(1) Teaching positions.
(2) Supervisory and executive positions on the strictly educational side.
(3) Executive positions on the strictly business side.
(4) Miscellaneous positions, such as those held by attendance and probation officers.
Teaching positions open to men may be classified as follows:
1. Positions in the eight grammar school grades—
(a) As teachers of the regular grade subjects (elementary school subjects) in rural schools.
(b) As teachers of the regular grade subjects (elementary school subjects) in fifth, sixth, and especially seventh and eighth grades in the city schools.
(c) As teachers of special subjects in the grades, such as music, mechanical drawing, manual training, agriculture, commercial subjects, physical training and playground work, including coaching in athletics.
2. Positions in high schools, as teachers of practically all high-school subjects, but especially in the sciences, such as geology, physics, zoology, botany, and chemistry; and in agriculture, commercial subjects, debating, history, mathematics, foreign languages, English, drafting, shop work of various kinds, and printing.
3. Positions in all-day, part-time, or evening vocational schools as teachers of vocational subjects.
4. Positions in normal schools, colleges, and universities.
The greater part of the teaching in the elementary schools is in the hands of women, and much of it should continue in their hands since they are better suited than men to teach the lower grades. But children, especially in the upper grades, should come in contact not only with women, but with some men as well. More teaching in these grades, therefore, will doubtless in the future be put into the hands of men.
In the rural schools, except where schools have been consolidated, a teacher usually teaches all subjects in all eight grades, or in a number of these grades. In city schools in the regular grade subjects, each teacher generally handles one group of children, all of whom are in the same grade. In the upper grades of the elementary schools in cities, particularly in grades 7 and 8, each teacher generally teaches one subject, and teaches that subject to different groups of children in different grades. Under these conditions the teacher has opportunity to specialize along the line of his choice. One may specialize in the regular old line school subjects, such as history, reading, arithmetic, writing, and geography, or in the newer subjects, such as music, art, and agriculture. Art teaching offers an attractive field. So do agriculture, woodwork, foundry, forging, sheet-metal work, concrete construction, simple electrical construction and wiring, printing, shoe repairing, and mechanical drawing. Except in the largest cities, the teachers of industrial art subjects are usually called upon to teach two or three such subjects. One’s preparation for the teaching of these industrial art subjects should include first, a knowledge of the shop side of these lines of work; second, some knowledge of the everyday problems of industrial production, distribution, and consumption; and third, some knowledge of the method of teaching.
Men who have strong sympathies with children, who have seen life outside of their own town, State, or country, who, like our soldiers returning from the front, have faced death with as much bravery as they have faced life, such men know what it means to overcome difficulties, and the experience and ideals of such men are needed for the proper education of our youth. The influence of such characters should be felt before the close of the elementary school, which is the most important part of any educational system, the foundation on which higher education is based, and which, therefore, offers a field not unworthy the finest type of soldier.
There is a growing demand for men teachers in the best high schools and normal schools, and this demand is likely to increase as the result of the war, which has shown more clearly the need of the influence of men in our secondary schools and which has drawn many women into industrial occupations that were formerly closed to them.
This demand for men teachers is especially noticeable in the special subjects in high schools, and it is growing even in the regular subjects. Even in English, which has been taught pretty largely in the past by women, there is a growing feeling that more men should be employed. Heretofore, men fitted by nature and training for teaching English in the high schools have generally gone into journalism or magazine writing.
In the teaching of mathematics in high schools, applications rather than pure theory are being more and more emphasized. Here men generally have a wider range of information and experience than women, so that the teaching of mathematics in high schools should offer increasing opportunities to returned service men.
The method of teaching history, too, is gradually changing, so that it is more attractive to men than formerly. Particularly attractive should it be to returned soldiers and sailors, who have had such an important part in making history during recent months.
The teaching of modern languages is tending to open up somewhat to men. There will be a growing demand for teachers of French and Spanish, and this demand can not readily be filled satisfactorily for some time to come. It should open up good opportunities, therefore, to returned soldiers and sailors. French has been neglected in American secondary schools, particularly in the central and far West. Spanish, until a very few years ago, was almost unknown in high-school courses. Recently it has been introduced rapidly. It is not certain, of course, yet that it will continue to develop under normal conditions, but it is certain that South American trade will grow faster after the war, and this fact should encourage the spread of the study of Spanish.
In the past we have made the mistake of leaving the teaching of foreign languages too much to teachers native to the countries whose language they teach. In the future we shall be careful not to make the mistake that we made in the teaching of German. We shall put the teaching of foreign languages more largely into the hands of American-born teachers. We can scarcely do better than to intrust such work to the care of returned soldiers and sailors who equip themselves for this task.
There has long been a great demand for well-prepared men teachers in sciences in the high schools. The chances for men in these subjects in the future are likely to be better than they have been in the past. Many men with scientific training will return from the war with disabilities unfitting them for their former occupation, and to such the field of science teaching may seem very promising. Opportunities will be especially good for men who have been trained in scientific or technical colleges, which include in their curricula the sciences usually taught in high schools.
For more advanced high-school work in industrial arts in the large high schools, men are needed who can teach one of the branches of industry intensively, giving their whole time to such subjects as wood-working, metal working, printing, or mechanical drawing. A man who is a journeyman workman in any industry already has most of the training necessary for this line of teaching. Men teachers are needed also to teach some of the regular school subjects from the industrial point of view. For instance, there is occasionally need for men to teach shop mathematics or the sciences concerned in the industry, but they should be familiar with shop work and shop problems in order to make their work fit into the needs of the shop courses.
There are opportunities also in the field of teaching vocations. Positions are rapidly opening up in public all-day, part-time, and evening vocational schools; also in apprentice schools conducted by business establishments.
