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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013908961 
 
Wharf, Boston 
 
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 
 
 THE TEACHER AS A COUNSELOR 
 
 By 
 
 J. ADAMS PUFFER 
 
 Director 0} the Beacon Vocation Bureau, Boston, formerly 
 
 Principal of the Lyman School for Boys, Boston, 
 
 Author of "The Boy and His Gang" 
 
 RAND McNALLY & COMPANY 
 Chicago New York London 
 
Copyrisht, 1913 
 
 By J. Adams Puffer 
 
 Edition of 19 14 
 
 Chicago 
 
THE PREFACE 
 
 This book, like The Boy and His Gang, springs directly 
 from personal experiences in the Lyman School for Boys, 
 the Industrial School of Massachusetts for delinquent 
 boys. Under the efficient leadership of Superintendent 
 T. F. Chapin, this school has been made over from one 
 of the old military type to a free school where boys, 
 through learning to do by doing, are given a chance to 
 obtain a practical common-sense education. 
 
 The school is an industrial school in fact as well as in 
 name. It could justly be called a vocational school, for 
 many of the boys obtain here the guidance and training 
 for their life work. The great majority of the four 
 hundred boys are from twelve to sixteen years of age, 
 the right age for guidance. One half of their day is 
 spent in the schoolroom and one half in manual training 
 in the shops or in outdoor work. A short daily period 
 and Saturday afternoon are given to play. In the free 
 life of the school the new boys soon learn by conversation 
 with their older and more experienced cottage mates, or 
 with their masters or teachers, and by personal observation 
 in the various shops, the Idnd of work which they would 
 like to do. 
 
 Instruction in agriculture was given once a week in 
 all the schoolrooms. A school garden plot was planted 
 and cared for by each boy in school hours. Two cottages 
 also had garden plots for the boys. Instruction in dairy- 
 ing was given to about twenty-five boys in connection 
 with the practical work of caring for the herd of sixty 
 milch cows. Opportunities for driving the school teams 
 were open to four or five boys. 
 
6 The Preface 
 
 For five months all the boys were given a half day's 
 work each day in manual training. Then forty boys 
 showing good mechanical ability were advanced to five 
 months' work in wood turning and in forge work. A few 
 of these were advanced to machine work. Twenty other 
 boys showing good mechanical skill in the sloyd classes 
 were advanced directly into the carpenter shop to learn 
 the trade. 
 
 Fifteen boys were at work in the shoe shop, repairing 
 and making shoes. Thirty boys mended and made the 
 shirts, overalls, and suits worn by the pupils. Ten boys 
 worked in the bakery and twenty in the laundry. 
 
 One of the best vocational departments, the printing 
 shop, was directly connected with the grade schools. 
 Here forty boys received excellent training for one of the 
 best of the high-skilled occupations. A school paper 
 was published once a week, and in it were printed the 
 best articles and essays written by the boys in school. 
 Superintendent Chapin had some very definite ideas on 
 education. He allowed no formal grammar to be taught 
 in the school, but debates, letter writing, reports of ser- 
 mons and addresses, stories of excursions and all other 
 experiences interesting to boys were made the basis of 
 literary work. The printing department proved of in- 
 valuable service in all the school work. 
 
 I should not forget our band of twenty-five boys. 
 In this band the boys received such thorough training in 
 music that several of them went directly from the school 
 to good paying positions. 
 
 It is evident without discussion that such an industrial 
 school offers an almost ideal field for vocational training 
 and guidance, and the spirit of nearly all the masters, 
 matrons, and teachers was to get the right kind of boy 
 into the right place. As principal of the school, the 
 
The Preface ? 
 
 responsibility for the discipline of the boj'S fell upon my 
 slioulders. In the first six months of experience I dis- 
 covered that the easiest and best way to discipline a boy 
 was to get him into the work he liked. I therefore made 
 a careful stud>' of the family history, the talents, experi- 
 ence, and ambition of each boy, with the idea of right 
 guidance. After three years' work in the Lyanan Scliool 
 and three years' study in Clark University-, I acted for 
 three summei-s as a substitute probation officer of the 
 Boston Juvenile Court. Here again was reenforeed the 
 fact that success in handling a difficult boy depends 
 largch- upon getting him into the work he likes. 
 
 These experiences gave me a large and interesting 
 acquaintance \^-ith unfortunate boys, many of whom 
 when in trouble — and not infrequently a perplexed par- 
 ent — came to my home in Needham, twelve miles out of 
 Boston, to find out M'liat to do. As the direct result of 
 these A-isits the office for vocational guidance was opened 
 in Boston. 
 
 In the last eight years lecture work has taken me into 
 c^-ery section of this country, and I ha\'e purposely so 
 planned m\- trips as to spend practically one half the time 
 in consultation ^\-ith experts and in the investigation of 
 industrial and occupational conditions in cities and in 
 the country. This book is the outgrowth of all these 
 experiences. 
 
 I am therefore indebted to many persons in the South, 
 East, and West for invaluable contributions. I ■wdsh to 
 ackiiowledge especiallj- my obligation to all my fellow 
 teachers and officers in the L^^nan School, particularlj' 
 Mrs. Emily L. AYamer, teacher of the Berlin Cottage, 
 for her inspiration in the work for delinquent bo>-s and 
 for her shrewd analj'sis of boy cliaracter. I owe most, 
 of course, to my own father and mother, both of whom 
 
8 The Preface 
 
 were teachers and good counselors. I am much indebted 
 to Mr. E. T. Brewster for assistance and criticism, and 
 to Mr. Park Pressey for many of the excellent photo- 
 graphs used in illustrating the book. 
 
 ,, , J. Adams Puffer. 
 
 November, 1913. •' 
 
THE CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 The Preface . ... 5 
 
 I. Voc.\TiON.\L Efficiency the Basis of All Educ/V- 
 TION .... . , ... 13 
 
 True education fits for life work. The primitive 
 community a center of education. Our forctatliers 
 learned to do by doing. Life work largely pre- 
 determined in early days. Products and processes 
 closely allied. Society demands an efficient worker. 
 Vocation and education cannot be separated. School 
 of to-day the worksliop of to-morrow. 
 II. The Need of the Voc.\tion/VL Gvide .... 24 
 
 Interrelation the keynote of modern industry. Indus- 
 trial fields a maze for the uninitiated. Square pegs 
 in round holes. Lessons from our juvenile courts. 
 Idleness a menace to society. Modern vocational 
 instruction. The place of the grade school in life. 
 Child's interest in real work. Reality in the scliool- 
 room. The place of strategic importance. 
 III. The Effect of ^'ocATION.\L Control . ... 42 
 
 A new phase of apprenticeship. Wage of the skilled 
 and unslcilled. Weakness of present school cur- 
 riculum. Concrete, motor-minded pupils. What 
 manual training is doing. Theory and practice. 
 Lessons from the elective system. The "bread-and- 
 butter" motive. True culture and social efficiency. 
 IV. The Equipment of a Counselor . ■ . 57 
 
 A working basis. Racial psychology. Practical psychol- 
 ogy. Intuition. A grasp of the industrial situation 
 needful. Local aspects of great social questions. 
 Local problems of race. 
 V. The Methods of a Counselor ... ... 66 
 
 The working out of two aims. Industrial knowledge 
 and self-knowledge. Value of occupational visiting. 
 The successful man's story. Studjdng types of 
 industries. Occupational geography. Biography 
 and the history of industrial progress. The trying- 
 out process. Tests for mechanical turn. Farm 
 life ideal test. Value of school tasks. Relation of 
 sdiool hfe and community life. Family trees, tradi- 
 tions, and vocations. A safe working rule. 
 VI. Further Methods of a Counselor ... . . 87 
 
 Detailed study of special cases. General and private 
 records. Comparison with the proper standard. 
 
10 The Contents 
 
 Some valuable data. Continuation records. Value 
 of conferences. Study of vocational topics. Family 
 resources. Arranging a workable grouping for study. 
 The old-fashioned division. The Binet-Simon test. 
 Other helpful classifications. 
 
 VII. Men, Women, and Work ... 112 
 
 The present industrial situation. Home makers. 
 Comparison of occupations. By geographical 
 divisions. In the various states. Vocational differ- 
 ences between men and women. Opportunities in 
 urban and rural districts. Characteristic industries 
 of cities. Reasons for distribution of industries. 
 Inventions and vocations. Changes of a decade. 
 Men, women, and work. 
 
 VIII. The Differences among Occupations . ... 128 
 General types and general jobs. Fitting worker and 
 
 work. The blind-alley job. The thoroughfare or 
 state-road job. "Chances" in occupations. General 
 intelligence and natural equipment. Temperament 
 a deciding factor. The white-collar job. The overall 
 job. City work versus country work. 
 IX. Home Making 145 
 
 Scope of the phrase. Home makers. Partial home 
 makers. Assistant home makers. Paid household 
 service. Training in home making. The spender 
 and the industrial situation. Training for two 
 occupations. A girl's vocational problem. Value 
 of an avocation. Essential factors of successful 
 home making. Cooperation of man and woman. 
 X. Agriculture . . . . 162 
 
 Rank of agricultural vocation. Results of the present 
 system of farming. Success on a small farm. Large- 
 scale farming. The casual farm laborer. Study of a 
 few great agricultural staples. Cooperation. Correlat- 
 ing soil lore and school work. Agricultural education 
 a lifelong process. Practical suggestions in elementary 
 agriculture. Consolidated rural schools. Remunera- 
 tion in agriculture. Advantages and disadvantages 
 of such a life work. 
 XL The Mechanic Arts 187 
 
 The occupation and its members. Their economical 
 standing. Their psychological grouping. Extent 
 of the term manufacturing. Plans for studying mills 
 and factories. Grouping the industries. Unskilled 
 workers. Low-skilled workers. High-skilled workers. 
 Reasons for ranking the different trades. How the 
 schools may furnish an industrial setting. Vocational, 
 social, and economical aspects of the mechanical 
 problem. Social status of the mechanic. Foreign 
 
T lie Contents il 
 
 labor. Requirements of all high-skilled trades. What 
 goes to mal* a really good mechanic. The apprentice 
 system. The matter of wages. 
 
 XII. Salesmanship . . . 215 
 
 The two sides to business. A workable classification 
 of distributors. The wholesale store. A business 
 of one's ow^l. The traveling salesman. The sales- 
 woman. The selling gift. Chance for formal training. 
 Practical demonstrations. Some important qualities. 
 
 XIII. Office Work ... 231 
 
 Office work and salesmanship. Women as office workers. 
 
 The sub-groups of desk work. Stenographers and 
 private secretaries. General office work and its 
 range. 'Uliat training and ability will do. The 
 diances for men and women in this group. 
 
 XIW FOREMANSHIP ... . . 239 
 
 The place of foremanship in the modern industrial world. 
 The ideal foreman. Opportunities in various branches 
 of this occupation. Value of social training. Formal 
 preparation. Working up from the bottom. Demand 
 for suitable overseers. Outlook for the leader. 
 
 XV. The Professions . . . . 248 
 
 Professional problems. Seeing actual conditions. 
 Overcrowding the ranks. Opportunities in the 
 professions. The truth about the matter. Ranking 
 the old and established professions. The newer 
 professions. The opportuniries they offer. A few 
 simple rules for the professional aspirants. 
 
 XVI. The Foundations of All Success 260 
 
 Childish intuitions. Practical application and assistance. 
 Developing the vocational motive. The foundations 
 of all success. Preacliing and practicing. Studying 
 business -v-irtues. Some practical examples. Demands 
 of the business world in general. General and special 
 requirements. Relation of habits, character, and school 
 standing to emplo\-ment. First general impressions. 
 The four cardinal habits of the business world. 
 
 XVII. The Vocational Guide as a Constructive Social 
 
 Force ... 270 
 
 The four essentials of vocational guidance. Relation 
 between work and morals. The promotion of the fit. 
 The elimination of the unfit. ^Tiy the school system 
 should meet the demands of life. The economic and 
 social eflFects of a genuine vocational spirit. Reestab- 
 lishing the dignity of labor. A new tj-pe of practical 
 ethical education. The true aim of all education. 
 
 The Appendix . 2S1 
 
 The Iiuifx .... . . 295 
 
Cdjiyiib'lit by Underwood A: Untlorvvood, N, Y, 
 
 The young blacksmith 
 
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 Vocational Efficiency the Basis of All Education 
 
 ALL training is originally vocational. In a primitive 
 society, such as appears, for example, in Longfellow's 
 Hiawatha, each community is almost completely self- 
 supporting, and each man and woman does very nearly 
 the same work in it as any other. Whenever the family 
 needs an outfit of new clothes the man goes out and kills 
 a deer, his wife dresses the skin, sews it with dried sinews 
 with a bone needle, and trims it, it may be, with a string 
 of teeth. They two, between them, do all the work. To 
 them alone belongs the entire product. 
 
 The food of the household has fallen before the hus- 
 band's bow or grown under the wife's tillage. Each makes 
 his own tools and weapons; together or separately they 
 build their dwelling, guard their property, bury their 
 dead. There is neither division of labor nor social class. 
 Whatever in the community life virtually all adult men or 
 women are not capable of doing, simply goes undone. 
 
 Commonly, to be sure, even in the simplest societies, 
 there is some ordering of duties on the basis of age. Cer- 
 tain activities fall to young people; in later life they take 
 on others. It is "Old men for counsel; young men for 
 war." The chief, the medicine man, the wise woman, 
 have their special functions. But these are, for the most 
 part, rather added on to the general duties than allowed 
 to take the place of them. The special status is apt to 
 come by mere lapse of time. 
 
 1.3 
 
14 V ocational Guidance 
 
 The only well-marked difference of occupation is on the 
 basis of sex. From the earliest beginnings of human 
 society, men have had certain tasks and women certain 
 others. Rigid custom almost invariably separates the 
 two in such wise as to assign to the one protracted tasks 
 done at slow speed and to the other those which call for 
 violent bursts of activity. 
 
 "Man works from rise to set of sun; 
 Woman's work is never done," 
 
 reflects the earliest of all attempts to adjust the task to 
 the worker. With this separation comes the first voca- 
 tional control. 
 
 Every boy, therefore, under primitive human condi- 
 tions, is bom to a certain inevitable course of life; every 
 girl to a different but equally inevitable course. There 
 is no choice of vocation, for all men do the same things, 
 and all women. Vocational guidance there is none; for 
 there are only two vocations, and each child is bom into 
 one or other. Natural capacity, experience, mere length 
 of days, may carry one individual a little farther than the 
 rest along the same road; but the life as a whole is pre- 
 determined. 
 
 Education, under these ciircumstances, consists in 
 practicing the inevitable duties. From before the begin- 
 nings of history, boys have followed their fathers to 
 fishing stream and hunting ground, and learned to do by 
 doing and by seeing done. Girls, meanwhile, have stayed 
 at home, watching and helping their mothers while they 
 prepared food, made baiskets or cloth, and cared for the 
 little brothers and sisters. Much also of a child's training 
 was by spontaneous play. A few initiation ceremonies 
 at puberty have comprised the entire formal schooling of 
 the vast majority of mankind. 
 
Efficiency the Basis of all Education 15 
 
 ond &Undorwnod, N Y. 
 
 The beginning of an education. A cginring first-hand information 
 
 Such an education had for its outcome muscular habits, 
 trained senses, and first-hand information. Primitive as 
 it was, it was everywhere vivified by its contact with 
 reality. What the pupil mastered meant food, shelter, 
 comfort, safety; and so thoroughly was the lesson learned 
 that the little girl of to-day still tends her dolls, and the 
 little boy wants to "play Indian" in the woods. This 
 
i6 V ocational Guidance 
 
 was the first pedagogical method, the method of Nature. 
 No system of education can be sound that altogether 
 departs from it. 
 
 Nor is the case essentially different when, from a 
 primitive Hiawatha, we pass to so highly civilized beings 
 as our own colonial forbears, whether in the days of 
 Priscilla and John Alden or of Washington and Betsey 
 Ross. Progress has indeed gone far, and the structure of 
 society has become complex. There are social classes — 
 nobles, gentry, yeomen, slaves; there are soldiers, arti- 
 sans, merchants, scholars. Every man has his special 
 label — hosier, spinner, draper, locksmith, armorer, printer 
 — and every boy, at least, must decide which of a hundred 
 different careers he is to essay. 
 
 Education, nevertheless, continues to be largely voca- 
 tional. All women do nearly the same work, so that a 
 girl is bom to her trade almost as inevitably as in the 
 savage state. Whatever she may learn from books (there 
 were learned women all through the Middle Ages) and 
 whatever accomplishments she may acquire, her real 
 training will come by way of her home duties. The little 
 girl will work samplers, the young woman will spin the 
 flax that is to make her tablecloths, the old wife will knit 
 stockings in the chimney comer. For each girl there 
 will be a lifelong training, whose backbone will be useful 
 work. 
 
 Nor is the situation of the boy appreciably different. 
 He will perhaps get more schooling, and have a somewhat 
 wider range of choice for his life work. But his real 
 training, the drill that makes a man of him, will come by 
 bread-and-butter occupations. Whatever trade he selects, 
 it means early apprenticeship, with mastery from the 
 bottom up. Even if he adopts one of the learned pro- 
 fessions, his Latin and Greek are still the tools of his 
 
Efficiency the Basis of all Education 17 
 
 trade. Every conjugation and every rule stand related 
 to his future success. 
 
 Many persons now living can recall the last stages of 
 an economic situation that was on the whole nearer to the 
 primitive state than to conditions which have obtained 
 since the so-called "industrial revolution." Men and 
 women still "did their own work." The clothes on any 
 citizen's back might have been made by his own wife, 
 woven on a loom, 
 spun on a wheel of 
 his own construction 
 from wool that he 
 had himself clipped 
 from his o\vn sheep. 
 Such portions of the 
 process as did not 
 chance to take place 
 under his own roof 
 were still performed 
 in his own neighbor- 
 hood. He himself 
 knew every detail 
 from his youth up. 
 Men and women 
 alike got their education by doing and by seeing done. 
 
 The problem of vocational guidance still remained 
 simple. Every girl, as a matter of course, mastered the 
 entire lore of womankind before she turned to her needle 
 for a living, taught, or became noted for her care of the 
 sick. Whatever peculiar gifts she might have, she prac- 
 ticed all the general duties of a woman before she began 
 any special work. 
 
 Every boy, as he grew up, had virtually the whole of 
 the world's work imder his eye. Instead of vast factories, 
 
 Spinning was formerly a part of a 
 woman's education 
 
i8 Vocational Guid a n c e 
 
 with "No Admittance" on every door, where he might 
 not see even his own father earn his bread, each l;ul had 
 free run of a score of little shops, where every process lay 
 open to his curious eyes, lie knew masters and joumey- 
 mcn, he asked questions, and he learned. When it was 
 time to select his own occupation he already knew a good 
 deal about them all. If he did not come up in his father's 
 trade, he might be apprenticed to his father's friend. At 
 any rate, his elders probably knew the whole industrial 
 field. They knew also their boy, who in a very real sense 
 had already "seen hfe" — the real working life of grown 
 men — far more completely than does the most precocious 
 of modem city youths, and had responded by some show 
 of interest or fitness. In those simpler times, the chance 
 was small that a square peg would try to fit a round hole. 
 
 There was, moreover, vastly more education to be had 
 from the general community life than now. There were 
 no paid fire departments; but every good citizen, when 
 the blaze started, first yelled "Fire!" and then joined the 
 line to pass buckets. When a house was building, the 
 neighbors took a hand at "raising" it. They husked one 
 another's com, "sat up" with each other in sickness, did 
 a whole town's errands on the rare occasions when they 
 visited the city. In a thousand different, incidental ways 
 each boy or girl had actually had a greater number of 
 educative experiences than even the most favored of 
 modem youth. 
 
 Wc are too apt to forget, in these days of fetish worship 
 of books, how effective was this ancient bookless, voca- 
 tional training. "The daily doing of useful things" is in 
 itself highly educative. One cannot read, for example, 
 the "broadsides" which our own prc-Revolutionary 
 Whigs and Tories leveled at one another, and note the 
 high general intelligence which they assume in the public 
 
Efficiency the Basis of all Education ig 
 
 to which they were addressed, without a new insight into 
 the truth of Pestalozzi's words: "It has become indis. 
 putably clear to me how much more truly a person is 
 moulded through that which he does than through that 
 which he hears. ... In the education of people serious 
 and severe training for a life work must necessarily 
 precede all word instruction." Unorganized and inci- 
 dental as this old education was, it has been amply 
 justified by its fruits. 
 
 Its saving grace was always, of course, its contact with 
 practical life. The child could always feel that he was 
 doing the same work as the grown-up people around him, 
 and preparing himself, in due time, to take his place 
 among them. This is the most powerful incentive to 
 diligence yet discovered, the most efficient educational 
 motive there is. 
 
 More of the ancient driving force is still the pressing 
 need of our modem educational systems. "It is high 
 time," says President Eliot, "that our teachers and leaders 
 of the people understood that every civilized human 
 being gets the larger part of his life training in the occu- 
 pation through which he earns his livelihood, and that 
 his schooling in youth should invariably be directed to 
 prepare him in the best way for the best permanent 
 occupation for which he is capable. In other words, the 
 motive of the life -career should be brought into play 
 as early and fully as possible." 
 
 This life-career motive now works powerfully in all 
 professional schools, in various training and normal 
 institutions, throughout the ordinary high school or 
 college for those who purpose to teach, and in many 
 manual and practical courses everywhere. But its 
 operation ought to be greatly extended. The lower 
 grades also should profit by it, so that every child, from 
 
20 
 
 V ocational Guidance 
 
 Courtesy of Superintendent of Schools. Boston 
 
 In many schools instruction in cooking relates a girl's school 
 work with her home life 
 
 the very beginning of his school work, should always 
 feel his other incentives reenforced by this bread-and- 
 butter push. 
 
 This, to a most encouraging degree, the American edu- 
 cational system is already beginning to do. There was 
 a time, not so many years ago, when it seemed as if modem 
 young people were to be quite deprived of the ancient 
 incentive to good work. The "little Latin and less 
 Greek" which once merely rotinded out an education 
 gained by contact with men and things, came to be the 
 synonym for education itself. The apprentice system 
 went out. The old strenuous, educative life of home and 
 farm yielded to the changed conditions of industry. 
 The incidental district schooling, when work was slack, 
 expanded tUl it absorbed the child's entire effort. The 
 star pupil who could recite by the page the river drainage 
 system of Cochin China knew only vaguely that some- 
 body bought his shoes at the store. Truly, the schools 
 
Efficiency the Basis of all Education 21 
 
 had traveled far from the times when arithmetic was 
 taught only in the universities. 
 
 To-day, one need not point out, saner counsel prevails. 
 Drawing and music came in first; then gymiaastics, sew- 
 ing, cooking, shop work, typewriting, school gardens, folk 
 dancing. The story is still too recent to need retelling 
 here. Once more the growing child sees some connection 
 between his sclaool work, his present happiness, and his 
 future success. 
 
 Our progress, nevertheless, gratifying as it is, still falls 
 far short of the ideal. We have admirable trade schools 
 and practical courses, but their number is not yet the 
 tenth part of what it should be. Actually, in certain 
 ways, a negro boy or girl in the South, who enters an 
 
 Pliysical culture in the form of folk dances and gymnastics 
 
 is now being recognized as a necessary part of 
 
 a well-rounded school course 
 
22 
 
 V ocational Guidance 
 
 Carpentry in the John Worthy School, Chicago, makes 
 
 it possible for delinquents to become useful 
 
 members of the community 
 
 industrial school, or a delinquent youth sentenced to a 
 reform school in the North, has a better opporttinity for 
 a sound, practical education that shall help him to earn 
 his bread and butter and to become a useful member of 
 his commtmity than has the child who comes up through 
 our public schools. 
 
 The late Professor Dolbear of Tufts College thus 
 satirized a condition of affairs which, in spite of manifest 
 improvement in favored commtmities, is still the prevail- 
 ing type of common-school education : 
 
 "In antediluvian times, while the animal kingdom was being 
 differentiated into swimmers, climbers, runners, and fliers, there was 
 a school started for their development. Its theory was that the 
 best animals should be able to do one thing as well as another. If 
 an animal had short legs and good wings, attention should be devoted 
 to running, so as to even up the qualities as far as possible. So the 
 duck was kept waddling instead of swimming, and the pelican was 
 
Efficiency the Basis of all Education 23 
 
 kept wagging his short wings in the attempt to fly. The eagle 
 was made to run and allowed to fly only for recreation, while 
 maturing tadpoles were unmercifully guyed for being neither one 
 thing nor another. 
 
 "The animals that woidd not submit to such training, but per- 
 sisted in developing the best gifts they had, were dishonored and 
 humiliated in many wa5's. They were stigmatized as being narrow- 
 minded and specialists. No one was allowed to graduate from the 
 school unless he could climb, swim, run, and fly at certain prescribed 
 rates; so it happened that the time wasted by the duck in the 
 attempt to run had so hindered him from swimming, that his swim- 
 ming muscles had atrophied and he was hardly able to swim at all, 
 and in addition, he had been scolded, punished, and ill-treated in 
 many ways so as to make his life a burden. In fact, he left school 
 humiliated. The eagle could make no headway in climbing to the 
 top of a tree, and although he sliowed he could get there just the 
 same, the performance was counted a demerit since it had not been 
 done according to the prescribed course of study. 
 
 "An abnormal eel with large pectoral fins proved that he could 
 run, s^'im, climb trees, and fly a little. He attained an average of 
 sixty per cent in all his studies. He was made valedictorian of the 
 class."' 
 
 With all our improvements, we 3-et fail in large measure 
 to educate with an eye to any definite useful purpose. 
 Not yet have we returned to the immemorial method of 
 nature and of man — education for ^•ocation and by it. 
 
 iFrom an article in The World's Work by Arthur D. Dean. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 The Need of the Vocational Guide 
 
 VOCATIONAL education alone is not enough. 
 Though we had the most perfect system imaginable 
 for educating youth to productive work, our problem 
 would still be but half solved. Youth must not only 
 be trained for its life work: it must also be guided in 
 its choice. 
 
 The necessity for vocational guidance comes primarily 
 from the complexity of modem industry. Compare, for 
 example, the simple process of making clothes of deer- 
 skin or homespun, with the present-day operations con- 
 nected with getting a new suit on a man's back. One 
 tailor measures him. Another cuts the cloth. Several 
 more have a hand in sewing it. The wool itself may 
 have come halfway across the continent, or be the mixed 
 product of several climes. A hundred different processes 
 went to building the freight car that carried it; a hundred 
 different persons had a share in the rails and the roadbed 
 over which it ran. Still a different person designed the 
 cloth, for a second to weave on a loom owned by a third. 
 Somebody else invented the looni; still others improved 
 every part. 
 
 A capitalist planned the enterprise, an architect designed 
 the mill, and his draftsmen made the working plans. 
 Masons, carpenters, steam fitters, plumbers, painters, 
 glaziers, laborers, built it. Miles away, somebody else dug 
 the clay to make the bricks; a different person cut the 
 wood to bum them. There was the machine to press 
 the bricks into shape, the hand labor to load them on 
 the car, and the switch tender who headed them for the 
 
 24 
 
The Need of the Vocational Guide 25 
 
 right city. Baiakers handled the capital for these mani- 
 fold enterprises; a vast office force kept trade of the details. 
 All these persons ha^'e to be housed and fed, cared for 
 in sickness, amused when they are through work. The 
 end product, the only thing that any human being really 
 wants for his own direct use, is that one suit of clothes. 
 Yet a thousand different persons have contributed to 
 
 The manual-training class aids the boy in finding his 
 place in the working world 
 
 make it. Out of the price the wearer pays, a thousand 
 different persons take their pay. 
 
 Fifty j-ears ago one man made a pair of shoes ; to-day 
 it takes more than two himdred. Yet these two hundred 
 individuals themselves start with the finished leather, with 
 nails, thread, machines, and factory ready to hand. Then, 
 too, no account is made of directors of the work, the 
 office force of the factor}^ the packing and transportation, 
 the selling agents, the complex social arrangements which 
 handle the money charges of the business and return profits 
 to the o-miers and wages to the men at the bench. 
 
26 
 
 V ocational Guidance 
 
 Dip wherever one will into the world of modem indus- 
 try — into trade, manufacturing, even into agriculture 
 he finds everywhere a vast and complicated network of 
 interrelations. Each worker is contributing some special 
 detailed element to the final result. Each is commonly 
 fitted by nature for his particular task; often he has been 
 elaborately trained for it. To a surprisingly small extent 
 can any one of the world's toilers change places with 
 any other. 
 
 Yet if each of this multitude had not somehow found 
 his place in the world, the work of the world wotdd by so 
 much have gone wrong. If each new worker, as he comes 
 to his life task, does not take up the particular labor for 
 which he is best fitted by nature and for which he has beeii 
 best trained, then by so much is the work of society less 
 perfectly done and by so much is the individual himself 
 
 One man doing the work now done by two hundred 
 
The Need of the V ocational Guide 27 
 
 robbed of some portion of his life happiness. His efficiency 
 and his welfare depend on his finding himself, early in 
 life, where he belongs. With each j-early addition to the 
 complexity of our industrial structure, the chance of his 
 doing this unguided becomes less. 
 
 One has onl}-, therefore, to get a sharp mental picture 
 of the actual conditions of modem industry to be con- 
 vinced that vocational training alone is not enough. 
 However much we may return to the older and sounder 
 theory of education, however much we may multiply 
 motor training, practical work, the schooling of senses 
 and judgment, we shall still fall short of our full duty 
 if we do not in addition point the chUd toward his 
 final business. 
 
 \''ocational training is not enough; there must be voca- 
 tional guidance along with it. The grade teacher must 
 herself be taught to detect the signs of budding talent, 
 to awaken the child to self-knowledge concerning his awn 
 special powers, and to point the way toward the exercise 
 of those powers for his future livelihood. The schools 
 must not only train; they must also foster and direct. 
 Thus only shall we restore to the classroom the energizing 
 sense of contact with reality. 
 
 As industry has become more complex and more 
 specialized, intelligent guidance through its mazes has 
 by no means kept pace. As a result, we find in country 
 almshouse and in city park and lodging house a veritable 
 army of "worn-outs" and "misfits"; while even in store 
 and shop, among people actually employed, the perfect 
 adjustment of worker and work tends to become increas- 
 ingly difficult. We take up the task which offers itself, 
 though we may have been trained for something quite 
 different or, more commonly, trained for nothing in 
 particular. 
 
28 
 
 V ocational Guidance 
 
 A motley crowd of "downs-and-ouls" is always to be found in 
 a basement lodging house 
 
 Few persons who have not specially looked into the 
 matter at all realize how numerous in the present-day- 
 world are these vocational misfits. "I like fanning, and 
 here I am teaching," are the words of a professor in a 
 normal school, who should have received by inheritance 
 a quarter-section farm in the Middle West, "a third-rate 
 teacher when I could have made a first-class farmer. 
 My father was a successful farmer, and I always liked the 
 work. But the prevailing public opinion in my home 
 community was that success in life could only be found 
 in the city, in business or a profession, and here I am. 
 Now it is next to impossible to return, for I have a city 
 family and my education and training have been in the 
 wrong direction." 
 
 An eminent American man of science, whose name, were 
 it to be mentioned, would be recognized in half the labora- 
 tories of Europe, at the height of his professional career 
 used frankly to say that the regret of his life was that he 
 had not kept on with his father's business. A successful 
 man of afEairs, trusted, rich, the originator of a new field 
 of industrial enterprise, continues to look back with regret 
 
The Need of the V ocational Guide 2g 
 
 to the day when he returned from the art schools of Paris. 
 Few persons there are, of any station in Hfe, who, even 
 though they have themselves been fortunate in the selec- 
 tion of a life work, cannot point to at least one friend who 
 would have been happier and more useful if he had lis- 
 tened to some other call. Wlio of us has not seen youths 
 pressing into fields already overcrowded, and for which 
 they had no special gifts, while they passed by the open 
 gates of empty tracts? 
 
 Principal Jesse B. Davis of Grand Rapids, Michigan, 
 has made an illuminating study of the conditions among 
 his high-school students in relation to their future occu- 
 pation. He fovmd that of five hundred and thirty-one 
 
 Newspaper Alley, Chicago. "Vocational misfits" waiting 
 to learn of a possible job 
 
30 
 
 V ocational Guidance 
 
 Many, following the paths of least resistance, drift to the city park 
 Two hundred "misfits" on Boston Common at lo a. m. 
 
 boys, two hundred and ninety-one, more than half, had 
 not decided upon a life work; and one half even of those 
 who had decided had no practical knowledge of the 
 vocation they intended to enter. When we further 
 discover that of two hundred and forty boys, seventy 
 had decided to be engineers, the need of vocational guid- 
 ance is still more evident. At this rate, three or four 
 fair-sized high schools would supply the whole state with 
 more engineers than could possibly find employment 
 therein. "Altogether," said Principal Davis, "the inves- 
 tigation gave much evidence of the need of better guid- 
 ance, together with a knowledge that the pupils who 
 have a definite aim actually do a much higher grade of 
 work than those who are drifting along the path of least 
 resistance." 
 
The Need of the V ocational Guide 31 
 
 It appears, furthermore, from this important study, 
 that out of two hundred and forty boys in the Grand 
 Rapids High School, only nineteen planned to enter the 
 same trade or profession as their fathers. Every boy, 
 one need not say, ought to follow the particular work 
 which is most in harmony with his own talents, and to 
 be trained in accordance with his special gifts and oppor- 
 ttmities. But the presumption always is that the boy 
 will, on the one hand, inherit his father's peculiar apti- 
 tudes, and on the other, enjoy peculiar opportunity for 
 an early interest and a favorable start in his father's 
 trade. But when, among these especially fortunate boys, 
 fewer than eight per cent plan to follow in their fathers' 
 path, it means that a considerable proportion of the others 
 chose unwisely, or else their fathers did. In either case, 
 the need of vocational guidance is evident. 
 
 Furthermore, even of the two hundred and forty boys, 
 out of the five hundred and thirty in the Grand Rapids 
 High School who had decided on a life work, no fewer 
 than one hundred and twenty-three confessed frankly 
 that they had no real information concerning the vocation 
 to which they looked forward. Only one hundred and 
 seventeen showed any sign of an intelligent choice; only 
 one hundred and fifty were shaping their school work 
 with an eye to the life work which they had selected. 
 
 But if this is the situation among business and pro- 
 fessional men, who, though they chose somewhat unwisely, 
 are still successful; and if among so specially favored a 
 group as are high-school pupils only about one in five is 
 wisely guided toward his life career, what must be the 
 case with pupils who leave school at the end of the gram- 
 mar course or earlier? A single case from real life, the 
 name only being altered, tells a story which every proba- 
 tion officer in a juvenile court can duplicate many hundred 
 
j2 V ocational Guidance 
 
 times over. Probably nine tenths of our grammar-school 
 graduates escape a like experience rather by good fortune 
 than by any deliberate plan. 
 
 "John Panello, aged fifteen years and five months, graduated 
 from a pubHc grammar school in New York. On the twentieth of 
 February he got his working papers from the Board of Health. In 
 school he had been fond of arithmetic, and from childhood had wanted 
 to become a bookkeeper. But the classroom had become irksome to 
 him, and his parents, financially comfortable, had just 'taken it 
 for granted that he would go to work after graduation. ' He received 
 no answer to his first application for a job — that of office boy in a 
 place where he hoped that he might work up to a position as book- 
 keeper. So during the first three weeks after leaving school he 
 spent his mornings looking for work and his afternoons gathering 
 bits of wood with another boy and selling them around the neigh- 
 borhood for kindling. 
 
 " His efforts got him a job as errand boy for a dyeing and cleaning 
 establishment. Five dollars a week were the wages, and tips 
 amounted to a dollar or two extra. At the end of one week, the boy 
 who had the job before came back and John was fired. He thought 
 that if he could have stayed there five years, he could have 'got 
 ahead. ' 
 
 "After a day's hunt he saw a sign, 'Boy Wanted,' and was taken 
 on by a firm manufacturing ladies' hats. Here he swept the floor, 
 ran errands, and helped to pack. At the end of two weeks, during 
 which he had been paid $4 a week, he left 'because a feller who 
 had been there four years was getting only $6 a week.' 
 
 "Before leaving, he had been lucky enough to get a promise of 
 a job with a millinery firm. At first the work consisted in going 
 for stuff to the first floor, then he ran a crimping machine, and next 
 was detailed to 'get the cord downstairs for the men who make 
 rugs.' After a week and a half of this, during which his wage was 
 $4.50, another fellow said, 'Come along and learn carpentry.' So 
 John got a job at loading and unloading wagons for a firm that 
 made wooden boxes. He was soon allowed to sandpaper the sides 
 of boxes with a machine and then was put at cutting out sides of 
 boxes with a circular saw. One afternoon he reversed the elevator 
 suddenly and burned out the fuse, so he hurried home, afraid to 
 meet the elevator man. When he learned next day that the boss 
 was going to move to Staten Island, he decided to quit, though he 
 
The Need oj the Vocational Guide 33 
 
 was getting #3 a week. He had been with the firm two weeks. 
 
 "During the next three weeks John did five different kinds of 
 work for a manufaeturer of jewehy and notions. He was making 
 $4.50, and when a man said, 'Come along, I've got an ofnee job for 
 you,' he quit. The office job consisted in acting as shipping clerk, 
 running errands, answering the telephone, and sweeping the floor 
 for a manufacturer of artificial flowers. He is still there, getting 
 $5 a week. He doesn't think much of the work." — The Survey. 
 
 The City Club of Chicago, through a sub-committee 
 on the educational problem of the community, made a 
 most thorough and reliable investigation of the relations 
 between the local schools and the local industries, of the 
 reasons why so lamentably large a proportion of the 
 children are leaving school before completing the ele- 
 mentary course, and of the need for vocational education 
 and vocational guidance. 
 
 No less than forty-three per cent of Chicago children, 
 it transpires, never reach the eighth grade ; while forty-nine 
 per cent, virtually one half the entire school population. 
 
 A class in printing. 
 
 Courtesy of "The Clu'istian Science Mouitor." 
 
 Trade training which helps to keep 
 boys in school 
 
34 
 
 V ocational Guidance 
 
 Courtesy of AlcClurc's Magazine 
 
 Very busy half Ike lime, idle half the lime, tends to moral 
 and menial degeneration 
 
 never complete it. Those pupils who leave school be- 
 tween the ages oE fourteen and sixteen, and nominally 
 go to work, are, in the Committee's words, "idle half the 
 time, and earn during those two years not more than an 
 average of two dollars a week. . . . Their idleness," 
 the committee continues, "during at least half the time, 
 their frequent passing from one job to another, their 
 lack of any responsibility, necessarily tends to moral, 
 mental, and frequently to physical degeneration." 
 
 The Massachusetts Commission on Industrial and 
 Technical Education foimd the same unfortunate condi- 
 tions. In this one state twenty-five thousand chil- 
 dren, between the ages of fourteen and sixteen, were not 
 attending school; and of these a fourth had not finished 
 the sixth grade, one half had not completed the seventh, 
 and five sixths were not prepared to enter the high school. 
 The result, in the words of the Commission, is "an 
 imsteadiness of purpose, irresponsibility of character, and 
 
The Need of the Vocational Guide J5 
 
 irregularity of habit, which is the undoing of manhood 
 and womanhood." 
 
 Both reports agree that there is little relation, or none 
 at all, between the elementary-school work and the indus- 
 trial life of the community. Occupations are recruited 
 largely by pure chance. 
 
 It appears, moreover, in both reports, that the vast 
 majority of the children who drop out before completing 
 the grammar course do not do so, in any wise, from 
 necessity. They have simply lost interest in a school 
 life which does not seem to be leading them anywhere. 
 In Chicago this was the testimony of more than ninety 
 per cent; while at least three quarters affirmed that they 
 would have continued in school if they had been getting 
 some sort of trade training there. In Massachusetts 
 seventy-six per cent of the families interviewed were quite 
 able financially to give their children further industrial 
 training; fifty-five per cent declared that they would 
 
 Jl 
 
 , , mi 
 
 
 Wi^#^ 
 
 The home of the job-to-job man 
 
j6 Vocational Guidance 
 
 have done so if the opportunity had been given them. 
 
 These are but instances, which might be multiplied 
 many times, of the crying need all over the country for 
 a school training that shall point each child toward his 
 place in the world of affairs. Even apart from the ques- 
 tion of industrial efficiency, what shall we say of the prep- 
 aration for citizenship of a school system that allows half 
 its personnel to fall by the wayside before it finishes even 
 its elementary work ! 
 
 But if the child, from the beginning of his formal 
 schooling, is in any measure to be pointed in the direction 
 of his life task, who is there half so well fitted for this 
 vocational direction as the grade teacher? 
 
 The parents are not doing it. In most cases they can- 
 not. Outside the somewhat narrow ranks of professional 
 life and the more responsible business positions, a father 
 rarely has either the knowledge of the industrial situation 
 or the insight into character and capacity to guide his 
 son aright. Too often he magnifies the boy's virtues 
 while he overlooks his failings, while he is pretty certain 
 either, on the one hand, to be content with the immediate 
 wage return and think too little of the boy's ultimate 
 good; or, on the other, to be over-ambitious for his off- 
 spring. The former is perhaps the commoner error; the 
 latter often brings the greater tragedy. 
 
 Most unfortunately, also, there is a distinct tendency 
 for fathers to influence their sons to enter almost any 
 other calling than their own. The reason is as simple as 
 it is ill-founded. All work has its disagreeable side. 
 Cattle eat the clover and leave the briers in the crib, but 
 too often man chews over only the innutritious portions 
 of his labor. The boy sees and hears the "outs" of his 
 father's trade and the "ins" of his distant neighbor's 
 work — and chooses the one of which he knows the least. 
 
The Need of the V ocational Guide J7 
 
 Boys' "off-lhe-street" dubs help fill in idle time 
 
 There are lands where too many sons follow their fathers' 
 footsteps; but our free America is not one of them. 
 
 Moreover, to place any boy or girl in the world of 
 affairs with any reasonable accuracy demands on the 
 part of the cotmselor something more than a general 
 insight into human nature and an acquaintance with the 
 field of industry. One must have, in addition, some 
 intimacy with formal psychology, and must follow the 
 methods of science rather than mere rule of thimib. Of 
 this essential knowledge, the teaching profession, among 
 all the larger social groups, has a virtual monopoly. 
 
 In certain ways,, to be sure, the professional vocational 
 guide has an advantage even over the teacher. He is 
 supposed to have the better technical equipment, and he 
 devotes himself more or less exclusively to this single 
 
j5 V ocaiional Guidance 
 
 field. But such vocational counselors are, unfortunately, 
 few; and not one parent in a thousand ever thinks of 
 seeking their advice. Moreover, they commonly see 
 their clients too late, after they have finished their school- 
 ing and have lost opportunities that would have been to 
 their advantage, or have acquired habits that tend to their 
 detriment. Even with all the elaborate and accurate 
 modem technique for diagnosing a youth's equipment, 
 the professional counselor is always a partial stranger, 
 who deals with his subject under somewhat artificial 
 conditions. 
 
 But the teacher has the child under daily observation. 
 She sees him off his guard, at play, under varying con- 
 ditions of fatigue or of health; and if herself an expert 
 in child nature she comes to understand him more 
 profoundly than any other human being can. She takes 
 the pupil young, in time to correct the evil tendencies and 
 foster the good. She is, of all persons, most likely to have 
 the full confidence of both the child and his parents. 
 The vocational impulse no longer comes of itself, as once 
 it did. Neither the home nor the church is so likely as 
 the school to develop it. 
 
 Hardly less than the chUd, will the school itself profit by 
 this vocational lever. Children are keenly interested in 
 every sort of grown-up labor. They will stop their play 
 to watch a blacksmith shoeing a horse, a house in process 
 of construction, a safe being hoisted into a window, a 
 gang of laborers digging a ditch, or a solitary workman 
 mixing mortar with a hoe. To make them feel that their 
 daily school task is related to their future participation 
 in some fascinating occupation of their elders is to enlist 
 some of their most vivid experiences on the teacher's side. 
 She who can answer the immemorial, "What is the use?" 
 — if not always, at least often enough to make her pupil 
 
The Need of the Vocational Guide jg 
 
 Boys who have left their youthful pursuits to watch the 
 construction of a building 
 
 trast where he cannot know — has made herself not only 
 an educational but a social force, and has taken no short 
 step toward her professional success. 
 
 The object of this book is, therefore, first of all to show 
 the teacher, especially the teacher in the grammar grades, 
 how she may utilize one of the great driving forces of the 
 world in the actual daily work of her own classroom. 
 Increased professional efficiency is one of its aims. 
 
 But the teacher can hardly infuse this driving sense of 
 
40 
 
 V ocational Guidance 
 
 reality into her schoolroom unless she herself is in touch 
 with reality. She must herself know the industrial 
 processes and needs of her community in order wisely to 
 guide her pupil both as to his immediate interests and the 
 choice of a life work. Not a little will be said, therefore, 
 concerning the world of industry and the various ways 
 by which the teacher may grow to understand it. 
 
 She cannot, however, hope to move her pupils to un- 
 common endeavor by any general sense of the relation of 
 school work to future, abstract success. The child must 
 see, in some measure, his own particular work. He must 
 reflect on the precise use to which his growing knowledge 
 is to be put. He may alter his destination many times; 
 but some definite goal he must have if the thought of it 
 is to spur him on the way. For this reason, of all these 
 closely related matters, the problem of vocational guidance 
 presses most strongly upon the ambitious teacher. 
 
 A system such as we are here advocating shotild begin 
 early, as early as the earliest period when the child first 
 shows the individual differences which distinguish him 
 from his fellows and point out, however uncertainly, the 
 direction of his future labors. It should continue through- 
 out school life, becoming more and more precise as each 
 child exhibits more and more his special capacities. 
 Rarely should the process end before the age of twenty; 
 for many of the higher callings it will need to be prolonged 
 five, it may be even ten, years longer. 
 
 The critical period, however, will be between ten years 
 of age and fifteen. This is the time of life when native 
 qualities reveal themselves with peculiar distinctness and 
 when most life-interests are bom. The upper grammar 
 grades, therefore, from the fifth to the eighth, form the 
 place of strategic importance. It is here that we must 
 fix our special attention. 
 
The Need of the Vocational Guide 41 
 
 "Moreover," as Arthur Davis Dean expresses it, "the 
 school will furnish to the boy reliable information and 
 competent advice as to the various occupations open to 
 him, the conditions prevailing in each, and what the 
 rewards of success may be. . . . It will provide for 
 every vocation for which there is a reasonable demand, 
 
 III'"' '•'■^%fcs.-■■'-^.^\ 
 
 
 
 J^ '1 
 
 A class in shoemaking. The school of the future will provide 
 for every vocation for which there is a reasonable demand 
 
 and in the school the boy must remain until there is 
 ground for believing that he has found a calling for which 
 nature and his own effort have prepared him." 
 
 The whole matter is well summed up in the words of 
 a report of a committee of the National Education 
 Association : 
 
 "It is to be hoped that the constructive work and the study of 
 industry in the elementary school will ultimately be of such a 
 character that when the pupil reaches the age at which the activities 
 of adult life make their appeal he will be able to make a wise choice 
 in reference to them and be already advanced in an appreciable 
 measure toward the goal of his special vocation." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 The Effect op Vocational Control 
 
 THE most obvious results of this vocational control 
 will naturally be industrial. The apprentice system 
 is virtually dead. Out of four hundred establishments in 
 Ohio, only sixty attempted to train beginners; while 
 even of these, only three turned out really first-class 
 mechanics. When the schools bridge over the gap 
 which the apprentice system once filled, it will no longer be 
 true that only one quarter of the boys who leave school 
 before the end of the grammar course find steady and 
 improving occupation. No longer will the other three 
 
 The semi-idleness and non-educative work of the bootblack offer 
 much leisure for the alluring vice oj street gambling 
 
 42 
 
The Eff ect of Vocational Control 43 
 
 quarters be turned out to be ruined by semi-idleness or 
 non-educative work at precisely that time of life when 
 they are most open to life-career incentives, and most 
 certain, in their absence, to become delinquent and 
 degenerate. Nor will the gain, we must believe, be on 
 the whole greater for boys than for girls. 
 
 How great the increase of industrial efificiency might 
 become is shown most strikingly in a study, published in 
 St. Nicholas, by James M. Dodge, president of the Amer- 
 ican Society of Mechanical Engineers. It appears from 
 this that the average unskilled laborer, who has simply 
 drifted through the lower school grades, with no particular 
 object in view, and has gone to work at the first job which 
 offered itself, is at twenty-two years of age earning on an 
 average ten dollars a week; and that for the remainder 
 of his life he does not advance beyond that wage. 
 
 Suppose, however, the youth drifts through school, 
 goes to work in a shop at sixteen; and then, finding him- 
 self actually doing something worth while, wakes up to 
 his opportunities. He begins at three dollars a week. At 
 twenty years of a.ge he has been advanced to nine. 
 At twenty-two he is, on the average, getting $13.22. 
 Beyond $15-80 the typical shop-trained workman does 
 not go. A half more of weekly wage, with the probability 
 of decidedly more regular employment, marks the dif- 
 ference between the youth who finds himself after he 
 leaves school and the one who never finds himself. 
 
 But a boy who fixes his eye on the same shop while 
 still at school, shapes his education accordingly, enters 
 a trade school, and remains there until he is nineteen, 
 beginning his shop work at twelve dollars a week. At 
 twenty-one he is paid sixteen dollars. He will, on the 
 average, reach twenty-five dollars a week before his 
 improvement stops. As compared with the first boy, the 
 
44 
 
 V ocational Guidance 
 
 vocational motive has been worth two and one-half times 
 the weekly income for the remainder of his life. 
 
 With technological training, continued to twenty-two, 
 a youth should begin about where the untrained man 
 leaves off, and advance to, say, forty or forty-five dollars 
 a week, with the virtual certainty of continuous employ- 
 ment prolonged to a time of life considerably beyond the 
 time when the other is worn out and retired. If in 
 addition to his training he has the special talent to become 
 a successful engineer, forty dollars is more likely to be his 
 daily than his weekly wage. 
 
 The Massachusetts Industrial Committee reports virtu- 
 ally the same conditions. The untrained, imguided boy 
 begins at four dollars, and goes to twelve. Four years 
 of training, for most mechanical vocations, more than 
 doubles the earnings during the early years. Hope of 
 
 20 21 22 23 
 Average age 
 
 24 25 
 
 Aftcrtlie diagram in Porflon's "Industrial Kfluratioa" 
 
 Comparison of wages of mechanics having only shop training 
 with those having trade-school training 
 
The Eff ect of Vocational Control 45 
 
 
 
 
 
 n 
 
 B9i 
 
 >■ 
 
 
 
 Bf^ 
 
 
 
 imB^^I 
 
 hH 
 
 
 |Rrj 
 
 R%,v!™ 
 
 '^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 i^\ 
 
 ^ 
 
 »- 
 
 
 JP'^-^^ii 
 
 
 1 
 
 Sali .^ (j 
 
 
 »»»■>, 
 
 
 
 
 -<i< 
 
 ^!m 
 
 
 !^^» 
 
 •^ -^: .w..,.„. . 
 
 
 
 " 
 
 ■in^W 
 
 Boys 0/ i^e Mechanic Arts School, Boston, installing machinery 
 
 Here all repairs and construction worit about their 
 
 shop is done by the boys 
 
 advancement after twenty-five lies open to the trained 
 man alone. Or, to quote the opinion of a particidar shop : 
 
 " In one of our plants we have made it a practice for many years 
 to secure a few of the graduates of the WiUiamson Training School 
 each year. These boys are started at $12 a week, which is con- 
 siderably more than they are worth, to begin with, but they demon- 
 strate very quickly the value of their preparation, and furnish us 
 material not only for the higher classes of machine and pattern work 
 but also for sub-foremen and foremen." 
 
 In a sense, to be sure, these figures will have to be some- 
 what discounted because of the fact that the boys abler 
 by nature are the more likely also to obtain the better 
 training. Part of their higher pay is for the better brain 
 structure which no school system can alter or improve. 
 But even so, there must be, one cannot doubt, much good 
 
46 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 mechanical ability going to waste in our bookish schools 
 for sheer lack of direction to its proper field. Half the 
 pupils who did drop out of the Massachusetts schools, 
 it must not be forgotten, would have continued their 
 
 Cfjiirtrsy of Giria' Trade School, Boston 
 
 Designing and making garments. Here motor-minded children 
 have an opportunity to learn what they want to be 
 
 training a year or two longer if they could have seen any 
 practical use in it. 
 
 One need not dwell on the advantage to the commimity 
 of an improved industrial adjustment. Not only is 
 there "plenty of room at the top"; the higher grades of 
 labor are precisely those on which society makes its profit. 
 With all that is being said to-day about the need of a 
 more equal division of the good things of life, we must 
 not forget that civilization is dependent ultimately on 
 there being something to divide. The goods that we en- 
 joy are all products of trained skill. There can be more 
 and more of them for us all only as citizens as a whole are 
 
The Effect of Vocational Control 
 
 47 
 
 educated for efficiency and adjusted to their proper work. 
 
