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TO OPEOrIIDE
A lHome of its Own for Every Family
In   the   State.
COPYRIGHIr, 1884, BY JOHN M. BERRY. 158 BRIDGE STREET, SALEM, AISS.
[The right is hereby given any state government to use this copyright free of cost.]
It is a plan to assist those who deserve help, and will not beg. To
accomplish this great good a State Loan of $3,000,000 is required.
It will be amply secured by the homes.
From 1860 to 1875 our State legislatures gave away over two million dollars,
without the remotest prospect of a direct return; partly as follows:Museum of Zoology,    over $300.000      For the Colleges,   over 300 000
Agricultural College,  "   300,000         "    Deaf & Dumb, "300600
Institute of Technology, "  350,000        "    Idiotic & Blind, " 550,000
Now it is benevolent to furnish good homes to the Idiotic who cannot appreciate
them; would it not be equally well, and as truly benevolent to build homes for
deserving citizens not idiotic, who can appreciate them.
Think of the palaces we have erected at Danvers, Worcester, and elsewhere, for
the insane, two of which, for housing only 1500 lunatics, costs more than this bill
asks for to comfortably house a sane million.
Think of the happiness of the noble-hearted, shrewd and good contractors, who
by the prospect of a good contract and money to be made in the future, could
spend their time, and employ suitable men to explain to the legislature how much
these unfortunate wards of the state needed a palace to live in.
Think of the happiness of the doctors and attendants, housed also in the palace
at good salaries, and shop keepers happy in furnishing supplies at good prices.
Think of the happy farmers made more so by the state agricultural college assisting them to educate their sons in a special class education that will give them,dvantage over the laborers and their sons, who cannot avail themselves of it
their last dollar is taken to pay rent.
Think of the happy lar-' rds (housed in their own home), made more so by the
state assisting them to educate their sons in the bestpaying trades at a school of
Technology that will give them an advantage over any mechanic in the statewho
uses his last dollar to pay rent.
Think of the happy Bank Presidents and Millionaires made more so by the state
assisting them to give their sons a collegiate education, that will still further increase the inequality of chances between their family and that of wage and salary
earners, who use their last dollar to pay rent.
These things are good in their place; but is it not commencing at the wrong end?
Is it not better for the government to use its strength to help the mass of people,
instead of a class?
" He's but a wretch, with all his lands,
That wears a narrow soul.'"
The last cent being taken from these poorer men to pay excessive rent to landlords, they can't educate their children at college, however smart and promising
they may be.
Equality of opportunities (and such equality our government is established to
create), can only be given in colleges by the state furnishing board free to scholars
who properly improve their opportunities.




t. mis work, no clique can make oulo'ey, it is wholly for the benefit of the people;
yet these very reasons will operate against it. Friends! look this case up carefully,
for the enemies to the measure will spell ozt every single word in this bill,'in their
endeavors to get information by which, in an oily way, to do all the damage they
can to the work.
Think of the many other buildings as costly as palaces, built by the state, where
the most hardened and infamous criminals are healthfully fed, comfortably housed,
warmly clothed, carefully nursed if sick, and kept in the finest physical condition
possible, to be used by avaricious contractors to.compete with honest, hard-working
and deserving mechanics, who find it almost impossible to furnish the wants of
their families from the mere pittance which they now earn.
Perhaps it is all right to give the prodigal son a hearty welcome, perhaps it is all
right to use up sentimental charity on infamous and hardened criminals, and
criminally careless paupers; but I do claim and insist that a chance shall be given
sensible men and women, to help by their kindly aid the deserving mechanics,
who will die before they will beg, like the chance that is given the Board of State
Charities to help the pauper poor and hardened criminals.
If the government had done its duty before this and given these same criminals
a little well timed friendly aid, many of them would never have become such.
The DUTY of our state government being to equalize, it is not the way to do it
by lifting those that are up still higher; but to give a lift to those who are down
and' thus try to bring them up to an equality with their morefavored brothers.
And now one other subject of the state's beneficence demands our attention: the
Museum of Zoology, where are preserved the precioats REMAINS of snakes and
polliwogs long since defunct, never having been quite as sensitive or deserving our
care as human beings, and now less so than when in life; but they are carefully
housed and tended, even expensively so.
A-re the, men elected to wisely distribute the funds raised from the taxation of
labor?  Are these men insane or idiotic that they thus care for senseless and inanimate things. and leave living human flesh and blood to suffer?
We will, at great expense to ourselves, instruct these legislators that it is their
first duty to house men, women and children in comfortable homes, before so much
as one cent is taken from our treasury, to house snakes, stones, etc., etc., etc.
We will go one step further. Churches are made into palaces, and God's poor
go shelterless. Christ said, "feed the hungry," and "inasmuch as ye have done it
unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me." These
words mean something.
If Christ came to us today would we let him starve, would we let him go naked,
would we let him go with no roof over him, and think to honor and satisfy his requirements by our costly church buildings?'We know better. He plainly tells us
that we feed, clothe and shelter him, when we feed, clothe and shelter his:poor.
Yet palaces are built for churches, and God's poor starve (or go shelterless).'Is
this right 
Friends, don't let this become any party measure, make one party on it, the
PARTY OF RIGHT; let us take up this work unselfishly, both.parties joining hands.
And friends of the measure, don't, don't, DON'T, under any circumstance, pair on
this measure with any one; lose your vote first, and we know what we are advising, we are sure on this question, don't pair with any one; lose your vote first.
It is hard for the advocate of this measure, after sacrificing health, businegss and
money on account of opposition, to find it necessary for the good of the work, to
be compelled to state that he is not interested even in the remotest degree, in the
lumber trade, land, or any other business, by which he can derive the slightest
benefit from his work; it involves anxiety and loss alone to him. He does not receive any money aid to assist him, and no salary or honors, so-called, could ever
tempt him to do this work for the state. Wealth and position have no value except to accomplish some good purpose. The kindly advice and hard labor of two
trusted friends who are helping him, he values more than anything else. The
three rely wholly and completely on the happiness to be created by this measure,
as the nmost valuable recompense for the labor invested; it is their ambition
"To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land
And read their history in a nation's eyes."
A native of Salem, he asks the most searching scrutiny; as those who rarely see
unselfish work done, are hard to be convinced.                     -',




"Ye friends to truth, ye statesmen who survey
The rich man's joys increase, the poor's decay,'Tis yours to judoge, how wide the limits stand
Between a wealthy and a happy land."
A bill will be presented to the next legislature for the,)urpose of assisting any
family in the state into a home of their own, by the state loaning every town and
city $5,000, and an additional $1,000 for every thousand in excess of five thousand
inhabitants; the Work to be carried'on by associations guaranteed by said cities
and towns; the state loan to be repaid by a perpetual ground rent, to be used first
to pay off the bonds, and after that to accumulate to assist the occupants of the
land or their children into a home, should they ever need it. This ground rent
will repay the state in less than forty years' time.
The bill will necessitate a loan of
$3,000,000O
Some never dare do anything unless they have a precedent for it;: so we will
give a few from our state records.
Acts to aid railroads were passed as follows:Boston and Portland,     $50,000.    Troy and Greenfield, over   $900,000.
Andover and Haverhill. 100,000.      Boston and Albany,         3,000,000.
Norwich and Worcester,  400,000.     New York and New England. 5,000,000.,astern,                500,000.     Hoosac Tunnel, over       23,000,000.
Brothers, what are we doing? Lending the credit of our commonwealth to a,Ss of Zmen,?l TO HELP THE RICH STOCK-HOLDERS of the New York and New
ogland and other railroads to make money with, just what our constitution ex^*iessly.forbids, and neglecting to loan it to the people, the mass of citizens, to be
^-,ed to furnish them with homes, to make them happy and to increase their hap-,iness, just what our constitution expressly requires us to do.
This was loaned to help rich Inenas a class, the poor did not apply for the loans;
the roads were just starting and poor men could not invest in them. and all know
rich men never build railroads and issue stocks and bonds or get state loans
to help the poor; or, in fact, any one else but themselves; they did it to make
money, using the state's credit to do it with, and the state lost millions by the
operation. The loan asked for to provide the people with homes of their' own
will create a million times more happiness among our citizens, and the security
given is a thousand times better than a railroad ever has given, or ever can ogive.
No class legislation is asked in this bill, but it is to give to every one, rich and
poor alike, a chance to get a home. Our state constitution says: "Government
is * e - -*- for the happiness of the people, e  * w NOTfOrb the PROFIT OF ANY
CLASS OF IMEN,"' and further on it says, "It shall be the duty of the Legislatures
*: X to encourage - * A  rewards and immunities, to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general  2 * * X benevolence, public and private charity, * * * * and generous sentiments among the people.
This loan can be raised in England, where most of our loans have been raised,
so it will not diminish the working capital of our state.
By taxation of the property thus newly created here, the state will reap a benefit
in money, of many times the amount of the loan.
The state has spent over twenty-three million dollars on the Hoosac Tunnel, and
there is no prospect of a return for this enormous investment. It was started to
help a railroad corporation, yet only about one-tenth that amount, is here asked to
help every man, woman and child in the state; no one class of rich people, but all
classes, and at the end of twenty-five years we will have a perfect garden state,
blooming all over with comfortable, happy homes, instead of a hole'in a mountain
which the state would make -money to give away, under proper restrictions as to its
use, as she is losing on it at the following rate per year, and we will, only go back
ten years.-in
1874. Tunnel cost over 12 millions.  1879. Tunnel cost over 19 millions.
1875.    "         ". "  15'.       1880.     "    " t    20    C
1876.    i;    " 17    "         1881.    "    "   "   21'
1877.    "    "    "     18          1882.    "    6    (  22    "
1878.      8' "      181-2 "         1883.    "    "   "   23    W




That is enough to make any one feel sad, who wishes for the happiness of the
people. The state will lose more on the loan made on account of the rich corporators of the New York and New Enogland railroad than is here asked for, to build
homes for all our people., Just think of that.
Now those were only loans, LOANS of the credit of the state, but sometimes the
legislature gives away money, as we have already proven;
Some lawyers at first thought that building associations. formed under a law
like the one proposed, would be too tightly tied up to allow them to do the greatest
amount of good they were capable of; but experience in this state, at Lynn, has
taught that this is not so; and if any additional tie can be put on such associations
to PREVENT them or their members FROM making money, even in the most INDRECT way out of them, it will be best to make it today.
This plan is shorn of every possibility of financial gain to those engaged, as it
involves labor, and loss alone, pecuniarily.!'All may sav;w self, but minds that
Heavenward tower,
Aim at a wider power,
Gifts on the world to shower."
BE TRUE.
"Thou must be true thyself          Think truly, and thy thoughts
If thou the truth would'st teach;   Shall the world's famine feed;
Thy soul must overflow, if thou     Speak truly, and each word of thine
Another's soul would'st reach;      Shall be a fruitful seed;
It needs the overflow of heart      Live truly, and thy life shall be
To give the lips hull speech.       A great and noble creed."
Some timid hearts-destitute of courage —quiver in every nerve if bold, sharp,
interested persons, to gain selfish ends, cry.out —"this or that is inexpedient" —
"this or that can't be done."  Such timid ones submit and claim the patience as a
virtue-forgetting that
"Patience in cowards, is tame hopeless fear;
But in brave minds a scorn of what they bear."
Manly and courageous men dare attempt a noble object; and., daring, win.
Cowards fear attempt, and by their fear and cowardice lose all-when the fact bold
and plain, is"It is not just as we take itThis mystical world of ours;
Life's field will yield, what we make it."
The most despicable are those, who, wishing to do the right-lack the courage;
how can one hesitate to enlist in a noble cause?. One, only one earnest champion
on the floor of the House or Senate, will draw others-then concentration and persistence will surely end in victory. A brave man, seeing the right, never gives up
till the cause is won.
Extracts from   the Constitution of Massachusetts.
-All - * - * are born FREE and EQUAL and have certain NATURAL *        "0 
rights *  * * in fine that of * * * * OBTAINING HAPPINESS.
Government is - * *    for the * * * * HAPPINESS of the PEOPLE      * *  +
NOT for the profit * * * * of any * * * * class of men.
The legislature ought FREQUENTLY TO ASSEMBLE * * * * for marking NEW
LAWS, as the COMMON GOOD may require.
The end * * * * of government is *' * * to FURNISH     * * *  individuals
* * *- THEIR NATURAL rights, and the BLESSINGS of ife.
Whenever * * *   NOT obtained, the PEOPLE have A'RIGHT to alter the government * * *     for THEIR happiness.
The PEOPLE * * * * HAVE A RIGHT to institute government, and to reform,
alter, or totally change the same, when THEIR * * * * HAPPINESS REQUIRES IT.
The PEOPLE have A RIGHT, * * " to give instructions to theirrepresentatives.
FREQUENT recurrence to the fundamental principles of the constitution * *:  *
are ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY'         * * * to maintain afree government.
The whole foundation of our government is "EQUALITY of opportunities," the
further we depart from that, the weaker grows the fabric of our state, until finally
it will fall, if WE neglect to strengthen the foundations.
Those extracts show that lack of courage, alone, prevents us enjoying this happiness. The brave men who devised our constitution did all they could for us;
they had the wisdom  to plan, but it was beyond their power to furnish us the
courage to carry it out. It needs action on our part, and true, hard, and earnest
work-for
"Happy were men if they but understood
There is no happiness but in doing good."




Many today worship the gold, not the man-and'The base wretch who hoards up all he can
Is praised and called a thrifty man."
Success is pleasant, but principle is best,!Where honor or where conscience does not bind.
No other tie shall shackle me."
The advantages of the ownership of homes by families, as a means of happiness, is better understood by women than men, and manly men value a true
wvonan's advice.
A bill will be presented to the next legislature for a state loan of $3,000,000 to
our cities and towns to help the citizens into homes of their own.
Don't ask the opinion of those who rent houses, or are interested in mortgages
directly or indirectly, or of those who do not need a home at present.
The moment you hear an opinion given against any endeavor made to house our
citizens in homes of their own, look for a selfish motive, and ninety-nine times,out of a hundred you will find it comes from one who rents property, or from
some one selfishly interested either directly or indirectly.
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
IN  THE YEAR      ONE   THOUSAND      EIGHT HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-FIVE.
A.N - _A.OCT
TO   PROMOTE THE     ESTABLISHMENT OF     BENEVOLENT    BUILDING ASSOCIATIONS
THROUGHOUT THE COMMWONWEALTH.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of l'epresent.-atives in Geneeral Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
JMethod of Incorporatio7 and General Powers.
SECTION 1. Twenty-five or more persons, over twenty-one years of age, who
associate themselves together by an agreement in writing, with the intention of
forming a corporation for the purpose of purchasing'3nd holding real estate within
this Commonweallth, of improving the same for homes to be owned by their occupants, and of selling houses and lots payable at cost on instalments to persons
who shall occupy the same under its rules, shall, upon complying with the provisions of the five following sections, be and remain a corporation for said purposes,
with all the liabilities, duties and restrictions set forth in this act, and in all general laws which now are or may hereafter be in force relating to such corporations.
NOTE. These corporations cannot depreciate, but mwust IeMPROVE real estate. No person can
speculate in real estate throughl them by purchasing a house and lot, for he must occupy it for a
homhe hile it is being paid for. The corporations cannot permanen tly hold real estate, but mcust sell
within a very limited time. (See sections 11, 29 and 31.) In thislmatter of homes, where she is directly interested, woman is placed on the same footing as elsewhere in the General Statutes.
It'is necessary that a large number shall sign the agreement, in order to find among them enough
unselfish ones to attend the meetings and run the work without pay.
SECT. 2. The agreement shall set forth the fact that the subscribers thereto
associated themselves with the intention of forming a corporation for the purposes
stated in the preceding section, and the town or city-which shall be within this
Commonwealth-in which it is located.
NOTE. To prevent misunderstandings:from the commencement, it is important that some definite
agreement should be made, and signed.
SECT. 3. Each subscriber, before subscribing to said agreement, shall contribute and pay to a person agreed upon by all the subscribers as a temporary treasurer, the sum of five dollars, which shall be for an admission fee; and the further
sum of one dollar and twenty cents, which shall be for the first annual assessment,.and said temporary treasurer shall pay over all sums of money so paid to;him,:to
the treasurer of said corporation as soon as one is elected.
NOTE. Twenty-five personsxare allowed, by existing laws, to formn a money making building association; seven can form a. benevolent association. It was thought if a town could not furnish
twenty-five liberal enongh to give $6.20 each to start one of these benevolent associations, there
~would.not be interest enough felt to run it properly. If not obliged to:pay the money before signing, many would sign ywith no intention to pay.
SECT. 4. The first meeting shall be called by a notice signed by one or more
of the subscribers to such agreement, who shall have made the payments required




by the preceding section, stating the time, place and purpose of the meeting, a
copy of which notice shall, seven days, at, least before the day appointed for the
meeting, be given to each subscriber who shall have made such payments, or left
at his usual place of business or place of residence, or deposited in the post-office
post-paid and addressed to him at his usual place of business or of residence; such
notice shall contain the names of all signers of the agreement. And whoever
gives such notices shall, make affidavit of his doings, which shall be recorded in
the records of the corporation.
NOTE. It is actually necessary for the good of the work that very careful notice shall be given of
the first meeting; to get a full attendance of the members to start the work properly. And a list of
all signers are sent to each member, that they may have sufficient time before the meeting to make
enquiries as to the ability of those he wishes to vote for as officers.
IECT. 5. At such first meeting, including any necessary or reasonable adjournment, an organization shall be effected by the choice by ballot of a temporary
clerk, who shall be sworn; and by the adoption of by-laws; and by the election by
ballot of a president (who shall also be lirst director), vice president, treasurer,
assistant treasurer, clerk, assistant clerk, and of second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth
and seventh director; but at no meeting shall any person, who has not subscribed
the agreement of association and made the payments provided by section three,
vote or be eligible to any office. The temporary clerk shall make and attest a
record of the proceedings until the clerk has been chosen and sworn, including a
record of such choice and qualification.
NOTE. The right of adjournment prevents an organization being hastily formed with consequent
liability to errors. The by-laws should be very carefully examined before adoption. The commissioner of corporations could probably furnish a better model to form on than any other person in the
state. Election of officers by ballot instead of by voice vote, prevents a distribution of the loudmouthed ones in different parts of a hall, each instructed to shout for the election of a man agreed
on beforehand by some clique, instead of giving competent men and women equal opportunity to
hold office. No person being eligible to office at the first meeting except signers of the agreement,
every one has had opportunity to make enquiries as to the character and ability of all officers before
voting, and after that. as but one office becomes regularly vacant each month, it will be hard for an
incompetent man to get the place.
SECT. 6. The president, treasurer, clerk and a majority of the directors shall
forthwith make, sign and swear to a certificate, setting forth a true copy of the
agreement of association, with the names of the subscribers thereto, the date of
the first meeting and the successive adjournments thereof, if any, and shall submit
such certificate, and also the records ot the corporation, to the mayor of the city
or chairman of the board of selectmen of the town in which the corporation is
located. Said mayor or chairman shall thereupon cause the same to be submitted
to the city council or to a town meeting, as the case may be, and said council or
town meeting shall immediately vote upon the question of endorsing the corporasion. if such endorsement shall be'voted in the manner provided by section seven
of the twenty-ninth chapter of the Public Statutes for votes for incurring debts7
the aforesaid mayor or chairman shall transmit said certificate and records. together
with an attested copy of said vote, to the commissioner of corporations, who shall
examine the same, and who may require such other evidence as to the facts of the
case as he may judge necessary. The commissioner, if it appears that the requirements of this and the preceding sections, preliminary to the establishment of the
corporation have been complied with, shall certify that fact and his approval of
the certificate by endorsement thereon, and immediately notify the aforesaid officers of the corporation thereof.  Such certificate shall thereupon be filed by said
officers in the office of the secretary of the commonwealth; who, upon the payment
of the fee of five dollars, which shall be in full for filing and recording the certificates required by this section, incluldin the issuing of the certificate of organization by the secretary, shall cause the same, with the endorsement thereon, to be
recorded, and shall thereupon issue a certificate in the following form:NOTE. The responsibility aAtaching to a sworn statement will tend to a more perfect organization. The signatures and oaths of the three most responsible officers, and a, majority of the directors, to a certificate containing the names of all subscribers with particulars, together with the
records, gives those who are to endorse or reject, ample means of judging whether it will be to the
advantage of the city or town.
As such endorsement guarantees the state from loss on account of these chosen men and women,
the same rule is used in regard to the vote on it as on that for money appropriations. The city or
town thus becomes responsible to the state, and must make good the loss to the state if any occurs.
Should such endorsement be given, an examination of the association must be made by the State
Commissioner of Corporations exactly the same as for any other kind of corporation formed under
the general laws, and for money-making building associations like the Saving Loan and Fund.
COMMONWEA:LTH        OF MASSACHUSETTS.
BE IT KNOWN, that wheaeas [here the names of the subscribers to the agreement of association shall be inserted] have associated themselves with the intention of forming a corporation under the name of [here the name of the corpora



tion shall be inserted, the figures of the name being spelled out in full-l for the
purpose of purchasing and holding real estate within this Commonwealth, of improving the same for homes to be owned by their occupants, and of selling houses
and lots payable at cost on instalments to persons who shall occupy the same
under its rules, with a capital not to exceed five hundred thousand dollars, and
have complied with the provisions of the statutes of this Commonwealth in such
cases made and provided, as appears from the certificate of the president, treasurer
clerk and directors of said corporation, duly approved by the commissioner of corporations, and recorded in this office; now; therefore, I [here the name of the secretary
shall be inserted], secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, do hereby
certify that [here the names of the subscribers to the agreement of the association
shall be inserted] their associates and successors are legally organized and established as, and are hereby made an existing corporation under the name of [here
the name of the corporation shall be insertedj with the powers, rights and privileges, and subject to the limitations, duties and restrictions which by law appertain
thereto. Witness my official signature hereunto subscribed and the seal of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts hereunto affixed this            day of         in
the year            [in these blanks the day, month and year of execution of'the
certificate shall be inserted].
The secretary shall sign the same, and cause the seal of the commonwealth to
be thereto affixed, and such certificate shall have the force and effect of a special
charter, and shall be conclusive evidence of the existence of such corporation..
NOTE. The above certificate and form of organizing a corporation by the first six sections of this
bill are almost identical with the form of organizing a corporation under the general laws, except
the guarantee of the aldermen and council and the town.
SECT, 7. Not more than one such corporation shall be formed for each twenty
thousand inhabitants, and one additional for the remainder, if any.
NOTE. $20,000 is thought to be enough for the state to invest In any one of these corporations.
It is better to have two of $20,000 each, than one of $40,000. (See section 36.)
SECT. 8. The names of such corporations shall be assigned to them by the secretary of the Commonwealth in the certificate provided by section six, and shall
be as follows: The Massachusetts Benevolent Building Association, Number
[here a number shall be inserted, which shall be One for the first such corporation,
and shall be increased by one for each successive.corporation so formed thereafter.]
NOTE. The name being assigned by the secretary of the state will prevent confusion arising
from a similarity of names.
SECT. 9. such corporations shall have a seal, which shall be attached to all
sealed documents executed in its name and behalf, and which shall have the words
Massachusetts Benevolent Building Association upon it in a circle, with the number of the corporation in figures in the centre thereof.
NOTE. The designation of the corporations by numbers will make all these corporations branches of one state system and more easily operated as such.
SECT. 1.0. Every such corporation may hold real and personal estate for the
purposes aforesaid, not exceeding five hundred thousand dollars in value, and it
may receive and hold, in trust or otherwise, as a part of said sum, funds received
by gift or bequest, to be by it devoted to the purposes for which it is incorporated.
NOT I. $500.000 is the amount that can be held by any benevolent association formed under the
general laws, and an association of this sort being formed and worked to advantage in any city or
town, no matter how small, furnishes a nucleus to which benevolent persons will add to as they see
the good it will accomplish, thereby doing needed good in their own country. instead of converting
the heathen of foreign lands.
SECT 11. No such corporation shall occupy any real estate belonging to it for
offices in which to transact its business; nor use its funds or property or any part
thereof except for the purposes for which it is incorporated.
NOTE. It will be the best policy for the state to prohibit these associations from occupying their
real estate for offices, as such occupation would finally lead to the erection of costly buildings, and
the next step would be to costly salaries, all of which extravagancies would be at the expense of
the benefits intended to be given the citizens at large.
SECT. 12. Such corporations may make by-laws not repugnant to the laws of
the Commonwealth, and annex penalties for the breach thereof, not exceeding
five dollars for each offence.
NOTE. Similar penalties are allowed to be annexed to violations of the by-laws of corporations
formed under the general laws.
Officers and Members cand their Rights, Duties arnd
M eetings.
SECT 13. Any person residing in a town or city in which any such corporation




Shall be located, and being married or over twenty-one years of age, may become a
member of said corporation upon making application to the officers of the same,
and paying an admission fee of five dollars; but no person shall be at the same
time a member of more than one such corporation.
NOTE. It is thought best to fix the amount of the admission fee-which is required as a guarantee of good faith and. genuine interest-a.t live dollars; this limitation and the limitation on the
assessments (section 15) will always keep the work in the hands of the people. and thus prevent a
close corporation ever being fornied from them. 10 was tried at Lynn. but is found to be too high.
If experience shows that a less sum will effect the desired result, it may be reduced by future
legislation.
SECT. 14. No shares shall be issued in any such corporation, but each member
shall have an equal vote at its meetings. _No person, by any vote or action of the
corporation or otherwise, shall ever have a better opportunity tlan another to obtain the benefits which said corporation is designed to confer, except that no
person not a member, shall be' given the right to occupy and purchase a home,
when a member, present at the meeting at which the right is drawn desires the
right.
No member of such corporation shall directly or indirectly derive any pecuniary
profit from the same, except the right to draw a house and lot as provided by this
act; and in case he draws such right his membership shall be suspended, and he
shall not act as such until he has paid for the house and lot in full, or has given up
his privilege, and a full settlement has been made between him and the corporation. No salary shall be paid to any officer, nor any bond or security required
from him.
No such corporation shall make any gift or loan, and no transfer or loan of any
property belonging to it shall be allowed except a regular sale by authority of the
corporation.
NOTE. Sections 25 and 26 render the giving of a bond or security unnecessary. The design of
these corporations is to give every homeless citizen an equal chance to get a home. That no person
may, through wealth, influence or cunninge get an extra advantage beside, no member is allowed to
have any profit, salary or possible gain, except this chance. Shares are issued in corporations to be
traded upon, and piled up in the hands of a few who control all the votes; here each has an equal
chance and vote, and no certificates are issued for the poor man to sell for a mess of pottage. By
this plan no man can work for his own selfish interest, and his only interest in the corporation will
be to promote the general interest of the members.
A good lawyer. or a sensible rmaj, when he reads the words "no member of such corporation.
shall directly or'indirectly derive anyu pecuniary profit from the same, will know that this is not a
money making scheme; but fools will hunt for a selfish motive, as some are now hunting for perpetual motion, with as good a prospect <(f finding it."
No loan or gift is allowed because in Lynn it was found to create hard feeling if such were refused by an officer. By placing it beyond their power this is avoided.
SECT. 15   No assessment shall be laid upon a member of any such corporation
to exceed one dollar and twenty cents per annum.
NOTE. The business must be done economically, and members are not to be taxed for unneces-e
sary expenses, such as finely carpeted offices, lithographed letter heads, and other vain luxuries, th
cost of which ought to go towards housing the homeless.
SECT. 16..tegular meetings of such corporations shall be held on the first
Monday evening of each month, at eight o'clock. Special meetings may be held
upon other days, at the same hour and place as regular meetings, under such rules
as the by-laws of the corporation may prescribe.
Twelve members, one of whom must be an officer, shall be necessary to constitute a quorum   at any meeting.   But a less number may hold a regular meeting
for the purpose only of receiving payments, and if both the treasurer and assistant
treasurer be absent, they may elect a treasurer pro tempote, to whom the payments
may be made. Four members of the board of directors shall constitute a quorum
of that board.
NOTE. If there is a regular meeting night for these corporations throughout the state everybody
will understand and remember it; and a man cannot so well illegally join more than one corporation. The advantage is similar to that of a uniform day for elections. Pavments must'be received
at a regular meeting night, and it will sometimes occur that no quorum is piresent.
SECT. 17. No person shall be elected to eny office in such a corporation of
which he is not a member; and any officer can be removed from      office by'a fourfifths vote of the members present, provided not more than two officers are removed at any one meeting.
NOTE. By tile last clause sudden evolutions in office are prevented.
SECT. 18. The terli    of office ir such corporations shall expire at regular
mleetinlls as follows:
In January, the office of    Seventh Director.
In February, that of              Assistant Clerk.
In March, that of            Sixth Director.
In April, that of                 Clerk.
In May, that of              Fifth Director.




In June, that of                  Assistant Treasurer.
In July, that of             Fourth Director.
In August, that of                Treasurer.
In September, that of        Third Director.
In October, that of                Vice President.
In November, that of          Second Director.
In December, that of               President and First Director.
NOTE. This plan prevents a regular succession, by which incompetent men being regularly
-promoted through a sort of good natured courtesy, can arrive at the higher offices. As but one
office becomes vacant at a time. each officer's character and ability are examined more closely than
if all were to be elected at one time; and it also prevents any sudden change in the official body.
Notice particularly the regular order in which they become vacant.
Endeavors will be made to throw out this section to prevent the gradual change of officers, and
have all offices become vacant at the same time, thus compelling an almost entire reelection of the
former officers to prevent sudden change in so many departments at, one time; also enabling
tricksters to combine, and by trading votes with each other vote themselves into office over and
over again, until finally. honest members finding they could not control, would leave, when the
tricksters would claim members could not be found to even supervise the work without pay, and
would in the end get fat salaries out of it, which workmen would have to pay.
SECT. 19.   In case there should fail to be an election to any office in any such
corporation upon its becoming vacant, the member who has' not held said office
during any part of the preceding term, and who is not then holding office, and
who has within a year held the highest office in the corporation which has been
held by such a person, shall assume said vacant office and hold the same until an
election is had, which shall be as soon as may be. Officers shall rank in the order
in which they are named in section five.
No officer shall be elected to the same office two successive terms, and no
member shall hold two offices at the same time except that the president shall also
be first director.
NOTE. This prevents a vacancy occurring in case there is no election. By the constant change
here provided, no person is allowed to foist himself into an office perpetually, and feel that he runs
it. and can do as he pleases with it, perhaps embezzle, and nobody meddle with him.
No man ever was or ever will be essential to the success of the'work of any office, position or
cause.
SECT. 20. The board of directors subject to this act and the by-laws of any
such corporation shall receive, invest, manage and apply to the purposes of the
corporation, all funds and estate of such corporation, and may sell and transfer
any of said estate.  It shall make all agreements for and purchases of la'bor, stock
and land; p2rovided that no contract or conveyance shall be made for} iiore than
the amount of three hundred dollars without a previous vote by the corporation
authorizing the same.
NOTE. The directors should never be allowed to make a contract for a larger amount than $300
for if it is done, the supervision is taken further from the people; and for the good of the work It
is actually necessary that the main management should be as near the citizens as possible.
SECT. 21, If at any time the officers of any such corporation are unable to give
the time necessary for a proper performance of their duties, the, board of directors
may be authorized    by such- corporation to employ persons not members of the
same to assist said officers. No person shall be so employedi till approved by said
corporation, nor during any; part of two successive years, nor for any longer time
than the pleasure of the corporation. Such. persons shall receive such cor-pensation as said corporation shall determine, at the rate of not exceeding four
hundred dollars each per year. An equitable proportion of.the amount paid for
such compensation, shall be added to the cost of each house sold.,Not more than
two such persons sh-all be employed at'olne.ime; nor more than or/e when the
amount of capital of said corporation is less than twenty thousandclollars.
NOTE. By employing persons not members of the association, changinfu hern every year, and
putting the wages lon, the position is prevenlted froim being a prize fir the control of which
members might contend. These places" wil be a valuable assistance to promising young people
not established in life, who can thus earn a tritle, which will be quite an item' to them under. the
supervision of oldel heads, and at the same time gain valuable experience, and, to some extent,
prove their fitness for more lucrative and responsible situations.
Strong endeavors will be made to weed this clause out so as to run it into paying offices. Enemies
will contend that those -who have occupied one year will be better qualified to act two; this would
be so if any one person ever did lkow evei'ything tand( was also the most honest, but that never has
happened, and a man NEVER died but a better man could be found to fill his place. Besides, leave
a, man in office over a year and he beginsito think that office is for his benefit instead of for that of
the people. This feeling increases so rapidly:the longer the position is held, that even the people
begin to think it is so, and ldon't dare to question the' master.'Use reason every time and'ydu will
make fewer mistakes in life; trust in yourself above all others.
SECT. 22. Thecommissioner of corporations shall prepare and cause to be
manufactured, a sufficient number ot blank record and account books, and- such
other blank forms as he may deem expedient, in uniform style, to be determined
by him; and said books and forms shall be furnished at cost to any such corpora



tion which shall apply therefor.  All such corporations shall conform to the forms
so prescribed.
NOTE. Uniformity in method will simplify the work, and the commissioner will have the benefit
of suggestions arising from the experience or all in devisingo the one best method for all. See note
on section 9.
SECT. 23. It shall be the duty of the officers. of such corporations to cause to
be kept a full list of the members of said corporations and their residences; and
also two full sets of accounts by double entry, showing all matters or transaction
affecting the property of said corporations; one to be kept by or under the direction of the treasurer, and the other by or under the direction of the clerk; each
set of said accounts shall be kept in separate buildings.
NOTE. This section is designed to prevent the possibility of loss of the accounts and most important records of a corporation, by fire or otherwise.
Miethods of Doiar  BtusiaeSs.
SECT. 24. At every regular meeting of any such corporation the records and
all -books belonging to said corporation  shall he open to the inspection of any
editor of a newspaper or periodical published in the Coinmonwealth, and to the
chairman of the selectmen of the town, or the mayor of the city in which:said
corporation is located, or such person as he may designate; and any such editor or
other person may copy such extracts as he may see fit fromn the rocords.
NOTE. This work being of public interest, the newspapers will, by means of this section, be
enabled to prevent any questionable transactions being secretly carried on, by exposing them, if
commenced. Belonging to a city or town as much, if not more, than anything else they own, it
should be under the direct supervision of their duly elected officers, and this section places it there.
SECT. 25. Such corporations shall designate some bank or banks at which it
shall deposit its moneys.
No person or persons shall have authority to endorse or cash checks made payable to the order of any such corporation; except that the treasurer, or in his
absence, the assistant treasurer may endorse such checks for deposit only in the
aforesaid bank or banks, to the credit of said corporation's account.
Payments to any such corporation shall be valid only when made by check payable to the order of said corporation and duly honored, unless the amount of said
-payment is actually deposited in said bank at some time to the credit of said
corporation: provided, that an officer's return of satisfaction upon any execution
issued in favor of any such corporation shall have the usual effect; but said officer
shall be bound to pay the amount collected to the corporation  by a check duly
honored in the same manner as to anv other person.
All money or checks received by any such corporation shall at once be deposited
in the bank or banks which said corporation has designated as provided for by this
section.
NOTE. The trouble and risk of handling considerable sums of money, with the consequent risk
of robbery and loss, is avoided by the provisions of this section.
By means of this section no money belonging to such corporations is allowed to pass through the
hands of any person on its way into the bank, unless the careless ones who are too lazy, and the
mean ones who are too close to buy a bank check, choose to take the risk of any loss which may
happen to the corporation by their negligence in paying cash, and give bonds for the treasurer
which they virtually have to under this section for such neglect on their part.
SECT. 26.  NO money shall be paid by any corporation except upon bills audited
and approved by the clerk, or in his absence by the assistant clerk, to whose satisfaction they shall be proved correct.
The clerk shall at once report in writing to the president, or in his absence to
th( vice president, the amounts of all bills approved by him, with the name of the
party to whomn each is due.
All payments shall be by check on the bank in which the corporation deposits,
signed by the treasurer,  or in his absence by the assistant treasurer, and sealed
with the seal of tbe corporationl. All checks,shall be made payable to the payee
or order, three days fro:n date, and shall never be antedated.
All instruments under seal shall be executed by the treasurer in the name and
behalf of the corporation.  The treasurer shall give and receive receipts for
everything received or parted with by the corporation however small may be its
value.
The seal of the corporation shall always be in the custody of' the president, or,
in his absence, of the vice president,-and shall be affixed to any paper only by said
custodian after careful inquiry as to the propriety thereof.
NOTE. In Section 25, very careful provision is made to prevent any loss to the fund of the
association on its way into the bank; and this section prevents any improper abstraction of money
from the bank after it is there, and is far preferable to a careless handling of money, secured by
the giving of a bond as security for it, as in most other corporations, which bond is seldom paid inl




case of loss. This system renders a bond unnecessary, and officers in these corporations will nbt be
electedt because of their wealth and ability to furnish a bond, but because of their good character;
the security of three well known men of character is better than all the bonds inl the world.
Endeavors will also be imade to throw out these two sections by enemies. The consent of three
men holding the three most responsible positions in the corporation is actually necessary before one
cent can be drawn, and even tlien not until three days afterwards. The seal being in possession of
the president, no bond or deed can be executed by the treasurer without his knowledge and supervision. The giving and receiving of receipts prevents dispute in every case.
SECT. 27. All contracts lor labor shall be made by the jio, and shall contain a
time stipulated  for completion; times for paying  instalments as the work proglesses, the amtounts being so fixed that a baiance sufficient to protect the corporation tIrout loss shall always be due until seven days after the work is finished;
and a provision for a penalty in case of violation  of the terms of the contract
sufficient to protect the funds or the corporation from loss.  The terms of the
contract shall oe fixed by the board  of directors, and all agreements for stock,
labor or land shall be in writing, signed by a majority of the board ot directors,
and by the other parties to the contract.
Such agreements shall contain a statement that to the best of the, knowledge
and beliet of the contracting  parties, no member or members of the corporation
have any pecuniary interest inl said agreement except as members of the corporation.
NOTE. Those who are experienced in building will see clearly, upon reflection. that for the
success of the worK of this corporation it is absolutely necessary that labor should be performed
by the job, and not by the day. No business man would be likely to sign the statement provided
for by the last paragraph with the, consequent liability for damages in the future, unless it were
strictly true.
As i; will be for the best interests of the people that the stock should be purchased, and the labor
contracted for separately, tile limit of seven days will be sufficielt to protect most any such corporation Irom loss on account of labor. Every endeavor should be made to so arrange matters that'the
workingmlali call take the work, which he often could not compete for if credit had to be obtained
and given by hin oIn the stock, this will enable himl to get more pay for his labor and will prevent
bloated conuractors standing by with hands in their pockets and oaths in their mouths, gathering
in from the working people $10 per day for the profanity they invest in the job.
Contractors of course will fight the bill for it is so arranged that they cannot make fortunes out of it.
bECT. 28.  No purchase snail be madle by any  such corporation upon credit.
and all the business of said corporation shall be done for cash so lar as practicable.
No title shall be given by any such corporation to any real estate sold by it until
full pay:merlt has beenl received for the same.
NOTE. Compelling associations to buy for cash, enables them to buy stock at low prices, makes
their trade desirable, and the enorm ous quantities they will buy throughout the state, will make
such competion for their trade, that they will be able to obtain in the end the lowest prices, keeps
themt constantly on a solid basis, and prevents speculation and failure from  hard timnes. Not
all the corporations will have the requisite financial talent for doing a credit bu.iness.
SECT. 29. Not over one-letlth of the cash in the treasury of any such corporation shall at one time be paid or agreed to be paid for real estate bought by said
corporation, nor shall any real estate be purchased by any of said corporations
so long as it owns any real estate not allotted to parties to be bought by them  on
instalments, but this shall not apply to payments by a corporation on account of
houses and lots previously assigned and lorfeited for failure to meet payments.
NOTE. Experience has taught that one-tenth the amount of money on hand is about the proportion that should be used in purchasing land for this purpose. If more is found to be needed, any
future legislature can easily alter the amount. It is important that too much should not be tied up
in dead land; those who have dealt in real estate will easily understand tile importance of this.
It is not intended to buy large tracts, ann establish colonies of those who are just struggling into
homes, to be called some slurring local name by envious people who have more wealth, alnd are
afraid the owners will eventually outstrip them in means and social stanlding,
if allowed to purchase at any price, land monopolists finding the people were in the market for
the land, would put it at such extortionate prices that most of the loan would be in land instead of
in dwellings. On the page of figures you can see how easily half the money could be invested in
land, if lallnd monopolists force the people to do so.
bECT. 30. No land shall be boughtt by the- corporation: until the title has first
been examlined and passed by a competent attorney, and a warranty deed shall be
insisted  upon by the corporation.  The corporation shall sell land by quit-claim
deed only. All ouildings when completed shall be kept fully insured until they
pass out of the hands of the corporation.
NOTE. A quit-claim deed gives all the corporation ever has, subject only to the limitations and
restrictions distinctly expressed in the deeds; the buyer should not require the corporation to
insure his title, besides taking'the great care to see that it is good, which is required in this
section..Methods of Disposing of Property.
SECT. 31.  Whenever such a corporation is ready to erect a house, the right to
occupy and buy said house, with the lot upon which it is to be situated, shall be
drawn by lot at the next regular monthly meeting, all members present having an
equal chance to draw  the right.  The successful person shall receive the bond




provided by section thirty-four, as soon as the house is: retady for occupancy, and
have all the rights guaranteed thereby.
The right to occupy and buy ~houses shall be drawn at regular intervals so far as
convenient, anld rights imay be drawn through the winter, though the corporation
may not be ready on account'of the season of the year to begin building, provided
there are funds in the tre:asury at the tiile of drawing sufficient to btild all houses
drawn.  In such case the houses shall;be built as speedily' as possible when the
season opens.
If no member wishes the right due notice shall be given, and at the next meeting any person eligible to mnetnbership shall be allowed to idraw the right on the
same terms as a member, and with the same rigihts if successful. -
The person drawing a riaht shall in all cases act as an overseer:  without pay, of
the construction of the house, and report to the clerk in writing as.soon:as possible
any waste of stock, detect in workmanship, or failure to flfili the terms of the
contract, that may come under his observation, and all such reports shall' be considered by the board of directors.
Any person drawing a right. may;,if he has a lot considered  by the directors
suitable to:build a houise upon, deed the sanme to the corporation  for a nominal
consideration, and have his house built upon it, and the amount he is to pay shall
not include any charge for' t'he lot.
NOTE. If a person-does not feel ihterested enough in' getting a lionme, to appear at the meeting,
he would be verv likely tofail to pay for one. By drawing' for lhomes throoghllout the winter hope is
kept alive iln, all, and they should- not be drawn ahead as it consequenltly decreases hope.
No person would natulrally be so much interested in the erection of the building as the prospective
owner, and beside tlie reg'ular supervision of the a.ssociation, an extra hand is secured in him.''By the last section provision is made for those who can afforld a large lot, to obtain alhouse on the
same without detriment to other members of the corporation. as no larger amount will be taken
from: -the PJ'ad to provide the land than would be'required for a less costly piece of ground. The
1-10 ground tax will make it desirable for'ftnilis to content themsel.ves with a small piece of lanad.
SECT. 32.  SO long: as1 sciny person is ready to buy of any such':orporation a
house and lot:costincg not over three hundred dollars, said corporation shall furnish
no house and lot costing more than thata sum, uor so long as a person'is ready'to
buy and pay for a house of the following  dimensions and containn rg tour rooms;
shall any such? corporationa build anyW ooden house of different dimensions or style
than as follows: twenty.eight feet long by thir teen  feet wide, wth a straight flinht
of stairs' three feet wile runing -up i  the centre, -having   even: steps of eight
inech risee leadinig to a., lni'ding which ~shall be eight inches below the iupper floor;
the side sills' shall be made fiom  luiber twentv-eight feet lo'g by six inches
square,  having al piece cut from  one,corner  twenty-eigtht feet long- four inches
wide and two inches thick, leaving a ledge on the lower inside edge of said sill two
inches square on which the. lower floor joists are to rest;: the end sills shall be
thirteen feet long by four foo   iles square, the ends of Iwhich are to fill places on the
ends of the side sills fromn which. four-inch cubes have been cuit;. the lower floor
joists seventeen in number, (f Itwo by six inch lumber twelve feet four inches
long; two of the lower floor joists:shall be placed one on,each side of the ceutre of
the side sills one foot seven:inches distant therefrom, two of the upperl floor joists
and two sets of rafters shallIbe directly above them in their respective places; the
upper fidor joists twenty in number of two by six inch lumber tlhirteen feet long,
leaviag-  seven feet, six: inches in' the clear between tlhem and thle eower floor joist;
the, corner posts foul'teen feet lo'g byfive inches square, hiving a piece cut from
one corner two inches,square and'fourteen feet long; there shall beI-forty side
studs'of two by three inch lumber fourteen feet long set fourteenh inches;fromn each
other. conmmencing   at the corner postss and setting' towards the celtre; the sixteen
end stuids of the proportionate length and set in place in like manner;, the plates of
two by three inch lumber; there shall be seventeen sets of rafters of two by three
inch lumber cut for a, half pitch roof; the collar beamus of two by three inch, lumber, nailed in their places so as to leave seven feet six inches in the clear between
them and the upprt fioor joist; the furring of one by three inch luimber: the floors
of singrle matched boards; the base boards' six ifnches'wide; the corner:land saddle
boards four' and five inchles wide; the side'fascia boards eight inches a'nd tlhe end
ones six inches wide; no coving shall be added until the house is fully paid for;
the' shingeles fand clapboards shall be of. spruce,
The doors shall be six feet six inches long, two feet four inches wide and an
inch and a quarter thick; tle  front doorway  shall enter from  opposite the lower
landing of the stairs: the fhrait door'S shall 1have the two largest panelslmade of
plain groundl glass;' plain rim-locks or citches shilllbe used on  the doors; tle windlOW: sh li' be ar iinci and a'qjuarter thick and contain fo6ur lights each of twelve




by.twenty-four i nch glass.; the chimney shall rest oni'a stone or on the ground
and be built five bricks to the course, anld run il  p ili-enear the centre   of the
house as ttie stairst will allowv in the room  designed to be used fors a kitchen; the
house shall rest on fourteen posts, one at each corn'er, one at each end, and four
on each side, no cellar being furni;ished,-nor a brickl house of: different style anrd
dimensions from said wooden house, except thatthe' roof joists nmay be longer and
three inches wider, and the Ifoundation shall be of stone or brick,.wVhich may inelude a cellar.'
Wlen there is no' demand for houses of the style above described, only houses
of the saime general style; but thirteen feletwideby forty feet long, candl containing
six rooms, shall.be furnished so long as a.  person shall desire such a'house.  The
chimney for the additional roomns shall run up through' the ridge and through the
same roo:ns as the other chimrney.'
When there is no demand for houses-'of the'foregoing, styles, onlly houses of the
same general style, but thirteen' feet'wide'by forty-six feet long containingo  eight
rooms, shall be turnished,: so long as a person shall desire such a house. If wished
the six and eight roomed houses may be obtained in the brick buildings. erected;by
adding- one or two stories extra.Any' person buying a,house and  lot worth more than three hundred dollars.of
said corporation, shall pay ten per centum'of its cost at the time'of receiving the
privilege of: buying it, and the balance in instalments the same as in the case of
other houses and lots.
NOTE. An inexpensive style of house is to be built so long as there' is a demand for it. that
those who are most in need nmay filrst be benefitted,- and also that a larger number may participate inthe benefits, as mlore houses can thus be built'froml a given fund in the same length of time. A
uniform style is required for these houses, as experience has shown it to be more generally satisfac
tory, and the houses being built by wholesale will be built much cheaper., The payment of ten percent. in advance on the more expensive houses, falls on the class best able to bear it, protects the
corporation against too great single risks of non-payment of instalmenits, and those who feel it tRo,
burdensome ought to be nore economical in theirsselection of a house,, and thus at the same time b'e
surer of success in getting their homes, aind leave the state the extra funds to use in furnislhing
other' citizens with homes.
~ After the occup-ant of any wooden house has paid-for the same, he can easily build a cellar. underit, and by not having the expense of oiie to pay for when first staiting, lie is the, more sure of paying
for his loome. In brick houses the cellar cannot be conveniently dug after the frame is built, and
whenever it is possible it should be included in the original woik Of thle contractor.' These houses
are small, but they give four rooms, eacll twelve feet square, and it is much, better to build a home
that can be paid for by the occupants, than an extravagant one which they cannot buy.
The small iour roomed homes can- easily be paid for by single women'and by thus making them
independent we conferone of the greatest blessings On them and on the hunian race at large.~ Many
a helpless woman has been forced into a repulsive  age for lack of a home; the curses of which
only a few weeks experience in a divorce court makes plain to the most skeptical. Man ought to
have reached that plane ot civilization- in which some thought can be spared from self to advance
the interest of those whose main fault is loving them,. - The ten per cent. payment in advance on all
houses costing over $300, will force people to be economical and happy' instead of extravagant and
unhappy in enldeavoring to outdo others. If to surpass each other in character was made half as
earnest an, aim as to outstrip in style, this ivorld would be a happy place to live in.
The rich: laugh at and ridicule those who try to equal them, as all of, us would a monkey endeav
oring to equal us in dress and style.;;: Strenuous endeavors will be' made to make the limit $500,for the benefit of contractors.;; Expe].ience has taught that -$300 is the proper limit atpresent.
Future legislatures can alter if needed. If $.500 limit is'made, then for the'success of the plan, a
proportionate increase of the time for payment is: actually necessary, for many- people will not be:
able to pay $100 per year for five years.
SECT. 33.  All land when bought by any such corporation, must be divided at:
once into suitable sized lots by the board of directors, who shall apportion the cost
value among said lots, taking  into  account desirability' and  relative situation.
Such lots may afterwards be sold singly,, or two or more may be joinedin one.
NOTE. A more correct and impartial appraisal call be made in the first place than after private
interests,in the land, or parts of it, have been atlached. There is especial danger that the best locations will be valued too low c.ompailatively, and go off rapidly, while the rest remnain as dead stock.
Experience has taught that the easiest way to get at the proportionate value of the land, is to reckon
the value of the smaller lots, in combination with the value' of the houses proposed to be erected
thereon.
SECT. 34.  Whenever a person shall obtain the right to-occupy and buy- a house
and lot to be provided by such a corporation, a'bond for a deed, signed and- sealed
by the treasurer on' behalf of the corporation, shall be given to him, and if the
cost' of said house and lot amounts to. three hundred'dollars'or more, ther eshall be
appended to such bond a copy from the records of the corporation', attested by the
clerk,'showing that the obligee h, as'duly obtained'-the right to receive such'bond.
Said bond shall contain thie provisions of this and the tollowing section in regard
to payrent for the estate, the effect of failure to pay, and the giving of the deed
therefor;' and shall also contain  a stateiment  that said bond is iven under the
authority of this. act, and! subject' to the provisions' thereof.' The amodunt to' be
paid for the estate shall l:e' its actual cost, computed'by the directors as: exactly
as possible, including the fair proportionate cost' of'the land,'cost of building




house, of insurance, searching title, making out papers, drainage, grading  and
other improvements; it shall also include such necessary expenses as mnay be incurred by the corporation on account of said estate, between  the time of giving
the bondcl and the time of giving the deed; except the last named item, the
amount shall be specified in the bond, and the p.enalty of the bond shall be the
same amount.  The first instalment shall be Lpaid at the next regular meeting after
the house is ready for occupancy, the advance payment, if any is necessary, having been made as provided in section thirty-two, the amount of his admission fee
being credited to the oblioee, if he was a member of the corporation when hlje obtained the right to buy said estate, when he has paid for the remainder of its cost,
deducting the amount of said admission fee.  Theremainder of the amount specified in the bond shall be paid in forty-eight equal instalments, except as hereinafter provided,. one to be made at each successive regular monthly meeting, the remainder of the cost, if any, to be paid in the same manner in successive monthly
instalments of the same amount as those previously made, until all is paid.
Every:person obtaining the right to occupy and buy such a house and lot, shall
after making., four full payments on the same, have the privilege of omitting to
pay not to exceed one instalment the first six nmonths, or two instalments the first
year, or three instalments the first sixteen months, or four instalmients the first
twenty months, or five instalments the first two years, or six instalments the first
twenty-eight months, or seven instalments the first thirty-two months; or eight
instalments the first three years, or nine instalments the first thirtv-nine months,
or ten instalments the first forty-two months. or eleven instalments the first fortyfive months, or twelve instalments the first four years; provided all such omitted
instalments are paid by him before the end of the fifth year.  But all estates must
be fully paid for within five years. and the terms of payment shall be the''same for
all buyers, unless otherwise provided by this act.
Every person upon paying the:first instalment due upon the house and lot, shall
have the right to occupy the same without payment of rent or interest so long as
he shall continue to pay the instalments as above provided. Any buyer may pay for
his estate as much faster than is required by his bond as he may see fit; no expenditure shall be made upon the houses and lots, except as ordered by the corporation, until the buyer has received his deed.
The treasurer, without special authori'ty, shall give a quit-claim deed as soon as
any estate is seasonably paid for in full, and not before. Said deed shall be signed
and' sealea   by the treasurer ofn behalf of the corporation, and shall recite as its
consideration tthe giving of the bond and the- payments made, stating the then exact'aggregate amount, with all' restrictions and conditions under which it has been
sold.
NOTE. By this section buyers are carefully protected from the disasters that hard times often
bring on the careless and: improvident, as it allows twenty.five per cent of the payments to be deferred; consequently buyers are encouraged bythese deferred payments to.form a sort of reserve
ftud, as a security against a possible inability to pay future instalments. By preventing the occupants from making any improvements before the property is paid for, we protect them from themselves by preventing their laying out their money on the property of. some one:else. Experience
has taught that most persons are so anxious to get full possession of the estates, in order to commence their improvements, that payments will be made a long time before they become due. In
case the buyer belonged to the association, the five dollars he paid as an admission fee is kept for
him as a nest egg, by which to help meet his last payment; after struggling thus forso many years
to pay for the place, this will be welcome help at the last moment, when his endurance is becoming
exhausted.
As the bond has to be sealed by the president as per section 26, the association is guarded from
loss.
The occupant not being allowed to improve the property until it belongs to him is an extra security furnished to protect and is entirely different from  arwhat lamnd LORDS-Wish done: they will allow the most extravagant improvements on their property if a tenant will pay for it.
SECT. 35.  Whenever any person, holding or being entitled tod  a bond or deed,
shall fail to keep the provisions of such bond, he shall immediately vacate the
house and lot for which he holds said bond, and surrender the same to the corporation from which he obtained it; and should he fail to do so the board of directors
may recover possession of said house and lot, in the manner provided by chapter
one hundred and seventy-five of the Public Statutes, and it shall be their duty to
at once recover possession of the same in that or some other suitable manner;
upon recovering such house and lot, the corporation shall pay to the treasurer o'
the commonwealth for the benefit of the person who held a bond therefor an
equitable compensation for what said person has invested upon said house and lot,
deducting therefrom any expense incurred in recovering  possession.  In case of
any dispute. as to the amount of. such compensation, said house and'lot shall
be sold at auction, and after deducting the unpaid instalments due, expenses of




sale, and any other expenses which said corploration has necessarily incurred  on
account of said house and lot, the balance, if any, shall be paid to the treasurer of
the commonwealth.  The treasurer upon the paymnent of any sumI to him  under
the provisions of this section shall at once issue a certificate therefor in the same
manner and with the same effect as those authorized in section thirty-nine of this
act.
No person shall be allowed to transfer or assigon any right under a bond, nor the
ri:.-ht to receive a bond or to occupy a house belonging  to such  a corporation, to
any other person, but shall surrender the right to said corporatior, if he' does not
choose to keep it himself.
NOTE. Everything is against the interests of the associations, and in favor of' the interest of. the
individuals; objection is made to this by many, but as the whole purpose for which the corporations
are established is for the interest of individuals, it seems only right to make the law so as to effect
that end. If any person is allowed to transfer a right there would be combination of those who did
not want a house for themselves, to draw it for some friend.
Any fa.mily not owning a home would have to pay as much per month for rent, so if all they paid
in was lost to them they would be no worse off thaeni they are to-day, paying rent. But'the aim of
the government being to furnish homes for every family in the state, provision is here made by
which if through careless!ess or ny.unforseen circumstances a family miss their payments, most
of what is paid in each time will accumulate in the state treasury to help them in paying for the
next house taken, until finally enough is saved to furnish the family the home aimed for. It
also prevents the thriftless improvident class from using this as a means to accumulate from rent
thus saved enough to go on a Isummer excursion at the expense of present benefits to their family,
and future cost to the community. At an auction sale the association can make one bid which must
be sufficient to repay the amount due the state fund; whatever the estate brings above that amount
is deposited in the state treasury for the future benefit of Ihe family giving up the house.
Relations to State; Conditiorns of Sale.
SECT. 36. There shall be paid from  the treasury  of the Commonwealth  to
every  such  corporation  one thousand  dollars on the first Tuesday of every
month succeeding that in which the certificate of incorporation  provided by
section six is issued to said corporation: pe'ovided, that the whole amount paid  to
corporations formed in any city or town shall not exceed five thousand dollars in
a town containing not more than five thousand inhabitants: and in cities and towns
containing more than five thousand  inhabitants one thousand dollars for  each
thousand inhabitants, and an additional thousand dollars for the remainder, if any;
nor exceed twenty thousand dollars to any one corporation;- and that no payment
of money shall be made to-any corporation wvhie it has more than five hundred
dollars cash in its treasury.
For the purpose of meeting any expenses that may be incurred under the provisions of this act, the treasurer is hereby authorized upon  the order of the
governor and council, to issue scrip or certificates of debt' to an amount not
exceeding three million dollars, which shall be expressed in such currency and
shall bear such rate of interest, not exceeding four per centurn  per annum, as the
governor and council may direct, and shall be redeemable in not less than twenty
nor more than fifty years from  the date thereof: and said treasurer. shall sell or
otherwise dispose of the same as he may deem  proper, subject to the approval of
the governor and council.  To. provide tor. the payment of the scrip or certificates
of debt to be, issued under the authority of this act, a sinking fund- is hereby
created to be composed oft whatever premiuim  may be received from  the! sale
thereof, (and its accumulations of interest), beyond the cost of. preparing and
negotiating the same, and so riuch of the receipts from grounud rent as provided
for by section thirty-eight of this act, as together with its aceumulations of
interest and the said premiuml  and its accumulations will be sufflcient to pay said
scrip at maturity.  The said fund, together with its accumulations of interest,
shall be invested as is now or may be provided by law for the investment of such
funds, and shall be p!edged and held as the sinking fund hereby  established, and
shall be used for the redemlption and payment of said scrip or certificates of debt,
and for no other purpose -wbatever.
NOTE. It is best not to have too much ready money for these corporations to handle, until the
corporators are somewhat used to the business; consequently it is to be given to them monthly in
small instalments. By borrowing the money in a foreign country, we avoid taking it, or keeping it,
from any industry in our own state; and as we bring in the capital flrom abroad, no property aliready
in this state will be oli account of this act exempted from taxation, and so no additional burden of
taxation is laid on any citizen, but the reverse will be: proved a fact; for, besides improving business, on account of the extensive building operations it will necessitate, it will increase the
value of unimproved real estate, and so, enormously enlarge the taxable property, thus relieving
those now burdened with taxation.
The state has loaned millions on millions of dollars to the rich corporators of many, railroads
which they used to make money with for themselves, and it was known and fully understood that
they would do so when the loans were made. The state spends permanently and will continue to do
so, millions of dollars to educate our citizens,.care for our poor, for our insane, and for our idiots.




Yet here is only a temporary7loan asked for with the best of security offered,, lto establish all ed-l
cational system for married people, that will prove a proper and 1well timed help to many thousand&
deserving citizens who are struggling for a honie.
The premium received froml the sale of the bonds at 4 per cent., together with its accumuulations.
if invested as the law now requires, sinking funds to be invested will be sufficient to repay the whole
$3,000,000 at the end of 20 years; so all that will have to be provided for will be the yearly interest;
and'the ground rent at the lowest rate possible will staely pay that inside of 40 years, and slhrevd.
scholars will quickly see how it will be done in 20 years utimte on account ot increased valuation of
the real estate.
This section loans even the-smallest towns $5000. and over a dollar apiece. For every man, woman
and child in every city or town in the state.,20,000 is enough for the state to invest in any single.
risk, and if many such sums were lost to the state, it would not amount to much when compared
with the happiness created by the successful associations.
SECT. 37. Towns and cities niay, by vote, orant to such corporations the free
use, for its meeting anti offices ot any room or roomns belonging to said t4owns or
cities.  They shall be liable to pay to the Commonwealth, any amounts due to the,
same from any such corporations located within their respective limits-; and may
recover in an action of contract from any such corporation any amount so paid on
its account.
NOTE. The corporations are completely under the direction and control of the citizens, even
more so than the nlnicipal goverilments, and it will be good policy for the municipality to loan
rooms for the use of these corporations. The-money paid by the state, is in effect, a loan of the
state's credit to the cities or towns, andi is made in this manner to encourage thrift and frugality.
By this means, we Set the great benefit of making& ain extensive state system. It is in reality an
educational plan, like the schlool "system, designed to train married people in.protecting their
families from want, and giving them " lhapiness and the blessings of life."
The millions invested every year in education of the children of the poor in book knowledge is
now considered ull right, and so will millions invested to edulcate the people inl home life be considered all right in the future.
If a city or town is indifferent they need not take the loan; but as it costs them nothing it would
be mean in any city or town to oppose any other in obtaining that which i:s for the happiness of
their citizens.
SECT. 38.  All lands sold by any such corporation shall forever after be subject
to a yearly payment of ten per centum  of the assessed  valuation of said land
(excluding buildings) for the year, which sum shall be a lien on said' land, to be
enforced by the party to whom such payment is to be made, in the same manner
as liens for taxes on real estate may now be enforced by the city or town to which.
said taxes are payable.'Said payment shall be made to such corporation as originally sold said land, or to
such corporation or officer as may hereafter be designated by law, on or before the
first Monday in October of each year; and said corporation shall before the first
Monday in December, and after the first Monday of November of each year pay
over to the treasurer of the Commonwealth all nioneys in its possession received
from this source; said payment shall be used by said treasurer, first, to pay  the
interest on the loan provided for by section thirty-six of this act, and the excess,
if any, shall be added to the sinking fund provided for by said' section, except as
is-hereinafter provided for.
NOTE. Ten per cent. is about the amount allowed to be invested in land: that is, a $900 house
could be put on a $100 lot, then the payment per year to the state, on account of land rent, would be
but $10. The payments can be made in the latter part of the year easier than at any other time,
and the money is placed in the state treasury as early as can be conveniently done. The amount
can be easily paid, and it is a fair demand that the state may be gradually reimbursed by those
whom its bounty has aided, and afterwards helped in giving aid to others who need it. The ground
rent will surely repay the state for all expenses incurred in 40 years; one-tenth seems a small.
amount but it will repay the state in that time.
SECT. 39. At any time after the first Monday in October, and  before the' first
Monday in November, any person over twenty-one years of age, and not under
guardianship, may make affidavit and prove to the satisfaction of the president,
treasurer and clerk, or a majority of them, of any such corporation that he has
for at least nine months of the:year next preceding said first Monday in Ocl;ober,
actually resided upon land originally sold by said corporation; a like affidavit and
proof may be made by any such person in behalf of any person under twenty-one
years of age, or under guardianship.  As soon as the total amount paid to the
treasurer of the commonwealth by any such corporation  as provided in section
thirty-eight shall be sufficient to pay interest on all amounts which said corporation:shall have received from the commonwealth (except any received' upon the
certificates provided for by section thirty-five) and its proportion, of the amount of
the scrip authorized by section thirty-six which would remain unpaid if the said
sinking fund were at that time applied to the payment of said scrip, (such proportion to be the samne as that which the amount received by said corporation from
the comfmonwealth bears to the total amount of said  scrip, issued, said corporation shall with each payment so made thereafter to the treasurer of the Common



wealth, transmit a certificate signed by the president, clerk and treasurer, and
sealed with the seal of the corporation, showing the names and residences of all
persons whose residence during the current year has been proved to said corporation as provided fortin this section.  The treasulrer of the Commonwealth  shall
thereupon issue, through said corporation, to each person contained in said list, a
certificate stating  that such person is entitled to an amount which is to be determined by dividing the whole amount received in that year from: such corporations
who have fully reimbursed the Commonwealth, by the total number of names contained in all lists transmitted by them as provided by this section, fractionls of cents
being disregarded.  Said certificates shall be sealed with the seal of the corporation, through whom they are distributed, and shall not be translerable or negotiable,
except as hereinafter provided, and shall be void in the hands of any other person
than the hands of the ones to whom they were originally issued.  Said certificates
shall be received by any corporation formed under the provisions of this act, in
lieu of cash, Irom  any person who has received from said corporation the privilege
of occupying ahd buying a house and lot therefrom, or the husband or wife of such
person, as afinal payment on said house and lot when sufficient to pav all due
upon it.  Said corporation shall thereupon be paid from the treasury of the Cotnmonwealth the amount of all such certificates as it shall present to the treasurer of
the Commonwealth, upon proving that it has given to the person  to whom  they
were issued, or the husband or wife of such person, a deed of a house and lot under
the provisions of this act.  In case of persons holding said certificates moving from
the state, the treasurer of the Commoon wealth may cash the same on receiving
proof that the holder has given to the person to whom  they  were issued, or the
husband or wife of such person, a deed of a house and lot out of the state.   Said
certificates shall be received or cashed in no other way than as herein provided.
NOTE. These provisons are designed to compel those who have been helped to homes by the corporations to contribute their mite, when enjoying the consequent increase in their prosperity, to extend the same blessing to other citizens, and by means of this section the money for the ground rent
returns to the famlily who pays it; and in the case of children, their certificates are allowed to accumulate until married or of age, when they are assured of a home of their own with a little
exertion. If one of our citizens finds it for the advantage of him and his family to leave the state,
our hunanity ought to be large enough to be willing he should be happy anywhere and also willing
to do all that can rightlv and justly be done on our part to effect that end.
SECT. 40. Every bond and deed executed by such corporations shall contain the
the following clause4 " Subject, however, to the copcldition that no intoxicating
liquor shall ever be sold on said premises, but said condition not to be enforced, by
any entry at a timne when the record title shows the fee to belong to a person- who
has actually resided upon the premises since acquiring the title under which he holds
said fee, and that his title was acquired subsequently to the time when the last sale
of intoxicating liquor occurred upon the premises."   Whenever any corporation
enters for breach of this condition upon any land of which it shall have given- a
deed, it shall at once become the duty of the treasurer thereof to execute a full quitclaim deed of the same in the name of said corporation, to the city or town in
which said corporation is located, for the use of the public schools of said city or
town.
NOTE. These houses are for simall homes, and it is not desirable that the occupants of them should
be allowed to retail liquor out of jugs in a petty way, as would inevitably be done, if at all, from such
small dwelling houses. Every reflecting man, however much he may be opposed to sumptuary laws,
which restrict the liberty of the citizen and commercial freedom, must be opposed to such a traffic;
while this does not in any way interfere with the dealer in liquors, who complies with the provisions
of our license laws, and invests capital in establishing convenient shops for satisfying the demands
of the people in a law-abiding way. On the contrary, it protects them from the competition of a
legion of petty tenement or dwelling house dealers who are responsible to no law; are the smugglers
of the trade; and have done much to bring odium upon a business which should be conducted only
under proper restrictions.
It is customary for a certain class of so-called reformers to speak of those who believe in licensing
the sale of intoxicating beverages and their use in moderation by those whose health requires them,
and of men in business who are engaged in this branch of trade, by various disgusting names such
as pirates, scoundrels, thieves, robbers, villains, and destroyers of homes. Perhaps when a wise,
well-considered, and conservative measure like the one here proposed, equally removed on the one
hand, from that which would ruin a whole branch of business and all connected with it, however in~irectly, and on the other from anarchy and unregulated liberty comes up, the people -will learn by a
yea and nay vote who are their true friends; and that it is not the most radical and loud-mouthed
who do most for their welfare.
SECT. 41. Every householder having a family, shall be entitled to an estate.of
homestead, as provided in chapter one hundred' and twenty-three of the Public
Statutes, in any house and lot purchased by him of any such corporation, and all
the provisions of said chapter shall apply to said estate, but said estate shall be exempt from attachment, levy on execution, and sale for the payment of debts contracted by him at any time, whether before or after acquiring said estate.




NoTE. Many men and women of family, working for less than one dollar a day, by lack of work.
sickness, or many other causes, are so overwhelmed by debt that the chance of ever meeting their
liabilities is hopeless. Yet they go struggling manfully on, feeling under the circumstances every
man is an enemy and every law against them. They have small chance of passing through insolvency,
as those can who have enjoyed wealth or controlled extensive business; is it not well, is it not good
policy for the state to encourage these men by trying to establish them in a home whichl no unmerciful Shylock can take from them after the state by its liberality through these corporations has given
it to them? The policy is already sanctioned iii our homestead laws, but a man cannot by them gain
immunity for his home from debts already contracted. Yet it is conceded by all parties that some
relief should be given the poor man burdened with hopeless debt. See Gov. Robinson's inaugural,
in which he advocates measures designed to bring the insolvency laws more easily and cheaply within
their reach. This will only exempt.800. Besides it would be pdor encouragement for the benevolent men and women who are to do the work, to do so feeling it is only to put more money into some
wealthy personl's coffers.
SFECT. 42.  All property, both real and personal, held by any such corporation, so
long as it shall remain the property of said corporation and shall be used for the
purposes and under the provisions of this act, shall be exempt from taxation.
NOTE. As manv corporations as choose, composed of seven or more persons can form under the general laws and hold property to the amount of five hundred thousand dollars exempt from taxation.
As the money which the corporations contemplated by this act are to use will be brought in from
outside the state, the exemption will not increase the burden of taxation for other citizens, but will
tend in the end to measurably relieve all from it.
SECT. 43. The treasurer of every such corporation shall, on the second Monday
of each month, send to the commissioner of  corporations a correct balance
sheet showing the financial condition of said corporation; together with a statement
of- the amount paid for land, the number of houses built and the number paid for
since the last statement, and also the number built and the number paid for together
with the original and last assessed value of land purchased since said corporation
was established, and the assessed value of the said land including buildings thereon:
and said commissioner shall report annually to the legislature a summary of the
condition of all such corporations, to be made up froin such reports.
NOTE. It is best for the interests of the citizens for the state to keep a close eye on all these corporations. Besides it is important to watch their working and observe by.statistics the effect of their
operations, that their value may be better appreciated and we may learn by experience to improve
tihem.
SECT. 44.  Any treasurer violating the provisions of the preceding section  shall
forfeit the sum of five dollars, for the use of the public schools of the city or town
in which the corporation of which he is treasurer is located.
NOTE. The penalty in this section is added to prevent any ignoramus or absent-minded blunderer
from taking the office and doing the damage that would necessarily result, and the use of such money
in the manner provided for will tend to paevent future repitition.
SECT. 45. In case any such corporation shall be formed in the city of Lynn, the
Lynn Workinugmen's Aid Association is hereby authorized upon a majority vote to
transfer all its property to said corporation, and when such conveyance shall be
made, chapter one hundred and ninety-five of the acts of eighteen  hundred  and
eighty, incorporating Said association, is hereby repealed.
NOTEE. The Lynn Associ ation was the pioneer, and has proved the practicability and wonderful
efficiency of this plan in helping those who are down; but as this work is now laid out on a svstem
throughout the state it can be better prosecuted in Lynn under the general system than by an indedendeilt corporation with necessarily limited means.
SECT. 4-6. The provisions of this chapter may be amended or repealed so as to
affect existing corporations at the pleasure of the general court; the general court
may by special act dissolve any corporation subject to said provisions; and no such
corporations shall be dissolved in any other manner.  In case any corporation shall
be so dissolved, the treasurer of the Commonwealth shall take charge of all its
property and preserve the same in a distinct fund.  Upon the formation of another
such corporation in place of the one dissolved, in the city or town in  which said
corporation was located. said fund, together with the balance if any which should
have been paid to the dissolved corporation under the provision of section thirtysix if it had not been dissolved, shall be paid thereto in the same manner in which
ilt is provided by section thirty-eight that money shall be paid by the Commonwealth to such corporations; said corporation shall receive no fulther grant from
the state and shall be liable to inake the same payments to the Commonwealth as
the dissolved corporation would have been liable to make. had it continued.
NorTE. By this, a perfect control of these corporations is retained by the legislature, in whost.'
hands, it is clear, full power over its organizations should ever remain. Strong opposition to this
measure is sure to come fromn those who are revelling in luxury from the proceeds of rents wrung
from the necessitiesof citizens by renting houses to them; but they will not offer their real reason
for opposition, -which will be the desire to make money by excessive charges for their tenements, but
concoct some othler reason entirely foreign to the real one, and by their smooth, oily way of putting
it w-ill bamboozle fools, alnd get them to side with such opposition; the opposition of the renters of
property to this plan, will he avoided in the legislature, because the rules expresslyforbid any member,serving on a committee or voting on any question where his private right is immediately concerned,
distinct from the public interest. When the yea and nay vote is called, on this measure, it will
plainly show how our legislators stand on the great question of administering the government so as
to help the people and secure to them and their descendants the blessings our commonwealth
was founded to secure.




Iethod  of Incorporatiol 18. Office terms and tenure.   33. Land to be divided and 4p
and General Powers.    19. Election, failure of.           praised.. rrat   No. age   r   Directors, duties of.  34. Payments, time for, omitted. Iorporators No., age,  21. Assistance, employment of.    instalments, Deeds.
posgreeent, nature of    22. Stationery  furnished  by 35. Rights untransferable and
3. Payments in advance.
3. Payml~enlts inl adlvance     state at cost.               forfeiture, what done with
4. First meeting, how called.
4. Firistmectiulg,how called.  23. Records, what and how kept;    paymLents made.
5. First meeting, proceeding.                             Relation
6. Incorporation;  certificate; lMethods of Doing Business.      tions of Sale.
approval, endorsements.
7. Corporations,distribution of. 24. Records open to editors and 36. Aid from the State, amount
8. Name.                        city and town officials.      of Sinking fund..9. Seal.                   25. Payments to associations, 37. Guarantee by towns; rooms:10. Property, power of holding.    Bank. designated.          loaned.
11. Property, not for offices.   26. Payments by associations, 38. Ground  rent,  perpetual,
12. By-laws.                     Receipts,Sealedinstruments.   State to receive the same.
27. Contracts and Agreements.. Ground  rent distributed to
Officers and Members and 28. Credit prohibited.ents to pay for homes
their Rights, Dutties and   29. Purchase of real estate, re-    Proof of residence.
M ~eeting~s.  striction on.         ~40. Liquor selling condition..  bership, conditions of. 30. Title, insurance.  41. Homestead law, and sold
13'. MNemrbership, conditiois of.            3.Tiensrc.subject to.
14. Members equal. No salary.                              42. Taxation, exemption.
15. Assessment  on  members Methods of Disposing  of 43. Reports to State.
limited.                           Property.           44. Reports, penalty for not:t16. Meetings, tile of holding,                               making.
Quorum.                  31. Rights to buy, how allotted. 45. Lynn Association may sur-,17. Officers to be members. Re- 32. Styles of houses to be built    render charter.
mloval of officers.          first, smallest allowed.  46. Dissolution by legislature.
HELP BEFORE OR AFTER.
DEAR SIR:In 1877, Gov. Rice in his address said, "the aggregate outlay for public and pOi-,:ate charity is very large, amounting to $4,500,000, paid  during the year 1876;"
one-third by the state, one-third by cities and towns, o(e-third private institutions;
and this does not take into account the millions spent by the plain people in,
charity.
Would it not be better to LOAN$.3.000,000 today to house the citizens in homes
of their own, and thus make them all independent, than spend $3,000,000 per year
a short distance in the future, to take care of only a very few of them? The
state government is formed for the purpose of conferring "happiness and the;blessings of life on the people," and let us see it do its duty.
In 1880 our state contained 19 cities and 327 towns.
On account of the close packing  of tenants by heartless land LORDS in the
wards containing workingmen and women, there were four thousand two hundred:and fifty-eight more deaths among these people than would have happened had
the same number been housed on the less closely packed land of towns in our
state.
That is the number of honest. hard-working people murdered each year by the
greedy grasping land LORDS in cities, and is equal to blotting out of existence the
-inhabitants of over 15 of our small towns every year.
Each of those murders of working people, allowed by our government to be
perpetrated by avaricious land LORDS, plundering and nmurdering for gold, causes
pain and sorrow as intense as any we can feel, to equally loving hearts in the
breast of these working mnen.                                               TJ. M. B.
If increase of wealth is the highest aim  of Statesmen, this should
be carefully read.
DEAR Si: -$51,522,576  can be made in sixty years by the state loaning
$3,000,000 to build homes for its citizens, as a bill to be brought before the
Legislature provides.  $2,714,000 will be the amount necessarv to supply every
city and town with their allowance; the balance of the $3,000,000 loan can be used
to pay interest for a few years.
Columbus knew of a new world without seeing it, and offered its wealth to his
native state, and they scornfully refused it.
Another may offer wealth untold to his native state, and have it refused. It
was not the fatlt of Columbus that he knew it; he did not have too much brain,
-but those who refused it had too little.
In 1876 the governor proved that $4,500,000 was spent in charity.
cThe happiness of our citizens ought to be the only aim  of statesmen;
if it were they would delight to read this.




