BUSINESS CYCLES 47 



of mental attitude both from place to place and from time to time. 

 England's climate is bracing, even though it is not subject to 

 extremes. In fact, for real excellence it is perhaps the best in 

 the world. One of its great advantages seems to be that from 

 year to year it does not vary enough to have much effect on the 

 nerves, and thus helps to keep England's business life more steady 

 than that of the United States. 



This leaves Germany as the only European country where 

 conditions are enough like those of the United States to furnish 

 a conclusive test. In many ways the resemblance between Ger- 

 many and the northeastern United States is surprising. In both 

 there is the same great development of manufacturing, and the 

 consequent importation of food. In Germany, far more than in 

 the other countries of Europe, the labor supply is mobile. 

 Although German immigration cannot compare with that which 

 enters the United States, every period of industrial expansion 

 brings a great wave of Poles from the east. Indeed, one of Ger- 

 many's grievances against the rest of the world has been that 

 while hard times see her own children migrating westward across 

 the sea, good times see their places filled by aliens from the east. 

 In addition to this, the effect of the German climate upon the 

 nerves is somewhat like that of our own. It is not so extreme, 

 to be sure, but it has much more effect than that of England. 



Surprising as it may seem in view of Germany's statistical 

 reputation, I have found it hard to obtain any statistics com- 

 parable with those available for the United States and England. 

 I have gone through the Statistische Jahrbuch again and again, 

 but imports and exports are the only available subjects as to 

 which uniform figures are available for a sufficiently long period. 

 Because of the recency with which Germany became a unified 

 empire, good statistics for the country as a whole are not avail- 

 able earlier than about 1875 and in most cases 1880. Even where 

 statistics are available, they are often divided into those for 

 Prussia, Bavaria, etc., for part of the years, and are given for 



