Page:The empire and the century.djvu/95

 ladder of education she has constructed for her whole people. Those who have most carefully studied the German educational system, physical as well as intellectual, while fully acknowledging its drawbacks and its imperfections, are most impressed—it might almost be said are most depressed—by its marked superiority over our English system, if system it can be called. No doubt much is being done my secondary, for technical, and for commercial education in England; but, in spite of efforts for which we are all grateful, we are still at an enormous disadvantage as compared with Germany, America, and even with France and Switzerland. It is however, no use copying German or American methods unless we can acquire the spirit which underlies them. It has been said of the Americans that they are taught from their earliest years that whatever is being done can, and ought to be, better done. That is the attitude of mind which makes a people efficient and progressive.

What we are wanting in is not so much the actual instruments of education as the zeal and determination which in other countries are making such instruments effective. There is already an Imperial patriotism which rallies men to the ranks in defence of the Empire; there should be a like patriotism which would fill our schools now that danger threatens Imperial trade.

In saying this I have no desire to attach exclusive importance to education as a preparation for trade. Other elements count for much in the commercial success of a nation—natural aptitudes, inherited predispositions, and most of all, national character. The political and commercial fabric of the British Empire was built up by men and women who had to depend on character and not on book-learning to guide them. But, when all is said, it remains true that in these days of fierce international competition, no people, whatever its natural gifts may be, can afford to neglect systematic professional training.

From this point of view educational training in all its