APPRENTICESHIP - PAST AND PRESENT
Know all men that I, Thomas Millard, with the Consent of Henry Wolcott of Windsor unto whose custody and care at whose charge I was brought over out of England into New England, doe bynd myself as an apprentise for eight yeeres to serve William Pynchon of Springfield, his heirs and assigns in all manner of lawful employmt unto the full ext of eight yeeres beginninge the 29 day of Sept 1640. And the said William doth condition to find the said Thomas meat drinke & clothing fitting such an apprentise & at the end of this tyme one new sute of apparell and forty shillings in mony: subscribed this 28 October 1640. What it was like to be an apprentice in early New England is indicated by these words from a 1640 indenture. As it turned out, apprentice Millard lost out on the cash mentioned. The following statement is made at the foot of the indenture: Tho Millard by his owne consent is released & discharged of Mr. Pinchons service this 22. of May 1648 being 4 months before his tyme comes out, in Consideration whereof he looses the 40s in mony wch should have bin pd him, but Mr. Pynchon givith him one New sute of Aparell he hath at present.
by Thomas Millard 22nd of May 1648
Indentures were forerunners of our modern apprenticeship agreements. Today the apprentice’s situation is far different from Thomas Millard’s. Apprentices are no longer bound body and soul to their masters. They no longer live in a master’s house nor are dependent upon a master for handouts of food, a little clothing, or a few uncertain shillings.
Nowadays, apprentices are members of a production force as they train on the job and in the classroom. They are paid wages, work a regular workweek, and live in their own home rather than that of a master. Their apprenticeship agreements set out the work processes in which they are to be trained and the hours and wages for each training period. At the end of their apprenticeship, they receive certificates that are similar to the diplomas awarded the engineering graduates of universities.
Annually there are nearly one-half million registered apprentices in training in American industry. They are learning under the guidance of experienced craft workers in such skilled occupations as computer operator, machinist, bricklayer, dental laboratory technician, tool and dye maker, electrician, drafter, electronic technician, operating engineer, maintenance mechanic, and many more. Management, labor, and government work together to promote apprenticeship and to develop sound standards for its practice. In many communities, joint management-labor apprenticeship committees conduct and supervise the local programs.
LOOKING BACKWARD
Since time immemorial, people have been transferring skills from one generation to another in some form of apprenticeship. Four thousand years ago, the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi provided that artisans teach their crafts to youth. The records of Egypt, Greece, and Rome from earliest times reveal that skills were still being passed on in this fashion. When youth in olden days achieved the status of craft workers, they became important members of society. Their prestige in England centuries ago is reflected in a dialog from the Red Book of Hergest, a 14th-century Welsh Bardic manuscript: “Open the door! “I will not open it. “Wherefore not? “The knife is in the meat, and the drink is in the horn, and there is revelry in Arthur’s Hall; and none may enter therein but the son of a King of a privileged country, or a craftsman bringing his craft.” The status given the craft worker was well placed. As we all know, many countries no longer have kings but still have craft workers.
INDENTURE IMPORTED FROM EUROPE
When America was settled, craft workers coming to the New World from England and other European countries brought with them the practice of indenture and the system of master-apprentice relationships. Indenture derived its name from the English practice of tearing indentions or notches in duplicate copies of apprenticeship forms. This uneven edge identified the copy retained by the apprentice as a valid copy of the form retained by the master. In those days, both the original and the copy of the indenture were signed by the master and the parent or guardian of the apprentice. Most of the apprentices were 14 years of age or younger. By comparison, today most apprentices begin training between the ages of 18 and 24. The modern apprenticeship agreement is signed by the employer; by a representative of a joint management-labor apprenticeship committee, or both; and by the apprentice. If the apprentice is a minor, the parent or guardian also signs.
