THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN

AND

JOURNAL OF THE COAL AND IRON TRADES.

Vol. CXVI.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1918.

No. 3019.

Education in Mining: From

At the opening of the winter session of the Past
and Present Mining Students’ Association at the
Wigan Mining College, Mr. W. Pickup, F.G.S.,
M.I.Min.E., ex-president of the Manchester Geo-
logical Society, gave an address on the subject of
mining education from the student’s point of view,
particularly as it applied to Lancashire. Mr.
Pickup said he would not apologise for bringing a
subject before them which had already occupied their
attention, because so long as employers as a class too
often did not realise the advantage of and insist upon
a higher standard of education amongst their officials,
so long as aspiring students were not encouraged and
helped as they ought to be to pass from the local
classes to the district colleges, and from there on to
the university, so long as a complete co-ordination of
the whole-system of mining education from the
bottom to the top for the whole area was wanting,
—so long,' in short, as the edifice as a whole was in-
complete, so long would continual attention be neces-
sary, and all who were interested would need to help
until the scheme was complete in every detail.

The speaker’s object was therefore to be helpful to
the aspiring student, to point out weaknesses and
shortcomings in the system, create interest, excite
discussion, and to appeal for greater support for this
subject than it had hitherto received in Lancashire.
They had been occupied in the past by their
prosperity; they had been obsessed by admiration
of their own achievements, too confident of the
sufficiency of their limited knowledge, too con-
temptuous of the few who tried to throw the light of
science on their path, too eager for wealth, and too
careless of the needs and aspirations of their work-
people.

Hitherto mining engineers had generally been
trained in the pits. Theoretical knowledge had not
been called for; it had even been held to be
antagonistic to practical success. There had not been
a supply of trained mining engineers, partly because
there had been no demand, and partly because the
places where a man could study the theoretical side
of the profession were few and far between.

The importance of technical education in mining
in the past had not been sufficiently realised; it had,
in fact, been neglected, with the result that the
industry, as compared with various other industries,
had fallen distinctly behind in the march of progress.
Theory, rightly understood, was the guide of prac-
tice ; practice was the test of theory; and the truest
educational method was a combination of the two.
We were being given now, as never before, an oppor-
tunity of reshaping and improving the forms, insti-
tutions and customs of our educational system.

The principal difficulty we had to overcome was
widespread apathy. A significant change, however,
had come over the spirit of our educational thinking
since the outbreak of the war. We wanted to get
away from the apathy of the past, and away from the
controversy which had spoiled so much of our educa-
tional reconstruction in former years.

Wherever we found ability, let us give that ability
free scope. The student became a pioneer, thinking
of the difficulties ahead, and this mental habit
strengthened and developed the imaginative faculty.

The day of unscientific mining was passing, and
the industry of the future would be of much greater
complexity and difficulty than in the past. The day
when the qualifications of a principal were that he
had been brought up underground or in the works,
and was considered, therefore, sufficiently trained,
was all but over. Years of study and preparation
would be required of any man who aspired to assume
the direction of mining in the future.

We could not face the industrial problems of to-
morrow equipped only with good intentions and the
ideas of last century. In this connection technical
education was of prime importance. If we were to
hold our own in the face of the coming competition
with America, Japan and Germany, we must be able
to supply the industry with the numbers it required
of highly trained university graduates. The equip-
ment of the requisite number of young men with a
broad general and scientific training and a specialised
knowledge would necessitate the expansion in size,
personnel and available funds of most of our colleges
and universities.

With the close of the present war another struggle
would be forced upon us. Industrial competition far
more intense than formerly would set in as each
nation entered upon the attempt to recover its lost
markets and to create new ones, and unless we had
the energy and enterprise to make ourselves fit and
equipped for whatever commercial competition may
ensue, we should have a grievously heavy reckoning
to pay for our national shortcomings.

In the midst of the most gigantic war history had
ever known, when British men had been for over four
years gladly giving their lives for the Empire; when

the Student’s Point of View.

armies had been raised in record time; when the
industries had willingly submitted to revolutionary
methods for the production of munitions of war, it
might seem strange to make a plea for increased
interest in education.

Our future success as a nation depended upon the
reorganisation and reformation of the national views
of life and industry. The employer must realise that
his business formed part of the Empire, its success
was not only his success, but, in accordance with the
means he employed to make his business successful,
so had he to that extent bettered or marred the future
prosperity of the Empire. The workman must be
induced to take a greater interest in his work, to
realise that it was important from his own as well
as the national standpoint that he should put forward
his best productive efforts, and the fruits of his labour
would not only elevate him, but would influence his
fellow workmen, his employers, and eventually the
nation as a whole.

While there was more readiness to discuss this most
absorbing question, there were still far too many
people who evaded and put off the duty of making
timely preparation. It therefore behoved us to take
a firm grasp now of the capital facts, and endeavour
to make practical inferences from them, one of the
principal being that a higher technical education for
those controlling the mining industry would be
required for dealing with the greater and more
complex problems which would arise. Therefore the
men responsible for mining to-day needed courage
and energy to lead the way.

The case he had put before them was a simple
business proposition, particularly suitable for discus-
sion by business men, namely, if we were to hold our
own in the keener commercial struggle of the future,
it behoved us to set our house in order and realise
that a higher standard of education all round would
be necessary.

The chief asset of our Empire in the near future
would be educated and trained men—men of probity,
character, ripened experience, broad outlook, and
gifted with business ability—if we were to make a
success of - industries which had hitherto been carried
on at a low efficiency.

The industry should give proof of its belief in the
value of highly trained men by adequate support,
moral and financial, and by encouraging, students in
sufficient numbers. We had played at technical
education during the past thirty years; it was now
incumbent upon us to treat the subject seriously, and
to make provision for the training of real men of
affairs.

