IN an address to the World Federation of Educational Associations at Dublin on “The Craftsman and the Changing World”, Mr. J. Wickham Murray gave a brilliant picture of the modern world, indicating the extent to which we have passed from a non-scientific age to a scientific age, from a manual age to an age dominated by the machine. That domination has not only affected the life of the individual, impairing, for example, his power of making a quiet judgment, but also has vast social consequences such as those frequently referred to by the term ‘technological unemployment’. Despite the new industries created by science the growth of mechanical power is continually displacing men and women. To suggest even in these conditions that a return to handicraft is required is to miss the significance of the machine age. Mr. Murray suggested that the only remedy is a courageous attempt to obtain control of the machine, believing that by its controlled development the standard of life might be indefinitely extended. Craftsmanship should not be in competition with the industrial world but in complement with it, assisting it to secure the ability to make firm, wise, far-seeing and unhurried judgments. Mr. Murray believes it should be the duty of the craftsman to inspire and teach the economic and industrial world and emphasises the kinship between art and craftsmanship. The influence of the craftsman in this way offers our civilisation its best hope of regaining the capacity for thought and judgment, and the poise of which the turmoil and superficiality and distress of the machine age tend to rob us.