WHERE GERMANY LEADS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 449, 30 January 1909, Page 4

WHERE GERMANY LEADS.

W. C. Steadman, M.P,, the secretary to the Parliamentary Committee ,of the Trade Union Congress, who has been visiting Germany, gave some of his experiences to a representative of the Westminster Gazette. He said : “ This is my third visit to Germany, and I have come back more firmly persuaded than ever that this country can learn a good deal from the Fatherland. We visited Berlin, Dresden, Leipsig, and Frankfort ; and one ot the things that struck me about all those cities was that the streets are kept in a much better condition than our own. The thoroughfares are broader, the streets are cleaner, and the buildings are finer.” From the I,about point of view, Mr Steadman was much impressed by rhe municipal bureau for the unemployed in Berlin. ”Itis an immense building,” he said, “ where workmen, skilled and unskilled, may register themselves on payment of twopence. While we were there several orders weie received for men, so there is no question as to its usefulness. The workmen are divided into two groups, the mechanics and apprentices occupying one set of rooms and the labourers another set.

“A. pleasant and gratifying featuie about this bureau was that every workman we saw among the unemployed looked, the picture of cleanliness and good health. They really appeared as if they were capable of doing a day’s work, not like the crowd we are accustomed to see “ mouchiug ” about our English streets. “ I was not long in discovering one of the reasons for this comparative smartness in the appearance of lbe unemployed German workers. It appears that if a man goes into the bureau with bis shoes a bit rough there is a shoemaker on the spot who mends them while he wails and charges him nothing for the job ! And if bis clothes are bad there is a tailor who doctois them gatnilously!”

As to the general characteristics of the Germans, Mr Steadman said it was evident that they were intense lovers of music. “ In all the cities we visited," he said, “there were magnificent opera houses. I went to one in Dresden and all I can say is that Covent -Garden Opefft House is a dustheap by comparison. The Dresden Opera House is kept going all the year round with the exception of six weeks in the summer. “ Does not this kind of thing tend to elevate men’s minds ? II you give a workman no other place but a - singsong’ in a publichouse, what ideals is that going to instill into him ? On the night of our visit to the Dresden Opera House it is true tjjiat I heard two operas which I have often heard before, but it was none the less a charming wind-up to the day’s experiences.” ” On the whole,’’ Mr Stedman

was asked, “ bow does the lot of the German workman compare with that of bis English colleague ?” . “To put the whole thing in a nutshell,” he replied, ‘‘the German works longer hours for less money, hut he gets more joy out of life, after all, than our men do. It is environment that makes a man what he is ; and if no steps are taken by the State to lift a man out of wretched surroundings how can we hope to improve him? As for trade unionism, it is going strong in Germany ; according to the latest statistics there are actually more organised workers in that country now than in our own.”