VILLAGE INDUSTRIES 303 



Evidently to make the work of the scattered, isolated, moneyless 

 operatives, all of them dependent — in this matter, at any rate — 

 only upon their own labour, successful, there must, as Herr von 

 Szury has insisted, be organisation. There must be organisation 

 for the purchase of such material as will have to be bought. The 

 ideal condition of course is that purchase of material should be 

 unnecessary, that whatever material in fact is required should be 

 supplied by either employers or by Nature gratis — as is the heather 

 on the common, and as was wood in earlier days. At any rate it 

 ought to be very cheap ; for workers of the class here thought 

 of carry none too much money in their purses. However, all rural 

 industry work is not done for employers ; and Nature's gifts have 

 been curtailed by advancing commerce. Both wood and straw, 

 for instance, have become more scarce than they were and now 

 command good prices. 



Next, there must be organisation for the work. Some of the 

 domestic industries carried on by country folk are highly com- 

 plicated. Some of them call for a great deal of division and sub- 

 division of labour. Such are the Swiss watch and watchcase 

 making ; the Black Forest clock making and the making of musical 

 instruments, carried on on a pretty extensive scale in Upper Bavaria, 

 which turns out a large number of violins, the most complicated 

 of musical instruments to make, as well as other instruments. In 

 these industries — and those quoted do not stand alone — every 

 little part wants to be manufactured by itself, by one set of persons, 

 as a speciality, but so as readily to fit on to other parts, in order to 

 make the joining together an easy process. This applies, among 

 other articles, also specifically to toys, such as dolls, which are 

 anatomically put together, being composed of a number of pieces. 

 All this business wants to be systematically organised. 



In the last place there is the organisation of sale — the hardest 

 nut of all those connected with the matter to crack, and therefore 

 one calling for very fit instruments to unshell the kernel unhurt. 

 Sale of the articles here spoken of is effected for the most part 

 through dealers. Independent efforts made for direct selling by 

 means of shops or stores set up have thus far proved scarcely 

 successful. I have seen the business attempted in our own country, 

 in France (at Lyons) and in Italy (at Milan). The stores so created 

 possess an interest of their own. However, the business done has 

 in no case proved considerable. We know how periodical exhibi- 

 tions act. We have had some in England. There have been others 

 in other countries, more particularly a very brilliant one, upon 



