Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/414

 398 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Kentucky, 2 ; Tennessee, I ; Alabama, 2 ; Louisiana. 2 ; Texas, i ; Maryland, 7.

It is essential to examine the attitude of the southern public toward the problem of industrial training. To state that its importance is recognized is to describe the condition mildly. It is the demand of the hour. Unique conditions have met in the South. Passing suddenly from the eighteenth-century social organization to modern industrial life, the problem arose of fitting her people to utilize her raw products; for it is recognized that it is a higher grade of civilization that transforms and adds new utilities than that which produces the raw material.

The South had been distinctively a cotton-producing section. It must be pointed out that the growth of the cotton-manufacturing industry in the South has not rested primarily on proximity to the cotton fields. Germany, although importing practically all her raw material, is able to compete in the world-market. The com- mercial success of Germany depends largely on her skilled cheap labor, that has as a corollary an extremely low standard of life for the German workman. While the South has cheap labor and this was the main reason for the location of mills in the South she is deficient in skilled labor. Hence, to enable her to compete successfully and produce goods of a higher grade, she makes a demand for industrial training to provide skilled workmen.

The attitude of the southern public may be thus summed up, that it desires to give men industrial training that they may become more profitable economic producers, and thus increase the wealth of that section of the country. This is the motive force behind the movement for industrial education. It has frequently been proved that the educated workman is the most valuable pro- ducer. That education increases the productivity of a people in direct proportion to its distribution seems to be shown by the following proportions : " Education is as 14 in Massachusetts to 8.8 in the United States to 6 in Tennessee. Production is as 13 in Massachusetts to 8.5 in the United States to 5.8 in Tennessee." 28

It is claimed that the South has reached the limit of her pro- ductive power without further industrial education and the

" Report of Industrial Commitsion, Vol. XV, p. 193.