Our Schools in War Time—and After

by Arthur D. Dean

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 appropriated for aëroplane construction; that from 50,000 to 100,000 shipbuilders are needed for our shipbuilding program; that tool-makers and gauge-makers are needed in large numbers; that the government 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 material 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 operators, 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.

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 manufacturers 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 indisposed to believe that industry had anything to learn from trade or technical schools. The manufacturers said that these schools were "academically 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 industrial 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 suggestive material.

At the present moment the most effective contact between the school that may give the training and the place that needs it can be brought about through coöperation either with cantonment authorities 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 undertaking the work, the standard of skill required 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 manufacture 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 elementary schools. They have turned out approximately 50,000 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 operatives 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 operators, the majority of whom are trained from carefully selected unskilled labor. To train these operators skilled machinists are employed as instructors. One instructor is in charge of a group averaging about thirteen men. In other words, 7¹/₂ per cent of the force in the operating departments are on the instruction staff and known as foremen, linemen (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 operators working on an assigned task. While under instruction the group is employed on regular production. The instructor is not required to produce, but gives his entire time to group teaching. In the tool-making department, men of mechanical 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 instruction, but is required to work at his particular 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) Vocational 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 manufacturing plant where an organized plan for training foremen and specialists exists. This has been done by the Quincy (Massachusetts) Industrial School, which coöperates in furnishing part of the instruction given in the Fore River shipbuilding plant. 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:[2]