Evening star., 1935-12-22
BY THE RIGHT HON. H. B.
LESS-SMITH,

ton Of Great Britain.
FEW months ago the annual
" examinations were held in
| a England for the highest po-
\ sitions in the civil service.
These positions for centuries have
been strictly confined to boys edu-
Gated in the small ring Of famous
and expensive public" schools such
as Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Rugby
and Westminster.
But this year the public-school boys
received a shock. They were beaten
by the poor boys from the statesup-
ported schools, who won four-fifths Of
the positions. AS a result. the boys
from the public schools find them
selves driven out Of what they have
always regarded as their exclusive
preserves.
This marks the climax of a silent
revolution, the story of which takes
us deep into the foundations of Eng
liSh social life.
U. S. and English Systems Differ.
One of the fundamental divergences
| DCl"GEIl lIlc oOCldl oJ1 uCLUlE Va Gl4S
land and the United States arises
from their different educational sys-
TENS. In America most children go,
without distinction of wealth or class,
to the same schools, and the majority
stay at school until they are 16 years
of age. In England the historic di-
vision between an upper and lower
social class still persists. The aris-
tocracy and the higher professional
classes send their boys to one Of the
| small ring of established public"
| schools, of which there are not more
than about 20. The children of the
working class go to state-supported
schools, which the greater number of
them leave when they are IA years old.
| Those who live differently think
differently" England is formed into
two nations. the wearers of the old
school tie" and the rest. All the most
responsible positions in politics. the
| bar, the church, the army and navy
the civil service, the universities and
the learned professions for generations
have been held by boys from the
! charmed circle of the public schools.
! They recognize each other by in
definable mannerisms. tones of voice
: and turns of language and a certain
effortless superiority which they all
possess. An acute Labor leader OBJ
served to me the other day, They
are all whacking great trade union" :"
He was quite right. By an uncon-
! scious free-masonry they have Kept
the governing positions in the British
Empire exclusively for each other.
Baldwin Helped Breach.
The breach in this caste system
was made unwittingly by the most
conservative of all recent British
statesmen, the late Lord Balfour, him
self the supreme embodiment Of the
Eton type. In his education act Of
1902 he included a clause enabling
state funds 70 be spent on providing
free education for clever, selected
children up to the age of 16 years.
He himself did not realize where this
would eventually lead. But social re-
formers seized upon it. and during the
last generation they have persistently
established more and more schools
for extending education to able work
ing class children up to the age of
| Is or 1S years.
These state-supported schools are
called secondary schools. AS they
have state funds behind them their
masters are highly qualified. They
] xfrol1 Maid oT0d fhafr
is as good as at the great public
schools 1t is not surprising that the
thrusting. ambitious boys from the
working class should now be showing
! that in any position dependent upon
a competitive examination they can
push aside many of those who have
led less strenuous lives at public
! schools.
The first effect has been shown at
the universities. All the provincial
universities of England, such as Man
chester, Liverpool and Sheffield, are
made up entirely of secondary-school
boys. Even at oxford and Cambridge,
the last stronghold of the public
schools, almost half the undergrad
uates are now maintained by public
funds of one kind or another.
One consequence of this is that an
increasing number of parents who a
generation ago would have sent their
children to the public schools are now
sending them to secondary schools.
Sending a boy to a public school
would cost the parents at least $4,000
more, and many Of them are begin
ming to prefer to keep that money in
their pockets.
This movement is strengthened by
the increasing difficulty of finding
good preparatory" schools. Children
enter secondary schools at the age of
II; but they cannot go to a public
school until they are IA, and have to
spend the preceding years at a pre-
paratory school,
Preparatory schools have special
danger of their own. There are 10000
Of them, and it is exceedingly difficult
for parents to select between them,
for they have no established tradi-
tions, as the public schools have, and
vary every few years as headmasters
and staff come and go.