Cost of living in German towns

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 866449027

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-93831

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Cost of living in German towns

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Stat. Off.

Year of publication:: 1908

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (LXI, 548 Seiten)

Collection:: Economics Books

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MÜLHAUSEN. 351 town also subsidises the “holiday colonies,” which offer to some hundreds of children the boon of several weeks of country life every year. The benevolent work carried on by private organizations includes homes for both old and young persons in straitened circumstances. Occupations, Wages, and Hours of Labour. The cotton industry dominates Mülhausen. One of its older streets, indeed, bears the name Manchester Street. The number of spindles in the eight important mills in 1905 was 520,300, the largest mill having alone 143,000, and four others having from 50,000 to 86,000. Eight important weaving mills had in 1905 8,100 looms, and there were several small concerns ; five of the largest had from 900 to 1,880 looms each. In the woollen industry there were 272,800 spindles, distributed amongst six firms, the largest with 115,000, and 1,000 looms. Several years ago it was estimated that of every 1,000 inhabitants 158 were workpeople employed in this industry, a larger proportion than in any other textile town in Geimany. From 50,000 to 60,000 tons of cotton are used yearly, from a quarter to a third being Egyptian, and the rest American and Indian. Mülhausen produces the better classes of goods, and does not endeavour to compete in the cheaper qualities largely made in the Rhenish-Westphalian textile district. It cannot boast of climatic conditions favourable to cotton spinning, and its remote inland position places it at great disadvantage, alike in the cost of fuel and other raw materials and in the matter of transport generally, in spite of the presence of the Rhine-Rhone canal at its very doors. Nevertheless, the enterprise of its manufacturers and merchants, and not less the manual aptitude of its working class, have overcome natural difficulties and given to the town much industrial importance. For the systematic training of the workers, there are special technical schools for weaving and spinning, founded in 1869, for design and draughtsmanship (textile and mechanical), dating from 1829, and for chemistry ; an art-industrial school for girls ; and schools for industrial and commercial education generally, and museums of industrial products. In the promotion of technical instruction the Industrial Society (Société Industrielle), established in 1825, and continued in undiminished efficiency to the present day, has taken a leading part. The society not only founds and maintains technical schools and classes, but encourages inven tion by the offer of competitive prizes, and watches the interests of industry and commerce in every possible way. Its members represent all branches of local enterprise. The cotton trade has, however, passed through several periods of acute trial, particularly at the beginning of the ’seventies, when Alsace-Lorraine passed from France to Germany. For a time that transition paralysed Mülhausen’s industry. Many employers of labour, refusing to recognise the altered political order, at once withdrew from the town and province and took their capital to France ; and not a few sons of manufacturers attached to the old French connection left the country later rather than serve under the German colours. More important still, the entire conditions of sale were revolutionised. The markets of France were no longer free as of old, while the free markets of Germany were largely unknown, and the requirements of German buyers and merchants, as well as the best methods of distribution, had to be very closely studied before the ground lost in one country could be regained in the other. But the check proved only temporary, and directly the crisis had been passed both the cotton industry and the woollen industry entered upon a new era of prosperity, which has continued to the present day. Another important industry is calico printing, which has been carried on for more than a century, and has enjoyed from the beginning a less fettered development than either spinning or weaving, inasmuch as it did not displace hand labour and to that extent had no prejudice and opposition to contend with. There still live in Mülhausen, at the head of flourishing print works, equipped with every modern improvement, descendants of early calico printers who towards the close of the 18th century were in the habit of making two

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