 direction of a leader who had never seen them 
 before. The boys had not met one another until 
 they were put on a train in New York. Not 
 coming from any single school or organization, 
 they felt no particular responsibility to anyone. All 
 they knew about the proposition was that they 
 were to go to a certain place, where they would 
 be met by someone who was to conduct them to a 
 camp. They were undisciplined and later proved to 
 be unmanageable. At the very start the plan lacked 
 that coordinating influence which would have ex- 
 isted if the leader had been a teacher in a school 
 from which these boys had come as one group, or 
 if a Y.M.C. A. boys' secretary had organized a group 
 from his association. Of course, some day a way 
 may be found to bring together a group of boys 
 independent of previous association and place them 
 in a new environment in about the same way that
 
 274 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 adult labor is gathered up in the streets of New 
 York and shipped by employment agencies to some 
 distant point. But boys are not men. The re- 
 sponsibility of sending a more or less irresponsible 
 youth to a distant point by the same methods that 
 are used by employment agencies in sending men 
 is too great for any state or community to undertake. 
 
 It is generally understood that the best boys for 
 farm work are those who are over i6 years of age. 
 This is true, of course, of boys who engage in 
 general farm work, such as plowing, milking, horse 
 cultivating, haying, and harvesting grains and pota- 
 toes. Many such boys were placed in the dairying 
 and general-farming regions of New York State. 
 These boys, in most cases, lived with the individual 
 farmer and were paid by the month. But it has 
 been found from experience that the 14-year-old boy 
 is often better adapted to certain types of farm work 
 than is the older boy. For example, the young boy, 
 with his adolescent enthusiasm, his nimbler fingers, 
 and his general physical alertness, is more desirable 
 for picking small fruits, such as strawberries, cur- 
 rants, raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, and 
 cherries. The 14-year-old boy must, however, work 
 Oil a different basis from the one who is over 16. 
 
 It is necessary for the boys to pass a physical 
 examination, because no state authorities care to
 
 ORGANIZATION OF A CADET CAMP 275 
 
 assume the responsibility of taking the physically 
 unfit. It is taken for granted that the boy is to 
 fit into the organization of the camp as a business 
 proposition and that he is to stick to his work, 
 pay his share of the cost of the food and its 
 preparation, respond to leadership, and in every 
 way do his part toward promoting the general 
 efficiency of the camp. 
 
 The enlistment blank used by the New York 
 State Military Training Commission is shown on 
 page 276. 
 
 The farmer is as important an element as the 
 boy ; yes, even more important, for the boy gradu- 
 ally loses his individuality in the camp conscience. 
 The individual farmer remains an individual. He 
 has his notions of what boys can do ; he compares 
 the work of the inexperienced boy with the adult 
 foreign labor which he has previously employed. 
 The latter has, until very recently, been available. 
 Women with their children came to his farm and 
 picked the small fruits without much regard to the 
 length of the day's work or to living conditions, and, 
 of course, without any reference to the social life 
 of the community. This labor went out as it came 
 in. If it did not like the job because the pay 
 was insufficient, it demanded higher wages and got 
 them or left the job and moved on to the next one.
 
 276 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 NEW YORK STATE MILITARY TRAINING COMMISSION 
 
 BUREAU OF VOCATIONAL TRAINING 
 
 ENLISTMENT AS FARM CADET 
 
 Name 
 
 Residence Street 
 
 Age yr. Height ft. in. Weight lb. 
 
 Place of enlistment 
 
 (Name of institution, club, or association) 
 
 I desire to enlist for farm work 
 and will report for service : 
 
 Kind of work desired ; as 
 picking fruit, vegetable gar- 
 dening, general farming, etc. 
 
 From mo day_to mo day_ 
 
 From mo day_to mo day_ 
 
 Can you drive a team? Can you milk?_ 
 
 Can you drive an automobile? 
 
 State briefly any other farm experience you have had. 
 
 I have examined the applicant and do assert that he is physically 
 fit to do farm work. 
 
 (Physician's signature) 
 
 I permit to enlist for farm work as 
 
 stated above 
 
 (Parent or guardian) 
 
 It did not mind shacks which lodged vermin. It 
 was not particular about sanitary conveniences; it 
 was not particular about anything except wages. 
 In shifting from adult foreign labor to boy labor,
 
 ORGANIZATION OF A CADET CAMP 277 
 
 the farmer was obliged to readjust his mental atti- 
 tude. Not only that, but he often had to readjust 
 the physical, economic, and social conditions on 
 his farm. 
 
 In April, at the time the New York agricultural 
 census was taken, the farmer said that he needed 
 labor. He even said he would take boy labor, but 
 when it came actually to engaging such labor, he 
 was inclined to ridicule the idea. Untrained city 
 boys were not in great demand in May, but when 
 the foreign labor did not appear on the scene and 
 strawberries were ripening on the vines, the farmer 
 suddenly discovered that he could use the untrained 
 city boy. But he had expected the boys not only 
 to work as many hours but also to pick as care- 
 fully and as much as adults. He expected the boys 
 to work at the same price as had foreigners for 
 years past, regardless of the advance in price of 
 food and the standards of living. Of course he was 
 disappointed, and this is where the leader of the 
 camp, through his authority, represents the inter- 
 ests of the boys and the newer conditions of farm 
 labor which have come out of the employment 
 of boys. 
 
 An instance of what happened in Highland, 
 New York, will illustrate the power of leadership 
 on the part of a camp leader and the cooperative
 
 278 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 instinct of a group of city boys who have consid- 
 erable famiharity with the principles of strikes, 
 lockouts, picket duty, and street-corner oratory. 
 The boys were being paid one and one-half cents 
 a quart for currant picking. In years past this 
 had been the usual rate. They could, on the aver- 
 age, pick about 40 quarts a day, which brought 
 them $3.60 a week, assuming that they worked 
 for six days in the week and there was no rain 
 or other interruptions. Meanwhile each boy's pro- 
 portion of the board at camp amounted to about 
 $3.50 a week. At this point a combination of 
 training in school debating, listening to speeches 
 of industrial disturbers, and a knowledge of trade- 
 union methods came into play, for these boys 
 gathered together and determined to demand two 
 cents a quart. They held a meeting and voted to 
 strike for two cents. They marched around the 
 berry-storage houses, each wearing an empty berry 
 basket as a cap, on which was marked " two cents " 
 and which was decorated more or less artistically 
 with bunches of currants. A meeting of all farmers 
 of the district was called by the general camp 
 supervisor of the district. The boys had presented 
 their arguments to the individual camp leaders, 
 and in turn the supervisor presented them to the 
 farmers. The farmers, in turn, presented their
 
 ORGANIZATION OF A CADET CAMP 279 
 
 difficulties. They said they could not afford to 
 pay more ; talked about middlemen, commission- 
 men, express rates, greater cost of baskets and 
 crates, mortgage on the farm, and everything, in 
 fact, except the federal income tax. But the boys 
 won out, and the meeting resulted in a new price 
 never before paid for picking currants. And the 
 boys who, up to then, had been able to pick only 
 40 quarts a day, were able to gather many more 
 after the advance in rate, picking 60 quarts a day 
 instead of 40 quarts. There are people who can 
 read into this short story an economic principle. 
 
 It is absolutely necessary to have a clear under- 
 standing between the boy-camp group, through 
 its leader or the organization sending the camp, 
 and the individual farmer or the group of farmers 
 employing the boys, as to fundamental points of 
 remuneration, type of work expected, length and 
 permanency of service. 
 
 The boy-camp-group problem is wholly different 
 from the problem of the individual boy who works 
 for an individual farmer and has no established 
 relations with any camp. The latter is a contract 
 relationship between the boy and the farmer. The 
 farmer usually hires the boy by the month for 
 general farm work, and the duties incident to such 
 a job are familiar to everyone. The hours may
 
 28o OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 be long or short, the work hard or easy, the food 
 good or bad, the boy's room clean or unsanitary; 
 but there is nothing unusual in this problem. 
 
 The one which is discussed here is that of the 
 labor camp, where a group of boys are projected 
 into a strange community to work at a job un- 
 familiar to the majority of them, — working for a 
 farmer or a group of farmers who have never 
 before emploj^ed such a type of labor. Any single 
 employer of farm labor who is in a position to 
 employ a group of boys may be assumed either 
 to be conducting a large farm on which there is 
 a great diversity of crops extending over a wide 
 range of time of harvesting, or to be a specializ- 
 ing farmer working in an intensive way on a 
 comparatively small area with special crops which 
 are harvested in short periods of time. Perhaps it 
 may be better to think of three types of jobs, or 
 rather, three types of employers who have jobs 
 to be filled by groups of boys. 
 
 First, there is the individual farmer who is a spe- 
 cialist. Such employers grow berries and other small 
 fruits. Here the boys get very little farm- experience. 
 They do obtain an idea of country life, and they 
 have excellent camp experience, but in order to 
 learn much about the fruit and berry business 
 they ought to be on the farm during the time of
 
 ORGANIZATION OF A CADET CAMP 281 
 
 spraying, pruning, and fertilizing. In reality these 
 boys are but factory hands under farm conditions. 
 Of course this type of work is extremely well 
 adapted to the inexperienced boy. 
 
 Second, there is the type of employer repre- 
 sented by the vegetable grower. In this case it 
 is readily seen that crops are put into the ground 
 as early as April, and seeding may continue until 
 the fifteenth of August, and with weeding, thin- 
 ning, and cultivating, the work may continue prac- 
 tically throughout the season. The harvesting of 
 certain crops may start late in June and continue 
 until the ground freezes. In this work the boys 
 obtain the very best sort of farm experience out- 
 side of that obtained from general farm work. 
 The work which they do is diversified, and they 
 learn about many farm operations. 
 
 Third, another type of employer is the business 
 organization made up of farmers ; as, for example, 
 the shippers' or growers' association, where a group 
 of farmers unite under a more or less compact 
 organization for the purpose of raising and moving 
 crops. Another illustration — somewhat different 
 for the reason that the organization is not made 
 up of farmers, but rather is allied with farmers — 
 is that of a canning company. In working for such 
 a type of employer the boy may or may not gain
 
 282 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 considerable agricultural experience, depending en- 
 tirely upon whether he is working on diversified 
 crops for long periods of time or doing specialized 
 harvesting. It is necessary to keep in mind these 
 different types of work as represented by different 
 types of employers. 
 