Opportunities for teaching positions in this work range from permanent employment on the staff of a school or college to temporary employment in conducting evening courses for a number of weeks. Many institutions of all grades conduct full-time day courses, and also conduct special, part-time or evening courses, at certain times in the year. Thus opportunities are open either for full-time or part-time employment. In industrial cities where evening industrial and commercial courses are conducted there is often an opportunity for a man to secure a position as instructor. He can do this instructing and retain his day employment.
Usually there is more demand for agricultural training in the agricultural and thinly settled States, and for trade and industrial training in the cities of the industrial States, though both forms of training are carried on to some degree in practically all the States. In any part of the country a prospective trade instructor is more likely to find opportunity in the larger cities.
Teaching positions in colleges and universities pay more money, of course, than those in high schools. It is equally true that instructors in high schools are paid more money than those in elementary schools. This difference in salary is largely because of the greater amount of training required for the better paying positions.
In general, high-school teachers, for example, must have pursued an educational course at least four years in advance of the grade of the subject which they teach in the high school. This means graduation from a college, or what is commonly called the A. B. degree. The standards in most colleges have been raised so much the last few years that one must have at least two years of education in the college subject which he expects to teach, beyond the four years’ work of the college. This means at least the master’s degree and, in many institutions, the doctor’s degree.
Any young man ambitious to become a college instructor should recognize that his chances of success in the work are very poor unless he is able in some way to secure the proper preparation. In many cases this is done by graduating from a normal school to teach in elementary schools. Later, by saving his money, the teacher is able to complete an A. B. degree, which makes him eligible for desirable teaching positions in high schools.
A third step for the ambitious man is that the second return to a college or university for the purpose of securing specialized training which entitles him to the master’s or doctor’s degree. He is then eligible for desirable college and university positions.
Any man interested in education as a profession should, therefore, take stock of his native ability, his interest in the profession, his present educational qualifications, the grade of position to which he aspires, and the amount of sacrifice he is willing to make to meet its requirements.
After a few years’ experience in actual teaching one may qualify for a supervisory position or an administrative position. There are many positions of this character. There are positions as supervisor of art, music, drawing, physical training, manual training, agriculture, etc., in the grades and in the high schools. There are supervisors also of certain grades, like supervisors in the primary grades, the intermediate grades and the upper grades. Men can very well do this supervisory work in the intermediate and especially in the upper grades. Sometimes one supervises the teaching of all subjects in a group of buildings. On the administrative side there are opportunities as principals of buildings. Sometimes the work of the principal is wholly that of administration. Sometimes it combines with the administrative work, the work of supervising actual teaching. From principalships and supervising positions one may pass on to the position of superintendent.
A young man of ability and ambition with the proper training can reasonably hope to become principal of a large building, or superintendent of a fairly good sized school system, if he is willing to pay the price of hard work for 12 to 15 years.
Administrative positions on the strictly business side of schools, such as superintendent of buildings, or of supplies, are open to men of course, who have not had teaching experience at all. Generally, however, these positions are filled by men who know something of the teaching problem itself. More and more there is a tendency to bring the business administration and education administration nearer together.
In the future, therefore, promotions even in the business field of school work will doubtless take place more and more through the avenue of the educational field. In both of these fields, the business and the educational administration of school work, there is a distinct future for fine vigorous men, who have the power of arranging their thoughts and facts in an orderly way when they are taking up matters for discussion with their associates.
The soldier who enters the field of education has a far wider horizon, and therefore a better opportunity for promotion, than one equally well equipped in other respects who has not borne arms.
It is difficult to judge in advance one’s fitness for teaching. Probably the biggest single element determining success is love for children or for youth. If a man can play with them with pleasure, he has a pretty strong evidence of an understanding of child nature that will be helpful to him in teaching.
Prof. George Herbert Palmer, in his monograph “The Ideal Teacher,” says that there are four essentials of the successful ideal teacher. These may be briefly indicated as follows:
1. So long as a teacher is content to keep in his possession information or facts he is not a teacher at all. He must transfer these facts to minds of others in order to be a teacher. It goes without saying that the teacher must have knowledge, a wide range of information about various things, before this knowledge can be passed on to someone else. The teacher’s duty is that of taking a thought out of his own mind and putting that thought into the minds of others. It goes without saying, therefore, that he must have possession of the thought in the first place himself.
2. The teacher must have a passion to lead others to learn. This eagerness must be accompanied by imagination which leads the teacher to put himself in the place of the pupil. This means that the teacher has to take facts and wrestle with them until they are lodged safely and permanently in the minds of the pupils. The teacher must see the things that confuse the pupils and after seeing these difficulties must clear them away. There is always the temptation for the teacher to blame failure on the dullness of pupils rather than to ask whether the teaching has been adjusted to the conditions of the pupil’s mind.
3. In addition to the intellectual wealth and the sympathetic imagination above mentioned, the ideal teacher must make the pupils like to learn. Too often school work is offensive and results in arousing a rebellious spirit on the part of pupils.
4. The ideal teacher must be willing to be forgotten—to have his kind acts overlooked—to be generous, even in the absence of praise. If praise and recognition are essential to him the prospective teacher may as well give up the profession.
The discharged soldier can decide to some extent what his teaching chances are by asking himself questions like the following: Have I attended evening school or taken instruction work, or gone to lectures, or enrolled in correspondence schools, or done anything previous to entering the Army which would lead anyone to suppose that I was ambitious to advance in my vocation? When in the Army, did I obtain recognition for capacity for leadership and for teaching others? Have I in the past looked upon teaching as a desirable profession where one could render service at a fair compensation? Have I “Stick-to-it-iveness” to attend a teachers’ training school and adapt myself to classroom work with books, catalogues, reports, and lectures on the theory and practice of education?
One looking forward to a position in vocational education should ask himself such questions as the following: Have I actual technical knowledge of some trade or am I only capable of practicing a few operations connected with the trade? Have I ever been interested in social and economic life that lies behind the vocational life? Did I ever join any organization connected with an occupation or pursuit which promotes the economic and educational welfare of its members?
