MORGAN'S LOUISIANA AND TEXAS RAILROAD AND STEAMSHIP COMPANY, AND LOUISIANA WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY.

The apprenticeship system of these lines is practically the result of many years' experience, and, in addition to the necessity of providing skilled labor, has been largely due to a desire to assist in the practical education of the sons of employees of the companies, thereby assisting them in securing the proper means of livelihood, and giving them the opportunity of learning a useful trade and fitting them for the battle. of life.

The chief element which warrants a description of the system of these lines at this place is the establishment of class-room work. When an apprentice has served one year he is permitted to enter the class of mechanical drawing, which is taught two nights each week by a competent instructor from the drafting department. The course of instruction begins with the first elements of mechanical drawing and simple geometry, gradually followed by a more difficult quality of work with descriptive geometry, which is continued in an ascending grade until the apprentices or students are fairly good draftsmen, and able not only to read a drawing intelligently, but also to make their own series of drawings from the first rough pencil sketch to the finished print.

In this connection it may be said that it is required by the companies that when the apprentice once enters the drawing class he shall be constant in his attendance, and this requirement is one of the conditions of his apprenticeship. This school of drawing is regarded as one of the most important and essential features of the lines mentioned. Aside from its undoubted value to the graduates in providing for their future career, it enables the companies to turn out of their own apprentice schools strictly first-class mechanics and young men who are far above the average of those who ordinarily seek the class of employment involved. Many of the very best men that the coinpanies have had in their shops and of those who still remain began with them as apprentices, and a number of those who have left are now occupying responsible positions with other lines which, not pursuing a similar system, are glad to take advantage of the opportunities these lines provide.

In addition to the opportunities which the companies provide for their own regular apprentices who have not had the advantages of college or manual training schools, they are encouraged to take courses in mechanics, special or general, with correspondence schools of recognized standing, as the technical information and instruction thereby gained can be illustrated and fixed in their minds by the details of daily work in the shops.

GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY."

The Grand Trunk Railway has had an efficient apprentice system in force in its shops for several years and with very satisfactory results. It includes a thorough shop training and a course in mechanical drawing, simple mathematics, and applied mechanics. The applicant must be not less than 15 nor more than 18 years of age. After successfully passing his entrance examinations, both physical and other, the apprentice may be assigned to either the blacksmith shop, boiler shop, or any shop other than the machine and erecting shop, where he is required to remain for a period of from six to nine months. He is given a text or instruction book which covers his entire apprenticeship and contains the questions which he will be required to answer correctly before being promoted from one class of work to another. There are quite elaborate rules for examinations, and general rules relative to marking, etc.

Apprentices in machine work and fitting are required to serve five years; others serve only four years. All are required to attend evening classes twice a week from October to April. These are in charge of competent instructors, and the course includes a thorough training in mechanical drawing, arithmetic, and applied mechanics. This instruction, together with the necessary material (excepting the drawing instruments, which must be provided by the apprentices), is furnished free of charge by the company. The boys are not paid for the time spent in the class room. Apprentices who do not attend the classes regularly and who do not have a good excuse for being absent are discharged.

While the system on the Grand Trunk works satisfactorily, it is not as broad, comprehensive, and expansive as that in vogue on the New York Central lines.

OTHER RAILROADS.

Messrs. Cross and Russell, of the New York Central lines, have recently been making an investigation of the apprenticeship systems of the large railroads of the United States, and as a result have found that 55 railroads have 7,053 apprentices in 368 shop plants, while 67 plants answering have no apprentices. Thirteen railroads pay apprentices to attend school, 15 make attendance compulsory; on 13 railroads the schools are held in working hours, while on 5 the school is held in the evening.

The Santa Fe Railroad system now has 10 schools in operation. with 347 apprentices. The Pittsburg and Lake Erie has a school at McKees Rocks with 36 apprentices. The Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie has a school at Minneapolis, with 29 apprentices.

American Engineering and Railroad Journal, January 1908.

The Union Pacific has two schools, one at Omaha with 71 and one at Cheyenne with 12 apprentices. The Delaware and Hudson has two schools, one at Green Isle with 25 and one at Oneonta with 33 apprentices.

Schools mean in this connection the number of branches of an apprenticeship system on the various divisions of a railroad where apprentices work in the shop and also work in the schoolroom.

LUDLOW MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LUDLOW, MASS.

This company maintains a school for the purpose of training apprentices in the special branch of the textile trade concerned with the manufacture of jute goods. It has a purpose outside of this, for an attempt is made to develop desirable, law-abiding citizens. The conditions prevailing in the village which makes this school possible are peculiar, the manufacturing company having built the sewer, constructed the streets, and supplied the village with water, light, and power. This varied activity of the company offers a very particular field of work for boys educated in the company's school.

The school was started on the discovery that of the fifty or more overseers and second hands employed by the company, not one had in forty years been educated in the village schools, and most of them had received their technical training in Scotch mills. This discovery made it evident that the company must depend upon men trained abroad or else give boys growing up in the village an education which would fit them for responsible positions in their mills.

