THE" SUXDAT" (TEEGUNEX; POKTIIA2fD, JULY 9, 1923
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BY DeWITT HARRY.
iQA CHOOLS, like factories, are known
by their products," said themem-
ber of the school board when
the preparation of this article was sug
gested, and this opened up a novel line
of thought. It costs money to make ma
chinery, to make furniture, to make
cloth, and it is the workmen who create
the most of this wealth from the raw
materials. It costs money to make work
men, and good workmen are worth more,
much more, than ordinary or poor ones,
Just like good furniture is more in de- ,
mand. In a recent chart prepared by
the Portland Chamber of. Commerce, it
was shown that local workmen were the
most efficient on the coast, that they
added more to the complete value of their
products for the money expended in
wages than those of any other city.
Now we cannot attribute this last
statement to schooling, but it is just
cited at this place to give an Idea-' of
the healthy atmosphere skilled labor
breathes in Portland. Naturally they
take a pride in the standing of their city,
end the mechanics and tradesmen have
& worthy example in their apprenticeship.
Possibly some little of this permeates the
being of the boy studying and working
at the bench or lathe. In any event,
Portland is. in an enviable position when
it comes to the production of boys with
a trade, to treat the subject in a com
mercial manner. The great factory that
manufactures skilled mechanics here is
a public school, and it seems poradoxlcal
to mention It, but this school, Benson
Polytechnic, is better known outside the
city than at home.
Plant Pays Big Profit.
Just to get back to the matter of out- ,
put: Here is a school, or, to maintain
the simile, a factory, whose output is a
human product. Boys come here from all
over the United States with their parents
and pay tuition so that they may have the
advantages of an education obtainable
nowhere else. The monetary investment
in the Benson plant is ?750,000. The
output of this plant has shown a steady
increase. Five thousand dollars is a
low valuation to put on a good me
chanic; most of them are worth many
times that sum. Each one is qualified,
trained and fitted to be self-supporting
and a creator ot wealth, an asset of the
highest type. The most excellent produc
tive material for citizens. This year
Benson graaduated 80 of these $5000
students, an output, figuring humanity in
the dollars and cents seasee, of $400,000,
or over 50 per cent return on the in
vestment. Talk about efficiency and profiteering!
Here it is in the ultimate sensqp A fac
. tory returning over 50 per cent profit
to its owners, the citizens of Portland!
It's no wonder that the eyes of the rest
cf the country have been on Benson Poly
technic for several years. It has been a
revelation in schooling and the possi- '
billties of perfecting the technical edu
cational facilities.
Next year there will be a class of 100
given their certificates, equal in this day
to any apprentice papers held by any
tradesman. The output is on the in
crease and the end is not in sight. This
year over 50 per cent return on the in
vestment, next year 75 per cent. And
the recently voted bonding Issue for the
construction of new buildings and the
improvement of the old will call for a
substantial addition to the facilities and
equipment of Benson, and the output
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may be expected to Increase. Good 'busi
ness well, anyone will admit it!
In reality this educational achievement
that has riveted the eyes ot the country
on Portland, that is an asset to be
ranked along with typically Portland
things such as the Rose Festival, is not
such a revolutionary' departure from ac
cepted methods as might be judged from
the opening paragraphs of this Btory. It
is merely the application ot practical
principles in place ot theory. George B.
Thomas, member of the school board,
worked for years as a machinist in Port
land shops. He is an excellent machinist,
can take any of the bg pieces of equip
ment in Benson and make them eat right
out of his hands. He never set out to be
an educator, but he did know machinery
and shop work. He was sent east to rep
resent the school board at the National
Educational association meeting and vaa
placed on the programme to give a talk
on Benson. All of the delegates were
qualified by years of experience in the
teaching field, what could a mere tyro
like Thomas tell them?
However, he prepared his address, a
real practical talk on the unrivaled suc
cess of 'Benson, and the audience sat
spellbound. They were learning some-
Benson
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thing and they knew it. Thomas was
made head of the department of business
administration ot the association. Benson
became a by-word in technical education.