Each prospective teacher should ask, Have I a strong personality? Nothing awakens within a child sleeping moral qualities so well as contact with a strong attractive personality. The problem of the school is to find the teacher inspired with patriotism, filled with zeal, and favored with intellectual interests.
The question of health, also, is an important one for the person who is looking forward to teaching. Many people feel that school hours are short, and that, therefore, a great amount of physical endurance is not needed in the work of teaching. Because of the particular strain of the teacher’s work it is a mistake to think of the workday at all in terms of hours. It has been said that one hour of teaching is equivalent as far as fatigue is concerned to two hours of ordinary study done in quiet without the necessity of speaking. The four or five hour teaching day, therefore, becomes the equivalent of an eight or ten hour day, and on top of that must be added two hours a day for correcting papers, preparing lesson plans, etc.
It is said that teaching is hard on the eyes and the nerves and the lungs, so that people suffering seriously from either eye, nerve, or lung trouble should hesitate to go into teaching as a life work, unless there are prospects of early recovery. It is further stated that a higher percentage of deaths occurs from tuberculosis among teachers than among persons in other occupations, although the mortality from this disease is higher for female teachers than for male teachers. Teachers, especially beginning teachers, frequently suffer from nervous strain. Almost 50 per cent of the nervous cases are said to appear during the first 5 years of teaching, while during the first 15 years of teaching 87 per cent of such cases occur. Nevertheless it is to be noted that insurance companies class teachers among their good risks.
Men who have gotten no farther than the eighth grade in their general education might be fitted to teach some vocational subjects. Teachers of elementary subjects, either in the ungraded rural schools or in the graded city schools, should have the equivalent of a high-school education, and teachers in high schools should have the equivalent of a college education with emphasis placed upon the subject taught. Teachers in normal schools should have a year or two of work beyond the college course, and teachers in colleges and universities are generally expected to have from one to four years of post-graduate work.
In addition to this general training in subject matter one should have professional training dealing with the methods of teaching and supervising. The demand for men with this special training in the teaching profession is growing. The minimum general education required for a principalship of a school is graduation from a good high school. In addition to this there should be at least two years of study, which is largely professional, such as one would get in a normal school or in the department of education in a college or university. Even further study than that, of course, is desirable, and the best positions generally go to men who have spent several years in study beyond college graduation. Recent studies show that men who have received even a small amount of professional training advance more rapidly than those who have depended alone on their native ability and general education.
For the positions that are largely administrative and supervisory men who have already had experience in the field of teaching may secure the necessary technical preparation by taking a year’s training in any of the numerous colleges of education or normal schools which prepare for these fields. Present-day courses in theory and practice, leading directly to positions named above, offer unexcelled professional training in these fields.
Various States of the Union have different laws governing the certification of teachers. Some of the States require a definite amount of education of a general nature, plus education of a professional nature, plus an examination. Other States depend more upon the examination. The present tendency is to raise the requirement for a general education, to add to the requirement for a professional training, and to lay less stress upon the examination. Anyone who is thinking of entering the teaching profession, however, should before doing so look up very carefully the laws in force in the State in which he plans to teach.
Applicants for teaching positions in educational institutions of any grade must generally show the authorities in control that they possess whatever qualifications may be considered necessary, including education, training, experience, and personality.
In general, the higher the grade of the institution, the higher the requirements. Colleges, technical schools, and universities all practically require for the lowest teaching positions on their regular staff at least a degree equal to that granted by the institution. Schools of secondary grade do not, as a rule, set the standard as high, while schools of intermediate grade set up intermediate qualifications.
The requirements for teachers in schools of secondary grade vary widely. If under private control, no definite statement can be made, since each school sets up its own standards. Good privately controlled schools, however, tend to set up about the same requirements as schools of corresponding type that are under public control.
In the great majority of States teachers in schools under public control must be certified before they can be employed. This certificate is usually granted after some form of examination has been successfully passed and is commonly given by the State educational authorities. Usually certificates are granted only to persons having certain educational and other qualifications. The requirements, examinations, subjects, etc., are usually given in bulletins issued free by the departments of education of the different States. Some large cities have certifying systems of their own.
In most States teachers of agriculture must be graduates of a four-year course in an agricultural college or institution of similar grade, and in addition, must have had a practical farming experience.
In trade and commercial schools and departments the general tendency is to secure for practical or shop instructors men who actually know the occupations that they are to teach. In industrial day schools and in evening courses in these schools, there is generally required proof of a certain length of journeyman experience in the trade to be taught following an apprentice experience or its equivalent, and proof also of an elementary school education or its equivalent.
Teachers of technical or related subjects (shop mechanics, drawing, etc.), are usually required to have had several years of technical training and to have had some contact with industry.
Financial returns from teaching are not large. But teaching usually pays at least a comfortable living from the very first. Many people enter the profession for this reason. It is said that the money returns from teaching are, on the average, less than in law, medicine, or business. Salaries of high-school teachers, however, are said to be on the average somewhat higher than those of ministers, doctors, and lawyers. In all lines of teaching the salary range is rather large. The number of years that it takes to reach the maximum salary varies greatly in the different States. In Indiana it is said that the maximum for men, excluding principals, is reached on the average in 6 years, whereas in Massachusetts the maximum salary for men, excluding principals, is not usually reached under 15 years. In Massachusetts the maximum salary received by teachers is about twice as great as the minimum salary.
The beginning wage for men teachers in rural schools ranges from $60 to $90 per month. The beginning wage of men teachers in the graded schools in cities is considerably more. The minimum salaries of all teachers, men and women included, in 85 of the largest cities in the United States, ranges from $405 to $1,080, whereas the maximum for such teachers in the same cities ranges from $630 to $1,820.
