AMERICAN PREFACE.
xvii
or otherwise to extend its direct political influence, this side of the
Atlantic, shall we take no note of that vast army of workmen
whicli Europe is speeially training for the industrial conflict, and
which we must mect not only wken we venture abroad, but even
wken we remain at bome behind tariff barricades ?
Surely no one upon whom devolves, in any degree, the shaping of
public education in this country, should disregard the fact that it is
more the market of the world than the local market that deter-
mines the price of nearly all products wdiatsoever, and that every
American laborer must therefore face a double competition, —
individually, that of his neighbors ; with his neighbors, that of the
world at large. For both he should be duly prepared, to wit, as
well prepared as his competitors. Nothing should be left to
chance; nothing to the hope that divine interposition will save
him from the penalty of ignorance. He should be taught not to
ignore his distant competitor because he cannot see him, but to
remember, that in these days of telegraphs, steam-carriage, and
restless commercial enterprise, the laws of trafflc pay little heed
to mountain barriers and ocean wastes. The earth has virtually
lost her ancient commercial dimensions ; and there is nothing for
it but to give the workman a broad and thorough industrial educa
tion, based on Science and art.
So it is well, indeed absolutely essenfial, for Americans carefullv
to study what European governments have done and are doing for
the better education of labor. 1 Whilo many of the political and
social maxims a monarchy might desire to inculcate through its
schools are not adapted to a Commonwealth, yet in the matter of
industrial education the thing that is good for the foreigner is good
for the American ; since both have towork with the same materials
and Implements, according to the same natural, mathematical, and
1 Charles Francis Adams, jun., chairman of the Massachusetts Commis-
he 7 le ° na Exposition, says in his report: “Take, for instance,.
, ® g at hianch of technical and artistic education wliich has already heeu
ie eriet to. It has of late vears undergone a surprising development im
urope, the results of which supply its niost interesting and instructive fea-
, 1 , 1 ® ° \ e J 6 ® 611 * Exposition. It is now exciting the greatest interest among
‘°” g ^ fu ,“ ien m -America, and promises infinite results in our immediate
iture The Massachusetts Commission might well have beeil organized with
a single view to dealmg thoroughly with this department,”
2
