[Illustration: Approximate size of the German Empire.
NOTE.--The population of that part of the United States included
within the circle is about 10,000,000. The population of the German
Empire is about 52,000,000.]
Germany's prosperity and progress cannot wholly be measured by
statistics. No one can predict what it will be, for it is partly
based upon elements that unfortunately other countries have not
taken much account of. Germany pays greater attention to the
PRACTICAL EDUCATION of her people than any other nation in the
world. Her system of technical education extends over the whole
empire, and provides technical instruction for every class of the
people and for every occupation of the people--night schools for
those already engaged in life's work, agricultural schools, forestry
schools, commercial schools, mining schools, naval schools, and
schools in every branch of manufacturing industry, besides, of
course, schools for the education of those intending to follow the
learned professions. As a consequence of this very general provision
of technical education, there is engaged in German manufacturing
pursuits a class of workmen not found in the workshops of any other
country--men of industrial skill and experience, and at the same
time of the highest scientific technical attainments in the branches
of science that bear particularly upon their work. These men work at
salaries that in other countries would be considered absurdly low.
In almost all other countries the possession of a sound scientific
education is a passport to social distinction, and every profession
is open to him who is deserving to enter it. In Germany, however,
the learned professions, and especially the official positions of
the army and navy, are almost the exclusive preserves of those who
are born to social rank. The educated commoner, therefore, has to
betake himself to manufacture, trade, or commerce. It follows that
scientific skill and intelligence are more generally diffused in
German commercial industries than in those of all other nations. So
far, however, the German artisan has not been the equal in special
technical skill of his more rigidly specialised English competitor,
and as a consequence of this more than one sixth of Germany's total
imports consist of goods brought from England--principally the finer
sort of textile fabrics and articles of iron and steel. This
inferiority in specialisation in the German workmen cannot continue
long, and the successful rivalry of Germany with the manufacturing
pre-eminence of Great Britain may soon be a startling fact.