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Show UTAH SCHOOL WORK IS HIGHLY PRAISED i Member of Federal Vocational Voca-tional Education Board Visits This City. Explains Plans of Government Govern-ment to Co-operate in Comprehensive System. Plans of th flral 'government, through ItB board for vocational education ftfl outlined, hy J. P. Monroe, member of the federal board for vocational education, proved highly Interesting to the group of prominent L'tahna, officials, Bchool men And buKlnees men at a meeting held In the library of the ntate board of education at the capltoL Mr. Monroe la a New England paper manufacturer, and waa chosen on the federal board presumably as an employer of labor. He la on a trip through the west, accompanied by Mrs. Monroe. They left for Botee yesterday. The purpose of the trip, as Mr. Monroe outlined tt, waa that he might learn, and ! that he might carry hack to Washington, something of the present feeling of the oountry with regard to vocational education. educa-tion. At the same time he explained to hla hearers what the federal government j Is almtng t do, and tho various methods It Is to pursue, i He outlined in detail the Smith-Hughes j bill with its provisions for co-operation on 1 a "ffty-fifty basis bet ween federal au-j au-j thortties on ,ho one hand and state and local authorities on the other. He told t also of the plans of the federal govern -1 ment for the rehabilitation of the soldiers wounded at the front. Finally, he told of the measures now before congress un-f un-f der which this rehabilitation work Is to 7 be carried Into tho Industrial life of the nation through co-operation with the states on the same financial basis as the vocational education work. I Utah Is Praised. Ho spoke In terms of highest praise of, I ! what has already been accomplished by a the Utah authorities along the lines of 'J vocational education. The plan, he said, 1 will, (f carried out, place Utah In tho y front rank of the states educationally. The Utah plan had been outlined to the r : meeting by Francis W. Kirkham, state director of vocational education. That gi plan, Mr. Monroe said, is in Its essentials, Identical with the program which was be-t be-t Ing Informally considered by the presi-j presi-j dent and the vocational education authori-3 authori-3 ties at Washington as a suggestion to the country of an Ideal plan of action. . In Washington they had scarcely dared to g dream of Us becoming an actuality In years. Pi "If the state of Utah." said Mr. Monroe, Mon-roe, "can embody such a plan in Its laws at the coming session of the legisla- V turo. It will be the pioneer in what seems to mo the finest educational program that this country has presented. It would be j eagorlv taken up by educational leaders In the different states. Anything the fed- g oral board for vocational education can do to further this program will be done, you ' may rest assured." Indicates Needs. J Mr. Monroe pointed to the need of a type of education which would enable the - country to maintain the position of world leadership which the war has given It, , and which would make every one of the boys and girls of the nation an American 1 citiaen in the fullest and most ideal sense of the word. ! The big problem, ho pointed out, is to t train the future citizens in the right way. They will have hard competition to meet ) from the Impoverished countries of Eu- rope. America will have to be the world's banker and provider. The boys and girls ; must be trained to know their work and ; to love it, must be educated to seek to oarn just as good a living as possible, and to be efficient and trustworthy in their ; tasks. The law which entrusts to the federal ' board the work of training and placing in useful Industry the soldiers and sailors who are maimed In the war was outlined 1 at some length. The army, through its medical department, will have the work ti of making such men just as good phys-i phys-i ically as possible. Then they would be 'i passed over to the federal board, which : would have the task of fitting them for usefulness In life. This, he said, would be done by placing them beside healthy and whole workers In similar lines of occupation. oc-cupation. He had no use for any attempt at-tempt to segregate the workers of this class Into institutions by themselves, which, he said, simply led them to compare com-pare their handicaps, and ultimately to become like "the inmates of an old ladies' home." No Financial Worries. He pointed out that during the training period the sold lers and sailors will be beneficiaries under the war insurance regulations reg-ulations of the government. They will be considered as temporarily totally disabled, and. therefore, will have no financial worries wor-ries as to their own living or that of their families. Men who