REPORT OF MR. HINTON.
155
turn ; tbe Royal Foundries , to which this government is obliged to resort, for casts of its bronze doors and memorial figures, even when designed by its own artists ; and the Public Parks ,—all these expenditures, not extravagant in any one year, but liberal and systematic from year to year, after fifty years have made Munich the home of artists, and professors foremost in every department of Science, and have been felt in their beneficence throughout all the mechanic industries, and by every class in the kingdom.”
The instance cited above, of our Government being compelled to get work done at the royal foundries at Munich that ought to be done at home, if the right conditions existed, as they should exist, is not a solitary case. A long list might he compiled, of cities and individuals, who have been compelled to send thither for similar work, needed for fountains, memorials, etc. So much is this the practice that it has come to be thought the right course to pursue. Thus, for want of a knowledge of some technical and artistic details in manipulation and finish, purchases are made to a vast extent from Europe, which, if our workmen and designers had but some °f the facilities afforded them which there exist, would be made at home.
Happily, Massachusetts has commenced this needed work.
Nuremberg, a city of less than 80,000 inhabitants, four thousand miles away from these shores, can compel us, under °ur present system to send it, in exchange for their manufactured goods,—take as an example the years 1870-71, and 1871-72,—in dollars :
Amount for 1871-72, . . . $2,511,419 65
“ “ 1870-71, . . . 2,107,663 18
ai ml this for articles we claim to make, in the main, for our- Se lves, as will be seen by the citation of the following articles, from the list before us ; viz., cotton and linen goods, leather, hoots and shoes, gas-burners, stockings, baskets and basket ^ ai *e, combs, hardware, colors, etc.
The fact is, no doubt, partly due to the cheaper rates at which the goods can be manufactured in Germany, and all over Europe, owing to the low wages paid the work-people; hut it is also due to the superior skill and taste displayed by