 Our chief concern - with vocational guidance must, 
 however, be from the point of view of the schools them- 
 selves. As things are now, our educational system is 
 too exclusively adapted to the "brighter," more book- 
 minded pupils, who are preparing for office work or the 
 professions. It is the concrete-minded, motor-minded 
 pupils who are dropping out before the end of the eighth 
 grade because they find themselves led nowhere that 
 they want to go, and are being prepared for everything in 
 general, but for nothing in particular. 
 
 Listen to the testimony of pupils who have left school 
 to go to work in Minneapolis : 
 
 (a) "When I was in grade school I enjoyed it and I worked hard 
 there; but when I got to high school there was nothing to hold me: 
 I was not working to a purpose." 
 
 (ft) "I did not think I could go through the University, and I 
 do not think a fellow can get much out of high school unless he can 
 go on. The courses are all planned for the fellows who can go on in 
 school. I was planning to go into some sort of business; and if 
 I had thought any of the work would help me in business, I would 
 have stayed all right." 
 
 (c) "All of us can't be professional men, and we can't afford to 
 be going to school just to be cultured. There is nothing practical 
 in the high-school course, especially in the last two years. You 
 can get all that will help you at all in business in the first two years." 
 
 (d) John said: "Mother, I want to be doing something that 
 counts. That school work doesn't half satisfy me." 
 
 (e) Rebecca says: "The school should prepare you to enter a 
 world of commercialism. You are measured in this world by what 
 money you can earn, and you can't tell me that you are not. Now, 
 no one cares how much Latin and Greek and history and all that 
 stuff you know. They want to know if you can take care of the goods 
 in their department or office. Now, the school has a lot of faults 
 beside this one. Even if you know what you want, they will not 
 let you take it and then graduate. Why, the principal had a hard- 
 and-fast rule when I was there, and there wasn't much choice as to 
 
48 
 
 V ocational Guidance 
 
 what you could take. How did they know what you wanted to 
 be? Heaven and earth couldn't have made them change their 
 minds; and what's more, they knew a lot of boys and girls were 
 leaving school because they couldn't adjust themselves. ' You would 
 think if they ever found any youngster who knew what he wanted 
 to be, they would let him do it, and help him to it." — Vocational 
 Survey of Minneapolis. 
 
 Professor John Dewey has a story about a swimming 
 pool in a certain city where youths are taught to swim 
 
 by repetitious aerial 
 drill in swimming 
 movements, but 
 without ever going 
 into the water. 
 When one boy, thus 
 instructed, was asked 
 what he did when 
 at length he found 
 himself actually 
 immersed, he replied 
 laconically, "Sunk." 
 The story, which 
 happens to be true, 
 illustrates but too 
 truly the experience 
 of natural-bom ar- 
 tisans or mechanics 
 confronted with a 
 school training based 
 on words alone. The schools try to help them, but in the 
 wrong way. What wonder that they far too frequently 
 sink below their proper level among their associates in 
 school and of their possible efficiency in the world? 
 
 Society has already shown its vital interest in voca- 
 tional education by establishing normal schools to train 
 
 Copyrighted by Underwood k. Underwood. N. Y. 
 
 A natural-horn artisan 
 
The Effect of Vocational Control 
 
 49 
 
 A class in manual training. Pupils at the age of thirteen and 
 fourteen being taught to think in terms of practical life 
 
 teachers, agrictiltural schools to train fanners, and by its 
 liberal support of various other sorts of institution for 
 the special training of candidates for highly skilled occupa- 
 tions. Already the world is coming to see the greater 
 importance of right preparation for the ninety-and-five 
 manual workers in society than for the five professional 
 men alone. The movement will not stop until there is 
 equal opportunity for all the children of all the people, 
 until every youth is given the best equipment for the 
 highest service. However expensive this may prove to 
 be, it will still be the best investment the state can make. 
 At the age of thirteen or fourteen, youths are keenly 
 interested in the industrial world which they must soon 
 enter. They are beginning to think in terms of practi- 
 cal life and of the occupations of men and women in 
 
^0 V ocational Guidance 
 
 the community. Boys at this period not only take the 
 greatest interest in watching men engaged in building and 
 mechanical trades but they also, if permitted, will spend 
 hours at a time helping them with their work. 
 
 It is the universal testimony that wherever the teacher 
 at this time is a shrewd vocational counselor, or where 
 efficient industrial and practical work has been introduced 
 into the schools, the school work can be increased to more 
 hours a day and for more weeks in the year without 
 injury to either pupil or teacher, that fewer pupils are 
 tardy or absent, and that the interest in book work is 
 markedly increased by the wise correlation between 
 theory and practice. The pupils become more alert and 
 ambitious as the definite life-interest takes shape in their 
 minds and they begin to look forward toward congenial 
 and efficient labor. The life-career motive makes school 
 work vital. 
 
 The natural result of such vocational control is to lead 
 a youth to an earlier decision concerning his future 
 occupation but a later entrance upon it. On this latter 
 point the evidence is already conclusive. The Com- 
 mercial High School for boys in Boston, and the Manual 
 Arts School for girls, to select but two instances, have 
 more applicants than they can possibly receive, the 
 great majority of whom, but for these or similar institu- 
 tions, would already be at work. By means of the new 
 trade schools which Commissioner Snedden is developing 
 in Massachusetts, already above five per cent of the boys 
 between fourteen and seventeen years of age, who had 
 dropped out of school, have been brought back again. 
 
 The advantage of this result is two-sided. Immature 
 and untrained boys and girls are of little use in the indus- 
 trial world. Their competition lowers still further the 
 wages of unskilled men and women, whose ranks are 
 
The Effect of V ocational Control 51 
 
 ^ta 
 
 ° ^ 1 i 
 
 EUBiflFSRvU^ 
 
 
 d#- - MM ^W ^3P 
 
 ^^^^'^^m 
 
 ^■^att WKKKKKKMBb.- 
 
 m "--1 
 
 Scene in the Boston High School of Commerce. The upraised hands 
 
 tell which boys are doing practical work in the business 
 
 world under the direction of the school 
 
 already too completely filled; and they are besides, as 
 has lately been proved, a prolific source of industrial 
 accidents. On the other hand, the prolonged period of 
 tutelage keeps them under control at precisely that stage 
 of development when they are most susceptible to the 
 best social and industrial training. Their absence from 
 the one sphere is hardly less desirable than their presence 
 in the other. 
 
 To this general scheme of vocational control there are, 
 nevertheless, one or two objections which are sometimes 
 urged not altogether without reason. It is said, to begin 
 with, that children in the- elementary schools are much 
 too young to be choosing a life work, that they have had 
 no experience, either of themselves or of the world, that 
 the most valuable talents may not appear until late 
 in life, so that an early decision, if followed by early 
 
52 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 Manual training in the Francis Parker School, Chicago, where 
 
 individual guidance helps the child to choose and 
 
 prepare for a life career 
 
 specialization, might in the end result in snutting off 
 some boys and girls from their highest success. 
 
 Precisely the same argument, one need not point out, 
 was advanced against the introduction of the elective 
 system into American colleges. The boy of twenty, it 
 was said, is too young — and the rest ! It is indeed too 
 soon, in a grammar grade, to make an irrevocable decision 
 concerning one's exact place in the industrial world. But 
 the choice never is final. Good mental and manual 
 training tinder the inspiration of a life-career motive, 
 directed toward almost any trade, is better preparation 
 for any other than is an aimless and uninterested dabbling 
 in a general course that points nowhere. In the mobile 
 social and industrial life of America, even an unwise early 
 selection is not a very serious matter, and the early-choice 
 
The Effect of V ocational Control 53 
 
 mistakes of the few will work less damage in the long run 
 than the postponed-choice mistakes of the many. 
 
 Moreover, most boys and girls do exhibit the general 
 bent of their minds early. Of the thousands of boys who 
 have entered the trade schools of Massachusetts, only 
 two per cent have altered their first determination, 
 though the privilege of changing is open to them at any 
 time. We all know that many boys and girls actually 
 do decide early what to do in life. It should be our 
 place to aid more of them in deciding aright. 
 
 As for the boy whose ambitions pass through a kalei- 
 doscopic change — who wants, in turn, to become loco- 
 motive engineer, clerk in a candy store, manufacturer of 
 automobiles, college president, and who finally goes to 
 work at the nearest job — he is precisely the person for 
 whom a wise vocational guide might do most. To fix 
 his purpose on any one ambition, and to lead him by 
 means of it to the largest aspiration he is likely to realize, 
 is to put vigor and motive into his entire school life and 
 save him, it may be, from the accidental occupation at 
 the end. 
 
 In addition to this first objection to general vocational 
 control by the schools there is a widespread prejudice 
 all over the country against using the "bread-and-butter 
 motive" in education. And yet any adiilt who will stop 
 for a moment to use a little deliberate self-analysis will 
 certainly find that this same despised "bread-and-butter 
 motive" is almost the strongest force in his own life. 
 Men do, on occasion, act on the impulse of ideals. But 
 the force which pushes most of us through our day's 
 work is the will to earn an honest living, to secure com- 
 fort and well-being for our families, and the decent self- 
 respect that urges us to stand on our own feet, — not to 
 sponge on society, but to give back more than we take. 
 
54 
 
 V ocational Guidance 
 
 SK ' ^HkW '*1'/-^ W'/ 
 
 (■M3fpr*iWW||MiflM ' IIWP— '^f**'" \ illfflE 
 
 M 
 
 Wm■'^9^.lm 
 
 LiMjf#ia 
 
 ^^v-^V. 
 
 
 —J 
 
 i «^-' 1%-^ ' 
 
 *r- 
 
 *^hK: 
 
 pw% 
 
 
 fe ,./^''' %, 
 
 ''€% M 
 
 ^^m 
 
 ,;;*? ^^' 
 
 Courtesy of "The Cliristian Science Monit^jr" 
 
 Testing oil in a high-school laboratory. Experimental work under 
 careful guidance tends to put vigor and motive into, school life 
 
 Any motive is worthy which actually does put a deeper 
 interest into life. 
 
 The case for the "bread-and-butter" motive has prob- 
 ably never been better stated than by President Charles 
 William Eliot before the National Education Association: 
 
 "All of us adults do our best work in the world under the impul- 
 sion of a life-career motive. Indeed, the hope and purpose of improv- 
 ing quality, or quantity, or both in our daily work, with the incidental 
 improvement of the livelihood, form the strongest inducements we 
 adults have for steady, productive labor, and the results of labor 
 so motived are not necessarily mercenary, or in any way unworthy 
 of an intelligent or humane person. There is nothing low or mean 
 about these motives, and they lead on the people who are swayed 
 by them to greater serviceableness and greater happiness. . . . 
 We also need to discard forever the notion that there is something 
 vulgar about the useful and the serviceable. After all is said to 
 discredit the "bread-and-butter" motives, it is no moral or philo- 
 sophical objection to a discovery or a field of knowledge that it 
 
The Effect of Vocational Control 55 
 
 has useful applications. Even in the realms of the beautiful, fitness 
 for some humane use enhances or contributes to beauty or is an 
 important element in it. A ripening field of grass or of grain blow- 
 ing in the summer wind is not less beautiful because it promises 
 welcome food for man or beast. . . . Again, there is nothing 
 inherently selfish or low minded about hard mental work done in 
 order to improve one's chances of earning a good livelihood, whether 
 in overalls, or apron, or in street clothes." 
 
 Nor need there, to consider a final objection, be any 
 fear that the vocational motive in the common schools 
 will ever lessen genuine culture in the community, either 
 cesthetic or moral. True culture involves, on the one hand, 
 reverence, honesty, sympathy, industry, and on the other, 
 in Arnold's celebrated phrase, "an acquaintance with 
 the best that has been thought and done in the world." 
 But "the disinterested pursuit of perfection" comes by 
 seeing and handling and doing perfect things, not by 
 
 A sewing class, Hull House, Chicago. Industrial education that 
 looks toward the actual work of life 
 
5(5 Vocational Guidance 
 
 mere reading about them, while no small part of the 
 world's "best" has been for practical utility. Industrial 
 and vocational education, looking toward the actual 
 work of life, may well prove to furnish, in and of itself, 
 the most essential elements of true culture. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 The Equipment of a Counselor 
 
 THE vocational counselor has a large work to do : she 
 should be prepared to do it in a large way. The 
 world needs all sorts of work done; and it provides, luck- 
 ily, all sorts of workers. But there is always the danger 
 that the counselor or guide, in advising others, will assign 
 too much weight to her own personal likings. Let her 
 then, first of all, beware of pettiness, remembering always 
 that amid the vastly complicated adjustments of modern 
 industrial life the particular occupation which seems least 
 attractive to her may be precisely the one in which her 
 pupil will be most useful to the world and most happy. 
 
 Especially, moreover, should she be on her guard against 
 despising lowly occupations. It is well for ambitious 
 youth to aim high, to hitch his wagon to a star. But it 
 is also better to be first in a village than second in Rome. 
 The man who is thoroughly prepared for a task conform- 
 able to his powers, who carries his load with ease and 
 pleasure, rises to the top of his group, is looked up to by 
 his fellows, and is the man who has a margin of profit 
 to his life. The powers of men are strictly limited. 
 Worry, overwork, failure, the loss of mental poise and 
 often of moral health, are the too frequent penalties of 
 attempting a higher grade of work than one's natural 
 ability warrants. The business of the counselor is to 
 guide youth in exercising its powers, not in pressing 
 beyond them. 
 
 A little practical insight into racial psychology is often 
 a defense against some of the commoner errors. The 
 
 57 
 
58 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 Young bookbinders. Industrial work that gives children a fine 
 opportunity to exercise their powers 
 
 abler races of the world, such as the Scots and north- 
 country English, the " first families" of the South, the old 
 New England stock and its derivatives in the West, are 
 likely to come to maturity slowly. Their children are 
 less precocious than, those of other peoples, slower in 
 finding themselves, often less ready of wit, and sometimes 
 less docile. They are as likely therefore to exceed their 
 early promise as children of the less evolved races are to 
 fall short of theirs. 
 
 On the other hand, in a community containing a mixture 
 
The Equipment of a Counselor 5p 
 
 of recent immigrants, the children of an oppressed people 
 are often of a higher natural quality than the social 
 position of their parents would lead one to suspect. In 
 the land from which they came, mere accident of religion 
 or of race may have kept down high native ability, which in 
 a free country would have risen into another social group. 
 Then, of course, there are all sorts of racial peculiarities — ■ 
 the remarkable gift of many Russians for language, or of 
 the French for the nicer handicrafts. Every one recog- 
 nizes that a , negro will commonly have vastly greater 
 muscular strength than a Jew, but that the Jew will be 
 many times more resistant to disease. It is said that at 
 Ellis Island a south Italian who answers his questions in a 
 sober, straightforward fashion is likely to be held back by 
 the inspector for further inquiry into his sanity; while 
 the same fate overtakes a Russian who shows any vivacity. 
 All such little matters the teacher will do well to keep at 
 the back of her mind as a check on her first impressions. 
 
 Naturally, the more general psychology the counselor 
 knows, the better. Evidently a strongly "eye-minded" 
 boy or girl might do uncommonly well as a proofreader, 
 and yet fail utterly in "taking" rapid telegraphy by 
 ear. For the auditory type of intellect the situation would 
 be exactly reversed. Then there is always with us the 
 wordless, motor-minded boy or girl who cannot recite 
 lessons but who, once settled in machine shop or dress- 
 making establishment, blossoms out most surprisingly. 
 I well recall a case of my own, a boy who simply could 
 not pass any sort of school test; yet he became, and that 
 self-taught, a competent steamboat engineer. This is 
 one of the fields where common sense needs to be helped 
 out with science. 
 
 Most counselors also, especially in small communities 
 where it is possible to know a great deal about a pupil's 
 
6o 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 family, will be much assisted by a general acquaintance 
 with the new science of human heredity. Most of the 
 qualities in which we are interested are strongly inherit- 
 able; especially is this true of high talents and peculiar 
 gifts. A turn for music, or machinery, or teaching, a skill 
 in the handicrafts, a fitness for a foremanship or for 
 some one of the professions, running strongly in a family, 
 is pretty certain to show, undiluted, in at least one child 
 of each generation. To spot that particiilar child is often 
 to solve that vocational problem offhand. If the tree is 
 known by its fruit, so also is the fruit known, in part, by 
 its tree. 
 
 But the great essential will always be a s}mipathetic 
 insight into the individual. Most teachers think they 
 know a great deal more about chUd nature than they 
 really do. Let any beginner sit down and write out, in 
 a hundred words, a critical analysis of a number of boys 
 
 Courtesy of Kate R. Logan 
 
 Testing corn. This special school at Marcus, Iowa, for three 
 months in winter trains thirteen boys in accurate observation 
 
The Equipment of a Counselor 
 
 6i 
 
 Ability to carry responsibility shows early and is easily recog- 
 nized by the vocational guide 
 
 and girls, and she will be surprised to discover of how lit- 
 tle she is really sure. Let her, in addition, compare her 
 descriptions with those of an associate, or with the actual 
 performance of the pupils a year or two later, and she will 
 probably be horrified at her mistakes. The exercise 
 teaches caution, and it also trains one's powers of analysis 
 and one's appreciation of human nature. Probably also 
 the experience will inspire an ambitious teacher to more 
 extended study and more accurate observation. 
 
 Always, as we have said, the thing that coimts most 
 is the teacher's understanding of human nature and her 
 common-sense insight into the child's mind and character. 
 This is especially true of what is really the most significant 
 of qualities for the vocational guide — I mean the ability to 
 carry responsibility. There is no scientific or educational 
 
62 V ocational Guidance 
 
 test for this. If a child has it, it shows in all sorts of 
 little ways, and the shrewd guide recognizes it at sighi. 
 But the entire world of industry divides itself into men 
 and women who take responsibility for their acts, and 
 those for whom other people are responsible. As society 
 is now constituted, the rewards of life belong to persons 
 of the former class. To spot this group is almost the first 
 business of the vocational guide. 
 
 All this, while essential to the successful vocational 
 coxmselor, is also the equipment of the successful teacher. 
 Each, so far as she masters it, aids not only her pupils' 
 future welfare but her own present efficiency. There 
 remains, however, another portion of the counselor's 
 equipment which, outside the classroom, should make her 
 a better citizen and lead her into a larger life. 
 
 She must know the child in the school and also in the 
 world without. ' Eighty per cent of her pupils will get 
 their living inside the limits of the state in which they were 
 bom and in which she herself is at the moment teaching 
 them. She must, then, to advise wisely, know the 
 industrial situation in her own community. This matter, 
 however, we shaU take up in a later chapter. 
 
 The question, therefore, is not simply. What will 
 this boy or girl like best to do and accomplish most 
 successfully? There is also the question. How far from 
 home must he go to get his training, where will he get his 
 living afterwards, and how far is he the sort of person 
 whom life among strangers will make unhappy? 
 
 In all this it is most important that the attitude of the 
 cotmselor should be one of plain business sense. What 
 we are after is to help young people to find their right 
 place in the world and to fill it with zeal and satisfaction; 
 and in this commonplace task there is small room for 
 any "hifalutin" ideas. 
 
The Equipment of a Counselor 
 
 63 
 
 A teacher's class in manual training, where counselors learn how 
 to help young people find their right place in the world 
 
 Nothing helps one to get this common-sense point of 
 view like actually doing, for short periods, two or three 
 different kinds of work, such as the vast majority of man- 
 kind have to do all their lives. For most women, more 
 or less incidental sewing, dressmaking, mending, millinery, 
 housework, and cooking will probably give sufficient 
 insight into the handicrafts. After a forenoon at the 
 ironing table, one can imagine what it is like to stand all 
 day at a lathe. 
 
 Farm sense and a fellow feeling for the farmer may 
 come by way of a small garden which one plants, hoes, 
 and tends for one's self, and in which things actually 
 grow. 
 
 This takes care of two of the three great types of 
 useful toU. The other is trade. For this, one may well 
 put in a month selling goods over the counter of a depart- 
 ment store. The personal experience, the chance to 
 
64 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 look behind the scenes, is better than the reading of many- 
 books. 
 
 Deeper still than industrial questions lie great social 
 problems, and these also take on differing local aspects. 
 Unions may be strong or weak. Women employed in 
 housework may be looked down upon as an inferior class 
 and virtually cut off from marrying well, or they may be. 
 
 Courtesy of William Filtiie's Sons Co., BosU)ii 
 
 Personal experience in selling shoes aids the counselor to 
 advise wisely regarding a sales position 
 
 as ever5rwhere two generations ago, treated with especial 
 consideration and made members of the family. There 
 may be protection from occupational diseases, insurance 
 against accident, limitation of hours for women and 
 children, a minimum wage; or all these may be still to 
 come. The same industry may be overcrowded and 
 underpaid in one locahty, and decently attractive in 
 another. 
 
 There are also curious local problems of race. One 
 would hardly advise an Irishman to take up truck farming 
 where all his competitors are Italians, nor an Italian to 
 
The Equipment of a Counselor 6§ 
 
 enter the fire department of a city where all the firemen 
 are Irish. Greeks handle more than their share of fruit 
 on one side of the continent, and the Japanese on the 
 other. All such matters have to be taken into con- 
 sideration. Many, unfortunately, will alter from year 
 to year. 
 
 Does it seem a vast undertaking, this general acquaint- 
 ance with the industrial geography of the entire country, 
 and this expert knowledge of a special field? At first 
 blush, certainly. But it does not have to be learned all 
 at once — nor, for the most part, out of books. One 
 picks it up here and there, a little at a time, as one goes 
 about in the world with his eyes open. One gets it 
 from people — all sorts of hvimble and otherwise quite 
 uninteresting persons with whom one is thrown. Mean- 
 while one educates oneself, gets a larger interest in the 
 world, adds a new zest to life. Many a conscientious 
 teacher would do better, both as an instructor and as 
 a human being, if sometimes she "cut" the educational 
 convention and went about instead studying the great 
 industries and talking to other women as a business man 
 talks to other men. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 The Methods of a Counselor 
 
 TWO problems confront the vocational guide. The 
 one is to give the youth, or to obtain for him, sound 
 advice concerning the great decision which he is soon 
 to make. The other is to lead the youth to such self- 
 discovery as shall make his own judgment of value in 
 the matter. 
 
 When all is said, the youth must, in the end, decide 
 for himself. Parents and teachers may guide and counsel 
 and warn and instruct; they cannot rightly compel. 
 The life of each of us is his own, to be lived well or ill on 
 his own responsibility. To aid him. to a clear under- 
 standing of himself, therefore — of his aptitudes, abilities, 
 interests, ambitions, resources, limitations — on the part 
 of each young person should be the primary object of 
 every counselor. 
 
 Fortunately, however, the two problems are solved at 
 the same time and largely by the same methods. What- 
 ever helps the teacher to understand the pupil can with 
 a little added effort be made to help the pupil to under- 
 stand himself. Still more, as the boy or girl gains insight 
 into his own nature he can make clear to his elders his 
 imcertainties. The two aspects go hand in hand. A 
 little shrewdness makes "one hand wash the other." 
 
 Self-knowledge comes easier to children than we some- 
 times think. A child is more frank than an adult, and 
 often more honest with himself. Moreover, as each boy 
 or girl approaches the age at which conversion or con- 
 firmation normally occur, his mind turns with a peculiar 
 
 66 
 
The Methods of a Counselor 
 
 67 
 
 A visit to a furniture factory. Seeing work actually under way 
 helps children to discover their own aptitudes 
 
 and instinctive interest to an examination of itself. The 
 childish unconsciousness departs, and the youth becomes 
 keenly interested in his relations to the world. 
 
 Here, then, is the natural time for self -analysis, for the 
 discovery of talents, for the correction of faults that will 
 interfere with new-bom ambitions, for the planning of a 
 career, and for the development of character. The 
 epoch is one of earnest purpose and high moral serious- 
 ness. Nature has marked it out as the special period 
 for the work of the vocational guide. 
 
 For the multiple purpose of aiding the child to discover 
 his own aptitudes, the teacher to understand the child, 
 and both to realize conditions in the industrial world, 
 few methods are more efficient than taking groups of 
 children to see various sorts of work actually under 
 way. This is the method which Benjamin Franklin's 
 
68 Vocational Guidance 
 
 father, with conspicuous success, used with him. "My 
 father, therefore," says FrankHn in one of the best auto- 
 biographies ever penned, "sometimes took me to walk 
 with him, to see joiners, bricklayers, turners, braziers, etc., 
 at their work, that thus he might observe my inclination 
 and endeavor to fix it on some trade or other." This 
 was, in fact, as we have already seen, the unconscious and 
 inevitable method of all parents before the rise of the 
 factory system and the railways. 
 
 Business men will usually welcome the visits of inter- 
 ested boys and girls, especially the proprietors of small 
 establishments or those devoted to some distinctive or 
 uncommon product. The publishers of the Youth's 
 Companion, for example, extend a standing invitation to 
 the public of all ages to visit and inspect their entire plant. 
 They provide a competent guide, who expounds the entire 
 process of illustrating, printing, folding, and mailing the 
 periodical, together with the organization of the editorial, 
 accounting, and general office work. The manufacturers 
 of Shredded Wheat Biscuit at Niagara Falls do the same 
 with their factory, and in addition provide a delicious 
 little lunch of their products. 
 
 Many cities are making use of excursions to industrial 
 plants. In St. Louis the Superintendent of Schools reports : 
 
 "These contacts and experiences that come to the children by 
 the simplicity of social relations in the country must be brought 
 about in the city by some organized plan of parents and teachers to 
 take children into many places where men are engaged in their 
 daily work, that the children may know how each contributes to 
 his fellow's welfare, and that they may have some widened experience 
 to serve them when they come to choose what they intend to do as 
 men. Excursions of classes for this purpose are welcomed whenever 
 they ask for admission, and there is no surer way of putting a child 
 in sympathy with the life about him or of fitting him for intelligent 
 participation in that life. A number of our schools have realized 
 
The Methods of a Counselor 
 
 69 
 
 during this year the opportunity given by these visits to the in- 
 dustries of the city for arousing the genuine interest of the pupils 
 and of broadening their experience." 
 
 In Fairfield, Nebraska, in the midst of a prosperous 
 farming community, the schools have developed a regular 
 system of occupational visiting. The pupils have first 
 a textbook lesson on some phase of agriculture, — ; dairy- 
 ing, stock raising, or the like. Then they visit some farm 
 where that particular thing is being well done. The 
 farmer takes them about, in company with the teacher, 
 and talks to them of his own problems and methods. 
 The arrangement is good for the pupils, and for the teacher, 
 and for the farmer also. 
 
 Especially valuable is a system which is now being 
 developed in several states, but most successfully in Iowa 
 and Illinois. The students in the public schools are taken 
 to visit the agricultural departments of the state univer- 
 sities, and under expert guidance are made acquainted 
 
 % 
 
 fc. 'i8^ ■ - ^ : ^.^..M 
 
 ■:^ ^^*^»r ^- 
 
 
 ^K%!j 
 
 
 
 
 Courtesy of Amherst (Mass.) Agricultural College 
 
 Under expert guidance, public-school boys learn much from a 
 visit to the agricultural college 
 
yo Vocational Guidance 
 
 with the problems of the chief local industry. University 
 officers have proved to be most alert to cooperate with 
 such movements, and to render all possible service. The 
 idea is one that admits of indefinite extension in practice. 
 
 It should be possible, in addition, to plan cooperatively 
 for an exchange of visits between schools in different 
 localities where the types of industry are different, or 
 where there are features of special interest. Such excur- 
 sions will often be somewhat costly, so that they had 
 better be reserved for those pupils who have shown 
 decided interest in some particular field of work, or who 
 deserve -special encouragement. Always it is advisable 
 to have expert guides. But even without these the pupil 
 will learn much. Children are keen observers and stimu- 
 lating questioners, so that often the most unpromising 
 of conductors becomes interesting in their company. 
 
 Nor need the teacher hesitate, especially when away 
 from home, to make many vocational visits unaccompa- 
 nied by her class. At conventions, for example, groups 
 of teachers may well spend half their time in studying 
 the industries of the region and the social problems 
 connected with them. The widened practical experience, 
 and the atmosphere of reality which such acquaintance 
 will give to their teaching, will be worth quite as much 
 to their pupils and to themselves as any piece of educa- 
 tional theory. More than all else, just now, our common 
 schools need to be made alive. 
 
 Closely related to visits to factory and farm are talks 
 to the pupils in the schoolroom by successful men. Men 
 who do this well are somewhat uncommon, so that it is 
 worth ten failures to find the right man once. One 
 Massachusetts high school has been able to arrange 
 such an address regularly, each week, as part of the school 
 program. Moreover, large numbers of business men 
 
72 Vocational Guidance 
 
 who lack the time or the talent to deUver such addresses 
 are glad to confer privately with boys or girls who need 
 their advice. After all, there are few adults who, if 
 approached with tact, will not put themselves out a good 
 d€al to be of service to the young. 
 , For both general addresses and private conferences 
 there is a veritable mine of unworked material in the 
 traveling salesmen who constantly visit every town, and 
 often, because of poor railway connections, have time on 
 their hands. These men are often the cream of the 
 business world; they know thoroughly their own work, 
 and they pick up much information concerning that of 
 other men. Besides this, they bring the special fascina- 
 tion which all travelers have for the inexperienced in the 
 ways of the world. 
 
 Much also can be done by the teacher herself without 
 going outside the schoolroom. It is hardly necessary to 
 point out how easily many of the interests of the school- 
 room may, with a little ingenuity, be given a vocational 
 turn and utilized to create a vocational atmosphere. In 
 language work, for example, there may be letters applying 
 for positions of all sorts, or asking for information about 
 goods, while the entire industrial world is filled with prom- 
 ising subjects for compositions. In arithmetic, besides 
 the usual cost and interest problems, there may be com- 
 putations and comparisons of daily, weekly, monthly, 
 and yearly wages, of expenses and savings, and of family 
 and business costs of various sorts that shall bring home 
 to the pupil how wide is the range of earning power, and 
 how enormous is the' return on capital invested in educa- 
 tion. In fact, there is hardly a school subject that is not 
 capable of a vocational twist. 
 
 Occupational geography, always an illuminating sub- 
 ject, is often most useful as a vocational guide. All 
 
The Methods of a Counselor 
 
 73 
 
 In the study of architecture, drawing is given a 
 vocational twist 
 
 normal children want to know "why," and respond at 
 once to such suggestions as will be found in connection 
 with the account of the geography of industry. 
 
 Highly dramatic are the biographies of successful men, 
 — Franklin's incomparable story, Parton's Captains of 
 Industry. One need not go on with the list; if there is 
 a local hero, so much the more inspiring is the tale. 
 
 Then there is the history of industrial progress and of 
 scientific invention, from Whitney's cotton gin and McCor- 
 mick's harvester to Edison and the Wrights. All these, 
 the things the boy or girl likes to see, the things he likes 
 to read about, the persons who arouse his emulation, are 
 signs of the kind of person he is. They reveal to the 
 shrewd counselor, and through her to the boys and girls 
 themselves, where their future calling is to lie. 
 
 Especially revelant for self -discovery is the trying-out 
 process which accompanies every sort of practical work, 
 together with certain types of play, either in or out of 
 
74 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 school. There is a grammar of industrial processes 
 through which every child ought to be put, in part at 
 home and in part under formal instruction. He should 
 have a chance to try his hand at drawing and painting, 
 at wood, at metal, at clay, at caring for plants and ani- 
 mals, and, in the case of the girl, at sewing, cooking, and 
 housework also. School gardens have proved not only 
 interesting and instructive but diagnostic of the child's 
 capacities. The ball field may suggest, self-reliance or 
 capacity for leadership which would otherwise be unsus- 
 pected. The wider and more varied the test, the better 
 for all concerned. 
 
 All such, together with the tasks every child should 
 perform at home and such work outside as he may occa- 
 sionally do for pay, give to both youth and counselor a 
 chance to see how tastes and qualities behave in actual use. 
 
 Shingling a roof. Ordinary practical work which is accom- 
 panied by a valuable trying-out process 
 
The Methods of a Counselor 
 
 75 
 
 The interesting and, instructive work in school gardens is often 
 diagnostic of a child 's capacities 
 
 Actual use is always the test. I had an idea, when I 
 was a boy in college, that it would be an easy and attrac- 
 tive job to stand behind a counter and sell goods. So I 
 tried it, Christmas vacations, in a book shop; Saturday 
 evenings in a clothing store; one whole summer in a mar- 
 ket. I soon found out that retail selling is not nearly so 
 easy as it looks, and that my own vocation was toward 
 another field. Meanwhile one of my mates, working be- 
 side me in the same stores, found the work precisely to 
 his mind, and he is now a highly successful business 
 man. 
 
 Some persons have recommended selling on the street 
 or from door to door as an especially valuable method 
 of trying out a boy's instinct for salesmanship. The 
 advice is not sound. Good business houses do not put 
 boys on the road. Such work is too severe for a youth. 
 
 The test for mechanical ability may be more difficult 
 to make, for the kinds are many and the demands varied. 
 Wiring a house for electricity, for example, is a very 
 
76 
 
 V ocational Guidance 
 
 different matter from managing a power lathe. Every 
 boy ought, however, to do some carpentry; — to make, let 
 us say, a chest, a table, or a desk. He ought also to do 
 some machine and forge work in iron, since in my expe- 
 rience it requires a distinctly different sort of boy to make 
 good in iron than in wood. This much practical experience 
 
 A boy's particular aptitude for one of the varied mechanical 
 
 occupations may be discovered in wiring a 
 
 house for electricity 
 
 will at least separate boys with Httle or no mechanical 
 ability from those who will never be happy without tools 
 in their hands. 
 
 It would be an ideal arrangement if every youth could 
 have a year on a farm. Farm life is so varied, so rich in 
 all-round experiences, that nothing else can approach it 
 either as training or as test. By the time a boy has gone 
 the round of the seasons once, has cared for hens and horses 
 and cows, has harnessed a tall and ugly steed, has driven 
 a team, has plowed, harrowed, sown seed, and harvested 
 
The Methods of a Counseloi 
 
 77 
 
 the crop, has put the farm machinery in order for the 
 next year, and has finished off by chopping wood in 
 the winter, he should certainly be in a position to know 
 whether he is the 
 one boy in every 
 three in the United 
 States who is des- 
 tined to get a liv- 
 ing out of the soil. 
 Besides this, he 
 will have learned 
 more about him- 
 self, his gumption, 
 his judgment, his 
 perseverance, his 
 common sense, his 
 physical stamina, 
 than anything else 
 can teach him. 
 He will also have 
 shown his elders, 
 and most explic- 
 itly, what manner 
 of boy he is. 
 
 These three 
 tests, then, serve 
 
 Harnessing a tall and ugly steed 
 
 to distinguish, with virtual certainty, the three main 
 types of bread-winner, — the artisan, the trader, and the 
 farmer. Seven tenths of all boys will be one or other 
 of these. 
 
 Nor must we forget that the school course is itself 
 a valuable trying-out process. Music, drawing, essay 
 writing, color work and modeling, reading aloud, gym- 
 nastics, organized and educational games, though designed 
 
The Methods of a Counselor yg 
 
 for training are also tests. So too are the by-products of 
 school life, — the athletic teams, the social organizations, 
 the fairs and plays and excursions, and the rest. Any of 
 these may reveal some special gift that points to a life work. 
 
 Moreover, we must not forget that our traditional 
 school course — antiquated, impractical, one-sided, ab- 
 stract, as we justly accuse it of being — does test to the 
 full certain valuable types of mind. The ability to han- 
 dle words, to learn from books, to work over ideas, to 
 carry masses of fact, all these are essential to the successful 
 office worker and professional man. Whoso cannot pass 
 his school work with some distinction cannot hope to 
 enter any one of several high callings. 
 
 If all these various tests, taken together, reveal no 
 talent and no vocation, either to the youth himself or to 
 his advisers, it becomes most probable that we have to do 
 with an individual who, by nature, belongs to the class 
 of unskilled laborers. There must always be a certain 
 proportion of these in the world; but it is the business of 
 the vocational guide to see that the group is recruited only 
 from those who cannot do any better work. 
 
 For efficient vocational guidance the school must be 
 closely articulated with the community life, its occupa- 
 tions, its resources, its traditions, and most especially with 
 its homes. High, therefore, among the counselor's prac- 
 tical devices should be placed conferences with parents 
 and the cooperation of school and household. 
 
 Parents themselves are not always good vocational 
 guides. They are too near the child, and they are either 
 unduly severe with his minor failings or, more commonly, 
 they overestimate his virtues. Moreover, "like parent 
 like child." The parent may be blind to his offspring's 
 special quality because he is himself that special sort 
 of person. 
 
8o 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 But the observing counselor may learn much from the 
 child's home. It is from the parents, and especially 
 from the mother, that she will inquire concerning matters 
 of general health or special weakness. It will not do to 
 let a boy whose lungs have been unsound take up granite 
 cutting in New England or lead and zinc mining in 
 Missouri even if careful oversight has suppressed all 
 outward sign of defect. The trouble is still there, and will 
 come out under stress. On the other hand, a child, 
 apparently frail, may have been conspicuously free from 
 serious illness and be capable of high efficiency under 
 favorable conditions. Various temperamental matters — 
 nervousness or its absence, general hopefulness of dis- 
 position, a number of moral qualities, even the family 
 
 Training in the household arts is an important agent in 
 cooperating the school with the home 
 
The Methods of a Counselor 
 
 8i 
 
 Learning to do things on the farm develops a habit of steady work 
 and a love for it, and helps a boy to choose a life career 
 
 "expectation of life" — may influence the wise choice of a 
 career. For all these, one must in large measure look to 
 the home for information. 
 
 On the parents, also, one must often depend for medical 
 or other expert opinion on the child's equipment, and for 
 the correction of defects of body, of mind, and of character. 
 For many reasons the cooperation of school and home is 
 essential to a thoroughly efficient vocational control. 
 
 We must not forget, moreover, that one of the most 
 valuable elements of future success, the habit of steady 
 work and a love for it, is often more the product of home 
 than of school training. In several different places now 
 the schools are giving credit for domestic, mechanical, 
 and farm work done at home. All adjustments of this 
 
82 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 Children from good homes find in their play sound training for 
 mind and will 
 
 sort presuppose the closest cooperation of home and 
 school, together with frequent visits of the teacher to the 
 domicile. 
 
 The initiative for all this will, in general, have to come 
 from the teacher. Yet it is all part of the interaction of 
 school and home which we need, for many reasons, to 
 foster. Surely a consultation concerning the future 
 career of a favorite child is a vastly better opening for 
 friendly relations than is a case of discipline ! 
 
 In seeking to establish such a relation, however, let the 
 teacher beware especially of a too professional atti- 
 tude. After all, there are more of the essentials of true 
 culture, there is more sound training of mind and will, in 
 the work, the play, and the general atmosphere of a good 
 private home than in any public institution. School work 
 
The Methods of a Counselor 83 
 
 ought not, always, to come first. If the house-mother is 
 taken ill and needs a helper, it is criminal for school officers 
 to insist that a son or daughter shall not incur absence. 
 At such a time the duty of any child, large enough to help, 
 is at home. When, in any society, a girl becomes so busy 
 with school work and music that she has no time to 
 perform a reasonable share of necessary home labor, some- 
 body is blind to the real aim of education. Character, 
 devotion, family loyalty, are better preparation for life 
 than an acquaintance with the properties of isoperimetrical 
 polygons and the exports of Timbuktu. A recognition of 
 these facts will go far to smooth the way of the vocational 
 guide in dealing with the home. 
 
 Most important of all, however, in this relation of school 
 and home, is the opportunity it gives the teacher to study 
 the youth in his parents. Present-day scientific opinion 
 is that virtually all the native qualities of the young are 
 but recombinations of identical elements in the parents. 
 The stream, proverbially, does not rise higher than its 
 source. Neither does it commonly fail to attain its level. 
 The actual performance of the father, of the two grand- 
 fathers, and of the uncles on both sides fixes pretty 
 accurately the range within which the boy himself will 
 operate. 
 
 We must not forget that, in spite of an occasional 
 striking exception, men and women nearly always select 
 their wives and husbands from about their own mental 
 and moral grade. Husband and wife may be of very 
 different type — one reserved, the other vivacious; one 
 with an evenly rounded equipment, the other with some 
 special gift — but taking one thing with another, most 
 persons marry on their own level. In other words, each 
 man is a fair match for his wife's brothers; each woman 
 the equal of her husband's sisters. 
 
84 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 The resiolt is that the children, inheriting from two 
 similar parents, are also of their sort; and the family holds 
 its level pretty steadily for many generations. In short, 
 the shrewd student of mankind, knowing the child's home 
 surroundings and parentage, can prophesy with a good 
 deal of accuracy the kind of person he or she will marry, 
 
 the kind of home 
 that will result, and 
 the general economic 
 and social status of 
 the family. 
 
 On the other hand, 
 there is always the 
 exception that tries 
 the rule, the occa- 
 sional fortunate in- 
 dividual who chances 
 to get, all at once, 
 all the good qualities 
 of all his ancestors; 
 and the luckless 
 wight who draws all 
 the blanks. One 
 must keep in mind 
 
 Copyriglitby Underwood & Underwood, M. Y. 
 
 Coal pickers. The grade of their voca- 
 tion is largely predetermined 
 
 the black sheep which may turn up in any flock, and, on 
 the other hand, the single boy or girl who stands apart 
 from and above the family group. The discovery and 
 encouragement of individuals of this latter class is one 
 of the keenest satisfactions of the vocational guide. 
 
 A reasonably safe working rule is this. If the parents 
 are thoroughly commonplace, mediocre persons, repeating 
 accurately the qualities of their social type, then usually 
 all the children will be like unto them. The grade of their 
 vocation is predetermined. But if either parent shows 
 
The Methods oj a Counselor 
 
 85 
 
 Basket weaving in the school often brings out in the child an 
 inherited talent for mechanics or an eye for color 
 
 any unusual quality, no matter what, then watch for the 
 exceptional child. 
 
 I dwell upon this point for the reason, among others, 
 that it has recently been shown that a talent for mechanics 
 is strongly hereditary, is in fact a special gift, like a sing- 
 ing voice or an eye for color. Now it happens, as we 
 shall later see more fully, that mechanical ability is 
 precisely the quality which just at the present time is 
 commanding its own price in the business world. If, 
 then, the father tinkers with tools during his spare mo- 
 ments, or the mother embroiders with special skill, this 
 fact may be the key to the child's vocation. In general, 
 however, any such special talent will appear in full force, 
 or even enhanced, in one or two of the children, and be 
 nearly or quite wanting in the rest. Unlike general 
 mental quality, which tends to hold steadily throughout 
 
86 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 the family, the special gift tends, if we may so express it, 
 to condense in single individuals, as the moisture of an 
 entire room becomes the frost on a single cold window 
 pane. 
 
 It is highly important, also, for the children themselves 
 to become interested in their own families. This they 
 
 I 
 
 Teacher 
 30 yrs. 
 
 II n 
 
 -o 
 
 Teacher 
 10 yrs. 
 
 ■o 
 
 Teacher 
 3 yrs. 
 
 Died at Foreman Teacher 
 10 yrs. 12 yrs. 
 
 Ill 
 
 O 6 O 6 
 
 Teacher Stenographer Teacher 
 10 yrs. 7 yrs. 
 
 Teacher 
 1 2 yrs. 
 
 D' 
 
 Boy to be studied 
 ( ) Female 
 
 In mapping his family tree, a child will often find the incentive 
 for a successful life work 
 
 do naturally to a considerable degree, and a little encour- 
 agement will set them to looking up their relatives and 
 mapping their family trees. We think, in this country, 
 far too little of our families, their origin, their histories, 
 of our own duties to them, and of the chance of bettering 
 their status by wise alliances. At the least, the discovery 
 of a family vocation or of a successful relative will prove 
 not only an incentive to the child but a check on the 
 unfortunate American tendency to break away from 
 family traditions. This is also one of the channels through 
 which the child may be led unconsciously to serious 
 thinking about life. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 Further Methods op a Counselor 
 
 ALL this that has been said is, however, more or less 
 general. Beyond it must come the detailed, accurate 
 diagnosis of each special case. 
 
 For this the first essential is some adequate system of 
 records. Ideally, this should be rather a school than an 
 individual affair, and should include not only the school 
 standing but everything that any teacher has noted. 
 
 In any case, whether the record is general or private, it 
 should include home conditions and family traits, power of 
 attention, promptness, accuracy, cheerfulness, readiness 
 to take suggestion and obey orders, capacity for self- 
 direction, self-reliance, resourcefulness, and capacity for 
 leadership, all of which are at least as important for 
 future livelihood as the class grades and the number of 
 times tardy of the traditional school record. 
 
 The final method and form of such a register has still 
 to be worked out. I may therefore be permitted to give, 
 for what it may be worth, my own experience in an 
 industrial school in which the conventional studies of 
 grammar grades were combined with practical shop 
 and farm work. 
 
 The system is based on the record plans which follow: 
 
 Name Age Grade 
 
 Physical Life. 
 
 1. Height: Normal height for age. 
 
 2. Weight: Normal weight for height. 
 
 3. Lung capacity: Normal lung capacity for age. 
 
 4. Body: Height sitting; girth of chest; peculiarities. 
 
 5. Head: Circumference; distance ear to ear; general shape. 
 
 87 
 
88 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 6. Face: Forehead, height; chin, full or receding. 
 
 7. Eyes: Sight; expression. 
 
 8. Ears: Hearing; abnormahties. 
 
 9. Nose: Breathing. 
 
 10. Mouth: Shape; teeth; lips; palate. 
 
 11. Hands: Strong; nervous; feeble. 
 
 12. Strength of back; of legs; of shoulders. 
 
 13. Peculiarities. 
 
 It is to be noted in this schedule that the first three 
 items give at a glance the youth's relation to the average ; 
 while, together with the fourth item, they show his 
 "vital capacity." The ear-to-ear distance, taken over 
 the top of the head, with the head circumference and 
 general shape, are a convenient measure of the size of the 
 brain. The other items explain themselves, except the 
 eleventh. Practically, it turns out that when a boy or 
 girl is directed to hold out the hand horizontally, palm 
 down, a normal individual, called "strong" in the schedule, 
 extends the fingers close together and in line with hand 
 and wrist; a nervous individual curls the fingers irregu- 
 larly and seldom twice alike; whUe one of inferior intel- 
 ligence drops the entire member flabbily. The reason 
 for these differences is not entirely clear, but the test is 
 most workable. 
 
 The average heights in inches of children from six to 
 seventeen years of age are shown in the following table. 1 
 
 
 
 Average 
 
 Heights of Boys .\nd Girls 
 
 
 
 
 Year 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 9 1 10 
 
 II 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 Boys 
 
 Girls 
 
 44.10 
 43.66 
 
 46.21 
 
 43-94 
 
 48.16 
 48.07 
 
 50.09 
 49.61 
 
 52.21 
 51.78 
 
 54.01 
 
 53-79 
 
 55.78 
 57-16 
 
 S8.17 
 58.7s 
 
 61.08 
 60.32 
 
 62.96 
 61.39 
 
 65-58 
 61-72 
 
 66.29 
 61-99 
 
 1 These measurements were taken without shoes. As only American children 
 are included in them, the measures are slightly larger than the average. The 
 American-born child is slight'y taller than the English, Irish, German, or Scandi- 
 navian child. No comparative measurements exist for other nationalities. We 
 should also note here that the periods of most rapid increase, both in height and 
 in weight, are put from one to two years earlier by some writers. Doubtless 
 food, nationality, and climate influence this. This table is taken from Bowditch. 
 
Further Methods of a Counselor 8g 
 
 Burk's Table Showing Average Weight of 68,000 American 
 Children in Boston, St. Louis, and Milwaukee 
 
 Age 
 
 6J^ 
 103^ 
 
 12!^ 
 
 i4J^ 
 16K 
 
 Boys 
 
 Average 
 in lbs. 
 
 45-2 
 49-5 
 54-5 
 59.6 
 65-4 
 70.7 
 76.9 
 84.8 
 95-2 
 107.4 
 121. o 
 
 Annual 
 increase 
 
 4-3 
 5-0 
 5-1 
 5-8 
 5-3 
 6.2 
 
 7-9 
 10.4 
 12.2 
 13.6 
 
 Per cent 
 
 of 
 increase 
 
 9-5 
 
 lO.I 
 
 9-3 
 
 9-7 
 
 8.1 
 
 8.7 
 
 10.3 
 
 12.3 
 
 12.8 
 
 12.7 
 
 Girls 
 
 Average 
 in lbs. 
 
 43-4 
 47-7 
 52.5 
 57-4 
 62.9 
 
 695 
 
 78.7 
 88.7 
 
 98.3 
 106.7 
 112.3 
 
 .A.nnual 
 increase 
 
 4-3 
 4.8 
 
 4-9 
 5-5 
 6.6 
 9.2 
 
 lO.O 
 
 9.6 
 
 8.4 
 5-6 
 
 Per cent 
 
 of 
 increase 
 
 9-9 
 
 lO.O 
 
 9-3 
 9.6 
 10.5 
 13.2 
 12.7 
 11.9 
 8.5 
 
 5-2 
 
 Social Life. 
 
 1. Home: Owned; rented; health conditions; sleeping. 
 
 2. Father: Age; nationality; work; interests; habits. 
 
 3. Mother: Age; nationality; work;''interests; habits. 
 
 4. Brothers: Characteristics; work. 
 
 5. Sisters: Characteristics; work. 
 
 6. Church: Pastor; church attendance. 
 
 7. Companions: Sociability. 
 
 8. Remarks. 
 
 Personal Record. 
 
 1. School: Mental ability; effort; initiative; special interests. 
 
 2. Work: At home; attitude toward work. 
 
 3. Play: At home; at school; special interest shown; leadership 
 
 ability. 
 
 4. Mechanical ability: Drawing. 
 
 5. Trading ability: Habits of saving and spending. 
 
 6. Musical ability. 
 
 7. Literary abihty. 
 
 8. Conversational abihty. 
 
 9. Habits. 
 
 10. Special ability. 
 
 11. Sense of responsibility. 
 
 12. Ambition. 
 
 13. Remarks.. 
 
go Vocational Guidance 
 
 Character Study. 
 
 Underscore qualities possessed. Bracket [ ] those lacking. Several words 
 are used with nearly the same meaning, for sometimes the teacher will 
 catch a certain phase of boy life with one word and fail with the other. 
 
 1. Bright; memory; attention; reason. 
 
 2. Honest; truthful; frank; sincere; trustworthy; faithful; 
 
 obedient. 
 
 3. Shrewd; long-headed; prudent; provident; saving. 
 
 4. Obstinate; stubborn; pugnacious; persistent. 
 
 5. Good-natured; social; pleasant; kind-hearted; affectionate. 
 
 6. Brave; braggart; bashful; modest. 
 
 7. Acquisitive; constructive; emulative; imaginative; imitative; 
 
 dramatic. 
 
 8. Active; buoyant; hopeful; confident; ready; enthusiastic. 
 
 9. Prompt; intense; responsive; hasty; irritable; fiery; nervous. 
 
 10. Emotional; sensitive; secretive; conceited. 
 
 11. Sluggish; indifferent; stupid; depressed. 
 
 12. Ambitious; generous. 
 
 13. Independent; leader; easily led. 
 
 14. Remarks. 
 
 These items are stated in the positive form, for the 
 reason that it is easier for many persons to detect the 
 imfavorable points than the good. 
 
 There is no Hst of questions which will satisfy a good 
 student of human nature. When all possible questions 
 are asked, the most important analysis will be found under 
 "Remarks." 
 
 The data for these schedules were contributed by the 
 various teachers who had the boys in charge, by the gym- 
 nasium instructors, playground directors, matrons, and 
 the like. In addition, there were frequent conferences 
 among all these persons, the results of which were also 
 filed away as part of the pupil's record. With these, in 
 addition to every sort of measurable quality and bit of 
 personal history, went a brief and pointed character 
 sketch, repeated from time to time and by different 
 persons. Not least important was the record from time 
 to time of the boy's vocational ambition. 
 
Further Methods of a Counselor gi 
 
 A few extracts from these records will illustrate their 
 general scope : 
 
 A. B. 
 Father: Coal teamster; steady worker. 
 
 School: Poor in mathematics; good reader; poor letter writer. 
 Bright; good attention; good judgment; nervous; persevering. 
 Steady; cheerful and melancholic; has different moods; good 
 
 worker. 
 Not strong muscular life; weak in legs. 
 Some handicaps; needs outdoor life; proved good in handling 
 
 teams. 
 
 Worth noting here is the father's occupation, the boy's 
 success with horses, his general mental type, and his 
 weak legs. The parental vocation is at least strongly 
 
 indicated. 
 