 It is clear that in some sections, under certain 
 agricultural conditions already described, the job 
 might be guaranteed a group of boys from the 
 middle of April until the first of November, with 
 almost steady work for six days in the week. The 
 nature of crops and weather conditions determine 
 continuity of work. A heavy rain means a good deal 
 of cultivating and weeding immediately afterward in 
 order to conserve the moisture. A light rain means 
 that the boys can work for part of the day in the 
 fields, while in the case of small-fruit farming even 
 a slight rain prevents the picking of the fruit. 
 Again, in vegetable farming a boy may work all 
 day if the fields are not too hot, without any injury 
 to his health or to the crops, because the vegetable 
 plants cannot be injured by handling, no matter 
 how hot it is. 
 
 In the case of the specialized farmer, there is 
 little or no guarantee for work beyond a short and 
 definite period ; that is, the period is necessarily 
 short, but whether or not it is definite depends
 
 ORGANIZATION OF A CADET CAMP 283 
 
 a great deal upon the weather and prices of crops. 
 It is obvious that an abundant crop might cause 
 a low market price, — a price too low to pay for 
 picking, — and employers who early in the season 
 thought that they wanted a group of boys might 
 decline to accept them at the last moment. They 
 might even contract for the boy-labor camp and 
 after the boys had picked for a few days desire to 
 drop the whole enterprise because of a fall in 
 the market price, — a fall which would not be evi- 
 dent until the crops commenced to come. Or, again, 
 the employer might contract for a camp of boys 
 to pick strawberries, for example, and complete 
 arrangements might be made for bringing the boys 
 to the locality, only to have the camp project aban- 
 doned because a week of rain had absolutely ruined 
 the strawberry crops. Such an experience was met 
 in New York State the past season. A hailstorm in 
 Chautauqua County completely destroyed in a few 
 minutes the prospects of a camp for the harvesting 
 of tomatoes. Now, it is evident that it is a difficult 
 matter always to guarantee a job. 
 
 The Bureau of Vocational Training of the Mili- 
 tary Training Commission of New York State 
 requested the zone representatives in the farm- 
 placement bureaus to see to it that jobs were 
 guaranteed to boys and that the time of service,
 
 284 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 place of service, and pay should be clearly stated. 
 It furthermore recommended that the job should 
 be guaranteed in writing by a single farmer, by a 
 group of farmers, or by the corporation desiring 
 these boys; that the employing party should state 
 the kind of work, the pay, the number of boys 
 needed, the duration of service, the living condi- 
 tions, the provisions made for the food supply for 
 the first week, and so on. It made it clear that 
 there should be an assurance in writing of what 
 the boys were to expect, and that someone should 
 be delegated to see that the employer lived up to 
 his agreement. Out of a theory not based upon 
 any previous experience it was obviously easy to 
 write up such a statement, but to expect it to be 
 carried out without a hitch in all parts of the state 
 and for all kinds of work and all types of employers, 
 not taking into consideration climatic and market 
 conditions, to say nothing about the prejudices and 
 idiosyncrasies of employers and boys, was to count 
 the chickens before they were hatched. About all 
 that can be said at this stage of this movement is 
 in illustration of the way the job guarantee was 
 handled. In what follows it must be kept in mind 
 that much of what has been said or what may be 
 said about the proposition of guaranteeing the job 
 is not at all difficult to carry out in the case of
 
 ORGANIZATION OF A CADET CAMP 285 
 
 general farming and is only moderately difficult in 
 the case of vegetable growing. 
 
 Every camp failure due to the lack of a work- 
 able contract justifies the original contention that 
 guaranteeing the job is extremely important. 
 
 MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING IN REFERENCE 
 TO THE SOUTH LIMA (NEW YORK) CAMP 
 
 Between the New York State Military Training Commis- 
 sion Farm-Cadet Bureau, West Central Zone (Nathaniel G. 
 West, Field Inspector, Rochester, New York) and the 
 Growers' and Shippers' Association of South Lima, New York. 
 
 The Farm-Cadet Bureau, West Central Zone, agrees : 
 
 1. To furnish 25 or more unskilled farm cadets, 16 to 
 19 years of age, for labor on muck and upland farms. 
 
 2. To furnish a camp leader, who shall have general 
 charge of the camp of boys, who shall hire out the boys to 
 near-by farmers, collect all wages, and purchase supplies. 
 
 3. That the camp leader shall keep an accurate account of 
 all wages paid to farm cadets and percentage collected, such 
 accounts to be open for inspection by committee designated 
 by the Growers' and Shippers' Association. 
 
 4. To furnish a competent camp cook who shall prepare 
 all meals for the farm cadets. 
 
 5. To pay each week, through the camp leader, to the 
 Growers' and Shippers' Association a sum for overhead ex- 
 penses, as explained below, — such sum to be procured by 
 adding to all wages earned by the cadets a sum equal to five 
 per cent of such wages.
 
 286 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 The Growers' and Shippers' Association agrees : 
 
 1. To provide work, as continuously as possible, for each 
 of the farm cadets in the above camp from June ii, 19 17, 
 to November 3, 1917. 
 
 2. To pay wages for each farm cadet at the rate of $2 
 per day's work, such day's work not to exceed ten hours. 
 
 3. To pay at the end of such week to the camp leader 
 all wages earned by farm cadets during that week. 
 
 4. To pay in addition to the above wages a sum equal to 
 5 per cent of the wages, such sum to be turned over 
 to treasurer of the Growers' and Shippers' Association for 
 payment of overhead expenses of the camp. 
 
 5. To arrange for rental of suitable quarters for the 
 cadets, furnish two ranges and fuel for same, furnish 27 or 
 more cots, tables, benches, and chairs for the quarters, install 
 a telephone, and arrange with local grocer for two weeks' 
 credit for the camp leader for the purchase of supplies. 
 
 6. To pay for the items mentioned under 5, above, out of 
 the 5 per cent received from Ihe camp leader, as agreed above. 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS PLAN OF INDIVIDUAL AGREEMENT 
 WITH FARMER 
 
 To the Committee on Food Production and Conservation 
 
 (Department of Mobilization of Schoolboys for Farm Service) 
 Dear Sirs : 
 
 I hereby apply for boys to be employed by me 
 
 as general farm labor according to the terms and regulations 
 on the reverse side of this application. 
 
 I shall require these boys to begin work upon 
 
 and probably require their services, if satisfactory, 
 
 until
 
 ORGANIZATION OF A CADET CAMP 287 
 
 I agree to pay each boy $4 per week for the first two 
 weeks, and $6 per week thereafter ; such payment to be 
 made on Saturday of each week. (Afterwards changed, see 
 chapter on "Farm Cadets," p. 250.) 
 
 If the boy Hves in a camp, I agree to pay $4 per week 
 for his board, and if he hves with me, I will furnish his 
 board ; the above to be in addition to his wages. 
 
 I agree to employ the boy on rainy days as well as fair 
 days, and on rainy days to use his service as far as possible 
 under cover. 
 
 I agree, if the boy is unsatisfactory, to give him one 
 week's notice or one week's pay, providing him with a 
 statement in writing giving my reasons for his discharge. 
 
 Whenever in the opinion of the local supervisor, the con- 
 ditions of living or of labor are not satisfactory, the boy may 
 be withdrawn without prejudice to him. 
 
 The nature of the work for which the boy is required is 
 
 Sign here. 
 
 (Farmer) 
 
 Phone .Street address 
 
 Date Tovm 
 
 The right leadership in a camp is very essen- 
 tial. The camp, after all, is but the lengthened 
 shadow of its leader. It is not difficult to write the 
 qualifications essential to leadership in a boys' farm 
 camp, but it is another matter to find any one
 
 288 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 person who will fill all the conditions that are 
 peculiar to a labor camp. A hundred-point man 
 capable of measuring up to the problems involved 
 in camp leadership must have had experience in 
 school or Association work. He would have knowl- 
 edge of cooking utensils and personal equipment 
 necessary to take to camp ; capacity to arrange 
 for transportation for the boys by the most direct, 
 convenient, and economical route; ability to deal 
 successfully with the problem of the first night in 
 camp, — a night when boys cannot or will not 
 sleep, when they are stirred up by the novelty of 
 the situation. He would be able to recognize good, 
 substantial, nourishing food, and to see that the 
 boys had proper food in such an emergency as the 
 camp cook's suddenly being taken ill or deserting 
 his job. He would have had experience in adjusting 
 working conditions, would know how many quarts 
 of fruit, for example, the average boy can pick; 
 would be able to help these boys get the most out 
 of their work by showing them the most effective 
 method of harvesting; would understand how to 
 use first-aid equipment. He would have to see that 
 the boys kept up correspondence with their homes. 
 He might have to sit up all night with a boy who 
 had eaten more fruit than was good for him. 
 The right leader will also have to think of reading
 
 ORGANIZATION OF A CADET CAMP 289 
 
 matter for the camp and of the problem of having 
 the boys attend church services on Sunday when 
 the membership of the camp has varied religious 
 beliefs. He may have some orthodox Jews in camp 
 when the country village has only a Methodist 
 church. He must satisfy the boys who want to have 
 a minstrel show, or the townspeople who offer to 
 entertain the boys. He may even have to arbitrate 
 in labor disputes. He may be the local placement 
 bureau. He should be able to drive an automobile, 
 in order that he may carry a flying squad five miles 
 from camp for a day's work for a farmer who is in 
 immediate need. He must be able to answer the 
 questions asked on blanks sent out by the state 
 departments of agriculture and education, by city 
 boards of education, by state Y.M.C.A.'s, by child- 
 labor bureaus, and by all other organizations more 
 or less directly interested in the new aspects of 
 old problems. If the boys have been excused from 
 school, he must certify that their labor-camp work 
 has been equivalent to the school work which they 
 otherwise would have had. He must be the banker 
 of the camp and help the boys conserve the money 
 which they earn. He is accountable to the group 
 for the expenses of the camp, in order that these 
 may be divided pro rata. He must be able to buy 
 supplies at the least cost.
 