The following figures show in detail only PART or the enormous benefits the state at large will
derive at the end of 60 years, from an investment of $3,000,000 in the manner proposed in the Bill
before the Legislature for the purpose of furnishing the citizens of our state with homes of their'own.
The. state treasurer can get-a premium on     f Value of the reallAmonunt receiv'd Alount rec'd
sNo. of estate created  from taxes  from groun(}
4 per cent. bonds ot' 83,000,000 sufficient forl years  each year.   each year.'  rent each y.r..
a sinking fund which can be invested so as --                          --
1  $2,714-000.
to pay the whole of' the honds at maturity,  2          42,,00
e t y2     542,800
so interest on it ends in twenty years.3               542,800
In twenty years the receipts from taxes  4           542,800
and ground rent will more than suffice to pay   5      542,800
the interest on a $3,000,000 loan.              6      542,800    $40,7101   $27,140
The average of taxes throughout the state  7         542,800     48,852    32,568
is $15 per thousand of valuation; the return   8       542,800     560,994    37,996
from  that source will be enormously in ad-  9         542,800     65,136    43,424
vance of these figures from  the increased  1          542,80)      13,270    4,S62
valuation of this and the adjoining property  12       542,800     89,562    59,708
on account of the improvements.                13      542,890     97,704     65,130
Only one-tenth of the cash in the treasury  14       542 800    105,846     70,564
of a corporation on the first of each month  15        542,800     113,988    75,992
is allowed  to be invested  in land  during 16         542,800    122,130    81,420
that month; and only one-tenth of' the value 17        542,800    130,272    86,848
of the land is paid back as ground rent; my 18         542,800     138,414    92,276
figures do not take into account any increased  19     542,(800    146,556    97,704
value of the land that will come on account 20         542,800     154,698    103,132
of its being built oa and improved.            21      542,800     162,840    108,560
The direct return fromn ground rent will be 22       542,800    1709,124   19,413
much greater than these figures showfo  24,          542,800     187,264   124,844
suppose $10,000 to be on hand, only  1 can 25          542,800    195,40S   130,272
be invested in land, during that month, or 26          542,800    203,550    135,700
$1,000.   Now  suppose  two  houses, each 27           542,800    211,692   141.128
worth $500 are built on the land, and both 28          542,800    219,834   146,550
houses and land disposed of, there is still 29         542,800    227,976   151,984
$8,000 in the treasury, and on the first of 30         542,800    236,118   157,412
the next month one-tenth or $800 more of 31            542,800    244,260    162,840
the original $10,000 can be invested in land, 32       542,800    252,402    168,268
a33      542,800    260,544    173,696
and so on.
34      542,800    268,686   179,124
The Lynn experiment showed an increase 35            542,800    276,828    184,52
in the value of the last two lots of land 36           542,800    284,970   189,980
bought of 400 per cent. in one year's time.    37      542,800    293,112    195,408
3S     542,800     301,254   200,836
TOTALS OF FIGUIRES.                39      542,800     309,396   206,264
Real estate created,              $34,739,200 41       542,800    327,568    211,692
41      542,800    325,680   217,120
Amount from taxes,                 14,329,920 42       542,800    333,822    222,548
Ground rent,                        9,553,280 43       542,800    341,964   227,976
$58,622,400 44      542,800    350,'106   233,404
Less 1 per cent. for land gross       586,224'45      542,800    358,248    238,832
036,17646  542,800    366,390    244,260
Less interest,  6,51360047  542,800    374,532   249,688
~~~~Less interest,       46         48      542,800    382,674   255,116
Net total,                        $51,522,576 49       542,800    390,816   260,544
This is only just the simple  return  in 50          542,800    398,958   265,972
money value, and if this value at compound  51         542,800    407,100   271,400
interest were taken into account, the amounts 52,     Z542,800    415,242   276,828
would be almost fabulous.                      53      542,800    423,384    282,256
Now  try to imagine the increased value 55           542,800    439,068   283,112
to all property.  Then dream of the future 5           542,800 4539,06       293,12
542,800    447,810   298,540
results.                                       57      542,800    455,952    303,968
The total of happiness (experience with 58           542,800    464,094   309,396
legislation has taught me) is not to be con- 59        542,800    472,236    314,824
sidered in the State House, except by a very 60        542,800    4S0,378   320,252'
few.                              J. 31. B.
$34,739,200 $14,329,920 $9,553,280




Are all our Citizens entitled "to happiness and
the blessings of life'" under the State Constitution?
DEAR SIR:Some claim that it is not the place of our state government to loan nioney to its
cities and towns to enable them through benevolent associations to build up their
section of the state by furnishing homes and conferring "happiness and the blessings of life" on the citizens.
If we pay the least attention to our constitution it is not only the place, but the
explicitly stated duty of our government to do everything that tends to that happiness.
Now in regard to the state carrying on the building business-the state is not
to do it-the benevolent associations do it; and the towns and cities guarantee the
state from losses on their account; and the state only overlooks them through its
commissioner of corporations, something like our school system  only far less
costly, as it does every other corporation, only more closely; and the state government reserves full and complete control over them in every respect, and can stop
all or any one of them without a mloment's warning.
Now in regard to our state not having an inherent incontestible right to go into
any business for the purpose of conferring "happiness and the blessings of life"
on its citizens.
The United States is in the expressing business to an enormous extent, expressing letters, papers, books and packages to all parts of the world, and a bill was
reported in the last Congress to the Senate for her to go into telegraphing.
The nation builds ships, and manufactures gnns, cannon, etc., etc.; it also cares for
our rivers and harbors.
Our state owns and runs the Troy and Greenfield railroad, builds roads in Mashpee and elsewhere, builds a railroad and a Hoosac tunnel; makes and trades in
building lots on the Back Bay, etc., etc.
The counties build highways, bridges, etc.; the cities and towns, streets, sidewalks7 schools, etc., etc., for the benefit of the citizens.
But better yet, better than all else, the United States government, realizing
what a great benefit it is to the nation for every family to own its home, confers "happiness and the blessings of life" on its citizens by giving them valuable
farms; and still better, will give a farm even to the unfortunate foreigners who
leave their homes and state so regretfully on account of the mismanagement of
the governing powers. UNDER OUR HOMESTEAD LAWS.
Now what is the result so far as our state is concerned? The Western States
by the homestead laws of giving a farm to every family, are attracting many of our
most ailbitious,  most intelligent and best citizens to them, and the western states
are being rapidly built up at the expense of Massachusetts.
All know what a wonderful growth the West can show, and it is almost entirely
on account of families being able there to get homes of their own; cut off the
homestead laws and see how quickly that western growth would stop.
Now the design of this bill for homes is, to extend the benefits of the homestead  laws to our citizens, and thus confer "happiness and the blessings oflife"
on them right here at home, instead of compelling families to move thousands of
miles out west to get it; and thus build up our own Commonwealth instead of another, without the ultimate cost of one cent to the State, but by ONLY a temporary
loan of three million dollars.
The Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that only one family in a
hundred of our wage or salary class owns its homes, and even forty-four per cent.
of these are mrortgaged, and the average mortgage on said homes owned by the
males is $977.00 and homes of the females $688.00. Can any statesman read
these frightful figures and not dread the future of our commonwealth?  Any
reader of history knows what disaster is eventually in store for us, if we cannot
get wisdom enough in the state house to change these figures for the better.
Bold, heartless men in all times, to gain some selfish ends often cry out this or
that can't be done, this or that is unconstitutional. -bringing the word unconstitutional up from the pit of their stomach, so that it sounds like a doleful sound from
the tomb, and enables them to chill the very marrow in the bones of timid men
or cowards, —and in the confusion of shudders thus brought on they:gain their




point; and afterwards have a good hearty laugh over the trembling of the seared
fools whoml they deceived.
If anything that is to benefit our citizens is unconstitutional, we can very easily
make it constitutional, for our constitution says so in the most positive terms.
By the Statutes of 1874, chapter 364, the legislature undertook to authorize the
city of Boston to raise money and loan it upon mortgage at current interest to the
owners of land in Boston, the buildings uplon which had been destroyed in the
great fire, to rebuild upon the said land.
Upon complaint of certain tax-payers of Boston this was declared unconstitutional, not being a tax for a public use. (111 Mass. Report, 454.)
It might be, it was said, that the results would be more beneficial than somegrants for public uses; but it is the character of the object, whether it is a public
use or not, that determines.
A public use was declared to be one whose direct object is to benefit inhabitants
of the stlate'"as-a community and not as individuals." If this is the nature of the
object, "however limited and unimportant the interests to be promoted," or
though  "it practically affects only a small portion of the inhabitants or lands of
the commonwealth," the court cannot interfere with the action of the legislature,
and this is still true, although the act " may not be productive, practically, of
public advantage." Otherwise the act is not within the power of the legislature,
however beneficial it may be.
This act, it was said, was to raise a fund to be distributed "by separate loans to
numerous individuals, each one independent of anlly relation to the others, or to
any general purpose, except that of aiding individual enterprise in matters of
private business. The property created would remain exclusively private property, with no restriction as to the character of the buildings to be erected or the
uses to which they should be devoted, and with no obligation to render any service or duty to the Commonwealth or the city,-except to repay the loan-or to the
community at large or any part of it."
It is to be noticed that the persons who could receive the aid of this loan were
merely a particular number who had lost by a certain fire, and it was not open to
the public nor to any particular community, nor indefinite class, but only to certain
particular individuals. In the decision of the case it is stated that enterprises
rendering facilities, "of which the whole community may rightfully avail itself,"
may be constitutionally aided by loans from  the state, and as illustrations are
mentioned, railways, who as common carriers "hold their franchises charged with
this duty and trust for the performance of the public service;" aqueducts, from
which any citizen on the line has a right to purchase water; saw and grist mills,
which must serve all who apply on reasonable terms; drains and sewers.
Now  the act we propose furnishes funds for the benefit indifferently of all
members of the community; the beneficiaries are not "independent of each other
or of any general purpose, except that of aiding individual enterprise," the purpose being an educational one, viz.: —to render citizens independent, and establish
them  in homes, make them  industrious and thrifty, and to prevent them from
becoming public charges-a purpose already recognized by the exemption from
taxation of small estates. The property created does not remain absolutely the
property of the purchasers, but is charged with various restrictions, under which
it is highly important for the interests of the community that real property should
be held, but with which land cannot well be charged unless taken tor public uses.
and so charged by the state for the benefit of the community. The holders of the
land are to be ever after subject to'an annual payment for public purposes; and
there are careful restrictions as to the "character of the buildings erected and the
uses to which they are to be devoted."
Hence it will be seen that this proposed act differs in almost every essential
particular from  the one declared unconstitutional, and directly subserves public
uses in many ways.
It is constitutional for the government to help the poor-it is unconstitutional
to help the rich-as our government's end is to equalize, and that end can only be
ached by helping the working class; for if we help the rich we increase the
equality.                                                       J. M. B.
A LEGAL TRIAL FOR RIGHT.
)EAR SIR:In the Constitution of Massachusetts, Article 1, acquiring property and enjoying
life is declared one of the rights of ALL men. Article 7 says, the government is




F OR the happiness of the people; it lalso explicitiy says that government is instituted
f or that purpose —and when happiness is not obtained, government may he altered
o r totally changed to secure it.
Under our system of government, many men and women work hard nearly every
day and cannot by any possibility acquire property.  The Massachusetts labor
statistics show this; and that happiness and contentment are not secured to the people no argument is needed to prove.
It is customary for the governing class who neglect their duty to these citizens to
try to clear themselves of responsibility by blaming them for wasting money in
liquor and in other ways. How much money will a man have to waste on unnecessary things who earns but 81.50 per day, and pays the bills of his family, as 90 per
cent. of them do pay? This brings the charge of the enormous sums wasted on
liquors to the door of the wealthier class, where it belongs.
One of the strongest desires of humanity is the desire to own a home; it is the
fountain from which flows in profusion the greatest happiness and the choicest
blessings of life. The taxes paid by these people should secure to them so reasonable a desire, instead of being spent in drilling military to shoot them down for being discontented, and in building prison cells with the necessary and costly appliances for their homes. It is proposed to consolidate in one regiment all the troops
in Boston to make them more effective in shooting down the citizens in case of a
riot-is it not better to prevent than to stamp out a riot?  Is it not a wiser
statesmanship to willingly loan $3,000,000 to content and make our citizens happy,
than be compelled to expend $5,0G0,000, as Pennsylvania is now doing in vain
efforts to repair'the the damage done by the unhappy and discontented of only one
city-Pittsburlg?
Remember the object of our government is to make the people happy-it is
formed for that purpose.  Are our legislators actuated by that consideration?'Is
that the aim and object of all that is said and done in legislative halls? Is that the
aim and object of all money appropriations?
Selfish ones will do their best to gain a false reputation as watch dogs of the
treasury, by attempting to kill the bill to provide homes for the people when before
the legislature, in which there is no money or profit to them, that they may use that
false reputation to gain some selfish end.
Sharpers in an argument often give faint praise to a good work to gain the confidence of others, so as to more effectively destroy it by an appearance of fair
dealing; rather give me an open and avowed enemy; then one knows how to meet
them. Not only will they oppose it but they will induce the ignorant ones to do
SO.
To the ignorant brain this plan that can be so easily worked, seems as impossible
as the construction of a locomotive would be to the legislators of a kingdom of
Central Africa. Imagine a creative brain like one of our first inventors, trying to
show them by drawings how to build and equip a railroad that would bring happiness and the blessings of life to their nation.
To fully appreciate the ignorance of the ignoramuses of today, all that is necessary is to imagine them with their pompous airs and the law-making power in their
hands, dressed in the every day clothes of the laborer.
Clothes are the making of most men, and if you will but imagine the opposers
of this bill in such clothing, you can the better take the measure of their arguments; look beyond the clothes, look for the manliness, the intelligence, the generositr, particularly notice the independepce of the defenders of this bill which
would make them manly in any dress or position, either as mechanics or as statesmen. Opposition to good measures is nothing new; everything good had to make
a beginning; no good ever started without determined opposition from the selfish
and ignorant; inventors and discoverers have always suffered and been abused for
their good works before this, and will have to suffer and be abused to the end of
time, it is their encouragement and too often their reward.
Some claim because this work is new it ought not to be tried; if every one had
so thought humanity's advance would have been slow; to whom does the world owe
its progress?  Certainly not to the conservative man who never originated a new
idea, and who condemns and opposes that of another; if conservatives had complete
control in past ages, we would today have occupied the caves of the primitive
man.
Others object that the bill may not be perfect; every law'has to be tried and
proved, every constitution amended.




It is customary to point to the accumulated generosity of ages to prove that this
age is generous, but all we should credit ourselves with, is what is now being done.
We see accumulations of immense fortunes in the hands of few; we see all crimes
increasing in our state, until now the per cent. is higher than ever before.  The
mass are dissatisfied, unhappy. Why is this? Are you trying earnestly as a part
of the government to makehappiness for the people? Is that your aim?  Then I
am glad, for that by the words of the constitution, is what you were elected for,
and I love to see a man do his duty.
The committee report reference to the next general court. Why this delay of a
whole year on a bill so important to the happiness of the people?  Such a report by
the committee is an acknowledgement of merit in the bill asked for. Reference to
the next general court, in so vital a matter, is an acknowledgement of a lack of intelligence and ability in this; is not the legislature of this year as able and as competent to judge of the merits of this plan as the next is likely to be? Sit the whole
year out rather than leave this' question undecided, and your constituents will make
no complaint of work so decidedly to their advantage.
J. M. B.
0   WHOQ- PAY THE TAXES?
DEAR SIR:
It has been stated that this matter of homes for the people ought to be referred
to the tax payers for decision.
We are willing to agree to this proposal; and then the question arises who are the
tax payers?
Tax payers are those who really pay the taxes; and they are the salary and wage
classes.
Proof. We will suppose a man to be letting out a tenement house for $100 per
year. Now if some great war measure makes it necessary for the governn.nt to
put a tax on all estates, and he has to pay $100 on account of it, any sensible man
knows that not only he, but every other man who is letting property, will more
than double their rents on account of that war tax, and the wage or salary class pay it
by an increased rent, the poor cannot live out of doors; so must pay it all.  Thus
it is with every kind of merchandise, the dealers having a large number of articles
to sell, can raise the price on any one, and so make themselves whole on any taxation.
But salary or wage workers having only one article to sell-their labor, are detected at once when they raise on the price; and as the capitalist can often get
along without them for a long while when they strike, they are often unjustly
starved into submission; and sometimes, when goaded by their wrongs into overt
acts, it is called a riot, and the militia are called out to shoot them down. But it
will be said that these landlords and merchants also pay the advanced rates. True,
but they tuck it on to what they have to sell and the labor sellers eventually pay
all, for the laborer can't tuck on.
Now who are the state?  Certainly the people. The government is only formed
for a purpose; what is that purpose?  It is to furnish "happiness and the blessings
of life" to the citizens. The citizens are the state, and if they choose to impose a
tax to provide themselves with homes. instead of building Hoosac Tunnels, or loaning their money to wealthy corporators of railroads, &c., &c., we know they have
the right to do so under the constitution.
Some sharp, bold lawyers, in the opposition, will try to scare the ignorant and
timid by looking as solemn as owls, and saying this measure of homes tor the people is unconstitutional; and endeavor to kill it by delay in asking a Supreme Court
decision which is slower than death. The able lawyers that will support the bill are
not to be scared so easily; but even the most ignorant man ought to know any good
measure can be quickly made constitutional.
But some say enough able men cannot be found in the cities and towns of this
Commonwealth to  run these associations. In the city of Lynn they are able to run
such an association successfully, and I don't think any representative will claim his
constituents are any less able.
Any town of our Commonwealth with one of these associations and a capital of
o'lni $5000 acan 1y this system house one family every week, if they are only as able
a:-the citizens of Lynn. And, on account of the many buildings of exactly the
same size and style being built all over the state, the price of them will get down
to the very lowest' figure, and thousands will get a home who could not buy one at
present rates.




Generous men appreciate the labors of the men in the legislature, who are doing
their best to pilot a $3.000,000 loan through to promote these Benevolent Building
Associations for providinag hlomes for the people; which experience in Lynn by a
like association, has proven will accomplish this object.
By no possibility can these kind men of the legislature get any riches or fame in
return for their labors that always come from assisting the wealthy; but on the contrary it is decidedly against their interest as lawyers to do so; and they are intelligent enough to know it; yet manfully, they help a good cause.
It is beyond my comprehension how it is possible for even mean men to oppose
them, but they do, and get pleasure from it besides.  But to more easily win they
try to cloak their delight by a sorrowful look, as if they were opposing the good
work regretfully. Shame upon such hypocricy!  Why can't they come out like
nen and tell the real reason?
If this enmity would onlycome out plain and plump and show itself, we. could
easily overcome it, but it will be the snake in the grass kind, that will not say,
"it will hurt our pocket books, so we must oppose you," but conjure up some false
reason. Some have property which they rent, some are interested in mortgages,
some have other selfish motives and still others aim to be judges; and judges must
be made of conservative stock, and conservative means to oppose anything new, no
matter how good.
This is a measure which will do more to make women happy than anything else.
A home of her own to a true woman is one of her high aims.  Who can be good
associating with the vile in a low tenement house?
The independent home makes the independent family a'nd independent citizen.
The Board of State Charities say in their report that although it costs more for
the time being to give outside help to the poor, in the long run it is cheaper; but
it is better to start before charity begins; and have the government help working'men, the same as it has helped the wealthy class.
J. -M. B.
DO) RI "ATS  PAY?
DEAR SIR:The Boston Advertiser of April 5th s'lys: —"Apropos of the Cincinnati Riots,
it may be stated that some months ago the city of Boston was divided into sections, and the different districts assigned-to officers of the Cadets to be examined
with a view to the best way of treating  them in case of disturbances. What
were the points of vantage, how they were best approached and held, what buildings could be most effectively occupied by troops, and how great a force would be
needed in each instance, were among the practical questions considered.'
During the Great Fire the dens and cellars of Boston vomited forth —for pillage
-such a thieving, lawless crowd that every vwise citizen was startled, and thought
with dread of the evil that was sometime sure to result from this volcanic element.
Content the poorest first.
The New York citv, Pittsburg and Cincinnati Riots, prove to wise men that if
something is not speedily done to direct this dissatisfied element into right channels and contentment, disastrous consequences are eventually in store for Boston
and other cities of our loved Commonwealth.
Fools are in the habit of laughing at dangers before they come, and running away
in the hour of peril; brave men shrink from impending evils and try to avert them
by concessions and wise measures, but will risk life to quell the disturbances
brought on by the short sighted economy of these same fools.
The dissatisfied element owning no property have nothing to lose, and think
they have everything to gain by getting work through rebuilding the structures
they destroy; this is a disagreeable fact which we will have to meet,- if we do not
take measures today to prevent it. The percentage of crime in Massachusetts
was greater during the past year than ever before.
Our state house is in dangerous proximity to some of the slums of Boston. In
a few minutes and before the military could get out, a mob could fire it and do incalculable damage. Prevent it by wise measures cow.
The Pittsburg riot has proven that shooting them down costs more than housing
them.
The Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that only one in a hundred
ot the wage and salary class owns his homes, and even forty-four per cent. of
these are mortgaged, and the average amount of the mortgage ot the homes




owned by the males is $977, and of females $688; this showing is enough to make
any one with a kind heart feel sad.
A careful reading of history has taught, that men entrusted with power are
generally so blinded by it that they become arrogant, and instead of trying to
improve the character of the laboring class by a little encouragement in time, the
element they could once have easily directed becomes unmanageable and destructive.
These so-called wise rulers are in reality the dangerous class for they foolishly
think it to be a sign of fear on their part to assist these people today to avoid disasters to the state in the future.
The relation between governors and governed should not be that of threats on
the one side and punishment on the other; but wise policy does all possible to
promote prosperity and content among its laboring class, and then preserves order
at all hazards.
Let us see what these riots cost, for shrewd men always examine a business
before they enter it. The annual cyclopedia of 1877 reports over 100,000 men out
of employment on account of the Pittsburg riots. In 1878 it reports $710,000
appropriated by the STATE of Pennsylvania to pay simply the cost of the military
to suppress the riot. Think of the lives lost besides.
In 1879 the committee on Ways and Means of the State of Pennsylvania, reported a bill appropriating four million dollars to pay the losses incurred by the
Pittsburg riot: bear in mind that enormous damage was done in a few days time,
in a city whose wealth was insignificant compared with that of Boston. Blt that
was in Pittsburg, the fools will say,-and when a riot comes in Boston, the fools
in Pittsburg, then grown wise, will say,-O, that riot is in Boston.
How much better it would have been to spend a less amount of money to make
the few citizens of Pittsburg property owners and contented, than for the state to
waste such an enormous sum in a vain effort to repair the mischief resulting from
their discontent.
It was held that Alleghany County, Penn., was not liable for the damage done
by the Pittsburg riot because it was general, not local, and that the state was
constitutionally liable for the restitution of property lost through general riot
and mob violence.
A decision was cited proving that anlly property damaged or destroyed while
being used as a barracks, or while in possession of state or national authorities,
and destroyed by the enemies, should be paid for by the state or nation. It was
further urged that it was no riot, but an insurrection brought about by suffering
from depression, occasioned by the panic.
As soon as the proclamation by the Governor was issued, calling out the troops
to suppress the insurrection, the state assumed control and responsibility, and this
was done before a shot was fired or a torch was lighted; the state was therefore
liable in equity and was morally bound to pay for the damage occasioned by the
mob at that time.
Now no matter who has to pay for it, any sensible man can see that it is a much
greater loss to that state than the loss of four million, seven hundred and ten
thousand dollars spent in attempts to repair the damage.
Is there not wisdom sufficient in the country to so appropriate half as much as
here wasted in riots, as to transform these rioters into prudent, industrious citizens, striving to pay for their homes, and with this object to labor for, no leisure
left for lawlessness and violence?
It shocks one to read the article quoted from the Advertiser,-where in the
coldest of blood, you see the preparations being made with the utmost deliberation
to send these starving, misdirected, unfortunate ones to their coffins, to make
misery for their families, and  probably paupers and convicts of many. Yet
that is respectable, that is wise, that, is good, while we who are trying to avert
such disasters are called fanatics, for determinedly and persistently begging the
Legislature to give these poor citizens their rights under the constitution, which
is expressly stated to be happiness and the blessings of life.
You loaned millions to the rich corporators of railroads for them to make money
with; yes, some say, but the state has given that up now.
Are the reasonable demands of the mass of our citizens for a loan of money to
supply them with homes to be denied?
But do you refuse to aid railroads? Then whv is that law in the Public Statutes
that cities and towns can give them aid; the LAW is there yet to help them.




All know families are more content and happier in homes of their own.
The Pittsburg riot cost over five millions of dollars, and many lives; the Cincinnati riot, valuable and costly.property, and also much life. Think of that value
spent in furnishing homes for these risguided citizens, to be paid by easy payments.
Had this riotous element owned real estate, they would think at once their property might get damaged, bit would certainly be taxed to pay all damage done; so
each one would then have become a self constituted policeman.
How much better to listen to the conservative measures of wise men. and avert
such disasters and waste of property. by the intelligent investment of a much less
sum, making the people all owners of real estate, and thereby changing them fromn
lawless violators, to the most conservative promoters of peace and good order.
Is it not better to loan three millions of dollars today, to content dissatisfied
citizens in our own state, whom you know to be rightly dissatisfied, because the
government is not giving them the happiness and blessings of life our constitution
says the government is founded for, than to spend five millions of dollars in attempts
to repair the damege that the Pittsburg riot shows that they are capable of doing
in any city.
i'ew York, during the Cincinnati riot was flooded with circulars in the localities
where mobs would be most likely to form, and the whole police force there had to
be on- the alert, showing that there is some unknown secret organizations in our
midst, ready to encourage this element into lawlessness, unless we, by wise measures, content it.                                                 J. M. B.
Do iomes for the People Pay?
DEAR SIR:The Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that only one in a hundred
of our wage class owns his home, and even forty-four per cent. of these homes
are mortgaged, and the average mortgage on said homes owned by the males is
$977, and on the homes owned by the females, $688; think of the struggles and
trials they must make to meet that payment of interest, beside taxes, insurance,
repairs, water rates, sewerage, etc.
A man or woman who owns a home of his own is seldom concerned in a riot.
History for thousands of years proves this fact. Discontent creates trouble, riot,
war. Content —happiness, concord, peace. Nothing so much conduces to content
families as owning their homes. The majority in our state do not own their
homes. Consequently the majority are discontented. For political motives liars
will deny the above. The state is created for the happiness of the people, not
for the benefit of any class.
A class are deriving a profit by our system of leglslation that they would not get
under a primitive government, and are not entitled to under our constitution.
If, as our constitution says, "government is for the happiness, and to confer the
blessings of life on the people," and the majority of our people are unhappy and
have not the blessings, if the government can do anything further to promote
their happiness and does not do so, it fails in its duty.
All these people ask, is their right under our constitution, which is the enjoyment of happiness and the blessings of life.
If, as our constitution says, "Whenever **** not obtained, the people have
a right to alter the government **** for their happiness," it seems as if they are
not asking too much for the government to assist them in getting homes.
Millions of dollars have been loaned to railroads for a rich class to make money;
let us now give a benefit open to all, rich and poor alike.
Millions of dollars are given to colleges to help rich men educate their sons,
from which poor men, on account of their poverty, not only cannot get a benefit,
but these colleges instruct those who are already able and forehanded so highly,
that the poor stand no chance in after competition with them; these poor ones are
so poverty-stricken, that they cannot avail themselves of the offer of an education
by simply paying their board.
The argument is used against this bill for furnishing homes for the citizens,
that it will not be a benefit to the rich, as they would not use them; that is their
fault; no matter how poor or how rich one is, he can avail himself of the opportunities at any time if he wish; but from a college, poverty operates to bar poor
men as a class from its benefits, yet the state gives aid to them.




Some state officials act as if they thought our government was created for their
exclusive benefit, and as if the State House and its contents of men and books
constituted the state of Massachusetts, and that their duty is wholly done if they
perform the routine work and draw their pay, but they are only the government
servants. This idea ought to be forced out of their brains, and the new thought
introduced that they should as a return for the salary they get be on the continual
study to increase the happiness of the citizens of the state.
This bill asks for a LOAN to help these poor people, and rich alike, if they wish,
into pleasant, happy homes.
That they painfully need and must have help in their strnggles and endeavors
to comfortably house their loved wives and little ones, the following figures from
the Lynn Experiment plainly show.
For after the advocate of this measure has given the same help to the unfortunate ones there, that the state is now asked to give all its cities and towns, and
the association through whom it is being done has economized in every direction
to build cheaply, so as to make the load so light that it could be easily carried, it is
still so heavy with all the other calls of a family to supply that the per cent. of
failures to pay for the homes is as follows, and I have plainly seen them work
hard for the money and struggle in every way to meet the payments.
45 per cent. of the families could not pay for their homes.
44 per cent. of the families paid for their homes.
11 per cent. of the families have not yet paid them.
100 per cent.
If these figures do not convince our legislators that something must be done for
these unhappy ones, and the pressing need of doing it at once to preseve the
fabric of our state, an angel from heaven could not convince them.
Yet from the manner some legislators, who are paid for their work by the state,
receive my arguments, one would think me almost a criminal for trying to convince them; think for a minute, ye intelligent ones, can it be a pleasure for me to
sacrifice business, money and health?  Can it be pleasure for a high-spirited man
to haunt the corridors of the State House to get a chance to obtain justice for
these poor unfortunate ones; beg for these poor citizens' rights who are not able
to argue for themselves, who can't spend a cent to help me, but must struggle
with might and main every moment to keep their families from starvation?
Nothing is asked for myself; no benefit can the state confer on me; for I leave
when this bill is through for fields of labor in other states.
Ye wise ones, don't smile to think I lack intelligence to realize the magnitude of
the work undertaken; without a friend in the Legislature to help me, though I
would be glad of one, I am determined to win; and bear in mind, others as well as
John Brown, may reach a hand out of the grave and accomplish their work for
the oppressed.
But how much more generous on your part to grant these men what you know
to be a right and reasonable request, and save further expenditure of my time and
strength.
Nothing is to be gained by evasions and delays on thepart of this body to whom
I appeal today. If fifty years are required to carry this bill successfully through,
fifty years shall be given. This day do the work of today and think -of that
$4,710,000.spent to repair the damage done by the misguided citizens of Pittsburg,
in riots.
Millions of dollars and thousands of lives were freely GIVEN by our Commonwealth to secure "happiness and the blessings of life" to the colored race in other
states. Are the white race who lack these two'essentials in our own state any less
precious, any less dear? Many of us who risked life for the blacks in another
state, would give it today for the blacks and whites in our own.
Would the New York, Pittsburg and Cincinnati riots have -happened had the
people been happy and contented?
I ask this year a recorded vote of both branches, and this virtually leaves the
question with the people, and they will send those they wish either to advocate or
oppose the bill.
Certainly no honest mall can be afraid to trust his constituents with the knowledge of his position on this very important matter, and a recolded vote will do it,
except for those who dodge the vote.'lease help me obtain that recorded vote.                       J. M. B.




How Workingmen are Housed outside and inside of Massachusetts.
DEAR SIR:
In Europe, at Antwerp, Belgium, the size of cottages is fixed by law at forty
superficial yards for each family; our proposed law for the smallest cottages contemplates over forty superficial vards for each family.
It. is considered a great privilege in Belgium to be allowed to occupy these
houses, as according to the rules of the Bureau of Benevolence they are only
rented to refpectable well conducted citizens, the tenant being also subjected to
certain restrictions: 1. They can only be occupied by persons named in the lease.
2. The tenant is not allowed to underlet or take any persons in as lodger without the
express consent in writing, of the administrators, neither is he permitted, without
written authority, to pursue any trade or business other than that specified in the
lease; nor, for health reasons, to keep on the premises pi-geons, rabbits, pigs, or
other animals.  3. Each tenant is expected to deposit, by the way of security, on
taking possession, either the sumtnof $18.60, on which he receives interest at the rate
of five per cent. a year, or a sum of $4.65 in cash, the remainder to be paid by instalments of 10 cents per week. The example set by the erection of these model
dwellings is, no doubt, a step in the right direction.
In Maine and New Hampshire the working classes generally live in detached
cottages one and a. halt' and two stories high, with fronm three to six rootns.
In Buffalo, N. Y., the industrial classes almost invariably occupy detached cottages built of wood.
In Philadelphia about one-half the industrial classes occupy separate houses; of
those living in separate houses about one-half are owners, the others paying rent.
The French workmen sent here to examine the condition of our laboring class,
go back content with their lot, as it is much better than ours.
Algeria; here, as in all great cities of France, artisans cannot obtain cottages or
separate houses, but occupy apartments in large buildings. These are badly ventilated and drained; and the difference between children who have always inhabited these crowded rooms, and those who have been brought up in the country, is
very striking.
In Switzerland the majority of artisans own their cottages.
The above are extracts from the labor reports of Mass.
Brothers:-If in the Reports on Labor for 1870, at the State Library, you read
on from page 165 you will see that our wage class need yourle help to get a home:
and after reading of the miserable tenements some of them occupy, they will bhe
sure to get vour assistance and sympathy.
To read' from page 519 of 1871 Report would shock the nerves of the devil himself; read pages 213 and 437, Report of 1872: read report of 1873; read page 386,
Report of 1875: read page 32, Report of 1876.                       J. M. B.
A good Child makes a good Citizen, a bad
one, a Criminal.
DEAR SIR: —
The moral good of our commonwealth requires that boys and girls should keep
at school, not at work. The Massachsetts Bureau of Statistics says:
"But 35 + per cent. of heads of families are able by their individual earnings to
supply their family needs."
"64 + per cent. rely upon the assistance of wives and children."
"26 per cent. of their children work."
"In the larger places the percentage of assisted is the greatest."
"Only 9 per cent. of the unskilled workmen get along without assistance."
"Only 55 per cent. of the families save money.')"
"Their average yearly saving is but 824.74."''35 per cent. of the families make both ends meet."
"10 per cent. of the families have to run in debt."
"The skilled mechanic receives,2.50 per day on the average."
"The ordinary laborer receives on an average $51..50 per day."
"Women's wages are 82 cents per day."
"The women's average of wages is lower partly because some of them  work in
families and get their board."
"The average of the whole wage class is $1.23 per day."
"The average number of days they were employed is 290 —."




"Only one out of a hundred own their homes."
"In an examination into the condition of the working population of a state,
there is no more important fact to be discovered than the proportion of people
who possess, in fee simple, the houses which shelter them. No statement as to
the occupations, earnings, expenses, etc., is of much value that is not accompanied
with the facts relating to this point."'"Summary of results, an insignificant proportion of workinginen, whose condition we investigated, are able to own their own homes."
"Among them  the families containing the greatest number of child workers
occupy the most crowded rooms and the inferior class of tenements.
"Nearly one-half the unskilled laborers live in inrferior tenements.
If we can assist, and by some system direct the exertions of the heads of the
families of these working people, and show them how to spend wages to the best
advantage, and enable them  to get a home of their own, surely we are not only
conferring a great benefit on them but a benefit on the poor, struggling, unfortunate hard-worked women, who are their wives, and through them  a benefit on
their children, and through them  all an enormous benefit on the state at large.
But some cavillers say it is not the business of the state to do this; then what
is the business of the state?
Who are the state? The citizens, certainly. And are they not to be allowed to
benefit themselves, or is the state composed wholly of office-holders, whose whole
duty after looking out for self, is to pass laws for the benefit of landlords?
And now in order to enable the landlords and holders of mortgages on the vile
dens called tenement houses, described in the labor reports as in our Commonwealth, to live in luxury on the hard earnings wrung from the labor of these poor
unfortunate ones, are we for a moment to be so foolish as to listen to their well
guarded arguments and the shrewd ones of their friends, favoring them in continuing this bare-faced robbery? I think the time is now reached when intelligent
legislators cannot be led by them to oppose the will of the majority of the people.
They say it is not the place or the duty of the state to help get homes for its
citizens; then whose duty is it?  Whose duty is it to confer happiness and the
blessings of life on its citizens?
The true reason for the opposition of the holders of mortgages and the owners
of'tenements lies in this. - No rich man nor any one else can make money out of
this bill; but it will tend to materially reduce the profits of some by curtailing
their mortgages and rents, which accounts for the fierce opposition to this measure.
Let them tell the truth of their opposition, for cloak it as they may we know it
is wholly selfish.
It is because they or their friends can't make money out of it.
Only the kind, the good, the true, the courageous will dare oppose this class, and
advocate the cause of the workingman, and in a lawful manner obtain him his
rights under the constitution, which are happiness and the blessings of life.
J. M. B.' The vainly proud, the selfishly ambitious,
Shall they o'er ride the fortunes of mankind,
Or shall their teachings false and schemes pernicious,
By honest wrath be scattered to the  wind?"
IS THIS TO COME?
De;AR SIt:The reading of "' Uncle Tom's Cabin " sent many of us to the war, to leave it
only at Lee's surrender; we gave our health and strength and we were willing to
give our lives to protect the poor unfortunate blacks, and give them their natural
rights, which were happiness and the blessings of life.
The task master of the South took the labor of the blacks but gave them in return enough food for their families, for it did not pay him to starve his own property. He clothed and housed them comfortably, and if-they were sick saw them
doctored and nursed, and when old age came on, public sentiment required the
owners to protect, feed, clothe, and house them, and at death give a Christian burial.
The task master of the North, by a wage system that is devilish, takes the labor
of the whites. and gives in return a pittance which does not furnish enough food
for many of their families, or why the need of free soup and pauper asylums? Some
northarriers are cruel enough to starve hulman beings they do not own; clothing or
(ousing. their help is of no interest to many of them, and to get a doctor or nurse




is done only by a few; to care for old age or burial of a faithful employee is rarely
thought of.
Think you if we gave health, and strength, and were willing to give our lives for
the black brothers as they were then situated, that we la'k the courage to do the
same today for our white brothers almost starving at the north?
Although those southern task-masters did wrong and stole the labor of their help,
they did not begin to make the money from the blacks that under another system
the northern task-masters make from their help. The wealth of the principal taskmasters in the two sections North and South plainly proves this fact.
The southern task masters, as a rule, did not begin to revel in the luxury wrung
from the labor of the black, that the northern task-mnasters do from the hard work
of the white.
As a rule the black did not have to work half as hard, or with near as much
earnestness as a white at the north does to oet a bare living.
Now any sensible man knows our wage class at the north has to live in better
condition than the blacks at the south on account of the cold weather; he has many
heavier expenses onl account of that cold; most of them are pressed every month
for money to buy food and clothing for their families, which monthly and six
weeks' payments make still harder.
The average daily pay of the laboring man is $1.50. How do the thousands on
thousands get on who have less than the average? God and themselves only know;
they keep it to themselves and struggle on. The grave opens for them, the poorhouse for their families.
Brothers we feel sorry, but are we doing our duty by them? let us not talk but'work for their relief, work to get them their' natural rights" which our constitution says is " happiness and the blessings of life.'
We know they are not getting their rights; do you wonder if in their rough lawless way, the only way in which they know how to try for their rights, they follow
as near as they can the instruction of our constitution, and by nmob violence try to
totally change the gQvernment, as the constitution says may be done by the people
when they don't get- happiness and the blessings of life' 9
The state furnishes the benevolent persons who compose the State Board of
Charities, with permanent buildings, and gives them enormous sums to assist the
unfortunate poor who will beg.  Our Bill contemplates the state only lending its
credit to furnish homes andchappiness to men and women who will not beg.
The Saving Loan and Fund Associations, money making institutions, which, in
almost every circular they issue try to convince readers that their main aim in life
is to get working men into homes of their own, were out in force to oppose this
measure before the committee; they want to help the working man into a home,
but they ought to add at the end of their circulars, " provided said workingmen pay
them a good fat interest," even more than the savings banks exact.  Their mortg~ages average about a thousand-dollars each, which virtually bar a poor man out,
as it would be rather hard for a man of family to pay that amount with interest,
trom his wages of $1.50 per day, after feeding and clothing a family from it with
the incidental expenses.
One of the men who spoke fobr them is mistaken in thinking that as able men as
are associated with him could not be found in other parts of our commonwealth to
run these corporations.  1 know they would not, as he said, "run them into inextricable confusion;"' there i.s brain outside of the Boston and other SavingL Loan and
Fund Associations.
The banks used the same argument in opposing the gentlemnan when getting
charters for his p)et organizations, and pretended to hold the same views in regard
to them.
This will hurt their prospects for mloney niaking, and so from selfish motives they
oppose it.
One employee at the State house opposes this bill but he has four houses to rent,
so he puts in solid work by confidential slurs to members.
Sonie men know so little about benevolence, they think this work in which no
one can get a salary or make a cent either directly or indirectly, will start at once
with a rush, and the money will go flowing out of the state treasury like water.
Every lover of the welfare of the state might well pray for this, but the benevolent men will come forth so slowly to work it without pay, that it will be a slow
and steady growth, slower than it would otherwise be on account of the opposition
it will get from landlords, and holders of mortgages.           J. Al.. B.




UNCOONSTITUTiONAL.
A civil question addressed to even a BOOR, carries with it a natural right to a
civil answer. To dispel t e least doubt our state constitution explicitly says, every
citizen has a +right to address a petition to the legislature; that RIGHT carries with
it a plainly unde:-stood and incontestible RIGHT t9 an answer of some kind from
the Legislature, which is composed of two branches, the Senate and House; an
answer from  ONLY ONE Of which is NOT an answer from the Legislature. Yet
in a clearly unconstitutional manner, the Senate anct House have each sets of
rules and rulings, by which eitller branch can neglect to answer a petition, and
also prevent the other branch from answering it. Such a ruling was made by the
Speaker at the last session, and a petition wats so buried, not only robbing one
citizen of his rights, but it clearly usurped the power of the other branch of the
Legislature; but as only one person was injured by it, and as he could not help
himself, he was sat down on and the petition was not answered by either branch:
but it any legislature expects respect for laws it makes, it can t)est obtain it by
respecting laws which are made to govern itself.
In Rules, Senate 55, and House 100, wvhen there is no rule bearing on the subject, Cushing shall decide. Now the only thing to sustain a.ruling that the
Senate should not have a chance to discuss said petition and try to substitute a bill
that might have been acceptable to the Hlouse, is Cushing, page S87, as follows:
"It is not the usage for one of two houses of a legislative body to inform the
other by what numbers a BILL has passedc; nor where a BILL from the other house
has been rejected, does the house, in which the proceedings take place, give the
other any notice of the rejection, or return the BILL to that house; but the matter passes sub silentio to prevent unbecoming altercations.":Now that is wholly in
relation to a BILL and is entirely foreignr to this case.'This case was on a ptition.
a report of a JOINT commniteee. and a PROPOSED slbstitute bill.
And CGushing's decision directly bearing on the subject is as follows: "'In Massachusetts, joint committees, consisting of unequal members of the two branches,
are appointed by a concurrent act; are employed about the ordinary business of
legislation; constitute one homogeneous commuittee; and make their report indifferently in either branch. IThese committees, as to their form and authority, and
modes of proceeding, do noot differ from the common select committee of a single
branlch, EXCEPT that every vote, in relationt to them ancd.their' proceedings, MUST be
conctrret't.1"  So constitntional Justice demands an answer of some kind to that
petition.                                                           J. N1r. B.
Who are the people to Trightly decide in regard to the belnefit coniferr ed on the citizens; THOSE who receive the benefits, or THE SELFISH ONES who oppose the
work, or TtO0SE, who, without examining into the matter, are dete?rmined rNOT to
be convinced?
Selfish men have always opposed the advance of any good work, and will do so
for a long time to come, so it ha& been in this case. This is a small thing today,
without strength and without lnfluence; but every GREAT and GOOD WORK started
weak and small, and only grew up to large dimensions after many years.
I have tried my native state; if not allowed to work it here, like others who
have had the same experience in their own country, I can go elsewhere, for I can
and will make it a great success somewhere.
If kindly feelings force us to spend the enormous sums that we do, to care for
our paupers and helpless ones, many of whom are made so by their own fanlt,
would it not be GOOD POLICY, as well as a proof of a kindlier feeling, to give just
a LITTLE help to the really deserving poor and almost helpless ones, who are struggling with might and main to avoid becoming paupers and a permanent burden on
the state?
Law made to Protect Bones of the Wealthy Dead, before it is made
to Protect Live Flesh on the Bones of Workingmen and Women.
In 1880, the Lsgislature at first refused to charter an association in Lynn to
house workingmen and women; but at the same time they were making a law for
theebetter protection of the hones of the wealthy in the ancient grave-yards; and
I could hardly contain my anger to hear the grand speeches made in the Legislature at that time, of the importance of protecting the SACRED (?) BONES of governors and other notorious men of former days, when the same Legislature had
reJectcd a bill, only a few days before, that was to provide for the comfortable
housing of workingmen and women in our state.             JOHN M. BERRY.




eb~"7  /$2/
THE EUGHT-HOUR LA\W'.
SPEECH
OF
HON. BENJAMIN BUTTERWORTH,
OF OH IO,
IN THE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
THnURSDAY, AUGUST 28;, 1890.
WASHINGTON.
1890.








SPEECH
OF
HON. BENJAVMIN BUTTERWORTHI
The Elouse having under consideration the bill (H. R. 9791) constituting eigbht
hours a day's, work for all laborers, workmen, and mechanics employed by or on
behalf of the Government of the United States or by contractors doing work or
furnishing material for the Government, and providing penalties for violation of
the provisions thereof1Mr. BUTTERWORTH said:
Mr. SPEAKEIR: I want to ask the gentleman in charge of the bill
whether it prohibits a man friom making a contract with another to
work more than eight hours per day, if both desire to do so and
neither of them is in the employ of the Government.
Mr. CUTCHEON. That is just what it does.
Mr. CONNELL.  It does except in special cases where there is
some necessity for it.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. And who is to decide when the special necessitv arises?
Mr. CONNELL.. The parties can decide that for themselves, and
if they make a mistake they are amenable to the court, as they
ought to be.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. Who is to determine when there has been
a violation of the law, or when there has been a mistake'
Mr. CUTCHEON. As stated by the gentleman troml Pennsylvania, that is a question of fact to be determined by the jury.
MrI. BUTTERWORTH. I understand my friend froml Nebraska
insists if I take employment to work nine hours a day by my own
consent, in order to secure the additional compensation, I am robbing somebody else of employment, and that that is the point in this
bill.
Mr. CONNELL. The point is to give everybody a chance to get
work.
Mr. FARQUHAR. That is just what the bill does.
ERECTvING A GOVERs.NMENT ARISTOCRACY..
Mr. CUTCHEON. No; the bill does not. We are simply erecting
a Government aristocracy.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. Let me ask the gentleman if this law is
expected to apply in any case except in regard to Government employes?
Mr. FARQTTHAR. Not at all.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. It certainly is not pretended that it can
reach beyond the employ6s of the Government.
Mr. TURNER, of New York. That is all that it does and what it
is intended to do.




4
Mr. BUTTERWORTIH. My friend is in error. I think the bill in
terms goes far beyond that. It in express terms seeks to control private contracts between citizens, if the employer happens to have a
contract with the Government to supply material or render service,
though neither party is in fact working for the Government or in its
employ.
I submit, touching this intermeddling in the private affairs of the
citizen, that it might be very well for my friend to work but eight
hours a day if he had only a wife, or himself, to support, while it might
be necessary for me to have the increased compensation for  working
ten hours a day if I had to support a wife and twelve children. Now,
we ought not to try to regulate by statute, I think, the precise
number of hours that a man not in the employ of the Government
shall work, unless, at the same time, we can adopt some regulation
to limit the nurmber of children that he should have, and generally
regulate or fix the limit of his necessities and the range and measure of his responsibilities.
Mr. CONNELL. But half a loaf is bette r than no loaf at all.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. That is true; but we have not come to
the half loaf yet, and in this country there are loaves enough for all,
if we have fair play, coupled with industry, economy, and sobriety.
Mr. CONNELL. And that is the theory upon which this bill is
framed.
WE IO NOT WANT THE GOVERNMENT TO MEDDLE.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. It is a question, I will say to my friend,
whether under this bill our Government is not getting too paternal
and meddling in matters that are none of its business. I think from
the evidence brought before me that possibly men working eight
hours a day will in manafy lines of industry accomplish as much as
they would working ten under the old r6gime. That is the testimony that has been adduced before the Commissioper of Labor and
otherwise, but that does not determine the question as to the individual right of an American freeman to sell without the meddlesome
interference and restriction of the Government the only thing that
God gives him to sell, that is his labor, in order to provide for his
family and better his condition.
Mr. TUCKER. Or cotton-seed oil.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. No matter what it is, whether it be cottonseed oil, as my friend suggests, or his wheat, corn, or labor, or whatsoever else he has got,.
~ Mr. MUTCHLER. As a lawyer, do you believe any statute can be
enacted that will prevent a man from doing that?
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. I do not, and if that is true, then my
honored friend will see that this act would be nugatory.  But I am
discussing the wisdom, or want of wisdom, of attempting, to the proposed extent and in the manner proposed, to restrict the freedom
and inherent right of the free citizen. I do not think we can do so
constitutionally. And if we could, we should not do so.
Mr. MUTCHLER. That is what I think.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. We are all concerned, and properly concerned, in protecting the rights of the American citizen. There is no
man in America who is fit to associate with who does not eat his
bread in the sweat of his face, no matter in what honorable vocation he labors.
Mr. MUTCHLER. But there is no legislation that can say I dare
not work ten hours if I choose to do it,.
Mr. CUTCHEON. This bill says it,.
BUT




THE BILL ABRIDGES A CITIZEN'S RIGHTS.
Mr. BUT'rERWORTH. Clearly if this bill abridges the constitutional ri,-ht of the citizen it ought not to pass.
Mr. MUTCHLER. No law can say I shall not work over eight
hotrs.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. Gentlemen will correct me if I am wrong
in my construction of the bill. It is better to be right than to attempt merely to please a considerable number of people, for any
political advantage that may come to us as a result of pleasing them.
Now, I understand that if this bill should become a law and if I
have a contract to deliver to the United States at Fort Leavenworth 1,000 tons of hay, and employ my neighborto help me bale the
hay for delivery to the Governmlent, or to help me to haul it to the
place of delivery, and I agree with him to work ten or nine hours a
day, or permit hiuem to do so with or without increased pay, I become a criminal, and would be liable under this bill to fine and imprisonmeut.
Mr. WADE. That, provision has been stricken out.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH.  I understand that is the proposition
pending.
Mr. WADE. That has been stricken out.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. No, sir, that provision has not yet been
stricken out, and the bill as it now stands would.cover the case I
have supposed.
Mr. CUTCHEON. Any Government work.
Mr. McCOMAS. If the gentleman will allow me, as that section
now stands it reads, by an amendment offered and adopted:
That all contracts hereafter made by or in behalf of the Government.
And down in line 8:
Such corporation, person, or persons under such contract, to permit or re.
quire.
It is limited strictly and sharply to Government enlployment, and
does not affect the citizen in the matter of personal employment.
A CASE IN POINT.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. That is just what I want to get at. You
say it limits it to Government employment,. In terms it does not do
so. In the case I put, my neighbor whom I might employ would in
no sense be in Government employment.
I desire to ask the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. McCoMAs], in
order to get at the true import of the language of this bill so far as
it has been modified: let us suppose that I am employed to build a
tunnel for the Government, no matter where, or to do any work, to
transport goods, if you please, from one place to another. Suppose
it was the preference and a prinme necessity of those who were employed by me, and my own preference, that we should work ten hours
a day, and we should agree to it; suppose I should pay the men for
the increased hours of work, and they should do it. I understand
that under this bill I would be liable to fine and imprisonment. Is
that so?
Mr. CUTCHEON. Yes; if you even permitted them to do it,
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. If I even permuitted them to do it?
Mr. CUTCHEON. Yes, you would have to go to prison.
Mr. McCOMAS. When you make a contract as a Government
officer you are prohibited from mal king, as one of the teri, s of that
contract, any agreement which requires or permits more than eight
BUT




6
hours a day as part of that Government contract. That is the whole
of it.
Mr. STEWART, of Vermont. That is to say, that men who make
contracts shall not modify them.
Mr. McCOMAS. An officer of the Government shall not do it;
that is all. It says that in all contracts made on behalf of the Goveminent, by a Government officer, he shall not, in any such contract,
as the bill now stands, put in the body of that contract any requireInent or permission to do more than eight hours' labor.
TIlE PURPOSE OF THE BILL EXPLAINED.
Mir. BUTTERWORTH.  As I understand my friend, it provides
that, if I have a contract with the Government to do certain work,
for instance to construct a railroad to transport supplies from one
point to another, to construct a tunnel, to cut andu deliver 10,000
cords of wood, or any other work, if in the prosecution of that work
the men who are engaged in it as employes, for me, work more than
eight hours a day, although we may mutually desire to work nine
hours and to increase the pay on the basis of the longer hours, or
if I permit that, I will be liable to fine and imprisonment. Is that
so?
Mr. McCOMAS. That is the purpose of this bill; in the case of
the Governmenttcontracting, so far it makes him an official of the
Government.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH   Now, Mr. Speaker. I do not believe that
the cause of labor, which is the cause of mankind, the cause of ourselves and our children, can possibly be promoted by an act of that
kind. If I thought so I would vote for it. Let us pause and reflect
a moment upon what we are doing. Have we indeed reached apoint
in this free country that the freemen of the land are not allowed,
although every man interested-the employer and the employeddesires to work nine hours a day with increased compensation-that
we can not do it without the employer becoming a criminal under
the law and liable to fine and imprisonment? If so, then it seems
to me the Government has become thoroughly and utterly paternal
and our privileges as freemen are being shamefully abridged.
What may we not look for, what may we not fear if such legislation as this is even possible-? The excuse is that there is not work
enough for all. If it be true that there is not work enough for us to
do-if that be true, and if we are forced to recognize that fact,
which I do not in any wise believe, then let us resort to some other
remedy.
ADOPT ANOTHER REMEDY IF NECESSARY.
It seems to me that the highest right of an American freeman is to
utilize the time and the faculties that God has given him to feed
himself and his children; and instead of depriving th - citizen of this
inestimable boon, which is the birthright of every freeman in my
country, a right that has been purchased at the cost of forty centuries
of conflict wagedcl in the interest of larger liberty for men, I would
close the gates of Castle Garden for a little season at least against
that kind of immigration which is depriving the boy and girl of
America of the rights and opportunities they ought to enjoy.
Mr. TRACEY. But it is the American boy and girl who ask for
the passage of tllis law.
Mr. WADE. Will the gentlemflan allow me to ask him a question?
Mr. BUT'TERWORTH. One single moment..
Now, no one on this floor need to saly that he is more the friend of
BUT




labor than another. It is not true. There is hardly a man who has a
seat in this House who did not begin life surrounded by conditions
that compelled him to work and struggle with adversity, and no one
here but won his spurs by wisely utilizing the very privilege which
this bill would strike down.  The honorable gentlemen about me
achieved the success that has marked their careers by extra hours devoted to work.  Gentlemen, this is not a mere question of votes as
a result of a demonstration on behalf of labor. There is involved in
this bill the question- whether the time and ability of every American
freeman is his own and to be enjoyed, or whether both belong to the
Government to be employed only and to the extent permitted by the
Government. I insist that one of the highest and most sacred rights
of an American citizen is perfect freedom to employ his time and his
faculties as he sees fit, and that the right to say I shall only work
eight hours, whether I want to or not and whatever my necessities,
involves the right to say what, when, and how much I may eat and
sleep.
To regulate the hours of labor, as it is done in most of the States,
is a very proper but a very different thing from saying I shall not
work over eight hours if I want to, or that the man who hires me, at
my request, to work ten hours and pays me for it-is a criminal.
CIVIL LIBERTY IS INVOLVED.
I believe myself that eight hours is better. I believe in providing
that limitation upon the requirement by the Government, but when
you go beyond and say that a man who has contracted to deli \er to
the Government this, or that, or the other, that when I contract, or
you contract, to deliver to the Government 10,000 tons of hay, or a
million bushels of oats, or to construct a railroad from point to
point-when you say that I or you shall not agree with those whom
we employ to work nine hours a day, you deprive each of them of
one of the highest rights and most important privileges of an American freeman.
When you make a criminal of me for giving these men a larger opportunity you deprive an American citizen of one of the most important elements of civil liberty, and if the law does not extend to
the subcontractor and the subcontractor under him, you put it into
the power of the contractor to stand aside and simply sublet his
contract and thus escape the provisions of the law. If we intend to
experiment with Bellamy's theory as described in Looking Backward, the provision of this bill which we are discussing is a very
natural and proper step.
Mr. CUTCHEON. This provision does extend to the subcontractors.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. Undoubtedly; and, if it is right, it is right
in the abstract, and, if I may not have the right to agree with my
friend here to work nine hours a day, it must be because it is a
wrong that anybody should have or enjoy that right, since it rests
upon the principle that no man has the right to work over eight
hours a day, lest if he do he rob somebody else of a job. And yet
the effort is made, and successfully, to show that men will accomplish as much in eight hours as they have been. accustomed to accomplish in ten; and, if that be true, where does the increased opportunity for employment come in? If it is right for the Government
to say to me: "You, as a contractor, shall not employ your neighbor
to work nine hours a day," it must follow, as I have suggested, that it
is wrong in the abstract, for clearly that contract which would be
wrong iu the matter of cutting wood nine hours a day for A, who
irUT




is a contractor, would be equally wrong for B, who is not a contractor, under the Government.
Mr. LAWLER. Why, then, should it be applied to your Departments? They work seven hours in them.
THE REAL QUESTION AT ISSUE.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. I do not object to their working seven
hours or six hours. I would prefer six hours myself. My friend
might prefer five. [Laughter.] That is not the point. My friend
misapprehends the real point in this controversy.
Mr. LAWVLER. Right here it appears that there is no issue raised
in the case of these men who are receiving payment of three thousand and four thousand or five thousand dollars, but there is in those
who work by the day's work.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. My friend from Illinois is raising another
and a totally different question. Whenever they work extra time
they should be paid for it. This has nothing to do with it. I am
talking about this clause in the bill which would make you a criminal if you should enter into an agreement with your neighbor to
work or permit him in his own interest to work nine hours a day.
Mr. MORGAN. Do you not, as a matter of fact, work from twelve
to thirteen hours a day?
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. I do so, and there is not a member on this
floor who does not find it necessary to work as much. And my observation is that any man that makes a success in life and gets ahead
does it by working longest and best, of course of his own accord.
One word more, for I want to'get at the root of this matter. I am an
American citizen and I have no palience with anybody that is a recent
transplant who tells me how to love my country and how to stand
by it, or to instruct me as to its opportunities and its glories and at
the same time intimates that he is more a friend to the homes of my
country than I am. [Applause.]
Mr. LAWLER. These men love their country just as much as
you do.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. Certainly those you refer to do; those I
refer to do not. I refer to this because I have been criticised by some
persons, not members of this House, but recent importations, men
who never struck a blow for the freedom of the country they left
and who brought nothing to our own that could add to its moral or
mental elevation, who represent servile instincts and lawlessness,
and yet these same creatures would assume to teach us what freedom
is and how to throw around American institutions and American
freemen the only true safeguards of both.
A PREMIUM PUT UPON DULLNESS.
Mr. FARQUHAR. There are foreigners on this floor just as good
citizens for the country as you are.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. I have not a doubt of it and I have never
said otherwise.
But now, Mr. Speaker, to return to the question, if the Government says to me that I shall not hire A or B or that A or B shall
not hire me, even if we both agree, recognizing the nu cessity to both
to work nine hours a day, it must be because it is inherently wrong.
Mr. WADE. Yes, and it is.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. Very well. If it is inherently wrong, as
my friend from Missouri [Mr. WADE] sayS, then by all the rules of
morals and logic the law ought to apply to every man in private
life as well as to contractors and subcontractors of the Government.
BUT




Mr. WADE.  And that is how we want to make it.  LLaughter. ]
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. IJndoubtedly. Your purpose is to handicap industry and perseverance and offer a premium on dullness and
sloth. Now, I will put this question to my distinguished brother
from Missouri [Mr. WADE]: If I can not dispose of my time and service, the only capital which God gives me with which to earn my
bread and win larger opportunity for my children as I please, in what
sense am I a freeman? And if we go on in the same direction how
long will it be until I am a serf? 
Mr. LAWLER. We answer that by saying that we are legislating
here for American mechanics working for the United States Government, and we do not propose to interfere with private individuals.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. Certainly. You are legislating their liberties from them. The difference between my friend from Illinois
[Mr. LAWLER] and me is that I would leave to every mechanic, the
father of every family in this country, the widest possible liberty,
while my friend would abridge the man's liberty. In other words,
while pretending or attempting to reduce his hours of labor he would
deprive him of his freedom as a citizen. Thank heaven, no such
proposition was ever sprouted in American soil. It has about it no
trace of the spirit that belongs to American institutions. It belongs
to a soil and a country where the government is everything and
where the citizen is nothing.
Mr. LAWLER. Organization of trades has been found necessary
for the protection of those men and their families in this country.
THIS IS NOT AN AMERICAN IDEA.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. I understand that, but I am not talking
about that, but am objecting to robbing workmen of their liberty
under the pretense of enlarging their opportunity.
Mr. LAWLER. But you are leading towards it.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. We are talking about different things. I
am talking about the authority of this Congress to say to individuals that they shall under no circumstances, so far as contracts to
render service to a Government contractor are concerned, be permit.
ted to work more than eight hours per day, no matter what may be
the conditions, no matter what may be the surroundings. That is
something new in my country. I may be wrong. This is a period of
evolution and I may be wrong about this, but for me and my house,
until there is a stress, until I find that there is no remedy except to
abridge the liberties of American freemen to do as they please with the
time and faculties which God has given them by which to earn their
bread, I do not propose to adopt this method, at least until I lose all
my confidence in and respect for the manhood of my countrymen.
Mr. HENDERSON, of Iowa. Will the gentleman yield for a question?
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. Yes, sir.
Mr. KERR, of Iowa.. Mr. Speaker, I rise to a question of order.
I desire to know who is controlling the time on this side. I understood the Chair to state some time ago that the gentleman from
Pennsylvan ia [Mr. MUTCHLER] was to control the time in opposition
to tle bill.
The SPEAKER pro termpore. The Chair will state to the gentleman that the gentleman from Nebraska [Mr. CONNELL], in charge
of the bill, is entitled to control practically an hour's time if he desires to do so in favor of the bill. The gentleman from Pennsylvania
BUT




10
[Mr. MUTCHLERI was recognized to control the time.in opposition
to the bill, but the gentleman from Pennsylvania occupied so much
time as he wished and did not manifest a desire to use any more,
and unanimous consent was given to the gentleman from Michigan
[Mr. CUTCHEON] to offer an amendment, to which he addressed himself. Then, nobody rising to oppose the bill except the gentleman
from Ohio, the gentleman from Ohio was recognized.
A CERTAIN LIMITATION IS PROPER, BUTMr. MIJTCHLER. Mr. Speaker, after the gentleman from Ohio
[Mr. BUTTERWORTH] has concluded I shlall ask to control the balance of the time in opposition to the bill.
The SPEAKER pro temnpore. So much time in opposition to the
bill as shall remain after the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. BUTTERWORTH] conecldes will be controlled by the gentleman from Pennsylvania [ Mr. MUTCHLER. ]
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. Now, Mr. Speaker, so far as the rule of
conductin the navy-yards and in the other departments is concerned,
I quite agree to the policy of fixing a day's work at eight hours, but
I have not yet got quite so far along in making serfs of my countrymen that I am willing to say that a man is a criminal because he permits his employ6 to work nine hours under a contract to furnish supplies to the United States.
Mr. CUMMINGS. Does not the gentleman know that under the
laws of the different States men, women, and children are forbidden
to work in cotton-mills and other factories twelve, fourteen, and sixteen hours a day?
Mr. BIJTTERWORTH. I understand that employ6s shall not be
required to work excessive hours, but I do not know of any State in
which men are placed in the position of being punished as criminals
if they agree by contract with those who work under them that they
shall work nine or ten hours a day.
Mr. CUMMINGS. There is a penalty provided for the violation of
the law in Massachusetts and in New York; and does the gentleman
mean to tell me that the General Government has no right to prescribe that men shall work eight hours per day on work that is done
for the Government?
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. Undoubtedly the Government has a right
to fix the time during which its employ6s shall render service; and
not, only that, but I believe that such a limitation as to the number of
hours required is proper. But that is another questionMr. CUMMINGS. If the State provides a penalty for the violation
of its State law, why has not the General Government. the right to
provide a penalty for the violation of its law l
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. My friend must observe that the law to
which he calls attention is wide apart from the provisions of this
bill to which objection is urged. They are totally unlike. The question is as to the range of the bill, how far you may rightly go without.
subverting the liberties of the people.
SHOULD WE BY LAW COMMIT A WRONG?
I agree with my friend, and always have done so, with regard to
the proper limit of the hours of work; and the law in all the States,
I believe, provides that in the absence of any contract to the contrary a day's work shall be ten hours, eight hours, or whatever number may be specified. But this goes further-much further. It applies to subcontractors, no matter where and how employed —not
specially in any factory,department, or bureau, but wherever throughBUT




11
out the United States workmen may be engaged, not by the Government, but by a contractor or subcontractor, who may be engaged to
build a ship, or improve a waterway, or the like; he may not permit
a workman to be employed over eight hours a day under penalty of
going to prison; no matter how scarce labor may be,no matter thoullgh
there be work for a thousand men and only a hundred to do it, without regard to any circumstances of this kind, I become a criminal,
liable to fine and imprisounment, if I hire my friend or (which is
more likely) if he hires me to work nine hours a day.
Mr. CUMMINGS. If the contractor takes a contract under that
specification, how can it be wrong?
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. But the question is whether we should
compel a contract which does wrong to the rights of the individual
citizen.
Mr. CUMMINGS. The law, if passed, makes the specification.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. That is true, but the question is as to the
wisdom of the law, even if it was constitutional.
Mr. CUMMINGS. If a law of this kind violates the right of the
individual citizen, why does not a similar law with regard to work
in the factories of Massachusetts violate the rights of the individual
citizen?
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. My honored friend is comparing two laws
which are unlike both in provision and object. No such law as this
would be valid in any State in this Union. The circumstances may
be entirely different. The law of Massachusetts relates specifically
to factories; it refers to certain conditions which are pointed out, and
limits the number of hours that may be required as a day's work. The
trouble with this bill, as my friend will observe, is that it is general
in its application. It is not to enlarge the opportunity of the workman, but to abridge his liberty.
Mr. CUMMINGS. It relates simply to contracts under the Government.
THIS BILL WOULD MAKE CITIZENS SERFS.
Mr. BUJTTERWORTH. Undoubtedly, but to all kinds of contracts; and operates to restrict the highest rights of the citizen to
work according to the necessities of his condition, and, although there
may be but one hundred men to do a thousand men's work, yet it
makes me a criminal if I employ a hundred men or one man to work
for a greater length of time daily than eight hours.
Mr. CUMMINGS. You understand that when you take the contract.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. Certainly; but we should not provide for
making such a contract.
Mr. McCOMAS. If the gentleman will allow me a moment I wish
to ask him this one question: Has he noticed that the section as
now amended is limited strictly to contracts made by the Governm:ent for the performance of work? It does not apply to the furnishing or the manufacturing of materials, but simply provides that when
there is a contract to work for the Government the party shall not be
required or permitted under such contract to work more than eight
hours a day. That is the whole of it.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. My friend must certainly see that there
is a very broad distinction between being an employ6 of the Government and be;i-g an employe of a citizen having a contract with
the Government for supplies, whether in one line or another.
Mr. SMITH, of Illinois. I desire to ask the gentleman from Ohio
a question.
BUT




12
Mr. EVANS.  May I ask the gentleman a question?
The SPEAKER pIro temnpore (Mr. PAYSON). The gentleman from
Ohio [Mr. BUTTERWORTH] is still entitled to the floor.
Mr. BUTTERWORTH. I beg pardon of my friend for having
trespassed so much upon his time.
The objection to this bill as it is reported to the House is that it
leaves the citizen little better than a serf. It turns civilization
backward, instead of forward. It has some excellent provisions,
such as that wherein it, seeks to compel the observance of the law
by bureaus an(i Departments of the Government in the amatter of
the number of hours of labor that are required of those in the employ
of the Government. Beyond that there is, I fear, more politics than
wisdom in the bill.
CONTEMPT IS DUE THE POLITICAL DEMAGOGUE.
The statement made upon the floor of the House to-day that a law
which makes it a penitentiary offense for a man to contract witlh his
neighbor to work nine or ten lhours a day, getting larger compensation therefor, is an enlargement instead of an abridgment of opportunity, is brilliant in the extreme; and the pretense that anybody
upon this floor has, during this discussion, suggested thai it was unwise to limit the day's labor so far as Government emlloyds are concerned to eight hours is wholly gratuitous and sounds very like an
attempt to go on dress parade for political camipaign purposes. The
issue here is as to the proper limitation upon the exercise of governmental power in interfrin  to control andl abridge the liberty of the
citizen in disposing of his time and opportunity according to his
necessities and desires.
Those who carefully study the relation between capital and labor,
between employer apd emnployS, and who address themselves intelligently, as well as earnestly, to making those relations what they
should be, in the interest of all concerned, are entitled to all honor,
and I am glad to recognize the thoroughly unselfish devotion of
many members upon the floor of this House in their efforts to restrain the exactions of capital in that wherein it appears to be
heartless. Verily, they are entitled to their reward. But,  have
nothing but contempt for the mere actor in the arena of politics,
who sighs over that about which he has no honest concern and becomes demonstrative about economic questions of which he has little
knowledge and no wisdom.
Every gentleman upon this floor who, in the line of his own experience, knows what it is to earn his bread, must realize the truth
and force of the fact that the present and future prosperity of his
children, and those who come after them, will be found in preserving to each citizen the largest liberty consistent with the public
safety, and such member can not be other than a friend of the
workmen of our country, and he can not fail to realize. also, that we
are a nation of laborers, all workmen, some in one field of endeavor
and some in another, but none the less all workmen, striving to
provide for those who depend upon us and to aid those among whom
our lot has been cast to achieve the success upon which their comfort and happiness in large measure depend.
INTELLIGENT CONVICTION AND HONEST EFFORT EEEDED.
The economic and social problems that confront us will be found
difficult enough to solve when men bring to the work intelligent conviction and honest effort. We will not be helped any by the mere
gratuitous lip service of the pretended friends of labor, nor by the
BUT




13
unintelligent efforts of those who have not given the subject studious investigation and careful thought.
I desire to submit, in conclusion, that the intelligence and saving
common sense of the people of this country are too often underrated,
and there is too little disposition to accord to principle and to clean
personal character the power and influence that attach to both.
Outrages upon liberty have been most frequently committed in the
name of liberty. It is so with labor. The wrongs that have been
inflicted upon the workmen of my country are most frequently the
result of the efforts of those who assume to be their special friends
and chainpions. A friend who lacks discretion is more dangerous
than an avowed enemy, and zeal without intelligent guidance is like
a ship without ballast or rudder. I repeat, we are a nation of laborers. We are the Governlent, and we call enlarge the opportunity
of all without restricting the proper liberty of any. The bill will
be greatly improvedl by the amendments offered by the gentleman
from Maryland [Mr. MCCOMAS], the gentleman from Michigan [Mr.
CUTCHEON], and others.
It is to be regretted that it still has embodied in its provisions a
plain and direct assault upon the inherent right and most sacred
privilege of every workman in the United States, and it may be
doubted whether the good accomplished can sufficiently atone for
the evil which may result from the adoption of the measure unless
it shall be further amended. It is to be hoped that the provision to
which I have called attention may be modified before the bill goes
from this Capitol.
SUCCESs IS WON BY LONG EFFORT.
There is a thought or two I wish to add to what has been said
touching the wisdom and justice of abridging by law the right of a
citizen to use his time and ability as he pleases in order to provide
for his necessities and those of his family. It not only strikes a blow
at the liberty of the citizen, but it offers a premium on idleness and
vice, while it rebukes and condemns industry and perseverance.
The proposition that in this goodly land, which would support a
population of 500,000,000, there is not employment and room for
65,000,000 and that we must by law restrict the opportunity of each
citizen to earn bread, and by the same logic limit the quantity and
quality of what he eats, will not for a moment stand the test of critical examination. Yet that is just what this bill proposes.
Why, gentlemen, there is not a man about me whose whole life
has not been a protest against the principle and policy of this bill.
There is not a member who hears me whose life would not be a fiat
failure if he had been controlled by the principle of this measure.
There stands in front of me my good friend from New York, AMos
CUaIMINGS. If his success is due to any one thing more than another it is to the fact that he.has worked more hours and worked
harder than his competitors, and by so doing has left them behind
in the race, and as a result he has won honorable distinction in the
councils of the nation. He works now not less than fourteen hours
a cday. Here on my right is my equally worthy friend, General
HENDERSON, of Iowa. I know that he never saw the day he worked
less than twelve hours. His honorable position here attests the
wisdom of his course. The same is twle of my friends FARQUHAR,
CUTCHEON, BUCHANAN, of New Jersey, and the other honorable
members here. Nor is that all. I do not know of any one on or off
this floor who does not owe his success in life, whether in business or
BUT




14
poli tics, to extra effort and longer hours, and the idea that somebody
else has been robbed thereby is utterly at variance with the fact.
NOT BY IDLENESS AND WASTEFULNESS.
Yet this bill proceeds on the theory that we can make equal yoke-fellows of ifdleness and industry, economy and wastefulness, and secure
to all equal thrift by limiting the opportunity of each, and sending to
the penitentiary as a felon the employer who gives to either an extra
hour's work for an extra hour's pay. That is the idea of the chairman
of the Committee on Labor. It is the idea which finds expression in
this bill as reported to the House. And so captivating to the mere
politician are the supposed political advantages that will accrue to its
supporters, that one gentleman hops about and frantically shrieks
for the "' yeas and nays " in order to go on record himself for or put
some member on record against this folly.
The worst features of the bill have been eliminated by the vote
of the House, but there remains still the fatal defect which marks
it, a meddlesome abridgment of the personal liberty of the citizen,
and to that feature I am and will continue to be unalterably opposed.
Nor will it be necessary to resort to the " yeas and nays" in order to
apprise my constituents what my convictions are upon this subject
or any other. If they trust me, I much prefer that it be because of
their knowledge instead of their ignorance of my official conduct.
BiUT




/, — --'   c-. 7 a:    _z  4
1/ F
ADDRESS
HON. JOHN DEAINRA
CONVENTION OF
MOUNTAIN CITY DIVISION No, 172, ORDER OF RAILWAY CONDUCTORS, UNITED LODGE No, 174, BROTHERHOOD OF RAILWAY TRAINMEN, AND ALTOONA LODGE No, 287,
BROTHERHOOD LOCOMOTIVE FIREMEN,
— H FAII)_AT ALTOONA, PENN'A.
-.ON....
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5TH, 1891.
H OLLiIi)AYSBUR(G;, P:A.
I). &"     J.  ) VER, BOOK AND Jor  P'rINENRs
1891.
*   *  *    *   *  -     *    *   *   v  _ *   *  _  _ vii 1   ~








ADDRESS
-OF] IOXNT. JOHNI- IDf \T
To Convention of Mountain City Division No. 172, Order of
Railway Conductors, United Lodge No. 174, Brotherhood
of Railway Trainmein and Altoona Lodge No. 287, Brotherhood Locomotive Firemen, held at Altoona, Pennsylvania, September 5, I89I.
M1/R. CHAIRMAN, MNIEMBERS OF CONVENT-ION, LADIES AND
GENTLEMEN:
A great Englishman, Lord AMacaulay, great both as an author and statesman, sixty years ago, argued impliedly, that, a
government, such as that of Great Britain, made up of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy, king, lords and commons, was
the best yet devised by the wit of man. His attention was called
to ours, a democracy, without king or lords, as an illustration of
good government.  He did not deny that there was less crime,
less poverty here, as great security for life and property, a more
equal distribution of wealth than in England, consequently greater
happiness, but, he replied:  "The case of the United States is
not in point; in a country where the necessaries of life are cheap
and the wages of labor high; where a man who has no capital
but his legs and arms may expect to become rich by industry
and frugality, it is not very decidedly for the advantage of the
poor to plunder the rich, and the punishment for doing so would
very speedily follow the offence; but in countries where the great
majority live from hand to mouth, and in which vast masses of
wealth have been accumulated by a comparatively small number,
the case is widely different; immediate want is at times craving,
imperious and irresistible.  It has steeled men to the fear of the
gallows and urged them on the point of the bayonet.  If these
men had at their command, that gallows and those bayonets,
what is to be expected l?  The increase of population is acceler



ated by good government; the better the government the greater
the inequality of conditions; the greater the inequality of conditions the stronger are the motives which impel the populace to
spoliation.  As for America, [ appeal to the twentieth century."
Well, we are very near the time fixed for hearing and determining that appeal; we are on the vrerge of it; nine yeais more
and we are in the twentieth century.  Has our government failed
in the essential elements of government, the protection of life,
person and property? this, the great Englishman thought, could
only be accomplished with the aid of a king and an aristocracy;
a democracy guided and held in check by kingly power and aristocratic conservatism.
_Are there any indications of failure to mnieet its responsibilities on the part of our government?  The time being so near;
there should be some black clouds to announce the coming stormare there any?  I see none; do you?
It was conceded by him that a democratic form of government, a government wholly "'of the people, by the people and
for the people," had resulted in as great happiness to the people
of this country as the people of Great Britain were enjoying
under theirs.  But, says he, the case is not in point; wait seventy years, until population increases, until wealth increases, and
you will see! I have heard a few despondent Americans talk in
the same strain; public servants are venal, the Republic is a failure, says one; labor is becoming importunate, aggressive and
lawless; it antagonizes capital, and threatens the security of property; our government cannot stand, says another-; wait and
see! What do we see? every sign pointing to the utter failure -of
all the doleful predictions.  We are not calling for kingly power
to repress the turbulent, nor for an aristocracy to checkl the lmad
progress of a democracy.  A  government based on the intelligence and patriotism of the whole people hias proved strong, is
to-day powerful.  Public opinion, the opinion of the "populace," is expressed in the law of the land; this opinion, thus expressedlis administered and enforced by courts and executives;
the populace submit to and obey their own laws; their sheriffs
hang and imprison those w\iho violate them; their troops put




down anarchists and rioters who attempt to overthrow this public opinion. Every law on our statute book is but the opinion
of the populace. You, speaking through your representatives,
enacted-these laws, your governors approved them, your courts
and sheriffs enforce them, and this, not in theory, but in fact;
for, though occasionally bad laws are passed, as soon as time
demonstrates they are bad, their repeal follows. This is, and
must be the case; for if, in a government of the people, bad laws
be of long continuance, or if laws necessary to the happiness of
the people be not enacted, then the majority of the people are
either corrupt or indifferent to their interests, which is not true
now and never was true.  Where the representative must answer often to the people, bad laws must have short lives; for, as
President Lincoln said, "You can cheat some of the people part
of the time, you can cheat all the people some time, but you
can't cheat all the people all the time." If, then, you and I make
a law to control our actions, why should we not be bound by it?
Why should we not yield implicit obedience to it and aid in its
enforcement? We need no ]king to compel obedience; it has
back of it the sovereignty of those who made it.
Our government is inherently strong, at the same time gives
scope to the largest individual freedom; it is the best government, and as Macaulay predicted, has resulted in a vast increase
in population and wealth.  But this great increase in population and wealth has brought no increased strain on the government. From ten millions to seventy millions is a great stride in
population; from wealth estimated at $300 per capita to wealth
estimated at $I,ooo is a great stride in riches. But the result is'
not as predicted; relatively this wealth has not been concentrated in fewer hands; the great mass of the people do not live
from. hand to mouth; labor has not become cheaper and food
dearer; theie is not greater inequality of condition, wealth is
more equally distributed than ever.  I admit that a few collossal fortunes have been made; the Astors, foreseeing the advantages of New York City as a seaport, and its future commercial
supremacy, by investing and re-investing for three generations in
New York City real estate are estimated now at over one hundred millions of dollars; the limited fortune of the grandfather,




the old German fur-trader has become a great one. Jay Gould
is estimated at over one hundred millions, probably much of it
acquired by questionable methods in manipulating railroad securities; the same methods would hardly succeed now; what was
only sharp practice twenty years ago, is in most cases now by
law a crime.  The Rockafellers, through the "Standard Oil
Trust," are said to have accumulated fortunes of over one hundred millions; but now by law all trusts which interfere with
trade are illegal; those in existence cannot live, new ones will
not be born. I might name some others, but compared with the
population, or compared with the millions of moderate fortunes
they are rare; it is not desirable that they should be many; I
have no apprehension that they will be.  The manipulation of
railroad and other securities, whereby the few gain largely anm(
the many lose, was easy twenty years ago, it is now" hard, and I
mistake the plain tendency of our laws, if twenty years hence it
is not almost if not altogether impossible.
But no law will, no law ought to restrain honest individual
effort to better one's condition, either for his own gratification or
for the advantage of his family, and so long as individual effort in
this direction is not curbed, there will be large fortunes made by
the few compared with the more moderate ones of the many.
Take any young man, say of twenty-one years to-day, let him
have good health, work hard, live on the barest necessaries of
life, carefully invest and re-invest his savings, let him  have
shrewdness, foresight; a minimum of conscience in a bargain, the
probability is that forty years hence, he would be, as compare(d
with his neighbors, a very rich man; but few of his neighbors
would envy him his fortune acquired by such effort. And a large
fortune, when compared with those of prudent men, may sometimes be quickly acquired by a bold speculation.  Within the
last sixty days any man, with one hundred thousand dollars, rash
enough to bet it on the produce exchange, that wheat would go
up, could have made probably two hundred thousand more; but
some other rash man or men, would have bet the same amount
that it would not go up, or would go down, and they would have
lost what the other won; and a prudent man, with more fore



sight than.most of us have shown,'with a moderate fortune
twenty years ago, by investing and re-investing it in Altoona
real estate, would to-day have been very rich as compared with
the majority of his fellows.  Rare miserliness, rare recklessness,
rare foresight, will result in rare large fortunes.  But notwithstanding these rare cases, the tendency on the whole, during the
last sixty years, has been toward a more equal distribution of
the large aggregate increase of the wealth of the country, by
making the poor richer; the process has been a leveling up one
not a leveling down.  No one will deny that this large increase
in wealth the unexampled prosperity of the country to-day, is
in large measure, due to the construction of railroads; this wealth
to a certain extent, in one sense may be said to have been created by railroad corporations; and -in using the word corporation, -i do not have in mind the legal definition, but I include
every one connected with it, from stock-holder to brakeman.
The building of railroads may really be said, to have commenced only forty years ago; there was a limited mileage before
that time, but then, commenced that vast system of construction
which has put the locomotive to-day in every-populated corner
of the country; from that day to this, millions upon millions of
capital have been invested in railroad building;. there have been
paid out alone, in one form or another, in the construction of the
main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad between Philadelphia
and Pittsburg with its connecting branches, two hundred millions of dollars.  This immense sum was distributed among all
those helping to build it; to the diggers and ditchers, to the
lumbermen who furnished the ties and timber, to the iron manufacturer who delivered the rails; to the mechanics, the stonemason, bricklayer, carpenter, machinist, carbuilder and everyone
who helped; those who furnished the two hundred millions have
in place of their money the ownership of the road; they hold as
evidence of this title, seventy-seven millions in bonds and one
hundred and.twenty-three millions in stock.  This is the first
distribution of railroad money, the expense of construction.. Of
course, the people who paid out this mioney expect a return in
interest and dividends year by year; an income must be earned:




here come in all the complicated problems of railroad management, requiring in their solution, sound judgment, fair dealing,
alertness of intellect, never-ending reflection and deliberation'
traffic, passenger and freight, must be had; it will not come unless there be reasonable rates; what is a reasonable rate? The
answes to'this question depends on circumstances so varied, that
any one who will take the trouble to read the mass of testimony
given by railroad experts and shippers before the Congressional
committees and 1" Inter-state Commerce Commission " will find
that no answer has yet been given which would satisfy all interested.  The object of the railroad officer is, to fix a rate so high,
that money enough will be raised in the shape of gross receipts,
to maintain the road and equipment in good condition, pay fair
wages to all the employes, interest on the bonds and a'reasolnable dividend to the stockholder, If the rate be too high, traffic
is discouraged, receipts fall off, men are discharged and the road
goes down. If the rate be too low, a large business is done with
no profit and bankruptcy comes sooner or later.  In the division
of the gross receipts, wages generally absorb more than one-half
and this comes out first; then material and equipment are paid
for; then interest on bonds is paid, then if anything be left the
stockholders get it; if nothing be left the stockholders get that,
too-more than once in the history of the Pennsylvania Railroad, a road carefully and conservatively managed has it happened, that the stockholders got nothing.
All the millions of dollars expended in construction, all the
millions-annually earned from operating the railroad are distributed, bringing comfort and abundance to innumerable homes and
quickening every form of business life. All property real and
personal along the line, or in parts of the country tributary to it,
appreciate in value.  The owner of a tract of coal land worth $5
per acre not reached by a railroad, as soon as the railroad touches
it gets $5o or $Ioo.  His coal was valueless because it could
reach no market; the railroad takes it to market-and enriches
him; and so with almost every species of property.  By quickness of movement the scarcity of food in one part of the country
is immediately supplied from  another;  neither famine  nor
famine prices seem'to be again possible since the era of railroads.




So necessary has the railroad now become to our lives, that it
has been truthfully said, our prayer "give us this day our daily
bread," without them, could not be answered, unless by miracle.
As I have said, the wealth thus produced is not unequally
distributed; all have shared in it, all will continue to share in it;
fair wages have been paid, fair wages will be paid, otherwise the
railroad from its very nature cannot be a success; the most perfect.machinery, rolling stock brought by science and experience
to the highest possible condition cannot move a single passenger
or toPl of freight without the engineer, fireman, conductor, brakemanl; the moverents of machinery must be started and controlledhby intelligence; the machinery cannot think; it must obey
the directions of those who do; and all these millions of capital
thus invested, to be productive,. must have the services of the
engineer, fireman, conductor and brakeman to direct and control
the movements of the train.  A successful railroad-here demands the highest grade of efficiency; the highest grade is always in demand; that quick intelligence, that fidelity to trust,
which bears without murmuring hardships and faces danger and
death without a treemor, contributes towards the wealth created
by the railroad; they share also in the distribution of it As the
methods of operation and the character of the equipment have
advanced in the last forty years so there has been a corresponding advance inl the skill, and value of the services of all the employes.  Forty years ago, the first railroad I knew, was the
Portage, at Hollidaysburg; Col. Jesse R. Crawford, who wasAssistant Superintendent cf the road and still resides in Gaysport,
informed me yesterday, that his salary was $7QO per year; that
Eli Yoder, one of the best locomotive engineers on the road, he
died only -a fewv years ago and, may have been known to many of.you, got $.50 per day; the fireman got 75 cents, sometimes a
little more. To be conductor on a passenger train was considered a very high position and one always sought after; that paid
$2.00 per day.  Mjc. Crawford did not tell me so, but when he
named over the conductors, the late GCov. Geary, Col. Wlm. B.
Piper and?ajor Adams, it occurred to me, that this position
might have been awarded to the most active Democrats; and
when he named the late Maj. John Brotherline as conductor,




when the Whigs for a short time had control, I thought possibly
the samie rule might have been followed by the opposite party.
Laborers received 75 cents per day and this was considered good
wages.
Now notice the advance; the locomotive engineer averaged
last year on the Pennsylvania Railroad $ i,23, the firemen $'6go,
the conductor 1,o050, the brakemen ~$63o.  I his indicates, not
only the great advance in the skill and intelligence of the men
receiving the wages, but also the tendency to equality of distribution in the wealth earned by the railroad.  Nor is it true that
this, more than 2oo per cent. advance in wages, has been followed
by:a corresponding increase in the cost of living.  Mr. Jonathan
Stouffer, a tailor, residing in H[ollidaysburg, and who did business there forty years ago, says he made clothes for men worlirinl
on the railroad; a good Sunday or dress suit was made of pilot
or beaver cloth and cost complete from  $36 to $40; he said, I
am making one now of beaver cloth, such as I speak of, for a
clergyman; it will cost $38, but the material is much finer and
better than that used by me forty years ago; a suit of that same
quality of material would now cost about $25.
Mr. A. L. Holliday, who kept a general store, put in my
possession one of his old day books, showing sales to customers;
I have made a thorough examination of it and find that flour
was then sold at $8.75 per barrel-it is noiw sold for $5.  Calico
Tz- cents, now not over 5 cents per yard; sugar I2-? -2ents, now
5 cents; coffee  5 cents, now 28 to 30; muslin I2 cents, now 5
cents; potatoes the same as now, 50 cents per bushel; cured
meats about -5 cents more than now per pound.  Nearly all food
and clothing classed as necessaries of life are cheaper than forty
years ago.  Rent, an important item in cost of living is higher;
railroads have largely appreciated the value of real estate; this
has been followed by an increase in rent of 50 to Ioo per cent.
If wages have risen 200 per cent., and this has been followed by no corresponding increase in cost of living, then, unless
capital in railroads has received a disproportionately large return, th'e man with no capital but his arms and legs, as Macaulay
expresses it, must be getting relatively richer instead of poorer;




it is not necessary for me to state to this audience, that returns
on railroad investments have been getting less; the bonds on this
road which once were six and seven per cent., are now 4A-; the
stock which once returned io per cent. now  gets 5; a similar
reduction on the returns of capital has been experienced in nearly
every railroad in the land.
This large increase in wages, with no corresponding increase
in cost of living, must to a considerable exrent, have taken the
form cf savings and have become invested capital in some shape
or othier, thus tending to an equalization of wealth; of course a
large part (cf this margin has been consumed in comforts and
luxuries to which the best paid railrcad man 40 years ago was a
stranger; homes have been made more attractive by articles of
ornament and comfort; the table has been supplied with a
greater variety and better food; the family has been better
clothed; the children better educated; but even with all this
expenditure f~ar new comforts, and new pleasures in life, there is
still left a larger margin, a greater ability for accumulation, than
could be had from any possible savings forty years ago.
Take Altoona itself; it is almost exclusively a railroad city;
its business to great extent, is dependent on the monthly payments of three or four hundred thousand dollars made by the
lailroad company for wages and material; does this three or four
millions annually paid out here concentrate itself in a few hands,
so that the rich grow richer and the poor poorer? For the purpose uf information I this week'examined the assessments in the
officze of the County Commissioners.  The assessed value of the
real estate of the city for county and State purposes is nearly
twelve millions of dollars; this is owned by something over three
thousand five hundred persons; I suppose, to-day the city has
about seven thousand voters; one-half of them then own real
estate; the greater number of the assessments are specified as half
lot, one lot and two lots; the valuations run generally, from one
thousand to four thousand doliars, being strong evidence to my
mind that one-half the voters here own their homes.  When we
consider that the business of the city is almost wholly industrial,
and in consequence, such a large proportion of the population is




10
made up of young men between the ages of 21 and 3o years, who
as yet, have had no time to accumulate, the conclusion is irresistible, that this large wealth, poured out here monthly by the railroad company does not tend to make the rich richer and the
poor poorer; does not tend to inequality of condition as Macaulav predicted.  But not to rest on inference, I went further,
and noted the occupations of the 356 lot owners as returned fromn
the ISt ward; these 356 were put down as owni:otg rI,79j,225
worth of real estate; of these 22 are laborers, 20 carpenters, I 3
painters, I2 machinists, I t carbuilders, 8 blacksmiths,  6 engineers,
6 butchers, 6 conductors, 3 tailors, 3 plasterers, 3 firemen, 3 tinners, 3 printers 2 bralkemen, 2 gas-fitters, I moulder, r saddler,
I shoemaker; the remainder is made up of clerks, foremen, mailcarriers, ticket agents, lawyers, physicians and gentlemen; of a
few the occupation is not given; a few are widows; some are
wives whose husbands doubtless out of affection or as a precaution against financial disaster, put in them the title to the home;
in seven instances alone, did the record show any considerable
individual wealth in real estate.  These seven owned each $20,ooo or over; eight persons owned property valued between ten
and twenty thousand dollars; twenty-six owned property valued
between five and ten thousand dollars, leaving the balance of the
property in the ward to be divided between 3 15 persons owning
$5000 or less; if the property were divided exactly equal between the 356 owners it would give then about $50oo  each, but
as 4I persons own more than $5000, it leaves about $4oo000 each
to 3 I5 persons, about as near equality of distribution as can be
had.  This was -the only ward in which I noted the occupations
of the owners and extent of ownership; but I have no reason to
believe the other wards of the city will show any greater inequality; on the contrary, am  informed by reputable persons who
know; that the other wards show nearer an equality than the Ist.
So far then, as railroads have stimulated the production of
wealth, or have distributed it, it has not been concentrated in a
few hands; the mass of the people have grown richer.
Nor is there any foundation for the assertion often made of
antagonism between the' capital invested and the labor which op



i. I
erates the railroad.   The railroad in its essential features is a
huge co-operative enterprise, in which the stock holder furnishes
the capital and the men employed the labor; the gross receipts
are divided among all who co-operate to make the road a business success.  Neither is it true, that the rich alone own the road;
I do not know the facts as to other roads, but the reports of the
Pennsylvania  Railroad show  over 25,o0o  owners of stock,
the large majority residents of the State; go where you will it
lhas the reputation of being progressively yet wisely managed;
the character of all its employees stands high; disputes between
them and the company have been rare; as a result, its stock has
become a favorite investrment with all classes; many of those
who hold it, have in it their all.  Any one standing near the paying teller's window after a dividend has been declared and noticing those who receive their dividends will be surprised how few
of them, in their appearance, give evidence of wealth; many of
them, aged men and womien, often in faded and thread-bare
clothes, drawing their dividend on five, ten, twenty or thirty
shares.
Doubtless some very rich men own stock in large. amounts,
but the aggregate value of the stock is probabiy distributed about
in proportion. to the real estate of Altoona
Why then, should shere be any antagonism  between those
connected with railroads?  The stockholder wants a fair return
for his money; the men want fair wages; the passenger and
shipper want a fair rate; the success and prosperity of all are
contingent on the success and prosperity of the road; therefore
acting from a purely selfish motive, self-interest, harmony must
be maintained or injury to all follows.   But outside of the selfish motive, all who co-operate in the enterprise are subject to
the same moral laws that are binding on others.  We often hear
it said a corporation has no soul; this is not true; it has just
the soul of those who compose it, the stockholders, officers and
employees; the same sSoul as any other form  of business enterprise; it has just such morality as they have, no more and no
less.  The stockholder in contributing his money, the officer in
undertaking the management, the men engaging to run it, are




just as much bound by good morals as men in any other kind of
business.  The Christian rule "do unto others as you Wvould have
them do to you," is binding upon every true man, whether he
operates a railroad or carries a hod; it is imperative, cannot be
shirked or violated with impunity by any one; we do not always live up to it, but we all, Christian, Jew and Infidel profess
to try to.
The 25,000 stockholders say, we want a fair return on our
money invested; the 24,000 employees say, in view of the nature of our employment, the risks incident to it, the hardships
we endure, we want fair wages; if a demand on the part of either
for more than this be gratified, the common eriterprise suffers
either directly or indirectly; the payment of unreasonably high
dividends or unreasonably high wages demands the exaction Ao
unreasonably high rates; if these be unreasonably high traffic is
repressed, shipments and travel fall off, down go gross receipts.
What is fair or reasonable to each and all, is the difficult
