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tobacco, powder, clocks, gloves, porcelain, and every other article of manufacture in France which has claims to any importance.

There are many industrial schools in France which are worthy of special attention. This is true of the one in Cluses, Savoy, which was established in 1863 for the clock and watch industry. It admits pupils between the ages of 14 and 20, but every candidate must have a good elementary education. The aim of the school is to train up practical workmen for the watch and clock industry of that district. There is also an advanced course for those who wish to become manufacturers in this branch.

The industrial textile schools in France are numerous, but they have not all attained the same degree of efficiency. These schools may be divided into two classes, namely, those which serve the interests of the textile industry in general and those which serve only the interests of some specific textile branch in some particular locality. When Alsace belonged to France the industrial textile school in Mülhausen was considered a model of its kind. When Alsace was ceded to Germany in 1871 the French Government established in Epinal and Rouen two industrial textile schools, which to-day are superior to the one in Mülhausen. These two schools may be considered as belonging to that division of French industrial schools which serve the interests of the textile industry in general. The course of study at Rouen lasts three years, and the curriculum is as follows:

First year.-Mathematics, physics, chemistry, English, and practical work in laboratories.

Second year.-Weaving, spinning, raw materials, German, and drawing.

Third year.-Applied mechanics, dyeing, art of making samples, Italian, and machine construction.

Similar schools have been founded by the Government in Lille, Roubaix, and Lyon. The city of Roubaix gave the lot, library, and furniture, while the State erected the building. Both city and State support the school with annual subventions. In all the industrial schools of France great stress is laid upon practical instruction in workshops. These workshops or laboratories, as the case may be, are the counterparts of machine shops and factories, so that the pupil on leaving the school may enter the ranks of the industrial army of France trained and ready for active work in the various branches of industry.

EIBENSTOCK, GERMANY, August 13, 1903.

ERNEST L. HARRIS,
Commercial Agent.

MR. MOSELEY'S INDUSTRIAL INQUIRY, a

(Translated from a paper published by the Union of Metal and Mine Workers of France, dated August 12, 1903.)

Limiting our analysis of the work of the commission to its general conclusions, we omit, with that object in view, the replies made to the various questions and lay stress on the information which permits us to complete the first impressions obtained.

INSTRUCTION OF YOUTHFUL EMPLOYEES.

The opinion of the commission seems to be unanimous in regard to the value of the instruction given to the youthful employees in the United States compared with what is given to the same class in Great Britain and Ireland. All the delegates were impressed by the degree of general instruction received by the young people in

a Apropos of Moseley's second commission, composed of educators and scientific experts, which recently visited the United States for the purpose of studying at first hand the forces and factors underlying America's success, the following statement of the conclusions of the former commission is just now of special interest.

American industrial concerns and by the facilities afforded—unknown in England— to obtain a secondary or even a higher education.

"My opinion is," says the delegate of the Manchester spinners, "that the young American is better equipped than the young Englishman for the battle of life by the preliminary education which he receives. The children of American workmen stay

at school till they are 14, 15, or 16 years old, and in the latter years of their school life they acquire just such knowledge as fits them from their very entrance into industrial life to be useful to themselves and to their country. The children of the English working class leave school too soon.”

The delegate of the tailors says: "The American school system is very much better than ours. In certain States the boys and girls are able to pass from the kindergarten to the higher schools without costing a dollar to their parents. In many States the frequentation of the universities even is gratuitous. England is a quarter of a century behind the age, and each year augments the difference." The delegate of the bookbinders confirms that judgment, for he says: "The system of education appears to be very well adapted to the wants of the nation. The ambition of a great number of workmen is to see their sons attain a fine position. This ambition is encouraged and aided by the facilities offered to the child who has a taste for study.” "That ambition is so much the easier to understand," says the iron and steel delegate, "when one knows that the wages of the parents are much higher than in England. The wages of the little ones are not needed in the family." He cites a fact from the census of 1900 to show that the metal trades at that time did not employ more than 1,901 children under 16 years of age. Another delegate, visiting an ordinary school, found that fully 50 per cent of the children remain there till their fifteenth year (the law compels them to stay till they are 14), and as many as 25 per cent of the children stay till they are 16 years old.

The delegate of the tailors says further: "At home [in England] the poverty of the parents is responsible for the ignorance of the children. In America the poverty of the father is an added reason for the child to receive the best education the nation can give. The American nation is so impregnated with this point of view that I have heard employers express a certain repugnance to employ any child before its eighteenth year."

This, then, is the general instruction given to the children of the working classes. But when the delegates came to study the system of professional education and apprenticeship in the United States they generally gave the preference to their own country. It is, for example, the opinion of the delegate of the parliamentary committee of the trades unions that England leads in these lines. It seems to him that in America the professional schools serve the youth of the middle classes-young men destined to direct industrial establishments later-rather than the children of the working classes. He thinks that in this respect the position of the poor is better in England than in the United States. "The apprentice system," he says, "if it ever existed in the United States, is in a fair way to disappear. In the language of Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, the subdivision of work, resulting from the introduction of machinery, has killed apprenticeship. Today it is necessary to get skilled labor in Europe, particularly in England." The delegate of the machinists and those of the shipbuilders are also of the opinion that the English system of apprenticeships is the best.