Teachers in industrial arts receive from $1,000 to $2,500 a year, while supervisors of such subjects receive from $1,600 to $3,000 a year.
Salaries paid State and local directors for administering vocational instruction range from $2,500 to $5,000.
Principals and superintendents of schools generally receive salaries ranging from $1,000 to $4,000, and in some of the larger cities salaries for superintendents have recently been materially increased. During the past three or four years some superintendents of our largest cities have been getting from $10,000 to $12,000.
While the salary for teaching is not as great as one would probably receive in commercial lines, nevertheless there are other rewards that tend to make teaching attractive. In the first place, there is apt to be more permanency in a teaching position than in a commercial position. Teachers are not easily dismissed without cause. Hours are shorter, thus giving regular opportunity for exercise in the open air. In most States neither dissatisfaction of pupil nor parents is cause for dismissal of the teachers. In many States, too, if the schools are ordered closed, the salaries of teachers must go on in full. The rather long vacations in teaching give opportunity for travel or study or work, as one may elect.
Social insurance is rapidly being provided for teachers. Pension systems for city school teachers started in Chicago in 1893. At the present time there are 21 State pension systems, while 4 other States have laws permitting local organizations to set up pension plans. In addition to the State systems there are 64 city and county systems in operation. Some of these systems are not satisfactorily worked out, but within the last few years a great deal of careful study has been given to this work. The movement for social insurance is recent but wide-spread and still growing. A total of 34 States are at present represented in this movement in either State systems or local systems within the State. Retirement in these systems is most frequently on the basis of 30-year service. In about six-sevenths of the systems the teachers contribute to the funds, most frequently 1 to 2 per cent of their salaries.
In schools reporting pension systems for teachers the average salary is $730 a year, while the average pension is $500 a year.
Finally, teaching is its own reward. For the person who likes children, who appreciates the social advantages of the profession, who wishes to make his life count greatly in the lives of other people, and who has an ambition to do something for the national service in a vital way, the profession of teaching should be attractive.
For men teachers the rate of advancement in salary varies greatly with different communities and with different personalities. The number of years of teaching necessary before the maximum salary is reached ranges from 6 to 15 years or more. Men continue to be advanced, however, by being promoted to principalships after their chances for further advancement as teachers are reduced to a minimum.
At one time education in the United States was largely in the hands of men. At the present time it is largely in the hands of women. A tendency is growing to bring more men into the teaching profession. The demand for teachers is generally and greatly increased of late. The growth of high schools during the past generation has been very rapid. Twenty years ago there were 200,000 pupils enrolled in 2,500 high schools of our country, thus representing one in every 210 of the population. To-day there are approximately a million and a half pupils in approximately 15,000 high schools, representing one in every 66 of the population. In some localities one person in every 25 is enrolled in a secondary school of some sort. This expansion of the secondary schools of the United States has not yet ceased. There has been marked increase also in attendance at normal schools and colleges, but this increase, while great, has not been as rapid as the increase in high-school attendance. The very recent development of vocational training is adding to the demand for men in the teaching profession. It would seem, therefore, that the teaching profession would offer an attractive field for many of our returning soldiers, sailors, and marines.
Undoubtedly, the disabled soldier, sailor, or marine returning from this great war has a number of very great assets which he could market to advantage in educational work. Not the least among these is the advantage which he will enjoy over the civilian because of the natural admiration of young people for the soldier, sailor, or marine. With this as a start, other things being equal, his chances of success and of advancement as a teacher are very good.
The attitude of the community toward him will be one of respect and admiration. From this he can reap rich rewards in influence and friendships.
Every man who has gone to war must have thought more deeply than ever before about his country and its many problems. He comes home, perhaps, with many changed points of view. Naturally he desires to play a part in refashioning the spirit or the customs or practices, and even the institutions of this country. There is no more effective place in which to do this than in the schoolroom through the continuous everyday influence which the teacher brings to bear upon the lives of young people.
This monograph was prepared by Dr. Walter J. Quick, Special Agent for the Federal Board for Vocational Education, under the direction of Charles H. Winslow, Chief of the Division of Research. Acknowledgment is due E. H. Thomson, Acting Chief, and Dr. E. V. Wilcox, agriculturist of the Office of Farm Management, United States Department of Agriculture, for suggestions and data, also to Dr. John Cummings, of the Research Division, for editorial assistance.
If you have been asking yourself the question, “Can I now with my disability undertake to manage a farm on business principles and expect to make a financial success of it?” you will be interested to learn that farm management is one of the most important training courses offered you by the Federal Board for Vocational Education.
Upon good business management depends success in farming, that most important industry in the United States—the industry which many of you boys returning from the war will wish to enter, the one which needs you perhaps more than any other, and in which you may expect to earn ample rewards through scientific methods.
Farm management has been defined as “the science of organization and management of farm enterprise for the purpose of securing the greatest continuous profit.” It is the business end of farming. It deals with farm organization, methods, accounts, and credits, and is, therefore, of interest to all classes of farmers, including owners, managers, and tenants.
In agricultural affairs as they have been carried on, the lack of business methods has been amazing. Absolute mismanagement has frequently been the principal cause of discouragement, failure, and abandonment of farms. This influence has prevented many from taking up farming, but one who has a genuine love for the farm and who has or can get some practical experience on the farm may take a course of intensive study in farming and farm management under the direction of the Federal Board for Vocational Education, and then develop into a successful farm manager. The candidate must not forget, however, that farm management is a profession, and that a person without experience should not expect to become a successful farm manager in a few weeks by taking a short course at some agricultural school. What is worth getting requires time and effort in this as well as in other things.
Many who have felt full confidence in farming, and have invested their money in it and applied business principles to it, have proved that the same measure of success will attend farming under business management as attends other industries when properly managed. Tens of thousands of farmers in the United States have demonstrated this by earning substantial profits.
