September 15, 1910] 



NATURE 



349 



twenty-four to tvventj-five years of age, especially as a 

 period of probation has afterwards to be served in works, 

 unless he sees that his money is going to be a good invest- 

 ment. And so we come back again to the manufacturer. 



Other Subjects. 

 As to many of the other subjects in which the universi- 

 ties and higher technical institutions touch industry and 

 commerce — architecture, biology, economics, and modern 

 languages — there is little to be said on the side of the 

 institutions. Biology is comparatively an unploughed 

 field ; the opportunities for economics are not yet fully 

 developed. Railways, banks, insurance companies, and 

 great business houses might, say the colleges, pay more 

 attention to the really able economist, .^t the School of 

 Economics a course of lectures in administrative subjects 

 was arranged in the autumn of 1906 in order to equip 

 officers for the higher appointments on the administrative 

 staff of the Army and for the change of departmental 

 services. This course is now annually attended by thirty 

 officers selected for the purpose by the War Office. In 

 order to provide the teaching required by candidates for 

 the degree of B.Sc. in the faculty of economics and 

 political science with honours in transport, the depart- 

 ment of the school dealing with this subject has been 

 developed. The lectures in this department, besides being 

 open to students in the faculty, are attended by some 300 

 students engaged in railway administration. These 

 students are drawn mainly from the staffs of the follow- 

 ing railway companies : — the Great Western, the Great 

 Eastern, the Great Northern, the London and South- 

 western, the Great Central, and the Metropolitan, their 

 fees being in many cases paid for them by their companies. 

 The lectures are also attended by members of the staffs 

 of the other London railways, and occasionally by officials 

 of Indian, colonial, and foreign railways, and other 

 persons. 



As for modern languages, it is alleged by the teaching 

 institutions that the fundamental business attitude of 

 England is entirely wrong. It will be seen later that this 

 last view is amply confirmed from important and well- 

 informed sources. 



One further point of view of the colleges. Personality 

 is by far the greatest factor ; no amount of training can 

 produce an exceptional man out of a man whose initial 

 natural qualities are only second class. 



Views of Industri.\l and Commercial Firms. 

 Answers to my inquiries have been received from a con- 

 siderable number of large shipowners, from a few large 

 shipbuilders, from nearly all the great railway companies, 

 from a good many banking and insurance companies, from 

 manufacturers of all kinds, and from employers' federa- 

 tions representing very large interests. 



Elementary School Training. 



Almost all explain their preference for elementary-school 

 boys in such a way as to pay a well-deserved compliment, 

 directly to the adaptability of the elementary-school boy, 

 and indirectly to the existing system of elementarv educa- 

 tion. A good many speak in high terms of the value of 

 evening schools, including technical institutes and schools 

 of art. Banks and insurance companies almost invariably 

 (but other firms as well) seek for the secondary-school 

 product. There is some call for the man trained at the 

 highest institutions, but this call is so much confined to 

 firms the works or business of which require technical skill, 

 that it is fully evident that the others do not yet feel the 

 need for such men, nor know how to use them. There 

 appears, also, with some frequency, the traditional fling at 

 the public schools and at the universities. 



Catch the boy as he leaves the elementary school, and 

 induce him to attend evening classes ; add to that the 

 training of the workshop or the business house, and you 

 have the fairly common plan of training those who will 

 rise above the rank of "hands." From the best of these 

 come the foremen ; from those in turn the sub-managers 

 are selected, and so on. It is interesting to see, however, 

 that the possibility of a change is not unforeseen. " It 

 happens," says one of our greatest industrial leaders, 

 " that at the present moment all the men who fill the 



NO. 2133, VOL. 84] 



positions of responsibility in our office come from 

 elementary schools. Naturally, they belong to a period 

 when secondary schools were not so accessible as now, and 

 probably the same remark may not be applicable to their 

 successors." 



There is much dissatisfaction with the existing sysfem 

 in those trades or industries in which apprenticeship was 

 once common. *' Time off " is occasionally allowed to 

 attend day technical classes. But there is evidence that 

 such a plan of training would not be generally acceptable, 

 and 1 am told by one representative of a large set of 

 interests that " the whole question of the method of 

 teaching boys their trade in and on the works, seems in 

 need of reform, ... it is hardly possible for anything 10 

 be done in this way except by some compulsory scheme 

 affecting all employers " ; and by a representative of 

 another vast set of interests that " .As a matter of fact, the 

 whole question of technical education is so unavoidably 

 mixed up with the apprenticeship question in such a form 

 as to make it impossible to deal with one without the 

 other. Furthermore, the apprenticeship question is so 

 clouded by the conflicting interests of the various unions, 

 the unsatisfactory state of the law as regards employers, 

 and other difficulties, that nothing short of a far-reaching 

 Parliamentary scheme is likely, so far as my experience 

 goes, to materially alter the situation." 



The markets call emphatically for the " practical " man. 

 .\ view more sympathetic with higher education, and not 

 altogether uncommon, may be stated thus : — A man with 

 practical training alone can do much ; a man with technical 

 training alone can do little ; a combination is, therefore, 

 essential. If only one can be had, which would be re- 

 grettable, that must be the practical man. 



While, as I have already said, employers generally 

 express the highest appreciation of the value of evening 

 schools, technical institutes, and schools of art, as supple- 

 mentary to the workshop, the factory, and the office, there 

 is a good -sprinkling of severe criticism. It is alleged that 

 the schools are not practical, and that teachers of art as 

 well as of science display much ignorance of the manu- 

 facturing process and of the limitations imposed by 

 materials, machinery, and generally of the conditions of 

 work and organisation necessarily enforced in a commercial 

 business. This is, of course, no new view. It has been 

 expressed to me all over the three kingdoms, and I fear 

 there is much truth in it. Part of the ignorance is due to 

 the exclusiveness of the manufacturer, who dreads the 

 theft of his secrets. But the impression left on the 

 employers is partly the fault of the schools. It was one of 

 the defects of the technical education movement that it was 

 hasty and tumultuous. Schools were not graded. Teachers 

 and institutes set up claims impossible of fulfilment, and 

 the British public misunderstood. Hence the doing, un- 

 fortunately not yet ended, of much mischief, which has 

 had to be repaired. 



This is, perhaps, the best place to direct attention to one 

 of the commonest features of the employers' views. They 

 think that evening schools, technical institutes, and schools 

 of art may help the individual pupil ; it does not enter their 

 minds that such schools may aid their industries. 



I have devoted more attention to the elementary side ut 

 technical education than might, at first sight, appear 

 necessary. My object has been to show what the employer 

 thinks of what he comes most in contact with. His views 

 in that respect may serve as a guide to the kind of 

 appreciation he is likely to give to that of which ho knows 

 less. 



Higher Education. 



I am much disappointed to find that a works of a 

 technical character and with a world-wide reputation, 

 says, " The men technically trained up to 20-22 years of 

 age employed by us are comparatively few in number, and 

 are generally such as have had special introduction to us," 

 and I arrs also much surprised to find a large and well- 

 known firm of engine-makers saying, " W'e have never had 

 any application from the universities." Another firm, the 

 name of which is a household w-ord, says, " There are no 



proper schools " (naming an important and common 



article of commerce which forms the subject of large in- 

 dustrial works), " in this country such as are found on the 

 Continent, so it would be difficult for us to get properly 



