do the same. Moreover, the 'baas,' or chief, does not like them to 'waste
their time' in that manner, and the 'baas' is the dispenser of their
bread-and-butter; so the boy is, as a rule, regarded merely as a nuisance.

There are workshops, first-class workshops, too, where no apprentices have
been admitted for dozens of years, simply because the employers do not see
their way to make an efficient agreement with the boys or their parents
which would prevent them from letting a competitor enjoy the results of
their technical instruction. One would not be astonished that in these
circumstances all over Holland the want of technical schools is badly
felt, and that agitation for their provision is active. Only some
twenty-four such schools exist at present; the oldest, that at Amsterdam,
dates from 1861, and the youngest, that of Nymegen, was established in
1900. Partly municipal schools, partly schools built by the private effort
of citizens, they all do their work well. It is only during the last few
years that the nation has begun to ask whether technical education ought
not to be taken up by the State. The Dutch like private enterprise in
everything, and are always inclined to prefer it to State or municipal
action; but they have come to recognize that technical schools may be good
schools, and may do good work on behalf of the much-needed improvement of
handicraft, even though not private ventures, and that so far this branch
of national education has not kept up with the times.

The idea which will probably in the end gain the day, is that the
Technical Schools should be managed by the town councils and subsidized by
the State, who in return would receive the right of supervision and
inspection, and of laying down general rules for their curricula. For the
present, however, there is no law settling the question, and the
apprentices are the sufferers by the lack, since the employers shrink from
employing their means, time, and knowledge on behalf of unscrupulous