Whatever has been true in the past, the manager of a farm to-day must be a business man capable of negotiating complicated transactions, buying and selling, and attending to the diverse details of organization and management.
You should consider well your adaptability for the diversifications of general farm life; your inclination to acquire an intimate knowledge of the principal affairs and at least a comprehensive acquaintance with everything related to farming. As a manager you must keep accurate accounts; you must know live stock as well as crops; you must be a mechanic, and ready to lend a hand with your laborers if your condition permits; in a word, you must be broad minded and tactfully co-operate with your men. You must have a practical knowledge of crops, of their seeding and harvesting, of the principles of plant breeding, propagation, and adaptation to soils. You must understand animal husbandry, breeding, growing, and feeding the animals produced to a market finish or for milk production.
By careful study the many activities on the farm can be so dovetailed together as to produce a maximum of crops and live stock economically. Systematic organization must be extended to every department of the farm. Labor must be efficient and well employed; teams and machinery, sufficient and in good condition; and marketing timely, it being borne in mind that quality and condition are quite as important as is quantity of product.
Variations in profits from farms are more largely due to mismanagement than to unfavorable seasons or fluctuating prices. Farming has become decidedly a business proposition. The abnormal demand now being made upon the United States for food and other agricultural products to be consumed at home and in European countries makes the extensive application of scientific farming imperative.
Many farms, unprofitable because of mismanagement, could by reorganization be systematized and developed into profitable, lucrative undertakings. Accompanying this reorganization, the application of business principles and practical management to scientific methods is of paramount importance.
With this better farming there must be associated reliable accounting, demonstrating a business warranting banking credit. It is often claimed that farmers can not keep books, when as a matter of fact, while they do not do bookkeeping in the generally accepted term, nine out of ten, from notes jotted down, have as accurate knowledge of the financial side of their enterprise as the majority of business men. This has been repeatedly proven by the hundreds of farm surveys, representing many States, by the Office of Farm Management of the Department of Agriculture, through which it was found possible on almost every farm to obtain an accurate financial statement from the memoranda kept by the farm owners, their managers or tenants, and to ascertain the profits.
Thorough organization with method and accounting simplifies management, curtails expenses, makes possible larger returns with less outlay, and establishes credit, which will not longer be denied the farmer when he adopts business methods and can show the bank his statement of annual business conditions.
Farms have been likened to huge sponges from their ability to absorb money and labor, but the capable manager can make investment of money and labor in farming profitable. Uncle Sam, it may be noted, has arranged for the advance of money through the Federal Loan service, and local banks stand ready now as never before to accommodate the farmer temporarily with the necessary funds for development operations. Many farms, like some manufacturing plants, are being run to only half capacity or less by a “one-horse tenant,” caretaker, or discouraged farmer. They are awaiting men and money, ready to absorb both, and if they are reorganized and managed on a business basis they will become highly profitable.
Only 60,000 farms out of 6,361,000 employed managers and superintendents according to the 1910 census. But it is practically certain that more than one farm in a hundred would have been operated by managers had there been a larger number of effectively trained men available to men owning, or in position to own, farms large enough to justify the employment of a manager. With the number of improved farms increased to probably 7,000,000 by this date, the demand is greater for this class of trained men. The department of Agriculture and the State agricultural colleges report inability to fill numerous calls for farm managers and superintendents, and the advertisements in the agricultural and live-stock papers for them indicate that the demand continues. The small percentage of profits from the inefficient management of idle and incompetent tenants makes tens of thousands of farm owners not living on their places very desirous of securing active farm managers, capable of introducing scientific methods.
We believe, in fact, we know, that there are in the country numerous “old time” farm owners who are barely making a living, while their farms are constantly depreciating in value. Unquestionably such owners would receive better returns by employing farm managers. The combination of a number of farms with co-operative handling, under a competent farm manager, on the community principle, would reduce expenses for machinery, teams, and power, and make possible more economic employment of labor. The existence of such conditions offers an excellent field of activity to the man who is trained well enough to see and to use these opportunities. Knowing the possibilities such a man might be able to so thoroughly convince the owners of a number of inefficiently operated farms of the advantage of having them worked as a unit and thereby get them to adopt his plans. The country is full of landed estates of sufficient area to justify the owners in employing specially trained men. Syndicates and individuals have been for years buying groups of neglected farms and orchards in the southern States. These are almost invariably being handled by scientifically trained farm managers. The properties have improved under modern methods of culture and have in most cases shown profits within two or three years, notwithstanding the necessary outlay to bring the run-down property into productive condition. Similar conditions obtain in New York and other northern and western States.
Managers are responsible for success in farming. Upon their experience and ability depends the securing of the “greatest continuous profit,” and, in fact, the securing, in many cases, of any profit at all. They direct, plan, and systemize the regular farm duties.
The manager must arrange an advantageous distribution of farm labor, keep in intimate touch with all the farm work, know how to do it and be able to judge when it is well done, know what reasonably to expect of his men, know how to direct labor so as to meet adequately each season’s demand and so as to provide employment at all times.
The manager must study the efficiency of different classes of workers. Too often farm profits are thought to depend upon small wages rather than upon experience and ability. The good manager will not make this mistake. The old belief that anyone can farm has been abandoned. Almost anyone can learn to farm, but the losses by the inexperience of an apprentice must be carefully avoided. Many a prospect of a full crop of corn as evidenced by the regularity of “stand in the row” has been reduced to a three-fourths return by an inexperienced plowboy plowing the young plants out or leaving them covered. An experienced plowman with an improved cultivator would have made a profit possible where the inexperienced hand caused a loss. The better worker is worthy his hire and better wages. The demand is growing in farming as in other industries for trained workers. The yields that the farm manager is able to secure are dependent so largely on his knowledge of labor and ability to direct it, that particular study should be given the labor problem of the farm by anyone preparing to assume the responsibilities of farm management.