The delegates of the bricklayers and of the plasterers say that professionally England is ahead of the United States. The delegate of the Sheffield cutlers (workingmen) also notes the lack of advantages enjoyed by apprentices in America. "The employers find," he says, "that the apprentices produce more weariness of spirit than they render services. The child leaving the school wants to earn money, and much of it, as soon as possible. Besides, the division of labor is so great that the European long term of apprenticeship is more rarely useful in the United States than in Europe."

THE WORK DONE BY MACHINERY.

The development of machines and its extremely judicious utilization struck the delegates very forcibly. It appeared to them as one of the essential causes of the superiority of the United States in certain branches of industry. "The head of an American concern, or undertaking," said in substance one of the delegates of the machinists, "is endowed with a remarkable spirit of initiating; he is always ready to introduce into his establishment the very latest and most perfect machines. This spirit of initiating is, besides, a characteristic of the nation." The delegate of the printers said that at Chicago, as well as elsewhere, there is a feverish rivalry among the printers in incessant changing of their machines. Often one has hardly been adopted before it is rejected to make place for another just invented or perfected.

Again, everyone is trying to reduce the manual labor to a minimum. "Everything that tends to reduce it," said the delegate of the leather industry, "is eagerly adopted." One can say the same of every industry. The search for processes to reduce the number of hands employed and yet keep up the amount produced, or even to increase it, is the constant effort of every American employer. The specialization of machines has attained such a degree that the delegates could not suppress their surprise; and yet, according to the delegates of the shipyards and of the textile industries, England is as well equipped in those lines as is the United States. The introduction of new machines and the degree of perfection secured in the equipment do not arouse any opposition on the part of the American workman; oftentimes they are received with favor. The work really becomes less troublesome and the former wages are never reduced-sometimes they are increased, and when not, the workman knows that they will be later. Here is what the typographical delegate has to say on this matter:

"I have spoken with the members and with the leaders of the Typographical Union of Chicago on the question of the machine and the results of its introduction into the trade. They were unanimously of the opinion that while at first the effect was disastrous to labor, the later results were higher wages and fewer hours of labor. Books have come down in price and the newspapers have increased in size; they all employ as many hands as ever.”

Besides, the laborers partici¡ ate in the improvement of the machines upon which they work. Employers encourage them to make improvements by compensating them liberally for inventions. Mr. Moseley goes into this matter to some extent in his report. "In many establishments," he says, "a box is set up somewhere into which ideas, plans, projects, etc., of the employees are thrown, the employers asking that this be done by means of a little placard. Suggestions as to improvement of machinery and as to improvements in administering the works are wanted, asked for, and often received. The contents of the box are examined regularly and many of the ideas suggested are tried. If they are adopted for good the inventor or party making the suggestion is rewarded, sometimes by a portion of the accruing profit or by an advance in position. Precautions are taken to preclude the possibility of anyone suffering from the jealousy of other employees or of the bosses."

THE PRISON POPULATION OF JAPAN.

An interesting return was recently published in the Official Gazette giving the number of persons confined in the various prisons of the Empire at the end of June last. From these statistics it appears that the number of prisoners of all descriptions was, on the date given, 61,967, as against 60,393 on the corresponding date last year, an increase of 1,574. It would be interesting to learn what is the cause of the increase this year. For some years past the prison population of Japan has shown a very

satisfactory inclination to decline. Thus, in 1895, the population of the prisons on the 31st of December was 77,551. By the same date, in 1896, it had declined to 75,423. There was a still more substantial decline in the following year, when the figures were 70,784. Next year (1898) there was a rise to 72,542, and in 1899 a very decided fall to 60,960. In 1900 the number of persons detained in prison on the 31st of December was 60,960, and, as stated above, the number on June 30, 1902, was 60,393, and on the same date this year, 61,967. It is interesting incidentally to note the reason for the remarkable diminution in the number of persons confined in Japanese prisons which took place between the end of 1898 and the end of 1899. It will be remembered that 1899 was the year that the new treaties came into force, and at first sight the superficial generalizer might come to the conclusion that the throwing open of the country had a depressing influence on the criminal industry. This was not exactly the case, and yet there can be no doubt that the new treaties have had an indirect influence on Japan's prison population. It will be remembered that for some months before the treaties actually came into operation a vigorous criticism was maintained with regard to the disinclination of Japanese judges to grant bail. As we pointed out, the defect was not so much in the law as in the custom of the courts, and we urged that there were very many cases where accused persons were detained in prison on very flimsy evidence who ought properly, under the law, to have been set free on such terms as to bail as the courts believed would prevent any miscarriage of justice. Those criticisms were passed with special reference to foreigners coming under Japanese law, but, as we pointed out at the time, any amelioration obtained in the working of the law would be as much, if not more, to the advantage of the Japanese as to that of foreigners newly brought within the domain of Japanese jurisprudence. Our prediction has, we find, been justified by results. The number of unconvicted persons who were actually detained in Japanese prisons on December 31, 1897-which, of course, was only a small proportion of those who had been detained for a greater or less number of days during the year—was 10,927. On the same date in the next year-the year preceding that on which the new treaties came into operation-the number was 9,907. On December 31, 1899-five months after extraterritoriality had been in full force, and with time for the foreign criticism to have had effect in an instruction from the judicial department to the judges on the matter of bail-on that date the number of suspects detained in prison had fallen to 7,207, a decline of 2,700, or more than 25 per cent. The total decrease in the number of prisoners on the specified date as compared with 1898 was, however, close on 12,000, and, in examining into the reason for this, we find that the diminution appears to have been caused by a reduction in the number of arrests for minor offenses. That also was a matter to which foreign criticism was strongly directed at one time, and the remarks made appear to have had their effect with the authorities who, in Japan more, perhaps, than in most countries, have an open mind on public questions and show themselves always willing to listen to reasonable criticism.