CRAFTS IN FAMILY TRADITION
Today’s apprenticeships are keeping alive a knowledge of many crafts and skills that in other times were passed on largely by family tradition. Fathers taught their sons the crafts in generation after generation. This tradition is exemplified still in stonecutting, one of the most ancient of crafts. American patriot Paul Revere was a member of a famous family of silversmiths. Paul and his younger brother, Thomas, learned their craft from their father. In turn, two of Paul’s sons served apprenticeships in the family’s Boston shop. Paul Revere’s skill in crafting silver can still be appreciated today. As many as 500 of his pieces are know to exist. During his lifetime, he produced a great quantity of church silver, flagons, christening bowls, tankards, cups, spoons, tea sets, and trays. He also became a coppersmith and cast church bells that may still be heard in New England cities. He founded the American copper and brass industry when, in 1802 at the age of 67, he set up in Canton, Mass., the first copper rolling mill. This mill remained in operation under its original name for 100 years. Later the business became part of the present-day Revere Copper and Brass Co. In many of the plants of this company, apprenticeship programs in the metalworking trades are conducted today. A famous contemporary of Paul Revere’s, Benjamin Franklin, was indentured in 1718 at the age of 12 to his elder brother, James. Their father paid James 10 pounds to teach the printing art to Benjamin and to pay for Benjamin’s food, lodging, and other “necessaries.” The indenture provisions were especially generous for those days. They specified that Benjamin was to receive a journeyman’s wage in the last year of his apprenticeship just before he became 21 years old-if he remained on the job that long. Moreover, when the precocious Benjamin was 15 years old, he arranged for a cash payment for his food. This was a big financial advantage to him because he had become a vegetarian and found vegetables and fruit cheaper than meat. Out of his savings he was able to buy books. He says in his autobiography that he was frequently able to subsist with only a “bisket and a stick of bread, a handful of raisins and a tart from the pastry cook’s, and a glass of water.” Benjamin quit, however, before he completed the 9 years of apprenticeship specified in the indenture because of quarrels with James who, he says, sometimes beat him. He adds, “Thinking my apprenticeship very tedious, I was continuously wishing for some opportunity of shortening it.” Printing was also the trade of Daniel S. Glackens, who became father and grandfather to noted craft workers. Glackens published the newspaper, The Lafayette, in the 1820’s in Pottstown, Pa. One of his sons, Henry O. Glackens, became a craft worker in the shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad after serving an apprenticeship and later was a manufacturer and business executive. Another son, William J., was engaged in art plastering and worked on the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Among the early printer’s grandchildren were William J. Glackens, a celebrated artist, and Louis Glackens, cartoonist and illustrator for the magazine, Puck. The bricklaying trade has been well represented in the McGlade family of Waterloo, Iowa. Eight bricklayers had appeared on the family tree by the middle of the century, descended from an Irish stonemason who settled in Cedar Falls, Iowa, during the last part of the 1800’s. Bricklaying has also been carried forward by the McKenna family of Philadelphia. There have been six bricklayers in that family, one of them for many years a member of the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training’s field staff.
POOR CHILDREN INDENTURED
In colonial New England, many youngsters less than 10 years old whose parents could not support them were indentured to masters who agreed to teach them a trade. This practice was legalized by the poor laws. The indenture quoted below, for example, required a youthful apprentice in 1676 to serve more than 12 years to learn masonry. As apprentices then were usually bound to masters until they were 21 years old, apprentice Nathan Knight apparently began his service when he was about 8 ½ years. These were the conditions of his servitude: This Indenture witnesseth that I, Nathan Knight…have put myself apprentice to Samuel Whidden, of Portsmouth, in the county of Portsmouth, mason, and bound after the manner of an apprentice with him, to serve and abide the full space and term of twelve years and five months…during which time the said apprentice his said master faithfully shall serve…He shall not…contract matrimony within the said time. The goods of his said master, he shall not spend or lend. He shall not play cards, or dice, or any other unlawful game, whereby his said master may have damage in his own goods, or others, taverns, he shall not haunt, nor from his master’s business absent himself by day or by night, but in all things shall behave himself as a faithful apprentice ought to do. And the said master his said apprentice shall teach and instruct, or cause to be taught and instructed in the art and mystery as mason; finding unto his said apprentice during the said time meat, drink, washing, lodging, and apparel, fitting an apprentice, teaching him to read, and allowing him three months towards the latter end of his time to go to school to write, and also double apparel at end of said time… Even though this apprentice probably did not get a chance to go to school until he was about 20 years old, his master showed a sense of community and civic responsibility, for schooling of some sort-even though limited to reading and writing-was desperately needed in the Colonies. Although the school instruction for an apprentice at that time was inadequate, it may be considered another link with present-day apprenticeship, which provides technical classroom instruction to supplement on-the-job training.
