Half Work

The apprentiee aystera has dropped out oí' use entirely. lt was too slow for our fast times and the ambition of Yonng America. Every boy of twelve or fourteen is inipatioiit to begin business, and escapes froin school, it' it is possible to do so, to engage in active commercial or niechanical pursuits. This has been a growing practice for about a quarter of a century, and we see the consequence of it. AVe have couiparatively few skilled workmen in any department of industry, and very littlo good work of any kind. Indeed, about half of the work done in this country is simply a waste of material. Quality is sacrificed to quantity, and chenpness takes tho place of excelence. As it is next to impossible to get really fine work, the cmly thing that remains is to get tho largest imount of ooarse and poor work done. Most of the workmen have no meohiuiical pride. They do uot' value their artistic reputation. The idea of gaining a character for the best workinanship rarely enters their imagination. All they care for is to get the most pay for the least labor with tho least possible mind and no soul. Tho reiult is, that half the work done is practically wasted and worthless. The lcather is so poorly prepared that it scarcly pays for making. The shoes do not wear, if they do not -come to pieces. The cv.tlery is polished iron with siuiply stoel euough to give edge to the ü. The carriages break down in a season, if not at the tirst hard jolt. Tho niortar will uot hold the bricks, and the walls topple before the roof gets laid sometimes. One-third of our cloth is shoddy. The economie eft'ect of this way of doing things is disastrous. It is an enormous drain npon the resources of the country, and a heavy tax upon the laboring class. But its effect npon the laboring class doi's not oud there. It has a depressing iníluence on all classes of industry. It increaseB the consumption, and, consequently, the cost of living. It has a direct bearing on the labor question that agitates the country. If the labor of the country were skilled, and able to produce the most thorough work in every department, it would have the capital of the country at its disposal. It is not more pay for less work that our laboréis want, but more skill and a higher morale. The former comes only through the general adoption of an apprentice system, by which every workman shall be thoroughly trained for lustrado. The second must come from a new sense of pride in work, a new ambitiou to eaccel, a higher estímate of mechanical reputation. When a laborer sets such a value on his character as a workman, that be will not let a pieee of half wórk go out of his hand, when he feels a proper pride in his workmanship, and points to it as a proof of his skill and fidelity, he hs will put both brains and conscience into what he does. And uutil then, laborers and capitalista will be at loggerheads, and one half of the work of the country will be practically thrown away, merely through want of a proper understanding batween büth parties. - Xeic York Or apiñe.