224 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v 



apprenticeship 53^stem has broken down, partly 

 by reason of the changed conditions of industrial 

 life, and partly because trades have ceased to 

 be "crafts," the traditional secrets whereof the 

 master handed down to his apprentices. Inven- 

 tion is constantly changing the face of our 

 industries, so that " use and wont," " rule of 

 thumb," and the like, are gradually losing their 

 importance, while that knowledge of principles 

 which alone can deal successfully with changed 

 conditions is becoming more and more valuable. 

 Socially, the " master " of four or five apprentices 

 is disappearing in favour of the " employer " 

 of forty, or four hundred, or four thousand, 

 " hands," and the odds and ends of technical 

 knowledge, formerly picked up in a shop, are 

 not, and cannot be, supplied in the factory. The 

 instruction formerly given by the master must 

 therefore be more than replaced by the systematic 

 teaching of the technical school. 



Institutions of this kind on var}4ng scales of 

 magnitude and completeness, from the splendid 

 edifice set up by the City and Guilds Institute to 

 the smallest local technical school, to say nothing 

 of classes, such as those in technology instituted 

 by the Society of Arts (subsequently taken over 

 by the City Guilds), have been established in 

 various parts of the country, and the movement 

 in favour of their increase and multiplication is 

 rapidly growing in breadth and intensity. But 



