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Show flj1 i !i THE STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY. B " U Not many people realize how intense is the B : m present struggle among the enlightened nations B , , Hi for mental superiority as applied to all avocations B ul of life. It is, perhaps, reflected more in the BPf if world's trade than in any other preserit way. B I M There have been some trusts formed in the United B j f "' States 'for the sole purpose of swindling the un- B j ij wary, but they are not all that way. A man fl i cannot run a live-stamp mill on $3 rock and keep B j I even. But if there is rock enough to supply 200 B ! Mi or 500 stamps, and if its position is such that 1c B j 'j can be cheaply mined and reduced; in a little B J j Jf j while its dividends are a joy to stockholders. So fl j 4 the thought behind many trusts was to produce B y M. material of commercial value in vast quantities B 3j and at the smallest possible expense, and through Br &t. machinery to make the work as nearly automatic m! ' r f j as possible. In this we believe the United States my-1 1 1 leads the world, but when it comes to applying V i i 1 science to practical work we believe that Germany flj L j leads all competitors. It is stated as true that "in B " PI H Germany four hundred doctors of science, the best B if the universities there can turn out, have been B ,j employed at different times in one chemical estab- Bm y lishment in late years." fl t f ? 'The graduates from Germany's schools of de- B l s'gn and polytechnic schools are picked up and Blf im utilized in the same way. One result can be seen Ut 111 in ner arvancinS trade. Again as she struggles to Bff Tim produce better and moie attractive manufactured H?!! i goods than any other country, so she proceeds wili ii to educate men to carry on that trade in foreign flUf Wm countries. She gives them the home schooling, B IM then sends them abioad and holds them abroad flraff 'M until they acquire the language and learn the Bff 1 habits, customs and business methods of the peo- HBfi 'M PlQ Bi that when her goods arrive in that land Eif Imk there is some one to receive and Intelligently Rfll IB handle them. Kfjf IP Among all the great nations Great Britain is HPf wt at present most concerned and in most trouble. B fH After Waterloo for sixty years Great Britain domi- Bp m nated the world almost as perfectly as did Rome HII j m after the overthrow of Hannibal. She had the fljj M ships, the factories, the skilled artisans, the Hflif $m money. She could produce and deliver her goods Bffj cheaper than any other power. When she reached flutl that point she declared that free trade was the BiP only enlightened idea through which nations could on equal terms deal with each other and she proceeded to bankrupt the- world. All her colonies were reduced to pauper colonies, two or three times she-prostrated the United States, all Southern JLurope and all Spanish America were in a most friendly way Qespoiled. She found out at tbe World's Exposition in 1851 that she was falling behind in skilled mechanical me-chanical and artistic work and at once went about rectifying the trouble. She had fallen a little behind when our Civil War came on and then she regained all that she had lost and our government helped her after the great war closed, by refusing to do anything to regain the ground we had lost. But the first of her real troubles began after the Franco-German war closed. Both Germany and France laid on heavy thrifts and began to subsidize subsi-dize their ships. By those means and by the excellence ex-cellence ot rhe mercnandise they prepared they had made very serious inioads on her trade when, suddenly, through the world's necessities our country in four years, drew to her from abroal 2,000 millions in trade balances, and the prestige won by our fleets at Manila and off Santiago gave world notice that a new World Power was at the front. Then came the Boer war and Great Britain at last realized that she had not kept up with the procession; that she was neither prepared for war nor for- the sharp competitions of peace. Hence Mr. Chamberlain Is crying out for a tariff, Lord Roseberry declares that when he looks about him he finds conditions., "we may well feel that It behooves us not to fear, but to gird up our loins in preparation for what is before us." But Mr. Balfour strikes the right note when he declares that "The existing educational system of this country is chaotic, is ineffectual, is utterly ut-terly behind the age, makes us the laughing-stock of every advanced nation in Europe and America, puts us behind not only our American cousins, but the German, the Frenchman, the Italian." Cecil Rhodes had the same thought when in his will he outlined a plan which he hoped would shake up England's old exclusive university by injecting fresh foreign blood into its classes. And Sir Norman Lockyer of the Eoyal College of Science, tells of the struggle that is on, "a struggle in which science and brains take the place of swords and sinews," and adds: "The school, the University, Univer-sity, the laboratory and the workshop are the battlefields bat-tlefields of this new warfare." Further still he declares that: "Every minister, every public department de-partment is involved, and this being so, it is the duty of the whole nation king, lords and commons com-mons to do what is necessary to place our scientific scien-tific Institutions on a proper looting In order to "face the music" whatever the future may bring. ' Again Sir Norman Lockyer insists that England's Eng-land's schools are too few and that they lack in efficiency "so that not only our captains of industry, in-dustry, but those employed in the nation's work generally, do not secure a training similar to that afforded by other nations." Mr. Chamberlain on the same theme says directly di-rectly th'at he would not give any man a position requiring the needed high training unless he could give proof that in his school career, he had deserved de-served the position. The above should not be lost on the men of the United States. Besides perfecting our higher schools, the higher school scholarships should be given in postgraduate schools to such students aa had shown particular talent and industry, and the expenses of these should be paid by the state. Indeed In-deed a good way would be, after the elementary branches are acquired to make the higher schools rewards for those who in the lower schools had shown they deserved further training, that the schools as they ascended in excellence should fin ally show merely the survival of the fittest, for as Mr. Chamberlain says: "The greatness of a nation is made of its greatest men." |