Farm work is not accomplished by separate groups of workers so much as by the same group of workers being employed in the appropriate undertakings at different seasons, as the manager directs.
The competition for satisfactory farm labor has become so keen that far-sighted managers pay special attention to the conditions under which their laborers, as well as their skilled hands, live. A little money judiciously expended in providing buildings that are livable and homelike, a little liberality in the matter of time, a chance to garden, to keep a cow or a few hens, or to do some of the many other things that serve to keep satisfactory labor, may return a profit far out of proportion to the expense represented. In other words, the farm manager must profit by the experience of the manufacturer and avoid excessive “labor turn over.”
Large farms and estates employ crews of men and utilize expensive equipment. They especially require the services of well-trained and reliable farm managers, capable of selecting practical foremen and laborers, and of keeping well in hand the details of all farm processes necessary to economical management. But good management is essential also on small farms, operated by owners or tenants, as well as on large estates. The owner, and generally the tenant as well, are their own managers, and managing a small farm well is one way of learning the profession of the farm manager. The small farmer as well as the large must consider well the location, climate, soil, lay of land, water supply, and other features of his farm, so as to determine the most suitable type of farming under existing conditions. He, as well as the large farmer, must keep accounts, organize the farming operations in proper sequence, determine upon cropping, direct the preparation of soil, fertilizing, seeding, cultivating, harvesting, and all the minor details of live stock, breeding, raising, and feeding, do the buying as well as the marketing of crops, live stock, and live-stock products.
The geographical area of farm operations, and consequently of the demand for farm managers, is co-extensive with the United States.
The farm manager must have an intimate knowledge of tools and machinery and an inclination to employ only the best and most modern implements, even if special financing for a year or so must be undertaken in order to farm most profitably. Tractors, modern machinery, and labor-saving implements should be studied, wisely selected, and purchased, even if it is found necessary to buy on terms.
You can hardly have had sufficient agricultural experience, if you have not had college or vocational training in some agricultural institution, to justify you in not taking advantage of the opportunity for a vocational course in farm management, if you look forward to a career in this profession.
If you have had only limited practical experience you may become a farm foreman, in which as wide an experience is not required, thus securing for you an opportunity for development and promotion to the higher place of manager. The training that will develop a good farm manager is equally valuable for promotion to the position of county agricultural agent. This work is increasing, attractive, and remunerative. Men with sufficient training, experience, and ability to “mix” with the farmers can do a valuable work. All training and experience with money saved for an initial payment are stepping stones to farm ownership. Notwithstanding disabilities, which are seldom disqualifying and rarely prohibitive, you with farm experience occupy an ideal position for training in farm management and its accompanying opportunity for advancement.
Opportunity for promotion is exceptional in farm management and will naturally be accorded you—in fact, you will be given preference—if your efficiency is evident. Men with ideas, who think and do things, are in demand on the farm. Having taken the vocational training in farm management, having skipped no links in the chain of development, and having acquired by reading and observation all the information pertaining to it, promotion will be but natural and rapid in the occupation which you have made a specialty, and upon which you have made yourself a reliable authority. Think it over seriously. Upon training depends your future, your occupation, and your success in life. You may succeed without training, but you are more likely to succeed if you have been retrained and readjusted to the new conditions which will confront you in earning a livelihood.
After training you should not expect to begin at the top unless you have had practical experience and are in a position to become an owner or a tenant at once.
The positions of farm manager, superintendent, or foreman are considered from the salary rather than the wage standpoint and are usually of annual engagement for the calendar year, as practically all farm operations have ended with the close of the year, making it a most suitable time for the changing of men, if found advisable. The salary paid is proportionate to experience and efficiency and commensurate with that of other callings. As in other occupations, it may be small at the start, but will increase with efficiency. Commonly farm managers and superintendents are receiving annually from $1,000 to $3,000, and on large estates often $4,000 or $5,000, with many perquisites, such as dwelling, garden and truck land, fuel, and the privilege of keeping a cow, pigs, and poultry. Farm foremen are paid from $500 to $1,200 with perquisites. Sometimes the beginning salary is a little less than the minimum, but often carries a contingent bonus when the year ends with satisfactory results. The general level of pay is likely to advance under the unusual conditions which now obtain in agriculture.
Your salary in the country may be less than in the city, but your living expenses are greatly decreased by the perquisites mentioned, and in not having presented to members of the family the temptations of the city to spend money unnecessarily. Then, too, the healthful conditions of the country prevent much sickness and consequent loss of time and there are therefore fewer doctor’s bills. Therefore the saving from the annual income as farm manager is equal to, and in a majority of cases, exceeds the returns from a city position, besides placing you in line for independent ownership.
As in other positions, that of manager and the amount of salary commanded varies with the magnitude of the farm and the capacity of the manager to develop himself and the opportunities entrusted to him. A farm boy, after two years in an Agricultural College, took a foreman’s position starting at $600 a year and perquisites, the second year he received $900, then became manager at $1,800, and now receives $3,000. In five years he has quadrupled the income.
Your disability has an excellent opportunity of being overcome in farming. Handicaps that would interfere in other training courses are corrected in many of the farm processes by the therapeutic exercises so interesting and variable. The opportunities are so great that the handicapped may develop his own vocation on the farm. Devices to beat your handicap and make it possible for you to do the things you did not imagine you could perform have been invented and manufactured in almost every country for the benefit of the disabled in war, which Uncle Sam has now available for your use.
When you are advised that your handicap permits you to return to the farm, the sooner the practice of your training is begun the greater will be the therapeutic value. This is your reconstruction, your individual man-struggle for restoration in correcting the disability which you acquired in the great world-struggle.
As a farm manager, landowner, tenant, supervisor, superintendent, or foreman, the experienced man capable of using a trained brain in directing others can succeed in spite of almost any disability. If the occupation places you in position to devote your time principally to the management of your farm, or the one you have in charge, you can assign to others such work as you may be incapable of performing yourself.
