New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-08-17

facturers, with stock Of practical experience
which has been steadily accommodating since
boyhood The merchants follow the example Of
the manufacturers and the clerks adopt the
same policy. They specialize the education OF
their boys with view TO a future career The
young men intended for mercar tile life have a
preliminary training in. various languages and
commercial studies and they are tten appren-
ticed for a while in Hamburg or Bremen as
clerks, and finally sent abroad to foreign mar
kets. where secrets Of trade are to be learned
and practical experience Is to be acquired. 1t
is a system OF mercantile education which is
developing German commerce with every quar-
ter of the world. The German merchant to-
day is a better trader than the Englishman, be-
cause he has a superior training for the career
which he selected in his youth, and which he
has followed with unhagging patience and un-
ceasing energy.
FRUGAL CAPITALISTS.
To commercial and technical education is
added economy in the management Of capital
and resources. The manufacturers Of Chem
nitz are wealthy men, but they live with sim
plicity and frugality. In the centre OF the town
there is large restaurant where a choice
brand Of beer is sold. Here the millionaires OF
the town assemble every night and smoke and
represented at once in that saloon. 1t is their
only recreation, for there are no theatres worthy
of the name: there is no opera and of social
life there is little indeed They live tn modest
dwellings,, have few servants seldom make for
eign journeys except on business errands, and
dress quietly. Manufacturers whose living
penses are economically conducted are natu-
rally satisfied with moderate profits from their
business and these are not shared with stock
holders in annual dividends. for. with com
paratively few exceptions, the factories are
owned by families and not managed by stock
companies. The tendency Of competition for
the home and foreign trade is in the direction
of consolidation Of rival factories By purchase
or pooling, and the number of stock companies
has increased in Chemntz during recent years;
but throughout Saxony and Germany manu-
featuring is still carried on. as rule, by fami-
lies and the business is handed down from
fathers TO This system insures economy
of management and a narrow margin Of profit
in business transactions. In this respect Ger
man manufacturers are IN a favorable position
for competing with another for foreign
trade and for the control Of the homs market.
Chemnitz was greatly damaged by the Nc
Kinley tariff which cut down its trade with the
United States considerably more than one-half;
and IL has not reganed under the wilson law
what II lost under a measure which. was d.
recty aimed against foreign importations OF
hosiery and underwear; but It owes large
portion of its prosperity, as every manufact-
urer frankly comedies, to the adoption in 1873
Of the principle of protecting the home market
against foreign manufactures. With help from
other towns In SaxCny, Chemnitz from that
year has supplied Germany with hosiery. un-
derwear and gloves; and ii has steadily IN
creased its foreign trade until its manufactures
are now sold all over the world. II is one OF
the busiest centres Of industry in the Empire,
and It IS surrounded with prosperous agri-
cultural region in which every farmers house
is a weaver's or a glover's home. Techncal
edu-t ton commercial training. economy In the
use Of capital, and other influences, may be
assigned for the wonderful development OF It's
industrial fortunes; but Protection is also so
self-evident cause as TO require no other
demonstration than the statistics quoted by
Lord Rosebery. namely. that between 1919 ana
1893 the imports of German manufactured
goods into Great Britain rose from f1663O,ooo
10 f21 $4,000, an increase Of nearly 30 per
l. ~. 4