496 CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 
practical genius find elsewhere the people who know how to appreciate them, 
it is tacitly acknowledged that others are expected to provide the seeds of 
industrial developments while Labour concerns itself solely with the distribution 
of the fruits derived from them. 
It is true that some of the leaders of the Labour movement realise that 
close association with progressive science is essential to the expansion of industry 
and the consequent provision of wages in the future. What is here urged is 
that Labour should itself take part in the scientific and industrial research 
which it acknowledges is necessary for existence, and should show by its own 
contributions that it possesses the power to produce useful knowledge as well 
as the dexterity to apply it. The machinery of trade unionism is capable of 
much more extensive use than that to which it has hitherto been put, and when 
it is concerned not only with securing ‘ for the producers by hand or by brain 
the full fruits of their industry,’ but also with the creation of new plantations 
by its own efforts, no one will be able to doubt its fitness to exercise a 
controlling influence upon modern industry. 
The Workers’ Educational Association has proved that very many artisans 
are ready to take advantage of opportunities of becoming familiar with the 
noblest works of literature, science, and art, with the single motive of enriching 
their outlook upon life. Many more attend classes in economics, and nearly all 
are in favour of extended facilities for further education, though there is a 
difference of intention between the Marxian element in Labour and the more 
impartial supporters of the W.E.A. or of the Co-operative Education Union. 
‘ There is practically no limit,’ says Mr. G. D. H. Cole in ‘ An Introduction 
to Trade Unionism,’ ‘to what could be done if there only existed among the 
national and local leaders of Labour a clear idea of the part which education 
must play if the working-class is ever to achieve emancipation from the wage 
system.’ To education should be added original research if labour is to signify 
something more than a class of hewers of wood and drawers of water. The 
Guild movement represents a step in this direction, but if it signifies merely 
a return to the medieval system it can scarcely be so important a factor of 
general development as its advocates imagine, and it may mean the institution 
of caste in labour. Such a system no doubt leads to perfection of craftsman- 
ship, and it is to be welcomed as an antidote to the deadening influence of 
specialised industry ; but a caste nation at last becomes stationary, for in each 
caste a habit of action and a type of mind are established which can only 
be changed with difficulty. What is wanted to make the race strong is cross- 
fertilisation, and not in-breeding. 
Local scientific societies should provide a common forum where workers 
with hand or brain can meet to consider new ideas and discuss judicially the 
significance of scientific discovery or applied device in relation to human progress. 
At present such societies are mostly out of touch with these praetical aspects 
of knowledge, and are more interested in prehistoric pottery than in the living 
world around them. Most of those connected to the British Association are 
concerned with natural history, but all scientific societies in a district should 
form a federation to proclaim the message of knowledge from the house-tops. 
Men are ready to listen to the gospel of science and to believe in its power 
and its guidance, but its disciples disregard the appeal and are content to let 
others minister to the throbbing human heart. Civilisation awaits the lead 
which science can give in the name of wisdom and truth and unprejudiced 
inquiry into all things visible and invisible, but the missionary spirit which 
would make men eager to declare this noble message to the world has yet to 
be created. 
