XVII TECHNICAL EDUCATION 449 



dilemma is the difficulty of maintaining wages 

 above this point consistently with success in in- 

 dustrial competition. I have not the remotest con- 

 ception how this problem will eventually work 

 itself out; but of this I am perfectly convinced, 

 that the sole course compatible with safety lies 

 between the two extremes; between the Scylla of 

 successful industrial j)roduction with a degraded 

 population, on the one side, and the Charybdis of 

 a population, maintained in a reasonable and 

 decent state, with failure in industrial competition, 

 on the other side. Having this strong conviction, 

 which, indeed, I imagine must be that of every 

 person who has ever thought seriously about these 

 great problems, I have ventured to put it before 

 you in this bare and almost cynical fashion because 

 it will justify the strong appeal, which I make to 

 all concerned in this work of promoting industrial 

 education, to have a care, at the same time, that 

 the conditions of industrial life remain those in 

 which the physical energies of the population may 

 be maintained at a proper level; in which their 

 moral state may be cared for; in which there may 

 be some rays of hope and pleasure in their lives; 

 and in which the sole prospect of a life of labour 

 may not be an old age of penury. 



These are the chief suggestions I have to offer 

 to you, though I have omitted much that I should 

 like to have said, had time permitted. It may be 

 that some of you feel inclined to look upon them 