EXPLOITATION OF POVERTY-STRICKEN
One chapter in the history of apprenticeship caused a stigma difficult to outlive-the exploitation of poor men, women, and children as indentured servants who were given little or no opportunity to learn a trade. It was a system that can hardly be classified as apprenticeship. The practice of indenturing servants, some of them former prisoners imported from abroad, took place largely in the Southern States, where labor was needed on the plantations. Workers paid off the cost of their transportation by serving as so-called apprentices. Tempted into the trafficking of these workers were the ships’ captains and bartering agents who profited by it. This exploitation of unfortunates was finally erased after public sentiment brought about regulative acts.
LEATHERWORK - AN EARLY CRAFT
The development of craft workers in the early leather industry is reflected in the indenture of Gould Brown: North Kingston, April the 7th 1792. We the subscribers this day have mutually agreed that I Gould Brown, am to work with Mr. Benjamin Greene the term of twenty four months, for the sum of three pounds lawful silver money to me in hand paid at the expiration of said time; and the said Benjamin is to allow the said Gould Brown the Privilege of Tanning and Curring Six Calves Skins and two large sizes only tan’d; and is to find him two pair of thick Double Sould shoes, and as many frocks and trousers to ware as he needs in the tan-yard to work, and to Board him the said Gould Brown and Wash his Clothes the said time. Further, I the said Gould Brown, Do agree to Bring with me one Sett of Shoemakers tools for to work with, and Mr. Benjamin Greene agrees to let him have another Sett to Bring away with him When his time is Expired. Apparently, the apprentice named in this indenture had to make shoes during his spare time as he agreed to bring with him a set of shoemaker’s tools to work with. It was a great deal to expect of a young apprentice, for “tanning and curring” were tiring tasks. Usually both the tanning vat and the tanning mixture had to be made. The vat was made by sinking boxes of planks into the ground. The tanning mixture was made by using large boulders to crush bark, twigs, and leaves. Skins were salted down and dried, then thoroughly garnished with this mixture and piled on top of one another over a the vat. The whole glorious mess was then swamped with quantities of water and left in the enclosure to soak and smoke for half a year. Gould Brown may have known how to make shoes, for the indenture does not say that he was to be shown how. He may have been a journeyman craft worker in the shoemaking trade who wanted a chance to learn how to make leather.
AN EARLY CARPENTRY APPRENTICESHIP
That the construction industry, which has led apprenticeship activities in this country in recent years, used the formalized indenture more than a century ago is shown by the indenture of a “house carpenter” in 1832. This indenture bound a 16-year-old apprentice in New Bedford, Mass., to his master until 1837-exactly 100 years before the enactment of the National Apprenticeship Law (Public Law 308, 75th Congress). The indenture states that John Slocum “doth by these Presents bind Lyman Slocum, his son, a minor…to Thomas Remington…to learn the art, trade, or mystery of a House-Carpenter.” The master promised “to teach and instruct, or cause the said Apprentice to be instructed, in the art, trade or calling of a House-Carpenter…(if said Apprentice be capable to learn.).”
SKILL IN APPRENTICEABLE TRADES
Very little is recorded on exactly how apprentices were trained in the early days. But whether or not craft workers acquired their skills in training here or abroad or through their own devices, they apparently deserved the title. They were amazingly skillful, judging for example by the excellent condition of many of the buildings erected in this country more than 150 years ago. These traditions are still carried on. A contemporary columnist, Rudolph Elie of the Boston Herald, vividly set forth his observations of the craft worker’s skill in an article written in 1954. He described it as follows: For the last half hour, I have been standing mouth ajar, down on Arch Street watching them lay bricks in the St. Anthony Shrine now ‘abuilding,’ and I have come to the conclusion that laying bricks is a fine and noble and fascinating art. It must be a very ancient art…and those fellows down on Arch Street are the inheritors of an old tradition. And, curiously enough, to watch them work you get the notion that they are somehow aware of it… The bricklayer has a sort of rhythm and grace and fluency in his work…Apparently they can execute the most intricate designs in brick, though there are certainly seemed to be no blueprints in evidence.
