THE COMMISSION'S FINDINGS. The Commission found that there were, in 1910, in round numbers, 12,500,000 persons engaged in agriculture in the United States, of whom not over one per cent had had any adequate preparation for farming; and that there were 14,250,000 persons engaged in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits, not one per cent of whom had had any opportunity for adequate training. [18] In the whole United States there were fewer trade schools, of all kinds, than existed in the little German kingdom of Bavaria, a State about the size of South Carolina; while the one Bavarian city of Munich, a city about the size of Pittsburgh, had more trade schools than were to be found in all the larger cities of the United States, put together. The Commission further found that there were 25,000,000 persons in the nation, eighteen years of age or over, engaged in farming, mining, manufacturing, and mechanical pursuits, and in trade and transportation, and of these the Report said:

If we assume that a system of vocational education, pursued through the years of the past, would have increased the wage-earning capacity of each of these persons to the extent of only ten cents a day, this would have made an increase of wages for the group of $2,500,000 a day, or $750,000,000 a year, with all that this would mean to the wealth and life of the nation.

This is a very moderate estimate, and the facts would probably show a difference between the earning power of the vocationally trained and the vocationally untrained of at least twenty-five cents a day. This would indicate a waste of wages, through lack of training, amounting to $6,250,000 every day, or $1,875,000,000 for the year.

[Illustration: FIG. 234. SCHOOL ATTENDANCE OF AMERICAN CHILDREN, FOURTEEN TO TWENTY YEARS or AGE Based on an estimate made by the United States Bureau of Education in 1907 (Bulletin No. 1, p. 29), and based on conditions then existing, but probably still approximately true. In evening schools all classes were counted—public, private, Y.M.C.A., Y.W.C.A., etc. Public and private day schools, both elementary and secondary, also were counted.]

The Commission estimated that a million new young people were required annually by our industries, and that it would need three years of vocational education, beyond the elementary-school age, to prepare them for efficient service. This would require that three million young people of elementary-school age be continually enrolled in schools offering some form of vocational training. This was approximately three times the number of young people then enrolled in all public and private high schools in the United States, and following any kind of a course of study. In addition, the untrained adult workers then in farming and industry also needed some form of adult or extension education to enable them to do more effective work. The Commission further pointed out that there were in the United States, in 1910, 7,220,298 young people between the ages of fourteen and eighteen years, only 1,032,461 of whom were enrolled in a high school of any type, public or private, day or evening (Fig. 234), and few of those enrolled were pursuing studies of a technical type.

AMERICAN BEGINNINGS; MEANING OF THE WORK. In 1917 the American Congress made the beginnings of what is destined to develop rapidly into a truly national system of vocational education for the boys and girls of secondary-school age in the United States. This new addition to the systems of public instruction now provided is one which in time will bring returns out of all proportion to its costs. Without it the national prosperity and happiness would be at stake, and the position the United States has attained in the markets of the world could not possibly be maintained (R. 372).

This new American legislation is based on the best continental European experience, and is somewhat typical of recent national legislation for similar objects elsewhere. It is to include vocational training for agriculture, the trades and industries, commerce, and home economics. [19] A certain portion of the money appropriated annually by the national government is to be used for making or coöperating in studies and investigations as to needs and courses in agriculture, home economics, trades, industries, and commerce. The courses must be given in the public schools; must be for those over fourteen years of age and of less than college grade; and must be primarily intended for those who are preparing to enter or who have entered (part-time classes) a trade or a useful industrial pursuit.

As nation after nation becomes industrialized, as all except the smallest and poorest nations are bound to become in time, vocational education for its workers in the field, shop, and office will be found to be another state necessity. Only the State can adequately provide this, for only the State can finance or properly organize and integrate the work of so large and so important an undertaking. Though costly, this new extension of state educational effort will be found to be a wise business investment for every industrial and commercial nation. Considered nationally, the workers of any nation not provided with vocational education will find themselves unable to compete with the workers of other nations which do provide such specialized training.

IV. SOCIOLOGICAL

A NEW ESTIMATE AS TO THE VALUE OF CHILD LIFE. As we saw in chapter XVIII, which described the opportunities for and the kind of schooling developed up to the middle of the eighteenth century, but little of what may be called formal education had been provided up to then for the great mass of children, even in the most progressive nations. We also noted the extreme brutality of the school. Such was the history of childhood, so far as it may be said to have had a history at all, up to the rise of the great humanitarian movement early in the nineteenth century. [20] Neglect, abuse, mutilation, excessive labor, heavy punishments, and often virtual slavery awaited children everywhere up to recent times. The sufferings of childhood at home were added to by others in the school (p. 455) for such as frequented these institutions.