 CD. 
 Age, fourteen; English. 
 Second grade in public schools; cannot add or multiply; very 
 
 poor reader; cannot write a letter. 
 Dull; poor attention, reason, interest, and memory. 
 Shrewd; good judgment outside of school. 
 Active; lacks perseverance; unstable; brave; pleasant; cheerful; 
 
 quick tempered. 
 Ambitious; leader among boys smaller than himself; very handy 
 
 at work. 
 Hard of hearing; breathes through mouth. 
 Flat footed; very much undersized; weak muscles; good lungs; 
 
 small head. 
 At eighteen in shoe shop. Doing well. 
 
 This boy seen in school would be judged nearly feeble 
 minded. Seen among his playmates, he shows promising 
 traits, which assure fair success in a low-skilled occupa- 
 tion. He has, as a matter of fact, made a decent living. 
 
 E. F. 
 Father: French; a carpenter. 
 Mother: French. 
 Four brothers; one sister. 
 Fair tenement; rent $14. 
 
g2 V ocational Guidance 
 
 Catholic church; regular attendant. 
 
 Fifth grade in public schools. 
 
 Good in mathematics, especially fractions and percentage; good 
 
 reader; writes a good letter. 
 Bright; imaginative; good interest; good powers of attention; 
 
 good observation, memory, reason, and judgment. 
 Strong-willed; steady; persevering; shrewd; saving; careful of 
 
 money, but generous; very independent. 
 Good looking; popular with boys; brave; modest; peaceful; 
 
 ambitious. 
 Frank; truthful; well-balanced. 
 Pleasant; kind-hearted; cheerful; active; fuU of life. 
 Needs no discipline but kindness. 
 Good worker; very handy with tools. 
 Excellent records in manual training, sloyd, wood turning, and 
 
 iron work at forge. 
 Ambition: To be machinist. 
 Made good progress in all his school work. 
 Physical measurements: Palate normal; teeth good; eyesight 
 
 good; hearing good; small of his age; prominent gap in 
 
 helix of right ear; ulceration of septum in nostril; good 
 
 lung capacity; good muscular tests. 
 
 When a boy tests as high as E. F., the certainty of fair 
 success in life is well assured. The records were made 
 when he was fourteen, and at twenty-one he was a good 
 machinist, earning four dollars a day. With ten years 
 more of experience I expect him to become an efficient 
 foreman. The combination of popularity, shrewdness, 
 generosity, strong will, and independence warrant this 
 expectation. 
 
 G. H. 
 
 Father: Leather currier. 
 
 Honest, faithful, trustworthy boy; persevering. 
 
 At fourteen in sixth grade; fair in school work; good in manual 
 training. 
 
 Health sound; great muscular strength, especially in hands. 
 
 When he came to school he wanted to be a typewriter. 
 
 After experience in manual training and forge work, wanted to 
 be a blacksmith. 
 
Further Methods of a Counselor gj 
 
 Clearly, in this case, the change of ambition was a 
 wise one. 
 
 It hardly needs to be pointed out that records such as 
 these should be continued after the pupil leaves school as 
 a check on the teacher's prognosis. With the best of 
 skill and care there will always be some records like the 
 folio-wing : 
 
 I- J- 
 
 An American boy. 
 
 Left grade five at twelve years old; is puUer-off in glass factory. 
 
 Teacher's estimate: Dull; below average in scholarship and 
 
 deportment; incapable of acquiring high skill. 
 Employer's estimate: Bright; capable of acquiring high skill; 
 
 good character; "elegant boy." 
 Initial wage, $3.60; present wage, $6. 
 Highest position will probably be glass blower, in six years, at 
 
 $30 a week. 
 
 The details of such a scheme of records will have to be 
 arranged by each school for itself. The general idea 
 alone is emphasized here. Frequent conferences between 
 experts, complete record of facts, and pithy character 
 sketch are the essential elements. The latter especially, 
 done once or twice a term, is an unsurpassed device for 
 educating oneself in the exploration of child nature; no 
 formal schedule of qualities is adequate without it. 
 
 Besides conferences among teachers and parents, there 
 should be conferences with the pupils themselves. These 
 should be as informal as possible — at least they should 
 seem so to the child ; the teacher may prepare for them as 
 carefully as she likes. Perhaps the boy remains after 
 school to make up lost work or to receive special help. 
 The teacher says casually, "What are you going to do 
 when you grow up?" If this elicits a definite reply, the 
 natural question is, "Why did you think of that?" and 
 the tactful adult is on the way to the lad's full confidence. 
 
94 
 
 V ocational Guidance 
 
 If he has no definite idea, the teacher suggests, "What do 
 you think of carpentering, or storekeeping?" selecting 
 the work of his father, or anything that seems fitting for 
 his case. It is surprising, oftentimes, how intimate is the 
 resulting self -revelation. Most adolescents, though they 
 say httle, ponder deeply on their life work. 
 
 Caring for animals is a good test of a boy's aptitude for agriculture 
 
 A device often employed with success is the use of 
 vocational topics as subjects for regular school essays. 
 Such themes tend both to develop a serious attitude 
 toward the question of a career and to show which pupils 
 are already thinking seriously about their future. Not 
 seldom, also, in the course of such writing, is the veil 
 lifted from some secret ambition, or the clew given to suc- 
 cess with some shy girl or boy. 
 
 Subjects like the following will be found workable. 
 These will in turn suggest others, but one must have a 
 sense of the fitness of things, and not, as I have known 
 one teacher do, assign as an essay topic in a rural com- 
 mimity, "Why I am Planning to Leave the Farm"! 
 
Further Methods of a Counselor gs 
 
 1 . Suppose there are in your town five successful men. 
 One is a farmer; another is a builder either of houses or 
 of engines or of ships ; a third is an engineer in charge of 
 a mine, a machine shop, an electric power station, or the 
 construction of a railway; the fourth is a business man 
 conducting a store ; while the last is a professional man, 
 — lawyer, doctor, clergyman, teacher, or editor. Suppose, 
 now, that one of these men would take you about with 
 him during his day's work, show you everything he is 
 doing, and answer all your questions about it, which of 
 the five had you rather it would be ? Give three ques- 
 tions you would like to ask him. 
 
 2 . If you were to visit a great International Exhibition, 
 where you could see among other things, splendid grounds 
 and buildings; beautiful fountains and electric lighting 
 effects; great collections of manufactured goods: cotton, 
 woolen, silk, leather, iron, steel, and the different processes 
 of manufacture; varied agricultural exhibits: horses, cat- 
 tle, fruits, grain, vegetables, lumber; machines of all kinds: 
 engines, plows, harvesters, reapers; exhibits of art: paint- 
 ing and sculpture; educational and governmental exhibits; 
 men, women, and children of all nationalities; military and 
 naval displays; what exhibits would interest you most? 
 
 3. What kind of books do you like to read? What are 
 the characters in these books that you remember and 
 most admire? What persons of your acquaintance do 
 you admire, and what are the reasons why you like them? 
 
 4. What experience have you had in the following 
 kinds of work or play: 
 
 Agriculture. Have you ever tried caring for animals, 
 planting, cultivating and harvesting crops, fruit growing, 
 dairying? How did you succeed? 
 
 Mechanical Work. Do you like to draw?' What kind 
 of work have you done in wood or iron? Describe any 
 
g6 Y ocational Guidance 
 
 kind of mechanical work you have done, and give reasons 
 for your Hkes or dislikes of mechanical work. 
 
 Trade. Do you like to barter with other boys? What 
 have you bought or sold, and with what success? 
 
 Games. What games do you like best, indoor or 
 outdoor?. Do you ever direct or start the games? Have 
 you ever led in games or sport of any kind? Write your 
 experiences. 
 
 Four high schools in New York City, developing this 
 general scheme, now require the pupils to prepare regular 
 plans for their future careers, including a study of their 
 own capacities. The following are suggestions along 
 this line: Let the student select an occupation, find an 
 acquaintance in that work, secure an interview, and 
 write out the results of the interview for a newspaper; 
 select an occupation and plan for himself a life-career; 
 write a review of a book dealing with his particular 
 occupation; write an answer to a newspaper advertise- 
 ment for help in his line of work. 
 
 Subjects for debates: Discuss opportunities in one line 
 of work, against those in another; requirements for suc- 
 cess; profession against a trade. 
 
 The following plan for a life career was used in the 
 high schools of Brooklyn : 
 I. (a) Preferences. 
 
 {b) The expressed wishes of his parents and friends in re- 
 gard to his future. 
 II. (a) His own reasons for his choice. 
 
 (&) Reasons in favor of or against his choice gleaned from 
 
 books or magazine articles, 
 (c) Arguments in favor of or against his choice which were 
 advanced by parents and friends who were consulted. 
 III. His personal characteristics, by the aid of which he 
 
 hopes to win success in his chosen vocation. 
 IV. The requirements for admission to his chosen trade or 
 profession. 
 
Further Methods of a Counselor 97 
 
 V. The schools to be attended to meet these requirements and 
 the estimated time and expense involved in prepara- 
 tion. 
 VI. The possible rewards, as stated in the authorities which 
 were consulted. 
 
 With pupils thirteen or fourteen years of age or older, 
 the teacher should be able to conduct a written exami- 
 nation with some success. Professor Parsons used this 
 method before he held a personal conference with a boy or 
 girl ; and even now we can get some of our best suggestions 
 from this pioneer counselor. To be sure, the persons with 
 whom the professor worked were as a rule much older 
 than pupils in the elementary school, but many of his 
 questions will be found practical. He was accustomed 
 to hold personal conferences with each applicant before 
 and after the written examination. And before he handed 
 the applicant the long list of questions for him to answer 
 in writing, he talked to him as follows : 
 
 "Some of these questions can be answered very definitely. In 
 respect to others, the character questions for example, you can only 
 make estimates more or less imperfect and subject to revision. 
 Some questions you may not be able to answer at all without assist- 
 ance and careful testing, but do the best you can. Consider every 
 question carefully, try to form a good judgment on it, and state the 
 test or evidence you rely on in making your judgment. A thorough 
 study of yourself is the foundation of a true plan of life. Deal with 
 the matter as though correct conclusions would mean ten thousand 
 dollars to you; a true judgment of yourself may mean more than 
 that. Stand off and look at yourself as though you were another 
 individual. Look yourself in the eye. Compare yourself with 
 others. See if you can remember as much as the best of your com- 
 panions about a lecture or a play you have heard together, or a 
 passage of a book you have both read. Watch the people you 
 admire. Note their conduct, conversation, and appearance, and 
 how they differ from people you do not admire. Then see which 
 you resemble most. See if you are as careful, thorough, prompt, 
 reliable, persistent, good natured, and sympathetic as the best 
 
g8 V ocational Guidance 
 
 people you know. Get your friends to help you form true judgments 
 about yourself; and, above all things, be on your guard against 
 self-conceit and flattery. Test every element of your character, 
 knowledge, mental power, appearance, and manners as well as you 
 can. And then bring the subject to the counselor.'' 
 
 No one can read these words of Professor Parsons 
 without feeUng the fine seriousness with which the first 
 systematic vocational guide gave himself to his mission. 
 
 The following are samples of the kind of questions 
 which a counselor can give for the pupil to write out 
 alone at home, with his parents, or in school: 
 
 I. Physical Characteristics. 
 
 1. Age. 
 
 2. Height. 
 
 3. Weight. 
 
 4. How tall should a boy (or girl) be, and how much -should he 
 
 weigh at your age? 
 
 5. Lung capacity. 
 
 6. How many times have you been sick? 
 
 7. How many days of school have you lost because of sickness? 
 
 8. How far have you ever walked? 
 
 9. In what time can you walk a mile? 
 
 10. What diseases have you had? 
 
 1 1 . What is the health and general physical condition of father, 
 
 mother, brothers, and sisters? 
 
 These questions of health and strength are very impor- 
 tant and should always be taken into consideration in the 
 choice of a life work. 
 
 II. A Croup of Questions about the Family. 
 
 1. What are the vocations of older brothers or sisters? 
 
 2. Why did they select these vocations? 
 
 3. What is your father's vocation? 
 
 4. What prominent ability has he shown in his occupation or 
 
 outside of it? If the father is a farmer, but very much 
 interested in horses, this particular interest or any other 
 should be recorded. If the father liked to trade horses, 
 or repair machines, these special interests or abilities 
 should be carefully noted. 
 
Further Methods of a Counselor gg 
 
 5. What is the occupation of your mother? 
 
 6. What are her deepest interests in Kfe — music, art, nursing, 
 
 and the like? 
 
 7. What are the occupations and marked talents of uncles and 
 
 aunts on both sides of the house? 
 
 8. What were the occupations of grandparents and granduncles? 
 
 Sometimes the ability of a family is so marked on both 
 sides that it gives at once the clew to the direction in 
 which the youth's best abilities must surely lie. 
 
 III. A Group of Questions about Family Resources. 
 
 1. How long do you intend to go to school? 
 
 2. How far will your parents help you in your education? 
 
 3. Do you like your father's occupation? 
 
 4. What initial advantages will you have if you enter your 
 
 father's occupation? 
 
 5. Can your father or mother help you to make a success in this 
 
 line of work? 
 
 6. How far has your training fitted you for this line of work? 
 
 The question of resources should be very carefully 
 considered by every youth. Professor Parsons used to 
 tell his boys: "If the father or uncle or any relative has 
 a good business into which the boy can grow, with the 
 prospect of adaptation and efficiency, the burden of 
 proof is on the proposition that this foundation should be 
 abandoned and another building started on a new site." 
 
 IV. A Group of Questions in Regard to School. 
 
 1. Do you like to study? 
 
 2. What studies do you like best? 
 
 3. In what studies do you make the best, and in what the 
 
 poorest, records? 
 
 4. How do you spend your leisure time in school? 
 
 V. A Group of Questions in Regard to Play. 
 
 1. What games do you like to play? 
 
 2. Do you ever start the games? 
 
 3. Who are your playmates? 
 
 4. Do you like to fish, to hunt? 
 
 5. Do you go swimming? How often? 
 
100 Vocational Guidanc e 
 
 6. What do you do in your free time at home? 
 
 7. How do you spend your evenings at home? 
 
 8. Do your parents ever play with you? 
 
 VI. A Group of Questions in Regard to Mechanical A biliiy. 
 
 1. Do you like to draw? 
 
 2. Are you skillful in manual work? 
 
 3. What tools have you used? 
 
 6. What have you ever made? 
 
 7. Do you like to work on machines? 
 
 VII. A Group of Questions in Regard to Trading Ability. 
 
 1. How have you earned any money? 
 
 2. How do you spend it? 
 
 3. How much have you saved? 
 
 4. Do you like to buy and sell? 
 
 5. What have you bought or sold? 
 
 6. Describe one of your shrewdest bargains, and tell how you 
 
 made it. 
 
 By way of illustrating the -way in which these methods 
 work out in practice, I cite a couple of cases of my own. 
 
 One pupil, from his first entrance, insisted that the 
 one thing he wanted to do was to drive horses. I paid 
 little attention to the statement, thinking it merely one 
 of the youthful "fire-engine ambitions." Later on, 
 when the essays came in on "What I am going to do for a 
 life work," this boy still remained fixed in his desire to 
 drive horses. His teacher, therefore, called my attention 
 to the case, and I talked once more with the boy. I 
 listened to his reasons, studied his record, and decided 
 that he was right. I therefore found a place for him to 
 try his hand on one of the school teams. This he han- 
 dled, happily and with success, so long as he remained 
 in school. 
 
 Another lad, a little red-headed Scot, said in one of his 
 essays that he wanted to be a printer and go to work in 
 the school printing shop. His instructors reported that 
 he had uncommon mastery of EngHsh for his age, while 
 
Further Methods of a Counselor loi 
 
 his general record opposed no obstacle. He worked well 
 at his new trade. In six months he was assistant editor 
 of the school paper. On leaving school he entered a 
 printing office, and has been doing well ever since. 
 
 All this is, however, but general suggestion as to 
 methods which have been found to work. The last idea 
 that any reader should get is that any of them can be 
 
 Courtesy of Superi ntendent of Schools, Boston 
 
 The boy in whom there is the making of a printer often finds his life 
 work in the school printing shop 
 
 carried out in any mechanical or wholesale fashion. 
 Always must the individual teacher deal with the indi- 
 vidual pupil, and trust, by some means, to be able to 
 help and guide some puzzled young soul. 
 
 Not a little of the foregoing, it is hardly necessary to 
 point out, will also have to be adapted to various ages 
 and conditions. Taken "for substance of doctrine," the 
 final result of all these several devices will be to assign 
 each boy or girl, in the teacher's mind or on her formal 
 records, to a definite place in some scheme of classification. 
 
 The selection of a workable grouping is essential for 
 any sort of clear thinking on these important problems. 
 
102 Vocational Guidance 
 
 Practically, one has to employ several classifications, ac- 
 cording to the point of view of the moment. The main 
 thing is to keep them apart in one's mind, and not, as 
 the logicians express it, to cross-classify. 
 
 The most familiar grouping, and the most useful on 
 the whole for general educational purposes, is the old- 
 fashioned division into: 
 
 Defectives. Those who should not be in school at all. 
 
 Dullards. Those who are two or more grades behind 
 their proper age. 
 
 Mediocre Children. Those who barely reach grade, or 
 lag less than two years behind. 
 
 Bright Children. Those who are one or two grades 
 ahead of their age. 
 
 Exceptional Children. Those who are more than two 
 grades up. 
 
 Essentially the same classification, but in a more sci- 
 entific guise, is that of the Binet-Simon or other similar 
 "intelligence tests." Persons, whether children or adults, 
 are graded by their "mental age"; that is, by their 
 ability to do the kind of thinking which is characteristic 
 of the average normal child who has lived this, that, or 
 the other number of years, without regard to the partic- 
 ular matters which he may or may not have been taught. 
 Advdts are: 
 
 Normals. If they test thirteen years or above, a 
 thirteen-year-old mind being quite adequate for self- 
 support at unskilled bodily labor or for dropping a strip 
 of paper into a ballot box. 
 
 Morons. If they test below thirteen, but above eight. 
 These also vote, and make some sort of living if minutely 
 overseen. Otherwise, they become tramps and minor 
 criminals. 
 
 Imbeciles. If they test below eight years. 
 
Further Methods of a Counselor 103 
 
 Idiots. If they test below three years, and therefore 
 cannot be taught language or attend to their bodily wants. 
 
 The grade I teacher will encounter an occasional imbecile, 
 and a good many morons. Three per cent of the school 
 population is a fair average for the latter. But single 
 schools have been known to split even between slightly 
 feeble-minded and normal, while industrial and reform 
 schools have usually about one half their pupils classing 
 as defective. 
 
 The new classification articulates with, the old through 
 the fact that the mind of the defective may begin young 
 to slow down its rate of growth, sometimes as young as 
 three years. Any child, therefore, whose mental age 
 lags one, two, three, or four years behind his bodily age, 
 or on the other hand, runs one, two, or three years ahead, 
 fits at once into the old-fashioned school grouping. But 
 the merit of the Binet scale is that an expert, in a half- 
 hour, can place a complete stranger more accurately 
 than can the most sympathetic teacher in a whole term. 
 Its limitation is that it tends to break down after just 
 about the age when the average boy or girl is getting 
 ready for the high school and is in special need of voca- 
 tional assistance. 
 
 In general, the best advice to give the parents of a 
 defective is that the child shall be immediately taken out 
 of the public schools and placed in some special institu- 
 tion fitted to his peculiar limitations. In the best modem 
 refuges, like that, for example, at Vineland, New Jersey, 
 the moron is far happier, safer, and more useful than he 
 can possibly be exposed to the buffetings of the normal 
 world. Once settled in such an institution, he should 
 spend there his entire life. 
 
 Dullards also are now being placed in special classes. 
 Otherwise they have to remain in school, where they 
 
104 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 receive the largest share of the teacher's time and energy, 
 and to small profit. In the end, they are destined to 
 become "hewers of wood and drawers of water" for 
 the better endowed. Since they must, in any case, enter 
 the ranks of unskilled labor, there is commonly Httle 
 gain in prolonging their school life after it ceases to 
 appeal to them. 
 
 Persons of mediocre ability include, naturally, the great 
 mass of mankind. They are fitted to enter the commercial 
 world, to become office workers, counter salesmen, and 
 the like, or to undertake the low-skilled mechanical 
 occupations. 
 
 Bright or exceptional children should, as a rule, look 
 forward to the highly skilled mechanical occupations, or 
 plan to become traveling salesmen, foremen, superin- 
 tendents, or proprietors in the business world. From 
 these, also, is recruited the professional class. 
 
 Outdoor occupations are an important feature in the upbuilding 
 
 of delinquents in the Industrial Home for Girls 
 
 at Geneva, Illinois 
 
Further Methods of a Counselor 105 
 
 General efficiency in association with other boys and girls is a 
 good test of ability to attain high-grade work 
 
 In all this, however, the teacher must beware of basing 
 her judgment too much on brightness or dullness in books 
 alone. General shrewdness and efficiency on the play- 
 ground, in the shop and laboratory, in association with 
 other boys and girls, are also tests of ability to attain to 
 the higher grades of work in the world. 
 
 Another helpful classification is on the basis of probable 
 educational opportunity. 
 
 Class I. Those who must leave school at fourteen and 
 go to work. This, in a school given over completely to 
 book work, may often be the best thing for the youth. 
 Pupils who have lost interest in study and yet keep on 
 attending school merely because it is expected of them, 
 are likely to acquire little except unwholesome habits. 
 Such need the education of labor and of practical life. 
 But the contrary case, where the youth would profit by 
 further training and yet cannot obtain it, is a disgrace 
 to the community. It is also very poor economy on the 
 
ffi CQ (-1 ca.U 
 
io8 Vocational Guidance 
 
 part of society. In such cases the sympathetic teacher 
 with some ingenuity may often serve the community as 
 well as the pupil by obtaining financial assistance from 
 some level-headed business man, not on the basis of 
 charity but on a sound business basis. 
 
 Class II. Boys and girls who can take one or two 
 years beyond the elementary course in industrial, normal, 
 trade, or business school. 
 
 Class III. Boys and girls who can continue their 
 education through the high school. 
 
 Class IV. Boys and girls with unlimited resources and 
 an ambition to obtain the education which equips them 
 for highest service. 
 
 Another helpful classification is as follows: 
 
 Class I. Youths who are like their parents and would 
 therefore naturally follow the work of their parents, 
 whenever these are in well-selected occupations. In these 
 cases, parents and teachers, after consultation, should 
 cooperate to lead the boy or girl, by reading, experience, 
 and tactful suggestions, into the parental work. 
 
 Class II. Youths who show no special tendency, but 
 who with good training could do successful work in one 
 of several vocations. Children without marked tenden- 
 cies should at first be guided toward the vocation of 
 their parents, especially where family resources will give 
 them a favorable start. This course should be followed 
 until a different line of work makes its own demands 
 upon them. 
 
 Class III. Youths who are very different from their 
 parents, and have marked tendencies in other directions. 
 Often such boys and girls will already have made up 
 their mind just what they want to do. This decision, 
 whether the counselor himself considers it right or wrong, 
 should be very carefully respected. 
 
Further Methods of a Counselor log 
 
 Children of this class go to work as young as the law allows 
 
 Finally, there is to be kept in mind, especially in con- 
 sidering families, the five great non-competing social 
 groups of the economists. Practically, even in the most 
 democratic countries, these groups are very nearly fixed 
 castes. Few indeed are the persons who change their 
 station or marry outside the one in which they were bom. 
 These are, in order: 
 
 Group I. Persons whose labor is almost entirely 
 muscular, although they need not necessarily do heavy 
 work. Children in this group go to work as young as the 
 law allows, obtain their maximum wage as soon as they 
 are full grown, are paid by the day, marry early, and 
 rarely save anything toward their old age. 
 
 Group II. Persons who, in addition to operating their 
 muscles, have to exercise some judgment or alertness of 
 mind. Here belong most mill operatives, miners, and 
 
.110 
 
 V ocational Guidance 
 
 the vast horde of factory workers who fill boxes or paste 
 labels. Their work is utterly monotonous and pay is 
 
 by the week, but 
 rarely sufficient to 
 permit any saving. 
 Education com- 
 monly stops, at the 
 very latest, with the 
 grammar school. 
 
 With both these 
 classes the chief 
 concern of the voca- 
 tional guide is to 
 get the children out 
 of the station in 
 life in which they 
 are born. 
 
 Group III. This 
 is the aristocracy 
 of the manual la- 
 boring class. All 
 skilled workmen 
 belong here and cer- 
 tain small farmers, 
 as distinguished 
 from farm hands. 
 Here, for the first 
 time, we meet pride 
 
 His own efforts should carry this boy far. 
 
 Eugene Dumond, Albany, Oregon, and the 
 
 twelve bushels of potatoes he raised in one 
 
 year from a single potato 
 
 of occupation, the general ownership of a little property, 
 education carried beyorid the grammar school, and mar- 
 riage postponed till there is some prospect of supporting 
 a family. No other social group offers such varied or 
 difficult vocational problems as this. 
 
 Group IV. This is the so-called ' 'middle class. ' ' Though 
 
Further Methods of a Counselor iii 
 
 its income is not much greater than that of the preceding, 
 it saves more frugally, refrains from early marriage, and 
 puts its children into the high school. From this group 
 are recruited the clerical and intellectual occupations — ■ 
 the bookkeepers, stenographers, nurses, salesmen, traders, 
 foremen, managers, school teachers, principals, superin- 
 tendents, lawyers, doctors, ministers. Most farmers 
 also, though they work with their hands, belong to this 
 division. This is especially the group where individuals 
 expect to rise by their own efforts, and where the voca- 
 tional guide should be most keenly on the alert for unusual 
 ability or special gifts. 
 
 Group V. This includes the well-to-do, who obtain 
 property by inheritance or reckon their incomes by the 
 year. Earning power usually begins late and increases 
 until well past middle life. The children have unusual 
 educational advantages, but present a very difficult prob- 
 lem to the vocational guide. This group is also a most 
 promising field, for here are often found rare talents which 
 without proper and skillful vocational guidance are fre- 
 quently headed in unsatisfactory directions. 
 
 For a more extended discussion of the use of questions 
 and examinations, and examples of the guidance of more 
 mature students, read Choosing a Vocation, by Frank 
 Parsons. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 Men, Women, and Work 
 
 WE turn now, as preliminary to, the general problem 
 of vocational education, to the present industrial 
 situation in the United States. 
 
 Of every one hundred persons in this country who have 
 to be fed, clothed, housed, and otherwise provided for 
 by somebody, thirty-nine are too old, too young, or too 
 feeble to work. Of the sixty-one who are able, twenty- 
 three are home makers, not working for direct wages. 
 This is the largest, as well as the most important, group 
 of useful persons in the world. 
 
 Only thirty-eight in every one hundred are left for all 
 the outside labor of the world. Some of these are on 
 their vacations; for some it is the slack season or hard 
 times ; for others there is an inefi&cient social adjustment 
 which brings about an excess of workers in one field while 
 there is a corresponding dearth in another, or else the 
 individuals are inefficient and so fail to fit into the indus- 
 trial scheme. For these and other reasons only eighty 
 per cent of the industrial workers of the world are at 
 work at any one time. 
 
 Only thirty and one half persons in each one hundred, 
 therefore, are left to do the world's work outside of the 
 home. Of this thirty and one half, eleven and one half 
 are engaged in agriculture; eight and one half in manufac- 
 turing and mechanical work of all sorts; six in domestic 
 service — hotel waiters, barbers, housemaids, cooks, laun- 
 drymen are in this group ; five are in trade and transpor- 
 tation ; and one and one-half in the professions. 
 
Men, Women, and Work 
 
 113 
 
 I,7|)0,000 
 
 
 
 
 6,800,000 
 
 1, 
 
 7,400,000 
 
 1 
 
 8,000,000 
 
 
 12,600,000 
 
 
 1 
 
 21,000,000 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 In other words, out of every one hundred persons 
 eleven or twelve are producing the raw material for 
 "consumers' goods"; eight or nine are elaborating it to 
 its final form; five are putting it into the hands of the 
 consumer; twenty-nine are taking care of the rest, and 
 forty-six are not at the moment doing anything. The 
 actual producers are only twenty in one hundred. 
 
 In round numbers, therefore, there are in the United 
 States something more than twenty-one million women who 
 
 Per cent o to 20 30 40 
 
 Professional se/vice 
 Trade and transportation 
 Domestic and personal service 
 Manufactures and mech. pursuits 
 Agricultural pursuits 
 Home makers 
 
 Estimated proportion of persons engaged in occupations, igio 
 
 give their entire time and energy to housekeeping and home 
 making. There are about twelve and a half millionmen who 
 give their entire time and energy to raising foodstuffs 
 and raw materials of all sorts which come out of the 
 ground. Nearly nine million, both men and women, are 
 artisans or manufacturers; seven and one-half million 
 are engaged in personal and domestic service, and six 
 and three-quarters million, in trade and transportation. 
 One million and three quarters are in the professions. 
 
 For our present purpose, however, the distribution of 
 industries throughout the country is less significant than 
 in one's own locality. If we divide the entire United 
 States into five groups of states, as outHned on the map 
 on page 114, the following diagrams will exhibit at a 
 glance the marked differences in the vocational problem 
 presented in the different states. 
 
114 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 The five divisions in which Ike states are grouped for comparison 
 of occupations 
 
 Fortunately for the welfare of our land, home making 
 is a nearly constant factor everywhere in the country, 
 except in the Western division, where the per cent drops, 
 not because women are unwilling to be home makers 
 but because their number is few. The highest of all 
 occupations absorbs almost half the available labor. 
 The professions, too, are somewhat constant in their 
 demands, but outside these two groups the local differ- 
 ence is considerable. 
 
 We have already noted that four fifths of the children 
 bom in any state continue there for the greater portion 
 of their lives, while no fewer than nine tenths remain in 
 the same state group. We can, therefore, by knowing the 
 distribution of industries in any state, prophesy pretty 
 accurately what will become of most of the boys and 
 girls in its schools. The teacher can obtain lists 
 of the occupations and numbers of workers of her 
 state and city (if the population is more than 25,000) 
 
Per cent 
 
 Continental United States 
 Professional service 
 Trade and transportation 
 Domestic and personal service 
 Manufacturing and mech. pursuits 
 Agricultural pursuits 
 
 North Atlantic Division 
 Professional service 
 Trade and transportation 
 Domestic and personal service 
 Manufacturing and mech pursuits 
 Agricultural pursuits 
 
 South Atlantic Division 
 Profpssional service 
 Trade and transportation 
 Domestic and personal service 
 Manufacturing and mech pursuits 
 Agricultural pursuits 
 
 North Central Division 
 Professional service 
 Trade and transportation 
 Domestic and personal service 
 Manufacturing and mech, pursuits 
 Agricultural pursuits 
 
 South Central Division 
 Professional sen'lce 
 Trade and transportation 
 Domestic and personal service 
 Manufacturing and mech puisuits 
 Agricultural pursuits 
 
 Western Division 
 Professional service 
 Trade and transportation 
 Domestic and personal service 
 Manufacturing and mech. pursuits 
 Agricultural pursuits 
 
 ZL 
 
 A proportional comparison by geographic divisions of persons 
 engaged in each class of occupation 
 
ii6 Vocational Guidance 
 
 similar to the lists for the United States found in the 
 Appendix of this book. 
 
 In Massachusetts, for example, forty-six out of each 
 hundred boys will get their living in mechanical pursuits 
 or in manufacturing, while only five will support them- 
 selves by agriculture. In Iowa the proportions are nearly 
 reversed; forty-seven out of each htindred will work on 
 farms, and only sixteen enter shop or mill. In Mississippi 
 seventy-six per cent of the inhabitants are engaged in 
 agriculture, while fifty-two per cent in little Rhode Island 
 are occupied in manufacturing. Oddly enough, New 
 Mexico has the largest proportion of persons who earn 
 wages by domestic, personal, or unskilled service, and 
 California of professional men and women. The chance 
 that a California-bom boy or girl will enter law, medicine, 
 teaching, or the like is a half greater than for the country 
 at large. 
 
 But while the Southern States are strong in agriculture 
 and weak in manufactures, arid the North Atlantic States 
 weak in agriculture and topheavy with manufacturing, 
 the older North Central States, — Illinois, Ohio, In- 
 diana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, — have retained their 
 preeminence in agriculture while at the same time they 
 have become the leading manufacturing states of the 
 Union. With their fertile soil and rich beds of coal, oil, 
 gas, iron, and copper, they are virtually independent of 
 the rest of the world, except for shoes and clothing. 
 Children, therefore, bom in this section may turn to 
 almost any occupation with equal ease. 
 
 More interesting and suggestive still does this study 
 become if we note the vocational differences between men 
 and women and for both country and city as seen in 
 the accompanying diagrams. In the large cities thirty- 
 three boys in every one hundred will enter either trade or 
 
Percent 
 Mississippi 
 Oklahoma 
 Arkansas 
 Indian Territory 
 South Carolina 
 Alabama 
 North Carolina 
 Texas 
 Hawaii 
 North Dakota 
 Georgia 
 South Dakota 
 Tennessee 
 Louisiana 
 Kentucky 
 Kansas 
 Nebraska 
 Iowa 
 
 West Virginia 
 Virginia 
 Florida. 
 Idaho 
 Missouri 
 New Mexico 
 Minnesota" 
 Indiana 
 Vermont 
 Wisconsin 
 Utah 
 Oregon 
 Michigan 
 Arizona 
 Wyoming 
 Nevada 
 Maine 
 Washington 
 Ohio 
 Delaware 
 Illinois 
 Montana 
 California 
 New Hampshire 
 Maryland 
 Colorado 
 Pennsylvania 
 New York 
 Connecticut 
 New Jersey 
 Rhode Island 
 Massachusetts 
 Dist. of Columbia 
 Alaska 
 
 TO 20 30 40 50 to 70 80 QO 100 
 
 ^^ 
 
 ^^mM^M^.M 
 
 m 
 
 ^m^mm^mmmmw 
 
 ^ ^^ 
 
 immm^^m^^m^w 
 
 mmmmmmmm^m^ 
 
 mmmmmmmmmm 
 
 mmmmmmmmmmm. 
 
 ^^^^§ 
 
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^a^^^^ 
 
 ^mmmmmm^mmmm 
 
 mmmmmmm^mmmm 
 
 ^mmmmmmmmmmmmi 
 
 mm^^mmmmmmmmmm. 
 
 
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 gggsgssgss^i 
 
 ®S!gg5«g5SSgS^^ 
 
 
 ^^^^: 
 
 ^^MI 
 
 ^^[ 
 
 3 Agriculture K:%5^ Manufactures and mechanical pursuits 
 
 3Trade and transportation t$SS$$i Domestic and personal service 
 I 1 Professional service 
 
 Proportions of persons in each class of occupations by states 
 
ii8 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 Urban 
 
 Per cent 
 Men 
 
 , Professional service 
 
 ' Trarte and transportation 
 
 , Dpmestic and personal service 
 
 lilantifactures arrd mech. pursuits 
 
 Agricultural pursuits 
 
 1 rn 20 JO 40 SO bo 70 SoSs 
 
 ~\ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 Rural 
 
 20 30 40 so bo yo So 8s 
 
 Men 
 
 -Professional service 
 
 Trade and transportation 
 
 Domestic and personal service 
 . Manufacturing and mech. pursuits 
 ' Agricultural pursuits 
 
 A relative comparison oj opportunities for boys in city 
 and country 
 
 ' transportation, and forty will enter the mechanical and 
 ' nianuf acturing vocations. These two groups make a 
 deinand for seventy-three out of every one hundred city 
 boys, and they foretell, beyond all question, where the 
 -vocational guide in the city must give her chief attention. 
 ti In the cities about thirty girls out of every one hun- 
 dred are found constantly in the three groups, trade 
 and transportation,, .domestic work, and manvifacturing. 
 I Reckoning for the frequent changes of those who enter 
 ' and afterward drop out, somewhere about fifty girls will 
 enter these vocations for a longer or a shorter period. 
 The charts show at a glance that the country girl is 
 very much handicapped in the choice of work between 
 school and marriage. The coming of the consolidated 
 schools, it is hoped, will help to remedy this unfavorable 
 condition. 
 
 In the strictly rural commiinities from seventy to 
 
Men, Women, and Work 
 
 ti9' 
 
 Urban 
 
 Per cent 
 
 Women 
 
 Professional service 
 Trade and transportation 
 Domestic and personal service 
 Manufactures and mech. pursuits 
 Agricultural pursuits 
 Home makers 
 
 3 ro 20 JO 40 so * 
 
 70 So Ss 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■Mr; A 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 Rural ,,.,„,o 
 3 10 2o 30 40 SO 60 70 ^oSs,, 
 
 ] 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■lu 
 
 ,;.- 4 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I. 
 
 Per cent 
 
 "Women 
 
 Professional service 
 Trade and transportation 
 Domestic and personal service 
 Manufactures and mecfi. pursuits 
 Agricultural pursuits 
 Home makers 
 
 A relative comparison of opportunities for girls in city K 
 and country 
 
 eighty boys who remain there do farm work, for the 
 domestic group is largely composed of the unskilled and 
 unclassified farm workers. Ten or twelve boys will do - 
 mechanical work. To be efficient as a counselor theJ 
 rural teacher must focus her interest on agriculture and 
 the farm home. lA 
 
 Cities differ from one another even more than states.! ' 
 This may be seen in the diagram given on page b20,5 
 which shows the distribution in three especially intertesli- ' 
 ing cities. Hb"'! 
 
 In general, the cities run to trade and manufactu*e's5 
 and the country to agriculture, but the local variants -dk-e 
 many, and one of the first duties of the vocational guid^J 
 is to look up her neighborhood in the United States 
 census and make sure as to just what are the actual opper^J 
 tunities which the locahty offers for each particular sort 
 
120 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 40 
 
 50 
 
 bo 
 
 T> IS 
 
 — 1 
 
 
 
 ] 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 r 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Per cent o 
 
 St. Louis 
 
 Professional service 
 Trade and transportation 
 Domestic and personal service 
 Manufactures and mech. pursuits 
 Agricultural pursuits 
 
 Fall River 
 
 Professional service 
 Trade and transportation 
 Domestic and personal service 
 Manufactures and mech. pursuits 
 Agricultural pursuits 
 
 Kansas City 
 
 Professional service 
 Trade and transportation 
 Domestic and personal service 
 Manufactures and mech. pursuits 
 Agricultural pursuits 
 
 A comparison of occupations in St. Louis, an all-round city. 
 
 Fall River, which specializes in one or two products, and 
 
 Kansas City, Mo., the trading point jor a large area 
 
 of boy and girl. Worth noting, also, is the fact that 
 although the urban population is now increasing three 
 times as fast as the rural, the latter is still in excess, by 
 seven and four-tenths per cent. 
 
 Among cities, too, as among states, there is the same 
 distinction between those which, like Philadelphia and 
 St. Louis, distribute their manufactories over almost the 
 whole possible range, and those which, like Paterson or 
 Fall River, specialize in one or two products, and are 
 concerned with little else. 
 
 Always, however, in all vocational work in the schools, 
 the teacher must keep in mind the double aspect of the 
 subject. She will guide the boy or girl to a wise choice 
 of a life task and to an adequate preparation for it, but 
 
Men, Women, and Work 
 
 121 
 
 she will also use this life-task motive as a spur to the daily- 
 work of the schoolroom. 
 
 The distribution of industries in the states and cities 
 of the country, which we have already touched upon from 
 the side of the firsts of these objects, lends itself with 
 peculiar efficiency to the second. In no way can the 
 
 :-^:f-''' 
 
 MgHI^^^ 
 
 •0^ 
 
 •TV 
 
 1 
 
 M 
 
 
 ^^^^^F-r- " ^''%, 
 
 BV^^ 
 
 .. ■'aar^.t^frf- i«ni>22£^ 
 
 Courtesy of Oregon Agricultural College 
 
 A class judging sheep. One phase of a life-task motive which 
 may be made a spur to daily school work 
 
 routine study of geography be made more stimulating or 
 more profitable than by giving the ancient topic a voca- 
 tional turn. School geography has always been, in a 
 large measure, industrial. It may with profit be made 
 also vocational. 
 
 Much might be said of the distribution of industries 
 by states, of the need of cotton for more heat but less 
 moisture than com, and of the higher resistance to cold 
 of wheat than of either, and the resulting distribution of 
 produce throughout nearly half the United States; or, 
 on the other hand, of the all-round farming states hke 
 California, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, or Michigan. 
 
122 Vocational Guidance 
 
 Glimatic conditions, the occurrence of petroleum, coal, 
 natural gas, iron, or the precious metals in one spot rather 
 than another will not only fix the vocation of countless 
 children in the schools, but they may, in addition, be 
 utilized to show the child how his most immediate per- 
 sonal problems are tied to remote causes and to his school 
 work, which explains them. 
 
 ' Much of this, however, the teacher can easily develop 
 for herself. We pass, therefore, to certain illustrations 
 of the problem presented by the characteristic industries 
 i of ,*.cities. Children have long been taught that Cin- 
 1 cinnati, Louisville, or St. Louis have been made by their 
 rivers; and that Boston, New York,' Philadelphia, Balti- 
 more, San Francisco, or Portland have been created" by 
 their harbors. Water power explains Minneapolis or the 
 .manufacturing cities of New England. The railways 
 ; account for Denver, Omaha, and Spokane. Half the 
 people of New York State, and all but one of the large 
 cities, are stnmg along the old trade route between Buffalo 
 ^snQ. the sea. Beyond this, however, lies the whole field 
 of human endeavor and human history. Leavenworth, 
 once a fair match for Kansas City, has been quite over- 
 shadowed, for no reason in the world except that the 
 citizens of the latter town pushed just a little harder and 
 got their bridge across the river built first. L5nin is a 
 growing city, and the most famous shoe town in the 
 world, while its neighbor Salem, once the rival of Boston, 
 lives largely on its past glories, for no other reason than 
 that John Dagyr, when he came over from Wales, chose 
 to settle in Lynn and not somewhere else to start his 
 factory. Cohoes, New York, has become the seat of the 
 knitting industry because one of its citizens, already a 
 •manufacturer, invented the power knitting machine. 
 Gardner, Massachusetts, is given over to chair making 
 
Men. Women, and Work 
 
 123 
 
 Ki ^'ili 
 
 
 4' '"^ 
 
 ► ^^mmm 1; 
 
 
 
 Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 
 
 Immigrant labor has made New York a center for ready-to-wear clothing 
 
 because, it is said, a Gardner man with managing ability 
 made practical use of a neighbor's invention. Troy, New 
 York, simply started to make collars and cuffs and, having 
 started, held its lead. Johnstown makes gloves because 
 Sir William Johnson, in 1809, brought over glove makers 
 from Scotland, and these sent for their friends. New 
 York makes ready-to-wear clothing because, being the 
 great port of entry for the country, it gets first chance 
 at vast ntiinbers of low-priced workmen. But who can 
 say why it prints so great a quantity of magazines? Pat- 
 erson. New Jersey, and other cities like it, make silk 
 because the industry offers light work to women whose 
 "men folks' ' are employees in near-by iron and steel works. 
 If, then, the teacher will study, for herself and with her 
 pupils, the reason why particular industries are open to 
 boys and girls in her particular vicinity, she will at once 
 
124 V ocational Guidance 
 
 find herself in the midst of some curious problems of 
 occupational geography and of occupational biography. 
 Local conditions and local history will take on a new 
 meaning. This local work, in turn, leads on to larger 
 problems. How mind-stretching, for example, is the 
 question whether the new metropolis, perhaps the largest 
 city of our land, which the Panama Canal is to create, 
 will be Mobile, Galveston, New Orleans, or some new city 
 as yet unnamed ! 
 
 Nor is it enough that the vocational counselor shall 
 know the general distribution of industries throughout 
 the country and the peculiar situation in her own neigh- 
 borhood. She must, in addition, understand something 
 of the changes which are under way in both. As new 
 occupations are developed, and old expand to meet new 
 demands, the opportunities for boys and girls are increased 
 both in ntunber and in variety. Every new invention 
 may add another vocation to the long list of possible 
 callings or cancel an old one. 
 
 In the two decades, for example, which followed 1870 
 the openings for nurses multiplied ten times. Operatives 
 in hosiery and knitting mills became thirteen times more 
 numerous. So also, with the development of the street 
 railways, did the demand in that field increase. The 
 number of typists and stenographers, during the same 
 period, expanded seven hundred and twenty-nine times. 
 
 Among women workers there are to-day thirty times 
 as many bookkeepers, clerks, and office workers as there 
 were a generation ago, fifty times as many saleswomen, 
 sixty times as many journalists, a hundred times as 
 many packers, shippers, and agents, and no less than two 
 hundred times as many woman lawyers. Not only the 
 present state of a local industry but its tendencies and its 
 probable future should determine a vocational choice. 
 
Men, Women, and Work 125 
 
 When all is said, however, " there are only two kinds of 
 people in the world — men and women." No difference 
 of birthplace, and only the more fundamental differences of 
 talent and capacity, commonly influence one's choice of a 
 life task as does the accident of sex. 
 
 Of the three hundred and three gainful occupations! 
 listed in the United States census, women had, twenty 
 years ago, entered all but seven. To-day they ha,ve 
 entered all but four. Men only are soldiers, telephone and 
 telegraph linemen, roofers and slaters, and makers of 
 steam boilers ; but there are women preachers and women 
 blacksmiths. Evidently the tendency to assimilate the 
 vocations of men and women has about reached its limit ! 
 
 Practically, however, agriculture, the building trades, 
 iron work, railroading, the care of horses, and certain of 
 the professions are virtually confined to men ; while women 
 pretty much monopolize home making, nursing, dress- 
 making, millinery, house service, stenography, and ele- 
 mentary teaching. Over half the workers in the cotton 
 and silk industries are women, and they outnumber the 
 men in eight prominent occupations in which both take 
 part. In general, the men get the heavy work and that 
 which takes a long apprenticeship, the women the lighter 
 sorts and those which are learned by practice during 
 actual work. 
 
 There is some difference between town and country. 
 Fully twice as large a proportion of women enter gainful 
 occupations in cities of over fifty thousand inhabitants 
 as in the smaller cities, the villages, and the country. 
 
 More than half the women in the United States work 
 for pay during some period of their lives, and the number 
 tends slightly to increase. In 1880 sixteen in every hun- 
 dred were at work outside their homes. In 1890 the 
 
 ' See Appendix. 
 

 I 
 
 ^ 
 
 ' 8 
 
 ■ « 
 
 l§ 
 
 1 
 o 
 
 a 
 
 S 
 
 "ft. 
 
 
 i? i 
 
 a. z= 
 = E 
 
 o _ 
 1 E 
 
 Si ^ ~ ^ 
 
 y> '£ t/1 O 
 
Men, Women, and Work 127 
 
 proportion had risen to nineteen. But ten years later it 
 had become only twenty and six-tenths, and there is no 
 evidence that the proportion has increased since then. 
 In fact, in several important industries the number of 
 women workers has of late years notably decreased. At 
 no time, however, have so many as a tenth of those who 
 enter the wage-earning group continued there through- 
 out life. 
 
 Apparently, then, the relations of men, women, and 
 work have now virtually completed their adjustment, so 
 that there will probably be little further change, until the 
 next great social upheaval like that which followed the 
 rise of the factory system. The result is one on which 
 society may, on the whole, congratulate itself. As 
 Havelock Ellis says, "The hope of our future civilization 
 lies in the development of equal freedom of both the 
 masculine and the feminine elements in life." That 
 happy consummation, so, far as our occupational life is 
 concerned, we seern now to have attained. So far as men 
 and women follow differerffrioccupations they do so from 
 individual fitness or preference, not from social pressure. 
 For all practical purposes]'*.'hefween the limits of boiler 
 maker on the one side and nursery governess on the other, 
 either sex is free to do about as it likes. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 The Differences among Occupations 
 
 VOCATIONAL guidance means getting a proper job 
 for the youth; and it means also getting a proper 
 youth for the job. Now there are in the United States, 
 according to the census, three hundred and three different 
 kinds of occupation ; and there are about two milHon boys 
 and girls leaving our schools every year to find work of 
 some sort. The teacher knows already the various gen- 
 eral types of young 
 people. It is well 
 that she know also 
 the various general 
 types of job. 
 
 Beware of the 
 "blind-alley" job. 
 Such pay fairly well 
 at first, sometimes 
 as high as five dol- 
 lars a week to a 
 youth of sixteen. 
 But they leave him 
 stranded at twenty, 
 with no prospect of 
 promotion to any- 
 thing better, and 
 with ten dollars a 
 week fcr his wildcct 
 
 A blind-alley job, which carries with it no^ ^°^^ during the 
 chance for promotion rest of his days. 
 
 128 
 
The Differences among Occupations I2g 
 
 The messenger boy is in one of the worst of blind alleys 
 
 They pay well at first, because no capable boy or girl can 
 afford to take them at any price. 
 
 The words of a "special-delivery" boy tell the sad story: 
 
 "I have wasted a lot of time. When I started in I thought it 
 was a fine job, because I only had to work from eight o'clock in 
 the morning to three in the afternoon. I have begun to realize 
 lately that it would have been better to start in as some of my 
 friends did who had to go to work at seven o'clock in the morn- 
 ing. They have good positions now, and I have outgrown my 
 job." — Vocational Survey of Minneapolis. 
 
 A messenger boy, for example, is in a perfect blind alley. 
 He has learned all that he needs to know when he can 
 find his way around town. After that he learns only 
 vice and dishonesty, and is more likely to retrograde than 
 to advance. 
 
I JO Vocational Guidance 
 
 The counter salesman or saleswoman in a department 
 store is likely to be in a blind alley. Exceptional ability, 
 industry, or good fortune does occasionally lift one into 
 the class above, where there is a chance of further pro- 
 motion. But a majority of persons will not rise above 
 the coimter job. 
 
 Miss Flexner, in a study of six hundred and three chil- 
 dren of known employment, found, among boys, one 
 hundred and eleven errand boys, forty-eight office boys, 
 eighteen messengers, eleven cash boys, and eight others 
 as stock boys, elevator boys, and the like. Among 
 girls, thirty were cash girls, twenty-two were office girls, 
 thirteen were stock girls and the like. Twenty-five, boys 
 and girls together, were packers. In all, one hundred and 
 eighty-six, nearly a third of the whole nxmiber, were at 
 work at blind-alley tasks which could lead them nowhere. 
 
 The recent British Royal Commission on the Poor 
 Laws has stated this matter with peculiar force: "It 
 is unfortunately only too clear that the mass of unem- 
 ployment is continually being recruited by a stream of 
 yotmg men from industries which rely upon unskilled 
 boy labor, and turn it adrift at manhood, without any 
 specific industrial qualification, and that it will never 
 be diminished till this stream is arrested." 
 
 To be sure, this blind-alley work is necessary. It must 
 be done by somebody. But it should be done by adults 
 who have already proved their fitness for no higher tasks, 
 not by children who may have possibilities. No one 
 condemns the postman. He performs an important 
 service, and receives a reasonable wage. But the mes- 
 senger or telegraph boy is in one of the worst of all blind 
 alleys. Probably, if the mail business had remained in 
 the hands of private companies, our letters also would 
 be delivered by boys cut off from every chance of 
 
The Differences among Occupations 131 
 
 In contrast with the blind-alley job of the messenger hoy is i 
 dignified position of the postman 
 
 promotion. As it is, the wise youth will keep out of the 
 telegraph service also. 
 
 "The allurement of high wages for uninstructive work," says 
 Bloomfield, "is soon understood by many a boy, and his restless- 
 ness in those occupations, where often, without any provocation, 
 he throws up his place, is a constant source of vexation and destroys 
 any plan which the employer might have in view for the promotion 
 of his boys. This skipping from job to job can only mean for 
 most boys demoralization. They become vocational hobos. 
 
 "The 'dead-end' or 'blind-alley' occupations, with their bait 
 of high initial wages and their destructiveness to any serious life- 
 work motive, are breeding costly social evils. 
 
 "Unfortunately, the tendency of the American boy is toward 
 a short cut. He wants immediate returns. He is unwilling to 
 submit to a long period of training for the sake of higher later 
 returns." 
 
 Contrasting with this is the "thoroughfare," one is 
 10 
 
I j2 Vocational Guidance 
 
 almost tempted to call it the "state-road," job. It may 
 be a long road, but it is a safe one to travel. This, in 
 general, starts with low pay and "a chance to learn the 
 business." Sometimes, to be sure, the chance is illusive; 
 but, in general, work at which boys are paid poorly and 
 men well is the sort that is worth looking for. Where a 
 boy under twenty and a man over forty are paid the 
 same wage, the boy had better keep out. 
 
 The testimony of the boy in the state-road job presents 
 a great contrast to the blind-alley report. A young 
 salesman says: 
 
 "My work is so interesting I never look forward to the end of 
 the day or the week. Every day there is something new. I had 
 no idea that there was so much in business when I started. Sales- 
 manship is a fourth profession. You have to learn men so that you 
 can read them as you would a book. I know boys who went to 
 school with me whose only ambition is to hold their jobs. My 
 ambition doesn't stick to holding my job. I want to advance out 
 of it." — Vocational Survey of Minneapolis. 
 
