THE DANGER OF UNSKILL 185 
And it may be said, further, to be a matter of at least large proba- 
bility that these creative minds may be brought forth in any stratum 
of society. Whether they shall develop and give to civilization the 
benefit of their talent, depends upon the conditions surrounding them. 
They may grow and become mentally fruitful, or be repressed and 
become sterile, according as social environment is favorable or the 
contrary. It would seem that society should make every effort, in its 
own interest, to encourage their nurture and preservation. But, as 
Dr. Ward has so well shown,® education is the greatest social agency 
for providing that the mind, strong by nature, shall develop and give 
its ideas to the world. How great therefore is the urgency that society 
should afford educational opportunity to all classes of its people. How 
great a part of the possible progress of the race or nation is hindered 
by the social waste of its creative ability which never arrives at its 
period of fertile productiveness for lack of suitable social opportunity. 
It should, however, be clear from what has already been said that 
the only education which can reach the masses of a nation and hold 
them long enough to be of educational service to them, is that which 
looks toward vocation. And it therefore follows that only by making 
our school system, to some degree, industrial and vocational, and thereby 
holding our children under educational influences for a longer period, 
can the great number of productive minds, born in poverty or other 
unfavorable conditions, be preserved and brought to that stage of devel- 
opment in which they may advance the nation. 
Here, then, is the real danger of unskill. Modern industry calls for 
skill. In the face of this demand, lack of skill leads to unemployment 
and so to social weakness. Lack of skill leads, also, to poor employment ; 
and so, likewise, carries men into shiftlessness, discontent and degenera- 
tion. On the other hand, skill breeds hope and hence mental develop- 
ment. It opens new avenues of activity and draws out otherwise buried 
talent, and thus preserves the originators to the race. But our two 
streams of labor are inadequately trained for the economic demand. 
What we should do in regard to the stream of immigrants is a problem 
by itself. But as for our own children, the demand for opportunity to 
gain that skill, which will enable them to fit the economic life of to-day, 
is a very urgent and vital one. 
5 Applied Sociology,” chapter X. 
VOL. LXXVII.—12. 