APPRENTICE MASTERPIECES
In England, early apprentices were required to make a masterpiece or test piece after completing their apprenticeships. This sample of work was submitted for inspection by a group of masters to gain guild recognition of their status as “freemen.” In the textile trade, for example, apprentices were required to produce several pairs of silk stockings before being freed. Shoemaker apprentices were required to make shoes and needlemakers submitted examples of needles of various sizes that they had made. Since modern apprentices in U.S. industry start producing almost immediately, and each job they do is carefully inspected, the production of final test piece is not generally considered necessary. Moreover, the care with which apprenticeship candidates are selected and the entrance tests they are required to pass help to assure that those accepted for training will become skilled craft workers. A modern equivalent of the early masterpiece, however, exists in the Chicago areawide apprenticeship program in which apprentices are trained in patternmaking for the production of foundry castings. As part of the final examination, each apprentice is required to produce, without supervisions, a contract job ordered by a customer or a patternmaking shop. This job is judged by the area joint labor-management apprenticeship committee in charge of the program before the completion certificate is awarded. Products made today by apprentices competing in national and area contests may also be likened to the final masterpiece of apprentices in early days. In several trades, such as bricklaying, electrical or sheetmetal work, painting, carpentry, plumbing, and pipefitting, cash prizes are awarded to apprentices who produce the best example of their craft. Public demonstrations of apprentices’ abilities are also made in convention exhibits and at county fairs.
APPRENTICESHIP UNDERGOES CHANGE
With the expansion of industry following the industrial revolution, the apprenticeship system was revolutionized to apply to the new machine age. The early system of “domestic apprenticeship,” in which the apprentice lived with a master and was dependent upon the master for food and clothing as well as shelter, disappeared. Compensation was changed by employers to the payment of wages that were, although insignificant compared with today’s wages, graduated in accordance with a predetermined scale. The term “master,” however, was continued in some trades, and “master machinist” and “master plumber” as still familiar terms. The effect of the modern system of division of function began to make itself felt in the first half of the 19th century. In many trades, craft workers who in the past had engaged their apprentices for 5 years to teach them all aspects of the trade began to teach them only one part of the job that could be learned in a few months. Apprenticeship systems, in keeping with the new era, were gradually developed in the growing industries, at first in the iron foundries and shipbuilding yards, and later in machinery and electrical equipment plants, government arsenals, navy yards, and printing shops. Not until the latter part of the 19th century were any apprenticeship systems begun that were at all comparable with those of today. But the number of plants in which apprentices were trained was limited and the training was, for the most part, somewhat sketchy when measured by modern standards. The great majority of skilled workers still came from abroad. Most of the workers who acquired their skills in this country learned on their own by watching and getting the advice of experienced workers, by sheer persistence, and by trial and error.
GRADUATED WAGES FOR APPRENTICES
An 1865 indenture used by the Pennsylvania Railroad provides one of the first examples of graduated wage scale paid apprentices. It prescribed 50 cents for a 10-hour day in the first 620 days of training, 60 cents a day in the next 310 days, and 80 cents a day for the balance of the apprenticeship term. A bonus of $124 was paid if and when an apprentice completed training. In the late 1960’s, the starting wage for maintenance-of-equipment apprentices employed by railroads averaged $2.54 an hour-more than five times the starting wage for 10 hours in 1865-and increased to $2.94 during the final period.
