THR EDUCATED UNEMPLOYED.

Press, Volume XXX, Issue 4155, 20 November 1878, Page 5 (Supplement)

THR EDUCATED UNEMPLOYED.

A correspondent, whose letter appeared in a recent issue, calls attention (says tho " Argus") to tho case of tho educated unemployed—the men who "cannot dig" while "to beg they are ashamed." He wants to know whether something cannot be done to ameliorate their condition; for, as ho very truly SBys, " as things stand, men of this class are fast becoming a drag upon society." It may seem cruel to say so, but we fear that nothing can be done which would make any sensible impression on tho mass. Good may be effected in individual instances by means of such societies as that established in Melbourne for the relief of the educated poor, but the evils from whioh people, such as thoso desoribed by our correspondent, suffer must be loft to work their own cure. The men who spend half their lifetime in looking for " genteel" employment are the victims of a transitional state of society. Tha offices which at one time were the exclusive possessions of what are known as the middle olasßes have of late years been rushed by the sons of laborers, artisans, and small shopkeepers, fitted by education for tho duties they impose. Unfortunately, circumstances havo not yet had timo to upset the old world notion, that manual labour ia neoessarily less honourable th__n clerical work ; so while those who have been bom in a certaip grade cannot take to a handicraft without losing caste, those who are born below are continually seeking to escape from their own class, and to gain admittance ■«_> what is generally regarded as a higher. In a very short time there will scarcely be a child in any civilised country not receiving a training fitting him for the ordinary run of clerical work, and unless those who have hitherto furnished recruits to the great army of clerks get over the absurd idea that writing and casting np figures are " gonteol" employments, whilo manual operations requiring ten times tho skill are low and vulgar occupations,

we do not see how fcbey are ever as a class to emerge from tbe cloud which has gathered about them. We want a reformation in our social ideas. Nothing cm be more ridiculous than the different ways in whioh different occupations are regarded. A young man of decent training may go upon a station, live like a hog, do work of a menial and frequently of a diggusting kind, and yet whon he comes to Melbourne may obtain admittance to the most exolusive drawingrooms in the metropolis. Lot him, however, put his band to any mechanical trade in town or suburbs, and " society" shuts its door in his face at once. Whilst this is the case, is it strange that some occupations should be shunned and others rushed? We fear that "genteel" paupers will abound until manual and clerical labor are regarded as equally honorable, and people obliged to work for their living can take to either one or the other, aa inclination suggests, without incurring social penalties ? We must protest against our correspondent's view of education as one which directly fosters the condition of things ho deplores. The idea that education is only advantageous if it advances a man's fortune, or raises its possessor from the rank in which he was born to one which is arbitrarily pronounced superior, is a radically low conception, and one whioh, if generally adopted, would condemn tbe civilised world to ignorance or speedy extinction. ______