The reason for the increase of the number of prisoners in June last, as compared with the corresponding period last year, is not easy to discover, as the statistics given in the Official Gazette are very meager. The number of suspects remains about the same as on the last day of December, in 1899, being 7,143 in June last against 7,207 on the former date. Possibly the cause of the increase may be found in the activity which the authorities have displayed of late in the matter of offenses against the law of bribery. However, it is satisfactory to note that there has been a progressive diminution in crime during the last few years. In 1894 the number of convictions was 185,825; in 1896, 169,864; in 1898, 167,508, and in 1900, 131,200. What is less satisfactory is that the proportion of serious crimes does not seem to diminish so rapidly, being 2,999 in 1894, 3,039 in 1898, and 2,675 in 1900. However, there is a decrease, though the figures show curious fluctuations. On the

whole, Japan's criminal statistics afford satisfactory indications of progress, not only In the reduction of criminality, but in a more complete appreciation of the rights of individuals by the judiciary.

KOBE, JAPAN, September 3, 1903.

SAMUEL S. LYON, Consul.

THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE AND OF PRUSSIA.

The latest volume of the Statistical Yearbook for the German Empire contains for the first time statistics with reference to the condition of the public schools in the German Empire and the various States of the federation, which may be also of interest to Americans.

Only the figures for the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin are lacking. Without these it is shown that in 1901 there were in Germany 58,164 public schools, with 122,145 male and 22,339 female teachers. The number of pupils was 8,829,812. To these must be added 614 private schools of the same character as the public schools, with 39,799 pupils. If similar conditions prevail in Mecklenburg-Schwerin as in Mecklenburg-Strelitz, which is likely, the number of public schools will be 60,000 in round numbers, with about nine millions of pupils.

As the census of December 1, 1900, showed that the total number of children of school age was 9,800,000 in Germany, more than nine-tenths of these receive their education in the public schools. The expense for the maintenance of these public schools was 412,886,000 marks, 120,357,000 marks of this sum being contributed by the State. The average expense of one pupil was 47 marks per year, and the average of pupils for one teacher was 61. In these latter figures, however, a great difference exists in the various German federal States. In 14 of these, including Alsace-Lorraine, they are below the average. The most favorable showing is made by Lubeck, with only 34 pupils for one teacher; next comes Hamburg with 38, Mecklenburg-Strelitz with 42, Alsace-Lorraine with 43 pupils. In five of the federal States the number of pupils for one teacher is little above the average, as for instance in Prussia, where the number is 63. The total average would still be more favorable if it were not raised by the principalities of Schaumburg-Lippe with 99, and Lippe with 92 pupils. In these two States, however, the average cost per pupil is the lowest also, being 25 marks per year in Lippe and 28 marks in Lippe-Schaumburg, much below the average of 47 marks for the whole Empire. Seven federal States exceed this average, among which is Prussia, with 48 marks per pupil. Of all the principalities Bremen is the highest, with 77 marks; Hamburg next, with 74 marks. In the city of Berlin, however, it is 95 marks.

Of the 614 private schools of the character of public schools, 315 with 12,964 pupils are in Prussia. Hamburg has 80 of such private schools with 13,207 pupils; AlsaceLorraine 77 with 3,395 pupils, and Saxony 58 with 4,775 pupils. No such private schools existed in Hesse, Brunswick, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Altenburg, SchwarzburgRudolstadt, Waldeck, the two Reusses, and Lubeck.

Prussia in 1901 had 36,756 public schools, with 76,342 male and 13,866 female teachers. The number of pupils was 5,570,870. The cost of maintenance was 269,917,000 marks, of which sum the State contributed 73,066,000 marks. As stated before, the average is 63 pupils for one teacher, being a little less favorable than that for the whole Empire, which is accounted for by conditions in Posen, Silesia, and Westphalia, where the average is from 70 to 74 pupils for one teacher. In some districts, especially in the rural ones of Posen, the showing is still worse-86 pupils per teacher; next comes the district of Minden, Westphalia, with 82. The most favorable conditions existed in the city of Berlin, where nearly all the children of

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