MODERN GERMANY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 595, 25 August 1909, Page 5

MODERN GERMANY.

MARVELLOUS PROGRESS. (For The Dominion.) z (By Rev. F. Stcbbs!) /..../ f. y ; Strasburg, June,; 1909. :'. It is not easy to : put modern-: Germany, Tyjtli its 61,000,000 of people, into a couple of columns of print. I hope,' however, even within this email compass, to give the reader a'general and not inaccurate. impression of the marvellous progress that this great nation is making in almost every department of human interest and activity. I am quite sure that comparatively few.people either'in Great Britain or the. colonies have any adeiquatk idea of the strides that have been made here during ,the last 30, years. : The Germans have' become a great people, not only numerically and from a military, point of view, but. commercially, industrially, and in regard to social* progress. Not many years ago they used to be ridiculed.: They used to; be-regarded as a dull, plodding, povertystricken, beer-swilling, sausage-eating people, over-worked and over-governed, by no means as happy or intelligent as the British.. Today they are almost universally recognised by those who know them as 'the'/most progressive nation in Europe. I am aware that statistics show that'the wealth and trade of Greatßritain still exceed those of Germany, but .that is not the impression that'one gets in.travelling in this country. The explanation is, that the Germans are more industrious and thrifty, and that with- them wealth is',., more evenly distributed. -.-. In Great Britain you have a few very ■ rich people, and then'at the other end of'the social scale millions' who 'are ill-clothed, ill-housed, illfed; 7 . In Germany this last-named class is conspicuous by< its, absence.: I have, been travelling for week's, and yet,have never seen a beggar,' a slum, a woman soliciting on, the street/ nor a person that was: not decently dressed.: / Nor, .though there is a great deal of beer-drinking, have I ever seen a drunken woman!, .and very few drunken .men.- As I shall show presently, slums and destitution 1 are 'not permitted in' Germany. Thoy are regarded as ■■ inimical to the national wellbeing,, and therefore not .to be tolerated. No doubt there are poor people and discontented people, '•' but they are not conspicuous. As tar , as- appearances go, •'•' everyone seems happy; ; contented, and prosperous. And now s , leaving generalities, let me'specify, severalrespects' in which it'appears to me that'the: Germans excel the' British. And, first, take i

The German Town. . The older portion will invariably built irregularly, - with narrow streets, , houses thrown! together as though,.-they had been shaken out';pf :, ',a.. 'gigantic /.box,' higgledy piggledy j and; no end of queer little coui-ts and' alleys. Sometimes. the / by-streets '.will be so',narrow, that:the/inhabitants can shake hands from their respective windows. ./This .orowding and : confusion 7 is the result of tho lawlessness that once prevailed; when princes arid,baioiis;were continually at war with : one another - and'the people had-to crowd into ferioed • cities,/ huddling together - for mutual protection. And. so, wherever,!-there!, was room for a/house it ; was" builtj'at any odd or 'even leaning against the epurch. But' even these older /portions of; the 'town are not without charm. /They are so quaint, •belonging'as they do to. another world and age,'and the houses, though crowded togetherjVare often large and handsome, and riohly. decorated. But the newer portions of the'- town. !aro nearly', always regularly built; with 'handsome* squares, parks, residences.' 'In olden times' a town was not built; it. grew,;.spreading itself >out without .order oriplan. -But it is,very different now. Extensions are carefully 'planned.with a view to health,' beauty, and convenience'.: No man may/build, no'street may bo. built, in! such a way -as to exclude light or air, or give an impression of ugliness, and at any cost large open spaces must be' preserved for health and pleasure.-'"/ I"' saw examples of/this modern town-planning in Dusseldorf and Coldgno, and the effect /is charming—fine; wide thoroughfares, / beautiful- houses, squares, parts,, gardens everywhere.. In. both these towns,, as in others, the municipality,controls the use/of- and to .a. large extent acquires* it,;;renting it !out to /the mostdcplacingvbreweries and factories ■ where-they will : cause least annoyance to'the'inhabitants, and, as I have said,/proven ting anything, 'that "• would/ offend/ -the taste or prove injurious to -health. This may appear tobe an interference with the liberty of the subject,- but: it must be reraeiribored that it adds to the comfort of .tho- whole .'population,'.'-/ Germans; are trained to forego some of their iiberty'as individuals for the good of 'the community,'and they aim at making their-towns not only good to trade in, but also to live in. The German workman may have'to' work;hard/ but after work he has a comfortable house, and parks, gardens, cafes, -mtisic; with'-which to -refresh himself.

