Henry Ford's Trade-School for Needy Boys and What It Achieves How to utilize surplus boy-power so it will yield a profit, primarily for the boys themselves and incidentally for his company, seems to have been discovered by Henry Ford, Apparently he has been able to turn this discovery to as good account as he did the principle of the engine in his well-known car. On the edge of Detroit Mr, Ford is conducting an institution where he is successfully demonstrating what may be accomplished with the proper handling of boys. This institution is part factory and part school where boys from 12 to 18, who would otherwise be wasting their time, are educated and trained for a trade. It was designed to reach two groups: those who for some reason are compelled to begin making their own way at an early age and are thus deprived of school advantages, and those who are temperamentally unfit for routine school-work and hence become habitual loafers and often criminals. The Ford trade-school for boys has been in operation four years, and its success may be judged"from the fact that there are now 320 boys on the roll, soon to be increased to 500, and it has 1,500 names on its waiting-list. At this factory school the boys devote part of their'time to shop-work under competent supervision and amid pleasant surroundings, The rest of the time they go to school. Their shop-work is not merely practice. They produce enough machine parts and tools to make the institution self-supporting, with a cash balance in favour of the Ford Company. A more detailed description of the enterprise is given in "Factory" (Chicago) by T. P. Hickey, superintendent of the Ford Motor Company. He writes:
Sixty special engire-lathes, each driven by a motor in the base under the head, are a part of the equipment; also, milling-machines and other types of tool-making apparatus. A variety of other lathes will be added soon.
The boys work two weeks, seven hours per day. They go to school the third week. They are given a scholar ship of from 19 cents to 35 cents an hour, whether working—on, in school. They are paid for eight hours and work only seven. The eighth hour is spent in athletics and general recreation under paid instructor. In the shop they are under the constant direction of two superintendents and nine _foremen.
These, of course, are skilled mechanics who understand boys and are interested in their welfare. In the school, six well-paid and competent instructors give them an adequate knowledge of a
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.