 290 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 It is with deliberate intention that this hst has 
 been made lengthy and of wide range, in order to 
 show that no man exists who could meet adequately 
 every condition imposed. He is bound to be " born 
 short," as William Hawley Smith would state it, 
 on some of these angles. If he is a social-minded 
 man of the Boy Scout or Y.M.C.A. type, he will 
 be long on entertainments, recreation, food require- 
 ments, knowledge of personal equipment, group 
 work, first aid, and sanitation. If he is of the 
 school-teacher type, he will probably be strong on 
 discipline, efficient in looking after details of school 
 credits, camp expenses, records, moral conditions, 
 letter writing, and keeping boys busy. If he is a 
 technical man in agriculture, he may know nothing 
 about baseball on Saturday afternoon or how to 
 organize a minstrel show, but he will probably 
 know how to do more than keep boys busy. He 
 will keep them effectively busy; that is, he will 
 arrange to have certain boys do the lines of work 
 adapted to their skill and knowledge. He will dis- 
 cover ways of utilizing the labor of the unskilled 
 boy. He will be able to judge whether or not a 
 boy is working to his full capacity, and he may 
 be somewhat pitiless if the boy does not measure 
 up to a farm -labor standard. In other words, 
 such a man will be very largely interested in a
 
 ORGANIZATION OF A CADET CAMP 291 
 
 working camp. He will be interested in meeting the 
 conditions imposed by the farmers. He will know 
 that the berries must be expressed by four o'clock 
 and that the picking may have to stop promptly at 
 two. He will know that a leaky crate of raspberries 
 means a low price for possibly a whole carload. 
 He will be less interested, perhaps, in the balanced 
 ration and more interested in using the products 
 of the community on the camp table. He will not 
 be interested in the records required by school 
 officials so much as in those expected of him by 
 the farm-bureau agent. In short, his idea is to pro- 
 mote agriculture and not to promote the county 
 Y.M.C.A. movement, the back-to-the-farm move- 
 ment, or any other movement which may be allied 
 with the farm-cadet service. 
 
 It is not possible to find any one man who is 
 socially, pedagogically, and agriculturally minded. 
 If he claims to be good in all three fields he prob- 
 ably is mediocre. The experience of the past year, 
 however, shows some remarkably fine work done 
 by leaders of boy camps. Some have been public- 
 school teachers who have given their summer serv- 
 ices for nothing or for a nominal fee. Some have 
 been released from their duties as Y.M.C.A. secre- 
 taries in order that the association might make a 
 contribution to the farm-cadet movement. Some
 
 292 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 have been physical directors in public schools. 
 Some have been scout masters among the Boy 
 Scouts. Others have been agricultural teachers 
 who saw that this work was, after all, in the line 
 of their usual duties. 
 
 The following illustrates one of the hundred 
 things which a camp leader must know about: 
 
 INSTRUCTIONS TO FARM CADETS ENLISTED FOR CAMP- 
 SQUAD SERVICE IN NEW YORK STATE 
 
 JVHAT TO TAKE 
 NECESSARY ARTICLES 
 
 Bed sack 75 x 30 indies (to be stuffed with straw at camp) 
 or cot mattress ; enamel-ware plate, cup, saucer, sauce dish, also 
 knife, fork, and spoon ; dirmer pail or box, two heavy blankets, 
 small pillow, working dothes, sweater, gymnasium shirt, raincoat 
 or old overcoat, heavy shoes, toothbrush, tooth powder, small 
 mirror, towels, extra socks, rubbers or rubber boots, extra under- 
 wear, hairbrush, comb, soap, handkerchiefs, pajamas, a good 
 disposition, and a spirit of loyalty to the camp and its aims. 
 
 DESIRABLE ARTICLES 
 
 Musical instruments, camera, baseball, glove, bat, needles, 
 thread, safety pins, notebook, pencils, writing paper, envelopes, 
 good books, magazines. 
 
 The methods of housing the boys differ widely. 
 Ordinarily one thinks of tents as being the most 
 feasible, but the scarcity and high cost of such 
 equipment during the past year prevented the boys
 
 ORGANIZATION OF A CADET CAMP 293 
 
 from living under canvas. Generally speaking, it 
 would be better to think in terms of something 
 more permanent than tents, as these do not last 
 more than three years, and if the camp idea of har- 
 vesting crops by the use of boys is to continue, — 
 and many believe it will, — it is advisable to plan 
 for a permanent and inexpensive type of building. 
 A rough board shack with a good roof is highly de- 
 sirable in the early spring days and in the late fall. 
 
 Many of the cadets in New York State camps 
 were quartered in berry houses (which are really 
 packing and storage houses located in the berry 
 fields), in vacant houses, in schoolhouses, in grange 
 halls, and in buildings located on the fair grounds. 
 Most of these berry houses were two stories high, 
 the first floor being used for the commissary de- 
 partment and the second floor for dormitories. In 
 such cases the berries were packed in temporary 
 shacks adjoining the berry houses. In other cases 
 the boys have used the first floor for a sitting 
 room and built a rough shack back of the berry 
 or storage house for kitchen and dining room. 
 
 One of the most significant camping places was 
 that of a two-room schoolhouse, where cots for fifty 
 boys were put into the rooms, and the basement was 
 used as a kitchen. The boys built a table outside 
 and put up a canopy over it for a dining room.
 
 294 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 They next dammed up a brook which ran back 
 of the schoolhouse and made what they termed a 
 "bathtub," which was capable of holding about six 
 boys at a time. They also put into fine condition 
 the rather disreputable schoolhouse latrines. These 
 boys made the schoolhouse ring at night with their 
 popular school songs ; the old piano did its best to 
 bring together the heritages of the East Side and 
 of the Highlands of the Hudson. 
 
 There are several ways of making provision for 
 camp equipment. One is to develop, under state, 
 county, or local auspices, a series of permanent 
 camp quarters located in small-fruit, large-fruit, and 
 muck-land districts. This equipment need not be 
 expensive. It will be located very near the source 
 of labor demand and can always be used, whether 
 boy or adult labor is employed. Fruit and produce 
 growers and kindred establishments have in the 
 past provided, more or less, for such an equipment. 
 
 Another plan is to use schoolhouses, grange halls, 
 vacant farm buildings, and agricultural-fair equip- 
 ment. It is unfortunate that so much property ordi- 
 narily used for public purposes lies idle for long 
 periods of time. Some may say that the city boy 
 will not leave country property in good shape, but 
 experience so far has shown that the city boys 
 have left things better than they found them.
 
 ORGANIZATION OF A CADET CAMP 295 
 
 Still another type already spoken of is tentage, 
 and perhaps the best way to provide such an equip- 
 ment is to have the state furnish it through the 
 adjutant general's ofifice. 
 
 The sanitary aspects of any type of camp are highly 
 important. In Massachusetts the committee of pub- 
 lic safety, which established boy camps, required 
 that the sanitary conditions of these camps should 
 be inspected by the board of health, and the com- 
 mittee furnished full directions and a blue print 
 for the building of a sanitary latrine. 
 
 Some of the camps burn their garbage in home- 
 made incineration plants. 
 
 Ordinary garden hose with a watering-pot sprin- 
 kler attachment, or an elevated barrel with a sprayer 
 attached, and filled by the use of a pail and ladder, 
 were shower-bath devices worked out by the boys 
 in various camps. 
 
 All the camps devised some method of keeping 
 food cool, ranging from those that had a real city 
 ice chest down to those that cleaned out a spring 
 and set in it a bottomless, covered box. 
 
 The job of feeding boys in camp is not a sinecure. 
 Every scheme has been tried, from engaging at a 
 salary of one hundred dollars a month a Pullman 
 dining-car chef down to, or shall it be said up to, 
 a boy cook. The cook problem in a labor camp is
 
 296 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 as difficult to handle as is the so-called " servant " 
 problem of the city. The average cook knows more 
 about cooking than he does about dietetics. He 
 is very likely to lack adaptability. He is usually 
 untrained fpr camp cooking and is not particu- 
 larly open to suggestions. Experience seems to 
 show that the best cook is the one who has done 
 work in a Y.M.C.A. camp or in a Boy Scout camp. 
 Of course, this year there was a great scarcity of the 
 latter class to be found, as they were needed in their 
 own organizations, and therefore many camps were 
 obliged to employ a local woman of the matronly 
 type to cook for the boys ; sometimes an experienced 
 camp leader has developed some good cooks among 
 the boys in camp. Perhaps the best results, how- 
 ever, were obtained from boys who before the open- 
 ing of camps were given from two to four weeks of 
 camp-cooking instruction in the school system from 
 which they came. These boys were ready to use the 
 products of the localities, such as peas, beans, toma- 
 toes, radishes, lettuce, and corn, while the profes- 
 sional cook often seemed more familiar with the use 
 of the can opener. 
 
 The quantity and variety of food was practically 
 in the hands of the boys themselves, assuming 
 that the cook was a good one. If the allowance 
 of fruit for breakfast, for example, consisted of four
 
 ORGANIZATION OF A CADET CAMP 297 
 
 prunes or one banana or half an orange, and the 
 group as a whole desired a larger portion, it was 
 perfectly possible for them to secure it by so 
 voting, for it must be remembered that the food 
 expense of the camps was divided pro rata among 
 the boys. Under these conditions, however, it was 
 found that the boys were very economical and 
 frowned upon the few malcontents who wanted to 
 gorge themselves. 
 
 The cafeteria style of serving prevailed generally. 
 
 Providing amusements in recreation camps is 
 always a problem, but farm cadets require little in 
 the way of entertainment after eight or ten hours of 
 field service. Camp-fire talks on agriculture, corn 
 roasts, toasting marshmallows, giving musical enter- 
 tainments and minstrel shows, holding mock trials, 
 playing baseball on Saturday afternoons or Sundays, 
 constitute the chief forms of recreation. In every 
 instance the lads have been well received in the 
 local communities. They were popular features at 
 church entertainments. Red Cross benefits, and 
 country sociables. Often the boys, especially in 
 the berry-picking regions, went swimming about 
 4 p. M., after the crates had been sent by the 
 afternoon express. 
 
 In every instance the village church and the 
 county Y.M.C. A. took an active interest in the farm
 
 298 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 cadets. Many of the boys played musical instru- 
 ments, and their confidence in themselves was con- 
 tributory to many supplementary boy choirs. The 
 country pastors evidently made it a point to do 
 what they could for the pleasure of all the boys, and 
 without exception there seemed to be no religious 
 distinctions. In some camps the Catholic priest 
 expressed his fatherly feeling for the lads. In 
 others the Jewish and Catholic boys attended the 
 union village church. In brief, the boys entered into 
 the spirit of the rural life, and both the country folk 
 and the youth of the city were the better for it. 
 
