FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 19 



together with her industrial education, has brought prosperity to Ger- 

 many. Her manufacturing progress has gone hand in hand with her 

 national progress. Not only has she made marked progress in recent years 

 in her railroads, ship building and steel working, but in the buildings, 

 order and general amenities of life of her great cities such as Berlin, 

 Frankenmuth and Cologne. 



England, the "Mistress of the Seas," has been steadily losing ground in 

 her foreign trade during the last quarter of a century. In 1870 she did 

 one-quarter of the world's commerce, and including her colonies, 35 per 

 cent; but twenty-five years later, in "95, her share had fallen to 18 per 

 cent, or including her colonies, 31 per cent. During the same time her 

 exports increased but 131/2 per cent, while those of Germany increased 

 42 per cent, and the exports from the United States increased 110 per cent, 

 showing that during the last one-third of a century England's commercial 

 advancement has not kept pace with that of other nations. This fact 

 was discovered by some far-sighted Englishman about twenty years ago, 

 and in true English style a parliamentary investigation was undertaken 

 which showed that both Germany and the United States had encroached 

 largely on the field of commerce formerly held by Great Britain. Two 

 causes were assigned for this loss of trade, — the Americans were given 

 credit for superior natural inventiveness, but the Germans' rapid rise was 

 attributed to the training given their artisans in their technical schools. 

 England must observe with regret how certain branches of industry have 

 almost altogether abandoned her country and gone to those which have 

 paid more attention to technical education. Nearly every requirement of a 

 drawing office can be better and more economically obtained in Germany 

 than in England. Our pure chemicals, our filter paper, and most of our 

 glass apparatus come from Germany. There is also where we go when we 

 require any original or special piece of ajiparatus. The British mechanic 

 is second to none as a workman, but he does not have the theoretic and 

 technical knowledge necessary to place him on the same plane with the 

 German artisan. This is why Germany is pressing England so closely in 

 all lines of manufacture from steel to watches, — from marine engines to 

 scientific apparatus. But England has awakened. In 1882 she had but 

 1,402 schools giving technical instruction to 08,000 students, but in '95 

 both the number of schools and number of pupils had more than doubled. 

 Manchester has erected a technical school costing .$050,000 in which more 

 than 4,000 students now receive instruction. As much of this instruction 

 is given in the evening, the economic results have not been as marked as 

 in cities where students are given extended courses. Yet the industries 

 in and about Manchester have received, it is conceded, a great impetus 

 from the instruction given in this school. The Central Polytechnic School 

 in London is doing a great work. From a little corner in which a few 

 little ragged urchins were taught to read the Bible by the uncertain 

 flicker of a candle in the neck of a beer bottle, this school has grown until 

 it now has 16,000 members. The greater part of the instruction in this 

 school is also given in the evening, and while it may make somewhat bet- 

 ter artisans, it cannot be relied upon to place the students in a position 

 to compete with other students who have taken full courses in technical 

 schools. England, however, realizes her condition. She knows that to 

 hold her supremacy as a nation she must improve the skill of her artisans, 

 and great advances may be looked for within the next few years in techni- 