 Not unlike this distinction between work which pays 
 well at the beginning and that which pays well at the end, 
 is the difference between occupations that offer a few 
 great prizes with many blanks, and occupations which 
 afford the certainty of moderate success. Teaching and 
 the ministry among the professions, for example, bring 
 no such incomes as medicine and, still more, the law. 
 Both, on the other hand, more often guarantee a useful 
 life and a fair return, in striking contrast to the wretched 
 and too often immoral existence of the unsuccessful lawyer 
 or physician. A farmer, reasonably industrious, rarely 
 fails to make some sort of living — and as rarely dies rich. 
 The business man may become wealthy almost over night, 
 and be in the hands of a receiver the next year. 
 
 A youth of uncommon promise, therefore, who is likely 
 to go far in any field, may be well advised to enter one of 
 
IJ4 Vocational Guidance 
 
 the hazardous occupations. He will probably be among 
 the few who arrive. But a youth of more moderate parts 
 will more wisely play for safety. If he is to miss the great 
 prizes anyway, he is better off in a field where there 
 are none. 
 
 The same reasoning applies also to those occupations 
 or localities in which conditions have been rigidly stand- 
 ardized, as for example by a labor union, as contrasted 
 with those in which a workman sinks or swims on his 
 own initiative. If his natural gait, on the whole, fits the 
 lockstep of his group, still more if he comes a little short 
 of the standard, then his best chance is in solidarity. But 
 the man who has it in him to travel faster or farther than 
 his mates had better go it alone. A dray horse will not 
 draw his load any faster in company with a racer. It 
 only frets the racer to hold him to the dray-horse pace. 
 
 As between work that requires training of a special 
 sort, like teaching in the grades, stenography, or nursing, 
 and one that does not, the odds are always on the former 
 class. The pay may not be so high to start with, because 
 the best prepared beginner may have to master the prac- 
 tical side of the business before he becomes of much use, 
 but the chance of advance is commonly greater. In any 
 case, the necessity for definite preparation acts as a barrier 
 to competition and tends to keep wages up. 
 
 On the other hand, there are what one may call general- 
 intelligence and natural-equipment jobs. These, though 
 they demand no specific training, may presuppose a some- 
 what high quality of mind or body, or, occasionally, 
 certain special gifts. Telephone operators are of this 
 class; so are many retail salesmen, drivers, motormen, 
 conductors, certain sorts of inspectors who come in con- 
 tact with the influential portion of the public, readers and 
 companions, social secretaries, and professional chaperons. 
 
The Differences among Occupations 135 
 
 Policemen, firemen, porters, night watchmen, and the 
 like must have certain rather uncommon physical or 
 moral gifts. Eyesight is often important. Even the 
 ability to endure noise, dust, bad air, long hours, broken 
 sleep, may be a vocational asset. In one way or another, 
 a surprisingly large number of occupations are fenced off 
 by some special native quality, and are made attrac- 
 tive to its possessors merely because the special kind of 
 person is rare. 
 
 If, then, any boy or girl appears to have natural quality, 
 yet is cut off by circumstances from special training, he is 
 by no means condemned to the ranks of unskilled labor. 
 Such cases often furnish the most interesting problems 
 which the vocational guide encounters. In none, per- 
 haps, does a successful solution bring a greater reward. 
 
 High qualities of mind and body are essentials for the one who 
 aspires to a place on a life-saving crew 
 
136 
 
 V ocational Guidance 
 
 One may note parenthetically that while there are 
 certain temperaments to which confining or monotonous 
 work is nothing short of maddening, there are other 
 temperaments to which variety is rather distastefiil 
 than otherwise. To perform the same task day after 
 
 day brings to some 
 men a sense of ease 
 and security; they 
 like the repetition, 
 as some people want 
 to spend all their 
 vacations at the 
 same resort. Pro- 
 fessor Miinsterburg, 
 in studying this 
 problem, took pains 
 to talk with work- 
 men who were en- 
 gaged in what 
 seemed to him to 
 be the most unin- 
 teresting and monot- 
 onous tasks that he 
 could discover, only 
 to find that the 
 workers themselves 
 saw nothing monotonous or uninteresting in their labor. 
 The toil that seems utterly deadening to one type of 
 mind may not seem at all so to the other. There are 
 able men in both groups, and incompetents. The dif- 
 ference is entirely temperamental, but it shuts off each 
 sort of person from any satisfaction in the work of 
 the other. The man who likes selling on the road will 
 hardly make good as a bookkeeper, and the presence or 
 
 Copyright ty Underwood & Underwood. N. Y. 
 
 Iron working calls for abilities higher 
 
 than those required for the 
 
 making of a clerk 
 
The Differences among Occupations /J7 
 
 absence of the Wanderlust is quite sufficient basis for the 
 choice of a Hfe work. 
 
 When all is said, however, there are few more impor- 
 tant differences than that which separates the white- 
 collar-job from the one that is done in overalls. 
 
 Unfortunately, on this matter both the tendency of 
 the schools and the pressure of social opinion are pre- 
 cisely on the wrong side. Mechanical ability is really of 
 a higher sort, and less common, than the qualities that 
 go to making a clerk. Furthermore, it is a great deal 
 more valuable to society, since it is always the artisan, 
 the mechanic, the craftsman, who actually makes things. 
 Other persons merely handle them. 
 
 Notwithstanding this, everywhere over the country, 
 East and West alike, it is considered more respectable 
 to sell goods than to create them. As one Chicago busi- 
 ness man wrote to the committee of the City Club: 
 
 "Probably ninety per cent at least of the product of our school 
 system look for clerical positions first, and only go into the other 
 lines of work when forced to do so by necessity. This would be 
 very laudable if they were all fitted for that class of work, but, as 
 a matter of fact, a great many good mechanics are spoiled in making 
 very poor clerks." 
 
 At the present time, office and store positions are over- 
 crowded with applicants, but manufacturers report a 
 constant demand for boys with good mechanical ability 
 and training. It would be far better to have the present 
 conditions reversed, for then the boy of least ability would 
 drop naturally, after trial, into the lower position. As 
 things are now, many a boy of good mechanical ability 
 is lured into the world of trade, hides his best talents, 
 and makes society the poorer by the loss of the work which 
 he might have done. It will take much wholesome 
 teaching and much shrewd vocational guidance in this 
 
ij8 Vocational Guidance 
 
 country before we see the end of the white-collar- job 
 delusion. 
 
 Here are the sad words of a parent about his boy, who, 
 with mechanical ability, was directed to a white-collar job. 
 
 "His teacher from the grade school advised him to take the 
 commercial course in high school and he did, but he started wrong. 
 He was of a mechanical turn of mind, and so he didn't like it. He 
 has often said since that if he had been studying anything about 
 machines he would have been crazy about school. If the school 
 would keep in closer touch with the boys and girls, it would bene- 
 fit the school as well as the boys and girls." — Vocational Survey 
 of Minneapolis. 
 
 It is remarkable, sometimes, how excellent may be the 
 mechanical ability of boys who have little interest or 
 liking for books. I recall one case of a youth in an indus- 
 trial school who, at the age of twelve, could not read, 
 write, multiply, or divide. But when it came to work 
 on the farm, he would head up more barrels of apples 
 in a forenoon than any grown man on the place. The 
 lad was at once placed in classes in wood turning and iron 
 work, where he did so uncommonly well that his instructor 
 selected him from among thirty classmates for special 
 machine work. So the boy found his place and himself. 
 
 Another of my pupils was bright in books but not 
 interested. Naturally, he was most trying as to disci- 
 pline. Moreover, he cared as little for manual training 
 of the conventional sort as for books. But the moment 
 he stood before a forge, with a chance to pound hot iron, 
 he became another person. In the end he made a first- 
 class blacksmith; but his talent was so highly specialized 
 that it might easily have remained undiscovered. 
 
 Unfortunately, the sort of boy who revels in the rattle 
 and the oil and the dirt of machine shop and engine is 
 likely to be just the kind of boy whom a woman will 
 least easily understand. And yet it is precisely that 
 
The Differences among Occupations i^g 
 
 grimy-handed, muscle-minded sort of man that the in- 
 dustrial world especially wants and is just now especially 
 anxious to pay well. This particular talent is one of 
 the things for which the vocational guide should always 
 be on the watch. 
 
 Last of all, but not least important, is the difference 
 between city work and country work, assuming, of course, 
 that the general nature of the emplojonent is to be the 
 same in either. 
 
 The odds are always, in a sense, on the side of the city. 
 More children are bom in the country than can find a 
 living there, and there must always be some outflow 
 citjrward. But the city devours its children. A few 
 especially successful persons turn back to the country 
 to enjoy their wealth and mislead their neighbors con- 
 cerning urban prizes of life. But, in general, about 
 fifteen per cent of city growth is at the expense of rural 
 communities. 
 
 There is no question that a youth with a special voca- 
 tion for commerce, manufacturing, or the professions will 
 make a more brilliant success in the city than in the 
 country. The last thing to be desired is that all country 
 boys should stick to the farm, regardless of their capacities 
 or inclinations. For the leader in politics, in science, in 
 business, in literature, the city offers a field of action that 
 the country can never even approach. The best town 
 life is richer and more interesting, socially, artistically, 
 educationally, than anything that the village can show. 
 
 But how many persons in the city ever had so much 
 as a glimpse of this wider urban life? Not one in ten. 
 Only the favored few can obtain the best that the city 
 offers. Perhaps four in ten, amidst a fierce struggle for 
 existence, have still some part in the things which make 
 city life worth while. The remaining half are condemned 
 
140 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 to a sordid monotony of existence of which the country- 
 bred boy or girl can have no conception. 
 
 The modem city, steam-heated and brick-paved, has 
 neither climate, nor changing seasons of the year, nor 
 any growing thing. The shifting population makes 
 friendship difficult; there is almost no neighborhood life. 
 The glitter of shop window, the bustle of street, all the 
 thousand and one sights and sounds that allure the occa- 
 sional visitor, merely irritate or bore those who live day 
 after day amongst them. No small part of the sin of 
 the city has for its only motive the vain attempt to escape 
 the ennui which the country does not know. 
 
 Moreover, with the progress of civilization, city life, 
 for the only moderately successful, becomes more and 
 more difficult. Population becomes denser, rents go up, 
 quarters become more crowded. The attractive features 
 of city life increase only by duplication of what was there 
 before; but the stretch of uninteresting streets becomes 
 longer and the slimis grow worse. It is still true that "a 
 city is not to live in, but to make money in," and as fast 
 as men make money, they move out into the country. 
 
 Crowded quarters and increasing density of population make the 
 streets the children's only playground 
 
The Differences among Occupations 141 
 
 J corn. The scientific study of agriculture not only tends to 
 improve crops, but makes country life more and more interesting 
 
 The country, on the contrary, improves with age. The 
 telephone, the automobile, the better quality of farm 
 horse, spring wagons, the daily mail, the daily news- 
 paper, modem homes, the consolidated school, better 
 roads, improved machinery, men's and women's clubs, 
 increased social and educational advantages of many 
 sorts, even the moving-picture show, are all additions to 
 country life which leave its ancient advantages unalloyed. 
 Country life becomes more interesting every day. 
 
 "When in doubt," to adapt Hoyle's old rule, "choose 
 the country." It is all the while improving, rapidly, 
 while the city's gain is slow. Moreover, as one gets older 
 the particular things that the country alone can furnish 
 become doubly attractive. They are the things that last, 
 and give durable satisfaction throughout life. There 
 is a great deal of nonsense talked and written, just now, 
 about "back to the country" — much of it by persons who 
 
142 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 know the country only as they see it from a car window on 
 their way between Chicago and Pittsburgh. But when all 
 is said, two boys out of three, bom in the country, will do 
 better, taking a lifetime through, to stay where they were 
 bom. The other one of the three may be another story. 
 
 
 '- -^I'' -■ ' y ''■-ixji^- ■> 
 
 I^^hH^H 
 
 H^H 
 
 ^^^^^^^H^^^^^^Bhc^i^^^^^^^^^^^^I 
 
 H 
 
 Increased social and educational opportunities leave the ancient 
 advantages of the country unalloyed 
 
 This much, then, by way of general comment on the 
 industrial situation as it relates to boys and girls who are 
 looking forward to places in it. In addition, the voca- 
 tional guide needs a good deal of detailed information 
 concerning the application of these general principles. 
 
 A convenient method of handling the data is this. For 
 each store, factory, mill, and the like, or for each industry 
 which takes boys or girls, prepare an outline statement 
 at least as full as the examples here given. These are, 
 for convenience, for the vicinity of Boston only and for 
 girls, and are based on a study made by the Girls' Trade 
 Educational League. 
 
The Differences among Occupations 143 
 
 Errand Girl. 
 
 Wages: Three to five dollars; no advancement. 
 
 Qualifications: Brightness; carefulness; respectability. 
 
 Outlook: None. 
 
 Manual skill : None. 
 
 Mental development: None. 
 
 Dangers: Weariness; monotony; exposure to temptations. 
 
 Seasons: Spring; fall. 
 
 Hours: Eight to ten a day. 
 
 Clothing Industry. 
 
 Four to six per cent of girls from fourteen to sixteen years of age. 
 
 Work at first: Unskilled; sewing on hooks and eyes and buttons; 
 cutting threads ; pressing ; folding ; packing. 
 
 Wages: Three to five dollars. 
 
 Advancement: Machine work. 
 
 Qualifications: Good eyesight; carefulness; speed; application. 
 
 Ultimate wages: Hand work, six to seven dollars; machine work, 
 seven to nine dollars; maximum, ten to eleven dollars. 
 
 Manual skill: Machine work calls for intelligent control of hand 
 and finger movement; fine, quick, and accurate. , 
 
 Mental development: Fair. 
 
 Disadvantages: Eye strain; overspeeding ; sitting; noise and jar. 
 
 Season: Busy, September to December, March to June; slack, 
 January and February, July and August. 
 
 Hours: From 8 A.M. to 6 P.M. 
 
 Opportunities for training: Boston Trade School ; Hebrew Indus- 
 trial School. 
 
 Candy Manufacture. 
 
 Sixteen per cent of girls in Boston; age, fourteen to sixteen. 
 
 Work : Floor girls ; carrying trays ; wrapping ; packing. 
 
 Wages: Three to four and a half dollars; average, five to six 
 
 dollars; maximum, seven to eight dollars. 
 Advancement: Floor girl to wrapping, packing, dipping. 
 Qualifications: Cleanliness; manual dexterity. 
 Manual skill: Most unskilled; dipping, low-grade skill. 
 Mental development: None. 
 Dangers: High temperature in dipping rooms; overindulgence in 
 
 candy. 
 Seasons: Busy, September to Christmas, Easter to early summer; 
 
 dull, January and July. 
 
144 V ocational Guidance 
 
 Hours: Fifty-four; 7.30 or 8 a.m. to 5:30 or 6 p.m. 
 Opportunities for training: Only factory. 
 
 Millinery. 
 
 Work: Sewing in linings; making frames; putting on facings. 
 
 Wages: Without pay, then three or four dollars; maker, eight 
 to twelve dollars; trimmer, fifteen to twenty-five dollars. 
 
 Advancement: Assistant maker; maker; trimmer. 
 
 Qualifications: Liking to sew; artistic sense; originality; resource- 
 fulness; dry hands; dexterity; good eyesight; good general 
 education. 
 
 Outlook: Good for older girls. 
 
 Manual skill: Good. 
 
 Mental development: Good. 
 
 Disadvantages: Unsteadiness of work; eye strain; sitting; hur- 
 ried lunch. 
 
 Season: Twelve to fourteen weeks in spring and fall. 
 
 Hours: Long in busy season. 
 
 Opportunities for training : Boston Trade School ; High School of 
 Industrial Arts. 
 
 Such records, added to and corrected year after year, 
 like the individual records already described, become more 
 and more valuable as time goes on. 
 
 Careful and trustworthy surveys of the business and 
 industries of our states and all the larger cities will soon 
 be made for the use of parents and teachers and youths 
 for vocational guidance. These surveys will give ac- 
 curate information concerning wages, hours of labor, 
 methods of promotion, training required and given, 
 health, and moral conditions of each occupation. But 
 for the present each teacher must make her own local 
 survey as accurately as possible. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 Home Making 
 
 IT is difficult to realize, in these days when so much is 
 being said and written, by no means always wisely, 
 about the industrial emancipation of women and the 
 extinction of the home, that one half the women in the 
 United States over twenty-five years of age are already 
 wives. Another quarter will marry during the next five 
 years. At thirty-five only one sixth remain unwedded; 
 while by middle life, from eleven twelfths to fifteen six- 
 teenths of those who survive are either wives or widows. 
 
 The percentages, taken from the Twelfth Census of 
 the United States, follow: 
 
 Ages at which Women Marry 
 1 1.2 per cent, or 1-9 of all women, marry before 
 
 47-3 
 72.4 
 
 83-3 
 88.8 
 92.1 
 93-3 
 93-8 
 
 1-2 " 
 
 3-4 " 
 5-6 " 
 8-9 " 
 11-12 " 
 14-1.5 " 
 15-16" 
 
 20 
 25 
 30 
 35 
 45 
 55 
 65 
 100 
 
 Moreover, of every hundred American girls between 
 school and marriage, fifty are either assisting their mothers 
 in their own homes, making homes for their relatives, or 
 working for wages under some other home maker. Even 
 of the fifty that remain, who at first glance might be 
 counted as being outside the home, more than thirty are 
 living under their parents' roofs or in the homes of relatives. 
 
 In other words, of all American girls above school age, 
 half have some important part in home making, while 
 
 145 
 
146 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 two thirds of the remainder are Hving in homes in which 
 they have a direct personal interest. At any one time, 
 only an average of seven women in every one hundred 
 over sixteen years of age are wholly clear of domestic 
 life, while so rapid is the transfer of these to homes of 
 
 their own that vir- 
 tually one half of 
 the women workers 
 of the country 
 remain under 
 twenty -five years 
 of age. 
 
 For the purposes 
 of vocational advice 
 it is convenient to 
 separate the great 
 mass of womankind 
 which is concerned 
 with home making 
 into three groups. 
 These are: i.Home 
 makers in the 
 stricter sense, who 
 give all their time and energy to their special task. This 
 group will include many paid housekeepers. 2. Partial 
 home makers, who are heads of households but at the 
 same time work for wages outside their homes. 3. Assist- 
 ant home makers, who, not the heads of households, are 
 workers in the home either as members of the family or 
 as hired servants. A few of this group, however, do 
 hardly more than "live at home." 
 
 Of the first class there are, generally speaking, about 
 eighteen million in the United States, while virtually all 
 women who live long enough sooner or later enter this 
 
Home Making 147 
 
 group. No other occupational division, save only that 
 of the men who take up farming, at all approaches this 
 in numbers. No other makes so large a contribution to 
 civilization or is so essential to the well-being of the state. 
 Few, on the whole, require as hard labor. 
 
 Partial home makers number less than two million. 
 The group includes a small but highly valuable body of 
 women who after they have provided fully for the welfare 
 of their homes have still time, energy, and talent left over 
 for outside service. The author of Uncle Tom's Cabin 
 is the best-known example of this type. Few persons 
 realize how many writers, artists, musicians, lecturers, 
 and other professional women of the day are also com- 
 petent and successful housekeepers, who take more pride 
 and satisfaction in their households than in their public 
 careers. It is highly desirable, on all accounts, that this 
 class of partial home makers should be encouraged. For 
 girls of moderate special talents and considerable general 
 efficiency the arrangement is a peculiarly happy one. 
 
 The other, and far larger, group of partial home makers 
 is much less fortunate. This is made up of women who 
 from necessity are doing two persons' work at once — caring 
 for a home and providing for it. Sometime in the near 
 futtire, no doubt, all our states will care adequately for 
 this class, as several already do. In the meantime, since 
 no woman enters it of her own volition, it lies beyond the 
 concern of the vocational guide. 
 
 Assistant home makers, other than servants on wages, 
 number slightly more than five million, of whom nearly 
 one million are divorced women and widows. Four 
 million are likely to be influenced by vocational advice. 
 
 This brings us to one of the most trying of all social 
 or vocational problems, the question of paid household 
 service. About one American family in twenty keeps 
 
148 Vocational Guidance 
 
 a servant; and of these, two thirds are either foreign-bom 
 or of foreign-bom parentage, sHghtly more than a fifth 
 are negroes, and only the remaining eighth of the whole are 
 native-bom whites. 
 
 As things are now, domestic service, in most parts of the 
 country, is not to be recommended for any self-respecting 
 girl. The hours are long, the duties are uncertain, the 
 entire relation, in most cases, is feudal and undemocratic. 
 Over large portions of the country a housemaid loses 
 caste and is virtually cut off from marrying as well as 
 she might have done in another vocation. 
 
 There are, however, marked differences in local con- 
 ditions; while almost everywhere, in the larger establish- 
 ments, servants are decently treated and well paid. No 
 small portion of the snobbery and hardship which the 
 household assistant encounters is at the hands of mistresses* 
 who are themselves lacking in brains and character. 
 Conditions, moreover, tend to improve decidedly, while 
 the growing practice of having housework done by persons 
 who come in for their work and then go home, tends to 
 assimilate household to factory standards. Meanwhile, 
 modem house planning, together with power-driven 
 labor-saving apparatus of all sorts, is both making house- 
 work easier and necessitating a higher quality of service, 
 with correspondingly higher pay. One thing with 
 another, it is difficult to lay down any general principles, 
 and each special situation will have to be decided on its 
 merit. 
 
 Virtually all women, we have seen, will at some time 
 in their lives either make homes for themselves or else take 
 a hand with helping other women make theirs, while at 
 least half will do both. The chance, therefore, that any 
 individual schoolgirl will follow home making as her chief 
 vocation in life is distinctly greater than that any schoolboy 
 
Home Making 149 
 
 of corresponding age will follow the particular career on 
 which he has set his mind. This is the one great central 
 fact which confronts the vocational guide who deals with 
 girls. 
 
 Nor is this great fact one that the progress of time can 
 ever alter. The normal, average women, for whom 
 
 A steam laundry. Power-driven labor-saving apparatus lessens 
 the housewife's labor 
 
 domestic life seems naturally, and without argument the 
 most interesting and the most rewarding of all vocations, 
 are the ones who marry. Theirs are the daughters who, 
 both by inheritance and by example, follow in their 
 mothers' way. The five per cent or less of females in each 
 generation whose home-making instincts are imperfect, in 
 general fail to marry or to bear children, and do not trans- 
 mit their defect to anybody. We are not reckoning with 
 another small group who fail to marry for other reasons. 
 The great force of natural selection is, therefore, always 
 on the side of the home-making type. Moreover, the 
 greater the industrial freedom given to women, the more 
 efficiently does this selective process work. The fewer 
 
150 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 Oiurt«sy uf SupLTintendPiit uf Srhip.ils, Bcjs-toii 
 
 A class in cooking in the Continuation School; Boston. The average 
 
 woman finds domestic life the most interesting and 
 
 the most rewarding of all vocations 
 
 the women who are pushed into home making, the more 
 "pure bred" becomes the race of those who are drawn. 
 
 It is interesting to note that while various social prophets 
 are proclaiming a state of society in which the home has 
 disappeared, and all mankind are fed in eating houses 
 and lodged in caravansaries, while their children are 
 brought up by strangers and by machinery, the actual 
 tendency of things is in precisely the opposite direction. 
 Whatever is being lectured and written about, what is 
 actually being built is the compact, well-planned, single- 
 family, servantless dwelling where even the egg beater 
 is motor driven and home making becomes a work of art. 
 The home has, indeed been a Httle slow in its response 
 to modem demands; but having once started, it comes 
 with a rush ! 
 
Home Making 
 
 151 
 
 This being the situation, there is nothing to be done but 
 to look the facts of Ufe squarely in the face and prepare 
 every girl for the vocation which she is almost certain to 
 enter. Every girl should know, in a practical way, how 
 to cook and serve food, to wash and iron, to mend, to 
 clean, to sew; she should know something of nursing and 
 the care of children, and something of the arts that go to 
 create that home atmosphere which makes the home and 
 the lodging house as wid6 asunder as the poles. All this, 
 fortunately, is already being done in the best modem 
 public schools. 
 
 The course of study used in Colebrook Academy in 
 New Hampshire, shown on the following page, may be 
 suggestive and helpful to the teacher if she has not a 
 textbook on domestic science in her library. 
 
 
 lim 
 
 "■^:.^„,-..,: ' '«• 
 
 WHm 
 
 ^^^^^KpSA 
 
 N iTlriw 
 
 
 ^I^^I^^B^^HB9^^^flHIAHP'^^^^ll^^^^l9i^l 
 
 ^BB^BBB^^^^BiBiBMMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii[iiiii'/w^^ /jBfeMc. y^' iiiiiiiMiiMiwHp»iiMHi^^^W 
 
 Teaching "little mothers" to care for the baby 
 
152 Vocational Guidance 
 
 Elementary Sewing.^ 
 
 1. All cutting and stitching involved in sewing simple articles 
 
 for dress and household, including the making of such arti- 
 cles as jabots, sewing bags, towels, aprons, doilies, handker- 
 chiefs, kimonos; darning, mending, etc. 
 
 2. Sewing clothing cut by competent fitter. 
 
 3. Elementary machine sewing. 
 Dressmaking, Millinery, and Designing. 
 
 1 . Designjng, cutting, and fitting of clothing. 
 
 2. Purpose and requirements of clothing; materials; selection 
 
 of materials. 
 
 3. Instruction and practice in drafting, including the making of 
 
 drawers, shirtwaists, skirt patterns, etc. 
 
 4. Making gingham dress from pattern. 
 
 5. Material used for hats. 
 
 6. Combination of colors and materials. 
 
 7. Relation of face to shape of hat. 
 
 8. Plates and drawings. 
 
 9. Designing of hat for pupil. 
 
 ID. Selecting material and making a hat. 
 Elementary Cooking. 
 
 1. Management of coal, wood, and oil ranges. 
 
 2. Care of utensils, sink, and other apparatus. 
 
 3. Preparation and cooking of vegetables and cereals. 
 
 4. Use and cooking of eggs and milk. 
 
 5. Preparation of cheap cuts of meat. 
 
 6. Different methods of preparation of fish. 
 
 7. Batters and doughs, and preparation of muffins, popovers, 
 
 bread, and similar articles. 
 
 8. Preparation of simple desserts, such as bread pudding, lemon 
 
 jelly, tapioca cream, etc. 
 
 9. Preparation of simple menus. 
 
 10. Preparation and serving of simple dinners, including instruc- 
 tion in table setting, serving, etc. 
 
 The rural teacher in a school where nearly all her pupils 
 bring their lunches can teach many of the essential things 
 in this course on cooking by a shrewd use of the lunch 
 
 1 These courses of study in Colebrook Academy, New Hampshire, are taken 
 from The Readjustment 0/ a Rural High School to the Needs of a Community, by 
 H, A. Brown, United States Bureau of Education. Bulletin IB12, No. 20. 
 
Home Making ijj 
 
 hour. A good warm lunch prepared by the older girls 
 with the aid of the mothers in the community will help 
 solve the difficulties and problems of the noon hour. 
 
 It will improve the afternoon session, and both teach- 
 er and pupils will be happier and live longer. Cooking, 
 sewing, and good manners can be taught with less energy 
 than is commonly used in keeping order. 
 
 Household sanitation and personal hygiene are also 
 well provided for, and something is already being done 
 with social training. To all these, however, should be 
 added the vocational motive. The girl, like the boy, 
 should always understand the relation of her school task 
 to her life work. 
 
 Much more than this might well be done. "The 
 purse strings of the American people are held by the 
 women," and "What we buy, we make." The spender 
 controls the industrial situation, absolutely. She deter- 
 mines what shall be made, and under what conditions. 
 The sweat shop exists only that prices for her may be 
 low. The product of our industries is cheap and trashy, 
 or well made and beautiful, as the purchaser demands. 
 Every girl, therefore, ought to be taught to buy wisely 
 and to understand the far-reaching industrial and social 
 effects of her selection. 
 
 Quite as much ought every girl to be instructed concern- 
 ing the significance of the family and its place in the state, 
 and concerning the social customs and moral standards 
 of the community which, in these days, are determined 
 largely by women. Most of all, perhaps, does the happi- 
 ness of each woman, the character of her home, her influ- 
 ence in the community, the ultimate value of the work 
 that she does in the world, depend on the sort of man she 
 marries. It was the opinion of Darwin that the whole 
 course of human evolution has been determined by 
 
1^4 Vocational Guidance 
 
 woman's choice of a mate; while many of his disciples 
 go so far as to maintain that "conjugal selection" is the 
 only biologic force which, at the present day, has any 
 appreciable influence for human progress. Surely, then, 
 a "eugenic conscience" is one of the things that every 
 prospective home maker ought to possess. 
 
 
 IHI 
 
 
 mtaH^^ri 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 11 
 
 "'^j« p 
 
 N^*M ?MB«^w?i '' iSbWIH ijB" 
 
 11^ 
 
 ^■n^^K%* 
 
 
 ^^HH 
 
 
 y 
 
 
 f^y 
 
 The interests of small girls naturally center about home making 
 
 Does all this appear a large program? Let us then 
 reflect that the major portion of the detailed instruction 
 is already being given in our most progressive schools. 
 The thing most needed now is to focus the child's interest, 
 to make her think about home making as an immediate 
 personal problem, so that she will keep her eyes open 
 and notice successful and happy homes as she notices 
 striking hats and coats. 
 
 In all parts of our country there is a tendency to call 
 attention to the tinhappy homes. Divorces and family 
 quarrels make prominent headlines for the daily papers 
 
Home Making 155 
 
 and comedy and tragedy for the moving-picture shows. 
 So much also is being said about the white-slave traffic 
 that some persons are inclined to think that all men are 
 bad and few women virtuous. This is directly contrary 
 to the facts. Such persons overlook entirely the great 
 army of daily toilers who make up the great mass of man- 
 kind. In the ranks of honest toil, virtue is the rule and 
 its absence the exception. It is safe to say that the great 
 majority of men in all classes remain absolutely true and 
 loyal to their homes. 
 
 A few teachers have come from broken and unhappy 
 homes, where their own lives have been saddened and 
 prejudiced. Such a teacher must remember that she is 
 dealing with children, many of whom come from good 
 homes. She can, by a careless word or act, poison a 
 child's thought toward home making. This is criminal. 
 She can, by reverence, increase the child's interest and 
 respect for home making. This is the greatest service a 
 teacher can undertake. 
 
 In spite of all the faults and limitations of parents, 
 it is unquestionably true that the home is the most 
 powerful educational institution in society. All the great 
 fundamental virtues — reverence, honesty, sympathy, 
 purity, and modesty — are learned at home and almost 
 never outside of it. In the exceptional cases it will 
 often be discovered that the beginnings of virtue were 
 made at home, and the erring youth was brought back 
 to a mother's or father's teaching. At least three fourths 
 of the education of men, and a still larger part of the 
 education of women, is received in the homes of their 
 childhood and parenthood. The teacher is an assistant 
 to the parent. 
 
 If certain elements appear too advanced for the 
 elementary schools, let us reflect that we are already 
 
156 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 teaching, from the lowest grades up, the most difficult, 
 obscure, complicated, and generally unexplored of all 
 sciences, namely human physiology. Compared to in- 
 struction in " the scientific effects of alcohol on the 
 human system," a suggestion on the unwisdom of marry- 
 ing a drinking man 
 is simplicity itself. 
 The great diffi- 
 culty with the voca- 
 tional guidance of 
 girls, however, 
 is this, that they 
 must so often be 
 prepared for two oc- 
 cupations in order 
 to be ready for one. 
 All girls must be 
 trained for home 
 making, if the 
 American home is 
 to continue to do 
 its high work. At 
 the same time, at 
 least half of the 
 girls will have to be 
 trained for some- 
 thing else. Each 
 woman is likely to enter at least two vocations. 
 
 Practically, the matter works itself out in one of two 
 ways. Either the girl occupies herself between school 
 and marriage with some vocation which requires little 
 preliminary training before earning povv^er begins, — and 
 this, as we have seen, tends to become the prevailing type 
 of the occupations reserved for women, — or else she 
 
 Nursing is a vocation which contributes 
 
 directly to increase the efficiency of 
 
 the home maker that is to be 
 
Home Making t^f 
 
 takes up some vocation which directly prepares her for 
 the home, and for which, oftentimes, her training for 
 home making directly prepares her. 
 
 How many of these latter there are one does not realize 
 until he actually counts them. 
 
 Women in Work Related to the Home 
 
 Number ^^l, 
 
 1. Domestic workers closely related to home making 1,885,478 8.1 
 
 2. Agriculture. Majority are members of family or 
 
 owners of farms 770,055 3 . 3 
 
 3. Workers with needle and sewing machines, about 700,000 3.1 
 
 4. Professional 430,576 1 . 9 
 
 Women in Work Unrelated to the Home 
 
 Number ^^^, 
 
 5. Workers in mills and factories about 350,000 i . 5 
 
 6. Office workers about 300,000 1.2 
 
 7. Saleswomen and business about 250,000 I 
 
 8. Miscellaneous .6 
 
 1900 Census 4.3 
 
 Only one woman worker in five is doing something 
 quite unrelated to the home. But training in cooking, 
 sewing, dressmaking, millinery, decorating, nursing, teach- 
 ing, — one need not go on with the list, — all contribute 
 directly to increase the efficiency of the home maker 
 that is to be. 
 
 Girls of the second group, who enter store, or office, or 
 factory before they take up their final vocation, commonly 
 gain far more than they lose. They get standards of order 
 and efficiency, a knowledge of the world and of the value 
 of money, a sense of independence and of self-reliance 
 that, in the long run, are worth a good deal more than the 
 special technique of housekeeping which they may miss. 
 
1^8 V ocational Guidance 
 
 In some instances they get a wider choice of husbands, — 
 a highly important matter from any point of view. 
 
 The whole vocational problem, with its ideal solution 
 as it concerns the girl who, between school and marriage, 
 is not especially needed in her own home, is well summed 
 up in two quotations, the first from Professor Earl Barnes: 
 
 "During the period of transition from schools to their own 
 family life, the girls might well give a half-dozen years to work in 
 factories and stores, where the conditions should be as good and as 
 well guarded as in our best school buildings — in factories, in a word, 
 where the employers would be willing that their own daughters 
 should work." 
 
 The second quotation is by Mrs. Sally Joy White : 
 "They, the women wage earners, do not take up the work with 
 the earnestness that men do; it is more often than not a temporary 
 makeshift, a something that must be done, — in order to be inde- 
 pendent, — to bridge over a certain time of waiting, usually the 
 time that lapses between school and marriage. It is not regarded 
 as a permanent thing, and the girl very openly says that she accepts 
 a position of the kind only until such time as the coveted position 
 of wife is open to her. Now in one way that is all right and natural. 
 There is no one in the list of employments, in all that comes to a 
 woman's hand to do, so important or beautiful as that of making 
 the home. But it must come naturally and it must not be too 
 openly anticipated. The work meanwhile must be just as faith- 
 fully done, as much heart and brain put into it, as if one expected 
 to do it forever. It makes the way easier for other women who 
 have to follow in some footpath of toil, and it adds to the self-respect 
 of the worker as well as to her value to her employers. So while I 
 would not have you look lightly upon the most royal gift that can 
 come to your life, neither would I have you stand in an attitude of 
 waiting expectantly, but go on in a dignified fashion, rounding out 
 your life in every way, until the great glory of perfected womanhood 
 comes into your life. Then take it, feeling that it is yours by divine 
 right." 
 
 As for the girl who becomes an assistant home maker 
 to her mother or to some other woman before she goes to 
 a home of her own, she commonly starts her married life 
 
Home Making 
 
 159 
 
 A position in the "Off the Street Club Band" will enlarge the 
 social group and the experiences of the child 
 
 with a better mastery of her trade than does the girl who 
 first works outside. 
 
 Part of the trouble with the girl who is needed in her 
 parents' home is that she is not enough needed. Her 
 people cannot manage without her; and yet, too com- 
 monly, she does not have enough to do or enough respon- 
 sibility to make her work really interesting. The obvious 
 remedies are partial work outside, study, the trying out 
 of possible vocations ; best of all, perhaps, definite prepa- 
 ration and practice that look toward the home. The 
 girl at home needs a good avocation in music, art, church 
 work, if for no other purpose than to increase her social 
 group and social experiences. The girl with an avocation 
 will be of more value as an assistant home maker. More- 
 over, it would be, in many ways, an advantage if the 
 
i6o 
 
 V oc ational Guidance 
 
 Home making is an art to be picked up by observation and 
 learned by doing 
 
 daughter at home could be paid wages Hke any other 
 worker, as later, when a wife, she should have her deter- 
 mined and unquestioned share in the family income. 
 
 After all, home making is a peculiar vocation. Success 
 in it depends on character, brains, standards, experience 
 of the world, sheer womanliness, more than on any 
 specific piece of information which one has or lacks. The 
 home maker, tmlike the toiler for wages, picks up her 
 load gradually, first a husband, then one child, then 
 another; a little house to learn in, and then a larger one. 
 Of all occupations, home making is the most "feminine," 
 in the sense that it is most an art to be picked up by 
 observation and learned by doing rather than a trade 
 that has to be mastered, once for all, in advance. 
 
 Naturally, the discussion of home making has focused 
 on the feminine side, but a good home is always the 
 
Home Making i6i 
 
 product of the sympathetic cooperation of man and 
 woman. Men come nearest to the group of "partial 
 home makers" who by choice have two vocations. All 
 of the arguments in regard to home planning and deco- 
 ration, household sanitation, and the training of children 
 apply equally well to the boy. In addition, there should 
 be a training for a boy in the spirit of thoughtfulness and 
 chivalry toward women which allows for no exceptions. 
 
 One cannot, help feeling that this whole problem of the 
 vocational guidance of girls is at the present_time very far 
 from anything like a final solution, and that, for various 
 reasons, no group of persons is on the whole better fitted 
 to deal with certain aspects of the matter than are the 
 grade teachers of the country. Evidently, in the end, 
 the problem will have to be settled by woman, not by man, 
 and in accordance with feminine, not masculine, standards 
 and ideals. Most teachers are young enough to feel the 
 spirit of the times, detached enough to see the problem 
 as a whole, while at the same time, far more than any 
 other equally large group of wage earners, they are in 
 close association with the normal, wholesome, average 
 commimity life. The social worker is too much concerned 
 with the unsuccessful and "submerged"; the lecturer or 
 writer too much out of contact with everyday reality. 
 Neither so much as approaches the grade teacher in her 
 influence over the young. Moreover, the teacher herself 
 has, in general, had a nearly ideal preparation for home 
 making — a vocation, be it observed, to which she by no 
 means infrequently turns. In short, the girl who fits 
 herself for teaching, keeps school, let us say, five years, 
 and then marries, becoming herself the type of a success- 
 ful life, treading the way that she points out. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 Agriculture 
 
 NEXT to home making, both in its importance to 
 society and in the number of persons whose voca- 
 tion it is, stands agriculture. Over seventy boys in one 
 hundred in country districts take up farming, and, 
 naturally, an equal proportion of girls become farmers' 
 wives. An appreciable number of women, also, support 
 themselves wholly or in part by the lighter sorts of agri- 
 cultural work, such as poultry raising, market gardening, 
 and the growing of small fruits. Besides these, there is 
 a vast mass of unskilled seasonal farm labor which does 
 not count as any part of the permanent country popu- 
 lation. 
 
 In other words, there are at the present time in the 
 United States six million, four hundred thousand resident 
 farmers on their own or rented land. These are assisted 
 by three million members of their families and three 
 million transient laborers. 
 
 The number of farm workers in the country increases 
 with the growth of the general population; but the pro- 
 portion tends distinctly to decrease. Thirty years ago, 
 over forty-four Americans in a hundred got their living 
 out of the soil. To-day, the number lies between thirty- 
 four and thirty-five. At least nine boys in each hun- 
 dred, therefore, who a generation ago would have stuck 
 to the farm, are now leaving it for the city. 
 
 Indeed, since the beginning of the present century the 
 covmtry population of Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa has 
 actually decreased. Three of our richest states, capable 
 
 162 
 
A griculture 
 
 163 
 
 of supporting thirty million people in.comfort, are actually- 
 going backwards. The land is still cultivated, but in 
 larger units and with an increasing proportion of tenants, 
 both for cash and on shares. The proportion of tenancy 
 is, moreover, highest on the best soil. A certain amount 
 of rentable land is, 
 to be sure, highly 
 desirable, since it 
 enables ambitious 
 young men to get 
 their start in life; 
 but too much of it 
 introduces serious 
 problems which bear 
 directly on voca- 
 tional guidance. 
 Tenancy, as a rule, 
 means robbing the 
 soil, and therefore a 
 decreasing return for 
 labor. The tenant 
 moves often, and so 
 fails to become a 
 citizen with local 
 interests. Himself 
 lacking the sense of 
 ownership, he lacks also one of the strongest motives 
 for training his children to respect farm work. On the 
 other hand, the feudal landlord moves into town, fails to 
 become a citizen in his new environment, and degenerates. 
 Both by precept and by example, he educates his children 
 away from the farm. The result of the present system 
 is an attitude of mind toward agriculture that may 
 affect unfavorably half the children of a community. 
 
 Copyrighted by Underwood & Underwood, N. T. 
 
 One of the possible thirty-five boys who 
 will get a living out oj the soil 
 
 12 
 
164 Vocational Guidance 
 
 The reason for this decrease is not far to seek. The de- 
 mand of man for food remains a nearly constant quantity. 
 With the progress of society he tends to increase greatly the 
 variety of his food, but not its total quantity. In fact, 
 with increased knowledge of nutritive values and increased 
 faciUties for avoiding waste, the total quantity of food 
 needed for a given population may actually be lessened. 
 Meanwhile, as better methods of agriculture increase the 
 yield per acre and new and better machinery adds to the 
 efficiency of labor, fewer persons do the same work. 
 Roughly speaking, the time required for handling an acre 
 of potatoes, from plowing to harvest, has been reduced 
 from thirty-eight hours to nine, of oats from sixty-six 
 hours to seven, of hay from twenty-one hours to four, 
 while the acre of wheat that once required sixty-one hours 
 of hand labor is now cared for by machinery in three. All 
 of these various causes, working together, tend to shift 
 labor from agriculture to manufacturing, where, of course, 
 the demand for more product is unlimited. Inevitably, 
 therefore, the drift of population is from farm to city. 
 
 Consequently, most of the talk which we hear nowa- 
 days about getting back to the farm is utterly vain. It 
 is true that we can so increase the rewards and the attrac- 
 tiveness of farm life that a better quality of boys and girls 
 will stay there. Exactly this, as a matter of fact, is now 
 being done. But there is no possible way to move per- 
 manently any group of workers from city to country 
 unless theif city work comes with them. To attempt 
 this is merely to drive an equal number of country dwellers 
 cityward. All this the vocational adviser in the country 
 must understand and face. 
 
 But there is farming and farming ! One does not farm 
 in the abstract; he grows and markets certain definite 
 crops. There is, then, always the local problem. All 
 
Agriculture 
 
 165 
 
 the various kinds of agriculture, moreover, constitute 
 separate vocations in the abihties they require, the train- 
 ing they demand, and the rewards they offer. 
 
 For small farms, for example, with intensive work in 
 fruits, vegetables, poultry, or dairy products, there must 
 be, along with other 
 things, a kind of put- 
 tering love for that 
 particular thing. As 
 one poultryman has 
 put it, " To be success- 
 ful with hens, a person 
 must have feathers." 
 There is hen sense as 
 well as horse sense, 
 and certain individ- 
 uals seem to have an 
 innate understanding 
 of particular living 
 things. This, cer- 
 tainly, is one of the 
 things to be watched 
 for in the young. 
 
 On the other hand, 
 for large-scale farm- 
 ing there is required 
 virtually the same 
 
 r ■-■■■ : • • ^. 
 
 
 
 ^ '>»^i4m^'^'^K' ''^ 
 
 
 
 Raising fruit on the small farm 
 
 requires a kind of puttering love 
 
 for that particular thing 
 
 business sense and managerial ability as for any other 
 form of production. Sound judgment is, of course, the 
 first prerequisite of any successful business. Besides 
 this, the large-scale farmer must have a knowledge of 
 men and skill in handling them. This means sympathy, 
 tact, a sense of justice, and firmness of character, all 
 of them qualities which may show early in school life. 
 
i66 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 especially on the playground. He should have a level- 
 headed business sagacity which keeps expenses below 
 income and therefore shows a profit; a progressiveness 
 balanced by a conservative economy which leads him to 
 provide fertilizers and machinery and yet leaves the ledger 
 right side up. Nearly all farmers, also, in these days of 
 machinery, need to have fair mechanical ability in order 
 to select their apparatus with discretion and care for it 
 in use. Few, probably, do really well without uncommon 
 powers of observation. Scholarship, moreover, counts 
 for the modem farmer, who must read up on market con- 
 ditions, soils, seeds, varieties of animals and plants, 
 methods of handling animal and plant diseases, and a 
 host of other matters of "book learning." Evidently,, 
 there are few occupations that call for a better balanced 
 or more all-round ability. 
 
 Courtesy of Booker T. Washineton 
 
 A Study of the cow. Keen powers of observation are essential 
 to all successful farming 
 
Agriculture 
 
 167 
 
 Lured by specious advertisements, the casual farm laborer follows 
 the crops across the country 
 
 How far removed from either of these types is the 
 casual farm laborer ! He spends his winters in the slums 
 of a city. In the growing season, lured by specious 
 advertisements or by the voice of spring, he follows the 
 crops across the country, beating his way on freight trains 
 and lodging in out-buildings and bams. Twelve thousand 
 of his like have been stranded at one time in a single 
 city of the Northwest, waiting for the grain harvest, a 
 moral and social danger to the community and a degenerat- 
 ing influence on one another. It would be far better if, 
 as in the old days, all farm labor could be done by resident 
 citizens, sufficiently niomerous to handle the rush season, 
 and provided with by-emplo5anents for slack times. 
 
 We have already noted that the farmer, though he 
 works long and hard with his hands, belongs in his social 
 
i6$ Vocational Guidance 
 
 affiliations with the business and professional castes rather 
 than with the so-called "laboring classes." He does not, 
 like the mechanic, learn his trade once for all and then 
 go on repeating himself for the rest of his days. Rather 
 is he, on the contrary, like the surgeon, explorer, engineer, 
 surveyor, geologist, sculptor, essentially a brain worker 
 despite strong muscles and skillful hands. From the 
 vocational point of 'view it would be quite possible to 
 treat agriculture simply as one form of business were it 
 not for certain peculiar educational and social problems 
 which it presents. 
 
 How multiform the problem is, socially as well as 
 vocationally, will appear from a glance at the conditions 
 of production of a few great agricultural staples. In the 
 com country there is incessant labor from early spring 
 until the plowing, planting, and cultivating are over. 
 Then comes a rest period from "laying by" until harvest- 
 ing in the late fall. Here comes opportimity for visiting 
 and for the Chautauqua course. Winter also is a leisurely 
 time; while throughout the year a moderate amount of 
 attention to cattle, hogs, and chickens adds variety to the 
 day's work. Farms are usually of medium size, and most 
 of the labor is done by machinery. The result is a com- 
 munity of high general intelligence and, in many sections, 
 an interesting social life. 
 
 In the small-grain region, on the other hand, while 
 there is the same alternation of periods of leisure and of 
 high activity, with so much high-skilled mechanical labor 
 as to make wheat growing almost a mechanical trade, the 
 farms are in general large. The result is that in spite of 
 the high level of intelligence in these communities there 
 is limited cooperation and a notable dearth of social 
 life, especially for the farmers' wives. 
 
 A poultry farm or a market garden near one of the great 
 
Agriculture i6g 
 
 cities of the Northeast presents still other contrasts. 
 The proprietor of either may dwell amidst "commuters," 
 and be essentially a city man. One cannot say that he 
 has a vocation for "agriculture." He must specify what 
 sort and where. 
 
 One point, nevertheless, nearly all types of farming 
 have in common — the alternation of seasons of light work 
 with toil that runs to twelve and fifteen hours a day. The 
 fitness of any youth for farm life depends in part on his 
 ability to utilize the one and to endure the other. 
 
 Many types of agriculture, moreover, do involve a good 
 deal of isolation and circumscription of life. Some 
 characters mellow under this; more, probably, harden 
 and narrow. Such purely temperamental differences, 
 also, may need to be considered. 
 
 It should not be forgotten that many of the elements 
 which go to make farming unattractive as a vocation are 
 largely within the control of the farmers themselves. 
 Any one who chooses agriculture as a career can, if he 
 wUl, make the life appreciably more desirable than it is. 
 
 Consider, for example, the single element of cooperation. 
 There are at the present time, in this country, a thousand 
 cooperative selling agencies and four times as many 
 societies that buy. There are eighteen hundred grain 
 elevators owned in common, and twenty-four hundred 
 cheese factories and creameries. Eighty-five thousand 
 agricultural cooperative societies have together no fewer 
 than .three million members. Quite aside from the 
 economic importance of these bodies, they are powerful 
 social agencies which develop the farmer both as a citizen 
 and as a man. No other movement, in fact, is so much 
 needed at the present time or gives greater promise of 
 financial and moral returns. 
 
 Denmark, at the close of the Franco-Prussian War, was 
 
ijo Vocational Guidance 
 
 nearly mined. To-day it is one of the richest countries in 
 the world — it has been judged to be absolutely the richest 
 in Europe in the general average prosperity of its citizens. 
 Cooperation, more than any other one thing, has made 
 the difference. The same cooperation in buying, and in 
 marketing and financing crops, should work equal wonders 
 in this country. 
 
 The teacher can render great service by starting and 
 supporting various kinds of social and cooperative activ- 
 ities. These movements must be closely tied to the 
 economic life of the community, — better soil, better crops, 
 and better homes. Com, cotton, potato, and fruit-growing 
 clubs can be started for the boys; sewing and cooking 
 clubs for the girls; Hesperia associations! for parents 
 and teachers; permaneni; institutions and granges for old 
 and young. When a social interest is once started in a 
 community it is sure to spread. Miss Jessie Field of Page 
 County, Iowa, has shown the value of this kind of work 
 in connection with her district schools. Nebraska has 
 made it a state-wide movement of its department of edu- 
 cation, and many of the agricultural colleges employ an 
 expert on boys' and girls' clubs. In several states, es- 
 pecially in the South, independent associations are doing 
 the same kind of work. 
 
 Closely related to the social activities is the play spirit. 
 One of the greatest needs of normal life is more play. The 
 isolation and monotonous routine of farm life have driven 
 the more social youths to the cities and estabHshed in the 
 coimtry a deep-seated prejudice against play. In this 
 field the teacher must often take the initiative, and must 
 work with great tact, for the school trustees and the 
 parents may be out of sympathy with play. 
 
 "It must be borne in mind," says Professor Myron T. 
 
 •A local movement in Michigan for the upbuilding of a rural community. 
 
Agriculture 
 
 171 
 
 The neighborhood playground in the city furnishes opportunities 
 
 for cooperative play which the isolation of farm life 
 
 has denied country children 
 
 Scudder, in the tenth Year Book of the National Society 
 for the Study of Education, "that play in the country is 
 not so much to promote health as to develop the higher 
 social interests, to introduce another powerful centripetal 
 factor into country life which will tend to counteract 
 the expulsive features which have been so actively de- 
 populating our country districts. The country child does 
 not play enough. His repertoire of games is surprisingly 
 small and inadequate. If he would play more he would 
 love the country better, see more beauty in it, feel the 
 isolation less." 
 
 Worth noting in this relation are the recommenda- 
 tions of the Country Life Commission. These are, in 
 brief, the development of a cooperative spirit, especially 
 in the home; simplification, in many cases, of the diet; 
 convenient and sanitary houses, with running water; more 
 
iy2 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 mechanical aids; better means of communication, such as 
 roads, telephones, and reading circles; good and con- 
 venient gardens; better developed women's organizations. 
 Farm life, not as it is but as it would be with these and 
 other improvements, is the picture to be held before the 
 country boys and girls. 
 One singular advantage over all other vocational guides 
 
 Mechanical aids make easier the work of the farmer's wife 
 
 belongs to the teacher in the country school — she can 
 make the dominant local industry an important part of 
 her class work. 
 
 Paradoxically enough, the school garden, with its early 
 radishes and lettuce for the home table and its asters and 
 marigolds for transplantation to the back yard, is a city 
 idea. So, too, is the device of correlating this funda- 
 mental interest of all children with the teaching of more 
 bookish subjects. 
 