 A study of the different camps in operation in 
 various parts of the country seems to indicate that 
 they might be grouped under six heads as follows. 
 
 I. Concentration, or training, camps. These are 
 usually located in agriculturally strategic sections 
 of the state, where boys may receive preliminary 
 training in camp life and in farm work under disci- 
 plinary and instructional conditions. Of course 
 such a camp can do nothing more than give the 
 boys a training in the elements of farm activities 
 (such as harnessing a horse, running a hand culti- 
 vator, using a hoe, driving a team) and serve as a 
 trying-out period for weeding out boys who are 
 unsatisfactory. These camps cannot be considered 
 places which will give a preliminary agricultural
 
 ORGANIZATION OF A CADET CAMP 299 
 
 education, for that is very different from giving 
 a preliminary idea of farm operations. After these 
 boys have received a course of such training, they 
 are sent out under leadership to work in a section 
 of the state where a group may work for one 
 farmer and live at the camp meanwhile or may 
 work for individual farmers and live with the em- 
 ployer. Obviously it is taken for granted that such 
 a camp is located in a good agricultural section 
 and that its surroundings have something more 
 than fine swimming holes or beautiful scenery. 
 These boys must be trained in an environment and 
 under conditions similar to the farm life in which 
 they are to participate later. It would seem that 
 the agricultural colleges of the country and the 
 secondary schools of agriculture would, generally 
 speaking, offer splendid locations for establishing 
 training camps. Here would be found, or ought 
 to be found, good land. This is not always true, 
 because occasionally an agricultural college has 
 been located irrespective of good land. The tech- 
 nical and dormitory facilities, however, would be 
 available for the boys in training. 
 
 II. Farm-workings or labor-distributing^ camps. 
 These are concentration camps in a certain sense, 
 but they are located directly in the farm district 
 where the boys, after receiving their preliminary
 
 300 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 training, are to find work in the community ad- 
 joining the camp. Several camps of this order have 
 started out with the idea of giving a preliminary 
 training in agriculture in the camp itself, and have 
 borrowed or bought farming implements and teams 
 and leased land in order to give the training. But 
 in the majority of cases this idea was abandoned, 
 for it was found that these boys could receive all 
 their preliminary training with the farmers, pro- 
 vided the leader of the camp could establish help- 
 ful relations between the boy and the employing 
 farmer and could, out of his wisdom and experi- 
 ence, protect the boy in the early stages of the 
 work and guide him in all its stages. In other 
 words, in this type of camp a city man, acting 
 as leader, comes into a community with a group 
 of boys who live at the camp but receive their 
 training with the near-by farmers. A labor-supply 
 camp, composed of able-bodied boys, is a type which 
 adequately meets the need at small expense. 
 
 III. Military farfn-training cmnp. This is a type 
 of camp where city boys, under the direction of a 
 school or some organization, go into a farming com- 
 munity and open up new land which otherwise 
 would not have been put under cultivation. These 
 boys stay at the camp during the season. They 
 do not work for the farmers near by, or, at least,
 
 ORGANIZATION OF A CADET CAMP 301 
 
 not ordinarily, — the intention being to establish 
 a self-supporting and self-maintaining camp for the 
 use of the boys who attend. The land is tilled, 
 the seed planted, and the harvest gathered for the 
 benefit of the boys. Any profits are given to the 
 boys or to the school, and any expenses for con- 
 ducting the camp, or overhead charges, usually 
 come out of the organization or school represented. 
 It is questionable whether, generally speaking, this 
 type of camp is on a sound economic and agri- 
 cultural basis. If such a camp could be carried on 
 for a number of years with a strong school or 
 other organization behind it, and plenty of capital, 
 it is very likely that it would succeed. It takes 
 capital to establish good soil conditions and pur- 
 chase tools, farm machinery, and stock, and to put 
 up buildings. It is a highly desirable type of camp 
 to consider in terms of many years or where a 
 school wishes to give its boys a military and farm 
 experience. But in the food emergency through 
 which the country is now passing, it is doubtful if 
 this type of camp should ever have been started. 
 It is, however, an excellent type to establish as a 
 permanent adjunct to a city school system. 
 
 IV. Cooperative camp where the boys share in 
 proceeds. This type of camp is practically like III, 
 and if the farm land is new and the camp leader
 
 302 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 is untrained in agricultural operations and the boys 
 are unskilled, it is about as likely to be doomed 
 to failure as is the other. 
 
 V. The village- or country-school type of camp. 
 This is a camp where the schoolboys, under the 
 leadership of a teacher, go to the outskirts of the 
 village and develop a garden. If the land is good 
 and the teacher knows agriculture and the boys 
 attend to business, they will most certainly receive 
 an excellent practical training useful to them in 
 life. They will have learned how to work in the 
 soil, how to work together for a common purpose, 
 how to stick to a job until it is finished, how to 
 look ahead from the time seed is purchased until 
 the crop is placed in the hands of the customer. 
 All these things are good and they are useful to any 
 boy, but, of course, from the standpoint of increas- 
 ing the food supply in any large way through the 
 growing of wheat, feed corn, oats, rye, buckwheat, 
 potatoes, and large fruits there is little to be said. 
 The work is to be commended on the basis of its 
 value to the individual boy. 
 
 VI. Short-term camp, sometimes called ^"^ flying 
 squadron!' This type of camp is advisable only in 
 an intensive-farming region where quick service 
 for the harvesting period is needed. The squad 
 itself will serve to keep a balance between the
 
 ORGANIZATION OF A CADET CAMP 303 
 
 demand for labor and the supply. It is easy to 
 picture a fruit region around and through which 
 are a number of camps. Each one ought to be 
 working to the limit, but, of course, as a matter 
 of fact in one section there would be a greater de- 
 mand for boys than could be met by the local 
 camp. It is at this time that the flying squadron 
 comes in, when, in response to the SOS call, a group 
 of temporarily idle boys from one camp may be sent 
 to another camp which is short of help.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 A SUMMARIZED PROGRAM OF ACTION 
 
 Out of this war we are going to have a new spirit 
 and method in education. England has already be- 
 gun to evaluate its present system. It has issued 
 a report on the assistance which education, if prop- 
 erly directed, can give to industry and commerce 
 after the war. The results of a recent investigation 
 afford — so the report states — a convincing proof 
 of the necessity of improving and extending the 
 provisions hitherto made for instruction and train- 
 ing in scientific studies as a necessary foundation 
 for fruitful research. 
 
 The report goes on to say that, in a sense un- 
 known to former generations, England has become 
 a part of Europe ; and in the interest not merely of 
 commerce but of the intelligent conduct of national 
 affairs an adequate knowledge of the languages — 
 and, through the languages, of the literatures, his- 
 tories, and civilizations of European countries — 
 should be in the possession of a far larger pro- 
 portion of its population than in the past. It states 
 that particular subjects of instruction in the high 
 
 304
 
 Military engineering will bec(jme a popular and necessary part of the cur- 
 ricula of our colleges and technical institutes. A class in suspension-bridge 
 work at Wentworth Institute, Boston, Massachusetts 
 
 Military prepaiedness of college boys and schoolboys includes other activities 
 
 than merely drilling. Trench drainage, one of a score of war emergency 
 
 courses, at Wentworth Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
 
 Returned convalescent soldiers, who would be idle but for the opportunity 
 offered to brush up their education. Ogden Military Convalescent Hospital 
 
 \ ^ . -~ 
 
 • 1 .mok. ^ 
 
 A corner of the printing and photo-engraving shop at Manitoba ^Military Con- 
 valescent Hospital, Winnipeg. These men have been assigned to courses of 
 reeducation because of inability to return to their former occupations
 
 SUMMARIZED PROGRAM OF ACTION 305 
 
 schools and institutes cannot be divorced from the 
 consideration of their organization and of their cur- 
 ricula as a whole, if a proper balance of studies is 
 to be secured and if higher education is to be truly 
 liberal and humane in its spirit and influence. It 
 insists that access to the schools must be ren- 
 dered easier for native ability wherever it is found, 
 and affirms again and again that the needs of 
 the nation cannot be satisfied merely by changes 
 affecting higher education or by a provision of educa- 
 tional facilities confined to scholars of special gifts 
 and abilities. It closes by saying that the future 
 will make new and increased demands, especially 
 in a democratic community, on the health, char- 
 acter, and intelligence of every citizen; and these 
 demands can only be met by comprehensive and 
 far-reaching improvements and developments of 
 elementary education. 
 
 The individual-industrial-efficiency idea which we 
 obtained from Germany will have to be interpreted 
 in America not for military purposes, but in terms 
 of personal and vocational service for the nation. 
 Just as the academic militarism of the Old World 
 has been found wanting and has been gradually 
 transformed into the mobilization of all forces be- 
 hind the lines on an entirely new basis and concep- 
 tion of what may be done by a people in time of
 
 3o6 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 war, so we in this country shall learn that we may 
 in times of peace, through efficient and effective 
 living, prepare for defense. In this preparation we 
 may learn that improved elementary education, that 
 vocational training, that bringing into the schools 
 the Boy Scout spirit, that teaching of sanitation and 
 personal hygiene, that organizing our courses on a 
 unit and project basis, that developing systems of 
 student service in school life, that extending school 
 facilities to adults, and a hundred other things which 
 have been thought of as fads and pedagogical idio- 
 syncrasies will, to quote the New York State law 
 relative to military equivalents, " specifically prepare 
 for service useful to the state in the maintenance 
 of defense, in the promotion of public safety, in 
 the conservation and development of the state's 
 resources, or in the construction and maintenance 
 of public improvements." Truly, a program for 
 peace as well as for war. 
 
 The school board and its executive officer, the 
 superintendent, should do everything to save the 
 school buildings for school purposes. They are lit- 
 erally factories turning out, it is hoped, handmade 
 products ; and in time of war their service should 
 be increased rather than diminished. To use them 
 as hospitals will be a mistake, — better by far con- 
 fiscate department stores. Bring the war into the
 
 SUMMARIZED PROGRAM OF ACTION 307 
 
 schools in the spirit already interpreted in preceding 
 chapters, but do not take the schools into the war. 
 
