“THE CAUSE OF UNREST.”

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8180, 23 July 1912, Page 6

“THE CAUSE OF UNREST.”

‘‘Labor unrest ■ • . has its origin not in the wants of tho body but in exaggerated expectations of the mind.”

In the Juno issue of “Tho Nineteenth | Century” there appears an • interest- 1 ing article from the pen of Mr W. H. j Mullock, a well-known contributor to 1 contemporary literature. Tho article is mainly interesting because of the rather sad views taken by the writer in regard to the connection between education and those phenomena of the mc/ment grouped under tho phrase “Social and industrial unrest.” Tho world is familiar, of course, with tho theorist who holds that attempts to educate the mass of men are equivalent to a wicked tampering with inflammable material, and' that once “tho working classes are educated beyond their station” peace will have permanently forsaken the world. Mr Mallock’s view is not quite the same as this, but it is upon modern popular education that he lays the blame for the existing disturbed state of society, and the rationale of his argument is this That the education previously given to a limited class was devised with a view to tho circumstances peculiar to that class having for its object tho equipment of those receiving it, and was therefore a good thing which created no disturbance; but application to tho mass of a system of education modelled, so far as its general character goes, on what had previously been applied to the aforesaid limited class results in - no enlargement of the laborer’s productive efficiency. _ Indeed, Mr Matlock will nave us believe that education which equips the “worker” is purely technical, and often does not even require mastery of the art of reading. Ho would have the diplomat learn French because a knowledge _of that language has a direct hearing on the performance by him of his distinctive functions, but can see nothing but foolishness in teaching the navvy to spell, or educating the miner or tho fisherman except in the mechanical details of their calling. All this is, of course, an argument for tho authority of , class, for maintaining a state of society in which the people who do the work of tho world shall bo densely' ignorant, and those who govern them the custodians of knowledge—in effect a > revival of the mediaeval State. That there may be something in this theory carrying strong appeal to those timid people j who view iho rising tide ,of a rough democracy with fear and trembling is | very probable. To find it bolstered j up with oami-Epioiiftiific jargon bp a j writer, who on many subjects shows singular discernment and sense of proportion, fills us with astonishment. Mr Mallock has apparently allowed his fear of Socialism to so terrify him that ho can see no protection against this devouring dragon but tho enforced ignorance of tho mass. His voice sounds like an echo from the tenth century. How does ho suppose, one naturally wonders, that any conceivable community, without committing outrage upon- its historical past, could decide in advance what occupations its citizens should follow—on what basis would-it in childhood select those who should be educated for tho diplomatic service, the church or the bar, for medicine or letters, and they who should bo restricted to the modicum, of instruction deemed, necessary for those whose hands were to bo reddened by the blood ot slaughtered pigs, who were to become greasers and firemen, the drivers of garbage waggons, or toilers' in the mine or workshop ? On whom would tho task of selection fall and what would be the test by which destiny would be determined? Mr Mallock has, we arc very much afraid, lost his balance.