question the railroad officer has to answer; to him is confided a
high trust, affecing in its administration the lives and fortunes
of stockholders, employees, shippers and all others interested in
the road; there can be no real antagonism between the capital
under his care and the men employed under his management
any more than there can be antagonism between the fuel that
makes the steam and the driving wheels of the locomotive which
move the train.  He tries to work for the vast interests intrusted to him by the rule "do unto others as you would have them
do to you" and so do you; under this rule you all co-operate for
a common purpose.   There is no other right rule, at this day,
there is no other practical rule, than the short and simple one
announced by the Carpenter of Galilee.












No. 2. (New Series).
IBERTY AD  PROPERTY  DEFENCE  LEA
LIBERTY AND PROPERTY DEFENCE LEAGUE.
(To uphold the principle of liberty, and guard the rights of labour and
property of all kinds against undue interference by the State; and
to encourage Self-help versus State-help.)
OLD-AG E    PENSIONS
BY
GEOFFREY DRAGE,
SECRETARY TO THE
LIBERTY  AND  PROPERTY  DEFENCE  LEAGUE.
PUBLISHED BY THE
LIBERTY  AND  PROPERTY  DEFENCE  LEAGUE,
7, VICTORIA STREET, LONDON, S.W.
1895.
PRICE  ONE  PENNY.




LIBERTY AND PROPERTY DEFENCE LEAGUE.
(To uphold the principle of liberty, and guard the rights of labour and
property of all kinds against undue interference by the State; and
to encourage Self-help versus State-help).
COUNCIL, 1894-5.
THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF WEMYSS, Chairman.
SIR FREDERICK BRAMWELL, Bart., F.R.S.
SIR W. J. R. COTTON.
The Hon. BARON DIMSDALE.
THE RIGHT HON. SIR MOUNT STUART E. GRANT DUFF, G.C., S.I.
The Right Hon. EARL FORTESCUE.
CAPTAIN HAMBER.
ALFRED HEWLETT, Esq.
SIR WILLIAM LEWIS.
GEORGE LIVESEY, Esq.
The Right Hon. THE EARL OF PEMBROKE.
The Right Hon. LORD PENZANCE.
H. D. POCHIN, Esq.
H. C. STEPHENS, Esq., M.P.
SIR ED. W. WATKIN, Bart., M.P.
Hon. Treasurer; WALTER FARQUHAR, Esq.
Secretary; GEOFFREY DRAGE, ESQ.
Parliamentary Agent; F. MILLAR, ESQ.




OLD-AGE PENSIONS.*
THE present agitation with regard to old-age pensions seems
to call for a somewhat fuller statement of the case.
The almost daily experience of the Labour Commission was
that there already existed laws and officials to remedy tlhe
grievances laid before it, but the laws were not known and the
officials not efficient.  What seemed at every step to be necessary
was not so much far-reaching plans of reform as a careful
attention to the details of administration.  In this pamphlet I
desire to point out that as far as we can at present judge this is
the case with the grievances of the aged poor.
Before dealing  with the extent and  causes of old-age
pauperism in England, as well as the remedies which s'uggest
themselves, it may be well to consider briefly the old-age pension
schemes at present in force in Europe.
The German invalid and old-age insurance scheme is part of
a comprehensive scheme of social insurance for the working
classes.  It was originally promoted by Prince Bismarck partly
in deference to the prevalent feeling in Germany that something
must be done, partly to take the wind out of the sails of the
Socialists.  The sick and accident insurance law was passed in
1883, the law' on old-age and invalid insurance, with which we
nre concerned, was passed in 1889, and only came into force in
1891. The details of the law are probably well known to my
readers, but, should they wish to refresh their memories, I may
be, perhaps, allowed to refer them to my report to the Labour
Commission on Germany, in which full particulars are given. I
desire here merely to indicate the financial, social, economic,
administrative, judicial, and political objections to the law, which
caln already be fairly urged as arguments against, any similar
plan for England.
Financially the scheme is eventually intended to be selfsupporting, but there is no sign at present that it will ever be
able to dispense with the State subsidy, which begins at C8320,000
and is estimated to rise gradually to ~3,450,000 in the 80th
year. The premiums are levied half from the employer, half
from the workman, and the calculations are based, as far as the
portions of the law which refer to invalids are concerned, chiefly
on the statistics of one industry —the railway industry. Further,
in adjusting the amounts of the contributions, it was impossible
to calculate with any precision the extent to which such contingencies as sickness, military service, and want of employment
* The substance of this pamphlet appeared in the form of two letters to the " Times,"
on January 7th and 15th, 1895.




might affeet the regularity of the payments, and I may add that
statistics as to the probable invalidity and mortality of women
are wanting. Again, it was calculated that the administrative
expenses would'not materially increase, but they have already
done so.
From a social standpoint it is to be remembered that some
of the friendly societies already existing are recognized by the
Government, subject to their conferring benefits equal to those
of the law, and subject to certain other provisions. It is not yet
clear what- effect the law will have on societies not so privileged,
but it is clear that the relations between employer and employed
have not improved as was expected, nor have strikes diminished.
Further, there is notb yet sufficient evidence to warrant the statement that can be made with regard to Denmark, that the family
tie and the sense of responsibility for blood relations have been
weakened. But the law does a distinct injustice in partially excluding from  its operation widows and married women, who
notoriously in every countty form a large percentage of the aged
poor. It is true that a woman who ceases to earn wages on her
marriage may receive back the amount of her previous contributions, but by so doing she forfeits all claim to a future
pension in old age or invalidity; or if instead of receiving this
sum she prefers to keep up her claim to a pension, it can only
be at a higher rate of contribution. A widow again may, on the
death of the husband, receive back the amount of his contribution,
but a comparatively small lump sum  of this nature cannot
provide for her old age. Lastly, we have still to learn its effect
in increasing or diminishing charity.
From an economic point of view, the burden on the employers is
alreadys everely felt. They not only complain of the sums they
have to pay in premiums, which already apparently form a considerable tax on industry; but they declare that their clerical staff will
not be able to do the work imposed on them in this connection,
and they demand official help. In some cases the employers have
even found themselves obliged to pay the men's premiums as
well as those which they themselves are bound to pay in order
to'avoid stirring up dissatisfaction.  Hitherto, it is stated, the
employers have continued their contributions to existing friendly
societies, but should they cease to do so, it appears that the men
will absolutely be worse off under the existing law than they
were before. In any case, the employer will probably not feel as
much bound to help old servants as he did before, and there; is
evidence to show that wages have already been lowered in the
case of those benefited by the Act, and the whole income has
thus been actually reduced. The workmen and their friends
complain that the age, 70, at which the old-age pension becomes
due is too high, and the pensions, which vary from ~5 6s. to
~9 1ls., are too low. Moreover, since no person is entitled to an
old-age pension who has not insured for 80 years, or to an invalid
pension unless insured for five years, there are numerous persons
who are forced to pay-the contributions but never derive any
benefit u-nder the law. The Socialists add that, whereas under




the Poor Law the expenses fell chiefly on the middle classcs, tfle
workmen now not only have to pay their contributions, but have
also to bear the burden of the Imperial subsidy. Graver still are
the following objections from  an economic point of view to the
law in question.  The law rests, of course, in the first instance, on
a passport system which is necessary for the identification of the
beneficiaries, but which we should find intolerable in England.
Further, in spite of the employment of a large number of
honorary officials, the number of paid officials, both central and
local, has been largely increased, and the cry is, as we have seen,
still for more. The cards to which the stamps used in payment
of the premiums are affixed have already required the erection of
special buildings for their storage, and grave inconvenience has
been caused by what seemed a simple method of utilizing the
services of the Post Office in this connexion.  It is worthy of
note that no general decrease has been recorded in the cost of
administering the Poor Law; at Cologne the expenses have
actually increased; on the other hand, at Berlin a slight decrease
has been notified.
From  an administrative and judicial point of view, I will
only briefly advert, first  to the fact that the body of what is
called administrative law, that is, the law which gives special
privileges to officials, has increased, and then to the grave result
that an immense number of applications under the law (6Q,000
up to July, 1893) have been refused.  Under the old-age part
of the schemes 245,018 persons applied, and 193,114 were
recognized  as admissable, 42,984  were refused  absolutely.
Naturally, this points to an increase of malingering and fraud,
quite apart from the delay and vexation of appeals to higher
Courts.
Politically, the measure was intended to be a message of
peace, but from all parties in Germany come the same complaints as to the vexatious obligations of the law. My friend,
Mr. Graham  Brooks, records that, whereas the other social
insurance laws were received with a strange lack of interest andi
no hint of gratitude and enthusiasm by the working classes, the
apathy of the insured in the case of the old-age insurance
scheme  often  becomes  open  and  uncompromising  dislike,
especially in South Germany.  The measure has been something in the nature of a political bribe, and a bribe which has
failed.  So far from contenting the Socialists, it has given them
a fresh grievance.
If the German scheme of partial old-age pensions has been
unsuccessful, the Danish scheme of complete old-age pensions in
the form of out-door relief for destitution seems to have had even
worse results.
No country had till recently done so much as Denmark to
encourage thrift and self-help, but the Act which was passed in
1891 and came into force in 1892, providing for pensions to the
deserving poor, is positively a premium  on destitution.- The
details are probably well known -to my readers. I have given
them- at lengtlh in my —report to the Labour Commission, on




Denmark.  The scheme is practically a system of unlimited outdoor relief at the discretion of the guardians, half the expence
being borne by the State. The results of the law are not so well
known as they deserve to. be. Early in 1894 complaints became
rife that the benefit funds supported by the employers were being
broken up, that the friendly societies were in difficulties, and,
worse still, that the money in the savings banks was being
drawn out and squandered.  The ties between parents and
children, as well as those between master and servant, had
already been seriously weakened. To crown all, as a result of
the system, wages were being reduced.
It may be too soon to-judcge of the eventual effect of either the
German or the Danish selheme, but at present they appear to
have done little, if any, good.
I will now deal with old-age pauperism in England and
Wales, giving first some particulars as to the extent and causes
of the present evils, and then dealing with the measures which
are intended either to prevent or palliate those evils.
I may perhaps. lay. claim to some.small personal experience
in the matter, for, in addition to what slight information was
laid before the Labour Commission on the subject, I am a member of some standing of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows. I
have known something of the administration of the Poor Law
both in town and country, and I have analysed with great care
the works of Mr. Booth and other English and foreign writers
on the subject. Mr. Booth assures us that the number of aged
persons in England and Wales in receipt of Poor-Law relief is
not less than 30 per cent. of those above the age of 65, and, as
the well-to-do classes- mu1st be subtracted,  Mr. Chamberlain
estimates that one person in 2~ of the aged poor must be
numbered among the pauper class. In the first place, I should
like to point out that these statistics include persons in receipt
of medical relief; and such relief is often given to persons far
removed from pauperism and received by theim  as conveying no
stigma.  The Act of 1885 removed the disqualification which
such relief up till then attached to voting for certain local government offices; but the' number applying for such relief would in
some unions equal the whole of the indoor and outdoor paupers.
A reduction of 50 per cent. has taken place in the number of
paupers during the last 40 years, and that Mr. Chamberlain
attributes to the stringent administration of.the Poor Law and
the great prosperity of the nation.  He adds that the reduction
has only taken place in the outdoor paupers.  I venture to think
that the immense growth of thrift, temperance, and education
are important contributory causes, and further that there has
been a substantial, though comparatively slight, diminution of
the indoor and also of the aged pauper.
The causes of the evil may be divided' into two classes(a) Moral causes, in consequence of which the pauper has very
Iargely to thank himself for his position; and (b) economic or
social causes over which the pauper has no control.
IB is- with regard to the first that I venture with all respect




to differ from Mr. Chamberlain.  I should be inclined to say that
intemperance, want of thrift, and, most of all, want of backbone,
are in a majority of cases the cause of destitution in old age.
The chief economic cause of old-age poverty is generally low
wages, such as the casual labourer in towns or the agricultural
labourer in the country receives. But Mr. Little's report to the
Labour Commission showed that skilled agricultural labourers
such as carters, receive on an average as much as 17s. 2d. in earnings, while ordinary labourers receive on an average 15s. l1d., and
Mr. Little adds that, in purchasing, 16 shillings now is equivalent to a sovereign 20 years ago, as far as the necessaries of life
are concerned. I feel that sufficient stress has not been generally
laid on the short period over which the power of earning lasts
for some workers, especially in the case of women; but for agricultural labourers this period is generally much more prolonged
than in most other employments.  Even when an agricultural
labourer gets past earning full wages, he can often get employmlent at odd jobs in the country, and where he is known as a
decent fellow an effort is very frequently made to provide him
with such work as he can do. In other kinds of work the
increased stress and rapidity of industrial occupations is much
felt by the aged workers, and this adds to their difficulty in finding employment; while last, but not least, amongst the causes
of old-age poverty there is the density of the population in towns.
In addition to the above there are certain local causes. Comfortable infirmaries, as in London, attract those who would not
otherwise accept relief, and the action of the local clergy and
landowners, as well as the local administration of the Poor Law,
may contribute to swell or lessen the numbers of the aged poor.
Last of all, unsound friendly societies natuirally bring about
widespread distress, and local doles have been known to pauperize
a neighbourhood..
There being the causes, it is obvious that there is no panacea,
and, what is more, there are two questions that present themselves-first, how to prevent the existence of the evil; and,
second, how to alleviate the trouble which already exists. Under
each of these heads we have to consider whether the action of
State or of the individual is preferable, and whether in some cases
the one should or should not supplement the other.
State remedies to prevent old-age poverty rest on the argument that many paupers could not help their poverty and should
not be degraded by pauper relief. It is impossible for the State
to investigate the question of merit; hence the question of desert
cannot be raised.  The State cannot apply the test of destitution, for if it waits till the poor are destitute they will already
be under the stigma of pauperism.  The State must, then, undertake to maintain all persons above a certain age.  Mr. Charles
Booth therefore proposes that all persons above 65 should receive
5.s. a week from, the State.  Apart from the objection at once
made that the age is too high and the sum paid[ too low to afford
a solution, there are a!-ntumber of more general obstacles to the
scheme, In the first place the'duty of the State to support all




8
its members has not yet been recognized, and involves a general
scheme of State Socialism.  The expense involved is so great
that it would probably be difficult to find a statesman at present
whether Socialist or not, to propose to set aside from 17 to 20
millions a year for the object. There is the moral difficulty of
the discouragement of thrift, as well as the economic difficulty
of the withdrawal of so much capital from use and its effect on
wages. There is the disastrous effect which would probably be
exercised, as we have seen in Denmark, on friendly societies and
trade-union funds, quite apart from such practical questions as
to whether the pensioners are to be allowed to go on earning
wages. What, one may ask, is to prevent them  spending the
five shillings on a spree and returning to the poorhouse? Then
there are the fundamental difficulties of administration and
identification without a passport system, which we are not yet
prepared to tolerate. All. these have to be faced, quite apart
from the fact that the whole plan is an experiment from which
the State will not be able to recede.
To the State and Socialist methods are opposed the individual
or self-help methods hitherto adopted of providing for old age out
of former earnings, with the help of friendly societies, tradeunions, and savings banks. The system involves three things.
First, the economic possibility of thrift-i.e., the necessary
margin between wages and necessary expenditure- which, except
in the case of the casual and part of the agricultural labourers, is
generally possible. Secondly, there must be the moral possibility
of thrift-i.e., self-control, forethought, self-denial, and what I
have called " backbone."  It is here that education, tenmperance,
and the sympathy of the upper classes can help. Lastly, there
must be the external inducement to thrift of secure and advantageous investments.
There are already greater inducements than formerly, and
thrift is an ever-increasing quantity; witness the growth of the
friendly societies, building societies, co-operative societies, and
trade-unions, which have now funds amounting in all to 100
millions sterling. Anything that strengthens or assists these
societies is therefore a help.  The friendly societies have funds
amounting to 25 millions sterling.. They began their work when
the principles of insurance were not understood, and as the science
has become better known they have manfully set to work to place
their funds on a sound actuarial basis. I can see no reason why
they should not succeed as well with the superannuation fund
which they have just taken up. The problems they have already
solved were far harder. They are in every way more fitted to deal
with  such  questions than  a State department could be.
For instance, a fixed age for the commencement of the superannuation benefit is unpopular and undesirable; local considerations come in, and must be given due weight. A society might
find itself able to make provision to grant to a man not likely to
live long an. earlier payment, acting on medical and actuarial
advice, or the monley might be made returnable to him..- All
these details about which, when. they are the precedents of a vast




department, there is so much difficultyv, can be much better solved
in this way. Much can be learnt, too, from foreign attempts at
old-age pensions, and it will probably be found desirable, inter
alia, that sick pay should cease when the superannuation pay
begins.
Special difficulties are (as Mr. Brabrook's and Mr. Ludlow's
evidence before the Labour Commission showed) connected with
trade union funds, which cannot well be kept separate for different
purposes, the paramount object of these societies being  to
maintain the rate of wages if necessary at the cost of a strike.
These  difficulties are  not, however, insuperable.  Special
provision might be made to meet them, and suggestions
were made before the Labour Commission for further regulating
friendly societies, and building societies especially, with a view
to insuring their solvency.
The advantages of the individual system are immense. It is
simple and economical; it is elastic.  It is an education in
the art of government to the working man.  It makes considerable additions to the productive wealth of the country, and
it has already proved itself an immense success.
The most important suggestion with regard to the assistance
of the voluntary efforts by the State is one suggested by Mr.
Chamberlain, which amounts to a system of State contributory
pensions.  Mr. Chamberlain  has himself enumerated  the
objections which have been made to it. They seem to be much
the same as those which we have seen to apply to the German
system  of insurance, which  is compulsory, whereas Mr.
Chamberlain's would be voluntary to the insured. There are,
however, some objections which should be mentioned here.
The scheme would not reach the poorest; it would be an unfair
benefit to one class for which the whole country would be taxed.
It is hard on societies not benefited by it. The benefits contemplated are not very great, while the fact of the age being
fixed makes the scheme resemble a deferred annuity, which is
unpopular with working men. In addition to these. there are
the administrative difficulties, which would be even greater in
England than in Germany, as we have not got a trained bureaucracy, and our experience is that as soon'as the bull's-eye of
public opinion is turned off a department it is apt to become
sluggish.
Near akin to the State contributory pension are the State
subsidies for friendly societies, which have also been connected
with Mr. Chamberlain's name. To these, perhaps, the chief
objection is that they necessitate a State control, and this State
control would probably be looked upon as a State guarantee.
State subsidies are open to many of the objections mentioned
above.
I have before alluded to Government annuities, which are not
popular with the working man.  They are said not to provide as
good terms as the friendly societies; but that is reasonable, for
the Government security entitles it to better terms than a private,oAety could get.




10
Lastly, there are the Government savings banks, which, one
would think, might play a greater part than they have done
hitherto if better known.
None of the old-age pension schemes referred to above are
expected by their supporters to remove old-age poverty in the
next thirty or even fifty years, so -we shall for some time to come
have the aged poor with us, if indeed we shall not always have
them. It remains to consider what we can do in detail now at
once. There are two methods open to us-the adoption of the
scheme now in force in Denmark, to which I need not now
revert, and our own Poor Law, which I will proceed to explain.
The principle of the English Poor Law is that a man must
not starve, that a pauper must receive only the necessaries of
life, so as not to make him better off than the independent poor,
and the life of the pauper must be accompanied by such drawbacks as to make it undesirable.
The harshness of such a law is, as Dr. Aschrott has well
shown, not in the law itself, but in the administration. As a
matter of fact, the guardians have an almost absolute discretion
in the administration, and are able to remove almost all the
abuses of which complaint has hitherto been made.
The objections to outdoor relief are well known; they led to
the passing.of the present Act in 1834. The guardians can, howeever, grant it if they think fit. The chief other objections which
one hears made with regard to the Poor Law, especially in the
country, are the harshness and dictatorial tone of the relieving
officer, the routine life of the workhouse, the monotony of the
diet, the confinement in the house or grounds, the want of
privacy, and the association with unpleasant companions all of
which can be remedied by the action of the guardians.  The
whole question, in fact, of what is known as classification is in
their hands; they can Fplace the deserving paupers in separate
cottages, and have, I believe, done so in some cases; and they
can remedy one great and well-known grievance by the appointment of trained nurses.
Amngst the other grievances one hears mentioned are those
connected with the maintenance of paupers by their relations,
and the law of settlement. It seems only just that blood
relations, such as parents, grandparents, and children, who alone
are liable, should have such -a responsibility, but the one undoubted grievance which requires an Act of Parliament is that
relating to the law of settlement; it seems that the abolition of
the power of removal of the destitute might be considered.
With regard to the officials, the overseers merely raise rates,
but it is on the guardians, who are unpaid, and the paid officials,
the relieving officers, masters, and matrons, that so much
depends. When there is a strong chairman to the board it does
not seem to matter much what the policy of the board is if it is
systematically carried out and if sufficient attention is given to
the numerous cases considered'.
An attempt should undoubtedly be made to get better officials
by higher salaries, and, above all, to enlist the services of women
both as guardians and as relieving officers.




To sum up, I believe that a steady, sympathetic administration of the existing law, combined with minor legislative
amendments and a more careful management of existing
charities, endowed and unendowed, will do much to remedy the
grievances complained of. Much can be done by the joint action
of boards of guardians with such institutions as the Charity
Organisation Society and the clergy. In fact, what is wanted
here, as elsewhere, is not heroic legislation, but individual
attention to the petty grievances of everyday life in the administration of the Poor Law, combined with a cordial recognition of
what the working men have done to help themselves. It is by
the resolute application of common-sense remedies to individual
difficulties as they occur, and by the development of the spirit of
local self-government as opposed to the action of any central
department, that we shall successfully solve the social problem
in so far as, humanly speaking, it ever can be solved.
GEOFFREY DRAGE,
Secretary.
LIBERTY & PROPERTY DEFENCE LEAGUE,
7, Victoria Street,
Westminster, S.W.
February, 1895.
GCopies of this pamphlet can be had on application to the Secretary,
at 7, TVictoria Street, at the price of 2s. per 100 (net).








tract in quantities —25 copies, 20 cents; 100 copt,,
4THOU SHALT NOT STEA:L
ESS, ]BY  HENRY  GEORGE, BEFOREIE   THE  ANTI-POVERTY  SOCIET1t;ond public meeting of the Anti-  tired of it; let us get rid of it. (Applause.)
gciety was held in the Academy of  But I deny that poverty, such poverty as we
vw York, on Sunday evening, May  see on earth to-day, always has existed.,auditorium  was densely  crowded,  Never before in the history of the world was
there such an abundance of wealth, such
people being turned away to have
power of producing wealth. So marked is,e ~Academy a second tiume. Henry  this that the very people who tell us that we
addressed the meeting as follows:      cannot abolish poverty, attribute it in almost
cGlynn (great applause)-Dr. McGlynn  the next breath to over-production. They virtuaplj Lse) —Dr. 1icGlvnn (great ap-  ally tell us it is because mankind produces so,) —in Chickering hall last Sunday ni2ght  much wealth that so many are poor; that it is
t was a historic occasion. He  was rihlit.  because there is so much of the things that
a priest of Christ, standinog on Sun;daS  satisfy human desires already produced, that
on a puollic platform  and addressing  a  men cannot find work, and that women must
t. audienceb an audience embracing men  stint and strain. Poverty attributed to overt
womnen of all creeds and beliefs-should  production; poverty in the mhidst of wealth;
clami a crusade for the abolition of pov —  poverty in the midst of enlightenment; povy, and call on men to join together and  erty when steam and electricity and a thou-,rk together, to bring the kingdom of God  sand labor saving inventions have been called
earth, did markl  a most important event.  to the aid of man, never existed in the world
cat social tranrsfo>rmations, said }Tazzini,  before. There is manifestly no good reason. P er have been and never will be other than  for its existence, and it is time that we should
e application of great religious movements.  do something to abolish it. (Applause.)
Xpplause.) The day on which democracy    There are not charitable institutions enough
lall elevate itself to the position of a relig-  to supply the demands for charity; that
o.:is party, that day will its victory begin.  seems incapable of being supplied. But there
GrCeat applause.) And the deep significance  are enough, at least, to show every thinking
)f the meeting last Sunday night, the moean-  woman and every thinking man that it is
ing of this Anti-Poverty society that we haye  utterly impossible to eradicate poverty by
joined together to inautu.rate, is the bringing  charity, to show everyone who will trace to
into the stiruog]e of denmocracy the religious  its root the cause of the disease that what is
sentiment, the sentiment alone of all senti-  needed is not charity, but justice —the con~ments powerful enough to regenerate the  forming of human institutions to the eternal
world. (Applause.)                            laws of right.  (Applause.) But when we
The con:mrents made on that meeting and  propose this, when we say that poverty exists
on the institLution of this societ.y are sug-  because of the violation cf God's laws, we
gestive.'Vrc (><e told, in the first place by  are taunted with pretending to know more
the  newspa-pers, that you cannot abo!ish  than men ought to know about the designs of
poverty because there is not wealth enou-lh  Omnipotence. They have set up for themto go around.  eAT  are told that if all the  selves a God who rather likes p verty, since
wealth of the United States were divided  it affords the rich a chance to showe their
up there would only be sonime  eight hundred  goodness and benevolence; and they point tdollars apiece. Well, if that is the case, all  the existence of poverty as a proof that God
the more nionistrousthen is the injustice w hich  wills it. Our reply is that poverty exists not
to-day gives single men millions and tens of  because of God's will, but because of man's
millions, and even hundreds of millions.  If  disobedience.  (A,pplause.)  Wre say that we
there really is so little, then the more injus-  do know  that it is God's will tha-t there
tice in these great fortunes. But we do not  should be no poverty on earth, and that we
propose to abolish poverty by dividing up  know it as we may know  any other natural
what W-Wealc:th there is, so much as by creating  fact. The laxvs of this universe are the laws
more- vealth. Wve propose to abolish poverty  of God, the social laws asw vell as the physical
by setting at wvork that vast army of men,  laws, and H-1e, the Creator of all, has given
estimated last year to amount in this country  us room for all, work for all, plenty for all,
alone to one million, that vast army of men  If to-day people are in places so crowded
only uanxious to create wealth, but who are  that it seems as though there were to,?o -m,nny
now, by a system which permits dogs in the  people in the world; if to-day th.a-usands of
manger to  monopolize God's  bounty, d-  nien w ho wonLld gladly be at wocl' do not find
prived of the opportunityto toil. (Applause.)  the opportunity to go to work; i to-day the
Then agaihi, they tell us, you cannot abolish  competition for employment crowds wagcsc
poverty because poverty alxays has existed.  dCRwLi to starvation  ratess:  to-dna, amrid
Well, if poverty always has existed,,)II thel aoboucding wealth, there arire'; the cente,'..more need for our           or its abolitiion 
t'haS eXis.~d e'  -e ou' -c            to be I worse off thI  saagres i1 t.oj,




it is not because the Creator has been nig-  every man. We propose to distftulb no just
gardly; it is simply because of our own in-  right of property. As Dr. McGlynn said last
justice-simply because we have not carried  Sunday night, we are defenders and upholdthe idea of doing to others as we would have  ers of the sacred right of property-that
them do unto us into the making of our  right of property which justly attaches to
statutes. (Great applause.)                 everything that is produced by labor; that
This Anti-poverty society has no patent  right which gives to every one a just right of
remedy for poverty.  WTe propose no new  property in what he  has produced-that
thing.  What we propose is simply to do  makes it his to give, to sell, to bequeath, to
justice. The principle that we propose to  do whatever he pleases with, so long as in
carry into our laws is neither more nor less  using it he does not injure any one else. That
than  the  principle of the golden  rule.  right of property we insist upon, that we
We propose to abolish poverty by the sover-  would uphold against all the world.  To a
eign remedy of doing to others as we would  house, a coat, a book-anything produced by
have others do to us; by giving to all their  labor-there is a clear individual title, which
just rights. And we propose to begln by  goes back to the man who made it.  That is
assuring to every child of God who, in our  the foundation of the just, the sacred right of
country, comes into this world, his full and  property. It rests on the right of the individequal  share  of  the  common  heritage.  ual to the use of his own powers, on his right
CrowdedI Is it any wonder that men are  to profit by the exertion of his own labor; but
crowded together as they are in this city,  who can carry the right of property in land
when we see men taking up far morA land  that far? Who can claim a title of absolu;te
than they can by any possibility use, and hold-  ownership in land coming from the man who
ing it for enormous prices? Why, what would  made it? (Applause.) And until theman who
harve happened if, when these doors were  claims the exclusive ownership of a piece of
opened, the first people who came in had  this planet can show a title originathfig  with
claimed all the seats around them, and de- the Maker of this planet; until he can produce
man(ded a price of,others who afterward came  a decree from the Creator declaring that this
in by the same equal right.  Yet that is pre-  city lot or that great tract of agricultural
cisely the way we are treating this continent.  land, or that coal mine, or that gas well, was
That is the reason why people are huddled  made for him-until then we have a right 4o
together in tenement houses; that is the  hold that land was intended for all of us.
reason why work is difficult to get; the reason  (Great applause.)
that there seems, even in good times, a sur-   Natural religion and revealed religion alike
plus of labor, and that in those times that we  tell us that God is no respecter of persons;
call bad, the times of industrial depression,  that He did not make this planet for a few
there are all over the country thousands  individuals; that He did not give it to one
and hundreds ot thousands of men tramping  generation in preference to other generations,
from  place to place, unable to find employ-  but that He made it for the use during their
ment. (Applause.)                           lives of all the people that His providence
Not work enoughl Why, what is work?  brings into the world. (Applause.) If this be
Productive work is simply the application of  true, the child that is born to-night in the
human labor to land; it is simply the trans-  humblest tenement in the most squalid quarforming  into  shapes adapted to gratify  ter of New York, comes into life seized with
human desires, the raw material that the Cre-  as good a title to the land of this city as any
ator has placed here.  Is there not oppor-  Astor or Rhinelander. (Tumultuous applause.)
tunity enough for work in this country? (Ap-   How do we know  that the Almighty is
plause.) Supposing that, when thousands of  against poverty? That it is not in accordmen are unemployed and there are hard  ance with His decree that poverty exists? We
times everywhere, we could send a committee  know it because we know this, that the Alup to the high court of Heaven to represent  mighty has declared, "Thou shalt not steal.'1
the misery and the poverty of the people  (Applause.) And we know for a truth that
here, consequent on their not being able to  the poverty that exists to-day in the midst of
find employment.  What answer would we  abounding wealth is the result of a system
get? "Are your lands all in use? Are your  that legalizes theft. (Great applause.)
mines all worked out? Are there no natural   The women  who by the thousands are
opportunities for the employment of labor?"'  bending over their needles or sew-ilng machines
(Applause.) What could we ask the Creator  thirteen, fourteen, sixteen hours a day; these
to furnish us with that is not already here in  widows straining and striving to bring up the
abundance? He has given us the globe, amply  little ones deprived of their natural breadstocked with raw material for our needs. He  winner; the children that are growing up
has given us the power of working up this  in squalor and wretchedness, underclothed,
-aw material.  If there seems scarcity, if  underfed, under-educated even, in this city
here is want, if there are men who cannot  without any place to play —growing up under
and e-liployment, if there are people starving  conditions in which only a miracle' can keep
na tie nmidst of plenty, is it not simply be-  them pure-under conditions which condemn
-,i,.se -hl;i the Creator intended for all has  them in advance to the penitentiary or the
te'io-~n.aic- the property of the few? (Great  brothel-they  suffer, they die, because we
apl.pla.ls...                             s permit them  to be robbed, robbed of their
tn  a'v;e-wi —'g it s.aeist this giant wrong, which  birthright, robbed by a system wvhich disindnies to labor'ceess to the natural oppor-  herits the vast majority of the children that
tunities fOr the employment of labor, we  corme intothe -world. (Great applause.) There
mCove against t      ohecau;e of poverty. EWe pro-  is enough and to spare for them. Had they
Ai,-,,ish it t a?.r it U-iT  thle r- oots,  the equal rights i;.. estate  which the:ir
<.......s. i.at. h    s given I  would be no




(a)
young girls forced to unwomanly toil to eke  anybody else to steal if:we can help it? (Apout a mere existence, no widows fiuding it  plause.) "Thou shalt not steal." Does it not
such a bitter, bitter struggle to put bread in  also mean, "Thou shalt not suffer thyself or
the mouths of their little children; no such  anybody else to be stolen from?" (Applause.)
misery and squalor as we may see here in the  If it does, then we, all of us, rich and poor
greatest of American cities (applause), misery  alike, are responsible for this social crime that
and squalor that are deepest in the largest  produces poverty. (Applause.) Not merely
and richest centers of our civilization to-day.  the men who monopo!ize land-they are not to
(Great applause.)                           blame above anyone else, but we who permit
These things are the results of legalized  them to monopolize land are also parties to
theft, the fruits of a denial of that command-  the theft. The Christianity that ignores this
ment that says,  "Thou shalt not steal."  social responsibility has really forgotten the
(Applause.) How is this great commandment  teachings of Christ. Where He in the gospels
interpreted to-day, even by the men who pre-  speaks of the judgment, the question which is
tend to preach the gospel? "Thou shalt not  put to men is never, "Did you praise me?"
steal." Well, according to them, it means:  "Did you pray to me?" "Did you believe this
"Thou shalt not get into the penitentiary."  or did you believe that?" It is only this:
(Laughter.) Not much more than that with'What did you do to relieve distress; to
any of them.'You may steal, provided you  abolish poverty.?"  To those who are consteal enough, and you do not get caught, ad  denmned, the judge is represented as saying:
you may have a front seat in the churches.  "I was ahungered and ye gave me not meat,
(Laughter and applause, and cries, ('That is  I was athirst and ye gave nme not drink, I was
so!") Do not steal a few dollars-that may  sick and in prison and ye visited me not."
be dangerous, bue if you steal millions and aget  Then they say, "Lord, Lord, when did we
away with it, you becuome one of our first citi-  fail to do these things to you?" The answer
zens. (App'lause.)'Thou shalt not steal;"  is, "Inasmtuch as ye failed to do it to the
that is the 1aw of God. What does it mean?  least of these, so also did you failto do it unto
Wrell, it does not merely mean that you shall  me; departinto the place prepared for the
not pick pockets I It does not merely mean  devil and his angels."  On the other hanrdl,'that you shall not commit burglary or high-  what is said to the blessed is, "I was ahun-'way robbery I There are other forms of  gered and ye gave me meat, Iwas thirsty and
stealing which it prohibits as well. It cer-  ye gave me drink, I was naked and ye clothed
tainly means (if it has any meaning) that we  me, I was sick and in prison and ve visited
shall not take that to which we are not enti-  me."  A.nd when they say, "Lord, Lord,
tied, to the detriment of others. (Great ap-  when did we do these things to thee?" the
plause.)                                    answer is, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto
Now, here is a desert. Here is a caravan  the least of these ye have done it unto me."
going along over the desert. IIere are a gang  (Applause.)
of robbers. They say, "Look! There is a rich    Here is the essential spirit of Christianity.
caravan; let us go and rob it, kill the men if  The essence of its teaching is not, "Provide
necessary, take their goods from them, their  for'your own body and save your own soul'"
camels and horses and walk off." But one of  but, "Do what you can to make this a better
the robbers says, "Oh, no; that is dangerous;  world for all!" It was a protest against the
besides, that would be stealingl Let us, in-  doctrine of "each for himself and devil take
stead of doing that, go ahead to where there  the hindermost!"' It was the proclamation of
is a spring, the only spring' at which this cara   a common fatherhood of God and a common
-van can get water in this desert. Let us put  brotherhood of men. (Applause.) This was
a wall around it and call it ours, and when  why. the rich and the powerful, the high'they come up we won't let them have any  priests and the rulers, persecuted Christianity
water until they have given us all the goods  with fire and sword. It was not what in so
they have. (Applause.) That would be more  many of our churches to-day is called re-'entlemanly, more polite and more respecta- hlgion that pagan Rome sought to tear dutble; but would it not be theft all the same?  it was what in too many of the churches of
(Great applause.) And is it not theft of the  to-day is called "socialism and communism,"
same kind when men go ahead in advance of  the doctrine of the equality of human rightsl
population and get land they have no use  (Great applause.)
whatever for, and then, as people come into    Now imagine when we men and women of
the world and population increases, will not  to-day go before that awful bar that there we
let tins increasing population use the land  should behold the spirits of those who in our
until they pay an exorbitant price? That is  time under this accursed social system were
the sort of theft on which our first families  driven into crime, of those who were starved
are founded. (Applause.) Do that under the  in body and mind, of those little children that
false code of morality which exists here to- in this city of New York are being sent out of
day and people will praise your forethought  the world by thousands when they have
and vour enterprise, and will say you have  scarcely entered it-because they did not get
made money because you are a very superior  food enouch, nor air enough, nor light
man, and that anybody can make money if he  enough, because they are crowded together
wTill only work and be industrious! (Laughter  in these tenement districts under conditions
a:ld applause.)  But is it not as clearly a  in which all diseases rage and destroy. Supviolation of the command, "Thou shalt not  posing we are confronted with those souls,
steal," as taking the money out of a man's  what will it avail us to say that we individupocket? (Applause).                         ally were not responsible for their earthly
I"Thou shalt not steal." That means, of  conditions? WVhat, in the spirit of the parable'>ourse, that w~e ourselves mulst not steal. But  of Matthew, would be the reply from  the
-.I*  TrL -....-'     X'i-uclaoument seat? Arould it not be, "I provided




(4)
OrT them  aI1. 1   The earth that I made -was  a hundred millions a year? Is it not because'broad enough toc give them room. The mate-  the whole population of New York are here 9
rials that are placed in it were abundant  Is it not because this great city is the center of
enough for all their needs. Did you or did  exchanges for a large portion of the continent?
you not lift up your voice against the wrong  Does not every child that is born, every one
that robbed them  of their fair share in what  that comes to settle in New Yorkl, does he not
I provided for all?" -(Great applause.)       add to the value of this land? Ought he not,
"Thou shalt not steal!' It is theft, it is rob-  therefore, to get some portion of the benefi-t?
bery that is producing poverty and disease  And is he not wronged when, instead of being
and vice and crime among us. It is by virtue  used for that purpose, certain favored inciof laws that we uphold; and he who does not  viduals are allowed to appropriate it? (Apraise his voice against that crime, he is an ac-  plause.)
3essory. The standard has now been raised,    We might take this vast fund for common
the cross of the new crusade at last is lifted.  needs, we might with it make a city here such
Some of us, aye, many of us, have sworn in  as the world has never seen before-a city
our hearts that we will never rest so long as  spacious, clean, wholesome, beautiful-a city
we have life and strength until we expose  that should be full of parks; a city without
and abolish that wrong. We have declared  t;enement houses; a city that should own its
war upon it. Those who are not with us, let  own means of communication, railways that
us count them against us. For us there will  should carry people thirty  or forty miles
be no faltering, no compromise, no turning  from the City hall in a half hour, and that
back until the end. (Great applause and  could be run free, just as are the elevators in
cheering.)                                    our  large  buildings;  a  city  with  great
There is no need for poverty in this world,  museums, and public libraries, and gymuasiand in our civilization. There is a provision  ums, and public halls, paid for out of this
made by the laws of the Creator which would  common fund, and not from the donations of
secure to the helpless all that they require,  rich citizens. (Applause.) We could out of
which would give enougoh and more than  this vast fund provide as a matter of right for
enough for all social purposes. These little  the widow  and the orphan, and assure to
children that are dying in our crowded dis-  every citizen of this great city that'Xif he
trict for want of room and fresh air, they are  happened to die his wife and his children
the disinherited heirs of a great estate.     should not come to want, should. not be deDid you ever consider the full meaning of  graded  with  charity, but as a matter of
the significant fact that as progress goes on,  right, as citizens of a rich community, as coas population increases and civilization de-  heirs to a vast estate, should have enough to
velops, the one thing that ever increases in  live on. (Applause.) And we could do all
value is land?  Speculators  all over the  th-is, not merely without imposing any tax
country appreciate that. Wherever there is  upon production; not merely without intera chance for population coming; wherever  fering with the just rights of property, but
railroads meet or a great city seems destined  while at the same time securing far better
to grow; wherever some new evidence of the  than they are now the rights of property and
bounty of the Creator is discovered, in a rich  abolishing the taxes that now weigh on procoal or iron mine, or an oil well, or a gas  duction. We have but to throw off our taxes
deposit, there the speculator jumps in, land  upon things of human production; to cease
rises in value and a great boom  takes place,  to fine a man that puts up a house, or make.
and men find themselves enormously rich  anything that adds to the wealth of the comwithout ever having done a single thing to  munity; to cease collecting taxes from people
produce wealth.                               who bring goods from abroad or make g-oods
Now, it is by virtue of a natural law that  at home, and put all our taxes upon the value
land steadily increases in value, that popula-  of land-to collect that enormous revenue
tion adds to it, that invention adds to it; that  due to the growth of the comlnrunity for the
the discovery of every fresh evidence of- the  benefit of the community that, produced it.
Creator's goodness in the stores that He has  (A-pplause.)
-implanted in the earth for our use adds to the    Dr. Nulty, bishop of  eatih (great applause),
value of land, not to the value of anything   has said in a letter addressed to the clergy
else. This natural fact is by virtue of a nat-  and laity of his diocese thl-it it is this proviural law-a law that is as much a law of the  sion of the Creator, the provision by which
Creator as the law  of gravitation. What is  the value of land increases as the community
the intent of this law? Is there not in it a  g,'rows, that seems to him  the tmost beautliful
provisio: for social needs? That land values  of all the social adcjustments; atncl it is to sue
grow greater and greater as the community  that -whicih most clearly shoxws the beneficence
grows and common needs increase, is there  as well as the intelligence of the creative
not a manifest provision for social needs-a  mind; for here is a, provision by virtue of
fund belonging to society as a whole, with  which the advance of civi!ization would,
which we may take care of the widow antd  under the law of equal justice, be an advance
the orphan and those who fall by the way-  toward equality, instead. as it nflow is, an adside-with which we may provide for public  vance toward a more and  more monstroes ineducation, meet public expenses, and do all  equalit,y.  (Applause.)  ihe same good Cathothe things that an advancing civilization niakes  lie bishon in that samte letter says: "'owT
more and more necessary for society to do on  therefore, the land of every country is the
behalf of its members? (Great applause.)      common property of the people of that counTo-day the value of the land in NeMw York  try, because its real owner, the Creator, who
city is over a hundred millions annually. Who  made it, hath given it as a voluntary gift unto
has created that value? Is it because a few  them.,'The earth has He given to the children
land owners are here that that land is worth  of men.'  Andl as every human being is ha




(5)
creature and a child of God, and as all His  alone buy it. they can only lIve in'company
creatures are equal in His sight, any settle-  houses; and they are permitted to stay in them
ment of the land of this or any other country  only on condition (and they have to sign a
that would exclude the humblest from his  paper to that effect) that they can be evicted
equal share in the common heritage is not at anytime on five days' notice. The comonly an injury and a wrong done to that man,  panics combine, and make coal artificially
but an impious violation of the benevolent in-  dear here and make employment artificially
tention of his Creator." (Great applause.)  scarce in Pennsylvania. Now, why should not
And then Bishop Nulty goes on to show that  those miners, who work on it half the time,
the way to secure equal rights to land is not why shouldn't they dig down in the earth
by cutting land up into equal pieces, but by  and get up coal for themselves? (Applause.)
taking for public use the values attaching to  Who made that coal? There is only one anland. (Applause.) That is the method this  swer-God made that coal. Whom did he
society proposes. I wish we could get that make it for? Any child or any fool would say
through the heads of the editors of this city.  that God made it for the people that would
We do  not propose to divide up land.  be one day called into being on this earth.
(Laughter.) What we propose to do is to  (Applause.) But the laws of Pennsylvania,
divide up the rent that comes from land; and  like the laws of New York, say God made it
-that is a very easy thing. (Applause).    for this corporation and that. individual; and
We need not disturb anybody in possession,  thus a few men are permitted to deprive
we need not interfere with anybody's build- miners of work and make coal artificially
ing or anybody's improvement. We only  dear. (Applause.)
need to remit taxes on all improvements, on all   A few weeks ago, when I was traveling ir
forms of wealth, and put the tax on the value  Illinois, a young fellow got in the car at one
of the land, exclusive of the improvements,  of the mining towns, and I entered into conso that the dog in the manger who is holding  versatiou with him. He said he was going to
a piece of vacant land will have to pay the  another place to try and get work. IHe told
same for it as though there were a building  me of the condition of the miners, that they
upon it. In that way we would treat the  could scarcely make a living, getting very
whole land of such a community as this as the  small wages and only working about half the
common estate of the whole people of the  time. I said to him, "There is plenty of xcoal
community. And as the Sailors' Snug Harbor,  in the ground; why don't you employ yourfor instance, out of the revenues of compara-  selves in digging coal." He replied, "We did
tively a little 1iece of land in New York can  get up a co-operative company, and we went
maintain that fine establishment on Staten  to see the owner of the land to ask what he
Island, keeping in comfort a number of old  would let us sink a shaft and get out some
seamen, so we might make a greater Snug  coal for.  He wanted $7,500 a year. We
Harbor of the whole of New York. (Great  could not raise that much." Tax land up to
applause,)                                its full value and how long can such dogs-inThe people of New York could manage their  the-manger afford to hold that coal land away
estate just as well as any corporation; or any  from these men? And when any man who
private family, for that matter. But for the  wants work can go and employ himself, then
people of New York to resume their estate  there will be no million or no thousand unemand to treat it as their own, it is not necessary  ployed men in all the United States. (Apfor them to go to any bother of management.  plause.)
It is not necessary for them to say to any land    The relation of employer and employed is a
holder, this particular piece of land is ours,  relation of convenience. It is not one imand no longer yours. WVe can leave land  posed by the natural order. Men are brought
titles just as thev are. We can leave the  into the world with the power to employ
owners of the land to call themselves its own-  themselves, and they can employ themselves
ers; all we want is the annual value of the  wherever the natural opportunities for emland. Not, mark you, that value which the  ployment are not shut up from them. No
owner has created, that value which has been  man has a natural right to demand employgiven to it by improvements, but simply that ment of another, but each man has a hatuial
value which is given to the bare land by the  right, an inalienable right, a right given by
fact that we are all here-that has attached  his Creator, to demland opportunity to emto the land because of the growth of this great ploy himself. (Great applause.) And whencommunity. (Applause.) And, when we take  ever that right is acknowledged, whenever
that, then all inducement to monopolize the  the men who want to go to work can find natland will be gone, (applause); then these very  ural opportunities to work upon, then there
worthy gentlemen who are holding one-half will be as much competition among employers
of -the area of this city idle and vacant will  who are anxious to get men to work for them
find the taxes upon them so high that they  as there will be among men who are anxious
either will have to go to work and build houses  to ges xwork. VWages will rise in every voor sell the land, or, if they cannot sell it, give  cation to the true rate of wages, the full,
it away to somebody who will build houses.  honest earnings of labor. That done, with
(Great applause.)                         this ever increasing social fund to draw upon,
And so all over the country. Go into Penn-  poverty will be abolished, and in a little while
sylvania, and  there  you will see great will come to be looked upon as we are now
stretches of land, containing enormous de- beginning to look upon slavery-as the re.ic
posits of the finest coal, held by corporations  of a darker and more ignorant age. (Great
and individuals who are working but little  applause.)
part of it. On these great estates the corn-   I remiember-this  man here rer:onemnicr
mon American citizens rwho mine the coafl, are  (turning  to 1.1r. PRedpath) even better than I,
not allowed even to -rent a piece of l-anl(d., let  fo  e D noos one of the imen swho brc-,o]ti,  th:e




(6)
a;roelAles of humanl slavery home to the  he has the power of getting so many more
heart and conscience of the north —I well re-  coats, so many more cigars, so much more
member, as he well knows, and all the older  wine, drygoods, horses and carriages, houses
men and women in this audience will remem-  or food. He has gained the power of taking
ber, how property in human flesh and blood  for his own so much more of these products of
was defended just as private property in land  human labor. But what has he done? He
is now dlefended; how the same charges were  has not done anything. He may have been
hurled upon the men who protested against  off in Europe or out west, or he may have
human slavery as are now made against the  been sitting at home taking it easy. If he has
inen who are intending to abolish industrial  done nothing to get this increased income,
slavery. (Applause.) We remember how the  where does it come from? The things I speak
dignitaries of the churches, and the opinion  of are all products of human labor-some one
of the rich members of the churches branded  has to work for them. WVhen the man who
as a disturber, almost as a reviler of religion,  does no work can get them, necessarily the,any priest or any minister who dared to get  men who do work to produce them must have
up and assert God's truth-that there never  less than they ought to have. (Applause.)
was and there never could be rightful prop-   This is the system that the Anti-poverty
erty in human flesh and blood. (Applause.)   society has banded together to war against,
So it is now said that men who protest  and it invites you to come and swell its ranks.
against this system, which is simply another  It is the noblest cause in which any human beform of slavery, are men who propose rob-  ing can possibly eno-age. WVhat, after all,
bery. Thus the commandment, "Thou shalt  is there in life as comnpared with a struogle
not steal," they have made, "Thou shalt not ob  like this? One thing, and only one thing is
ject to stealing." WVhen we propose to resume,  absolutely certain for every man and woman
our own ag-ain, when we propose to secure its  in this hall, as it is to all else of human kindnatural rigiit to every child that comes into  that is death.'What will it profit us in a few
being, such people talk of us advocating con-  years how much we have left? Is not the
fiscation-charge us with being deniers of the  noblest and the best use we can make of life
rights of property. The real truth is that  to do something to make better and happier
we wish to assert the just rights of property,  the condition of those who come after us-tby
that we wish to prevent theft. (Applause.)  warring  against injustic- by the enlighten-.Chattel slavery was incarnate theft of the  ment of public opinion, by llhe doing all that
worst kind. That system, which made prop-  we possibly can do to break up the accursed
erty of lhuman beings, which allowed one man  system that degrades and embitters the lot of
to sell another, which allowed one man to  so many? (Applause.)
take away the proceeds of another's toil,  VW;e have a long fi-ght and a hard fight bewhich permitted the tearing of the child from   fore us. Possibly, probably, for many of us,
the mother, and which permittedthe so-called  we may never see it come to success. But
owner to hunt with bloodhounds the man who  what of that? It is a privilege to be engaged
escaped from his tyranny-that form of slav-  in such a struggle. This we may know, that it
ery is abolished. (Applause.)               is but a part of that great, world wide, long
So far as that goes the command, "Thou  continued struggle in which the just and the
shaIlt not steal," has been vindicated, but there  good of every age have been engaged; and
is another form of slavery.                 that we, in taking part in it, are doing someWe are selling land now in large quantities  thing in our humble way to bring on earth the
to certain English lords and capitalists who  kingdom of God, to make the conditions of
are coming over here and buying greater es-  life for those who come afterward, those
tates than the greatest in Great Britain or  which we trust will prevail in heaven. (Long
Ireland; we are selling them  land, they are  continued applause.)
buying land. Did it ever occur to you that
they do not want that land? They have no                   Tie Landlord.
use whatfever for American land; they do not  Mathilde Blind.
promlpose to come over here and live on it.  "To him belonged the glens with all ther
They cannot carry it over tnere to where they     grain;
do live. It is not the land that they want.  To him the pastures spreading in the plain;
What they want is the income from it. They  To him the hills whence falling waters gleam;
are buying it not that they themselves want  To hint the salmon swimming in the stream;
to use it, but because by and by, as popula-  To him the forests desolately drear,
tion increases, numbers of American citizens  With all their antlered herds of fleet-foot deer;
will want to use it, and then they can say to  To him the league-long rolling moorland bare,
these American citizens,'You can use this  With all the feathered fowl that wing the anland provided you pay us one-half of all you     tumn air.
make upon it." WThat we are selling those
foreign lords and capitalists is.not really land;  For him the hind's interminable toil;
ye are selling t-hem the labor of Aaiericun  For him he plowed and sowed and broke the
citizens; we are selling them the privilege of    soil,
taking, without giving any return for it, the    him the golden harvests would he reap
prnoceeds of  the toil of our childlren.  (Ap-  For himn would tend the flocks of woolly sheep;
pause.)or him would thin the iron-hearted woods;
So here in New York you will read in the  For him track deer in snow-blocked solitudes;
papers every day that the price of land is  For him the back was bent, and hard the hand,
going up). John Jones or Robert Brown has  For was he not his lovd, and lord of all that
made a hundred thousand dollars within a
year in the increase in the value of land in
New YoWr'k.,i~hat does that mean? iti mleans




(7)
igo!jx~:Wtlzdt~n GConic.'Tis God, the Christians say, then wherefore
C God4, a:'J!.:i.ll o't-  children suffer wantl  carel... Ir~ hli?,l.- i:vthelrs seek from  day to day  Or wherefore vex and sadden all our years
F1ois wo:r.   il Al. di,.id babies cry for bread,  In feeling all the woes of wretched men
-ai.x<! h-,;r~si=ckL mu!-;;sTrs with dry eyes look on,  WThom God has doomed to toil, and want,
f'oo    o,:seed tp'too hopeless far to pray,  and sin,.kA  ia.t'r'   Clyi.st-.ians do, "Thy  kingdom   That the elect, the wealthy few, may win
C. C:,0 Q,                             Leisure for wisdom, virtue, joy, and then,'~.~."t.d;:sl~w i i^  E.How  often has the  At last, a place where comes not death or... i,,                          he         teair s
{'-iono up oto ohek.- since Christ, the poor man's AWe do not like to hear of poverty,
frird,                               That hot bed of disease, and sin, and crime.
int~i  iJold THis holhible followers how to pray.   We preach that thrift and virtue is its dower.
lC:r mill ion home;- the prayer goes up to-day  With eyes, we see not.  Have we lost the
To thee, and still no answer dost Thou send,      power?
Or so it seems, for want and crime are here.  Has self and greed, then, made us deaf and
blind.
And yet, O Father, wherefore the delay?     And made our worship worse than blasphemy?
Whose fault that want and crime walk
hand in hand?                        We quote, "Ye always with you have the
Whose fault but ours, for wealth enough is         poor,"
here.                                  And make a prophecy of what was meant
But selfish Greed, and Ignorance, and Fear,   But as a statement of the facts that then
A band of triple tyrants, rule the land    Existed. But a time in vain seek, when
And thwart the prayer they offer day by day.    The Christ or prophet in God's Bible lent
His voice to justify so curst a state.
O Godl I see a home-a million homes         Let us not dare to pray-glving the while
So poor and comfortless, bare even to tears:   A paltry sum, degrading chnrity,
Nor paint, nor carpet on the hard, rough  To those our ignorance or greed has robbed,
floor;                               Of justice, their divine inheritance,
Some chairs, a table, bed and stove, no more;   And doomed them  slaves when God has
And they have lived in such a home for            made them free.
years,                               Let us not dare to pray "'Thy kingdom comed
And still the prayer goes up, "Thy kingdom
come."                               Let us not dare, till we have done our part
With voice or pen or freeman's vote to win
And hard the father toils through long, long  Them justice and to blot this deadly stain
hours;                               From oft our souls. Nor ignorant remain
The mother drudges, and the children, too,    Of all their wronls, for ignorance is sin.
Must work to eke out the poor meager fare.                  to harden still the heart.
Let us not dare to harden still the heart.
No chance for knowledge to gain entrance
there;                               For God is just. He will avenge the wrong
No chance the gentler virtues there to woo,   Done to his children by their brothers here.
But chance enough for all the evil powers.  The silent, voiceless agony ascends
}From prisoned souls to Him in heaven, and
And when the father drinks-the children            lends
swear,                                 New strength to outraged laws divine.
Or steal, or worse-and bitterness and hate  Then fear eternal justice, sure, and;,;,.
Fills every heart where should be only love-       strong.
With cold philosophy free thinkers prove                  -MRS. ELIZABETtE'.h')i'Tis law that millions dooms to such a fate;   Pictou, Ont., April 13, 18S7.
TO APPLICANTS FOR ME M BERSHIP
The object and principles of the ANTI-POVERTY SOCIETY are set forth on the other side or
this sheet
Aside from the initiation fee all contributions will be voluntary. Envelopes addressed to
the Treasurer will be distributed through the hall at each meeting. Contributions may be
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Though money for hall rent, printing and other expenses is absolutely necessary, members
who will work can be just as useful as those who contribute money; and all who are willing
actively to engage in distributing tracts, or in otherwise promulgating the principles of the
Society, are requested to notify the Secretary.
To each applicant will be sent a certificate of membership, signed by the President and
Secretary,                                         EDWARD McGLYNN, President,
MOICHAEL CLARKE, Secretary,
1996 Fulton a,venue, Brooklyn.
BENJAII-3I URNER, Treasurer,
6 Harrison street. New York.




LAN D AND LABOR LIBRARY.
NO. 1-FIRST PRINCIPLES. By Henry George. 4 pages.
NO. 2-LAND AND TAXATION  A Conversation between David Dudley Field and Hemny George. 4 pagem
_NO. 3-THE RIGHT TO THE USE OF THE EARTH. By Herbert Spencer. 4 pages.
NO. 4-A CIHRISTIzAN MINISTER ON THE REMEDY FOR POVEtTY. A Sermon by the Rev. Hugh O. Pent*
cost of Newark, N. J. 2 pages.
NO. 5-A SU-I IN PROPORTION. By T. L. MIcCready. 2 pages.
NO. I —TIE SETTLER'S NIGHTMARE. A Tract for Farmers. By "W. G." and Louis F. Post. 4 pages.
NO. 7-NEW YORK'S DOCKS; the True Mode of Raising Revenue. By J. W. Sullivan  4 pages.
NO. S —UNEI3IPLOYED LABOR. By Henry George. 4 pages.
1NO. — VOICES FOR REFORM. 4 pages.
NCo. I()-A_ MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE. By Lewis Freeland. 6 pages.
NO. 1I-HOl   TO INCREASE PROFITS. By A. J. Steers. 2 oages.
NO.42 —THE AIMEiRICAN-T FA RIER. By Henry George. 4 pages.
NO. 13.-SAILORS' SNUG HARBOR AND THE RANDALL FARM. By W. T. Croasdale. 12 pages.
NO. 14.-THE COLLEGIATE CHURCH AND SHOEM3AKER'S FIELD. By W. W. T. Croasdale. 12 pagew.
NTO. 15.-ONLY A DREAM. By Abner C. Thomas. 4 pages.
NO. 16.-TETHE -bTI-POVERTY SOCIETY (Dr. McGlynn's Address at the First Meeting). 8 pages.
NO. 17.-THE CROSS OF THE NEW CRUSADE. A poem. By David Rorty. 2 pages.
N'O. 18.-IT iS THE LAW OF CHRIST. By Rev. S. H. Spencer of Henry, Ill. 4 pages.
NO, 19.-3IY LANDLORD. By John Jones. 4 pages.
NO. 20. —"THOU  SiHALT NOT STEAL."  (An address by Henry George before the Anti-Poverty ~Socle tyJ
pages.
Prices, tree by lail: 2-page tracts-50 copies, 10 cents; 100 copies, 15 cents; 1,000 copies, $1; 5,000 copies, $4.5,
Four-page  lacts —25 copies, 10 cents; 100 copies, 23 cents; 1,000 copies, 02; 5,0)0 copies, $8.50.
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Ten-page tracts-25 copies, 30 cents; 100 copies, 75 cents; 1,01)0 copies, i~6; 5,001 copies, 1;25.50.
Oa;he'sr Numbers Ian rascpna1rtlno
These tracts furnislh a cheap and eficient means of arousing intelligent interest in the great social question,
and popularizing the trutil that its solution is to be found in the restoration to all men of equal rights in the land
By senling for a quantity of these tracts, and inclosing them in letters or handing them to 0organizations, every
friend of the cause may do something to help it. Address Publisher Standard, 25 Ann Street, New York.
Editor and Proprietor, HENRY GEORGE.
Psiblishled   eeklv et 3a 5 Ana l;treet, 14ew York i,   eay  Eubtcril~p~cn flea,'      i: I'.  nths,
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No one interested in the great social and economic questions wrhich are demanding solution with such portentous enes-gy can afford to neg ict reading THE STANDAI<RD, Its columns are crowded writh mnatter of vital inerest to eveiry Amnerlican citizend ndl present week by week, in clear and readable form, the current histosy of
the movement for the emancipation of labor.
FOR  SALE BY' ALL NEVr'SDEALERS.
Secretaries of Land antd Lbo: Clubs Local Assemblies K. of L., and other organizations who ar-e willing to
canvass f or subscribers to THE b' ~SAINDARD on a liber-al comnission, are invited to address the Publisher o T'HE
TAdNDARD, 15 Ann street, New York.
IEORNRY  GE0ft      OR 5tIE'd"!  IYUIRKAO
PROGRESS AN-D POVERTY, cloth, $1.0l( paper, 20c.
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Liberal C'iniosesii iaIn to'ente.
Address,          FE&NRY  GEORGE  & CO,,
25 Ann street, New York,
The objects of the Anti-Poverty Society are sufflciently explaineed in the blank form
of applicition  for Inemblleship given  below.  Persons wishing to  join the society can
cut out and fill in the blank and send  it, with one dollar initiation fee tho the treasu-rer
B3E~t'N,    UR IER, 6 Harrison street, New York,
Believing   thit the tim e has come for an active wa-rfare against the conditions lkith In
spite of the advance i. the powers of production, condemn so many to degrading povertiy
anad foster vice, crime and greed, the undersigned desires to become a  umemfber of the.A5 qPO\-TERTY SOClETY.  The object of the Society is to spread, by suCh peaceable and lawfll
means as may be found most desirable and efficient, a knowledge of the truth that Crod has
made.ample provision for the needs of all men during their residence supon earth, and that
poverty is the result of the hauman laws that allow  individuals to claim  as private prop erty
-tht which the Creator has provided for the use of all.
Addleso..d eo...a.....o on 0.a,,,o, o oonooo oa nooiotoasoicoooonooFo.
Inclosed please find One Dollar Initiation Fee.




OUSi N9T TBOYCOTTED.
WE ASK OUR FRIENDS TO PATRONIZE THEM.
There zwill be from 20,000 to 50,000 copies of the 10 YCOTiER printed and distributed weekly in
Stlanta and adjoining towns on the various Railroads Zeading into the city.
FOR BARGAINS IN                     LEAK & LYLE,               A. A. 8sMO.                C. S. S.HOMO.
rXL~~z3TRX=@,~"~;i;~~  -, ~ESTATE AND RENTING AGENTS   SHOMO BOS
rc MTGil.o. 5.7 Marietta StV    b. 0 1
Purnishinu  Goods, Boots all, ShBp,,,,? D —:i- h   o1e....a i.
Boo  Bo    lyi    J Exchange City Property, Farms. nProduO [ 6Comli!n  Merchantis
G O MO             iAil Sea"  ter Pbwers, ines, Minerals, and
F~RANKLIN &  MAY              Wild Lands,'i  Georgia and other States. Special  No. 53::: road t.,,
Attention to renting City Property, Farms, Etc.    oa- ": S -
18 W IRTEA.-L S.             Refers tc, Bo,.ukers and Merchants ot our City.
i~..... I':1........
THESE SPACES FOR SAtE!
Apply to
BO YC0OTT COMMITTEE,.:9  Broad Streeto
i n~~~~~~~~Ns1 --                                                                         u —
SHARP BROS.,
202 Marietta St,,
Drugs, Medicines, rancy and Toilet Articles,
Prescriptions prepared at any hour.
TELEPHONE 357.
[OVER.] 




OL.' I.          PUBLISHED BY ATLANTA TYPOGRAPHILCAL UNION, NO. 48.                     No. I.
Organized Labor has been forced into this measure of Boycotting after every other attempt to settle the differences had failed.  The Conshitution has systematically blacklisted the
printers of Atlanta for over three years, for the sole reason that they joined Typo. Union No.
48-a society instituted by printers for the elevation of' their craft, (a society just as necessary to
the printer as the Odd Fellows, Knights of Honor or any other secret or benevolent institution,
one of its objects being to take care of its sick and indige.L members and to bury the dead), and
to secure a higher degree of workmanship.  You Lare asked to boycott the names on this list
(which means not to trade with them) for the reason that they patronize our enemy, the Consiitnlion.  This request is intended to apply to our friends everywhere-those coming from the country as well as those in Atlanta.  This fight is one purely of DEFENCE, and is waged by Organized
Labor and the different Trades Unions which have seen fit to espouse the cause. The Constitution
commenced the war without other reason than opposition to and contempt for not only Organized, but for all Labor.  Rlemember the motto of the great K. of L., " AN INJURY TO ONE IS THE
CONCERN OF ALL.L"  (For boycott on Gbonstlzttion see Witforkinzg TWorld each week.)
The farmers are equally interested in the fight against this monopolistic sheet, and they
ought to spend their money where they know it will neot go into its coffers.
You are earnestly requested not to trade with a iy house on this list, or buy any article
Itaiecit ill iL.
DRY COODS.                                BOOKS AND STATIONERY.
3$J. MX,~. H-ZCH~,                        hi OL.D 1300B   ST0ORE.  "
M. RICH, & BRO.,               TOHN KEELY,    JOS. VAN HOLT NASH,   E. H. THORNTON.
McCONNELL & JAMES,            JOHN RYAN,                 WHOLESALE COMMISSION.
CH A MBERLIN JOHNSON & CO.. F. STOKES & CO.,        ELAM JOHNSON & CO.,
CLOTHINC.                        CHANDLER BROWN & CO,,      WYLY & GREENE.
GEORGE MUSE,                  HIRSCH BROS.,                       CROCKERY.
JAS. A. ANDERSON.                                      McBRIDE.
JEWELERS.                                            COAL.
FREEMAN & CRANKSHAW,                     JJ. {r..TLSO 9               JC. BRIDGER.
J. P. S'TL JENS,            D. N. FREElMiAN,
ER. LAWSHE.                    ~WHOLESALE TO3ACCO.
-ER. LAWSHE.W. A. RUSSELL & CO.
GROCERS.
PETER LYNCH.                     J. J. DUFFY.                   REAL ESTATE.
ETER LNCH  J   DUFF FRIERSON & SCOTT, SAM'L W. GOODE,
ART COODS.                        G. W. ADAIR,            R. H. KNAPP,
E. A. HORNE & CO.                    GHOLSTIN & KROUSE, E. M. ROBERTS & CO.
A. S. TALLY,           SMITH & DALLAS,
RICE & WILSON.          KEY & JONES,
wP. H-. SNOOK.             A. J. MILLER.                G. H. EDDLEMAN & CO.
TOYS.                                PROPRIETARY MEDICINES.
C. S. SCHUESSLER.                      Ilunnicutt's Rheumatic Cure, Tutt's Pills, B. B. B., Clingman's Tobacco Remedies, Ayer's Cherry Pect&,al, Cuticura
MISCELLANEOUS.                       Remedies, Wilbor's Cod Liver Oil, French Hospital Remedies,
Thompson, Langdon & Co., Corsets; Atlanta Lumber    Quinn's Pioneer Blood Renewer, Dugro's Ailiamentary Elixir,
Company; Royal Baking Powder; F. MI. Ferris & Co., Hams;   Cheney's Expectorant, Bull's Cough Syrup, Mrs. Winslow's
Stone Mountain  Granite Co.; EHathaway, Soule & Harrington,   Soothing Syrup, Angostura Bitters, Hall's Lunlg BalsamShoes; Freeman & Gillies, Artistic Furniture; Chattahoochee   Johann Hoff's Malt Extract, Tropic Fruit Laxative, Penny,
River Brick; Southern Seed Co.; Louisiana State Lottery; At-  royal Pills, Rosadalis, Holmes' Sure Cure, Taylor's Cherokee
lanta Rubber Co.; Dr. Price's Flavoring Extracts, McDonald's   Remedy, Henry's Carbolic Salve, Schenck's Mandrake Pills,
Fire and Water Proof Cement, Ladd's Lime, James Means'   Dr. Sweet's Infallible Liniment, Johnson's Anodyne Liniment
Shoes.                                            Carter Medicine Co.
This list will be corrected weekly, and all new advertisers added to it. Those wishing to
cease patronizing the Cons/itztion until this trouble is over can address the "Committee,'" 49
S. Broad St., and their names will be dropped from this list.                    [OVER.] 




SUSTAINS LABOR UNIONS0
Finding of Arbitration Board in Sattley Strike Case —-It Recommtends That the Company Recognize the Union.
Finding  Discusses'the  Question  in  an  Advanced  Light —-Decision  of
Great importane..
IFrom The Illinois State Journal, Springfield,  resistible, and the questions to be met
Dec. 29, 1901.1            are properly those of regulation.
The decision of the state boa.rd of    The arbitration board is composed of
arbitration in the Sattley case, "which I FIrederick  W;V. Job of Chicago, chairwas announced yesterday, sustains the   man; Chauncey B. Geiger of Ashley,
right of wTorkingmen to belong to a   representative of the employers, and
labor organization. This is said to be'Walter A. Mathis of Clinton, reprethe first instance in which a state ar-  sentative of organized labor. J. McCan
bitration board has assumed  to pass   Da-vis of this city is secretary.
upon this question.  Controversies referred to arbitration usually relate to      TEXT OF THE DECiSiON.'Tages.  In the Sattley case the board
found that practically the sole cause   Discussion  of the  Entire  Case  and
of the strike nonw on at the plow works          Finding of the Board.
was the demand of the men for a
recognition of their union and the re-   StaTE OF ILLINOIS,   }
State Board of Arbitration.
fusal of the company to grant the demand.  This made the issue one of                   Springfield, Dec. 28, 1901.
unionism.                                In the imatter of the application of
lAXlthcough the Sattley company uas,  the striking plowIr workers lately emrepresented at -the hearing before the   ployed by the Sattley Manufacturing
board, it Nwas not a party to the appli-   Company, o Sprinield, Ill.
cation and therefore is not bound by      Application filed December 14, 1901.
the board's findings.   The decision,   DHearing at Springfield, December 18
therefore, is only of an' advisory na-   and 19, 1901.
ture, rendered in the hope that the       The petition in this case comes from
recommendations contained in it wil]  the striking plow  workers and bears
be acted upon and result in a settle-   114 signatures.  The grievances comment of the present difficulty.         plained of are stated as follows:
The decision reviews the facts of the    The.said employes have made subcase quite exhaustively.  On the vital  stantially the following  demamds of
point, the "recognition of the union,"  said company:
the board recommends that this be a        "1  The recognition of Plo  VWorkpart of the terms of settlement, the   ers' Union No. 9,460.
precise, scope of such recognition to    "2. The restoration of the scale ol
be  defined  by  written  agreement.  wages in force prior to Sept. 1, 1901.
WVhile making clear that, so far as       "3. The reinstatement of all employstrictly  legal rights  are  concerned,  es, in their respective places, who were
there can be no question of the right  laid off, locked out, or discharged withof aln employer to employ -w\homso-  out cause since Oct. 16, 1901.
ever he chooses or the right of the       "4. That the minimum  wage scale
einploye to -work for whomsoever he   for conmmon labor be fixed at $1.50 per
chooses, the board  points out that   day.
there are certain obligations due be.-    "The said company has refused to
tween  employer and  employe, and   grant these demands."
from both to the public, quite distinct    Prior to the hearing the Sattley M\anfrom those defined by constitution and   ufacturing company was given an opstatute.                                portunity to join in the petition, but
The tendency of the age, it is con-   declined to do so. The company, howtended, in the direction of co-operation   ever, was represented at the hearing
and organization, in the commercial  by its secretary and treasurer, Mr. S.
and industrial relations of men, is ir-   E. Prather, and by its attorney, S. P.




2
WNheeler, Esq. A motion to dismiss the   men at the time.  These Nwage reducpetition   -was    enteredl    by    the   tions appear to have occasioned some
comlpany    on   the   ground    that   alarm  among  the  plow  workers.  A
this  board  had  no  jurisdiction  to   ruminor was circulated that there Nwas
conduct an inquiry upon the petition,   to be a. general cut of -wages throughthe chief reasons assigned being in sub-   out the  shops.
stance that the signers'of -the petition      On Oct. 14, Plow Workers' Union No.
were not employes of the Sattley Man-   9,460 -was formed with a membership
ufacturing company at the time of the   wThich embraced a large majority of the
filing: of the  petition, and  that the   employes- twxo-thirds, it is, conceded by
board has no authority to entertain a   -the company.  Previous to  this date
petition: nhere a strike has been inaug-   men had been employed without referurated andci is in existence at the time   ence to  the  question  of membership
of the filing of the petition.  The imo-   in the union.  "Never," it is stated oil
tion to dismniss was overruled, and the   behalf of the  company, "during  the
board prloceeded to hear such evidence   twelve  years  prior to  October, 1901,
as  was offe,' ed.  The  striking   plow\\   had  there been  any  substantial difw'orkers  -were  i'epresented   by   Mr.  fereilce or  controversy  betw-\een  the
George F. Paul, secretary   of  Plow    S.attley  Manufacturing  company  and
TWorkers'  Union No. 9,460, and by E.   its employes."  The officers of the comL  Chapin, E.scq. The privilege of cross-   pany, it appears, looked with extreme
exam ining witnesseas'-as accorlded to   cisftL:vor upon the threatened unionizthe attorney for the Sattley flanufac-   ing' of their shops.  For the purpose,
tuling  company.  No object'ion D        as   it is alleged, of establishing  a wage
imade to this by the leg-al'representatiTve   scale which should prevail throughout
of tie mlen; but as one  -Titness de-   the year, unless  changed  by  mutual
clined to ansTwer a question propound-   consent, and in the hope that thexreed by the'attornev for the company, on   mnoval of the apprehension of a reducthe gmround that the company had not   tion of wages would  take from  the
joined in the petition, it is proper to   minds of its employes the desire to
state that under the law it is the ex-   join the union, the company closed its
priess duty of tihe board, in conducting    plant on Wednesday, Oct. 16, announcan inquiry as to the ca.uses of any dif-   ing that on Saturday, Oct. 19, a new
ferienee betA-ween an employer and his        altage scale would be posted, and that
em-iployes, a-bohether unon the petition of   employes desiring- to  return  to  work
one or both sides, "to hear all persons     s hould  notify  the  proper officials of
interested  therein who may come be-   their desire to do so.
fore the,n."  The rnanifest purpose of
the law  is that the board shall ascer-             Nw  Employes Engage
tain all the facts of the case under in- m     Only a, few of the men gave notice of
vestigation, and in order to facilitate   tlhei  intention to return to work, and
the inquiryl it Awas deemed  proper to   accordclingly, on Sunday, Oct. 20, the
permmit all inrterested parties to pairtic-   company began a search for new  emipate in the examination of witnesses.   ployes.  During the ensuing three days: j5 y/ or the~ Case.     there were conferences  between  the
oomf C   pany and a committee representThe Sattley 1Manufacturing company   ing'the men who had not returned to
is engag'ed in the business of manufac-   -Tok. On Wednesday, the 23d, an unturig' plows  anc  other agricultural   derstanding' vwas reached between the
implements  at Spring-field, Iil. The his-   company and the committee.  Among
tory of its difficultyv with its employes,   other things it was arranged that the
briefly stated, is as follows:             mlen iwho returned to work should sign
the following  agreement:
On Oct. 1, 190t, there was a cut in
the piece-price schedule  in the paint                   Springfield,  Ill.. Oct., 1901.
shop, ranging from  5 to 20 peil cent,    "'I agree, in taking a place with the
accoidcling to the class of \ ork.  The   Sa'ctley Manufacturing company, to accomrpany claimed that, owing to the in-   cept...... cents per hour, net, for time
stallation  of a "trolley" in  1900, the   employed, as full  compensation   for
inmdi-idual emiplo ye in-thC"e paint shop   services rendered; samne rate to precould turn out  nb mch moie -e'-ork and   vatil for extra time put in on nights;
that the com'npany was entitled to share   and to faithfully and diligently serve
in the sa ving.  There o-as at the same   therm to the best of mry ability unless
time a racl.ical cut in the piece schedule   prevented  by sickness, or desiring to
in the wu ood shop, amounting,     in the   take  a  position  elsewhere, in  which
case of balance  cultivator frames, to a   case I agree to give them  three days'
reduction of 50 per cent.  It appears   notice of my intention to quit; and I
friom  the evidence that the cut in the   promise, during   the   imanufacturing
TNTwood shop wnas i-ade by the fore man   season  of 1902, to  make no  demand
o-ithout the knowledge o0' consent of   upon  theim  for an increase of -wages,
the off icerl  of the comrpany, andl writh-   nor to unite -wi.th other employes in any
out pre-v',ious consultationrl wiith therm;   con.certecd action with a view to securbut tlhis fact v-as not Iknrion to the   inig  giea:ter compensation.  I further




3
agree to a strict compliance with the   of the obligations undertaken by these
printed rules of the company."         agreements," the notice.stated.  "We
(.Signed).....        are, howvever, willing to confer with
A written memorandum of the terms   any committee of our employes in reof the agreement was drawn up and   gard to any acts of ours which you
signed by the company, and by a corn-  claim constitute a breach of any obmittee of the men, and was subsequent-  ligations -we have undertaken by the
ly approved by Plow Workers' Union   agreements we have entered into."
No. 9,460.                               The conference between the officers
-What Agreement Provided.        of the company and the committee of
Among other things this agreement  the enployes on Tuesday, the 26th, reprovided that if the old employes came   lated almost entirely to the question
back on. Thursday morning (the 24th)   of the recognition of the union. No
the company would put to work from   understanding being arrived at, the
40 to 50 per cent of them at that time,  union employee at 5 o'clock that afterand that.the others would be taken back   noon went out on a strike. The strike
as the company could find places for  then inaugurated is still on. The comthem,- not later than the date of the   pany has en'ployed non-union men to
completion of the new building then  take the places of the strikers. The
in course of constrluction;* that tim   total nunmber of men at work Dec. 18
in coarse  of construction;   th,at the
company have the right to retain in  (the date of the hearing before this
its employ all of the nesw men then   board), according to the statement of
working and to put to work all new   the secretary and treasurer of the
men w-ho had been promised employ-   company, was 254.  The number at
ment, provided they should apply for   work on the date of the strike (Nov.
their positions "within a few  days;"  26) was 285.
and that as soon as  possible, "and          Question of Recognition.
within three months," the  company
would make up a piece schedule and       While the statement of grievances
submit it to its employes, which should  set forth in the petition contains four
not be less than the old day schedule.  distinct propositions, it is clear, from
UTnder this arrangement a large number  the evidence presented at the hearing,
of the men returned to work.           that there is no substantial difference
On Nov. 25 a committee of the em-   between the company and the men on
ployes waited on the comnpany and   any except one of these propositions.
submitted a written statement calling   This is the demand of the men for the
attention to "the hostile attitude of  recgnition of  the  Plow   Workers'
some of your representatives who have   union.  The other demands are all of
of late called before them certain em-   t a subordinate nature. With the a quesployes and urged them  to surrender  tion of unionism settled, we are of the
their member ship in Plow  Workers'  opinion that all questions of wages
Union No. 9,460 of the American Feder-   will be easily and satisfactorily adju.station of Labor, and who have resorted   able. The demand  for  a minimum
to very questionable tactics to bring   wage scale of $1.50 per  day, for inabout the dissolution  of our uniont  stance, affects only a small number of
Indications  point to  a continuance   men. Heretofore the lowest wages paid
of this very unfair and unwarranted   for common  labor   at  the Sattley
abuse of authority, and it does not  shops has been $1.25 per day; but it is
seem likely to cease unless the com-   in evidence that of the 285 men in the
panry will give us recognition."  The   employ of the company on the date
statement also embodied the four de-   of the strike, only thirteen were receivmands  above referred to as contained   ing as low as $1.25 per day. The comin the application    to this board.   pany claims that this rate is intended
to apply only to new men who perWaited on the Company.           form  common labor.  Owing to the
On the following morning (Tuesday,  small number of men affected, we have
Nov. 26) the committee again waited   no doubt that the company would be
on the company and stated that un-  vwilling to concede the demand on this
ess the company acceded to their de-   point. As to the scale for piece work,
mands by noon of that day the em-   there appears to be no difference beployes would be called out on a strike.  tween the  company  and  the men
The company desired until Friday, the   worthy of serious controversy.
29th, to consider the matter, but the    In our view of this case it appears
only extension of time obtainable was  that the present situation is due to four
until 5 o'clock of the afternoon of the   circumstances, to-wit:  (1)  An  ex26th.                                  aggerated alarm  on the part of the
The company posted a notice calling   company as to the probable difficulties
attention to the agreements previously  that would follow recognition of the
entered into and claiming that it had   union; (2) a well founded belief-on the
not violated any part of the same. "We   part of the men that the company was
think we have fully complied with all  making an  effort to  break up the




4
union; (3) an insistence on the part  mon good and to attain a common end
of the men for a recognition of their  -has extended-to the industrial masses
union more strict than the company   to such an extent that the labor union
was willing to concede; and (4) a mis-  is now found in almost all trades and
understanding as to what constituted   occupations.  That men in these ora violation of the agreement entered   ganizations,  suddenly  clothed  with
into between the company and the men  large power, have  sometimes exerunder date of Oct. 23, 1901.           cised it unwisely, and that the men
Legal Rights Not Determined.       composin. the rank and file of the
organization  have  sometimes  acted
We are not called upon in this case   upon bad counsel, is undeniable. Yet
to determine legal rights or obliga-  this is far from proof that such ortions.  These are left to the courts,  ganizations are intrinsically bad. On
where they have  been  determinable  the other hand growing experience has
from time immemorial. The law creat-  shown them, when  judiciously coning this board expressly provides that   ducted, to be a powerful agency for
it shall have jurisdiction only where  good.  hv natever  evils  are  justly
there is a difference "not involving   chargeable to labor unions  may be
questions which may be the subject  traced to incompetent or unwise manof an action at law or bill in equity."  agement olr leadership.
While the rights prescribed by law       We fail to perceive any reason for
are superior to all others, and must  denying  to  workingmen  the  same
forever remain so in a free govern-   right to combine for their' mutual benmeait, yet there are certain obligations   efit and protection as is exercised with
due between emnployer and employe,  great freedom by their employers. The
and from both to the general public,  labor union is based upon the reconiquite distinct from  those defined by  tion of the potency  of organizatibn.
constitution and statute, and so gen-   Men have learned that in the great
erally recognized that the law  itself  industrial struggle the individual is
has taken cognizance of them. It is  but an atom. If he have a grievance,
for the adjudication of controversies   standing alone, he is powerless to rearising from  these  obligations that   dress it. In all respects he is at a
such tribunals as the state board of  decided disadvantage in his relations
arbitration have been erected. So far   with his employer. But when he has
as strictly legal rights are concerned,  the united co-operation of his fellowit will not be questioned that an em-   employes, he is supported by a power
ployer, unless bound otherwise by con-  that at least must command attentract, is at liberty to employ whoimso-  tion
ever he chooses, and that the workingmnan has the lilke liberty of working    We have but to glance back a cenfor whomsoever he chooses; and that  tury  to  perceive  the  phenomenal
the law does not, and cannot consis-   changes that have come in the relatently with the fundamental princi-  tions between employer and employe,
ples of civil liberty, undertake to say   and between individual citizens genwhether a man shall or shall not be-   erally.  Customs  deemed  wise and
long to a labor union,                 necessary then would be absurd and
intolerable now. So there have come
Yet it is impossible to ignore, and   changes in the laws. In former times
futile to try to check, the tendency of  the concerted action of workingmen
the age, in the commercial and indus-  in quitting the service of an employer
trial relations of men. It is distinc-   was adjudged a criminal conspiracy;
tively an age of co-operation-of the   but today the right of workingmen. to
achievement of results by concerted   strike is recognized by legislatures and
and harmonious action for the conm-   courts, and it is only when striking
mon good of all. We witness today   men resort to violnce or intimidation
combinations of capital of a magni-  that they incur the penalties of the
tude scarcely dreamed of so recently    a
as a quarter of a century ago. There
have been, in connection with some of     Company's Position Criticized.
these combinations, results that have    In  the case  under  consideration,
created widespread alarm. Yet, in the   while the Sattley Manufacturing comsober second thought of the nation, it  pany, as is admitted, had a perfect
is conceived that these combinations  legal right to employ whomsoever it
are a necessary part of  commercial  chose, we are of the opinion that theprogress; that the  evils  that have   company has assumed an unwise atarisen from them are of a purely in-  titude toward the Plow Workers' union.
cidental nature, and that ultimately   This company itself has recognized the
these will be minimized or completely   benefits to be derived from  cooperaeradicated by proper regulation.      tion, not only by taking a corporate
form for the conduct of its business,
Unions Nbt Necessarily Bad.       but by its membership, in the NorthSo, likewise, the  tendency toward   western Plow  Manufacturers'  assoco-operation-to organize for the com-   ciation.   This  association,  while




its  avowed  object  is purely  so-  of the company without three day's'
cial, has  endeavored  in  a  meas —  notice. As is almost invaribaly the
ure to fix the prices of the articles  case in controversies of this kind, posmanufactured by its   members by   sibly neither side  was wholly free
"recommending" price lists to be fol-  from fault.
lowed from  year to year. That the
association has gohe no farther than    MTe regard the present difficulty as
to "recommend" certain prices ap-   exceedingly unfortunate and a satispears to be due to the existence of  factory adjustment  of it an object
an anti-trust law; and the fact tha~t  much to be desired.  Many of the men
its "recommendations" have not been   now on strike had been in the employ
followed uniformly in nowise changes  of  the company from  the time the
the object sought to be accomplished   plant was founded twelve years ago.
Their relations with the company, prior
We make no criticism of the~ Sattley  to the present difficulty, had been harManufacturing company for its mem-  monious.   Some of them  had built
bership in the Plow  Manufacturers'  their own homes, and in general they
association. The object of the asso-  had become identified with the city
ciation, however it may be stated, is  in which they resided.
to secure, for its members some common advantage    e can perceive no    The employer owes it not only to
impropriety  in   conceding a similar  himself but to the community in general to promote permanency of emprivilege to the men employed by the   eral to promote permanency of e
Sattley Manufacturing company-the   ployment among his employes.   he
privilege of uniting themselves into  who builds a home, or entertains the
an organization  for their  common   hope of doing  so, is likely to be a subenefit and protection.               perior workman and a superior citizen. The man who feels that his emThe whole controversy in this case  ployment is permanent enjoys a sense
appears to hinge upon what is im-  of security for the future.  There is
plied by the term "recognition of the  then an incentive for him to possess a
union." It is in evidence that the ordi-  home, to accumulate his savings, and
nary meaning of this term is that only  to take an active and beneficial interunion men shall be employed; that if  est in the affairs of his community,
the company employs a man who does  his state  and  his country.  There
not belong to the union, and if he re-  should be an avoidance of all confuses to join the same, he shall be dis-  ditions which will tend to foster a
charged; that if any man is discharged   vast army of migratory men, without
by the company the union shall have  certain  employment, without home
the right to investigate the cause of  ties, and without a substantial interthe discharge, and, if found to be un-  est in citizenship. It is to the interjust, to insist upon the reinstatement  est of all to provide, in every way posof the man. The officers of the Sattley  sible, for the permanent employment
Manufacturing company were of the   of men. It is' for this reason that in
opinion that "recognition of the union"  the case under consideration we deem
in this sense involved such a surrender  the present relations between the Satof the management of their business  tley Manufacturing companw and its
that they could not conduct the same   old employes to be a misfortune to be
with satisfactory results.  They made  deplored by the entire community.
the argument that there is at present
no "union" plow factory in the United    Recommendations of the Board.
States, in the sense here set forth, and    As this is a case in which the board
that to "unionize" their own  shops  of arbitration has no power to render
would place them at a decided disad-  a decision that may  be enforced by
vantage with their competitors.       legal process, we make the following
recommendations, in' the hope that
Agreement Was Not Broken.        they will be acted upon by the parties
We shall not enter into a discus-  to this controversy and result in a setsion of the contract made between t    tlement thereof:
company and the men under date of    1. That the Sattley Manufacturing
Oct. 23. The company claims that it  company meet a committee of its old
was guilty of no violation of this con-  employes with a view of making an
tract, and this claim  appears to be  arrangement by which  employment
sustained by the   evidence; if any   may be provided for all or a part of
agreement was broken by the company  them, as may be found practicable.
it was a verbal one, and was not the    2. That the terms of re-employment
written contract above  referred to;  include "recognition of the union" by
but it is clear that the men were of  the Sattley Mlanufacturing company,
the opinion, and honestly so, that the  the precise meaning of this term  to
company had been guilty of bad faith,  be defined by written agreement; but
and that for this reason they were  that, in any event, the company shall
justified in ignoring their agreement  not deny to the men the iight to be
not to unite in a concerted demand for  members of the Plow Workers' union
higher wages, or to quit the service   and shall not discriminate against the




6
members of such union or endeavor to     We regard this case, in its present
persuade them to withdraw from the   status, as one requiring mutual consame.                                  cessions, and we urgently request the
3. That the terms of settlement be  reopening of negotiations between the
embodied in a contract covering  a   company and the men with a view to
specified period, and shall include an   effecting a settlement; and in this
agreement on the part of the corn-  connection  we hereby tender  such
pany not to discharge men, and on the   further service of this board, or of
part of the emloyes not to leave the  its individual members, as may be reservice of the comlpany  without a   quired to accomplish the end in view.
specified notice.
4. That said coutract provide that,    (Signed)
in case of future differences arising       Frederick W. Job, Chairman,
between the com'pany and the men, the       Chauncey B. Geiger
same shall be referred  to arbitration
without a strike or lockout-the ar-         Walter A. Mathis.
bitrators to be either the state board          State Board of Arbitration.
of arbitration  or persons  mutually
agreed upon.                            J; McCan Davis, Secretary.
~ — 61     3




PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS ON
LABOR ORGANIZATION.
A Paper read at the Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting of the American
Social Science Association at Saratoga, N. Y., Sept. 2, I891.
BY
SAMUEL M. HOTCHKISS,
COMMISSIONER OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.








PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS ON LABOR
ORGANIZATION.
BY SAMUEL -I. HOTCHKISS, OF HARTFORD, CONN.
The interests of capital and labor are not identical, but they
need not and should not conflict. Each is essential to the other,
and justly entitled to its fair share of the benefits which they
jointly produce. No plain law has yet been discovered for the settlement of this account, by which the scales of justice have been
made to balance. Nearly two thousand years ago a carpenter's
son proposed a plan which did not meet with much favor at the
time, but has since commanded some attention as applicable to
the settlement of such questions.  Unfortunately, its principles
have not been conspicuous in the treatment of this question by
either party.
The laborer has found that he cannot stand alone in the modern industrial struggle.  Mechanical invention and immigration
have encroached upon his opportunities for remunerative employment, till he has met the emergency in the only way open
to him. Labor organization is the natural and necessary outgrowth of conditions for the existence of which he is not responsible.
It aims to unite the mass of workers to maintain and advance their common interests. If this aim could be fully realized, the irresponsible use of the vast power of such organization
might prove a serious danger to society. This danger, however, is
not likely to be realized. The masses may be stirred to united
action to attain a specified end, like the movement for shorter
hours of labor, but experience has proved that they cannot be held
permanently together.  Only a small proportion is efficiently
organized. The permanent value of their organization will depend upon a just use of its power and the degree in which it is
made mutually beneficial to employer and employed.
The laboring men'knew what they wanted, but did not know the




2
best way to attain it. Their want of discrimination in the use of
unaccustomed power was one leading cause which brought labor
organization into public disrepute. Capital, which did not understand the reason for the movement, regarded it as a dangerous
impertinence, and was quick to take advantage of its mistakes to
array the forces of society against it. Employers made the great
mistake of fighting organization instead of assisting their workmen to distinguish and utilize the good, and avoid the evil involved in it. But recently there has been a most salutary change
in the treatment of this question by both sides.
The attitude of employers toward labor organization down to a
recent period, and the radical change which is taking place, is aptly
illustrated by the relations between the hat manufacturers and the
trades-unions in Danbury, Conn., which are among the oldest in the
State and country. The unions were organized in 850o, when the
manufacturers began a struggle to maintain their independence o6
the unions, which lasted for thirty-five years. During this whole
period strikes and shop calls were of daily occurrence, and often
paralyzed business. The labor cost of an order could not be
safely predicted, nor the time when it could be completed. Frequent periods of idleness subjected the working people and
tradesmen to serious inconvenience and loss.  Finally, the hat
manufacturers, tired of the wasteful struggle, proposed to the
unions that both parties cease hostilities and seek peaceful means
for the settlement of difficulties' without the interruption of business.
Upon a suggestion from the trades-unions, the manufacturers
organized the Manufacturers' Association, which entered into permanent agreements with each union, by which provision was made
for the adjustment of all questions, including wages, through committees, and, in case of disagreement, by arbitration. Non-uniQn
workmen were admitted to the unions, and all the factories submitted to union rules.
This common-sense action in Danbury, in i885, practically closed
the vexatious warfare which had prevailed for a whole generation.
For six years business has met with no interruption, except the
lockout in November, I89o, caused by the attempt of the Trimmers' Union to withdraw from the compact, which did not succeed,
and the principle was established that neither party can withdraw
from the compact without the consent of the other.
The vitality of the trade idea is illustrated by an incident which




3
occurred during this contest. The Trimmers' Union is composed
of women and girls to the number of seventeen or eighteen hundred. The Manufacturers' Association, fearing that the course of
the trimmers would endanger the trade agreements, decided to'destroy their union.  But, with all the combined power and influence which the seventeen wealthy corporations in the association
could bring to bear, their effort failed, and the ranks of the union
remained unbroken. Fortunately, the association and all of the
unions sustain the integrity of the trade agreement, and there is
no prospect of further disturbance.
It is interesting to note that the dissatisfaction of the trimmers
grew out of the introduction and use of machines and the principle
of subdivision of labor in trimming hats; and, further, that, while
members of the union were displaced, the innovations made it
possible for a union shop to make cheap grades of hats at a profit,
using high-priced union labor, in competition with non-union shops,
using low-priced non-union labor. It not infrequently happens
that loss in one direction, by reason of such changes, is partially
or wholly compensated by gain in another.
The experience of the last six years in Danbury clearly demonstrates that it is possible for capital and labor, by perfecting instead
of fighting organization, to maintain the just rights of both parties
and harmonize clashing interests without resort to force.
Fortunately, the prevailing assumption that organized labor has
no right to any voice in the adjustment of wages and other conditions, vitally affecting the laborer, that employers are bound to respect, is giving place to more just and reasonable views. The
superior advantages which wealth, education, and commanding
business and social relations confer on employers, should be used
to supplement the honest efforts of the less favored working class,
in seeking equitable adjustment of difficulties for the existence of
which neither is responsible, but which both must face.
The dissatisfaction, of the laboring man with his present limitatations is one of the hopeful signs of progress. The first President
Dwight, President of Yale College one hundred years ago, in referring to the indisposition of the Englishman of that day to attempt
to grow out of the condition in which he was born, said, " If an
Englishman is born to the wheel-barrow, he never will aspire to
the hand-cart."  In A.D. IIoo  a charcoal-burner named Purkess
found the dead body of William II., son of the Conqueror, who
had been shot with an arrow in the New Forest, and carried it




4
jolting in his rough cart to Winchester cathedral.  "Lineal descendants of this man are reported living in the same spot, who
have constantly been proprietors of a horse and cart, but never
attained to the possession of a team " (more than one beast).
They occupy the same rank to-day as their ancestor who furnished
rough transportation for the carcass of the second Norman king
eight hundred years ago.
The fact that the working people of America are stirred with
ambition for solid advancement in life is cause for profound satisfaction. Labor organizations have contributed largely to the
public good in this country and Europe, in awakening and fostering the manly ambition of the working people.
A large proportion of the members of the unions is from the less
intelligent classes of the working people. In many of the trades
intelligent mechanics who receive liberal wages do not feel personal need of organization and prefer to act independently.  Labor
organization suffers for want of the help of these men, whose
higher intelligence and wider experience would insure wiser and
more conservative leadership.  Most unions restrict membership to
actual workmen  This is probably wise; but unions suffer serious
loss by the promotion of their best men to positions of trust, which
disqualifies them for membership. It is a curious fact that in
these changed relations overseers and managers often become unfriendly to the system, and labor difficulties are sometimes aggravated by the jealousy of workmen of overseers and bosses promoted from the ranks.
The loyalty and unselfish fidelity of the members to the unions,
and their willingness to share their earnings with fellow-unionists,
can in almost all cases be implicitly relied upon, however great the
inconvenience may be to themselves and their families.
The Knights of Labor are entitled to the credit of organizing
and developing the principle of settling disputes by means of
friendly conference and arbitration.  It is a reasonable and comlmon-sense method, and should receive universal encouragement.
Owing to the complex character of the organization, the masses of
the working people prefer the simpler form adopted by the tradesunions, which they can easily understand.
While the unions were not, like the Knights of Labor, special
advocates for the peaceful settlement of difficulties by arbitration
and conciliation, the principle has now been practically adopted
by all organizations.




The enrolled membership of the unions is small compared with
the mass of the working people, but it has the advantage of organization. A dozen men thoroughly organized have greater efficiency
than hundreds or even thousands without it. While their mistakes
have been numerous, trade organizations, as a whole, have exerted
a powerful, progressive influence. All the State bureaus of labor
statistics and that of the United States were established through
their direct efforts. Imperfect as the organization is, it affords the
best and almost the only practical means for direct communication
with the laboring people. The work of the bureaus of labor statistics is greatly aided by this means of intercourse.  Ballot reform,
and especially the adoption of the official ballot, was strenuously
advocated by all labor organizations long before its importance
received public recognition; and it is through their direct efforts
that the system has been so extensively adopted. Their agitation
for this cause and for weekly payments, factory inspection, shorter
hours of labor, and other reforms, has met with marked success.
But their greatest efforts have been expended upon questions
affecting wages. In this field, which appeals directly to their most
pressing needs as well as to their selfish instincts, their intelligent
leaders have found the greatest difficulty in convincing the rank
and file that wages cannot be permanently increased on a falling
market, and that the organization which is designed to help the
laboring man to obtain justice can only be legitimately used, under
proper conditions, to secure a just advance or to prevent or retard
an improper decrease, and that permanent success can only come
to the union or to him personally from a course that will promote
the mutual good of employer and employed.
Extended observation justifies the belief that these views are
now generally held by union men. Many employers frankly say
that under such conditions the unions can be as beneficial to them
as to the workmen.  Numerous instances have recently been
reported in Connecticut in which employers have advised their
employees to organize, believing that it would result to their mutual
advantage.
An extensive builder and contractor recently said, referring to
the unions of carpenters, masons, bricklayers, hod-carriers, and
others connected with the building trades, that he had no objection to these organizations. He said that he saw no reason why
the laboring people had not as good a right to organize and to say
who should be admitted to their several trades, and to do what




6
they could to obtain liberal remuneration, as ministers, lawyers, and
doctors had to organize their societies and unions, and to say who
should be permitted to practise or officiate in their several professions; under what conditions their members should be permitted
to earn their daily bread, and to fix their fees for professional
services; or as business men had to combine to promote their in
terests. He said that the unions had never complained of his
discharge of men for cause.  He further said the average workmen
furnished by the unions were superior to the average under the old
system. Answers to inquiries of prominent builders in other cities
and towns in Connecticut were in substantial accord with those
referred to. Jevons says,* " All classes of society are trade union
ists at heart, but differ chiefly in the boldness, ability, and secrecy
with which they push their respective interests."
In connection with the foregoing opinions of builders and contractors, it is proper to note that there are others, especially among
the smaller contractors, who are restive under the new order of
things and who do not accept the situation willingly. But, so far
as these inquiries have extended, the opinion seemed to prevail
that, on the whole, in the building trades the unions are helpful to
both employer and employed.
Contractors say that they find little embarrassment on account
of any advance in the labor cost falling on the property owner by
reason of fewer hours of daily labor in the building trades. The
opposition to the unions, based on the theory that capitalists will
not build if remunerative wages are paid, seems to be hardly
justified by the facts. Capitalists who have been interviewed say
substantially that they are not only willing, but prefer, that labor
should be liberally paid.  Inquiry and observation in other manual trades and employments show  similar results, but varying
according to the conditions affecting each particular trade.
The question whether the union will be advantageous or otherwise to the contractor, and especially to the employees, depends
upon the intelligence, good judgment, and business qualifications
of the contractors and union officials. Either party wanting these
favorable conditions may make the relations of capitalists, contractors, and employees intolerable.  Experience seems to justify the
conclusion that the union admits of reciprocal relations which may
make it advantageous to both parties and to society.
The effectiveness of trade organization in mechanical industries
comes far short of that attained in the manual trades.  In all mana Preface to " State in Relation to Labor."




7
ufactories labor is struggling to find its proper adjustment in the
sweeping changes from manual to mechanical production. The
average intelligence required in the masses of working people employed in all factories becomes lower and lower as inventive
genius multiplies the means for mechanical production. Major
Bent, president of the Pennsylvania Steel Company, said in a