 Do not eliminate studies indiscriminately. Eval- 
 uate if you will, — and this is always well, — but 
 wholesale cutting out is to be avoided. It may be 
 that the cost and value of instruction in freehand 
 drawing will have to be compared with the perma- 
 nent value of the study of Latin. It may be that 
 instead of adding to the vocational department a 
 machine-shop equipment, which is always expensive, 
 it will be discovered that a cooperative course can 
 be developed, employing the equipment of a neigh- 
 boring factory, and that all the school need furnish 
 is a teacher for blackboard work in mathematics, 
 drawing, and science. It is likely that a longer 
 school day will be advisable and also a longer school 
 year. It is quite probable that the introduction of 
 the methods of the Boy Scout movement into the 
 public schools will be found superior to some of 
 the present teaching of nature study, recreational 
 work, civics, and conduct. 
 
 Provision must be made for filling the places of 
 the male teachers who will be drafted. Many of 
 these will be instructors in science and mathe- 
 matics. It ought to be possible to secure the serv- 
 ices of retired civil or mechanical engineers for 
 teaching these subjects. It is feasible to draft into
 
 3o8 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 service married women who have once taught. It 
 is to be hoped that the government will eventu- 
 ally recognize that educational enterprise as well 
 as industrial enterprise ought to furnish grounds 
 for exemption. As war comes closer to us provi- 
 sion must be made for keeping the schools open 
 twelve months in the year, and from eight in the 
 morning until ten at night for six days in the week. 
 Every child up to the age of 14 must be kept in 
 school. It is the best place for him, provided, of 
 course, the school rises to its full height, — and it 
 is taken for granted that it will. The physical 
 condition of the younger children especially should 
 be watched very carefully. The teacher should dis- 
 cover the conditions at home. It may be that some 
 pupils have had no breakfast and are not likely to 
 have a suitable lunch or even a supper. Some 
 will have to be fed in the schools, and here is an 
 opportunity for the older girls in domestic-science 
 classes. Some will report certain home conditions 
 that will require that the school make a report to 
 the local Red Cross chapter or some other relief 
 agency. Again there is opportunity for the older 
 girls to serve through their knowledge of home 
 nursing, infant feeding, and first aid. 
 
 If the war strikes us hard, we may have to think 
 of part-time work for children above 14, but we
 
 SUMMARIZED PROGRAM OF ACTION 309 
 
 must never let the children get away from us as 
 they have in England. We must control the exodus. 
 We must not abrogate the existing compulsory- 
 attendance laws and the existing labor laws. We 
 must not interpret these laws with laxity and shut 
 our eyes while the children go by us on their way 
 to work. We may do well to amend these laws 
 if in so doing we can incorporate useful labor into 
 the educative process. In other words, we must be 
 constructive in any part-time measures which are 
 adopted. The educative value of profitable labor 
 need not be lost. 
 
 It will be well for us to look into the real 
 value of military training for schoolboys before 
 we adopt in a wholesale fashion obsolete militar- 
 ism. The value of wooden-gunism is questionable. 
 Physical training, vocational training, athletics, Boy 
 Scout work, team play, and discipline are far more 
 valuable. Military drill given in addition to these 
 activities may be advisable. However, on this point 
 there is still a difference of opinion. But to give 
 formal military instruction without considering its 
 adaptability to the methods used in modern war- 
 fare and the training incident to effective prepa- 
 ration for them is neither military preparedness 
 on the one hand nor sensible educational procedure 
 on the other.
 
 3IO OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 School boards ought to organize at once voca- 
 tional courses to secure state and national aid, and 
 seek from the legislature state aid for directors of 
 community gardens, as, from now on, these will be 
 a permanent feature of community life. Some sort 
 of provision ought to be made relative to bring- 
 ing agriculture into the city school or taking the 
 city boy to agriculture. A country branch of a 
 city school is possible. Play and recreation centers 
 must be developed. The increase of juvenile offenses 
 in both England and France during this war has 
 been tremendous. Many of these offenses are com- 
 mitted by children who are still at school. There 
 is much evidence that owing to the absence on mili- 
 tary service of their fathers, — and, perhaps even 
 more, of their elder brothers, — the industrial em- 
 ployment of their mothers, the darkened streets, and 
 other circumstances, many school children are suffer- 
 ing from the lack of proper care and discipline and 
 are exposed to serious risks of deterioration. These 
 conditions have been mitigated through the estab- 
 lishment of evening play centers, which provide the 
 children with suitable occupation and amusement 
 after school hours. 
 
 The principal of a school can play a large part 
 in a war-emergency program. He can develop the 
 idea of War Savings among the children in his
 
 SUMMARIZED PROGRAM OF ACTION 311 
 
 school. Announcement has been made that the 
 government intends to develop the War Savings 
 Certificate plan of England. These certificates are 
 perhaps better adapted to persons of small means 
 than a Liberty Bond. The United States Treasury 
 Department has set forth a plan for advertising and 
 selling these certificates through the public schools 
 of the nation. The aim is to have every pupil an 
 owner of a " little baby bond " and a participant in 
 a democratic plan of government security. A cam- 
 paign for thrift has been started. The schools must 
 do their part. 
 
 The principal can organize patriotic meetings at 
 which he can explain the purposes of the Red 
 Cross, the Liberty Loan, and the garden and conser- 
 vation movements. He can distribute pamphlets 
 relating to war service. In a small community he 
 can be the leader of the Red Cross movement, only 
 he must always remember that he is to work with 
 state and national organizations and is not to write 
 to Washington when he can perhaps step across 
 the street to local headquarters or write directly to 
 state headquarters. Of course, he will follow closely 
 the printed directions with reference to bandages, 
 shipping, etc., for the general organization has put 
 more thought into it and gained more experience 
 than he could possibly gather.
 
 312 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 Obviously the principal ought to allow no com- 
 petition between school organizations and local or- 
 ganizations. If the local organization is strong and 
 effective, he ought to work under it. If it is not, 
 he may well work over it. By all means he should 
 inform pupils of the meaning of the war, that they 
 in turn may carry word to their parents; and such 
 work is not always limited to districts where people 
 are foreign born. There may be as much need 
 for such work in the West as in New York City. 
 A Western farmer is reported as saying that he 
 did not care who owned the country or whether 
 the Germans took it or not so long as he sold 
 his wheat crop. 
 
 The principal may direct a state census on some 
 particular data for which state authorities may call. 
 He should bring together various bulletins issued 
 by state and national governments which concern 
 food production and conservation, sanitation, public 
 health, nursing, dietetics, etc., and by publishing lists 
 of such material in newspapers and posting them 
 on school bulletin boards, bring the information 
 within them to the people who need it most. He 
 should make the hall exercises in the school mean 
 more than ever. Let us hope that " America " may 
 be sung with more vim, and that the principal will 
 know the second stanza. The " Marseillaise " and
 
 SUMMARIZED PROGRAM OF ACTION 313 
 
 other national songs of our allies may be sung. Of 
 course a service flag made by the girls in the school 
 hangs prominently in the assembly hall, and each 
 of its stars speaks for a teacher, a student, or a 
 graduate who represents the life-giving contribu- 
 tion of the school to the cause of democracy. 
 
 The country-school principal has a great deal to 
 do. His work differs from that of the city principal 
 in that he may be a recognized leader in almost 
 everything, while the city principal must necessarily 
 cooperate with individuals and organizations. The 
 principal in the open country can be the local 
 agent for seed and fertilizer and for the distribution 
 of farmers' bulletins. In fact, he may be the local 
 representative for the state departments of educa- 
 tion, of agriculture, of labor, and of health. 
 
 He ought to use judgment in excusing boys from 
 school for farm work. He will know the exact cir- 
 cumstances under which a boy goes to work. He 
 will know whether he is working on his father's 
 farm or that of a neighbor. He can help that boy 
 with his lessons so that he can do some studying 
 at home and keep up with his classes. And in 
 the late fall, when the boys return to school from 
 their farm work, he can organize a special class 
 in order that they may satisfactorily make ■ up 
 their studies. This extra work on his part and
 
 314 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 that of his coworkers will make one of the answers 
 to the call to the colors which comes to every man 
 and woman in this country. 
 
 A city principal can organize an agricultural 
 course in his city school, and obtain a state-aided 
 teacher for giving agricultural theory in the winter 
 in connection with biological science, and have this 
 teacher take a group of boys into the country in 
 the spring. He can always think of his boys as 
 going out to farm work on the basis of an organ- 
 ized group, and on that basis only. A teacher from 
 his school might go with these boys and serve as 
 their leader. It is probable that educational experi- 
 ments of this nature will lead eventually to country 
 branches of city schools. 
 
 It is clear that the industrial and trade schools, 
 because of the very nature of their purpose, may 
 render unusual service, but they must start out 
 with the idea that they are to take their direc- 
 tions from the state boards of control of vocational 
 education rather than go off at a tangent inde- 
 pendent of any state or national movement. It 
 must be remembered that provision has been made 
 for a national system of vocational education with 
 a Federal Board of Vocational Education guiding 
 it, and that every state board having charge of 
 vocational education is working in conjunction with
 
 SUMMARIZED PROGRAM OF ACTION 315 
 
 the national board. We must keep in mind that 
 the Federal Board of Vocational Education is in 
 close touch with the National Council of Defense 
 at Washington, and consequently with all depart- 
 ments of the national government which concern 
 war measures. For a local school to jeopardize its 
 chances for national and state aid through failure 
 to follow a program provided by these authorities, 
 or to develop types of work which are out of accord 
 with national needs, will not be the part of wisdom 
 or common sense. These schools must not forget 
 that their primary function is to make mechanics 
 and not army supplies, but if they are called upon 
 to do the latter work, or if they can do it effectively, 
 they must make it educational in its aim and not 
 merely productive work. 
 
 State officials ought to have inventories made 
 of the equipment of the vocational schools, with 
 a census of the experience and training of the 
 instructors, and a state study ought to be made 
 of plans to train workers for the different branches 
 needed. Such a study would point out how the 
 semiskilled may become skilled, how the unskilled 
 may become semiskilled, how the necessary train- 
 ing may be given to specialist tool makers, and 
 how there can be developed a type of industrial 
 work suitable for women and girls.
 
