The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-07-25
"NIADE IN GERMANY"

Even lndltenllVe readers must nave
been made aware by their newspapers
that there has come to the commercial
interests of England in recent years
much perturbation over the inroads
made upon their foreign trade by the
merchants and manufacturers of Ger
many. He must have been struck with
the frequency of the phrase made IN
Germany" which has appeared in con-
nection with these items of news He
probably obtained a more or less vague
idea that in some way there is a con-
nection between the invasion and the
phrase. The more attentive reader
knows that the connection is only ap-
parent; and that the real difficulty, the
real danger to English supremacy, lies
| behind the made in Germany" That
| phrase gets its prominence from the
only Bit of protectionism England has
| INDUCED herself in for fifty years;
! which, like protection everywhere, only
| injured In 1888 parliament enacted that
all foreign goods should bear mark
| showing their origin, a device Mr.. Nc
Kinley Incorporated in his bill two
years later All goods thereafter COM
ing from Germany bore the label made
in Germany" Re-exported to other
| countries, the buyers were notified
where the goods We're made, and
| sought out the makers, buying directly
| and saving the English middleman's
profits.
| But back of the merchandise marks
| act" lay a more potent and far-reach-
! ing process, to which the attention Of
| those among us who look upon our
| mechanic arts schools as 'fads," or
among artisans as a menace, should be
given seriously and thoughtfully. To
| them the report of Consul Monaghan,
| at Chemnitz, contained in the July is
| sue of consular reports will be very en-
| Tightening. Even our merchants and
manufacturers may read it with advan
tage. However Indifferent we may
| have been to abroad" during these
| years of our own development, the time
has come now when attention must be
paid to it and it's needs. The increase
| in our exports of manufactures attests
, this; the effort to mix the incompatibIes
of protection and reciprocity by con-
gress gives evidence of it, and the in
stallation of the Philadelphia Museum
| of Commerce as ancillary to the Ma
tional Association of Manufacturers
further corroborates this fact. The Ger
man mind, always eminently practical,
perceived some years ago that, if the
foreign commerce of that country was
to be extended, men must be educated
in it's details, and commercial schools,
largely sustained by the mercantile
interests, were started where all the
details, Of such commerce were taught
Languages oswere acquired with the
teGfiiiidreS of trade. and the result is
that Germans are 81. in every mart,
T.! familiar with the language, the needs,
the habits and customs, drumming"
for German goods.
But if men should be trained to sell,
should be trained to make. The result
is given in the report referred to. The
state of Prussia devotes $500, 900 to the
support of technical education, aiding
the municipalities. Aside from this it
maintains six schools where instruction
is given in construction of machines,
in bronze work, in steel and ironmong-
cry, in navigation, in pottery and
glass. The state institutions are but
small part. The heads Of manufac-
turing concerns maintain these schools
by voluntary subscription. Prussia has
248 such schools. Thirty-two Of them
are for painters and decorators, nine
for shoemakers, sixteen for tailors,
twenty for bakers, six for butchers,
twenty-siX for smiths, and so on
through the minor industries Each
trade has it's school, where theory and
practice go hand in hand. Berlin dis
burses $4,000 a year on it's technical
schools; the Grand Duchy of Baden,
with a total population of 1900 900,
spends annually $33O,OOO for this pur-
pose. The Grand Duchy- of Hesse