The "cottage Industries" of Germany and Austria.

It remains to allude to the researches made by a subcommission, consisting of Messrs. Magnus and Woodall, among the schools for fostering what are called "cottage industries." These are most numerous in the Black Forest and in the South Austrian provinces. In the little villages such industries as clockmaking, straw plaiting, wood carving, &c., which formerly flourished and afforded a comfortable living to the peasants, are now on the decline; the various manufactures have passed into the control of the proprietors of small factories, who employ fewer men to do the same amount of work. The effort at reform consists in establishing trade schools where modelling and drawing hold an important place and in which the young people can learn new and attractive desigus for their home-made wares, thus securing their sale. They also acquire the power of expressing their own ideas in designs, and so obtain control of their own inventions.

The same idea is brought out in the pottery business, where the excellent instruction given at the Government Art School at Carlsruhe has done much to provide improved models for the potters.

Perhaps there is no more interesting work now doing in technical page 22 education in Europe than that under the direction of Dr. Exner, one of the Austrian inspectors of schools. The zeal of the Austrian Goveminent in assisting local effort in the matter of workshop instruction is remarkable, and the results are very satisfactory. The schools thus fostered may be arranged in two categories, viz: (1) those in which a sound theoretical instruction is imparted, of which there are few; (2) those where the greater part of the time is spent in the shops, and the school work consists mainly of drawing.

The first kind do not differ essentially from other Fachschulen, except in being more largely schools and less workshops. The second are full of promise for Austrian industries.

In carrying out this new policy the great Gewerbe-Museum at Vienna¹ has been organized and put in charge of Dr. Exner, a strikingly competent and efficient man. He has started two totally distinct sorts of schools. The first sort is substantially a half-time school, in which boys from the higher common schools work half the day and study the other half, receiving instruction according to the poly technic plan as far as the time permits. The course being two years, these boys do not receive as much instruction as the polytechnic students, but they have the immense advantage of practical power in the shop, which secures them a living and adds to their value. Every stroke of work in the shops is done with reference to the sale of the articles, and no fact was mentioned oftener, or with more evident satisfaction by Dr. Exner in proof of the real excellence of the school than that they sold in the first year a thousand gulden worth of their work. It is intended to multiply these schools so that they shall provide a great variety of mechanical practice (the two now in operation being devoted wholly to wood working) and to extend the course to four years. The second line along which the Austrians are moving is in cultivating the cottage industries.

There is in Austria a marked tendency of the population to concentrate itself in large cities. The population of Vienna has grown from 800,000 to 1,200,000 within ten or twelve years, and other cities show a great increase. As this has occurred without a corresponding increase in the total population, the inference is that the growth of the cities is depopulating the villages. Inquiry into the causes of this movement has brought out the fact that the peasants of these villages have lost the market for their baskets and other wares because their Swiss and French neighbors, who have had abundant schools of industry, have devised new and more attractive forms for the same wares. The peasants of Austria were unable to compete because, through their ignorance of design, they were confined to the old and unsalable forms, and, with the fatuous haste so often seen, crowd the cities in the vain hope of bettering their lof. Dr. Exner, under the general direction of the wise and page 23 acute minister of public instruction, has started many trade-schools, especially schools for basket-weaving which is by far the most important of these household industries. Half of the day is devoted to learning new and better ways of basket-weaving, and half to drawing and modelling in clay; the result being that the pupils learn how to do the things that are now in demand and are clothed with power to design whatever forms the future may suggest. Anybody may attend these schools who chooses to come to Vienna; for there only can a museum of examples be gathered sufficiently ample to enable the minister to multiply the schools so as to provide lor other industries as well as basket-weaving. The hope is that the more intelligent young peasants will attend these schools and carry back to their villages the new ideas; this being done, a check will be put upon the tendency of people to leave the villages, because they can again be prosperous and happy where they are.

A valuable comment upon the relative merit of these two plans is made by Signor Tamanini, who founded the school at Tione for woodworking. The school is now at Riva. He says that he is opposed to the creation of simple workshops without the provision of theoretical instruction; that he has been thoroughly conversant with both kinds and nothing really lasting can be accomplished unless school and shop training go hand in hand. Experience alone can determine this. Dr. Exner cites facts of the most convincing character to show that the immediate effect of the mere trade schools has been precisely what was hoped and expected, namely, to revive drooping industries and to make new ones.

For instance, it was found that the people of Southern Tyrol were consuming olive-wood for fuel, while their neighbors in Italy were manufacturing from it numerous useful articles. A Fachschule was established at Arco about eight years ago, with shops for wood-turning and inlaying. The result is that the former master of the school, Signor C. Emert, is now proprietor of a factory where thirty work people are employed, and the olive-wood work of Arco is in great demand all over the world. Signor Emert informed the commissioners that he had an order from Boston, Mass., for 1,500 blocks of olive-wood.

In conclusion, it is well to remark that of all technical schools in Europe, those which have most powerfully affected manufactures are the ones devoted to industrial art; but none have been more prosperous or more fruitful in results than those devoted to the welfare of mechanics.

Under section E of the appendix some facts are given which cannot be easily obtained in Europe, which tend to show that the progress of technical education in the United States has not withdrawn any force from the old classical education, but has rather tended to stimulate public interest in all kinds of education.