Two of Europe's most critical political problems center around coal. In the Saar Basin on the eastern border of France the Versailles Treaty )f 1919 gave France the right to the coal and provides that at the end of ifteen years the district is to decide by vote whether it wishes to be )art of France or Germany, or to remain under the control of the Lague of Nations. In upper Silesia at the southeastern corner of lermany a small tract containing coal was in dispute between Germany nd Poland at the end of the war. A plebiscite showed that parts were trevailingly German, especially the industrial parts, while other parts, hiefly rural, were Polish. The League of Nations finally decided in a division, but neither in Silesia nor the Saar region is either of the claimants thoroughly satisfied. Coal is so valuable that where there is any doubt as to what nation has the rightful claim, the situation may be serious.
How Manufacturing is Distributed in Europe.—The general distri bution of manufacturing in Europe, Fig. 54, is much like that of health (Fig. 58) and general progress (Fig. 59), but it is also strongly influenced by the distribution of coal. Hence, the darkest shading in Fig. 54 extends from Scotland through England, northern France and Belgium to southern and eastern Germany. It also includes Switzerland, for to some extent Swiss water power takes the place of coal. The rela tively progressive agricultural countries of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, southern France, Italy, Austria, and Poland, fall in a group where manufacturing is moderately developed, while in the rest of Europe the amount is limited.
The types of manufacturing in Europe vary from the most complex to the most primitive. Where more than 30 per cent of the workers are engaged in manufacturing, the complex type predominates, highly varied raw materials are brought from a distance, and the completed products demand a relatively large amount of work and skill. In such regions the food of the cities is usually brought from a distance, either from overseas as in Britain, Belgium and western Germany, or from other portions of the same country as in much of Germany and France.
In the regions where from 10 to 30 per cent of the workers are engaged in manufacturing, the simple type prevails. The products include such articles as the butter and bacon of Denmark, the olive oil of Italy, the peanut oil of Marseilles, the wines of southern France, and the liner thread of Ireland. Of course complex manufacturing is more or less
mixed with the simple type, but we are speaking of the kind that is most abundant. Where the percentage of workers engaged in manu factoring falls below 10, as in eastern Europe and some of the southerr parts, there is practically no complex industry whatever. A small of simple manufacturing such as the pig iron of southern Russia, the Urals, and Spain, and the wood pulp and lumber of Sweden, is mixec with more or less of the primitive type such as the crude tanning of hide: by nomads in southeastern Russia, the weaving of homespun cloth ii Bulgaria and the spinning of woolen thread by the shepherds of How Manufacturing Varies in the Regions where it is Mos Advanced.—In studying each of the continents the distribution o manufacturing in general (Fig. 54) must not be confused with that o special industries. The general distribution depends first upon race and climate, and then upon coal and other sources of power. The dis tribution of special industries within the general areas of manufacturing depends on many factors including (1) the accident of the original location of an industry, (2) raw materials, (3) transportation, (4) mar kets, (5) government policy, and (6) other conditions both geographic and economic. For example, in Britain the cotton industry is located almost entirely in Lancashire west of the Pennine Range. This is partly because American cotton, which was long the only available supply, enters England through Liverpool, and partly because the moist west winds on the windward side of the country give the damp ness which is needed to prevent the thread from roughening and hence breaking. The woolen centers, on the other hand, are located east of the Pennine Chain. Long ago when no wool was imported, one of the best and largest supplies was grown in the Pennine upland and the shepherds found it easier to come down to Yorkshire than to Lancaster.
Shipbuilding in Britain centers at Glasgow on the Clyde, where iron, coal, skilled labor, and a protected harbor are all available. The making of steel goods, especially the bulky kinds such as rails, centers n places like Birmingham close to coal and not far from iron. On the )ther hand, the huge clothing industry is concentrated at London, )ecause that city provides far the greatest market and the largest supply )f cheap labor, and is the place where merchants from the rest of the :lountry prefer to buy.