EXPOSITION OF 1867. 397 
plan and execute measures for improving the condition of the 
laboring classes of the people. 
Better and cheaper food, clothing and shelter, greater intelli¬ 
gence, higher virtue and nobleness of life—these are the pri¬ 
mary and essential needs of the laborer in all countries, and it 
was to help him somewhat in his struggle for these that Oroup 
X was instituted. 
The objects embraced were numerous, and attracted great 
attention. In classes 89 and 90—thanks to the patriotism, en- . 
terprise, and energy of prominent citizens of Illinois^ of 
whom U. S. Commissioner James H. Bowen, of Chicago, was 
chief—America was very creditably represented; first, by a 
neat, well finished, and handsomely furnished village, or cross¬ 
roads school-house, sufficient in size to accommodate some 
thirty to forty pupils; and, secondly, by a pleasant-appearing, 
well constructed, and commodious “Western Farmers’Home.” 
These buildings were framed in Chicago, shipped to Paris with 
everything, except plaster, requisite to completion, and set up 
in the Park, where they were visited and intelligently exam¬ 
ined by thousands and tens of thousands of the people of the 
Old World. Other nations were also represented in like man¬ 
ner ; so that without travel beyond the confines of the Expo¬ 
sition Park, the student of political economies and of social 
conditions would be able to make fair comparisons. 
In the general comfort and independence found among the 
people of the United States, without regard to class, we are 
able to teach the nations; but in matters of education, not¬ 
withstanding our noted conceit on that point, we have very 
much more to learn than to teach. This is especially true in 
the great and important department of technical education, 
embracing schools for instruction in the applications of science 
to the practical arts. This country is the most natural home 
of schools of that class, and yet in respect of them we are far 
behind Prussia and all the German states, Switzerland, France, 
and even Austria; in all of which countries they have ex¬ 
erted, and are exerting, a powerful influence for good. 
The social condition of the whole world has made more 