Your knowledge of the common school branches, especially English, mathematics, and current literature will greatly assist you in studying the elementary principles of chemistry; in comprehending the analyses of soil and water, the protein and carbohydrate contents of the feeds, milk, and plants, quite necessary in the selection of feeds for the proper balancing of rations; in the understanding of plant breeding, growth, and propagation; in studying entomology and obtaining a practical knowledge of insects, pests, diseases, and the bacteria of milk, water, etc., and in acquiring some knowledge of physics and its application to the soil, drainage, buildings, machinery, heating, lighting—all vastly important to the farm manager.
Technical training is valuable in adapting many farm processes to increase the profit on certain crops and makes special projects worthy of careful consideration by the disabled, seeking side-line opportunities on the farm for alternating employment when regular operations can not be pursued.
The knowledge to be gained in the vocational training course will depend upon your previous education, experience, and application. All the time necessary will be allotted to the course. It is, however, advisable not to overtax your strength, but acquire efficiency gradually. You will be advised by the training instructors as to your ability to undertake new features and widen the scope of instruction.
Getting back home to work again should be, and doubtless is, your greatest ambition, hence the importance of reaching your decision at the earliest possible moment and applying for the training which Uncle Sam has in readiness for you. Seek an early opportunity for advisement while in the hospital. You will find the attitude of your old friends, your own family, and your former employers all that you could possibly expect, in their desire to assist you in getting “over the top” in agriculture. The disposition of your fellow workmen will be to give you every encouragement and to lend a helping hand whenever and as long as you need it. They will take a justifiable pride in you and your determination to be a man among your former fellowmen in civil life and to train for a self-supporting and honorable occupation—one that will enable you to remain true to agriculture and to your country in its efforts to produce for the world the food which is now so greatly in demand; to prevent hunger and starvation, and to quell food riots in the war-afflicted countries.
The new year 1919 is upon us and spring is rapidly approaching, reminding us of farming activities and that activities in farming should have our prompt attention this year of all others, that starvation may cease with a bountiful harvest.
To you is offered free this exceptional opportunity to readjust yourself back into civil life in American agriculture by selecting farm management as your vocational training course.
It is all up to you.
Give it consideration now.
Agricultural literature is available in all libraries and consists of treatises and textbooks suitable for reading with the idea of the definite study for perfecting knowledge to be applied in pursuing any or many lines of agriculture. Many books have been written in the story plan and are most attractive and inspiring. Others are the best translations from other languages; even “Farm Management of the Romans” can now be secured in nearly all libraries of countries prominent in agriculture.
Libraries now make it a point to keep the leading current agricultural periodicals on file for the reader.
The Department of Agriculture bulletins, agricultural reports, farmers’ bulletins, and special works on agriculture are always available to everyone desiring them; likewise similar literature issued by State agricultural colleges and experiment stations, applicable directly to local State conditions, are especially helpful and will be supplied regularly as printed, to all addresses supplied.
We append a list of bulletins germane to the subject of this monograph and which will be found interesting and beneficial.
The Use of a Diary for Farm Accounts. Farmers’ Bulletin No. 782.
Farm Practices that Increase Crop Yields in Kentucky and Tennessee. Farmers’ Bulletin No. 981.
Farm Practices that Increase Crop Yields in the Gulf Coast Region. Farmers’ Bulletin No. 986.
Labor Requirements of Dairy Farms as Influenced by Milking Machines. Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 423.
The Normal Day’s Work of Farm Implements, Workmen, and Crews. Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 412.
A System of Farm Cost Accounting. Farmers’ Bulletin No. 572.
A Method of Analyzing the Farm Business. Farmers’ Bulletin No. 661.
Systems of Farming in Central New Jersey. Farmers’ Bulletin No. 472.
Farm Management Practice of Chester County, Pa. Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 341.
Seasonal Distribution of Farm Labor in Chester County, Pa. Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 528.
Labor Costs and Seasonal Distribution of Labor. Utah Agricultural College Experiment Bulletin No. 165.
A Normal Day’s Work for Various Farm Operations. Farmers’ Bulletin No. 3.
An example of Successful Farm Management in Southern New York. Bulletin of the United States Department of Agriculture No. 32.
Value to Farm Families of Food, Fuel, and Use of House. Farmers’ Bulletin No. 410.
Lease Contracts Used in Renting Farms on Shares. Bulletin of the Department of Agriculture No. 650.
Replanning a Farm for Profit. Farmers’ Bulletin No. 370.
Waste Land and Wasted Land on Farms. Farmers’ Bulletin No. 745.
A Simple Way to Increase Crop Yields. Farmers’ Bulletin No. 924.
Clearing Land. Farmers’ Bulletin No. 974.
Better Use of Man Labor on the Farm. Farmers’ Bulletin No. 989.
Saving Farm Labor by Harvesting Crops with Live Stock. Farmers’ Bulletin No. 1008.
A System of Tenant Farming and Results. Farmers’ Bulletin No. 437.
This monograph was prepared by M. R. Bass, special agent of the Federal Board for Vocational education. Acknowledgment is due to Dr. John Cummings of the research division for editorial assistance.
The purpose of this monograph is to give a brief description of some of the work done in the manufacture of automobiles. No attempt has been made, however, to go into the machine shop side of the industry, a field in which lie possibilities for placing thousands of reeducated men in good positions. The monograph is limited to automobile assembly work.
Manufacturing automobiles and automobile accessories is one of the foremost industries of the United States. One manufacturer alone is known to have turned out more than 3,500 complete automobiles in one day, and to have turned out in one year some 350,000 cars. Many concerns produce from 50,000 to 125,000 cars annually. The 1914 census of the industry gives the value of the automobile products as $632,831,474, and wonderful changes in the last four years have greatly increased the value of the products of this industry, which was practically unknown 20 years ago.
