23 MARCH 1918, Page 3

The Education Bill was read a second time in the

House of Commons on Tuesday after an interesting debate in which there were few dissentient voices. Mr. Marriott put the case for the Bill in a sentence when he said that, as we were a democracy, we must become an educated democracy. The University Extension move- ment had, he said, been hampered by the lack of secondary education such as the Bill would put within the reach of all. Mr. O'Grady declared that the Trade Unions welcomed the Bill ; that working- class parents, taught by the war, no longer objected to the raising of the school age ; and that the cotton operatives would not resent the disappearance of the half-timer. Several speakers expressed doubts as to whether employers could arrange for the young people in their employ to attend continuation schools for eight hours a. week. To this Mr. Herbert Lewis rejoined that British employers and parents had faced and overcome far greater difficulties during the war. The State would, he said, contribute not less than half of the net expenditure on education in each area.