recent address, referring to their large works at Steelton, near
Harrisburg, Penn.:   W When that plant was started, the average
wages of our men was above four dollars per day.  Now the
average is about one dollar and seventy-five cents per day."
Numerous cases showing equally radical changes might be cited.
It is here that intelligent labor encounters its hardest conditions.
All the operatives in a given occupation may suddenly find their
occupation abolished. Continued production of a given article often
depends upon keeping the labor cost from advancing or forcing a
reduction. The employer is as much perplexed as the employee.
The demand of the union for increased wages is met with the assurance that the increase demanded would result in closing production, or in substituting mechanical means for accomplishing
the work now performed by human hands. Many of the large
manufacturers keep in their employ experts and inventors for the
purpose of reducing the labor cost of production by improving
their labor-saving machines. A single illustration is in point.
The manager of one of the largest manufactories of hardware in
Connecticut recently said that two years ago they were manufacturing an article at a cost of six dollars and fifty cents per dozen,
which involved the labor of fifty-seven men. They were able to
sell the article at a profit of fifty cents per dozen. A competing
establishment was manufacturing the same article, but at a cost
which gave the first the advantage in the market. A committee of
the union called upon the manager and urged an increase of
wages. He showed them the facts as stated, and that the proposed
advance would give the trade to the competing firm. He further
informed them that, if the labor cost was increased, it would compel
them to do most of the work by machinery. The demand was
pressed, and the advance granted. The result was that in a few
months machinery was built by the aid of which seven men produced more goods than had been produced by the fifty-seven
formerly employed, at a cost of only three dollars and fifty cents
per dozen. Of course, the result displaced fifty of the men employed in the manufacture of that one article. Numerous similar




incidents might be cited in other lines of manufacture. The
radical changes in. methods of production in all mechanical industries render any permanent solution of the intricate problem in
these lines extremely difficult, if not impossible.
It is true, however, that there are mechanical industries, limited
in their extent, in which labor organization meets reasonable success in influencing the conditions of labor.
In one of these, having but seven manufactories in the whole
country, only skilled operatives trained to that work can be profitably employed. The limited number of operatives are closely
organized in unions which have succeeded in securing remunerative wages. The occupations are similar to those in another line of
industry requiring a similar grade of skill, which employs thousands
of operatives who are not efficiently organized. The lowest wages
paid in the organized industry are two dollars per day. Nearly all,
however, earn from three to three and a half dollars per day, and
in some cases four and four and a half dollars; while operatives of
the same grade in the other line receive wages varying from ninety
cents to one dollar and a quarter, and in rare instances one dollar and a half per day. The proportion who receive as much as
one dollar and a quarter per day is small.
But for the close organization of the skilled operatives in the
limited industry, by means of which apprenticeship and admission
to their unions are limited and controlled, equally skilled operatives
in the similar line would immediately become competitors for their
places, and wages would fall to the lower scale. In maintaining
liberal compensation, this union does no wrong to the manufacturers, since all are subject to the same conditions, and the difference in the increased labor cost of goods to the consumer is
infinitesimal.
It would be a public benefit if the thousands engaged in the
similar occupations referred to could secure to themselves like remunerative wages instead of the present beggarly income of ninety
cents to one dollar and a quarter per day, which necessitates the
employment of wife and children in the mills in order to secure a
daily income equal to that of the father alone in the other similar
employment; while the public who consume the goods, notwithstanding the modern craze for the bargain counter, would willingly
pay the increased labor cost in the purchasing price of the goods.
In some trades the efficiency of local unions is supplemented by
the action of those in other places whose members use the prod



ucts of the former's labor. This is illustrated by the case of the
local unions of quarrymen, and the unions of stone masons, stone
cutters, and carmen who use or handle the quarry products. The
local unions of quarrymen were materially assisted in their strikes
for shorter hours with increased pay by the refusal of unions to
use or handle their products for building or other purposes in
New York and other large markets till their demands were complied with, which seriously embarrassed, and in some instances
stopped, the business of the quarry companies.
Many of the most intelligent workmen believe that the agitation
of the movement for shorter hours of labor will prove to be the
most effective agent for the equitable adjustment of the general
labor problem. It is the leading question in all of the labor organizations to-day.
The absurd theory that a man can perform as much work in
eight hours as he can in ten is not held by the working people.
They believe that, if the hours of labor are reduced 20 per cent.,
it will require a corresponding increase of laborers to perform a
given amount of labor in a given time. They further believe that,
if the percentage of decrease in the hours of labor is greater than
the percentage of the unemployed, there will necessarily be appreciation in wages.
The agitation for shorter hours has awakened general public
sympathy for the movement.  Intelligent employers say that the
objections are not to the change itself, but to the practical difficulties which must be encountered in bringing it about in important lines of mechanical industries where it will meet its gravest
difficulties. But the movement has met with practical success in
the building and some other manual trades, and indications favor
its general success.
Wages under an eight or nine hour day will be adjusted on precisely the same principles which control under a ten-hour day, and
should be treated as an independent question. If combined with
the movement for shorter hours, it will be sure to give the impression that the object of the latter is merely to increase wages.
The use of the strike, boycott, lockout,'and black list, has fallen
into disrepute, but is by no means obsolete. Of these objectionable expedients, the black list is the least excusable and the most
unpopular. It is a system of terrorism borrowed from the dark
ages, and is utterly unworthy of the otherwise honorable men who
still permit its use. No employer is willing to admit that it has




to
ever been employed in his establishment, and yet in disguised and
hidden forms it prevails wherever there is an attempt to enforce
the requirements of organized labor.  It prevails to the greatest
extent in places where organization is most effective.
It is a serious fact that officers of unions and members of committees who are conspicuous in maintaining contested union interests are very likely to find themselves practically blacklisted.
Discharge is never attributed to this cause, and frequently does
not immediately follow the offence; but sooner or later some plausible excuse, like " dull times," is utilized to drop the objectionable
hand, who will be refused work in other factories.  Many cases
might be cited in proof of these statements. Some skilled hands
are received back after a limited period of enforced idleness.
Tradesmen and professional men often decline to serve as arbitrators, because they are afraid that connection with sharply contested arbitration might injure their business by incurring tlIo
displeasure of one side or the other.
In Danbury one leading hat firm declined to join the Manufacturers' Association, but complied with the union rules. - Their
factory forms an asylum for men and women who have been practically blacklisted in the other shops. They are among the best
workmen and women in the trades. It is invaluable to the unions,
because it enables them to draw the ablest unionists for officers
and members of committees from this shop's crew, as it is termed,
all of whom are beyond the reach of the dreaded blacklist.
The danger to employees in forming unions and taking positions
as officers and members of committees is still real, and is encountered in almost all lines of industry.
In mercantile lines agreements are made between employers
that they will not employ a man or woman discharged by another
employer in their line, or who leaves such employer without his
recommendation for honesty and efficiency.  It would be difficult
to find recorded evidence of such agreement; but numerous cases
could be cited which prove the existence of this form of practical
blacklisting.  The fact remains that in mercantile as well as
mechanical pursuits the practice prevails to an extent bordering
on conspiracy.
The laboring people, as a rule, have small confidence in the
efficacy of profit-sharing and similar plans for securing to them
their share of the products of their labor. Nearly all prefer the
plan of fixed wages, which are not subject to contingencies and




II
conditions with which they are wholly unfamiliar. The system
works smoothly when there are profits to be distributed; but, when
the frequent intervals of depression occur, and there are no
profits, the question of fair dealing in the manipulation of the
accounts is almost sure to be raised. Even if the workmen were
admitted to an inspection of the books, it would be of little practical service, because they are not familiar with methods of bookkeeping and the principles of business management. In Connecticut at least they believe that the practical effect of all such
schemes is to reduce wages sufficiently to discount all receipts
from so-called profit-sharing. They have a shrewd suspicion that
in some way the dividend to the employee is provided for to the
profit of his generous employer.
An interesting experiment under the name of Gain-sharing
attempts to obviate this objection to the profit-sharing plan.
Here, too, the advantage to labor is challenged by the laborers, because the accounts are all kept by the employers, for which service
they appropriate one-half of the gains, if any there be. They control the wages of their men, and many of the employees believe that
in practical operation the depreciation in wages will in some way
more than balance their half of the gains. It is evident that the
success of any of these plans for profit-sharing presupposes a
degree of intelligence in the average workingmen and of their
confidence in employers which has not yet been attained.
The revolution in public thought and sympathy on the subject
of labor organization during the last five years is remarkable.
When the observations upon which these remarks are based
began five years ago, reasonable and intelligent men among the
organized laboring people, in referring to their efforts for labor
reform, used the following truthful language: 
"We are not understood by the public, our actions are misrepresented, and our motives are misjudged; we have never had
opportunity to lay before the public a fair expression of our ideas
on the labor question; our papers published in the interest of labor
reform are only read by a few of the laboring people; the public
press will not exchange with our papers or copy articles which
fairly represent our views. In reporting our meetings, they only
ridicule us for our failures and mistakes. The public is ignorant
of the merits of our cause, and we are condemned without a
hearing."
To-day the secular and religious newspapers freely open their




I2
columns to the broadest discussion of the interests of labor and
labor organization, and fully and fairly report all of their meetings
in their news columns. In magazines and innumerable other publications, in the pulpit and on the platform, the subject is treated
and discussed by the ablest minds in professional and business life.
Study of its practical features has a large place in the departments of political and social science in all of our schools and colleges, under professors and teachers who are almost to a man
radical in their ideas of industrial progress and reform. Social
science and economic associations provide for open discussion of
the subject, in which representatives of the workingmen and their
societies are invited to give free expression to their views and
participate in the discussions.
While the greatest efforts of labor organizations have been expended upon questions affecting wages, it is doubtful whether the
advantages reaped by the laboring people from their contests with
capital at all compare with the results of their efficient educational
and benevolent work, and their efforts for the establishment of
bureaus of labor statistics, ballot reform, weekly payments, factory
inspection, shorter hours of labor, and other reforms of lasting
value to society.
The contest between capital and labor is by no means ended,
but the time must come when each will have learned that its interests can in no way be served by hostile relations. Improved
conditions will not come through sudden revolution, but through
the slower process of evolution.  That passion and prejudice have
blinded and warped the better judgment of both sides in such a
sharply contested field is not strange. Selfish cupidity will continue to retard, but cannot stop, progress. The best interests of
society are inextricably involved in the contest. Legal enactment
may be helpful in attaining special ends, but public opinion is the
court of final appeal. No organization of capital or labor can long
maintain itself in opposition to an enlightened public sentiment.
Once make the facts in the case clearly evident, and the final public
verdict will demand justice.
It is the privilege and the duty of labor organizations to give to
the public full and authentic statistics relating to this subject.  In
such educational work lies their highest and most effective usefulness.




HOURS OF LABOR.
Manufacture of Coarse and Fine
Cotton Goods.
HALF-TRUTHS are as great source of error as untruths,
and sometimes give rise to errors which are of the most persistent class. One of these half-truths which is now pressed
into the service of the labor agitators is that the North, and
particularly Massachusetts, enjoys climatic advantages over
the South for spinning cotton. The point is made that the
South cannot contend with us in spinning fine yarns, because
that industry cannot be. carried on in the South without creating artificial moisture in the mills. It is impossible for
those who are advocating a forcible reduction of the hours
of labor to deny, and in fact they do not deny, that the situation of Southern spinners with reference to the supply of raw
material gives them  an advantage over northern manufacturers; nor can it be disputed that the advantage is increased
by the low price of labor in that part of the country, and by
the absence of laws limiting the hours of labor.
But it is urged, these Southern spinners are restricted by
the inexorable laws of nature to the production of coalse
goods. They are prohibited by their climate from making
the finer qualities, unless they will go to the expense of creating artificial humidity in their mills. Here, then, is the
opportunity of Massachusetts to improve the quality of her
goods and to take a market in which she can have no Amercan rival.




This sounds plausible, and it is surely calculated to tickle
the vanity of a Massachusetts man. To one who knows-but
little about the cotton manufacturing industry, it may seem
like a proposition to abandon crude things and devote our
attention to the production of articles more in keeping with
Massachusetts "culture."
The aspect changes when it is explained that on the one
hand the assertions upon which the suggestion is based are
only half true; and that on the other hand they would be of
little or no consequence if they were wholly true.
The facts regarding the advantages and disadvantages
depending upon difference in climate, are simply these:
There is no part of the United States where fine yarns, tee.hnically known as such, can be spun without the use of artificial moisture; there is no part of the country where coarse
yarns and the coarser medium yarns cannot be spun in the
natural atmosphere of a mill. The climate of Southern
Massachusetts-but of Rhode Island and Connecticut as
well-is such that rather finer yarns can be spun successfully
in the natural atmosphere than in the South. That is all
there is in this suggestion.
Now what are "coarse" and what are "fine" goods? and
what is the relative market for each?  A cloth made of No.
32 warp and No. 36 filling is technically known as coarse
goods. It is cloth made of yarn that can be spun as well in
the South as in the North without any artificial moisture. It
is of such, or of coarser cloth, that the shirt upon your back
and the sheet upon your bed are made. It is of coarse spun
yarn that the standard print cloths are woven, which afterwards become calicos and prints. It is from such yarn that
most of the ginghams are made, and by far the largest part
of ladies' underwear.
In short, fully nine-tenths of all the cotton cloth consumed
in the country, and not only that, but nine-tenths of all that
would be consumed, if purchasers had their choice between




fine and coarse goods at the same price, is cloth known to
the trade as coarse, and, as has been said, cloth that may be
made in the South on absolutely equal terms so far as atmospheric humidity is concerned.
Another point may be mentioned which seems to have
been overlooked. Manufacturers are now turning their attention more and more to the weaving of goods for exportation. An arrangement has lately been concluded, as every
one knows, which is expected to give access-for our domestic
cotton goods into Brazil. It is expected that the policy that
brought about this arrangement will be successful in opening
other markets to these goods. And what grade of cotton
cloth, is it supposed, will be exported to the Latin-American
peoples, if a trade with them  should be created?  Coarse
goo(ds, surely. The export trade to China is already far
more extensive than people generally suppose; for the
largest part of our exportation of domestics is shipped overland through Canada and Vancouver, and does not appear
at all in the general statistics of trade. Every yard of the
goods so exported is coarse spinning. Do those who advocate a change in the labor laws think it is of no consequence
that the legislation they propose may - should their suggestion to spin finer goods be adopted — force Massachusetts
mills to abandon all hope of a share in the export trade?
How far would a monopoly of the market for cloth for baby
clothes go, as compensation for the loss of the market for
nine-tenths of the domestic consumption and the whole
foreign market?
But even if the market proposed as an alternative for that
in which we now have a footing, were larger than it is, it
could not be occupied except at a large expenditure for new
plant. A factory cannot shut down on Saturday night after
running on yarn of a certain fineness and start up on Monday morning on yarn of a different number. Increased
fineness in goods produced means'more machinery as well




as different machinery.  To adjust mules and  spinning
frames to the spinning of cotton of a particular number is a
work requiring time and care. Of course it is not worth
while to dwell on this point, after it has been shown that the
suggestion under consideration is worthless.  For when it is
true that a quarter of the present spindle capacity of Massachusetts alone is equal to the production of all the fine goods
for which there is a demand, it is idle to think of changing
the machinery in use until it is suggested what shall be done
with the three-quarters of the spindles which must be stopped
in any event, if Massachusetts is to abandon the production
of coarse goods.
The truth is there is a total absence of reasonableness in
the suggestion that manufacturers can do better than to follow the policy that has heretofore guided them,- a policy of
endeavoring to find out what the public demands and to
supply that want. It comes in the guise of a proposition for
the benefit of manufacturers. It is really a suggestion that
they go out of business altogether.




WCURIASN ti  WAGES-DECREASE IN HOURS -OF LABOR.'
The last report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the State of'New Yrk, JusS
tssued, shows that the hours of labor have been decreased in more than 2,000 factories
In that State in one year, and that the wages of labor have been advanced in — more
than 1,900 cases against 441 In which they have been reduced.-Speeca of Hon. J. P.
iolliver, of Iowa, in H. R., Mfarch 29, 1892.
LABO R STRIKE$
]Disturbance of lLabor —Hostile and- Inimical lelations between EEmployer
and Employee since Passage of MXctinley Tariff Act.
Among the many remarkable statements made. by the Senator from
Missouri in his speech of June 28, I find the following:
I am prepared to show by irrefutable testimony that never in the history of thla
country has there been such disturbance of labor, never such hostile and inimical
relations between employer and employee, never such prostration of agricultural Interests, never such a i-miting and narrowing of foreign markets, never such disaster.
brought about in so shorta time, as by this infamous legislation.
It will be noticed that this sentence contains three distinct charges in
regard to the operations of the act of 189'0, and these I prop6se to take-tip
seriatim. The first of these is that there had never been such disturbance
in Jabor, never such hostile relations between employer and employee, as
were brought about by the act referred to. In support of this allegation
the Senator submitted and had printed in the "Record" a long list of
alleged " wage reductions, shut-downs, lock-outs, anrd strikes in protected
manufactures which had taken place since the "passage of the McKinley
bill from data collected by Hion. Joun DaE WiTT WARNxru for the New York
World."  This list covers the time between December 4, 1890, and Juna
18, 1892, a period of eighteen months.
The statement shows that during this period seventy-seven strikes
occurred in the United States.  If we assume that these figures are accurate, and it will be seen from an examination of the other papers furnished
by the same gentleman that he has a decided tendency to overstate in his
statistics, it may be profitable to make a comparison between the number of strikes occurring:as alleged since the passage of the act of 1890, and
in the years which preceded it.
Many of the items in the list of strikes and reductions are inserted
several times, apparently in order to swell the number.-Speecl of Ho%`Y. W. Aldrich, oftI. IL, is U. S. Senate, Jul4y 26, 1892.
Statistics of Strikes in United States Prior to 1890 —Ten Times.as Matn
Strikes in 1890 as Reported in Senator Vest's Statistics for Eighitee
M'onths — umber of Employees involved.
Having this comparison  in mind, I requested the ComniAssioncr of
Labori to fnrwislg me with statistics of strik.s in this countrvy for the ycara




prior to 1890, and, if possible, to give me comparative s.ta'istics of strikes'whicih have taken place itn Great Britain within the period covered by his
American st:ttistics.
In answer to this request I have received the following table, showing
the number of strikes and the number of employees involved in each year,
froin 1880 to 1890, inclusive, in tthe United States:
Employees
~YEA~n~rSr.          I~Ntmber           Striking
and
Strikes.
Involved.
1880                            *                     X...............  * * e @ ** * * *   610.......
181..................,...........................       471         129,521
j1882                                                                                  454  154,671
1883:***- ~~.e*..      ~. r;.~....~rr ~~rr-r~~.           478         149,763
1881 Z         *.**w         oe^**         ~**ew@X         @he^w;**...............  443.  147,054...............................................  1,411        499,489
1888 1............................................           6-7         t11,016
1889......3                                                   rsf,a8
i890.,....................................       798         201,662
It will be noticed that the nnlmber of strikes in this country varied
from433 in 1884 to 1,411 in 1880; tile average number of each year for
thle wliole period being 625.  Theitnumber reported in 1890 is 798, being
more tlha  teln t  tines as many in this single year as reported by AM-i. WAR.r
usn  for the ei h!ccen mon tlis covered by his statistics. -bid.
Strilncs in lI'crat  rltain, the I'aradlise of Tariff leformers —Great Durham
Strikii  in lgL ih,xnde:-I'cmarkable Freedom  from   Striikes anmd  Labor
WTroubles in this Coultry since Passage of M1lelinley Act-No Rleductilol
of'5ra;ges-'ltV.    e Erasnings Exceptionally high-Wages of Bar Rollers ii
Fittstljburg.lills i15.5.    Per Day, etc.
Available stlatistics show  that in Great Britain, the paradise of tariff
reformners, 3,164 strikes occurred *in 1889.  The British Board of, Trtde
officially report 1,028 strikes in 1890, withl 392,981 persons involved in 738
of tlhese.
It will be seemn by a comnparison of the relative number and importance
of strikes in the United 8tateds and in (Great Britain for the year 1890 that
the number was much' greater in the lastter country, and that the number
of persons involved was more than t!lree times as great in proportion to
the ulimber of persons engaged in ulseful occupations in the respective
Countries.
In the recent strike in  Durham (English) district 100,000 coal miners
sent out, and remained idle from Maxrch 12 to June 1, when they accepted
a reduction of 10 per cent. in wages.  This strike involved the closing
down of one hundred blast furnaces in addition to the suspension of min.
ing operations.
The statistics submitted  by the Senator from  MIissouri confirm  in a
striking manner the judgment of every intelligent observer, that there has
been a remarkable freedom froim strikes and labor troubles in this countriV




elnee the passage of the Tariff Act of 1890. It can ne mal Vrn at no time
in the history of the country has labor been so constantly and profitably
employed, and at such  satisfactory wages, as in the period referred to.'o person in the United States, with the capacity and willingness te
work, is out of employment.
It is true that a reduction of wages has taken place in a limited number of establishments producing iron and steel; but the fact should not
be overlooked that, even with this reduction, the average wages are still
much higher than in any of the other great industries. The earnings in
some departments are exceptionally high; for instance, the average net
earnings of bar rollers in all the Pittsburg mills is $15.25 per day, and the
net earnings in wire rod rolling are even higher than this.
1MRn. WARNERT'S table contains several items in regard to reductions in
wages said to have been made in the Rhode Island and Fall River cotton
mills, in November, 1890, and in 1891. I can say, on the authority of tha
representatives of the mills in question, that these statements are entirely
untrue, and that no such reductions took place.
From such examination as I have been able to make, I can say that
the various statements in regard to the reductions of wages in cotton mills
are equally untrue i.-lbid.
Strikes no Connection -with Tariff-Immemorial Contest between Capital
and Labor-Streets of Free-Trade London Resound with Tramp of Thou.
sands of Strikers against Reduction of Wages —Strikers' Curses ]Loud
and Deep-400,OO0  linne Workers, in Free-Trade England, out on r
Strike.
A few days ago the p ro tempore leader of the House on that side, with
a disingenuousness unworthy of him, inveighed against the protective sys.
tem because certain coal-miners in Alabama, certain iron-workers in Penn.
sylvania, had struck for higher wages. He knows that the tariff had no con.
Siection with these strikes. He knows that in all climes, at all times, since
man first looked into the eye of his fellow, capital and labor have been
engaged in contests which a Christian civilization has lessened in number
and reduced in- bitterness, but has not yet learned to prevent. He knows
that not long since the streets of free-trade London resounded to the
tramp of marching thousands, strikers, not for an advance, but against a
reduction of wages. Men, and women too, who in Trafalgar Square, in
presence of the bronze figure of England's great captain on the seas, in
curses loud and deep denounced the policy that on lund made beggars of
her own. He knows that to-day four hundred thousand mine-workers in
free-trade England, out on a strike, have laid their paralyzing hand on
England's trade.
And if the gentleman from Tennessee, appealing ti an assembly such
as this, not to reason, but to passion and prejudice, is enamoured of this
subject of strikes, let me commend him to the recent history of his own
state, where freemen-mine-workers-were turned out to the winter's
blast, hungry and workless, by convicts put in their places to sate the
greed of Democratic mine-owners. That strike, like all the others, bore no
relation to the tariff, nor did the tariff bear any relation to it. Man's
avarice on one side or on the other accounts for them all, tariff or un
Sri,. —&.veea Qafon. John lDalzell. of Pa.. in if. A4,m    g I~!29




AtOr8s roUMnoU 1in Amierica letter:thian Anywhere Else in the tvorra.n
In the issue-of the American Economist of January 29, 1892, I find an
article upon "American Wages."  It is brief and;to the point, and I quote
from  it with the statement that the figures:given are shown by every
official and unprejudiced:unofficial statement on the subject to be correct:
Our import duties are laid with a view to covering the difference in cost of production here and abroad.
Labor cost, or wages, constitute fully 90 per cent of this coSt of production.
consequently our workmen receive nearly all the benefit derived from protection.
It lsconceded by all that American wages are from 6O to 150 per cent higher than,
In England, and from 100 to 1,000 per cent greater than in other countries.
Tbhxemerican farm laborer gets on an average $20 a month and found, while th4
English farm laborer gets but $8,
The American Iron-workers get $5.50 per ton for puddling, while the Englishman
gets but $2.
The American,potter gets three times as much for the same work as the English
workman.
Our textile workers earn from two to three times as much as the textile workers
In-England.
And -so we might go through every trade and occupation, skilled and unskilled,
and we would find that a day's labor in the-United States is worth doublej and more,
the same work in England. This Is equally true whether paid by time or piece.
Not only do our workmen receive much better wages than the laborers abroad, but
they receive more than our own laborers did half a century ago, when we had a freetrade tariff,
In fact, as Mabor Commissioner Carroll D. Wright has just said: " The condition
of the wage workers of the United States, viewed in all respects, Is oetter now than at
any previous period in our history.'"
Not only are wages higher, but the cost of living has not Increased. There has,
moreover, been a general decrease in the hours of labor, all of which tends to:better
the conditionof the Amerlcan wage earner in every way.-S- cech of I-Zon, J. A. Dolth,
f Ore.. in U. S. SeZae. iMarch d,11. 18S9




Ah tL okat
THiE
LAW RELATING
To
LABOUR UNIONS
As regards their Legal Liabilities in connection
with Picketing, Coercion, and Intimidation; the
Right to Sue and be Sued, and the Consequent
Liability of their Funds;
AS LAID DOWN BY RECENT JUDGMENTS.
Price Sixpence.
ISSUED BY THE
EMPLOYERS' PARLIAMENTARY COUNCIL,
7, VICTORIA STREET, WESTMINSTER.
1 90




CONTENTS.
THE LAW RELATING TO LABOUR UNIONS.
PAGE
Allen v. Flood..         ~   3
Quinn v. Leathem...                              4
Lyons v. Wilkins                                           6
Taff Vale Railway Company v. Amalgamated Society
of Railway Servants.                                 8
Some Points for Employers.....  II
The Results in Brief:
Coercion and Intimidation.. 
Picketing........  I3
Labour Union Liability....        I3
Appendix:
Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act I875,.
Section 7........ 
Local Bye-Laws                                     14..   4
Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1892, Section 38I.  15




THE
LAW RELATING TO LABOUR UNIONS.
ALLEN v. FLOOD.
THE following summary, taken from  the Morning Post, December
I5th, 1897, gives the facts in this first of the important series of labourunion test cases. The case was originally known as Flood and Taylor
v. Allen:" nMessrs. Flood and Taylor were working shipwrights duly qualified
in their trade. They were engaged in April, I894, by the foreman of
the Glengall Iron Company (Limited) to work at repairs on the ship
Stia  Weller. At some previous period of their careers these two men
had worked at iron work on an iron ship. The Boilermakers' Union
holds that shipwrights ought not to work at iron work on an iron ship,
and that such work ought to be reserved exclusively for boilermakers,
members of their union. Accordingly Mr. Allen, a delegate of the
Boilermakers' Union, went to see the managing-director of the Glengall
Iron Company, and gave him to understand that, unless Flood and
Taylor were discharged, all the members of the union then in the
Company's service would cease work. The Company employed far
more boilermakers than shipwrights, and the two shipwrights to whom
exception was taken were discharged. There was no contract between
them and the Company; theirs was merely a day-to-day engagement,
but, in the ordinary practice, they would not have been discharged,
except for misconduct, until the repairs on which they were employed
had been finished. There appears to have been no secrecy about
Allen's communication to the Company, and no doubt that the
discharge of the two shipwrights was occasioned by it. The two shipwrights thought that Allen by that communication had injured them,
and that the law of England would give them redress, so they brought
an action against him. The action was tried before Mr. Justice
Kennedy, and the jury thought they had been injured and ought to
have redress to the extent of ~20  apiece. Allen appealed. The




4          THIE LAW RELATING TO LABOUR UNIONS.
Court of Appeal [consisting of the Master of the Rolls (Lord Esher),
Lords Justices Lopes (afterwards Lord Ludlow) and Rigby] held
that he had done wrong, and that he ought to pay the -40.  Allen
then appealed to the House of Lords, which called to its aid no less
than eight judges, six of whom [viz., Justices Hawkins (now Lord
Brampton), Cave, Wills, Grantham, Lawrance, and North] agreed
with Mr. Justice Kennedy, the jury, and the Court of Appeal, while
two [Justices Mathew and Wright] thought that he had acted within
his legal rights. Yesterday the Judicial'Peers gave their judgments;
three of them [viz., Lords Ashbourne and Morris and the Lord Chancellor (Lord Halsbury)] agreed with the Lower Courts, but six of them
[Lords Herschell, Watson, Macnaghten, Davey, Shand, and James] held
that Allen had acted within his rights. Accordingly the decision of the
House of Lords is that Allen w-is within his rights, and that Flood and
Taylor have no legal ground for complaint, and must pay the costs of
the three trials."
It would appear from the recent decision in Quinn v. Leathem that
the importance of Allen v. Flood has been much exaggerated, and that
it does not go to anything like the extent generally supposed.
According to the judgment of Lord Lindley. in Quinn v. Leathem,
Allen v. Flood establishes two propositions.  "The first and important
proposition is that an act otherwise lawful, although harmful, does not
become actionable by being done maliciously, in the sense of proceeding from a bad motive and with intent to harm or annoy another........The second proposition is that what Allen did infringed no right
of the plaintiffs, even although he acted maliciously and with a view to
injure them...... Truly, to inform a person that others, not under the
control.of tAe izfornmant, will annoy or injure him unless he acts in a
particular way cannot of itself be actionable, whatever the motive or
intention of the informant might have been."  It will thus be seen that
the element of threat is entirely eliminated from Allen's proceedings,
and the proposition for Xwhich the case has usually been quoted falls fo
the ground. The question is further dealt with later.
QUINNT. LEATHEM.
The original action (under the name of Leathem v. Craig) out of'which this appeal to the House of Lords arose was tried before Lord




THE LAW RELATING TO LABOUR UNIONS.                5
Justice FitzGibbon at the Belfast Assizes in July, I896. Leathem, the
plaintiff, was a butcher at Lisburn, near Belfast, and he had in his
employment one, Robert Dickie, who had been with him for ten years.
Leathem had been in the habit of sending meat to the value of
about ~30o a week to a butcher in Belfast named Andrew Munce.
Craig and the other defendants formed themselves into a duly-registered
trade union under the title of "The Belfast Journeymen Butchers
Assistants' Association," and shortly afterwards demanded that the
plaintiff should dismiss Dickie from his service, which he refused to do.
As he was threatened with various unpleasant consequences by the
union, the plaintiff had an interview with Craig and other leading
members, and offered that, if they would accept his men as members,
he would pay whatever fines and demands the union might have against
them. The union refused this offer, and insisted that the men should
be put out to walk the streets for twelve months as punishment. The
plaintiff refused to yield, and, in consequence, pressure was brought to
bear upon his servants to leave' him, and upon Munce to discontinue
taking meat from him. The trade union also issued " black lists"
upon which were the names of Leathem and other butchers who had
offended against the society's rules.  The plaintiff alleged that this
course of conduct constituted a legal wrong for which he was entitled to
recover damages, and in the result the jury awarded him /f25o, for
which amount and costs judgment was entered.  The defendants
subsequently moved that judgment should be entered for them or a
new trial ordered. The arguments were heard in the Queen's Bench
Division in Ireland before Lord Chief Justice O'Brien, Chief Baron
Palles, and Justices O'Brien and Andrews, and on November 22nd,
I898, after waiting for the decision in Allen v. Flood, the Court.(Chief
Baron Palles dissenting) refused the motion. The defendants appealed
to the Court of Appeal in Ireland, and on May 2nd, I89), the appeal
was dismissed, the Court consisting of the Lord Chancellor of Ireland
(Lord Ashbourne), the Master of the Rolls (Right Hon. A. M. Porter),
and Lords Justices Walker and Holmes. The defendants finally took
the case to the House of Lords, and the original verdict has been
unanimously upheld by the judgments delivered on August 5th, 90oI,
by the Lord Chancellor (Lord Halsbury) and Lords Macnaghten, Shand,
Brampton, Robertson, and Lindley, who thereby affirmed the decision
of the Court of Appeal in Ireland, and dismissed the appeal, with costs.
The argument of the appellant assumed that Allen v. Flood had




6          TIHE LAW RELATING TO LABOUR UNIONS.
decided that the threats alleged to have been used by Allen were
lawful, and it was argued that the threats in this case were of the
same nature, and that the only possible distinction between the two
cases was that the jury negatived conspiracy in Allen's case, and
affirmed it in the case of Quinn and those who acted with him. It
seems clear, however, from the judgment that the Lords do not admit
the legality of threats to bring about a strike or lock-out, and that they
consider that the threats alleged to have been uttered by Allen, but
not proved, would have been just as actionable as the threats in this
case, and equally so whether there was a conspiracy or not. A few
extracts will make this clear. The Lord Chancellor said: " Now the
hypothesis of fact upon which Allen v. Flood was decided by a majority
in this House was that the defendant there neither uttered nor carried
into effect any threat at all. He simply warned the plaintiffs' employer
of what the men themselves, without his persuasion or infuence, had
determined to do." The following passage from the able judgment of
Lord Lindley deals with the two questions'of conspiracy and threats:' It was contended at the Bar that, if what was done in this case had
been done by one person only, his conduct would not have been
actionable, and that the fact that what was done was effected by many
acting in concert makes no difference. My Lords, one man without
others behind him who would obey his orders could not have done
what these defendants did.  One man, exercising the same control
upon others as these defendants had, could have acted as they did;
and, if he had done so, I conceive that he would have committed a
wrong towards the plaintiff, for which the plaintiff could have maintained
an action. I am aware that in Allen v. Flood Lord Herschell expressed
his opinion to be that it was immaterial whether Alien said he would
call the men out or not...... If Lord Herschell meant to say that as a
matter of law there is no difference between giving information that
men will strike and making them strike, or threatening to make them
strike, by calling them out when they do not want to strike, I am unable
to concur with him."
LYONS v. WILKINS.
The case of Lyons v. Wilkins was decided on February 3rd, 1898,
by Mlr. Justice Byrne in the Chancery Division of the High Court of
Justice. The plaintiffs, who are wholesale leather bag manufacturers,
sought an injunction to restrain the secretary of the Amalgamated
Society of Fancy Leather Workers, and others, from watching their




THE LAW RELATING TO LABOUR UNIONS.                 7
premises, and persuading persons not to work for them. They also
sued to restrain the publication of a libel in two letters written by the
secretary to the fathers of youths in their employ, pointing out the
" gross unfairness of their sons working for a starvation wage of twelve
shillings a week," when they might be earning twenty-eight.  Mr.
Justice Byrne decided both issues in favour of the plaintiffs. He held
that watching and besetting of their premises had been clearly proved
at the trial, and made perpetual the interlocutory injunction which had
been granted by Mr. Justice North in February, I896. As regards the
letters, an injunction was not pressed for, as the strike was over. But
the Judge distinctly held that they constituted an actionable wrong,
and awarded the plaintiffs damages, which he limited, however, to five
pounds, in view of the fact that the libels were not repeated, and did
not remain long in the hands of the recipients. The case, being one
of clear picketing, was not affected by the Allen v. Flood judgment.
On November 29th and December ist, 1898, the Appeal was heard
before the Master of the Rolls (Sir Nathaniel, now Lord, Lindley) and
Lords Justices Chitty and Vaughan Williams. On December 20oth
judgment was given, upholding the original decision. In the course
of his judgment the Master of the Rolls said:" The truth was that to watch or beset a man's house with a
view to compel him to do or not to do what it was lawful for
him not to do or to do was wrongful and without lawful
authority, unless some reasonable justification for it was
consistent with the evidence. Such conduct interfered with the
ordinary comfort of human existence and the ordinary
enjoyment of the house beset, and would support an action
for nuisance at Common Law; and proof that the nuisance
was for the purpose of peacefully persuading other people
would afford no defence to such action. Persons might be
peacefully persuaded, provided that the method employed to
persuade was not a nuisance to other people....... It was all
very well to talk about peaceable persuasion, and to draw fine
lines between persuasion and giving information.  The line
might be fine; but in this case there was no difficulty whatever
in coming to the conclusion that what was done was watching
and besetting, as distinguished from attending in order merely
to obtain or communicate information."
The final Appeal to the House of Lords was entered by the
defendants, but was abandoned on February 7th, I9oI, the officials of




8          THE LAW RELATING TO LABOUR UNIONS.
the labour unions which had guaranteed the cost deciding not to
contest the judgment of the Court of Appeal.
Prior to the action of Lyons v. Wilkins it had been very generally
assumed that the proviso in Section 7 of the Act of i875 (see Appendix)
legalises what is called "peaceful picketing "-in other words, it was
supposed that, although violence and intimidation were illegal, the
statute allowed workmen who had a difference with their employer to
attend at or near the employer's premises with the object of inducing
other men, by argument and persuasion, either to leave or to refuse to
accept employment with the master whose premises were picketed. It
has now been decided that the words of the Act, " to obtain or communicate information," are to be understood literally, and do not cover
the totally different procedure of argument and persuasion.
The legal position being thus settled, every employer should, not
only in his own interest and that of employers generally, but in the
interest of men who are willing to work and desire to be protected
from  molestation, insist that pickets confine themselves to their
legitimate and legal business, and do not attempt to enter into argument with persons approaching or leaving the works. If they refuse
to do so, proceedings should at once be taken against them. These
proceedings may be either by way of injunction, as in Lyons v. Wilkins,
or may be taken summarily before magistrates.  In some specially
aggravated cases an injunction may be the best remedy, as the power
of the Court to order imprisonment for breach of it is unlimited; but,
as a general rule, the simpler and cheaper remedy of summary
proceedings will probably be found sufficient.
TAFF VALE RAILWAY COMPANY v. AMALGAMATED SOCIETY OF RAILWAY
SERVANTS.
This case arose out of the strike on the Taff Vale Railway in the
summer of 900oo. Picketing took place at the Cardiff Station of the
Great Western Railway and elsewhere, which was clearly illegal according to Lyons v. Wilkins, and the Taft Vale Railway Company applied
for injunctions against two officials of the Amalgamated Society of
Railway Servants, and also against the Society itself. Both injunctions




THE LAW RELATING TO LABOUR UNIONS.                 9
were granted by Mr. Justice Farwell, the latter on September 5th, I900;
that against the two officials was not challenged, but that against the
Society was taken to appeal, with the result that the Court of Appeal
[consisting of the Master of the Rolls (Sir A. L. Smith) and Lords Justices
Collins and Stirling], on November 2 [st, I900, dissolved the injunction.
The main argument influencing this decision was that a trade union is
neither a corporation, a partnership, nor an individual; and is therefore
not an entity known to the law, and could only be sued in virtue
of an express statutory provision, which does not exist in the Trade
Union Acts. The Railway Company appealed to the House of
Lords, and on July 22nd, 1901, that body reversed the decision of
the Court of Appeal and restored that of Mr. Justice Farwell.
The Lords [the Lord Chancellor (Lord Halsbury), and Lords
Macnaghten, Shand, Brampton, and Lindley] unanimously held that
where the Legislature creates a body capable of owning property and
acting by agents there must be an implied liability to be sued for wrongs
committed by its agents for its benefit, and, of course, a corresponding
right to sue for wrongs committed against it.
Reference must be made to two cases previous to the Taff Vale
case-viz., Charnock v. Court (judgment given April 12th, i899) and
Walters v. Green (judgment given August 8th,: 899), both of which
were decided by Mr. Justice Stirling, and in both of which an interlocutory injunction was asked for and granted.
In the first case the plaintiffs originally sued on behalf of themselves
and all other members of the union of master joiners at Halifax, and
the action was brought against the president, the secretary, and a
member of the executive committee of the Halifax branch of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, the writ being afterwards
amended by adding the whole of the members of the union, twenty-six
in number, as plaintiffs.  The injunction granted  restrained  the
defendants from picketing the landing stage at Fleetwood or the
railway station at Halifax and other places for purposes of persuasion
and so forth.
In the second case the plaintiffs were master builders, carrying on
business in Hull and neighbourhood, and members of the Hull Master
Builders' Association. The defendants were officials of various labour
unions at Hull and also of the Hull Building Trades Federation formed
by these labour unions.  The injunction restrained the officials in
question from picketing the Hull railway station, employers' works,
and residences of the employed, for the usual strike purposes.




Ia         TIlE LAW RELATING( TO LABOUR UNIONS.
These cases differ from the Taff Vale case only in the one particular
-that the name of the labour union concerned was omitted from the
action, some of the officials only being entered as defendants. There
were, however, at least two precedents for the inclusion of the union
by name. In 1892 Mr. Justice Kekewich granted an injunction and
gave costs against a body known as the Federation of Trades and
Labour Unions connected with shipping, carrying, and other industries,
and also against its secretary.  Again, in I895 the same judge granted
an injunction against the London Building Trades Federation at the
instance of Messrs. Trollope and Sons, as well as against certain
individual members of that body.
It must be borne in mind that the Taff Vale judgment has decided
nothing as to the merits of the particular case in question. It has merely
decided that a labour union in its own name can be made a party to a
legal action. The case itself will now go for trial, and every question
involved, except the right to sue,. will be open.  There are to be
settled at least two questions of vital interest. The first is that raised
in Lyons v. Wilkins, and there decided against the labour unionsviz., whether it is or is not illegal to watch and beset premises where
men are, or to or from which they are proceeding, for the purpose of
persuading them not to work or to cease working for a particular
employer. The second point is whether the officials proceeded against
had the authority of the union for what they did. Although indisputably
they had authority to organise the strike, the rules of the union provide
that strikes are to be carried on by lawful means, and the defence will
doubtless cite the judgment of Mr. Justice Stirling in Walters v. Green,
which lays down that, labour unions being legal bodies, primfacie their
officers could not be presumed to have authority to do or sanction
anything other than what labour unions might lawfully do. The fact,
however, is that the conducting of strikes is one of the primary purposes
(and a perfectly lawful purpose) of the union, and it may justly be
argued that, when the union instructed its officials to carry out this
lawful purpose, it took the risk of any unlawful acts which might be
committed in aid of the strike.
There are other subsidiary questions which must arise; among
them the question of how the union funds are to be attached, and
whether the trustees of the union must also be named in the action.
There is also the question what funds can be attached, and whether
alleged provident and benefit funds can be involved.




THE LAW RELATING TO LABOUR UNIONS.               Ir
SOME POINTS FOR EMPLOYERS.
Reference has been made to the cases of Charnock v. Court
nd Walters v. Green to show  the clumsiness of the method
f obtaining justice by proceeding against a multitude of officials of
lbour unions, and entering all the members of an association as parties
to the action. By the Taff Vale decision procedure is much simplified.
It is now said that the funds even of an unregistered labour union could
be attached by means of what is called " a representative action "-that is
to say, by suing the executive of the union as representing the
members. Apparently also a registered labour union might be proceeded
against by the same means, although this is not likely to be done in
view of the much simpler method of suing the union in its registered
name.
In this connection the case of Bailey v. Pye may be referred
to.  It will be remembered that the plaintiffs, a firm  of glass
merchants, obtained judgment in 1897 for,IJ1,218 damages (including
costs) by the acts of the defendants, officials and members of the
National Plate Glass Bevellers' Trade Union, as well as a perpetual
injunction.  The total amount Messrs. Bailey recovered by executions levied against the principal defendants was /5.  This case is
one of the strongest conceivable from the point of view of injustice
done without reparation, for, although the case for the union was
defended out of the funds of the labour union at fault and of ninetynine other labour unions giving financial support, no recovery of the
damages awarded was possible.
An important point on which there is at present no legal decision
is whether labour unions can be made liable for wrongful acts done by
one of their officials, not merely without express authority, but contrary
to the instructions of the executive.
Another point which has been raised in some quarters is whether the
TaffVale judgment may not facilitate the practice of collective bargaining.
A large number of agreements between associations of masters and
workmen already exist, but it has always been supposed that these are
binding morally only, and are not enforceable at law. The question
arises whether labour unions can make legally-enforceable contracts in
reference to the terms of employment of their members. It is suggested that they cannot, because the judgment in this case is in tort
and not in contract. This, however, is hardly to the point. The
judgments are all based on the ground that there is an implied power




12         THE LAW RELATING TO LABOUR UNIONS.
of suing and being sued, and this, it would appear, is as applicable
to contract as to tort.  The further question arises whether the
Trade Union Acts contain any express limitation on this implied
power. As is well known, the fourth section of the Trade Union
Act of i871 prohibits legal proceedings for directly enforcing certain
contracts, and it is safe to surmise that the object of the framers was
to prevent the enforcement of any contract relating to labour to which
a union was a party.  It may be questioned, however, whether
this intention has been actually carried into effect, as the only
relevant words-viz., those of the fourth sub-section of the fourth
section —are: "Any agreement made between one trade union and
another." The effect of these words would clearly be to deprive of
any legal validity an agreement, say, between the Engineering
Employers' Federation and the Amalgamated Society of Engineers;
but on the plain meaning of the words they certainly would not
invalidate an agreement between the Amalgamated Society of Engineers
and one of the engineering firms, or between the Amalgamated
Society of Railway Servants and a railway company.
Finally, it must be remembered that employers' associations are in
constitution and in the eyes of the law on the same footing as labour
unions, and therefore subject to the same liabilities while enjoying the
same privileges.'lhere are, however, three important points of
difference.  Employers' associations are (I) usually in their origin
combinations for defence against aggression, (2) mostly unregistered,
(3) generally not owners of large accumulated funds.  It is, therefore,
hardly to be expected that their newly-discovered importance as a legal
entity will alter in any material way their usual characteristics or ordinary
methods of procedure.  It is reported that, in the opinion on the Taff
Vale judgment given to the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades
Union Congress by Counsel, "a great advantage has been obtained
under the judgment in giving power to labour unions to sue a vindictive
employer who might try to break up or otherwise injure a labour
union." But it is very unlikely that occasions of this nature will arise
at all frequently. Scores of cases against labour union officials can be
recalled, but it is difficult to find any serious case brought by labou'r
unionists against employers or officials of their associations.  At the
same time, it would be well for employers and their associations to
remember that there exists in the Linaker libel case (in which the
Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants was held liable in damages
for a libel published in a newspaper belonging to the Society) a
precedent which could be used against associations owning official
organs.




TIHE LAW RELATING TO LABOUR UNIONS.              I3
THE RESULTS IN BRIEF.
COERCION AND INTIMIDATION.
Allen v. Flood and Quinn v. Leathem, taken together, decide that with
unlawful and malicious intent (a) to bring about a strike or lock-out, or
(3) to induce customers to discontinue dealing with a tradesman, or
(c) to threaten to do so, is illegal; and that those injured by such
proceedings can recover damages against the persons responsible, and
equally so whether there  is a conspiracy or not.  It is also,
illegal to circulate " black lists " of employers not to be worked for or
dealt with, or of workmen not to be employed.
PICKETING.
Such watching or besetting as constitutes what is known as " peaceful'
picketing" is decided by Lyons v. Wilkins to be unlawful, unless it is
done (in the words of the Act) " in order merely to obtain or communicate information."
LABOUR UNION LIABILITY.
Taff Vale Railway Company v. Amalgamated Society of Railway
Servants decides that a labour union (although it is not a corporations!can sue and be sued in respect of wrongs committed by or against it.
It is to be noted that all the cases referred to (except Lyons v. Wilkins),
are decisions of the House of Lords, and are therefore final and binding
throughout the United Kingdom. The point raised in Iyons v. Wilkins
will probably come before the House of Lords in the probable further
proceedings to be taken by the Taff Vale Railway Company for the
recovery of damages from the labour union against which the injunction has been obtained, and we shall then possess a body of decisions
on labour law of the highest possible authority. And these decisions.
safeguard the interests of employers in almost every vital particular.




14        THE LAW RELATING TO LABOUR UNIONS.
APPENDIX.
For the information of employers of labour it may be convenient to
cite the following Sections of law, Imperial and local, dealing with
picketing:THE CONSPIRACY AND PROTECTION OF PROPERTY
ACT, I875.
Under this Act, as tested by the above cases, picketing has been
declared illegal. The Section under which such action usually falls is
as follows:"Section 7. Every person who, with a view to compel any
other person to abstain from doing or to do any act which such
other person has a legal right to do or abstain from doing,
wrongfully and without legal authority,i. Uses violence to or intimidates such other person, or his
wife and children, or injures his property; or,
2. Persistently follows such other person about from place to
place; or,
3. Hides any tools, clothes, or any other property owned or
used by such other person, or deprives him of, or hinders
him in, the use thereof; or,
4. Watches or besets the house or other place where such
other person resides, or works, or carries on business, or
happens to be, or the approach to such house or place; or,
5. Follows such other person with two or more persons in a
disorderly manner in or through any street or road,
shall, on conviction thereof by a court of summary jurisdiction,
or on indictment, as hereinafter mentioned, be liable either to
pay a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds, or to be imprisoned
for a term not exceeding three months, with or without hard
labour.
Attending at or near the house or place where a person
resides, or works, or carries on business, or happens to be, or
the approach to such house or place, in order merely to obtain
or communicate information, shall not be deemed a watching or
besetting within the meaning of this section."
LOCAL BYE-LAWS.
As an instance of the efficiency of local provisions in some districts,




THE LAW RELATING TO LABOUR UNIONS.                15
the following bye-law of the Stafford County Council may be cited.
A clause such as this can certainly be utilised to suppress abuses of
picketing:"No person shall, alone or together with any other person or
persons, after being requested by any person annoyed by his
conduct, or by any constable instructed by such person, to move
away, so act in any street or public place as wilfully to obstruct,
insult, or annoy any foot-passenger."
BURGH POLICE (SCOTLAND) ACT, 1892.
As another example of legislation under which action can be taken
we may quote the Scotch Police Act, which applies to all burghs in
Scotland. The following clauses seem to cover any offences which
are not sufficiently dealt with under clause 7 of the Conspiracy Act
above referred to:'" Sectiolz 381. Every person who in any street (and for the
purposes of this section'street' shall include any harbour,
railway station, canal, depot, wharf, towing-path, public park,
links, common, or open area or space, the strand and sea beach
down to low-water mark, and all public places within the burgh)
commits any of the following offences shall be liable to a
penalty not exceeding forty shillings for each offence, viz.:Subsection (33).  Wilfully jostles or annoys any person.
Subsection (53). Stands or loiters on the footway, or sits
or lies to the obstruction or annoyance of the residents or
passengers on the footway or street."




" Vilson showed to the [Trades Union] Congress and advised every delegate
to read and mark a little book entitled'The Case Against Picketing.' "-Star.
Fourth and Enlarged Edition.  Price is. 6d., by post is. 9d.
THE CASE
AGAINST
PICKETING.
BY
W. J. SHAXBY.
Contents:T. WHY PICKETING SHOULD BE MADE ILLEGAL.
II. HOW TO DEPRIVE PICKETING OF ITS "POWER AND
STING.
III.  THE COLLECTED  WISDOM OF ROYAL COMMISSIONS.
IV.  CONFLICTING INTERPRETATIONS OF "INTIMIDATION."
V.  THE LAW AND PRACTICE IN THE COLONIES AND ABROAD.
VI.  THE PRESENT LEGAL POSITION IN ENGLAND.
VII.  FREE LABOUR V. TRADE-UNION  TYRANNY.
VIII. A SUMMARY MEMORANDUM.
IX.  APPENDIX.   LATEST  REPRESENTATIVE  OPINIONS.   A
L    AFT CILL.   INDEX.
" The manual will be of great service in informing employers of labour and
non-unionists how far the law, as it stands, affords them  protection."Yor/kshiire Post.
"The book should be read alike by employer and employed; in fact, it
should have a place in the library of all connected with the industrial work of
the' country. "-Glas.gow Even/yziz  Times.' The pamphlet is admittedly written in defence of the Individualist as
opposed to the Socialistic point of view, but it is written with every consideration for the'rights of 1,bour.' " —oOrtAlz Britisz Advertiser.
" Perhaps, however, the case could not have been stated more concisely or
more clearly; and, while we differ from the author's conclusions, we commend
his work to those who desire to see the strongest arguments that can be used
on the other side."-Rey nolds' New/spaper. o
"It should be consulted by every person  who has, or is likely to have,
difficulties with his workpeople."-Textile Miercury.
"A careful digest of the law on the subject of picketing, and also a summary
of all the conclusions which have been arrived at concerning it. The question
is really in a nutshell."-Colliery Guazrdian.
"The book is one that should have a wide circulation." —Engineering.
Copies of above can be obtained  from  "THE LIBERTY REVIEW"
P'UIBLISiING  CO., LIMITED, 17, Johnson's Court, Fleet Street,
London, E.C., or from 7, Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W.




LIBERTY & PROPERTY DEFENCE
LEAGUE.
(To uphold the principle of Liberty, and guard the rights of Labour and
Property of all kinds against undue interference by the State;
and to encourage Self-help versus State-help.)
ANNUAL REPORT, 18 —94-95.
(THIRTEENTH FINANCIAL YEAR.)
PUBLISHED BY THE
LIBERTY AND PROPERTY DEFENCE LEAGUE,
7, VICTORIA STREET, LONDON, S,W.




Liberty   and  Property   Defence   League.
(To uphold the principle of Liberty; ahd guard the rights of Labour and
Property of all kinds against undue interference by the State;
and to encourage Self-help versus State-help.)
COUNCIL-1895-96.
THE RIGHT IHON. THE EARL OF WEMYSS, Chairman.
Sir FREDERICK BRAMWELL, Bart., F.R.S.
Sir W. J. R. COTTON.
The Hon. BARON DIMSDALE.
Alderman Sir JOSEPH DIMSDALE.
The Right Hon. Sir MOUNTSTUART E. GRANT DIJFF, G.C.S.I.
The Right Hon. EARL FORTESCUE.
ALFRED HEWLETT, Esq.
Sir WILLIAM LEWIS.
The Right Hon. LORD PENZANCE.
H. C. STEPHENS, Esq., M.P.
Sir EDWARD W. WATKIN, Bart.
And Representatives of the Chief Defence Societies of the various
industries and interests federated with the League.
Hon. Treasurer: WALTER FARQUHAR, Esq.
4cting Secretary and Parliamzentary Agtent: FREDERICK MILLAR.




Liberty and Property Defence  League.
ANNUAL REPORT, 1894-5.
COUNCIL:-The Right Hon. the Earl of Wemyss, Chairmnan; Sir
Frederick Bramwell, Bart., F.R.S.; Sir W. J. R. Cotton; The
Hon. Baron Dimsdale; Alderman Sir Joseph Dimsdale; The Right
Hon. Sir Mountstuart E. Grant Duff, G.C.S.I.; The Right Hon. Earl
Fortescue; A. Hewlett, Esq.; Sir William  Lewis; The Right Hon.
Lord Penzance; Henry C. Stephens, Esq., M.P.; Sir Ed. W. Watkin,
Bart.; Hon. Treasurer. Walter Farquhar,Esq.; Honorary Secretaries
of the League; The Chairmen (or their Nominees) of the I87 Defence
Societies, Conmpanies, and Corporate Bodies in Federation with the League.
Acting Secretary and Parliamentary Agent. FREDERICK MILLAR.
GENERAL PROGRESS.
HE twelfth Annual Meeting was held at the Westminster Palace
Hotel on the I3th of December, I894, when the Right Hon. Sir
Mountstuart E. Grant Duff, G.C.S.I., late Governor of Madras, presided, and delivered an address. At the conclusion of the address the
Earl of Wemyss, as Chairman of the Council, presented to the-meeting
the Report of the Council (including the Reports of. theParliamentary
and Finance Committees) for the past year. The usual resolutions
adopting the Report and proposing a vote of thanks to -the. Chairman
were variously moved and seconded by Sir Roper Lethbridge, Mr.
Geoffrey Drage, Mr. Martin Wood, Mr. George Livesey, Lieut.-General~
Traill Burroughs, Earl Fortescue, and Mr. C. Z. Burrows.
The past year has been. the most eventful in the history of the
League.
A few days prior to the last Annual Meeting, Mr. WV. C. Crofts,
Secretary of the League from its foundation in 1882, died suddenly at
his residence at Portsea Place. In the autumn of I873 Mr. Crofts and




4
a few others, who saw most clearly the growing tendency towards
Socialism, and who keenly dreaded its further development, formed
themselves into a Society for the purpose of drawing public attention to
the dangerous principle underlying measures of a repressive or paternal
character, and to the necessity for common action against the common
enemy that threatened the very existence of personal freedom and private
property. Nine years later MIr. Crofts, accompanied by Mr. Donisthorpe,
called on Lord Elcho, now Lord Wemyss, who had at that time written
a letter to the Pall Mall Gazette urging the necessity of forming an
Association for the maintenance of individual freedomi, and for the
security of property, and to: resist State Socialism. The result of this
meeting was a resolve to establish such an Association or League, and
on July 5th,. i882, a large and influentially-attended meeting of members
of both Houses of Parliament, representatives of professional, mercantile, industrial, and other bodies who had signified their concurrence
with the objects of the movement, was held at the Westminster Palace
Hotel, under the Presidency of Lord Elcho, M.P. (now the Earl of
Wemyss). At this meeting it was resolved that the name of the Association should be "The Liberty and Property Defence League," and
Mr. Crofts was appointed Secretary.
As the Chairman of the League stated in his speech at the last
Annual Meeting: "No office was ever in a better administrative state than
was the office of this League under Mr. Crofts. My ideal of an office,"
continued his lordship, "is one where the chairman has nothing to do.
In such an office everything is in perfect working order, and absolute
confidence is reposed in the discretion, judgment, and ability of those
employed, such questions only being reserved for the consideration of
the Chairman as require his special notice, and as they deem it necessary
to bring before him. Thus has the work of the office of this League
been well and satisfactorily done during the past twelve years. I
venture to say that no greater blow could have happened to this Society
than that which we all lament in the death of our friend, Mr. Crofts.
In him we lose as a League a most excellent Secretary, and I, speaking
personally, lose a most valuable and trusted friend. His loss is, indeed,
irreparable." At a meeting of the Council held on December I2th, I894,
the following resolution relating to the death of Mr. Crofts was, on the
motion of the Chairman, adopted: "That the Council record on their
minutes their deep sense of the irreparable loss they, the League, and
the cause they endeavour to uphold, have sustained through the death
of Mr. William Carr Crofts; that they mourn in him a secretary who
zealously gave to the service of the League his remarkable ability,
energy, and industry, and who, in the discharge of his duties, ever
showed the most reliable discretion and the soundest judgment; and




they further mourn in him the loss of a personal and: much trusted
friend."
TIHE LATE MR. NV. C. CROFTS.
In December, I894, Mr. Geoffrey Drage (late Secretary of the Labour
Commission, and now M.P. for Derby) applied for and received the
appointment of Secretary, in succession to Mr. Crofts; but after a fevw
months he resigned the Secretaryship. Since that time Mr. Frederick
Millar, who was Mr. Croft's assistant, has, as Acting Secretary, most
zealously, ably, and efficiently carried on the Secretarial and Parliamentary work of the League. Death has also robbed the League of
two of its most distinguished and valued members, the Earl of Pembroke
and Mr. H. D. Pochin, both of whom had been connected with the
Council, and the Executive and Parliamentary Committee, of the League
since its foundation. Several noteworthy additions have been made to
the Council by the election of the Right Hon. Sir Mountstuart Grant
Duff, G.C.S.I., Sir William Lewis, A. Hewlett, Esq., and Alderman Sir
Joseph Dimsdale.  The latter gentleman and Mr. W. J. Carruthers
Wain (President of the Tramways Institute) have been elected members
of the Parliamentary and Executive Committee.
As was anticipated in the last Annual Report, the relegation of the
Irish question to the middle distance'of the political field has resulted'




6
in an enormous increase in the work of the League, both in amount
and importance, beyond that of any previous years. So-called social
reformers of all sorts have at last succeeded in getting into the foreground for the exhibition and furtherance of their various schemes of
philanthropy and regeneration by Act of Parliament. While one of the
two great political parties is, from its composition and connections,
more ready than the other to fall back upon State action as the best
means for furthering the progress of society and for remedying social
evils, the other has, to a certain extent during recent years, been
pursuing a policy of bidding against the pseudo-Liberals by promises of
State-help in the supposed interests of the people.  The spirit of
emulation thus engendered results in the hands of successive Governments being forced by the Opposition to introduce measures into Parliament of a more or less Socialistic and objectionable character; and, under
the euphemism of "social reform," both political parties have more or
less committed themselves to a legislative policy, the aim of which is to
make political capital out of the credulity of the working classes. It
cannot be denied that under the present extended suffrage the temptation to take advantage of popular ignorance is one to which the
statesman and the politician is very prone to yield, and there are few
men in political life whose self-control is strong enough to save them
from taking the State Socialistic short cut to supposed popularity and
power.
The disinterested work of the League in exposing the mischievous
and dishonest character of these vote-catching proclivities of political
parties has naturally made the League the object of much abuse and
misrepresentation.  By the Radical-Socialists, the "Progressists," and
the " New Unionist " Labour party, the League has from the first been
singled out as their natural enemy, and during the past year the
testimony of the Radical-Socialist press to the good work of the League
in opposing objectionable legislation has been somewhat voluminous.
One noteworthy example of such testimony is that of the XNorth British
Daily Mail, which, on February 25th, I895, published a leading article
under the heading, " How Good Bills are Blocked." After referring to
the weekly list of Bills opposed by the League and its federated
Societies, and to the printed instructions given by the League for securing
opposition to those Bills, this Radical-Socialist organ exclaimed: "This
is how the wheels of the blocking machinery are set in motion. The
obstruction of desirable legislation is made a matter of deliberate and
elaborate organisation...... Every measure in the League's list is a
measure of social reform, and every one of them is to be blocked in
the first place, and then opposed and voted against when a debate or
division on the second reading can no longer be prevented."




It may here be noted that in the Radical-Socialist press the League
is invariably referred to as a Tory organisation, while, as a matter of
fact, the League is in no way a political organisation in the party sense
of the word, and its work in opposing Socialistic legislation has all
along been conducted irrespective of party politics. The principles
which the League was established to maintain are the principles of true
Liberalism-the principles of the Liberal party before I870; the objects
of the League being " To uphold the principle of Liberty, and guard
the rights of Labour and Property of all kinds against undue interference
by the State, and to encourage Self-help versus State-help." These are
objects with which every true Liberal must be in hearty accord.  It is
because the whole of one party and a section of the other pretend that
the Liberal principles of freedom of contract and self-help must be laid
by, while a good innings is given to State aid and the expediency of the
hour, that the action of the League in resisting legislation opposed to
true Liberalism is characterised by the Radical-Socialists and Tory
Democrats as reactionary and deserving of public condemnation.
The result of the General Election which took place in July was a
distinct triumph of League principles over the doctrines of State
Socialism and public plunder. The verdict of the country against State
Socialism and predatory and restrictive legislation was decisive. This,
indeed, is admitted by the Radical-Socialist press. Commenting on the
result of the election, the Daily Chronicle, the leading organ in the
Metropolis of the Radical-Socialist and "Progressive" parties, said:
"What the electorate desire is pure negation, mere preservation of the
stZtus quo, absolute unqualified Conservatism. They take no more
account, they have no more belief in, the social policy of Mr.
Chamberlain than they are grateful for the Factory Act of Mr. Asquith,
or the Budget of Sir William Harcourt."
Immediately after the election another London Radical and "Progressive " paper, the Star, opened its columns to correspondence on
the question, "Why We Lost." In this correspondence no attempt
was made to disguise the fact that the rout of the pseudo-Liberals was
due to the late Government having saddled itself with every fad in.the
kingdom, and with "pandering to the hopes of every little Bethel."
Strong language regarding the Local Veto Bill was generally indulged
in; defeated candidates and indignant voters alike declared that to the
measure which would " rob the poor man of his beer " the loss of seats
everywhere was due. Against the Labour policy of the pseudo-Liberals
several correspondents strongly protested.  " Each of us workers," said
one of them, "wants to do his own work in his own way, in as many or
as few hours per day as he pleases, for as much or as little as he can
get." That is, the working classes want freedom to labour-no inter



8
ference with their natural right to work up to their full capacity. It was
because the Liberal party-the true Liberal party —stood up for freedom
of labour that the working classes hitherto largely supported Liberal
candidates at the poll; but the party which has usurped the name of
Liberal has for years past been playing into the hands of the "New
Unionism," and working men who value their liberty refuse to countenance the so-called Liberal programme, and now  use their political
power to make that programme impossible of realisation. Another
correspondent wrote: "Those large principles of freedom  from  which
the Liberal party takes its name are still believed in by the mass of the
people, and it is because of the falling away, for years past, from these
principles in matters which intimately concern the life of all classes
that the party has been weakening, and has at length utterly collapsed."
There is no mistaking such utterances as these, and they deserve to be
well considered by both political parties.
Immediately after the dissolution, the Parliamentary and Executive
Committee of the League held a special meeting for the purpose of
considering what steps should be taken to bring the views of the League
and  its  federated  Societies  before  the  electors.  A  draft  of a
Manifesto to the Electors (of which the following is a copy) was
submitted to the Committee, and adopted. Copies of this Manifesto
were, by special arrangements with bill-posting firms, posted on the
hoardings in the principal constituencies in the United Kingdom; and,
in the form of a handbill, the Manifesto was distributed at the meetings
of both Unionist and Radical candidates:
GENERAL ELECTION.-i895.
TO THE ELECTORS.
Do No'r VOTE for a Candidate who would pauperise the whole nation by a
system of Old Age Pensions condemned by, and fatal to, existing Friendly Societies.
Insist on Candidates explaining the difference, as regards being pauperised,
between a man of sixty-five getting half-a-crown out of the Imperial Exchequer,
under the proposed Old Age Pension scheme, and a man of sixty-four receiving,
under the existing Poor Law, half-a-crown in out-door relief from the rates.
Do NOT VOTE for a Candidate who would forcibly limit a full-grown man's
natural right to work up to his full strength for the good of himself and his family,
alike below and above ground.
Do NoT VOTE for a Candidate who dares to tell the working classes that wages
can be regulated and apportioned by Parliament. Can Parliament regulate the ebb
and flow, of the tide, in nature or in trade? A so-called " living wage" to some
often means " no wage " to others.
Do NOT VOTE for a Candidate who would not give the fullest protection to nonUnionists, who, for the sake of their families, are willing to work for wages below
the so-called Trade Union rate. Free Labour, remember, as compared to TradeUnion Labour, is as 9 to I.




9
Do,NOT VOTE for a Candidate who would prevent laundry and other women
from working, as at pxesent, for their own and their families' support, possibly for
that of a sick or disabled husband.
Do Nor'VOTE for a Candidate who would allow the rich man to drink his fill at
a club, but would "rob a poor man of his beer."
Do NOT VOTE for a Candidate who, by encouraging General State and Municipal
trading, would stop individual enterprise, invention, and national progress, waste
national income, raise rates, and promote jobbery and corruption.
Do NOT VOTE for a Candidate who would take property of any kind from
individuals or corporate bodies without full compensation, or confiscate the property
of the few wherewith to buy the votes of the many.
Do NOT VOTE for a Candidate who would break or forbid Contracts.  Free
Contract is the soul of Commerce and the life of Labour.
SHORT ELECTORAL CATECHISM.
IF the Candidate is a so-called Liberal, ask him if the term  " Liberal" is derived
from " Liberty."
IF he answers Yes, ask him where " Iiberty " is to be found in so-called Liberalism,
except in the liberty it takes with property, contracts, and individual freedom,'putting
free-born Englishmen and women in State or Municipal swaddling-clothes, "sLza'dowed"
by male or female inspectors.
AsK him if the so-called Liberalism now is not the reverse of the Old Liberalism,
which freed men from State restrictions, and left the individual free to work out his
destiny as seemed to him best.
AsK him if the' so-called "Progress" of the New Liberalism  is not really the
progress of the crab-Backward!!
IF a Liberal Unionist, ask him in what Iis Liberalism differs from the foregoing
New Liberalism.
ASK both so-called"  Liberals" and " Liberal Unionists " to explain the difference
between the "New Liberalism " and Socialism; also between Socialism and "New
Unionism."
AsIK them, further, if they intend to support or truckle to "New Unionism,"
which would seize all private property (without paying for it), allow no private
trading, and get all the " instruments of production " into the hands of a labourgoverned State, which is to be sole manufacturer, trader, and employer.
IF a Conservative, ask the Candidate if he intends to flirt with Socialism-as
unfortunately many of his party do-or fight it to the death, and stand by the
LIBERTY our fathers won for us.
VOTE ONLY FOR THOSE CANDIDATES WHO ARE IN FAVOUR OF FREE LABOUR,
FREE CONTRACT, LIBERTY, JUSTICE, AND THE RIGHTS OF PROPERTY OF ALL
KINDS, INCLUDING MEN AND WOMEN'S PROPERTY IN THEIR OWN INDUSTRY.
Printed for and Published by the Parliamentary Committee ofthe LIBERTY AND
PROPERTY DEFENCE LEAGUE, representing I84 Defence Societies and corporate
bodies connected with the: chief'industries and interests in the Kingdom.
Central Offices: 7, Victoria Street, Westminster.
/lily, z189.




I0
The League'lecturers and agents were actively engaged during the
election addressing meetings in opposition to the Radical-Socialist
and New Unionist candidates. By these means, and by the efforts put
forth by the Societies federated with the League, everything possible
was done to bring home to the minds of the electors the gravity of the
political situation.
The first session of the new Parliament opened on August I2th, I895.
On September 4th the Chairman of the League, at the request of
the Parliamentary and Executive Committee, representing the various
industries and interests of the United Kingdom, called attention in the
House of Lords to the political situation, and to the late General
Election, in so far as they bore upon Socialistic legislation. After
referring to the Socialistic character of the, now falsely so-called
Liberalism, the Chairman passed on to the Conservatives and Liberal
Unionists, and pointed out that the Socialist spectre dwelt also in their
tents, and that they too had been taking sweet counsel with it.  This
serious aspect of the political situation was illustrated by quotations from
the election addresses of several Conservative and Liberal Unionist.
candidates, and he declared that, if once the State embarked on
legislation of the character advocated by these politicians, it would
be impossible to prevent the nation being carried irresistibly down the
Socialistic slide into theall-absorbing abyss of Socialism. Lord Wemyss
concluded his speech in the following words:" So far as I have been
able to ascertain, the real cause of the defeat of the late Government
was the revolt of a free people against State and municipal interference
with their individual freedom; property, and rights; for none are more
opposed to such interference than the traders and the best and most
intelligent of the so-called working classes of the United Kingdom.
Such, as regards the recent election, are the views of those competent
to form a sound judgment on such matters; and I know that Lord
Salisbury has received similar information fiom the Conservative election
agency.  What, then, my lords, is the moral to be drawn from all this?
What should be the course taken by my noble friend at the head of the
Government, backed as he is by so large a majority?  Why, to put his
foot down, and forbid all immoral flirtation with Socialism by his party;
to take his stand on individual liberty, free contract, and the freedom
alike of labour and capital, knowing how history has shown that in
freedom our national prosperity was born, reared, and flourished; that
in freedom and abstinence from State and municipal interference it can
alone continue to flourish and progress; that freedom of labour is the
poor man's birthright and property; and, finally, that, if falsely socalled Liberals have cast the old flag of Liberty into: the gutter of party
politics, it will not only be the true policy, but the social duty, of the




II
Conservative and Liberal Unionist Government to take and raise it
aloft, in'the full faith that in so doing they will draw to themselves the
support of a race on every page of whose history true, genuine, innate
love of liberty is written-liberty that gives the real' charm to lifeliberty without which life itself would not be worth the living."
Since the' speech referred to was delivered signs have not been
wanting that the Government have taken to heart the true lesson of the
election; and there is good reason to believe that under the new
administration the country will enjoy an immunity from the schemes of
State Socialism, the promises of which figured so prominently in the
addresses and speeches of one or two leading members of the Unionist
party during the election. The mischievous character of those schemes
was fully demonstrated by the Chairman in his speech, copies of which
may be had at the offices of the League.
Not the least satisfactory feature of the late election was the crushing
defeat sustained by the representatives of the "New Unionist" and
"Independent Labour" Parties.  With the exception of Mr. John
Burns, whose majority at Battersea was reduced from I,559 to 253,
and Mr. J. H. Wilson at Middlesborough, the candidature of none of
the aggressive "New Labour" men was successful. The total poll of
the thirty-three representatives of the Socialist Labour Party amounted
to 48,371, or on average per constituency of I,476.  This is less than
i per cent. of the entire electorate. The mischief-making and strikepromoting tactics which these self-styled labour leaders have pursued
for several years past have at last been properly appreciated by the more
thoughtful section of' the working classes.  Realising the senselessness
and wickedness of the policy of stirring up strife between employers
and employed, the working classes have withdrawn their support from
the men who have been misleading them all along, and at the present
moment the profession of "labour leader " in this country is not in a
flourishing condition.
From the details of the work of the Parliamentary Committee of the
League, which are given in the Parliamentary Report (see pp. 22-37),
it will be seen that in the last session of the last Parliament the number
of measures against personal liberty, freedom of contract, and proprietary rights was exceptionally large. The steps taken by the Parliamentary Committee to oppose these measures were very successful, and
the thanks of the League are due to those members of Parliament who,
throughout the session, co-operated with the Parliamentary Committee
in preventing these measures becoming law. On February I5th, I895,
the Chairman of the League Parliamentary Committee presented to the
House of Lords the Licensing Act Amendment Bill, drafted by the
late Lord Bramwell, to secure uniformity in the granting by way of




12
renewal or transfer.of licences for the'sale of intoxicating liquors.  The
Bill was read a first time.  On May ith,  I895  a petition' in favour of
this Bill, signed by the chairmen and secretaries of all the associations
connected with the Liquor industry in - the United Kingdom, was.presented to the House  of Lords by the Chairman of the Parliamentary
Committee, and ordered by the House to be printed.  As there appeared
to be no possibility of the Bill getting through its various stages in the
late, Parliament, it was not proceeded with.
The net result of the changes which have been-, made in the Office
staff have been chiefly to impart new life into all the League's undertakings.  No new departures in policy have been made; and while the
work, both general and Parliamentary, is still conducted on the -principles laid down at the inaugural meeting on July 5th, i882, it is increasing year by year in amount and importance.  At a meeting of the
Parliamentary and Executive Committee, held on August I4th, I895, a
proposal was adopted to establish'a Press Correspondence Department
at the offices of the League for the purpose of sending to the press
original letters on subjects of interest to the Leagueand its Federated
Societies, and replies to all letters, etc., advocating Socialism or-in support
of principles contravening the objects of the League. This new department has up to the present worked very satisfactorily, and nearly 300
letters signed by an official of the League have appeared in the London
and provincial press during the few months the department has been in
existence. The original letters' dealt with such topics as "The Benefits
of Competition," "The Source of.Wealth,"." Municipal Ownership:'Its
Fallacy," " Local Indebtedness," "Old'Age Pensions," "Socialism and
Morality," "A  French View of Collectivism," "The Liquor War in
New York," "The Voluntary Schools Question," "The Growth of
Officialism,"' How Industry is Fettered," "Unearned Increment," "The
Land Tax," and "The Land Nationalisation Fallacy."  It is indubitable
that work of this character, supplemented as it is by the work of the
Lecture Department of the League, is productive of good results in
opening the eyes of the public to the dangers:of Socialism, and to the
evils of undue State interference with the rights of freedom and property.
FINANCE.
Finance Committee:-Walter Farquhar, Esq., Chairman; the Earl
of Wemyss;  Sir Myles Fenton; Henry C. StephenS, Esq., M.P.;
George Palmer, Esq.
The audited Balance Sheet for the year ended 3Ist October last,
submitted by the Finance Committee, gives so far a very gratifying
result, the total of the subscriptions and donations received during




3
this thirteenth financial year being considerably more than.half as much.
again as the amount for the preceding.year,. and by several hundreds of
pounds the largest yet:subscribed in any year to the: League's funds.
Such an increase in, receipts'has in' itself naturally brought about —a'
corresponding increase in the League's work. The work has further been.,
greatly increased this year by the unprecedentedly heavy Parliamientary
Session, involving very considerable expense on the part of the League
in printing and postage, by the General Election, and by the introduction of Lord Wemyss' Licensing Act Amendment Bill into the House of~
Lords. All this has caused the League during'the past year to "live" fully
up to its income; and although everypossible economy has been practised,.
the actual expenditure has exceeded the total receipts by nearly f30o.
Speaking generally, the increase in income shows the growing
appreciation of the League's efforts and the real need for an extension
of its work. It is to be hoped that the rate of increase of this past
year will be maintained; and that the League may continue to grow in
strength and usefulness. All members who have given such generousfinancial support during the past are earnestly invited to continue their
assistance by renewing their contributions during the coming year, and:
by inducing many, others to: become members; and, above all, by themselves becoming regular. annual subscribers.
Arrangements for the coming work of the League, more especially
in. Parliament, are greatly facilitated by knowing beforehand, approximately, the amount of income available for the current year. Nothing
contributes more to this end than the system adopted by some of
the individual members of the League of giving the League an order on
their respective bankers for a subscription payable until further notice
on the ist of January of each successive year. Twelve per cent. of the
League's subscriptions are received in this way; but it is felt that, if'
members realised to a greater, degree the convenience to themselves of'
this plan, and the extent to which the League's work is facilitated
thereby, the percentage of subscriptions thus paid would be very mucht
larger. Standing Bankers' Orders for such payments, with instructions as,
to the mode of using them, can be had at the League offices.
The Balance Sheet, audited by the League auditors, and the subscription book, are open to the inspection of members at all times at
the offices at Westminster.
INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS.
The number of individual members continues to increase. Of the
total number of individual contributors to the League funds in I894
nearly one-third- are members who have joined during the last year.




14
Seven separate summaries of the League's Parliamentary work, from its
inception up to this year, have been printed and extensively circulated.
A new prospectus containing lists of the Council, Branches, Honorary
Secretaries'statement of the League's objects, a summary of the advantages
of membership and of federation with the League, and a classified list of
the publications and literature on sale, has also been very widely
distributed. Applications have been made to all contributors in arrear;
and appeals have been addressed to those classes of the community that
derive the greatest benefit from the League's work, such as bankers,
shipping merchants, proprietors of iron works and coal mines, estate
agents, brewers, etc.  The response to these appeals has been most
inadequate.  The increase in the number of contributors to the
League's funds has mainly been achieved by personal influence after
repeated application.
Among those who have joined and contributed to the funds of the.
League during the past year are:-Miss Corbett, Mr. Daniel Crawford,
Mr. Maurice Deacon, Mr. J. H. Dewar, Right Hon. Sir Mountstuart
E. Grant Duff, Mr. Melville Fraser, Mr. H. Carr Gibbs, Mr. Henry C.
Godwin, Mr. William  Hall, Mr. Alfred Hewlett, Mr. Allan J. Hook,
Mr. W. J. Leishman, Mr. George Livesey, Mr. P. MacSorley, His
Highness the Maharaja Bahadur of Hutwa, Mr. John McNee, Mr.
Robert McKinlay, Mr. Alderman J. Dundas Pillans, Mr. Robert
Robin, MIr. J. H. Roger, Mr. W. T. Rothwell, J.P., Mr. C. F.
Ryder, Mr. Charles  Ryder, Mr. John  Scouler, Mr. Prideaux
Selby, Mr F. E. Shaw-Rooney, Mr. George Sherriff, Mr. James
G. Speed, Mr. W. B. Thomson,  Mr. D. Wans, Mr. Robert
Younger, and  the following firms:-Messrs. Anderson  &  Shaw,
Ballinghall & Son, Bennett & Co., Bertram & Co., Thomas Breeds &
Co., Brickwood & Co., Alex. Bryce & Co., Buchanan, Scott, & Co.,
Bullock, Lade, & Co., Carlisle Old Brewery Co., Ltd., Donald & Fisher,
Andrew Foulds & Co., William Foulds & Co., John Fuller & Co., WV.
& A. Gilbey, Golder & Hunter, Robert Graham & Sons, James Gray,
Sons, & Co., William Greaves & Co., Harding & Parrington, James
Harvey & Co., J. Jeffrey & Co., W. P. Lowrie & Co., John Lowson &
Son, G. & J. MacLachlan, William McEwen & Co., Marshall McEwaij
& Co., Muir & Martin, James Murray & Co, Murdoch & Co., Richmond Cavendish Co., Robertson & Baxter, D. & J. Robertson, Sacell
Brewery Co., H. & G. Simonds, Smith & Ritchie, James Stewart &
Co., Ltd., Steel, Coulson, & Co., Taylor & Ferguson, Ltd., Teacher
& Son, J. & R. Tennent, Andrew Usher & Co., John Walker & Sons,
Wigham  Richardson & Co., Wilsons & Glenny, WVilliam Whitelaw &
Son, George Younger & Son.
From this list it will be seen that a great number of firms have.




'5
recently joined the League; this forms the special feature of the year's
additional membership.
During the same period the League has had to record, with regret,
the loss by death of the Hon. C. W. Fitzwilliam, Mr, J. Dunn, Mr. C.
Barnett, Mr. WV. H. Hardy, and, as already noted, the Earl of Pembroke and Mr. H. D. Pochin.
Both the Earl of Pembroke and Mr. Pochin had not only been
most generous supporters of the League from the very first, but they
had also taken an extremely active part in the League's work by joining
the League Council and the Parliamentary Committee. It will be
remembered that on June 24th, I885, Lord Pembroke delivered the
League's Presidential Address on "Self-Help and State-Help " at the
Third Annual Meeting, and about the same time contributed to the
League's published literature a valuable essay on " Liberty and Socialism," which had appeared in the National Reviezv.
CORPORATE MEMBERS.
The number of Societies federated with the League is now i88, an
increase of 28 new corporate members since October 31st, I894. The
i88 Associations, Societies, and corporate bodies now federated with
the League represent every important interest and industry in the
United Kingdom.
Throughout the year the League is in constant communication with
these bodies, and during the Session of Parliament the League's work
almost entirely consists in arranging, in conjunction with their committees and officials, opposition to the yearly increasing number of
Bills brought before Parliament threatening their interests and the
common rights of liberty and property. The federation of Societies
and Companies for this purpose was the central idea in the constitution
of the League; and particulars of the League's work in this connection
are given in the appended Report of the Parliamentary Committee.
BRANCHES AND CORRESPONDENTS.
Since the last Report was issued, new Branches have been established
in North-West London; in Bradford, Jarrow-upon-Tyne, Liverpool, and
Nottingham; in Switzerland, and in New Zealand (Auckland). The
appointments of Hon. Secretaries for the first time in new Branches
are pending in several other places.
The Secretary of the League is in constant communication with the
Corresponding Secretaries in various parts of the world, and much
valuable information concerning the "Labour " and Socialist movements
in foreign countries and the Colonies is by this means secured to the
League for the use of members and lecturers.




'Horn. Secretaries' are-provided -with printed instructions indicating
the methods to be employed for the development, of their Branches and
the extension of the Lea g;ue's influence in their districts. All the Branches
are provided with a constant supply of -pamphlets and leflets for distribution. in.their districts, describing- the principles and work of the
League, and the advantages of federation aiid membership with it.
Opportunity is taken by the League members and officials during the
progress of Parliamentary, Municipal, or-School Board elections in any
constituency'.to publish letters in the local papers, explaining the
principles of the League, and urging the voters to use them as guides
in deciding upon the questions submitted.to them.
PUBLIC MEETINGS AND LECTURES.
During the early part of the year it'was decided that Mr. Geoffrey
Drage should, on behalf of the League, deliver lectures in various parts
of the country in opposition to Socialismr. In January, February, and
March, I895, lectures were delivered at Alfreton, Bishop Auckland,
Cambridge, Cardiff, Campden, Colchester, Crewe, Dewsbury, Halifax,
Huddersfield, Hull, Ipswich, Leeds, Newcastle, Newport, Northampton:
Norwich, Ossett, Pontypridd, Sunderland, and Yeadon..The ordinary work in.connection with the League Lecture Department has been carried on uninterruptedly throughout the year, and
League lecturers have delivered addresses, undertaken debates, and given
lectures at BatterSea Town Hall, Battersea Park, Brixton: and Kentish
Town (Milton Hall) Branches of the Social Democratic Federation,
Brondesbury Hall, Economic Club, Harnmersmith Bridge, Hyde Park,
Leyton Constitutional Club, Progressive Club (Isle of Dogs), Reformers'
Club (Kennington), Regent's Park, St. Pancras Reform Club, Walworth,
and other lecture centres. A portable platform for the League speakers is
now in use during the summer months at open-air meetings in the
London parks on Sundays and other days.  Among the subjectsdiscussed by the League representatives at these meetings were: " Land
Nationalisation,"' "Fallacies of Socialism," "Is Socialism: a Dream?"
"Local Veto Bill," "Is Socialism  Possible?" "Is the Present Commercial System Conducive to the Welfare of the Community?" "A
Defence of the Competitive System,"  "Socialisnm  and  Poverty,"
"Socialism Opposed to Progress."  At' many of. these meetings, both
under cover and in the open air, leaflets and publications' embodying.
the views of the League on current political topics were distributed,
and resolutions in support of the League's principles were carried,
in some cases by large majorities.  The League has. also  been
represented at meetings of Property Owners' Associations, at the
Conferences on Women's Labour,:at the Newcastle.lNational Free




1 7
Labour Congress, and at meetings held by the Federated Societies in
London and the provinces.
ANNUAL DINNER.
The Sixth Annual-or, as it should now be termed, BiennialDinner of the League was fixed to take place on July 17th, I895, in
the Great Hall of the Freemasons' Tavern. The dissolution of Parliament, followed by the General Election, rendered a postponement
absolutely necessary. It is proposed to hold the Dinner as early as
possible during the next session of Parliament, when it is hoped that
very many members and supporters of the League in both Houses of
Parliament will be present.
PUBLICATIONS.
During the past year the work connected with the Publishing
Department has been much heavier than hitherto. The total receipts
for publications sold are just double those of last year. The total
number of publications printed and issued under the superintendence
of this Department was about 240,00ooo. Additions are continually being
made to the stock of League publications, and revised lists of these
are printed from time to time, and sent to members. These lists are
also widely circulated for the purpose of drawing public attention to
the valuable store of anti-Socialist writings produced or collected by
the League, and to be procured by application to the Publishing
Department. A list of the more recent Publications is given in the advertisements at the end of this Report.
" Liberty Leaves," written by members of the League, on the
following subjects, are published by the League, and many thousands
of them have been supplied during the year in various quarters in
London and the country for public meetings and electioneering
purposes: "Security of Existing Contracts"; "Are Trade Unions a
Help or a Hindrance?  An Address to the Workers of England";
"Self-Hell) versus State-Help: an Address to Working Men "; "Market
Bargaining versus Trades Unionism"; "Compulsory Allotments";
"' State Lessons in Coercion "; "State Education "; "Technical Education "; "Intermediate Education"; "Elementary Education"; "School
Board Education"; "Employers' Liability"; "Taxation of Ground
Rents"; "Land and Capital"; "Private Work and Public Waste";
" Anti-Theft: a Plea for the Security and Freedom of Contract ";," The
Sweating System "; "Local Option"; "Liquor Traffic (Local Control)
Bill ";   The Evils of Strikes ";  Free Libraries " (new edition);
"Free Association "; Lord  Halsbury on  "Security of Contract,
Freedom of Labour, and the Right of Private Judgment," etc., etc.




I8
A specimen of these leaflets is sent to anyone gratis, on application;
and quantities are supplied, where ordered, at a low rate.
The Liberty Review, a weekly journal of politics, economics,
sociology, and Individualism, edited by the Acting Secretary of the
League, and published at I7, Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, London,
E.C., continues to widely increase its circulation, and is now becoming recognised as the only organ devoting its columns exclusively
to an exposure of Socialist fallacies. The paper has no connection
with the League, financially or editorially; but several members of the
League, in addition to its editor, are on the staff of writers; and the
political principles of the paper, advocated by forcible and able writers,
are in accord with those held by the League. In its columns all legislative proposals affecting commercial and industrial welfare are subjected
to exhaustive examination; and every attempt to harass or to confiscate
the property of any body of traders, or of any corporate Association, is
steadfastly resisted. The evil effects of past undue State interference
with the conduct and management of railways, mines, the shipping
trade, the liquor trade, and other national industries, and with the
ownership and disposition of landed and other property, are exposed,
with a view to demonstrating the pernicious character of the legislation
which certain factions and parties are organised to promote. The
various large interests of London and the country, federated through
their representative organisations with the League, would do well to
make it the medium  of expressing to a more extended audience their
views upon political questions particularly affecting themselves, now too
often confined to their respective trade journals.  A limited liability
company was formed in December for the purpose of developing and
further increasing the circulation of the Liberty Review.  On and after
February ist, I896, the paper will be published at one penny, and
several new and attractive features will be added to its pages.  Applications for shares in the Liberty Reviezw Publishing Company should be
addressed to the Secretary of the Company, 7, Victoria Street, S.W.
The following is a list of the more important publications issued
by the League during the year:-.
i. In connection with the general work of the League (II3,000).
Leaflets (93,ooo).  " Facts for the Socialists."
A Liberal M.P. on "Socialism'-"  Liberty
Leaf," No. 46.
"Trade and Socialism"-"Liberty Leaf,"
No. 47.
" Radical Testimony to the  League's
Good Work in Opposing Objectionable
Legislation "-" Liberty Leaf," No. 48.




I 9
" Municipal Spoliation, or the Ratepayer
Doubly Robbed."
General Election Manifesto.
Pazmph/ets (20,000).  "Old-Age Pensions." By Geoffrey Drage.
Address by Sir Mountstuart E. Grant
Duff at Twelfth Annual Meeting, I894.
"Pretensions of Socialism."  By Yves
Guyot.
r"The Control of Labour."  By Yves
Guyot.
"Nationalisation of Land." By Lord
Bramwell. Seventh edition.' The Socialist Spectre."  Speech by the
Earl of Wemyss and March in the
House of Lords, September, I895.
All of the above pamphlets are sold at the nominal price of one penny
each. The Leaflets, Annual Reports, and Parliamentary Papers are
distributed gratuitously.
2. In connection with the Parliamentary Department (43,000).
Summaries of Parliamentary Work.
Alcohol.
Trades and Manufactures.
Land, Houses, and Agriculture.
Shopkeepers and Warehousemen.
Shipping.
Coal and Iron.
Railways.
Lord Wemyss' Licensing Bill Amendment.
Weekly Tables of Bills (Nos. I-I7).
3. In connection with Office Work (64,000).
Of these papers it would be wearisome to give details.  It is sufficient to say that they consisted of credit notes, rules, advantages of membership and of federation circulars, whips, posters, election and annual
dinner circulars, programmes of proposed work, a revised prospectus,
list of publications, etc.
Other pamphlets or literature accepted or purchased for sale and
distribution during the year number about 20,000. The following is a
list of some of them:
" Trades Unionism."  By James Birks.
"Local Migration of Crofters." By George Malcolm.
"Liberty Review Yearly, I895."




20
" Modern Labour."  By J. Stafford Ransome.
"Socialism ancd Marriage."
" Labour and the Popular Welfare."  By W. H. Mallock.
" Labour as an Agent in the Production and Distribution of
Wealth."  By W. H. Mallock.
"Memorandum  on the Administration of the Poor Law."
By the Earl of Wemyss.
" Insoluble Problems." By E. Stanley Robertson.
"A Few Facts about Mutual Insurance Societies."
" A Plea for Liberty." Edited by Thomas Mackay.
"God's England or the Devil's."  By Rev. G. Brooks.
"The Tied House Question."
"Lord Wemyss' Licensing Bill: A Rejoinder to the U.K.A."
Liberty Reviewe.  (Weekly issues.)
The publications of the League are sold by booksellers in London,
Manchester, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Dublin, Glasgow, Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leicester, Oxford, Cambridge, Doncaster,
Derby, etc., and in nearly all the great provincial centres. All the hon.
secretaries are supplied with parcels for gratuitous distribution in their
districts in connection with the work and development of their respective
branches; and this free distribution is extended to local parliaments,
debating societies, working men's clubs, mechanics' institutes, etc., etc.
In addition to the publications printed by the League, a supply on
sale or return is kept at the Central Offices of publications written by
Iembers and supporters of the League, but not printed by it, dealing
with political, economic, and social questions in accordance with the
principles of the League.
REFERENCE DEPARTMENT.
Extracts from the press continue to be regularly made in the offices
of the League of facts showing the evil effects of past State interference,
and the indications of fresh measures of the same character, which are
classified and indexed in separate volumes under the following heads:(i.) ships; (ii.) railways, canals, and vehicles; (iii.) mines; (iv.) manufactures and trades (including companies, etc.); (v.) land and houses;(vi.) labour, including Trade Unionism, Socialism, pauperism, co-operation, eight hours day, arbitration, employers' liability, alien immigration,
unemployed, wages, etc.; (vii.) liquor; (viii.) amusements; (ix.) education; (x.) professions; (xi.) local government; (xii.) State failures.
Under each head are also arranged the Acts of Parliament, blue books,
and noteworthy pamphlets connected with the respective subjects.
The attention of members of the League is especially directed to this
department, to which a large mass of material has been added during




21 I
the past year. The collection and classification of these press cuttings
and other materials having been regularly maintained from the foundation of the League thirteen years ago, the League is now in possession
of information on all heads of over-legislation, and especially as to the
growth of Socialism in England and abroad; information such as, there
is no doubt, could not be had elsewhere, similarly arranged for constant
reference and use. All these materials are open to members of the
League at the Central Offices every day between Io a.m. and 5 p.m.
Briefs of required information from any of these sources are drawn up
and supplied to any member of the League on application. An alphabetical catalogue of books in the League's library has been drawn up,
and is kept up to date. The Library consists of standard works on
political, economic, and social subjects, together with a considerable
number of Blue Books, Acts of Parliament, and pamphlets.  The latter
have been arranged and catalogued under such heads as the following:
Economic Theory, Education, Individualism, Labour, Land and
Property, Socialism, Temperance and the Drink Question, Trade
Unionism, State Interference, etc.
Recently there have been collected and bound for the Library complete sets of all the League's publications from its commencement in
i882. The sets comprise the following volumes: —League Pamphlets
(in five volumes); Liberty Leaves, Annual Reports, Parliamentary
Reports, Reports of Annual Meetings, Tables of Bills opposed, supported, or promoted  by the League and  its federated  Societies,
Summaries of Parliamentary work, etc. The Library also contains
bound and indexed volumes of the Liberty Review.
The Council confidently submit this Report to the favourable consideration of the members of the League.
December 3zs1, z895.




22
PARLIAMENTARY REPORT,
SESSION 1894-5.
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE:-The Earl of Wemyss;  The Hon.
Baron Dimsdale; Alderman Sir Joseph Dimsdale; The Earl Fortescue;
Sir Edward W. Watkin, Bart.; Henry C. Stephens, Esq., M.P.; George
Palmer, Esq.; W. J. Carruthers Wain, Esq.; and Representatives of
the chief Defence Societies of the various industries and interests
federated with the League.
PARLIAMENTARY AGENT:- Mr. Frederick Millar.
Shortly after the beginning of the session the Parliamentary Committee resumed the issue of their Table of Public and Private Bills
before Parliament, in fulfilment of the plan approved at the Conference
of March 9th, I892, and commenced in the session of that year. The
Table was printed and circulated each week, Bills requiring the opposition of the League and its federated Societies being added to the list
on each occasion, as the attention of the Committee was successively
called to them by the various Societies. The Table, which gives the
stage of each Bill, is drawn up primarily for the use of the Defence
Societies, instructions being included as to the manner of conducting
the opposition, and the heads being given of the grounds whereon the
opposition should be based in each case. Copies were also sent each
week to all members and supporters of the League in both Houses of
Parliament. In all, since February, I895, seventeen editions, numbering
2I,OOo copies, have been issued.
This action of the Committee was further supplemented by thecirculation among Members of Parliament, the Press, and the public
of printed memoranda, whips, notices, etc.; by the publication and
distribution of pamphlets and leaflets relating to over-legislation in
general, or to special instances of it; by letters written from  the
Central Offices to the London and Provincial Press; by personally
procuring the assistance of members and supporters of the League in
Parliament in opposing Bills objected to, in whole or in part, by Societies federated with the League; by addresses, speeches, and resolutions at




23
public meetings through the agency of the League Lecture Department;
by consultations and arrangements for concerted action with the
Societies federated with the League, and with the leading representatives of the industries attacked; and by arranging for the drafting
and presentation to Parliament of petitions against any of the Bills on
the weekly Table, wherever desirable, on behalf of any of the Societies
federated with the League.
The following is a list of some of the more important Bill thus
opposed by the Committee and the federated Societies
LAND AND HOUSES.
CORPORATE ASSOCIATIONS (PROPERTY): Property belonging to any
non-trading Corporate Association to be deemed to be held on trust;
and the members for the time being shall not terminate the existence
or divide the property thereof without leave of one of the Superior
Courts. Objection: It is contrary to public interest to treat non-trading
bodies formed by private association as if the property acquired by them
were not their own, but held on public trust; and it is also an arbitrary
interference with existing legal rights. Resolved by the League Committee that the Bill be opposed as in former years, and that resolution be
communicated to City Livery Companies federated with the League.
At the instance of the Committee, four notices of motion for rejection
of Bill on second reading placed and maintained on the House of
Commons papers throughout the session, and formal objection made
to the Bill on each occasion it was down for second reading. 2I,000
printed summaries and objections sent to federated Societies, Members
of Parliament, Press, and elsewhere. Dropped before second reading.
LIVERYCOMPANIES (CITY OF LONDON): On February 26th Mr. J.
W. Benn gave notice that on Tuesday, March 26th, he would "call
attention to the administration of the funds of the City Livery Companies of London, and move a resolution." The representatives of the
City Companies on the Parliamentary Committee of the League were
communicated with, and the Parliamentary Agent of the League had
arranged to have the motion opposed, and to send a whip to League
members and supporters in the House of Commons requesting them to
vote against the motion. The motion, however, was eventually dropped.
CROFTERS' HOLDINGS (SCOTLAND) ACT (i886) AMENDMENT: To
be extended to yearly tenants who were excluded under that Act.
Objection.: Interferes with freedom of contract and violates written
contracts already existing. Opposed at instance of Highland Property
Association and Orkney Landowners' Association.  18,500 printed




24
summaries and objections sent to federated Societies, Members of
Parliament, Press, and elsewhere. Dropped before second reading.
CROFTERS' HOLDINGS (SCOTLAND) ACT (I866) AMENDMENT (NO. 2):
In place of Sub-Section i, Section 34, Crofters' Holdings (Scotland)
Act, i886.  "Crofter" to mean any tenant residing on a holding not
exceeding f30 annual rental in a crofting parish.  Objections. Would
break existing contracts, leaseholders being now included for the first
time. It is held to be unreasonable to choose this time for legislating
further in this direction, seeing that the Government had made the
whole question the subject of a Royal Commission.  Opposed at
instance of Highland Property Association and Orkney Landowners'
Association. Promises personally obtained from several members in
Commons that they would object to and oppose Bill. 2I,ooo printed
summaries and objections sent to federated Societies, Members of Parliament, Press, and elsewhere. Dropped before second reading.
FARM  SERVANTS (SCOTLAND): To compel owners of farms in
Scotland to provide every building used as a dwelling or sleeping place
for farm servants with a regulation accommodation in the way of cubic
contents, fire-places, etc. Obijecdion: Would break existing contracts.
There is no need for such legislation, and, if passed, it would cause
great inconvenience and expense to all parties concerned. Opposed at
instance of Highland Property Association and Orkney Landowners'
Association. I8,50o printed summaries and objections sent to federated
Societies, Members of Parliament, Press, and elsewhere. Lapsed owing
to prorogation intervening.
HYPOTHEC (SCOTLAND): To abolish the right of Hypothec. Objiections.  There is no public desire for alteration of, and it is inexpedient
to make any change in, the present law. In the event of the right of
Hypothec being abolished, landlords would have to insist upon rents
being paid in advance, or tenants finding security for same. Would
check investment in building, and cause an increase of rent-all to the
tenant's detriment. Opposed at instance of Glasgow Landlords' Association and Partick Landlords and House Factors' Association.  i6,650
printed summaries and objections sent to federated Societies, Members
of Parliament, Press, and elsewhere. With the assistance of two
Members of Parliament an objection was made to the Bill on each
occasion, and it was down for second reading. Lapsed owing to prorogation intervening.
INDUSTRIAL AND PROVIDENT SOCIETIES (PURCHASE OF FEE
SIMPLE): To empower any Industrial or Provident Society to force the
lessor to sell to it the freehold of its lease at a price to be fixed by the




25
County Court. Objectioz: Would break existing contracts and enforce a
redistribution of proprietary rights between individuals, unattended by
any benefit to the public. Opposed in conjunction with the Property
Protection Society. 20,250 printed summaries and objections sent to
federated Societies, Members of Parliament, and elsewhere. Dropped
before second reading.
LAND TENURE: To apply many of the objectionable principles of
Irish land legislation to this country. Opposed at the instance of
the Manchester, Salford, and District Property Owners' Association,,
and in conjunction with  the Property Protection Society.  7,700
printed summaries and objections sent to federated Societies, Members