 3i6 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 The directors of trade schools will provide op- 
 portunities for the training of foremen in evening 
 classes, or at other times if necessary, using methods 
 of instruction which will increase their skill in deal- 
 ing with green help or unskilled laborers. These 
 men will adjust the evening schools to run the year 
 round, and also provide for off-time classes. 
 
 In vocational schools of the commercial order, 
 of which we have very few in the country, provi- 
 sion will be made for short-unit courses in com- 
 mercial practice for women and girls to fit them 
 to take the place of men drafted. 
 
 As has already been stated, it is very likely that 
 the day vocational schools will have comparatively 
 few pupils during the war period, as young persons 
 who ordinarily go to these schools will have readily 
 obtained work in factories. However, such youth 
 can still be instructed if the school will go to the 
 factory and there establish training courses. 
 
 The present is a good time to develop com- 
 mercial courses which have a vocational purpose, 
 and which have methods more in accord with the 
 definition of vocational training. The commercial 
 departments in the majority of our high schools 
 rather indifferently train stenographers, typists, and 
 clerks. They do not even attempt to train sales- 
 men and saleswomen, index and statistical clerks.
 
 SUMMARIZED PROGRAM OF ACTION 317 
 
 comptometer operators, etc. Very few of the com- 
 mercial courses have either the definiteness of aim 
 of the industrial and trade schools or the practical 
 contact with actual commercial practice which will 
 be necessary if they are to meet the requirements 
 of modern business. Commercial schools have not 
 yet caught the spirit of part-time, off-time, or short- 
 unit programs. 
 
 The manual-training teacher will find plenty to 
 do ; that is, if the state departments of education 
 furnish him definite data and specifications for war- 
 emergency work. It will be practically useless for 
 him to carry on special work in any large way 
 unless the field of service of the boy workers is 
 organized in some such way as is the Red Cross 
 work. If boxes are needed for packing supplies, a 
 working drawing of the same ought to be furnished 
 by the state department. If hospital furniture, such 
 as bed racks and tables, is needed, the articles 
 should be standardized in order that they may be 
 made in quantities and may be serviceable when 
 they reach the source of need. The same is true 
 of splints. The reason for the great accomplishment 
 of the French and Canadian boys in the making of 
 splints used temporarily on the field of service is 
 that they have been furnished with very definite 
 directions as to size, material, and method of making.
 
 3i8 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 It cannot be too emphatically stated that the 
 war-service work of the elementary and secondary 
 schools needs definite direction from the state de- 
 partments of education if the unity of effort based 
 upon directions common to all are to result not 
 only in effective work but also in fulfilling the social 
 and civic purposes which are behind the service. 
 
 This is an opportune time for the manual-training 
 teacher to abandon his set of models. They should 
 have been set aside long ago. His war-service 
 duties will give an additional motive for socializing 
 his work. In small cities and villages where there is 
 plenty of land available for cultivation the director 
 of manual training, On the first of May, ought to 
 change his title and assume his duties as director 
 of community gardens. He should have been pre- 
 paring for this work by giving instruction in garden 
 work in the manual-training room during March 
 and April. Meanwhile he should have interested 
 adults of the community in the plan of a garden 
 where both old and young might work, and should 
 have brought together civic forces to accomplish the 
 purpose — a purpose which is educational, social, 
 recreational, and useful. 
 
 Dealing with boys under fifteen, as the average 
 manual-training teacher will, it is possible for him 
 to develop a type of manual arts which will serve
 
 SUMMARIZED PROGRAM OF ACTION 319 
 
 to create or arouse a set of industrial interests 
 helpful to the boy in determining his life career. 
 With every temptation to a pupil to leave school, 
 the manual-training teacher will now have an un- 
 usual opportunity to make his work so attractive 
 and economically so helpful that the boy may see 
 the advantage of paying no attention to industrial- 
 service inducements. 
 
 This is a time for increasing the field of useful- 
 ness of the industrial arts in connection with the 
 problems involved in the junior high school. This 
 type of school is certain to meet with increased 
 favor during and after the war, and the reasons are 
 both educational and administrative. 
 
 So much has already been said in several places 
 in this book about the service which cooking and 
 sewing teachers may render, that it is hardly 
 necessary in this place to do more than give a 
 very brief summary. As supplies for cooking les- 
 sons become more expensive, the cooking teacher 
 must make more of demonstrations to pupils, and 
 less, perhaps, of actual practice. The war recipes 
 which she uses must be mimeographed or printed 
 and given the pupils to take home. She must or- 
 ganize classes for adults in unit courses and hold 
 them afternoons and evenings. In fact, she might 
 well have the mothers come with the children
 
 320 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 during the regular session and receive some special 
 instructions which the children receive. She will be 
 busy the year round ; her larger work will begin 
 when the schools close, in that she will start her 
 canning and community-club work. A situation 
 can easily be conceived wherein she will have in 
 reality very little teaching responsibility in the 
 classroom. She will be looked upon as the com- 
 munity organizer for all types of food conserva- 
 tion, and some of her older girls will, in all proba- 
 bility, be teaching in the regular classes. Of 
 course, she will interest all the children in the 
 school in saving bottles, jars, crocks, large-mouthed 
 bottles, tumblers, small wooden pails, etc. for con- 
 tainers for the jams, preserves, and fruit juices 
 which will be put up. She will obtain all the new 
 bulletins on processes of drying and dehydrating. 
 Perhaps she may have initiative enough to dis- 
 cover a fruit crop which will not be picked except 
 through her efforts. Perhaps she will find an 
 orphan asylum in the community filled with boys 
 and girls who can pick this fruit crop. 
 
 The sewing teacher has more than enough to 
 do. If the Red Cross chapter does not keep her 
 busy, then she can keep the chapter active. With 
 the price of materials as high as it is now and 
 the quality, as poor, there is. plenty of opportunity
 
 SUMMARIZED PROGRAM OF ACTION 321 
 
 to look over, in every home, the last year's ward- 
 robe. She might organize a Thrift Club. Enthusi- 
 astic youth will do almost anything under the 
 name of "club." 
 
 It is to be hoped that every girl in the school 
 above the age of ten will enroll in the sewing 
 class and not sit idly by while a few do all the 
 work. Very likely the household-arts teacher will 
 organize a home-cadet unit, just as the boys 
 will be organized into farm-cadet units. The 
 girls will have their pledge of loyalty and per- 
 haps will wear their chevrons, badges, or buttons, 
 and will enroll for specific work in food, clothing, 
 or shelter projects. 
 
 The agricultural teacher will have more than he 
 can do. An effective teacher in normal periods is 
 always busy with his supervision of home-project 
 work, preparation of material for classroom teach- 
 ing, gathering of laboratory exhibits, etc. But in 
 war time he must carry on his shoulders still larger 
 burdens. In the early spring he will discontinue 
 his formal agricultural teaching to the special voca- 
 tional group and broaden his work to include those 
 who have not regularly enrolled in the agricultural 
 course. To the latter he will give some very definite 
 suggestions for immediate use on the farm ; while 
 the boys who have been with him all winter will
 
 322 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 be excused from school to give their entire time to 
 their home projects. To those who have recently 
 come into the class there will be given special work 
 in the classroom which they may practice outside 
 of school hours and which they can follow for full 
 time during the summer. 
 
 He will have a good deal to do with the farm- 
 cadet idea, and in the winter he will doubtless be 
 thinking of the type of camp which he will es- 
 tablish or with which he will be connected. He 
 may decide that he can do best by organizing a 
 labor-distributing camp on his own initiative, or 
 that he will serve as an assistant at the state- 
 farm training camp, or that he will take his boys, 
 if they are village boys, to the outskirts of the 
 village and establish a cooperative camp; or he 
 may get in touch with the teacher of biology in 
 a city school and offer the country schoolhouse 
 and his services for a training camp made up of 
 city boys. It is assumed that he is in close touch 
 with the county farm agent; perhaps he is the 
 local representative of the club work which the 
 United States Department of Agriculture is pro- 
 moting; and, of course, he is taking the responsi- 
 bility of acting as agent in his territory for the 
 United States Boys' Working Reserve, — a really 
 wonderful organization full of immense possibilities.
 
 SUMMARIZED PROGRAM OF ACTION 323 
 
 This Boys' Working Reserve movement started 
 under the auspices of the United States Depart- 
 ment of Labor in cooperation with the Council of 
 National Defense, for the purpose of mobilizing 
 young men between the ages of 16 and 21 for 
 productive labor in the war emergency. 
 
 During the summer of 19 17 the Reserve confined 
 its activities principally to giving federal recognition 
 to those youths who, as members of state organiza- 
 tions, had worked at least three weeks on farms or 
 in food production. At present it is organized in 
 40 states and in the District of Columbia. Recently 
 it has extended its activities to include industrial 
 occupations. Each boy who is physically fit and 
 who, with the consent of his parents, has taken the 
 oath of service, is enrolled as a recruit and given 
 an enrollment button and a certificate bearing the 
 great seal of the United States. When he has 
 worked faithfully and capably for the stated period, 
 he is awarded a federal bronze badge of honor. 
 
 After January i, 19 18, thirty-six days of eight 
 hours each are to be required on the farm or in food 
 production in order to earn the badge. In industrial 
 occupations the boy will be required to work at 
 least sixty days of eight hours in some occupation 
 considered essential in helping the nation in the 
 conduct of the war, in order to receive recognition.
 
 324 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 The national director, Mr. William E. Hall, en- 
 courages every boy to remain in school and in spare 
 time to pursue some vocational training to make 
 himself capable of performing a productive war 
 service, in the expectation that he will be awarded 
 a badge of honor when he has actually entered an 
 essential occupation. It is expected that we shall 
 soon see a registered army of young men ordi- 
 narily not available, which may be used to fill the 
 gaps in the labor ranks caused by war activities. 
 
