TECHNICAL EDUCATION : PART OF THE " NEW WAY OF

LIFE."*

A "AMIABLE work, L'Enseignement Technique, Industriel et .Commercial, has just been published in Paris proving the Infinite importance of technical education for apprentices and others as a necessary preparation for life, The authors dwell on the need of the two older civilisations, France and England, preparing for the great Armageddon that is yet to be fought in manufactures and commerce. They quote the notable speech of the French Ambassador, M. Paul Cambon, to the London Chamber of Commerce in 1906, when he reminded its members that the whole of the conditions of modern industrialism have changed. Formerly French and English merchants and manufacturers sat in their counting- houses and received all the orders they could execute. They still sit there, but ubiquitous German commercial travellers, thoroughly well versed in modern languages, go out and get an increasingly large eh are of those orders. The work under "view, which makes a great point of the struggle for supremacy between England and Germany, shows in carefully constructed tables how in the ten years 1897 to 1906 German "Porte and imports increased by two-thirds, whereas the British increase was less than one-half. A careful perusal of the book will convince most thoughtful people that the superiority of the Germans lies in better preparation for 7(301; they have laid to heart the triple summons of the , new way" : "Prepare, Prepare, and again Prepare." They "aye prepared, whilst the French and ourselves are Merely Preparing to gird up our loins. AS in England, apprenticeship has decayed in France. In 1701 the National Assembly formally abolished trade Guilds and Corporations and declared the freedom of labour. These bodies had assumed responsibility for apprenticeship. Despite a couple of ineffectual laws on the statute-book, apprenticeship is little but a name in France. Recently it was found that, out of six hundred thousand children and young persons in the workshops and factories, little more than a tenth had a Written contract, and this suffered so much from lack of legal enforcement that it was practically useless. The remaining five hundred and forty thousand apprentices pick up the same Sort of education as young English people do on this side: they learn what they can, do it anyhow, and, as a result, when they are adult, they are frequently replaced by Germans, Swedes, Swiss, Austrians, and Danes, who, having received 21, admirable trade education, are prepared to accept work wherever it offers. After due inquiry, the late M. Gr6ard, laptimerrttnt Technique, Industriel et Commercial, ea France et dl'Etranser: to Astier ((Deputy of Ardeche and an Authority on Technical Edina uou *tan. At7Ofurra. sholael.3(Conseillor-Odneral d'Ardeelie). Paris Libralrio Georges

Rector of the University of France, addressed grave words of warning to the French people :—

" The workshop, which ought to develop the child's strength, wears out his body before nature has finished its growth, benumbs his intelligence which the publics school had begun to awaken, withers his imagination and heart, debases the love of work. It is a deplorable school of morality, for it depraves the man in the apprentice, the citizen in the workman, and does not even teach him his trade."

Our authors are of opinion that things have not improved since M. Gr6ard wrote these words. On the other hand, France is ripe for legislation on the subject. The Conseil Sup6rieur du Travail and Ligue Franeaise de l'Enseignoment demand compulsory instruction for those who have no indentures, and for the last few years trade schools and classes have been springing up. Doubtless we shall ore long see the fruit this book is intended to bear, in the shape of com- pulsory legislation on the other side of the Channel. For an apprentice here and there to get his trade will not be enough, any more than it is enough for a soldier here and there in the military army to submit to the necessary training.

L'Enseignement Technique shows that Germany began to prepare for industrial victory in the first third of the nine- teenth century. The three great foes of apprenticeship, lack of foresight among parents, the indifference of employers, and the powerlessness of the State, have been overcome. Immediately after the federation of the German Empire in

1871 the Crown Prince Frederick gave the people a new watchword : " We have conquered on military battlefields ; now we have to conquer on those of manufactures and commerce." Bismarck did not disdain to apply a powerful, superior mind to this new task, and became Minister of Commerce. Technical instruction has not been the sole cause of the German advance, but when every soldier of the industrial army is as thoroughly disciplined in the branch of

work he has undertaken as was each soldier in the campaign of 1870, the outlook is not brilliant for those nations which adopt the go-as-you-please policy. It is well known to those who inquire into such matters that at the present moment London has a large contingent of thoroughly well-trained Germans, Austrians, and Swedes who obtain excellent posts such as heads and foremen of workshops in tailoring, the bespoke boot trade, and other businesses. Nor is it permissible to blame lack of patriotism on the part of employers, for no man can put up with incapacity when it endangers the existence of his firm. To some extent the Labour representatives of 1889 are responsible for the present lack of efficient technical training. When the Technical Education Act of 1889 was passed, the spokes- men of Labour insisted, and it has proved to be a, huge blunder, that the practice of a trade should not be taught. That Act was superseded by the Education Act of 1902; but many precious years have been wasted. In the Report of the Central Unemployed Body laid before the London County Council Education Department on Decem- ber 22nd, 1908, on the motion of Mr. Sidney Webb, Miss Adler, and others, the superintendent of that body stated that fourteen thousand applications for women to fill certain posts had been made. Of these only seven thousand could be filled owing to the difficulty of securing sufficiently skilled women. It was also added that the highest positions were often filled by foreigners, who were employed solely owing to their better training. In France we find the same phenomenon. Chemical industries are founded on French soil by German capital, with German directors, and a large number of German employees.