Men were sent here from all overlhe
country to study at first hand the meth
ods in vogue. The school was written .
up a score of times in magazines and
educational publications, until now it is
accepted as the model establishment of its
kind in the country. - This tribute un
questionably hag been earned and the re
sult la natural, Benson graduates are
being sought after. Plant managers
know it and, let a boy step into their
place of business and say he is "Benson
trained," and he gets a job and holds it.
And, the strangest part of it all is that
so few citizeas of Portland realize what
Benson means.
The school board gives the following
historical data ..regarding the school:
"Benson Polytechnic had its beginning in
the old Atkinson building in the heart of
the city in 1908 under the name of the
School of Trades. Then, owing to the
generosity of Simon Benson, who gave
$100,000 for this purpose, it was moved
into a new building at East Twelfth and
Hoyt streets in September, 1917, adopting
the name Benson Polytechnic school.
Polytechnic, Model Plant of Its Kind,
Pays Portland Big Dividends
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"Benson Tech offers three-year courses
in printing, pattern making, cabinet mak
ing, carpentry, machine shop, sheet metal,
operating steam engineering, architec
tural drawing, machine blacksmithing,
.tool making, electrical construction,
plumbing, gas fitting, molding and foun
dry practice, gas engine, and automobiles
and mechanical drawing. It is important
to train workers for the trades that pre
dominate in this locality. This assures
mutual benefits to the boys and to the
industries of the community. The course
of study for . the four-year courses in-
eludes English, mathematics, general
science, mechanical drawing, foundry,
pattern making physics, blacksmithingf
machine shop, industrial history, civics
and chemistry. V :
Training Is Thorough.
"The students devote half their time
to shop work and half to drawing and
academic subjects. The school started
with an enrollment of 127 students in
the year 1908 and was practically at a
standstill, so far as enrollments were
concerned, until 1917, when the enroll
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ment reached 460. Then began equip
ment from a productive standpoint. The
result was that it produced workmen who
were in demand and the enrollment to
day on account of such equipment was
1700 in the day school and 600 more at
night. .
"The shops are equipped with up-to-date
machines, large enough to enable
the boys to turn out real work, such ma
chines as they find- in actual industry,
and very much in advance of the average
shops, for there is nothing but the most
modern and highly developed machinery,
which is the most important factor that
makes skilled workmen of students, who
are more and more in demand by em
ployers. These conditions stimulate the
interest ot the boy in his work, -as ke
realizes that he is working in a situation
that approaches that ot an actual shop,
with real machines to work with, and
that the training which he is receiving
will make him an efficient mechanic
when he graduates. The efficient me
chanic is not the man who makes the ex
pensive mistakes by using the cut-and-
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try method. He gets it right the first
' time because he has been scientifically
trained. This is the kind of a mechanic
that Benson produces.
No Toy Workmen Here.
"Too often the mistake is made of
equipping trade schools with small tools,
not much larger than toys. It is just as
essential to Heach production as it' is
theory. Because of this mistake, the
manufacturer, is loath to give school
graduates work Until they have served an
apprenticeship In real production plants.
One can readily understand this because
of the enormous investments in plants
that require them to produce, as the real
object is profit. In these days of com
petition, production is the real essential.
"Another object we kept in mind is to
fit students to make a success of their
trade from a financial standpoint, and
to do so they must be provided with
the machinery and equipment of modern
shops to learn to operate and to have
thorough knowledge of their construc
tion. "It is the practice of the Benson school
to have the boys thoroughly familiar
' with each machine, the work it is de
signed for and how much it should pro
duce. This is taught first by having the
boys dissemble the machines and re
assemble them again and, in many cases,
rebuild them. Before starting a job they
make careful estimate of the time that
will be required to finish it. They are
trained to calculate the cost of the job
in material and labor, plus a certain per
cent for overhead expenses and profit.
At every stage in the process a check is
taken to compare with the original esti
mate. This gives them a thorough knowl-
' edge as to the construction and capacity
of each machine, enabling them to figure
the actual cost of production. General
shop practice is thoroughly taught. Ar
rangement of equipment is another very
essential point, often enabling plants to
produce to such an advantage that it is,
from a financial standpoint, often the
Shop Practice Exact.
"All index tables calculated by ma
chine builders that are placed on ma
chinery pertaining to speed, feeds and
other mathematical calculations are re
(Concluded on Page 6.)