The German government, through its health officers and through stringent regulations, en sures to the public a high standard of food products free from adulterations. The Ger man economic system does not stop, how ever, with providing work and guarding the public health and purse, but con tinues even to the supervision and manage ment of various forms of amusement for the public. A considerable part of this work is done by municipalities rather than by the gen eral government and each city has officials who have charge of public amusements in the parks and playgrounds where athletic contests and games are conducted and all sorts of outdoor sports encouraged. The cities also subsidize theatres and theatrical companies, which en ables theatrical performances and operas to be given at extremely low prices. Such perform ances are regarded as of educational value and it is no more expected in Germany that the classics of music and drama will pay their own way than that the public schools could be con ducted by charging admission. In addition to dramatic and operatic performances, the municipalities supply concerts and lectures of various kinds and the public thus has a wide variety of recreations to draw upon. The di rection of such recreations is recognized as a definite occupation and is placed in the hands of experts.
The Birthrate and Immigration.— Ger many's prosperity has had the effect of decreas ing her birthrate, a practically invariable re sult of national prosperity, though this univer sal law has had much less effect in Germany than elsewhere. The reduction of the death rate, however, has been much more rapid so that the net result has been favorable. From 1871-80 to 1901-10 the number of births per 1,000 inhabitants dropped from 40.7 to 33.9, while deaths dropped from 28.8 to 19.7, with the re sult that the birth excess increased from 11.9 to 14.3, this being due to decrease of deaths more than to the birth figures. From 1871 to 1880, however, was a post-bellum period dur ing which there is naturally a large birthrate. Although the rate of increase is not as favor able as might be desired, a comparison with the figures of immigration shows in a true light the prosperity of Germany. In the dec ade 1881-90 there were 1,342,000 German emigrants as compared with a total birth ex cess of 5,500,000; in the following decade there were 528.000 emigrants to 7,300,000 birth ex cess, while in 1901-10 there were but 220,000 emigrants (an average of 22,000 ner year) compared to a birth excess of 8,670,000. In 1912 the number of German emigrants was 18,500, while in 1913 it was but 13,000. The position of Germany, too, is seen to be much more favorable, when immigration is con sidered, for since the middle of the nineties there has been an excess of immigration over emigration.
Savings Bank Deposits.-- The remarkable efficacy of the German economical organiza tion is reflected in savings bank deposits. In 1910 there were 21,534,000 savings bank de positors in Germany, whose deposits aggre 16,780,500,000 marks, or an average of per capita for the entire population, in cluding non-depositors. The savings bank de positors of the United States numbered 9,143, 000 and had on deposit the equivalent of 17, 096,000,000 marks, an average of $46 for the whole population, while the depositors of Great Britain numbered 13,209,000 and had on deposit the equivalent of 4,422,300,000 marks, an aver age of $24 per capita, and France had 14,069, 000 depositors with deposits equivalent to 4,514,500,000 marks, an average of $28 per capita.
Germany's Technical The underlying technical principle of Germany's eco nomic organization is the development of her re sources in population and the sale of their prod ucts; that is to say, she develops the laborer into the skilled artisan and then utilizes his skill in transforming low grade raw materials into highly valuable finished products. The prin cipal export of Germany, accordingly, is the skill of her artisans and technicians, the raw material plus the skilled labor-technique con, tent. As Germany's population is increasing rapidly, at the rate of about 1,000,030 per year. there is thus no limit to the prosperity that may be attained. The part that is played in the de velopment of Germany's resources in skilled labor by her technical organization is of para mount importance, for skilled workmen would not be so great an asset without inventors and technicians to devise and improve manufactures and processes for them to carry into execution. Germany accordingly devotes great attention to the subject of technical and scientific education. Technical training is begun early in the school life and there are a large number of technical schools, high schools and universities, the lat ter having world-wide reputation as the fore most institutions of their kind. In addition, the government maintains testing laboratories and research institutions while large concerns have staffs of investigators, inventors, scientists and technicians constantly at work in producing new inventions and processes.
The patent system of Germany is adapted to give the greatest possible protection to the work of inventors and the banking system to extend adequate financial encouragement, so that no man in Germany with an idea need let it remain unused. On the contrary, every man who is capable of producing new ideas meets with every possible encouragement. The great technical and scientific activity of Germany is shown by the number of scientific books pub lished which amounted to 10,400 volumes in the year 1910.
Another evidence of the effect iveness, of Germany's system is seen in a com parison of illiteracy in the various countries. There is practically no illiteracy in Germany, it being less than .02 per cent. The number of i illiterates in Belgium is 10.2 per cent; in France, 14 per cent; in Great Britain, 13.52 per cent; in Italy, 30.6 per cent; in Austria, 26 per cent; in Hungary, 40.9 per cent; in Russia, 61.7 per cent; and in the United States, 7.7 per cent.
Bibliography.— Helfferich, Dr. Karl,