Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 272, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1912 — WHY THE GERMANS LEAD. [ARTICLE]

WHY THE GERMANS LEAD.

Influencs Exerted by the “Continuation'' School” In the Fatherland. ” An American manufacturer who had wondered at the success of his German competitors was struck by certain big, flaming, official-looking posters on the billboards and around public buildings In Berlin. He might have Been similar posters In every city and town in Germany, Twice a year these official posters summon the youth of the land to obligatory attendance at the trade and commercial schools, Hubert Evans writes In Harper’s Weekly. Indirectly, they tell why the American or* the English manufacturer finds in the German such a dangerous competitor. They reveal the secret of Germany’s wonderful commercial and industrial prosperity and of her commanding position as a world power. To the philosophically inclined they suggest interesting reflections on the transformation of idealists and dreamers into a nation of materialists and doers. There ia scarcely anything in all Germany so new and modern as the continuation schools. This whole movement has been' a matter of only a few years, and in its present form the continuation school is a child of yesterday. These institutions receive from the nation more care and solicitude than is bestowed upon thd children of the Imperial family. They are still in a rapid process of change and development Their very success has encouraged further changes and more stringent legislation in their behalf. It la onl.< a few years ago that an imperial Industrial law was passed giving community authority to establish and maintain obligatory continuation schools for youths, thus making good the failure of certain German state governments to provide for such school by state law. One of the last acta of the relchstag last December was to amend this law so as to make it apply to all girls cm-

ployed in offices, stores and factories, as well as to boys. The whole subject is still so new and fresh that every day the German press has some interesting Item of continuation school news—the opening of more domestic science schools for girls, the establishment of training colleges for continuation school td&chers, the publication of new laws and material decrees.