 The Reserve has been indorsed by President 
 Wilson in the following language : 
 
 Permit me to express my great appreciation of the work 
 undertaken by the United States Boys' Working Reserve of 
 the Employment Service of Department of Labor. To give 
 to the young men between the ages of 1 6 and 2 1 the privi- 
 lege of spending their spare time in productive enterprise 
 without interrupting their studies at school, while their older 
 brothers are battling in the trenches and on the seas, must 
 greatly increase the means of providing for the forces at 
 the front and the maintenance of those whose services are 
 needed here. It is a high privilege, no less than a patriotic 
 duty, to help support the nation by devoted and intelligent 
 work in this great crisis. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt, in writing of the good work 
 which the Reserve is doing, says, in part: 
 
 I am glad that you intend to encourage the training of 
 the boys to prepare for some essential industry where they
 
 SUMMARIZED PROGRAM OF ACTION 325 
 
 can take the place of a man called to the front. One of the 
 great benefits you confer is that of making the boy realize 
 that he is part of Uncle Sam's team ; that he is doing his 
 share in this great war ; that he holds his services in trust 
 for the nation ; and that though it is proper to consider the 
 question of material gain and the question of his own desires, 
 yet that what he must most strongly consider at this time 
 is where his services will do most good to our people as 
 a whole. 
 
 The teachers of America, as well as the boys, are 
 making themselves a part of Uncle Sam's team; 
 and they too hold their services in trust for the 
 nation. The Junior Red Cross movement in the 
 schools has swept the country. The school children 
 have advertised and sold bonds of the second Liberty 
 Loan.^ The teachers of cooking are serving as local 
 representatives for the food administrator at Wash- 
 ington. Agricultural teachers have pledged them- 
 selves as community workers for the summer of 
 1918. Manual-training teachers are developing plans 
 for substituting garden projects in the spring for 
 the manual-training models of the schoolroom. 
 Technical colleges and institutes are filled with 
 students in uniform. Industrial and trade schools 
 on the seacoast are planning to discard their house 
 
 ^ In New York City 63,900 applications for bonds, having a total value 
 of $7,881,100, were obtained directly by principals, teachers, and pupils, 
 and forwarded by the principals to the local Bond committee or the banks.
 
 326 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 carpentry for shipbuilding courses. County super- 
 intendents of schools are studying government bul- 
 letins for the last word in preserving and drying 
 farm products on a large scale, in order that they 
 may give directions to the schools. Teachers in 
 academic schools have enlisted for service on relief, 
 loan, garden, thrift, and conservation committees. 
 Men who were leaders and supervisors of farm- 
 cadet camps in 191 7 are planning for similar work 
 in the future on a larger and improved basis. Pro- 
 grams for teachers' institutes and state associations 
 of teachers now include the topics : " What can our 
 schools do in war time ? " and " Our schools after 
 the war." 
 
 These efforts of the teachers and the pupils re- 
 spond to our President's appeal that each of us 
 must do his share in making the world safe for 
 democracy. 
 
 At present, to be sure, we center our thoughts 
 on how to make the world safe for democracy. But 
 what of the future ? What of the contribution of 
 the schools after the war? Should not the schools 
 then center their aims and methods on making 
 democracy safe for the world 1 If the people them- 
 selves are to be masters, must they not be provided 
 with an education making for mastership? Is it 
 not well for us to examine our present schools to
 
 SUMMARIZED PROGRAM OF ACTION 327 
 
 determine whether they are making a democracy 
 which will be safe for the world ? Have we a system 
 of education which actually gives an opportunity for 
 every child to make the most of himself? Have we 
 a liberalized course of study which actually stimu- 
 lates and develops intellectual and aesthetic interests 
 in music, art, literature, science, travel, and history ? 
 Have we evolved a socialized education developing 
 moral habits, civic incentives, possession and use of 
 ethical ideals and standards for a successful group 
 life ? Has our formative process been able to bring 
 about refinements of social behavior beyond the 
 point required for group participation? Have we 
 arrived at the point where we can say that our 
 people have even the common culture which it is 
 expected all members of a democracy shall possess, 
 to say nothing about the development of individual 
 culture, which is a possession of the interested in- 
 dividual and his congenial fellows? How far have 
 we gone in recognizing that " by-education " which 
 comes through a child's self-direction of his natural 
 or spontaneous learning instincts and impulses ? 
 
 How much have we accomplished in giving edu- 
 cational and vocational guidance to children be- 
 tween the ages of 12 and 16? What has been 
 done in the way of fulfilling the national obligation 
 to teach the strangers within our gates our language
 
 328 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 and the principles and forms of our civic life ? What 
 has been our program for subnormals in order that 
 they may be prepared for independent living in 
 the competitive social order? Have we established 
 clear-cut distinctions between subnormal and crippled 
 cases that must remain custodial and those that can 
 be prepared for independent existence ? What are 
 we doing in the way of education for delinquents? 
 To what extent have we utilized the discovery that 
 these antisocial manifestations of youth are results 
 of heredity, or of inferior homes, or of a lack of 
 playgrounds, or of poor schools? 
 
 Have the schools missed a great opportunity for 
 giving moral, civic, and physical training to youth 
 by failing to absorb the Boy Scout and Camp Fire 
 Girl movements and thus failing to grasp the full 
 educational significance of the methods adopted by 
 those who so well understand adolescent youth? 
 Are the disciplinary methods of the teachers and 
 the general internal management of the schools such 
 as will develop among pupils a democracy which is 
 safe even in the schoolroom ? What have we done 
 in determining what is desirable and feasible for 
 extending general education to average adults who 
 have early entered upon specialized occupations ? 
 
 How far have we gone in our program of voca- 
 tional education to recognize and to provide for
 
 SUMMARIZED PROGRAM OF ACTION 329 
 
 the influence of automatic machinery upon the 
 physical, mental, and vocational welfare of workers? 
 Have we so thoroughly grasped the idea of an edu- 
 cational democracy that no child in our schools is 
 disadvantaged by the section of the state or of the 
 country in which he happens to be born ? 
 
 Have we in our vocational training set up any 
 program for the industrial training of women which 
 recognizes that the modern problem of women's 
 work concerns the following of some productive 
 vocation away from home ? Have we even begun 
 to realize that every person should have definite 
 vocational training with such distinctive purpose 
 back of it that it will produce the skill, knowl- 
 edge, ideals, and general experience that function 
 in distinct callings ? 
 
 Have we even thought of a program of education 
 for leisure which will develop enduring tastes and 
 interests established toward the enrichment of the 
 individual and indirectly of social life ? Do we fully 
 understand that to make democracy safe for the 
 world all people should have some leisure or time 
 apart from vocational, civic, and physical necessities 
 of life, tliat such leisure should be filled with socia- 
 bility, amusement, recreation, and satisfaction of the 
 aesthetic and physical desires, and that the public 
 schools must in some measure provide for these?
 
 330 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 Will a democracy proclaiming equality of oppor- 
 tunity as its ideal require an education which 
 unites from the beginning of the child's school 
 life, and for all pupils of the school, learning and 
 social application, ideas and practice, work and 
 recognition of the meaning of what is done ? Or 
 can a democracy be developed by dividing the 
 public-school system into parts, one of which pur- 
 sues traditional methods with incidental improve- 
 ments, and another in which children " learn 
 through their hands " and are given only the 
 " essential features " of the traditional bookwork ? 
 
 All that the schools are now doing in war time, 
 and much more which they are not yet doing, to 
 make the world safe for democracy, may be effec- 
 tively used after war time to make democracy safe 
 for the world.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Agricultural education, establish- 
 ment of, in city schools, 156, 314; 
 home-project work, 321 ; relation 
 of, to farm-cadet service, 322 
 
 Agricultural labor, resolutions of 
 New York State Board of Regents 
 in regard to, 95 ; shortage of, 136 ; 
 farm-garden permits for, 1 59 ; re- 
 lease of schoolboys for, 161-163; 
 justification for employment of 
 boys for, 164; German women 
 and children in, 236, 242, 243 ; 
 English children in farm work, 
 236-240; organizing boys for, 246- 
 256; example of distribution of, 
 255-256; social significance of 
 boys in, 270-271 ; age distinctions 
 of boys, 274 ; types of farm em- 
 ployers, 280-282 
 
 Attendance laws, abrogating of, in 
 England, 135 ; types of action pos- 
 sible in regard to, 138-139; action 
 of various states in regard to, 140- 
 143; lessons to be learned from 
 England, 144-146; modification 
 of, 155; changes in New York 
 State, 157-159; enlistment for 
 farm service in New York State 
 and relation to, 1 60-161; relaxing, 
 for agricultural work, 237-239; 
 constructive policy in amending, 
 
 309 
 Aviation schools, 98 
 
 Blind, the, reeducating, 211-213,215 
 Boy Scouts, 87, 130, 140, 172, 306, 
 309. 328 
 
 Camp Fire Girls, 328 
 
 Canada, convalescent homes for dis- 
 abled soldiers in, 215; work of 
 Military Hospitals Commission in, 
 228-231; boys for farm work in, 
 247 
 
 Census, agricultural, by schools of 
 New York State, 24, 277 ; school 
 principal may direct, 312 
 
 Claxton, P. P., 92, 146-150 
 
 Colleges, continuance of, during war 
 time, 80-83, 92 ; spirit of mobiliza- 
 tion of, 83-86; war-emergency 
 courses in, 86-90, 96-103 ; main- 
 tenance of academic status of, 91, 
 93-94 ; field of service for depart- 
 ments of psychology in, 101-103 ; 
 contribution of geological depart- 
 ments of, 105 ; effect of war on 
 curricula of, 1 1 1 ; demand for 
 graduates of, 147-148 
 
 Commercial schools, indefiniteness 
 of aim in, 316-317 ; short-unit and 
 part-time courses in, 317 
 
 Community canning clubs. See Con- 
 servation of food 
 
 Conservation of food, need of, 25- 
 28 ; saving of waste in New York 
 City, 29-31 ; Columbia lectures 
 
 33 «
 
 332 
 
 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 on, 87-88; canning clubs, 125- 
 127, 320 ; drying and evaporating, 
 126-127,320; county superintend- 
 ents' duties, 326 
 
 Continuation schools, enacting of 
 laws for, 155 
 
 Council for National Defense, 94, 96, 
 
 315 
 Cripples, reeducating the, 211-233 
 
 Democracy, teaching of, 149-150; 
 making safe for the world, 326 ; 
 leisure necessary for, 329 
 
 Disabled soldiers, reeducating the, 
 211-233 
 
 Domestic arts, new spirit of teach- 
 ing, 118; criticism of existing 
 teaching of, 192; improvements in 
 teaching, 1 93-1 94 ; Thrift Club, 32 1 
 
 Domestic science, new spirit of 
 teaching, 119; teaching adults, 
 122, 319: traveling kitchens, 124; 
 demonstration train, 1 24 ; war 
 recipes, 319; home cadets, 321 
 
 Education, effectof war on, 113-1 14; 
 equal opportunity for, 327 ; social- 
 ized, 327 ; vocational guidance in, 
 327 ; for subnormals and cripples, 
 328. See also Colleges, Commer- 
 cial Schools, Schools, etc. 
 