How does Germany arrive at her -undoubted excellence?

The answer is, by her pre-eminence in education ; and this is partly due to the fact that she has an aristocratic Government which sees what is necessary, aims straight at it, and wastes no time persuading laggards that liberty is the pearl of great price. The German school system has Jong been compulsory. In 1891 a new departure was made. • Until then the law had simply required employers to let young persons below eighteen have sufficient time out of working hours 'to attend a continuation school. In some States compulsion had already begun; but in 1891 communes were authorised to institute such schools, and to adopt compulsion, even where State law did not require it. As a result, more than half the German communes have declared for compulsion, and the fact that any commune may do so at any moment has bad an astonishing effect on employers, parents, and apprentices. Berlin held out against compulsion until 1905; till that year her classes were attended by 32,259 persons, of whom 22,813 were apprentices. Some cities, like Frankfort-on-Main, even require compulsion for girls. Like ourselves, the Germans do not place laws on the statute-book and then jump over them, as is done in Italy and the United States. A list of reprimands, fines, imprisonments dealt out by the municipality of Dresden is published for our guidance; probably no nation in the world exacts and obtains such absolute obedience to the law as Germany. The continuation school requires all young persons between fourteen and eighteen to attend for instruction in German, arithmetic, and drawing for three separate terms, devoting six hours weekly to the work, usually in three attendances. Exemption is accorded to those who attend trade schools, and this has given an extraordinary impetus to the foundation of trade schools and classes by communes, different trades, and employers of labour. The needs of every neighbourhood are considered. Our authors publish the following list of trade classes held in Berlin, in each case affixing the numbers of the scholars : painters and decorators, barbers and hairdressers, uphol- sterers, plumbers, glaziers, wheelwrights, basket-makers, book- binders, printers, gardeners, pastry000ks and confectioners, photographers, Canon, coopers. Frankfort has classes for waiters and hotel managers as well as chimneysweeps ; Leipsie does not forget the needs of chambermaids and " generals." Trade classes are often held in buildings annexed to the different trades. It is a fact of deep Bignifi- canoe that retired German employers who possess a high reputation often spend their leisure and experience in teaching their trade or art to young Germany. Small towns vie with each other in trying to attract renowned teachers to their neighbourhood during the holidays, so that drops of these blessings may fall on them. Instruction at a continuation school is gratuitous ; that of a trade class is not so necessarily. The State gives grants-in-aid. In Prussia the bill for trade classes is met thus :—Pupils' fees, 23 per cent. ; State aid, 28 per cent.; local rates, 49 per cent.; the total expendi- ture being about £240,000.

The training of Germany's industrial army is effected in four classes of institutions. The following is the list, with approximate numbers of students :—

No. Students.

(1) Technical Universities

.9 ... 15,000 (2) Secondary technical schools ... • ... 38 ... 8,000 (3) Elementary technical schools ... 502 34,000

(4) Trade schools (Gewerbliche Fortbildungsschule) prob....

400,000

The first two prepare the staff major of the industrial army, directors, men of science, managers, foremen ; the last is for the rank-and-file of the army; the third seems largely (the volume is not quite explicit) for small employers working on their own account as well as for workmen. A great effort is being made to save the small man, not to let him be cleared out of the field of business by the great employer. The Germans frankly recognise that the State wants men ; it cares little about employers on a huge scale and "hands " ; every effort is made to fit the small man for his business; far too often be is lost for lack of knowledge and preparation. The same thoroughness is visible in commercial education, which has three great divisions. Nothing is so important to the German, entrenched as he is behind the barriers of a difficult and barbarous (as Carducci called it) language, as the knowledge of English and French. Of these and every other European tongue which he needs for business he acquires a working mastery. Such knowledge stands him in good stead. As our French authors point out, the natural taste of the German is not great, and he is slow at acquiring ideas. But he is docile, reads much, and is determined to succeed. The world needs such qualities ; it cannot with- stand resolution and capacity combined ; they are part of the "new way of life."

It is impossible in the space of a brief review to give details of what is being 'done in technical education, even in those countries where the work is most thorough. One example from the Danish law of 1889 on technical instruction may fitly conclude this notice. The employer must prepare his apprentice for the journeyman's examination and certifi- cate. If the master fail of his duty, the apprentice has a right to bring him before a Court of Arbitration, which Court may indemnify the apprentice in a sum varying from 5s. to £8, and forbid the master to take apprentices for the future.