Frankly, I am very much in favor of this legislation because it has been my privilege to observe the unusually good benefits which have already been brought to the people of my State. Our people are accepting these Federal funds by matching same with State funds, and it is my belief that the State will continue its prorata of these appropriations. I shall not speak at length to-day as it is my purpose to again appear before your committee and to support this legislation when it reaches the floor of the House, if your committee in its wisdom, reports same. Representative GREEN, LAKE WALES, FLA., May 6, 1930. House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. Sincerely believe it to Florida's interest that you present the indorsements you have received for the Capper-Reed Vocational Act to the House committee at hearing given this act May 7. We need your help in this manner. C. O. HOLLEY, State Superintendent Trade and Industrial Education. Hon. ROBERT A. GREEN, MIAMI, FLA., April 21, 1930. Member of Congress, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR MR. GREEN: We are familiar with the aims and objectives of vocational education and Federal cooperation with States under the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917. It has come to our attention that a bill is now pending, known as Capper-Reed vocational bill that will further stimulate and aid the States in solving the pressing and momentous problems incident to retraining of wage earners out of employment; vocational improvement of wage earners not regularly employed due to lack of hand and technical training; the vocational training of older tradesmen into lighter and more skilled branches of their respective crafts; training of apprentices in the trades to a high degree of efficiency; training junior vocational technicians for jobs where college training is unnecessary; training of foremen and supervisors for leaders and teachers; training for the commerical field that is not included in the Smith-Hughes Act. The Smith-Hughes bill and George Reed bill have proven their value in practical training for life vocations; the Capper-Reed bill is a supplement to the original vocational bill and is a result of public demand for more latitude in vocational training. Therefore we earnestly request your support of the Capper-Reed bill, H. R. 18021. 1 .. Assuring you of our appreciation, we are Respectfully yours, J. G. DU PUIS, M. D., Chairman Board of Trustees, Dade County Agricultural High School. Mr. ROBERT A. GREEN, H. H. FILER. J. A. CLEVELAND. JACKSONVILLE, FLA., April 22, 1930. Member of Congress, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR MR. GREEN: The Board of Public Instruction of Duval County, at its meeting on Monday, April 21, instructed me as secretary of the board, to write you, indorsing bill No. 10821 introduced by Mr. Reed of New York, for the purpose of increasing the United States appropriation toward the support of vocational schools, and also indorsing Senate bill No. 3969. Very truly yours, R. B. RUTHERFORD, Superintendent. Hon. ROBERT A. GREEN, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. ORLANDO, FLA., April 7, 1930. DEAR FRIEND: Referring to Capper-Reed bill H. R. 10821, now before the Senate, your educational friends and patrons of vocational education would appreciate your strong support of this bill. The many vocational needs so apparent in the State of Florida which can not now be met would be accomplished in the near future because of the additional aid we would receive. Assuring you of my earnest hope that you can conscientiously support this bill, and with all good wishes, I remain, Yours sincerely, A. B. JOHNSON, County Superintendent. TAMPA, FLA., April 15, 1930. Hon. ROBERT A. GREEN, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR CONGRESSMAN GREEN: We have profited tremendously in this county from Smith-Hughes funds the past few years, but the need for vocational work is so great and the interest so acute we have been handicapped on account of shortness of funds. Will you please use your influence to secure the passage of the Capper-Reed bill, H. R. 10821? This increase will help us meet a very urgent need. Hon. ROBERT A. GREEN, W. D. F. SNIPES, Superintendent of Public Instruction. House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. SANFORD, FLA., April 19, 1930. DEAR MR. GREEN: The Capper-Reed bill, H. R. 10821, providing for additional Federal appropriation for vocational education, appeals very strongly to me. I shall appreciate your giving this bill your careful consideration. Thanking you for your interest at all times in educational legislation, I am, Sincerely yours, T. W. LAWTON. APRIL 22, 1930.. Re vocational bill, H. R. 18021. Hon. ROBERT A. GREEN, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: Your acquaintance with the industrial and commercial conditions in our State prompts me to write and urge that you give your encouragement and support to this bill. We have at the present time an excellent program of vocational education functioning in our State, but very limited as to the real possibilities because of the limited funds with which we are working. The vocational needs in the State of Florida are very apparent and it is by this bill with its additional financial aid that we expect to meet these needs. In this way we are making provision for the growth and expansion of the personality of the boys and girls or men and women who are not going to take any more education from books but who need training in the work they have selected for life. We are, and ought to be, responsible for the happy occupation of every boy and girl in our country. Will you join us with your help? With sincere regards, I am, Yours very truly, E. B. FLAHERTY, Director of Vocational Education. Hon. R. A. GREEN, JACKSONVILLE, FLA., May 2, 1930. Mr. CONGRESSMAN: Our organization at a recent meeting went on record as approving House bill 10821. We will appreciate your efforts in behalf of this measure when it is presented for vote in the House. Yours very truly, DUVAL COUNTY PLUMBING AND HEATING DEALERS ASSOCIATION. By D. A. MAYFIELD, President. STATEMENT OF GREGORY GALIN, CHAIRMAN EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE, STATE FEDERATION OF LABOR, NEW JERSEY Mr. GALIN. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I am here representing the labor organization of the State of New Jersey. For economic reasons I believe that this legislation should be passed favorably to the vocational schools, because I can remember back to the time when we used to train apprentices in our back rooms, down in our basements, and so on. We found that the employer was not giving the apprentice the actual training needed to become a mechanic, and we did it in that way. That was in years gone by, when we had the guilds, and the attempts at first organizing labor as it is organized in this country. We found because of economic reasons we must change that system. Therefore, when vocational education become a fact, organized labor, of the State of New Jersey especially, got behind the activities of the vocational school people, and we feel it ought to be carried on. The time of the team of oxen and the steamboat has gone by. That is a slow mode of progress. The progress to-day must be much faster than that. Hence, organized labor is progressive and wants to keep in line with that progress, and in order to be able to keep in line with progress of that nature we must have money to carry on. New Jersey, I do not believe, is begging for help from the Federal Government, because they had already begun this work long before the Federal Government had passed any law with regard to it, and I believe they would carry on if this legislation were not passed, but because the trend of the times, the disappearance of one trade and the coming up of another trade, the disappearance of one industry and the coming up of another industry, the time is at hand when somebody other than the employer or the trade-unionist must take a hand in training people for making a livelihood. I don't know that I care to go into the details any further knowing that your time is limited, and I know that mine is. I think I have covered the ground. Mr. SCHAFER. Under the apprentice system the trade-unions entered into negotiations with the employers with reference to the number of apprentices that could be trained in the various shops, did they not? Mr. GALIN. Not necessarily that. Mr. SCHAFER. Is there any way where they can accomplish the same purpose for the protection of the skilled trades by limiting the number of vocational trainees in specific trades, so that you don't have too many trained mechanics in any one particular line, while on the other had you have in another line a dearth of skilled mechanics? Mr. GALIN. Organized labor in the State of New Jersey has been in conference with the employers as well as the board of education relative to that particular phase of the training situation. We feel that the trade training should not be carried on to any greater extent than what the trade will assimilate in that particular territory. If we train more than the trade can assimilate, I think it is uneconomic. Mr. SCHAFER. Then, we find under this system of vocational education that you are able to regulate an over-production of trainees the same as you did under agreement between capital and labor, limiting the number of apprentices? Mr. GALIN. I see in the carrying on of this training a higher standard of efficiency, a higher standard of American workmen. There may be many people trained along a given line, but there may be only a few trained who can reach that high standard that we are all aiming for. I believe that will answer your question. Mr. SCHAFER. Do you find also that the people following vocational training with a view to becoming skilled mechanics have better opportunities under this system, because under the old apprentice system many employers stalled along and used the apprentice system and kept them as apprentices long beyond the time necessary? Mr. GALIN. That is very true, and we find that the vocational school is overcoming that very largely, because when a boy has been properly trained, he has enough red blood in his veins and backbone to stand up for that training he received. The CHAIRMAN. I thank you very much. Mr. MILLER. Mr. Chairman, we realize there isn't any time to hear anyone else, and I am just going to ask those in charge of delegations to introduce those they have brought with them so that you will know they are here. The CHAIRMAN. I just want to make this statement before we conclude. For any person here who may have been foreclosed this morning we will have subsequent hearing. The committee will now stand adjourned until 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. (Whereupon the committee adjourned at 12.15 until tomorrow, Thursday, May 8, at 10 o'clock a. m.) VOCATIONAL EDUCATION THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1930 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, The committee met at 10 o'clock a. m., Hon. Daniel A. Reed presiding. The CHAIRMAN. Representative Eaton will address the committee. Then Mr. Miller will proceed. STATEMENT OF HON. WILLIAM R. EATON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF COLORADO Mr. EATON of Colorado. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I appear in support of H. R. 10821, the Capper-Reed vocational education bill. It is seldom that I receive communications from representatives of organized labor, organized capital, and school authorities who concur in their request, but this afternoon I have with me the messages from the Brootherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen, operating upon the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, the Stearns Rogers Manufacturing Co., the General Iron Works, and the Gates Rubber Co., all of Denver, and Miss Emily Griffith, founder and principal of the Denver Public Opportunity School, asking me to express to you their views in support of the vocational industrial education bill, now under consideration. I have listened to several speakers speak of "firsts" in regard to various details in this field. No one has mentioned the Rocky Mountain district, or the State of Colorado. I can remember the opening of a manual training school in Denver in the year, I think, 1901. Maybe it was the year before. The editor of one of our Denver papers was one of the first graduates of that school. That was six or seven years before the earliest date named by any speaker here yesterday or this afternoon. That school is still operating as one of the best manual training or trade schools in the United States. It was not very many years afterward that Miss Emily Griffith obtained support for her idea of having a night school where adults and minors might attend classes, including training in various trades. To-day this school has an annual enrollment of over 9,600, and operates from 8 a. m. to 9.15 p. m. for people of all ages throughout the school year. There are no entrance requirements. One may enter at any time during the term and devote as much time as can be spared. Instruction is given in all subjects for which there is a sufficient demand. Daily there are over 3,000 in attendance for instruction in the following subjects: 41 |