The interest of broad-minded employers would not
only manifest itself in the proper housing of the
workpeople, but in their educational and social wel-
fare. The highest conception of a great industry was
that it was not merely a mode of earning a living, or
of amassing a fortune, but a liberal calling—a form
of service to the State and to the nation.

As a national question, the better education of our
young workers should occupy the first place in any
scheme of reconstruction. In the Education Act
recently passed (1) the half-time system was abolished,
and (2) local authorities had now power to extend the
elementary school life of children in all industries to
15. The most striking provision, however, was that in
which Parliament had now for the first time affirmed
the principle that (3) all young persons after the
regular school life was finished should continue to be
educated at a continuation school up to the age of 16,
and (4) later to 18.

Educational reform generally, and especially such as
related to the higher scientific training in our tech-
nical colleges and universities, was always exceedingly
slow.

We had never in this important matter taken the
position which we undoubtedly ought to have occu-
pied as the nation holding the first place in wealth,
trade, manufactures and State revenue.

The speaker expressed his belief in continued educa-
tion, and considered it not good policy on the part of
the British nation to spend 30 millions a year on the
education of its children and then to stop it com-
pletely at 14. In doing that, education was arrested
at the time when it was becoming most fruitful, and
involved a great waste of national intelligence and
national physique.

Industrial prosperity depended largely upon the
energy and intelligence of the people engaged in it.

Continued education would be an advantage, and in
the interests of the children and the community we
should make for ourselves an industrial population
more efficient in the industrial sense, and better
citizens.

The problem was to produce a sufficient number of
persons for each of the different grades of employ-
ment, a number sufficient to meet not only the
demand, but also the needs of the industry. Persons
engaged in mining might be divided into two prin-
cipal classes: manual workers and thinkers. How
best to train the future workman, and how best to

train the future members of the staff in the control
of the industry, were each problems of the first
importance.

Workmen.

The system of education for the workman should
inculcate habits of accurate observation and logical
reasoning, draw out his personality, stimulate his
imagination, quicken his power of enthusiasm, foster
his self-reliance, and, generally speaking, build up
his character; in short, it should aim at making him
a good citizen, satisfied with the work on which he
was spending his life, and sufficiently informed con-
cerning economic and social problems to take an
intelligent part in national affairs.

His principal education would be obtained at a public
elementary school. On reaching the seventh standard
and commencing work at 14, he should continue his
attendance at continuation classes under the new Edu-
cation Act until 16, for which the necessary facilities
should be provided, taking in those two years pre-
liminary technical courses 1 and 2, comprising
English, experimental science (mechanics and
physics), practical mathematics and practical draw-
ing, the function of the practical work being to
stimulate the boy’s interest in his future occupation.

Officials.

Considering next the training of the official class,
one would need at once to distinguish between the
future official who was rising from the practical side
and the one who was coming in direct from school,
and the speaker would first deal with the rising
workman.

In other branches of engineering, institutions were
free to make such regulations as to education as they
deemed best, but in coal mines regard must always
be had to the provision of the Coal Mines Acts
respecting firemen, under-managers’, managers’ and
surveyors’ certificates, not only with regard to the
subjects for examination and the standard to be
attained, but also with regard to the period and kind
of practical work which was an essential qualification
for candidates for those certificates.

Firemen.

The workman desiring to become a fireman would
begin to specialise, and while attending his daily
work would take at local mining classes the first and
second years’ mining courses, comprising practical
mathematics, mining drawing, mining science
(chemistry and physics of mining), air measure-
ments, gas testing, and the writing of reports, passing
the Home Office examination for the fireman’s cer-
tificate at 25 years of age. There were 16 centres in
Lancashire at which classes were held to prepare
candidates for this examination: Ashton-in-Maker-
field,, Chorley, Denton, Farnworth, Haydock, Leigh,
Oswaldtwistle, Skelmersdale, Tyldesley, Walkden,
Waterfoot, Westhoughton, Burnley, St. Helens,
Wigan, and Manchester.

Under-Managers.

Promising practical mining students desiring to go
forward and become under-managers would, while
still attending their daily work, take at the local
mining classes the 3rd and 4th years’ mining courses,
comprising mining mathematics, engineering and
mining drawing, mining science (chemistry and
physics of mining), elementary geology and mine sur-
veying, ventilation and lighting, passing the Home
Office examination for the second class certificate of
competency as an under-manager at 23 years of age.
There were nine centres in the county at which classes
were held to prepare candidates for that examination :
Farnworth, Leigh, Tyldesley, Walkden, Waterfoot,
Burnley, St. Helens, Wigan, and Manchester.

Managers.

Students desiring to go forward and become
managers would, while still attending their daily
work, take, either at the local mining classes (where
facilities were offered) or at the district mining
colleges, the fifth year’s mining course, comprising
mining (engineering science, mechanics and heat
engines) and electricity, mine working, practical mine
surveying and levelling, mining equipment (including
sinking, power generation and transmission), geology
and mining law, passing the Home office examination
for the first class certificate of competency as a
colliery manager at 23 years of age. There were seven
centres in the county at which classes were held to
prepare candidates for that examination: Leigh,
Tyldesley, Walkden, Burnley, St. Helens, Wigan, and
Manchester.

The county and local authorities should encourage
their most promising students to go forward from the
local classes to higher studies at the district colleges,
paying fares and fees for at least a certain number.

The scholarships offered by the local education
authorities and other bodies should also be increased
in number and value until it would no longer be
possible for a boy to be prevented by financial reasons
from receiving a university training. It should be
made clear to all that there was no position to which
a capable student might not aspire.