CHAPTER VI.

THE SUPPLY OF LABOUR, CONTINUED. INDUSTRIAL

TRAINING.

CH, VI.

§ 1. HAVING discussed the causes which determine the BOOK IV. growth of a numerous and vigorous population, we have next to consider the training that is required to develop its industrial efficiency.

which

takes

The natural vigour that enables a man to attain great The form success in any one pursuit would generally have served him natural in good stead in almost any other. other. But there are exceptions. vigour Some people, for instance, seem to be fitted from birth for an depends largely on artistic career, and for no other; and occasionally a man of training. great practical genius is found to be almost devoid of artistic sensibility. But in spite of these individual exceptions, a race that has great nervous strength seems able, under favourable conditions, to develop in the course of a few generations ability of almost any kind that it may wish to have. A race that has acquired vigour in war or in the ruder forms of industry sometimes gains intellectual and artistic power of a high order very quickly; and nearly every literary and artistic epoch of classical and medieval times has been due to a people of great nervous strength, who have been brought into contact with noble thoughts before they have acquired much taste for artificial comforts and luxuries.

lectual

The growth of this taste in our own age has prevented The intelus from taking full advantage of the opportunities our largely vigour of increased resources give us of consecrating the greater part our own age might of the highest abilities of the race to the highest aims. But be better perhaps the intellectual vigour of the age appears less than perhaps we it really is, in consequence of the growth of scientific pursuits, are inclined

used. But

CH. VI.

estimate it.

BOOK IV. For in art and literature success is often achieved while genius still wears the fascinating aspect of youth; but in modern to under science so much knowledge is required for originality, that before a student can make his mark in the world, his mind has often lost the first bloom of its freshness; and further the real value of his work is not often patent to the multitude as that of a picture or poem generally is'. In the same way the solid qualities of the modern machine-tending artisan are rated more cheaply than the lighter virtues of the mediæval handicraftsman. This is partly because we are apt to regard as commonplace those excellences which are common in our own time; and to overlook the fact that the term "unskilled labourer" is constantly changing its meaning.

Skilled and unskilled labour.

§ 2. Very backward races are unable to keep on at any kind of work for a long time; and even the simplest forms of what we regard as unskilled work is skilled work relatively to them; for they have not the requisite assiduity, and they can acquire it only by a long course of training. But where education is universal, an occupation may fairly be classed as unskilled, though it requires a knowledge of Skill with reading and writing. Again, in districts in which manufactures have long been domiciled, a habit of responsibility, of carefulness and promptitude in handling expensive machinery cognize as and materials becomes the common property of all; and then much of the work of tending machinery is said to be entirely mechanical and unskilled, and to call forth no human faculty that is worthy of esteem. But in fact it is probable that not one-tenth of the present populations of the world have the mental and moral faculties, the intelligence, and the selfcontrol that are required for it: perhaps not one-half could

which we are familiar we often

do not re

skill.

1 In this connection it is worth while to notice that the full importance of an epoch-making idea is often not perceived in the generation in which it is made it starts the thoughts of the world on a new track, but the change of direction is not obvious until the turning point has been left some way behind. In the same way the mechanical inventions of every age are apt to be underrated relatively to those of earlier times. For a new discovery is seldom fully effective for practical purposes till many minor improvements and subsidiary discoveries have gathered themselves around it: an invention that makes an epoch is very often a generation older than the epoch which it makes. Thus it is that each generation seems to be chiefly occupied in working out the thoughts of the preceding one; while the full importance of its own thoughts is as yet not clearly

seen.

UNSKILLED LABOUR A RELATIVE TERM.

265

CH. VI.

be made to do the work well by steady training for two BOOK IV. generations. Even of a manufacturing population only a small part are capable of doing many of the tasks that appear at first sight to be entirely monotonous. Machine-weaving, for instance, simple as it seems, is divided into higher and lower grades; and most of those who work in the lower grades have not "the stuff in them" that is required for weaving with several colours. And the differences are even greater in industries that deal with hard materials, wood, metals, or ceramics.

manual

losing im

intelli

Some kinds of manual work require long-continued Mere practice in one set of operations, but these cases are not skill is very common, and they are becoming rarer: for machinery is steadily constantly taking over work that requires manual skill of this portance relatively kind. It is indeed true that a general command over the to general use of one's fingers is a very important element of industrial gence and efficiency; but this is the result chiefly of nervous strength, vigour of and self-mastery. It is of course developed by training, but the greater part of this may be of a general character and not special to the particular occupation; just as a good cricketer soon learns to play tennis well, so a skilled artisan can often move into other trades without any great and lasting loss of efficiency.

