impracticable schemes and unwise methods, which will cripple
manufacturers and all kinds of industry. The men should organize under
the general laws of the State, so that their leaders will be
responsible to the laws and can be indicted, tried, and punished in
case they misappropriate funds or commit any breach of trust; and such
laws should be amended if necessary, so that wise, responsible leaders
of the organizations can contract to furnish labor for a certain time
at a fixed price, when manufacturers can make calculations ahead as to
the cost of labor the same as for the cost of material, and have such
confidence that they will use all their energies to do a larger amount
of business and benefit the workingman as well as themselves by
furnishing steady employment. Such a plan as is here outlined can
readily be carried into effect by selecting better men as leaders. It
is well known how well the organization known as the locomotive
brotherhood is conducted, and it should be an example to others. It
has had its day of dissensions, when the best counsels did not
prevail, which shows that any organization of the kind, no matter how
well conducted, may be diverted by its leaders into improper channels.

When organized under the laws of the State and under by-laws designed
to secure steady employment, rather than any artificial condition of
things in regard to pay hours, and continuance of labor, the true
interests of the workman will be advanced. It may be that some one of
you will develop a talent in the direction of organization and be the
means of aiding in the solution of this great problem. Please think of
the matter seriously, watch the law of evolution while you are
advancing your professional knowledge, and if the opportunity offers,
do all you can to aid in a cause so important and beneficent.

One writer has criticised the technical schools because they do not
teach mechanical intuition. The schools have enough to do in the time
available if they teach principles and sufficient practice to enable
the principles to be understood. The aptitude to design, which must be
what is meant by mechanical intuition, requires very considerable
practical experience, which you will readily learn if you do not keep
yourself above it. If you have used your leisure hours to study why a
certain piece of mechanism was made in a certain way rather than in
another; if you have wondered why one part is thick in one place
rather than