Pratt Institute - Prattonia Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

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m i-;3 I ' ll and read plans, and to know the value of material and why it is used. They must 0 learn to have pride in their work and to love it, and believe in our motto, Be true to your work and your work will be true to you. When men have dealings with money matters in any form they touch human nature in a sensitive spot. There is no one subject in connection with this work upon which I have such peculiar feelings as when a poor man comes to pay his hard earned wages for the education of his child. Instinctively my feeling is to say, Don ' t take the money ; but in my cooler and calmer thoughts, the judgment, formed after long and patient study of human nature, tells me that it is wiser and better for every one to pay a part at least of the cost of this education. To keep the Institute abreast of the opportunity open to it will require constant enlargement. We are in a growing city, full of young life, the center of a great population; we have embarked in a broad and comprehensi e enterprise, and if it fulfills its ideal, each year will make larger and larger demands for construction and maintenance. Vhile living, and having the ability, I shall be glad to do all I can to build up and develop the Institute and to provide as much as possible for the future. The large number of students whom we are able to accommodate will justify us in employing the best talent, and giving full value for any charges made. It should be remembered that in some departments the present cost of material consumed by the pupil is alone equal to the full tuition charged. As for the work of the Library, I have become so much impressed with the far-reaching influence of good books as distributed through a free library that I have been anxious to enlarge our own work in this line. Hence, until we see good reason for doing otherwise, all money received for tuition by the Institute will be devoted to enlarging our present Library, which is free, and in establishing and maintaining branch libraries and reading rooms in different parts of the city as fast as circumstances seem to justify. The need of more room in immediate connection with the Art and Domestic Science Departments, as well as for the Technical High School Department, has led us to make large additions to our present buildings. With these and the changes made in the Mechanic Arts buildings, we have provided something over 20,000 square feet of additional floor space for the use of students for the coming year. We still need a large assembly hall, class rooms and appliances much beyond our present supply, and we hope before another Founder ' s Day that we may be able to realize these expectations. After this hasty review, many things of interest in connection with the work are pressing upon us, but no one thing seems to be so important to undertake as education on the subject of thrift, and to this end we offer the following scheme: The instruction given in the Institute is intended, in part, to enable people to become self-dependent. Pupils are taught some useful work by which they can 24 !i

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succeed in. Among the elements of value we hope to realize from this course of instruction is an object lesson on the question of industrial or manual training. The rapid development of the Institute led me, in April, to ask our secretary, Mr. F. B. Pratt, and my private secretary, Mr. HefBey, to accompany me in a hasty trip to the Old World, to see, if we could, in what lines its longer experience would serve as a guide for us. We visited twenty leading cities in England, France, Austria, Switzerland, and Germany; studied carefully, saw the workings of many schools; learned how to understand and appreciate reports of our consular agents; and as a result have come home convinced that Pratt Institute was not unnatural in its conception, nor vague in its design ; and while we did not find anything just like it, we did find great activity in endeavoring to educate the people in applied art and in specific trade-schools. We feel that nothing presents so broad a field, or one so full of promise for the American nation, as attention to such things as will tend to educate the people to a knowledge of the artistic as applied to their home life, and to a love of it because they appreciate it. I have reason to believe that in our own Art Department many have been taught this, and also to realize that certain phases of it lie at the foundation of all industrial pursuits; that it ennobles, that it is an element of civilization, and that the essence of good art is to be found, above all things, in honest and good workmanship. In the Department of Domestic Science I am sure many have received that courage which comes from a consciousness of being able to do well some specific thing, and from the feeling that a knowledge of household employment is thoroughly con- sistent with the grace and dignity and true womanliness of every American girl. The aim of this department is to afford women a training in those branches of science and art which pertain not only to good housekeeping but to home-making — to the preparation of clothing, of economical and wholesome foor, and to such knowl- edge of sanitary and hygenic laws as shall tend to secure comfortable and healthy homes at the least expense . The housewife who knows how to manage tlic details of her home has more courage than one who is dependent upon servants, no matter how faithful they may be. She is a better mistress, for she can sympathize with them and appreciate their work when well done. We especially wish to enlarge our facilities in this department, so as to help those families who must live on small incomes to make tlie best disposition of this money in wise purchases, economical use of material, and little waste. One aim of this department is to make the home of the workingman more attractive. In the Department of Mechanical Arts the instruction given should be most valuable and important to every thrifty mechanic. The demand is for a better and better quality of work, and our American artisans must learn that to claim first place in any trade they must be intelligent. They must study, learn to draw 23 k '

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earn money. It seems a natural thing, in carrying out this part of tlie plan, that the next step should be to endeavor to teach them how to save this money ; or in other words, how to make a wise use of it. It is not enough that one be trained so that he can join the ranks of the world ' s workers and become a producer; he needs quite as much to learn habits of economy and thrift in order to make his life a success. During the past ear there have gone out from the Institute more than thirt persons, who, from the instruction received here, are today earning more than the interest on $500,000 invested in government bonds. We wish to help these young people to a knowledge of the proper use and care of this large income. In view of the above, we have been led to contemplate a new and, we believe, a very important step, namely, the establishment of a Savings Department in con- nection with the other work. To the development of this plan and the working out of these problems, it is proposed to form an association to be called Pratt Institute Thrift Association, but for convenience it may be known as The Thrift. The aim of the Association will be to encourage its members to habits of thrift; to help them to become prudent and wise in the use of money and time, by offering them a safe and simple method whereby they can make regular monthly payments for the purpose of accumulating a fund for buying or building their own homes; or for loaning to such persons as want to borrow for this purpose, and to do any and all such things as experience shall prove essential to the accomplishment of these objects. m 25