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But again, considerable light is shed on the problem
of putting our engineering graduates "through the mill,
by simply emphasising the word "through." What induce-
ment has a graduate to enter the industrial mill when he
has no visible prospect of emerging from it into an in-
teresting or remunerative career? Will four years' hard
work at the University, followed by three or four years
of dirty work in the industrial world, bring him higher
remuneration than that of a local chauffeur or superior
house boy?
Of
The plain fact is that the fundamental cause of the
"white collar menace" is to be found in the shameless
wages hitherto offered to technically qualified men.
what avail are the familiar jibes against "white collar
men" (made by critics who are themselves usually just
successful exponents of "white collar" philosophy), when
superior qualifications, arduously acquired, receive such
scant recognition and reward?
It is a sinister confession of the Singapore Committee
(See G.R. Para. 30) that they see no prospects for tech-
nical education in Malaya, (even when no fees are charged!)
"until the struggle for existence grows more acute."
Equally sinister are the complaints of some local
authorities, quoted in G.R. Para. 71, that all workers
who, by acquiring a few scraps of general education, can
escape from industrial thraldom into the freer air of
clerking, store-keeping, or domestic service, make haste
to do so. How very low must the Building Trade in Hong
Kong be when a little reduction of illiteracy raises the
workers above it! (G.R. Para. 94).
We commend to employers who are thus perplexed a
reading of the books of Henry Ford.
P.T.0.
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