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various other appliances for the popularizing of advanced industrial education. The Swiss nation exhibits a remarkably deep interest in everything that is apt to be for the public good. This is attributable to its purely democratic kind of government, which induces the citizen to participate in all public enterprises. The comparatively small yet compactly populated districts into which the cantons (or States) are divided facilitate the establishment of educational institutions which are impossible in sparsely settled countries.

To return to the question as to which of the two methods is preferable (trade schools or the old-time apprenticeship in workshops under specified supervision of masters), it should be stated that the institution in Berne, sketched in the foregoing paragraphs, approaches nearer the technical preparation in workshops than any other trade school. Generally, it may be admitted, trade schools, with scholars' shop attached, are better in large cities representing trades of far-reaching specialization, and difficult trades that need an unusual amount of theoretical education and special preparation, i. e., better than the old-time apprenticeship. On the other hand, it can be stated with confidence that the system of apprenticeship in small workshops is preferable in simple trades and small towns, because that system offers opportunities to see all the bearings of the trade to be learned. If the workshop is well equipped; if the master takes a hand in the work, and watches the conduct of the apprentice; if the latter is permitted to take up all branches of the work and not only repairing and patching; if the master supervises the drawing, modeling, and bookkeeping of the apprentice; if to all this comes the ethical momentum of an insight into a flourishing enterprise which hourly shows how diligence, knowledge, skill, and honesty change into material value, the system of apprenticeship will offer great advantages. But rarely are all these conditions found together. Thoroughly equipped and willing masters are rare; rare are also apprentices who have the capacity to rise above the average workman. We generally find that boys of small or no means at all are "put out as apprentices." Hence the desirability of regulating the training of apprentices by influencing the masters, and offering them a remuneration for the trouble this training causes them.

As stated before, the management of the system of paying for results is an imitation of that adopted in Baden. The central office of the Swiss Industrial Society resolved, September 8, 1894, as follows:

"Workshop masters of various trades who enter into an agreement to comply with the rules for training apprentices may be granted a subsidy of 250 francs for each apprentice. The selection of the masters is made by the central office of the Industrial Society. Masters whose former apprentices have passed the examination with credit are preferred. It is a matter of importance that the masters who apply for a subsidy give board and lodging to their apprentices." The following is a copy of the regulations issued:

(1) A written contract between master and apprentice is entered into, which contract must be in harmony with the normal contract designed by the Swiss Industrial Society. It must contain the following provisions:

(a) The term of apprenticeship begins with a probationary term of from four to eight weeks, which is to be included in the whole term of the contract.

(b) The term of apprenticeship is not to exceed the normal minimum prescribed by the aforementioned society for the respective trade.

(c) The master is required, in case the apprentice does not live with his parents in the neighborhood, to give him board and lodging and supervise his conduct during and after work hours. Exceptions to this duty are admitted in cases where the master has placed the apprentice in a family in which he is well taken care of. (d) If the apprentice should fall ill, the master is required to see to it that he is properly nursed and that medical aid be called in. If the sickness lasts longer than four weeks, the master must, if desirable, have the patient sent to a hospital.

(e) The normal contract prescribed by the Swiss Industrial Society contains a number of paragraphs referring to the mode of teaching the trade, which must be conscientiously followed. Work must not be required of the apprentice after the legal work hours, or on Sundays, except in rare cases of emergency.

(2) Every contract entered into, if based upon the requirements prescribed by the society, must be submitted to the central office, where it is to be deposited in duplicate.

(3) Every apprentice of a subsidized workshop is required to present himself for examination at the close of his term, and the master workman is obliged to grant the apprentice sufficient time and materials to make his test piece.

(4) An apprentice, under the rules of the society, must have completed his fourteenth year and possess the necessary intellectual and physical qualities. In doubtful cases the society may arrange an examination for admission.

(5) The subsidy mentioned is determined by local and professional circumstances, and is paid in two equal installments, one at the close of half the term of apprenticeship and the other at the close of the term, after the master has given evidence of having fulfilled all the duties required of him.

(6) The subsidy guaranteed to a master is not transferable to his heirs or assigns in case of death or closing of his shop, unless the central office specially orders the payment.

(7) If the contract between master and apprentice becomes void before it expires, the officers of the industrial society determine the quota of subsidy due the master, or the amount of indemnity to which he may be entitled.

(8) Failure on the part of the master to follow the rules prescribed by the society presupposes his waiving any subsidy whatsoever.

(9) In cases of contention between master and apprentice with reference to the application of any point of the contract, the officers of the society may be called upon for a decision, which decision is final.

(10) For the purpose of supervising the proper performance of the master's duties to his apprentices, and for the purpose of constantly being informed as to the status of the education of the apprentices for whom subsidies are paid, a number of local trustees are appointed, who report to the central office at stated intervals. These trustees may be charged with special duties, such as inspection, special examinations, and judicial duties in cases of contention.

This is the modus operandi adopted in Switzerland. At present the institution is too young to record results; still the officers of the society are convinced that it will be fully as satisfactory in its workings as the one in the Grand Duchy of Baden. Furthermore, in Switzerland, as well as in Baden, the conviction seems to make progress that it is better for the trades and general industrial prosperity to subsidize the masters for the training of apprentices than to extend the system of trade schools hitherto favored by the Government.

CHAPTER XXVI.

