It was proposed, for example, a few weeks ago, that a
certain municipality in this province should establish an
elementary technical school for the sons of workmen. The stress of
the opposition to the plan came from a pleader who owed all he
had to a college education bestowed on him gratis by Government
and missions. You would have fancied some fine old crusted Tory
squire of the last generation was speaking. 'These people,' he said,
'want no education, for they learn their trades from their fathers,
and to teach a workman's son the elements of mathematics and
physical science would give him ideas above his business. They
must be kept in their place, and it was idle to imagine that there
was any science in wood or iron work.' And he carried his point.
But the Indian workman will rise in the social scale in spite of the
new literary caste."
"In England we have scarcely begun to realize that there is an
industrial class in this country, yet, I suppose, the example of men,
like Edwards for instance, must tell," said Pagett, thoughtfully.
"That you shouldn't know much about it is natural enough, for
there are but few sources of information. India in this, as in other
respects, is like a badly kept ledger-not written up to date. And
men like Edwards are, in reality, missionaries, who by precept and
example are teaching more lessons than they know.
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