of Parliament, Press, and elsewhere. A motion for the second reading
of the Bill was made on May 15th, and carried by 218 against I89majority 29. On the previous day a special whip and statement of
objections to the Bill were sent by the League to League members and
supporters in the House of Commons. The Bill made no further
progress, and lapsed owing to prorogation intervening.
LAND VALUES (TAXATION BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES): Vacant land'
(in addition to houses) in London and other towns (except market
gardens) to pay a rate on a sixty years' building ground-rent, such
ground-rent being not less than four per cent. on the capital value.
Rate on empty houses to be levied from owners. Such rate to be a
charge upon the freehold, any existing contract made before the passing
of the Act to the contrary notwithstanding. Scotland and Ireland
exempted.  Objection. Would put an unfair burden on those so unlucky
as to own houses and building land for which there is no demand; and
would break existing contracts.  Opposed in conjunction with the
Property Protection Society.  19,50o printed summaries and objections
sent to federated Societies, Members of Parliament, Press, and elsewhere. Dropped before second reading.
LEASEHOLDERS (PURCHASE OF FEE SIMPLE): To empower lessee of
any lease (not being a yearly lease at the open market rent), or of any
life lease of buildings and land not more than three acres in extent, to
compel lessor to sell to him the freehold reversion at price or perpetual
rent charge fixed by County Court. Covenants and agreements binding
purchasing lessee not to demise or sell, nor to make structural alterations, etc., etc., without consent of lessor, to be void.  Obj/ection: Would
break existing contracts.  Opposed at instance of Glasgow Iandlords'
Association, and in conjunction with the Property Protection Society.
2,ooo:printed summaries and objections sent to federated Societies,
Members of Parliament, the Press, and elsewhere.  Dropped before
second reading.




25
LEASEHOLDS: To enable lessee of property to violate existing contracts, and to set off the value of any improvements made to premises
for his own convenience against claim for dilapidations. To empower
a judge of the High Court to authorise any alteration in premises lessee
is desirous of making, but which lessor refuses to sanction. Opposed
in conjunction with the Property Protection Society.  I8,500 printed
summaries and objections sent to federated Societies, Members of
Parliament, the Press, and elsewhere. Lapsed owing to prorogation
intervening.
LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL (TOWER BRIDGE SOUTHERN APPROACH),
SECTION 36 [PRIVATE]: Lands not to be taken by the Council for the
improvement to have an improvement charge placed on them in consideration of any enhanced value which, in the opinion of the Council,
they would receive from the improvement. Council within seven years
to assess the charge such lands were to pay, which was to be equal to
3 per cent. per annum upon half of their enhanced value. Notice of
the assessment to be served on the owners, lessees, and occupiers.
Objections made by them to be decided by an arbitrator appointed by
the Local Government Board, whose award to be final. Council to
collect the charge so assessed or awarded from the occupier, who might
deduct such amount from the rent payable by him. Owner, lessee, or
occupier might compound for the annual charge at 33 years' purchase.
Objection. Created new and arbitrarily defined areas of taxation; and
imposed a charge in presentl for conjectural benefits infitturo.  Thus
properties would be permanently depreciated in capital value by being
made subject for ever to a " betterment " charge which no increase of
rental value afterwards justified, and even where the improvement
resulted in "worsement."  Mlade an exception of town landlords in
order to deprive them of a portion of the additional value ("unearned
increment") accruing to their property, in the same way as it accrues to
every other kind of property wherever the price of a commodity has
been raised through any expenditure thereon of the ratepayers' money
by the Municipality. Opposed in conjunction with the Property Protection Society, and a special whip sent to League member and supporters in the House of Commons against amendments moved oh
behalf of the London County Council. 20,250 printed summaries and
objections sent to federated Societies, Members of Parliament, the Press,
and elsewhere. Lapsed owing to prorogation intervening.
OCCUPYING TENANTS' ENFRANCHISEMENT: Every occupying tenant
with lease of 20 unexpired years, except person residing in premises
belonging to his employer, or in flat or divided holding, or occupying it.as a pensioner, " or from philanthropic considerations," empowered to




27
buy by compulsion the freehold reversion, at price fixed by County
Court, or at a regulation rent charge. Covenants and agreements
binding purchasing lessee not to make structural alterations, etc., etc.,
without consent of lessor, to be void.  Objection: Would break existing
contracts. Opposed at instance of Highland Property Association,
Glasgow Landlords' Association, and in conjunction with the Property
Protection Society.  2I,ooo printed summaries and objections sent to
federated Societies, Members of Parliament, and elsewhere. Dropped
before second reading.
SMALLER DWELLINGS (SCOTLAND): No dwelling-house under I 15
rent within a burgh to be let for longer than one month (the period to
expire at 12 noon on the 28th of a month) unless with a garden attached,
any agreement to the contrary notwithstanding. Rates to be paid by
landlord.  Objection. It was intended by this Bill to augment artificially
the supply of small dwelling houses let on leases shorter than one year.
In Glasgow more than one-third of such houses are let on monthly
leases; a proof that the supply is ready to adjust itself by the natural
process to any increased demand for shorter leases. The Bill would
infringe the rights of private contract without any public benefit, and
inflict great hardship on many yearly tenants of houses without gardens
under fI5 rental, who wish for the continuance of leases by the year
in their own cases.  Opposed at instance of Glasgow Landlords'
Association, Edinburgh and Leith House Factors' Association, Dundee
Landlords and  House Factors' Association, Association of House
Factors in Glasgow, Partick Landlords and House Factors' Association.
The Bill was "blocked" each time it was down for second reading.
I7,500 printed summaries and objections sent to federated Societies,
Members of Parliament, the Press, and elsewhere. Dropped before
second reading.
PUBLIC HEALTH ACTS AMENDMENT: To enable Local Authority
to subject owners of property to the expense of cleansing, maintaining,
repairing, or replacing drains used in common by several owners, and
which, by recent decisions, have been held to be sewers, and, therefore,
vested in the Local Authority. The Bill was an attempt by Local
Authorities to relieve themselves of expenses which they ought properly
to incur. They are under no grievance, as the existing law is quite
sufficient in fairness for all practical purposes.  Opposed at instance of
Manchester, Salford, and District Property Owners' Association, Liverpool Land and House Owners' Association, Building Societies' Association, In conjunction with the Property Protection Society.  12,500
printed summaries and objections sent to Members of Parliament, the
Press, and elsewhere. Lapsed owing to prorogation intervening.




28
MINES (EIGHT HOURS): No person to work more than eight hours
in the twenty-four underground in any mine; the eight hours to be
reckoned from bank to bank. Objection': Interfered with the freedom
of adult males in the disposal of their own labour.  2I,ooo printed
summaries and objections sent to federated Societies, Members of
Parliament, Press, and elsewhere. Dropped before second reading.
RAILWAYS.
RETURN TICKETS: Passenger return tickets issued by Railway or
Steamboat Companies to be available at any time from date of issue.
Objection.- Seeing that Railway Companies are directly interested in
creating facilities for their passengers within the limits of sound
economy, the interference of Parliament with such matters is likely to
do more harm than good. 20,250 printed summaries and objections
sent to federated Societies, Members of Parliament, the Press, and
elsewhere. Lapsed owing to prorogation intervening.
SHIPS.
MERCHANT SHIPPING ACT AMENDMENT (NO. 2): To apply Section
7 of the Railway and Canal Traffic Act, I854, " to all contracts made
for the carrying of animals by sea."  This section provides that a
Railway Company shall be liable for loss from injury to any animals or
goods in the receiving, forwarding, or delivering occasioned by the
negligence or default of such Company or its servants, notwithstanding
any notice, condition, or declaration to the contrary; subject to a proviso that no greater damages shall be recoverable for the loss or injury
to an animal beyond the sum of ~o50  for a horse and FI5 for each
head of cattle, unless the person sending the animals declares a higher
value and pays at reasonable percentage thereon to the Company in
respect of the Company's extra risk.  Objectiozns: The effect of the Bill
would be to prohibit shipowners from inserting in contracts for the
carriage of animals by the sea the " negligence clause " that is invariably
inserted in such contracts. The effect of this clause is to provide that,,
if the shipowner has taken all possible care to send his vessel to sea in
a seaworthy condition, he shall not be responsible for loss resulting
from  the perils of the sea, even although such loss may, in some
degree, be attributable to the negligence of the crew. The Bill would
give an undue advantage to foreign over British vessels. Opposed at
instance of the Chamber of Shipping of the United Kingdom. The
necessary steps were taken to have the Bill objected to on each occasion
it was put down for second reading.  19,5oo printed summaries and
objections sent to federated Societies, Members of Parliament, the:
Press, and elsewhere. Lapsed owing to prorogation intervening.




29
RETURN TICKETS: Passenger return tickets issued by Steamboat or
Railway Companies to be available at any time from date of issue.
Objection: Seeing that Steamboat or Railway Companies are directly
interested in creating facilities for their passengers within the-limits of
sound economy, the interference of Parliament with such matters likely
to do more harm than good. 20,250 printed summaries and objections
sent to federated Societies, Members of Parliament, the Press, and elsewhere. Lapsed owing to prorogation intervening.
STEAM ENGINES (PERSONS IN CHARGE): Empowers the Board of
Trade to prevent anyone having the charge of a steam boiler of more
than five-horse power (except in private houses, or vessels on the high:
seas under the Merchant Shipping Act), unless such person has obtaineda certificate from the Board of Trade by examination; or application
with proof of practical experience. Certificates by examination are to
be ranked as first-class; certificates on application, with proof of
practical experience, are to be ranked as second-class.  Objection: This
Bill, introduced by the " labour leaders," will give the highest ranks of
labour a monopoly of the market; and in case of shipping in dock will
prevent the less skilled labourers from taking temporary charge of
donkey pumps, steam winches, etc.; a duty for which they are sufficiently
qualified by experience, without having to incur the cost of a certificate.
Opposed at instance of Chamber of Shipping of the United Kingdom.
Steps were taken to have the Bill blocked, and 21,ooo printed summaries and objections sent to federated Societies, Members of Parliament, the Press, and elsewhere. The Bill was ultimately referred to the
Select Committee of the House of Commons, who decided to drop it.
TRADES AND MANUFACTURES.
FACTORY AND WORKSHOPS: Clause 5 placed on the employer the
onus of seeing that the conditions of any place in which work sent out
from his factory was carried on are in a healthy state.  Clause 13 still
further limited the time during which adult women may work overtime.
Clause'4z prevented women from taking work home with them from the
factory in which they had been working during the day.  Clause i9
provided for the inclusion of laundries under the Act.  Clause 26 gave
power to the Home Secretary to forbid any person working in a
dangerous trade.  Oyjections: These clauses were drafted with the
intention of protecting the labour of adult women. But the protection
they would give was of a nature calculated to defeat its object, as,
instead of protecting women in the performance of their work, it would
prevent them from obtaining work to perform. The proposal to include
all hand laundries would bring many hardships to bear on a line of




30
work which is the chief opening of poor women suddenly cast on their
own resources.  Moreover, the laundry trade is one least capable of
rigid hours; and limitation in this respect will ruin thousandsof small
industries.  Opposed at instance of the XWomen's Employment Defence
Committee, Croydon Laundry Women's Union.  I8,500 printed summaries and objections sent to federated Societies, Members of Parliament, the Press, and elsewhere. The Chairman and the Parliamentary
Agent of the League Committee attended meetings organised in opposition to the clauses of this Bill, and were constantly in communication
with the officials of Societies, and with individual firms interested in
opposing the Bill.  Steps were taken to give effect to the League's
opposition at opportune stages in the progress of the Bill, and after
amendment the Bill received Royal Assent.
SHOPS (EARLY CLOSING): Shop to mean a barber's shop, and any
building, booth, or stall where goods are sold by retail.  On application
in writing from not less than two-thirds of shopkeepers to be affected,
local authority might make an order closing all or any class of shops in
the district (except public-houses with on-licenses, refreshment houses,
tobacconists, and newsagents' shops), on any specified day in the week,
at or after i p.m., and on all or any other days at or after 6 p.m. A
shop wherein trades of two or more classes are carried on to be so closed
for all such trades at the hour whereat the order directs closure for any
one of such trades.  Offences to be prosecuted under the Factory and
WVorkshop Act, I878.  Objection.- The natural regulators of closing are
the buyers, as is shown by the variations in the hour in the quarters of
London and large provincial towns inhabited by different classes. This
Bill placed the regulation in the hands of the sellers, who would thus
create an artificial position prolific in difficulties and disturbances for
everybody, and in loss for themselves. Opposed at instance of National
Federation of Off-License Holders' Associations. 2I,ooo printed summaries and objections sent to federated Societies, Members of Parliament, the Press, and elsewhere.  Lapsed owing to prorogation interven ng.
BOROUGH FUNDS ACT (I872) AMENDMENT: To enable Municipalities, in contravention of the Borough Funds Act, 1872, to use the
moneys of ratepayers, without their consent, for promoting or opposing
Bills in Parliament.  Objection.'  Would remove a useful check upon the
extravagance of municipal Socialism, and upon the growth of municipal
monopolies, at the expense of private enterprise.  Opposed at instance
of Provincial Water Companies' Association, and Liverpool Land and
House Owners' Association.  i6,650 printed summaries and objections




sent to federated Societies, Members of Parliament, the Press, and elsewhere. Dropped before second reading.
ARCHITECTS' REGISTRATION: A "General Council of Architectural
Education and Registration of the United Kingdomj' to be established
with branches for England, Scotland, and Ireland.  Members of General
and Branch Council to have their fees and travelling expenses.  Registration fees shall, after paying expenses of registration, be applied to
support of museums, libraries, lectureships, etc.; or to building offices,
examination halls, etc. An applicant for admission, after passing of
Act, must be twenty-one years old, and have served not less than three
years with a registered practitioner, and have passed a regulation
examination. An apprenticeship entered on after passing of Act must
be under indenture to a registered practitioner, to be recorded on
registration list. by payment of /2 fee.  After ist January, I892, no
one to use name of architect unless he is registered, on pain of a fine
of ~20, and /5o for repetition of offence.  Inspectors shall attend
examinations to report upon the efficiency of such examinations.
Boards of examiners and inspectors to receive remuneration.  No unregistered person to be able to recover professional charges in court of
law.  No municipalities or local bodies are to appoint architects acting
under them, unless registered after a special examination. No architects'
certificates are to be valid unless the architect signing is registered.
Opposed at instance of Royal Institute of British Architects.  i6,650
printed summaries and objections sent to federated Societies, Members
of Parliament, the Press, and elsewhere. By the assistance of Members
of Parliament, four permanent notices to move the rejection of the Bill
were placed on the paper of the House of Commons.  Second reading
dropped.
TRADE IN ALCOHOL.
GROCERS' CERTIFICATES  (SCOTLAND) (ABOLITION):  To abolish
licenses granted under the Forbes Mackenzie Act, 1853, to grocers and
provision merchants for sale of excisable liquors for consumption off
the premises.  No person holding certificate for sale of such liquors to
carry on business of grocer or provision merchant, or any such business,
although conducted on different premises.  07'ectioz;z. It is through
the retail grocer that the middle and working classes obtain their
supplies of alcoholic drink for consumption at home; and the suppression of this trade would cause great hardship and inconvenience to
the families of those classes, especially in the more rural and thinly
peopled parts of Scotland.  Opposed at instance of Scottish Licensed
Trade Defence Association, National Federation of Off-License Holders'
Associations.  2,00ooo printed summaries and objections sent to fede



32
rated Societies, Members of both Houses of Parliament, the Press,
and elsewhere. Dropped before second reading.
GROCERS' LICENSES ABOLITION: To abolish licenses now in force
for the retail sale of spirits, wine, and beer by persons who keep shops
for the sale of goods and commodities other than  foreign wine.
Obyjection.- These licenses have been of great benefit and convenience
to the middle and working classes, and no trustworthy evidence has
ever been given that they are productive of the evils alleged against
them by the promoters of this Bill.. Opposed at instance,of, National
Federation of Off-License Holders' Associations, Licensed Victuallers'
Defence League of England and XWales, Federated Brewers' Association,
London  Off-Licenses Association.  i,6oo printed summaries and
objections sent to federated Societies, Members of Parliament, the
Press, and elsewhere. Dropped before second reading.
INTOXICATING LIQUORS (LICENSES): Between passing of Act and
1899, Licensing Justices not to grant licenses to premises not licensed
at passing of Act, if number of licenses exceeds regulation proportion
to population. In I899, and every subsequent year, Justices only to
grant licenses not exceeding the following proportions: In Urban
district, one license to under I,ooo population; two to over I,ooo and
under 2,000; three to over 2,00o  and under 3,000; one additional to
every, additional I,ooo or fraction.  In Rural district, one license to
under 600o population; two to over 6oo and under I,200; three to over
1,2oo and under i,8oo; additional license to additional 6o00 or fraction.
At same time Justices to offer such licenses for five years for public
competition, highest tender not necessarily accepted.  During first ten
years monies so received to be paid to " Licenses Liquidation Fund ";
such monies to be distributed to license-holders during three years
preceding i889; balance to be paid to Chancellor of Exchequer.  On
requisition of: one-tenth of ratepayers, by a majority of municipal or
county voters, at poll by ballot, premises may be closed from Io p.m. to 8
a.m., and altogether on Sundays and Parliamentary election days. After
1898, by a majority of three-fourths, prohibition may be enforced. Such
resolutions may be rescinded after five years. Justices may grant-special.
licenses to raiilway refreshment rooms, hotels, etc.; otherwise Act not
to apply to theatres, passenger boats, canteens, medicated and methylated spirits, and liquor sold by wholesale. Act not to apply to Scotland
or Ireland. Opposed at instance of National Federation of Off-License
Holders' Associations, Manchester Brewers' Central Association, London
Licensed Victuallers' Central Protection Society, London Off-Licenses
Association, Licensed Victuallers' Defence League of England and
Wales, Northern District League of Beer and Wine Trade Associations.




33
20,250 printed summaries and objections sent to federated Societies,
Members of Parliament, the Press, and elsewhere.  Dropped before
second reading.
INTOXICATING LIQUORS LOCAL VETO (IRELAND): The Mayor or
sheriff in the urban or rural districts of Ireland, in any year, from  not
less than one-tenth of the voters, is empowered to take a poll as to the,
adoption, by a majority of two-thirds in Ireland, of one of three resolutions-viz.: (i.) spirits, wine, beer, porter, ale, cider, perry, and sweets,
to be prohibited; (ii.) number of licenses to be curtailed; (iii.) new
licenses not to be granted.  On adoption of first resolution, sale of
alcoholic drinks will be punished, on conviction, by penalties or imprisonment.  Opposed at instance of Belfast and Ulster Vintners' Association,
Dublin Licensed Grocers' and Vintners' Association, National Federation of Off-License Holders' Associations, Federated Brewers' Association,
London Off-Licenses Association, Licensed Victuallers' Defence League
of England and Wales.  By assistance of Member in Commons, notice
of motion for rejection of Bill on second reading was placed on paper.
2I,oo000 printed summaries and objections sent to federated Societies,
Members of both Houses, and elsewhere. Withdrawn before second
reading.
INTOXICATING LIQUOR TRAFFIC (LOCAL CONTROL): At a poll
taken by ballot, on requisition of one-tenth of local government electors
of area, a majority of two-thirds of persons voting might enforce total
prohibition of sale of alcoholic liquors in area.  Poll also to be taken
on a resolution to limit the number of licenses in any area.  While a
prohibitory resolution is in force, no ordinary license to be granted in
respect of any premises in ar/ea.  While a limiting resolution is in force
licenses not to be granted in the area to a number in excess of threefourths of the number existing at the date of the poll, without prejudice
to the discretion of the Licensing Justices to grant a less number of
licenses than the said three-fourths. A subsequent poll on question of
prohibition not to be taken for three years.  During term of prohibition,
at poll taken by ballot on requisition of one-tenth of electors, two-thirds
of persons voting might pass resolution for abolishing total prohibition
after three years from commencement of Act; after that time resolution
not to come into force within 6ne year from passing. By similar processes, excepting that the majority is to be a bare majority instead of twothirds, total Sunday closing to be enforced; and subsequently abolished.
The areas to be boroughs (where undivided), wards, parishes (in
country); and in London-sanitary districts, wards, or parishes.  Act
not to apply to railway refreshment rooms, hotels for travellers and
lodgers, eating-houses for meals, nor to Ireland. No compensation.




34
Objections. A change in the law of the land, like the one proposed.
here, affecting so profoundly the mode of life of all in the area, should
not be made unless by the recorded votes of at least a majority of all
in the area entitled to vote, and unless adequate compensation is given
to traders whose: business is injured or destroyed as a result of the
enforcement of an adopted resolution. The loss to the excise revenue
caused by the adoption of prohibition in any area would have to be made
up by additional direct taxation levied from abstainers and non-abstainers
alike in such area and over the whole country.  Opposed at instance of
National Federation of Off-License Holders' Associations, Scottish
Licensed Trade Defence Association, Federated Brewers' Associations,
London Licensed Victuallers' Central Protection Society, London OffLicenses Association, Licensed Victuallers' Defence League of England
and Wales. Steps were taken to give effect to the League's opposition
if occasion arose, and 12,500oo printed summaries and objections sent to
federated Societies, Members of both Houses of Parliament, the Press,
and elsewhere. Dropped before second reading.
LIQUOR TRAFFIC LOCAL VETO (ENGLAND): On the demand of
one-tenth of the voters in any district a poll of the voters to be taken.
by which a majority of the voters polling could prohibit the granting or
renewal of licenses for the sale of alcoholic drinks for five years, at the
end of which time another poll might be taken. But if the prohibitionists lost the poll, they could demand another poll in two years. Aiz
objection..- A change in the law of the land, like the one proposed here
and in other cases, affecting so profoundly the mode of life of all in the
district, should not be made unless by the recorded votes of at least a
majority of all the voters in the district.  Opposed at instance of
National Federation of Off-License Holders' Associations, Beer and
Wine Trade National Defence League, Federated Brewers' Associations,
London Licensed Victuallers' Central Protection Society, London Off —
Licenses Association, Licensed Victuallers' Defence League of England
and Wales, Country Brewers' Society.  By the assistance of a Member
in the Commons, notice of motion for rejection of Bill on second
reading placed on the paper. 2I,ooo printed summaries and objections
sent to federated Societies, Members of Parliament, Press, and elsewhere. Dropped before second reading.
LIQUOR TRAFFIC LOCAL VETO (SCOTLAND): On the requisition of
not less than one-tenth of the householders, one of three resolutions
may be adopted by a majority, viz.:-(i.) that the sale of alcoholic
drinks be prohibited; (ii.) that the number of licenses be reduced;.
(iii.) that no more licenses be granted.  Opposed at instance of Scottish
Licensed Trade Defence Association, London Off-Licenses Association,.




35
National Federation of Off-License Holders' Association, Country
Brewers' Society, Licensed Victuallers' Defence League of England and
Wales, Federated Brewers' Association.  2 I,ooo printed summaries
and objections sent to federated Societies, Members of Parliament, and
elsewhere. Dropped before second reading.
PUBLIC-HOUSES, HOURS OF CLOSING (SCOTLAND): Extends the
restrictions of the Licensed Premises (Earlier Closing) (Scotland) Act
for closing hotels and public-houses at Io p.m. to towns of over 50,000
inhabitants, which were exempted by Parliament in I887. Opposed at
instance of the; Scottish Licensed Trade Defence Association.  2I,ooo
printed summaries and objections sent to federated Societies, Members
of Parliament, the Press, and elsewhere, and the Bill blocked on each
occasion it was put down for second reading. Second reading dropped.
SALE OF INTOXICATING LIQUORS ON SUNDAY: To compel the closing
of all hotels and public-houses throughout England during the whole of
Sunday.  Objection.. Experience of such legislation in the case of
Wales and Scotland shows that it tends to force drinking facilities into
working-men's clubs and private gatherings, with demoralising results.
Opposed at instance of Federated Brewers' Associations, Licensed
Tictuallers' Defence League of England and'Wales, Beer and Wine
Trade National Defence League, Northern Districts Beer and Wine
Trade Defence League, National Federation of Off-License Holders"
Associations, London Licensed Victuallers' Central Protection Society,
London Off-Licenses Association.  21,ooo printed summaries and objections sent to federated Societies, Members of Parliament, the Press,
and elsewhere. Dropped before second reading.
SALE OF INTOXICATING LIQUORS: Licensing Board to be established
for every district consisting of between seven and twelve members
elected by district, and half that number appointed by Licensing
Justices, to hold office for three years. All licensing powers to be
transferred to Board from Licensing Justices.  Licences to be for consumption on or off the premises, with powers of renewal and transfer
at discretion. After five years, poll to be taken for prohibiting on and
off licenses in district by majority of two-thirds of voters polling.
Number of new licenses to be limited to one license per I,ooo inhabitants in towns, and one per 500 in country; and old licenses to be
reduced to that proportion.  Compensation for extinguished licenses to
be given at first licensing after commencement of Act only. Board to
compel closing at io p.m. on week days and during the whole of
Sundays. Opposed at instance of National Federation of Off-License
Holders' Associations, London Licensed Victuallers' Central Protection
Society, London Off-Licenses Association, Licensed Victuallers' Defence




36
League of England and Wales, Federated Brewers' Association, Beer
and Wine Trade National Defence League. 17,500 printed summaries
and objections sent to federated Societies, Members of Parliament, and
elsewhere. Dropped before second reading.
SALE OF INTOXICATING LIQUORS (IRELAND): Brought in by Ulster
Unionist Members. To compel the closing during the whole of Sunday
of all places for the sale of alcoholic drinks in Dublin, Belfast, and the
other towns exempted by Parliament in i878 from the operations of the
Irish Sunday Closing Act. Opposed at instance of Dublin Licensed
Grocers' and Vintners' Association, National Federation of Off-License
Holders' Associations, Licensed Viotuallers' Defence League of England
and Wales, Belfast and Ulster Vintners' Association, Country Brewers'
Society, London Off-Licenses Association, Federated Brewers' Association. 2I,000 printed summaries and objections sent to Members of
Parliament, federated Societies, and elsewhere. Read a second time,
and referred to Standing Committee on Trade; but the stage of consideration was not reached before the dissolution.
SALE OF INTOXICATING LIQUORS TO CHILDREN: To make a penal
offence to sell or deliver alcoholic liquors to persons under sixteen.xObjection.* This would inflict a vexatious hardship on the working
classes by depriving them of the services of their children as messengers,
and re-open the question as settled by Parliament in the Intoxicating
Liquors (Sale to Children) Act, i886. Opposed at instance of National
Federation of Off-License Holders' Associations.  By assistance of
Members in Commons, arrangements made for permanently " objecting "
to the Bill.  ii,6oo  printed summaries and objections sent to Members
of Parliament, the Press, and elsewhere. Dropped before second
reading.
WINE AND BEERHOUSE ACT AMENDMENT: To repeal section 19,
Wine and Beerhouse Act, i869 (which precludes justices from refusing
to renew on-licenses, except for bad character of applicant, previous forfeiture for misconduct, or disorderly character of house), and section 7,
Wine and Beerhouse Act Amendment Act, 1870 (which extends application of section 19 of Act of 1869 to transferred licenses); and to
empower justices to refuse renewal of retail on-licenses on any grounds
appearing to them sufficient. Opposed at instance of Country Brewers'
Society, Federated Brewers' Associations, Beer and Wine Trade National
Defence League, Northern Districts Beer and Wine Trade Defence
League, National Federation of Off-Licensed Holders' Association. By
assistance of Members of the House of Commons, a standing block
was placed on the Bill.  I,350 printed summaries and objections sent
to Members of Parliament, federated Societies, Press, and elsewhere.
Dropped before second reading.




37
BILL PROMOTED BY THE LEAGUE.
LICENSING ACT AMENDMENT (HOUSE OF LORDS): The object of
this Bill is to secure uniformity in the granting by way of renewal or
transfer of licenses for the sale of intoxicating liquor. By section I9
of the Wine and Beerhouse Act, I869, it is enacted that it shall not be
lawful for Justices to refuse certain licenses except upon one or more
of the grounds stated in section 8 of the said Act. And whereas, in
consequence of the provisions of the Beer Dealers' Retail License Act,
I88o, and an Act of i882 to amend the same, doubts have arisen as to
the discretionary power of Licensing Justices and a diversity of practice
prevails, and license holders have been subjected to uncertainty and
expense, the Bill proposes that Licensing Justices shall not be at liberty
in the case of premises licensed at the time of the passing of this Act
to refuse the renewal or transfer of a license for the sale of any intoxicating liquors in any such premises except upon one or more of the
grounds specified in section 8 of the Wine and Beerhouse Act, I869;
but nothing herein contained shall limit or extend their discretion in
the grant or refusal of applications for a new license. When an application for a renewal or transfer of a license is refused, the Justices shall
specify in writing to the applicant the ground of their decision. This
Bill, which was drafted by the late Lord Bramwell, one of the judges
in the celebrated case, Sharpe v. Wakefield, was brought in the House
of Lords by the Chairman of the League Parliamentary Committee and
read a first time. During the session several conferences took place
between the Chairman, the Parliamentary Agent of the League, and
representatives of the Brewers, Licensed Victuallers, Wine and Spirit
Merchants, Beer Retailers, and Off-License Holders' Associations in
Great Britain, with regard to the progress of the Bill. Petitions from
nearly 200 Associations representing every branch of the Liquor industry in the United Kingdom were presented to the House of Lords
by the Chairman of the League Committee.  On May 28th the Parliamentary Agent of the League accompanied representatives of Associations federated with the League in a deputation to the Prime Minister
on the subject of the Bill.  I9,500 printed summaries of the Bill were
sent to Members of Parliament, federated Societies, the Press, and
elsewhere. Subsequently it was determined that, in view of the pending
dissolution of Parliament, no further steps should be taken to press the
Bill forward, but that it should be re-introduced early in I896, and a
vigorous effect made to get it placed upon the Statute-book. On the
motion of the Chairman of the League Committee, the petitions presented to the House of Lords in favour of the Bill were ordered to be
printed as a Return and laid on the Table of the House.
Deceizber 31st, z895.




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16, ST. JAMES'S STREET,  LONDON, S.W.
Please place the accombpavyi'ay S        f o..............................................
to the CJredit of the Leayge in miy Ttawte...........................................................
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(To pholLd the prlnciple of Liberty, and SGU ard te Rzt.s of Eabour
andq Property of all kinds (againsi ndzte interference by the State,
and to encourage Self-help versus State-lhe/p.)
ANNUAL REPORT, 1897.
(FIFTEENTH  FINANCIAL YEAR.)
PUBLISHED BY THE
LIBERTY AND PROPERTY DEFENCE LEAGUE,
7, VICTORIA STREET, LONDON, S. \IN.
I898.




Liberty   and   PropePty   Defenee   League.
(To uphold the principle of Liberty, and guard the Rights of Labour
and Property of all kinds against undue interference by the
State; and to encourage Self-help versus State-help.)
COUNCIL-1897-98.
THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF W\EMYSS, Chairman.
Sir FREDERICK BRAMWELL, Bart., F.R.S.
Alderman Sir W. J. RICH1MOND COTTON.
The IHon. BARON DIMISDALE.
Alderman Sir JOSEPH DIMISDALE.
Sir MYLES FENTON.
The Right Hon. EARi FORTESCUE.
H. D. GREENE, Esq., Q.C., M.P.
ALFRED HEWLETT, Esq.
Sir WILLIAM LEWIS, Bart.
W. H. MALLOCK, Esq.
GEORGE PALMER, Esq.
The Right Hon. LORD PENZANCE.
The Right Hon. LORD ROOxKWOOD.
H. H. RILEY-S-MITH, Esq.
H. C. STEPHENS, Esq., M.P.
W. J. CARRUTHERS-WAIN, Esq.
Sir EDWARD W. WATKIN, Bart.
Anld leprese'ntatives of 207 federated Corporate Bodies and Defence
Societies, refresentinz the chief industries and inlerests iln he Singdom.
Hon. Treasurer: WALTER FARQUHAR, Esq.
Secr-etary and Parliamentary Agent: FREDERICK MILLAR.




Liberty and Property Defenle Leagae,
FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT, 1896-7.
THE Council submit the following Report of the League's progress
and proceedings during the past year to the consideration of the
members of the League:MEMBERSHIP.
The number of Individual Members continues to increase.
The number of Societies Federated with the League is now 207,
being an increase of 7 since December 31st, I896.  The 207
Associations, Societies, and corporate bodies now federated with the
League represent every important interest and industry in the United
Kingdom.
Throughout the year the League is in constant communication with
these bodies, and during the Session of Parliament the League's work
almost entirely consists in arranging, in conjunction with their committees and officials, opposition to the yearly increasing number of
Bills brought before Parliament threatening their interests and the
common rights of liberty and property. The federation of Societies
and Companies for this purpose was the central idea in the constitution
of the League; and particulars of the League's work in this connection
are given in the appended Report of the Parliamentary Committee.
BRANCH EXTENSION.
Early in i897 several meetings of influential employers were held
in Nottingham  for the purpose of forming a strong local branch of
the League. A Provisional Committee has been formed, and a statement of objects adopted. Full particulars can be obtained from the
secretary, 7, Victoria Street; or from Mr. Amos Waters (Midland agent
of the League), 205, Pym Street, Nottingham.
FINANCE.
The audited Balance-sheet for the year ended October 3Ist last,
submitted by the Finance Committee, shows that the total of the




2
subscriptions and donations received during this fifteenth financial year
fell below the average of the previous years. Several reasons help to
account for this. First and foremost it is a result of the "Jubilee
year," with its many claims on public generosity.  In this respect the
League has not been the only sufferer. Secondly, the League has to
combat the prevailing impression that with a Conservative Government
in power things will "go easy" for a few years. But the socialist
measures introduced and carried during the Session of I897 ought to
convince the property-owning classes that in respect to legislation of
this character one political party is little, if any, better than the other.
To check aggression individual effort is necessary, and concentration of
effort is necessary.  " It is energy that achieves, and it is energy alone
that defends." The coming Parliamentary Session gives promise of a
fruitful crop of " Labour " Bills, which, in their ultimate effect, should
they become law, must touch every employer, workman, producer,
consumer, and ratepayer.  If the good work of the League, in
opposing all legislation subversive of sound principles and socialistic in
tendency, is to be maintained, generous financial support must be
forthcoming.
The balance-sheet, audited by the League auditors, and  the
subscription book, are open to the inspection of members at all times
at the offices at Westminster.
THE ANNUAL MEETING.
The Fourteenth Annual Meeting was held at the Westminster
Palace Hotel on March 2nd, I897, when Mons. Paul Leroy Beaulieu
presided and delivered an address. At the conclusion of the address,
in the absence (through illness) of the Earl of Wemyss, chairman of
the Council, Sir Frederick Bramwell presented to the meeting the
Report of the Council (including the Reports of the Parliamentary and
Finance Committees) for the past year. The usual resolutions adopting
the Report and proposing a vote of thanks to the chairman were
vigorously moved and seconded by Mr. T. Dundas Pillans, Colonel
Montague Clementi, Mr. L. Cranmer-Byng (chairman of the Individualist Club), Mr. John Hunt (president of the Licensed Victuallers' National
Defence League), the Earl Fortescue, and Mr. G. A. Laws (general
manager of the Shipping Federation).
PRESS AND PLATFORM WORK.
The ordinary work in connection with the League Lecture
Department has been carried on uninterruptedly throughout the
year, and League lecturers have delivered addresses, undertaken
debates, and given lectures at a great number of public meetings held




3
in the halls and parks of London and suburbs, and at working men s
political and social clubs in the provinces. The League has also been
represented at several congresses and meetings of property-owners'
associations, and of the Federated Societies in London and the
provinces.
The Press Correspondence Department, established for the
purpose of addressing to the press original letters on subjects of interest
to the League and its Federated Societies, and replies to letters and
articles advocating socialism, or in some way contravening the principles
and objects of the League, has continued its successful work in opening
the eyes of the public to the dangers of Socialism, and to the evils of
undue State interference with the rights of freedom and property.
PUBLICATIONS.
During the past year the issue and sale of Publications has been
well maintained.  Among  other publications issued, "Property in
Land: A  Defence of Individual Ownership," by J. C. Spence
(price id.), has been reprinted. New publications are:-" Liberty and
Property: The Two Main Factors of Human Progress," by Paul Leroy
Beaulieu (price Id.), and " Trade Unionism in Relation to Wages," by
James Birks (price 6d.).  In connection with the Parliamentary Department twenty issues of Tables of Parliamentary Bills under consideration
were widely distributed.
A list of the publications on sale at the League offices is given in
the advertisements at the end of this Report.  Special reference must
be made to an excellent and most readable booklet (price is.), entitled
" Conservatives or Socialists?" by J. Buckingham  Pope, which is the
most forcible protest against the Workmen's Compensation for Accidents
Bill (of 1897) yet produced in book form; and also to a concise statement of the law as regards picketing and its abuses, published as " The
Case against Picketing" (price is. 6d.), by W. J. Shaxby, a member of
the League staff.
Mention should be made of the;iberty Revz'iew, a monthly journal
of politics, economics, and sociology, edited by the Secretary of the
League, and published at 17, Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, London,
E.C. The Liberty Review is now recognised as the only organ devoting
its columns exclusively to an exposure of socialist fallacies.  The paper
has no connection with the League, financially or editorially; but
several members of the League, in addition to its editor, are on the
staff of writers; and the political principles of the paper are generally
in accord with those held by the League.  In its columns all legislative
proposals affecting commercial industrial warfare are subjected to
exhaustive examination; and every attempt to harass or to confiscate




4
the property of any body of traders, or of any corporate association, is
steadfastly resisted. The evil effects of past undue State interference
with the conduct and management of railways, mines, the shipping
trade, the liquor trade, and other national industries, and with the
ownership and disposition of landed and other property, are exposed,
with a view to demonstrating the pernicious character of the legislation
which certain factions and parties are organized to promote. The
various large interests of London and the country, federated through
their representative organizations with the League, would do well to
make the Liberty Review the medium of expressing to a more extended
audience their views upon political questions particularly affecting themselves, now too often confined to their respective trade journals.
THE INDIVIDUALIST CLUB.
Although the League is in no way connected with the Individualist
Club, founded at the end of I896, the staff and many members of the
League have personally rendered every assistance in their power towards
its successful start and growth. The Club, as a propagandist body, has
widely circulated several printed statements, among them being a
valuable memorandum upon the socialist tendency of modern legislation, and a strong protest against the Workmen (Compensation for
Accidents) Bill. At its weekly social gatherings (now held in the
Chapter Room at Anderton's Hotel) the debates-reported from time
to time in the press-have done good work. They have dealt with
many current topics, such as "Socialism" (opened by'Mr. Bernard
Shaw), Education (opened by Sir Richard Temple; and again by Mr.
G. Brown), Free Trade (opened by Sir Henry Howorth, supported by
Colonel Sir Howard Vincent), Woman Suffrage (opened by Miss Helen
Blackburn), the Factory Acts (opened by Miss Ada Heather-Bigg), the
Dock Companies' Superannuation  Scheme (opened by the Hon.
Sidney Holland), and the Irish Land Bills (opened by Mr. S. Murray
Hussey).
A VERY IMPORTANT SERVICE; A NATIONAL FEDERATION OF EMPLOYERS.
The most important work of the League during the past year has,
without doubt, been the part it has taken in the formation of the Free
Labour Protection Association. The necessity for a national confederation of employers having for its primary object the repression of the
tyranny of trade unions had, during the last few years, become so urgent
that no sooner was the idea mooted than it met with the unanimous
approval of the heads of the various industries who were consulted on
the subject. A private meeting of influential employers and represen



tatives of Employers' Associations in the United Kingdom was held at
the League offices, 7, Victoria Street, Westminster, on July I6th, I897,
to discuss a proposal to form such a confederation. The chair was
taken by the Right Hon. the EARL OF WEMYSS. On the motion of
Colonel H. C. DYER (President, Employers' Federation of Engineering
Associations), seconded by Mr. G. A. LAWS (General Manager, The
Shipping Federation, Limited), the following resolution was unanimously
adopted:" That, in the opinion of this representative meeting of employers, it
is desirable to form a Free Labour Protection Association, having for
its objects" I. To test systematically the efficiency, or otherwise, of the existing
laws for the protection of Non-Unionists, and, if necessary, to obtain
an amendment of such laws.
" I. To watch all strikes, and ensure the observance of the law in all
disputes between employer and employed.
" III. To oppose all legislation injuriously affecting the trades and
industries of the United Kingdom.
"' IV. To seek the attainment of these objects through the corporate
action of the Association; by the federation of (a) employers, whether
individuals, firms, or corporate bodies; (b) existing or future Employers'
Associations for the protection of separate interests; and in such ways
as shall at any time appear necessary or desirable."
A Committee, consisting of the following gentlemen, with power to
add to their number, was appointed to give effect to the foregoing
resolution, and to draft the constitution and rules of the Association:The Right Hon. the EARL OF WEMYSS.
Sir WILLIAM T. LEWIS, Bart.
Mr. H. D. GREENE, Q.C., M.P.
Colonel H. C. DYER (President, Employers' Federation of Engineering
Associations).
The Hon. W. W. VIVIAN (Dinorwic Quarries).
Mr. ALEXANDER SIEMENS (President, London Association of
Engineering Employers).
Mr. GEORGE  LIVESEY  (Chairman, South  Metropolitan  Gas
Company).
Mr. T. F. RIDER (President, National Association of Master Builders).
Mr. G. A. LAWS (General Manager, The Shipping Federation).
Mr. W. SHEPHERD  (President, London Central Association of
Master Builders).
Of this Committee several members, it will be noticed, have for many
years past served on the League Council; and Lord Wemyss, chairman
of the League Council, has consented to act as chairman of the
Executive Committee of the Free Labour Protection Association, and




6
Mr. Frederick Millar, the secretary of the League, to act as secretary to
the Association. A movement of this important and far-reaching
character, at a time when the world of trade and commerce is seriously
struggling to free itself from the hampering and harassing conditions
which the socialist trade union leaders have for some time past been
endeavouring to force upon it, is the most valuable development outside
Parliament that the League's influence could possibly have secured.
And this help, rendered to employers and employed in their fight with
trade union socialism, is of itself sufficient justification for the League's
existence during the last fifteen years.
PARLIAIMENTARY REPORT,
SESSION 1897.
Parliamentary  Committee:-The  Earl of Wemyss, Baron
Dimsdale, Alderman Sir Joseph Dimsdale, the Earl Fortescue, Sir
Edward W. Watkin, Bart., Henry C. Stephens, Esq., M.P., George
Palmer, Esq., Lord Rookwood, W. J. Carruthers Wain, Esq., and
Representatives of the chief Defence Societies of the various industries
and interests federated with the League.
Parliamentary Agent: —Frederick Millar.
Shortly after the beginning of the Session the Parliamentary Committee resumed the issue of their Table of Public and Private Bills
before Parliament, in fulfilment of the plan approved at the Conference
of March 9th, I892, and commenced in the session of that year. The
Table was printed and circulated each week, Bills requiring the opposition of the League and its Federated Societies being added to the list
on each occasion, as the attention of the Committee was successively
called to them by the various Societies. The table, which gives the
stage of each Bill, is drawn up primarily for the use of the Defence
Societies, instructions being included as to the manner of conducting
the opposition, and the heads being given of the grounds whereon the
opposition should be based in each case. Copies are also sent each




week to all members and supporters of the League in both Houses of
Parliament.  In all, since February 1897, twenty editions, numbering
over 20,000 copies, were issued.
This action of the Committee was further supplemented by circulation among Members of Parliament, the Press, and the public of
several thousands of printed whips, notices, and memoranda; by
publication and distribution of pamphlets and leaflets relating to overlegislation in general, or to special instances of it; by letters written
from the Central Offices to the London and Provincial press; by the
personal procuring of the assistance of members and supporters of the
League in Parliament in opposing Bills objected to, in whole or in part,
by Societies federated with the League; by addresses, speeches, and
resolutions at public meetings through the agency of the League Lecture
Department; by consultations and arrangements for concerted action
with the Societies federated with the League, and with the leading
representatives of the' industries attacked; and by arranging for the
drafting and presentation to Parliament of petitions against any of the
Bills on the weekly Table, wherever desirable, on behalf of any of the
Societies federated with the League.
The following is a list of some of the more important Bills thus
opposed by the Committee and the federated Societies:LAND AND HOUSES.
The Borough  Funds;  Places of Worship  (Leasehold
Enfranchisement); Smaller Dwellings (Scotland); Crofters'
Holdings (Scotland) Act (1886) Amendment; Land Values
(Towns  Assessment);   Leaseholders  (Purchase  of  Fee
Simple) (No. 2); Leaseholders (Purchase of Fee Simple);
Occupying  Tenants' Enfranchisement  (Purchase  of Fee
Simple);  Industrial  and  Provident  and  Incorporated
Building  Societies (Purchase of Fee Simple); and Local
Government Act (1888) Amendment Bills were reintroduced
and put down for second reading; but, being persistently objected
to and  "blocked," they were  either "dropped" before second
reading, or lapsed owing to prorogation intervening. These Bills, all
of which proposed to break existing contracts, were opposed by the
League at the instance of such bodies as the Highland Property
Association, the Orkney Landowners' Association, the Glasgow Landlords' Association, the United Property Owners' and Ratepayers'
Association of Great Britain, and in conjunction with the Property
Protection Society. Over 20,000 printed summaries and objections
respecting these Bills were sent to the press, Federated Societies,
Members of Parliament, and elsewhere.




8
The London County Buildings Bill: The object of this Bill was to
enable the London County Council to provide new offices for its staff,
and to acquire the whole of the south side of Trafalgar Square, from
Drummond's Bank to Cockspur Street, and the hinterland back to
the new Admiralty buildings on the east side and the park on the
south-west, taking in the site of the present County Council Offices,
and wiping out the thoroughfare on which they stand.  Objections.'
(I) That the proposed site is altogether out of proportion to the
requirements of the London County Council. (2) That, in view of
the extreme probability of the Council's authority and powers being
delegated to district councils and local municipal bodies, in response
to the growing demand of London parishes for charters of incorporation,
the proposed accommodation will not be needed. (3) That the injury
done to the businesses now being carried on in Trafalgar Square will be
irreparable, and the compensation likely to be awarded would not
recompense the evicted.  (4) That to involve the ratepayers of London
in wasteful and wanton expenditure, amounting to nearly a million and
a half, would be wholly unpardonable.
At the request of the property-owners and shopkeepers in th%
affected area, the Parliamentary Committee took steps to oppose the
Bill. A pamphlet dealing exhaustively with the subject was published
by the League, and a copy was sent to every member of the House of
Commons, with the result that a strong feeling of opposition to the
measure was aroused. The Bill was put down for second reading on
February i8th. On the previous day a special "whip" was sent to
members of the House of Commons, asking them to support the
motion for the rejection of the Bill. The second reading was rejected
by 227 votes to I46; majority, 8i.
The Working Men's Dwellings [H.L.] Bill: Empowered the
local authority to borrow from the Public Works Loans Commissioners,
and to make advances of not more than ~I50 to any one workman for
the acquisition of the dwelling-house in which he resides.  Objections.'
This Bill, and the two similar Working Men's Dwellings Bills introduced
into the House of Commons-one of which was withdrawn, and -the
other down for second reading when the prorogation took place-were
wholly unnecessary. The working-class demands for the purchase of
dwellings are adequately supplied by private enterprise. The Bill passed
through Committee, was read a third time in the House of Lords, and
sent to the Commons, in which House it did not reach the second
reading stage. In the meantime, the Chairman of the League Parliamentary Committee " capped " this socialistic absurdity by introducing
a Bill " To provide facilities for the acquisition, by occupiers and




9
occu5pyi'n  rateiayvers, of their dwellings."  The introduction of this
" logical" Bill undoubtedly had something to do with the fate of Lord
Londonderry's measure, of which, it is to be hoped, nothing further will
now be heard.
The Land Tenure (Wales and )Ylonmouthshire) Bill: Proposes
to establish a Land Court in Wales and Monmouthshire for the purpose
of settling the rents of agricultural holdings; provides for reference to
an agricultural judge selected by the Board of Agriculture from a list
drawn up by the County Councils. Proposes that a tenancy shall not
be determined at the wish of the landlord unless the ground is required
for certain specified purposes, and that, when a landowner resumes
occupation for any other purpose than "the benefit of labourers in
respect of cottages, gardens, or allotments," the tenant shall be entitled
to compensation for disturbance.  Oyjecions': The principle, that the
question of rent as between landlord and tenant may be settled compulsorily by an authority external to the contract of tenancy, has failed
in Ireland. It is undesirable that the law regulating the relations of
landlord and tenant, at present identical in England and Wales, should
for the future be entirely distinct in the two parts of the country.
Compensation for disturbance is, in England, a new and objectionable
doctrine. These and other objections were embodied in a " Statement,"
and sent by the Parliamentary Committee of the League to members of
the House of Commons; and on the day preceding the motion for the
second reading of the Bill a telegraphic whip was sent to League
members and supporters in the House of Commons, urging them to
speak and vote against the measure. On May I9th the second reading
was rejected by 278 to I54; majority, I24.
RAILWAYS.
The Coroners' Inquests (Railway Fatalities) and Railway
Return Tickets Bills were again put down for second reading; but,
being persistently blocked, the former was dropped, and the latter
lapsed owing to prorogation.
MINES.
The Mines Eight Hours Bill again proposed to interfere with
the freedom of adult males in the disposal of their own labour, by prohibiting any person from working more than eight hours in the twentyfour underground in any mine. The Parliamentary Committee of the
League took active steps to have the Bill opposed. The second reading
was rejected by 227 votes to i86, Wednesday, May 5th, I897.




IO
TRADES AND MANUFACTURES.
The Shops Early Closing, the Shop Assistants (Half-Holiday),
and the Shops Bills all aimed at interfering with the natural regulation
of closing shops, and attempted to enforce a rigid observation as to
closing, which would cause much disorganization in established trade
arrangements, and would tend to stop the general movement in the
direction of early closing being effected voluntarily. Each Bill was
opposed by the Parliamentary Committee on behalf of the Voluntary
Early Closing Association, and of various associations of shopkeepers.
Each Bill was dropped before second reading.
The Gold and Silver Plate Licences Bill proposed to abolish
the license at present necessary for any trader who sells articles composed
wholly or in part of silver or gold. It was opposed at the request of
the National Retail Jewellers' Association and the National Association
of Pawnbrokers of Great Britain, with such success that it was speedily
withdrawn.
SHIPS.
The lBMerchant Shipping Act Amendment Bill was introduced
as usual.
The  Merchant Shipping (Certificated OffiEers) Bill allowed
no British ship to proceed to sea from any port without certificated
officers. British vessels of over 500 tons to carry master and two mates,
and of over I,ooo tons to carry master and three mates. British subjects
only may hold certificates.
The Steam  Engines and Boilers (Persons in Charge) Bill
empowered the Secretary of State to prevent anyone having the charge
of a steam engine or boiler of more than 5-horse power (except when
used exclusively for domestic, agricultural, or farming purposes, or on
H.M.S., railways, steamships, and roads), unless such person  had
obtained from him a certificate by examination; or on application with
proof of practical experience. Certificates by examination were to be
ranked as first-class; certificates on application, with proof of practical
experience, were to be ranked as second-class. This Bill, introduced
by the "labour leaders," would give the highest ranks of labour a.
monopoly of the market, which, in the interests of wage-earners
generally, is not desirable.  The Bill was wholly unnecessary and
uncalled for; there is not, and never has been, any genuine demand
for it among working men; it is unsupported by facts or statistics; it
may work enormous injury and injustice to every employer in the United
Kingdom using steam power.
All three Bills were opposed at the instance of the Chamber of
Shipping of the United Kingdom and the Shipowners' Parliamentary




II
Committee.  Over 24,000 printed Summaries and Objections were sent
to Federated Societies, Members of Parliament, and elsewhere. The
Bills were persistently "blocked" at the request of the League, and
were eventually dropped.
The Steam Engines and Boilers (Persons in Charge) Bill affords
good illustrations of the blind manner in which the House of Commons
frequently passes legislation which happens to be initiated and supported by the so-called " Labour " members. That the second reading
of a measure of this kind should have been carried by 203 votes to I37
surprised a good many people when the true character of the Bill was
made known to them by the League in a Memorandum which was
issued on the subject and distributed among members of Parliament,
the press, and the general public. Seeing that the House refused to
proceed any further with the Bill, it may indeed be questioned whether
any but a small proportion of the majority who voted for the second
reading really knew what it was they were voting for. The following
is an extract from the Memorandum issued by the League: —
The Bill, if it became law, could not prevent explosions, accidents,
or loss of life. Occasional causes of such calamities are carelessness,
drunkenness, malice, etc., on the part of men in charge of boilers
and engines. During the last twenty years no accident attributable
to ignorance or incompetence on the part of " persons in charge "
has occurred in the United Kingdom, except in trades exemzptedfrom
this Bill. Why its promoters are willing to exempt those trades is
explained further on. The Bill does not provide any test for ascertaining whether a person offering to take charge of engines and
boilers is careless, a drunkard, malicious, etc., while an ample and
unerring test in respect to experience, capability, etc., of such
persons already exists, no other being required. Owners of expensive
boilers and engines never have given, and never will give, charge
of their property to a mechanic without first inquiring into the
mechanic's fitness for his work. No owner of machinery can
possibly want to have an explosion or accident on his premises,
which might wreck his machinery, stop his business, and involve
him in heavy damages.
There is no demand among trade unionists, engineers, or working
men for this Bill. Its very existence and its purport are unknown to
999 out of every I,ooo working men in the United Kingdom
to-day. Resolutions in favour of this Bill have regularly appeared
on the Agenda Paper at Trade Union Congresses for many years
past, and have been "run through," without discussion, at the
bidding of the well-known group of agitators who manipulate those
Congresses-like resolutions in favour of land nationalization, or




I2
other schemes in which trade unionists take no interest, which
they have never instructed their supposed representatives at these
Congresses to deal with at all.
The Bill was drafted and devised many years ago by a small group
of so-called "Labour" leaders-actually socialist agitators-who live
and thrive on strikes and social discord, when not drawing salaries
from Radical party funds, on the off-chance that Parliament might
let it slip through some day.  The object-the sole object-of the
Bill is perfectly plain and manifest. Since there is no active agitation
at present among agricultural labourers, the so-called "Labour"
leaders are willing to exempt agricultural machinery-actually the
most liable to get into incompetent hands.
If the Bill became law, it would be used by socialist agitators in
the following very practical way:-No engine could be started in
the majority of factories, or in any steam-power-using enterprize
in the United Kingdom, unless an officially "certificated person
in charge" handled the throttle valve. Knowing what power this
enactment would give them, the " Labour " leaders would, by their
usual agencies-threats, coercion, and terrorism-insist on every
qualified man in the kingdom joining a " Certificated Engineers'
Trade Union." The Union once thoroughly organized, a small
group of irresponsible socialist agitators in London, calling
themselves " Labour " leaders, would find themselves possessed of
statutory power to stop every factory or enterprise depending on steam
power in the kiz'ngdom in one day.  That socialist " Labour " leaders
are perfectly prepared, and anxious, to abuse power in a similar way
was proved recently, on a smaller scale, during the abortive cab
strike. Efforts were then made to stop, or control, the issue of
drivers' licenses by the authorities, on the sham plea that the public
were not "safe" in the hands of newly-licensed men; really in
order that the agitators interested might be able to prohibit cab
and omnibus traffic in the Metropolis until their demands were
conceded. This Bill gives to the same group of agitators who
figured in the cab strike a like weapon to that which they attempted
to obtain from the police authorities.
If the Bill became law, thousands of employers, especially mineowners, would be absolutely at the mercy of a " Certificated
Engineers' Trade Union," and of the agitators controlling it. Were
the often-threatened  "general strike" to be attempted by the
Socialist Labour party, there might be plenty of perfectly
competent and trustworthy men without "': certificates " willing to
take temporary charge of pumping, ventilating, etc., engines; this
Bill would prohibit any of them going to work until examined and




13
certified by the class of persons who now-a-days figure as Home
Office inspectors.  It might be objected that certificates could be
easily and quickly obtained by competent men in emergencies. But
employers would do well to bear in mind that, as shown during the
recent debate on the Bethesda quarry dispute, the agents or
" Labour " officials under the Board of Trade are mostly socialist
agitators on half pay; while, under a so-called Conservative
Government, the Department itself has been used to further
socialist attacks on "capitalism."  Employers and steam users
ought, therefore, to consider seriously what their position is likely
to be should the tremendous weapon provided by this Bill fall
into the hands of some future Socialist-Radical Government,
with a "Labour" Home Secretary and a host of pensioned
socialist agitators acting as examiners under this Bill, and able
to grant, delay, or withhold engineers' "certificates" to suit the
purposes of a Strike Committee.
The Trawlers Licensing  Bill proposed that no fishing-boat,
being a trawler of twenty-five tons and upwards, shall put to sea from
any port in the United Kingdom unless licensed by the Board of Trade.
License to be suspended on conviction of offence of illegal trawling,
the owner or master fined a sum not exceeding the estimated market
value of any boat used during suspension of license.  Obyecdions.- The
Bill was a harsh and unnecessary restraint of trade, and shifted the
responsibility of an illegal action from the shoulders of the master of
the vessel on to the unoffending smackowner, who has no opportunity
to control his property when once it leaves the harbour. It was opposed
by the League at the instance of the Great Grimsby Smackowners
Association, Limited, and the Lowestoft Trawling Smack Protection
Society, Limited, and, being persistently blocked, lapsed owing to
prorogation.
TRADE IN ALCOHOL.
As in the previous Sessions, the Grocers' Certificates' Scotland
(Abolition); Liquor Traffic Local Veto; Liquor Traffic Local
Veto (Scotland); Sunday Closing (Wales) Act, 1881, Amendment; Sale of Intoxicating Liquors to Children; and Wine and
Beerhouse Acts Amendment Bills were introduced into the House
of Commons, and put down for second reading. Each Bill was
systematically " blocked," and was either dropped before second reading
or finally lapsed owing to prorogation intervening.
Details of these Bills have already been given in previous
Parliamentary Reports. They were opposed this session at the
instance of the Dublin Licensed Grocers' and Vintners' Association,




I4
Belfast and Ulster Vintners' Association, Federated Brewers' Association, Licensed Victuallers' Defence League of England and Wales, the
Beer and Wine Trade National Defence League. National Federation
of Off-License Holders' Association, Scottish Licensed Trade Defence
Association, Northern Districts Beer and Wine Trade Defence League,
and other bodies; and over 20,000 printed summaries and objections
respecting each Bill were sent to the press, Federated Societies,
Members of Parliament, and elsewhere.
Sale of Intoxicating  Liquors (Ireland): To compel the
closing during the whole of Sunday of all places for the sale of alcoholic
drinks in Dublin, Belfast, and the other towns exempted by Parliament
in 1878 from the operations of the Irish Sunday Closing Act. This
Bill was opposed by the League at the instance of the Dublin Licensed
Grocers' and Vintners' Association, and the Belfast and Ulster Vintners'
Association. In co-operation with the various liquor Trade Associations in England, the Parliamentary Committee of the League took
steps to have the Bill opposed on the motion for second reading; and,
in addition to statements of objections to the Bill, special telegraphic
whips were sent to members of the House of Commons, urging them
to oppose the second reading.  In previous sessions the second reading
of this Bill was carried by large majorities. Owing, however, to the
action of the League and its federated Societies, the majority in favour
of the second reading in the present instance was reduced to twentynine-201 members voting for, and 172 against, the second reading.
The continued opposition of the League and its federated Societies
resulted in the withdrawal of the Bill.
Sale of Intoxicating Liquors on Sundays: To compel the
closing of all hotels and public-houses throughout England during the
whole of Sunday. Experience of such legislation in the case of WVales
and Scotland shows that it tends to force drinking facilities into workingmen's clubs and private gatherings, with demoralizing results.  The Bill
was opposed by the League, and statements of objections to its
provisions were circulated among members of Parliament and elsewhere.  On February Ioth a telegraphic whip was sent to League
members and supporters in the House of Commons, and the motion
for second reading was defeated by 206 to I49; majority against, 57.
Injuries to Workmen (Employers' Liability): This  Bill
provided that where a workman was injured in pursuit of his employment, whether by the negligence of his master or of his fellow-servants,
or as the result of a pure accident, compensation should be paid by his
employer.  At the request of the Liverpool Shipowners' Association,




I5
the Parliamentary Committee of the League opposed this Bill on the
ground that, if passed, the measure would be one of far-reaching
application, and would bear very heavily upon shipowners, mineowners, and, indeed, all classes of employers. It was estimated that
the cost of compensation to shipowners alone would not be less than
f5oo,ooo, and the promoter of the Bill admitted that the cost to each
sailing ship would be'48 per annum. The Bill was full of traps,
penalties, novel risks, and hindrances, which would press hardly upon
struggling employers of labour and manufacturers, and the only people
likely to benefit from such a measure would be the foreign manufacturers, who are not handicapped by similar legislation. Copies of a
statement of objections to the Bill were circulated among members of
Parliament, and, at the instance of the League, the Bill was persistently
blocked during the time it appeared among the Orders of the Day.
The Bill was ultimately dropped.
Workmen (Compensation for Accidents): This Bill, which
was introduced by the Government, proposed to make an employer
liable to pay compensation for injury to a workman, even though that
injury was directly due to the fault or disobedience of the workman.
Provided for settlement of disputes on the subject by reference to
arbitration. The Bill applied only to employment on, in, or about a
railway, factory, mine, quarry, or engineering work; it allowed contracting out only on certification by the Registrar of Friendly Societies
that such scheme is not less favourable to the workmen than this Act.
In conjunction with its federated Societies, the League opposed the
Bill, on the grounds that it would inevitably reduce wages, since the
foreign consumer will not pay an enhanced price for coal and such
other of his imports as could be produced in his own country or obtained
elsewhere more cheaply; it would foment strikes, promote accidents,
and encourage carelessness, malingering, and idleness; and that it would
lead to the extinction of voluntary accident funds.  It was held that
upon small capitalists the effect would be most disastrous, if not
ruinous, and that it would dispose employers to seek relief from
their individual responsibility by insuring heavily against risk, and
rejecting, at the  instance of the insurance companies, the old,
infirm, and incapable workmen now retained from kindly motives.
As contracting out was only permitted by license, the Bill distinctly interfered with freedom of contract. The League opposed
the Bill at various stages in the House of Commons, through which
House it passed with amendments.  In the House of Lords the
Chairman of the League Parliamentary Committee gave notice that he
would move the rejection of the second reading of the Bill; but, in




i 6
deference to the wishes of Lord Londonderry and the coal-owners, the
motion for the rejection of the Bill was withdrawn. It was thought that,
by persisting in the motion, the efforts of those who were seeking to
amend the Bill might be frustrated.  At the third reading stage the
Chairman of the League Parliamentary Committee moved the rejection
of the Bill, in order that a protest on behalf of the League and its
federated Societies might be made against legislation of this character.
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
This resume of the year'swork shows that the League
has not been idle, and that, by the concerted efforts of its
members and Federated Societies, a great mass of mischievous and predatory legislation has been successfully
opposed.  By securing the co-operation  of all persons
individually opposed to the principle of State Socialism in
all or any one of its instances, and by concentrating into
a system of mutual defence the forces of the Defence Associations of the various industries in the country, and of
independent Companies and Corporate Bodies, the League
seeks to resist all attempts on the part of the State or the
Municipalities to' restrict freedom of contract and freedom
of labour, to harass private  enterprise, or to  unduly
interfere with the rights of property. In carrying on this
good and necessary work the Council invite the support of
all persons who sympathize with the sound political and
economic principles the League exists to maintain. This
work, entailing as it does a heavy expenditure, cannot be
continued with any degree of success unless those in whose
behalf it is undertaken subscribe liberally towards the
League funds.  Persons and Corporate Bodies wishing to
join the League are requested to send their subscriptions,
with address, to Lloyds Bank, Limited (Herries, Farquhar,
Branch), 16, St. James's Street, London, S.W.; or to the
Secretary, Liberty and Property Defence League, 7, Victoria
Street, London, S.W.
December 3zsl, 1897.




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Io. 7. 50,000.                                                 StENT FREI-E
THE FARMERS WANT TO iNOW,
Challenge of the State Grange of Pennsylvania
to the Home Market Club of Boston,
and Its Reply.
Counterstatement Proving  the  Enormous  Cost of  the  Protective
System, and  Which  Falls as an  Unjust Burden Upon
Agriculture-Why a Tariff on  Imports Cannot
Protect the Staples of Agriculture,  and
Why an Export Bounty Can.
In the minutes of the last meeting of the State Grange of Pennsylvania, held at
Williamsport, Pa., December 10, 1895, appears the following resolution or
CHALLENQE
WHEREAS, Report 1999, House of Representatives, Fifty-third Congress, Third
Session, page 13, contains the following:
First, the American Protective Tariff League requested Brother David Lubin of
Sacramento, Cal., to contribute to the funds of said League.
Second, a contribution of $1,000 was accordingly handed to the President of the
Bank of D. O. Mills & Co., with instructions to pay same to said League, provided
that a committee of five named, or to be impartially selected, would decide (a) that
the present system of protection by a tariff on imports is just and equitable to the
producers of agricultural staples as long as there is a surplus of these staples to e-&'
port, (b) or that a bounty on exports of agricultural staples would be unjust or inequitable as long as there4s a protective tariff on imports; and,
5WHEREAS, The said League, in reply to the offer, stated that it would be subs
mitted to its Executive Committee, but, so far as known, took no further action in
the matter; and,
WHEREAS, on September 4th of this year, seven thousand farmers gather. d at
the Interstate Harvest Home meeting at Maryville, Missouri, did submit the ablove
questions to the said Tariff League; and.
WHEREAS, The State Granges of California and Missouri, at their last annual
meetings this year, also submitted the above questions to the organization named,
to all of which no reply was made; and,
WHEREAS, Deeming correct answers to the above questions not alone of vital
importance to the producers of agricultural staples, but to the American people;
and,
WHEREAS, The American Protective Tariff League and the Home Market Club
are assumed to be well versed in the operation of protection by a tariff on imports
and are assumed to be representative exponents of protection; therefore, be it
Resolved By this State Grange of Pennsylvania, at its regular annual meeting
held at Williamsp6rt, Pa., that we respectfully, earnestly and urgently request said
Tariff League and the Home Market Club to forward to the Secretary of this State
Grange for general publication, replies to the following questions:
First, can a tarif on imports directly or indirectly protect the home market
prices of agricultural staple- as long as the surplus is sold for export, and the export
and home price for these are the same?
Second, if it cannot, must not this unprotected industry pay for the cost of protection of the protected industries?
Third, is not such a system of protection injuriously unjust and inequitable to
the producers of agricultural staples?
Fourth, will not a bounty on the export of agricultural staples for the protection
of their"price-3 in the home market be just and equitable so long as protection by a
tariff on imports is in operation?
Resolved, That a copy of this preamble and resolutions be at once mailed to the




CopDy Petition an _Lat Pave and Send to Congeeg.s
President and Secretary of the American Protective Tariff League, No. 125 West
Twenty-third street, New York City, and to the President and Secretary of the
Home Market Club, No. 56 Bedford street, Boston, Mass.
Passed by the State Grange of Pennsylvania at Williamsport, December
10, 1895.
[The American Protective Tariff League made no reply to the above challenge.]
On February 1st, 1896, the undersigned received a communication from Worthy
Master, Leonard Rhone, of the State Grange of Pennsylvania, drawing attention to
an enclosure, which was a reply to the above challenge by the Home Market Club of
Boston, as follows:
THE HOME MARKET CLUB.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
CHARLES A. SCOTT, President.               JOHN HOPEWELL, JR., Boston.
ALBERT CLARKE, Secretary.                  0. I-I. SAMPSON, Boston.
BEVELEY K. MOORE, Treasurer.               FREDERICK E. CLARKE, Lawrence.
JOHN SHAW, Quincy.                         GEORGE L. HOOPER, Lowell,
56 Bedford and 53 Avon streets.
BOSTON, Mass., January 14, 1896.
MR. J. T. AILMAN, SECRETARY OF PENNSYLVANIA STATE GRANGE
PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY, Tlompsontown, Pa.
DEAR SIR: Your favor of December 30th, enclosing a copy of some resolutions
adopted by the Pennsylvania State Grange, December 10, 1895, propounding certain
questions to the Home Market Club, was duly received and the same has been
candidly considered. It gives me pleasure to reply to the questions, in the ohder
propounded, as follows:
1. Yes, we think that a tariff on imports of agricultural staples, of which our
country has a surplus for export, can and does protect the home market p)i:ce ot
such staples, to some extent, because seaboard markets and those along the
Canadian border would often be supplied by foreign products instead of our owni, if
there were no duty. Two factors would cause this: (1), proximity anh +he small
cost of transportation, and (2), the convenience and econom.y to vessels ol claving
\return cargoes. It is not claimed that the extent of protection by duties is so great
as it would be if we had no surplus for export, but it is considerable.
2. This question is partly answered above, by the showing that it is based in part
upon a wrong premise. But a further answer is this: There are no unprotected
industries. Protection of the home market is or should be applied to every
industry that is subject to foreign competition. The cost and also the benefit of it
then diffuse themselves upon all classes according to the extent of their consumption.
The great development of our country and the constant reduction in the prices of
manufactures prove that the benefit is much greater than the cost. The fact that
farmers can buy all kinds of goods which are now made in this country on a commercial scale at prices relatively lower than the prices of farm products, when compared with prices for both which prevailed before protection had developed home
competition, shows that the agricultural class fully shares the benefit. If any other
class gets a greater benefit it is the operative class, which, as statistics in Massachusetts show, derives a little more from manufactures than capital receives., But
this has so greatly increased the purchasing power of this class that the home
market for all the products of our farms has been developed even more than agriculture. Under any economic condition it is impossible that all classes and individuals should fare exactly alike, but protection  by duties, when impartially
applied, insures to all an equal opportunity throughout our national domain. All
the rest must depend upon themselves.
3. Such a system is not unjust to the producers of agricultural staples, (1),
because it does not tax them any more than it taxes all other consumers; (2), because
it does not force them  to produce a surplus for export, as greater purchases of
foreign manufactures tend to do, and (3), because it continually increases the home
market so that consumption is rapidly overtaking production, thus bringing the
time nearer when duties on wheat will be as protective as duties on barley, fruits or
vegetables.
4..A bounty on exported farm products would not, in our opinion, permanently
help the prices of such products in the home market. It would not be paid
directly to the farmer. Its first effect would be to enable the exporting merchant
to cut prices abroad just enough to sell his stock. This, of course, would depress
the foreign price, so that the farmer would get little or none of the bounty and
2




Extra GopiPi5 Free,  Address D. Lubin, gacramento, Cal.
would be taxed his share to payit. In this connection it should be observed that
only a small number of our farmers raise anything for export. The greater number-three-fourths of the whole at least -would therefore be taxed to help the
others and receive no benefit; on the contrary, if the bounty raised the price of
wheat, the millions of farmers who buy flour would have to pay the advance. A
second effect of the bounty would be to enable foreign manufacturers to reduce
the wages of labor, on account of their cheaper loaf, and thus they could the more
easily overcome our duties and crush some of the industries in this country. This
would hurt the farmer's home market far more than the bounty would help it. A
third effect of the bounty would. be to invite similar legislation by other countries
with which we compete, or to lead them to place higher duties on all imports from
this country so long as we pay export bounties. We have set the example for such
legislation ourselves. So, by one or both means the hoped-for benefit from the
bounty would be completely neutralized,
Thus we have endeavored to answer each of your questions, fairly and as fully
as seems necessary to acquaint you with our views.  Much more, of course, can be
said on every aspect of the case, and under another cover I send a pamphlet which
contains a discussion of it by Mr. Lubin and Mr. Alexander R. Smith on the one
hand and by the writer on the other; also, a copy of the January number of the
Hiome Market Bulletin containing the conclusions of economists who recently heard
the matter at Washington.
In behalf of the Home Market Club, I have the honor to be, very respectfully
yours,                                     ALBERT CLARKE, Secretary.
REPLY BY DAVID LUB N',
OF SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA.
It shall be my endeavor to reply to the above as clearly and briefly as possible.
The Home Market Club says that it has "candidly considered " the above challenge.
Very good. Let us now see if its answers are equally candid.  It starts out by saying: "That a tariff on imports of agricultural staples, of which our country has a
surplus for export, can and does protect the home market price of such staples. "
This assertion is plain and clear-cut, but, unfortunately, not true; besides, it lacks
candor.  The Secretary of the Home Market Club made a similar statement
at the conference held in Washington, D. C., on December 20th and 21st,
1895, on this Proposition, and called upon Professor Gunton, teacher of economics
in New York, to sustain him. The professor (though reluctantly) admitted
that agricultural staples producing a surplus were sold in the United
States at the world's international free trade prices, not alone for the surplus
exported, but for the greater quantity sold for home use as well, and
whether sold to free-trade buyers for export or whether sold to those who were
protected and protectionists for home use. However, the Home Market Club, in
its reply, modifies its statement somewhat by using the words' to some extent."
Let us ask to what extent? The l'United States Statistics, Treasury Department,
imported merchandise entered for consumption, 1890-1893, " on page 25, fourth item,
shows that the United States only collected $1,973 37 duty on wheat. What kind of
wheat? Can the Home Market Club tell? Is it not the kind principally from Manitoba, which, as a rule, is used for special purposes, such as in the manufacture of
macaroni, etc.? This same item in the statistics shows that the duty is 20 per cent.
Can a Canadian afford to sell us ordinary marketable wheat at 20 per cent. less than the
world's price-when he can obtain the world's price in Canada, and also from buyers
for export to England, the very same price that we receive in the United States?
What idiotic policy would have a Canadian sell us his wheat 20 per cent. less than he
can get for it?
It may be true that in a, few instances the Canadian may be so geographically
situated, for instance, some range of mountains or other obstruction before him
may serve as a barrier in disposing of his crop to the English or home buyer; that
because of this barrier he may still find it to his advantage to cross the boundary line
to our side and pay the 20 per cent. duty, and have that much deducted from the
world's price. Apart from these two reasons given, there are none other why
3




Copy Petition on Last Page and Send to Conreve.
Canadian, Argentine or Russian wheat should come into our ports, even though
there were no duty, for if we sell-our surplus at all it must be sold in direct competition with the world's surplus.  This is now well known to the Secretary of the
Home Market Club, for the able authority which he brought to the Washington
Conference amplified and thoroughly explained this fact, that our agricultural
staples producing a surplus were sold in the home market (the entire product, mind)
at the world's international free trade prices.  The conclusion, therefore, is clear
that a tariff on imports cannot'protect the staples of agriculture so long as we have
a surplus for export. So much for this point.
In the second paragraph the Home Market Club says: "There are no unprotected industries."  This is not true, for corn, cornmeal, cotton, tobacco, wheat,
flour, hops and other agricultural'staples of which we export a surplus, as has
been shown above, are unprotected.
In the same paragraph the,Home Market Club says:  "Protection of the home
market is or should be applied to every industry that is subject to foreign competition."  Very good. This certainly is candid. But the Home Market Club forgot
to tell us how the prices of agricultural staples in this country could be protected
against the direct competition in the home market of the prices of similar products
of Argentine, India, Russia and Egypt!
In the same paragraph the Home Market Club also says that "the benefits of it
(protection) then diffuse themselves upon all classes."  The Home Market Club has
forgotten to tell us how -any benefit of protection reaches the producers of agricultural staples. Itlhas also forgotten to tell us in what position it places the producers of these staples'if they are unprotected!
Promising in the beginning of its letter to be candid, the Home Market Club
should have told us that the unprotected must pay for the protection of the protected industries. However, there is no accounting for taste or style. Some advocates start out by saying that they will be candid, that is, truthful, and are really so.
Others start out with the same assertion, but very shortly after forget all about it.
Let the members of the subordinate Granges of Pennsylvania carefully read
this document and decide which side is really candid; which side truthful.
ON WHOM DOES THE BURDEN OF PROTECTION FALL?
The Home-Market Club in the beginning of its third clause claims that protection, limited to a tariff on imports " is not unjust to the producers of agricultural
staples, because it does not tax them any more than it taxes all others concerned.'
This is manifestly untrue. It not alone taxes them more, but places the entire tax
indirectly resulting from the protective system on their shoulders. The protected
make a profit by it much greater than the cost to them for higher prices. This is
the reason why the protected are so anxious to vote for protection. But when it
comes to the unprotected producers of agricultural staples, they pay for protection
and sell at free trade prices. The difference, caused by this, is the actual cost of
the protective system, which the producers of agricultural staples pay, and which
fact no capable and honest political economist can deny or refute.
In this same paragraph the Home Market Club says that the protective tariff
"does not force them (the producers of agricultural staples) to produce a surplus for
export. " This is quite ingenious, but let us ask the Home Market Club, what Protectionists would do if there were no surplus of agricultural staples to send abroad
at free-trade prices? Witi: what would we pay for our imports, for our coffee, teas,
spices, drugs, raw materials and other things that we must have? Would it be
with protected knives at $8 a dozen, which are worth in England $3 30 a dozen? Let
the Home Market Club please answer! Does it not also know, that while manufacturers have it in their power to make goods in advance, send out drummers on
the road and just make enough to sell at a profit, that agricultural producers can do
no such thing? What sections of the country then shall cease producing the
staples to get them below the export line? Shall it be Virginia with her tobacco,
4




Extes  Copieag   vee.  Addressa  D. Lubin, Sacramento, Ca.
Georgia with her cotton, California with her wheat, or Washington with her hops?
Shall these States become uninhabited again? What kind of logic, what kind of
reason, what kind of sincerity have we in this statement of the Home Market Club?
It refuses to have protection and enhancement of the home price for agricultural
staples by an Export Bounty, and in the only way by which protection can be had
for this great industry, but hints that it would not object to this enhancement by a
tariff on imports if there were no surplus! All this time it must know that this
surplus is first of all absolutely necessary, and secondly that our economic and
geographical conditions do not permit the doing away with the surplus. For the
same reason, we may frankly question its sincerity when it says that the time is
coming when consumption must rapidly overcome production. This might happen
under free trade, provided free trade can furnish sufficient manufactures for export
at free trade prices to pay for our imhports.
WOULD AN EXPORT BOUNTY PROTECT THE FARMER?
In section four, the Home Market Club says: "A bounty on exported farm
products would not, in our opinion, permanently help the prices of such products in
the home market. It would not be paid directly to the farmer, " The opposers of
this proposition seem to  have kaleidoscopic skill in dodging. At the Washington
Conference they opposed the Export Bounty on the ground that it would raise the
home price to the poor man, the consumer, and in this instance it is opposed on the
ground that it would not raise the price in the home market at all. Now which is it?
That the Export Bounty would not be paid directly to the farmer if he did not
export, is true. But this does not prove that the farmer would not r~eeive in
the home market, as he does now, the world's price with the addition of the Export
Bounty.
OPINION OF THE SECRETARY OF THE CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE.
An Export Bounty on the staples of agriculture would give the producer, as at
present, the world's price with the addition of the Export Bounty, the same as the
-millers in France receive every penny of the Export Bounty on their flour at the
present time. That this is true, is amply corroborated by the statement of Mr.
George F. Stone, given in his official capacity as Secretary of the Board of Trade of
the City of Chicago, as may be seen from Report No. 1999, House of Representatives,
Fifty-third Congress, Third Session, page 39, a portion of which is here reproduced:
Q.-Mr. Stone, it is desired to ask you a few questions in your official capacity
as Secretary of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago.
What effect would a Government Bounty on the exports of -wheat have with
regard to the general price of wheat throughout the United States?
A -It would, in my opinion, increase the price per bushel.
Q. —It is said that the speculators would get the 5 cents or 10 cents export bounty,
or at least the greater part of it?
A.-If a bounty of 5 cents or 10 cents a bushel should be given by the Government on all wheat exported from this country, in my opinion, the farmer or producer, would receive the full benefit of that bounty and not the speculator or
exporter. It would simply enable the buyer to pay that much more than he otherwise could pay or would be justified in paying. Competition would force him to pay
all he could to the farmer to obtain his wheat. The fierceness and intensity and
volume of competition, by the very force of circumstances, by the very necessities
of the case, would drive the 5 cents or 10 cents bounty proposed by the Government into the pockets of the farmer, or producer. There it would land and from
there it could never be wrested by speculators or by anybody else.
Q.-It is also said that the ship-owners would get this 5 cents or 10 cents, or the
greater part of it?
A.-I believe the answer to that is fully embraced in the reply which I have
hereinbefore given.
Q.-It is also claimed by some that the 5 cents or 10 cents would come in some
way to the producer for the quantity which would be exported, but that there would
be no advance on the greater quantity remaining for home use?
A. —It is a mistake, in my opinion, to say that the 5 cents or 10 cents per bushel
bounty, which it is proposed to give, would be confined in its beneficial result to the
5




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quantity or volume of grain exported. It would affect the price of the entire crop,
for the reason that grain is a surplus crop in this country, and consequently the price
per bushel of this grain is fixed and controlled by the export price of this grain, and
this export price, of course, I will here say, parenthically, is made in competition
with all the other surplus wheat-producing countries in the world.  No domestic
buyer will pay one single fraction of a cent more for a single bushel of wheat than
the buyer for export will pay. The latter makes the price for the entire crop. If
no more were raised than was required for home consumption the price would depend upon the d omestic demand; but the export demand, inasmuch as the demand for
food can never be interrupted for any length of time, and this continuous demand for
wheat, so far as a surplus wheat producing country is concerned, fixes the price of
the entire crop of this cereal of this country. No class of domestic buyers, of course,
can be made to pay any more than the price offered by the export demand, the domestic and the export demand being ever present in the market.
GEORGE F. STONE,
Secretary of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago.
December 20, 1894.
Further on, in the same paragraph, the Home Market Club states that the Export Bounty "would depress the foreign price. "  Well, supposing for the sake of
argument it would?  What then? It would then become an engine to curtail
foreign production and at the same time protect the home producer of agricultural
staples by giving him that much higher price above the lowered world's price, and
would, by this means, just reverse the destructive method now in operation. Some
protectionists claim that while the producers of agriculturalstaples cannot be directly
protected by a protective tariff on imports, they are thereby indirectly protected, because it enables the payment of a higher wage rate, greater consumption and consequent
increase of the home price of these products. But Ahose price? What price?-The
world's international price, of coarse!  Therefore, if there is any foundation for
the claim of indirect protection, where does it lead to? To this: that the Argentine, Indian, Russian and Egyptian producers have their prices raised artificially
by our present protective system. Does it benefit our producers? Not at all, for the
little advance in the world's price as the indirect result of protection by a tariff on
imports costs them many more times that probable advance. It is clear profit, however, to the foreign producers in every country of the world, but not to ours. This,
once for all, sweeps away every vestige of support from any claim, not alone of direct protection by a tariff on imports, but of indirect protection also.
There is not an honest, capable economist in the United States, England, France.
Germany, anywhere, who can refute this; and it cannot be refuted, because it is true.
If it is true it should be known to every producer of agricultural staples in the United
States, and-as you all know-it is being made known quite thoroughly.
The Home Market Club does, not, however, seem to be quite so sure that the
Export Bounty would not raise the home price of agricultural staples, for it
warns the farmers who buy flour that they would have to pay the advance.
Well, these farmers would surely findit no hardship to pay'he advance. Is it not a
greater hardship,,a greater injustice to compel the unprotected farmer at the
present time to pay for the protection of the protected?
A WORD'WITH FARMERS WHO PRODUCE FRUITS, DAIRY PRODUCTS, GARDEN
TR;UCK, POULTRY, ETC.
There is another view of this question which requires the earnest attention of
farmers who produce products which are not exported, and it is this: Unless the
staples of agriculture are as profitable as other farm products, what will be the result?
Would it not be general diversification? Would not vast bodies of land in the West
and South be put into the production of hay, potatoes, poultry, livestock, vegetables, fruits, dairy products and such other things now produced in those sections
adjacent to large cities? What would happenin that event? Would that not lower
the price of those products below the profit point also? Would it not besides
lower the price of lands and improvements? Most assuredly. Has not this kind
6




4xtra Gopies Free.  Address D. Lubin, Sacramento, Cal.
of competition already been felt in the East? Let the producers of dairy products
in Herkimer County, New York, the potato growers in Accomac County, Virginia,
answer! The fruit-growers of California, Delaware and Michigan will soon learn to
their sorrow what "diversification " means when the fruits grown in the now unprofitable cotton fields in the South come into Eastern markets! And what Eastern farmer
can say that it has not already lowered the prices of his product, his land and his
improvements? Even this is but a small sample of what will follow, unless the production of agricultural staples be made more profitable than at present. It can be
made more profitable by one of two methods. One is by absolute unrestricted free
trade, and the other is protection by an Export Bounty.
Further on in the same paragraph the Home Market Club makes a statement
that "the effect of the bounty would enable foreign manufacturers to reduce
the wages of labor on account of their cheaper loaf. " Is not our tariff of over 40
per cent., (which almost doubles by profits of the middlemen added to it,) high
enough to keep out foreign competition?'If not, it only manifests the deplorable
injustice of the present protective system, and its enormous cost to the producers
of agricultural staples.
The Home Market Club is not candid enough to admit, however, that should
England obtain a cheaper loaf by an Export Bounty, this bounty would at the same
time tend to crush out foreign competition in the production of agricultural staples,
but by reason of the Export Bounty, our own producers of these staples would
be protected in the home market.
A REASON THAT IS NOT VALID.
In paragraph 4 the Home Market Club gives a strange reason why the producers of agricultural staples should not be protected by an Export Bounty, saying
"that only a small number of our farmers raise anything for export. " Do not a
small number of manufacturers produce suspenders, or knives, or pins? Yet every
producer of agricultural staples must pay protection prices for suspenders, knives
or pins, and many thousand other things which are protected.
But the Home Market Club is mistaken in its estimate. That there are many
farmers who produce staples for export can be ascertained by the United States
statistics, which shows that out of $800,000,000 exports annually, over $600,000,000
are in staples of agriculture, and $200,000,000 in mining, fish, manufactures, forest
and miscellaneous.
The Home Market Club further on warns farmers who do not produce the
staples by saying that they would be "taxed to help others (the producers of agricultural staples), and receive no benefit."  In this the Home Market Club is mistaken. Apart from the question of equity, there is a very good reason wh'y the producers of agricultural staples should be protected.
To leave them unprotected,' and at the mercy of a declining world's price, is to
drive them in large numbers into the production of the non-staple products, which
must speedily result not alone in driving the non-staples of agriculture below the
profit point, but also to greatly shrink the value of the land and improvements
besides.
This is actually taking place now.  Thousands of acres formerly profitably
employed in raising cotton, corn, wheat, tobacco and hops, are now being put to
use in root crops, hay, berries, fruits, dairy products and live stock.
This crowding into these branches of agriculture has already caused a serious
shrinkage, but not near as much as it is likely to do as time rolls on.
The shrinkage is a much greater loss by far to the producers of non-staples of
agriculture than any cost for protection by an Export Bounty.
Intelligent Eastern agriculturists are beginning to understand this.
Protectionists, like the Home Market Club, ought to realize that conditions have
changed; that,something must give; that the time has come when we must admit
the producers of agricultural staples into the sacred precincts of real protection, or
7




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we must promptly abolish the whole of this system. Not alone does justice demand
it, but the necessity of the times demands it.
WE ARE CONFRONTED BY NEW CONDITIONS.
The Home Market Club intimates that the Export Bounty on the part of our
Government would cause retaliation on the part of foreign Governments. This
objection has little, if any economic value. If foreign Governments are to retaliate,
it is not at any internal arrangement, which would not interfere with foreign trade
or foreign nations, which is simply intended to raise the home price in our own
country. They have much more reason to retaliate on protective duties, which
partially or entirely prohibit the sale of their goods in our own country. Take it in
the case of England for instance: She admits our goods freely without hindrance,
without toll, without duty, but, as will be shown, a dozen knives worth $3 30 in
England is made to cost $8 a dozen in the the hands of the importer in this
country.
In concluding this reply to the Home Market Club, an endeavor will be made to
sustain question "two'" of the "(Challenge, " which is as follows:'If a tariff on
imports cannot protect the staples of agriculture must not this unprotected industry
pay for the protection of the protected industries?"
To this the Home market Club replies first by saying, "There are no unprotected industries."  This, in spite of the fact that its own chosen authority at the
Washington Conference actually proved that agricultural staples were sold in
the home market at international prices.  But let that pass.  Further on in the
same paragraph it says: "The fact that farmers can buy all kinds of goods Which
are now made in this country on a commercial scale at prices relatively lower than
the prices of farm  products, when compared with prices for both which prevailed
before protection had developed home competition, shows that the agricultural
class fully shares the benefit."
Before the Home iMarket Club can hope to sustain its assertion, it will be
obliged to refute the following facts and figures given in the article below. There
are many importers, manufacturers, jobbers and retailers within a radius of
several blocks of the office of the Home Market Club. If the Club can refute this,
they will require very much less of the "campaign fund"' than otherwise.
The language and terms used in the article are so clear and simple as to require no
special study to understand them.
Let the Home Market Club's reply be equally clear and simple.
DOES PROTECTION ENHANCE PRICES OF IMPORTS AND OF DOMESTIC MANUFACTURES IN THE HOME MARKET? IF IT DOES, IS NOT THIS ENHANCEMENT
PRIMARILY AT THE EXPENSE OF THE STAPLES OF AGRICULTURE, AND
INDIRECTLY AT THE EXPENSE OF ALL OTHER AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS?
The Sacramento Bee in its issue of Thursday, February 13th, contains an important editorial headed "Japanese Competition," and quotes from a report that $50,000
wages in cotton manufactures in this country is equaled by $17, 500 in Japan. The Bee
shows that, unless Japanese manufactures are excluded by tariffs, the free entrance of
Japanese goods would tend to lower our wage rate to the Japan level, and says " no
decent American citizen wants that to be done. Similar opinions were recently expressed by a meeting of business men in San Francisco.
This is but an echoing of the more pronounced Eastern demand for higher protective duties. It would seem from all this, that it is in our power to overcome the
destructive tendency of foreign competition by raising the tariff. A simple device
surely, and one seemingly patriotic. Were it really effective in overcoming the
destructive tendency of foreign competition, then, indeed, would statesmanship
have a light task.
Unfortunately, however, there is another side to the story. Protection, as a
means of maintaining a maximum rate of wages, is only effective when the purchas8




ECxtra Copies Free,  Address-. Lubln, 5iacramento, Calt.
ing power is sufficiently abundant to maintain a steady demand for labor. And the
purchasing power, whence is it derived? In free trade England, from the profitable
sale of her manufactures in foreign countries. In the United States, the primary
purchasing power comes from agriculture-chiefly from the staples of agriculture.
That the purchasing power is diminished by our present system of protection
there can be no question, for protection, limited to a tariff on imports, while it protects by enhancement everything protected, can neither protect directly nor indirectly the staples of agriculture, as is well known. Being unprotected, and paying
for protection diminishes the power to buy, therefore reduces the purchasing
power.
Any diminution of the purchasing power, must, however, counteract the
benefits of protection, so far as the wage rate is concerned, and give us instead, low
wages on the one hand, and abnormally high prices on the other. If this is true,
then protection under our present system  becomes an oppressive engine of extortion, enriching the few and impoverishing the millions. That this is really true,
can be made manifest to everyone as indisputable evidences are at hand to prove it.
At this time space will only permit me to give a single example, which can be
multiplied by thousands.
The Bee quotes from a report showing that $50,000 wagesin cotton manufactures
in this country could be equaled in Japan for $17,500. This information is interesting, but not nearly as important to the State and to the Nation as are the questions
and answers which follow:
AN ACCURATE ILLUSTRATION OF THE OPERATION OF THE PRESENT PROTECTION SYSTEM, SHOWING HOW IT UNJUSTLY AND OPPRESSIVELY BURDENS
THE FARMER.
Q.-What would a California farmer receive for his wheat or hops if the
quantity he had on hand was quoted in Liverpool as being worth $13,751 10?
A.-He would receive in Sacramento or in San Joaquin Counties about $10,500
for it,
Q.-If farmers in the West bought pocket knives at retail, costing in Liverpool
at wholesale, $13,751 10, how much would they have to pay for them?
A.-Fifty thousand dollars.
Q.-Is there not some serious mistake here?
A.-No.
Q — Why would wheat and hops bring so much less here than in Liverpool?
A.-Because there is deducted the cost of commission, interest, insurance and
transportation on the wheat and hops from the place of production to Liverpool.
Q -Supposing they are not exported, but sold to the Buffalo Brewery, Smith's
or the Phoenix Mills here, or the Sperry Mills in Stockton, how much would these
proc]-icts bring?
A.-Not a penny more, for these products are sold at the world's free trade international prices.
Q.-H-ave we not a protective tariff?
A.-Yes.
Q.-Does it not protect?
A.-Yes, everything but agricultural staples. These a tariff on imports cannot
protect directly nor indirectly.
Q.-Do not politicians and others say that it can?
A.-Yes; but some do not know, and others trample on the truth?
Q.-Is that example which you gave of the knives true?
A.-Yes, absolutely true, pocket knives costing $13,751 10 at wholesale in England retail for $50, 000 in the United States.
Q.-What causes this enormous increase?
A.-The protective tariff, as may be seen from the following: 4,167 dozen
pocket "knives at $3 30 per dozen makes $13,751 10, to which add duty 50
per cent. and $2 per dozen, then add 15 per cent. profit on the total for
the importer, 20 per cent. for the jobber's profit and 25 per cent. retailer's profit,
and i7the total will be $50,000. If this is too much trouble, you can figure up one
dozen, as follows: Cost in England, $3 30 duty, 50 per cent. and $2; 50 per cent. is
$1 65, andthe $2 is $3 65, and $3 30, makes a total cost to importer $6 95, on which.add importer's profit'15 per cent. ($1 05), making cost price to jobber $8. Now, add
9




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20 per cent. profit for jobber ($1 60), jobber's selling price to retailer is then $9 60,
to which add 25 per cent. retailer's profit ($2 40), makes the dozen knives $12 or $1
each. As knives imported and of domestic manufacture of the same quality are sold
at retail on a par value, it follows that the domestic price is artificially enhanced to
the price of the foreign knife, with duties and compounded profits on duties by
middlemen added thereto.
ACTUAL COST OF PROTECTION.
The following figures will give a correct idea of the cost of the protective tariff.
These figures do not represent a. single item of actual cost of material, labor or transportation. They are simply the cost of the protective tariff and compound profits on
top of the tariff, which the unprotected farmers must pay whether they actually buy
them, or whether some other persons buy them, so long as agricultural staples are
unprotected.
Four thousand one hundred'and sixty-seven dozen knives at $3.30 a dozen, duty $2
a dozen and 50 per cent.
Fifty per cent. on 4,167 dozen knives makes $6,875 55, to which add additional
duty of $2 a dozen, or $8,334.
These added together make-                                             $6,875 55
8,334 00
Total cost of duty at Custom  House........................................................ $15,209 55
Profit on duty by importer, 15 per cent.....................................................  2,281 43
$17,490 98
Profit on duty by jobber, 20 per cent............................................................    3,498 20
$20, 989 18
Profit on duty by retailer, 25 per cent............................................................   5,247 29
Grand total of duty and compound profits on duty.................................... $26,236 47
All of which is artificial enhancement by the protective tariff.
Q.-Where is the basis for these figures?
A. —The United States statistics, the George Wostenholm (I. X. L.), Sheffield,
England, catalogue, and the usual profits of the middlemen.   In summing up, I
wish to say that protection by a tariff on imports swells the price of the English
knife from 27~ cents to $1-52- cents of which composes the cost of duty with compound profits on the duty.  But, 27~ cents of agricultural staples may be had by the
protected manufacturer for about 22 cents or less.
Q.-Are you sure that there is no mistake here?
A. -Quite sure.
What benefit does the producer of agricultural staples receive from this onesided system?  Absolutely none; on the contrary, his substance is devoured by it
to enrich ambitious manufacturing corporations. Nor does the mischief of this onesided and unjust system end here; it is but the beginning.
The shrinkage in the primary purchasing power takes the life out of all farming
values, diminishes the demand for labor, and cuts the rates of wages right and left.
Shall we, then, have free trade?   No; for that would be like "jumping from
the frying-pan into the fire."  We should have protection, but it should be a just
and equitable protection. If imported and home manufactures are enhanced in price
by a protective tariff, then we should have a system which shall also protect by enhancement in the home market the staples of agriculture.  A  tariff on imports
cannot do this, it can be done by a bounty on the exports.
Protection by a bounty on exports is not new or untried.  It is in operation in
Germany, France, Russia and Austria.  It is just as effective a mode of protection
for agricultural staples as atariff on imports is for the protection of manufactures.
Eastern economists freely admit this. What they object to is the fact that it will
enhance the home market prices of agricultural staples, and yet they ask farmers to
vote for protection.
10




Extra Gopies Free, Address D. Lubin, Sacramento,- Cal.
A CHALLENGE TO THE DEFENDERS OF THE PRESENT PROTECTIVE SYSTEM.
The American Protective Tariff League asked the writer of this to contribute
liberally to its protection fund. One thousand dollars was accordingly deposited in the
Bank of D. 0. Mills & Co., with stipulation that it could have it on condition that the
League could prove the present protective system just, or if it could prove protection to agricultural staples by an Export Bounty unjust. This offer was not taken
up. Not because the League did not want the money, but because it knew that it
could not sustain its unjust, one-sided system.
If there be any competent economist in this city, in this county, in this State, in
this Nation, who can prove the present protection system just, or protection by an
Export Bounty unjust or impracticable, then such a person is at liberty to take up
this challenge, to be decided by the public at a meeting for that purpose.
If what has been set forth is true, then in that event it behooves all patriotic
American citizens, especially those engaged in agriculture, to demand justice and
equity in protection, and demand it in no uncertain terms.
How strange it is that the VWestern man living in a section, the primary industry
of which is the production of agricultural staples, should feel so keenly the threatened competition of manufactures from Japan, and yet have so little to say in regard
to the destructive competition which has already struck the producers of agricultural
staples. Surely, there is either a lack of understanding of this condition, or a lack
of patriotism. Which is it? Are the manufactures made of such sacred stuff that
the mere threatening of foreign competition will shake up Boards of TraTe and
Chambers of Commerce in an endeavor to jump up the tariff on manufactures, and
have so little to say on that industry-agriculture-which gives value to labor;
which determines the price of city and country real estate, of securities; which determines the prosperity, the progress and the very life of the Nation?  What does
this mean? There is but one explanation.
Manufacturers are organized and have champions and leaders, all of which gives
them  the legislation which they demand.  Shall we, then, vote to advance the
prices of things which the Western and Southern States must buy, when we know
that the West and South are at the mercy of the declining world's prices? Do we
not see that this same cause, which animates the fears of protectionists, the competition of cheap labor in Japan, has already struck the Western and Southern producer by the' unequal competition, from the direct international prices of Argentine,
India, Russia and Egypt in the home market?
They tell us that machinery is now being employed for manufacturing purposes in Japan.
Why do not these Chambers of Commerce and Boards of Trade tell us
that agricultural machinery is beingsold to the cheap land and labor countries at
the rate of five million dollars a year by the United States, and that many more
millions are sold yearly by Germany, France, England and Austria to those countries?
Let up hope that the time will soon be here when agricultural leaders will
arise who will have courage enough to advocate agricultural interests with the same
spirit and vehemence which is now employed by protection manufacturers and their
political servants.                                    DAVID  LUBIN.
Sacramento, February 19, 1896.
The Home Market Club, and the American Protective Tariff League are respectfully requested to refute the above 
CONCLUSION.
In conclusion, it is desired that every intelligent member of the Order of Patrons
of Husbandry in Pennsylvania and in the United States ponder well over this mat11




Copy Petition on Last Page and Send to Congress,
ter. Let no one be biased or governed by preconceived  notions.   Let all
consider well the arguments which have been used against it, and those in favor of
it. It is a weighty matter for the farmers of the United States. More than that; it
is a matter of the deepest importance, not alone to the farmers, but to all the peopleto this Republic. Above all, to the farmers who produce the non-staples of agriculture.
These very farmers should heed this Proposition with as much attention and earnestness as those who produce the staples. It is absolutely impossible for them to make
a profit so long as the great mass of land in the United States is cultivated below the