 Unfortunately, it is only too true, as Sir Horace Plunkett 
 has remarked, that "the education given to country 
 children has been invented for them in the city, and it not 
 
A griculture 173 
 
 only bears no relation to the life they are to lead, but 
 actually attracts them toward a town career." Following, 
 however, is an idea peculiarly adapted to country use, 
 and of immense educational value. "The cultivation of 
 plants," says Professor Hodge in his well-known Nature 
 Study and Life, ' ' has indicated and developed elements of 
 character fundamental to civilized life. Willingness to 
 work for daily bread, intelligent provision for the future, 
 courage to fight for home, love of country, are a few among 
 the virtues attained. When we consider its universal 
 and fundamental character, the omission of soil lore from 
 a system of education for the young is suggestive of a 
 lapse into barbarism." 
 
 Our school systems change slowly, but it is within the 
 power of every teacher in a country school, man or 
 woman, to correlate agriculture and farm work with 
 almost every school study. The nature study of the 
 primary grades can be given a strong agricultural flavor, 
 and used to excite a lively and lifelong interest in common 
 everyday phenomena. The rural teacher is especially 
 fortunate in the large use she can make of outdoor work. 
 At various seasons of the year she can plan for regular 
 trips to study soils, seeds, pests, plants, trees, rocks, 
 moisture, birds, making all these as definite a part of the 
 school work as language or arithmetic. Outdoor nature 
 is the best of all fields for training the powers of observa- 
 tion, while few are the faculties of more value in the 
 truest education. The work may be made very foolish 
 as well as very wise. At its best, it combines more helpful 
 forces than almost any other school activity. 
 
 The love of children for farming, or their antipathy 
 toward it, is often founded long before the child is able 
 to reason concerning his likes and dislikes. Interest in 
 agriculture, therefore, should be awakened young, through 
 
174 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 a little garden where there are quick returns, a sense of 
 ownership, and direct relation between the soil and the 
 child's own digestive system. Here also is another field 
 for cooperation between school and home. 
 
 Many farmers who have no flower or melon garden for 
 the children, or a garden to please mother by supplying 
 fresh vegetables for the table, expect their boys to become 
 interested later in acres of wheat or com. Children are 
 not interested in general farming or in general principles 
 about farming, but can be interested in concrete work 
 in flowers, fruits, and vegetables. The concrete, practical 
 methods must be followed by every successful counselor. 
 
 Naturally, it will commonly be quite impracticable for 
 
 Nature's out-of-doors is the best of all fields for training the 
 powers of observation 
 
Agriculture 
 
 175 
 
 — li^ \^± 
 
 
 v^sWt'affiP a err- ''^H -.A 
 
 f'J^ 
 
 ^l^^^^s^ 
 
 ■if 
 
 ilH^^Mfl 
 
 
 v ii' ^ '^*mp'^ -M ■^.' #" V 
 
 ■"^■-ss#j^^ ■ A _, , %« / , ; ;:^i» 
 
 An interest in horticulture may be aroused by the growing of 
 bulbs and plants in school 
 
 the teacher to have summer gardens at the schoolhouse, 
 because of the long summer vacation, but she can do 
 some very creditable spring work from March to May in 
 cold frames and hotbeds. By planting lettuce, radishes, 
 asters, and tomatoes, interesting results can be obtained 
 before the end of the spring term. The radishes and 
 lettuce can be carried to home tables before the first of 
 May, and the asters and tomato plants can be used for 
 sets in the home gardens. The interest started at school 
 will be carried home. 
 
 The teacher may find many valuable suggestions in 
 the course of study in elementary agriculture used in 
 Colebrook Academy in New Hampshire. She can obtain 
 from her own state department and agricultural college, 
 and from the United States Department of Agriculture, 
 bulletins which will give detailed information and very 
 
i-jd Vocational Guidance 
 
 practical suggestions on every topic in this course. In 
 nearly every fanning community there are persons who 
 have attended the agricultural college or have thoroughly 
 educated themselves in the problems of farm life. It is 
 wise to secure the assistance of these persons. 
 
 A gronomy. 
 
 1. Elements of plant life: Study of seed, root, stem, leaf, re- 
 
 production. 
 
 2. Soils: Origin, kinds, uses, soil, water, plant food, care and 
 
 improvement. 
 
 3. Seed selection and testing: Judging, germinating, analyzing. 
 
 4. Fertilizers and manures: Composition, value, relations to 
 
 soils and crops, lime, 
 g. Insects: Kinds, harm, benefit, life habits. 
 
 6. Farm crops: Kinds, cultivation, uses, care. 
 
 7. General handling of field crops. 
 
 8. Experimental work in greenhouses. 
 
 9. Practical work in school gardens. 
 Horticulture. 
 
 1. Review of general principles of plant life, soils, fertilizers, 
 
 and cultivation. 
 
 2. Greenhouses, hotbeds, and cold frames; Principles, construc- 
 
 tion, and use. 
 
 3. Care of plants under glass: Forcing and hardening. 
 
 4. More special study of (a) vegetable growing; (b) fruit grow- 
 
 ing; (c) flower growing. 
 A nimal Husbandry and Dairying. 
 
 1. Types and kinds of farm animals: Horses, cattle, sheep, 
 
 swine, poultry. 
 
 2. Principles and practice of breeding: Origin, improvement, 
 
 care of farm animals and plants. 
 
 3. Feeds and feeding: Why, what, and how I feed. 
 
 4. Structure and function of the animal body; systems of the 
 
 body and care. 
 
 5. Animal diseases, disinfection, and general sanitation; pre- 
 
 vention and cure. 
 
 6. Observing and scoring herds in community. 
 
 7. Milk: Kinds, care, uses, composition. 
 
 8. The Babcock Test: Theory and practice, use. 
 
Agriculture 177 
 
 9. Essentials in good milk production: Cleanliness, care. 
 
 10. Market milk and cream: Kinds, uses, preparation, care. 
 
 11. Butter making. 
 Farm Carpentry. 
 
 1 . Construction and proper use of carpenter tools. 
 
 2. Reading and drawing blueprints. 
 
 3. Plan for each article before construction is begun. 
 
 4. Study of building plans and construction, with practice in 
 
 estimating and figuring the cost. 
 
 5. Mechanical drawing. 
 
 6. Construction of wooden articles needed on farm and for 
 
 home and school use. 
 
 7. Repairs to school building. 
 
 8. Practical work in construction and repairing. 
 
 A course in manual training will help a teacher to under- 
 stand and rightly use tools, to make drawing plans, and 
 to construct many articles of practical use for home and 
 school. Such training will also help her to understand 
 and appreciate the mechanical type of boy. 
 
 Farm Blacksmithing. 
 
 1. Proper use and construction of blacksmith tools. 
 
 2. Mechanical drawing continued. 
 
 3. Study of iron and steel manufacture in an elementary way. 
 
 4. Hardening and tempering. 
 
 5. Study of typical farm implements, machinery, and, so far as 
 
 possible, construction and repair of same. 
 
 6. Constant practical work at the bench and forge on usefvil 
 
 articles of iron construction. 
 
 This kind of work may be quite impossible in a one-room 
 school, but in a village the teacher might take her classes 
 to machine and blacksmith shops and possibly get a local 
 blacksmith to teach a small class of boys in the evenings. 
 
 Forestry. 
 
 1. Study of New Hampshire forest types: Life history, associates, 
 
 enemies of characteristic tree in each type. (Use name of 
 your state.) 
 
 2. Forest seeding and planting. 
 
 3. Management of the farm forest; the wood supply. 
 
lyS V ocational Guidance 
 
 4. Management of government forests. 
 
 5. Conservative lumbering. 
 
 6. Relation to stream flow and general rural conditions. 
 
 7. Practical field observation and lectures by experienced for- 
 esters and lumbermen. 
 
 To the above I should like to add: 8. Prevention of 
 forest fires. 
 
 Road Building. 
 
 1. Essentials of a good road: Grades, solidity, water shedding 
 
 characteristics. 
 
 2. Road material and principles of construction. 
 
 3. Dirt, gravel, macadam, and telford roads. 
 
 4. Bridges, grades, cuts, and fills. 
 
 5. Projecting, laying out, and figuring cost of roads in the 
 
 vicinity. 
 
 6. Field work in observation of construction work in state high- 
 
 ways in the vicinity. 
 
 Road building is a vital economic and social problem. 
 It is intensely interesting to boys. The teacher, after 
 instructing her pupils on these problems, may be able to 
 take her classes to a near-by piece of construction or get 
 an interested fanner to take a class of boys in his auto- 
 mobile to a more distant piece of road construction. Plan 
 beforehand for the engineer or boss to explain the prin- 
 ciples and processes to the class. "The country school," 
 says Miss Carney, "should do its part in instituting a 
 good roads sentiment among the children and people of its 
 community." 
 
 After all, agricultural education, imlike most other 
 occupational training, must be lifelong. It begins with 
 the child's first interest in growing things; it continues 
 through home and school gardening and the doing of 
 "chores." The technical training of the agricultural 
 college leads on through the Grange, the farmer's institute, 
 the trade paper, the reading of books. Here lies the 
 unique opportunity of the vocational counselor who is 
 also teacher in a cotmtry school. More than all others, 
 
13 
 
i8o Vocational Guidance 
 
 she takes her client young, and from the beginning is at 
 once teacher and guide. 
 
 Hardly less unique is the opportunity of the country 
 teacher for trying out her pupils in other and more special 
 ways. The city child has his school garden, and trades 
 plants and seeds with his fellows. This should be encour- 
 aged — and watched for signs of business capacity. But 
 the country boy has also, or ought to have, his colts and 
 calves, the girl her chickens and eggs. With the friendly 
 relation between teacher and parent, which is so much 
 more easily established in the country than in the city, 
 it is a simple matter to detect and encourage any special 
 business or mechanical ability. 
 
 A teacher of agriculture in a city school in Iowa recently 
 said to me : 
 
 " I did not know my boys until we began our garden work. Early 
 in the summer the boys began to buy and sell their corn. I stopped 
 it, but I soon saw my mistake, and after a certain time barter was 
 again allowed. In the free practical work of the gardens, with 
 their buying and selling, the boys who can d6 business and those 
 who will always have to be guided reveal themselves. The business 
 men of our city took advantage of the garden work and wanted me 
 to let them know of the successful buyers." 
 
 Closely related to the whole problem of the vocational 
 guidance of country boys and girls is the question of con- 
 solidated rural schools. 
 
 In Wisconsin, for example, nearly eight hundred schools 
 have only fifteen or twenty pupils each; more than five 
 hundred have between ten and fifteen; no fewer than 
 two hundred and seventy have an attendance below ten; 
 six thousand consist of one department only. In Indiana 
 a thousand schools fail to exceed fifteen boys and girls, 
 while twice that number fall short of twenty. Illinois, 
 at last accounts, had one thousand, seven hundred and 
 fifty-one institutions numbering fifteen pupils or less. 
 
Agriculture i8i 
 
 Ninety-one and a half per cent of the rural schools of 
 North Dakota are handling no more than a score of 
 pupils each. Half the children in the whole United 
 States, and ninety-five per cent of those in the rural 
 districts, are in schools of this type. 
 
 On the educational disadvantages of this system, and 
 on its social influence, we need not here dwell. From the 
 point of view of vocational education and vocational 
 guidance, the evil results are serious. The growing child 
 needs many playfellows of his own age. Through their 
 aid he learns the social virtues and the great art of getting 
 on with other people. More than that, he finds his social 
 level ; and if he has any capacity for leadership the give 
 and take of school life, and especially of the group games, 
 will develop it. 
 
 Now capacity for leadership, as we have already noted 
 and as we shall see more fully hereafter, is one of the 
 great elements of vocational success, and one of the things 
 for which every vocational guide must be continually 
 on the watch. It shows on the playground, on the ball 
 field, in the various spontaneous groups which young 
 people form, — but it cannot show in isolation. A school 
 that does not number near, the hundred is by that very 
 fact unable to offer its pupils one of the greatest qf edu- 
 cational and vocational opportunities. 
 
 Moreover, as we have already noted, the time when the 
 youth most easily learns the social virtues is during the 
 adolescent years, between fourteen and eighteen. But, 
 unfortunately, country boys and girls at this period are 
 usually out of school, and living an isolated and unsocial 
 life on the farms. City youth, on the other hand, are 
 at this age in school, factory, or shop, in close association 
 with their fellows. The consolidated schools have proved 
 beyond dispute that not only can they employ teachers, 
 
i82 Vocational Guidance 
 
 both men and women, of more maturity and experience 
 than the district schools, but they can in addition hold 
 their pupils later, and carry them farther along in their 
 social development. The result is precisely that social 
 training, that education in solidarity and cooperation, 
 which the country especially needs. 
 
 The matter is well summed up by Davenport in these 
 words : 
 
 "The consolidated country school is the only plan proposed that 
 will keep intact the country home, educate the child witWn the 
 environment in which he is growing up, and make him the intel- 
 lectual equal of his city cousin. Any plan short of this is not only 
 unjust to the individual, but it is disastrous to country life." 
 
 Consolidation is no longer a debatable question in some 
 parts of our country. 
 
 "The most rapid and remarkable progress in the history of con- 
 solidation has occurred in the last decade in Indiana, where 1, 600 
 small district schools have been abandoned and supplanted by 
 about 600 consolidated schools."' 
 
 In consolidation of schools, Ohio stands second with 350, 
 Louisiana third with 250, Minnesota has 130, Washington 
 120, Virginia 100, Oklahoma 86, Kansas 75, and Idaho 20. 
 
 When from these somewhat general considerations we 
 turn to remunerations which fanning offers to those who 
 follow it, it becomes difficult to make definite statements. 
 Men have taken up land and paid for it out of two sea- 
 sons' crops; and men have toiled for years and seen all 
 their savings disappear in two summers' droughts. It 
 is notorious that a succession of abundant harvests in 
 America coinciding with short crops abroad has trans- 
 ferred farmers, literally by the thousand, from penury 
 to affluence. Many comfortable fortunes have been 
 made simply by holding down land till a city picked it 
 
 'Carney's Country Life and the Country School, p. 160. 
 
184 Vocational Guidance 
 
 up. All this is the speculative side of farming. On the 
 whole, in this respect farming is about on a level with 
 other forms of business. 
 
 Considered as a problem of income, returns are in gen- 
 eral more certain in agriculture than in either trade or 
 mechanical work. The farmer can usually put in his 
 time remuneratively. At least he is safe from being laid 
 off completely in bad times, or ordered out on a sympa- 
 thetic strike. His money income is often small, but his 
 
 Courtesy of Amliorst (Mass.) Agricultural College 
 
 Ability to judge cattle is one 0} the many requisites of the 
 all-round man on the farm 
 
 total returns, considered from the standpoint of surplus 
 above expense, is probably higher than for any industrial 
 class that uses its muscles. The members of no group 
 with anything like the same cash income are so well 
 able to save for a rainy day. 
 
 High among the rewards of farming must be placed the 
 possibility of possessing one's own home. The desire 
 for ownership is deep-seated in us all; the gratification 
 of few desires affords more lasting satisfaction. Twice 
 as many persons own their dwellings in the country as 
 in the city. This consideration will, perhaps, not appeal 
 as strongly to the young as it should; but to the more 
 experienced, few considerations have more weight. 
 
Agriculture i8$ 
 
 Of immaterial rewards, by no means least is the great 
 interest and variety of farm work as compared with most 
 other forms of labor. In spite of immemorial humor, 
 the intelligent farmer is vastly more an all-round man 
 than his city cousin. The variety of doings is immensely 
 greater in the more specialized industries ; but the number 
 of things that any one man does is immensely less. 
 There are fewer kinds of farmer than of traders and 
 mechanics; but each individual farmer is more different 
 kinds of a man. 
 
 In certain ways, too, in spite of tradition, the farmer 
 has more social advantages than other men who work 
 equally hard. As does no other toiler, he has his definite 
 seasons of light work to which he can look forward with 
 certainty, and for which he may plan. Teachers also 
 are sure of getting away in the summer for recreation or 
 for special educational work; and for short conventions 
 at other times; but aside from them, the Chautauqua 
 course, the summer or winter institute, and the special 
 short session of the agricultural college virtually are the 
 monopoly of farmers and their families. One is able to 
 get away from plow and reaper in a way that is not 
 possible from bench or desk. 
 
 Best of all, as compared with other workers, is the 
 farmer's home life. Agriculture is not merely a vocation 
 for the breadwinner; it is mode of existence for the entire 
 family. Mother and children are partners with the father 
 in his work and in his success. Family life is more unified 
 and home means more in the country. Whatever may 
 be said of the farmer's money returns, only a very small 
 number of especially successful business and professional 
 men secure greater opportunities for happiness. 
 
 For very many reasons, therefore, the vocational 
 problem of agriculture is peculiarly complex. It includes 
 
i86 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 Poultry raising makes mother and children partners with the 
 father in his work and in his success 
 
 not merely the simple occupation, but the whole matter 
 of country living, of district education, and of rural 
 society. No aspect of vocational guidance calls for more 
 insight or more wisdom. The more the teacher is inter- 
 ested in farm life, in the possibilities of moral development, 
 in the functions of social and cooperative institutions, 
 and the more she appreciates the great significance of 
 agriculture in the national welfare, the better teacher 
 and counselor she will be. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 The Mechanic Arts 
 
 NEXT in importance to the women who make homes 
 and the men who aid Uving things to grow, come those 
 persons, both men and women, who alter the character 
 of materials. At one extreme are the skilled craftsmen 
 — stair builders, cabinet makers, smiths of various 
 sorts — whose work, at its best, shades off into the fine 
 arts. At the other are the merely deft persons who tend 
 looms or feed sheets of paper into a press. All have this 
 in common, that they employ not crude strength alone, 
 but some sleight of hand as well; and they use a tool or 
 machine to make some object different from what it was 
 before they touched it. 
 
 Socially, they are distributed through the first, second, 
 and third of the five great castes into which economists 
 are wont to divide society. Psychologically, they are 
 of the group of muscle-minded folk or mixed muscle and 
 other types. In a somewhat vague sense they are the 
 group which especially uses its hands, as the laborer 
 uses his back or the clerk his wits. 
 
 Numbers are somewhat hard to estimate, for the reason 
 that the group shades off in several directions, with no 
 very precise limits. Nine million for the United States 
 is practically accurate, of whom a fifth are women and 
 four fifths men, the proportion being just about the same 
 as for gainful occupations as a whole. Included with 
 workers in the mechanic arts are something less than 
 twelve hundred thousand persons, for the most part men, 
 who are engaged in mining. Over one third of these are 
 
 187 
 
i88 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 Courtesy of Superintendent of Schools, Boston 
 
 Smithing is one of the mechanic arts employing some sleight of 
 hand as well as strength 
 
 in Pennsylvania alone, while another third are distributed 
 throughout the northeast Central States. 
 
 To a noteworthy extent, manufacturing in its various 
 forms is an affair of the city, as agriculture is of the coun- 
 try. Of every hundred men workers who dwell in cities 
 of over twenty-five thousand inhabitants, more than 
 thirty-six follow the former vocation, and less than two 
 the latter. Local variation is however very great, espe- 
 cially in the kind of industry. Thus, for example, three 
 in every one hundred shop workers in Boston are employed 
 in making shoes; but in Brockton, only twenty miles 
 away, the number jumps to eighty. In Philadelphia, 
 in spite of the remarkable diversity of its industries, four 
 factory hands in one hundred work on rugs. In New 
 York City, which is highly specialized, twenty in one 
 hundred make garments. Even a state, though it has 
 
The Mechanic Arts i8g 
 
 comparatively few factories, may have a remaritable 
 number of a single sort, as witness the small shoe factories 
 scattered through New Hampshire. For this reason, the 
 thorough study of local conditions by the vocational guide 
 is especially imperative in this field. 
 
 The teacher can obtain this practical knowledge if she 
 will make a careful study of the mills and factories where 
 any kind of mechanical work is done. She can make a 
 study of working conditions, as suggested at the close of 
 Chapter VI 11, or make a more detailed study of the shop 
 or factory by the following plan, worked over into a form 
 to meet the local conditions. 
 
 Outline for Studying a Factory, Mill, or Other 
 JVEechanical Industry 
 I. Description. 
 
 1. Name. 
 
 2. Location. 
 
 3. Departments. 
 II. Physical Conditions. 
 
 1. Factory plan. 
 
 2. Health conditions : Ventilation, dust, moisture, toilet rooms. 
 
 3. Dangerous kinds of work: Accidents, monotonous, nerve- 
 
 racking. 
 
 4. Lunch room: Equipment, service. 
 
 III. Employees. 
 
 1. Number: Maximum, minimum, average. 
 
 2. Same for men, for women, for boys, for girls. 
 
 ' 3. Number on day wages, weekly wages, salary, piecework. 
 
 IV. Occupations of Employees. 
 
 1 . For men, for women, for boys, for girls. 
 
 2. Unskilled, low-skilled, high-skilled. 
 
 3. Office workers, foremen, officials. 
 V. Hours of Work. 
 
 1. Daily, night work, Sunday work, holiday work. 
 
 2. Lunch periods. 
 
 3. Vacations. 
 
 4. Irregularity of employment. 
 
I go Vocational Guidance 
 
 VI. Wages. 
 
 1. For men, women, boys, girls. 
 
 2. For apprentices and journeymen. 
 
 3. For unskilled, low-skilled, high-skilled. 
 
 4. For office workers, foremen, proprietor, officials. 
 
 5. For overtime pay, for piecework. 
 VII. General. 
 
 1. How is help secured? 
 
 2. Training required before entrance. 
 
 3. Questions asked applicant, teacher, or former employer. 
 
 4. Training in shop and methods of promotion. 
 
 5. Spirit of workers; contentment, loyalty. 
 
 6. Attitude of officials and foremen toward men, and vice versa. 
 
 7. Nationality of employees. 
 
 8. Home and social conditions of employees. 
 
 9. The pension system, how controlled; contribution of firm 
 
 and employees ; accident, sick and death benefits. 
 
 10. Comments of proprietors, foremen, and laborers. 
 
 1 1 . Future of the industry. 
 
 12. Number of similar establishments in the state and in the 
 
 United States. 
 
 13. Capital invested. 
 
 14. Value of stock. 
 
 15. Value of product. 
 
 16. Wages paid. 
 
 1 7. Average earnings of salaried employees. 
 
 18. Average earnings of weekly employees. 
 
 The answers to the last six questions can be obtained in the 
 United States Census. 
 
 If the teacher cannot obtain the local conditions by 
 visiting the factories, she can instead visit the parents of 
 her school children in their homes and ask them many 
 of these questions. A conversation of this sort makes 
 one of the best occasions for the teacher to become 
 acquainted with parents. 
 
 Numbers in this group tend continually to grow. 
 People will always want larger houses, better furniture, 
 newer clothes. Manufactured articles of all sorts, from 
 
The Mechanic Arts igi 
 
 fountain pens to automobiles, are the only good things 
 of life for which the public demand is limited only by 
 the general wealth. The modem man eats hardly more 
 than the wild Indian who preceded him. He ranges 
 over far less land. But think how many more things 
 he owns ! Civilization expands most conspicuously on the 
 manufacturing side. 
 
 On the other hand, the factories seem not to be- absorb- 
 ing any greater proportion of women. In fact, in the 
 great cotton industry the ratio of women has been steadily 
 falling. The growing demand for female workers is, as 
 we shall see, in another field, so that while a man looking 
 forward to factory or other mechanical work can pretty 
 certainly count on an increased demand for his services, 
 a woman cannot. 
 
 The group covers a wide range of industries ; and these 
 for convenience fall naturally into three somewhat ill- 
 defined subdivisions according to the amount of manual 
 skill required. 
 
 At the bottom come the so-called "unskilled indus- 
 tries," not always absolutely unskilled in the sense that 
 a day laborer is unskilled, but rather in the sense that they 
 presuppose only a little natural dexterity without any 
 particular training. Here belong such occupations as 
 mere tending machines as distinguished from running 
 them, where, for example, the operator simply pushes 
 paper into an envelope apparatus or tin plates into a can 
 cutter, and the machine furnishes the brains. Packing 
 candy or crackers into boxes, or dipping chocolate, is 
 also of this sort. Such work is quite within the range of 
 a fairly high-grade imbecile, and yet a surprisingly large 
 number of persons are not equal to it because their fingers 
 are all thumbs. Nearly a third of the factory workers, 
 a full third of the persons who make cotton cloth, jewelry, 
 
ig2 Vocational Guidance 
 
 hats, and gannents for women, sixty per cent of those 
 who work in packing houses, and ninety per cent of those 
 who manufacture confectionery and wall paper are of 
 this grade. 1 
 
 Wages are low, while the chance of promotion is almost 
 nothing. The concern of the vocational guide is to keep 
 out of this group everybody who can by any possibiHty 
 get into anything higher. Especially for the young 
 should the "No Admission" on the factory door be 
 taken literally. 
 
 To the second class belong the low-skilled laborers. 
 An experienced foreman once offered this distinction 
 between no skill and low skill among his operatives; the 
 former ask for "a job," the latter specify what it is they 
 can do. The low-skilled workman does mix some brains 
 with his work, does exercise some judgment and care, 
 and take some responsibility. In general, work is cleaner 
 and done under better conditions, children under sixteen 
 are not wanted, and there is a reasonable chance of pro- 
 motion to higher and higher work within the group. 
 
 The packing houses and the manufactories of men's 
 clothing have about a quarter of their help of this low- 
 skilled grade. Among workmen on pianos and jewelry, in 
 the building trades, and in the iron and steel industry, 
 the proportion rises to about one half. Among makers 
 of electrical and automatic machines, automobiles, farm 
 implements, and wagons it becomes three quarters. In 
 general, throughout the industrial world, about four per- 
 sons in ten belong in this grade, with three in ten in 
 each of the groups above and below. 
 
 Here is, one need not say, entirely worthy work at fair 
 
 ' As a guide to a study of industries and the social conditions of 
 the workers in these industries, read Miss Elizabeth Beardsley 
 Butler's thorough study of Pittsburgh, Women and the Trades, 
 published by the Carnegie Foundation. 
 
The M echanic Arts 
 
 193 
 
 Courtesy of Gil-ls" Trade School, Boston 
 
 Straw-hat making is one. of the high-skilled industries, 
 with high pay but short seasons 
 
 pay. All youths who show a leaning toward mechanical 
 vocations should be headed at least as far up in the scale 
 as this. The lower group will be amply recruited from 
 those who fail to attain the middle rank. 
 
 Within the group itself, however, and even after the 
 boy or girl is actually at work in shop or factory, there is 
 still both need and opportunity for vocational guidance. 
 Curiously enough, it often transpires that an individual 
 worker who does not succeed at all well with one rriachine 
 will nevertheless do good work with another, which off- 
 hand one would say would demand exactly the same 
 qualities. The machines have each a certain character- 
 istic rhythm, into which one worker falls naturally, 
 while another is continually getting out of step. Some 
 factories, therefore, deliberately plan to shift their workers 
 about until each finds himself at that particular machine 
 
 13 
 
194 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 km ir-^ 
 
 - . .;.- - A 
 
 
 HPV ^^tm''- '^^^'W? '""" 
 
 ■■■■tj__L^ f 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Courtesy of "The Christian Science Monitor" 
 
 TAe foundryman belongs to the group of high-skilled 
 mechanical workers 
 
 whose pace and swing fits his own, and this point is one 
 which should always be kept in mind. 
 
 To the group of high-skilled mechanical workers belong 
 carpenters, plimibers, blacksmiths, tailors, machinists, 
 glass workers, printers, binders, engravers, lithographers, 
 stonecutters, engineers, milliners, and dressmakers — in 
 short, all the descendants of the old craftsmen and guild 
 members of the Middle Ages, together with their modem 
 equivalents. This group was the special sphere of the 
 old-fashioned trades union of two generations ago, and 
 is still the seat of most of the permanent and responsible 
 labor organizations. 
 
 It is in all ways, in fact, the aristocracy of the manual 
 laboring class. Its members are highly trained, either 
 in trade schools or by long apprenticeship. Training, 
 as in the professions, continues after earning begins, 
 through a change of jobs and a shifting from one shop 
 
The Mechanic Arts 
 
 195 
 
 to another. Indeed, an ambitious youth will not infre- 
 quently throw up a position in which he is doing well for 
 the sake of a chance to leani some new or less familiar 
 process — a state of affairs that would hardly occur in 
 either of the lower groups. Special sureness of eye and 
 hand, together with much familiarity with a somewhat 
 wide range of tools and methods, is characteristic of the 
 group. 
 
 An ancient tradition places the blacksmith at the head 
 of this division, on the ground that he, more than all 
 other workers, makes his own tools. Ellis's study of the 
 distribution of British genius would put the carpenters 
 highest, on the ground that more sons of carpenters than 
 of other mechanics have risen to eminence. Therefore, 
 
 1 
 
 J 
 
 i'i. 
 
 1 
 
 
 I--" 
 
 b' 1 ' 1' 
 
 I, J 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 1 "asfssi 
 
 
 V 
 
 1 
 
 
 ^S 
 
 
 From the Rindge Manual Training School, Cambridge, Mass. 
 
 Sureness of eye and hand and familiarity with a wide range of tools 
 and methods distinguish the aristocracy of the manual laboring classes 
 
 14 
 
ip6 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 he argues after the strictly modem manner, carpenters 
 must themselves be abler than other manual workers. 
 
 Be this as it may, out of this group of high-skilled 
 manual toilers come the great proportion of workingmen's 
 families who conspicuously better themselves and of 
 
 Courtesy of Booker T. Washington 
 
 Tinsmithing at Tuskegee. Every boy should have a trying-out course 
 in some industrial work under a good instructor 
 
 individuals who rise much above their starting points. 
 Incomes in this class are often higher than among the 
 lower ranks of brain workers. On both these accounts, 
 the vocational guide will need to be especially on the 
 alert for artisans' children of exceptional promise. 
 
 The demand for qualified workers in this group is 
 never filled. It is always the one partial vacuum in the 
 industrial world, the one vocation to be chosen in case of 
 doubt. For this reason every boy and girl shoxild have 
 
The Mechanic Arts igy 
 
 some adequate trying-out by a course of manual and 
 industrial work under a good instructor. If he shows fair 
 ability, this should be encouraged in all ways, as by addi- 
 tional shop work and by reading and trips to see industrial 
 processes at first hand. If the youth responds to this 
 treatment, he has probably found his vocation. At the 
 worst, he will only drop down to the middle class of 
 manual workers. 
 
 If, on the other hand, he cannot saw to a line or drive a 
 nail — and some cannot, with any teaching — the fact soon 
 transpires and the case is closed on that side. In general, 
 the decision between mechanical and non-mechanical 
 vocations is one that may come early. 
 
 The present course of study in our schools, especially 
 the arithmetic, geography, history, and literary work, 
 can be based largely upon the problems of agriculture, 
 commerce, and manufacturing. In our cities the more 6i 
 an industrial and commercial flavor is given to school 
 work in the upper grammar grades, the more interesting 
 it will be to the pupils and at the same time give general 
 vocational information. Suggestions for giving to the 
 present school studies an industrial setting can be found 
 in the following course of geography-history used in the 
 Cleveland Elementary Industrial School. 
 
 I. Iron and Steel Industry. 
 The age of steel. 
 
 1. Iron ore; its value. 
 
 2. Distribution of ore in Lake Superior region. 
 
 3. Ease in mining with labor-saving devices; speed of steam 
 
 shovel. 
 
 4. Transportation of ore from mines to boat; speed in loading 
 
 an 8,000- ton ore boat; unloading. 
 
 5. Blast furnace. Description. Contents of furnace. 
 
 6. Connellsville coke. One hundred and forty-mile journey to 
 
 Cleveland. 
 
 7. Making of pig iron. 
 
ig8 V ocational Guidance 
 
 8. Making of wrought iron: its uses. 
 
 9. Steel: Bessemer converter. 
 
 10. Steel has revolutionized farming, war, transportation. In- 
 
 fluence on railroads, bridges, buildings. 
 
 11. Location of iron and steel centers. 
 
 II. Lumbering. 
 Wood. 
 
 1. Structure: Pith; wood; bark. 
 
 (a) Pith: Center, soft, valueless. 
 
 (b) Wood: Sapwood, heartwood, value of each. 
 
 (c) Grain: Edges of annual rings. Woods of beautiful 
 
 grains — specimens. Value of grain in beauty and 
 durability. 
 
 2. Value of forests: (a) Construction, (b) Buildings; furniture. 
 
 (c) Pavements, fences, (d) Fuel; pitch; tar; turpentine, 
 (e) Paper, hemlock bark, maple sugar, nuts, etc. 
 
 3. Lumbering: (a) The logging camp; time of going into woods; 
 
 why? (b) Building of camp ; life, (c) Control of streams. 
 
 (d) Cutting, brushing, felling, branding, (e) Log-skid- 
 ding; the ice road. (/) Banking ground and edge of river 
 bank. 
 
 4. Log driving : (a) Time of year and conditions, (b) Hardship 
 
 of rivermen's lives and dangers, (c) Control of streams, 
 dams, and log chutes, (d) A log jam and its dangers. 
 
 (e) Sorting and rafting — ^the logs at the "boom." (/) 
 Rafting logs to the sawmill. 
 
 Manufacture. 
 
 (a) Making logs into lumber. Sawmill; location and kind of 
 power. 
 
 (6) Location of boom for holding logs : Saw room and its machin- 
 ery; saw carriage; kinds of saws — circular, band, gang; 
 dry kiln ; planing mill. 
 
 (c) The sawing operation: Carrying logs into mill from boom. 
 Sawyers and saw carriage which holds log and carries it 
 against rapidly moving saw. Drying and dressing. Saw- 
 dust and use. Piling in great stacks on docks or in yards. 
 
 Location of Forest Regions. 
 I. Pineries: (o) Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont. (6) North- 
 ern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, northern Michigan. 
 
The Mechanic Arts igg 
 
 (c) Western Washington, western Oregon, western Cali- 
 fornia (especially redwoods) ; specimens. 
 
 2. Hardwoods: (o) Ohio valley; locate by states; conditions 
 
 at present in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky. (6) States produc- 
 ing most of the hardwoods to-day; our outlook in this field, 
 (c) Great value; industries dependent on it. 
 
 3. Yellow pines and cypress. 
 
 (a) Yellow pines: Value and uses of wood. Commercial 
 use of sap. Ports of export — Charleston, Savannah. 
 
 (6) Cypress: Method of lumbering in swamps; value; 
 where wood is in' contact with water. States produc- 
 ing: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Vir- 
 ginia, North and South Carolina. 
 
 Marketing of Lumber. 
 
 1. Lake boats — Duluth to Cleveland; trace journey. 
 
 2. Minneapolis — in heart of region. Center of raw material. 
 
 Easy, cheap transportation. Waterfalls cheap power. 
 Distributing center. 
 
 3. Lake ports engaged in shipping lumber. 
 
 Mapwork: Western ports; kinds of lumber; markets. 
 
 Forest reserves: Conservation of forests. Object of forest reserves. 
 
 Work of government. 
 
 IIL Agriculture. 
 
 Wheat (Correlate with breadmaking) 
 
 1. Widespread use in ancient and modern times — staff of life. 
 
 2. Varieties of wheat, and states raising it, and use: Winter 
 
 wheat, spring wheat, durum. 
 
 3. Preparation of soU: Plowing — steam plow, sulky plow, gang 
 
 plow; harrowing, planting — pictures of machinery. 
 
 4. Harvesting: Time and condition of grain. Old implements: 
 
 Cradle, reap hook. To-day: Self-binder, .steam header and 
 
 thresher. 
 S- Threshing. Flail, modern machine. Life on farm during 
 
 threshing season. 
 6. Marketing grain. 
 
 (o) Hauling to grain elevators. 
 
 (6) Grain-collecting cities of the West and immense 
 elevators. 
 
 (c) Movement of wheat by rail: Northern Pacific, Great 
 Northern, Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound. 
 
200 Vocational Guidance 
 
 (d) Cities engaged in handling of wheat: Minneapolis as 
 a center, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, San Fran- 
 cisco, Seattle, Tacoma. 
 7. Manufacture. 
 
 Flour: Old methods of grinding, present patent roller 
 process. A great flour mill — process explained with 
 specimens. Flour production — cities. 
 
 IV. History. 
 
 1. History of Cleveland. 
 
 2. Civics — the government of Cleveland in detail. 
 
 (a) Charter. 
 
 (6) Council and mayor, with respective duties. 
 
 (c) The departments. 
 
 (i) Public service, with its subdivisions and work 
 of each. 
 
 (2) Public safety. 
 
 3. In study of industries, historical background introduced, 
 
 for instance : 
 
 (o) In commerce of Great Lakes — ^the history of the Great 
 Lakes, beginning with French explorations. 
 
 (6) In study of railroads — the history of the Union and Cen- 
 tral Pacific R. R., with the difficulties of the under- 
 taking. 
 
 (c) In lumbering, in the hardwood forests^Daniel Boone 
 and the early pioneers in Ohio Valley. 
 
 Next to picking the boys and girls for mechanical work, 
 the great problem of the vocational guide is to get them 
 in line of training for their highest efficiency. For this 
 purpose it is most important to secure the advice of an 
 expert who knows the mechanical industries from the in- 
 side, or of a professional vocational counselor, who can act 
 as a go-between among employers, teachers, parents, and 
 young people, and adjust the boy to his job. This is 
 already done admirably for delinquent boys. 
 
 The classification of workers in Chicago according 
 to skill may give to the teacher some surprises and 
 practical data for guidance in industrial studies. 
 
The Mechanic Arts 
 
 201 
 
 REPORT OF CITY CLUB OF CHICAGO 
 
 Men Employees by Industries in Chicago 
 
 PERCENT 
 
 OCCUPATION 
 
 High 
 Skilled 
 
 Low 
 Skilled 
 
 9- 
 
 10. 
 
 13- 
 14. 
 
 15- 
 16. 
 
 17. 
 18. 
 
 19. 
 
 Tailors to the trade 97 3 o 
 
 Job and newspaper printing 75 16 9 
 Wholesale manufacture of 
 
 men's clothing 74 26 o 
 
 Factory millinery 70 8 22 
 
 Men's neckwear, shirts, ho- 
 siery, underwear 58 11 31 
 
 Engraving, electrotyping, 
 
 embossing, lithographing. . 57 21 22 
 Pianos and other musical 
 
 instruments 53 42 5 
 
 General construction of 
 buildings, electric power 
 
 plants, docks 51 49 o 
 
 Hats, gloves, fur goods 49 45 6 
 
 Bridges and other steel 
 
 structural work 48 22 30 
 
 Embroidery, children's 
 
 dresses and dry goods 
 
 specialties 46 26 27 
 
 Excavating, wrecking, roof- 
 ing 374122 
 
 Cloaks, suits, waists 34 38 28 
 
 Machine and engine con- 
 struction, car building, 
 foundry steel works, orna- 
 mental iron 33 21 46 
 
 Jewelry manufacturing 27 27 46 
 
 Electrical apparatus, gas 
 and electrical fixtures, 
 
 automatic machines 25 74 i 
 
 Packing houses and allied 
 
 industries 17 25 58 
 
 Automobiles and accesso- 
 ries, wagons, and farm im- 
 plements 16 78 6 
 
 Paper boxes 8 35 57 
 
 All men studied 30 40 30 
 
 !i9.oo-$23.oo 
 20.00- 22.50 
 
 18.00- 20.00 
 18.00- 22.00 
 
 15.00- 18.00 
 
 20.00- 28.00 
 
 18.00- 19.00 
 
 27.00- 30.00 
 15.00- 30.00 
 
 16.20- 27.50 
 
 15.00- 18.00 
 
 23.50-.... 
 20.00- 26.00 
 
 $ 8.oo-$io.oo 
 10.00- 15.00 
 
 9.00-. 
 15.00-. 
 
 17.00- 20.00 
 20.00- 25.00 
 
 17.00- 22.00 
 
 15.00- 25.00 
 
 16.50- 21.00 
 
 15.00- 21.00 
 
 15.00- 30.00 
 
 8.00- 12.00 
 
 8.50- 15.00 
 
 10.50- 13.00 
 
 13.00- 17.00 
 8.00- 12.00 
 
 10.80- 11.40 
 
 8.00- 10.00 
 
 12.00- 17.00 
 10.00- 15.00 
 
 12.00- 18.00 
 8.00- 10.00 
 
 10.00- 13.00 
 10.50- 12.50 
 
 10.50- 15.00 
 9.00- 15.00 
 8.00- 18.00 
 
202 
 
 V ocational Guidance 
 
 REPORT OP CITY CLUB OP CHICAGO 
 
 Women Employees by Industries in Chicago 
 
 OCCUPATION 
 
 High 
 Skilled 
 
 Low 
 Skilled 
 
 1 . Tailors to the trade 
 
 2. Wholesale manufacturers 
 of mens' clothing 
 
 Job and newspaper printing 
 
 Men's neckwear, shirts, ho 
 siery and underwear 
 
 Hats, gloves, fur goods 
 
 Embroidery, children's 
 dresses, dry goods spe- 
 cialties 
 
 Pianos and other musical 
 instruments 
 
 Factory millinery 
 
 Cloaks, suits, waists 
 
 Automobiles and accesso- 
 ries, wagons and farm im- 
 plements 
 
 11. Packing houses and allied 
 
 industries 
 
 12. Electrical apparatus, gas 
 
 and electric iixtures, auto- 
 matic machines 
 
 13. Engraving, electrotyping, 
 
 embossing, lithographing. . 
 
 14. Paper boxes 
 
 15. Jewelry manufacturing 
 
 All women studied 
 
 9- 
 10. 
 
 65 
 
 64 
 8 
 
 41 
 
 88 
 38 
 
 90 
 
 4648 
 
 79 
 
 97 
 
 45 
 
 $i7.oo-$i9.oo 
 
 15.00- 18.00 
 12.00- 18.00 
 
 10.50- 14.00 
 10.00- 12.00 
 
 8.00- 12.00 
 
 10.00- 
 
 15.00- 20.00 
 14.00- 24.00 
 
 8.00- 10.00 
 
 7.50- 14.00 
 
 9.00- 11.00 
 
 9.00- 14.00 
 
 $ 7.00-$ 9.00 
 
 9.00- 
 
 6.00- 10.00 
 
 6.00- 8.00 
 5.00- 9.00 
 
 5.00- 9.00 
 
 5-50- 
 
 6.00- 15.00 
 10.00- 
 
 7.25- 8.50 
 6.50- 12.00 
 
 6.00- 9.00 
 
 6.00- 
 6.00- 
 6.00- 
 
 9.00 
 9.00 
 7.00 
 
 As things are now, much sound mechanical ability is lost 
 to the world. In fact, it is notorious that in many 
 different industries it is the immigrants trained in foreign 
 lands, where the long apprenticeship is in vogue, who fill 
 the best positions. This certainly is oije of the things 
 they manage better abroad. 
 
 One trouble with us in this country is the pernicious 
 
204 Vocational Guidance 
 
 activity of some private "commercial colleges." These are 
 accustomed to purchasing lists of names of pupils in the 
 upper grammar grades, and then sending representatives 
 to the parents of the children with every specious argu- 
 ment in favor of a clerical life. Even when these schools 
 do not make promises which, in the nature of things, they 
 cannot by any possibility fulfill, they help to foster the 
 prevailing wrong impression concerning the "white- 
 collar job. ' ' In general, parental inclination is already too 
 strong in this direction. The trade schools are either 
 endowed or else they are public, not private, institutions, 
 which do not bid for pupils, and only a small group of 
 correspondence schools are on the side of the sounder 
 advice. Here, then, is a field in which the conscientious 
 vocational guide will need often to do battle. 
 
 In this respect, the problem is, therefore, not merely 
 vocational and social, but economic as well. Here is 
 one of the fields in which the vocational guide becomes a 
 constructive social force. A writer of a generation ago, 
 Edward Eggleston, has put the general case as well as 
 it is ever likely to be stated : 
 
 "The trouble comes mostly from a mistaken notion of respect- 
 ability. There is, even in our democratic country, a feeling that 
 certain callings are in some way more respectable than others; and 
 unmanly as this feeling is, it misleads thousands to their ruin. In 
 so far as it refers to the learned professions, we may readily under- 
 stand the prejudice, as the successful pursuit of these of necessity 
 implies the possession of both intellectual strength and culture; 
 but prejudice does not confine itself to drawing the line between 
 those professions which presuppose culture and those which do not. 
 The idea seems a not uncommon one that it is in some way more 
 respectable to sell goods over a counter than to follow a mechanical 
 pursuit; or in general lines, that those vocations which may be 
 followed in broadcloth are more dignified than those which may not. 
 There must be salesmen in dry goods stores, of course, but the 
 demand is always greater for skilled labor, and the supply is nearly 
 
The Mechanic Arts 205 
 
 always in the inverse ratio. The mechanic has a technical culture — 
 a skill gained by years of patient study — while the other has not; 
 and the possession of such a culture is a just ground for honest 
 pride, as well as a sui'C guaranty against poverty. In short, while 
 honest work is honorable and dignified, the skill of the mechanic, 
 which is in itself culture, is a worthy subject of pride; and other 
 things being equal, the mechanic is the superior in fact. . . . He 
 can do a higher kind of work; and he is a more thoroughly edu- 
 cated man in his fustian than is his fellow in broadcloth, who with 
 no greater intellectual or educational endowments, lacks his tech- 
 nical knowledge. 
 
 "To a young man with capital in reserve, or with its equivalent 
 in influence, or still better with extraordinary capacity, a clerkship 
 may offer a reasonable prospect of ultimate advancement ; but with- 
 out one or another of these conditions, the chances are more than 
 a thousand to one that he will never succeed in making more than a 
 bare support for himself, while the overcrowded conditions of the 
 ranks in which he stands makes his position a precarious one always. 
 The mechanic, on the other hand, brings a definite skill to bear on 
 the problem of money making. Only those who are similarly skilled 
 can compete with him for employment. His skill is a positive 
 capital, and his work is always productive. There are few brilliant 
 opportunities open to him, though there are in reality quite as many 
 as there are to the salesman or clerk; but he knows definitely how 
 to do something that other men must have done, and which they 
 cannot do for themselves, and if he be sober and industrious he is 
 always sure of a support, and with a wise economy he may almost 
 certainly accumulate a comfortable surplus in the end. 
 
 "The man to whom Nature has given a genius, or even a talent, 
 for mechanics, positively wrongs his fellow man when he chooses 
 to devote himself to a business in which he is less able to excel." 
 
 The reason why the group of skilled handicrafts does 
 not command quite the social respect that it did during 
 the Middle Ages and even in our own colonial days, is 
 partly that the craftsman no longer controls his time and 
 owns his instrument of production as he once did, but 
 works for wages under a business man. Much of this 
 current prejudice against overalls is, however, dissolving, 
 slowly to be sure, but inevitably. 
 
2o6 Vocational Guidance 
 
 The forces which have changed the social status of the 
 mechanic are many : the loss of ownership of tools prob- 
 ably stands first; our white-collar system of education 
 looms large as another factor. The importation of foreign 
 laborers who have monopoHzed our factories, mills, and 
 certain trades cannot be overlooked, but the workingmen 
 themselves have all along been singularly blind to their 
 opportunities. Characteristically, in proportion to their 
 incomes they spend their wages less skillfully and get less 
 out of life than do the clerical and professional families 
 of the same economic status. And yet they are to-day 
 about the only social group, except the very rich and the 
 very poor, who have any leisure. The hard-pressed busi- 
 ness or professional man works nights and Sundays as 
 a matter of course and seldom restricts himself to the 
 artisan's eight or nine hours. And after his work is done 
 he must still get the bodily exercise which in the other 
 case takes care of itself in the course of the day's work. 
 The whole world of culture is open to the mechanic who 
 makes good use of his peculiar leisure. When working- 
 men exhibit more generally the brain worker's alertness, 
 we may well expect to see, not only a grea.ter number of 
 Stephensons, Franklins, and Edisons emerging from their 
 ranks; but in addition, persons of the type of Bunyan 
 and Hugh Miller, who, while still continuing to be 
 artisans, achieve enduring fame in other fields. At least, 
 we shall hear no more of the social stigma which now 
 attaches to even the highest grades of manual labor. 
 
 In a very real sense then, at the present time and in 
 this country, the whole problem of vocational guidance 
 in the city focuses on this group of high-skilled mechani- 
 cal workers. Our object should be, in general terms, to 
 bring up into it from below every promising boy or girl who 
 has a reasonable chance to "make good" in it, to swing 
 
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208 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 Courtesy of Oii-ls' Trade School. Boston 
 
 There is an almost unlimited demand for women who can 
 design clothes 
 
 across from the clerical vocations on the same level all the 
 boys and girls whose predilections are not clearly on the 
 clerical side, and to hold back from the business and 
 professional group such persons as seem to aspire beyond 
 their possibilities. This is the hole in the industrial sys- 
 tem that needs to be filled. These also are the productive 
 workers who add especially to the world's wealth. 
 
 Somewhat unfortunately, the high-skilled trades offer 
 a distinctly better field for men than for women. Many 
 of them demand heavier muscular work than most women 
 can perform, and they nearly all require the prolonged 
 apprenticeship before earning power begins, which makes 
 them unsuited to the sex which must master two vocations. 
 The type of high-skilled women's trades is the needlework 
 group; and these may serve to illustrate the general 
 principles which govern the entrance to them all. 
 
 The foundations for success in dressmaking, millinery, 
 
The Mechanic Arts 
 
 2og 
 
 and other forms of needlework are natural deftness of 
 hand, good eyesight, at least a fair degree of bodily and 
 mental quickness, a well-developed color sense, together 
 with an uncommon amount of the peculiar knack which 
 for want of a better name we call a sense of style. All 
 these, however, count for nothing unless one has the tem- 
 peramental ability to endure confinement without loss of 
 health. All these quahties show early; the potential 
 modiste is soon revealed by her own clothes. 
 
 Beyond these elements there is an almost unlimited 
 demand, on the one hand for persons of original imagina- 
 tion who can design, and on the other for overseers and 
 managers. The field, in short, offers entrance and pro- 
 motion to a considerable range of talent. 
 
 The best preparation is a regular course in a technical 
 school, for the best dressmakers much prefer the graduates 
 of trade schools. Not a few high schools, also, are 
 
 14 
 
 Courtesy of Girls' Trade School. Boston 
 
 Girls who have received technical training in the trade schools 
 are much preferred by high-class dressmakers 
 
210 V ocational Guidance 
 
 meeting adequately the demand for this sort of technical 
 training; and teachers with a natural talent for this 
 work can often, with profit, take up this sort of instruction. 
 
 Wanting this school training, the learner must enter an 
 establishment as an apprentice. In either case, one cannot 
 too much emphasize the importance of beginning at the 
 earliest moment the process of self-cultivation which 
 trains eye, judgment, and artistic sense. No mere skill 
 of hand can take the place of the undebatable expert 
 certainty that such and such a thing is exactly right. 
 
 A girl who is bright and attentive to her business will 
 start with a wage of four to six dollars a week, and be 
 advanced to about ten when she becomes helper to a head 
 girl or finisher. Further advance depends on ability and 
 on the marriage rate. A head girl on shirtwaists, for 
 example, earns from fifteen to twenty dollars a week; a 
 fitter from twenty to thirty. Beyond these come the 
 artist and the business woman, who may make any sum. 
 
 Socially, the woman artisan stands better relative to 
 the non-manual worker than does the man. She is, on 
 the whole, less distinctly "classed." As for the sanitary, 
 and still more the moral, conditions under which work is 
 done, these vary all the way from the very best that can 
 be imagined to the very worst. Each locality, therefore, 
 even each individual shop, has to be rated on its merits. 
 
 When all is said, the mechanic arts are, in the long 
 run, men's work. Virtually all of them, in the higher 
 grades, presuppose more interest in machinery than 
 women commonly possess. 
 
 Given this prerequisite, the range of additional quality 
 is very wide. A plumber, for example, requires only 
 moderate skill of hand, while his tools are of the sim- 
 plest sort. On the other hand, he has to have much good 
 judgment and practical sagacity, enough scholarship to 
 
The Mechanic Arts 211 
 
 understand the theory and practice of sanitary science, 
 and enough imagination to follow plans and specifications, 
 and on occasion to suggest schemes of his own. He 
 needs also the resourcefulness to act in emergencies, and 
 the wit to explain to his patrons the reason for his acts. 
 All this means a high grade of general intelligence; and 
 as a result the plumbers are the best organized body of 
 mechanics in the world. 
 
 The machinist., on the other hand, has to be thoroughly 
 acquainted with a considerable number of very compli- 
 cated tools, and to do much of his work with an accuracy 
 that is measured only in thousandths of an inch. Parts 
 of his field lie at the very limits of human touch and 
 eyesight. Yet, unlike the plumber, who rarely has two 
 jobs just alike, the machinist will often have to repeat 
 one monotonous pattern thousands of times, and he may 
 never in all his life have to act quickly or on his own 
 initiative. Any sort of boy, therefore, who can enter the 
 mechanical field at all, has some work especially cut out 
 for him. 
 
