_Reform of Apprenticeship._--To-day much thought is given to the question of the reform of apprenticeship, which indeed stands greatly in need of reform. The technical education of the present day is extremely defective. The smaller employers are unable to give proper instruction, because they lack both time and capacity. The training of the apprentices in the larger factories is also scrappy, because the division of labour is of such a kind that none of the employees have time to give to the instruction of apprentices, and these latter therefore receive no more than a partial technical education. Moreover, the owners of the larger factories are unwilling to receive apprentices, because, if they do this, their factories are subjected to a number of additional inconvenient regulations. The apprentice no longer belongs, as in former times, to the master’s family, and no longer receives his education there; indeed, many masters do not even provide board and lodging for their apprentices, and in that case the latter are apt to be greatly neglected. It is obvious that great stress must be laid upon the technical education of apprentices. But no importance can be attached to the argument that through a proper education of the apprentices an improvement would be effected in the conditions of the lesser industries. What is necessary is that the State should provide technical schools, and itself undertake in these the education of apprentices. In some countries quite a number of such technical schools have been founded, but, owing to the great cost of these schools, the complete abolition of the system of the nominal instruction of apprentices at the hands of their masters is not at present to be expected. Homes of technical instruction for girls are also greatly needed, and do already exist in many places. But such homes must on no account be under the management of the Church, nor must they be dominated in any degree by the so-called religious spirit. Their sole object is to provide for these learners board and lodging on the same scale as they would have if they were in service, and to provide them with opportunities of seeking employment during their free time. A further crying need is the organisation, not of apprentices only, but of the younger workmen and workwomen generally. The organisation of the workers is the most effective means for the prevention of their ill-treatment at the hands of their employers.