 Employment of children, care exer- 
 cised in, 146 ; out of school hours, 
 149; divergent points of view in 
 regard to, 1 50-1 51; recognizing 
 work impulses in, 1 51-152 ; occu- 
 pational study of a group of boys, 
 186-190; "blind-alley occupa- 
 tions," 190-191 ; waste of boy 
 power, 191 
 
 England's schools, use of buildings 
 in war, 18-20; as distributing 
 agencies for information, 23-24 ; 
 compiling of National Register by, 
 24; open days for parents, 28; 
 traveling kitchens in, 29, 124; 
 thrift teaching in, 31-32 ; training 
 semiskilled workers in, 59-60, 66, 
 75-76; productive work of tech- 
 nical schools, 60-61 ; courses in 
 cantonments, 101-102 ; garden 
 work as substitute for manual train- 
 ing in, 121-122 ; short courses in 
 cookery in, 123; training cooks 
 for army, 128; furnishing meals 
 to children in, 129; furnishing 
 soldiers' kits and hospital equip- 
 ment, 132-134; abrogating attend- 
 ance laws, 135, 137-138; restrict- 
 ing labor of school children, 144- 
 146; children for farm work, 
 236-240 ; plans for supervision 
 of schoolboy farm labor, 240- 
 242 ; reorganization of, 304 
 
 Evening schools, trade-extension 
 work in, 72 ; training of foremen 
 in, 316 
 
 Farm cadets, organization of, in 
 New York State, 172; reason 
 for organizing, 234-245 ; plan for 
 use of, 246, 272-274 ; rearrange- 
 ment of school program for, 247- 
 248, 313-314 ; wages of, 249, 250, 
 253, 261, 262, 265, 267, 278 ; agree- 
 ments and contracts, 251-252, 
 279-280, 282-287; New York 
 State plan, 253-254; physical 
 examination, 264, 274-275; en- 
 listment blanks, 276
 
 INDEX 
 
 333 
 
 Farm-labor camps, explanation of, 
 245; Massachusetts plan, 248-253; 
 agreements and contracts, 251- 
 252,265; illustration of different 
 types of, 256-261 ; food cost and 
 preparation, 258, 295-297 ; menus, 
 259 ; recreation, 260, 297 ; wages, 
 261, 262, 265, 267-269; labor 
 distribution, 261-262, 266-268; 
 personal equipment, 262, 292 ; 
 camp equipment, 262, 264, 268 ; 
 illustration of training type, 263- 
 266; agricultural instruction in, 
 267, 297-299 ; flying-squadron 
 type, 267-268, 302-303; leader- 
 ship, 273, 287-292 ; sanitation, 
 295 ; definitions of various types, 
 298-303 
 
 Federal Board of Vocational Edu- 
 cation, 54-55' 314-315 
 
 France, reeducation of disabled 
 soldiers in, 214-225 
 
 French schools, use of buildings in 
 war, 20-21 ; war financing helped 
 by teachers of, 39-40; teaching 
 the meaning of the war in, 41, 
 44-46 ; changing aspects of, due 
 to war, 41, 51-52 ; sewing for 
 soldiers in, 133; part-time, 155; 
 normal schools' contribution to 
 war service, 199 ; Red Cross 
 work, 208 
 
 German schools, efficiency spirit of, 
 17, 104; contribution to agricul- 
 tural labor, 242-243 ; conservation 
 of natural resources in, 243-244 ; 
 industrial-efficiency idea in, 305 
 
 History, teaching of, 46-47 
 
 Industrial and trade schools, contri- 
 bution of, to manufacturing needs, 
 60 ; war-emergency courses in, 
 63, 314-315; question of produc- 
 tion in, 66-67 ! readjustment in 
 war time, 7 1 ; open in summer, 
 72-73; part-time classes in, 74- 
 76 ; teaching of hygiene in, 77 ; 
 producing farm-camp equipment, 
 252 ; inventories of equipment, 
 315; state study of possible war 
 uses of, 315 
 
 Junior Red Cross, 207, 209-210 
 
 Labor, war demands for, 58 ; indus- 
 trial schools meeting shortage of, 
 61, 68-69; one method of train- 
 ing, 61-64; educative value of, 
 
 152-153 
 Liberty Loan bonds, and the schools, 
 
 37-39»3".325 
 Library, service of, in war time, 104- 
 105 
 
 Manual training, garden work in 
 place of, 1 30-13 1 ; war-service 
 work in, 131-132, 317-319; mak- 
 ing Red Cross splints, 206, 317; 
 abandoning models, 318; in con- 
 nection with junior high schools, 
 
 319 
 Military equivalents, recognition of, 
 in New York State, 171, 305; 
 experience in England, France, 
 and Germany, 173; necessity of 
 conscious service, 174, 177-180; 
 types of occupations having, 
 175-176; "Moral Equivalent of 
 War," 176; an example of, in
 
 334 
 
 OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 agriculture, 1 81-185; an example 
 of, in industry, 186-189; farm 
 labor as a military equivalent, 254 
 
 Military training, exemptions from, 
 165, 167 ; compulsory in New 
 York State, 166; in high schools, 
 167-170; including employed 
 boys, 168, 170-171; vocational 
 training in relation to, 173 ; adap- 
 tability of, 309 
 
 " Moral Equivalent of War," 176 
 
 National Board for Historical Serv- 
 ice, 46 
 National Council of Defense, 94, 
 
 96,315 
 National Security League, 49-50, 
 
 140 
 National Society for the Promotion 
 
 of Industrial Education, 64 
 Naval schools, description of, 77-79 
 
 Off-time classes, importance of, 72 
 
 Part-time education, opportunity for, 
 74-75 ; war-emergency courses in, 
 154-155; enacting laws for, 155; 
 farm work and, 240 ; as an econ- 
 omy measure, 308-309 
 
 Patriotism, teaching meaning of the 
 war, 42 ; necessity for teaching, 
 42-44, 48-49 ; topics in relation 
 to, 50-51 
 
 Physical training, compulsory in 
 New York State, 166; recom- 
 mendations of New Jersey Com- 
 mission in regard to, 167-170; 
 importance of, from military 
 standpoint, 168-169; advantages 
 of, over military training, 309 
 
 Posters, war, 129-130 
 
 Practical arts, definition of, 116; proj- 
 ect plan of teaching, 117-118; in- 
 fluence ofwar-serviceworkon, 117 
 
 Principal, war duties of, 33-34, 
 310-314 
 
 Red Cross, work for, in schools, 
 194, 196-198, 311; a state plan 
 of school service, to, 200-201 ; 
 use of knitting machines, 202; 
 work for, in Troy, N.Y., 202- 
 205 ; making splints, 206 ; Home 
 Service division of, 207-208 ; 
 Junior Red Cross, 207, 209-210; 
 what can be done in schools for, 
 207 ; reporting home conditions 
 to, 308 
 
 Reeducation, the problem of the 
 physically handicapped, 211-213 ; 
 relation to federal insurance, 213; 
 a government problem, 214; in- 
 struction for the blind in France, 
 215; L'ficole Joffre, 216-219; 
 instruction in vocational sub- 
 jects in France 218-221, 224- 
 225 ; percentage capable of, in 
 France, 222 ; the problem in the 
 United States, 225-228; indus- 
 trial accidents and, 232 
 
 Roosevelt, Theodore, 11, 324-325 
 
 Rural schools, agricultural labor 
 under direction of, 153-154; camp 
 in connection with, 302 
 
 School boards, in relation to war 
 service, 306-307 ; provisions of, 
 for drafted teachers, 307-308 ; 
 organization of vocational courses 
 by. 310; planning for agriculture
 
 INDEX 
 
 335 
 
 by, 310; work of, for avoiding 
 juvenile delinquency, 310 
 School principals, 33-34, 310-314 
 Schools, as distributing centers for 
 pamphlets, etc., 22, 311 ; furnish- 
 ing lunches to children in, 128- 
 129, 308; opportunity for poster 
 work in, 129-130; maintaining 
 efficiency of, 146; keeping chil- 
 dren in, 147, 308; postponement 
 of construction work for, 149; 
 agricultural activities in rural, 153 ; 
 lengthening terms and hours of, 
 308. See also Commercial schools, 
 French schools, etc. 
 Smith-Hughes Bill, 54, 57 
 
 Teachers, work of, in promoting 
 French government loans, 39-40 ; 
 opportunities of, to teach history, 
 46-49 ; New York State direc- 
 tions to, 119-121; service of, on 
 committees, 326; war-service pro- 
 grams of, 326 
 
 Technical institutes : war-service 
 courses in Wentworth Institute, 
 Boston, 106-107 ; Pratt Institute, 
 Brooklyn, 107-108; Dunwoody 
 Institute, Minneapolis, 108-111 
 
 Thrift, necessity for, 31-33; prac- 
 tice of, in England, 31-32, 36-37 ; 
 teaching of, 35; campaign for, 
 311 ; Thrift Club, 321 
 
 Trade schools. See Industrial and 
 trade schools 
 
 Traveling kitchens, 29, 124 
 
 Unit courses, organization of, 73- 
 74; utility of, 306 
 
 United States Boys' Working Re- 
 serve, 163-164, 322-324 
 
 Vocational education, definition of, 
 53 ; federal grants for, 54-55 ; 
 federal requirements of, 56 ; ad- 
 justment of, to industrial needs, 
 59 ; standardization of products, 
 195; " safety-first " instruction in, 
 212 ; opportunity for teachers in, 
 233 ; influence of automatic ma- 
 chinery on, 329 ; for distinct call- 
 ings, 329 
 
 War Savings certificates, in Eng- 
 land, 36-37 ; in the United States, 
 
 3" 
 Wilson, Woodrow, i, 54, 72-73, 81- 
 82, 209, 324
 
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