Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1900-11-30

y
For three years the tweed industry
in the Edinburgh district of Scot
land - carried on
chiefly in Gal a.
fr"ae' shie,s, Hawick and
Selkirk-has been seriously depressed.
The depression has now reache d criti-
cal stage. In Galashiels alone a num-
Der of firms, employing between AGO
and 500 hands TN all, have gone out,
of business, and their factories are
standing idle. AS result of the bad
trade since 1897, in that town there
are nearly 500 workmen's dwellings
empty. and the population has de-
creased fully 2,0CO. The firms that are
still operating find it well-nigh impos-
sible to do business at a profit.
The causes of the present bad con-
dition of the trade are said by man
ufacturers to be Q) oyerproduction,
(2) foreign tariffs, (3) the displacement
of tweeds by flannel suitings, (D the
extreme fluctuations in the price of
wool and (5) foreign competition. The
.ast-named reason is one which the
tweed manufacturers have been COM
PEELED to recognize only within the
past year or two. Several countries
that formerly were large consumers of
Scottish goods have become consider
able producers of the same kind of
ia brio. This is particularly true of
the United States. where the home
made cloth is keeping out the foreign
article.
Some of the mill owners profess con-
fidence that there viii be a revival of
their trade in the near future, while
others regard as extremely gloomy the
outlook for an industry which has
bsen going down in time of general
prosperity.
d
For some years educationists and
business men in Scotland have been
p, giving attention TO
the subject of COM
e"'ioh /" mercial instruction
in connection with the public schools
and higher educational institutions.
In January of this year the Edinburgh
Merchant company and chamber of
commerce and the Leith chamber of
mittee the consideration of how the
present system of education should be
altered. so as TO bring it in consonance
with the needs of business men; with
power to take such action as they
might deem proper in support of the
movement for rendering commercial
instruction more efficient and extend
ed. The committee has just issued a
report. 1t is explained in the first
few pages what steps We're taken to
procure information. Forty-three wit
nesses We're examined, including prom
inent educators and representative
men of affairs, and in the course of
the Investigation the committee col
lected printed matter re.ating to the
subject, consisting of productions by
the witnesses, prospectuses, etc, of
schools, and official reports on COM
mercial education in certain conti-
mental countries and in the United
States.
The main conclusions arrived at by
the committee are, briefly:
G) That commercial subjects prop
erly so called should not be taught in
the public schools, but that the study
of arithmetic, of history and of ge-
ography should have commercial. ap-
plication; the aim of the school course
should be to give a sound general edu-
cation fitting pupils for entering on a
commercial career.
(2) The better teaching of modern
languages is also first necessity for
the improvement of commercial edu-
cation.
(S) Faculties of commerce should
be established in the universities.
#
The first estimate of the beet-sugar
crop about to be garnered from the
mo-. ~ sugar-beet fields of
the world has just