A recent study developed the fact that there are some 85 occupations in the automobile manufacturing industry, which in its various branches offers excellent opportunities to mechanics, apprentices, and men who wish to take up a new trade. A man with even very limited qualifications can surely fit in somewhere.
The industry is still growing rapidly and branching out into what may be called an automotive industry, embracing the manufacture of motor trucks, tractors, and airplanes, as well as of automobiles. A mechanic in one branch of the industry may shift easily to other branches.
Certain factories have discontinued general manufacturing, and have specialized in the manufacture of automobile units or parts, such as engines, transmissions, frames, and axles, and the manufacturer who used to build practically all of his automobile has been persuaded to buy certain units from these specialty manufacturers. Small manufacturers have thus been enabled to build a part of a car and to buy the rest from unit manufacturers, and many small factories have been started in this way.
Work in the various automobile factories varies from purely unskilled to highly skilled labor. The unskilled employments include those of machine operators, assemblers, subassemblers, tool room keepers, janitors, watchmen, and checkers, while the skilled employments include those of special machine men, tool makers, die sinkers, heat-treatment experts, dynamometer testers, ignition experts, inspectors and general mechanical experts.
Good wages are paid, common laborers in some plants receiving from $3 to $5 per day. Well-trained, skilled mechanics, of course, earn much higher rates.
Standardization of automobile parts is gradually bringing about standardization of the automobile as a whole, which greatly simplifies the work of the mechanic who builds and repairs automobiles.
Trucks are being more extensively used by wholesale and retail merchants. Overland freight is being carried by truck trains, between small towns, and even long-distance hauling is meeting with success. This increased motor-truck service is increasing the demand for mechanics in the factories, and also for truck drivers.
Automobile factories are usually located in large cities, where raw material and supplies are at hand. Shipping and labor conditions also are carefully considered. A very large percentage of the automobile output is manufactured in the States of Michigan, Ohio, New York, and Indiana. The State of Michigan alone produced 80 per cent or four-fifths of the pleasure vehicles manufactured in 1914.
Large plants are made up of a number of departments. The office is the chief executive department. Here the plant is checked up, all correspondence taken care of, and all financial, educational, and business matters attended to. Closely connected with the office usually are the drafting rooms, where new models, changes in models, and experimental changes are made, since all such changes are first made on drawings. The engineering and experimental departments may also be located in the office building. In the experimental department all changes are worked out, and research work is carried on. If such changes prove to be a betterment they are made on the blue prints, and are then made in the factory throughout. Since even a minor change may cost the factory thousands of dollars, all changes must be carefully considered.
Other departments include those organized for engine, frame, axle, and chassis assembly, the paint department, and other departments according to size of factory and product manufactured, whether a complete automobile or an automobile unit.
The staff of men who handle a department usually includes a general superintendent, assistant superintendent, department foreman, section foreman, timekeeper, inspectors, and checkers.
The superintendent in many cases is a man who has come up through the ranks, and superintendents of this kind are usually the most efficient. Assistant superintendents, foremen, and others also are usually men picked from the ranks. Men with common-school educations are holding responsible positions in many factories and are drawing large salaries.
In each factory will be found an efficiency man or production manager, whose duties are to put into operation new methods, machines, and devices to increase production.
There will be found also an educational and welfare department in each factory, which looks after the welfare of workers, settles disputes between workmen and foremen, and in individual cases shifts workers from one shop operation to another. As a rule, the hospital or first-aid division is located in this department, which may undertake also the organization of training classes in such subjects as will increase efficiency, and may arrange for entertainments and the organization of clubs.
Progressive assembly means assembly of parts by stages, or step by step. In this work a man does one operation only, although he may be frequently changed from job to job, according to his ability as workman or mechanic.
Special equipment is required for this method. The work starts with the frame as a skeleton, which is placed either on a conveyer, that is moved very slowly, or on a special framework equipped with casters that it may be moved freely from place to place.
Where the conveyer is used, the conveyer is from 100 to 200 feet long, and moves at the rate of about two feet per minute, although the rate varies from factory to factory. By the time the frame or skeleton reaches the end of the conveyor the automobile is practically complete. The various units have been attached as the frame moves slowly down the floor. In some factories the automobile is so completely assembled that the engine is started and, after a short road test, the car is driven to the shipping platform. This means that in some factories an automobile is completely assembled in less than an hour. As the automobiles are placed close together on the conveyer a finished machine is turned out every minute or so.
Let us now proceed through the progressive assembly by units.
The frame with its necessary brackets and springs having been assembled in a subassembly department, is placed upon the conveyer. Where the frame is heavy, an air or hydraulic hoist is used. This operation is usually done by two men, who must be able to move about freely but are not compelled to climb or to move rapidly. A man capable of hooking a chain to the frame and who is able to move a short distance can easily qualify.
The frame having been placed upon the conveyer, the spring and front and rear axles are then attached. The rear axles are usually mounted by two men with the aid of a hoist. These axles like the frame have been assembled in a subassembly department of the factory.
The men who attach the axles to the frames need not be expert mechanics but must know how to handle wrenches and hand tools. They must be able to move about freely and be able to start the nuts or bolts and tighten them. Special tools are used where possible to save time. Time is a big factor in this department. If the mechanic does not complete his operation in a given number of feet on the conveyer, he will interfere with the next operation. The conveyer is moving all the time and he must complete his operation within his allotted space.
Following the assembly of the axles to the frame, the transmission gear set is mounted and bolted into place. In many cases the transmission is attached to the engine (unit power plant), in which case this operation is completed when the engine is put into place. The men doing this operation need not be skilled mechanics, but must be able to use hand tools and move about freely. A man with an artificial leg could do this work easily. Again a man with one good hand and part of other could do this work.