The instruction is of two kinds-the practical part, which is given in the mill, and the theoretical part, given in the school. Each boy spends five hours every working day caring for some machine or performing such work as is assigned to him in the mill. The mill work the first year consists in sewing trolley bands, doffing, tending creels, supplying different machines with bobbins of the proper kind of yarn, packing cans, running lappers, running calendar, making reels of twine, taking care of finished card, and making tests of yarn for weight and strength. Every three months every apprentice is transferred to another machine or to other duties representing additional stages in the process of manufacture.

The mill work of these apprentices is under the supervision of the regular mill overseers, some of whom are members of the evening classes in the textile school, which fact has an important bearing on their treatment of the apprentices, in that they feel themselves to be a part of the school and thus more interested in the welfare of the school while in the mill overseeing the work of the boys. The apprentices attend school three hours each day and receive threefourths of what they would receive if they worked that time in the

mill; in other words, each apprentice is paid for his mill work at the regular rate per hour, amounting to one-half day, and in addition receives one-fourth pay for his school attendance.

The boys are divided into two classes, so arranged that the work performed in the mill in the morning by one class is continued by the other class in the afternoon. The class which attends the morning session of the school and works in the mill in the afternoon during one week reverses this arrangement the following week. The results show that better work is done in the school by the morning class.

The boys must be between the ages of 14 and 16, in good physical condition, and of good moral character when entering. They must possess a fair knowledge of English and arithmetic. The apprentices do not sign a contract, but leaving the employ of the company means severing their connection with the school; thus there is a bond which holds the apprentices. The school work, conducted in a separate building devoted to school purposes, commences in September and continues for eleven months, with a short recess at Christmas. All expenses are paid by the Ludlow Manufacturing Associates. The majority of the pupils are of Scotch descent. A large proportion of the workers in the mills are Poles and Italians, but none of them attend the school.

The moral influence of the school is already apparent, although it has been but a short time in operation. In personal appearance and cleanliness the boys have greatly improved. They have learned that soiled hands mean soiled drawings, and they have thus seen the benefit of soap and water. It is a common remark about the beautiful town of Ludlow that the increased interest and intelligence shown by the boys in the textile school have to some extent spread to other boys, and it is believed that, apart from turning out foremen, the school will in this way be a benefit to the village as well as of practical value to the company.

The outline of the course of study at present is tentative, but it will probably embrace four years' work. Some special features projected are of interest. A special shop arithmetic, covering all the operations, calculations, and duplications performed in the mills, is provided. This book has been prepared by the mill overseers and the director of the school. In manual training the boys make parts of looms and other models which have reference to the machinery. Jute and hemp seeds have been planted near the school; it is proposed to study the plants at different stages of their growth, making sketches of the parts and attempting to extract the fiber. In geography particular reference is made to the United States and those countries where fibers are produced.

In the history work the boys study the history of the textile industry; the savage and semicivilized beginnings, developing into modern textile machinery and the steam engine; industrial development in the United States and in England; the growth of the factory system and the factory acts of England, etc. In connection with their studies in physics they examine and grade fibers, use the calibrating scales, measure and weigh rove and yarn, test the strength of fibers, make tests for moisture, tabulation, etc. In English they have a certain amount of required reading, writing of business letters, study of business forms, writing of shop English, etc. Special emphasis is placed upon that side of each subject which is related to mill work.

They are solving at Ludlow a peculiar problem, and one which belongs emphatically within the realm of industrial education of a high order.

WESTINGHOUSE AIR BRAKE COMPANY, PITTSBURG, PA.

This company combines shop and school work. The only requirements for entrance are that the applicant must be 16 years of age or over, of good moral character, mentally bright, and have completed his school studies through decimals in arithmetic. In connection with its system the company has a day school at which attendance on the part of the apprentices is compulsory, the time devoted to educational work averaging about seven and one-half hours weekly, the apprentice being paid the regular rate per hour for the time spent in school. The school period extends from the middle of September to the middle of June.

In connection with the day school the company has a night school, at which the attendance of the apprentices is not compulsory. The courses, other than those directly concerned with the trade itself, are, for the first year, arithmetic, algebra, business English, industrial composition, freehand perspective and mechanical drawing; for the second year, algebra, mechanics of physics, industrial composition, shop problems, mechanical drawing; for the third year, algebra, geometry, chemistry, mechanical drawing, shop problems; for the fourth year, geometry, electricity, shop problems, mechanical drawing.

D. A. TOMPKINS COMPANY, CHARLOTTE, N. C.

This company feels disposed to reduce the age of the apprentices as much as possible, on the kindergarten plan. Their experience shows that an apprentice of 12 years will make a better machinist at 16 or 17 than an apprentice of 16 can make by 20 or 21 years. In the case of young apprentices the company appoints a journeyman