Show ABOUT APPRENTICES And Also a Few Words i Reference Refer-ence to Employers SALT LAKE City NOT 22 1880 Editors Herald In your issue of Saturday last I noticed an editorial article upon the subject of apprentices While I nm in hearty accord with some of the ideas therein expressed I must say that you do the majority of boys at present learning trades that I am acquainted with a gross injustice You seek to throw all the blame upon the boys and this is not just by any means Granting that some boys do leave or have left ther employers before they bid gained a thorough knowledge of the art or trade which they desired to learn an investigation into the causes attached thereto will I am sure reveal the fact teat the blamo iL at least equally divided 3I I among the employer and employed I have in rica DOT a company that p with ono or two exceptions has I treated its apprentices well not as I they should have been treated by any means They took these boys and under a written agreement promised to learn them the art trade or mystery of the profession to which they belonged There are several branches to their trade and a borough knowledge of all of them was wnat the indentures called for But did the boys get this knowledge I No they did not and as a natural result were turned out at the end of four years with no knowledge of the trade they had endeavored to learn save of the least important part Today To-day these youths are unable to perform per-form the work they should be able t because ot the shortcomings of their employers Other boy working at tbe same place and who have been there two or three vears foreseeing that i they remained there till they i were grayheaded they would know but very little more than they do now have also abandoned their situations situ-ations in preference t being turned out as botches and are now looking look-ing out for ether employment It was not a prospect of higher wages Ij that induced these boys to IRRVR ho cause they are willing to work for even less than they were getting providing they had some assurances of knowing something about their profession at the expiration of their apprenticeship I am satIsfied that these cases mentioned are but a faw in comparison with many others and the cause of most of them i not of ail can be traced to pecuniary greed and selfishness on tbe part of employers The main object whh many employers is to get all they can out apprentice whether the boys ever learn the trade or not is a secondary sec-ondary consideration This is a bad state ot r aflairf but it is true I admit ad-mit that there are plenty of boys who will never be skilled workmen if they hove ehow to become i hle every to Then again there are many who will bo i they have a chance to perfect per-fect themselves in the trades which they desire to learn I too wick there 1 a good apprentice law in Utah end Coat the youth here could be courted or coerced into acquiring knowledge of trades and becoming as independent as they might be by long terms of apprenticeship and I would also like to see a law tbat would compel employers carry out tbeir agreements and do the just thing by heir apprentices instead of pnrauinir lbs course that tco manv of hem do now that is getting nil the money possible to be made out of the boys anxious and willing learn trade and giving the youths very little i any knottltdge lnvreturn tberelor Bich a law will be bailed with delight by all wellmeaning employers em-ployers and all boys desiring to obtain ob-tain a thorough knowledge of any frt trade or mystery But the piratical employers will not take such a cheerful look at it Let such a law be once enacted and the trouble ab ut boys leaving their employers before the expiration of their sppren ticeahip will in a great measure be stopped VIDI |