122 H. J. SKELTON 



man and to engage in the delights of hunting, shooting, fish- 

 ing, etc., rather than the less attractive pursuit of commerce. 

 To the state of social opinion hereby indicated may be traced 

 the decay of many factories, which well informed enterprise 

 would have kept vigorous and prominent. It has also kept out 

 of the ranks of manufacture many men of mental capacity, 

 who by reason of their trained intelhgence would have been 

 capable of foresight, application, and enterprise that have 

 frequently been lacking. 



It is an obvious circumstance that while the world moves 

 or while there is such a thing as progress in manufactures, the 

 factory installed by the latest comer is usually better than any 

 factory^ installed many years before. The newcomer has the 

 accumulated experience of his predecessors to guide him, 

 which naturally places him in a better position economically 

 than those who have to put up with disabilities that accrue 

 even in the passing of time. 



England has built up her manufacturing position essen- 

 tially upon handicraft — the skill of the individual worker has 

 been the dominant idea amongst the masses of the English 

 people. Their intense individuality has scorned the idea of 

 mechanical aids to industry, quite as much for this pronounced 

 characteristic as from any fear of supplanted or displaced wage 

 earning capacity. 



The supply of skilled and industrious workers in British 

 industries has usually been ample. The skill and capacity of 

 the better class individual English worker is on the whole to- 

 day, in the iron, steel, engineering, and allied trades, not in- 

 ferior to the skill and capacity of the worker in any other 

 nation. But while the best brains of America have been 

 devoted to the honorable pursuit of industry, to developing 

 mechanical ingenuity, to guiding, governing, and giving all 

 those general advantages which a trained intelligence confers, 

 such has not been the case in England. There were in Eng- 

 land not only conditions of luxury and ease, but social ideas 

 hindering trained and organized manufacturing development. 



The first of commercial nations has not a system of educa- 

 tion fitting her sons to engage in commerce. The curriculum 

 of our great public schools and our great universities has sue- 