Order:and Discipline.

V: Another 'thing. that" strikes the"■visitor' is the order and discipline that prevail. As I have already, mentioned; of vice, drunkenness, destitution, you see practically nothing. The towns swarm with restaurants ■ (publichouses)j\but ■■. there:is no' boisterousness, no disorder. .Men, women, and children sit together arband little tables, chatting and taking'refreshments, but: there is no. sboiitjng, no-pressing to drink, no'bettiiig; or'gambling, no unseemly , behaviour of any kind. ' How different from the scene3'to be witriosserl daily and nightly';'in. every. English, and I fear I must add every colonial, city. In thu trains, the trains, the public-gardens-—every-where, it is the same: everyone is polite and well-behaved. I. have seen in some of tbe streets and gardens beautiful bits of carving, painting,:and statuary that I say deliberately could hot possibly exist without injury in any English city. But ho larrikin, no drunken .vagabond touches them here. They are almost as safe from injury as in a draw-ing-room: And the same may be said of shrubsvand.flowers..; I am told that this is the result- of the. military /training, to .which every man-has to submit, and I ;have no doubt. this, is a. true explanation. , Every man, every child, is taught discipline, obedience to authority, .respect' for, law,v self-con-' trbl,and this affects the whole life ; of'the peopled .Then take" the way in which, trie Geiv mans; deal with poverty and unemployment. First.of all, as is well known, there is a;system of State .'insurance against accident, against sickness, and against 1 invalidism and oldage< and'so: every worker, is to an extent secured against these''' contingencies; These insurances 'ire obligatory' and ' contributory, the.funds being provided partly/bythe'workman bimself.'-'partly by his 'employer,'" and partly' by .the State. The system has proved vei'y successful '.and is likely/ to be; adopted in Great' Britain; ■; ■; ''/..•'..

/Then there is a system for the relief of the unfortunate.'.ahdunemployed.' No man is' allowed ;'fco. starve in Germany, but' neither is he.allowed.to, beg,or to starve'others.\ In Elberfeld,, which 1 visited,: the city is mapped out into small- districts and/ put -in cnai 6 d of voluntary committees,, so that every poor family :is under 'someone's observation': and care. ■: If through sickness \ordeath .the breadwinner, is the wants) of the family • are' at • once 1 supplied: if orphans • are left, ;they'are.cared for: if the distress is owing to; drunkenness or. ■ idleness, effective steps can be and are taken to compel the man to provide for the needs of'his family: if simply owing .to unemployment; efforts are made'by means of the labour exchanges, etc/ to. find employment for' a workman aV bis own trade, but if these efforts fail, then the municipality gives him temporary work on its own; terms. But in no case'is a man or family' allowed to' starve or, beg; nor may, a man squander""his earnings on himself and leave his ■•: family to- starves Children persistently neglected by .'their parents are taken from their custody and brought up by the municipality— at'th-e^eixpenso 1 of the parents. -It may be an interference with the-liberty of tho individual, but the Stat© won't allow such things, and consequently in Germany you may find poor men, and men temporarily unemployed, but you have no slums, no begging, no children -trading on the streets, and no destitution. Considerations of space will: not permit of my entering into.details hore, though I hope to give tho results of my inquiries more fully on another occasion. But the above will show the general principles ori which : Germany (and. Switzerland also) deals with those difficult problems, and the results.; The only other Subject which'' I.propose to deal in this article is that of education.