WAGE RATES LAG
The machine age brought rapid advances in production, but working conditions and wages-especially for apprentices-lagged behind the times. What it was like to be an apprentice in an industrial plant in 1883 is described by a man who began his career in this way-Fred H. Colvin, later the editor of the American Machinist and a technical consultant and author. In his book, 60 Years with Men and Machines, he says: “An apprentice in the machine shops of 1883 faced a situation not wholly unlike that of the craft guilds of the Middle Ages. In many cases, the boy’s parents had to reimburse the shop owner for teaching him the secrets of the trade.” He said of the Philadelphia machine shop in which he worked: A revolutionary new system was in effect-the shop owner actually paid the apprentice wages. He was careful, of course, not to turn the apprentice’s head with money. In my own case, I began at the rate of 5 cents an hour for a sixty-hour week; or, to put it more impressively, I was paid $3 in cash every Saturday night…All overtime was paid at the regular straight-time rate of 5 cents an hour for young apprentices like myself…At the end of the first month’s apprenticeship, the wages were boosted by 16 2/3 percent, which meant a half a dollar a week extra in the pay envelope. What with promises of an additional 50-cent raise every six months thereafter, a young apprentice could see himself developing into a substantial citizen if he but lived long enough. A similar experience was that of John P. Frey, president of the American Federation of Labor’s metal trades department for 16 years and a former labor member of the Federal Committee on Apprenticeship, the national body recommending policy to the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training. He began his career in 1887 as a molder apprentice. In his first year of training, he was paid 75 cents for a 10-to 12-hour day, 6 days a week. His wage was increased 25 cents a day in his second year and another 25 cents in his third and last year as an apprentice. From the beginning of his apprenticeship, he did practically the same work as helpers who then received $1.50 a day. But both Fred Colvin and John Frey fared better at the start of their training than some other apprentices of the time. The 1895 indenture of Harley F. Nickerson, who later became a general vice president of the International Brotherhood of Machinists, shows that he worked for nothing during a probationary 3-month apprenticeship period. In the next 9 months, he was paid $3 a week. His earnings from then on were about the same as Colvin’s were 12 years before. No agreement was made to teach the youthful Nickerson the trade of machinist, nor was there any commitment on the part of the employer to do anything except pay the rates agreed upon for time actually worked, plus $100 when and if the apprenticeship was completed.
IMPORTANT CAREERS BEGIN WITH APPRENTICESHIP
Many other industrial and government leaders began their working careers in apprenticeable trades. One was Charles E. Sorensen, a skilled patternmaker (and son of a patternmaker) who became a production genius. Sorensen for many years was Henry Ford’s right-hand man and, according to the New York Times, “He formulated the concept for moving assembly line, worked out on a blackboard the economics of the $5 day, and built the River Rouge Plant. He also built the mile-long Willow Run bomber plant which turned out a B-24 bomber every hour during World War II.” Ralph E. Flanders of Vermont, who became a distinguished U.S. Senator, began his working life as a machinist apprentice in 1897. He worked 10 hours a day and received 4 cents an hour in the first year, and a few cents more during the second and third years of his apprenticeship. His annual wage in his last year of training was $295. He has described his apprenticeship as an old-fashioned one because he was legally indentured. His father was required to post a cash bond to be forfeited if the training was not completed. Young Flanders successfully finished his training, however, and later received degrees from various universities. He had an extensive industrial career before entering public life. Patrick V. McNamara of Michigan was another apprentice who became an U.S. Senator. Encouraged by his father, he began as a plumber apprentice in 1913, with a wage of only 9 cents an hour for an 8-hour day. By his third year he was paid 14 cents an hour, or $1.12 a day. He completed his apprenticeship a year ahead of schedule by working additional hours on special assignments. Following his apprenticeship in the plumbing trade, he worked as a journeyman and then as a supervisor on construction jobs. He was active in labor affairs, and served for 20 years as president of the Detroit branch of the Untied Association of Journeymen and Apprentices in the Pipe Fitting Industry. Clyde Webber, who was president of the largest union representing government employees, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), began his working career as an apprentice machinist helper in 1936. He attended evening school and completed his high school education while working in the round-house for the Union Pacific Railroad in Ogden, Utah. After becoming a journeyman machinist, he continued to educate himself while serving as the Ogden City recorder until he was appointed to the staff of Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training, where he served in many important capacities. He was active in national and international labor affairs and served on the AFL-CIO Executive Council as vice-president.