EDUCATION AS A HINDRANCE. 27 



press, had rendered great manufacturing industries possible, the sys- 

 tem of apprenticeship, which has been handed down to us from our 

 forefathers, is so strangely at variance with the most obvious prin- 

 ciples of sound educational science, to say nothing of sound economic 

 theory, that there is little wonder that it has fallen into discredit, and 

 that the legal provisions under which it grew and flourished have been 

 suffered to lapse into a dead letter. Time was when, for the most part, 

 the skilled artisan, who was master of his trade, worked at home in his 

 own house, assisted, it might be, by a few younger workmen or jour- 

 neymen. Into his house and family he would receive one or two young 

 lads to learn, during a seven years' engagement, the art and mystery 

 of his craft ; the master himself working and teaching them his work, 

 feeding and clothing them, and receiving from them in return the 

 value of the services which, as they became more apt in their work, 

 they were able to render. The advantages of thorough training by the 

 continuous care of the master were unquestionably proved by the uni- 

 versal adoption of the system. The ancient trade guilds grew and 

 acquired their legal status upon this usage as their very foundation, 

 and a seven years' apprenticeship formed the one necessary qualifica- 

 tion for the possession of the right to exercise the following of any 

 occupation or employment, art or craft, recognized among the handi- 

 crafts of the time. With the extension of trade and the wider use of 

 machinery the number and power of the adult employed workmen in- 

 creased, and with their increase of power came a jealousy, on the 

 one hand, toward the masters ; on the other, toward the apprentices, 

 who were regarded as cheapening labor when employed in too great 

 numbers. The conflict which arose between employer and employed 

 gradually merged into one between capital and labor. By dint of 

 strikes the workmen at last prevailed, and, in attempting to bring about 

 a limitation in the amount of apprenticeship labor, brought about a re- 

 sult of quite another kind, and one far more disastrous than the evil 

 sought to be remedied the destruction of all the best and most impor- 

 tant features of apprenticeship. Other issues aided in the accomplish- 

 ment of the course thus entered on. Mr. George Howell has so well 

 delineated the outlines of the change, that the transcription of a few 

 of his words will sufiice to complete the tale. " But a change was com- 

 ing o'er the spirit of the dream : another day was dawning fraught with 

 still greater issues to the journeymen, for, instead of the old system 

 of master and craftsmen, there grew up quite another kind of master- 

 ship and of hiring. The master had already begun to be less the crafts- 

 man and more of the employer. Capital was fast becoming the great 

 motive power. Streams were first utilized, then steam ; complicated 

 machinery was being substituted for hand-labor in many of the grow- 

 ing industries of the time ; the master no longer worked at the trade 

 himself, he directed and found the capital. The number of persons 

 employed was also greatly augmented ; instead of the old fealty be- 



