The farmer who tills his own soil, the man in the shop who
is his own employer, the proprietor of the small factory, as
well as the manager of the greatest manufacturing corporation
and his subordinates, are each concerned with the problems of
organization in their special work.
Thousands of farmers to-day are eking out a scanty subsistence
because of a lack of intelligence in the proper organization
of the activities of farm life. Thousands of manufacturing
establishments are upon the verge of bankruptcy or are reducing
dividends for the same reason. Industrial education confined
to the production of skilled workmen might prolong the agony,
but would not avert the final disaster, because of lack of
intelligence in the organization of means to ends in the
particular productive enterprise. Thousands of firms concerned
with the distribution of products fail annually, not because of
lack of interest on the part of those who are managing them, but
because of lack of skilful organization of the various forces
whose action is necessary to success.
The schools do not exist to-day which undertake to give
instruction in these particular fields. Even the body of
knowledge which would form the proper field of study has not
been organized and put into teachable form. Even the beginnings
have hardly been made toward industrial education in this
particular field.--LORENZO D. HARVEY, “Proceedings of
the National Education Association,” 1909.
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