Knowledge that Transforms

Historical siirvey.-In order to understand the present situation of agricultural labor in Bohemia, some slight review of the history of the country is necessary. In the first place, it is to be remembered that the population is not homogeneous. On the one hand, we have the German element, dominant in the politics of the empire, leader in the financial and industrial world. On the other 1hJand the Czech, of different racial stock, a majority as to numbers, ardent patriots as a class, regarding the German party as a usurper, but seemingly unable to oust it from its position either of I)olitical or of industrial supremacy. The latter element furnishes the bullk of the agricultural population. Although both races are represented in varying proportions in all the large cities of the lking.dom and both are to be found in greater or less numbers throughout most of the districts, yet from early times there seems to have been a somewhat sharp geographical line of division between them. This line follows pretty closely certain physical aspects of the country. The kingdom of Bohemia as a whole is basin-shaped. The hilly and mountainous districts in the north and west contain extensive coal beds and numerous iron deposits, offering facilities for manufacture similar to those of Lancashire, England. Even before the rise of the factory system, these districts, with the adjacent lower lands, were the chief seats of the woolen and linen Weaving and spinning industries, and, later, of the cotton