RECENT EFFORTS IN EUROPE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT AND IMPROVEMENT OF AGRICULTURE.1

I. CAPITALISTIC AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION.

It seems strange that agriculture, which has been regarded as the most independent vocation in the world, should be dependent upon the more or less fortuitous aid of capital. But those who speak of the independent position of the farmer are inclined to emphasize his position as a self-sufficing one in which he, like Robinson Crusoe, may satisfy his wants through his own labor. However true this conception of farming may have been before the temptations offered by traveling agents and newspaper advertisements of enterprising manufacturers magnified the wants and the expenditures of the farmer, it is not true to-day except in the districts which are contented to live "behind the times." Since selfsufficing agriculture, then, does not require a working capital other than is provided by the natural increase of the family (for even the political economy of Robinson Crusoe admitted the advantage of a man Friday), it is evident that in the following pages the discourse can be only concerned with agriculture. as an industry or, as it is called, capitalistic production.

The proposition of the political economists that industry is limited by capital is applicable to agriculture which, as far as it is concerned with producing a "money crop," is thus limited or hampered, like any other industry, by the lack of capital. Let this crop be what it may, wheat in the Northwest, cotton in the South, tobacco or corn in the intervening section, cattle raising in the region beyond the Missouri and the Red River of the South, or market gardening and truck farming in the populous East, each “money crop" requires capital, each exploiter of the soil, like each commission or other city merchant, requires the presence of a fund upon which he may draw in time of need for the purpose of promoting an enterprise or tiding over a failure. But as the city merchant is constantly receiving into his possession moneys which are not, properly speaking, his (the cities being clearing houses), "accommodation money" is very much easier for him to obtain than for the isolated farmer.

"The element of credit," says the French economist, M. Leon Say, "is the money of others, but its principle is either to get money to spend upon oneself or to invest in business. Money obtained for the first purpose is generally supposed to be a ruinous operation, while money obtained for the second is advantageous only as the business ability of the borrower is good and the amount he pays for the hire of the money (usually called 'interest') is reasonable." Now, attribute it to what you please, this rule holds that people are much more apt to lend to those who are of the same business class as themselves than to those who have neither the appearance of wealth nor the manners of the class to which the lender belongs. In Germany," says Gustav Schönberg, “those who suffer the most from want of credit

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'By Mr. Wellford Addis, specialist in the Bureau for obtaining and collating information relating to colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts.

are the proprietors of medium-sized or small farms, especially the peasant. The large proprietors sometimes can not get a sufficient credit, but nevertheless they are better able to procure cash for current needs, either from the money passing through their hands as gross returns from the cultivation of their estates or by writing to their bankers or to an establishment of credit. But when the small farmer, with very little experience in monetary matters and an unknown financial status, has need of credit, he falls into the hands of those whose business it is to exploit his poverty and inexperience."

It is therefore asked by some if it is wise to enlarge the opportunity of the small proprietor to borrow. "It would be disastrous if land owners were to run into debt to improve their land," says Rodbertus and others. To these objections Signor Leone Wollemborg, an expert in such matters, answers in this fashion: “Is it useful to create a loaning fund for the agriculturist? Some agricultural societies and some representative agriculturists assert that it is dangerous to do so, for the peasant is consumed with such a fever to acquire land that he contracts obligations which eventually bankrupt him. Credit is therefore a dangerous as well as a precious ally, and it is necessary to use it rationally." From Signor Wollemborg's admission in his defense of agricultural credit it follows that capital borrowed by the farmer, though beneficial when used in judicious exploitation of the farm, is a dangerous expedient to resort to in order to acquire it. Other considerations are not wanting to illustrate, if not to explain, the inadequacy of capital in coined money at the disposal of the farmer. One of these, though of a theoretical or speculative nature, may be stated in concluding the foregoing remarks upon farming as capitalistic production.

The true value of property of all kinds in the United States in 1890 is placed by the census at $65,037,091,197, yet the amount of money in circulation at that date was $1,429,251,270. In brief, had it been possible to put up all the property in the United States at auction on June 30, 1890, one of two things would have happened, either there would not have been cash enough in the country to buy it in at its "true valuation," or its "true value" would have shrunken until it became only one forty-sixth of what it was the day before; or, to say the same thing over, in such a market every one dollar of "true valuation" would have become two cents. In England and France the same conditions prevail. Now, in 1892 the United States exported an unprecedentedly large amount of her products which are principally obtained from nature. These exports amounted to nearly $800,000,000, and if paid for by the exporters before shipment abroad must have sent perhaps half the money in circulation into the agricultural States.

It is of course impossible to say that there is an instructive conservation of exchange forces similar to the mechanical equating in physics known as the conservation of energy, but it seems evident that the farmer who is placed between nature and the middleman is not nearly so favored as a possessor of circulating coin as is the business man who is the intermediary between the farmer and another business man. The returns of the farmer are the residuum of the final price

1 Zur Erklärung und Abhülfe der heutigen Creditnoth des Grundbesitzes, page 138. Prof. Thorold Rogers remarks: "Nor were these yeomen (freeholders of his native village in Hampshire, England), unprosperous when they were active, temperate, and thrifty. The greatest peril they ran was in purchasing land with their savings, mortgaging it to obtain possession, and, up to this having committed no serious error, cultivating the land with insufficient capital. I have known several yeomen who, having fallen into this mistake, have lived a life of extreme labor and thrift, and, having enlarged their estate, were poorer at their death than they were when they began their career. And in this day I believe that agricultural distress is, and has been for some years past, due to the double cause of enlarged domestic expenditure and insuffi cient capital for the extent of land occupied." (Six Centuries of Work and Wages, p. 56.) But compare his dictum, page 62, that population keeps pace with the amount of customary food of the people, and wages never fall below the amount necessary for the laborer and his family to subsist on.

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