 In general, however, not over one quarter of the men 
 in the mechanical trades are really good mechanics, in 
 the sense that they have a thoroughly accurate eye and 
 a nice hand. The best of them, it has been proved by 
 careful psychological tests, have under the calloused skin 
 of fingers and thumbs a delicacy of touch which the soft 
 hands of the most refined lady do not so much as approach. 
 But this trade touch comes only with long practice; and 
 the prospective mechanic must be taken early and be in 
 part self-taught. 
 
 Beyond this? under modem conditions, every boy ought 
 to have a thoroughly good common-school education; 
 and on top of that, at least two years of general technical 
 training, rounded off with the more special work that looks 
 
 15 
 
212 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 Electrotype foundry. A capable hoy can work up in any shop 
 
 and go as far as his native ability and his 
 
 diligence will take him 
 
 directly to his vocation. The boy with these advantages 
 will probably have to start in the shop at the same level 
 as the boy who has them not, but within five years he 
 should have more than made up his handicap. More 
 and more are the mechanic arts taking on certain of the 
 characteristics of the professions. 
 
 Even so, however, the boy whom poverty cuts off from 
 this preliminary training is by no means shut out from even 
 the highest levels of his trade. This, as we have already 
 noted, is the one field where workers are always fewer 
 than the demand for them. Foremen, therefore, are ever 
 on the lookout for boys of ability, and ready to give 
 them every possible help. Practically, a capable boy, no 
 matter what his lack of advantages, can work up in any 
 shop, and go as far as his native ability and his diligence 
 will take him. To quote the striking report of the 
 
The Mechanic Arts 21 j 
 
 sub-committee on the shoe industry of the Massachusetts 
 Commission on the Education of Workers: 
 
 "If you go into any factory in Brockton or Lynn you will always 
 find men in the best positions who have started at the lowest, and 
 reached their present positions by their own effort and in no other 
 way. A foreman will always find out a young man who is ambi- 
 tious and trying hard to do his work well and for the interests of 
 the business." 
 
 Certain important firms, moreover, still depend on the 
 apprentice system — the Baldwin Locomotive Works, 
 Brown & Sharpe, the Westinghouse Company, the Gen- 
 eral Electric, and Hoe & Company, among others. Not a 
 few also, like the United Shoe Machinery Company, have 
 a system by which promising boys are given half time at 
 school and half time in the shops or at special prepara- 
 tion for their trade. 
 
 There is, to be sure, always the danger that some partic- 
 ular foreman, with an eye to his immediate output, will 
 keep a skillful boy too long at work at one machine. But 
 the boy can always counter this, when he and his coun- 
 selor become certain that progress is impossible, by chang- 
 ing shops; and with evening study, guided, it may be, by 
 one of the admirable correspondence schools of the land, 
 go far in his vocation, even when he has not been able to 
 command much preliminary training. 
 
 In general, on the other hand, shop masters do not 
 look kindly on the graduates of literary institutions, from 
 the colleges down. Book learning, therefore, beyond the 
 common-school course, may in the beginning be some- 
 thing of a handicap. If he is of the right sort, however, 
 and uses his book knowledge wisely, he will pass by many 
 of his fellow workers who, his equals in all other respects, 
 lack the advantages of institutional training. 
 
 Wages in the skilled handicrafts after the first few 
 
21^ Vocational Guidance 
 
 apprentice years are high, four and five dollars a day- 
 being not uncommon. Forty dollars a week is about the 
 limit even for the expert worker; but a "boss" may go 
 to five thousand a year. Nowhere, moreover, in the 
 entire industrial world, are the chances for promotion on 
 the whole so good. Mediocrity will always stick where 
 it belongs, but ability, of almost any type, is sure of 
 prompt rewards. To quote once more the report of the 
 Massachusetts sub-committee on the shoe industry: 
 
 "I know of two instances which have come under my observa- 
 tion within three years where young men have come into bottoming 
 rooms without any experience and in that time have jumped into 
 good paying positions, while other boys who began before them are 
 still working at boy's pay. One of these boys came in to feed a 
 heeling machine, and began at four dollars a week. He was atten- 
 tive to his work, and from the first day began to watch and study 
 the workings of the machine. If he was sent for a box of heels, 
 he would go to the bin and bring them back directly without stopping 
 to fool or talk with the other boys. If the operator of the machine 
 had to fix or change any of the working parts, he would try to help 
 and ask questions why such changes were made. Before he had 
 been there three months, he asked to be allowed to heel a shoe; and 
 as he showed that he had made good use of his observation, he was 
 allowed to heel a few shoes. The business of the factory increasing, 
 it became necessary to put in another heeling machine; and as soon 
 as it was set up, this young man went to it as operator at piece 
 work and jumped from seven dollars to sixteen and then to eighteen 
 a week." 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 Salesmanship 
 
 BUSINESS, in the general sense, has two sides, which 
 in practice are somewhat sharply marked off from 
 one another. On the one hand are the persons who make 
 things; on the other, are those who sell them. Producer 
 and distributor, manufacturer and merchant, factory 
 and store, stand everywhere over against one another. 
 Seldom does any one person have much to do with both. 
 On one side are, in general, the white-collar jobs and on 
 the other the work that has to be done in jeans. The 
 one body is concerned with things ; the other with people. 
 For these reasons the decision between the two may 
 well come early, since the kind of boy or girl who is 
 naturally adapted to the one will hardly attain to any 
 high level in the other. 
 
 The producers, as we have seen, have to choose between 
 field and shop, to follow agriculture or the mechanic 
 arts. In the same way, the distributors have to choose 
 between counter and desk, and become salesmen on the 
 one hand or office workers on the other. These two sorts 
 of work demand distinctly different types of person. 
 Into the details of this difference we shall inquire later. 
 For the present we may content ourselves with noting 
 that the popular boy or girl, with many acquaintances, will 
 in general make the better salesman; the more retiring 
 sort who concentrate their likings on a few intimates will 
 take better to office work. 
 
 Roughly speaking, of the slightly fewer than seven 
 million persons in the United States who are engaged in 
 
 215 
 
2i6 Vocational Guidanc e 
 
 trade and transportation, three million or a little less are 
 selling goods. 
 
 The most workable classification of this group is on . 
 the basis of the chance for promotion. On the whole, 
 the poorest chance to get anywhere is in the large depart- 
 ment store, with its almost military organization. Floor 
 boys and bundle girls, and "cash" of either sort, start at 
 three to six dollars a week. If they escape from this 
 work, they go to selling over the counter at about 
 the same wage, and finally in the course of years rise to 
 twelve dollars for one sex and eighteen for the other. 
 Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to 
 the buyers and managers, and few there be that find it. 
 Altogether, the chances are appreciably better in a small 
 shop than in a large one. 
 
 The conditions, however, are rapidly changing for the 
 better in nearly all the first-class department stores. The 
 chances for promotion and the all-round development of 
 the salesman must rise and fall together. The criticism 
 of Miss Butler thus far as to the younger employees in 
 mercantile houses, "their work tends to stultify rather 
 than develop them," must be credited to the blindness 
 of both employer and employee. When a system of edu- 
 cation and training in salesmanship is wisely correlated 
 with store work, the store life may become really develop- 
 mental to the great majority. The sense of efficiency 
 which comes through training means self-confidence, 
 joy in work, and promotion on merit. The work of the 
 Union School of Salesmanship has proved these points. 
 
 The sales departments of great manufacturing firms 
 are, however, quite a different matter. These demand a 
 totally different quality of person, and the opportunities 
 they offer are incomparably better. The same also is 
 true of the wholesale houses, which offer to ambitious 
 
Salesmanship 
 
 217 
 
 youths one of the best of all outlooks in the business world. 
 Handling goods in a wholesale store is the natural place 
 for a boy to start. 
 
 Oddly enough, the street hucksters and peddlers, and 
 various persons who do a microscopic business "on their 
 
 Courtesy of " The Chribtian Science Monitor 
 
 A class in salesmanship. The sense 0/ efficiency thai comes with 
 training means joy in work and promotion on merit 
 
 own," often go very far. There is no system to keep 
 them down, no waiting for vacant places just one step up. 
 The least business of one's own gives a more immediate 
 chance of success or failure than can any other field. 
 
 Best of all in its outlook on the future is selling goods 
 on the road. A thoroughly competent man, who can 
 satisfy both his customers and his house, who knows his 
 goods from the ground up, and who has built up a client- 
 age in some particular territory, will sooner or later find 
 himself in a position to dictate terms to any employer. 
 His goal is not infrequently a partnership. 
 
 One would guess offhand that selling things would be an 
 
2i8 Vocational Guidance 
 
 especially attractive field for women, for the work is light 
 and the one great essential is tact. This is, however, 
 only partly true, for the heavier work, as in grocery stores, 
 must always be done by men. In the retail trade there 
 are about three men to one woman, a considerably higher 
 proportion of women than in most occupations followed 
 by both. Department stores may even reverse the ratio 
 and employ three women to one man. But among com- 
 mercial travelers there are nearly a hundred men to each 
 woman, among wholesale tradesmen nearly two hundred, 
 while in certain kinds of trade — as, for example, machines 
 and hardware — women are, in this country, almost un- 
 known. One thing with another, then, the proportion 
 of men and women trading directly with the customer is 
 not very different from that in other vocations, and the 
 demand for the services of women neither better nor 
 worse. Apparently, however, the proportion of women 
 tends slowly to increase, and is likely to continue so to do. 
 
 As between the girl who goes into a retail store to sell 
 goods over the counter and the one who goes into a shop 
 to make them, the distinction is rather one of personality 
 than of ability. On this simple distinction, for five girls 
 in ten, the choice between store and factory will have to 
 be made. 
 
 The requirements for a saleswoman are well summed 
 up in a Biilletin of the Girls' Trade Educational League 
 of Boston: 
 
 "The girl who enters salesmanship should be able to use good 
 language, and should dress neatly and appropriately in order to 
 impress people agreeably. She should be able to write a legible 
 hand, make clear figures, and spell correctly; a practical knowledge 
 of arithmetic, especially fractions, is very important. Prime 
 requisites for success are interest and enthusiasm and a knowledge 
 of human nature. The born saleswoman takes a vital interest in 
 her customer, in her department, and in her store. She studies 
 
Salesmanship 219 
 
 her goods, learns something of their manufacture, knows what their 
 good points are, and is able to talk about them intelligently and 
 truthfully. She is a good judge of people, and she has the sin- 
 cerity and tact which enable her to help a customer so to purchase 
 as to go away satisfied and come to her again. Such a saleswoman 
 is alert and energetic, she giyes strongly the impression that .she is 
 in her place to serve, and therefore never displays an indifferent 
 manner toward one who asks her service. Loyal to her work, she 
 is always courteous, for loss of temper means loss of a customer." 
 
 Nevertheless, there is a gift for seUing' goods. Most 
 counter salesmen do not have it, any more than most 
 hand workers are destined to be thoroughly good mechan- 
 ics. Those who do have it, go' far. 
 
 Curiously enough, this peculiar knack of selling things 
 is not the same thing that we call business ability. 
 Many successful business men are not good salesmen. 
 Still more highly successful salesmen fail completely 
 when they go into business for themselves, and have to 
 buy and plan and manage. Selling ability really seems 
 to be a special natural gift like a genius for music or a 
 capacity for invention. Whatever its nature, it is one 
 of the things to be watched for in the schools. 
 
 All forms of trading ought to be encouraged, among 
 boys and girls alike, from buying and selling of seeds and 
 plants in the school garden to swapping tops and marbles 
 and candy on the playground. Somebody, naturally, will 
 get cheated; and the teacher will have to revise an occa- 
 sional bargain that violates the social contract. But the 
 natural traders will appear, and begin to train themselves 
 for their vocation. 
 
 Nobody, thus far, seems to have been able to analyze 
 completely this peculiar selling gift. The largest element 
 in it is evidently a sympathetic knowledge of human 
 nature; the best salesmen are almost uncanny in their 
 insight into the workings of their customers' minds. 
 
220 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 Courtesy of Superintendent of Schools, Boston 
 
 In buying and selling at school the natural traders will appear, 
 and begin to train themselves for their vocation 
 
 Mere nimbleness of wit also counts heavily; the man 
 who thinks fastest and changes front most rapidly often 
 makes the best bargainer. Yet he must be consistent, 
 loyal to his firm while faithful to his customer's welfare, 
 or in a short time lose out. Solidity of judgment and 
 accuracy of information are no less important. Scholar- 
 ship, therefore, is a large element, since the really good 
 salesman has to carry a considerable mass of data and 
 have every bit ready on his tongue at call. Skill with 
 words counts; so that for two reasons the youth who 
 cannot recite his lessons well in school will not be likely 
 to sell many goods on the road or rise to any very high 
 position in the store. But to know when to stop talking 
 is just as essential, for many a man talks himself out of 
 a sale. 
 
 Essential, too, for any large success, are the higher moral 
 
Salesmanship 221 
 
 qualities, and the mysterious element which we call 
 "personality." For not only does the salesman often 
 undertake large responsibilities for his employers, he also 
 often stands to his customer in a relation not unlike that 
 of a professional man to his client. To win and to keep 
 the customer's trust is often the most essential portion of 
 the salesman's work. 
 
 Moreover, for certain sorts of selling, especially for 
 selling on the road or wherever the salesman must seek 
 out the customer and make the advances, there must be 
 a certain persistent fighting quality that rises to opposi- 
 tion. The boy or girl who is naturally shy, or reserved, or 
 easily wounded, is by that fact quite cut off from certain 
 forms of salesmanship and a good deal handicapped in all. 
 The bom salesman or saleswoman has a certain joy in 
 battle that is innate and temperamental. 
 
 It has been maintained, probably correctly, that a 
 successful salesman is almost invariably of the visual 
 type of mind. Otherwise he cannot recall faces or trans- 
 fer a sharp mental picture of his goods to his customer. 
 "Picturesque" language, like that of the agent who sold 
 a mechanical coal carrier by pointing out that to get a 
 cat across the street you may either carry it in a basket 
 or drag it over by the tail, is the natural product of a 
 visualizing mind. 
 
 In short, the psychological picture of the salesman 
 type is so fundamentally unlike that of the mechanical 
 type that no vocational guide should have any practical 
 difficulty in recognizing all well-defined examples of 
 either. Persons of intermediate grade are more difficult 
 to place. 
 
 When it comes to formal training for salesmanship, 
 curiously little has been done. There are a few good 
 books on the psychology of selling, while various large 
 
222 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 Courtesy of Superintendent of Schools, Boston 
 
 Knowledge gained by the study of leather in the factory forms an 
 important part of the equipment of the leather-goods salesman 
 
 concerns have established courses of instruction for their 
 own help. Much can be done in the schools, from the 
 primary grades up, by way of the study of raw materials 
 and processes, since an interest in goods themselves, in 
 addition to an interest in people, is part of the salesman's 
 equipment. Habits of courtesy and of service also can 
 be taught in school. 
 
 Before a traveling salesman introduces his merchandise 
 he owes his customer the honor of having first thought 
 about him, his family, and his welfare. This is not 
 flattery, unless done by an insincere man. It is true 
 courtesy; it shows the proper respect for the customer. 
 It is evident that courtesy of this kind is not easily 
 acquired, and is unknown except to genuine men with 
 good training from early boyhood. 
 
 The budding salesman may well be encouraged to 
 watch the performance of more experienced persons, to 
 
S alesmanship 223 
 
 make their acquaintance, and to notice how they sell 
 things. Plans can be made for the students to go to 
 the stores to study the methods of the best counter sales- 
 men and saleswomen. Expert traveling salesmen are in 
 town every day of the year. Often they have leisure 
 time between trains. All are good talkers, and some 
 can teach. With a little shrewd planning, the men of 
 the right ideals and ability can be selected to give prac- 
 tical demonstrations of salesmanship to many kinds of 
 customers. 
 
 One of the most successful schools for training sales- 
 women is perhaps the Union School of Salesmanship of 
 Boston, organized by the Women's Educational and 
 Industrial Union in cooperation with five large depart- 
 ment stores of the city. A fairly good idea of the meth- 
 ods of study and training in this school can be obtained 
 from the courses of study and the kind of examinations 
 given here. 
 
 "The subjects taught," writes the director of the 
 school, Mrs. Lucinda W. Prince, "were selected on the 
 following basis": 
 
 1. To develop a wholesome, attractive personality: Hygiene 
 
 (especially personal hygiene); this includes study of daily 
 menus for saleswomen, ventilation, bathing, sleep, exercise, 
 recreation. 
 
 2. To give familiarity with the general system of stores: Sales 
 
 practice; store directory; business arithmetic; business 
 forms and cash accounts. 
 
 3. To increase knowledge of stock: Color, design, textiles. 
 
 4. To teach selling as a science: Discussion of store experience; 
 
 demonstration of selling in the class; talks and lectures on 
 salesmanship and social problems such as: Attitude to 
 Firm, Customers, and Fellow Employees; How to Show 
 Goods; Trifles; Service to Customers; Vocational Train- 
 ing; Tuberculosis; The Meaning of Wages; The Depart- 
 ment Store's System and the Saleswoman's Place in It. 
 
224 Vocational Guidance 
 
 The following are two typical examination papers : 
 
 An Examination on Textiles 
 
 1 . Describe in detail a single raw fiber of each of the four textiles 
 
 studied. What advantage for manufacture has each? 
 
 2. How do woolens and worsteds dififer in raw material, in treat- 
 
 ment, and in finished product? Give two examples of each. 
 
 3. Name three hair-bearing animals, and the textile materials 
 
 made from the hair. Name three vegetable fibers, and 
 one material made from each. 
 
 4 . Give all the tests you know for a good piece of cotton sheeting, 
 
 dress linen, broadcloth, taffeta. 
 
 5. Which of the four textile fibers are raised but little in this 
 
 country? Why? 
 
 6. What is meant by natural color in linen and silk? Give two 
 
 examples of natural colored silk and one of natural colored 
 linen. 
 
 7. Compare cotton and linen as to durability, cost, beauty. 
 
 What is meant by warp, plain weave, sizing, live fleece 
 wool, spun silk? 
 
 8. Where is the greatest amount of raw material of cotton, 
 
 wool, silk, and linen produced? Where is wool raised in 
 the United States? Where is wool manufactured in the 
 United States? 
 
 9. Tell all you know about the "boiling off" process in the 
 
 manufacture of silk and the "weighting" which usually 
 follows. 
 10. Name materials, class of fiber (animal or vegetable), and give 
 talking points of samples in the envelope. 
 
 An Examination on Salesmanship 
 
 1. State ten cases in which it is necessary to have the signature 
 
 of the floor manager. 
 
 2. What is the purpose of the sales slip? 
 
 3. Suggest three ways of finding out the price a customer is 
 
 willing to pay. 
 
 4. Describe in detail an interesting sale which you have made 
 
 or lost lately, and tell why you think it resulted as it did. 
 Analyze the sale. 
 
 5. Name at least three things you can do to save time in making 
 
 a sale. 
 
Salesmanship 225 
 
 6. If you have a customer who has always worn a certain type 
 
 of suit quite out-of-date, how are you going to sell her an 
 up-to-date suit and make her feel satisfied when she has 
 it at home? 
 
 7. Give four reasons why a firm reduces the price of merchandise. 
 
 8. Give an outline showing how some article from your own 
 
 stock is handled from the time it reaches the receiving 
 room until it is delivered to the customer. 
 
 9. What do you mean by selling or, talking points? Give at 
 
 least five talking points, and if possible more, on the 
 following : 
 
 (a) An article from the stock you are now selling. 
 
 (i) An apron used in the demonstration sales. 
 
 (c) A bureau from the handwork shop. 
 
 10. Name ten principles of good salesmanship which you have 
 
 learned from the demonstration sales. 
 
 1 1 . What do you consider the greatest need in your department, 
 
 and why? What can you do about it? 
 
 It is evident that this kind of a course will help the 
 student to become an efficient buyer as well as salesman. 
 It trains both for home making and for salesmanship. 
 
 But when all is said, the salesman, more than almost 
 any other worker, is self-taught, for no two persons can 
 sell goods the same way. Few experiences of life are 
 altogether foreign to his training. Every association 
 with a different sort of people enlarges his knowledge of 
 human nature. Every item of culture adds to his points 
 of contact with men. More than all other workers, the 
 good salesman is an all-round person, whose most impor- 
 tant business asset is simple tact. 
 
 More particularly, the school boy or girl who looks to 
 selling goods for a living should be encouraged to enter 
 into every sort of social activity that offers itself. Prac- 
 tice in games is a great aid in understanding people; so 
 too is work for school publications, societies, clubs, enter- 
 prises of any kind that throw people together. 
 
 Voice and manner coxmt immensely, especially a certain 
 
226 
 
 V ocational Guidance 
 
 Conrtfisy of Marshall Field & Oompatiy. Chicago 
 
 Training counter salespeople in the general system of the store 
 
 quiet and self-confident poise that are the product of 
 good health, muscular training, and social experience. 
 Dress is important, and should be neither slovenly nor 
 foppish. The best salesmen always contrive by their 
 clothes to give an impression of habitual success. A 
 knowledge of English, and the ability to make words 
 tell, count for much. The merely glib talker may sell 
 patented articles from door to door, but a really good 
 salesman is an artist in conversation who knows when to 
 be silent as well as when to talk. Professor Mahaffey's 
 admirable little book on the art of conversation will be 
 most suggestive. Last, but by no means least, is the 
 power of concentrated attention. 
 
 All these quahties, while they are based on inborn 
 aptitudes, are in a high degree cultivable. It is therefore 
 especially important that the prospective salesman should 
 
Salesmanship 22f 
 
 discover himself young and begin early the process of 
 self-equipment. Fortunatcl}', there is no one of the 
 qualities that go to make a successful trader that any boy 
 or girl will ever regret having taken the pains to acquire, 
 no matter what changes of vocation life may bring about. 
 Says Fowler in a striking passage: 
 
 "It is true that great captains of industry have sprung from 
 other than salesmen, but the vast majority sold goods. Many a 
 bookkeeper has risen to the head of a firm, and the foreman of a 
 repair shop may go to any height; but the majority of business men 
 of success sold goods and earned their reputations by the quality 
 of their salesmanship. ... If one is willing to both give and 
 take, to both float and swim, and is strong enough not to be- over- 
 come with present disaster and with constant opposition — and if 
 he enjoys the storms of life, winning or losing as may be his turn, 
 but winning more often than losing, then salesmanship offers him 
 more than he is likely to receive from any other department of 
 trade, and will give him better opportunity to round himself out 
 into the successful man of business." 
 
 How true this is will appear from a simple calculation. 
 If we reckon among the higher positions open to men all 
 selling agents of various sorts, all real-estate dealers and 
 insurance solicitors, all independent merchants, and all 
 traveling salesmen, we find that the total number is over 
 one half of all men workers in the entire world of trade. 
 Or in other words, more than half the personnel of the 
 commercial world is already out of the ranks and in posi- 
 tions of command. The other scant half, now the rank 
 and file, is in training to succeed it. Evidently, where 
 there are more desirable positions than there are workers 
 preparing to fill them, the outlook for promotion is by 
 no means dark. 
 
 Computed on the same basis, the chance of the sales- 
 woman rising to an independent or managerial position 
 is hardly a tenth part as good as that of her fellow clerk 
 of the other sex. 
 
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Salesmanship 22g 
 
 Probably, for a boy who has the right inclination, the 
 safest path to business success lies through the wholesale 
 house. He should enter a high-grade establishment and 
 master the business from the bottom up. Then he should 
 go out on the road and master the art of dealing with 
 men. After that, he may hope to settle down at home 
 as manager or partner. Whether, having essayed this 
 plan, he carry it through to the end, or find himself 
 stopped somewhere on the way, he will at least have 
 done a work in which every day has brought a battle 
 of wits, and will have played one of the most fascinat- 
 ing games there is. 
 
 As an aid in handling the practical local problem of 
 vocational guidance for salesmanship, it will be found 
 convenient to follow an outline similar to that already 
 given for factories and machine shops. 
 
 Plan for Studying a Department Store or Other 
 Mercantile House 
 I. Description. 
 
 1. Names. 
 
 2. Location. 
 
 3. Number of floors. 
 
 4. Number of basements. 
 
 5. Departments for management: Purchasing, selling, adver- 
 
 tising, accounting. 
 
 6. Salesrooms: Dry goods, millinery, white goods, silks, china, 
 
 jewelry, stationery, hardware, shoe department, house 
 furnishings, etc. 
 
 7. Workrooms: Millinery, draperies, alterations, laundry, 
 
 kitchen. 
 
 II. Physical Conditions. 
 
 1. Counter space and seats for employees. 
 
 2. Health conditions: Ventilation, dust, moisture, toilet rooms. 
 
 3. Cloakrooms: Location, care. 
 
 4. Rest rooms: Location, equipment. 
 
 5. Lunch rooms: Equipment, service. 
 
2J0 Vocational Guidance 
 
 III. Employees. 
 
 1. Number: Maximum, minimum, average. 
 
 2. Same for men, for women, for boys, for girls. 
 
 IV. Occupations of Employees. 
 
 1. Men: Cash, porters, clerks, delivery, drivers, salesmen, 
 
 heads of stock, floor walkers, buyers, officials. 
 
 2. Women: Cash, stock, wrapper, saleswomen, heads of stock, 
 
 buyers, cashiers, milliners, alteration hands, drapery 
 operators, kitchen and laundry workers. 
 V. Hours of Work. 
 
 1. Daily, Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, night. 
 
 2. Lunch periods. 
 
 3. Vacations. 
 
 4. Irregularity of employment. 
 
 VI. Wages. 
 
 1. Positions classified as above: Men, women. 
 
 2. Overtime pay. 
 
 3. Commission allowed on sales. 
 
 4. Percentage allowed on purchases. 
 
 5. Fines. 
 VII. General. 
 
 1. How is help secured? 
 
 2. Training required before entrance. 
 
 3. Methods of training and promotion in store. 
 
 4. Questions asked of applicant, teacher, or former employer. 
 
 5. Spirit of employees: Contentment, loyalty. 
 
 6. Nationality of employees. 
 
 7. Home and social conditions of employees: Living with 
 
 family, sole breadwinner, other breadwinners in family. 
 
 8. Pension system: How controlled; contribution of firm and 
 
 employees; sick and death benefits. 
 
 9. Comments of proprietor, foremen, and other employees. 
 
 For a thorough study of department stores, read 
 Saleswomen in Mercantile Stores, by Ehzabeth Beardsley 
 Butler. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 Office Work 
 
 SALESMANSHIP and office work have really much 
 less in common than appears at first sight. To be 
 sure, workers in both fields use brain rather than hand; 
 while both types of vocation exact a somewhat high 
 standard of manners, bearing, speech, dress, and gen- 
 eral cultivation in all who are to pass beyond the very 
 lowest rank. 
 
 With this, however, the resemblance ends. The office 
 worker need not have the all-round acquaintance with 
 human nature and the social tact of the salesman. He 
 adapts himself less to a varied public than to a few asso- 
 ciates or superiors. In general, grade for grade, he has 
 to be more methodical and accurate, but less quick-witted 
 and adaptable. The office worker, moreover, must be a 
 steady, concentrated worker, turning off a somewhat 
 monotonous task without the constant stimulus of con- 
 tact with people. 
 
 Every teacher will recognize the type. It is the quiet, 
 steady, scholarly sort of pupil, who comes out strong on 
 examination marks and never "bluffs" a recitation, that 
 is going to make an office worker. In fact, one may almost 
 say that the vocation toward counter or toward desk 
 will turn on this, that, native ability being equal, the one 
 sort of boy or girl will shine in recitations and the other 
 score high in examinations. 
 
 In general, too, as regards native capacity, the office • 
 worker follows more closely the middle way than does 
 the salesman. On the other hand, far more rarely than 
 
 231 
 
232 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 Where a well-known atlas is compiled,. The making of reference 
 
 books affords excellent opportunities for workers capable 
 
 of steady, concentrated effort 
 
 the salesman of the highest type does the office worker 
 graduate into an independent business position. The pen 
 is mightier than the yardstick; but it is not the equal of 
 the invoice. 
 
 Office workers in the United States number not far 
 from eighteen hundred thousand, somewhat more than 
 half as many as there are salesmen. One himdred thou- 
 sand of these office workers are telephone and telegraph 
 operators. More than two hundred and eighty thousand 
 are stenographers. Over three hundred and eighty thou- 
 sand are bookkeepers, accountants, and cashiers. Seven 
 hundred thousand are clerks and copyists. 
 
 Especially interesting is the large proportion of women 
 
Office Work 233 
 
 workers in certain departments. Among bookkeepers 
 and accountants there are nearly half as many women as 
 men. Among stenographers they outnumber men three 
 to one. Of telephone switchboards they have a virtual 
 monopoly. 
 
 These, moreover, are the special fields in which the 
 number of women is notably increasing, and from which 
 they tend more and more to crowd out men. Much of 
 such work is of a sort for which women are singularly well 
 fitted by nature. 
 
 Desk work, in the widest sense, divides itself into 
 several rather distinct sub-groups; and of these the one 
 most. easily entered is telephoning. 
 
 An intelligent girl of the same general sort who would 
 do reasonably well behind the counter, may do slightly 
 better in front of the switchboard. Her earnings will be 
 about the same in either case, and her chances for pro- 
 motion are equally slender; but the telephone operator 
 does her work sitting down, while the condition of labor, 
 though never better than in the best stores, is rarely any- 
 thing but good. But on the other hand, there is night 
 and Sunday work. 
 
 Not all girls can learn telephoning. Great coolness 
 under pressure is essential, and the ability to attend to 
 several different matters at once. To keep track of six 
 booths, all handling out-of-town calls, to record each 
 transaction on the printed form, to take pay and make 
 change, to listen to several persons simultaneously, to 
 keep the waiting line of hurried men in good humor, and 
 to calm the mind of the patron who cannot get his con- 
 nection, all at the same time, is one of the most exacting 
 performances known to the business world. Few women 
 and no men can do it. However, the ordinary work is 
 much simpler; but even this, apparently, demands a 
 
234 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 more or less auditory-mental type of person which is not 
 especially common. 
 
 Promotion, though unlikely, is not impossible. The 
 beginner starts at four dollars a week while learning and 
 advances rapidly to six, eight, or ten. Beyond this comes 
 
 Telephoning demands an auditory-mental type not 
 especially common 
 
 the charge of a pubHc pay station, the oversight of opera- 
 tors in a large exchange, or the instruction of beginners. 
 Wages for these kinds of work go as high as thirty dollars 
 a week. Beyond this there is not much chance of an open- 
 ing, since the managers and electricians have to be men. 
 In general, the telephone companies give preference to 
 graduates of high schools— for the sake, apparently, of 
 securing material of sufficient quality to warrant pro- 
 motion to the higher levels of the calling. 
 
 The stenographer-secretary group is also a woman's 
 affair. There are a few private secretaries of business 
 
Ofjice Work 235 
 
 men, statesmen, or diplomats who are males. Govern- 
 ment and court stenographers, also, are commonly men. 
 In general, however, this group of occupations is avail- 
 able for boys only as an entrance to the business or 
 political world. 
 
 For girls, on the other hand, the outlook is most attract- 
 ive and the range wide. At the bottom come the ill- 
 trained and unintelligent who are something of a drug on 
 the market, and seldom make more than ten or twelve 
 dollars a week. 
 
 Abler and better trained women become head stenog- 
 raphers, private stenographers, or private secretaries. Such 
 of these as can take dictation rapidly and accurately, keep 
 track of the office routine, answer letters from mere gen- 
 eral directions, and adjust themselves unobtrusively to 
 the idiosyncrasies of their employers may make them- 
 selves highly valuable and earn twenty-five and thirty 
 dollars or more a week. 
 
 For this grade of work a girl must have had a high- 
 school education before her special training, have much 
 natural ability, be careful, neat, and accurate, and in all 
 respects a thoroughly ladylike and trustworthy person. 
 
 The qualifications for a good stenographer are well 
 summed up in a bulletin of the Girls' Trade Educational 
 League of Boston. These requirements will hold equally 
 well for all the best office positions. 
 
 "If a girl hopes to succeed in stenography she must be possessed 
 with intelligence, good judgment and common sense. She must 
 have good eyesight, good hearing and a good memory. She must 
 have good perception and be able to concentrate her attention com- 
 pletely on any matter in hand. In addition to these requirements 
 she must be neat in executing written work and accurate to the 
 last degree. 
 
 "It is absolutely necessary that she have a good education. No 
 one has a more practicable use for a thorough knowledge of the 
 
Office Work 237 
 
 elementary school subjects than a stenographer. She must be a 
 speller and be practically familiar with the rules of good grammar 
 and punctuation: nor is the arithmetic of little importance, for she 
 cannot tell when she may be called upon to turn it to account in 
 connection with her work." 
 
 And in her interesting book, Woman at Work, Miss 
 Bird says: 
 
 "No education is too comprehensive to be of value here: and the 
 girl who can be trusted to make a lucid, correctly punctuated and 
 well expressed letter of one sketchily dictated by an employer in a 
 hurry or scrawled by him on a scrap of paper is sure of his favor. 
 The girl who can compose the letter for him on his spoken instruc- 
 tions is a still rarer and greater treasure." 
 
 Experience is our great teacher. Here is the testimony 
 of a girl who has tried and knows: 
 
 "I would be a much better stenographer to-day if I had more 
 general education, and I could earn $65 a month easily. I have 
 had one such position, but I couldn't keep it because I didn't know 
 enough." — Vocational Survey of Minneapolis. 
 
 Higher still come the specially trained private sec- 
 retaries, for whom shorthand and the typewriter are mere 
 incidents. These are college graduates, who handle 
 accurately three or four languages, or else have a highly 
 developed control over their own. They are the aristoc- 
 racy of the group, and their salaries may be anything. 
 
 Closely parallel to the stenographer-secretary series 
 runs the group of general office workers. These at the 
 bottom are the unskilled brain workers who copy records 
 and file cards. Upward, they pass through all grades to 
 the highly trained persons who organize recording systems, 
 read proof, or catalogue books in a dozen different lan- 
 guages. On the higher levels, these workers also are 
 largely college graduates. This group, as a whole, is 
 much less exclusively feminine than the other, and the 
 outlook for a boy is good. 
 
2j8 Vocational Guidance 
 
 The special field for men in office work is, of course, 
 bookkeeping. Expert accountants and actuaries are the 
 aristocracy of the group. Their incomes occasionally go 
 beyond four figures. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 FOREMANSHIP 
 
 THERE is one feature of the modem industrial worid 
 which commonly excites less attention than it merits, 
 a feature, in fact, which is almost characteristic of modem 
 industry as distinguished from old-time labor, and to 
 which, in no small degree, the extraordinary efficiency of 
 modem industry is due. This feature is foremanship. 
 Few persons nowadays set their own tasks. Wherever 
 we dip into the modem business world we find always 
 some men and women who are responsible for the work 
 of others. They direct other people's labor, and partake, 
 justly, in some degree of its rewards. 
 
 We do not here refer to the great captains of industry, 
 the generals and commanders of the industrial army, but 
 to what we may call its non-commissioned officers. Here 
 belong the shop foremen, head bookkeepers, floor walkers, 
 charge nurses, gang bosses, — all persons, in short, who, 
 having mastered some one occupation, do their work 
 enough better than their fellows, and have enough power 
 of command, to be put in charge over them. 
 
 Few persons realize how numerous is this group. The 
 great majority of farmers, for example, at least during 
 some time of the year, supplement their own labor by 
 hired help; some employ a hundred hands at harvesting. 
 Virtually all business men have their force of clerks and 
 salesmen. Every shop is so organized that each ten, 
 twenty, fifty, or one hundred workers are under the 
 immediate charge of some one superior. Each school 
 has its principal. Even the clergyman has his staff of 
 
 239 
 
240 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 Photo-engramng. The typical foreman is an experienced 
 
 workman who in addition to his special skill 
 
 has the gift for handling men 
 
 voluntary workers, on whose efficiency the welfare of the 
 parish in no small degree depends. 
 
 Our typical foreman, then, is the experienced workman, 
 either with hand or brain, who in addition to his special 
 skill has the gifts of character and personality which 
 enable him to govern other workers. The foreman 
 knows his trade; in addition he knows how to handle 
 men. 
 
 This foremanship ability appears also among persons 
 whom we do not commonly think of as foremen. Rail- 
 way conductors have it; so do policemen, and some 
 janitors and gate keepers. All successful teachers must 
 have it, else they cannot maintain discipline. 
 
 From the standpoint of the vocational guide, then, 
 foremanship ability is a peculiar talent which may be 
 added on to any other kind of capacity. The boy or 
 
Foremanship 241 
 
 girl has a vocation for keeping books or for keeping 
 house. Then in addition, each has, or lacks, the ability 
 to direct other people. The difference means a tenth 
 more wages, or twice as much, for no harder work. It 
 may mean the certainty or the impossibiUty of higli 
 success. 
 
 Of earmarks by which the foreman-to-be may be 
 recognized early there are few. There are successful 
 managers of the "driving boss" type — red-faced, loud- 
 voiced, heavy-handed, profane. There are equally suc- 
 cessful leaders of the opposite sort. Apparently, they 
 all possess strength of will, courage, self-reliance, insight 
 into human nature, and a sense of justice; yet all these 
 are possessed in equal measure by persons who are not 
 leaders. Even the ability to remember faces and to call 
 people by name, on which some persons have laid much 
 emphasis, can hardly be of much consequence for the 
 captains of tens and twenties. 
 
 The one certain element seems to be this, that the 
 coming foreman or forewoman is from youth of inde- 
 pendent character and not the sort of person who is easily 
 influenced by others. The desire for leadership among 
 one's companions, together with a resistance to being led, 
 is the one sure foundation for foremanship. 
 
 In other words, the foreman is largely made. He 
 learns to understand people; he acquires the habit of 
 managing them. So much of foremanship quality as is a 
 natural gift is also a delicate plant that promptly withers 
 in an untimely frost. 
 
 The qualifications of an ideal foreman are thus defined 
 in the Cyclopedia of Modern Shop Practice: 
 
 "Toward the firm the foreman should be respectful, obedient, 
 and energetic; toward the workman he should be fair, just, and 
 sympathetic. Of all the qualities going to make an ideal foreman, 
 
 16 
 
242 Vocational Guidance 
 
 that of tact is the most important. It means that the men will be 
 treated as individuals, their failings noted and corrected; their 
 good points enlarged upon and due credit allowed for them. With 
 this tact, or the faculty of governing along the lines of least resist- 
 ance, must be employed absolute fairness. Nothing will create 
 such an atmosphere of discontent as that the foreman has favorites. 
 Fairness, dignity, and firmness are the qualities that can be quite 
 closely defined; but tact and its fellow attribute, executive ability, 
 are rather illusive of close description." 
 
 Ruskin, though not a man of business, pictures the 
 spirit of an ideal foreman in a very few words. "Suppos- 
 ing the master of a manufactory saw it right, or were 
 by any chance obliged, to place his son in the position of 
 an ordinary workman, as he would then treat his son, he 
 is bound always to treat every one of his men." 
 
 The old saw, that vinegar never catches flies, applies to 
 the work of a foreman. He must, of course, become an 
 expert in the technique of his selected field. This comes 
 only through years of training. But in all the studies of 
 foremen in store or shop, good judgment, sympathy, 
 and leadership are the cardinal qualities. In school days 
 the counselor can easUy detect and encourage the dis- 
 position to take responsibility and leadership. 
 
 Every youth, then, should start out with this ambition, 
 that whatever sort of work he imdertakes, or whatever 
 its grade, he wiU come to the top of his partictolar little 
 heap. Since, in the industrial world, there are, on the 
 average, somewhat fewer than ten subordinates to each 
 leader of the lowest grade, the ambition is by no means 
 an unreasonable one. The habit of leadership once 
 established, the field is wide. 
 
 The opportimity for rising to leadership, however, 
 varies greatly in different emplojmients. In business, as 
 we have already seen, the chance is about one in two, 
 though in certain special lines the proportion drops to one 
 
Foremanship 
 
 243 
 
 .,_ „-— . ..- .; ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 "'■/Ml 
 
 ET^y't*! 
 
 — ~vm 
 
 
 
 j^'S;^^'!*- 
 
 0/ persons employed in the manufacture of cotton goods but 
 one in eighty ever rises to a foremanship 
 
 in three or four. Carpenters and bakers have about one 
 chance in five to become foremen. Printers, carriage 
 builders, and leather workers have one in ten. 
 
 But persons who are employed on ready-made clothing 
 either for men or for women, on boots and shoes, or in 
 meat packing, have but one chance in twenty or thirty to 
 lift themselves from the ranks. In hosiery and knit goods, 
 in iron and steel, in paper and wood pulp, in silk, woolen, 
 worsted, and felt, the opportunity of rising to foremanship 
 becomes only one in forty or fifty. Last of all, only one 
 person in eighty who is employed in the manufacture of 
 cotton goods ever comes to the oversight of other workmen. 
 
 Curiously enough, the occupations where the chances 
 to rise are least turn out to be just those in which persons 
 under sixteen are largely employed, so that the one 
 
 17 
 
244^ Vocational Guidance 
 
 characteristic is a test of the other. This is one of the 
 matters to be taken into consideration in advising any 
 youth of promise; 
 
 For this training in leadership we must put high the 
 give and take of school life. It has been said that the 
 advantage which the city man has over the country man 
 in organization and cooperative activity of various sorts 
 is due in large measure to the fact that the larger schools 
 of the city give more chance for leadership to develop. 
 Be this as it may, there is no training ground for fore- 
 manship superior to the playground of a fair-sized and 
 well-conducted school. 
 
 The would-be foreman, then, should make it a point to 
 get into all school games. He may not play well ; but he 
 will play well enough to do what for him is vastly more 
 important, namely, to organize games among boys who 
 for the moment are out of amusement. From this 
 beginning he will soon advance to enterprises of all 
 sorts, — swimming or nutting expeditions, camping trips. 
 Gradually he will acquire a quiet control over other boys, 
 develop a sense of justice and a knowledge of human 
 nature, and the habit of leadership. This is his starting- 
 point. In general, foremanship and salesmanship begin 
 at about the same place, and depend a good deal upon 
 the same characteristics. 
 
 Beyond this first step comes the general training of 
 experience which brings self-reHance, initiative, and the 
 habit of responsibility. All social activities contribute to 
 this, especially contact with many different sorts of 
 people. College life counts heavily here, and member- 
 ship, and still more office holding, in almost any sort of 
 club or society. 
 
 The only safe rule, therefore, is to give every boy or 
 girl all the social training possible. This is especially 
 
Foremanship 24$ 
 
 important between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, when 
 the social instincts are developing and the permanent 
 social habits are being formed. But for social education 
 there must be groups and numbers. It is in this field that 
 the county consolidated school makes perhaps its greatest 
 contribution to the solution of the rural problem. 
 
 All social and cooperative organizations demand lead- 
 ers. "Grange influence," says Miss Mabel Carney, "has 
 developed leadership, has sustained a high idealism of per- 
 sonal integrity and social responsibility, and above all 
 has fostered the spirit of cooperation through which this 
 idealism has been worked out and made tangible for 
 community benefit." 
 
 Of formal preparation for foremanship there is little. 
 Some shops have special courses for boys who wish to be- 
 come foremen; a few institutions which train for the 
 technical arts have been able,, without much deliberate 
 purpose, to turn out graduates who rise to the top. The 
 Hebrew Technical Institute for Boys in New York City, 
 for example, has forty-two per cent of all its graduates of 
 ten years' standing in positions of responsibility, either 
 as foremen, superintendents, managers, or proprietors. 
 
 Men who are training their own sons commonly put 
 them in at the very bottom of the business and work them 
 up, usually without any special favors but with rapid 
 promotion. Experience shows that there is no method 
 to be compared with this for giving to a youth a sjon- 
 pathetic understanding of working men and women. 
 
 Most foremen, however, are shop-trained. The young 
 man learns his business, whether it be making or selling 
 or keeping records. Then gradually his native quality 
 or his self -education begins to count, and he comes to the 
 front. To quote once more the excellent report of the 
 Massachusetts sub-committee of the shoe industry • 
 
Foremanship 247 
 
 "If a workman in any department has an ambition to become 
 a foreman, he should try for a position under some successful fore- 
 man and study to learn the ways of running a room. Good foremen 
 are always in demand, and there is hardly a day but changes are 
 heard of. If a young man can show a manufacturer that he is fitted 
 for a foreman's position by his knowledge of the different parts of 
 the work and methods of forwarding work through the department, 
 it will not be long before he has secured such a position." 
 
 In spite, however, of these opportunities, there is a 
 marked dearth of competent foremen. In the Chicago 
 investigation nearly three fourths of the employers re- 
 ported difficulty in finding or training suitable overseers. 
 No less th^n ninety-eight per cent of the foremen in New 
 York factories were bom and trained across the water — 
 a fact which needs no comment. 
 
 The larger factories must have at the head men who 
 can buy raw materials, sell the finished product, handle 
 men, and know the technique of the manufacturing proc- 
 esses. The retail and wholesale stores must select their 
 officials from the most efficient buyers, managers, and 
 salesmen. Foremanship is, therefore, one of the most 
 direct roads to the highest official positions. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 The Professions 
 
 TO the vocational guide the professions offer a double 
 problem. There is, on the one side, the youth who 
 by ability, opportunity, or family connections is distinctly 
 called, to pulpit, bar, or hospital; or who is, at the least, 
 fairly entitled to consider the possibility of a learned 
 career. On the other hand, there is the youth, and still 
 more often the parent, who regards a profession as a 
 place where one "will not have to do any work." Need- 
 less to say, the latter sort is rarely drawn from the pro- 
 fessional classes. 
 
 On both these accoimts the vocational counselor ought 
 to face squarely the actual condition in a field which it is 
 more often wise to warn candidates to avoid than to per- 
 suade them to enter. 
 
 Truth is, the professions in America are scandalously 
 overcrowded. In 1890 there was one lawyer to each 
 eight hundred persons, children included; in 1900, one to 
 each six hundred and fifty; in 19 10 the number had grown 
 to one for each five hundred. Of doctors, there is one 
 to every six hundred potential patients, of whom, ob- 
 viously, even during an epidemic, only a small number 
 are ever sick at the same time. The state of affairs in 
 the ministry has become notorious. One clergyman to 
 each seven hundred inhabitants, and not half of these 
 churchgoers! All through the country are churches so 
 ill-equipped that a half-dozen of them combined would 
 hardly support one pastor in decent comfort. In general, 
 the proportion of American men and women in the 
 
 248 
 
The Professions 249 
 
 professions is about twice as large as, for example, in 
 Germany. And there is no dearth there ! 
 
 The conditions in medicine and law are well summed 
 up in the recent report of the Carnegie Foundation on 
 Medical Education. What is said there will apply equally 
 well to the ministry : 
 
 "For twenty-five years past there has been an enormous overpro- 
 duction of uneducated and ill-trained medical practitioners. This 
 has been in absolute disregard of the public welfare. Taking the 
 United States as a whole, physicians are four or five times as numer- 
 ous in proportion to population as in older countries like Germany. 
 In a town of two thousand people one will find, in most of 
 our states, from five to eight physicians, where two well-trained 
 men could do the work efficiently and make a competent livelihood. 
 When, however, six or eight ill-trained physicians undertake to 
 get a living in a town which will support only two, the whole plane 
 of professional conduct is lowered in the struggle which ensues, 
 each man becomes intent on his own practice, public health and 
 sanitation are neglected, and the ideals and standards of the pro- 
 fession tend to demoralization. 
 
 "A similar state of affairs comes from the presence of too large a 
 number of ill-trained lawyers in a community. When six or eight 
 men seek to gain their living from the practice of the law in which 
 at the most two good lawyers could do all the work, the demorali- 
 zation to society becomes acute." 
 
 Needless to say, the results of this overcrowding are 
 most deplorable. The lawyer turns or is driven to politics, 
 business, shystering; the physician picks up odd jobs, 
 and waits; every year many clergymen, fairly starved out 
 of their sacred calling, give up their parishes and go into 
 business. Thus the standards of the professions become 
 demoralized and the whole plane of professional conduct 
 is lowered. 
 
 Quite erroneous notions are abroad concerning the size 
 of professional incomes. Successful lawyers do gain 
 enorrnous fees, but their expenses also are heavy. Famous 
 surgeons and consultants charge high for brief service, 
 
2^0 V ocational Guidance 
 
 but not infrequently they do large amounts of equally 
 good work for nothing. Engineer and architect live on 
 the narrow margin between their intake and the cost of 
 their office force. 
 
 Prizes in some of the professions are indeed great — 
 but they are correspondingly few. The average pro- 
 fessional man in the United States, ten years or more 
 after completing his formal education, does not make 
 more than fifteen hundred dollars a year; and he has 
 waited until after he is thirty to do even that. The pay 
 of the average clergjmian is still lower, — less actually 
 than that of a good mechanic who began to earn at sixteen 
 and was on full pay at twenty. 
 
 That the less successful members of the professional 
 classes seem to be better off than the higher levels of 
 manual workers is due largely to their greater frugality, 
 not to their greater incomes. Comparison of family budg- 
 ets shows that in the one greatest item of family expense, 
 namely food, the "standard of living" of professional men 
 is notably lower than that of working men of like or even 
 of smaller incomes. In short, a capable young mechanic, 
 if he should adopt the standards and practices of the or- 
 dinary professional man, and marry a wife of the same 
 tastes, training, and ability, would probably find himself 
 at forty quite as well off in this world's goods as the people 
 whom he now envies. 
 
 The first duty of the vocational guide is to respect 
 every boy's ambition, for it is much easier to guide than 
 to kindle interests, but she can safely tell the plain truths 
 and thereby frighten off all youths who aspire to profes- 
 sional careers in order to find an easy job, and warn the 
 remainder of the long and arduous preparation that is 
 before them, and make sure that they are counting the 
 full cost. 
 
The Professions 251 
 
 There is, however, absolutely no way of telling in 
 advance whether any boy or girl is going to be suited to 
 any particular profession. There is not even a psycho- 
 logical type that is especially adapted to the professions 
 in general. The most that one can say is that the pro- 
 fessions are traditionally "learned." Any sort of ability 
 finds its place, provided only that its grade is sufficiently 
 high. But the pupil who is not bookish enough to rank 
 well up toward the head of his class is probably not up to 
 the professional standard. 
 
 Many writers on vocational matters have dwelt at 
 length on the qualifications for various callings. Any- 
 body can do this at any length, provided his psychologi- 
 cal analysis is sufficiently bad and he jumbles together 
 native aptitudes and the results of the practice of the 
 profession itself. As a matter of fact, though many 
 lawyers are exceptionally good speakers, many are quite 
 dumb; the fact that a schoolboy shines in declamation 
 does not raise any special presumption of a call to the bar. 
 No more does excellence in school composition indicate the 
 budding literary man, nor a solemn "bedside manner" 
 the coming practitioner of the healing art. Virtually all 
 the peculiarities which we associate with lawyer, clergy- 
 man, or physician are the results of his training, or the 
 years of practice in his profession. Few of them are 
 native; none of them are discernible in boyhood. The 
 only point on which the vocational guide can put his 
 finger is this, that a physician, an architect, and com- 
 monly an. engineer, must have a mental imagery of the 
 visual type. In a very real sense, moreover, lawyer, 
 clergyman, and editor are the flowering out of the sales- 
 man type of worker; surgeon, architect, and engineer, of 
 the mechanic type. 
 
 In the United States the three old professions are 
 
2^2 Vocational Guidance 
 
 about equally well represented, with medicine slightly in 
 the lead — one hundred and thirty-odd thousand doctors 
 against one hundred and ten to fifteen thousand of each 
 of the others. Of the three, the law is the most special- 
 ized, offers the greatest prizes, and probably slightly the 
 largest average income. The ministry, hardly specialized 
 at all, has the smallest average earnings, and few great 
 prizes, if the moral side is not considered. 
 
 In none of these fields is there an even chance for a 
 woman. To be sure, there were above three thousand 
 clergy women in the United States in 1900, almost one 
 thirtieth of the total number of ordained persons; but 
 their opportunities are restricted to the less conservative 
 religious bodies, and usually to churches too poor to hire 
 a man. Even with four fifths of the church members 
 women, a woman enters the pulpit more or less on toler- 
 ance. But in connection with church work, positions as 
 deaconesses, district nurses, and social workers are giving 
 - to women a constantly enlarging sphere of influence. 
 
 Of lawyers, women number less than one to the hun- 
 dred. Their chief clientage is among women, and because 
 of social customs they are practically prevented from 
 reaching the highest financial success. There is no good 
 reason, however, why women shoiild not become the best 
 of legal advisers, particularly for women and children. 
 
 As a matter of fact, they are fast entering this field 
 through the juvenile courts, and one efficient woman 
 probation officer is worth and is actually filling the place 
 of many lawyers of the old school. 
 
 As physicians, their chances are relatively better, about 
 one to every seventeen men. They practice largely among 
 other women or devote themselves to the diseases of 
 children. In the latter field they have achieved high 
 success. 
 
The Professions 
 
 253 
 
 j; 'ilj J -- . 
 
