REPORT OF MR. HINTON.
149
in many cases, feel that they are training pupils to become their rivals. When an employer finds that a young man of twenty can do his work as efficiently and more rapidly than an old workman employed at double the wages, there is great clanger that the older hand will be discharged, the younger one being put in his place. This, though true of England, is only partly applicable to us, owing to the fact that the demand for skilled labor exceeds the supply, though this is lessening every day, as the population increases; so that, like the British people, this nation will have to consider the question of apprenticeships and Trade Guilds, or some other system that will give a constant supply of able workmen.
■ The working of the two systems is well described in the following passage from an able and interesting paper on "Guilds,” read by Dr. Yeates at a meeting of the London Society of Arts, January 29th, 1873.
He had been showing how the old " Guilds ” of the different trades, formed by our ancestors, in which employers and workmen were alike enrolled, provided for technical education :—
“ As we have already seen, the Craft-Guild did, aforetime, largely take charge of industrial education. This was, indeed, its first care. Apprentices were regularly enrolled, and provision was made for their instruction. Journeymen, likewise, were constrained to improve themselves in the mj'steries of their craft. What would be called examinations in our day were periodically held in different Parts of the country; and frequently, too, comparisons were instituted between the work of native artisans and of foreigners, not always to the advantage of the former. Many of our Grammar Schools owe their existence to the ‘ Guilds,’ and higher institutions profited by their liberality.”
And again:—
“ One point of contrast between the old Craft-Guild and its modern analogue—the Trade-Union—should be noticed. Trade Unions are s °cieties of workmen, while the Craft-Guilds included master and Workmen alike. It is necessary, however, to distinguish between the faster of modern times, the wealthy capitalist at the head of a great concern, employing workmen by the hundred, or even by the thou- s and, and the masters of mediaeval England. To be a master it was