Of all these nations, Germany failed to re quire the teaching of citizenship, of the rights, duties and obligations of the worker as a mem ber of society. In 1903 her greatest authority, Dr. Kerschensteiner, lamented that her indus trial schools not contain a single subject of instruction which serves any other purpose than the acquisition of technical skill and knowledge, or the promotion of trade effici ency." Since that time, a poor beginning was made in this training but in a way regretted by many of her own leaders in that it did little more than inculcate a false exaltation of her ruling classes and a blind obedience in all oth ers. What we sow, we reap. To fail to edu cate in efficiency is to suffer inestimable eco nomic loss. Not to teach the duties and obli gations of citizenship, is to endanger the de mocracy of the World.
In the United States in the last 15 years the legislatures of several States have enacted per missive legislation authorizing local boards of education to require the attendance of all work ing children under 16 upon part-time or con tinuation schools, but in all these States only one city, Boston, had the courage to act in 1916, with New York city following later in a less extensive way.
State legislation which merely authorizes a local community to require the attendance of its working children upon continuation schools is therefore shown to be inadequate and vir tually useless. It is a shirking of legislative responsibility as respects the lives of working children. If the State as such will not safe guard its children, single communities will not.
In 1911 Wisconsin required that every work ing child in cities of 5,000 population or more attend continuation school for four hours a week until 16 years of age for eight months an nually, which provision was later extended to eight hours per week for 10 months until 17 years of age. This legislation proved entirely practicable. It was readily accepted by em ployers and all others as of high social and eco nomic advantage and is evidence that any State can thus serve its working people. In 1915 Pennsylvania required that every working child under 16, in whatever occupation, attend con tinuation school for eight hours weekly during working hours. All-day trade schools have proved ineffective as a means of general indus trial education. They were tried and generally abandoned in Continental Europe long ago. Working people either cannot or will not at tend such schools and forego income and the experiences and hopes that lie in the field of labor for the years required for training in such schools. From 1880 to 1910 there was much agitation for the establishment of these schools in the United States. In those 30 years,
however, only 13 such schools were established with a total attendance of less' than 2,000 stu dents, being not more for the whole country than should receive industrial training in the average manufacturing city of 50,000 people. The training in these schools is so general in character as to lack immediate interest and not to fit for the specific tasks their graduates enter upon: The cost to the public averages from $150 to $200 per pupil per year. There are 2,000,000 working children under 16 in the Uni ted States in industry, agriculture and com merce and more than 5,000,000 under 18. All these children have equal right and need of training in their occupations. There are 30,000, 000 older wage-earners to whom the oppor tunity for training for advancement should be open, many of whom would avail themselves of it. In a single typical industrial city, Mil waukee, it was estimated that a relatively small number of superior wage-earners in her indus tries in 1910 were sending $80,000 annually to correspondence schools for such industrial train ing as they could so secure. It was then that Wisconsin provided that her wage-earners should have education in their occupations in continu ation schools directly adapted to their circum stances even as her university provides for those who are more fortunately circumstanced. Said the Pennsylvania superintendent of schools, ((to educate all children who need it, through any such all-day, all-week schools as have been developed yet, would bankrupt any State.) And the loss in wages to the learners would be as great as the cost to the State. The correlation of instruction in continuation schools with the work in the factory makes both work and school educational.
The cost of superior continuation school training in Europe is about $25 per pupil year. It sometimes costs less in the United States because it is not yet of the European quality. The increased interest and efficiency of the work ers in the factory should equal or exceed this cost. Because of this increase in efficiency in the factory many great manufacturing institu tions in the United States introduced training departments at their own expense during the war period for the training of new workers and the up-grading of old employees, spending in several instances as much as $50 per learner. By this expenditure the employer se cured a more contented worker, reduced labor turnover greatly and reduced the wastage of materials. Since the war many of these estab lishments are continuing these training depart ments and other manufacturers are introduc ing them as an essential means of development for the vast production of peace times.