profit point in production of staples.
Should the farmers of the Nation conclude that this Proposition is just, equitable and expedient they must do more than simply assent to it.
The writer of this article asks for no reward of office, or money for this work.
He believes it to be right, and, above all, the means whereby this Republic may be
perpetuated. It is this belief which has induced him to devote his time, means and
whatever energy he may possess in this cause. But in order that any practical results may follow it is absolutely necessary that the farmers of the Nation co-operate
with him, and that promptly.
At this time the Ion. Grove L. Johnson, who introduced the Export Bounty
Bill in Congress, earnestly and urgently requests that petitions favoring this
Proposition be sent on to Congress by the thousands. In order that these should
be productive of good they should contain the seal of the Grange or Alliance and
be sent on without any loss of time whatever. The sooner the better. These petitions should not alone be signed by farmers, but by merchants, bankers, workingmen, professional men and by women.
FolloWing is a GosI  of P!etitio   to te senl on to IiU ReBss
They should be copied as a heading on a suitable sheet of paper, and one each
sent to the Senator, the other to the Representative of the District.
If to a Representative, address like this: (inserting name of your own Representative) Hon. Grove L. Johnson, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.
If to a Senator, address like this: (inserting name of your own Senator) Senator
George C. Perkins, United States Senate, Washington, D. C.
PETITmON
"We respectfully  petition  the  Congress of the  United
States to pass H. R. Bill No. 2626, for the protection  of
Agricultural Staples by an Export Bounty, in  order to
equalize the benefits and burdens of the protective
system_._
Women have the same right, to petition as men.
Granges and Alliances can send in petitions as organizations, with the seal of
the Grange or Alliance on the petition.
Sign, Circulate and Forward on the Petitions to Congress.:-Extra Copies and other printed matter on this proposition
mailed free. Address
D. LUtBIN, Sacramento, California




Von  hunen' s I heory o
Natural Wages
BY
H. L. MOORE,
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, BALTIMORE, MD.
RefrinZed from the (Harvard) " Quarterly Journal of Economics,"
Vol. IX., Nos. 3 and 4, -April and July, 1895








VON THUNEN'S THEORY OF
NATURAL WAGES
BY
H. L. MOORE
J]ons Ho15kins University, Baltimore, MAd.
Reprinted from the (Harvard) " Quarterly Journal of Economics,"
Vol. IX., Nos. 3 and 4, April andJzuly, I895
BOSTON
GEO. H. ELLIS, 141 FRANKLIN STREET
1895








VON THUNEN'S THEORY OF NATURAL
WAGES.
I.
THE CLASSICAL THEORY AND VON THUNEN'S FORMULA.
No scientific work could be more beneficent than that
which would solve the problem of natural or just wages.
The clashing interests of the capitalist and laborer in the
division of the product of industry result in conflicting
claims in the distribution of that product, and the lack
of a scientific solution of the problem renders it possible
that each may claim a moral basis for his actions.
Several vigorous attempts have been made to throw
light on this question; and among those who have made
important contributions to the subject, Thiinen holds a
conspicuous place. His theory contains much that is
interesting and valuable; and the object of this paper
is (1) to give this theory a critical consideration, and (2)
to show his contribution to the theory of natural wages.*
In order, however, that we may be placed in a position
to form a correct estimate of Thiinen's work, a brief
review will be given of the theory of natural wages held
by his English contemporaries.
The characteristic features of the classical theory of
natural wages are exemplified in the opening paragraph
of Ricardo's chapter on wages. The first sentence of that
paragraph shows the manner in which the classical economists reasoned upon the subject. " Labor," says Ricardo,
"like all other things which are purchased and sold; and
which may be increased or diminished in quantity, has
its natural and its market price." Here we find it im* For the bibliography of Von Thuinen's Theory, see last page.




4
plied that labor is a commodity; and it is stated that
labor, like every other commodity, has its natural and its
market price. The classical economists taught that the
natural price of a commodity is its cost of production:
hence they inferred that the natural price of labor is its
cost of production. But, when they came to define the
cost of production of labor, they met with difficulty, and,
as Marx * has shown, substituted for the cost of production of labor the cost of production of the laborer.
The second sentence of Ricardo's paragraph presents
two more features of the classical theory.  " The natural
price of labor," Ricardo states, "is that price which is
necessary to enable the laborers, one with another, to
subsist and to perpetuate their race, without either increase or diminution."  Here we find, in the first place,
that Ricardo made no attempt to consider the equity in
the case. Although he admitted that the price of labor
4" varies at different times in the same country, and very
materially differs in different countries," yet he made no
attempt to discover the reasonable or just wages. He
was concerned only with facts and with the operation of
natural law. In the second place, we observe that he
defined natural wages without reference to the product
of the laborer. Natural wages, according to his definition, depend upon the requirements of the laborer.
These, however, vary at different times and in different
places with "the habits and customs of the people."
In summarizing, the following may be named as characteristic features of the classical theory of natural wages:
1. Labor was treated throughout as a mere commodity.
2. Natural wages were defined without reference to
equity, the operation of natural law being the main fact
considered.
3. Natural wages were defined without reference to
the product of labor. The requirements of the laborer
~ Marx, Das Kapital, Band I., 2 Auflage, pp. 599. Cf. Schmidt, Der
natUrliche Arbeitslohn, p. 13.




5
as limited by his surroundings were regarded as determining his natural earnings.
While these doctrines were being taught by the classical school, Thiinen was working upon a theory that was
in many respects new. He claimed that the teachings of
economists concerning wages were based upon the existing system of distribution. But, because under the existing system the laborer might be had for the bare means
of subsistence, he could see no reason on that account
for calling the bare means of subsistence natural wages.
He was profoundly convinced of the evils resulting to
the laboring class in consequence of the prevailing theory; * and this fact was one of the chief reasons leading
him to undertake to discover the just or equitable wages,
the wages agreeable to the nature (naturgemdss) and to
the destiny of man. 
To simplify his investigations, or, rather, to make his
investigations possible, he makes use of the isolated state.
This state, isolated from  the rest of the world by means
of a wilderness, is in a plain of uniform fertility. Its
only city, in which are concentrated all of its non-agricultural industries, is located at its centre. It has neither
railroads nor navigable waters, and perfect competition
pervades the entire state. The study is based upon the
supposition that the isolated state is in a static condition.
Before entering upon Thiinen's mathematical work, we
must get well in mind the meaning of the terms he uses.
1. He takes rye as his measure of value, and selects a
Berlin Scheffel of that grain as his unit. 2. He considers
all laborers of the same class equal in strength, skill, intel* The light in which he viewed the classical theory may be seen from one
of his letters of 1830 in Schumacher's J. H. v. Thiinen: Ein Forscherleben,
p. 117.
i Der isolirte Staat, II. 1, p. 193: "Ja, ich habe gefunden das tiefere
Eindringen in die Frage, Welches ist der naturgemlisse Arbeitslohn? in den
letzten Studien unmittelbar zu der Frage iiber die Bestimmung des Menschen
fiihrt."




6
ligence, etc. 3. In wages proper —i.e., in the reward for
labor itself (fur die Arbeit an sich), and not including
interest upon any capital that the laborer may possess in
the way of household effects- he distinguishes two parts.
One part is that required for the means of subsistence of
the laborer and his family. This part is designated by the
symbol a. The other part, designated by the symbol y, is
the surplus that the laborer earns above his means of subsistence. The symbol a + y is used to express the wages
for one year's labor of a laboring family. 4. By " product
of labor" he means that part of the gross product which
is shared by the laborers and capitalists alone, that part
of the gross product remaining after deduction of profits,
costs of management, insurance, etc. This product,
divided by the number of laborers employed, gives the
"product of labor" of one man. He designates the
"product of labor " of one man by the symbol p. 5. By
capital he means a product of human labor, employed in
production.
We are now ready to follow him in his work. He approaches the problem by asking whether higher wages
can exist at the margin of cultivation in the isolated state
than exist in real life. He supposes, for the sake of argument, that the wages of the laborers on the marginal farms
are raised, and then tries to discover the result of the
change.
The income from the marginal farms before wages were
raised just covered wages and interest upon invested capital. No ground rent was paid. If now wages are raised,
ground rent will become a negative quantity, and the cultivation of marginal lands can be continued only at a
loss. Perfect competition, however, pervades the isolated state; and no producer will continue to cultivate
marginal lands at a loss. Consequently, producers will
no longer invest capital in making improvements; and, as
soon as buildings and other improvements have become




dilapidated, they will abandon the marginal farms. The
laborers from the marginal lands will then crowd into employments nearer the city. Competition sets in between
the new laborers and the old; that is, between the laborers
from the marginal farms and the laborers already employed
nearer the city. But the old laborers already existed in
such numbers that the product of the last laborer just
covered the wages that he received. If the new laborers
are to find employment, wages must be reduced below
their former level. The attempt, therefore, to raise wages
has worked to the laborer's detriment.
One might suppose, from this argument, that the laborer
of the isolated state fares no better than the laborer of the
modern state. But Thiinen causes the reader to observe
that he has reached the above conclusion only by supposing the rate of interest unalterable. If the rate of interest
can be lowered, wages may be raised, and cultivation still
continued upon marginal lands. The wages of the laborer
in the isolated state are dependent upon causes determining the rate of interest. The knowledge, therefore, of the
natural wages depends upon the knowledge of the law
determining the connection between wages and interest.
I shall give here a brief outline of Thiinen's course in
the subsequent part of his work. His prime object is to
get a mathematical expression for natural wages and for
natural interest. To do this, he attempts first to get an
algebraic equation expressing the interdependence of
wages and interest. Having obtained this equation, he
can proceed in any one of three ways to determine the
unknown quantities; i.e., the quantities representing wages
and interest. He can find a second equation containing
the unknown quantities, and then combine the two; or he
can find an independent expression for interest, and then
by substituting in the equation obtain wages; or else he
can find an independent expression for wages, and then
by making the substitution in the equation obtain inter



8
est. We shall see that, having found the equation, he
selects the last method just described to obtain the value
of the two quantities.
But first the equation expressing the relation between
wages and interest must be found. Thiinen approaches
this problem in ~ 13, a section that has been grossly misunderstood and misinterpreted. This section has a meaning only when considered in connection with the main
object of Thiinen's work. The problem that he has before
him is to discover the natural wages of the ordinary
laborer, a laborer without a store of capital to invest, having only his labor with which to secure his maintenance.
In order to find the equitable or just wages of such a laborer, he places him under conditions where the rate of
wages is dependent upon the laborer's own course of action. As, however, the laborer has no store of capital,
the conditions under which he can secure natural wages
must be conditions where, without a store of capital, he
can determine the rate of wages. Now the purpose of
~ 13 is indicated in the heading of that section,-" The
Reduction of the Efficiency of Capital to Terms of Labor "
(Reduktion der TVirksamkeit des Kapitals auf Arbeit).
Thiinen tries to show how the co-operation of capital in
the production of a commodity may be reduced to terms
of labor, and in doing this he lays the groundwork for the
development of the formula expressing the interdependence between wages and interest.
He proceeds as follows: If an amount of capital Q, ex —
pressed in terms of rye, dollars, or any other measure, is
divided by the year's wages of a laborer (a + y), the wages
being expressed in the same terms as the capital, then we
shall find "how large the capital is, expressed in years'
labor * of a laboring family, or how many years' labor of
*There is an inaccuracy here that has confused Thiinen's critics. By
dividing capital by wages, we do not find the value of the capital expressed in
terms of years' labor, but in terms of wages.




9
a laboring family a capitalist with Q capital can control." *  An amount of capital equal in value to the year's
wages of a laborer he considers a unit of capital: hence,
if -- =nq, Q will represent nq units of capital.  He supposes that the capitalist lends Q to an undertaker, who
invests it in some industry. If he employs n laborers,
each laborer will use nq- q units of capital.
Now, Thiinen says, if from the gross returns of the industry " all expenses of the undertaker are deducted with
the single exception of wages and interest, and if from
the remainder business profit is subtracted, there is left
the part of the product which we have called product of
labor." t  The " product of labor" of a man using q
units of capital he designates by the symbol p. The question is, In what proportion will the capitalist and the
laborer divide the "product of labor" between them?
This question Thiinen attempts to answer as follows: —
The n laborers employed in the industry bring forth a
product np.  Of this product the n laborers receive as
wages n (a + y).  After the deduction  of wages the
capitalist receives as rent  n [p -  (a + y)].   The rent,
divided by the capital employed, gives the rate of interest, which we shall designate by z.
Then, z  n [p —(a+ y)]  p-(a +Y)
nq(a +)       q(a+ y)
Thiinen changes the form of this equation somewhat,
in order to show the proportion in which the capitalist
and the laborer share in the product p. From the equation z        +- (~+Y) the following may be obtained: qz (a +
q (a+ y)
y) =p - (a + y); (ac + y) (1 + qz) =p; or,
1.a  + y =  -+-= share of laborer.
p. 124.             t Ibid.
$ Thilnen speaks of the earnings of capital as Rente, and the earnings of
land as Landrente. These two terms I shall translate throughout this paper
as rent and land rent, respectively.
~ p. 125.




10
To obtain the share of the capitalist, we must subtract
from the product p the share of the laborer. Hence,
2.  __  p+pqz-p    pqz -  share of capitalist.
21 — +qz- -  -       +qz   = --
From equations I and 2, we can find the proportion in
which the shares stand to each other: lq l            qz'   1. qz.
This result may be thus expressed: The earnings of one
year's labor are to the earnings of q units of capital as 1 is
to qz. Therefore, the earnings of one year's labor are to
the earnings of one unit of capital as 1 is to z.
We shall have to follow Thiinen but a little further to
find how he applies the result which he has just obtained.
He is going to make use of the law of substitution * as
applied to labor and capital.
"In the production of one and the same product p,
a part of the capital may be replaced by an increased
amount of labor; and, vice versa, a part of the labor may
be replaced by an increased amount of capital. Capital
appears as a coworker, and enters into competition with
the laborer. But it is in the power of the undertaker
who employs n laborers with the capital Q, to give to the
relative capital q, which one man uses, any desirable
value t by increasing or diminishing n.  The undertaker,
knowing and following his interests, will increase the
value of q just so much, until the costs of the work done
by capital and the work done by men stand in direct proportion to their respective efficiency in production." $
Thiinen therefore concludes that the respective efficiency
of labor and capital is the measure of their earnings.
Professor Marshall states that Thiinen was the first to make use of this
law in this connection. Cf. Principles of Economics, second edition, p. 556.
Dr. Stuart Wood has recently applied this same law in the same relation with
excellent effect. Cf. Publications of American Economic Association, vol. iv.,
No. 1.
Q                                                      nq
t —  nq; the number of units of capital used by one laborer is nq
"-v                                                    n;
therefore, by increasing or diminishing n, q may be made to have any desirable
value.
p. 126.




11
But, as we have just seen, he has proved that the earnings
of a unit of labor are to the earnings of a unit of capital
as 1: z. The important inference that he draws from these
facts is thus stated: " The rate of interest z is the factor
by means of which the relation of the efficiency of capital
to that of human labor is expressed"; * i.e., the rate of
interest z is the factor expressing the relative efficiency
of capital and labor.  Now observe his final conclusion;
"We are herewith placed in a position to reduce to terms
of labor the co-operation of capital in the production of
a commodity." t In these words he states, as plainly as
could be stated, the chief results of his investigations
in ~ 13; and, although he claims that his advantage over
Ricardo consists in his ability to reduce the co-operation
of capital to terms of labor, the validity of that claim has
not been tested.
A little reflection will show the fallacy that he has committed. His conclusion does not follow from his premises.
In his premises he states: (1) that, "in the production of
one and the same product p, a part of the capital may
be replaced by an increased amount of labor," and "a
part of the labor may be replaced by an increased amount
of capital," and that "the undertaker, knowing and following his interests, will increase the value of q just
so much, until the costs of the work done by capital and
of the work done by men stand in direct proportion
to their respective efficiency in production"; (2) that
the earnings of a unit of labor are to the earnings of a
unit of capital as 1: z.  He infers from  these premises
that the rate of interest z is the factor expressing the
relative efficiency of capital and labor.  But here he
draws a general conclusion from particular premises. It
* p. 127.
t Ibid. Notice also this sentence, p. 127: "Durch diese Reduktion ist es
dann miglich, die Produktionskosten eines Erzeugnisses, insofern keine Landrente darin enthalten ist, ganz in Arbeit auszmdriicken, und die Arbeit wird
dadurch wahrhaft zum Werthmnesser fiir die Tauschgiiter."




12
will be admitted that in the production of a given product a part of the capital may be replaced by labor,
and a part of the labor replaced by capital. It will
also be admitted that, in the margin of indifference, the
wise undertaker will employ capital and labor in such
proportions that their costs will be in proportion to their
respective efficiency in production. But it cannot be admitted that, because in the margin of indifference the
efficiency of capital may be reduced to terms of labor,
therefore the entire efficiency of capital can be reduced to
terms of labor, or that the efficiency of capital in the
production of any commodity can be reduced to terms of
labor, or that z expresses the relative efficiency of capital
and labor. It expresses the relative efficiency only at the
margin of indifference, the margin where capital and labor
may be indifferently substituted for each other. If, then,
z does not express the relative efficiency of capital and
labor, Thiinen cannot infer that, by means of z, the co-operation of capital in production can be reduced to terms
of labor.
We shall see later what use Thiinen makes of this supposed law, but now we shall return to the main problem
under discussion. In the section that we have just considered he obtains the equation a + y =1 + q.  Although
the quantities y and z occur in this equation, the expression
in its present form is of no use; for the value of (a + y)
is dependent upon the value of z. Besides, p is not a constant quantity, but varies as q increases or diminishes 
and the values of y and z depend upon the value of p.
p, y, and z are therefore functions of q. The problem, then,
is to find the values of p, y, and z for a given value of q.
In order to solve this problem, Thiinen refers us to the
isolated state. In the isolated state the laborers have it
in their power either to work for undertakers or to lay
out farms for themselves on the margin of cultivation.
If the laborers are to be deterred from laying out new




13
farms, and persuaded to continue in the service of their
employers, their wages plus the interest on the capital
needed to lay out a farm must be equal to what the
"product of labor" of the farm would be after its completion. These conditions may be expressed mathematically.
If wages- a - y, the rate of interest = z, "product of
labor" of one man =p, the number of units of capital
used by one man cultivating the new  farm=-q, whose
value is q (a + y), since each unit of capital has the value
of one year's wages, then, in order for the laborer to be
deterred from laying out the farm, this equation must
exist: (a + y) + q (ay + y) z  p; *  or (a + y)=1+; or
-              -(a ++3).  Here a, p, and q are known quantities, and
y and z are unknown.
We have now obtained an equation expressing the interdependence of wages and interest.  The next problem  is
to find an independent expression for wages.  To enable
him to find this expression, Thiinen supposes that a number of laborers combine to lay out a farm on the margin
of cultivation of the isolated state.  This new farm  is to
be of the same character as those already existing in the
state.  The combination of laborers divide themselves into
two groups, which we shall call group A and group B.
The laborers in group A remain in the service of undertakers, and by means of the surpluses of their wages furnish
the means of subsistence to the laborers of group B, who
lay out the farm. In order to avoid confusion, we shall
call the laborers in groups A and B capital-producers.t
In the course of a year the farm  is completed, and laIt must be remembered that Thiinen considers the isolated state under
static conditions, for otherwise equilibrium would not be maintained even if
the relation existed expressed by the equation (a ~ y) + q (a + y) z p. In a
progressive state the laborers would secure a large advantage in laying out
marginal farms, owing to the growth in value of those farms, due to general
progress. Cf. Professor J. B. Clark, "De l'Influence de la Terre sur le Taux
des Salaires," p. 256 of Revue d'Lconomie Politique, 1890.
t Thiinen calls the laborers in groups A and B kapitalerzeugende Arbeiter
(p. 151).




14
borers are employed to cultivate it. The wages of each
of these laborers must be so great that the income which
each of them receives from his surplus when that surplus
is placed at interest — i.e., yz  will be equal to the sum
received by each of the capital-producers as his share of
the rent  of the farm; for, if this were not the case, the
laborers would lay out farms for themselves.
These facts Thiinen expresses in mathematical language,
and is thereby enabled to obtain the formula: Natural
wages =- lap.  He uses the following symbols:Let a + y = the year's wages of a laboring family, a and y retaining
the same meanings that they have had throughout this paper.
nq —the number of capital-producers in group B; that is, the
number of men needed to lay out the farm. Thanen admits
that, to lay out the farm, is needed not only labor, but
also capital; but he summarily dismisses this difficulty by
saying, "According to ~ 13, we can reduce the co-operation
of capital to terms of labor" (p. 152). Later on I shall
show that in the ascertainment of the quantity nq lies the
error which vitiates the formula Cap.
As the farm is completed in one year, its value is equal
to nq units of capital.
anq -the amount consumed by the nq men in group B.
anq — the number of capital-producers in group A, since the
capital-producers in group A support those in group B by
means of their surpluses.
Then nq + anq =-nq (a+?Y)  total number of capital-producers in
y      y
groups A and B.
n==number of men employed to cultivate the farm after its
completion.
n (a + y) = total wages paid n men.
p=" product of labor" of one man, working with q units of
capital.
np - total " product of labor."
np- n (a + y)=n [p-(a+y)] = total income from  the
farm for one year, or, as Thiinen calls it, the rent of the
farm. This rent is the property of nq (a + y) men.
* Rent is used here in the sense noted above, and means earnings of capital,
not land rent.




15
Therefore n [p-(a+y)]-  [P-(ea+Y)]Y -share of each of the capitalnq (a + y)    q (a + y)producers, or his portion of the rent of the farm. In this last expression all the quantities are known excepting y.
Now, it has already been observed that, for the laborers
to be induced to work on the new farm, the income which
each receives from his surplus when that surplus is placed
at interest must be equal to the rent received by each
capital-producer: hence yz must be equal to [P-(a+-y)]y.
q (a+-Y)
Capital-producers and laborers, therefore, have a common
interest in making the above function as large as possible;
and, when the function has reached its maximum value,
the interests of capital-producers and laborers will be
satisfied. The question is, then, For what value of y will
[p — (a+-y)] y have a maximum value?
q (a-,Y)
Differential calculus enables Thiinen  to  answer this
question. He solves the problem by differentiating the
function with respect to y, and then placing the differential equal to zero.  He finds that the function will have a
maximum  value when ( a+y )  =   ap.
Having obtained the formula for natural wages,* he is
able to find the expression for the natural rate of interest
by  substituting  Nl-ap  for (a+y) in the  equation  z =
p - (a - y)
q (a+-)'
*Thiinen placed such great value upon the formula \ap that he requested it should adorn his tombstone. According to Schumacher (J. H. v.
Thiinen: Ein Forscherleben, p. 322) his wish was respected: "' Die Krone seiner
Gesetze, das Resultat miihseliger Untersuchungen iiber das Verhiltniss des
Arbeitslohns zum Zinsfuss und zur Landrente, wie solches aus seinem Arsenale
mathematischer Formeln siegreich hervorging:
Der naturgemUisse Arbeitslohn =  jap
schmiickt als Denkspruch seinen einfachen Grabstein im Hiigellande von
Mecklenburg, wie er in schSner Stunde selber gewiinscht."




II.
CRITICISMS OF THE FORMULA: NATURAL
WAGES =   AP.
THiUNEN'S theory of wages holds a peculiar place in
German Economics. Important as the theory is, it is
unmentioned in the majority of German works, —a fact
which Falck and Komorzynski attribute to the abstruse
mathematical character of his method.  But even among
the few critics that ThUinen has had there is a lack of
harmony concerning the correctness of his work: some
accept his mathematical results in their entirety; others
accept a part and refuse the rest; while still others reject
his results in toto.
In the following pages my purpose is to endeavor to
show that those critics who have offered the strongest
objections to the correctness of Thiinen's results have
either overlooked the limited premises from which he
started, or forgotten the hypothetical nature of his conclusions. At the end I shall try to expose the error
which, so far as Thiinen's own work is concerned, vitiates
the correctness of his formula.
1. Let us examine first the position of Falck, who was,
one of the last to devote a monograph to Thiinen's work.
The main object of Falck's dissertation is to prove the
mathematical inaccuracy in the formula for natural wages.
He claims that the formula  \ap-a  "is the keystone of
Thiinen's whole system"; and, if you reject it, his "system loses all practical importance." *
~ Falek, Die Thiinen'sche Lehre vom Bildungsgesetz des Zinsfusses und vom
naturgemdssen Arbeitslohn, p. 32.




17
He proceeds in his argument as follows: Thuinen obtained the formula  a-ap from the expression [p-(a+y)] /
If we represent this expression by R, then
R B=p-(a+v)Jy    py.J  r P -llV.
q(a+ —y)    q (ay)q   La+    q
From the last expression we find, when y = o, the value
of g becomes o. In other words, when wages are reduced
to the bare means of subsistence, the rent of the capitalproducer vanishes. This fact seems to startle Falck; and,
forgetting that Thiinen's work has nothing to do with
actual conditions, but is based upon purely hypothetical
conditions, he claims that the phenomenon indicated by
the expression can have no economic cause, "since we
can daily convince ourselves that, as a matter of fact, in
many places wages are reduced not only to the bare
means of subsistence, but even below that amount, while
the income of the capitalist not only does not vanish, but
may increase."*  He infers, therefore, that there is a
mathematical error in the expression; and he claims to
prove the error by the following argument: —
" The formula P-(a+ v)]  was obtained from the formula
n [p —(a+Yi- q)]
nq(a +y)   The numerator denotes the rent from the
farm, the denominator the number of those among whom
the rent is divided. But is the y of the denominator
really equivalent to the y of the numerator?"  He denies
that the y's are equivalent, asserting that the "y of the
numerator denotes the surplus that is paid to the laborer
at this particular time; but the y of the denominator
denotes the surplus of wages that existed before the laying out of the farm." "Only by placing these two y's
equal to each other," he claims, "has it been possible for
the rent to obtain a maximum value at a definite rate
of wages." t
Falek is under the impression that the rate of wages
which exists before the laying out of the farm is different
Falck, p. 34.      i Ibid., p. 35.




18
from the rate that exists after the farm is completed. As
this is an error into which several critics have fallen, it
will be well to show that, in supposing a number of laborers to combine in laying out a marginal farm, Thiinen
proceeds on the assumption that natural wages exist in
the isolated state before the farm is begun, and that the
supposition is introduced merely as a means of ascertaining the mathematical expression for the prevailing rate
of wages. Thiinen attempts to place such conditions upon
the isolated state, that natural wages not only can be
realized, but are realized; and his main problem is to find
the mathematical expression for such wages.
Let us briefly review the chief limitations that he places
upon the isolated state. He assumes that the isolated
state is in a static condition; that the laborers are equal
in intelligence, skill, etc.; and that perfect competition
pervades the entire state. He assumes that beyond the
margin of cultivation there is a limitless territory whose
fertility is equal to that of lands already under cultivation, and he maintains that the rate of wages and the
rate of interest existing at the margin of cultivation determine the rate of wages and rate of interest throughout
the entire state. With these conditions placed upon the
isolated state, Thiinen claims that the mere possibility *
of laborers laying out farms for themselves will compel
the undertakers to pay laborers wages that will be equal
to what the latter could earn by laying out farms and cultivating them on their own responsibility.
He argues (pp. 146, 147), if the undertakers should
attempt to lower wages, laborers would emigrate to the
margin, and begin cultivation on their own responsibility.
Since, however, the number of laborers is constant, this
act on their part would cause scarcity of labor in the
interior of the state, which would result in a loss to the
* " Die blosse Miglichkelt fuiir die Arbelter, slch in der Wildniss anzusiedeln ohne dass dies That wird,' etc. Der isolirte Staat, Part II., p. 147.




19
undertakers. If, therefore, the undertakers desire to
keep their laborers, they must pay them such wages as
would make emigration to the margin of the state unprofitable.
Falck might claim that Thiinen's supposition of a
party of laborers combining to lay out a farm is an illustration of the manner in which the laborers would proceed
to enforce higher wages when undertakers had reduced
them below the natural limit. But this claim could not
be sustained; for Thiinen distinctly tells us that his investigations rest upon the supposition that the isolated
state is in a static condition (im beharrenden Zustand, p.
146). By static condition he does not mean that the
laborers are at war with their employers, trying to obtain
natural wages.  He means that they  already receive
natural wages. This follows from what he himself says
concerning the  static condition: "Im  isolirten  Staat
haben wir... stets den endlichen Erfolg, also das erreichte Ziel, vor Augen gehabt. Mit dem erreichten Ziel
tritt Ruhe und damit der beharrende Zustand ein; und
hier erblicken wir Gesetzmassigkeit, waihrend in der
Uebergangsperiode Manches uns als ein unentwirrbares
Chaos erscheint" (p. 35). He believes that natural
wages already exist in the isolated state; and, as a means
of discovering the mathematical expression for such wages,
he supposes that a number of laborers, to whom it is a
matter of indifference whether they labor for wages or
cultivate a marginal farm on their own account, combine
to lay out a farm.
We can now easily see the fallacy in Falck's objection.
Falck rests his whole proof of the inaccuracy of Thiinen's
formula on his claim that the y of the denominator of the
expression n[p-(a+y)] has a different value from the y of
nq (a - V)
the numerator. The sole reason that he offers to substantiate his claim is that the y of the denominator represents




20
the surplus that the laborer receives before the farm is
begun, and the y of the numerator represents the surplus
that he receives after the farm is completed. This is no
reason whatever why the y's are not equal. Because y
represents two quantities, it by no means follows that
those quantities are unequal. If the analysis that I have
given of Thiinen's method of procedure is correct, natural
wages are assumed to exist in the isolated state both before
and after the completion of the marginal farm; and consequently the y's in the above expression are equal.
2. Roscher  claims that even in the isolated state
Thiinen's formula jap does not represent natural wages;
for, he says, if labor and capital are combined in different
proportions in different industries, the laborers will not
be justly rewarded if all receive wages =a. For example, if an artist, using cheap fuel, makes valuable vases
out of cheap clay, it is not just or natural that he should
receive wages equal to or less than the wages of an
ordinary laborer. But Professor Roscher claims that the
formula  Jap would bring about this relation, because a
has the same value for the artist and the laborer, and p
varies with the amount of capital used. Hence, when the
laborer is employed in an industry where much capital is
used, "product of labor," p, will be very great; and, if his
wages — ap, he may receive more than the artist who
uses only a small amount of capital.
Komorzynskit holds that Roscher is right in saying
that da- does not represent natural wages, where labor
and capital combine in different proportions in production; but he shows that Roscher's illustration is defective,
since he compares laborers of different classes, an artist
and an ordinary laborer, whereas Thiinen's investigations
are concerned only with the ordinary laborer.
* Roscher, Geschichte der Nationaldkonomik in Deutschland, p. 896.
f Komorzynski, "Thiinen's naturgemUsser Arbeitslohn," Zeitschrift fir
Volkswirthschaft, Socialpolitik, und Verwaltung, Dritter Band, 1 Heft, p. 53.




21
Now let us examine the argument offered by Roscher
and approved by Komorzynski, that, where capital and labor
combine in different proportions in production, ap does
not represent natural wages even in the isolated state.
In order to present the matter clearly, I shall use an illustration found in Thiinen's own work,* where capital and
labor combine in different proportions in production. In
~ 13 he announces the law that the price of commodities
tends to conform to their cost of production, and attempts
to illustrate the law by a comparison of the prices of
mining and agricultural products. In the early part of
his work he assumed that the mines of the isolated state
lay in the neighborhood of the city; but, in order that he
may illustrate his law by a comparison of the prices of
silver and grain, he supposes, for the time being, that the
silver mines are scattered about the state, that the last
mine which is worked lies at the margin of the state, and
that, further in the wilderness, mines of equal fertility
to the marginal mine are found, but that they are not
worked, because the product would not pay for the cost of
production. This follows from the fact that the product
of the marginal mine just covers the cost of production.
Now, it has already been observed that the product
of the marginal farm just covers the cost of production.
Then, since perfect competition pervades the isolated state,
and laborers may work either at farming or mining, it
follows that the wages of the farm laborer and the wages
of the miner must have equal values. Hence, if we can
find the wages of the former in terms of grain and the
wages of the latter in terms of silver, we shall be able to
find the exchange values of grain and silver at the margin
of the isolated state.
Thiinen's formula for wages is a+y =  qz.  He supposes that the rate of interest  which, of course, is the
same for owners of mines and owners of farms - is five' Part II., pp. 131, 132.




22
per cent. In the above formula, and, indeed, everywhere
else in Thiinen's work, p represents "product of labor" in
cind. When the laborers are employed in silver mining,
p represents a certain amount of silver. When they are
employed in agriculture, it represents a certain amount of
grain. Thiinen supposes that in the case of the marginal
silver mine p equals 7~ pounds of silver, and in the case
of the marginal farm _p equals 240 scheffels of rye. He
then  says, "Since  different industries require different
amounts of capital, q will represent different quantities." *
He supposes that in mining q=20, and in agriculture
q  12. By making these substitutions in the formula, we
find that the wages of the miner (a+ y) =1+270x- 3pounds of silver; and the wages, of the farm laborer
(a+ y) =-1+2  1       150 scheffels of rye.  31 pounds of
silver, therefore, has the same value as 150 scheffels of
rye; and 7~ pounds of silver, the "product of labor," p, in
silver mining, has the same value as 300 scheffels of rye.
Now, Roscher and Komorzynski would say Nap does not
represent natural or just wages, because the miner would
receive as wages -ap -=   a x 300; while the farm  laborer would receive iap-      a =   x 240.  Whatever the value
of a may be, it is the same for both; and consequently the
miner would receive more than the farm  laborer.  Upon
the face of it, this argument looks sound; but yet we
should scarcely expect Thiinen to make this blunder after
telling us that throughout the isolated state all laborers
receive the same wages, and that in different industries
the quantity q, the amount of capital used, is different.
As a matter of fact, I think it may be proved that the
error lies with Roscher and Komorzynski. They attach
Part II., p. 131. Falck attempts to defend Thiinen against the criticism
of Roscher, and says: " Der Herr Verfasser [Roscher] scheint hier vergessen zu
haben, dass die Arbeiter des isolirten Staats Alle mit dem gleichen Capital
ausgeriistet sind und dass daher ein verschiedenes Quotverhaltniss geradezu
undenkbar ist " (p. 55). The quotation above from Thiinen, together with his
illustration of different amounts of capital used in silver mining and in agriculture, show the absurd position that Falck has taken.




23
an entirely wrong meaning to p when p occurs in the formula  Jap. In the formula \lap, p means "product of
labor" in agriculture at the margin of the isolated state,
and in the formula Nap it never means anything else.
In the beginning of his work Thiinen gives a general
definition of p as the "product of labor " of one man; that
is, the product to be shared between the laborer and the
owner of the capital which he uses. He proceeds with
his work, and bases his investigations at times upon actual
conditions, and at times upon the assumed conditions of
the isolated state.  In his investigations based upon actual
conditions he develops the formula z- p-(a+y); but, as
his object is to find the expression for the natural wages
of the isolated state, he tells us that in its present form
the expression z  p-(a+  ) is of no use to him.  But why?
q(a —— y)
Because p does not represent a constant quantity, " but
rises and falls with q. y and z, in turn, depend upon p.
Hence p, y, and z are functions of q." * He then definitely
and distinctly states the problem  before him.  "The
problem is then," he says, "to find the value of p, y, and
z for a given value of q." t
After announcing his problem, he immediately leaves
his investigations based upon actual conditions, and goes
to the isolated state.  He then shows that, if the laborers
are to be deterred from laying out marginal farms, this
equation must exist (a + y) + q (a + y) z =p, where p
equals the "product of labor" in agriculture on the marginal lands.  " Here," he says, "a, p, and q are determinate, y and z indeterminate" (p. 141).  With these
quantities assumed as known, he proceeds with his investigations, and ends by declaring that natural wages
- -ap. But what does p mean here? Evidently, it has
but one meaning, the "product of labor" in agriculture
at the margin of the isolated state4.
* Part II., p. 139.             t Ibid.
4 Misconception with regard to the meaning of p as that quantity occurs in
the formula Xlap has been a source of numerous errors, and it is important that




24
3. Komorzynski takes a peculiar position in his criticism
of Thiinen. Thiinen tells us he considers his isolating
method the most valuable part of his work; * but Komorzynski insists that the isolated state, with all its appurtenances, is an unnecessary part of Thinen's work, and
serves merely to obscure his investigations and confuse
his critics.  Thiinen believes that the formula for natural
wages can be found only in one way; namely, by means of
the conditions placed upon the isolated state.t But Komorzynski claims that Thiinen unwittingly develops the formula in two ways: that the second method of obtaining
the formula has nothing to do with the isolated state, but
is based upon actual conditions; and, when the two
methods are divested of all unnecessary suppositions, the
the point made above should be understood. Thiinen's purpose is merely to
investigate, under the favorable conditions of the isolated state, the influence of
free land upon wages. His position is that, at the margin of cultivation in the
isolated state, the determination of the rate of wages and the rate of interest
will be in accord with the best interests of the laborer, and that the rate of
wages and the rate of interest at the margin determine the rates throughout
the state. If Thiinen attempted to show anything, it was that wages at the
margin equal ja p, where p equals " product of labor " in agriculture; and his
claim is that the same wages will exist throughout the isolated state. " Wir
behaupten, dass der an der Grenze des isolirten Staats sich bildende Arbeitslohn und Zinsfuss normirend fiir den ganzen Staat ist " (p. 142).
Thiinen's assumption that the mines of the isolated state are situated near
the city (Part I., p. 1) confirms the idea that it was his purpose to investigate
under favorable conditions the influence of free land upon wages; for, if the
mines had been so placed that the one whose product just covered its cost of
production was situated at the margin of the state, and that a number of
equally fertile mines were left untouched in the wilderness, then, instead of the
laborers combining to lay out a farm on the margin, they would unite to work
a mine. We might then make suppositions concerning the latter combination.
similar to those that Thiinen made concerning the former combination; and, if
we should use capital letters where Thilnen used small ones, we should find, by
following Thiinen's method, that the wages of each miner would be \IAP.
But A = a, and P is greater in value than p, because more capital is used in
the production of P than is used in the production of p. Hence X]AP is
greater than   a.p; and, consequently, it would be more profitable for the
laborers to engage in mining than in agriculture. Thiinen saw what the difficulty would be if he supposed the mines to be placed in this way; and for this
reason he was careful, in making the illustration I have given in the text, to
state that his supposition concerning the position of the mines was only
temporary.
* Part I., p. xix.            t Part II., p. 26.




25
ascertainment of the formula is found to rest upon two
conditions which are common to the two methods.
The second method of obtaining the formula Map is,
according to Komorzynski, as follows: In the part of his
work based upon actual conditions Thiinen develops the
formula z =-P-(a+), and states that it expresses the rate
q (a + y)
of interest, In another part of his work he states that
it is to the advantage of the laborer to have wages and
interest bear such relation to each other that the laborer
will receive the maximum income from his surplus when
that surplus is placed at interest. Now, Komorzynski
argues, since the surplus is y, and the rate of interest
_ p-(a+y), the interests of the laborer will be subserved
when yz, which is equal to y [p —(a+y)] obtains a maximum
q(a+]-)
value.  This takes place when (a + y) =   ap.  He
therefore concludes that Thiinen's suppositions concerning
the isolated state are all unnecessary, and all that is
needed to prove that Map represents the best rate of
wages for the laborer is to prove: —
A. That z =P-(a+y) expresses a general formula for
q(a+y)
interest.
B. That it is to the advantage of the laborer to have
wages and interest bear such relation to each
other that the laborer will receive a maximum
income from his surplus when that surplus is
placed at interest.
Why Thiinen did not proceed in the manner indicated
I shall consider later on. At present we shall consider
Komorzynski's attempt to prove an error in the development of the formula -ap on the ground that the conditions A and B are unsustainable.
A. He claims that the subtle error which vitiates the
formula for natural wages is that z -P-q(a++y) is not a
general formula for the rate of interest. To fulfil the
conditions of a general formula for the rate of interest, it
must express the same rate of interest for all industries.




26
But Komorzynski says the above formula is not capable
of doing this; for "wages (a+-y) and interest z are by
means of Thiinen's formula z = -(a+y) brought into a
q (aq-y)
relation which, in turn, varies with the changing quantities p and q.  The quantity p, the surplus value of the
product over the value of the capital consumed in production, and likewise the quantity q,... are different in
different forms of production. From this it follows that
the relation which, according to the formula, exists between the rate of interest z and the rate of wages (a + y),
will be different in different forms of production." * In
other words, since the quantities p and q are different in
different forms of production, he infers that the relation
of (a+y) and z expressed by z- p-(a+) will be different in different forms of production; and therefore,
since the formula does not express the same rate of interest for all industries, it is not a general formula for the
rate of interest.
The error in the argument can best be exposed by
means of the example that Komorzynski gives to illustrate
his argument. The illustration is intended to show why
the formula does not represent the general rate of interest. He says: "If the rate of interest is 5 per cent. and
the rate of wages 400 florins, then, in three different forms
of production, these equations may exist: —
I.   2,500-400 where p =  2,500 and q = 105;
120II.   -400 where p -     1,200 and q    40;
100   40x400,
III. 0o-    - 4-40o where p =  460 and q -3.
But, if (a +-y) should rise from 400 to 450, then the following unequal rates of interest would result: -
I4.33  2,500-450  II4.16  1,200 —450.741  460-450,, 
*100   105 x 450' 100   40 x 450   * I00   3  450 
* Komorzynski, p. 58.
tlIbid., p. 59, note. There is a slight error in the original which I
have corrected in the quotation given above. Where 741 occurs'above, 7.4100
is found in the original.




27
This example, he claims, illustrates that the formula is
not a general formula for the rate of interest, or, better,
a formula for the general rate of interest, but that it represents the relation between wages and interest in specific
industries.
The fallacy in the argument may be readily shown.
Komorzynski has overlooked Thiinen's definition of p.
In his illustration Komorzynski makes p represent, in each
of the three cases, a definite number of florins. This is
evident from the fact that in each case he subtracts wages,
expressed in terms or florins, from p.  Furthermore, when
he supposes wages to rise from 400 to 450 florins, he assumes that in each of the three cases p retains its value
in terms of florins. In his illustration and throughout his
whole article* he assumes that p represents a definite
value.  But Thiinen distinctly defines p as "product of
labor "; that is, "product of labor" in kind (pp. 80, 167).
When laborers are employed in silver mining, p is expressed
in terms of silver (p. 131); and, when they are employed
in agriculture, p is expressed in terms of grain (p. 131).
If, then, p means " product of labor " in kind, Komorzynski
cannot assume that the value of p, or the price of p, expressed in florins, remains constant when the rate of wages
changes. This error renders his objections useless; for
if, after the rise of wages, the demands of the community
require the continuance of production in groups I., II.,
III., the formula z =< -(a+y) (provided there is no other
objection to the formula than that which Komorzynski
offers) may still represent equal rates of interest for the
three groups if p, remaining constant in quantity as
"product of labor" in kind, may change its value or
change its price in terms of florins.
B. Komorzynski also attempts to prove defective Thiinen's supposition that it is to the advantage of the laborer
*For example, p. 58, " Die Grosse p, der Wertiiberschuss des Productes,I
etc.; p. 55, " Hier bedeutet p den Tauschwert (erlangbaren Verkaufspreis) des
Productes," etc.




28
to have wages and interest bear such a relation to each
other that the laborer will receive a maximum income from
his surplus when that surplus is placed at interest.* In
brief, he claims that it is not to the interest of the laborer
that yz should attain a maximum value.
His objection may be thus stated: The interests of
laborers as to the relation of wages and interest vary
according as they have saved during many or during few
years. If they have saved during many years, they desire
to have wages low and interest high. If, on the other
hand, they are just beginning to save, they desire a higher
rate of wages and a lower rate of interest. Hence there
is no definite relation of wages and interest that, under all
circumstances, is the best relation for the laborers. Concerning Thiinen's supposition that it is to the advantage
of the laborer to have yz attain a maximum value, Komorzynski says that it is based on the arbitrary assumption
that the laborers save only during one year, and that all
laborers have only an amount of capital equal to y.
This objection has much in its favor; but, before considering it, we must put Thiinen in the right light. In
introducing Komorzynski's criticism, it was stated that
his position is peculiar, since he holds that, while Thunen
believed he could obtain his formula for natural wages
only in one way,- by means of the conditions of the isolated state,-he unwittingly develops it in two ways;
that, when the two methods are disembarrassed of all
superfluous suppositions, the ascertainment of the formula.
is found to rest upon two conditions, which are common
to the two methods; and that the ascertainment of the
formula by the second method is based, not upon the
hypothetical conditions of the isolated state, but upon
actual conditions. By the logic of his position, therefore,
* This question is also discussed by Knapp, G. F., Zur Priifung der Untersuchungen Thiinen's iiber Lohn und Zinsfuss im isolirten Staate, pp. 18-26;
Roscher, Geschichte, etc., p. 896; Schmidt, C., Der natiirliche Arbeitslohn,
pp. 34-37.




29
he is forced to charge Thiinen with holding that it is to
the advantage of the laborer, under actual conditions, to
have wages and interest bear such relation to each other
that he will receive the maximum income from his surplus
when that surplus is placed at interest. This charge
cannot be proved. Thiinen's hypothesis that there is a
definite relation of wages and interest which is most
desirable for the laborer is based upon the supposition
that there is a direct interdependence between wages and
interest.  But he cannot be charged with  claiming a
direct interdependence between wages and interest under
actual conditions,* for nowhere in his investigations based
upon actual conditions does he make such a supposition.
So far, however, as concerns the isolated state,- a state
in a static condition, with constant capital, with constant
population having constant wants and constant methods
of production, —his claim of an interdependence of wages
and interest cannot be denied.
Now, when the above objection is considered as directed
towards Thiinen's method of developing the formula on
the basis of the isolated state, it has the merit, not of
proving his investigations false, but of showing them
to be painfully contracted and incomplete. In a state
where there is a direct interdependence of wages and
interest, it is true that, when laborers possess different
amounts of capital, those who possess much will desire a
different relation of wages and interest from those who
possess little. It is also true that, when laborers have
saved during many years, they desire a different relation
of wages and interest from what they desired when they
were just beginning to save. But, after we have admitted
* Komorzynski's error grows out of his misunderstanding of the formula
p-(a+.y)
=- q(a +~y), as that formula occurs in ~ 13. If Thiinen claimed that the formula represents a general formula for interest under actual circumstances, and
if he intended p to represent a constant price, as Komorzynski understands it,
then we might charge him with holding that there is a direct interdependence
of wages and interest under actual circumstances.




30
all this, we cannot deny that the laborers who are just
beginning to save will be interested in having the relation
of wages and interest such that they will obtain a maximum income from their surplus when that surplus is placed
at interest. If, then, y equals the surplus, and z the rate
of interest, we cannot deny that, when laborers begin
to save, it will be to their advantage to have yz obtain
a maximum value. Komorzynski's argument does not
prove an error in Thiinen's work: it merely shows its
incompleteness.
4. I shall now attempt to point out a fallacy in Thiinen's
reasoning that vitiates his formula; and, in order to expose this fallacy, I must briefly review the chief points in
~ 13, that repeatedly misinterpreted section of Thiinen's
work. As I have shown in the early part of this article,
Thiinen's prime object in ~ 13 is to find means by which
he can reduce to terms of labor the co-operation of capital
in production. He proceeds to do this by saying, if an
amount of capital Q is divided by the year's wages of a
laborer (a + y), we shall find "how large the capital is
expressed in years' labor of a laboring family" ("Wie
gross das Kapital in Jahresarbeiten einer Arbeiterfamilie
ausgedriiekt ist," p. 124). Although we see what Thiinen
means to say, yet his words do not express his meaning.
By dividing capital by wages, he does not obtain an
expression for capital in terms of years' labor of a laboring family, but in terms of wages. Further on in the
same section (p. 128) he repeats the same idea by saying,
in effect, that capital may be reduced to terms of labor by
dividing the amount of capital by wages. This inaccuracy
in the use of words continues throughout the chapter.
In continuing his work, he supposes that aQ   nq, or
Q- nq(a+y).  If the capital nq (a+y) is used in a
productive process where n laborers are employed, then,
assuming that the "product of labor " of each man equals
p, and the wages of each equal (a +y), Thiinen holds




31
that the rate of interest is expressed by the formula
nz   [p-(a+y)] _ pq-(a+w)   By a manipulation of this
nq (a + y)    I (aq-y)
formula he claims to prove that "z is the factor by means
of which the relation of the efficiency of capital to that of
human labor is expressed "; and hence he concludes, " We
are herewith placed into position to reduce to terms of
labor the co-operation of capital in the production of a
commodity." Here he sums up in two sentences the
result of his investigations in ~ 13. Notice, however, that
above he spoke of reducing capital to terms of labor,
while here he speaks of reducing the co-operation of capital
to terms of labor,- two entirely different things, which we
must keep distinctly separated. In a moment we shall
find how Falck has fallen into error by confusing these
two processes.
Now let us see what use Thiinen makes of these results.
To find the expression for natural wages, he resorts to
the case of a number of laborers combining to lay out a
marginal farm. One of the quantities that he uses to
obtain his formula is nq, and the manner in which he
obtains that quantity he states in these words: Suppose
"the laying out of the farm required the year's labor of
nq men.... Unquestionably, in order to provide a new
farm, is needed not only labor, but also the use of capital;
(but) according to ~ 13, we can reduce the co-operation of
capital to terms of labor, and thus express the costs of
laying out the farm entirely in terms of labor." *
What does Thiinen mean by saying, according to ~ 13,
the co-operation of capital may be reduced to terms of
labor?  Knapp understands him to signify that the cooperation of capital can be reduced to terms of labor by
means of the rate of interest, and he states that such a
reduction is impossible. This interpretation of Thiinen's
meaning I should urge as correct, and should base the
claim (1) upon the general meaning of ~ 13, which is
Part II., p. 152.




32
expressed in these sentences: z is the factor by means
of which the relation of the efficiency of capital to that of
human labor is expressed," and "We are herewith placed
into position to reduce to terms of labor the co-operation
of capital in the production of a commodity"; (2) upon
Thiinen's use of words. In the paragraph under discussion he says, "According to ~ 13, we can reduce the
co-operation of capital [die Mitwirkung des Kapitals] to
terms of labor"; and in the latter of the two sentences
just quoted he uses the identical expression, the co-operation of capital (die Mirtwirkung des Kapitals).
Falck, however, takes exception to Knapp's interpretation, and states his objection by saying that in the first
place, by dividing the value of capital by the value of
a year's wages, the reduction of which Thiinen speaks is
possible; and in the second place, according to Thiinen,
the reduction is not effected by means of the rate of interest.  Curiously enough, he informs the reader that, by
referring to ~ 13 of Thiinen's work, he may convince himself of the validity of his objection to Knapp's criticism.
The truth of the matter is that Falck not only misinterprets both Thiinen and Knapp, but he also misquotes
Knapp.  That he misinterprets those authors is evident
from the fact that they speak of reducing the co-operation
of capital to terms of labor, and Falck speaks of reducing
capital to terms of labor. That he misquotes Knapp can
be readily seen by comparing page 16 of Knapp with
page 23 of Falck.*
If the interpretation that I have given of ~ 13 is correct,
* Knapp, p. 16: "Thiinen bemerkt... adas ein Grenzgut nicht nur durch
Verwendung von Lihnen hergestellt werden kann; er glaubt aber... man
brauche bloss'die Mitwirkung des Capitals auf Arbeit zu reduciren,' so
erreiche man das Gewiinschte; diese Reduction, selbst wenn sie miiglich ware,
geschieht nach Thiinen nur durch den Zinsfuss, und da der noch zu finden ist,
so bleibt also die Schwierigkeit ungelist."
Falck, p. 23: " Schliesslich sagt Knapp,...'Diese Reduktion (des Capitals auf Arbeit), selbst wenn sie miglich wire,'" etc.
Knapp is speaking of the reduction of the co-operation of capital, and
Falck quotes him as speaking of the reduction of capital.




33
it is easy to expose a fallacy in Thuiinen's reasoning that
vitiates the formula 1ap. Thiinen's purpose in his whole
work is to find mathematical expressions for the natural
rate of interest and the natural rate of wages. The
method by which he does this is first to find a formula
expressing the interdependence of wages and interest in
the isolated state. This formula z - p-(a+y) we shall call
formula A. In this formula all the quantities are known
except y and z. In order to find the values of y and z, he
next attempts to find an independent expression for y, or
what is the same thing, since a is known, an independent
expression for (a + y); and by substituting for (a - y)
in formula A obtain the value of z. The formula that
enables him to find the independent expression for (a + y)
is n[P-(a+y)]  In this formula, which we shall call formula B, all the quantities are assumed as known excepting y. But how did Thiinen obtain the quantity nq?.
He says: Suppose "the laying out of the farm required
the year's labor of nq men.... Unquestionably, in order
to provide a new farm, is needed not only labor, but also
the use of capital; (but) according to ~ 13, we can reduce
the co-operation of capital to terms of labor, and thus express the costs of laying out the farm entirely in terms of
labor." When we refer to ~ 13 to see how the reduction
is to be performed, we find that it is done by means of the
rate of interest. The fallacy in the argument is evident.
Thinen's whole procedure is a mere begging of the question. His problem is to find the values of y and z in formula A; and, to solve the problem, he undertakes to find
an independent expression for (a+y) by means of formula B, and by substituting for (a-+-y) in formula A
obtain the value of z. But, in order to get the quantity
nq in formula B, he assumes that z is known. If, however,
z is known, then, according to formula A, y is known.
Thiinen undertakes to find the value of the unknown
quantities y and z; and, in attempting to solve the prob



34
lem, he uses the very quantities that he wants to find as
known quantities.
While this error renders useless the formula iap, yet it
enables us to see why Thiinen did not proceed to obtain
the formula in the manner indicated by Komorzynski,
and shows us the continuity in his work. In the part of
his work based upon actual conditions (~ 13) he obtains
the formula z =n [P-(a+y)] p-(aC+y); and in another part
n q(a+y)    q(a+)  
he states that it is to the advantage of the laborer to have
the relation of wages and interest such that he can obtain
the maximum income from his surplus when that surplus
is placed at interest,-that is to say, it is to the advantage
of the laborer to have yz obtain a maximum value. Now,
Komorzynski holds that in these few facts we have the
data with which to obtain the formula for natural wages,
and that Thiinen need not have carried his work farther;
for, he says, if it is to the advantage of the laborer to have
yz obtain a maximum value, then, since z  P-(a+y) his
q (a+y)I
interests will be subserved when y [ -(a( + )] obtains a maxq (a+ Y)
irnum value, which is the case when (a + y) =-  ap. But
Komorzynski assumes that the value of q in the above
expression is known; and, in making this assumption, he
has fallen into error. In ~ 13 the denominator of the expression for interest is obtained by dividing a definite
amount of capital, Q, by the rate of wages. aQy  nq or
Q =nq (a- y). Hence nq is unknown as long as (a+-y) is
unknown; and, when nq is known, (a+ y) is known, because their product is the definite quantity Q. Since,
then, the value of q depends upon the value of (a+y), it is
an error to attempt to find the value of the unknown
quantity (a + y) in the above expression by assuming that
q is known.
Thuinen's method of obtaining the formula leads us to
believe that he foresaw this difficulty. His sole object in
trying to reduce the co-operation of capital in production
to terms of labor was to enable him to proceed with his




35
work by considering nq a known quantity. When he
attempted to find the expression for natural wages by
assuming that a number of laborers combined to lay out
a marginal farm, he did not begin by assuming that the
value of the farm equalled Q, and by dividing that quantity by the rate of wages obtain nq; but he began by supposing that nq equalled the number of men required to
lay out the farm. Knapp and Komorzynski * notice that
he changed his method of obtaining nq, and, without seeing
his purpose, charge him with inconsistency. By following
his work, however, we find that he had a definite purpose
in view; for, assuming that nq is known, he obtained an
expression that is identical in form with the above expression from  which Komorzynski obtains the formula  ]ap,
but differs from  it, in that nq, according to Thiinen, is a
known quantity.
Thiinen's theory is valuable,t because it marks a decided reaction against the teachings of the classical economists, and yet at the same time avoids the extravagant
doctrines of the socialists. His specific contribution to
the theory of natural wages does not consist in his mathematical formulas, nor, indeed, in any positive conclusions
that he obtains, but rather in his designation of the factors
that must be considered in any scientific theory of natural
or just wages.  What these factors are can best be seen
by contrasting Thiinen's theory with that of the classical
economists.
1. While the classical economists treated labor throughout as a mere commodity, Thiinen regards the laborer as
a man, and considers his wages as the means of satisfying
* Knapp, pp. 15, 25. Komorzynski, pp. 55, 56.
t It must be remembered that the first edition of Der naturgemiIsse Arbeitslohn appeared in 1850. For valuable suggestions concerning Thiinen's contribution to Natural Wages, compare Schumacher's Ueber J. H. v. Thiinen's Gesetz
vom naturgemissen Arbeitslohn, pp. 18, 19; Mithoff (in Schonberg, Handbuch,
Band 1), p. 640; Schmidt, pp. 2, 16.




36
his wants. The work that he undertakes is to find the
wages that are agreeable to the nature (naturgemdss) and
to the destiny of man.
2. While the classical economists regarded solely the
operation of natural law, Thiinen considers the equity
in the case. He believes that natural wages exist in the
isolated state when these two conditions are realized, (a)
when the laborer receives the same income from his surplus when that surplus is placed at interest as the capitalproducer receives from his surplus when that surplus is
embodied in a marginal farm; (b) when the laborer receives the maximum income from his surplus.* Here Thiinen makes a crude attempt to find an equitable basis for
the division of the product of labor between the laborers
and the owners of capital invested in concrete forms.
3. While the classical economists considered only the
requirements of the laborer as limited by his surroundings,
and disregarded the product of labor, Thiinen holds that
there can be no scientific theory of wages that does not
make wages depend upon product. The fundamental
idea in the formula Map is that wages must vary with the
product.
A scientific theory of natural wages must regard the
laborer as a man, consider the rights of the laborer and of
the capitalist, and make the wages of the laborer depend
upon his product.
* These two characteristics of natural wages are definitely stated, p. 204.




37
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Johann Heinrich v. Thiinen: Der naturgemiisse Arbeitslohn und dessen Verhiiltniss zum Zinsfuss und zur Landrente. Part II. 1 of Thiinen's Der
isolirte Staat in Beziehung auf Landwirthschaft und National6konomie.
Dritte Auflage. Berlin. 1875.
J. A. R. v. Helferich: J. H. v. ThFinen und sein Gesetz fiber die Theilung des
Produkts unter die Arbeiter und Kapitalisten.  Tiibinger Zeitschrift fur
die gesammnte Staatswissenschaft. 1852. pp. 393-433.
A. Leymarie: Le Salaire Naturel et son Rapport au Taux de l'Intgr~t, par M.
Jean Henri de Thiinen. Journal des Economistes. 1857. t. 15, pp.
250-264.
Mathieu Wolkoff: Nouvelles Observations au Sujet de l'Ouvrage de M. de
Thiinen sur le Salaire Naturel. Journal des,conomistes. 1857. t. 16,
pp. 239-255.:tienne Laspeyres: Wechselbeziehungen zwischen Volksvermehrung und Hohe
des Arbeitslohns. Heidelberg. 1860.
Georg Friedrich  Knapp: Zur Prufung der Untersuchungen  Thiinen's iiber
Lohn und Zinsfuss im isolirten Staate. Braunschweig. 1865.
L. J. Brentano: * Ueber J. H. v. Thiinen's naturgemiissen Lohn- und Zinsfuss
im isolirten Staate. Gottingen. 1867.
H. Schumacher: Ueber J. H. v. Thiinen's Gesetz vom naturgemiissen Arbeitslohne und die Bedeutung dieses Gesetzes fUr die Wirklichlkeit. Rostock,
1869.
W. Roscher: Geschichte der National6konomik in Deutschland. pp. 879-902.
Georg v. Falck: Die Thiinen'sche Lehre vom Bildungsgesetz des Zinsfusses und
vom naturgemissen Arbeitslohn.  Leipzig.
Carl Knies: Der Credit. pp. 125-131.
Th. Mithoff: Der naturgemiisse Arbeitslohn. In Schinberg's Handbuch der
politischen Oekonomie. Band I., pp. 636-640. Dritte Auflage.
H. Schumacher: J. H. v. Thiinen: Ein Forscherleben. Zweite Auflage.
Rostock u. Ludwigslust. 1883.
W. Launhardt: Mathematische Begriindung der Volkswirthschaftslehre. Leipzig. 1885. pp. 138-140.
C. Schmidt: Der natilrliche Arbeitslohn. Jena. 1887. pp. 16-40.
Maurice Block: Les Progres de la Science 12conomique. Vol. II. 1890.
p. 259 et seq.
J. Lehr: Grundbegrife und Grundlagen der Volkswirthschaft. pp. 325-328.
Joh. v. Komorzynski: Thiinen's naturgemisser Arbeitslohn. Zeitschrift fuir
Volkswirthschaft, Socialpolitik, und Verwaltung. Dritter Band, 1
Heft, pp. 27-62.
*I have been unable to secure a copy of Brentano's dissertation. It is out
of print.
















RELATIONS BETWl-V:EEN
CAPITAL AND LAB OR
UNI TED STATES.
BY
JOSEPH  NAS H.
THTE FIRST-PRIZI, ESSAY AWARDED1 BY THE IBOSTON YOUNG ME1N'S
CH(R.ISTIAN UNION, 1878.
BOSTON:
LEE AND  SHEPARD, PUBLITSHERS,
18-7 8.
Press of Rockwell & Churchill, ~,9 Arch St.








THE
RELATIONS  BETWEEN
CAPITAkL kaND LASOX
IN THE
UNITED STATES.
BY
JOSEPH NASH.
THE FIRST-PRIZE ESSAY AWARDED BY THE BOSTON YOUNG 3MEN'S
CHRISTIAN UNION, 1878,
BOSTON:
LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS,
1878.








CAPITAL AND LABOR.
PRIZE ESSAYS ON THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THEM OFFERED BY THE
CHRISTIAN UNION.
It was publicly proposed, a few months since, to offer to members
of the Young Men's Christian Union, not more than thirty-five
years of age, prizes of fifty and twenty-five dollars, to be paid out
of a special fund contributed for the purpose, for the two best essays
on  6 The Relations between Capital and Labor in the United States."
The announcement stated that "6 essays are to be signed with fietitious names, and accompanied by a sealed envelope containing the
real and the fictitious names of the writer.  Eminent men will be
selected as judges.  It is expected that the successful essays will
be made public in the Union building, or in some other mannero
It is hoped that this will be the means of interesting many young
men in, and inducing them  to give serious thoughts to, this most
important social question."
Much interest was manifested in the above proposition, many
young men responding  by preparing essays.  General F. A.
Osborn, Professor William  P. Atkinson, and Samuel Wells, Esqo
kindly consented to act as judges, and have devoted much time to
the careful examination of the essays.  From  the judges the
following decision has been received: —
BosTON, February 7, 1878.
WILLIAM  H. BALDWIN, Esq., Presideni of the Young Men's Christian
Union: -
DEAR SIR, - The committee to whom was referred the examination of the
essays written by members of the Union on the subject of " The Relations
between Capital and Labor in the United States," beg leave to report that
they have carefully read the essays, which numbered seventeen in all, and are
much gratified in finding that they exhibit evidence of considerable study and
investigation, and also show that the ideas of the writers are generally sound,and correct.




4
They unanimously recommend that the first prize be awarded to the writer
of the essay marked " Themis; " the second to the writer of that marked
IC Junius, 1728;" and are pleased to be able to name for honorable mention
the three essays respectively marked "'Alleyn E.," "A Job Printer," and
6 Junius."
FRANCIS A. OSBORN,
W. P. ATKINSON,
SAMUEL WELLS,
The sealed envelopes, containing the real names of the writers,
were opened Monday evening, February  11.   Themris." (first
prize) was found to be by Joseph Nash, Boston; " Junius, 1728 "
(second prize), was by John A. Bennett. Namnes for'" honorable
mention": " Alleyn E.," F. A. Varney; " A Job Printer," Henry
A. Kidder; "Junius," Henry J. Bowen.
Detached parts of this essay were read at the Union Hall,
Boylston street, on February 18, 1878, which the Boston press
characterized as " strong, suggestive, and original in style."




Ce  Broton  otrung  ten'r  Ci'iftian  lfaim
THIS ESSAY IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, AS A SLIGHT TOKEN OF
RECOGNITION OF THE PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN WORK IT IS
DOING FOR THE YOUNG MEN IN THE CITY OF
BOSTON, AND AT WHOSE INSTANCE
IT WAS WRITTEN.








TIHE RELATIONS BETWEEN CAPITAL AND LABOR IN
THE UNITED STATES.
WVe cannot regard but with solicitude, if not with alarm,
the recent, violent and riotous events in the history and
progress of labor in the United States.  It is a new phase
in our social order, that has for us, our country, and its
institutions, a more than ordinary significance.  Our civilization, in its political form, has been built of forces that
are peculiar to itself. They give it certain elements of
strength and weakness not to be, found in the modern
civilizations of continental Europe, which possess, in other
respects, like characteristics; being developed and unfolded
by the same expanding powers of religious rule, scientific
discovery, intellectual growth, and econonlic prosperity.
Our government is made up of the people, by the people,
and for the people. Whatever irritates and distracts any
considerable number of its citizens conmes close and quick
in its sensitive pulsation to the heart and strength of our
national life. With us government and people are synonymous terms. Like the brain and the body, they are bound
together by innumerable and delicate nerves. Does the one
suffer, then the pain is speedily communicated to every part
of the body politic. We have no strong, conservative and
centralized force that stands apart by itself, governed by a
special sovereiginty, and controlled by a limited authority, in
the maintenance of public peace and order. Do the people
strike at the government and the civil rule, then they fall.




8
We have no soldiers enlisted in their defence but them; no
coercive power for municipal order and national unity but
what they voluntarily contribute. Do the people make the
assault upon our institutions, then Cesar has fallen by the
hand of his bosom-friend Brutus.
It would seem, then, that under such circumstances
we must make some satisfactory solution of this difficult
problem  of capital and labor; that we must find some
remedy for the disease, discover some palliative to sooth
and allay its inflammation; for, should it continue to increase
in its maddened intensity and purpose, who will set the
bounds to what it may destroy, who limit the extent of the
upheaval and change it may produce, in the present social
order and political system of the government of the United
States?
For labor to raise its rebellious hand in this country and
under this government, formed in its deepest interests, and
fashioned to its special needs, seems to us like the hand of
an evil son raised to strike down the venerated father
whose first care and thought were his welfare, success, and
happiness. Well may we ask the question, if capital and
labor cannot be united and harmonious under institutions
and laws like ours, in a country so advantageous to their
growth and increase as this, where is the land, or what
the political system, under which this desirable result can be
attained?
But, regret this recent trouble between capital and labor
as we may, it has its lessons. The learning of them will
form a kind of crisis in our national thought.  Among other
things, the struggle teaches us that the economic laws make
no distinctions in nations or governments, in their rule and
application. America has freedom and equality.  She has
millions of acres of rich and fertile soil yet uncultivated,
exhaustless treasures of material prosperity yet untouched.




But labor riots here as well as in the most autocratic and
imperial governments of Europe, where every acre of land
is occupied, and every natural force pressed into the service
for the accumulation of wealth, to minister to man's wants,
necessities, and comforts.  The economic laws are universal
in their rule and sovereignty.  They are confined to no
nation or country in their jurisdiction.  Disregard them  in
republic or monarchy, and the penalty is sure to follow.
As a people we are energetic and active.  We hurry
along, with a feverish intensity, in the pursuit of wealth and
pleasure.  We are not given to the study of causes.  We
are interested only in effects and events.  We catch at the
nearest way. We leap into the swiftest current, never
thinking that in the fact of its swiftness lies the probability
of a Niagara, near at hand, over which we may be hurled.
We never anticipate or think of peril.  The vessel sails
under full canvas till she runs ashore; then we look about
us for the why and the wherefore.
While we are not insensible to danger or misfortune, yet
we require a strong electrical shock, such as this one of
capital and labor has been, to set our reflective faculties in
motion.  If we heed the warning, it may serve a good and
noble purpose in pointing out the way we may escape more
fatal errors in the future.
The relations between capital and labor in the United
States may have some few  special and exclusive conditions that are only to be found in this country.  They may
consist in its climate, form of government, legislative policy,
geographical position, or in some particular or material
advantage which nature has bestowed  upon the United
States to the exclusion of all other countries.  Each and all
of these are important subjects of inquiry that bear more or
less directly upon this controversy.  But the greater importance of this question rests here, as, elsewhere, in the




10
analysis and consideration of the laws and forces that are
universal in their application to the production of the capital and the remuneration of labor.  All civilized communities have here a common cause, a common difficulty to
encounter, a common obstacle to overcome.
The great capitals of nations and the markets of the
world have been brought close to each other by the means
of the telegraph.  So rapid, facilitated, and frequent has
become the communication, by the railway and the steanmship, of the most distant parts of the world with each other,
that all lnations seem bound and linked together in a common
brotherhood and purpose.  No nation can long enjoy profit
and advantages in which others do not soon participate.  No
country can suffer in the decline of its production and trade,
or adopt artificial obstructions to exchange and intercourse,
that will not be quickly felt by all with which it trades. The
blow acts and reacts. It either intentionally or ignorantly
hits the mark before it, but it often rebounds and comes
back with a double force to strike the hand that sent it.
This economic interest seems to be one of the silent and
almost inscrutable ways of Divine Providence to raise all the
nations of the world to a common level, in which they shall
"share their mutual benefits and privileges, whether they
would or no.
Not only every country, but every age and cycle of time
have characteristics of thought, manner, and work that distinguish them from  all others.  There are local influences,
such as belong to the community, government, or nation,
that we can comprehend, grasp, and measure, with some
degree of certainty and truth.  But there are also world
influences, that, like huge levers, lift all the civilized races as
a unit, and fashion all they touch to one universal mould.
The force and direction of these influences we cannot always
understand and predict.  We cannot sufficiently separate




11
ourselves from  the all-pervading interests and prejudices
that surround us to dispassionately consider and analyze
them.  What is the blessing of one age we denounce as the
curse of the next.  We run with no sight of the goal. We
fall over a precipice, or land in a garden of roses.
This wide-extending influence we hold to be especially
true of labor in the present century.  Within the last fifty
years there have been great changes and rapid strides in
the social and material world.  There have been great discoveries and marvellous inventions, that have almost annihilated space and time.  But probably in no single phase
has the chalge been greater than in the condition and circunmstances of labor.  This change in labor, in a large
measure, has grown out of this new order.  This new and
increased application of the latent forces of nature to these
powerful and wondrous constructions of mechanisms have
made for it in the United States, as elsewhere, a new era
and a new existence.
In this change man has been largely separated from the
soil.  Everything like dependent servitude has been zealously fought and largely overcome.  MaIan's life, it is true,
has become more independent, but often more responsible
and precarious, in proportion as it has attained this end.
The gaining of liberty often means the loss of bread.
He has been drawn from agriculture to manufactures and
commerce.  At the beginning  of the present century
seven-eighths of the population of the United States was
rural and engaged in farming. The last census showed thLat
the balance is now as greatly against agricultural labor, as
it was seventy or, eighty years ago in its favor. Now, not
more than one in seven of the people is so employed. In
England the change has been still greater.  Only three
millions of her entire population gain their living by cultivating the soil, while she must annually import cereals to




12
feed ten millions of her population. She expends yearly
more than a hundred and fifty millions of pounds sterling
for this purpose. About fifty per cent. of the population of
France is still attached to the soil. England, it is true,
under the present system of the division of her landed
estates, cannot become an extensive agricultural country.
Under this new regime new trades and employments have
sprung up, requiring special and skilful training, which
when once acquired are seldom  abandoned. There have
been multiplied divisions of labor, having a special type and
character. Each attracts unto itself its several artisans,
who have attained a proficiency and celerity in its performance that they have in no other, The general character of
labor, such as our forefathers possessed in settling the Ne*"
gWorld, has become special. Doubtless, in the new quality of
labor, irrespective of machinery, the facility and capacity
of production have been greatly increased. A few men now
can do the work of a hundred of a century ago. The loom
and the spindle have built up large towns and cities that
but for their invention would never have existed. Machinery
and commerce have brought within the attainment of the
lower orders of society articles of consumption, comfort,
and adornment, that two centuries ago a queen or a duchess
could not have commanded.  Queen Elizabeth dined on
roast beef and beer; potatoes at the table of King James I.
were a luxury; and the humblest citizen can now read by a
light that royal eyes could not then enjoy.
It is out of this new order of the classifications and associations of labor, this ease and quickness of communication,
that the trade-unions have had their origin, and derived their
cooperation and unity.  This vivid and strong contrast in
the conditions of capital and labor, the employer and the
employ6, has been greatly intensified.  Each has been
amassed in greater quantities, and they have been brought




13
in direct contact, where they were formerly more widely diffused.  These new conditions have given a renewed impulse
to the intensity of this modern antagonism between capital
and labor.  In this highly attained rapidity and cheapness
of production, by these trained bands and classes of workmen, nations are rivalling each other in the race for wealth.
It is out of this great economic saving of labor that the
present order of civilization, in no small measure, owes its
prosperity, power, and glory; its boasted superiority over
those that have preceded it.
Whence arises this industrial conflict between capital and
labor?  Volumes have been written, commissions appointed,
associations formed, courts organized, to answer this question;
yet strikes continue, trade-unions multiply and increase, and
labor grows more discontented, factious, and rebellious.  It
is not the few thinkers and writers who will settle this controversy, while the laboring classes are left in neglect and
ignorance.  It is not a-burden that the few can sustain; but
one where each member of society must press forward to
bear an intelligent, human, and Christian part, or it falls to
the ground.
A Christian humZanity, an intelligent understanding of the
primary laws of the science of political economy, or the
science of the accumulation of wealth, we believe to be both
involved in the relations between capital and labor in the
United States. Whatever tends to the production of capital,
the decrease in the supply and competition of labor, or to the
contentment of labor in its present status, are lines of investigation that go directly to the deepest interests of this important
contr;oversy.  Labor is entirely ignorant of the economic laws
that govern and control the conditions by which it is
remunerated.  Capital is often hard, exclusive, and unsympathetic. The crystallization of society in its social form is,
perhaps, one of the inevitable tendencies of time and human




14
nature.  Government sometimes assists, but cannot always
resist, this influence.  Often, like the atmosphere we breathe,
we are unconscious of its existence.  Societies, that have
passed through many ages of opulence and wealth, naturally
tend to autocratic assumptions of superiority and class distinctions.  These often make labor feel that somehow it is
disgraced and  lumiliated, with a curse upon its brow that it
has done nothing to incur.
WVTe cannot deny it, regret it as we may, that money in the
United States is becoming the general basis of our social
orders. It has here a boundless power and significance,
that is, perhaps, to be found in no other order of civilizationl
of modern times. Railway and other corporations can buy
everything with their check-books, even, it would see"n
almost the government itself. Large accumulations of wealth,
that, under the direction of enterprise, integrity, and humanity,
are the greatest blessings to the community and the State,
are frequently becomging, by a sad perversion of the best
objects and purposes of money, to be a great curse and misfortune. Unfortunately, by many it seems only the means
to gratify a tinsel vanity and a hollow ambition.  We can
close our eyes to this fact and tendency, but they nevertheless exist.  We can close our eyes to the sun, but that does
not make the sun the less.
Labor does not, however, demand of capital an equality in
a social sense.  This is not the grievance of labor against
capital. It is a humane interest and kindness that it seeks
in its struggle, irrespective of the wages, be they high or
low, by which it is remunerated.  Labor wishes to be
treated like flesh- and blood, and not like a machine, to which
political economy limits and prescribes it.  And here we
think it is that a solution of this problem, wholly by the
science of political economy, will still leave much that is
irritating and unsatisfactory. Human nature, in its essential




15
characteristics and repeated phenomena, we believe to be
no less a science than political economy. Whoever attempts
to solve any problem directly connected with its passional
life, that does not make it the form, if not the basis, of what
would be demonstrated, is reckoning without his host.
Political economy can do much, but it cannot do all, to bring
capital and labor to a just, thorough, and intelligent understanding of each other.
The fate of the laboring man in regard to the amount of
wages he shall receive hangs suspended  between two
causes,- that which produces capital, and that which reduces the competition of labor. Wages is but a relative
term to the cost of living.  Money wages may be high,'yet
of no advantage to the laborer. The proportionate expense
of what he consumes may be so great that at the end of
the week he has nothing to save out of his earnings. The
cheapness of an article of necessity or luxury depends upon
the number engaged in its production, the facility by which
it can be produced at the least possible application of labor,
and the demand for its consumption.
The ancient Greek laborer received nineteen cents per
day. Yet, when a day's labor could buy a sheep, and six
days' labor an ox, he was receiving comparatively high
wages, to the laborer who gets two dollars per day, and a
sheep costs him four dollars, and an ox twenty dollars.
When sheep can be purchased at so small a sum there must
be many engaged in their production, when compared to
the demand for their consumption.  At this price of meat
the laborer could have his table bountifully supplied while
earning the miserable daily stipend of nineteen cents. We
know that there are many laborers of the present day, in
continental Europe, who can earn three or four times this
amount, yet rarely see meat upon their table.  And we have
no doubt that meat presses hard upon the wages of many a




16
day-laborer in America.  We fear that it will press harder
in the future than it has in the past.
In the consideration of the wages that labor gets there
are always two things to be considered: what it positively
receives, and what it costs it to live.  The economic sword
is never sharpened ohly on one side. It always has two
edges.  While we follow the course and direction of one of
those edges, we may be entirely ignorant of the execution
and havoc that the unseen edge may be doing.  As Bastiat,
the French political economist, has said, "There is always the
seen and the unseen."  The seen is the number of dollars
that labor is paid; the unseen is the purchasing power of
those dollars, in the markets, of necessities and comforts.
Both of these must always be contrasted and subtracted,
one from the other, before we can have a just and accurate
remainder to inform us of the true status of labor, to note
its advancement or decline.
When we read that wages are any stated sum, in any
particular age or country, our lesson is but half learned.
We must next know how much meat or bread that sum will
buy, to ascertain if labor is well or ill paid.  An historian
may quote the prices of labor, in different ages and countries, to show how much better off it must be in one age
and country than in others. But this is a very false standard.  One set of figures in the seen may prove a statement
that would be an absolute lie in the unseen.  We are often
reminded of this when the different advocates of opposing
industrial policies make exhibits of figures to maintain their
different positions.  These often may be but half the truth,
and that the smallest half. It is the telling of a lie by
omissions and silence.  Is England losing in ally industrial
interest, look and see if she is not gaining double the
amount in some other.  Are the United States increasing
in the business and manufactures of any protected article,




17
be sure that some other interest, by its loss, decline, or
contribution, is not more than paying for this increase.
Writers on political economy are not entirely unanimous
on the wage-fulnd theory. Yet it seems to us that they
substantially arrive at the same end, only differing in the
ways they come to it.  It is evident that capital must have
its interest, or it will not be invested.  The employer or
the manager must have his wages or profits, or he will not
work.  If labor gets what remains, we cannot possibly see
how it canll obtain any more. The conflict is, perhaps, more
directly between labor and profits as represented in the
employer.  For labor to deny capital its interest would be
destroying the means and subsistence by which it exists.
The wage-fund principle of political economy teaches, us
that the amount of wages that labor will receive, at any
given time, or place, or in any trade or occupation, is simply
one of division; that capital is the dividend, the number
of laborers the divisor, and what remains after the process of
division is the quotient.  There are only two ways to make
this quotient larger. Increase the dividend, the divisor
remaining the same, and the  quotient will be  larger.
Lessen the divisor, the dividend remaining the same, and
a like result will be obtained.
If there is a wage-fund of five hundred dollars, and there
are one hundred laborers competing for its distribution, the
result will be that each laborer will receive five dollars.
But if there are five hundred laborers to be paid out of it
then each one can only receive a dollar.  It is self-evident
that labor cannot get more than there is. All additions to
capital, all investments of profits, in an extended and enlarged business, mean an increased demand for labor, or a
higher rate of wages to those engaged.  If there are two
employers and only one laborer then wages will go up.
2




18
But If there are two laborers seeking work of one employer
then wages will go down.
In the economic world much which seems to be lost is
only transferred; what one has apparently lost, another has
gained. An investment may be unprofitable, but the money
that has established it, or has been seemingly sunk and lost,
has gone to new hands. The railway may return no profits,
but the wealth that has been expended in its construction
has begun new enterprises or enlarged those already in
existence, in the production of wealth and employment of
labor. The railway failure we see; but we do not always
see and follow the new distribution of wealth it has occasioned, and the silent forces it may have set in motion in the
inchistrial world. The spirit of competition, and the ceaseless, voracious passion of selfishness, which the workman
generally regards as his most bitter foe and relentless
destroyer, are really his truest friends and most steadfast
protectors. They are the heart of the great business world,
the centre a'round which it revolves.  They dispense light
and warmth to the farthest parts of the world. Were it
not for competition then capital would oppress and grind
labor to the barest verge of subsistence, as the meanness
or avarice of the employer might dictate. There would be
no power to relieve it from its miserable and unfortunate
condition. Were it not for selfishness, acting true to its
grasping and covetous nature, then profits would cease to go
to capital, enterprise would be abandoned, and business of
all kinds would fall into decline and ruin. The laborer,
finding nothing he could do for his support, would either
have to starve or return to a state of semi-barbarism.
Labor is interested in the high rates of profits as much
if not more than capital itself. These profits will again
return to capital to increase the wage-fund to make higher
wages, or to give employment to those pressing forward to




19
enter the industrial pursuits.  Here, if the laborer would
cast his bread upon the waters, in the form of low wages, to
increase profits, he will receive it back again in an enlarged
capital. But it is also equally true that capital is interested
in high wages, for through an increased consumption they
will as inevitably find their way back to enlarge business
and increase profits.
It is difficult for labor to undcrstanud and accept this law
of supply and demand, this process of division, in determining the amount of wages it shall receive.  It ascribes wages
to the generosity or avarice of the employer.  The laborer
works hard and long, in the-most disagreeable and lifedestroying occupations, only to earn a scanty and beggarly
subsistence.  He sees his employer and the capitalist livilig
in ease and luxury, engaging only in such tasks as taste or
fancy may dictate.  His judgment moves slow and reluctantly to a conclusion his feelings and his passions are so
strong against, with apparently much reason on his side.
He has no faith in the economic theory.  The science of
political economy to him is but a concerted conspiracy, continued from age to age in the interest of capital, to defraud
labor of its just reward and honest remuneration.
But history shows us that wherever labor has been scarce
then wages have always been high.  In the reign of King
Edward the Third the whole of England was afflicted with a
jlague of uncommon severity, and the people died in large
numbers.  Immediately after this event wages began to rise,
and it was found necessary for legislation to interfere to
regulate the price of labor.. When the Puritans and the
early settlers began to cultivate the New World, wages were
high, and it was almost impossible to obtain workmen at anly
price.  Governor Winthrop says in his journal that a laboring man could earn as much in three days as would keep
him  the seven.  The merchants of the colony of Massa



20
chusetts Bay said they could better afford to pay the English
manufacturers two hundred per cent. profit than to manufacture for themselves, so high was the price of labor. Here
again the legislative authority of the colony interceded and
fixed the sum that labor should receive, attaching a penalty
to both the employer and employ6 who broke it. But if it
is right, just, and wise, for parliaments and legislatures to
fix the price of labor when it is scarce, then there are certainly the same reasons why labor should have the benefit of
legislation when labor is plenty tand wages low.  But,
doubtless, the best policy for governments to pursue is not
to prescribe any industrial laws between capital and labor.
It has been truly said that they who would find truth
must dig deep. The stones lie upon the surface, but the,
precious ore is deep down in nature's storehouses. There
is much in the science of political economy that is in direct
contradiction to what general opinion, popular belief, and
superficial observation have formed of it.  To throw aside
these errors requires patience and diligence. This true and
not this false instruction must be brought home to the door
and threshold of labor.
Let us pause a moment to see how this law of supply tand
demand operates.  Suppose there is a community of five
thousand individuals, - three thousand are rich and two thousand are poor. The three thousand who are rich have imeat;
the two thousand who are poor cannot obtain it. The supply of meat is limited to three thousand pounds.  The rich,
being moved by humanity, gives each of the poorer members
of the community enough to pay for a pound of meat, at its
standard price, when only the three thousand are purchasers.
What is the inevitable result?  Why, the moment that the
additional two thousand enter the market to purchase meat
up goes the price, and they are just as far from their supply
of meat as before, and would be until their purchasing




21
power equalled that of the rich, or the supply of meat was
increased.
This illustration, the principles of which are taking place
every day in the economic world, not only shows us the law
of supply and demand, but also shows us what is the true
wealth of a country. Labor has generally a very erroneous
and perverted idea of wealth. It calls it gold, silver, and
greenbacks. But this is not so. They at best are only a
symbol of wealth, an evidence of so much labor performed.
If there are a thousand bushels of corn in a community or a
country, -all the gold and silver in the world would not make
that thousand bushels of corn any more. If there are a
thousand bushels of wheat in one balance, in proportion as
you put in the purchasing power of greenbacks, or paper
money in the other, up goes the-price of wheat, and tons of
paper money would not add a single grain to the quantity of
wheat.
Paper money is comparatively worthless in the cheapness
of its production.  Gold and silver would be worthlessif
they could be obtained on the same conditions. In our
last war we saw how the increase of paper money made an
increase of prices  without a corresponding addition to
value.
Professor Cairns, an English economist, has prepared a
table in one of his works, by which he shows that since the
discovery of gold in California and Australia, and its great
increase in the monetary system of the world, there has been
a proportionate rise in the prices of all articles of consumption. Should new mines be discovered, and gold more
easily obtained than at present, then this rise in prices would
still more rapidly increase.
This economic balance is a most delicate one, and will
weigh to the hundredth part of a grain. In Australia a certain kind of boxwood is used, that is brought all the way




22
from South America.  This same wood grows in abundance
in the immediate neighborhood, and costs nothing, only, to
fell it.  In the early history of the colony of Virginia that
State attempted to exclude tobacco in its productions, and
to encourage manufactures.  But tobacco, in spite of all the
legislation against it, was the master; and at the beginning
of the Revolutionary War that colony exported annually a
million of pounds sterling of this article, that largely maintained the balance of colonial trade.  In our own time,
wheat is shipped three thousand miles to Europe, while it
may be sadly wanted in New York or Boston.
In the great commercial operations and industrial enterprises of the present age we cannot always see the delicacy
and test the accuracy of this economic science, for want of,
figures and data, but which we believe always exists. It is
of this force, that will draw a pin around the world, if it is
for its interest to do so, and will not move a bushel of diamonds a sixteenth part of an inch, unless in obedience to
some of the laws of its intricate structure, that labor should
have some knowledge and insight, if we ever expect labor
to understand its true position and interests in relation to
capital. And this we think applies with almost equal force
in the United States as in any other nation. It is true we
have much teaching in this country, but comparatively little
real deep and practical instruction.  We seem content, in
an astonishillng degree, to glide upon the surface.
How to increase capital, the dividend of wages, is the
objective point of all modern civilizations and nations. Caps
ital is the all-pervading  atmosphere that surrounds the
economic life. It limits what can live and what must die.
Does labor or population press hard upon capital, then there
is suffering, misery, and death.  Capital is the parent of
industry, and assists in a new distribution of wealth.  It
gives work to the poor, employment to the idle, and makes




23
an increase of population desirable and profitable.  When
capital and labor are mutual in their wants and needs then
peace, plenty, and happiness abound, so far as the economic
harmony can produce them. But have they grown out of
proportion to each other, especially if labor is the larger of
the two, then there is faction, strife, hunger, and crime.
The prosperity and advancement of the present social and
national systems seem closely linked with this increase of
capital. And especially we of the United States, who claim
that our civilization is in advance of every other, c.annot give
this part of the subject too much attention.  When idleness
and misfortune are the result of indolence, or a false pride
and vanity, we certainly can have no sympathy, and can find
no remedy for such an affliction. But when honest manly and
womanly labor is forced to idleness because it has outgrown
capital, and placed itself beyond succor, froln this source,
then we have arrived at a sad condition of economic development.
Capital is realized either fromn increase or economy, from
the positive addition of something to the wealth of the community, or a saving in its annual expenditure.  Increase
your means, restrain and reduce your wants, and the result
in both cases is the same.  Although a contraction in the
economic world may have the effect to do much injury to
certain industries, yet it is much better that this gradual decline should come, tlan a general failure by the individuals
of a community living beyond their means, or indulging in
expenses that must end in ruin.
The people of that nation or country are no doubt the
most prosperous who are the greatest consumers, and at the
same time save and amass the greatest amount of capital.
Such a condition as this in every community must be the
standard of its national progress and superiority.  Tables
well supplied, houses healthy, agreeable, and pleasant, homes




24
with an air of ease, plenty, and comfort,- these bespeak a
season and a land where sunshine, warmth, and beauty have
largely entered into the lives of the inhabitants.  It is not
how the few rich of every nation live, but what are the surroundings and comforts of the laboring classes, that are the
highest tests of its true prosperity. Expenditure and economy are contradictory terms, and, if we can practise only one,
it is far preferable to be economical.
That nation is most rapidly gaining wealth, in comparison
and competition with the increase of the wealth of other
nations, that is applying the economic forces to the industrial
pursuits that are of the greatest advantage to her in the
markets of the world. And here we know there has arisen a
wide, earnest, and deep conflict of opinion and theory in
regard to agriculture, manufactures, commerce, protection,
and free trade.  These various industries and national policies are advanced and maintained with much zeal and confidence by their respective partisans that they are the true
ones; that in the adoption or rejection of some one of these
theories lies the prosperity or ruin of the United States.
One party asserts that the greatest and most rapid accumulation of wealth is in manufactures; another in agriculture;
a third in commerce; a fourth believes in protection; and a
fifth sees nothing but failure and ruin outside of free trade.
But, as a nation cannot adopt' and pursue all of these policies,
it is evident that by many it can be fated only to general
bankruptcy.
This industrial and national economic conflict has not confined itself to the United States alone, but has been agitated,
discussed, and has divided since the days of the ancient
republics. Under all kinds of governments and in all climates these policies have been advocated; one of them at one
time successful, and at another defeated. A dogmatic assertion of the claims and advantages of either of these sys



25
tems will probably never bring the converts of each to think
more of their opponents or their systems. For the want of
an all-comprehensive and accurate data, both in the seen
and the unseen of the economic world, a result will not,
probably, be soon reached that will admit of no dispute or
contradiction in these controversies.  In them, however,
so far as they may aid or retard the accumulation of capital,
may lie an important factor in the solution of the problem of
"the relation of capital and labor in the United States."
We believe, in this matter, that the economic forces are
stronger, and that the economic laws are wiser, than any that
man can produce.  Some writers maintain that in manufactures is the quickest and surest way to wealth. But this can
be so only in a relative degree. The industrial balance is
continually changing. How impossible the practice that all
nations shall encourage and engage in manufactures.  Let
this be the custom, and it would soon be profitable to cultivate the barren soils of Greenland, and every small patch of
ground would become a mine of wealth.  It is in the harmony of the three great divisions of industrial labor that peace,
plenty, and prosperity can only be maintained. This division
cannot now be limited to a single nation, but must be enjoyed
by all. You can pay no regard to this if you wish, but we
think there is a greater power than man's puerile weakness
that is directing the great engineery of life. In nothing
is this power more signal than in the industrial world. In
production and in the division and distribution of labor it is
man's great mission to find out what nature demands of him.
In proportion as he works in harmony with her, he prospers
and lives; as he works against her, does he suffer and die.
The production of manufactures in the United States in.1790 has been estimated at twenty millions of dollars. The
population then was about three millions. The value of the
productions of manufactures in this country in 1870, making




26
an allowance of thirty per cent. for an inflated currency,
was three and a half billions of dollars, and the population
was forty millions. In 1790 the value of the production of
manaufactures, per capita, in the United States was six and
two-thirds dollars; in 1870 it was eighty-seven and a half
dollars. The policy of the United States between these
periods has been largely a protective one.  Here certainly
has been comparatively a large and rapid increase in the
value of manufactures.  But, in so far as this industry has
been increased by protection, we believe that the agricultural interests and wealth have had to pay for it, to the
utmost farthing.  Agriculture has lost, manufactures have
gained, by protection.  The sum  that by the policy of
protection agriculture has paid for manufactures is the
difference in the price it has had to pay for American manufactured goods, and what the same goods could be bought at
in home markets from  foreign manufacturers.  Paul has
been paid, but Peter has been robbed. There certainly has
been a seen gain in the value of manufactures; but has there
not also, at the same time, been an unseen loss in agriculture?
The national policy of England, in regard to protection
and free trade, has been a somewhat changeable one.  In
1650, when her great rivals, the Dutch mnerchantmen, were
becoming the common carriers of the merchandise of the
world, England passed a series of laws known as the Navigation Acts. These acts were the most rigid and severe in
the interests of the protective policy.  That nation wished
to exclude her Holland competitors from  trading in her
colonial dependencies of America.  These  acts  were
warmly praised by commercial and political writers of the
time.  They were termed the magena chlarta  caritnmCa.
But since then the free-trade policy has been adopted by
that nation. By some it is claimed that the protective




policy has been the palladium of her commercial prosperity;
while others have been as strong in their assertions and
testimony that the protective laws brought her to the verge
of ruin; and the same regime, continued a few more years,'would have plunged her into  a bloody revolution, civil
anarchy, and decay.
The protective policy, it is claimed by its advocates,
keeps up the price of wages in the United States.  Wages
certainly have been higher in the United States than'in
England; but this we do not believe is wholly due to the
legislation of protection.  One of the reasons why wages
have been higher in this country than in England is in the
increased demand for labor. But let the national policy
remain what it now is, for fifty years, we think that
wages would fall by the inevitable law  of supply and
demand. It is impossible to prevent this result by an
artificial barrier or protection. It is beyond the power of
man to resist or control it. But where protection keeps up
the price of other commodities, as well as that of labor, the
latter loses nothing by its removal. Wages come down;
but in the same ratio the cost of living is lessened.  That
which reduces the cost of what labor uses and consunmes, in
proportion as it reduces its remuneration, is of no disadvantage to labor.
The national policy may do much to accelerate or retard
the accumulation of wealth.  Whatever does this lies very
close to this relation between capital and labor. The things
that legislation can do to aid in the increase of capital are
very few; but the things it may do to prevent it are very
many.
If one country can manufacture cheaper and better
articles than another, or all others, then that country ought
to do it, not only for itself, but all the world. If one
country can grow wheat cheaper than all others, then it




28
should be the world's storehouse for this article, until some
other country can excel it. But, even with free trade,
l]ngland has not banished her pauperism and poor-rates.
When one in ten of her population is a pauper, and, in hard
times, one in six has to be assisted, then it would seem that
this panacea, after a thirty years' trial, will leave much to
carry on the conflict of capital and labor.
There is much in this struggle and competition of nations
to do everything for themselves and neighbors, that resembles the selfishness of an avaricious man. He desires to
grasp everything himself. It pains him to see friend or foe
pursuing any successful industry or business. He has all
he can do himself; but his greed outruns his judgment.  It
beclouds all his faculties. This might do if man was to live
like Robinson Crusoe, independent of his fellow-men. But
God and nature have decreed a different way. They have
ordered that there shall be mutual help, assistance, and a
mutual interchange of benefits and services. No nation, at
the present day, can cut itself off from the rest of the
world. Isolation is not independence. It is narrow, selfish,
and small, - dwarfing the man or the nation that practises it.
If we sell to England, France, or Russia, then there is nothing more inevitable than that we must buy of them, or give
them what we produce.  In interchange there is profit.
When the profit ceases then the interchange will stop. In
proportion as other nations are dependent upon us, just in
such a proportion must. we be dependent upon them; the
service cannot long be oil one side.
While we believe in protection and prohibition, to limit
false and extravagant wants, and to correct the perversion
of capital, yet we do not see why one nation should not partake of the special benefits that nature has made for all
mankind. While we can understand that the infant cannot
contend with the giant, we have yet to be convinced that it




29
is cheaper for one nation to produce or manufacture for
itself what it can buy at a much less cost fromn others. By
the protective system the industrial occupations of a nation
are no doubt multiplied and increased; but they are weakened
just in proportion as they are not extended and broadened
by some otherforce and interest than a merely artificial one.
It may do very well to start a man in business who has the
elements of success; but to keep one in business, who has
not the experience, industry, and capacity to sustain himself, is an unprofitable and losing investment.  So we think
it is with protecting all industry by national legislation. We
believe just in proportion as a nation is producing or manufacturing for itself what it can purchase in another market
at a cheaper rate, just in such a proportion is it pursuing a
policy of impoverishment and ruin.
A great deal has been said in our history about the American system. By this, as we understand it, America is to
produce and consume herself.  She is to cut all the econonmic cords by which she is bound to the trade and interests
of foreign nations. Her wants and needs, and the means
to satisfy them, are wholly to be found and brought forth
from her own resources and industry.  She desires neither
to buy nor to sell to neighboring nations. - She is young,
vigorous, and prosperous, and does not wish to unite her
youthful energies to the age and decrepitude of continental
countries.  But America in time must grow old, in the
economic sense.  She cannot resist age any more than can
the individual. Her rich and virgin soil will not always
yield productive crops at so little expense as at present. It
will soon become worn out in the service, and will not give
unto man, only what he has first given unto it, to renew and
strengthen its wasted life.  America, with her manifold
interests, does not show that she is advancing towards that
happy state of seclusion. With more than five hundred




30
millions of her bonds, and other securities and stocks in the
hands of foreign capitalists, an annual importer to the
amount of more than a half billion of dollars, her economic
life seems, as yet, closely connected with that of foreign
nations. If to live by yourself, and upon yourself, means
strength and prosperity, then the protective systemn is the
true one.
Wve do not think, however, it is for a nation to decide by
any course of arbitrary legislation upon what it has prejudged its interests.  It is not for the legislative authority at
Washington, London, or Paris to announce whether these
several nations shall be agricultural, colmmercial, or manufacturing.  There is a more wise and comprehensive wisdom
than man's directing and controlling in this industrial selection. It is the economic power that never waits on legislatures for its instructions or orders.  It is, no doubt, a poor
trade to export wheat in exchange for French feathers alnd
India shawls. But if the wives and daughters of the workingmen of the United States must have extravagant dress
and useless gewgaws, it is best that they should have them
as cheap as possible, or there should be a prohibitive tariff
upon them  so high that it would place them  above their
reach. We are' not ruined by what we can't afford, but by
what we think we can.  This perversion of wealth is of vital
importance in the relations of capital and labor in all countries; but it applies with double force in the United States,
where the natural tendencies to extravagance receive a
strong impulse in the freedom of the political form. But,
fortunately, however strong the dose of poison by legislation that man may give to the economic life, it in a measure
carries its own antidote with it.  However deep the cut, the
economic physician is at hand, with soothing medicines, bandages, and ligaments, to heal the wound as far as possible.
Political economists separate production into two divisions




31
or kinds, in its application and use; the production that is
immediately absorbed and wasted, and that which turns into
renewed capital, and becomes the source of other wealth.
The greater part of the production of a country is annually
consumed.  Much of man's toil necessarily is being destroyed and wasted while he is engaged in the work of production. The fires of the body must be kept constantly supplied with fuel, or they go out. Healthy and wholesome
