Though the average American is far ahead of the German or Frenchman in inventive talent, he is handicapped by lack of technical knowledge, reports Richard Guenther, Consul-General, Frankfort, Germany, February, 1905. The little town of Sonneburg, in Germany, for instance, has an industrial school which has been in existence for twenty years. This school gives instruction in drawing, painting, modelling, turning in wood and ivory, wood carving, geometry and arithmetic. The principal object is to train young people for the manufacture of toys and ceramic ware, which are the chief industries of the district. The school has 24 students, and the cost of tuition is but 50 marks ($12.90) per year. Additional technical schools, giving instruction in glass blowing, painting on porcelain drawing, modelling and carving, are located in Schla-kau, Limbach, Lauscha, and Rauenstein, which are quite small places in the Sonneburg district. The town of Sonneburg has also a commercial school attended by 152 pupils, who are instructed in commercial knowledge, political economy, the English, French and Spanish languages, bookkeeping, stenography and typewriting, calligraphy, and arithmetic. The efficient training given by such schools makes Germany capable of successfully competing with countries possessing superior natural advantages, nnd accounts in part for the wondersul rise in Germany's export trade and merchant marine.