are fitted for the work will be be trained in- colleges or for professions. The hope of the federal board, he said, is ro have various educational institutions in the states nearest the soldier's home undertake un-dertake this work and give the men the individual attention they will require. If the state or other school is not doing the work properly, the federal government will take the men away to where they will re- Reynolds, of the university; A. C. Rees, secretary of the Utah Manufacturers' association; as-sociation; E. J. Norton, secretary of the state board of education; J. M. Mills, superintendent su-perintendent of the Granite school district; dis-trict; Arch M. Thurman, secretary of the state council of defense; Francis W. Kirkham, Kirk-ham, state director of vocational education; educa-tion; Lon J. Haddock, supervisor of war emergency Industrial education, . with the state vocational education board; Mosiah Hall, state high school Inspector; Superintendent Superin-tendent E. A. Smith and Assistant Superintendent Super-intendent G. N. Child of the Salt Lake City schools; Principal George A. Eaton, of the Salt Lake high schools, and several sev-eral principals from the Salt Lake City schools, and others. ceive proper training. The work will be done at the expense of the federal government, gov-ernment, which waa responsible for taK-imr taK-imr the men away from their usual occupations occu-pations and, in a measure, for the wounds they received. Passing on to the measure now before congress, which would extend this work to the persons injured in industries or elsewhere in civil life, Mr Monroe said that this work would be undertaken If the bill is passed bv congress, in co-operation with the state governments. He declared that statistics show that ten persons are injured in industries or in civil life for one person injured in warfare every year. Therefore the task under the proposed measure would be about ten times as large as that of the rehabilitation of soldiers sol-diers and sailors. May Be Repassed. In answer to a question, he said that the bill Is now before congress and that it was only natural to suppose that, if changed by the elections, the present congress con-gress will try to pass it and gain the credit for the measure before adjournment. adjourn-ment. Mr. Monroe predicted that as a result of the war not only would the world's financial center be transferred from London Lon-don to this continent, not only would the leadership in commerce come to America, biit also that In the future the world would learn to look to the United States for leadership and example In education. He pointed out that this is a new line of educational thought, and that it will, among the forty-eight states, be capable of being worked out in a great variety of ways, from which he argued that the best plan would be chosen. Following Mr. Monroe's address the meeting was thrown open for questions, during which some general phases of the subject of vocational education were discussed. dis-cussed. Particular attention was paid to rehabilitation work, and when Dr. J. A. Widtsoe pointed out the remarkable opportunity op-portunity presented in Utah for co-operation, where ecu army reconstruction hospital hos-pital is on one side of the fence, and the University of Utah, with its facilities for Instruction in vocational work, on the other Mr. Monroe said that this was indeed in-deed an unusual opportunity, and that he would present It to the authorities In Washington, who would be most interested In any such opportunity for amalgamating the wort oft he armv with that of the vocational vo-cational education authorities. Among those present at the meeting were men from very many walks of life, In fact, Mr. Monroe commented on the fact by saying that this was one of the greatest promises for the future of education. edu-cation. He compared the meeting with conditions a few '-pars ago. when school topics were suuposed to be Interesting to a comparatively small group of technicians techni-cians in the community. A partial list of those present include, EH". F- O. Gowans. .'iperlntendent of public Instruction, who presided: Governor Pimon Bamherirer. c-ongressmpn Milton TT. Welling. Harden Bennlon. secretary of state; Dan B. Phle'.ds, attorney general: President Joshua Greenwood ar.d Commissioner TT. TT Blood of the public utilities commission commis-sion of Utah: Chairman Preston A. Thatcher and Commissioner W. M. Knerr of the industrial commission of T'lah; William Bailey, secretary and member of the Mate board of equalization; H. H. iimmlngs, superintendent of church schools of the Mormon church: Heber .T. Grant, president of the quorum of apostles apos-tles and a member of the church hoard of education: John A. Widtsoe. president of the University of Utah: Professor P. W. |