BY JOHN B. OPDYCKE He that hath a trade hath an estate, and he that hath - BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO ΤΟ BOYS AND GIRLS EVERYWHERE WHOSE AMBITION IT IS TO MAKE THE WORLD BETTER FOR THEIR WORKING IN IT THIS BOOK IS HOPEFULLY DEDICATED PREFACE EDUCATION is the first serious adventure of youth. In so far as it adjusts itself to and enriches human life and work and experience, it may lead to illimitable conquest. In so far as it fails to do this, it becomes a vain quest. In the beginning, work created production and industry. But they were without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of enterprise. And the spirit of work said, “Let there be light!" And lo! there was light the light of instruction about work, the light of the letter, of the direction, of the advertisement, of the sale- and it was good. And then, in the third order of creation, came the cataloging and the record-keeping of the marvels of this genetic output — the division of the work of the day from the work of the night, of the work of the land from the work of the sea, and all the parts thereof. And work saw everything that it had inspired, and behold, it was very good. The National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education reports that at least 2,000,000 boys and girls between the ages of fourteen and sixteen are working for wages in this country. They are unskilled at that age and unfit for responsibility. Each year 1,000,000 young people are required simply to maintain the ranks of our working population. There are in the United States 25,000,000 persons, eighteen years of age and over, engaged in farming, mining, manufacturing and mechanical pursuits, trade and transportation. Of the 14,250,000 engaged in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits, not one per cent has had or, at the present time, has any chance to secure adequate industrial training; for in the whole United States V |