 'H-tiilrti 
 
 k..„_....J i 
 
 
 
 
 
 A familiar scene in the juvenile court. Because of their special 
 
 fitness for the work, women have almost a monopoly in this 
 
 esurt and through it are fast taking an important 
 
 place in the legal field 
 
 The fact is, most men prefer other men as their profes- 
 sional advisers. Most women also prefer men. So long 
 as things are as they are, only a very few women of the 
 highest grade of ability can find a place. Some of this 
 prejudice against women is the direct result of deep- 
 seated instincts which are not quickly changed, but a 
 large part is the result of customs which are easily changed. 
 One may regret the injustice of the present situation, but 
 the vocational counselor must face the facts. It should 
 be noted, however, that although the opportunities for 
 women in these old professions are restricted, yet the 
 number of women doctors nearly doubled, of women 
 ministers trebled, and the number of women lawyers 
 increased nearly five hundred per cent in the decade 
 from 1S90 to 1900. 
 
254 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 On the other hand, there are two professions in which 
 women outnumber men — in teaching by three to one, 
 and in nursing by ten to one. Now teaching is related 
 psychologically to both law and the ministry. The kind 
 of woman who, if she had been a man, would have suc- 
 ceeded in pulpit or at bar, will in most cases, being a 
 woman, do better by herself behind the preceptoress' 
 desk. The legal type will, on the whole, incline to high- 
 school and college work; the pastoral to the grammar 
 grades. Besides these, there are, of course, innumerable 
 special subjects to be taught — singing, dancing, art, 
 music, cooking, gymnastics. 
 
 Many kinds of social and philanthropic work, also, 
 demand the same types of professional ability as the 
 ministry and the law. This is a field where native 
 sympathy and scientific methods combine to render high 
 service, with correspondingly high rewards. The work 
 is especially open to women of high talents and special 
 training. For the higher vocations open to women read 
 
 Courtfsy of Extension Dcpartmont, Alabfurm Polytcclinic Inntitiit(i 
 
 In rural districts a new vocation is represented by the county agent, 
 
 who instructs girls in scientific methods of canning 
 
 and preserving 
 
The Professions 
 
 255 
 
 The teaching of gymnastics is a field offering ample 
 opportunities for women 
 
 Vocations for Trained Women, by the Woman's Educa- 
 tional and Industrial Union of Boston. 
 
 Fully three quarters of the professional women in the 
 United States are now teaching, and the number continues 
 to grow — a sure sign that those already in the profession 
 are doing well. The president of Wellesley College, of 
 Motmt Holyoke, and of Bryn Mawr, and the Superintend- 
 ent of Schools in Chicago, to mention only a few striking 
 cases, are all women. Not many persons in any vocation 
 surpass the ten and fifteen thousand dollars a year which 
 fall to the head mistresses of a few ultra-fashionable 
 girls' schools. 
 
 The social rewards of the woman teacher are also 
 high, and the work is one of the best introductions to 
 home making of any outside calling. On all accounts, 
 
2^6 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 then, .unless a girl's vocation toward one of the allied 
 men's professions is strong and unmistakable, teaching 
 offers her the better chance. 
 
 The same course of reasoning applies to the two branches 
 of medicine. Few women, comparatively, make good phy- 
 sicians, and fewer, good surgeons — and when they do, the 
 
 
 
 
 
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 The school nurse has an important work in a well-specialized 
 medical field 
 
 public in general declines to employ them. On the other 
 hand, men seldom make good nurses. There is a call for 
 a few men for cases requiring much lifting, for sanitarium 
 work, and for the dangerous insane. Other than these, 
 the profession is virtually given over to women. 
 
 It used to be said that a nurse could never succeed 
 without uncommon physical stamina and pecuHar ability 
 to get on without sleep. This is no longer true. The 
 profession has become thoroughly specialized, quite as 
 
The Professions 2jy 
 
 much so as other medical fields, so that school nurse, 
 district nurse, visiting nurse, and office nurse keep the 
 same regular hours as any other people. The profession 
 is exacting; but equally so are most other fields of labor 
 of the same grade. 
 
 Teaching and nursing, it is interesting to note, are 
 related much as are two other vocations especially open 
 to women, salesmanship and office work. Teaching and 
 selling cover the wider range from top to bottom in capac- 
 ity, training, and rewards; and they presuppose more 
 interest in human nature. Nursing and office work are 
 more given over to women and are less in the public eye. 
 Nursing, moreover, like office work, offers many openings 
 to executive capacity. 
 
 In the educational field the executive positions as prin- 
 cipals and superintendents are good opportunities for 
 men, with fair financial returns. In the newer fields of 
 manual training, the teaching of trades and agriculture, 
 which the vocational interest is widening, there is a great 
 demand, which will continue to increase, for men teachers, 
 and salaries are adequate. 
 
 The newer professions, such as the engineering group 
 or the various subdivisions of the writing art, though 
 already much overcrowded, have this peculiar advantage 
 over the three old professions that they are closely tied 
 to the industrial levels next below. The briefless lawyer, 
 the clergyman without a living, the physician whom no 
 patient consults, are left hanging in the air. There is 
 nothing underneath for them to drop on. But the 
 architect can make a living at drafting, the engineer can 
 run levels, the editor can go out and get news. All these 
 newer professions have grown up lately out of some 
 trade or craft or business. There is no dividing line 
 between their different levels, and every youth, whatever 
 
258 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 his ability or his ' training, is pretty certain to hit his 
 
 place somewhere. 
 
 For this reason, there is less risk in essaying one of 
 
 the newer professions than in attempting medicine, the 
 
 ministry, or the law. There is no being admitted to 
 
 the bar, licensed to 
 practice, or ordained 
 to preach so that one 
 is either completely 
 in the profession or 
 else entirely out of 
 it. Moreover, it is 
 perfectly respectable, 
 under the less severe 
 etiquette of these 
 newer professions, to 
 get a living by any 
 honest labor in the 
 general line of one's 
 training — a young 
 architect may draw 
 comics for the news- 
 paper when a young 
 clergyman may not 
 recite monologues on 
 
 Courtesy of Extension Dept , Alaliania Polyteclinic Institut 
 
 A n interesting vocation is open to the corn- 
 club boy in the increasing demand 
 for teachers of agriculture 
 
 the Stage. For this reason, the youth may safely be 
 encouraged to aim high in certain vocations when he 
 may not in others. 
 
 Some of these newer professions, as for example the 
 engineering group, are virtually closed to women. On 
 the other hand, all sorts of literary and artistic occupations 
 are freely open to them on the same terms as to men. 
 Several of these, moreover, notably writing stories and 
 painting, may be followed along with home making and 
 
The Professions 259 
 
 after marriage. All of them, therefore, for one reason 
 or for both, offer especial attractions to talented girls. 
 
 It is well also, in advising girls to enter the professions, 
 to bear in mind that while men have the greater absolute 
 number of openings, the opportunities for women are 
 appreciably more numerous in proportion to the total 
 number of women engaged in gainful occupations. More- 
 over, promotion is, as in every field, always more rapid 
 for women than for men, for the reason that the superiors 
 of women marry off as well as die. The consideration has 
 especial weight in the professions, since there the first 
 start is peculiarly difficult. 
 
 In brief, then, the problem of the vocational guide 
 confronted with an aspirant for one of the professions is 
 to be handled by a few simple rules. First, warn every 
 one against entering the professions. Second, swing as 
 many as possible of those who persist from the older, 
 "learned" professions to the newer, useful professions. 
 And third, if a girl inclines to one of the masculine 
 vocations, enlarge at length on the advantages of the 
 corresponding feminine vocation. 
 
 18 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 The Foundations of All Success 
 
 WHEN from the foregoing general survey of the indus- 
 trial field the vocational counselor in the public 
 schools turns to the practical assistance of boys and girls, 
 she promptly discovers that she is dealing as little with 
 any tabula rasa here as in other departments of education. 
 Rarely during the grammar-school course can one say, 
 either to youth or to parent: "Here are such and such 
 qualities, which point with absolute certainty to such 
 and such a calling. Let that, therefore, be the life work." 
 Long before the boy or girl takes his elders into his 
 confidence he has already made up his mind that certain 
 occupations attract him and that certain others repel. 
 These intuitions are often sound. Sound or not, they have 
 to be respected. 
 
 Now these childish predilections, awkward as they may 
 be for the professional vocational counselor outside the 
 schools, for the parent, or for the family friend, are really 
 of very great help to the teaching guide. Her problem 
 is a double one. Not only has she to guide the youth to 
 a wise choice of work, but she has in addition to turn 
 back this vocational interest and use it to dignify and to 
 vitalize the everyday work of her classroom. The latter 
 is by no means the less important. The precise direction 
 of the pupil's progress in his early teens is of less moment 
 than his motive for moving at all. 
 
 The grade teacher then, who knows the vocational 
 interests of her pupils, can say: "You wish to become 
 a stenographer and typist. Well then, you must learn 
 
 260 
 
The Foundations of all Success 261 
 
 to spell; and the time to begin is with to-day's lesson." 
 The prospective office worker must never make mistakes. 
 The prospective salesman may never be absent-minded 
 or cross. The prospective teacher of gymnastics must 
 not slouch over a book. In such ways as these, very spe- 
 cifically, the teacher may show each boy or girl how 
 this, that, and the other piece of school work is counting 
 directly on his future life work; how this, that, and the 
 other neglect is keeping him from his special goal. 
 
 But the vocational interest once aroused, the vocational 
 point of view once assumed, the teacher may go much 
 farther. Infoi-mation of a particular sort may count 
 toward a particular success, or it may not. Deficiency of 
 a certain kind may handicap one worker, but not another. 
 The very insistance of the vocational motive may lead the 
 prospective mechanic to wonder why he should learn to 
 spell; or the saleswoman, why she should bother with her 
 drawing. 
 
 For these reasons the teacher should, from the beginning 
 of her vocational work, lay stress on the foundations of 
 all success in any calling. Certain elements are common 
 to all occupations; lacking them, no boy or girl will ever 
 go very far in any. Indeed, in the last analysis, it is just 
 because certain items of information and certain mental 
 and physical habits are essential to any kind of grown-up 
 work, that all elementary schools unite in spending most 
 of their effort on them. _ 
 
 The list is, of course, familiar. On the one hand there 
 are power of attention, promptness, accuracy, steadiness 
 of temper, cheerfulness, courtesy, order and system, 
 honesty, faithfidness, foresight, industry — all the long list 
 of qualities which the common schools and the experience 
 of life usually manage to inculcate. All these are, at 
 least in part, habits. The serious-minded child can be led 
 
262 V oc attonal Guidance 
 
 deliberately to cultivate them by many different motives 
 — among which, by no means weakest, is the vocational. 
 
 On the other side come the traditional subjects of 
 school instruction and the more modem disciplines that 
 have been added to them. It is a stupid child who cannot 
 be made to see the difference in the financial position of 
 adults who have not mastered the three R's and of those 
 who have. A little attention to what the well-to-do 
 classes actually know and can do, as compared with the 
 less fortunate, will commonly answer all "what is the 
 use" questions. In short, the child may early be made to 
 see the definite value both of sound habits and of general 
 mental training. 
 
 Much of this appeal, however, must be managed 
 shrewdly. Children commonly get so much concerning 
 the value of sound knowledge and good habits that the 
 whole thing takes on something of the unpleasant flavor 
 of the "drunkard stomach physiology." Church and 
 home imite in preaching the moral and spiritual aspect. 
 The school may well freshen this appeal by a little cold- 
 blooded business. 
 
 Let us then replace the Belgians at Waterloo, the Boy 
 at the Dike, the Loose Nail in the Horse's Shoe, and the 
 rest of the immemorial stock stories, by fresh anecdotes 
 of the commercial world, taken, if possible, from the 
 industries with which the pupil is already familiar, or, still 
 better, from the experiences of people, whom he knows. 
 The wide-awake teacher will have no difficulty in pick- 
 ing these up either at first hand, from biographies, or from 
 the pages of trade periodicals. Boys, especially, are great 
 hero worshipers. If they can see that any actual man, 
 about whom they have heard outside school or seen with 
 their own eyes, has turned any knowledge, habit, or custom 
 to any practical and useful end, that point is proved. 
 
The Foundations of all Success 263 
 
 System, for example, like other periodicals of the same 
 class, is full of anecdotes to illustrate the business virtues. 
 There is, among others, a capital story of a tactful salesman 
 who pronounced the trade name of his ware indifferently, 
 following always his customer's lead. His business was 
 to sell goods, not to meddle with people's English. 
 
 It would be hard to find a better illustration of the 
 importance of accuracy than the following from System. 
 Mr. John Harper, living in a little town in Wyoming, sent 
 in an order for goods amounting in value to $146.92, and 
 accompanied it with a draft for the full amount. But 
 the clerk who entered the order let his mind wander for 
 an instant, and left off the initial figure one. Harper, 
 therefore, being credited with only $46.92, got his goods 
 shipped C. O. D. 
 
 Now Harper happened to live one hundred and ten 
 miles from the railway. It took him three days to drive 
 in. Naturally, thinking his goods fully paid for, he did 
 not have $100 in his pocket. He returned home, there- 
 fore, empty handed, and started a long correspondence 
 with his dealer. In the course of time, the error was run 
 down and rectified. Harper once more spent a week on 
 the road — and the dealer paid him damages that wiped 
 out his profit several times over. The two seconds' 
 inattention of the order clerk cost the amount of his 
 wages for as many weeks. 
 
 The advantages of such stories as these are two. For 
 one thing, they are not meant for the edification of infants, 
 but for the instruction of business men, who read trade 
 journals. They have the flavor of the grown-up world. 
 For another thing, they are not shopworn moral tales, 
 but fresh "news items," the happenings of the past 
 month, that occurred in places on the map. They are 
 fresh and real, as too much of our teaching is not. 
 

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 Stories to the class, quiet hints in private, is the working 
 method. Teaching, be it observed, is one of the human- 
 nature vocations where tact is presupposed. No one 
 practical method, however, is more vivifying both to 
 teacher and pupil than the study of the actual require- 
 ments of actual employers. 
 
 The United States Civil Service Commission, for 
 example, issues large blank forms on which each candidate 
 for a government position has to set forth his equipment 
 in the general qualifications demanded for all. So also 
 do the various State Commissions. Many large private 
 or public-service corporations do the same — the several 
 branches of the American Telephone Company; nearly 
 all railways; many great packing firms; manufacturing 
 and mercantile houses of various sorts; all employment 
 agencies large or small; virtually every business, in short, 
 which has more employees than one man can carry in his 
 head. Besides these, there are the bonding and surety 
 companies which make themselves responsible for the 
 competence and integrity of trusted officers of all sorts, 
 and risk ten, fifty, a hundred thousand dollars on the 
 quality of a total stranger. These last, one may be sure, 
 do not spare inquiry. 
 
 All of these, in addition to the questions addressed 
 directly to the applicant, send also blank forms- and ask 
 for private and confidential information from pastors, 
 teachers, friends, employers, and the like. Both kinds of 
 document are easily obtained. If they are the inquiry 
 sheets of some famous organization, still better of some 
 local body, their effect on the pupil is so much the more 
 impressive. 
 
 Any teacher may well spend the small effort necessary 
 to collect a set of such documents. If she does not use 
 them with her class, they will be useful for some boy or 
 
266 Vocational Guidance 
 
 girl to look over when he has no lessons to learn. A 
 satisfactory working set will include the United States 
 Civil Service requirements for skilled mechanics and 
 post-office employees, the state requirements for laborers 
 and for office workers, the application blanks of an 
 employment agency, a bonding company, an insurance 
 company, a teachers' agency, a hospital training school 
 for nurses, and a railway corporation. These will cover 
 the general ground. Beyond them, the more, the better. 
 
 It is extraordinary with what unanimity all these various 
 sorts of business men ask the same simple questions. The 
 manager of a great corporation expects of his office boy, 
 though on a smaller scale, just about the same qualities 
 that his directors expect of him. What the bonding 
 company demands of the cashier, the cashier demands of 
 the cash girl. Without order, promptness, and honesty, 
 nobody gets on anywhere in the business world. 
 
 It makes an interesting class exercise to run through sets 
 of these blanks, and to see what are the general require- 
 ments of all occupations, and which are especially empha- 
 sized in particular fields. A synopsis of this information 
 arranged as a wall chart is most impressive. 
 
 Take by way of illustration the great bonding and 
 surety companies. They lay special emphasis on moral 
 habits. "Have you ever heard," says the confidential 
 sheet of the Massachusetts Bonding and Insurance 
 Company, "that he [the applicant] has been suspected 
 of: a. drunkenness, b. gambling, c. speculation, d. extrav- 
 agance, e. dishonorable conduct, /. fraud or dishonesty?" 
 Note the form of the question, "Have you ever heard that 
 he has been suspected" — there must not be so much as the 
 breath of suspicion of the sort of act which is represented 
 in the child's world by copying school work, pitching 
 pennies, or bu5dng overmuch candy. Moreover, though 
 
The Foundations of all Success 26y 
 
 Filching pennies is a form of gambling in the child's world 
 which helps to fix moral habits 
 
 naturally it does not appear on the blank, the management 
 of one company declares frankly that it will not become 
 surety for a man who works in pool room, billiard room, or 
 saloon, or who has been a drunkard within five years. 
 
 The United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company of 
 Baltimore puts honesty first: "Was he ever suspected of 
 fraud or dishonesty or any dishonorable act?" Next, it 
 places personal habits: "Is he, or has he ever been, ad- 
 dicted to intemperance, gambling, immorality, or other 
 vice?" Then follow questions concerning style of living, 
 extravagant habits, character of friends and associates. 
 
 The American Surety Company wants to know whether 
 the applicant is "sober, careful, and reliable; lives within 
 his means; is free of even the suspicion of fraud or dis- 
 honesty, dishonorable or improper conduct, gambling, 
 drinking, or speculation." With one voice, these great 
 bonding companies, first, last, and all the time, want to 
 know about the moral habits which are formed and fixed 
 
268 Vocational Guidance' 
 
 during boyhood and girlhood, and in school. Under 
 modem conditions, no person who cannot satisfy his 
 bondsmen on these points can ever hope to rise to any 
 position of trust. 
 
 Not only, however, is the one boy in two in the busi- 
 ness world who, as we have seen, rises to a position of 
 responsibility, likely at any time to need the services of 
 a bonding company, he is likely in addition to require 
 insurance. The insurance companies also make the same 
 careful investigation into the young man's habits. As 
 one manager put it, "When a young fellow is just starting 
 out, the only thing we can lay stress on is his moral 
 record. If this is good, we take the risk." Any boy, in 
 short, who can look ahead at all can be brought to see 
 these things without any moralizing over them. It is 
 enough that the teacher point out the facts. 
 
 The employing companies go farther. They also ask con- 
 cerning honesty, sobriety, industry, friends and associates, 
 general character. Then, with singular unanimity, they 
 all want to know what the applicant has been doing in 
 school. The boy or girl may not ' ' see the use, ' ' but next to 
 habits and character, the business man pounces on school 
 standing. Presumably, the business man knows his business. 
 
 "Profane, vulgar, and coarse language" is one of the 
 things that interests the United States Civil Service Com- 
 mission. It wants also to know whether the applicant 
 has shown inefficiency in any occupation. One large 
 mercantile house inquires whether the applicant can 
 "work harmoniously with others." Several firms keep 
 out of the way of persons who use tobacco. To a remark- 
 able extent, the demand of the business world centers on 
 matters which are entirely within a youth's own control. 
 
 After the documentary evidence comes the personal 
 interview. All employers lay great weight on their first 
 
The Foundations of all Success 26g 
 
 general impressions. In fact, the employer's own business 
 success turns partly on his power of sizing up other persons 
 at first glance. Voice, manner, carriage, bearing, dress, 
 language, all go to make up the favorable or unfavorable 
 picture in the employer's mind — and competition for the 
 best positions is close in these days. 
 
 But manners are habits, not put on for the moment, 
 but drilled in by years of effort. Every slovenly vowel, 
 every slatternly garment, may have to be paid for in 
 hard cash. And the child can be made to see it. 
 
 The four cardinal habits of the business world are 
 attention, honesty, cheerfulness, accuracy. Every suc- 
 cessful worker has the first two. The third is a prime 
 requisite of all salesmen and foremen; the fourth, of all 
 bookkeepers and clerical workers. All of them can be 
 acquired by every pupil of fair ability during a grammar- 
 school and high-school course. 
 
 In brief, then, the business world says to the school 
 pupil, "Know certain things, be certain things, and we 
 pay you for the trouble." It is not the highest motive 
 to appeal to; but it is one of the most efficient. 
 
 Always, however, is the life more than the meat. We 
 want for the child a mind and body trained to the highest 
 efficiency, guaranteeing the possessor the best chances 
 of power and success. To this end we use the vocational 
 motive because, among other advantages, it enables us 
 to apply with especial efficiency the warning of the great- 
 est of American psychologists : 
 
 "Don't preach too much to your pupils or abound in good talk in 
 the abstract. Lie in wait rather for the practical opportunities, 
 be prompt to seize these as they pass and thus at one operation get 
 your pupils both to think, to feel, and to do. The strokes of behavior 
 are what give new set to the character, and work the good habits 
 into its organic tissue. Preaching and talking too soon become an 
 ineffectual bore.'' 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 The Vocational Guide as a Constructive 
 Social Force 
 
 VOCATIONAL guidance is, then, a fourfold process. 
 Its results are : first, the arrival of the pupil at self- 
 knowledge; second, the development in him of those 
 habits and elements of character which make for a success- 
 ful life; third, the opening of his eyes to the wide field of 
 vocational opportunity that lies before him; fourth, the 
 presenting to him the particular means through which 
 he will be trained for his best efficiency. These are the 
 four essentials of vocational guidance from the point of 
 view of the particular youths who are under our control. 
 
 When, however, for the moment we turn away from 
 the boy or girl who looks forward to becoming a worker 
 to the work which, in our rich country, needs to be done, 
 the problem of vocational guidance takes on certain wide 
 social aspects. 
 
 We have here in the United States about one twentieth 
 of the world's population. But we produce one quarter 
 of the world's gold; a third or more of its silver, iron, steel, 
 and coal; more than half its petroleum and copper; and 
 seven tenths of its cotton. Much of this raw material we 
 are now exporting for other countries to manufacture into 
 finished products. But if we could educate our children 
 to organize and man the mechanical industries which 
 will turn these raw materials into finished products on 
 our own soil, we should increase by just so much the total 
 wealth of our country. If, in addition, we could secure 
 this new wealth without at the same time increasing 
 
 270 
 
A Constructive Social Force 
 
 271 
 
 correspondingly the number of persons among whom it 
 is to be shared, the material well-being of the average 
 citizen would, by so much, be augmented. Moreover, 
 quite aside from the question of expanding industries, if 
 those which we now 
 have can be lifted 
 to a higher level of 
 efficiency, so much 
 more abundant for 
 us all will become 
 the good things of 
 life. To both aspects 
 of this great task of 
 adding to our na- 
 tional efficiency, the 
 vocational guide may 
 hope to contribute. 
 
 The immediate 
 problem is to get the 
 workers into work 
 that really counts 
 for something. As 
 things are now, the 
 whole mass of per- 
 sons engaged in 
 getting things done 
 divides itself into 
 three groups. 
 
 There are, to begin 
 with, the construc- 
 tive workers. In this class belong all who are adding to 
 the general welfare of the community. The man who 
 cleans the street, or grows com, or makes a chair, or 
 teaches a child something that he needs to know, is 
 
 .^ 
 
 ^AmK 
 
 A:;ki>liP^'"'^ 
 
 l^ipi'i^: 
 
 «l«lilfe 
 
 
 
 i H 
 
 
 
 i^^\ , ^c^^B 
 
 W^-'i , . . ; ■ 
 
 wr-^'xmm& 
 
 
 mmmmL^^^'^my ■ wi 
 
 Courtesy of Extension Dept., Alabama Polytechnic Institute 
 
 The county agent who interests girls in 
 
 gardening and canning adds to the 
 
 general welfare of the community 
 
2^2 Vocational Guidance 
 
 in this constructive class. Fortunately for the com- 
 munity, the vast majority of men and women belong 
 in this group. 
 
 There is, however, another large social group which 
 consists of those who do no particular harm to the body 
 politic and no particular good, and of those whose good 
 works just about balance their evil deeds. The state is 
 no worse off for their presence, and no better. They are 
 like the " cow boarders," whose milk just about pays their 
 feed bills and the wages of their care takers. They cost 
 their owner nothing — and he has the pleasure of their 
 society. 
 
 To this group belong all sorts of well-meaning drones, 
 all persons who are idle or nearly idle when they are able 
 to work, all holders of ornamental offices, and all super- 
 numerary workers who merely get in one another's 
 way. When two grocers or two milkmen cover the same 
 territory, the two together doing hardly more than either 
 could do alone, only one of the two can be counted as a 
 fully constructive worker ; the other is more or less in the 
 neutral class. When clerks in stores stand idle half the week 
 in order that there may be enough of them to handle the 
 rush of a single day or of particular hours, the customs of 
 the community reduce all the excess clerks from the con- 
 structive group to the neutral. When wheat, bought in 
 quantity at two cents the pound, is hauled to a factory 
 and made over into fancy breakfast foods, put up in 
 attractive packages, heavily advertised, and sold for ten 
 cents the pound, but on the whole is rather less wholesome 
 and nutritious for the process, nearly all this added labor 
 is neutral in its results. 
 
 I happen to know a home in which there is a father 
 who is an imcommonly efficient business man, a mother 
 who is a fair home maker, and one young child. There 
 
A Constructive Social Force 2^2 
 
 are also, in this household, three general servants and 
 two laundresses, a nurse and a governess, a chef, a butler, 
 two outside men, two stable men, and a general outside 
 manager. The estate is about ten acres, and nothing in 
 the way of food or clothing is produced on it. Possibly 
 one fourth of these persons, including of course the man 
 and his wife, are constructive workers. The rest merely 
 hop up and down in their places, taking care of one 
 another, but adding nothing to the world's well-being. 
 
 Now it is evident that the smaller the number of idlers 
 or otherwise useless persons in any community, and the 
 larger the number of constructive workers, the better it 
 is for everybody concerned. The richer any man gets by 
 honest methods in a productive industry, the richer does 
 he make his neighbors; but the neutrals have to be fed 
 by the rest; and the productive worker commonly has 
 sufficient burden of his own to carry without being 
 compelled to tote drones. When therefore the influence 
 of a vocational guide swings any prospective worker from 
 the neutral to the constructive class, the whole social 
 group is benefited. 
 
 Still more is this the case with those workers who are 
 not merely useless but actually destructive. For example, 
 about one fifteenth of the national income goes for liquor, 
 five times as much as for education. But the money 
 spent on education is returned many fold to the com- 
 munity; that spent on liquor is not merely wasted; in 
 addition it lowers by about one tenth the efficiency of 
 those who consume it. The quarter million persons who 
 follow the liquor business in the United States in all 
 its ramifications are destructive workers. Each one of 
 them swung over, even into the neutral group, would 
 be a gain. 
 
 Other destructive workers are the manufacturers and 
 
2U 
 
 V oc ati onal Guidance 
 
 A destructive industry 
 
 sellers of patent medicines, unwholesome foods, the 
 manifold substances that are used to adulterate other 
 things, the purveyors of vicious amusements, the insti- 
 gators of industrial troubles, commercial pirates, and the 
 authors of foolish laws. All these and their like hinder 
 the work of the wealth-producing group, and leave 
 society poorer than if they had never lived at all. 
 
 If each teacher in the United States, each year, guided 
 into constructive work one single boy or girl who would 
 otherwise have followed some neutral or destructive occu- 
 pation, that alone would probably wipe out the whole of 
 both non-constructive groups. In addition, since this 
 woiild add each year one constructive worker to the 
 nation's ranks, who would thereupon continue to do 
 useful work for ten, twenty, sometimes for forty years, 
 this effort of the teacher would repay to the state ten, 
 twenty, sometimes even forty times the amount of her 
 
A C onstructive Social Force 
 
 275 
 
 salary. If there is any constructive worker on whom the 
 community may reckon its profit by the hundred fold, 
 that worker is the efficient and conscientious teacher. 
 
 Hardly less in its far-reaching effects would be the 
 benefit to the community if each teacher in the country 
 should each year influence one pupil to fit himself for a 
 higher grade of work than the pupil had selected, or for 
 a work for which his special gifts more accurately fitted 
 him. The well-placed boy or girl, sticking steadily to a 
 thoroughly suitable job, may easily double the wage which 
 he would have earned unguided. The estimate is mod- 
 erate when we reflect that the wages of a competent 
 engineer or manager are often a hundred times those of 
 his least trained subordinates. 
 
 Right work, moreover, not only increases general 
 efficiency and wages, but develops a corresponding moral 
 
 The. home, of a drinking man, shouing Uie resuUs of a 
 destructive industry 
 
 19 
 
2^6 Vocational Guidance » 
 
 life. If talents and work are in harmony, then the whole 
 force of the jdaily work is on the long arm of the lever for 
 wholesomeness of character. Where work and talents 
 are ill-adjusted, then the daily work acts with a corre- 
 sponding force in the opposite direction. This factor alone 
 is sufficient to explain the success of one man and the 
 failure of another man equally competent. 
 
 But promotion within the constructive group means 
 a permanent elevation in the status of a family, better and 
 longer training for the children who are to come, higher 
 earning power for them, and more useful work done for 
 the state, it may be for generations. Meanwhile, by so 
 much has been relieved the congestion in the lower ranks 
 of workers where the supply of labor is always in excess 
 of the demand. 
 
 Furthermore, the promotion of the fit must mean to 
 some extent the elimination of the unfit. One of the 
 most serious disturbing factors in the industrial world to- 
 day is the filling of high and responsible positions by men 
 who do not earn their promotion but come to their places 
 by some social pull of family or wealth. As a rule these 
 men lack the practical common sense and the genuine 
 democratic spirit which come only through experience 
 with all kinds of men, hard work, and promotion on merit. 
 This untrained man is often not simply a neutral but a 
 destructive worker in a large sphere, for he lacks both the 
 wisdom and the power demanded by his position of great 
 responsibility. The wide difference in the esprit de corps 
 of two large factories separated only by a street can often 
 be traced to one of these untrained snobs. Many of our 
 industrial troubles can be traced to this same source. An 
 efficient system of vocational guidance, beginning in the 
 grades and carried into the trade school, high school, 
 store, and factory, will have a tendency not only to guide 
 
A Constructive Social Force z^J 
 
 Courtesy of Girls' Trade School, Boston 
 
 Classes in dressmaking. Vocational guidance directs the individual 
 and lends to place responsibility in the hands of the competent 
 
 the individual but to establish customs which promote 
 only the capable and competent to places of responsibility. 
 Another far-reaching result of vocational education 
 will be a higher standard and a higher respect for our 
 whole school system because it is suffused with a serious 
 tone. Our secondary education, including the high schools 
 and colleges, is now costing the taxpayers nearly twice as 
 much as the elementary schools, which exist for all the 
 children of all the people. For this large outlay the tax- 
 payers have a right to demand good returns. There is 
 no legitimate reason for spending the people's money on 
 boys and girls who simply fritter their time away and 
 lack any real purpose in life. As already observed, the 
 youths with a life purpose use their time well in school; 
 the others simply drift, have a good time, but acquire 
 habits which are an injury rather than a benefit to them 
 
278 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 in practical life. In such cases the people's money is 
 
 worse than wasted. 
 
 Vocational guidance must mean a more varied and 
 
 practical school system to meet the demands of real life. 
 
 The present high-school system fails to hold more than 
 
 a small per cent of the boys who enter. The school 
 
 experience in indus- 
 trial education in 
 Massachusetts and 
 other states proves 
 beyond dispute that 
 when a training is 
 offered which prom- 
 ises equipment for a 
 life work, more of 
 the really serious 
 minded pupils are 
 attracted and can be 
 held until they have 
 received the training 
 which the school 
 offers. The more se- 
 vere become the con- 
 ditions of entrance 
 and of continuance 
 in our secondary 
 
 It 
 
 
 ^^^VM 
 
 ''"^^ 
 
 ^aP 
 
 Hf^ 
 
 CopyriEht liy Underwood & Underwood, N. V. 
 
 School training which promises equipment 
 
 jor life work means a gain for taxpayers, 
 
 parents, and youths 
 
 schools, based on 
 adaptation and preparation for a position, the better it 
 will be for taxpayer, parents, and the youths. 
 
 Especially wholesome will be the results on our higher 
 institutions of learning of a genuine vocational spirit. 
 Many of our oldest colleges and imiversities have become 
 winter resorts for rich men's sons. The inevitable results 
 are vicious and immoral products — men who expect the 
 
A Constructive Social Force 2'jg 
 
 world to give them a high living without a corresponding 
 service. An efficient system of vocational guidance will 
 tend to eliminate from society the unvocational college, 
 and raise the standard so that no idler can remain, but is 
 returned to his fond parents for their entertainment and 
 edification. 
 
 This much then by way of suggestion concerning the 
 economic and social effects of vocational control by the 
 public schools. Still more important, though less obvi- 
 ous, should be its influence on the social conscience. 
 
 At the present time, in this country, we have developed 
 a public opinion which worships the great consumer 
 rather than the efficient producer. Public interest is in 
 the people who have, rather than in those who earn. 
 Even our education, with its stress on vague "culture," 
 presupposes leisure more than toil. What we need is 
 emphasis on the producer, that shall dignify home work, 
 agriculture, the mechanic arts, and make every boy and 
 girl feel how necessary and how worthy is the task to 
 which he looks forward. 
 
 The time was when the man who made a pair of shoes 
 made them well because he knew that he would meet 
 the wearer of those shoes from fifty-two to three hundred 
 and sixty-five times a year; and according as his work was 
 good or bad the worker was proud or shamed. That 
 time has gone forever, and the man who nails heels all day 
 in a shop never knows what becomes of his product. 
 
 We need, therefore, a new type of practical ethical 
 education that shall take the place of the old neighborly 
 incentives, and hold the worker to his best work though 
 its product travels across the continent. "Log rolling" 
 was once used to mean good-will and cooperation where 
 neighbors came together to help each other. As now 
 used, the words have a very disreputable meaning, the 
 
28o Vocational Guidance 
 
 former hearty personal relations having disappeared. 
 As Arthur Davis Dean has well said, "to teach a boy to 
 saw, to plan furniture, to adjust machinery, is a simple 
 task compared with that of training in him a social con- 
 sciousness which shall make him feel his obligation to his 
 employer and to the public." No man can be called 
 educated who has not a willingness and a desire, as well 
 as the trained ability, to do his part in the world's work. 
 This virtue should be the natural result of good voca- 
 tional guidance and training. Yet what is there like the 
 outlook on a special task, and preparation for it, to lead 
 any child into the larger, social, moral view of his life 
 work! 
 
 The most important part of vocational guidance is 
 therefore its contribution to culture and character. This 
 must forever remain the first aim of education. We are 
 beginning to realize that, in the words of Dr. Georg 
 Kerschensteiner, "character is not to be gained by the 
 reading of books or the hearing of sermons, but by con- 
 tinuous and steadily applied work. . . . We can educate 
 no one who is not happy in his work. ... In the 
 training which inspires love of work and results in effect- 
 iveness of effort, precisely those civic virtues are devel- 
 oped which must be regarded as the foundation of all 
 higher moral training — conscientiousness, diligence, per- 
 severance, and devotion to a strenuous life." 
 
THE APPENDIX 
 
 The following table from the Twelfth Census of the United States 
 gives the per cent which the number of males and of females in 
 specified occupations unemployed during any portion of the census 
 year forms of the total number of the same sex so occupied. 
 
 Occupations 
 
 Glassworkers 
 
 Plasterers 
 
 Masons (brick and stone) 
 
 Teachers and professors in colleges, 
 etc 
 
 Brick and tile makers, etc 
 
 Fishermen and oystermen 
 
 Paperhangers 
 
 Laborers (not specified) 
 
 Miners and quarrymen 
 
 Painters, glaziers, and varnishers . . . 
 
 Carpenters and joiners 
 
 Hat and cap makers 
 
 Marble and stone cutters 
 
 Roofers and slaters 
 
 Agricultural laborers 
 
 Wood choppers 
 
 Saw and planing mill employees .... 
 
 Stove, furnace, and grate makers . . 
 
 Coopers 
 
 Boatmen and sailors 
 
 Potters 
 
 Other food preparers 
 
 Seamstresses 
 
 Boot and shoe makers and repairers 
 
 Rubber factory operatives 
 
 Lumbermen and raftsmen 
 
 Silk-mill operatives 
 
 Iron and steel workers 
 
 Actors, professional showmen, etc... 
 
 Tobacco and cigar factory opera- 
 tives 
 
 Tailors and tailoresses 
 
 Turpentine farmers and laborers; 
 other agricultural pursuits 
 
 p 
 
 =r Cent of 
 
 Per Cent of 
 
 Males 
 
 Females 
 
 Unemployed in 
 
 Unemployed in 
 
 1900 
 
 1890 
 
 1900 
 
 1890 
 
 59-9 
 
 53-1 
 
 45-5 
 
 39- 1 
 
 56 
 
 I 
 
 42.9 
 
 
 
 
 55 
 
 5 
 
 42.9 
 
 
 
 
 55 
 
 
 
 30.8 
 
 61.2 
 
 33 
 
 
 48 
 
 4 
 
 43-6 
 
 
 
 
 46 
 
 3 
 
 40.4 
 
 
 
 
 44 
 
 5 
 
 28.0 
 
 
 
 
 44 
 
 3 
 
 33-4 
 
 44.1 
 
 22 
 
 b 
 
 44 
 
 3 
 
 47-9 
 
 
 
 
 42 
 
 4 
 
 311 
 
 
 
 
 41 
 
 4 
 
 31-8 
 
 
 
 
 41 
 
 
 
 33- 1 
 
 34-9 
 
 33 
 
 3 
 
 ,■^9 
 
 5 
 
 303 
 
 
 
 
 ,^6 
 
 5 
 
 26.8 
 
 
 
 
 36 
 
 I 
 
 17.2 
 
 44-3 
 
 18 
 
 6 
 
 35 
 
 2 
 
 313 
 
 
 
 
 35 
 
 I 
 
 31-7 
 
 
 
 
 34 
 
 7 
 
 30.4 
 
 
 
 
 34 
 
 3 
 
 26.4 
 
 
 
 
 33 
 
 3 
 
 28.8 
 
 
 
 
 32 
 
 8 
 
 30.7 
 
 34-4 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 32 
 
 7 
 
 233 
 
 
 
 
 32 
 
 5 
 
 18.0 
 
 24.2 
 
 13 
 
 I 
 
 31 
 
 7 
 
 25.2 
 
 42.5 
 
 36 
 
 4 
 
 31 
 
 
 
 380 
 
 39-6 
 
 40 
 
 9 
 
 30 
 
 9 
 
 295 
 
 
 
 
 29 
 
 3 
 
 27.4 
 
 25.8 
 
 24 
 
 3 
 
 28 
 
 I 
 
 25.4 
 
 
 
 
 27 
 
 8 
 
 17-5 
 
 39- 1 
 
 20 
 
 6 
 
 27 
 
 2 
 
 21.5 
 
 311 
 
 27 
 
 2 
 
 27 
 
 
 
 14-5 
 
 26.4 
 
 16 
 
 5 
 
 26 
 
 4 
 
 16.0 
 
 
 
 
 281 
 
282 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 Occupations 
 
 Per Cent of 
 
 Males 
 
 Unemployed in 
 
 1900 1890 
 
 Per Cent of 
 Females 
 Unemployed in 
 1900 1890 
 
 Charcoal, coke, and lime burners . . . 
 
 Tin plate and tinware makers 
 
 Gold and silver workers 
 
 Wireworkers 
 
 Broom and brush makers 
 
 Carpet factory operatives 
 
 Leather curriers and tanners 
 
 Other woodworkers 
 
 Other metal workers 
 
 Other textile workers 
 
 Shirt, collar, and cuff makers 
 
 Oil well and oil works employees . . . 
 
 Packers and shippers 
 
 Other miscellaneous industries 
 
 Plumbers and gas and steam fitters 
 
 Tool and cutlery makers 
 
 Trunk and leather-case makers, etc. . 
 
 Cabinet makers 
 
 Upholsterers 
 
 Dressmakers 
 
 Butter and cheese makers 
 
 Hosiery and knitting miU operatives 
 
 Messengers and errand and office 
 boys 
 
 Brassworkers 
 
 Woolen mill operatives 
 
 Bleachery and dye works operatives . 
 
 Draymen, hackmen, teamsters, etc.. 
 
 Boxmakers (paper) 
 
 Other textile mill operatives 
 
 Other chemical workers 
 
 Steam boiler makers 
 
 Engineers and firemen (not locomo- 
 tive) 
 
 Mechanics (not otherwise specified) 
 
 Wheelwrights 
 
 Musicians and teachers of music . . . 
 
 Glovemakers 
 
 Servants 'and waiters 
 
 Paper and pulp mill operatives 
 
 Distillers and rectifiers 
 
 Steam railroad employees 
 
 Telegraph and telephone linemen. . . 
 
 Nurses and midwives 
 
 Stock raisers, herders, and drovers. . 
 
 Printers, lithographers, and press- 
 men 
 
 15-0 
 
 26 
 
 14 
 18 
 
 17 
 20 
 
 25 
 
 20 
 
 16 
 
 16.6 
 
 19.6 
 
 14.6 
 
 13 
 18 
 20 
 
 13 
 
 20 
 
 16.8 
 
 13-8 
 
 150 
 
 13.0 
 
 27.7 
 
 31-5 
 
 12.2 
 13.2 
 22 .0 
 iS-9 
 159 
 14.9 
 20.7 
 19-5 
 16.3 
 
 14.9 
 14.4 
 12.8 
 II .1 
 38.8 
 9.8 
 14 
 15 
 13 
 10 
 II 
 II 
 
 28. 
 24. 
 
 22. 
 22. 
 
 26! 
 
 21 , 
 19- 
 
 20. 
 21 
 
 21 
 
 20 
 
 18 
 
 22 
 20, 
 
 14 
 21 . 
 
 9.6 
 
 27.1 
 16.5 
 
The Appendix 
 
 283 
 
 Occupations 
 
 Per Cent of 
 
 Males 
 
 Unemployed in 
 
 1900 1890 
 
 Per Cent of 
 Females 
 Unemployed in 
 1900 1890 
 
 Hostlers 
 
 Bookbinders 
 
 Hucksters and peddlers 
 
 Housekeepers and stewards 
 
 Other persons in trade and trans- 
 portation 
 
 Blacksmiths 
 
 Machinists 
 
 Harness and saddle makers and 
 repairers 
 
 Street railway employees 
 
 Cotton mill operatives 
 
 Engravers 
 
 Porters and helpers (in stores, etc.) . . 
 
 Bartenders 
 
 Gardeners, florists, nurserymen, etc. 
 
 Brewers and maltsters 
 
 Bottlers and soda water makers, 
 etc 
 
 Electricians, engineers (civil, etc.), 
 and surveyors 
 
 Model and pattern makers 
 
 Millers 
 
 Butchers 
 
 Bakers 
 
 Clock and watch makers and re- 
 pairers 
 
 Confectioners 
 
 Artists and teachers of art 
 
 Stenographers and typewriters 
 
 Janitors and sextons 
 
 Photographers 
 
 Telegraph and telephone operators . . 
 
 Watchmen, policemen, firemen, etc. ; 
 other domestic and personal serv- 
 ice 
 
 Salesmen and saleswomen 
 
 Milliners 
 
 Dairymen and dairy women 
 
 Launderers and laundresses 
 
 Barbers and hairdressers 
 
 Bookkeepers and accountants 
 
 Farmers, planters, and overseers. . . . 
 
 Literary and scientific persons 
 
 Agents 
 
 Clerks and copyists 
 
 Commercial travelers 
 
 4-7 
 4.6 
 4.6 
 4-5 
 
 3-9 
 
 3-7 
 3-4 
 
 3-3 
 3-3 
 31 
 30 
 2.6 
 
 2.5 
 2.3 
 2.1 
 
 1-9 
 
 1-3 
 1 .2 
 0.7 
 0.4 
 o. I 
 
 9-7 
 9,6 
 
 10.6 
 
 9-9 
 
 10.5 
 
 10.8 
 
 10.6 
 12. 1 
 10.8 
 
 10. o 
 
 9-9 
 13.2 
 
 9-7 
 7-4 
 8.9 
 
 133 
 8.6 
 
 9.0 
 
 9-9 
 9-7 
 II .2 
 7-6 
 8.1 
 
 5-4 
 4.8 
 50 
 5-4 
 
 16, 
 
 14, 
 
 9 
 
 H- 
 
 II 
 16 
 17 
 13 
 7 
 
 14 
 10 
 
 II . 
 26. 
 
 19 
 12. 
 
 8. 
 
 6. 
 II . 
 16, 
 
 9.6 
 
284 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 Occupations 
 
 Per Cent of 
 
 Males 
 
 Unemployed in 
 
 1900 1890 
 
 Per Cent of 
 Females 
 Unemployed in 
 1900 1890 
 
 Architects, designers, draftsmen, 
 etc 
 
 Manufacturers and officials, etc 
 
 Other professional- service 
 
 Officials (government) 
 
 Foremen and overseers 
 
 Restaurant keepers 
 
 Boarding and lodging house keepers . 
 
 Journalists 
 
 Clergymen 
 
 Merchants and dealers (wholesale) . . 
 
 Bankers and brokers 
 
 Dentists 
 
 Undertakers 
 
 Livery stable keepers 
 
 Merciaants and dealers (except 
 wholesale) 
 
 Hotel keepers 
 
 Lawyers 
 
 Saloon keepers 
 
 Soldiers, sailors, and marines (U. S.) 
 
 Officials of banks and companies . . . 
 
 Physicians and surgeons 
 
 4-5 
 6.1 
 
 5 
 6 
 
 4 
 6 
 2 
 o 
 I 
 6 
 
 5 
 2.4 
 2.8 
 
 2-7 
 
 2.3 
 2.4 
 1.8 
 2.3 
 2.4 
 3-7 
 1-4 
 
 .1 
 
 2. 
 
 ■4 
 
 3- 
 
 .6 
 
 ■7 
 5 
 5 
 
 2. 
 0. 
 4- 
 4- 
 
 7 
 8 
 
 I. 
 I. 
 
 7 
 
 0. 
 
 2 
 
 6. 
 
The Appendix 
 
 285 
 
 The following table, taken from Vol. II of the Twelfth Census of 
 the United States, shows the total number of persons in the United 
 States, ten years of age and over, engaged in each specified occupa- 
 tion. The classification is according to sex, and for the year 1900. 
 
 Occupations 
 
 Both Sexes 
 Mainland 
 
 Males 
 Mainland 
 
 Females 
 Mainland 
 
 All occupations 29,074,117 
 
 10,381,765 
 4,410,877 
 1,999,696 
 
 Agricultural Pursuits 
 
 Agricultural laborers 
 
 Farm and plantation laborers. 
 
 Farm laborers (members of 
 family) 
 
 Garden and nursery laborers. . 
 
 Dairymen and dairywomen 
 
 Farmers, planters, and overseers . 
 
 Farmers and planters 
 
 Farmers (members of family) . 
 
 Farm and plantation overseers 
 
 Milk farmers 
 
 Gardeners, florists, nurserymen, etc 
 
 Gardeners 
 
 Florists, nurserymen, and vine 
 growers 
 
 Fruit growers 
 
 Lumbermen and raftsmen 
 
 Stock raisers, herders, and drovers . . 
 
 Stock raisers 
 
 Stock herders and drovers 
 
 Turpentine farmers and laborers . . . 
 
 Wood choppers 
 
 Other agricultural pursuits 
 
 Apiarists 
 
 Not specified 
 
 Professional Service 
 
 Actors, professional showmen, etc . 
 
 Actors 
 
 Professional showmen 
 
 Theatrical managers, etc 
 
 Architects, designers, draftsmen, etc 
 
 Architects 
 
 Designers, draftsmen, and i 
 
 ventors 
 
 Artists and teachers of art 
 
 Clergymen 
 
 Dentists 
 
 Electricians 
 
 2,366,149 
 
 45.032 
 10,875 
 
 5,674,875 
 
 5,483,618 
 
 168,999 
 
 17,067 
 
 5,191 
 61,788 
 
 36,577 
 
 16,836 
 
 8,375 
 
 72,020 
 
 84,988 
 
 37,629 
 
 47,359 
 
 • 24,737 
 
 36,075 
 
 5,530 
 
 1,339 
 
 4,911 
 
 1,258,739 
 
 34,760 
 
 14,708 
 
 16,572 
 
 3,480 
 
 29,524 
 10,581 
 
 18,943 
 24,873 
 111,638 
 29,644 
 50,717 
 
 23,754,205 
 
 9,404,429 
 3,747,663 
 1,779,648 
 
 1,925,094 
 
 42,926 
 
 9,983 
 
 5,367,169 
 
 5,192,437 
 
 154,308 
 
 15,484 
 
 4,940 
 
 58,928 
 
 35,378 
 
 15,700 
 
 7,850 
 
 71,920 
 
 83,056 
 
 36,548 
 
 46,508 
 
 24,456 
 
 35,962 
 
 5,287 
 
 2,291 
 
 3,996 
 
 828,163 
 
 27,903 
 
 8,334 
 
 16,184 
 
 3,385 
 28,483 
 10,481 
 
 18,002 
 13,852 
 108,265 
 28,858 
 50,308 
 
 5,319,912 
 
 977,336 
 663,209 
 220,048 
 
 441,055 
 
 2,106 
 
 892 
 
 307,706 
 
 291,181 
 
 14,691 
 
 1,583 
 
 251 
 
 2,860 
 
 1,199 
 
 1,136 
 525 
 100 
 
 1,932 
 1,081 
 
 851 
 281 
 
 113 
 
 243 
 
 48 
 
 195 
 
 430,576 
 
 6,857 
 
 6,374 
 
 388 
 
 95 
 
 1,041 
 
 100 
 
 941 
 1 1 ,02 1 
 
 3,373 
 786 
 409 
 
286 
 
 V ocational Guidance 
 
 Occupations 
 
 Both Sexes 
 Mainland 
 
 Males 
 Mainland 
 
 Females 
 Mainland 
 
 Engineers (civil, etc.) and surveyors 
 
 Engineers (civil) 
 
 Engineers (mechanical and elec- 
 trical) 
 
 Engineers (mining) 
 
 Surveyors 
 
 Journalists 
 
 Lawyers 
 
 Literary and scientific persons .... 
 
 Authors and scientists 
 
 Librarians and assistants 
 
 Chemists, assayers, and metal- 
 lurgists 
 
 Musicians and teachers of music. . . 
 Officials (government) 
 
 Officials (national government)' . 
 
 Officials (state government) 
 
 Officials (county government) . . . 
 
 Officials (city or town government) 
 
 Physicians and surgeons 
 
 Teachers and professors in colleges, 
 etc 
 
 Teachers 
 
 Professors in colleges and univer- 
 sities 
 
 Other professional service 
 
 Veterinary surgeons 
 
 Not specified 
 
 Domestic and Personai. Service 
 
 Barbers and hairdressers 
 
 Bartenders 
 
 Boarding and lodging-house keepers 
 
 Hotel keepers 
 
 Housekeepers and stewards 
 
 Janitors and sextons 
 
 Janitors 
 
 Sextons 
 
 Laborers (not specified) 
 
 Elevator tenders 
 
 Laborers (coal yard) 
 
 Laborers (general) 
 
 Longshoremen 
 
 Stevedores 
 
 Launderers and laundresses 
 
 Laundry work (hand) 
 
 Laundry work (steam) . 
 