Manual skill that is so specialized that it cannot be transferred from one occupation to another is becoming steadily a less and less important factor of industrial efficiency. Putting aside for the present the faculties of artistic perception and artistic creation, we may say that what makes one occupation higher than another, what makes the workers of one town or country more efficient than those of another is chiefly a superiority in general sagacity and energy which is not specialized to any one trade.

To be able to bear in mind many things at a time, to have everything ready when wanted, to act promptly and show resource when anything goes wrong, to accommodate oneself quickly to changes in details of the work done, to be steady and trustworthy, to have always a reserve of force which will come out in emergency, these are the qualities. which make a great industrial people. They are not peculiar

CH. VI.

BOOK IV. to any occupation, but are wanted in all; and if they cannot always be easily transferred from one trade to other kindred trades, the chief reason is that they require to be supplemented by some knowledge of materials and familiarity with special processes.

General

lized

ability.

We may then use the term GENERAL ABILITY to denote and Specia. those faculties and that general knowledge and intelligence which are in varying degrees the common property of all the higher grades of industry: while that manual dexterity and that acquaintance with particular materials and processes which are required for the special purposes of individual trades may be classed as SPECIALIZED ABILITY.

The causes

that determine the supply of

§ 3. General ability depends largely on the surroundings of childhood and youth. In this the first and far the most powerful influence is that of the mother'. Next comes the influence of the father, of other children, and in some cases The home. of servants'. As years pass on the child of the working man

general ability.

School.

learns a great deal from what he sees and hears going on around him; and when we inquire into the advantages for starting in life which children of the well-to-do classes have over those of the artisans, and which these in their turn have over the children of unskilled labourers, we shall have to consider these influences of home more in detail. But at present we may pass to consider the more general influences of school education.

Little need be said of general education; though the influence even of that on industrial efficiency is greater than

1 According to Mr Galton the statement that all great men have had great mothers goes too far: but that shows only that the mother's influence does not outweigh all others; not that it is not greater than any one of them. He says that the mother's influence is most easily traceable among theologians and men of science, because an earnest mother leads her child to feel deeply about great things; and a thoughtful mother does not repress, but encourages that childish curiosity which is the raw material of scientific habits of thought.

2 There are many fine natures among domestic servants. But those who live in very rich houses are apt to get self-indulgent habits, to over-estimate the importance of wealth and generally to put the lower aims of life above the higher in a way that is not common with independent working people. The company in which the children of some of our best houses spend much of their time, is less ennobling than that of the average cottage. Yet in these very houses, no servant who is not specially qualified is allowed to take charge of a young pointer or a young horse.

GENERAL AND SPECIALIZED ABILITY.

267

CH. VI.

it appears. It is true that the children of the working BOOK IV. classes must very often leave school, when they have but learnt the elements of reading, writing, arithmetic and drawing; and it is sometimes argued that part of the little time spent on these subjects would be better given to practical work. But the advance made during school-time is important not so much on its own account, as for the power of future advance which a school education gives. Reading and writing afford the means of that wider intercourse which leads to breadth and elasticity of mind, and which is enabling the working man of to-day to be as capable a citizen as was the country gentleman of last century'.

tions of

The absence of a careful general education for the The funcchildren of the working classes, has been hardly less detri- liberal mental to industrial progress than the narrow range of education. the old grammar-school education of the middle classes. Till recently indeed it was the only one by which the average schoolmaster could induce his pupils to use their minds in anything higher than the absorption of knowledge. It was therefore rightly called liberal, because it was the best that was to be had. But it failed in its aim of familiarizing the citizen with the great thoughts of antiquity; it was generally forgotten as soon as school-time was over; and it raised an injurious antagonism between business and culture. Now however the advance of knowledge is enabling us to use science and art to supplement the curriculum of the grammar-school, and to give to those who can afford it an education that develops their best faculties, and starts them on the track of thoughts which will most stimulate the higher activities of their minds in after-life.

But while a truly liberal general education adapts the mind to use its best faculties in business and to use business itself as a means of increasing culture, it does not concern itself with the details of particular trades. That task is left for technical education.

1 It is true that learning to spell does not educate the faculties to any considerable extent, and that the time spent on it is nearly wasted. If spelling and pronunciation could be brought into harmony in the English language, as they are in most other languages, children would, it has beeen estimated, be able to read fluently a year earlier than they are now.