food means a more efficient force, that has a greater capacity and endurance for labor. Yet out of the wreck of this
ann-ual havoc and destruction man could keep himself in as
good a condition to perform his labor, indulge in all the
comforts he now enjoys, and still make larger additions to
capital, by saving, than are now often realized.
The amount that a people annually consume, in propor-tion
to what they save in the form of capital or wealth, is very
great. England, during more than eight hundred years of
labor, has only accumulated about thirty billions of dollars.
Each year she produces more than a third of this amount, so
that, were it possible for the people to live without consuming, in less than ten years the entire wealth of England
could be saved. The wealth of the United States in 1860
was estimated at about fourteen billions of dollars, and the
annual production set down at something more than two billions, so that once in seven years the entire wealth of the
country is produced. In 1870 the value of production was
estimated at seven billions of dollars, and the wealth of the
nation set down at twenty-five billions.  This was'a currency valuation, on which some allowance should be made.
It is by reason of this great annual consumption that nations
so rapidly recuperate their prosperity after a prolonged and
destructive war.  That which has been destroyed by the
enemy would soon have been consumed by the inhabitants,




32
had no war existed; — an observation in the economic conditions first made by John Stuart Mill.
Economy and saving in the production of capital belong
to no class or order of the community. Interest or profit, as
Mr. Senior has justly said,'is the wages of abstinence."
But who economizes to meet this end? Who plans or directs
their life with a view to the general good as well as their own
comforts and pleasures?  Perhaps seldom the rich and not
always the poor. Here we think that the two extreme ends
of society are sadly at fault.
From not fully comprehending and applying the laws of
political economy to the practical affairs of life, there has
grown up a false opinion as to what society can do to assist
in the advancement and well-being of labor. It has become
a kind of a settled conviction, in the order of public opinion,
thaLt the wretchedness, misery, and poverty of the lower and
working classes is a predestined curse, which we cannot
escape nor relieve; that the lowest forms of labor and want
must often, if not always, go hand in hand; that industry
must sometimes starve and die for the need of capital to set
it in motion.
The reason is evident. There is much in the present
order of civilization, in the United States as well as in other
countries, that is a contradiction and a paradox. There is a
Utopian spirit abroad that intensely desires to see labor benefited, and the lower strata of society raised above what it
has hitherto attained. But if the majority in power and
wealth have really any strong faith or abiding hope in this
new condition, they must do something to develop it, besides
to talk and write about-it. They must bring work and sacrifice to the movement, for it will require of each all that can
be summoned. There is no homely phrase truer in the
science of political economy than that, "You cannot have
your cake and eat it."




33
We do not deny that there is not much in the relation of
capital and labor, that is not deep down, and high above our
heads, in the depth and heighth of the economic forces, which
we cannot readily understand. But there is also much in it
that lies at our feet, shrouded in no intricacy, if we will stoop
down and pick it up. To do this, we Sfust at least bend our
backs and stoop.
Pampered self-indulgence is a marked characteristic of the
age. There seems a total inability to engage in any work
that does not end in self-enjoyment, vanity, and show. We
want the prize. We think how noble and beautiful it would
be to lwin it in the cause of labor and humanity; yet we are
not willing to make any effort in its attainment. Self is the
most worshipped hero of the age. Self, no doubt, is the
friend to labor in the motives to the accumulation of capital,
but, pushed to its utmost limit, it can only exist on a vast strata
of poverty, misery, and crime. Ancient civilizations prove
this, as do many of those of Continental Europe. When the
plough marked the limits of the eternal city there was no
proud and haughty patrician, no oppressed and degraded
plebeian.  Poor-laws in England- were comparatively unnknown till the reign of Queen Elizabeth.  Governor Winthrop reprimanded Deputy Governor Dudley for building
an expensive house at Newton, lest the example should encourage others of the colony to do the same thing who could
not so well afford it. Will the social and industrial system of
the United States pass through the same phases that now
characterize some of the European systems? To the observant there must be seen an all-prevailing element that is waxing stronger, and spreading its wings broader, that bears
directly on this relation of capital and labor in the use of
capital and application of wealth, which we believe God, in
his own way and time, will correct, reform, and redress.
In regard to the use of profit, Mr. Perry, the American




34
economist, says: "Whoever transforms his property into
capital establishes thereby a permanent fund whence he may
draw an income and laborer's support in perpetuity ~ because
the capital, though constantly disappearing in production, as
constantly reappears in products with profits added, -a fact
which shows the folly of the popular opinion; which regards
more favorably the man who spends his money freely and
unproductively than the man who, turning his money into
capital, building a mill, or making some other permanent
investment, creates by that means a fund in the community
out of which permanent wages and permanent profits can be
paid. The strength of the motives to abstinence in any
country will depend largely upon the character of the government and the organization of society there."
These motives, Mr. Perry thinks, are strongest in the
United States. But the recent response by the French
peasant citizens and capitalists, upon the call of France, for a
government loan amounting nearly to half of the debt of the
United States, showed that economy and abstinence had been
practised by that people to no small degree. French bonds
did not have to seek a foreign market at a depreciated value
of sixty per cent., as did many of the bonds of the United
States during the late rebellion. There are, doubtless, many
motives to save in the United States, that do not exist under
other forms of government; but the motives to save seem also
to promote extravagant expenditure in this country.
In the use and application of profits to productive and nonproductive investment lies a great force in the industrial
world that can revolutionize the present distribution of
wealth, and remove much that is irritating and antagonistic
between the different orders of society. It is impossible for
any one to limit how wealth shall be spent by its possessor;
but it is in what we term "the abuse of capital," that labor
has not a groundless cause of complaint against capital. It is




-35
not within the economic province to consider this view of our
question, in the relations between capital and labor; but it
nevertheless is a vital one. While the non-productive use of
wealth employs and pays labor, yet it dies with itself.
There are two forces at work in benefiting labor ill capital
going to productive employments; the one economic and the
other moral.
In the investment of capital to productive industry is a
way to assist and advance the interests of labor. Does any
lnember of society desire to benefit the workiongiman, let
hill, instead of buying a house that costs a hundred thousand dollars, take one that costs fifty thousand, and apply
the other fifty thousand to the emlployment of producing and
independent labor.  If any rich and humane woman of
society is grieved at the poverty and distress of the workingclasses, let her deny herself the purchasing of diamonds
costing thirty thousand dollars, which to true taste can never
add to her beauty, and certainly not to her worth, and apply
it to some productive industry, to increase the demand and
remuneration of labor.  What is the result of this application of wealth at the end of the year?  Why, that the fifty
thousand and the thirty thousand dollars have each gained
unto themselves an additional sum, in the form of interest
and profits, and honest labor has been employed and paid
in the only way that wealth or capital should ever be applied
to its maintenance; in a productive, independent, and honorable industry. More wealth must go to productive industry.
This is what modern comLmunisml  demands in anl economic
way in the distribution of property. Miore from self, show,
and ostentatious luxury, to tihe general good and prosperity
of the community.  In this wealth loses not itself but
gains in a legitimate accumulation.
But what does the laborer do in this matter of econonmy
to produce capital?  Is he entirely without blanle?  Cer



36
tainly not. He is often a spendthrift and a prodigal, wasting his substance in alehouses, beer-shops, and rum-cellars,
consuming it in bad habits that not only make him a physical
but a moral wreck. In this consideration of our subject, we
think not only in humanity, but in justice, some apology
should be made for the laborer. When his day's work is
done, he is at a loss, often, how and where he shall spend
his evening. As has been said, "Amusement is a Christian
duty."  The workingman has no resources nor means to
obtain the higher and more beneficial kind of amusement.
He is unconsciously drawn into the lower, more ruinous and
destructive. The laboring man does not seek the ale-house
and the gin-shop from choice, to spend what may remain, or
the whole of the wages of the day. He is forced there,
from the dearth of a better companionship and a more
ennobling influence, to hold him up to the instincts and
impulses of his better nature. Then, again, the laborer has
not the inducements to save and economize that other classes
have. He says unto himself, " Why, my miserable, solitary
pittance put by will never. amount to anything. Let me
drink and be merry, for to-morrow I die."
Both in this country and' in England the sum annually
spent by the laboring classes for alcoholic spirits, tobacco,
and other articles, that it would be much better for them to
throw into the fire, is as great, as it is sad. In England the
average tax of the laboring man is twenty-one shillings.
Of this eleven shillings and four pence are paid for alcoholic
spirits and tobacco, and only nine shillings and eight pence
for all other expenditures.  According to the authority of
Mr. Levi, while the laboring men of England receive less
than one-third of the total income of that countrs, yet they
consume two-thirds of the total amount of wines, spirits,
and tobacco. In 1860 the laborers of England spent up



37
wards of seventy millions of pounds, almost a half of their
entire earnings, in these capital and life destroying habits.
The anmount expended for these products in England at the
present day we have seen stated at one hundred and twentyfive millions of pounds, or between six and seven hundred
millions of dollars.  In this country the amount spent
annually at the national drinking-cup has been stated as
being more than six hundred millions of dollars, as in England, about half of the total wages, or income of labor. The
cost of food in the United States is but a little inl excess of
what it costs to drink alcoholic spirits. This is a sad waste
of capital by those who need it most, and are importuning
wealth to supply it.
It is said there are points at which all sciences touch each
other. But this science of political economy has strong,
far-reaching, and magnetic forces.  Its arms are long.
They can almost clasp the universe.  They stretch out so as
to embrace much of the interest, welfare, and happiness of
the humlan race. Its presence may not always be seen; but,
concealed from common observation, it is sending its lifeblood through the fibres, tendrils, and branches of the social,
industrial, and even the religious and economic world, with
a power and uniformity, but little realized, and not always
felt or understood.
By its widespread circulation the emotional man is bound
to the industrial man. Political economy regards man, we
may say wholly, as a force in the material world, like the
stroke of an engine, or the turn of a windlass.  There are,
however, humane relations of capital and labor, of which we
have spoken, where this machinery connection and adjustment doganot exist; where the humanity power is greater
than the economic power.
Of this humanity relation between capital and labor we
are indebted to Mr. Brasse for the following signal illustra



38
tion: At the French exhibition, at Paris, in the summer of
1867, premiums were offered for examples of the most
marked success that could be found of the harmony of capital and labor, employer and employe.  Among many
others, there was a striking illustration, showing that the
labor of man is not always obtained and held on the same
conditions as the turn of a shaft and the stroke of a hammer;
that the humanity of capital is something in the problem,
or, at least, can be made so. The most signal instance of this
harmony, there brought to light, was that of Mr. Quitolf,
a manufacturer of Portland cement at Stettin. When the
war broke out in Austria his business became seriously
embarrassed, and he was on the verge of ruin. On learning
of his unfortunate situation his workmen united to a man in
the labor of helping him out of his difficulties. To avert
his irnpending  bankruptcy they not only readily submitted
to a reduction of thirty-three per cent. in their wages, but they
cast all their hard-earned savings into the hazard to save their
employer, making themselves the bridge on which he safely
passed to more prosperous times. We shall not have to
look far for the reasons of this action on the part of labor.
It had been treated, not as a machine, but as flesh and blood.
Mr. Quitolf had won for himself the grateful devotion of
his workmen by the paternal interest he had always shown
them. They had lived together in peace and union. Every
Sunday, in the summer, Mr. Quitolf had been in the habit of
going with his workmen, five hundred in number,. to an
island at the mouth of the Oder, where they were accustomed to spend the afternoon in singing choral music.
What would hLve been the solution of such a state of facts
by political economy?  At the first reduction of:a half of
one per cent. the workmen would have deserted their
employer and gone over to his rival. And as to the investment of capital in such a venture, it could only have been




39
obtained on a good and ample security, and that the rate of
interest would have been in proportion to the insecurity of
the loan. In nine cases out of ten, or perhaps in nine hundred and ninety-nine out of a thousand, the solution by
political economy would be the right one.
lWe have no sovereigns in our political order,  But there
are sovereigns and master powers to which this man is never
false nor turns traitor, be he workman, laborer, or the
lowest and humblest of God's creatures.  It is the sovereign
of a noble and Christian humanity, as here displayed.  If
the humanity of the nineteenth century is what it professes
to be, it should more often be seen acting as mediator
between capital and labor.  There are social and intellectual
barriers in life, which it is impossible, and it is perhaps
not desirable, should be thrown down.  If, however, the
social order becomes autocratic and controls the political
order in the republic, then its rigidness and severity are
often more  strongly  enforced  than in an empire  or a
monarchy.
Messrs. Briggs, cooperative colliers in England, are doing
a most successful work in the cooperation of capital and
labor, making the stockholders in their business their workmen.  Where formerly there were the breaking of machinery, strikes, riots, drunkenness, and often bloodshed, there
are now peace, order, and prosperity, mutual esteem, respect,
and confidence.
Other corporations and employers, in different parts of the
world, have been equally.successfiul in the harmonious and
intelligent understanding that exists between capital and
labor.  At Halifax, Paris, in Germany, and among the slate
interests of TWales, the cooperation of capital and labor has
been successfully demonstrated.
We know of no such cooperation, on a large scale, that
exists in the United States.  There was some years ago such




4-0
a cooperative system at Troy; -but this we understand has
since been abandoned. One reason for the absence of this
cooperation between capital and labor in this country rests
in the favorable circumstances that labor has hitherto experienced here; many laborers soon becoming small capitalists,
and in their turn the employers of labor. But as population
increases, and presses upon the industrial forces for employment, the condition of labor in the United States, in the
future, will tend more towards a European development.
We do not say that there are not many valid reasons why
this cooperation between capital and labor can never become
a universal system in the relations of these two important
interests. But some of the arguments brought against it
should have no place in the discussion of this controversy.
Many object to it on account of the trouble and annoyance
it would give to the employer to permit the workmen to
look over the books, and explain to them the true conditions
and interests of business, in which labor has a share. This
is just what labor should understand, and one of the great
reasons why strikes, riots, and lock-outs occur is because they
don't understand it. Such an argument as this can only be
advanced in the general spirit of the selfish indifference and
exclusiveness of the age.
When and where was any great movement accomplished
but by trouble, patient submission, and heroic sacrifice?
This problem may be as great as any age or time has been
called upon to adjust. We must take care of this question, or
it will take care of us. Is it unreasonable that this suspicious,
child labor, suspicious because it is ignorant, should not wish
to understand that it is getting its due? Once assure it that
you are treating it fairly and honorably, and it will trust
you, though you slay it. In Messrs. Briggs' establishment
this confidence between capital and labor has been secured.
Political economy, in its highest development, means




41
freedom, liberty, and equality. It is always working in
the interest and realization of these principles.  The harmony of this science will sometime be more thoroughly
comprehended and understood by nations and statesmen
than at present. The freedom of labor can never be perfect. In the mobility of capital and labor, capital has the
advantage of labor. Labor has heart, ties of blood, kindred, country, and locality, that trouble not capital. Capital
can go from one investment to another, from one part of the
world to another, comparatively without trouble or difficulty, in the great work and interest of equalization. But
labor moves with more pain and slowness. This is fully
shown in the excellent work by Mr. Brasse on work and
wages.
Generally, we are averse to governmental or municipal
regulations in the interests of the economic forces. But we
think, in aid of the mobility of labor, much good might be
accomplished in the establishment of industrial schools and
colonization societies in every large city, not only of the
United States, but of the world. They would greatly aid in
taking labor from where it is not wanted, and sending it
where there is a demand for it.
The industrial pursuits can and will regulate themselves.
But in the United States, where the political form is so
free, ambition is in danger of being overstimulated.  There
is a strong governmental tendency for labor to enter the
higher grades of employment and professional life, where
there is no demand for it. There is the need, but not the
power. Ninety per cent. of the criminals are men who
have been brought up to no trade.  Industrial schools
would often open the door to an honest education in labor,
that would be a boon to a life that often finds itself wrecked
in the course of its own choosing. It is driven to despair




42
from what is false and unfortunate, rather than from what is
evil or vicious.
This harmony in the industrial occupations must and
should be maintained, to avoid the cry of hunger, the moan
of misery, and the remorse of wrong-doing.  While agriculture cannot extend itself more readily than manufactures
without capital, yet agricultural occupations can be successfully increased, while those of manufactures and coammerce
have reached their utmost limit not only of capital but of
population, and both wait for an increase of agricultural
products before they can move. Workingmen and others
are drawn into large cities from a wrong impression of their
advantages and benefits.  Once in them, they have no means
to get out, especially if they have families.  Often by this
forced detention and poverty, crime is committed, with equal
violence to the unfortunate victim as to the peace and interests of the Commonwealth.  Jails are now as often the
asylums of mnisfortune, the refuge of poverty, as the stone
walls and iron bars to punish what is criminal in man. They
should be considered as hospitals of economic and mental
disease.  Crime  as often  needs the physician  as the
prosecutor.  Popular opinion is sadly at fault about this
mobility of labor. It is not limited by green pastures and
fertile fields, but by capital. You might as well say to labor,
Go to the moon and cultivate there, as to say to it, Go West,
or Go South. Even the early settlers of the New' World
had some capital to begin its cultivation. If wheat is burned
for fuel in the West, and families are starving in New York
or Boston, either there has been a wrong distribution of
labor, or the highways of the country have been blocked
by dishonesty, ignorance, and corruption.
The territory of the United States may be capable of supporting a population of three hundred millions, and yet not
be more densely populated than continental Europe. But




43
forty millions may press more heavily upon its capital for
subsistence than would the three hundred millions, when the
population of the nation shall have reached that limit.
We believe that such a movement, in the interests of
the mobility of labor, has been inaugurated in the city
of Boston. We think that such an organization in every
large city would do more to settle the question, "tHow
shall the country regain its prosperity?" than many more
elaborate papers that might be written upon it and plans
suggested.
The railways of a country have an important part to perform in the work of distribution.  The highest intelligence
nald honesty should be exercised in their management. The.highways of a nation are its veins of circulation. Are they
obstructed, then every industry is paralyzed, and ruin
begins. They should not be controlled by ignorant coinbinations and irresponsible monopolies. Both capital and
labor demand of them that integrity that belongs to the government itself.  In 1830 the number of miles of railway
operated in the United States was thirty. In 1870 there
were over seventy thousand miles, whose gross earnings
amounted to $526,419,935.  According to Mr. Poor, the
railways of England pay five per cent. on the capital invested, while those of the United States pay more than
ten per cent. If there is any industry that should be operated on a minimum of profit, it is that of interconmllunication of one part of the country with another.  If railways can be managed better by government than by
private corporations, then the government should manage
them.
Both capital and labor, however, have erroneous opinions
and judgments as to the functions of governments in the
conflict of the industrial forces.  Governments, no farther
than they assist in carrying out the purposes aild designs of




44
fi-eedom, facility, and harmony in the economic forces, are
powerless as an infant. All the governments in the world
cannot, of themselves, raise a spear of grass or produce an
ear of corn. All the exchequers, treasuries, printing presses
in Christendom cannot create a dollar's worth of value. It
can use capital in production or distribution only as private
individuals may use it. It can subsidize steamship and railway lines. But unless there is a prescribed demand, or
these steamships can carry merchandise as cheap as those of
England, France, or Holland, then the steamships will soon
lie idle in the docks, and be dismantled at the wharves.
The government increases the rate of tax to make up what
it has lost in the investment.  Governments never pay back
what they receive from the people. They spend it, and call
for more. When there is no cash or assets, it gives notes
on printed paper, rather than go into bankruptcy.  The
people of the United States, in national and municipal taxation, are taking the lead of nations in this respect. But a
government can assist labor by keeping its plighted faith;
having a sound and stable currency and monetary system;
being scrupulously honest and thoroughly intelligent.
~We fully appreciate the advantages and benefits of education in the efficiency and skill of labor.  To this fact, no
doubt, the labor of the United States owes much of its
improved condition over that of continental Europe.  But,
then, there is a danger of pushing this matter of education
too far beyond the arc of the economic circle. There is a
limit where education will not improve labor in the attainment of an honest living. The first object of labor is to
earn an honest and independent support. After this, you
can point as high on the register of civilization as you wish.
There may be a demand for manual labor, but none for
intellectual labor. But the intellect, when once cultivated
and refined,'does not take up the tasks of hard toil as




45
willingly as when brought up only to such an occupation.
The statistics at Washington exhibit that labor is improved
twenty-five per cent. by education. When, however, educated labor is in excess, the economic index will not fail to
show it. But the great trouble is, that communities and
nations go on suffering certain economic disorders, when
they do not understand what afflicts them.  Statesmen,
philanthropists, and politicians apply the wrong remedies,
that increase, rather than diminish, the disorder.
Labor is grieved at the injustice and wrong with which it
feels that capital oppresses it. To defend itself, tradeunions have been organized on a large scale in England and
this country. Fifty years ago in England not a thousand
laborers belonged to them.  At the present day a million
are pledged in their support and purposes. International
societies exist in every nation. Some of these societies have
large sums invested in carrying out their designs.  Some
writers claim  that these unions have raised the price of
wages five per cent. within the last decade.  Admitting
this, the strikes, lock-outs, and forced idleness, they have
occasioned must have more than offset this advantage, a
single strike often costing labor alone hundreds of thousands
of dollarso  As organizations of mutual help and assistance
they serve a good and noble purpose, and have sometimes
prevented strikes rather than multiplied them. Under intelligent management and leadership they would be of great
efficiency to the well-being of labor.  But as a means to
raise the price of wages, and put more into the laborer's
pocket than they take out, we think they are helpless and
pernicious. We do not say, that could labor press capital on
all sides at the same time, but what capital might be forced
to yield some of its rate of profits that it now exacts. This
pressure must be universal, and extend to every part of the
industrial world. If capital is bearded. in one trade or




46
locality, then there must be no refuge to which it can flee to
obtain what it claims for itself. Like everything else, when
there is no longer a demand for capital at a certain rate of
interest, then it must take a lower rate.
Napoleon said "that the bank of France was established to
loan money at four per cent." There are, however, limits to
which the utmost concessions must be confined.  There are
minimum rates of interest and profit, below which, capital
would not seek investment to compensate itself, and the
responsibilities, toils, and cares of business.  But should
labor ever succeed in driving capital to such a condition,
where it will not seek investment, then it will simply have
been its own hangman and destroyer.
Labor has frequently manifested in the United States, and
in Europe, an antagonism and hatred of machinery. We
would ask it, why it is that the population of England within
the last three-quarters of a century has been far greater
than it had previously been since the Norman conquest, and
the increase of wealth still muore rapid?  Why is it that the
commerce and trade within the last forty years of three of
the leading nations of the world, including the United
States, has arisen from  five billions of dollars to forty
billions?  Why is it that the lowest orders of society can
now indulge in luxuries, comforts, and conveniences, that a
king, a hundred years ago, could not bring to his palace?
%Why do towns and cities rise as by the wave of a magic
wand? The relation of machinery to population, labor, and
capital is an important inquiry that we can here only suggest.  Destroy machinery, and labor would suffer as much
as any other class of society.  Machinery benefits labor in
two ways: first, by accumulating capital for its subsistence;
next, by diminishing the cost of articles consumed.  As the
economist Bastiat says,'Manual labor is lessened in one
direction, only to be employed in aliother."  The amount




47
saved to the buyers by a cheapened production enables them
to procure other comforts, and thus make a larger and
increased demand. The standard of labor is not lowered,
though that of the general well-being of society is raised.
The labor performed by machinery and steam has been estimated as high as eight hundred millions of laborers.  M.
Chevalier, of France, calculates that the steam-engines of
England alone do the work of forty millions of workmen,
Take machinery out of the world, population would decrease,
the cost of what we eat and wear would advance, and
civilization would take a backward course.
In the decrease of the supply and competition of labor,
there canl be no conflict of opinion as to its effect on the
price of wages.  In this view of the question, public opinion
and religious sentiment are as yet strongly opposed.  It is
considered as false and groundless; that God can, and will,
take care of his own.'We do not think that it is a very
pleasant and satisfactory view to take; but that population
in many communities presses heavily upon capital and the
means of subsistence cannot be denied. From two to three
millions of paupers in England, apparently, can have no
part in the industrial system in that country. It is estimated
that there are three or four millions of forced idle in the
United States at the present time. This, as Carlyle says,
"is one of the dismal sciences."
The world"lis doing but half its duty when it gives a man a
loaf of bread.  What it should do is to assist him to earn his
own bread. Public or private charity, except to the sick,
the lame, the blind, and the helpless, should be abolished,
and banished out of this and every other country. It injures
and demoralizes both parties, the giver and the receiver.
We are not doing our highest duty to carry others' burdens,
but to help them to carry their own,  On this subject of
over-population, we shall quote John Stuart Mill.  He says:




48
"Unhappily, sentimentality, instead of common-sense, is the
genius that usually presides over the discussions of these subjects.  While there is a growing sensitiveness to the hardships of the poor, and a ready disposition to admit claims
upon the good offices of other people, there is an all-butuniversal unwillingness to face the real difficulty of their
position, or advert at all to the conditions which nature, has
made indispensable to their physical lot.  Discussions on
the conditions of laborers, lamentations over its wretchedness, denunciations of all who are supposed to be indifferent
to it, projects of one kind and another to improve it, were in
no country, and in no time of the world, so rife as at present.
But there is a tacit agreement to ignore totally the law of
wages, or dismiss it with an exclamation of'hard-hearted,',
eMalthusian;' as if it were not a hundred times more hardhearted to tell human beings that they may, than that they
may not, call into existence swarms of creatures who are sure
to be miserable, and most likely to be depraved."  It is not
generally wealth that draws the largest number about the
fireside, but it is poverty, living on the barest means of subsistence, that has the greatest number of mouths to share
nothing but its hunger and squalor.  Capital, however,
knows no parentage.  The world's children, whether rich or
poor, are all alike to it.  Some writers say that there can be
no such thing as over-population; that population, whatever
the rule of its increase, cannot possibly outrun the means of
subsistence.  In one sense this is true; no more can exist
than can find bread.  But if there is a perfect balance in the
great industrial pursuits; if there is a free mobility of labor;
if the various trades, occupations, and professions are evenly
distributed in their employing capacity; if nothing obstructs,
alarms, or intimidates capital, we would ask philanthropists
and statesmen how, when, or where could they extend the
employing resources, to set to work what should remain idle




49
in such a condition of economic and industrial development?
We recognize that such a state is not probable, and scarcely
possible.  As a last resort, there can be no doubt but what
the problem will yield to the solution of a decrease of population in raising the price of wA'ges.
But there should be no real antagonism between capital
and labor. Capital is only produced by labor. If there was
no labor, then there could be no capital.  One is helpless
without the other.  Capital, when once accumulated, is the
employment and support of labor.  Does capital suffer,
then labor is not prosperous. Is capital drawing no interest,
then labor is earningl no wages. Is capital lying idle in vaults,
then labor is out at the elbow, and looks anxiously around
for what it can get for dinner. If there is a conflict between
capital and labor, then it is because labor does not understand its true interests and relations with capital.  The eyelash does not fall more quickly over the pupil, nor the arm
go more instinctively to the head at the approach of danger,
than does capital seek shelter and contract itself when there
is the least movement to injure its security, or threaten its
protection.  At violence it becomes paralyzed, and the more
labor pursues it with the sword, the swifter it will flee from
it. Does capital wish to get the best and most effective force
out of labor in the creation of profits and wealth, it must be
treated as something more than a machine.
Opulence and wealth are prone to forget what they owe to
labor.  Let labor cease for twenty-four hours and truly
would riches take wings.  Want would soon be in the beststored larder.  In a week your fine marble buildings and luxurious homes would be but charnel-houses.  Wealth, rather
than shunning labor when it meets it, should take off its hat
to it and thank it for what it enjoys. Labor is the foundation, capital the edifice.  Samson labor may pull down




50
the pillars and supports of the social structure, and bring
ruin to both, but undermost lies labor.
It may be thought by many that the freedom and equality
of the political form in the United States will eventually become a saving power to labo r in the triumph of a workingman's party; but we do not think that such will soon be the
case. Labor, as yet, has not shown the intelligent choice of
leadership that would save it, or work out its higher redemption and deliverance.  This is often shown in the character and principles of the candidates it puts upon its tickets,
and its communistic enunciations. If the laboring men had
the national policy under their control, they would probably
adopt such a course as would hasten it to ruin, and operate
the most severely against their interests and prosperity. It is
an intelligent power we need to preserve and save us; not
ignorant power, however honest and manly. With the last
two qualities left out, we have enough of the latter kind of
power already.
Many centuries ago, in the history of the Roman commonwealth, a large number of the Roman citizens withdrew
themselves to the Aventine hill in open mutiny to the civil
order, with swords in their hands, mainly upon the issue of
capital and labor. Valerius, who was one of the delegates
sent to them by the Roman Senate to conciliate and address
them said, "It's the shield you need, and not the sword."
This is the spirit of the mottoes that labor should put upon
its banners, rather than those we often see displayed there.
It is the guidance of honest and intelligent protection that
labor needs, rather than the leadership of demagogues,
which is the surest and most certain way to anarchy and
destruction.
A republican form of government is quick in its passions,
and ambitious of crystallizations, in certain policies that are
often hard and unjust. It, more than any other form of




51
government, must keep itself fresh, healthy, and vigilant to
its highest life. What is every one's business and interest
is under the direction of none.  There is no tyranny like
the tyranny of a majority.  In the Roman world, labor under
Augustus was more prosperous and contented than in the
last days of the republic.  This has been experienced in
other nations than Rome.  This is the abuse rather than the
best use of representative government, which, with certain
restrictions and limitations, we believe will be the government of the future.  A workingman, in writing of the late
strikes and conditions of labor, in what he claims of the ballot
that should protect it, says, " We are sick of this game; we
are soul-weary of looking around for symnpathy or a spirit
of justice, and finding none."
Self-protection, you say, is the first law of nature. True;
but do not be too short-sighted as to the means to secure that
best and most durable protection.  Every man is interested
in the success of every other man. Every community should
be interested in the prosperity of every other community.
Somewhere the most opposite parts of society meet in the
economic balance.  The barber and the prince, the streetvender and the capitalist, come together here, if nowhere
else. The most distant nations touch each other in their
commercial exchanges.
The economic world moves in a circle.  There are no
squares, angles, or points, at which it reaches its end, and
flies off into space.  If any part of the circle is broken, or its
life becomes stagnant, then the disease of hard times begins
and continues, until industrial circulation has again been sent
through every part of the economic body. Is business dull
at London and there is a shrinkage of values, then its effect
extends to New York, Sail Francisco, Boston, Paris, Berlin,
Moscow, and Pekin. It is the seen over-production, the unseen idleness; no employment, no wages, decreased con



52
sumption, no demand. The harmony between the great industries has been destroyed. There is no demand for labor
in manufactures and commerce; there is capital lying idle
for investment, and honest hands waiting for something to
do. These two must combine in agricultural production, to
quicken and set in motion the other two great industries.
Agriculture was before manufacture and commerce in the
order of the industries. It is the fountaiIn-head from which
the other two gain their vigor and magnitude. The current
of the channel is low, stagnant, and torpid. You must put
more water into the source to give it a new impetus and
force.  The machinery has become too cumbrous and expanded for the motive-power that moves it.
Our late war may, in part, have been the cause of much
of our present business depression. The government was a
large employer of labor and consumer of production. When
it ended, large numbers of men were thrown suddenly upon1
capital for employment that it had adjusted itself to do
without. This surplus nlust be absorbed into new enterprises of agricultural investments.
But an inflated currency has done more than any other
one thing to debase, debauch, and demoralize everything.
When an increase of currency or the circulating medium is
attended with a suddcen rise in prices, it is an infallible test
that it does no good to the industry of the country. An
unlimited paper currency means bankruptcy. It costs little
or nothing, to produce it; its value depends upon legislative
enactments.  The purchasing power of money depends
upon its quantity. If it consists of a comparatively worthless substance, then the supply must be limited. If coinage
is unlimited, then its value will depend upon the cost of
production of the material in which the monetary article
consists.  Labor should understand that its greatest and
most vital interests depend upon permanence, stability, and




53
confidence, as much as upon justice.  These will carry even
the most vicious system and heaviest burden with apparent
ease; while the best monetary policies and measures that are
continually dangling between defeat and success, caught by
the gills in uncertain life, meani certain death. We say this not
only of the monetary system, but of the political system, in
the interests and welfare of labor.  To change parties or
administrations is of no benefit to labor only as the change
will assist in a higher economic prosperity.  Confidence is
the life of capital.  Constant agitations and fermentations
frighten and alarm it.  As Lord Mansfield said of the law,' It is not more to have it just than to have it certain."
Inflation is a great wrong; it is an economic crime to
labor.  It is a revolution in prices, and of itself, in the measure of money values. The greater the quantity of a debased
currency, the more widespread the ruin.  Contraction, it is
true, is also often hard and unjust in the new adjustment.
WV hen a bankrupt nation enjoys five years of apparent prosperity, it is evident that a state of intensified bankruptcy
must occur. There is no benefit in increase of prices with
no corresponding addition to values.
Mr. Wells has written thoughtful papers on how the nation
shall regain its prosperity; but we hope it will never return to
prosperity based on the conditions it has experienced since
1861. We think in the relations of money to prosperity,
values, labor, and population, there is yet much to be
adjusted, in detail if not in principle.  If the monetary system be national or international, then the financial condition
of a country will depend upon its industrial laws and commercial exchanges.  You are not prosperous because you
have gold. You have gold because you are prosperous.
Since the discoveory of gold in 1848 trade has risen in a
proportion of one to eight.
In no nation, in the ten years from 1861 to 1871, was there




54
ever so great a change in the manner of doing business as
in the United States. How to make a fortune without
labor or creating any real value, either in production or distribution, seems to be the great problem of the scheming
business world.  Speculative and worthless corporations are
in every town and city. More than half the amount of the
national debt has been sunk in worthless investments within
the last few years.  Knavery and idiocy seem  to have
largely entered into the commercial and financial world.
We mortgage the future, spend the money in extravagance,
and when the pay-day comes we are sorely troubled and
perplexed, We are suffering from a disregard of the economic laws, an honest industry, and all honorable integrity.
The pay-day comes, but our coffers are empty.
The conditions of capital and labor are governed by the
same economic laws in this country as everywhere else.
The superior advantages and prosperity of labor here we
believe to be largely due to the great natural advantages of
the material wealth we possess over other nations.  Our
liberal and advanced system of education has greatly aided
in the worth and value of our labor. But unless the higher
grades of employment are willing to return to the lower
grades, it is only a question of time when it will tend in the
wrong direction. Agriculture has done much for the prosperity of this country, and it yet has the power to do much
more for it, if the people will not lose sight of this great
source of wealth.  In the Roman State, aside from  the
civil life of the forum, there were but two honorable
employments: those of the farm  and the camp.  The
comparatively high price of wages in the United States
has come from causes that cannot always exist. The freshness, vitality, and vigor of the morning must give way to
the heat of the noon-day, the twilight, and shadows of the
evening. We must live on the interest and not the capital




55
of our national, material wealth, if we would not have it
vanish. The nation enters upon the second century of its
existence, but with as much need of all that is heroic,
humane, intelligent, and conciliatory, as it did upon its first.
It is often more difficult to retain than to win. It seems to
us that the recent strikes have proved that the political form
of this country will not bear the pressure of some of the
European orders.  Perhaps it is well that it should not.
The immediate cause of the open conflict between capital
and labor, so far as it applies to labor, comes from the ignorance of labor.  There is a misunderstanding between these
two interests; capital will not always understand labor, and
labor cannot understand capital.  Labor sins more through
ignorance than intention; therefore a court having the confidence of capital and labor, rightly and intelligently administered, would be an efficient means, often, to adjust amicably
the disputes and grievances of both.  A court of this kind
has been long established in France. Lord Brougham stated
in Parliament, in 1859, that of twenty-eight thousand cases
submitted to the  Conseils des Prudhommles, twenty-six
thousand eight hundred of themn were settled without appeal.
The science of political economy should become a popular
branch of education in our schools.  All classes of society
should take more interest in it.  It will help them to understand  the wants, needs, and hardships of each other.  It
will bring them nearer together in thought, if not in personal
relation.  We do not live here as though we thought the
class distinction was to disappear in the hereafter.  Only
by production or spoliation can property be obtained.  Certainly, labor is not going to choose spoliation.  Should it
madly do so, then chaos has come again.  The ballot-box
will be thrown aside for the bayonet. The sword will be both
our destroyer and our master.
It is hardly necessary to remind the labor of the United




56
States how much better it is paid -and fares here, than in
most other nations. In England the average wages of labor
is not more than fifty cents per day. Nineteen pounds
sterling is the average yearly income of the workingman to
support himself and a family of five. In. France, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria it is not much better.  Woman
in the industrial conditions of these countries occupies a
different place than she does in the United States.  In
France out of 19,585,115 agricultural laborers, 9,860,820
are females.  Labor must be more content to dress and
care for itself according to its circumstances.  It should
not try to pattern the ways and expenditures of those who are
wealthy. It should cut the acquaintance of fashion, which,
at best, is but the rule of the "cap and the bells."
Our subject leads in every direction. We can but partially and disconnectedly follow it in some, and must pass
over in silence many others. Nothing original can be said
on this subject. At best we call but make new combinations
of old material; set in motion what should know no rest;
bring into the light what should never sink into the shade.
To think that we- could write a paper that. would adjust all
the difficult complications between capital and labor in the
United States, would be only to prove how little we comprehended the greatness of our task. We can only suggest the
ways by which we think some of its grating and irritation
may be lessened. Wealth is especially the motive-power of
the civilizations of the nineteenth century.  Capital has outgrown its economic weight and province. It now reaches
circles from which it hitherto has been excluded.. To be rich,
now, means to be the possessor of much more than money.
Trade is no longer a reproach to social position or caste.
We have spoken of the economic and humane relations of
these two great interests of capital and labor.  In the
economic, it is a strife of capital and labor; here we think




57
that labor is greatly in error. In the humane or social
consideration it is one order of society arrayed against the
other for mastery. Here we think that capitalamust bear
much blame.  The church, that should do away with the
class-line of rich and poor, often only seems to bring it out in
stronger contrast, by placing itself beyond the reach of the
poor. Labor knows where it is wanted. As was once remarked by a foreign envoy: "'VWhere do your poor, the
laboring men, go to church in the United States; or have
you none?"
Distribution seems a mlore difficult question than production. An increased motive-power in the work of productionl can easily be supplied; but to find new markets in
different parts of the world, new  demands for what we
produce, seems more complicated and difficult. These can
only be made by industry, enterprise, cheapness in production, without lowering the standard quality. Trade must be
made successful in honorable competition; whatever -obstructs legitimate and healthy life in the economic forces
and interests should be studiously avoided.
We sadly need in the United States more conscientious,
independent, and intelligent labor. There is a dearth of
this in our political and national councils. We are the most
independent and dependent of nations. We look rather to
our neighbors for approval than to our conscience. Never
did imposture seem more frequent than at the present time,
never were palaver and falsity so frequently to be found in
high places. Tricksters and mountebanks seem to be at a
premium. How to catch a vote is the purpose for which we
trim our political sails to take every breeze from whatever
quarter it may come.  The dollar purifies all means by
which it is obtained, however vile or base. We make
drunk that we may destroy. We are dying of fawning
flunkeyism and the flattery of the parasite. The man who




58
is not true to himself will not be true to anly party or interest long.  The people of the republic, like the king of the
monarchy, are not always rig'ht, and can do wrong.  If they
err not ill the heart, they nmay in head and passion.  Labor
must be able to separate the false from the true, the dross from
the gold.  When its hero comes, it must know and honor
him.  In thought, it wants not the kid-glove dalliance of an
artificial manhood or womanhood.  It needs the warm, true,
and flesh-like grasp of a Ruskin or a Carlyle; that while it
holds it as a unit in the social, law-abiding   order, yet fully
appreciates its misfortunes and hardships, and lies close to its
restless longings and anxious strivings.  Our best life is
not dead, but sleeping.
But with both capital and labor a gracious Providence
metes out and awards its blessinlgs with a more even hand
than is generally supposed.  In honorable and independent
labor is mall's brightest happiness; capital treads upon thorns
that labor knows not of.  Socitl forms of caste, based upon
indolent wealth, is false in every particular.  It carries its
own curse with it.  Manly labor is a sweet sauce, that can
never come to pampered appetites of indolence and luxury.
To work for something besides self is mail's noblest mission.
Wae are restless and discontented for whatl when gained
brings us no peace or happiness.  Our burdens are heavy,
only because we have never borne the weight of others.
Our sympathies are with labor.  As Mr. Harrison justly
says, " They know by hourly experience, they only know,
what social suffering exists.  By suffering, their social sympathies are stimulated; by necessity, their practical instincts
are developed.  They are free from  the restless egoism
which is the misfortune of all who accumulate wealth; from
the self-indul-gent indecision which is the curse of all who live
in idleness.  Theirs is the highest form of sympatlhy, theirs
the readiest powers of action."




59
For Mr. Harrison's word " all" we would substitute the
word "many;" for certainly capital and wealth are often to
be found with a Christian, tender humanity for misfortune,
sorrow, and hardship.  Poverty suddenly grown rich generally makes the severest taskmaster to labor.  Labor should
grant to capital what it claims for itself.  The wealthy man
draws a large income in interest from capital.  This he has
earned, or it has come to him by gift or inheritance.  Does
not labor as well as capital defend its own if there is any
attempt to take from it by force what it has justly earned?
We think it would.  In fact, labor goes to unwarrantable
lengths in destroying work that has not come within the
rules of its trade-unions.
Work! work honestly and faithfully! Work at what you
can, if not at what you would.  Take the way nearest your
feet, though hard and stony. After a season of worthy toil
you may climb glorious heights, such as your most sanguine
ambition never hoped to see or realize'.  Look up. As
Emerson says, " Harness your wagon to a star."  Lift yourself above your daily drudgery when it is over. There is
nothing to prevent the laborinlg  man from being a prince in
thought and feeling, though a prince in station may be a
brute.  Seek the approval of a clear, manly and womanly
conscience, rather than what is often the fickle praise and
uncertain censure of public opinion.  Do right. Let the
world pass on the other side if it will.
At best, there are many undeserved misfortunes, calling for
the strength and support of all that is humane; difficult
problems, that stare at us with the Sphinx's impenetrability,
when approached, even, by the combined action of all that is
high and thoughtful.  Labor must not lay to capital the
fate that Providence has decreed it in the world. That social
or religious order that shall absorb labor, the lower and middling' classes, into itself, we think is assured the triumph of




60
the future. The triumph will be deserved. It will be the
success of the broadest humanity, and the highest element of
a true Christianity, whatever be its covenant or creed.  In
the inequality of fortune, this all-pervading and Christian
sentiment, if such can be attained, seems the only means of
uniting all classes and conditions in a bond of peace, union,
and harmony.
Let us not forget, that in whatever capacity we are called
upon to act, either as capitalist or laborer, rich or poor, there
seems but one universal allotment in which we all have our
share, - sorrow, disappointment, and sacrifice; trusting in
that sphere beyond the sight of mortal vision to right what
here has been wrong, to redress what has been grievous, to
rewarcl us for the undeserved burdens we have here patiently
borne.




REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS
OF THE
State Bureaus of Labor Statistics
ON THE
Industrial, Social and Economic Conditions
OF
PULLMAN, ILLINOIS.
SEPTEMBER, I8S4.








REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS
OF THE.
STATE BUREAUS OF LABOR STATISTICS
ON THE
INDUSTRIAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF
PULLMAN, ILLINOIS.
At the annual convention of the chiefs and commissioners
of the various bureaus of statistics of labor in the United
States, held at St. Louis in June, I884, it was determined to
make a full and exhaustive investigation of the economic
experiment conducted by Pullman's Palace Car Company on
the plan projected by Mr. George M. Pullman, the president.
In carrying out this determination the convention met at
Pullman, Illinois, in September following, and for three days
studied all the economic, sanitary, industrial, moral and social
conditions of the city.
Every facility was afibrded for the closest scrutiny of every
feature and phase of any and all the affairs the members
of the convention saw fit to examine. The results of their
investigations are embodied in this report, which is presented
as a joint report through the various annual reports of the
bureaus represented.
We have availed ourselves of material furnished the press
by Duane Doty, Esq., a gentleman connected with the educational work of Pullman, and by other writers, but chiefly our
report is the result of our own observations of things and
conditions as we found them.
Our object in making the investig'ation was to give to the
manufacturers and capitalists of our respective States official
information relative to one of the most attractive experiments.
of the age seeking to harmonize the interests of labor and
capital. It is no part of our duty to eulogize individuals; we
have endeavored to learn results.




The enterprise of Herr Krupp at Essen; the philanthropy
of M. Godin in the establishment of the Familistere at Guise,
France; the humanity of Sir Titus Salt, that brought into
existence the industrial town of Saltaire, in Yorkshire, England; and the broad Christian inspiration which resulted in
the founding of Pullman have given the world, in the four
greatest manufacturing countries, four magnificent schemes
for the uplifting of a large portion of the people seeking a
living through wages.
In all the countries named there have been many other
experiments worth a careful study of all interested in social
advancement. This is thoroughly true of our own country,
and we might call attention with justice to the success at
Peace Dale, R. I., at St. Johnsbury, Vt., at Willimantic, and
Manchester, Conn., and at other points.  But, for comprehensive plan, for careful recognition of all the strong points,
and the fullest anticipation of all weak features, for the beauty
of the executed plan, for the financial and social success
thereof, Pullman city as the outgrowth of the newest of the
great manufacturing nations stands at the head.
HISTORY.
The commissioners had no opportunity to consult Mr.
Pullman personally, he being away at the time of our investigation, and we have, therefore, taken such statements of
fact, as appear in our report, from documents already before
the public.
Pullman's Palace Car Company was founded in I867 with
a capital of $I,ooo,ooo; its extended operations have been
conducted on the strictest business principles, and have, from
time to time, necessitated increases in its capital stock, —until
now its capital represents nearly $I6,ooo,ooo, and $2,000,000
in debenture bonds; its palace cars are operated on upwards
of 70,000 miles of railway in America and Europe. Its
capital stock has been paid in dollar for dollar, and no watering processes have ever entered into the financial operations
of the company. Its dividends have been reg'ular and ample,:and its affairs conducted on the same scientific basis that has
characterized the construction of the works.
Four or five years ago Mr. Pullman determined to bring
the greater portion of the works of the Company into one




3
locality. To accomplish this he must leave the great cities
for many reasons, and yet it was essential that a site should
be selected where communication could be had with the
whole country, and near some metropolitan place like
Chicago. He wished above all things to remove his workmen from the close quarters of a great city, and give them
the healthful benefits of good air, good drainage, and good
water, and where they would be free, so far as it would lie
in the power of management to keep them free, from the
many seductive influences of a great town.
He was fortunate in securing about 4,000 acres of land on
the Illinois Central Road, a dozen miles to the south of
Chicago. This land was located in the town of Hyde Park,
and here he built his city.
THE SITE.
The city is situatedupon the west shore of Lake Calumet,
which is a shallow body of water three and a half miles long
by a mile and a half in width. This lake drains into Lake
Michigan through the Calumet river, Lake Michigan being
not more than three miles distant. The site of that portion
of the city now fully covered with buildings is from eight
to fourteen feet above the level of Lake Calumet. The soil
is a drift deposit of tough blue clay ninety feet in depth,
resting upon lime rock. The land gradually rises to the
north and west to an elevation of twenty-five feet above
Lake Calumet, this lake being usually from three to five
inches higher than Lake Michigan. There is no land of a
marshy character in this neighborhood. The bottom of Lake
Calumet is of hard blue clay, from which the best creamcolored brick are made. It was deemed unwise to permit
any sewage to flow into Lake Calumet, so the system  of
drainage adopted is what is known as the secparlae one.
On the 25th day of May, i8o8, ground was first broken
for the building of the Palace Car Works, and the city of
Pullman. The land was an open and not over-promising
prairie.
The first efforts were directed towards the scientific drainage of the future town. In old cities drainage follows construction, for the average village or city is but the haphazard




4
conglomeration of odds and ends in the way of buildings,
whose inartistic forms, defective construction, and inconvenient arrangements are supplemented by such drainage
and sewerage systems as can be utilized. It is rare of course
in the nature of things that drainage is thought of at the
outset. It comes after a lapse of time when the soil has
become charged with the accumulated filth of years, and all
attempts at sewerage are more or less unsatisfactory.
The city of Pullman, on the other hand, has been built
scientifically in every part, and is exceptional in respect to
drainage and sewerage if in no other regard. For here the
drainage preceded the population, and the soil is now as free
from organic contamination as when it formed a portion of
the open prairie. Every house has been constructed from
approved plans, and under the supervision of competent
builders and engineers.
The perfection of the site selected was accomplished
through surface drainage, and the construction of deep
sewers.
These should be described as a matter of logical order
before anything is said of the buildings of the town.
SURFACE DRAINAGE.
The atmospheric water goes from roofs and streets through
one system of pipes and sewers directly into Lake Calumet.
Brick mains from three to six feet in diameter are built in
alternate streets running east and west, the intermediate
streets being summits from which the surface water flows
into the main sewers. The fall is sufficient to secure good
cellars for all the dwellings in the city, the drain pipes leading from cellars being at least eighteen inches below the
cellar bottoms.  A  two-foot cobble-stone gutter borders
either side of every street, leading at short intervals of I50
feet into catch-basins, these basins, connecting either with
the lateral or the main sewers. This system of surface
drainage is calculated to carry easily an amount of water
that would cover to the depth of one and one-half inches the
entire area drained. For the drainage from lots six inch
pipe is used, while for block drainage and for laterals pipe
varying from nine to eighteen inches in diameter is used.
The parks and play grounds are all thoroughly drained. The




amount of vitrified pipe already laid in the town is as
follows:Of I8 inch pipe,.4,500 feet.
Of i$ inch pipe,.6,500 feet.
Of I2: inch pipe,.. 6,600 feet.
Of 9 inch pipe,.                         I6,ooo feet.
There are also several miles of six inch pipe. In addition
to the piping of diameters from  six to eighteen inches, the
necessary quantity of four inch tile has been used to carry
water from  cellars and down-spouts to the laterals from
brick houses for 1,476 families. The lands surrounding the
town are well drained by ditches.
DEEP SEWERS.
In every other street running east and west, and lying
between the streets having brick mains for surface drainage,
there are sewers made with vitrified pipe which lead to a
large reservoir under the water tower, entering it at sixteen
feet below the surface of the ground. These glazed pipe
sewers are from six to eighteen inches in diameter and constitute another and separate system of drains which carries
the sewage proper, by gravity, from houses to the reservoir.
This reservoir has a capacity of 300,000 gallons, and the
sewage is pumped from it as fast as received and before
sufficient time elapses for fermentation to take place. The
ventilation of this reservoir is perfect. Flues run from it to
the top of the tower above it, and a flue leads from it to the
large chimney which takes off the smoke from the fires under
the boilers of the Corliss engine. The sewage is sent to the
model farm  through a twenty inch iron main, and, at the
farm end of this pipe, it goes into a receiving tank, which
contains a screen placed in a vertical position through which
substances that are more than half an inch in diameter
cannot pass. The pressure of the sewage upon the tile
piping in the farm seldom, if ever, exceeds ten pounds to the
square inch, provision being made at the pumping station
and at the farm to relieve the pipes from greater pressure.
About Ioo gallons of sewage are now pumped daily for each
person of the population. This seems a large amount, but
when it is remembered that every tenement is provided with
the best of closets and sinks, and that the water taps are all




6
inside the houses, it will be seen that a large amount of
sewage per capita is unavoidable.
THE MODEL FARM.
About I40 acres of land have been thoroughly underdrained and piped for the reception of sewage with which
these acres are irrigated by means of hose. Hydrants are
placed at proper intervals so that the distribution can be
easily effected. There is nothing offensive about this work,
nor can one detect noxious odors at the pumping station or
at the farm. All organic matter in the sewage is at once
taken up by the soil and the growing vegetation, and the
water, making from Ioo to 500 parts of the sewage, runs off
through the under-drains to ditches, which carry the filtered
waters into Lake Calumet. Where the sewage water leaves
the drains it is as clear and sparkling as spring water, and
laborers often drink it. One acre of land will take care of
the sewage made by Ioo persons. The population is now
only 8,5oo, but there is land enough already prepared to
receive the sewage made by a population of.I5,ooo. The
pumps now at the pumping station can handle 5,000,000 gallons a day if necessary, and the main to the farm could carry
the sewage for a population of 50,ooo. These pumps are
now required to handle about a million gallons a day, coming from shops, homes, and public buildings. All waste
products at Pullman are carefully utilized, being transformed
by vital chemistry into luxuriant vegetable forms.
This farm is now a source of profit, and its products are
sold in the markets of the country from Boston to New
Orleans.
THE BuILDINGS.
With the scientific drainage and sewage system, in the
construction of which nearly one million dollars ($I,OOO,OOO)
were expended underneath the ground before anything
appeared on its surface, came the erection of the works and
the dwellings of the town. It is sufficient to say that the
same care exercised in guarding the future health of the
place has been bestowed in the erection of works and
dwellings.
In the centre stands the water tower which takes a supply
of water from Lake Michigan and distributes it through the




7
town. Underneath this immense tower is the reservoir into
which flows the sub-sewage of the place as described.
Around the tower are located the principal works; to the
south and north of the works, chiefly to the south, are the
dwellings.
The appearance from the railroad as one approaches from
Chicago is effective. The neat station; the water tower and
the works in front; the park and artificial lakes intervening;
to the right a picturesque hotel backed by pretty dwellings;
the arcade, containing stores, library, theatre, offices, etc.;
still further to the right, and beyond, a church which fits
into the landscape with artistic effect.
The laying out of the whole town has been under the
guidance of skilled architects aided by civil engineers and
landscape gardeners.
The dwellings present a great variety of architecture, yet
give harmonious effects. They are not built like the tenement houses of ordinary manufacturing towns where sameness kills beauty and makes the surroundings tame, but a
successful effobrt has been made to give diversity to architectural design.
The streets are wide, well built, and wherever possible
parked. The lawns are kept in order by the company; the
shade trees are cared for, and all the police work is done
under competent supervision.
Every care has been taken to secure convenience inside
as well as outside the dwellings. The cheapest tenement is
supplied with gas and water and garbage outlets.  The
housekeeper throws the garbage into a specified receptacle
and has no more care of it.
The testimony of every woman we met was that housekeeping was rendered far more easy in Pullman than in any
other place. In fact the women were in love with the place;
its purity of air, cleanliness of houses and streets, and lessened
household burdens, are advantages over their former residences which brought out the heartiest expressions of approval.
The women of the comparatively poor bear most of the drudgery of life, enjoy the least of pleasures, and are most narrowly
circumscribed, with little change in cares, scenes, or social
surroundings. Pullman has really wrought a greater change
for the women than for any other class of its dwellers.




8
All the works and shops are kept in the neatest possible
order. The planing rooms are as free from dust as the
street, blowers and exhaust fans taking away all shavings,
dust, and debris, as fast as it accumulates.  One notices
everywhere the endeavor to save time and space in the construction of goods. As an illustration of the science which
enters into manufacture we need only cite the shops where
freight cars are built. All the timber is taken in in lengths
at one end and is never turned around until it finds its proper
place in a completed freight car, being carried constantly
from one process to another in a direct line from its reception
at one end to its utilization at the other.
There are 1,520 brick tenements in houses and flats. The
frontage of all the buildings extends along five miles of solid
paved streets, and there are fourteen miles of railroad track
laid for the use of those in the shops and the town. TNhe
buildings are of brick or stone.
INDUSTRIES.
The industries carried on and for which the city was built
comprise the manufacture of Pullman Palace cars, and all
classes of passenger and freight cars.
The Pullman car-wheel works, the Chicago Drop Forge
Company's works, the Spanish-American curled hair factory,
the Pullman Iron and Steel Company for the manufacture of
iron and steel and of railroad spikes, and other works which are
collateral to the principal business of the place, are located here.
The Allen paper car-wheel works, and the Union Foundry
for making car wheels, car castings and architectural and
general castings, have been conveniently located at Pullman.
Among the manufactures of the place should be mentioned
-that of brick. The Pullman company's yards turned out the
past year about twenty millions of brick. The ice industry
is also growing in importance. There is also an extensive
Carpenter's shop, by means of which the erection of dwellings, public buildings, etc., here and in other places may
contribute to the industries of Pullman.
Gradually the manufacture of all the parts necessary to
the construction of cars in every condition is being added to
the enterprise of the town. A laundry is being established
for cleansing the vast quantities of linen used in the palace




9
car service which will give employment to women; it is the
policy  of the  company  to  encourage  the  employment of
women and young persons.
POPULATION.
The rapid growth of Pullman is exhibited in the following
tabular statement of the several enumerations of the population that have been made:
Table of Nine Enuzmerations.
Number Numbe  Number  Total
DATES OF TAKING THE       Families                  of       of   PoplaCENSUS.         and Households. 
Men,   Women, Children. tion.
Jan.  1, 1881,.        1 family,           1        2        1        4
March 1, 1881,           8 families,.      31       14       12       57
June  1, 1881,.    102    ".      357      119      178      654
Feb.  1, 1882,.    321 households,  1,168         445      471    2,084
March 8, 1883,.    705        "        1,956      984    1,572   4,512
Aug. 15, 1883,.    910        "        2,878    1,039    1,906   5,823
Nov. 20, 1883,.   1,048       "        3,128    1,388    2,169   6,685
Sept.  4, 1884,.  1,295       4        3,817    1,773    2,613    8,203
Sept. 30, 1884,.  1,361                3,945    1,845    2,723   8,513
Of the population on September 30, 1884, 4,205 were born
in the United States, 527 in the  Canadas, 425 in England,
596 in Ireland, I70 in Scotland, 85 in France, 953 in Germany, 297 in Norway, S5I in Sweden, 212 in Denmark, 55
in Italy, I37 in other countries, such as Holland, Greece, and
in Asia and Africa.
Omitting fractions, the religious preferences of the population may be expressed as follows:Presbyterian,.....   8 per cent.
Congregational,                                       2 "'
Baptist,.......    4
Methodist,......   8
Lutheran,.......  24
Episcopalian,....I i
Catholic,.......         27
Dutch Reformed,...                 2
Universalist,.....               I 
Swedenborgian,..                      66




I0
The remaining I2 per cent. of the population includes
those of other beliefs, but who  expressed  no religious
preferences.
There are 75 pianos in the city, and the private libraries
contain 30,000 volumes, while newspapers and inagazines
are freely taken in Pullman.
Of the 3,945 men here only about goo are registered as
voters (Oct. 29, I88z4), and this is probably three-fourths of
the voters residing in this city.
Nearly all the men accounted for on the population statistics are employed in the works of the company. Of course
there are a few tradesmen and others. The total number
employed in the works is about 4,000, but this includes
some who live in surrounding villages, or who come down
from Chicago.
WAGES, RENTS, AND LIVING EXPENSES.
The wages paid in the works at Pullman are somewhat
higher than those paid for like work in other places. They
have been adjusted on the hour basis, and from such basis
piece wages have been arranged.  The attempt to justly
equalize and adjust wages has sometimes caused complaint
amongst the workmen, and in one instance a strike of small
moment. The strike took place among the freight car
builders who formerly received $i8 for the construction of a
car. Through a readjustment of the forces necessary to the
preparation of the material of which the car was built, the
price per car was reduced to $I2, four men being able to
build a car in 8 hours, the result being the wage of $3 per
man for 8 hours work. Under this arrangement there was
no cessation, no breaks in time; in the old arrangement,
when $I8 per car was paid, the men made long waits for
material, and did not earn any more, and often not as much,
as at the present price per car, and with steady employment.
But the first effect of the rearrangement of forces and consequent readjustment of prices was a strike of short duration.
With this exception no strikes have occurred at Pullman
city, and so far as we could learn there was no complaint
regarding wages paid.
In the early days of the city, more men naturally were
borne on the rolls than were actually necessary. In bringing




II
the force employed to an economic basis, under which one
man should be paid for one man's work, and only one
man employed where only one was necessary, discharges or
transfers took place, and this caused some complaint, but as
the motto of Pullman is, "work for all, and all to work,"
that sentiment soon found lodgment and complaint ceased.
It costs quite as much to live in Pullman as in any other
locality with which it can be reasonably compared. A two
room tenement in a second story flat, but having all the
conveniences of water and gas, and for sewage and garbage,
rents for $4 per month, and a three room tenement, similarly situated, for $4.5o per month. Two room flats in small
houses, large enough to accommodate five families, rent all
the way from $5 to $8.5o per month, while two, three and
four room tenements in large blocks rent from $6.50 to
$ro per month. Four room tenements on the first, second,
and third floors of three story flats, rent for from $II to
$I3.50 per month, while four and five room tenements in
two story flats may be had for $I4 and $I5, per month.
Single five room  cottages rent for from  $I6 to $I9 per
month, while single houses of from 6 to 9 rooms vary from
$22 to $IOO per month.
The average monthly rental per room in the whole city of
I,520 houses, having 6,485 rooms, is $3.30. In the manufacturing towns of lMassachusetts, the average rental per
room is $2.86 per month.
The rentals at Pullman are a little higher for the same
number of rooms than in Chicago, but in Chicago the tenement would be in a narrow street or alley, while in Pullman
it is on a broad avenue where no garbage is allowed to collect,
where all houses have a back street entrance, where the
sewage arrives at a farm in three hours' time from its being
deposited, and where beauty, order, and cleanliness prevail,
and fresh air abounds.
There are no taxes to be paid other than personal, and,
when all the advantages which a tenant has at Pullman are
taken into consideration as compared with his disadvantages
in other places, the rent rates are in reality much lower.
The tenant is under no restrictions beyond those ordinarily contained in a lease, except that he must leave his tenement at ten days' notice, or lie can give the same notice and




1 2
quit.  This short limitation has been established in order
that no liquor saloons, objectionable houses, or anything
likely to disturb the mzorale of the place, can become fastened
on the community.
All the houses in Pullman city are owned by the company.
This policy has been considered the best in the early years
of the city in order that a foundation may be securely laid
for a community of good habits and good order.
The men are employed without restriction. There are no
conditions laid upon their freedom; they are paid fortnightly, and they expend their wages when and where they
see fit, their rent being charged against their wages. This,
at first, caused some complaint, but the system is now generally liked, for when wages are paid there is no bother
about rent bills, and the wife and the children know that the
home is secure. Repairs, if due to the carelessness or aegligence of the tenant, are made by the company at the lowest
possible expense, and charged against the tenant. Of course,
the company, like all landlords, expects to keep the houses
in tenantable condition.
There has been some friction in this matter, but as the
policy of the company becomes more generally and better
understood, the complaint ceases.
SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, AMUSEMENTS, ETC.
The company has erected a very fine school building
having fourteen commodious rooms, which now contain
about 9oo pupils.  The schools are under the charge of the
school authorities of Hyde Park. They are in a prosperous
condition and well accommodate the school population.
There are two or three religious societies, and the beautiful church which has been built by the company, while
occupied by any sect or by any body that wishes to hold
meetings there, is awaiting the occupancy of some society
that chooses to lease it at a fair rental.
In the arcade is to be found a library handsomely fitted
and well stocked with books.
The company have also provided a gymnasium, an amphitheatre for games, base ball grounds, and in the arcade is
one of the most esthetic theatres in the country.




I3
All these influences are gradually elevating the society of
Pullman city, and their influence is largely felt.
There is but little crime or drunkenness in Pullman, and
one policeman, an officer appointed by the authorities of
Hyde Park, constitutes the police force for 8,500 people.
In two years but 15 arrests have been made; there is no
general beer drinking, for there are no liquor saloons in the
town.  The hotel provides its guests with liquors, but
under orderly restrictions.
There is no pauperism; two or three families, where the
head had been taken away, or where some accident or misfortune had rendered it necessary, have been aided; but
pauperism, as such, does not exist at Pullman.
HEALTH, ACCIDENTS, ETCo
In a Paper entitled "Pullman From  a State Medicine
Point of View," by Oscar C. De Wolf, M. D., commissioner
of health, Chicago, read before the American Public
Health Association at Detroit, at the session of November,
I883, wre find the following significant statements:
"The town has now 7,500 inhabitants, and its average
annual population has been 5,000.  During the two years
of its existence 69  persons  died, its death-rate being
therefore 6.9 per i,ooo.  The death-rate of the rest of
Hyde Park (a village of which Pullman is legally a part,
and which includes much rural territory) is I5 per 1,ooo.
The causes of death were,Zyinotic diseases,                              23
Constitutional diseases,                         3
Local diseases,..                            22
Developmiental diseases,.  3
Violence,.                                     17
Unknown,.                                       I
" The large percentage of deaths by violence is due to
the fact that Pullman is the centre of numerous railroads,
and to the casualties attendant on its manufactures.  The
deaths under five years of age were thirty.  Of these there




14
died from zymotic diseases twelve, of *which there died
from 
Cholera infanturn,..          6
Diphtheria,  3
Scarlatina,                                      2
(Toy pistol) Septicmmia,                         I
12
"This favorable showing speaks for itself."
Dr. De Wolf's statement had reference to the two earlier
years of the existence of Pullman.  The last year presents
as good a record.
From November Ist, I883, to November Ist, I884, there
were 53 deaths in Pullman.  Hence there was an average
of 7.599 deaths per year for every I,ooo of population.
For three years Pullman has had this low death-rate.  The
average for American cities is over three times this numtler
and the average annual death-rate of the world is 32 out of
every i,ooo of population.  The average death-rate in the
city of Mexico is 56 per I,ooo or eight times the rate in
Pullman.  Of these 53 deaths, 2 were of persons over 50
years of age, 2 of persons between 40 and 50, 2 of persons
between 30o and 40, 4 of persons between 20 and 30, 4 of
persons between Io and 20, none of persons between 5 and
I o. Eleven were of children over I and under 5, while 28,
or more than one-half the deaths, were of children under
one year of age.  The healthful conditions here are unequalled by those in any city of the world.  The lowness
of the death-rate is remarkable.  With one quarter of the
physicians that ordinarily administer to a population of this
size, Pullman has only a little more than one-quarter of the
deaths usual in the same number of people.
The company has adopted a very broad and liberal policy
relative to compensation for accidents received during or by
means of work in the shops. At present it is contemplated
to secure the insurance of all the employes of the company
against accidents by the men taking out policies in worthy
companies, from  which insurance, in case of disability, they
would receive $I per day, Pullman's Palace Car Company
guaranteeing to pay an additional $ i per day. This arrangement is perfectly just and must' result in putting the men on




I 5
the best possible basis as regards compensation for accidents.
It is generous on the part of the company employing them
because it is not by law liable for damages in case of
accident.
MORAL INFLUENCE.
Dr. De Wolf in the report already cited, in speaking of the
influence of Pullman city on its inhabitants, says:
"The change in population from  emigration amounts to
one per cent. per annunz. These emigrants go forth educated in a way that entitles them to be called sanitary missionaries. There are no special requirements to induce
change in the habits of people taking up residence in Pullman,
but it is a matter of common observation that insanitary
habits-such as making yard cesspools, etc.-soon vanish
under the silent but powerful influence of public opinion as
shown in the habits of neighbors. Families with dirty,
broken furniture soon find it convenient to obtain furniture
more in accord with their surroundings.  Men who are
accustomed to lounge on their front stoops, smoking pipes,
and in dirty shirt-sleeves, soon dress and act more in accordance with the requirements of society. All this is accomplished by the silent educational influence of their surroundings. There are no saloons in the town, and one great element of debasement is thus avoided."
Dr. De Wolf has spoken the truth, and another year's experience at Pullman has intensified the force of all he has
said.
When Pullman city was first founded, many families came
there who had been in the habit of living in a filthy, shiftless
way. They came from tenements that were not neat, and
that had no pleasant surroundings. Their presence in the
new city was like a rubbish heap in a garden, - out of place,
and unseemly. One may contemplate the feelings of Mr.
Pullman on witnessing these evidences of unappreciation of
all the beauty he brought, into existence, and it would have
been natural for him and for his coadjutors to have indulged
in some fault-finding.
On the other hand, the untidy families were left to themselves. As they walked about the streets of Pullman city,
and witnessed everywhere orderly ways, well kept lawns,




tidy dwellings, clean workshops, and could turn nowhere
without meeting order, they naturally began to make comparisons, and such comparisons have resulted in setting their
own houses to rights. This is the influence of order and
cleanliness everywhere. So the moral influence of Pullman
city is an ever present lesson to every family that takes up its
abode there. This perfect order and the cleanliness which
comes of it is often felt as a restraint upon those who have
been brought up under disorder and in uncleanliness, and
sometimes causes a sigh for the looser ways and the consequent looser morals of other communities. Such people
do not find the air of Pullman city congenial, and no obstacle is thrown in their way should they desire to leave.
These considerations make it easy to see how the company
secures the best mechanics.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.
We have given the history and the facts relating to Pullman city. There is a deeper side which requires a closer study.
The principle on which Pullman city is founded, and on
which its success largely depends, is that in all industrial enterprises business should be so conducted and arranged as to
be profitable to each of the great forces, labor and capital.
Mr. Pullman does not believe that a great manufacturing
concern can meet with the highest economic and moral success where the profit is unduly large to capital, with no
corresponding benefit to labor. The mutual benefit which
comes from well adjusted forces is to his mind what brings
the best success.
On the other hand, he has made no claim to being a philanthropist; the sentiment prevails in his city that true philanthropy is based on business principles and should net a fair
return for efforts made.
Promiscuous charity has no place in the establishment of
Pullman. Personally, the president of the company makes
the favorable conditions, and, having made them, he then
concerns himself chiefly in supplying his people with steady
employment.  The art interests, the moral interests, the
social and the human interests, with favorable conditions
supplied, take most excellent care of themselves. Incidentally his competent staff have an eye to all interests.




1 7
Mr. Pullman is no dreamer; he has studied the plans of
socialists and reformers and the schemes of philosophers for
the benefit of humanity.
Beginning at the bottom rung of the ladder and therefore
familiar with the wants and aspirations of the workers of
society, he has risen by the force of his own character and
genius to his present position; he does not care to leave the
world and look back upon his action and see that he has
only offered a glass of water to the suflerer by the wayside,
but he wishes to feel that he has furnished a desert with
wells of living water that all may come and drink through all
time. So he commenced with the foundation idea of furnishing his workmen with model homes, and supplying them
with abundant work with good wages, feeling that simply
better conditions would make better men and his city become
a permanent benefaction.
He saw great amounts of money being used in speculative
schemes, in stock operations, and in all the questionable ways
which men take to increase their capital.  He saw the
energy, the enthusiasm, and the ability which entered into
such operations. He could see no reason why all these elements could not be diverted into channels whereby the public
should be the gainer and not the loser by great money operations. If capital could be invested in great industrial schemes
like Pullman instead of in stock operations, but in such a way
as to net a handsome profit to capital and thereby attract it,
then not only would capital be safely, securely, and profitably
invested, but it would bring even returns without the feverishness of the other method, and the great benefits which
would come to the workingman, and thus directly to society
itself, would be a positive and absolute gain.
Mr. Pullman's plans did not stop with the founding of an
industrial city, but they contemplated establishing alongside
great mechanical works where all the science of mechanics
is practically applied in every day labor, technical schools
where the young might learn the theory and see the application of great mechanical powers. There could not be a better
location in the whole country for the highest development of
mechanical skill. With technical schools successfully established, Mr. Pullman saw far enough in the future to contemplate a great university.




The great advantages of the geographical location of Pullman city warranted his vast plan; being the centre of the
United States commercially, and not far from the centre
geographically, he saw no reason why, with scientific works
established and with well equipped technical schools, Pullman
city should not only teach the nation the way to build up a
magnificent class of workmen living under happy and moral
conditions, but furnish the country with the most skilful foremen and leading mechanics.  To accomplish successfully
what Mr. Pullman has undertaken is to carry the world, so
far as such men can reach it, to a higher level in civilization.
To do this it was necessary for him to open new avenues
for the investment of capital, investments, which as we have
said, not only return ample interest in the form of money
dividends, but make a grander return in the form of happy
homes, and happy hearts. Men must grapple with such
enterprises in the belief that the life of the laborer should
be something more than a weary round of hard toil, and in
the belief that in aiding him to help himself and become a
better man, a better brother, a better father, and a better
citizen, they are rendering him the best possible service, and
in the belief that individual charity, that is merely giving a
man something, often does more harm than good.
The general management at Pullman of course partakes
of the sentiment of its founder, a broad, comprehensive
humanitarian. As we have said, without restrictions upon
labor, but so far as we could see, always with justice; for
instance, discharges are made with a view to being just; if
one of two men must be discharged, other things being equal,
the single man must leave and allow the married man to
remain; or, if one of two men must be discharged, and each
has a family, and one resides away from Pullman, and the
other at Pullman, the resident is to be preferred.
All such matters give rise to complaints through superficial consideration, but the even handed justice which prevails is shown bv an examination of all sides of the question.
After very careful investigation and the study of Pullman
city from the standpoint of the manager, and that of the
laborer, the mechanic, the physician, the priest, and from
all points of view that we could muster, the question naturally arose, as it might arise in all men's minds who examine




19
such institutions, what are the weak points in the plan? Superficially, *we could see at once that the workman had no
status as an owner of his home, but we could see that in the
early years of Pullman city, if he had such a status it might
be the means of his ruin financially. The company owns
everything, manages everything; the employes are tenants
of the company. This feature will be for some time longer
the chief strength of the place, but in this strength lies its
weakness.  This feature is its strength so long as the
industries of Pullman city belong to one great branch, the
manufacture of one thing, or the things auxiliary to that
manufacture. Now, should the industry of car building
collapse or stagnate to any degree, the tenant employe is at
liberty to remove at once; he has to give but ten days'
notice to vacate his tenancy. He is free to take up his abode
where he chooses, without the fear or the fact of any real
property going down on his hands. But Mr. Pullman and
his company have contemplated this very state of affairs,
and are doing all in their power to bring in a diversity of
manufactures so that if one kind of goods are not produced
another will be. The industrial operations of the place,
through Mr. Pullman's exertions, are being extended to the
erection of houses, public works, and public buildings. The
manufacture of brick, the capacity of all the works to turn
out finish, and all the wood materials of buildings, and the
other features mentioned under "' Industries," have given the
place a diversity of employment and of industry, which is
leading it into strong and permanent industrial conditions.
The result of these conditions, should the railroads of the
country operate their own palace cars, will preserve the
industral integrity of Pullman city. With these advantages, or, when these advantages come, the tenant employe
at Pullman may become the owner of his home. For
this purpose a large tract of land has been set aside, and
when the time comes will be sold in small lots to the
workman, his house built at cost, and he allowed to pay for
it on easy terms; then, what would now be a weakness at
Pullman will become its strength, and the plan of the city
which has been projected on the basis of a population of
I 00,OO will meet its great success, and these two weak




20
points, the lack of diversified industry and the lack of home
ownership, will no longer exist.
To enable this feature of the purchase of homes to be
carried out, a savings bank has been established having now
deposits to the amount of about $Ioo,ooo. This money is
held subject to immediate call whenever the plans are perfected for the purchase of homes, and will be used in loans
to the workingman.  It is invested on call so as to be perfectly available whenever wanted.  These deposits are
entirely the savings of the workingmen of Pullman, and
made during the period in which the bank has existed.
The Pullman establishment must, we think, impress the
most casual observer as rare enough to be remarkable, and
good enough to be commendable. Even superficially it presents a novelty and attractiveness which in themselves com.
mand approbation, but the closer scrutiny which we vAere
permitted to give it developed the fact that its excellence
was by no means superficial, that it is not only as good as it
looks, but better, and that every promise has been made
more than good.
Physically, it is better for the reason that its underground
system is as complete and costly as the improvements upon
the surface, so that there is not only a justification for the
fair exterior, but a guarantee of its permanence, and of the
welfare of the workers and dwellers in the town.
We found the morale of the place even better than we
expected. Merely external appearances may not clearly indicate social conditions nor the motives and the policy of the
management in such an establishment, yet, if the commissioners did not find that the whole plan was conceived and executed
in a spirit of broad and unostentatious philanthropy, our
observations and conclusions were at fault throughout. We
must regard our investigation as having generously confirmed the good impressions of all those who are predisposed
in favor of the Pullman enterprise, and it must disarm those
who may have felt some degree of prejudice against it.
In order to arrive at any just estimate of the credit due the
projectors of the industrial community under investigation,
we were in duty bound to recognize the fact that the company
merely proposed to manufacture railway cars for profit; no
obligation rested upon them to enter upon any scheme of




21 I
general beneficence or to jeopardize their financial interests by
a costly experiment in the interest of their employes. For the
initial disposition in this latter direction, however, they and all
men like them deserve praise and encouragement. Having
determined that such an experiment might justify itself in a
commercial sense as well as on humanitarian grounds, it was
still in their option to provide merely comfortable tenements
for their men, plain structures for shops and ordinary facilities
for cleanliness and sanitation, and for these even they would
have deserved well, and yet they go much broader and deeper,
and decide upon the most perfect methods of drainage for
which their site afforded no facilities, and for a system of gas
and water distribution to every house and apartment. They
construct permanent streets, and an elaborate system of
drainage. Not content with plain buildings, they exhaust
the architect's skill in designing the greatest variety of forms
for dwellings suited in size and appurtenance to all grades
of employes; they erect costly and beautiful buildings for
public uses, the church, library, and market house, public
halls, theatre, savings bank, and stores; they furnish a park
for field sports, amphitheatre for games, and every facility
for recreation, physical and mental; and the place is neatly
and attractively ornamented with lawns, shade trees, artificial
lakes, fountains and flowers. In brief, they stop at nothing
short of a model establishment constructed upon plans which
are the result of the widest experience, and the best observation for which modern life affords opportunities.
While all this is done at a considerable outlay of money,
which, to the ordinary manufacturer, might seem reckless,
and commercially at least unjustifiable, the conviction grew
upon us, as the details of this magnificent work became understood, that although no such motive has ever been proclaimed, there was really a noble and broad inspiration in the
original conception of the undertaking beyond that of merely
making the greatest possible amount of money, beyond that
of mere personal glorification; an inspiration looking to an
actual elevation of the standard of life among the working
people who might be fortunate enough to be identified with it.
Nothing could be more laudable from our point of view than
this, and the Pullman company deserve well of their employas
and of all men, not only for what they have accomplished for




22
themselves and their own, but for the conspicuous example
they have given the world of the nobler -uses of great wealth.
It is our view of the case moreover that even if they had
attempted and accomplished much less, or even had made
great mistakes, they would still deserve commendation for
their manifest disposition to recognize the welfare of their
employes as of the first concern to themselves. To the
growth of such a sentiment among employers, and the practice of it in whatever degree circumstances may permit in
smaller establishments, must we look for the real alleviation
of the burdens which labor imposes upon those who live by it.
As to the question of earnings in the various grades of
employment, and the cost of living within as compared with
that outside the community, we are not, as we have already
indicated, disposed to insist that the one be greater, and the
other less, than elsewhere in order to demonstrate the advantages of the place. We should rather say that were there
to be an actual money balance, or not, at the end of the year
in favor of the average workman at Pullman, there must be
a balance in his favor in all those things which go to make
up comfortable and healthful living, in opportunities for the
education of children, and their protection from dangerous
influences; in the incentives to self-respect and self-culture,
and in all the social, moral and sanitary influences which surround the life of every one at Pullman.
If the workman at Pullman lives in a " gilded cage," we
must congratulate him on its being so handsomely gilded;
the average workman does not have his cage gilded. That
there is any cage or imprisonment about it is not true, save
in the sense that all men are circumscribed by the conditions
with which they surround themselves, and imprisoned by the
daily duties of life.
It is quite possible that the Pullman community has been
organized and developed thus far on a plan as comprehensive
as commercial prudence permits, but when the experiment as
now outlined shall have become an established success, it
would be gratifying to see certain additional features considered, and if feasible introduced for practical test.
To make Pullman the ideal establishment of the theorists,
in addition to the option of purchasing homes and the
strength which must come from  diversified industry, one
would naturally expect that when this enterprise shall have
survived adversity as well as prosperity, and the wise and




23
beneficent policy now being tested shall have borne its fruit
in a permanent community of intelligent and prosperous
workingmen, it may then be found possible to advance them
to a share of the profits of the business itself.  However this
may be, we think we are justified in the belief that, as long
as the present management or the spirit of the present management exists, the beneficent features of this most progressive industrial establishment will be extended as rapidly as
circumstances may ripen for them.
Let the model manufactory and the industrial community of
Pullman city be commended as they deserve for whatever
they are or what they promise to be.  Let them  be held up
to the manufacturers, and employers of men, throughout the
country as worthy of their emulation.  Let Mr. Pullman and
his coadjutors be assured of the good wishes of all those who
seek the advancement of their kind.
CARROLL D. WRIGHT,
Chief, Mliassachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor.
JOEL B. McCAMANT,
Chief, Pennsylvania Butreau of Industrial Statistics.
HENRY LUSKEY,
Commissioner, Ohio Bureau of Labor Statistics.
JA-MES BISHOP,
Chief, NYew Jersey Bureau of Statistics of Labor and Industries.
H. A. NEWMAN,
Commissioner, Missouri Bureau of Labor Statistics and Inspection.
JOHN S. LORD,
Secretary, Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics.
WM. A. PEELLE, JR.,
Chief, Indiana Bureau of Statistics and Geology.
CHAS. F. PECK,
Commissioner, New Yor'k Bureau of Labor Statistics.
JOHN S. ENOS,
Commissioner, California Bureau of Labor Statistics.
JOHN DEVLIN,
Depjuty Commnissioner, Michigan Bureau of Labor and Industrial
Statistics.
FRANK A. FLOWER,
Commissioner, W;isconsin Bureau of Labor Statistics.
E. R. HUTCHINS,
Commissioner, Iowa Bureaut of Labor Statistics.
THOS. C. WEEKS,
Chief, l3larylandcl Bureau of Statistics of Labor.
H. A. NEWMAN,
HENRY  LUSKEY,                   Pr:esident of Convenztioz.
Secret/a)O!.








THE RIGHTS AND DANGERS OF PROPERTY.
A
SE  MO 
DEIlVlERED BEFORE THE
ttecltibe  anb   n      rxe 1atxbe   qeadtncnts
OF THE
GOVERNMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS,
AT THE
ANNUTAL ELECTION,
Wednesday, January  3, 1872.
BY ANDREW P. PEABODY.
B O STON: 
WRIGHT & POTTER, STATE PRINTERS, 79 MILK STREET,
(ConER OF FEDERAl STREET).                H
1872.. L-"lF;








THE RIGHTS AND DANGERS OF PROPERTY,
SERMON
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
lCcuibe anti W itslatibh $cpartments
OF THE
GOVERNMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS,
AT THE
ANNUAL ELECTION,
Wednesday, January  3, 1872.
BY ANDREW P. PEABODY.
BOSTON:
WRIGHT & POTTER, STATE PRINTERS, 79 MILK STREET
(CORNER OF FEDERAL STREET).
1872.








60ommonitual  of ftsljnattr.
HOUSE OF RE'PRESENTATIVES, BOSTON, January 10, 1872.
Rev. A. P. PEABODY, D. D.
DEAR SIR: —The undersigned have the honor to transmit to you the following
vote, which was unanimously passed by the House to-day:" Ordered, That a Commlittee of three be appointed by the Chair to present the
thanks of the House to Rev. A. P. Peabody, D. D., for his able and eloquent discourse before the executive and legislative branches of the government on the 3d
inst., and to request a copy of the same for the press."
It will give us pleasure to report to the House that you have furnished a copy of
the Sermon before named for publication,
While we remain, very respectfully yours,
HENRY S. WASHBURN,
W. F. ARNOLD,
J. D. HALL,
Conzmittee.
CAMBRIDGE, January 12, 1872.
GENTLEMEN:-In reply to your favor of the 10th inst., permit me to acknowledge
the courtesy and kindness of your communication, to express my thanks for the
honor done me in the vote transmitted through you, and to signify my readiness to
comply immediately with the request contained in it.
I am, gentlemen, very truly yours,
A. P. PEABODY.
Messrs. HENRY S. WASHBURN, W. F. ARNOLD, J. D. HALL,
Committee of the House of Repiresentatives of Massachusetts.








HousE OF REPRESENTATIVES. January 15, 1872.
Ordered, That four thousand copies of the Sermon preached by Rev. Dr. Peabody
be printed, under the direction of the Colmmittee on Printing, for the use of the
executive and legislative branches of the government.
W. S. ROBINSON, Clerk.








THOU SHALT NOT STEAL.-]EXOdUs xx. 15.
We have reason for gratitude that our translation of the Bible was made while the AngloSaxon elements of our language were still in the
ascendant; for their power of moral demonstration,
rebuke and invective, immeasurably transcends that
of the terms of Norman derivation. They come
down upon the ear and the conscience with a
sharp, incisive stroke, which can never ring from
the more euphonious words gleaned from the classic
tongues. Reserve these, if you will, as fit frames
for the loveliness of virtue and the beauty of holiness; but let them not lend their always graceful
drapery to relieve the hideous features of wrong
and evil. Had stealing in all its forms and degrees never borne any milder name, there would
have been much less of it to mourn and to brand.
But what has this to do with the occasion which
has called us together, and with the august body




8    The Rights and Dangers of Property.
which I have the honor to address? I answer,
Much, every way. Your most important function
as legislators is the protection of the rights of
property. In our advanced civilization, life and
personal liberty are guarded by the common sense
of the community, and there is no danger of their
being betrayed or ignored by any legislative body
which shall owe its existence to popular election.
We cannot conceive of a condition of things within
the pale of Anglo-Saxondom, in which there should
not be laws, honestly designed and reasonably
well adapted for the prevention, detection and punishment of crimes of violence. At least, there is
in  no legislature a counteracting  influence,-a
disposition to frame laws for facilitating the commission of such crimes or the escape of the criminals.
But the legislation which is the subject of earnest
controversy, keen antagonism, close division and
intrusive'outside influence, relates for the most part,
directly or indirectly, to property, private or corporate, or involves pecuniary rights, claims or
interests. There is, moreover, in a large portion
of the community, a strong tendency to the invasion of the rights of property, —a tendency which
lies at the foundation of various quasi political
parties or factions, and which has in numerous




Thle Rights and Dangers of Property.   9
instances shaped the action of our national and
State legislatures.
In this direction our general government has
yielded to the very same demands that were restlessly urged by the agitators, revolutionists and
incendiaries in the Roman republic. One of these
was for agrarian laws, for the alienation and division of the public domain. Our agrarian laws have
ceded the public lands with the most wasteful prodigality, sometimes indeed for the general good, but
oftener in such ways as to feed the cupidity of
individual speculators, or to enrich corporations
that would else have found no lack of private
capital.  Another  denmand, constantly renewed
with clamor by the indebted classes in Rome, was
for the legal reduction or cancelling of all debts.
This demand was satisfied on an enormous scale
by the legal-tender act-unconstitutional, as  still
believe-passed during the late war, which was
undoubtedly a bid for the votes of the masses
in some future contingency; for, while incompetency is too often a passport to high official station,
it can hardly be that the framers of this measure
were weak enough to deem it wise, or even safe, in
a financial point of view. Its aim, in all probability,
as its immediate effect, was to authorize the liqui2




10   The Rights and Dangers of Property.
dation of all existing debts in a currency of
fluctuating and rapidly depreciating value.  The
issuing of a national paper currency was, no
doubt, a necessity of that fearful crisis. But had
the metallic standard of value been legally retained,
the currency would have been kept much nearer
its nominal value; its rapid and violent fluctuation
would have been superseded; the imminent peril
of national bankruptcy - our chief danger - would
have been averted; and our public debt would
have fallen short by at least one-third of its
actual amount; while we should have been spared
on the floor of Congress the disgraceful and infamous agitation of schemes for liquidating, in
depreciated paper, obligations contracted in good
faith-though at a ruinous sacrifice —for payment in coin or its equivalent. Worse than all
this has been the debauching of the general conscience by the example of so gigantic a public
wrong, the spirit of gambling that has been
cherished in mercantile and pecuniary transactions,
the extravagance which has grown from the inflation of nominal values, the power which has
often been in the hands of a few unprincipled men
to control and derange the financial relations of
our whole monetary world.




The Rights and Dangers of Property.  11
But our present concern is with our own Commonwealth, and with the future rather than the
past. I would first speak of the service which
accumulated private property renders to the State,
and then of the various forms of warfare against
it.
There is a growing jealousy of large estates,
and an increasing desire to invade them, and to
approach a more equal distribution of wealth.
There is good reason for this feeling where the
right of primogeniture keeps landed property undivided, and where custom influences testators to
make a similar disposition of personal estate. But
where law and imperative custom redistribute large
properties on the death of their owners, it is impossible that there should be excessive and harmful
accumulation by individuals.  With us, wealth
is not inactive; even large private domains are
kept for the most part under cultivation; and
money is almost never suffered to lie idle. Is
-the rich man, as he ought to be, the willing steward for the benefit of his brethren? If so, his
wealth is none the less useful, because he has
charge of its expenditure; but in his hands it
subserves numerous valuable purposes, which
would be frustrated were it divided among many




12   The Rights and Dangers of Property.
owners. This city and our whole State are full
of the evidences of the generous use of riches
acquired and held for no other end than benevolence. Our institutions of religion and of learning,
our great public charities, embracing every form
of human need and misery, and unostentatious,
but munificent private charities, whose source often
is first known when death arrests its flow, bear
witness to the philanthropy which is the predominant characteristic of our rich men; and many
of them are there, for whose wealth daily thanksgiving goes up to-God from those who without its
subsidies would be helpless and hopeless. There
are hundreds ~of large estates whose loss or dilapidation would be felt as a wide-spread public
calamity.
There are, however, some men whose generosity
is in inverse proportion to their wealth, and whose
only aim is accumulation.  But what of them?
They are their own enemies in denying themselves
the sweetest, richest revenue they could have,
and the treasure they might lay up in heaven.
But they too are public benefactors, little as they
ipean to be so. They do not hoard their money,if they did, it would not grow. They manage their
property for the general good, and at the lowest




The Rights and Dangers of Property.  13
possible cost of management. Every dollar of
their capital is invested in industrial operations.
Every dollar of their dividends is ploughed for,
and dug for, and hammered for. They enrich
themselves by feeding channels of supply for unnumbered mechanics, sailors, operatives of every
sort. The very impulse that speeds them on their
selfish ends enhances the demand for labor, and
in the same proportion increases the wages and
augments the comfort of the laborer. And when
they die, their property oftener than otherwise
falls into liberal hands that pay in full into the
treasuries of public and private charity the overdue arrears.
Large properties are imperatively needed as
safety-funds and movement-funds for the whole
community.  The ever-varying relations of demand and supply depend on so many, and often
so latent, subtile and remote conditions, that no
skill or care can foresee them or provide for them.
Not from human fault or folly, but from the necessity of the case, there must be alternations of
glut and scarcity as to every commodity that enters
into  commerce,-intervals when the business of
late profitably pursued must be suspended, or continued at a loss..Accumulated capital alone can




14   The gRights and Dangers of Property.
meet these crises, or furnish the means of meeting
them, and they sometimes are so stringent as to
put even the largest fortunes in jeopardy. In
their less severe forms they occur much oftener
than they are noted by the public. Industrial
operations are continued and the operatives kept
in employment through many seasons of excessive
supply or slackened demand, solely because there
are these reservoirs of wealth, which may be
drawn upon at need, and will be replenished with
an altered condition of the market. But without
these, in the Utopia sometimes dreamed of in
which there shall be no large capitals, strikes
among employers would take place ten times as
often as now among the employed; and the depressions below the desired level by failure,
enforced idleness and starvation would make a
much more diversified, though less picturesque
social landscape than is now presented by the
modest, in our country seldom over-lofty elevations, whence issue the streams that keep the
valleys greent It might seem  convenient and
desirable to cut channels, by which the everflowing river should be divided into numberless
rivulets that should twine through every village
and by every farm-house between two mountain




Thle Rights and.Dangers of Property.  15
chains; but the first summer solstice would lay
bare the bed of each one of the rivulets, would
rob the clouds of their wonted supplies, and turn
the whole region into an arid waste.  In like
manner, were large properties distributed, the
wealth thus diffused would be rapidly dissipated,
enterprise would die out, industry would languish,
and the coveted universal competence would be
merged in universal poverty, listlessness  and
misery.
Let us now examine some of the modes in which
the war against capital is waged.  Foremost
among these is the reckless creation of public
debts. The amount of national, State and city
debt at this moment resting upon the city of
Boston, is no less than one hundred and thirtytwo dollars for every man, woman and child.
The proportion of the national and the State debt
due from Boston, in addition to the city debt, is
about one-sixth of the entire valuation,-which
means that the man who supposes himself possessed
of a property of sixty thousand dollars in currency
-in actual value some ten or twelve per cent.,
less —has really but fifty thousand, is by direct;
and indirect taxation annually paying interest oin
the remaining ten thousand, at a somewhat higher




16   The BRights and Dangers of Property.
rate than he could himself borrow it for on good
security; and, moreover, is paying a great part of
that interest to foreign capitalists, from whom
there comes back no return of benefit in any
form to himself or to the country.  The figures
do not differ substantially for any of the towns
and cities in the Commonwealth. A  very large
proportion of this debt is, indeed, the purchasemoney of our ransomed Union, of freedom to the
slave, and of a place among the nations no longer
to be dishonored by a public wrong, sin and crime,
which made liberty a baseless pretence, and republican forms a cloak for the vilest despotism. This
burden, though much greater than it ought to have
been, the patriotic citizen will bear cheerfully; and
Heaven avert the day when the repudiation of
any portion or description of our debt shall not
be regarded with abhorrence!
Yet added liabilities should not be lightly incurred, as they are incurred, in not a few of our
municipalities, for mere ostentation, for plans of
so-called public improvement which have private
ends in view, or for the imagined needs of a
remote posterity, even in places where there are no
elements of rapid growth, and as to matters in
which posterity will doubtless be able to provide




The ]Rights and Dangers of Property.  17
more judiciously for its own interests.  It has
escaped the foresight  of some of our municipal
functionaries that an abnormally heavy town or
city debt mav dwarf growth, discourage and repel
an else incoming population, and thus make void
the very purpose for which it is ostensibly contracted.  It is, indeed, reasonable that a large
necessary expense of one year should be distributed among several years; but it is unreasonable and in every aspect dishonest, most atrociously
so in our smaller communities, that needless enterprises should transmit a funded and increasing
debt to generations which will have outgrown the
very improvements purchased by it, and will have
pressing needs of their own that will be fully level
with their tax-paying capacity.  This is at least
no way to merit the gratitude of posterity.  Many
of these modes of indebtedness are, I know,
outside of the accustomed range of State legislation.  Yet might there not be established by
legal authority a proportion to the valuation of
property, beyond which no debt hereafter contracted should be lawful?
There is, moreover, one form  of indebtedness
over which the legislature has control; namely,
loans or grants by cities and towns to corpora3




18   The Riy7ts and Dangers of Property.
tions.  For an enterprise that gives certain or
probable promise of speedy and lucrative returns,
there is no lack of capital, and no desire or even
willingoness to invite the cooperation of municipalities. It is only in doubtful cases that such aid is
solicited, and it is often asked where the immediate
effect of the enterprise in hand will be the depletion
of the town thus taxed, the drawing of its business
to larger centres, and the enhancement of the cost
of living by the attraction of domestic produce to
larger marlkets. In such cases it is always easy to
secure for the loan a majority or a two-thirds vote,
even though the measure be'oijposed by all the
