GERMAN INDUSTRIES. The foun dation of modern German industrial progress was laid in the first two decades following the Franco-Prussian War, and its cornerstone was the improved processes of iron and steel pro duction. In addition to Germany's original mining districts, there were in the territories ac quired from France large deposits of iron ore which at that time were of negligible value, since the purer ores of England and the United States could be produced much more cheaply.
Germany's production of pig iron in 1887 was 4,024,000 tons, as compared with Great ,Britain'sproduction of 7,681,000 tons and that of the United States of 6,520,000 tons, while the production of steel was 954,600 tons, 2,403,200 tons and 2,604,000 tons, respectively. About that time new metallurgical processes were invented, notably the Thomas-Gilchrist process for the elimination of the phosphorus of iron ore, which not only made available Germany's vast unused deposits of iron ore, but also stimulated agriculture through rendering the phosphorus available for fertilizer.
Within. 20 years Germany's pig iron produc tion had increased 400 per cent, while Great Britain's had increased only 30 per cent. Ger many's steel production had increased 1,300 per cent, while Great Britain's had increased only 150 per cent. Thus Germany had outstripped England and was within a comparable distance of the United States with its much greater de posits. Meanwhile Germany had been making great strides in technique and organization, and taken in connection with the tremendous im petus of the flood of iron and steel, the whole industrial life of Germany quickened and grew to giganticproportions. See article GERMANY'S ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION.
While the iron and steel production would have made Germany prosperous under ordinary conditions, it can only be regarded as the fuel in the great engine of German organization, a policy which almost automatically, once adopted, put Germany at the head of the industrial pro cession. That policy is one of encouragement, supervision, initiative and direct participation by the government in the industrial life of the nation. Other governments are content to see their industries develop of their own accord -and to take any action relative to industrial matters only when forced to do so by the pres Sure of public opinion. The German system is to take the initiative, devise means of stimu lating industry, direct, supervise and participate in industrial undertakings, provide systems whereby workers may be properly trained, raw materials procured, invention stimulated, capi tal obtained, the evils of competition avoided and finally markets for the goods developed.
Thus every possible encouragement is offered to industry by the German government. .
The basic technical principle of Germany's industries is that of transforming cheap raw materials into highly valuable finished products. rich in man power and comparatively poor in raw materials and natural resources, the tendency has been to conserve as far as possible the resources in materials and to use to the best possible advantage the man power available and to increase its skill and multiply its productivity by new inventions and efficient methods of utilization.
In every department of industrial activity the same general principle is followed of utiliz ing cheap raw materials for the manufacture of highly valuable products.
The political organization upon which Ger man industrial progress is founded was estab lished at the time of the founding of the Ger man Empire at the end of the Franco-Prussian War. It is in a sense paternalistic, but pater nalistic in the best sense.
Germany has a highly effective political system, whose policies when determined upon by the Bundesrat are carried into effect forth with and effectively. When the government adopts a policy of industrial encouragement, it is certain to be carried into effect. Where private activity is insufficient the government enters into the scheme of things directly, which is especially true in the encouragement of scien tific and technical schools, and in the mainte nance of testing laboratories and of corps of ex perts who are constantly engaged in perfecting and developing new inventions and industrial processes and who are always ready to assist manufacturers in the solution of their partic ular problems. Professors of technical uni versities are making constant contributions of an inventive nature to the general fund of in dustrial and technical knowledge and are al ways ready to lend their time and facilities to the cause of industry, While large industrial concerns maintain staffs of experts for the special consideration of their own problems.