ADULT EDUCATION

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 255, 24 July 1937, Page 12

ADULT EDUCATION

I Importance to Democracy EXCESS LABOUR PROBLEM The view that there was a race between adult education and the fall of democracy throughout the world, was expressed by Dr. F. W. Hurl, professor ot education in the University of California, in a New Education Fellowship conference seminar in Wellington yesterday. 'The rapidity with which democracies had fallen since the World War made one a little nervous about whether to live in a country where the people bad the right to govern, the lecturer said. Then there was the possibility of another war which threatened not only to destroy democracy, but civilisation itself. Those factors all emphasised the necessity for adult education.

One of the greatest problems facing the world, said Dr. Hart, was how they were to absorb their surplus manpower in socially useful ways. Surplus manpower was the quaking volcano on which civilisation was situated. Unless that problem were solved there was going to be a volcanic eruption that would mean world-wide devastation. Surplus manpower meant a low standard of living, a low standard of living meant social unrest, and social unrest meant economic disturbances, political upheavals, internal revolutions, civil war, and international war. It was his conviction that surplus manpower was right at tlie bottom of the whole difficulty. Controversial Issue. Surplus manpower was still an unsolved problem. Various nations were temporising witli it, and various individuals had their ideas about it. Of course, it was a controversial issue, but controversial issues were about the only kind of issues that were worth intelligent consideration. If anything was not controversial it meant that the answer had already been found. Organised society owed every employable man the opportunity to earn a living, and the resources and powers of production of countries throughout the world were such that every man, woman and child should enjoy a comfortable standard of living.

The application of science and technology was responsible for the present excess or surplus of manpower, Dr. Hart said. He blamed the machine for throwing people out of employment, and tlie machine would have to bear the cost of putting those men back into useful employment. A machine, for instance, might put 100 men out of work. Perhaps its operation would account for the employment of 30 men elsewhere. That left 70 men permanently otit of employment. Allowing, the employers who put in the machine n profit of 20 men for his enterprise, he suggested that there should be a charge on the machine that would provide for the employment of the remaining 50.