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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 85

Societies as Teaching Bodies

Societies as Teaching Bodies.

For the technical education of workmen, outside of the workshop, the resources of continental countries have hitherto been and are still very much more limited than has been supposed in this country to be the case. In several of the more important industrial centres of the continent there exist societies such as the Sociétés industrielles of Mulhouse, Rheims, Amiens, &c.; the Société d'enseignement professionnel du Rhône, which has its headquarters at Lyons and the Niederosterreichischer Gewerbe-Verein of Austria, one of the chief objects of which is the development of technical education among workmen and other persons engaged in industry, by means of lectures and by the establishment of schools and museums of technology. These associations are supported mainly by the merchants and manufacturers of the district to which their operations are restricted. In many cases they are founded and supported or are greatly assisted by chambers of commerce. These bodies abroad being incorporated, and having in France considerable taxing powers over their members, are generally wealthier and more influential than those in our own country. In addition to these sources of income the associations receive help from the municipality and sometimes from the state. In Mulhouse, besides promoting education, the society sees to the material wellbeing of the workmen by erecting on a large scale laborers' dwellings (la cité ouvrière) and by organizing savings banks and other economic arrangements, undertaking in this respect on a smaller scale what is done in this country by self sustaining associations like building and cooperative societies of the workpeople themselves. The society in Lyons has established numerous evening classes for elementary and technical instruction, which are attended chiefly by workpeople; and the South Austrian Trade Society, which has its central office in Vienna, has organized several technical day and evening schools for operatives of every grade, which are now under state control and receive subventions from the government. But although these societies, under different names and with varied objects, are very numerous, their sphere of action is limited, and the facilities they oiler for evening instruction in science and technology are inferior to those which are at the disposal of our own workmen. No organization like that of the Science and Art Department or of the City and Guilds Institute exists in any continental country, and the absence of such organizations has been lamented by many competent persons with whom we came in contact abroad.