In this respect, too, Germany has made immense progress, and probably leads the world. I have visited several of, the universities and conversed with a number of present and past students, and the impres- . sion that I have received is that secondary education is more perfectly organised and more efficient than in England or New. Zealand. As far as the colonies are concerned, this-is what might bo expected, for they have as yet neither the wealth nor the experience necessary for the most perfect educational machinery. But for England I can see ho excuse, and I feel quite sure that her middle-classes are not as well-educated as the corresponding classes in Germany. The Gorman people attach much more importance to education than is common in 'England and Australasia, and parents make greater sacrifices in order that their children may , obtain it. Boys remain longer at school, and are usually a good deal older before they earn their own. living. The chief reason for this national thirst for knowledge is that in Germany the prizes in almost every walk of life. go to the intelligent and well-edu-cated. In New Zealand and England I have heard it said again and again, and I believe with truth,, that in mercantile ; pursuits a university education is pf no. advantage:'in regard to obtaining a position in the Civil Service of New. Zealand, I believe it is a positive disadvantage. It is'very different .in .Germany, as in the United States also. Here educational-efficiency •. is everything. Manufacturers and other captains of industry are on the look-out for promising students. The alertness of mind and habits of concentration and-perseverance which are acquired in study have a commercial value. To 7 obtain employment in the Civil Service a stiff examination must be passed. Even in the army promotion depends upon tlie successful passing, of an educational : test, and the successful, student escapes .vwothirds of his period of military service. Is it .any. wonder, then, that in a ; country where'intellectual efficiency is so highly valued, both' parents and children make great sacrifices to obtain it? .-.. I.havo not space, to describe minutely the educational machinery, but I say that. elementary, secondary, arid technical, and university education, are all organised, controlled, and brought into close relation to each other by the State, and, to an extent, directly;or indirectly, are made compulsory. First, there are 'the primary schools,' .of which there are 60,000, maintained at a cost.;: of , over £20,000,000. Then there are vthe ysecondary . schools, which are of two kinds, classical and modern, and these prepare the student for either the university or tha high technical schools. Secondary education is not 'free nor is it compulsory, but, as I have shown above, so much of a boy's success in life depends upon it,that it'is seldom willingly dispensed with. Then come the universities,,'of which'there' are 21, and here the fountains of every kind of knowledge axe open to the student,'-and he js free to choose whatever., branches of study suit him best. There arc over 3000 professors'and-43,000 students. There is a. professor for almost every imaginable sub- N ject, and the student is. free.to take one" subject-at one university and a second at another in whatever way he thinks best for the attainment'of, his object. .The universities are non-residential, and the student has almost perfect freedom. If he wishes to neglect his work he.can as far as the university authorities are concerned, but as a rule he is faf too anxious to succeed to do this. And this seems to me to be the main difference between the German student and the student at Oxford or Cambridge. At the latter, a large proportion'.of' the'students' have no serious object: there is far more interest in sport than in learning,'and the main thing is to have a good time.. In Germany it is different. The student means business,: he thirsts for knowledge, for efficiency;- v for success,' and sport and amusement—though, not without'their importance—occupy a subordinate place. And this is as it should be, and as in England it is not, and the consequence is that Germany's industrial army is more highly trained than tho . Britishchemists, mechanics, engineers, manufacturers, merchants, and English*trade*and'manufacturers are, relatively, falling behind. How ; can a ; nation whose main interest'is amusement compete in the long run with- nations' , whose mam interest ia-efficiency? "''_'- >;■ ': Such.arei some'of the departments in'which Germany excels. Thoroughness and efficiency are the keynotes everywhere. The _ Germans ■ 'wish,'to take the lead in : everything, not only' in international' politics and in anna-' merits,, but also in manufactures, commerce, art, science, .'and the German'student works, not merely for himself, but for his country, . to whose wealth and greatness he desires to contribute. A noblo ambition which I have never found .to the same extent elsewhere. Of course there are features in German life and,character not so admirable, but it is not my purpose inHhis article to speak of these, ■ but'rather to refer'to some things in which , Britain and her colonies may-well follow Germany's example. I only wish that my fellow-countrymen who are far dearer to me than the Germans, would mark, learn, and inwardly digest. .-'-■■. '. x :■;■-' ■. '" '-.I