Industrial training : with special reference to the conditions prevailing in London / by N.B. Dearle.

  • Dearle, N. B. (Norman Burrell), 1882-1961.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Industrial training : with special reference to the conditions prevailing in London / by N.B. Dearle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    594/624 (page 574)
    niade compulsory for all of them. The work has always had on the whole a favourable effect on the character of those employed m it, and previous defects have been removed by better organiza- tion. Hence the Committee can justly claim that under their scheme employment in the Post Office now offers unusualiy Rood prospects, and that the problem with which they had to deal is very near complete solution. In short the result of their pr4icy has been to turn the boy-messenger’s job from a Blind Aliev into an occupation that will last him through life. Such a complete solution of the difficulty is, unhappily, not often possible, and for many reasons it is particularly inapplicable j to the case of vanboy labour. The openings for the Post Office I messenger are both better and more numerous than the carmen’s i jobs which are as a nile the best the vanguards can hope for. t Hence neither can they be tied down for four or five years with [ nothing better to offer them at the close, nor, even, if they could | be induced to stay so long, would there be sufficient places to j| absoib them. Again the Post Office is a single undertaking j] organized on an enormous scale. Carrying work is di\nded up | among a large number of businesses of varying size ; and there- | fore expedients for reducing numbers or increasing openings are { far less easy of adoption. Hence the choice rests between the first I alternative—prohibition—and the third—regulation. |j On the surface there is a strong case for the former. The job | is a marked Blind Alley in the first sense. For, while the Railway I Companies and some of the larger carriers manage to absorb jj all the bo3^s, who wish to stay, in other branches of their business, {I elsewhere a large proportion have to be got rid of. But further 1 the emplo3m-ient produces to a marked extent the Blind .\lley 1 character. Lack of discipline and sustained e.xertion leads to the 1 growth of casual and irregular habits ; and many boys stay in it | long enough to acquire bad habits and othervase injure their I prospects, but not long enough to rise to be carmen. Again the I hours of labour are often such as to prevent attendance at Even- I ing Schools or self-improvement in other directions. Indeed some I think the conditions under which the work is done render this I last inevitable, but the Committee on Vanboy Labour hold that J it can be overcome by organization, similar to that alreadv 9 adopted by the Railways. Other disadvantages can similarh' ■ be removed and the emplo3nnent has some merits. The * work, being in the open air, is healthy. In itself it is not arduous ; and it is well suited for boys who are never likel3' to rise beyond low-skilled labour.