Mention lias frequently been made in these columns of various phases of industrial education, with a view to emphasizing its importance to the individual worker as well as to the employer. It is now pretty generally admitted by those conversant with the subject that the apprentice system has seen its best days, and can no longer furnish a sufficient number of skilled mechanics to supply the demand.

And the causes operating to produce this result are not wholly or even in large measure due to the labor unions, nor yet are the large manufacturers at fault as a class. Some of the labor unions do have very oppressive regulations, which not only prevent large numbers of willing young men from obtaining a proper training at some trade, but a much larger number of manufacturers offer no opportunity for apprentices. In the latter case the reason will generally be found in the limited or special line of tools manufactured on special machinery which affords no facilities for the proper training of a mechanic.

What shall be done? For mechanics we must have, and those shops with apprentice systems are training no more than will meet their own requirements. A comprehensive system of trade schools would seem to be the answer. With such schools the pupil would make an early choice of the future vocation, and thereafter the whole course of training would be so designed as to produce graduates of sufficient skill and education so that they could, after a short term of shopwork, become efficient workmen.

It is too much to expect that such schools shall be conducted entirely by the State, and that instruction shall be free, as the cost of equipment would be quite beyond the means of most cities and towns. As any such scheme of instruction, to be adequate, must be general throughout the country, some plan of co-operation between manufacturers and educational authorities must be adopted, and herein lies a grand opportunity for the various associations of manufacturers to investigate and report upon the ways to be adopted to carry it out. Only in some such way can the means be provided for giving young men suitable academic instruction and at the same time a proper training in a craft or trade.

The addition of a number of new premiums to the premium list has made it advisable to delay its publication for another month. It will contain many useful tools which subscribers may easily obtain by a little work in making this magazine known to friends.

We are not much given to tooting our own trumpet, but we think we are fully warranted in stating that each volume contains information of value to even the general reader to make it worth much more than the moderate sum required for a year's subscription. A single suggestion may be of much practical value, and the means of securing large financial returns. No one interested in the .subjects treated can afford to be without it.