724 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 
however, believe that my case is singular. In the Contemporary Review for 
July 1909 Professor Stanley Jevons contributed an article on ‘The Causes of 
Unemployment.’ He referred therein to the opportunities afforded him by 
University Settlement Boys’ Clubs in London and Cardiff of forming a judg- 
ment concerning the products of our primary schools. He described the follow- 
ing experiment :— 
‘I arranged to test a few members of the Boys’ Club. They were gathered 
in a room with pens and paper and were asked to write down the following short 
sentence, which was spoken to them distinctly twice, as an example of the kind of 
message which they might be expected to have to write occasionally for an 
employer : ‘I have not been able to find the book which you sent me to fetch.” 
The test was one both of memory and spelling, and most of the boys failed in one 
or both respects.’ 
Professor Jevons gave facsimiles of the results, which I am unable to repro- 
duce; but I can indicate the nature of the spelling. It will be noticed that 
there are no words of two syllables. The following is the best of the batch :— 
Boy aged nearly sixteen: ‘I cannot (fetch) find the book which you sent me 
to fetch.’ 
The following are from boys aged fourteen and fifteen respectively :— 
‘T have not been abele to find the boock whi witch I sent you (for) to fitch. 
“IT have Not bend able to find the book With I sent you to fath.’ 
All these boys have been through one of our large primary schools. 
Professor Jevons added: ‘In contemplating the question of unemployment 
one is at once led to the conclusion to which so many other economic problems 
ultimately lead—that the only certain means of abating the evil is the improve- 
ment of the individual.’ 
Passing from such limited experiences to the views of those who are brought 
into contact with the products in bulk, a sense of dissatisfaction and uneasiness 
is no less evident. Consider the following extracts from the Presidential 
Address of Mr. Walter Dixon, M.I.M.E., to the West of Scotland Iron and 
Steel Institute in October last :— 
‘I have, over a somewhat extended period and a wide area, made inquiries 
amongst those who have the control of about 200,000 men in our own allied 
industries, with the following results :— 
‘It is the unanimous opinion that any book-learning outside the rudiments 
of “the three R’s” is considered a matter outside the requirements of the educa- 
tion of more than 90 per cent. of the usual manual workers. In other words, 
the work that these men are called upon to do, the labour which they have to 
perform in their daily avocation, would be as efficient, as successful, and as 
expeditiously performed if the men had no school education whatever outside 
“the three R’s.”’ 
If there is any truth in this severe indictment there is small cause for wonder 
if a general sense of uneasiness exists amongst those who consider that the 
future prosperity and safety of this country are dependent on the manner in 
which we train the rising generation. 
In justice to Mr. Dixon I must give a further extract from his Address :— 
‘During the recent meeting of the British Association in Dundee I spent 
some time amongst Educational Authorities, not only those belonging to our own 
country, but delegates from other nations, and I find that they themselves are 
beginning to see the futility of the present methods and to realise that they are 
ploughing the sands. Amongst other matters, it was of interest to note that they 
are at present promulgating a scheme for what they call vocational education. 
In other words, I gather that they are now attempting in a modified way to 
replace the old ‘prentice system by teaching trades in their schools, so that 
ehildren may enter the trades as skilled workers—a system which, to my mind, 
would render the present confusion more confounded. ... We must recognise 
that the mechanical developments of the last half-century have done away in a 
large measure with the possibility of the interest which a man could once take 
