304 



PART V WORKING STAGE. 



the employing class may absorb the whole 25/o decrease in 

 wages, when the workers will be simply 25/o the poorer. Or 

 the profits may be so high that a 25% lowering of wages may 

 make only a 5/o difference in price, when the workers' purchas- 

 ing power will have fallen by 20/o . Again, the already inadequate 

 wages may be driven down 50/o. The consequence may be 

 that the efficiency of the workers is very seriously impaired 

 through malnutrition, overcrowding, and the mental and material 

 crippling of the new generation, the value of the output being 

 reduced thereby by 50/o or even 75%. Or the wages may be 

 increased 25% or even 50/o, and the output keep pace be- 

 cause of the vigour imparted to the working class by the higher 

 standard of healthy living created. Furthermore, when average 

 wages are considered, we may calculate that they must cover 

 the ordinary current needs of a standardised family of five, 

 plus perhaps 25% extra for various non-ordinary expenses and 

 contingencies. 



151. Or examine the educational possibilities inherent in 

 children. 1 The majority of our future citizens attend the 

 publicly provided school from their kindergarten days to the 

 age of fourteen, by which time they seem to have acquired 

 only the rudiments of the elements of learning. The world in 

 its physical, intellectual, moral, aesthetic, and evolutionary as- 

 pects, except for the barest surface, has remained, and will pro- 

 bably*remain, practically a closed book to them. The position 

 is slightly, though not appreciably, improved when we weigh 

 the results obtained in the schools where the well-to-do send 

 their offspring. If we desire, however, to apply the simplest 

 practicable case to our problem, we shall search for an in- 

 stance where a teacher had one or a few children in charge 

 and was highly successful. This we find in the relation of 

 James Mill to his son John Stuart Mill. 2 Here we meet with 

 a magnificent result which suggests that the school, unless it 

 is thoroughly reformed, is an extremely inefficient institution, 

 and that the sooner it is replaced by home education, 3 the 

 sooner will the coming generations consist of men and women 

 of culture and insight, instead of being composed, as at present, 

 of a great mass almost void of any real ability, social enthusi- 

 asm, and refinement. . 



It will be averred, perhaps, that the younger Mill was by 

 nature much superior to his fellows. To this two replies may 



1 This may be taken to comprehend early training generally. Beyond 

 this, it also applies to youthful persons, though not to the same extent: "In 

 Mr. Gantt's training of factory girls he has been able to make the large 

 majority of each set into 'first-class workers', chiefly by the exercise of 

 patience and tact." (M. and A. D. McKillop, op. cit., p. 109.) 



! See for a similar instance: The Education of Karl Witte, ed. by 

 H. Addington Bruce, and for further illustrations Mr. Bruce's Introduction. 

 John Locke, in his Conduct of the Understanding, is emphatic in respect 

 of the advantages of home education. 



