NATURE 



[January 5, 1922 



the same policy is being pursued with respect to the 

 much-needed nursery schools for children under five. 

 Day continuation classes during two years, as pro- 

 vided for by the Act, for young people who have 

 left the elementary school at fourteen in order to 

 enter into employment, are, except in the I^ondon 

 area, practically a dead letter, the Board refusing 

 its sanction to the fixing of the appointed 

 day. 



The Committee of business men appointed by the 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer, with Sir Eric Geddes 

 as chairman, to consider the national expenditure 

 with a view to drastic economies in the various 

 spending departments has presented its Report to 

 the Cabinet, but its full details have not been made 

 public. It is rumoured that there is a proposed 

 reduction in the total estimates for the year 1922-23 

 of 195,000,000^. , of which the education estimates 

 are responsible for i6,ooo,oooZ. As showing the 

 spirit in which this question has been approached, 

 Lord Inchcape, one of the influential members of 

 this Committee, and the chairman of the P. and O., 

 said, at a recent meeting of the shareholders of his 

 company, that " education is an excellent thing in its 

 w-ay, but there are limitations to its economic useful- 

 ness." Lord Haldane, at a meeting held at London 

 University on December 17, arranged by the London 

 Head Teachers' Association, dealt effectively with 

 Lord Inchcape's observations, and showed how much 

 the progress of the nation in every department of 

 industrial life and even in his own particular busi- 

 ness of shipping has been due to education. He 

 said : 



Lord Inchcape could not sail a single steamer 

 but for the education of the great inventors and 

 men of science which made it possible, nor would 

 his staff know how to handle the instruments but 

 for the training they have received from their 

 teachers. Modern business cannot stand still, 

 neither can education. Other nations realise the 

 value of education, and will get ahead of us if we 

 do not; if we neglect it, hard times will come, when 

 we shall be driven belatedly to reverse the policy 

 threatened to-day in order to recover our resources 

 and progress, which will have failed us through 

 our misunderstanding of the true meaning of 

 economy." 



In this respect the decision of the Treasury to 

 reduce the grant to the universities from 1,500,000/. 

 to 1,200,000/. will seriously hamper these institu- 

 tions in their endeavour to get and to retain com- 

 petent teachers, and will impede scientific research 

 on which a further advance in knowledge and espe- 

 cially industry, alike in the spheres of manufac- 

 NO. 2723, VOL. 109] 



tures and of agriculture, so largely depends. The 

 joint meeting of the general council of the Trade 

 Union Congress and the Labour Party Executive, 

 held in London on December 14, views this policy 

 with profound disapproval, which can do virtually 

 nothing, it says, ' ' to relieve the national finances, 

 but which will be a serious blow to higher educa- 

 tion." 



An important manifesto has recently l>een issued 

 by the Teachers' Registration Council, entitled 

 " Education and National Life," for presentation 

 to his Majesty's Ministers and in the expectation 

 that it will be signed by many eminent 'men and 

 women. It refers to the national danger which 

 attends any attempt to reduce expenditure on educa- 

 tion, and urges that the recent extension of the 

 franchise has made it the more necessary to open 

 all possible avenues of knowledge and enlighten- 

 ment as preventives of error and half-truths in 

 politics, economics, and social relationships. A 

 complete and generous system of education will 

 fortify the State against civil Unrest and strife, 

 while serving to widen the vision and enrich the lives 

 of individuals. We were led in the tragic ordeal 

 of the war to perceive the faults of our previous 

 educational system and to frame the new proposals 

 embodied in the Education Act of 1918. But that 

 measure is not really in operation, and the newly 

 awakened desire of working people for further 

 knowledge is left unsatisfied. The signatories recog- 

 nise the need for a careful survey of our national 

 resources and for thrift in all public and private 

 expenditure, but hold that thrift should be exercised 

 with discrimination and not so as to curtail 

 educational opportunity. They conclude with 

 the desire to see our country take its place in the 

 van of civilised and enlightened communities and 

 regard public expenditure on education as a wise 

 investment which will bring to this and succeeding 

 generations the rich rewards of civic greatness and 

 private contentment. 



It is to be hoped that this weighty manifesto 

 from an influential body of well-wishers to educa- 

 tion may receive speedy and favourable considera- 

 tion at the hands of the Government, in order that 

 the provisions of the Education Act of 191 8 may 

 be put into practical operation without further delay, 

 and also that the full grant of 1,500,000/. be re- 

 stored to the universities so as to encourage research 

 in all departments of knowledge and give them the 

 opportunity of fully developing their resources 

 in the vital and permanent best interests of the 

 nation. 



