MÜLHAUSEN. 
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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