226 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v 



education of the artisan. The utility of such 

 classes has now been placed beyond all doubt; the 

 only question which remains is to find the ways 

 and means of extending them. 



We are here, as in all other questions of social 

 organization, met by two diametrically opposed 

 views. On the one hand, the methods pursued 

 in foreign countries are held up as our example. 

 The State is exhorted to take the matter in hand, 

 and establish a great system of technical educa- 

 tion. On the other hand, many economists of 

 the individualist school exhaust the resources of 

 language in condemning and repudiating, not 

 merely the interference of the general govern- 

 ment in such matters, but the application of a 

 farthing of the funds raised by local taxation to 

 these purposes. I entertain a strong conviction 

 that, in this country, at any rate, the State had 

 much better leave purely technical and trade in- 

 struction alone. But, although my personal lean- 

 ings are decidedly towards the individualists, I 

 have arrived at that conclusion on merely prac- 

 tical grounds. In fact, my individualism is rather 

 of a sentimental sort, and I sometimes think I 

 should be stronger in the faith if it were less ve- 

 hemently advocated.* I am unable to see that 

 civil society is anything but a corporation estab- 



* In what follows I am only repeating and emphasiz- 

 ing opinions which I expressed seventeen years ago, in an 

 Address to the members of the Midland Institute (re- 