 43.239 
 20,068 
 
 14.334 
 2,888 
 
 5.949 
 
 30,038 
 
 114,460 
 
 19,066 
 
 6,039 
 
 4,180 
 
 8,847 
 
 92,174 
 86,607 
 37,020 
 
 4.345 
 22,697 
 
 22,545 
 132,002 
 
 446,133 
 438,861 
 
 7,272 
 
 13,864 
 
 8,163 
 
 5.701 
 
 5.580,657 
 
 131,116 
 
 88,817 
 
 71,281 
 
 54.797 
 
 155.153 
 
 56.577 
 
 51. 191 
 
 5.386 
 
 2,629,262 
 
 12,690 
 
 9.361 
 
 2.577.951 
 
 20,191 
 
 9.069 
 
 385.965 
 364,020 
 
 21,945 
 
 43,155 
 20,028 
 
 14.304 
 3.885 
 5,938 
 
 27.845 
 113.450 
 
 13,082 
 
 3.425 
 1,058 
 
 8,599 
 39.815 
 78,488 
 
 30,591 
 4,070 
 
 21,974 
 
 21.853 
 
 124,615 
 
 118,519 
 111,710 
 
 6,809 
 
 11,525 
 8,149 
 
 3,376 
 
 3,485,208 
 
 125.542 
 
 88,377 
 
 11,826 
 
 46,264 
 
 8,224 
 
 48,544 
 
 43.249 
 
 5.295 
 
 2.505.287 
 
 12,660 
 
 9.349 
 
 2.454.053 
 
 20,177 
 
 9,048 
 
 50,683 
 
 38,669 
 
 12,014 
 
 84 
 40 
 
 30 
 
 3 
 
 II 
 
 2,193 
 1,010 
 
 5,984 
 2,614 
 3.122 
 
 248 
 
 52,359 
 8,119 
 
 6,429 
 275 
 723 
 692 
 
 7.387 
 
 327.614 
 327.151 
 
 463 
 
 2.3.39 
 
 14 
 
 2.325 
 
 2,095.449 
 
 5.574 
 440 
 
 59.455 
 
 8.533 
 
 146.929 
 
 8.033 
 
 7.942 
 
 91 
 
 123.975 
 
 30 
 
 12 
 
 123,898 
 
 14 
 
 21 
 
 335,282 
 
 325,351 
 
 9,931 
 
 1 Includes officers of United States Army and Navy. 
 
The Appendix 
 
 287 
 
 Occupations 
 
 Both Sexes 
 Mainland 
 
 Males 
 Mainland 
 
 Females 
 Mainland 
 
 Nurses and midwives 
 
 Nurses (trained) 
 
 Nurses (not specified) 
 
 Midwives 
 
 Restaurant keepers 
 
 Saloon keepers 
 
 Servants and waiters 
 
 Servants 
 
 Waiters 
 
 Soldiers, sailors, and marines (U.S.) 
 
 Soldiers (U. S.) 
 
 Sailors (U. S.) 
 
 Marines (U. S.) 
 
 Watchmen, policemen, firemen, etc. 
 
 Watchmen, policemen, and de- 
 tectives 
 
 Firemen (fire department) .... 
 Other domestic and personal service 
 
 Hunters, trappers, guides, and 
 scouts 
 
 Bootblacks 
 
 Not specified 
 
 Trace and Transportation 
 
 Agents 
 
 Agents (insurance and real estate) 
 
 Agents (not specified) 
 
 Bankers and brokers 
 
 Bankers and brokers (money and 
 stocks) 
 
 Brokers (commercial) 
 
 Boatmen and sailors 
 
 Boatmen and canalmen 
 
 Pilots 
 
 Sailors 
 
 Bookkeepers and accountants 
 
 Clerks and copyists 
 
 Clerks and copyists 
 
 Clerks (shipping) 
 
 Letter and mail carriers 
 
 Commercial travelers 
 
 Draymen, hackmen, teamsters, etc. 
 
 Draymen, teamsters, and express- 
 men 
 
 Carriage and hack drivers .... 
 Foremen and overseers 
 
 Foremen and overseers (livery 
 stable) 
 
 120,956 
 
 11,804 
 
 103,523 
 
 5,629 
 
 33.844 
 
 83,746 
 
 1,560,721 
 
 1,453,677 
 107,044 
 
 43,235 
 
 35-038 
 
 5,928 
 
 2,269 
 
 130,590 
 
 116,056 
 14,534 
 34,597 
 
 3,048 
 8,230 
 
 23,319 
 
 4,766,964 
 241,162 
 119,208 
 121,954 
 
 73,277 
 
 65,943 
 
 7,334 
 
 78,406 
 
 13,115 
 4,896 
 
 60,395 
 
 254,880 
 
 630,127 
 
 568,181 
 
 33,611 
 
 28,335 
 
 92,919 
 
 538,933 
 
 502,359 
 36,574 
 55,450 
 
 3,230 
 
 12,265 
 
 758 
 
 11,507 
 
 28,999 
 81,660 
 
 276,958 
 212,727 
 
 64,231 
 
 43,235 
 
 35,038 
 
 5,928 
 
 2,269 
 
 129,711 
 
 115,177 
 14,534 
 27,633 
 
 2,999 
 
 8,145 
 16,489 
 
 4,263,617 
 
 230,606 
 
 117,067 
 
 113,539 
 
 72,984 
 
 65,695 
 7,289 
 
 78,253 
 
 13,033 
 
 4,891 
 
 60,329 
 
 180,727 
 
 544,881 
 
 483,892 
 
 32,918 
 
 28,071 
 
 91,973 
 538,029 
 
 501,498 
 36,531 
 54,032 
 
 3,228 
 
 108,691 
 
 11,046 
 
 92,016 
 
 5,629 
 
 4,845 
 
 2,086 
 
 1,283,763 
 
 1,240,950 
 
 42,813 
 
 879 
 
 879 
 
 6,964 
 
 49 
 
 85 
 
 6,830 
 
 503,347 
 
 10,556 
 
 2,141 
 
 8,415 
 
 293 
 
 248 
 45 
 
 1.53 
 82 
 
 5 
 66 
 
 74,153 
 85,246 
 84,289 
 
 693 
 264 
 
 946 
 904 
 
 861 
 
 43 
 1,418 
 
288 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 Occupations 
 
 Both Sexes 
 Mainland 
 
 Males 
 Mainland 
 
 Females 
 Mainland 
 
 Foremen and overseers (steam 
 railroad) 
 
 Foremen and overseers (street 
 railway) 
 
 Foremen and overseers (not spec- 
 ified) 
 
 Hostlers 
 
 Hucksters and peddlers 
 
 Livery stable keepers 
 
 Merchants and dealers (except 
 wholesale) 
 
 Drugs and medicines 
 
 Dry goods, fancy goods, and 
 notions 
 
 Groceries 
 
 Liquors and wines 
 
 Boots and shoes 
 
 Cigars and tobacco 
 
 Clothing and men's furnishings 
 
 Coal and wood 
 
 General store 
 
 Lumber 
 
 Produce and provisions 
 
 Not specified 
 
 Merchants and dealers (wholesale) 
 
 Messengers and errand and office 
 
 boys 
 
 Bundle and cash boys 
 
 Messengers 
 
 Office boys 
 
 Officials of banks and companies 
 
 Bank officials and cashiers .... 
 
 Officials (insurance and trust 
 companies, etc.) 
 
 Officials (trade companies) .... 
 
 Officials (transportation compa- 
 nies) 
 
 Packers and shippers 
 
 Porters and helpers (in stores, etc.) 
 
 Salesmen and saleswomen 
 
 Steam railroad employees 
 
 Engineers and firemen 
 
 Baggagemen 
 
 Brakemen 
 
 Conductors 
 
 Laborers 
 
 Station agents and employees . . . 
 
 Switchmen, yardmen, andflagmen 
 
 35,196 
 
 1,023 
 
 16,001 
 64,929 
 76,649 
 33.656 
 
 790,886 
 57.271 
 
 45,820 
 
 156,479 
 13,108 
 
 15,239 
 15.351 
 18,095 
 
 2Q,860 
 
 33.006 
 16,772 
 34.175 
 364.710 
 42.293 
 
 71,622 
 
 10,497 
 44.425 
 
 16,700 
 
 74,072 
 14,294 
 
 5.339 
 20,389 
 
 34.050 
 
 59,545 
 
 54,191 
 
 611,139 
 
 582,150 
 
 107,089 
 
 19,085 
 
 67,474 
 42,929 
 
 249,377 
 45.963 
 50,233 
 
 35,184 
 1,021 
 
 14,599 
 64,850 
 
 73,734 
 33,466 
 
 756,802 
 56.094 
 
 41,467 
 146,810 
 12,917 
 14,812 
 14,258 
 17,803 
 20,600 
 32.064 
 16,690 
 33.506 
 349,781 
 42,032 
 
 64,959 
 6,105 
 
 43,124 
 15,730 
 72,801 
 14,023 
 
 5.227 
 19,912 
 
 33.639 
 
 39.557 
 
 53.625 
 
 461,909 
 
 580,462 
 
 107,044 
 
 19,075 
 
 67,443 
 
 42,922 
 
 248,429 
 
 45,342 
 
 50.207 
 
 1,402 
 
 79 
 
 2.915 
 
 190 
 
 34,084 
 1. 177 
 
 4.353 
 
 9.669 
 
 191 
 
 427 
 
 1.093 
 292 
 260 
 942 
 82. 
 669 
 
 14,929 
 261 
 
 6,663 
 4,392 
 1,301 
 
 970 
 1,271 
 
 271 
 
 112 
 
 477 
 
 411 
 
 19,988 
 
 566 
 
 149,230 
 
 1,688 
 
 45 
 10 
 
 31 
 
 7 
 
 948 
 
 621 
 
 26 
 
The Appendix 
 
 28g 
 
 Occupations 
 
 Both Sexes 
 Mainland 
 
 Males 
 Mainland 
 
 Females 
 Mainland 
 
 Stenographers and typewriters .... 
 
 Stenographers 
 
 Typewriters 
 
 Street railway employees 
 
 Conductors 
 
 Drivers 
 
 Laborers 
 
 Motormen 
 
 Station agents and employees . . . 
 Telegraph and telephone linemen . . . 
 Telegraph and telephone operators 
 
 Telegraph operators 
 
 Telephone operators 
 
 Undertakers 
 
 Other persons in trade and trans- 
 portation 
 
 Auctioneers 
 
 Decorators, drapers, and window 
 dressers 
 
 Newspaper carriers and newsboys 
 
 Weighers, gaugers, and measurers 
 
 Not specified 
 
 Manufacturing and Mechanical 
 
 Pursuits 
 
 Building Trades 
 
 Carpenters and joiners 
 
 Carpenters and joiners 
 
 Ship carpenters 
 
 Apprentices and helpers 
 
 Masons (brick and stone) 
 
 Masons 
 
 Masons' laborers 
 
 Apprentices and helpers 
 
 Painters, glaziers, and varnishers. . 
 
 Painters, glaziers, and varnishers. 
 
 Painters (carriages and wagons) 
 
 Apprentices and helpers 
 
 Paper hangers 
 
 Paper hangers 
 
 Apprentices and helpers 
 
 Plasterers 
 
 Plasterers 
 
 Apprentices and helpers 
 
 Plumbers and gas and steam fitters 
 
 Plumbers and gas and steam 
 fitters 
 
 Apprentices and helpers 
 
 112,364 
 
 98,743 
 13,621 
 68,919 
 24.037 
 1.352 
 4,644 
 
 37.434 
 1.452 
 14,757 
 75.015 
 55.857 
 19.158 
 16,189 
 
 53.434 
 2,808 
 
 3.052 
 6,893 
 6,666 
 
 34,015 
 
 7,085,992 
 
 600,252 
 
 584,635 
 
 12,251 
 
 3,366 
 
 160,805 
 
 149,103 
 
 9,284 
 
 2,418 
 
 277,541 
 258,663 
 
 17,347 
 
 1,531 
 
 21,990 
 
 21,794 
 196 
 
 35,694 
 
 35,334 
 
 360 
 
 97,785 
 
 92,216 
 5.569 
 
 26,246 
 23.498 
 
 2,748 
 68,873 
 24,024 
 
 1,352 
 
 4.632 
 37.432 
 
 1,433 
 14.757 
 52.459 
 48,628 
 
 3.831 
 15.866 
 
 49.734 
 2,805 
 
 2.756 
 6,824 
 
 6,487 
 30,862 
 
 5.722,788 
 
 599.707 
 584,110 
 12,245 
 3,352 
 160,638 
 148,948 
 
 9.274 
 
 2,416 
 
 275.782 
 
 256,950 
 
 17.313 
 
 1,519 
 
 21,749 
 
 21,558 
 
 191 
 
 35,649 
 
 35,290 
 
 359 
 
 97,659 
 
 92,093 
 5.566 
 
 86,118 
 
 75,245 
 
 10,873 
 
 46 
 
 13 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 19 
 
 22,556 
 
 7,229 
 
 15,327 
 
 323 
 
 3.700 
 3 
 
 296 
 
 69 
 179 
 
 3.153 
 
 1. 3 1 3. 204 
 
 545 
 
 525 
 
 6 
 
 14 
 167 
 
 155 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 1.759 
 
 1.713 
 
 34 
 
 12 
 
 241 
 
 236 
 
 5 
 
 45 
 
 44 
 
 I 
 
 126 
 
 123 
 3 
 
2go 
 
 V cationaL Guidance 
 
 Occupations 
 
 Roofers and slaters 
 
 Roofers and slaters 
 
 Apprentices and helpers 
 
 Mechanics (not otherwise specified) 
 
 Chemicals and Allied Products 
 
 Oil well and oil works employees 
 
 Oil well employees 
 
 Oil works employees 
 
 Other chemical workers 
 
 Chemical works employees. . . . 
 
 Fertilizer makers 
 
 Powder and cartridge makers . 
 
 Salt works employees 
 
 Starch makers 
 
 Clay, Glass, and Stone Products 
 Brick and tile makers, etc 
 
 Brickmakers 
 
 Tile makers 
 
 Terra cotta workers 
 
 Glass workers 
 
 Marble and stone cutters 
 
 Potters 
 
 Fishing and Mining 
 
 Fishermen and oystermen 
 
 Miners and quarrymen 
 
 Miners (coal) 
 
 Miners (gold and silver) 
 
 Miners (not otherwise specified) 
 
 Quarrymen 
 
 Food and Kindred Products 
 
 Bakers 
 
 Butchers 
 
 Butter and cheese makers 
 
 Confectioners 
 
 MiUers 
 
 Other food preparers 
 
 Fish curers and packers 
 
 Meat and fruit canners and pre- 
 servers 
 
 Meat packers, curers, and pick- 
 lers 
 
 Sugar markets and refiners 
 
 Not specified 
 
 Iron and Steel and their Products 
 Blacksmiths 
 
 Both Sexes 
 
 Males 
 
 Females 
 
 Mainland 
 
 Mainland 
 
 Mainland 
 
 9,067 
 
 9.065 
 
 2 
 
 8,931 
 
 8,929 
 
 2 
 
 136 
 
 136 
 
 
 9,392 
 
 9,351 
 
 41 
 
 24,626 
 
 24,573 
 
 53 
 
 18,011 
 
 18,001 
 
 10 
 
 6,615 
 
 6,572 
 
 43 
 
 14,814 
 
 12,035 
 
 2,779 
 
 6,740 
 
 5,687 
 
 1,053 
 
 1,310 
 
 1,308 
 
 2 
 
 4,136 
 
 2,745 
 
 1,391 
 
 1,866 
 
 1,671 
 
 195 
 
 762 
 
 624 
 
 138 
 
 49,933 
 
 49,455 
 
 478 
 
 45,594 
 
 45,467 
 
 127 
 
 3,017 
 
 2,667 
 
 350 
 
 1,322 
 
 1,321 
 
 I 
 
 49,998 
 
 47,377 
 
 2,621 
 
 54,460 
 
 54,317 
 
 143 
 
 16,140 
 
 13,200 
 
 2,940 
 
 68,177 
 
 67,715 
 
 462 
 
 563,866 
 
 562,501 
 
 1,365 
 
 344,289 
 
 343,665 
 
 624 
 
 52,024 
 
 51,970 
 
 54 
 
 132,969 
 
 132,345 
 
 624 
 
 34,584 
 
 34,521 
 
 63 
 
 79,188 
 
 74,860 
 
 4,328 
 
 113,956 
 
 113,578 
 
 378 
 
 19,241 
 
 18,593 
 
 648 
 
 31,194 
 
 21,980 
 
 9,214 
 
 40,548 
 
 40,362 
 
 186 
 
 28,782 
 
 23,640 
 
 5,142 
 
 952 
 
 824 
 
 128 
 
 9,249 
 
 5,983 
 
 3,266 
 
 13,776 
 
 12,799 
 
 977 
 
 2,727 
 
 2,708 
 
 19 
 
 2,078 
 
 1,326 
 
 752 
 
 226,477 
 
 226,284 
 
 193 
 
The Appendix 
 
 2gi 
 
 Occupations 
 
 Both Sexes 
 Mainland 
 
 Males 
 Mainland 
 
 Females 
 Mainland 
 
 Blacksmiths 
 
 Apprentices and helpers 
 
 Iron and steel workers 
 
 Iron and steel workers 
 
 Holders 
 
 Machinists 
 
 Machinists 
 
 Apprentices and helpers 
 
 Steam boiler makers 
 
 Steam boiler makers 
 
 Helpers 
 
 Stove, furnace, and grate makers 
 
 Tool and cutlery makers 
 
 Wheelwrights 
 
 Wire workers 
 
 Leather and its Finished Products 
 
 Boot and shoe makers and repairers 
 Boot and shoe factory operatives 
 Shoemakers (not in shoe factory) 
 Apprentices 
 
 Harness and saddle makers and re- 
 pairers 
 
 Leather curriers and tanners 
 
 Curriers 
 
 Tanners 
 
 Apprentices 
 
 Trunk and leather-case makers, etc. 
 
 Trunk makers . 
 
 Leather-case and pocketbook 
 makers 
 
 Liquors and Beverages 
 
 Bottlers and soda water makers, etc. 
 
 Bottlers 
 
 Mineral and soda water makers 
 
 Brewers and maltsters 
 
 Distillers and rectifiers 
 
 Lumber and its Remanufacture 
 
 Cabinet makers 
 
 Coopers 
 
 Saw and planing mill employees . . 
 
 Saw and planing mill employees . 
 
 Lumber yard employees 
 
 Other woodworkers 
 
 Basket makers 
 
 Box makers (wood) 
 
 Piano and organ makers . . . ■ 
 
 217-993 
 
 8,484 
 
 290,611 
 
 203,142 
 
 87,469 
 
 283,145 
 
 266,565 
 
 16,580 
 
 33.046 
 
 31-150 
 
 1,896 
 
 12,473 
 28,122 
 
 13.505 
 18,487 
 
 208,912 
 
 106,744 
 
 101,500 
 
 668 
 
 40,101 
 
 42,671 
 
 15,769 
 
 26,839 
 
 63 
 
 7.051 
 
 3.657 
 
 3.394 
 
 10,519 
 
 9.716 
 
 803 
 
 20,962 
 
 3.144 
 
 35-619 
 
 37-200 
 
 161,624 
 
 150,5,58 
 
 11,066 
 
 1 1 1-273 
 6,522 
 8,862 
 6,220 
 
 217,811 
 
 8,473 
 287,241 
 200,102 
 
 87,139 
 
 282,574 
 
 266,057 
 
 16,517 
 
 33-038 
 
 31-142 
 
 1,896 
 
 12,430 
 
 27-376 
 
 13-495 
 
 16,701 
 
 169.393 
 
 63.319 
 
 99.492 
 
 582 
 
 39-506 
 40-917 
 15.067 
 
 25.793 
 
 57 
 
 5,472 
 
 3,470 
 
 2,002 
 
 9,725 
 8.940 
 
 785 
 20,687 
 
 3,114 
 
 35,552 
 
 37,087 
 
 161,251 
 
 150,205 
 
 11,046 
 
 104,468 
 
 4,460 
 
 7.685 
 
 6,021 
 
 182 
 
 II 
 
 3.370 
 
 3.040 
 
 330 
 
 571 
 
 508 
 
 63 
 
 43 
 746 
 
 ID 
 1,786 
 
 39,519 
 
 37,425 
 
 2,008 
 
 86 
 
 595 
 1-754 
 
 702 
 
 1,046 
 
 6 
 
 1-579 
 187 
 
 1-392 
 
 794 
 776 
 
 18 
 275 
 
 30 
 
 67 
 
 "3 
 
 373 
 
 353 
 
 20 
 
 6,805 
 
 2,062 
 
 J-177 
 
 199 
 
 20 
 
2g2 
 
 Vocational Guidance 
 
 Occupations 
 
 Both Sexes 
 Mainland 
 
 Males 
 Mainland 
 
 Females 
 Mainland 
 
 Furniture manufactory employ- 
 ees 
 
 Not specified 
 
 Metals and Metal Products other than 
 
 Iron and Steel 
 Brass workers 
 
 Brass workers 
 
 Molders 
 
 Helpers 
 
 Clock and watch makers and repair- 
 ers 
 
 Clock factory operatives 
 
 Watch factory operatives 
 
 Clock and watch repairers 
 
 Gold and silver workers 
 
 Gold and silver workers 
 
 Jewelry manufactory employees . 
 Tinplate and tinware makers 
 
 Tinplate makers 
 
 Tinners and tinware makers .... 
 
 Apprentices (tinsmiths) 
 
 Other metal workers 
 
 Copper workers 
 
 Electroplaters 
 
 Gunsmiths, locksmiths, and bell 
 hangers 
 
 Lead and zinc workers 
 
 Molders (metal) 
 
 Not specified 
 
 Paper and Printing 
 
 Bookbinders 
 
 Box makers (paper) 
 
 Engravers 
 
 Paper and pulp mill operatives. . . 
 Printers, lithographers, and press- 
 men 
 
 Printers and pressmen 
 
 Lithographers 
 
 Compositors 
 
 Electrotypers and stereotypers . . . 
 
 Apprentices (printers) 
 
 Textiles 
 
 Bleachery and dye works operatives 
 
 Bleachery operatives 
 
 Dye works operatives 
 
 Carpet factory operatives 
 
 23,074 
 66,595 
 
 26,760 
 
 20,653 
 
 5,990 
 
 117 
 
 24,120 
 
 3,480 
 16,070 
 
 4,570 
 26,112 
 
 9,396 
 16,716 
 70,505 
 
 7,231 
 62,093 
 
 1,181 
 56,602 
 
 8,185 
 
 6,387 
 
 7,446 
 
 5,334 
 
 3,161 
 
 26,089 
 
 30,278 
 21,098 
 
 11,151 
 36,328 
 
 155,147 
 
 103,680 
 
 7,956 
 
 36,838 
 
 3,172 
 
 3,501 
 
 22,278 
 
 4,385 
 
 17,893 
 
 19,388 
 
 21,838 
 64,464 
 
 25,870 
 19,806 
 
 5,947 
 117 
 
 19.305 
 2,618 
 
 12,163 
 4,524 
 
 19,732 
 8,188 
 
 11,544 
 68,730 
 
 6,954 
 60,606 
 
 1,170 
 54,282 
 
 8,174 
 6,146 
 
 7,400 
 
 5,237 
 
 2,925 
 
 24,400 
 
 14,646 
 
 3,796 
 
 10,698 
 
 26,904 
 
 139,166 
 97,882 
 
 7,503 
 27,222 
 
 3,145 
 3,414 
 
 20,493 
 
 3,739 
 
 16,754 
 
 10,371 
 
 1,236 
 2,131 
 
 890 
 
 847 
 43 
 
 4,815 
 862 
 
 3,907 
 
 46 
 
 6,380 
 
 1,208 
 
 5,172 
 
 1,775 
 
 277 
 
 1,487 
 
 II 
 
 2,320 
 
 II 
 
 241 
 
 46 
 
 97 
 
 236 
 
 1,689 
 
 15,632 
 17,302 
 
 453 
 9,424 
 
 15,981 
 
 5,798 
 
 453 
 
 9,616 
 
 27 
 
 87 
 
 1,785 
 646 
 
 1,139 
 9,017 
 
The Appendix 
 
 293 
 
 Occupations 
 
 Both Sexes 
 Mainland 
 
 Males 
 Mainland 
 
 Females 
 Mainland 
 
 Cotton mill operatives 
 
 Hosiery and knitting mill operatives 
 
 Silk mill operatives 
 
 Woolen mill operatives 
 
 Other textile mill operatives 
 
 Print works operatives 
 
 Rope and cordage factory oper- 
 atives 
 
 Hemp and jute mill operatives . . 
 
 Linen mill operatives 
 
 Worsted mill operatives 
 
 Textiles not specified 
 
 Dressmakers 
 
 Dressmakers 
 
 Apprentices 
 
 Hat and cap makers 
 
 Milliners 
 
 Milliners 
 
 Apprentices 
 
 Seamstresses 
 
 Shirt, collar and cufE makers 
 
 Tailors and tailoresses 
 
 Tailors and tailoresses 
 
 Apprentices 
 
 Other textile workers 
 
 Carpet (rag) makers 
 
 Lace and embroidery makers. . . . 
 
 Sail, awning, and tent makers. . . 
 
 Sewing machine operators 
 
 Not specified 
 
 Miscellaneous Industries 
 
 Broom and brush makers 
 
 Charcoal, coke, and lime burners . . 
 
 Engineers and firemen (not locomo- 
 tives) 
 
 Glove makers 
 
 Manufacturers and officials, etc. . . 
 Manufacturers and officials, etc, 
 
 Builders and contractors 
 
 Publishers of books, maps, and 
 
 newspapers - 
 
 Officials of mining and quarrying 
 companies 
 
 Model and pattern makers 
 
 Photographers 
 
 Rubber factory operatives 
 
 Tobacco and cigar factory opera- 
 tives 
 
 246,004 
 47,120 
 54,460 
 73.196 
 
 104,619 
 6,056 
 
 7>59i 
 
 3.519 
 
 2,100 
 
 7,041 
 
 78,312 
 
 346,884 
 
 344.627 
 
 2,257 
 
 22,733 
 
 87.859 
 
 85,851 
 
 2,008 
 
 150,942 
 
 39,432 
 
 229,649 
 
 228,081 
 
 1,568 
 
 29,967 
 
 7,616 
 
 9.275 
 
 3,577 
 
 5,772 
 
 3,727 
 
 10,220 
 
 14,448 
 
 223,495 
 
 12,271 
 
 243,082 
 
 158,001 
 
 56,769 
 
 10,957 
 
 17,355 
 15.073 
 26,941 
 21,866 
 
 131,452 
 
 125,788 
 12,630 
 22,023 
 42,566 
 53,437 
 4,963 
 
 4,592 
 
 1.577 
 
 835 
 
 2.901 
 
 38.569 
 
 2,090 
 
 2,078 
 
 12 
 
 15,110 
 
 1.739 
 
 1,718 
 
 21 
 
 4.837 
 
 8,491 
 
 160,714 
 
 159.440 
 
 1.274 
 
 8.925 
 
 1,916 
 
 2,007 
 
 3,168 
 
 736 
 
 1,098 
 
 8.643 
 14.405 
 
 223,318 
 
 4.503 
 
 239.649 
 
 155.119 
 
 56.619 
 
 10,655 
 
 17.256 
 14,869 
 23.361 
 14.492 
 
 120,216 
 34.490 
 
 32,347 
 
 30,630 
 
 51,182 
 
 1.093 
 
 2.999 
 
 1,942 
 
 1,265 
 
 4,140 
 
 39.743 
 
 344.794 
 
 342,549 
 
 2,245 
 
 7.623 
 
 86,120 
 
 84.133 
 
 1.987 
 
 146,105 
 
 30,941 
 68,935 
 68,641 
 
 294 
 21,042 
 5.700 
 7.268 
 409 
 5,036 
 2,629 
 
 1,577 
 43 
 
 177 
 7.768 
 
 3.433 
 2,882 
 
 150 
 302 
 
 99 
 
 204 
 3,580 
 7,374 
 
 87.955 ' 43.497 
 
294 
 
 V ocational Guidance 
 
 Occupations 
 
 Both Sexes 
 Mainland 
 
 Males 
 Mainland 
 
 Females 
 Mainland 
 
 Upholsterers 
 
 Other miscellaneous industries 
 
 Apprentices and helpers (not 
 specified) 
 
 Artificial flower makers 
 
 Button makers 
 
 Candle, soap, and tallow makers 
 
 Corset makers 
 
 Cotton ginners 
 
 Elective light and power company 
 employees 
 
 Gas works employees 
 
 Piano and organ tuners 
 
 Straw workers 
 
 Turpentine distillers 
 
 Umbrella and parasol makers. . . 
 
 Well borers 
 
 Whitewashers 
 
 Not specified 
 
 30,821 
 471,300 
 
 31.679 
 2,775 
 6,853 
 4,020 
 8,016 
 i>395 
 
 6,156 
 6,955 
 4.293 
 3.838 
 7.099 
 3,242 
 6,608 
 3,439 
 374,932 
 
 28,663 
 380,490 
 
 29,634 
 
 437 
 
 3,834 
 
 3,2" 
 
 815 
 1,381 
 
 5.853 
 6,940 
 
 4,249 
 911 
 7,022 
 1,331 
 6,597 
 3.374 
 304.823 
 
 2,158 
 90,810 
 
 2,045 
 2,338 
 3.019 
 731 
 7,201 
 
 14 
 
 303 
 15 
 ■44 
 
 2,927 
 77 
 
 1,911 
 II 
 
 65 
 70,109 
 
 For similar lists for your state and city 
 Bureau, Washington, D. C. 
 
 (over 25,000), write. to the Census 
 
THE INDEX 
 
 Accountants, 232, 233, 238. 
 
 Actuaries, 238. 
 
 Agricultural colleges, 49, 175, 178, 185. 
 
 Agriculture, liking for, 95; United States Department of, 175; 
 
 courses outlined in, 176-178; business ability in, 165, 166, 168; 
 
 detection of business ability in, 180. 
 Agronomy, elementary course in, 176. 
 
 American Surety Company, qualifications demanded by, 267. 
 American Telephone Company, equipment for service in, 265. 
 Animal husbandry and dairying, course in, 176. 
 Apprentice system, 18, 213; end of, 20, 42; abroad, 202. 
 Architect, 251, 257. 
 Arnold, Matthew, 55. 
 Avocations, value of, 159. 
 
 Back-to-the-farm movement, 141-142; 164. 
 
 Baldwin Locomotive Works, apprentice system in, 213. 
 
 Barnes, Professor Earl, 158. 
 
 Binet-Simon "intelligence test,'' 102. 
 
 Bird, Miss, Woman at Work, 237. 
 
 Blacksmithing, 138, 195; training in, 177. 
 
 Blind-alley jobs, 128-131. 
 
 Bloomfield, 131. 
 
 Bonding companies, qualifications required by, 265, 266-267. 
 
 Bookkeepers, iii, 124, 232, 233, 238. 
 
 Book learning, in early days, 18-20; a handicap, 213. 
 
 Boston, Manual Arts School for girls, 50; Commercial High School 
 for boys, 50; average weight of children in, 89; industries in, 
 122; candy manufacture in, 143; shoe manufacture in, 188. 
 
 Brain workers, 237. 
 
 Bread-and-butter motive, 20, 53-55. 
 
 Bright children, 102, 104. 
 
 Brockton, shoe workers in, 188, 213. 
 
 Brown & Sharpe, apprentice system in, 213. 
 
 Bryn Mawr College, president of, 255. 
 
 Bunyan, 206. 
 
 295 
 
2g6 Vocational Guidance 
 
 Burk's Table, 89. 
 
 Butler, Elizabeth Beardley, 230. 
 
 California, industries in, 116, 121. 
 
 Candy manufacture, conditions in, 143. 
 
 Captains of industry, 239. 
 
 Captains of Industry, Parton, 73. 
 
 Cardinal habits of business world, 269. 
 
 Carnegie Foundation, report on Medical Education, 249. 
 
 Carpentry, 76, 194-196; on farm, 177. 
 
 Cashiers, 232. 
 
 Census, United States, 119, 125, 128, 190; percentage of male and 
 
 female unemployed, in Twelfth Census, 281-283; total number 
 
 of persons engaged in specified occupations for 1900, 285-294. 
 Character, records for study of, 90, 91, 92, 93; value in home making, 
 
 160. 
 Chautauqua courses, 168, 185. 
 Chicago, school statistics of, 33, 35; City Club of, 33, 34, 35, 137; 
 
 superintendent of schools of, 255. 
 Choosing a Vocation, Parsons, ill. 
 Cities, characteristic industries of, 122. 
 City Club of Chicago, committee of, 33, 34, 35, 137; reports of, 
 
 201, 202. 
 Civil Service Commissions, qualifications demanded by, 265, 266, 
 
 268. 
 Class, in primitive society, 13; in colonial days, 16. 
 Clergymen, 248, 249, 250, 252. 
 Clerks, 124, 232. 
 
 Cleveland Elementary Industrial School, 197-20Q. 
 Clothing, primitive methods of manufacture of, 13; in colonial 
 
 times, 17; present-day methods in manufacture of, 24-25, 123. 
 Clubs, agricultural, 170. 
 Cohoes, knitting industries in, 122. 
 Colebrook Academy, 151, 175. 
 Colleges, vocational spirit in, 278-279. 
 Colonial times, social classes in, 16; vocational education in, 16; 
 
 education according to sex in, 16, 17; education derived from 
 
 community life of, 18, 19; standard of intelligence of, 18-19; 
 
 social standing of handicrafts in, 205. 
 "Commercial Colleges," 204. 
 Commercial High School, Boston, 50. 
 
The Index 2<)'j 
 
 Common school, satirized, 22-23. 
 
 "Conjngal selection," 154, 158. 
 
 Consolidated rural schools, 118, 141, 180-182. 
 
 Constructive workers, 271-272, 273, 274, 276. 
 
 Cooperation, of home and' school, 79-86, 174; of man and woman, 
 
 161; in agriculture, 169-170. 
 Cooperative activities, 170-173. 
 Cooperative spirit, 171. 
 Copyists, 232. 
 
 Correspondence schools, 204, 213. 
 Cotton industry, 191. 
 
 Country Life Commission, recommendations of, 171-172. 
 Craftsmen, skilled and unskilled, 187; growing demand for, 191, 
 
 194-196. 
 Culture, elements of, 55-56; 280. 
 Cyclopedia of Modern Shop Practice, 241. 
 
 Darwin, Charles, 153-154. 
 
 Davenport, words of, 182. 
 
 Davis, Jesse B., 29-30. 
 
 Dean, Arthur Davis, 23, 41, 280. 
 
 Debates, subjects for, 96. 
 
 Defectives, 102; treatment of, 103. 
 
 Denmark, cooperative system in, 169-170. 
 
 Department stores, study of, 228-230; salesmen in, 216; sales- 
 women in, 218. 
 
 Destructive workers, 273-275. 
 
 Dewey, John, 48. 
 
 Division of labor, in primitive communities, 1 3 ; in colonial society, 
 17; in modern industry, 24-26. 
 
 Doctors, III, 248, 249-250; women as, 252. 
 
 Dodge, James M., in 5/. Nicholas, 43. 
 
 Dolbear, Professor, of Tufts College, 22. 
 
 Domestic science, 151-153. 
 
 Domestic servants, 64, 147-148. 
 
 Dullards, 102, 103-104. 
 
 Edison, Thomas, 73, 206. 
 
 Education, primitive, 13-15; colonial, 16-20; modern, 20-23; 
 for practical use, 46, 47; life-career motive in, 19, 50, 52, 54; 
 in mechanic arts, 211; in office work, 235-237. 
 
 Eggleston, Edward, 204. 
 
2g8 Vocational Guidance 
 
 Eliot, Charles William, 19, 54, 55. 
 
 Ellis, study of the distribution of British genius, 195. 
 
 Emulation, 73, 86, 262. 
 
 Errand girl, outline statement for study of, 143. 
 
 Essays, subjects for, 95-96. 
 
 "Eugenic conscience," 154. 
 
 Exceptional children, 84-85, 102, 104. 
 
 Fairfield, Nebraska, school program of, 69. 
 
 Fall River, 120. 
 
 Farmer's institutes, 178, 185. 
 
 Farming, 63; trying-out in, 76-77; number of workers engaged 
 in, 162; transient laborers in, 162, 167; training demanded for, 
 165-166; social problems of, 168-169, I70> I7i; remuneration 
 in, 182-185. 
 
 Farm life, 168, 185; in the corn country, 168; in the small-grain 
 region, 168; on poultry farms or market gardens, 168-169, 17O1 
 172; improvement in, 172. 
 
 Farm tenant system, 163; disadvantages of, 163. 
 
 First families, 58. 
 
 Flexner, Miss, 130. 
 
 Foremanship, 239-247; qualifications for, 240, 241, 242; peculiar 
 talent for, 240-241 ; types of, 241 ; chances in, 242-243; prepara- 
 tion for, 245. 
 
 Forest Regions. See Lumbering. 
 
 Forestry, 177-178. 
 
 Forge work, 76, 138, 177. 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin, 67-68, 73, 206. 
 
 French, 59. 
 
 Gardens, school, 74, 172, 173, 174, 175, 180. 
 Gardner, Mass., chair making in, 122-123. 
 General Electric, apprentice system in, 213. 
 General-intelligence jobs, 134. 
 Geography, 121-123. 
 Girls, vocational training of, 156. 
 Girl's Trade Educational League of Boston, 142. 
 Glove making, 123. 
 
 Grade teacher, as vocational guide, 27, 36, 38, 39, 40, 50, 70, 72, 
 loi, 120, 122, 123, 144, 152, 155, 172; as a home maker, 161. 
 Grand Rapids, Mich., vocational conditions in, 29-31. 
 
The Index zgg 
 
 Granges, 170, 178; influence of, 245. 
 Grouping of children, 102-103. 
 Guild members, 194. 
 Gymnastics, 21, 91 ; teacher of, 261. 
 
 Handicrafts, insight into, 63 ; trying-out in, 74. 
 
 Health, importance of, 80, 81. 
 
 Hebrew Technical Institute, New York City, 245. 
 
 Height, average, 88. 
 
 Heredity, 60, 83-86. 
 
 Hesperia associations, 170. 
 
 Hiawatha, 13, 16. 
 
 High-skilled labor, no, 104-197; leisure of, 206; advantages of, 
 
 206; wages of, 214. 
 History, industrial course in, 200. 
 Hodge, Nature Study and Life, 173. 
 Hoe & Company, apprentice system of, 213. 
 Home, as an educational institution, 155; ownership of, 184. 
 Home makers, 112, 113, 114, 145-161; groups of, 146-147; training 
 
 for, 225. 
 Home making, 145-161; preparation for, 151-153, 225; social 
 
 prophets on, 150; as avocation, 153; importance of, 153, 154; 
 
 work related to, 157; success in, 160-161; cooperation in, 161. 
 Horticulture, elementary course in, 176. 
 Household sanitation, 153, 161. 
 Hygiene, personal, 153; on the farm, 171 ; for saleswomen, 23. 
 
 Idaho, consolidated schools in, 182. 
 
 Idiots, test for, 103. 
 
 Illinois, occupational visiting in, 69; distribution of occupations in, 
 
 116; school attendance in, 180. 
 Imbeciles, test for, 102. 
 Immigrant labor, 123, 206. 
 Immigrants, children of, 59. 
 Indiana, industrial situation in, 116; school attendance in, 180; 
 
 consolidated schools of, 182. 
 Industrial adjustment of schools, 46, 47. 
 
 Industrial conditions, study of, 143-144, 189; outlines for, 189-190. 
 Industrial geography, 65, 72-73, 122-124. 
 Industrial revolution, 17, 20, 127. 
 Industrial schools, 22. 
 Industrial setting for school courses, 197-200. 
 
joo V oc ational G uidanc e 
 
 Industrial situation, in the United States, 112-127, 270-271. 
 Industries, distribution of , in the United States, 1 13-127; unskilled, 
 
 191. 
 Industry, primitive, 13; colonial, 16, 17, 18; modern, 24-27; captains 
 
 of, 239. 
 Institutes, farmer's, 178, 185. 
 Insurance, 64. 
 Intellect, types of, 59; eye-minded, 59; auditory, 59; motor-minded, 
 
 47, 59; inferior, 88. 
 Intelligence tests, 102-103. 
 Iowa, occupational visiting in, 69, 70; distribution of occupations 
 
 in, 116; rural-school movements in, 170. 
 Iron and Steel Industry, school course in, 197-198. 
 
 Journalists, 124. 
 
 Kansas, consolidated schools in, 182. 
 Kansas City, 122. 
 Kerschensteiner, Dr. Georg, 280. 
 
 Labor, unskilled, 43, 79, 104, 109-110, 130, 135, 191-192; wages 
 of, 192; farm, 119, 162, 167; low-skilled, 192-194; high-skilled, 
 194-197. 206. 
 
 Labor Unions, 64, 134. 
 
 Lawyers, III, 248, 249; women as, 124, 252-253. 
 
 Leadership, capacity for, 74, 87, 90, 181 ; qualifications for, 241, 244. 
 
 Leavenworth, Kans., 122. 
 
 Lectures, vocational, 70, 72. 
 
 Life-career motive. See Motive. 
 
 Liquor business. See Destructive occupations. 
 
 Literary professions, 251, 257, 258. 
 
 Louisiana, consolidation of schools in, 182. 
 
 Lowly occupations, 57. 
 
 Low-skilled laborers, 192-194; automobiles, wagons, farm imple- 
 ments, 192; building trades, 192; in clothing manufactories, 
 192; in iron and steel industries, 192; in packing houses, 192. 
 
 Lumbering, 198-199. 
 
 Lynn, Mass., shoe manufactories in, 122, 213. 
 
 Machinists, 211. 
 
 Manual Arts School for Girls, Boston, 50. 
 Manufactures, school course in, 198. 
 Marrying age of women, 145. 
 
The Index 301 
 
 Massachusetts, school statistics in, 34, 35, 44, 46, 278; distribution 
 
 of occupations in, 116. 
 Massachusetts Bonding and Insurance Company, 266. 
 Massachusetts Commission on Industrial and Technical Education, 
 
 34. 35- 
 Massachusetts Commission on the Education of Workers, report 
 
 of, on shoe industry, 213, 214, 245, 247. 
 Massachusetts Industrial Committee, report of, 44. 
 McCormick's harvester, story of, 73. 
 Mechanic, social status of, 204-206, 210; training of, 193, 197, 
 
 200, 209, 210, 212, 261; qualifications for, 210-211, 213; reward 
 
 of, 213-214. 
 Mechanical ability, test for, 75-76; questions concerning, 95-96, 
 
 100; opinion concerning, 137-139; in farming, 166; grouping 
 
 for, 187; application of, 193-194. 
 Mechanic Arts, 187-214; divisions of, 191-197. 
 Mediocre children, 84, 102, 104. 
 Messenger boys, 130. 
 Michigan, industrial conditions in, 116, 121; Hesperia movement 
 
 of, 170. 
 Middle Ages, guild members of, 194; skilled handicrafts in, 205. 
 Middle class, no. 
 Miller, Hugh, 206. 
 Millinery, 144. 
 
 Milwaukee, Burk's Table, 89. 
 Minimum wage, 64. 
 
 Ministers, 248, 249, 250, 252; women in the clergy, 252, 253. 
 Minneapolis, need of vocational guidance in, 47. 
 Minnesota, consolidated schools in, 182. 
 Misfits, 27-29. 
 
 Mississippi, distribution of occupations in, 116. 
 Modiste, 209. 
 Monotony, 136-137. 
 
 Morons, test for, 102; institution for, 103. 
 Motive, life-career, 19, 50, 52, 54, 261; bread-and-butter, 20, 53-55; 
 
 vocational, 44. 
 Motor-minded, 47, 59. 
 Motor training, 27. 
 
 Mount Holyoke College, president of, 255. 
 Mijnsterberg, Hugo, Professor, 136. 
 
J02 Vocational Guidance 
 
 National Education Association, report of, 41 ; C. W. Eliot's address 
 before, 54. 
 
 National Society for the Study of Education, Year Book of, 171. 
 
 Natural-equipment jobs, 134-135. 
 
 Natural fitness, 25, 41, 47, 60. 
 
 Nature, pedagogy of, 16, 23. 
 
 Nature Study and Life, Hodge, 173. 
 
 Nebraska, social and cooperative activities in, 170. 
 
 Needlework group, 208-210; dressmaking, 208; millinery, 208- 
 209; requirements for success in, 209; designers in, 209; over- 
 seers and managers in, 209. 
 
 New Hampshire, shoe factories in, 189. 
 
 New Mexico, industries in, 116. 
 
 New York, distribution of industries, 121, 122; garment workers in, 
 123, 138; foremen in factories of, 247. 
 
 Normals, test for, 102. 
 
 Normal schools, 48. 
 
 North Central States, industries in, 116; miners in, 188. 
 
 North Dakota, school attendance in, 181. 
 
 Nurses, iii, 124, 134, 254, 257; men as nurses, 256. 
 
 Occupational diseases, 64. 
 
 Occupations, comparison tests for, 115-116; types of, 128-144. 
 Office work, 124, 231-238; desk workers in, 233-238; general workers 
 
 in, 237, 257, 261. 
 Ohio, industrial situation in, 116; farming in, 121; consolidation 
 
 of schools in, 182. 
 Oklahoma, consolidated schools in, 182. 
 Opportunity, classification according to, 105, 108. 
 Outdoor work, in country schools, 173; educational value of, 173. 
 Ownership of tools, value of, 205, 206. 
 
 Page, Miss Jessie Field, 170. 
 
 Panama Canal, 124. 
 
 Parents, role in vocational guidance of, 36, 79-80, 83. 
 
 Parsons, Professor, 97-98, 99. 
 
 Partial home makers, 146, 147; men as, 161. 
 
 Parton, Captains of Industry, 73. 
 
 Paterson, N. J., 120. 
 
 Pennsylvania, 121; miners in, r88. 
 
 Personal records, 89, 91, 92, 93, 99. 
 
The Index joj 
 
 Pestalozzi, 19. 
 
 Philadelphia, industries in, 120, 122; rug makers in, l88. 
 
 Philanthropic work, 254; women in, 254. 
 
 Physical culture, value of, 21. 
 
 Physical- qualities, occupations requiring, 134-135. 
 
 Physical records, 87-89, 91, 92, 98. 
 
 Physiology, human, 155-156. 
 
 Play and playgrounds, value of, 74, 77, 90, 91, 96, 99-100, 105, 
 
 166, 170-171, 181, 244. 
 Plumber, 2 10-21 1. 
 Plunkett, Sir Horace, 172. 
 Poor Laws, British Royal Commission on, 130. 
 Predetermination, 14-15. 
 Primitive society, 13-18. 
 Prince, Mrs. Lucinda W., 223. 
 Printing trade, loo-ioi, 243. 
 Private secretaries, 235-237. 
 
 Professional class, 36, 79, 95, 104, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 168. 
 Professions, 248-259; overcrowding and results of, 248, 249; incomes 
 
 of, 249-250; standard of living in, 250; qualifications for, 251. 
 Psychology, racial, 57-59. 
 
 Qualifications, required by employers, 265-269. 
 
 Race problems, 64, 65. 
 
 Racial psychology: Russian, 59; French, 59; Scotch, 58; New 
 
 England stock, 58; "first families" of the South, 58; Italian, 
 
 59; negro, 59; Jewish, 59. 
 Record system, 87; plans of, 87-go; scope of, 91-93; securing of 
 
 data for, 93-1 11. 
 Resources, farriily, 99, 108. 
 Respectability, mistaken notion of, 204-205. 
 Rhode Island, distribution of occupations in, 116. 
 Road building, 178. 
 Rural population, 162. 
 Rural schools, consolidation of, 118, 141,, 180-182; isolation of 
 
 pupils in, 180-181. 
 Ruskin, 242. 
 Russians, 59. 
 
 Sales departments, 216-217. 
 
 Salesmanship, 215-230; gift of, 219-221; "personality" in, 221; 
 
304 Vocational Guidance 
 
 "picturesque" language of, 221; training for, 221-227, 261; 
 
 course for women in, 223; examination papers in, 224-225; 
 
 qualities needed for success in, 225-226; study of local con- 
 ditions in, 229-230. 
 Salesmen, 130, 215-218; social grouping of, in; ratio of men and 
 
 women as, 218. 
 Saleswomen, 124, 130, 216, 218, 257, 261; qualifications for, 218- 
 
 219; school for training of, 223. 
 Saleswomen in Mercantile Stores, Butler, 230. 
 School courses, adjusting of, 50, 72-74, 120-123, I73i 197-200. 
 Schools, need for industrial adjustment of, 46, 47, 277-278; merits 
 
 of, 78-79; tendency of, 137. 
 School studies, industrial setting provided for, 197-200. 
 Scots, 58. 
 
 Scudder, Myron T., 170-171. 
 vSelf-analysis, 67. 
 
 Self-knowledge, 66, 73, 74, 77, 79, 94, 260. 
 Selling ability, 219-221. 
 Sex, ordering of labor according to, 14-18; influence of, in vocational 
 
 control, 125-127. 
 Snedden, Commissioner, 50. 
 Social activities, 170-173. 
 Social groups, 109-111, 187. 
 
 Social life, 168-171, 185; records for study of, 89, 91, 92, 98, 99. 
 Social opinion, value of, 137, 279. 
 Social problems, 64, 271. 
 
 Social status, of mechanic, 204-206; of woman artisan, 210. 
 Social virtues, 155, 181. 
 Soil lore, 173. 
 
 Southern states, industries in, 1 16. 
 Specialization, 26, 27, 51-52, 53. 
 Stenographers, in, 124, 234-237; quahfications for, 218, 235-236; 
 
 men as, 235; court and government, 235. 
 Stephenson, 206. 
 St. Louis, superintendent of schools, 68 ; average weight of children 
 
 89; industries in, 120, 122. 
 "Submerged," 161. 
 Success, the foundation of, 260-269; qualities for, 261-262; school 
 
 training in, 261-266. 
 Survey, The, article from, 32-33. 
 
The Index ^05 
 
 Surveys of industries, 144. 
 Sweatshops, 153. 
 System, 263. 
 
 Teaching, 254-256, 257. 
 
 Technical schools, 209-210. 
 
 Telegraph operators, 232. 
 
 Telephone operators, 232, 233, 234. 
 
 Temperament, 80, 88, 136, 169; value of, in salesmanship, 221. 
 
 Textiles, examination papers for salesman of, 224. 
 
 "Thoroughfare'' occupations, 131-132. 
 
 Tools, ownership of, 205, 206. 
 
 Touch, delicacy of, 211. 
 
 Trade, 63; trying-out in, 75; questions to bring out ability for, 
 96, 100. 
 
 Trade papers, 179, 263. 
 
 Trade schools, 21, 106, 107, 194, 204; development of , in Massachu- 
 setts, 50, 53. 
 
 Traveling salesman, 72, 217, 223. 
 
 Trying-out methods, 74-78, l8o, 219. 
 
 Typists, 124. 
 
 Uncle Tom's Cabin, author of, 147. 
 
 Union School of Salesmanship, Boston, 223; course of study in, 
 
 223-225. 
 United Shoe Machinery Company, 213. 
 United States, school attendance in, 181 ; percentage of male and 
 
 female unemployed, in Twelfth Census of, 281-284; number of 
 
 persons over ten years of age engaged in specified occupations, 
 
 in Twelfth Census of, 285-294. 
 United States Civil Service Commission, 265. 
 
 United States Fidelity and Guarantee Company of Baltimore, 267. 
 Universities, agricultural departments of, 69, 70. 
 Unskilled labor, 43, 79, 104, 109-110, 130, 135, 191-192; on the 
 
 farm, 119, 162, 167; in industry, 191-192; wages of, 192. 
 Vineland, N. J., institution for morons, 192. 
 Virginia, consolidated schools in, 182. 
 Visiting, occupational, 68-70 ; by teachers, 70. 
 Vocational control, need of, 14; effect of, 42-56; objections to, 51- 
 
 56; objections answered, 52-56; influence of sex on, 125-127; 
 
 influence of social opinion on, 137, 279. 
 
3o6 Vocational Guidance 
 
 Vocational counselor, equipment of, 57-65; qualities needed, 
 60-62; special opportunities of, 172, 180-181. 
 
 Vocational education, in primitive times, 14-15; in colonial times, 
 16-19; life-career motive in, 19, 50, 52, 54, 261; present value 
 of, 21 ; duration of, 40; contribution of, to culture and character, 
 280. 
 
 Vocational guidance, need of, 24-41; grade teacher's training 
 toward, 27; role of parents in, 36; psychological knowledge 
 in. 37; period of critical need of, 40, 49, 50; place in the school- 
 room, 72, 94-96; meaning of, 128; complexity of, in the country, 
 168, 186; four essentials of, 270. 
 
 Vocational opportunities, 117-120, 125, 139-142. 
 
 Vocational Survey of Minneapolis, 47, 48, 129, 132, 138, 237. 
 
 Vocations }or Trained Women, 255. 
 
 Washington, consolidated rural schools in, 182. 
 
 Wellesley College, president of, 255. 
 
 Westinghouse Company, 213. 
 
 White, Mrs. Sally Joy, 158. 
 
 "White-collar" job, 137, 138, 204, 215. 
 
 White-slave traffic, 155. 
 
 Whitney, Eli, 73. 
 
 Williamson Training School, 45. 
 
 Wisconsin, distribution of industries in, 116; school statistics in, 180. 
 
 Women, in industry, 126-127; as home makers, 145-161; in the 
 cotton industry, 191; in skilled trades, 208-210; in office work, 
 233-237; in the professions, 252-259; in the juvenile courts, 252. 
 
 Women at Work, Bird, 237. 
 
 Women's Educational and Industrial Union, 223, 255. 
 
 Work, habits of, 81 ; limitation of hours for women and children, 64. 
 
 Workers, groups of, 271-275; constructive, 271-272; useless, 272- 
 273; destructive, 273-275. 
 
 Working hours, for women and children, 64. 
 
 Worn-outs, 27. 
 
 Wrights, the, 73. 
 
 Youth's Companion, 68. 
 
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