THE PHYSICAL TRAINING OF THE WELL-TO-DO CLASSES IN ENGLAND AND
GERMANY. [To THR EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR:1
Sin,—In your last issue "R. C. R." agrees with me in believing that the physical training received by German boys of the well-to-do classes produces more square-shouldered, muscular, tall men than are produced in our well-to-do classes by our system of games; but he believes that "it is the English method which gives you the tough, wiry, self-reliant man who can stand almost any climate and still remain energetic." Does England produce more tough, wiry, self-reliant men than does Germany P In all the large English towns which are known to me a great proportion of the most prosperous businesses are carried on by Germans, or the descendants of Germans, and the founder of each such business must have been, if not a tough and wiry, at any rate a self-reliant man, possessed of much of the " initiative " which "R. C. R." believes to be commoner among the English than among Germans. Leading positions are held in the commercial life of all our Colonies and in the South American States by Germans, who have needed much self-reliance and initiative to gain those positions. Although till lately far more incite- ment to exploration must have been felt by Englishmen than by Germans, Germans have taken a large part in the work of exploration all over the world. The German waiter, who is found in nearly all countries, is a proof that self-reliance and initiative are widely distributed throughout the German race, and that they are qualities which are not destroyed by the gymnastic training given to German boys of all social classes. In all the subjects in which I am most keenly interested, in education, in the educational use of art, in the reform of the tenure and use of land, in the removal of the causes of poverty, in the reform of housing, and the orderly develop- ment of towns, I find that it is Germans who are showing most sell-reliance and power of initiative, though the need for those qualities in relation to all the subjects which I have named is greater in this country of large towns than in Germany. Willingness to be a " cowboy " does not seem to me to be a sign of the possession of power of initiative. It is likely to be commoner among Englishmen, trained by our system of games, to regard physical exercise as the best thing which life has to give, than among Germans, who are trained to consider physical strength and agility as means to be used for the attainment of higher ends.—I am, Sir, &c., LL. Swanscoe Pork, near Macclesfield. T. C. Honsra
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