large tax-payers. Is this right?  Should not the
owners of property have some voice in the mortgaging of their property?  Should it be left to
those who bear no appreciable part in the public
burdens to increase those burdens at their will, or
rather at the dictation or under the pay of interested parties?  Universal suffrage inevitably places
property to a very great extent under the control
of those who have nothing to lose.  Should not
the legislature take heed how they enlarge this
power?
Closely connected with our public debts, and
growing in great part out of them, yet transcend



Th~e Rights and Dangers of Property.  19
ing by far the needs which they create, is the
burden laid upon property by excessive taxation.
We are probably the most heavily taxed people
upon the face of the earth. Were we a stationary
people, the weight would be more than we could
carry. We barely carry it, it is doubtful whether
we are thriving under it, now; but with a population rapidly increasing, and with new  resources
always in the process of development, we can
remain elastic under a pressure else insupportable.
In onur national government we have been cursed
by a system organized in some departments and
maintained in all, witrh prime regard to the extension of executive patronage.  This may be seen
conspieuously in our present system  of internal
revenue, in which the obvious aim is, not to adjust
the modes of assessment and collection to the convenience of the tax-payers, but to provide for the
largest possible number of officials and at the most
liberal rate of compensation.  There are other
departments in which, with half the number of
functionaries of tested capacity and approved integrity, the work could be better done; and there
are numerous instances in which what are deemed
the legitimate spoils of office -to say nothing of




20   The 2Rights and Dangers of Prolpertyillicit peculations- far exceed the nominal and
fully remunerating stipend.
In our own State the case is otherwise.  Our
highest functionaries, especially our judges, are
inadequately compensated; and there are few, if
any, instances in which public service is overpaid.
At the same time, our annual and occasionual grants
for the promotion of liberal culture, and for the
interests of humanity, when most munificent, are
most to be conmmended.  But there have been subsidies to bankrupt corporations, which do little
credit to the wisdom of former legislatures, even if
they leave their integrity unimpeached; and it is to
be earnestly hoped that in this regard the past will
furnish warnings, not examnples.
In our towns and cities there is intense need of
reform.  Red tape is costing our citizens an enior
mous sum, and yielding to their officials an inordinate revenue.  An item  of paltry service will
often cost a city from twice to ten times whlat it
would  cost any one of its inhabitants.  There are
in almost every city council and board of selectmen
persons who are there simply for the opportunities
thus afforded of making a better living than they
could otherwise earn.  If there be a mechanic not
industrious, or skilful, or honest enough to filnd




The Rights and Dangers of Property.  21
constant employment, he contrives, as a party fugleman, to be placed on some municipal board, in
which he may exercise his talents lucratively on
the publie property, often to the delay and detriment of the public service.  While within the
memory of some who hear me civic charges were
forced upon men who did not want them, and who
bore them only at a personal sacrifice, now, that a,
man needs an office is often urged as a reason for
gi ving it to him; and one is frequently supported at
the town or city hail, simply because he is too genteel a mendicant to be sent to the almshouseo  Nor
are we in our own Commonwealth without instances of the pillaging of municipal treasuries by
their legal guardians, for sumptuous and  not
always sober festivities, for utterly needless journeys and pleasnure excursions, nay, for the very
clothes that they Nwear at a public reception, and
for costly photographs of the faces which they
ought to be ashanmed to show. In this entire department of fraud New York has indeed earned
preeminent distinction, such enormous thefts being
possible only in a vast metropolis; but toward this
type of fame many of our smaller communities are
evidently aspiring and tending,  and remain in the
rear for lack of opportunity, not of will. Perchance




22   Th~e Rights and Dangers of Prolperty.
there is still in the hill-country, surrounded, but as
yet unpierced by rail and telegraph, some little
town, where Astroa is making her last sojurln,
where in the old style a modest budget is warily
canvassed and intelligently voted, and the selectmen, the choice men, the real aristocracy of sense
and character, exercise for their little public the
same wise economy which they are constrained to
practise in their own affairs, carefully audit all the
bills they sanction, and account for every do'lar to
their constituents.  If there yet be such a place,
leave it, I beseech you, in its own charmed circle.
Crush without mercy every project for replacing
the old post-road that leads to it by quicker means
of transit, Warn off from it the State geologist,
lest he discover, in ore, limestone or emery, some
lure for outside speculators.  It may be that a pillaged State and a nation fallen among thieves will
one day resort for lessons of political wisdom  and
honesty to this sole survivor amongl the town-governments, which were the procreant cradle of our
republic.
The whole system of municipal knavery results
from the fact-in itself alarming  and threatening —
that the property of every community is at the disposal of a majority, which hardly feels the burden,




The Rigylts and Dangers of Property.  23
though it may hope in various ways to profit by the
disbursement, of the annual taxes. It is perfectly
well known that in some cases the promise of gainful employment on contemplated streets or buildings, in some, threats of discharge from factories,
in some, direct and unconcealed pecuniary bribes,
have alone secured the votes requisite for the choice
of men or the passing of measures, in opposition
not only to the property, but to the intelligence,
sound judgment and moral sense of an entire
community. Nay, it is a notorious fact that measures of the gravest import have sometimes been
thus carried by a majority composed chiefly of imported and manufactured citizens, some of them not
yet able to understand an English sentence, hardly
any of them capable of comprehending the meaning
of the vote they cast.
Now there is a limit, which overpassed, taxation
begins to trench upon reserved capital, in keeping
which intact and growing the public has even a
more vital interest than individual tax-payers. This
limit has been in some of our municipalities closely
approached, if not exceeded. To exceed it is inevitable etiolation, decline and ruin.
These concerns may at first sight seem beyond
the scope of legislation.  But are they?   The




24:  The Rights and Dangers of Property.
towns of New England were in earlier times preeminently capable of self-government; but if they
have for any reason ceased to be so, may not their
excesses be restrained, without doing violence to
their just and safe liberties'?  Cannot their indiscretion be averted, while their reasonable discretion
remains unimpaired?  It is within the power of the
legislature to set limits to the rate of taxation; to
define the kinds of expenses which a city or town
may or may not incur; to establish boards or modes
of appeal with reference to extraordinary expenditures of doubtful utility; to lodge in some county
or State authority a veto upon the street-making
power, exercised, as it often is, wantonly, corruptly
and injuriously; and to enact penalties at once
severe and ignominious for fraud or complicity
with fraud in municipal office, and for the use of
threats, promises or bribes to influence voters.
I must pass to yet another form  of the warfare
upon property, namely, combinations and concerted
aggressive movements of labor against capital, of
the employed against employers. Here'the agitation proceeds in part from ignorance, in part from
wilful misrepresentation. There is not a vestige of
the wrong and oppression complained of. Manual
and mechanical labor is not only better paid here




Thle Rig7hts and Dctngers of Property.  25
than anywhere else in the world, but its compensation exceeds that of mercantile and professional
services. In these last, to be sure, there are a fewr
great prizes, but not one to a hundred competitors.
Take from the average income of a professional
mall a sum  equal to the life-annuity that might
have been purchased by the money expended in his
eclucation, and for his support during the unproductive years which would have been productive
had he been a laborer, subtract still further his
strictly professional expenses, and those which are
required by his position, but yield no benefit or
comfort to him or his family, —you have reduced
his earnings to a pittance which the man who
shovels your coal would scorn to work for. Similar
calculations as to persons employed in commercial
operations would give a like result. When I say
that labor is well paid, there is indeed one grievous
exception, that is, the labor of women; but for this
exception men are in no degree accountable.  The
sole reason why women are underpaid is that
women who do not need employment are mean
enouLgh to underbid those who do need it; and the
lowest price at which labor, as well as any other
commodity is offered, must rule the marketO  But,
with this exception, in the joint earnings of labor
4




26   The Rights cand Dangers of Property.
and capital, labor is now getting the lion's share,
and is still clamoring  and  grasping for more.
The revenue of machinery and labor-saving processes inures, immediately on  the  extinction of
patent-rights, to the sole bene-fit of the laborer, and
he has a just title to it either in money or money's
worth or in time; but he now  claims it in both.
Persons of moderate income are already seriously
embarrassed and straitened by the cost of necessary
labor, and the screws of the inflexible and growing
demand are turned by those who learned in transAtlantic homes to inflict, by being  trained  to
endure extortion.  How well thev have learned
the lesson is attested by the magnifieent cathedrals
and churches they are building, by their deposits in
our savings-banks, by the rapid increase of their
visible property, and by the disappearance of large
amounts in remittances to their native country.
The demand of which I speak, if ptassively
yielded to, will grow of its own necessity to a
point at which a ruinous collapse is inevitable.
As labor enters into the price of every commodity,
the laboring man is increasing the cost of his own
subsistence by the increase of his own wages, and
every successful exaction is therefore a logical
reason for increased exaction.. Yet, on the other




The Rights and Dangers of Prop2erty.  27
hand, with prices exorbitantly enhanced, general
consumption must diminish, the scope for remunerative labor must be narrowed, and idleness, privation and suffering on an extended scale must be the
consequence. It is toward this result that tend
all exclusive and  arbitrary trade-unions, strikes
of operatives, and factious measures for obtaining
control of the laborlmarket, which can be fair only
when left firee; for the actual worth of labor, as of
flour or sugar, is determined by the ratio of the
supply to the demand.
To keep the labor-mariket firee requires in our
time wise and wary vigilanee on the part of our
legislative bodies. Not only have they the often
difficult task of so framing, preventive laws that
they cannot be evaded; but they are annually
called  upon  to violate  freedom  and right, by
sanctioning  associations of laborers whose government is a truculent and cruel despotism, and by
imposing arbitrary restrictions  on  the contract
between the employer and the employed.
I have thus indicated some of the ways in which
property is liable to deprecdation in our own time
and country; and all the more liable because we
have current among us certain traditional and imported maxiims-belonlging not improperly to other




28   The Pights and Dangers of Prolerty.
times and lands-which  identify property with
pride, rapacity, oppression, and, in general, with
the attributes of birds of prey.  In the American
republic of the nineteenth century, if the old division
of society into the preying  and the preyed upon is
not wholly obliterated, it is to the latter class not to
the former, that the rich belong.
I halve chosen property and its dangers as my
subject for this occasion, because there is no other
subject that so intimately concerns the legislative
body which commences its session to-day.  The
postponed business and the petitions on file relate
almost wholly to pecunniary interests, and in many
insta.nces involve delicate and important questions
of right between the pnblic, existing or projected
corporations, and individual citizens. In all such
cases you will, I think, find your work greatly
facilitated, if you will put the question of lright
before that of expediency, instead of attempting
to grope the way to the right through the expedient. The single eye, says the Divine Teacher,
is full of light; while, according to Him, double
vision is no better than blindness.  The single
eye, seeking the right, can hardly fail to discern
it. The cases of doubt and perplexity are generally those in which the endeavor is to find  some




:The BRights and Dangers of Prolperty.  29
creditable way of bending the obviously right in
the direction of what is falsely imagined to be
expedient.'You will pardon me if I remind you that in our
time there are many indirect methods of warping
the honest opinion and sound judgment of a legislator, without his own consciousness.  The man
who takes an overt bribe nmust despise himself
more heartily than he is despised by others. But
thelre are insidious social influences-attentions,
courtesies, flatteries-to which even the most upright purpose may yield unawares.  Then, too,
there is often an over-strong temptation to him
who is earnestly pursuing some honest end to
barter his vote and influence  for a measure or
enterprise which lie does not wholly approve, in
return for votes and influence in behalf of the
measure or enterprise which he has most at heart.
There is, also, to our poor human nature a profound
signlificance in the Divine preecept, "Thou shalt
take no gift; for the gift blindeth the wise, and
perverteth the words of the righteous."  This is
true, not only of the secret doucettr, which no
honest manl will touch, but equally of gifts offered
in open day, and to the entire body of which the
donor-indivicdu'al or corporate-may demand privi



30   The Rights and Dangers of Prolperty.
leges or favors.  The excursion planned for a
retiring legislature,  and so planned as to include
not only its members, but their Wives and children,
and the strangers within their gates, and outside
of them too, is not without a view to the votes of
the reelected members, and may bias the judgment
of men who are incapable of conscious wrong.
Claim, if you deem it your due, free transit for
yourselves on the routes which you must traverse
in the public service; but accept no gratuities from
corporations that may be your suitors.
I have not forgotten that I was invited to address
you as a minister of religion; and thougl, I have
not filled my discourse with sacred words, I have
given utterance only to such views as bear in my
own thoght, acnd I am sure ought to bear in your
minds, the sanction of religious obligation. The
Divine law, as uttered in the thunders of Sinai,
as reinacted by our Saviour, attaches inviolable
sacredness to those rights of property which lie
at the basis of social order, civilization and progress.  This law I have, to the best of my ability,
endeavored to interpret, in its application to the
great questions and issues which may demand
your serious consideration as the chosen trustees
and guardians of right, justice and equity. Heaven




Tle Rights and Dangers of Property.  31
grant that you acquit yourselves as   able menl
such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness." May the record of your service be such as
you can fully justify to your own hearts, and to
God who "~ is greater than your hearts, and knoweth
all things."  The place on which you enter has
been nobly filled fiom  the earliest days of our
provincial history. May the mantle of the fathers
rest upon the children, and may the God of the
fathers breathe into the children His own spirit
of counsel and wisdom.
I rejoice to believe that nowhere upon earth is
there higher honor paid than in our own State to
political integrity and faithfulness. Last summer,
as I frequently passed to and from my country
lodgings, the railway train stopped at a little
station in Maine, hard by a small, black, one-story
cottage, where John Albion Andrew was born.
All eyes were uniformly turned to that house in
profound reverence, as they might have been to
some sacred shrine, or some place of holy pilgrimage. Indeed, what shrine can be more sacred,
what spot more holy, than that which formed and
nurtured the budding virtues of him, who, with
guileless simplicity, and with  a single-hearted
purity, in which even malice and rancor could




32   Thle Rights and Dangers of Property.
find no ground for reproach, in the life and death
struggle of our republic, consecrated  his noble
mind, his great heart, his unresting toil to the
service of his God ii the service of his country?
Long may it be ere like memories shall be recalled in sadness of our now retiring chief magistrate; but, whether in private life or in yet other
high places of public charge and office, he will bear
with him the gratitude and love by which man
anticipates the Divine verdict on uprightness and
fidelity in trusts of large and high responsibleness,
held as in commission from  God, and discharged
as ever in the great Taskmaster's eye."' We
are thankiful that, in the chair of state which he
vacates, the succession of personal and civic virtue
andc  of Christian piety and philanthropy is not
suspended; and so long as it shall be thus filled,
there wiil be faith and hope in our traditional
prayer,  God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."




NONPARTISAN INDUSTRIIAL ROEMTIlSSION.
SPEECH
OF
iE-ON T. TV. PFIIT LIPS,
01' PE iTN SYLVANIA,
IN TIHE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
THURSDAY, MAY 21, 1896.
1&J6.~t ~~ ~~T O~~




SPEECH
oF
HON. T. W. PHILLIPS..The House being in Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, and
having under consideration the bill (H. R. 6119) authorizing the appointment
of a nonpartisan commission to collate information and to consider and recommlend legislation to meet the problems presented by labor, agriculture,
and capitalMr. PHILLIPS said:
Mir. CHAIRTIAN: The bill (H. R. 6119) now before the House is
designed to better our industrial system. No demand of the
people in any age has met with such general response as the demand for a better industrial and social organization of society.
No sentiment has attracted such widespread attention or has
had such rapid growth. Our Government is republican; and to
be effectual and durable it must have proper regard for all departments of human activity. Legislation must have just respect for
the wage earner and for the wage payer, for the producer and consumner. This Government can not endure if more than one-half
of its people are discontented, distressed, and suffering, for it is
a Government of all and by all.
Mr. Chairman, this bill calls attention to the fundamental principle of our Government-the equality of man-and seeks a more
equitable distribution of the burdens and benefits of our free Government. While it is not the function of the State to guarantee
individual happiness. it is its function to guarantee each individual the right to pursue happiness, and so enact laws that one
class may not be compelled of necessity to work solely for another
class, regardless of their personal comfort and improvement.
Rights do not belong to one class and duties to another. Physical, intellectual, and moral ability can not be made equal, but
each capacity may be met; each cup, be it large or small, may be
filled. Circumstances can not be made equal, but law can be
adapted to circumstances.
Mr. Chairman, the dauger to this Government is not external,
but internal. In the progress of human society the battles of the
world are shifting from conflict with nations to a conflict within
nations for better government and more equitable laws. We must
recognize the fact that more are now peacefully organized and
enlisted in the cause of industrial equity than in all the armies of
the world. The people of civilized nations will not always continue to fight for national honor and supremacy while their individual rights are not protected within the nation. National glory
must henceforth be based more and more upon the prosperity and
happiness of the individual citizen. After more than six thousand years of experience the people are beginning to learn that
government belongs to them; that they are not owned by the government, but that they own the government, and that it must
respect their rights by meeting their just demands.
If laws are derived from the governed, they should meet the just
demands of all the governed. This nation took the most advanced
2                                               245m




3
stand in civilization, and is the best prepared to meet the industrial issues of to-day by building on the foundation it laid more
than one hundred years ago by conforming law to its declared
principles of right, freedom, and equality, and thus organize our
social and industrial system upon a more just and equitable basis
than has yet obtained in the world.
Mr. Chairman, in entering upon the discussion of the subjectmatter of this bill I wish to make three observations in regard to
man, which are stated in the first chapters of Genesis.
First, the unity of the race and equality of man was shown in
creation; God created man and gave him dominion as man. He
was to " subdue the earth," and " have dominion over the fish
of the sea, over the fowls of the air, and over every living thing
that inoveth upon the earth." But he was not given dominion
over his fellow-man.
Second, before God created man it was said: "And there was
not a man to till the ground."
In the third place, man was told by the Creator: " In the sweat
of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground."
To all, therefore, who believe in the Bible account of creation,
which I believe is also in strict accord with science, fact, and history, these three things are indisputable:
First. That when God created man, he gave him dominion as
man, not over his fellow-man, but over beast and bird and fish;
over all animate nature below him.
Second. That he was to till the soil as his chief occupation.
Third. That his life was to be sustained by labor.
All this agrees with reason; shows equality in creation; that sustenance comes from the ground: that labor is the normal condition
of man; and it is a fact that no man enters into rest unless it is upon
his own labor or the labor of others. The government, therefore,
that does not strive to meet these three great cardinal principles
of reason and revelation in the highest possible degree will perish from the earth.
Mr. Chairman, this bill provides for the appointment of a nonpartisan commission, to be composed of five members representatives of labor, five representatives of agriculture, five of manufacturing, and five of business. The importance of labor to our
being and well-being can not be overstated. Labor is one of
the foundation principles upon which organized society rests.
All kinds of labor is necessary, from  digging in the ditch to
measuring space and counting the stars, yet the lower forms
of labor are more intimately connected with our existence and
needs. The most despised is often the most useful. The man anwho
digs the foundation is more important to the structure than he
who frescoes its walls. Without the grading of the roadbed
there would be no stockholders, no locomotive, or railroad president. If all manual labor were to stop, if all wage earners were
to cease work, there would be no value in property and a large
part of the race would perish.
That our relations are most intimately bound up with the wage
earner is shown by the many strikes and lockouts in recent years
which have entailed great suffering and loss of property, as well
as the sacrifice of life.
I submit a summary from Hon. Carroll D. Wright, Commissioner of Labor, on the subject of strikes and lockouts from January 1, 1881, to June 30, 1894, being a period of thirteen and a half
2452




4
years. For this period it will be seen that there were 14,390
strikes; that there were 69,167 establishments involved; that there
were 3,794,406 employees thrown out of employment.
It will be also seen that the loss to strikers was - - - - $163, 807, 866
For the same period in lockouts the loss to employees was --.................... 26, 685, 516
Assistance to strikers by labor organizations -----    10, 914, 406
Assistance in lockouts - -..                         2, 524, 298
Total loss to employees_               -     203, 932, 076
Loss to employers for the same period by reason of
strikes --------------------------------  ----    82, 590,386
Loss to employers for the same period by reason of
lockouts ----                                       2,235,451
Total loss to employers ------ ---------    94,825,837
Total loss to both employees and employers -  298, 757, 913
These figures represent the actual loss to the parties engaged,
and do not represent the enormous loss which incidentally came to
the community by reason of such disturbances; but the injury to
society, the demoralization, suffering, and death, can not be estimated. All admit that something must be done, and a commission
composed of those directly interested in this great labor problem,
in my judgment, is the proper means through which to seek the
cause of this violent disturbance and propose a remedy, as our legislative bodies are not meeting the issue. Again, Mr. Chairman,
the agricultural industry is the most important of all industries.
All civilized life depends upon the products of the soil. All food
and clothing come from the soil; yet this most important industry is greatly depressed. The constant settling in the value of
farm products and farm lands in recent years in a large portion of
the United States has made great discontent and unrest among
farmers. Many of them can not hope to have their children succeed them in husbandry, and they are exhausting their limited
means to fit them for pursuits in the crowded town or city.
u11870 the value of farm lands in the United States
was                                            $9, 262,803,861
In the same year the total value of all property in
the United States was..- 30,068,000,000
The value of farm lands was, therefore, about 33 per cent of the
value of all property.
In 1880 the value of farm lands in the United States
was. —------     ---—. —--------------  $10,197,096, 776
In the same year the total value of all property in
the United States was-                        43,600,000, 000
The value of farm lands was, therefore, only about 24 per cent
of the value of property in 1880.
In 1890 the value of farm lands in the United States
was. —--------------------—. —-----------  $13,279,252,649
In the same year the total value of all property in
the United States was — - -   65, 000, 000,000
2452




The value of farm lands was, therefore, only about 19 per cent of
the value of property in this later period. Thus in twenty years the
farm lands settled from 33 to 19 per cent as compared with the total
value of all property, and this notwithstanding the opening up of
millions of acres rich in soil.
These are startling figures when we consider that the value of
farm lands is not increasing in due proportion to all other property;
that agriculture is the foundation of all other industries, and that
40 per cent of the toiling people are engaged in tilling the soil.
No country can prosper when the agricultural interest is suffering. This commission is needed by the farmers not only because
of these facts, but on account of their growing discontent as shown
by their various organizations and protests against unequal burdens
and discriminating laws. Even if the agriculturists had nothing of which to complain or to adjust, they are needed in such a
conference as this to aid in seeking a way out of the manifold
labor troubles which so vitally affect their interests as well as
those of the whole population.
In regard to the importance of the manufacturing
industry, I will state that in 1890 the number of
persons 10 years of age and upward engaged in
all occupations was ----------------------------  22,735,661
Of this number there were engaged in manufacturling_                                           4,712,622
Of this number there were engaged in agriculture     8, 303, 000
The total wage receivers of all classes were _ -14, 920, 525
The number of manufacturing establishments in
1890 was........-.. —------.    355, 415
Capital employed was —         -        -          $, 139, 397, 785
Total number of employees was_                       4, 476,884
Total wages paid was...... — -. —-2 —---------, 283, 516, 529
Cost of materials used was.-..... _ -          $5, 162, 044, 076
Total value of manufactured products was. —---  $9, 372, 437, 283
It will be seen from this statement that of the 22,735,661 of all
occupations 4,712,622 were engaged in manufacturing and mechanical industries. More people are engaged in this industry
than in any other, with the exception of farming. The greatest
per cent of actual loss by reason of strikes and lockouts comes to
those engaged in manufacturing and their employees. Great good
should ultimate to those engaged in this industry by wise consideration of the violent disturbances which so vitally affect all concerned.
This commission is designed also to benefit all other business
pursuits. The disturbed condition of affairs has entailed great
loss upon the business community. The loss of $298,757,913, as
shown in table quoted, in thirteen and one-half years to the laborers
and the employers of labor is but a, fractional part of the loss sustained by transporters, merchants, and others engaged in business
pursuits. Business men have and will continue to suffer great
depreciations in value and increasing losses unless a better adjustment is made. Business men need and business interests
require a just and more satisfactory settlement of differences with
those with whom they deal and upon whose labor and products
successful business must depend. The better labor is protected in
all its rights the greater will be the security for earnings.  No
intelligent business man can oppose any just and fair effort to
2452




6
harmonize conflicting interests in a legal and peaceable way, for
all such must know and see from the history of the recent past
that the great industrial problem may shortly be met by violence
if not worked out in peace by law.
Mr. Chairman, this bill is designed to give an impartial hearing
to those who complain of discriminating laws and unequal burdens. It is expected that it will be composed of the ablest and
best of each class named. It will bring into conference representative men of labor, agriculture, manufacturing, and business,
thus bringing together the aggrieved and those against whom the
grievance is made, whose duty it will be to consider the disturbing
causes and recommend laws looking toward a more just distribution of the burdens and benefits of our free Government. It is
designed to be impartial, nonpartisan, seeking exact facts and
conditions, and to conform legislation to the foundation principles
of our Government-to place all men on an equal footing before
the law.
I believe such a commission the most practical way to meet the
issue. Our national and State legislative bodies are not so constituted as to give proper time to the consideration of the industrial
questions presented in this bill. They have not met and are not
meeting them, as discord, strikes, and violence are constantly increasing. These bodies are not made up equally of representative
men, such as are proposed by this bill; they are besieged by men
lobbying for special privileges, while none are lobbying for the
good of all. If, therefore, such representative men as are proposed-men who suffer most from the great conflict of interestcan not agree in recommending more equitable laws looking to a
peaceful solution of the question involved, it can not be solved by
a free government in a peaceful way.
Mr. Chairman, I believe Congress is the proper body to authorize
the appointment of such a commission, as it is composed of members coming from all parts of every State. However jealous we
may be of the rights of the States, no one can object to such a
commission making recommendations to Congress and furnishing
information to the States which may be of the greatest value.
Again, the commission could utilize a large amount of statistical information gathered at great cost by various agricultural and
labor organizations, and especially could use to great advantage
the information collected by the various labor committees appointed in recent years, both State and national, in our own country, and by other nations most advanced in civilization. The
facts so ably compiled by the Hon. Carroll D. Wright, Commissioner of Labor for the United States, would be of incalculable
value. This, together with the findings of similar commissions
appointed by 32 of our different States, could be utilized. It
would also have the benefit of the completed work of the English
royal commission of labor, and also the progressing work of the
higher council of labor established in France, and the higher
council of labor appointed in Belgium. Not only would it have
the benefit of all such recently accumulated facts, but it would be
in position to study the best laws of civilization and the best
thoughts of the age, and thus be able to recommend more equitable laws than now exist, looking to the solution of the most vital
and pressing political and economic questions of the age.
Labor statistical bureaus are of recent origin, and were first
established in the United States-the first one in Massachusetts
2452




7
in 1869. They have since been established in 32 of our States.
The first Commissioner of Labor, the Hon. Carroll D. Wright,
was appointed under the General Government in 1885. The English royal labor commission was appointed by royal warrant dated
April 2, 1891, and was composed of 27 members. The fifth and
final report of this commnission was made to both Houses of Parliament in June, 1894. The German commission of labor statistics was appointed in 1891, and it consists of 14 members, 168 civil
servants, and 84 assistants. The higher council of labor was established in France in 1891. It consists of 50 members, chosen
from amoig manufacturers, workingmen, and persons well informed upnl economics and social questions. The Belgians' higher
council of labor was appointed in 1892. It consists of 48 members,
chosen in equal numbers from workingmen, employers, and specialists in economic science. Both these latter are authorized to
examine into and recommend legislation. These foreign conmmissions are cited as precedents and to show that civilized nations are
progressing along the line of our declared principles of equality
which are recalled by this bill.
Mr. Chairman, after referring to these foreign commissions I
wish to state that some of the most important results in our own
history have been accomplished through the instrumentality of
commissions, notably among which was the production of the
Constitution of the United States. On the 28th day of vIlarch,
1785, the joint commissioners of the States of Virginia and Maryland met at Mount Vernon, under the auspices of Washington.
These commissioners prepared the terms of a compact between the
two States for the jurisdiction over the waters of Chesapeake Bay
and the rivers that were common to both States, and, conforming
tothe wishes of W ashington, they requested Pennsylvania to grant
the free use of the branches of the Ohio River within its limits for
establishing the connection between that river and the Potomac.
The preliminary object of the commission being fulfilled, they took
np matters of general policy and recommended to the two States
uniform duties on imports, a uniformity of commercial regulations,
and a uniformity of currency. George Mason was charged with
a report of their doings to the legislature of his State-Virginia.
In pursuance with this, the legislature of Virginia invited all
the States to appoint commissioners to meet at Annapolis on the
first Monday in September, 1786. This convention became the
ground of hope of the nation. No State north of New York was
represented or south of Delaware, save Virginia. It was a meeting of central States, and it resulted in calling a convention of
all the States to meet at Philadelphia on the second Monday of
May, 1787. The result of this convention of commissioners was
the forming of the Constitution of the United States which saved
and perpetuated the Union.
There was great disturbance and distress then, and Congress
and the States were powerless to meet the situation. It should
not, therefore, be forgotten that it was a commission, an advisory
body and not a legislative one, that wrought this great change
and perpetuated this Government.
Now, under the Constitution, as then, under the Articles of Confederation, neither Congress nor the State governments are meeting the disturbed condition of our new industrial environments,
and the only road open to us now, as then, is through a commission, an advisory body.
2452




8
Mr. Chairman, the Committee on Labor did not consider the
commission too large to represent a continent such as ours, with
its vast and varied industries. The difference in climate, the difference between plain and mountain, the difference between North
and South, East and West, give rise to great industries in one
section that are not well understood in another; all of which
should have representative men serve on the commission. Even
the number provided for will not represent' all, but it is believed
that it will have reasonable knowledge of all the great pursuits of
our country, and will be in full sympathy with all, so as to hear
and recommend for the greatest good of the greatest number.
[Applause.]
Again, the Committee on Labor do not think the appropriation
required by this bill too large to secure and compensate such representative men as it requires. While the Government is appropriating millions of dollars for internal improvements, for material
development, for defense on land and sea, it should not hesitate to
grant such a comparatively small sum to investigate the industrial
questions and recommend some remedial legislation for its industrial classes to prevent violent disturbances which cause so many.million dollars of loss to the people.
Mr. Chairman, the question is one of equality. The equality of
man was shown in creation, affirmed in redemption, and first declared as the foundation of human government in this new world
one hundred and twenty years ago. This is the greatest political
question of the nation and of the world. The barbarous ages are
passed, feudalism is gone, serfdom has been destroyed, and slavery
has perished from the earth, but the question of equality has come
to the front, and is pressing for solution with irresistible power.
The history of the world teaches that God holds nations responsible to the standard they set up. Our standard was the highest
erected since the dawn of time, yet it must now be apparent that
this nation has been as false to its declared principle of equality
as it was to its declared principle of freedom. [Applause.]
Mr. Chairman, when this nation was founded and equality declared there were only 3,000,000 of inhabitants who owned this
continent, capable of sustaining in comfort one-half of the inhabitants of the civilized globe; yet in a hundred years we have exploited it and distributed its land and wealth most unequally.
We have wantonly destroyed many of its forests, its animals, fish,
and birds, instead of utilizing them for the benefit of man, and
are now trying to replace them. We have unequally divided the
Public domain; have been prodigal of land, giving it by the millions of acres for development. This waste fitly ended in a great
scramble for the last public lands in Oklahoma, where the strong
bore down the weak and the man with the swiftest horse took
possession not in right, justice, or mercy, but by physical force
and endurance.
Mr. Chairman, with a continent vast in extent, incomparably
rich in soil and mineral, teeming with vegetable and animal life;
with its mechanically multiplied labor forces, capable of sustaining hundreds of millions of inhabitants; and yet with only
65,000,000 there have been and are yet large numbers out of work,
seeking employment and finding none; many needy, hungry, and
poor; all this with granaries and storehouses full of all the commodities of life; yet millions of laborers can not earn and have
no money to buy. We have thus recently presented the anomas45C




9
lous condition that in the time of the greatest abundance we have
had the greatest want. This can only be accounted for upon the
ground of unequal opportunities, unequal privileges, and unequal
distribution.
We have been as brave and patriotic as any people; we have
fought three foreign wars and the greatest civil war in recorded
time; we have been as generous to forgive as we were brave in
battle; yet in business we have been prodigal of our inheritance
and unjust in its distribution.
Mr. Chairman, the massing of capital and labor which has been
caused by the discovery and use of steam and electric power and
invention of modern machinery has brought us to face a new industrial problem of the greatest magnitude. History furnishes
us with no precedent or example for its solution. This age is one
of concentration, corporation, and centralization. It is an age of
organization; and if organized capital deals with labor it must
expect to deal with organized labor. Organization on the one
hand implies organization on the other, so that therp may be two
equal parties to the agreement, otherwise the first party would
dictate and the other submit. Ours is the contract system. While
this is the best order of society that has yet obtained in the world
yet men will not continue to contract as freemen while believing that they must submit as slaves.
There must be two parties to the contract.
Industrial corporations largely control the production and exchange of this continent. Massed capital and massed labor are
largely controlling production, manufactures, and transportation,
the very sources of supply and demand upon which all depend.
These are now so frequently in conflict that all the relations of
life are being disturbed. Society has rights which must be respected by both these contending forces, and its good order and
peace demand a settlement which should be equitable, just, and
durable. [Applause.]
Again, this centralization of capital and labor has produced a
world-wide war of competition in which labor suffers, fortunes
are wrecked, and homes are destroyed. Honorable competition is
considered the life of trade, but the weapons which are more and
more being used are cruel; they are reduction of wages and adulteration and counterfeiting. Low bids are made to secure large
contracts, with no other hope to meet them than by the reduction
in wages, and labor has lost in all these battles. Another weapon
in this competitive battle is adulteration. This occurs in medicine, food, and raiment. There are adulterations and counterfeiting in all we eat, drink, and wear, thus endangering health,
comfort, and life. While we have adequate laws to punish the
counterfeiting of money, the more dangerous and damaging counterfeiting of the commodities of life goes unpunished. If passing
pewter for silver or brass for gold is punished, the other should
be more severely punished. The first means only loss in value,
the latter means loss in value and endangers health and life. Dishonest men engaged in the war for gain grow rich in selling counterfeit commodities, while many honest competitors fait and their
fortunes are wrecked.
Mr. Chairman, the war of competition, as now waged, instead
of being the life of trade, too frequently means the death of one of
the contending parties or a combination in which the people lose.
Property won by fair competition or honest toil will be respected;
2452




10
but won by special privileges, unjust competition, or fraud in
adulteration can not be respected, and the time is fast approaching when such methods of acquisition will not be tolerated. The
holder of such property can not atone in acts of charity, returning in part to the few that which he has wrongfully taken from
the many. [Applause.] Philanthropy is one of the noblest traits
of man; but it should be expended in teaching, in lifting up the
race, in caring for the disabled, the suffering, and the helpless.
All that others require is an equal chance in the race of life, with
none to hinder and none to handicap. They require justice, not
charity. [Applause.]
Mr. Chairman, it is most apparent that our laws have in no
sense kept pace with the new discoveries, inventions, and developments of the age. The world has made more advancement in
physical development and scientific discovery in the last one hundred years than it did in the preceding six thousand. While the
founders of this Republic declared new principles, yet the laws
they adopted were largely taken from a monarchy, and belonged
to a darker age, when labor was oppressed, had no voice in the
Government, and had not -even the right of organization. We
thus put our " new wine into old bottles," and they are bursting.
We say, "C Government exists for the people," yet we adopted
the laws of those who say that " the people exist for the government. " New conditions confront us on every hand, in the concentration of capital and organized labor, in new improvements, in
the instruments of husbandry, in the mode of manufacturing,
transportation, travel, and communication. All these have been
revolutionized within a generation. We have been offering premiunms for inventions, discovery, and development, for labor-saving mnachines and devices of all kinds, until we have changed the
whole order of industrial pursuits, of production and distribution.
While we have had thousands inventing and discovering, we have
offered no premiums for talent or energy; have had no men studying these new conditions and adjusting laws to our new environments; hence there is friction, discontent, and violence, destroying peace, property, and life.
Max Mfiller has stated that the word mankind is not found in
human language before Christ. There was nothing in language
to express the kinship of the race. It was Mede, Persian, Grecian, Roman, bond and free. But since the human race has
learned its kinship and the word mankind has expressed this relation-this brotherhood-the laws of society must more and more
recognize the obligations and rights growing out of this relation.
Our Government is one government, our body politic being one
body; when, therefore, any "one member suffers,' all members
suffer with it." When a number of the members of the human
body suffer, and are not speedily healed, the body dies; so eventually will the body politic die if many members suffer. By not
caring for others, we injure ourselves, as, for example, poverty
and the want of sanitary conditions breed physical disease. This
is true in a community, in a nation, and in the world. Even the
world is bound together by ties of hmnanity which may not be
disregarded without injury. Pestilence follows famine. This
was recently demonstrated by the outbreak of cholera in Russia,
which caused many deaths in other nations, and for a time affected the commerce of the world. If a small portion of the loss
2452




11
sustained by other nations had been spent in promptly relieving
want, and caring for the afflicted in Russia, millions of money
would have been saved, and the angel of death would not have
spread its wings over the world. It must not be forgotten that in
our body politic when one member suffers all the members suffer.
In the last analysis of human governlment it will be found that
it must be based upon principles which meet the highest wants
and guarantees the best good of all in view of our common origin,
common interests, and common destiny. No self-government can
exist without a colmnunity of interests.  Equality can not be
denied nor favors granted. Every man according to his ability
must contribute part, otherwise he becomes a privileged person.
]No man can obtain true success who lives and acts solely for self.
A purely selfish existence is worse than no existence. The highest
happiness is to be and do for others, and no government of the
people and for the people can fulfill its mission unless it has constantly in view the highest good of all. We in this self-government have plighted faith to each other. Every loyal citizen must
be protected in all his rights, because he is a citizen and a part of
this Government. No discrimination in favor of any individual,
company, or class can be tolerated in such a Government, yet the
cry of discrimination comes to us from every State and district
over the whole continent, and it demands prompt consideration
and just action. [Applause.]
Mr. Chairman, the Fifty-third CongTess spent the larger part of
two sessions discussing the silver question and the tariff issue,
and a considerable portion of this session has been spent discussing
the same subjects. These two questions, important as they are,
constitute only a part of the great industrial issues; yet upon this
fractional part Congress has consumed all this time, leaving the
greater needs of the people unanswered. It will be found that
when this labor question-the industrial issue-equality, which is
the final problem of the world-is understood, that tariff and the
coinage of silver are only a small part of it. In fact, we have been
doing like the Pharisees of old, "Tithing mint, anise, and cummlin," and have omitted the weightier matter of the law,  "judgment, mercy, and faith."  "These we ought to have done, and
not left the others undone." As important as tithes, tariff, or silver may be, they are not all-important. The laborer and agriculturist are not organizing and protesting on account of the
coinage of silver or the tariff issue, but on a question of right;
and right, like truth, is eternal and will prevail. The levying of
tariff will not settle it.
Protection against the product of the underpaid labor of Europe
can never settle the question of equality and just distribution
among our people. This has been demonstrated in both tariff and
free-trade countries. In European countries, which are not disturbed by tariff agitation or the free coinage of silver, we find the
industrial question to the front and threatening the very existence
of nations. In all our discussions how often have we heard the
rights of the laborer, the farmer, the manufacturer, and business
man spoken of except in connection with tariff and free trade or
the free coinage of silver? Yet their rights are superior to both,
and the disturbed condition of the country can not be settled by
the adjustment of these questions. I believe in protection, and
have advocated it in this House upon both moral and economic
242




12
grounds. I believe in bimetallism; in the widest possible use of
silver with safety to our business interests, and that all dollars
should be equal in value, but do not believe in either one or both
of these measures as a cure for all the ills of society. I do not,
therefore, believe in."cure-alls," but do believe in "all cures."
[Applause.]
Again, too much of our law is made up of compromise mneasures. All compromise laws, from the Missouri Compromise to the
present time, if not in all time and in all nations, have been disappointing if not disastrous. If there be any great compromise
law in nature scientists have not yet discovered it. If there be
any great compromise law in the Bible theologians have not yet
expounded it. We can not compromise truth or principle, facts
or figures. If there be no great compromise principle in nature,
reason, mathematics, or revelation, compromises should not enter
so largely into our law.
I believe that in the last analysis of this industrial problem, in
view of our common origin, interests, and destiny, the golden
rule will be its solution, and that a large per cent of existing laws
will be stricken from the records by inserting, "A.11 things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."
This is in strict accord with our declared principles of freedom
and equality, and we must return and build again upon this everlasting foundation of justice, mercy, and right.
MIr. Chairman, the rights of woman mustbe more fully recognized
in the future than they have been in the past. She is constantly
entering new industrial fields and meeting their requirements
with fidelity and ability. Her advancement in intellectual and
moral pursuits is without a parallel in history. She is beginning
to dominate along all the lines that lead to the betterment of the
race. She has built and endowed more institutions of benevolence and charity for the relief of want and suffering in the past
fifty years than were established by both sexes in all preceding
time. Yet, notwithstanding all this, many of her sex still toil in
sweat-shops, fighting an uneven battle for child and home with
avarice and greed. This blot upon civilization must be removed,
and woman's rights and influence be recognized in any future
movement for the betterment of our industrial system. [Applause.]
The requirements of this enlightened age for a better industrial
and social system must be met. Too many of the toiling millions
are not properly housed, fed, clothed, and educated.
They must have homes, not hovels; must have proper food,
clothing, education; must, in our unlimited fields of industry, have
a chance to sow and reap and rest after toil; must share in the
comforts of life, if they endure its burdens.
Mr. Chairman, it is painful to live in a land of such bounty and
see so much suffering. It is distressing to feast while so many
are hungry; to be clothed in comfort while many are clad in scanty
garments or rags; to be sheltered in pleasant homes while so many
live in hovels; to meet distress on every hand and be unable to
relieve it. Individual effort can accomplish but little; only by
united effort, upon principles of humnanity and by doing unto
others as we would have them do unto us, can our Government
be established upon a foundation which no storm can move?
Mr. Chaihman, all this can be done and more; not out of our
245S




13
abundance, but out of our superabundance. This is sufficient to
meet every physical want and relieve all distress that comes from
man's inhumanity to man.
Mr. Chairman, while this bill seeks to meet the just demands
of all classes, it must, however, be borne in mind that this is not
a class government, not a government of laborers, farmers, manufacturers, transporters, or business men, but is a government of
the people. No one class established this government in eight
years of war; no one class saved it in four years of rebellion, and
no one class can ever govern it unless it be by despotic rule.
Mr. Chairman, as this nation was the first on earth to declare
the true principles of government, my greatest desire is that it
shall be true to these principles and go on winning new fame and
glory, through the ages, and that wherever its flag floats on sea
or land it mray be the symbol not only of freedom, but of equality.
[Loud applause.]
I wish to call attention to the general desire of the people, especially of the labor and farm interest of our country, in favor of this
measure, as shown by petitions, resolutions, and letters addressed
to the Labor Committee of the last Congress, and also to the Labor
Committee of this Congress, some of which I append:
NEW YORK, Jancuary 7, 1895.
MY DEAR SIR: It is with more than ordinary pleasure I note that House
bill 7756 has been referred to the Committee on Labor, of which you are the
honored chairman, and that the prospects are good for a favorable report
from the committee to the House.
In my report as president of the American Federation of Labor, to the
fourteenth annual convention, recently held at Denver, Colo., I took occasion
to say the following in reference to the bill:
"A bill was introduced by the Hon. TO-IoIAS W. PHILLIPS in the House for
the purpose of creating a commission, to be appointed by the President, for
the purpose of inquiring into the condition of industry, and to what extent
the people have been deprived of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution
of the United States and the Declaration of Independence. The bill prescribes that representatives from organized labor, business men, and farmers
shall be appointed.
" The executive council indorsed the bill and organized labor generally
approved it, forwarding resolutions to their respective Congressmen and
Senators certifying to that effect. It is desirable that the bill before its final
passage should receive the consideration of this convention to say whether
any amendments may be required.
"Copies of the bill will be laid before the appropriate committee to which
this subj ect may be referred."
The subject-matter was referred to the committee on president's report,
which subsequently requested that a special committee be appointed for the
purpose of expressing the sentiments of the convention thereon. The special
committee reported in favor of the bill and recommended its indorsement by
the convention. It also made the following recommendations:
" We would also recommend that, in case the said bill becomes a law, all
matters indorsed by this body requiring Congressional action shall be submitted to the representatives of labor provided for in the bill, and that
efforts be put forth by the executive council to secure the appointment of
union men as such representatives.
" We would further recommend that all bodies affiliated with the American Federation of Labor petition their respective Senators and Representatives in Congress to vote for the passage of the above-named measure."
The report of the committee, I take pleasure in saying, was adopted by the
convention by an overwhelming majority,
In all likelihood I may be in Washington during the coming week, and if I
am I shall deem it both a pleasure as well as a duty to call upon you in connection with this bill and other measures in which the organized wage workers of our country are interested.
Truly, yours,                              SAML. GOMPERS.
Hon. LAWRENCE E. MICGANN,
Chairman Comnmittee on Labor,
House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.
g45S2




14
PHILADELPHIA, PA., December 11,, 1894.
SIR: Understanding that your committee have now under consideration
H. R. 7756, introduced by Congressman PHILLIPS of Pennsylvania, being "A
bill authorizing the appointmrent of a nonpartisan commission to collate information and to consider and recommend legislation to meet the problem
presented by labor, agriculture, and capital," I beg leave to offer my personal and official indorsement of the propositions therein contained. It is not
possible within the prescribed limits of a letter to give all my reasons therefor,
but suffice to say for the present that it seems to me this would be a practicable way, not only of securing the best information as a basis for the making
of laws conserving the interests of all classes, but would, to a considerable
extent, do away with the necessity for various organizations of labor, capital, and agriculture sending committees to Washington to influence legisla
tion and lobbying in the interest thereof. The prosperity of the urban working classes is so closely interwoven with that of the agriculturist and the
manufacturer that I doubt very much if any of us know where the interests
of each begin or end. Such a commsssion as proposed by the bill would have
the combined advantage of being representative of all classes, and securing
information hardly accessible under other conditions.
The weight of recommendations from such a commission to the lawmaking
power of States and nation would certainly be much greater than similar
recommendations coming from any other source, inasmuch as it would be
nonpartisan and representative of all classes.
Believing I voice the hearty concurrence of the large constituency I have
the honor to be affiliated with and represent in the above indorsement, I am,
Very truly, yours,
JNO. W. HAYES,
General Secretary-Treasurer.
Eon. LAWRENCE MCCANN,
Chairman Comznittee on Labor, Washington, D. C.
HARRISBURG, PA., December 22, 1895.
DEAR SIR: My attention having been called to House bill No. 7756, Fiftythird Congress, second session, entitled "A bill authorizing the appointment
of a nonpartisan commission to collate information and to consider and recommend legislation to meet the problems presented by labor, agriculture,
and capital," and having examined the said bill with much care, I had it laid
before the Farmers' Alliance council of this county, where it met, after discussion, with unanimous approval.
This week it was laid before the council of the Pennsylvania State Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union, its provisions discussed, and the measure
was practically unanimously approved.
The bill has been laid before a majority of the members of the executive
committee of the National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union, and has
their approval.
Personally, I hope it will become a law at a very early day, as the agricultural element of the United States, I am sure, will be greatly benefited by
the labors of a commission appointed in the manner proposed by the bill
referred to.
Very respectfully,                    H. C. DEMMING,
Secretary Executive Committee
National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Unions
Hon. LAWRENCE E. MCCGANN, M. C.,
Chairman of the Congressional Committee on Labor.
DES MOINES, IOWA, December 18, 1894.
DEAR SIR: H. R. 7756 having been called to my attention, I take great pleasure in informing you that it meets my most hearty approval.
It seems to me that the bill promises more for the harmony of conflicting
interests at this time than any other measure now pending in Congress.
Thanking you for the introduction of so just and timely a measure, and
trusting for its immediate passage, I am,
Respectfully, yours,                   J. R. SOVEREIGN,
Grand Master Workman.
Hon. T. W. PHILLIPS, M. C.,
Wtashizgton, D. C.
2452




15
INDORSEMENT OF THE NATIONAL FARMERS' ALLIANCE AND INDUSTRIAL
UNION.
WASHINGTON, D. C., February 7, 1896.
A bill, known as the "industrial commission bill " (H. R. 21), has been introduced in the first session of the Fifty-fourth Congress. The position of the
National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union on the proposition is as follows:
We favor the appointment of a nonpartisan commission to collate information and to consider and recommend legislation to meet the problems presented by labor, agriculture, and capital. Inasmuch as it is to bepreliminary
to proposed wholesome national legislation, and as the work of such a commission will gather many facts and figures into official form, all at the expense of the General Government, we indorse such legislative action.
In indorsing such a commission, however, we are firmly of the opinion that
the appointment of the commission should be surrounded by such safeguards
as to insure the appointment of members favorable to the industrial classes.
The expenses of such a commission should be kept within the limits of strict
economy.
J. W. BOWDEN, Chairman.
C. H. WHITE,
E. M. WARDALL,
Conference Committee N. F. A. and I. U.
Certified copy.
J. W. BOWDEN, Chairman.
OFFICE OF GENERAL ASSE.iMBLY, ORDER OF KNIGHTS OF LABOR,
Washington, D. C., January 20, 1896.
GEENTLEMEN: We, the undersigned general officers of the Knights of Labor,
acting on behalf of the entire organization, cordially commend to your favorable and prompt consideration the bill H. R. 21, introduced by Hon. T. W.
PHILLIPS, of Pennsylvania, which is entirely acceptable to our members.
Most respectfully,
J. R. SOVEREIGN, G. M. W.,
M. J. BISHOP, G. W. F.,
JNO. W. HAYES, G. S. T.,
C. A. FRENCH,
T. B. McCGUIRE,
J. nI. KENNEY,
H. B. MARTIN,
Members of General Executive Board.
The COMMITTEE ON LArBOR,
House of Representatives, Fifty-fourth Congress.
From the report of the committee on the president's report, made to the fifteenth annual convention of the American Federation of Labor, held at New
York, N. Y., December 9 to 17, inclusive, 1895, the following extract is taken:
" Renewed efforts should be made to secure the passage of the Phillips bill,
which was defeated at the last session of Congress, and a committee should
be appointed by this convention to urge the passage of this bill."
WASHINGTON, D. C., March 18, 1896.
DEAR SIR: We have carefully considered the bill H. R. 21, commonly known
as the bill creating a commission to inquire as to what legislation is necessary
to the best interests of the people, and as it goes to the House from your committee we gladly lend it our indorsement.
It appears to us as a strictly nonpartisan and impartial measure, and we commend it because it singles out no class, creed, or party to conduct said investigation and proposes no legislation in favor of any class, creed, or party.
Were it otherwise we would not feel that we could lend it our indorsement
or approval.
Very truly, yours,                       E. E. CLARK,
Order of Railway Conductors.
F. P. SARGENT,
Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen.
P. H. MORRISSEY,
Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmzen.
P. M. ARTHUR,
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.
W. V. POWELL,
Order of Railroad Telegraphers.
]ion. THROMIAS W. PHILLIPS,
Chairman Committee on Labor,
House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.
2452




APPENDIX.
54TH CONGRESS, H HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. ( REPORT
fst Session.                                     ~ No. 1999.
LABOR, AGRICULTURE, AND CAPITAL.
MAY 26, 1896.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state
of the Union and ordered to be printed.
Mr. PHILLIPS, from the Committee on Labor, submitted the following
REPORT:
[To accompany H. R. 9188.]
The Committee on Labor, to whom was referred YHouse bill 9188,
being the amended or substitute bill for House bill 6119, after
having carefully considered the same, beg leave to report in favor
of the passage of House bill 9188.
As this bill relates to the same subject-matter as House bill 6119,
which was favorably reported to the House by the Committee on
Labor at this session, attention is respectfully directed to the report (No. 387) accompanying the latter bill.
16                                                452




17
The bill as amended passed the House June 1, 1896, and is as
folio wvs:
54TH CONGRESS,   -PT      R   9188Q
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
MAY 23, 1896.
Mr. PHILLIPS introduced the following bill; which was referred
to the Committee on Labor and ordered to be printed.
A BI"LL
Authorizing the appointment of a nonpartisan commission to collate information and to consider and recommend legislation to
meet the problems presented by labor, agriculture, and capital.
Whereas many of those engaged in the various fields of labor and
also many of those engaged in agricultural pursuits are organized and, together with those engaged in commerce, are presenting grievances to Congress and to the various State governments, seeking and demanding legislation in their behalf: Now,
therefore, in order to give a hearing and to meet the requirements of this large number of citizens,
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President
of the United States is hereby authorized and directed to appoint
a commission, to be cailed the "Industrial Commission," composed
as follows: Three men representative of labor, three men representative of agriculture, three men representative of manufacturing, and three men representative of business. A majority of this
commission shall not belong to any one of the political parties which
took part in the last Presidential election. The President shall
have the power to remove any member of said commission for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance, or for any other reason
duly set forth.
SEC. 2. That each division of three shall have the right to employ one legal adviser, whose compensation shall be the same as
hereinafter provided for a member of the commission, and one secretary, at a salary of two hundred dollars per month; the commission shall convene in the city of Washington, District of Columbia, within sixty days after its appointment, and shall organize by
the selection of one of its members as president, who shall designate from time to time one of the secretaries provided for in this
section to act as secretary of the commission. The president and
officers shall be chosen by a majority vote of the commission, and
may be removed from office at any time by a vote of two-thirds of
the commission; the president shall serve for such. term as the
commission may determine; a majority of the commission shall
determine the composition of its standing committees and their
duties, and shall appoint any subconmmissions that may be required
2452




18
as provided for in section five, and committees and subcommnissions shall report to the commission. The commission shall have
power to make such rules as it may deem necessary for carrying
out the purposes of this act.
SEC. 3. That it shall be the duty of this commission to investigate questions pertaining to immigration, to labor, to agriculture,
to manufacturing, and to business, and to recommend to Congress such legislation as it may deem best upon these subjects.
SE~. 4. That it shall furnish such information and suggest such
laws as may be made a basis for 1uliform legislation by the various
States of the Union, in order to harmonize conflicting interests
and to be equitable to the laborer, the employer, the producer, and
the consumer.
SEC. 5. That the commission shall receive petitions and other
papers on subjects pertaining to its duties and give reasonable
time for hearings, if deemed necessary, and if necessary it may
appoint a subcommission or commissions of its members to make
investigation in any part of the United States, and it shall be allowed actual necessary expenses for the same. It shall have the
authority to send for persons and papers and to administer oaths
or affirmations. All necessary expenses, including reading clerk,
shorthand reporters, messengers, rent for place of meeting, furniture and fixtures, and printing and stationery shall be allowed;
however, not to exceed fifty thousand dollars per annum for expenditures under this section.
SEC. 6. That it may report from time to time to the President
of the United States, and shall at the conclusion of its labors
submit a final report.
SEC. 7. That the term of the commission shall be two years.
The salary of each member of this commission shall be five thousand dollars per annum and actual traveling expenses from the
home of each commissioner to Washington and return once each
year.
SEC. 8. That any vacancies occurring in the commission by reason of death, disability, or from any other cause, shall be filled
by appointment of the President of the United States.
SEC. 9. That a sum sufficient to carry out the provisions of this
Act is hereby appropriated out of any moneys in the Treasury of
the United States not otherwise appropriated.
2452




t2?es/ecls of lie 1_/1or.
MODERATE HOUSES FOR MODERATE MEANS.
AN
FOR
Ckeap  Trains  as Essential to Independent
Homes for the  tWorking Classes,
AND AN
ADDRESS
BEFORE THE QUINCY HOMESTEAD ASSOCIATION:
TOGETHER WITH
THE ORGANIZATION OF THE QUINCY HOMESTEAD ASSOCIATION.
AND THE REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMISSION.
BY JOSIAH QUINCY.
BOSTON:
WRIGHT & POTTER, PRINTERS, 79 MILK STREET,
(CORNER OF FEDERAL STREET).
1871.








MO0DERATE HOUSES FOR MODERATE MEANS.
AN
ARGU:MENT
FOR
C/e7ap  Trains as Essential to Ideyensdent
Homes for Ithe Working Classes,
AND AN
ADDRESS
BEFORE THE QUINCY HOMESTEAD ASSOCIATION:
TOGETHIER WITH
THE ORGANIZATION OF THE QUINCY HOMESTEAD ASSOCIATION,
AND THE REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMISSION.
BY JOSIAH QUINCY.
BOSTON:
WRIGHT & POTTER, PRINTERS, 79 MILK STREET
(CORNER OF FEDERAL STREET)e
1871.




THE QUINCY HOMESTEAD ASSOCIATION.
PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTIONS.
TWhereas, The Hon. JOSIAH QUINCY has been and is making efforts to assist the working men, of moderate means, in obtaining homes outside the
limits of the city of Boston; and
WTVhereas, There are certain measures before the State legislature, looking to the reduction of railroad fares for the benefit of the working classes;
and
Whereas, The above-mentioned efforts, plans and measures seem feasible
to us, and worthy of our attention, as being destined to meet with ultimate
success; therefore
Resolved, That we unite together, under the name and style of "THE
QuINcY TIHOIESTEAD ASSOCIATION," for the purpose of procuring homes
for ourselves, on the plan proposed by Mr. Quincy, to wit: a snmall amount
to be paid down, say at least two hundred dollars ($200), and the balance
in monthly instalments, until, interest being computed, the whole amount
shall have been paid, when a clear title to the property will be given.
Resolved, That all we do shall be on the cooperative plain, by which we
are jointly responsible for the regular payment of monthly rent, paying
like amounts down, like monthly instalments; houses to be after the same
general plan and value, except that any individual member may add to the
value of his or her house by paying actual cash for the said additional
v altue.
Resolved, That all applications for membership shall be upon a prescribed
printed form; that all applications may be received at a regular or special
meeting of the Association; that all applications shall be referred to a regular or special committee of investigation, who shall report at next meeting, if possible, at which time each application shall be subject to a secret
ballot, and one negative vote shall bar the applicant from admission.
Resolved, Any member absenting himself from three regular meetings, in
succession, shall be considered as having withdrawn, unless hle notifies the
Secretary of his inability to attend.
Resolved, That the business affairs of the Association shall be kept
strictly secret.
Resolved, That it shall require a two-thirds vote to alter, amend or add to
these resolutions.




CHEAP TRAINS AND INDEPENDENT HOMES
FOR THE WORKING PEOPLE.
ARGUMENT
BEFORE THE MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON RAILWAYS, 1871.
MR. CHAIRMAN: —l the petition I have presented, and which
you have done me the honor to print among the documents of
the session, I pray the honorable bodies of which you are the
organs to take into consideration "' the' justice, legality and expediency " of requiring the managers of the railways terminating in the city of Boston to carry mechanics, artisans and laborers, who have been driven, either directly or indirectly, from
their homes, by the requirements of railroads, for a very reduced
price. And first let me speak of the JUSTICE of the claim.
As I have stated in my petition, hundreds of families and
thousands of individuals of the working classes, have been
thus driven from their homes and forced to go into poorer,
more expensive or more inconvenient lodgings. This is done
by the grants made by your predecessors permitting these corporations to avail themselves of the power of the State in taking lands by eminent domain. This power is rarely, if ever,
delegated, I will not say prostituted, in Europe, for the benefit
of money-making corporations. Let me read you an extract
from the London Times of the 24th of August, 1864:   From
the city of London the working class are being fast driven away
in the rage for railway enterprise and public improvement, no
one knows where, but probably to crowd still more districts
already densely populated. The value of ground in the city
has increased to a fabulous extent; a building has been erected




on land bought for the purpose, at the enormous rate of 1,800,000 pounds sterling (or over nine millions of dollars), the
statute acre."  Should a money-making corporation have asked
Parliament, in such a case, to grant them the use of'" eminent
domain," their petition would have been treated with contempt.
Let us look at the action of our own legislatures.  I speak
not of the power that has been used.
By Act of 1869, c. 291, the Boston and Lowell Railroad were
authorized to take, and during the present summer will take,
a block of land near their depot. There are two hundred
houses, most of them occupied by several families, averaging
at least ten tenants to a house. If, Mr. Chairman, the title of
that bill had been'" An Act entitled an Act to turn two thousand
poor tenants, without compensation, into the street, for the
benefit of the Boston and Lowell Railroad," it would not have
passed without some such provision for their benefit as I now
ask.
Again, by Act of the same year (1869, c. 461), the Boston and
Albany Railroad are authorized, for depot and other purposes,
" in any townl or city, to purchase or take such lands and flats
as and wherever they may deem  expedient."  Eminent domain is given without limit to an irresponsible corporation,
with no provision for the rights of the tenants they have or
may hereafter deprive of their homes.
Nor is this all. The last legislature appointed a joint commission, consisting of the Harbor and Railway Commissioners,
to report a comprehensive plan for depots of the four railroads
terminating on the northern side of the city. Several plans
have been suggested, one of which at least will be laid before
you at your present session. Every one of them contemplates
taking houses that will turn hundreds of families out of their
homes.
I do not mean to discuss the policy of the State in granting
this power. But I maintain that justice demands at the hands
of her representatives that, while they provide that the rich
owners of the land shall be paid in full, they are bound to protect the interests of the poor tenants they turn into the street.
Permit me to read an extract or two, as showing the difference
between a monarchy and a republic in guardianship of this
class:




5
"In the House of Lords, on Friday, the 22d of April, 1864, the
following sessional order was proposed by the Earl of Derby, and
unanimously adopted, viz.: That it be an instruction to the committee, providing for any railway constructing in the metropolis, to
require such railway company to run a cheap train morning and
evening, the fare not to exceed one penny for the whole journey."
His Lordship also remarked that this rule applied already to
the North London Railway, which may be seen on reference to
their Act, 21 and 25 Victoria, c. 196, sect. 45.  He further
stated that the London, Chatham and Dover line voluntarily
adopted the principle on his motion, by agreeing to run trains
morning and evening, a distance of ten miles, for one shilling a
week.  In justice to the railway companies required to furnish
this accommodation, it is provided that the number of workmen
claiming this privilege shall not be less than one hundred.
Again, in the illhustrated News of Jan. 4, 1862, it is stated
that on occasion of debate in the House of Lords on the 11th
of March, 1861, Lord Ebury informed their Lordships that an
arrangement had been made that day with three of the principal railway companies, by which they consented to convey not
less than 1,000 passengers a day from any place within ten miles
of London, and back, for twopence a day, thus offering a great
inducement for the formation of suburban villages on a large
scale.
It is remarkable, and not very creditable to our republican
institutions, that the proudest peer in England, and her aristocracy by an unanimous vote, should thus care for the laboring
classes, and that after an experience of more than thirty years,
during which men of all parties have predominated, I should
be the first to call the attention of the legislature to wrongs
done to this most important class in the community, driven
from their homes by legislative action.
As to the power of the legislature I have no doubt.  The
decision of the Supreme Court in the case of petitioners
against the Eastern Railroad establishes, as I understand, their
right, under the reserved right to alter, amend and repeal charters, the power to do whatever they may deem that the interests
of the public require at the expense of the corporations.  But
T trust that no peremptory action will be necessary.  From




what I know of the managers and stockholders of the railroads
I can have no doubt that they will be ready to do whatever
they fairly can for the benefit of these classes, that does not
establish a precedent or interference with their pecuniary interests. And there can be no doubt that if villages are hereby
established on their lines, the friends and families of these tenants who will pay the regular fares will more than compensate
for any additional expense, and that any abuses of their
liberality can be prevented by their own or the action of the
legislature.
My next request is that you consider the expediency of aiding the working classes to obtain homes in the country.  Read
the exhaustive report of the Bureau of the Statistics of Labor,
and learn how thousands of the poorer classes dwell in this
city.  The greater part of their moral degradation arises from
the utter impossibility of observing, in their miserable dwellings, the common decencies of life. Damp, dark, ill-ventilated
houses are the prolific source of a large class of the diseases
that enervate or destroy the health and strength of a class to
whom these blessings are the conditions of their daily bread.
If, Mr. Chairman, you wish, as I know you do, to see the laboring population healthy, sober, self-supporting, honest, chaste,
religious, you must enable them to acquire homes, where health
is not an exception, where decency is not an impossibility,
where squalor and discomfort do not necessarily drive the husband and the father to the rum-shop.
I would that time permitted me to describe the exertions tlhat
have been made and the results that have been produced in
other countries —at Mulhouse, at Penze, at Ackroydon, and
elsewhere.  I will quote but a single case: The Metropolitan
Association for improving the dwellings of the industrial classes
in London erected ninety cottages at Penze. A visitor says:"A more gratifying spectacle could hardly be offered to the
friends of cottage improvement than this suburban village. An air
of comfort and happiness pervades the whole group. The gardens
that surround the dwellings are well planted, and the evident care
bestowed upon their cultivation is a sure sign that the workmen
themselves spend their evenings at home, instead of at the publichouse. Besides these pleasant tokens of good, the visitor cannot
help remarking the clean, healthy and happy appearance of the




7
wives and children, so different from the squalid wretchedness
which is inseparable from the dark alleys and fetid courts of a
crowded town."
I cannot but hope, Mr. Chairman, that this petition may result in great benefits to the laboring classes. I have explained
to several assemblies of working men a plan for enabling them,
by depositing the difference between the high rents they now
pay, and the interest on the value of their houses, in a savings
bank, to procure a home at once, and in a few years to become
its owner.  I amn happy to say that the plan has been deemed
feasible, and met the approbation of the most intelligent among
them, and associations are already formed into which the granting of this petition will breathe the breath of life   As a part
of my argument I shall take the liberty of briefly stating the
object and the mode of effecting it.
Tile success of the plan depends on two modes of action,
whichl have long been acknowledged feasible, but which, as far
as I am aware, have never been brought to bear on each other,
or never been combined.
John Bright, Edward Ackroyd, Esq., in England, and Mr.
Dollfus in France, undertook to solve tile problem,'"How a
limited outlay of capital may materially assist in raising the
general standard of workmen's houses, in any locality, to an
extent far beyond the original capital employed." They procured land — obtained designs from an able architect — found
parties willing to take the houses -formed a building association, and arranged with a savings bank, who agreed to advance
three-fourths of the capital required, the principal to be repaid
with annual interest in twelve yearly instalments.  Wlhere the
purchaser was of good character but unable to advance the
one-fourth of the purchase money, Mr. Ackroyd guaranteed the
first three years' payments, after which his guarantee ceased, as
the mortgage of the property was a sufficient security against
loss.
All these men were manufacturers, and did what they did for
the benefit of their operatives.  We cannot expect a similar
liberality from those who have not the same interests.
I hold in my hand a translation of the German law establishing the People's Banks, signed by the present Emperor of




8
Germany, and the greatest living statesman, Graf von BismarclSchonhausen.  These People's or cooperative banks of Germany were established about twenty years ago, and there were
in that country, in 1867, 2,600 of them, with 550,000 shareholders.  Money and goods, in 1867, were entrusted to them
on credit, amounting to 36,000,000 of dollars, and their business transactions amounted that year to 155,000,000. I have
not time to explain to you fully the immense advantages that
resulted from these associations, in enabling men, whose only
basis of credit was their daily labor, to obtain small sums of
money, either for trade or housekeeping, which they could not
command at all, or only under hard conditions, from any other
source. They enabled independent craftsmen to purchase at
wholesale, for cost, the materials used in their manufacture;
they enabled associated workmen to carry on manufacturing
and agricultural pursuits on a large scale; to establish a com —
mon warehouse, in which each member is entitled and bound
to expose, on his own account, the wares of his manufacture,
and for procuring articles for family use and distributing them
by means of cooperative stores or otherwise. All industrious
persons who maintain themselves and their families are eligible
as members of these associations. No one is allowed to hold
more than two hundred dollars in stock.  None are admitted
but by vote. The basis of credit is a fund derived from monthly
contributions, the amount of which is the measure of the sum
for which the association can be indebted.  It must always
equal thirty per cent. of the association debt.  But the great
security arises from  the personal liability of all members for
debts due from the association.  The law by which they are
authorized consists of seventy sections, which guard the rights
both of the public and the shareholders so effectually that there
has never been a case of failure.  The losses upon the millions
used have only averaged one-fourteenth of one per cent., and
the profits on the money deposited by the shareholders leave
averaged twelve per cent. per annum.
A German friend of mine, on returning to his native city of
Cologne, was surprised to find the place in a great state of excitement.  All the guilds of the several associations of working
men were arranged under their several banners, in order to
escort with due honor Mr. Schulze Delitzsch to his quarters. He




9
naturally inquired who this Mr. Schulze Delitzsch was, whom
the people thus delighted to honor, and what he had done to
deserve it.  He was not a soldier returning from successful
war. He was not a millionaire who could bestow hundreds of
thousands to give a small number of mechanics comfortable
homes at a comparatively low price.  He was a gentleman of
moderate means.  His whole merit was that by introducing
these banks he had enabled the working classes to take care of
themselves; and in doing that had opened the way to an independence which thus excited their gratitude.
I have now a petition before the Committee on Banks and
Banking, which, if granted, will give to our working classes the
great benefits that have been conferred by their law on the
working men of Germany.  Should it be reported, I am sure,
Mr. Chairman, that you will give it your most careful consideration, and if approved, your most efficient support.
Now for the union and application of these principles. I go
into a model tenement house, built by philanthropists who only
desire to receive six per cent. on their investment, instead-of
twenty and thirty per cent. that are paid by the poor in other
cases.  The poorer class of the best condition are here provided with a small parlor, a kitchen, one chamber, and a recess,
concealed by a curtain, for another bed. For this accomnmodation they pay three dollars and fifty cents a week, or one hundred and eighty-two dollars a year. I am satisfied, from replies
I have received to an advertisement for suitable land, that, if
this petition should be granted, they could obtain far better accommodations, with a few thousand feet of land for a garden,
for one thousand dollars; the interest of which, seventy dollars,
being deducted from the amount now paid, would leave over a
hundred dollars to be applied annually to the payment of the
principal.
But how shall this credit be obtained by the working classes
who have no rich friends to help them and small reserves of
their own? In Germany this question has been answered, as I
have stated, by the cooperative banks, through which, by means
of a system of mutual responsibility for loans, millions of dollars have been placed in the hands of working men, rendering
them  prosperous and independent, and developing the manly
character that is now astonishing the world by its military re2*




10
suits. Let us apply this principle to obtaining credit for the
erection of houses. Take the first case to which I have alluded.
If a man who is now paying three dollars and a half a week for
his lodgings could obtain a house with equal or superior accommodations for $1,000, the interest on which, at 7 per cent.
would be $70 dollars a year, and apply the difference between
that and the rent he now pays, $112 a year, to a sinking fund,
it is evident that within ten years he would have paid for and
owned his house, his rent diminishing all the time.
A working man goes to a capitalist and makes the above statement, and adds, If I could obtain this money I should be able
in a few months to procure a home, where the health of my
children will be improved, where they will not be subjected to
bad influences, and where I and my family will have an object
for which to work and economize, The capitalist would reply,
A11 that may be very true, but what security do you give me
that you will take the house when it is built? I do not wish
to invest my money in a small house9 which I may have the
trouble of leasing or be obliged to sell at a loss. You may reply,
I have some money in the savings bank; if you will lend me
the rest I will pay, say two hundred dollars towards the land
and foundation of the house, and shall pay the rest in instalments as the work progresses. The capitalist may reply, So
far your offer is satisfactory; but what security have I that you
will continue to pay your rent? You are an honest, temperate man, a good mechanic, and perform your agreement if possible. But you may be sick; you may meet with an accident
that will prevent your performing your contract. Is there no
person who will be willing to guarantee the payment of your
rent, at least until so much has been paid on the principal as
to render a lien on the house sufficient security for the balance?
You may reply, Yes. There are twenty —fifty-a hundred
mechanics whose characters are as good, and whose individual
responsibility is as great as my own, who for the sake of obtaining a house on these terms will be jointly and severally responsible that my rent, and the rent of all the other associates, shall
be regularly paid and deposited every lunar month in a savings
bank, from which deposit there shall be paid your interest semiannually, and the balance carried annually to our credit; to remain, however, as security in the bank until all our contract




11
with you is fulfilled, and the risk of thus guaranteeing the payment of rent would be small, after the first deposit, and diminishing by every payment that is made; and in case of default
the association would have the right to take possession of the
property and sell the subscriber's rights to some one who would
undertake to fulfil his agreement.
What steps should be taken by persons who wish to avail
themselves of such an association? If you are become liable
for the payment of the rent of another, you of course desire to
know the character and responsibility of your associate. Let a
certain number of persons who work in the same shop or the
same neighborhood form  such an association, and admit any
persons whom  they are satisfied are honest, industrious and
temperate, and who are earning enough to support their families, and pay regularly their present rent. I have spoken of a
hundred associates, as a large number would be able to purchase the land and erect the buildings on far better terms than
a smaller. But so large a number is not essential; ten or
twenty responsible men could probably get the credit that is
essential to carrying out the plan. There may be advantages
in smaller numbers. If a village is to be established, it may be
more agreeable that persons of the same occupation, nationality
or faith should dwell together. Let there be several of these
associations, to comprise persons who are naturally drawn towards one another, and let the rivalry be who shall show the
neatest houses, the best organized society and best educated
children. It is generally assumed that the members of such
an association should be located on the same piece of land;
but this is not essential. All that is necessary is that the house
should be of sufficient value to render the payment of rent certain.
For many reasons it is desirable that those who thus associate
should live together out of the city, obtaining a favorable location, and availing themselves of the advantages of buying and
building by wholesale, and have an opportunity of organizing
their society to their own satisfaction.  From  offers made to
me in reply to an advertisement, I am satisfied that land can be
procured within thirty minutes' ride by railroad on very favorable terms.
The association being formed and the refusal of the land ob~




12
tained, the next and most important step is to raise the necessary funds. These may be obtained either of individuals or the
savings banks. The latter hold about one hundred and twentythree millions of dollars ($123,000,000), a very large proportion of which belongs to the working classes, and should, as far
as is consistent with security, be used for their benefit. These
institutions are authorized by law to lend money on mortgage
of real estate, or on the note of an individual with two satisfactory sureties. The association would give both a mortgage on
their property and their joint and several obligations to pay a
sum agreed upon every month until the debt was cancelled. As
EHis Excellency in his message states, great moneyed institutions
object to lending small sums of money on account of the trouble
in collecting the interest. This arrangement obviates the objection.
The great difficulty of forming such an association and carrying it out, results from want of confidence. Laboring men
have earned their money hard and are unwilling to put it at
risk. There is, however, one class of institutions that is entitled to and that has the confidence of the whole community-the
savings banks. Should such an association be formed, I should
hope not only to procure the money from them, but to constitute them, in a manner, the financial agents of the concern. I
should propose that a committee of the association should be
appointed to collect the rents, $3.50 a week, and deposit in a
savings bank where interest is allowed. Supposing there are
one hundred members; they have in a year together paid in
$18,200; $5,600 will have paid the interest on the $80,000
borrowed, and $12,600, or $126 for each individual, paid on the
principal of his debt, which is thus reduced from $800 to $674;
this may be endorsed on his obligation, and at once reduce his
rent $9.03, or may be left on interest in the savings bank until
the whole debt is paid. Within three years one-half of the debt
would be paid, and the property, without any other security,
would be a guarantee for the payment of the rent.
Some will doubt whether the funds necessary for such a plan
can be obtained. I am sanguine that they can. In the language of Burke, 66 There is nothing in the world really beneficial
that does not lie within the reach of an informed understanding
and a well-directed pursuit. There is nothing that God has




13
judged good for us, that he has not given us the means to accomplish both in the natural and moral world. If we cry like
children for the moon, like children we must cry on." Should
such an association be formed, and a sufficient sum paid in to
render the mortgage with the personal guarantee secure, philanthropists who cannot afford to dispense with the income of
their property may confer a vast benefit on their fellow-men,
without risk and without trouble. The weekly payments of
the association into a savings bank will secure the interest and
provide for the repayment of the capital. The painful necessity of collecting rents from the poor, which prevents capitalists
from investing in this species of property, will be avoided, and
the interest of the tenant in a house he owns will lead him to
keep it in repair and provide for the taxes and insurance.
Mr. Chairman, I thank you and the other gentlemen of the
committee for this opportunity of explaining my object in presenting this petition. You will be addressed by eloquent orators, paid to persuade you to make the rich richer. But I feel
confident that as statesmen you will agree with me that the
highest benefit you can confer on the republic is to elevate the
character and condition of the working classes, by aiding them
in obtaining INDEPENDENT HOMES.




14
HOMES FOR AiENF OF MODERATE MEAN&S
ADDRESS
BEFORE THE QUINCY HOMESTEAD ASSOCIATION, OCTOBER 4, 1871.
MY FRIENDS:-It gives me sincere pleasure to meet the families of your Association this evening. While we hold that the
possession of a house is a condition almost indispensable to the
highest usefulness and happiness of man, we must also acknowledge that the house can never be made a home without the
cooperation of the woman who shares it. Here she finds the
sweetest and fullest expression for her individuality; hence she
exerts her widest influence. While we take a reasonable interest in the various schemes of cooperation put forward by zealous advocates to regenerate the world, let us never forget that
the purest type of cooperation is found in the household. In
these days, when competition is keen and demoralizing theories of life are publicly advocated, I think we can do our best
work in upholding and strengthening the independent family
as the only guarantee of a free state. If, then, this Association
shall show that, by properly combining the savings of working
men, comfortable homes are secured, it will be doing a work of
great usefulness to the community in which we live.
At the commencement of this undertaking I told you that
the first requisite of success was patience. And I have now to
say that we have progressed as far and as fast as I anticipated.
Your Association is composed of about fifty members, who have
been admitted after a careful examination of their characters,
wishes and prospects. I am told that there are several hun



15
dred more who are ready to join whenever you are ready to
admit them. Many of the regular members have already deposited two hundred dollars each in the savings banks, and
placed the books in my hands, to be used in payment for the
land, whenever it is selected. Should the Association increase,
as I am led to believe it will, to one hundred members, I shall
have in my hands twenty thousand dollars in cash, which will
give me great advantages in negotiating for land. It is not
difficult to find a location in the country easily accessible by
railroad to the city. In response to an advertisement, I had
offers of more than fifty different pieces of land at various distances and at various prices. In some cases the owners of real
estate have offered it without cost9 looking for remuneration to
the increased value of other lands by the location of a thriving
village in their vicinity. The further we go from the city, the
cheaper the land and the larger the lot for a garden obtained
for the same money. Modern improvements have changed the
relative position of places. A man who lives on a steam railroad, fifteen miles from the city, is, for all practical purposes of
time and convenience, as near as one living three miles from
his work, but who is obliged to depend on his own legs or a
horse-car for his means of locomotion. From interviews I have
had with the directors of several of the railroads, I feel confident that when we have decided on a location, they will either
give a free ticket for several years to the head of each family,
or run a cheap train, morning and evening, for the accommodation of the village.
I believe that the managers of our railroads are coming to
realize the importance of building up villages by liberal reduce
tions of fares. The enlightened policy of the Old Colony Railroad is even now creating one of the most beautiful and thriving
settlements in the vicinity of Boston. The hills at present called
Wollaston Heights, in the town of Quincy, which President
John Adams used to say commanded finer views than any he
had seen in Europe, are being covered with houses with a, rapidity almost unprecedented.  While a part of this success is
doubtless owing to the able management of those controlling
this settlement, and their guarantee that the community shall
never know the nuisance of a grog-shop, a large portion must
be attributed to the directors of the railroad, who promised, on




16
an average, a free ticket for three years to each householder,
provided fifty houses should be built. In three years the number of passengers between Wollaston Heights and Boston increased over four hundred per cent., and the income of the
road from the families and friends of the householders over
three hundred.  The following are official returns:Passengers.  Income.
For the year ending June 30, 1869,...    3,376    $540 19
"6    it   cc  30, 1870,...    8,617   1,160 70
it     "     "    30, 1871,..   14,654   1,892 80
For three months ending August 31, 1871,..   14,300
Thus in four years from the inauguration of this system, the
paying passengers at that station will have increased from a
little more than three thousand to fifty.
When the arrangements are made with the railroads, and the
style and cost of the buildings decided, the financial question
remains. That small houses in the country sell for much more
than they cost is evident from the great numbers that are going
up in every direction around the city. If I am rightly informed,
houses that cost with the land from fifteen to eighteen hundred
dollars, sell for from twenty-five hundred to three thousand dollars, and I have heard of cases where savings banks have
loaned more than the whole cost of such buildings and considered the security ample. The managers of savings banks are
trustees, and they would be false to their trusts if they loaned
their money without adequate security. As far as it concerns
us, their investments are limited by law to loans on real estate,
and on the obligation of an individual, with two satisfactory
guarantors. Most capitalists will lend two-thirds of the value
of an estate on mortgage, if the signer of the note is considered
responsible.
Now, what is the security your Association proposes?  Let
us take as an illustration the smallest house that would probably be constructed. The principle of course applies to houses
of any cost.
In the model tenement houses apartments, consisting of a




17
parlor, a kitchen, a chamber and a recess for a bed, with certain privileges in the cellar, rents for three dollars and fifty
cents a week, or one hundred and eighty-two dollars a year.
A  house with far greater accommodation can be built by an
association for one thousand dollars, the interest on which, at
eight per cent, is eighty dollars. A single house of this class
would cost twelve hundred and fifty dollars, and would sell for
more than its cost.  If a single house can be built for $1,250,
builders will contract to build fifty at a discount of from 20 to
25 per cent.
Fifty houses at.1,250 would be $62,500; at twenty per cent.
discount they would be built for $50,000, or O1,000 apiece.
The hundred dollars paid in would reduce the amount of the
loan required to $900 on each house, or $45,000 in the aggregate, or about two-thirds of the value of the houses, supposing
themn to be worth only the $62,500 which would have been
their cost if built singly.  The subjoined calculation shows
what would be the result if the loan were effected at 8 per
cent., the interest and part of the principal being paid annually; interest at 6 per cent. on deposits being credited, as this
is allowed by several of the banks:Build fifty houses at $1,000 each,..            $50,000 00
Pay $100 down on each house,..                 5,000 00
$45,000 00
I pay 8 per cent. interest, or $3,600 a year:
FIRST YEAR.
Rent of each house $3.50 a week, or $182 a year, say
fifty houses,...   $9,100 00
Interest on deposits 6 per cent., average 3 per cent.,                        273 00
Income, rents, etc.,...   $9,373 00
Less 8 per cent. on $45,000,.,      3,600 00
5,773 00
Carricedforwarde,..       e                $39,227 00




18
Brotught orwcrd,..                      $39,227 00
SECOND YEAR.
Rents and income as above,..   $9,373 00
Less one year interest on balance of
loan, say $39,227, at 8 per cent.,    3,138 00
6,235 00
$32,992 00
THIRD YEAR.
Rents and income as above,..   $9,373 00
Less one year interest on balance of
loan, say 8 per cent.,...    2,639 00
6,734 00
$26,258 00
FOURTH YEAR.
Rents and income as above,..   $9,373 00
Less one year interest on balance of
loan, say 8 per cent.,..    2,100 00
7,273 00
$18,985 00.FIFTH YEAR,
Rents and income as above,..   $9,373 00
Less one year interest on balance of
loan, 8 per cent.,  e...    1,518 00
7,855 00
$11,130 00
SIXTH YEAR.
Rents and income as above,.   $9,373 00
Less one year interest on balance of
loan, 8 per cent.,..         890 00
8,483 00
$2,647 00
SEVENTH YEAR.
Rents and income as above,..   $9,373 00
Less one year interest on balance of
loan, 8 per cent.,.,.       211 00.._...- $9,162 00
Less balance of loan, a   o                       2,647 00
Surplus on hand,.                               $6,525 00
Debt extinguished.




19
You perceive by these figures that in little more than six
years the debt would be paid in full, and that at the expiration
of two years there will have been paid interest and over $12,000
on the principal, and the debt reduced from $45,000 to $33,000,
which is about one-half of the cost of the houses. Savings banks
are authorized to lend on the note of an individual with two
sureties. You propose to give a note, a mortgage, and fifty
sureties; and those not men who to-day are supposed to be
worth a million, but who, by a turn in the stock market, may
to-morrow be bankrupts.  The income of the men you propose
is during their lives as certain as the continued necessities of
mankind, and in case of death, the " Unity Mutual Life Insurance Company," of which most of you are members, will furnish the means for paying up his rent and securing the property to his family.
This Association propose to build fifty houses of a better
class, which, if erected singly, would cost $2,000 each, or$ 100,000; assuming that there would be a discount of twenty-five
per cent., as I am assured by,builders would be the case, if contracted for together, the cost would be $75,000; of this each
member pays down $200, or $10,000 in the aggregate, reducing
the amount required on mortgages to $65,000, or about twothirds of the value of the houses if erected singly; assuming
that you obtain the money at seven per cent. and receive interest on your deposits as before.  According to the following
statement, the debt would be reduced in two years to one-half
of the value of the houses, estimating them at the cost if
erected singly, and the whole debt extinguished in a little
more than six years:Build fifty houses at $1,500 each,.... $75000 00
Pay $200 down on each house,.                     10,000 00
$65,000 00
Interest at seven-per cent. is $4,550.
FIRST YEAR.
Rent of each house at $5 per week or $260
a year, is,....     $13,000 00
Carried forward,.              $13,000 00 $65,000 00




20
Broughtfiorward,....   $13,000 00 $65,000 00
Interest on deposits, say 3 per cent.,.    390 00
Income,...... $13,390 00
Less interest on $65,000 at 7 per cent.,.   4,550 00
8,840 00
$56,160 00
SECOND YEAR.
Rents and income as before,... $13,390 00
Less interest on balance of loan at 7 per
cent.,.......   3,931 00
9,459 00
$46,701 00
THIRD YEAR.
Rents and income as above,. $13,390 00
Less 7 per cent. interest on balance of loan,   3,269 00
--   10,121 00
$36,580 00
FOUR1TH YEAR.
Rents and income as above,... $13,390 00
Less 7 per cent. interest on balance of loan,   2,560 00
10,830 00
$25,750 00
FIFTH YEAR.
Rents and income as above,... 813,390 00
Less 7 per cent. interest on balance of loan,   1,802 00
11,588 00
$14,162 00
SIXTH YEAR.
Rents and income as above,... $13,390 00
Less 7 per cent. interest on balance of loan,    991 00
12,399 00
$1,763 00
SEVENTH YEAR.
Rents and income as above,... $13,390 00
Less 7 per cent. interest on balance of loan,  123 00
Surplus,..          $13,267 00
And debt extinguished.




2l1
When a location is selected and arrangements made with the
railroads for free tickets or reduced fares, and not until then,
the members will be called upon for an assessment to pay for
their house-lots, which will not exceed the amounts proposed.
Each member will receive a deed and give a bill of sale mortgage on his own house for the amount he requires -in one of
the before-mentioned cases for nine and in the other for thirteen hundred dollars - the money to be received as the work
progresses, so as to keep the lender always secured.  In addition to the individual responsibility of the signer of the note,
the members of the Association agree to be jointly and severally
responsible that the debt and interest, in the shape of a rent,
shall be paid regularly on each and every note at the times and
in the amounts agreed. In case of neglect of an individual,
the bank would, at the request of the Association, sell under
the mortgage, the purchaser paying the surplus, if any, to the
original owners. Such an arrangement would require the bank
to keep but one account until the end of each year, when the
interest would be deducted and his proportion of the surplus of
the deposits indorsed on the note of each individual.
As by this plan no member parts with his money until he
has a deed of his house-lot, and as the payments of rent are
made directly to the lender, there would seem to be hardly a
possibility of loss.
In the foregoing calculation I have made no addition for insurance, taxes and the railroad ticket for the owner of the
house. My object is to render all that the tenants do as simple as possible, so that they may have no responsibility but that
of paying their rent as it accrues. To provide for this I should
propose that in addition to the payment of the interest there
should be deducted from the amount paid in, a sum equal to
the insurance and taxes, and after one-half of the value of the
house is paid, a further sum sufficient to pay for the railroad
ticket.  This would postpone the ultimate payment for the
house, but would simplify, in a great degree, the duty of the
tenant.
A friend of mine, who has studied what is called the labor
question with some attention, comes to the conclusion that one
of the most practicable ways of protecting a man's rights as a
laborer is to protect his rights as a capitalist.  The working




22
man who denies himself and lays by part of his wages should
command the best business intelligence to secure him a productive investment.  While walking through streets of magnificent stores and luxurious dwellings, we ask the question,
Who furnishes the money for this lavish expenditure? A great
part of it is supplied by the savings banks.  And these banks
represent the surplus not only of the mechanic and artisan, but
also of the hod-carrier and the washerwoman. Now, it is recognized by all other banks that he who keeps a large deposit has
a good claim to a discount. Should his bank refuse a capitalist
such an accommodation he would at once transfer his account
to another.  The laboring classes in Massachusetts have on
deposit over one hundred millions of dollars! There is a competition among savings banks to attract depositors.  It should
be determined among their patrons to withdraw their deposits
from  such banks as refuse to lend to persons of moderat~
means upon good security, and to place them in those that will
offer the working man this important aid.
The savings banks at the West are managed by persons who
deem it to be their duty to assist their depositors in obtaining
independent homes.  I have circulars issued by such institutions in Toledo and Chicago.  These offer premiums for the
best plans of houses adapted to persons of moderate means.
They announce, in capital letters, "6 Money loaned to those who
deposit with the institution and who wish to build houses."
They publish plans, elevations, specifications, and 66 a bill of
items furnished by a. practical builder, showing the actual cost
of a house."  These houses can be erected there for from 0375
to $1,500 apiece.  A three hundred and seventy-five dollar
house is not a palace, but it gives as much accommodation as
is obtained, in the city for three dollars and a half a week,
and is so constructed that it can be made a part of a larger
building whenever the tenant is able to construct one. I have
had an offer to build a house with four rooms for $400, provided
a large number were contracted for together. Now, on the plan
adopted by your Association, the tenant would pay down $100
for a lot. Thlis, if containing 2,500 feet, land at $400 an acre,
would cost but about $25, leaving $75 for incidentals.




23
He borrows on mortgage, with the guarantee of his associates,......           $400 00
He pays annually, by weekly instalments to the savings
banks, $3.50 X 52,...       $182 00
Interest at 8 per cent. on $400,..  $32 00
Insurance and taxes,..           20 00
52 00
To be carried to the sinking fund annually,  $130 00
In three years,......          $390 00
Add interest on deposits,...            17 62
_-_ —- $407 62
At the end of three years he has paid for his house and can
afford forever after to pay his fare on the railroad.  The above
is in the expectation of being able to obtain a free pass for the
owner of the house for three years.  My hope of so doing is
based on the great benefit that would accrue to the public, and,
as in case of the Old Colony, a prospect that it would greatly
increase the income of the road. At the last session of the
legislature I presented a bill, asking for working-men's trains,
at rates similar to those granted in Great Britain.  The counsel for the railroads did not deny the power of the legislature
to grant the petition, but stated that the managers of the railroads would be very liberal to such associations if they were
authorized by law to make such a discrimination between their
passengers, and an Act was accordingly passed.  In the interest
of the railroads I advocate a free pass for the head of the house
for three years, on certain specified trains, to associations that
would put up fifty houses on the line of the road, as there
would then be no necessity for making any alteration in regular fares.  From letters I have received, and papers that have
been sent me from St. Louis, Toledo, Pittsburg, Chicago and
San Francisco, I have no doubt that similar associations to yours
will be formed at many places in the West, and hundreds of
houses be thus erected by the savings of working men in other
parts of our common country.
The homestead of the laborer is the best form in which capital can be invested.  It pays a large percentage, and is of the
highest advantage to the State and the individual by elevating




24
the family relation, upon which the prosperity of both must
depend.  I therefore maintain that the working man Who lays
by something every year should be able to buy credit with his
savings.  And I am confident that an association such as you
have formed-a company of working menl of good honorable
character and responsible for each other - can offer the amplest
security.
APPLICATION FOR MEMBERSHIP
TO
THE QUINCY HOMESTEAD ASSOCIATION.
1. What is your full name?
2. Residence.
3. Occupation.
4. Place of business.
5. Date and place of birth.
6. Are you married or single?
7. If married, how large a family have you?
8. Whom do you offer as references? (Name,    o) (Address,.)
9. Do you understand Mr. Quincy's plan?
10. Are you prepared to pay $200 as the first instalment, when called for
by Mr. Quincy?
11. Are you temperate in your habits?
12. Do you enter into this Association with a speculative view, or for the
purpose of procuring a home for yourself and family?
13. What railroad do you prefer?
Signature of applicant.
Proposed by
The investigating committee report




ADDRESSES AT THE TENTH ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT
LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY
MAY 29, I90I
THE GOSPEL OF WORK
GEORGE MANN RICHARDSON
Professor of Organic Chemistry, Leland Stanford Junior University
LELAND STANFORD'S VIEWS
ON HIGHER EDUCATION
DAVID STARR JORDAN
President, Leland Stanford Junior University
PUJBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY
STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA
UNIVERSITY PRESS
1901








THE GOSPEL OF WORK.
GEORGE MANN RICHARDSON.
Horace Greeley is said once to have made the remark:
"Of all horned cattle, the college graduate is the most to
be feared."
There still lingers in some quarters a decided prejudice
against the college graduate.  You who are going out from
us to-day as graduates will no doubt be made to feel this.
It rests with you, in part, to determine whether the next
class that goes from the University shall find this prejudice
greater or less than you will find it. It is not very difficult
for us to see some of the reasons for this lack of confidence.
In the first place, I do not believe that it is in most cases a
prejudice against a higher education or against educated
persons, except as it is owing to a confusion of terms. It
is common to assume that the college graduate is necessarily an educated man or woman, but this is a fundamental
error. It has thus far been found impossible, even in our
best and most thorough colleges and universities, to devise
any system of exercises, requirements, or examinations
which will make it perfectly certain that the holders of
their diplomas shall be educated men and women.
An education is, in one respect, like a contagious disease
-not every one who is exposed to it takes it. The diploma
which you receive to-day is merely a certificate that you
have been exposed to an education; whether you have
taken it or not, your future life alone will determine. Undoubtedly a great part of the prejudice against the college
graduate comes from direct contact with the uneducated
college graduate, and in so far as this is the case, I believe




4                 The Gospel of TVork.
Horace Greeley was right,-such college graduates are, to
say the least, to be viewed with suspicion.
The chances are that any young man who has spent four
of the best years of his life in college and has neglected to
make good use of his opportunities, will continue to follow
the same course after he graduates; and such are not the
kind of people for whom " the world stands aside to let pass."
The most important principle for our guidance in life is
a thorough realization of the law that nothing that is
worth having is to be had without work. When this law
has been completely accepted and becomes part of our
moral fibre, other things will be added unto us:-we have
started on the right road.
Ignorance of this law or the effort to evade it is the cause
of much disappointment, misery, and crime. There are no
short-cuts to knowledge, to power, or to happiness. "'Eminence in any great undertaking implies intense devotion
thereto, implies patient, laborious exertion, either in the doing or the preparation for it. "He who fancies greatness
an accident, a lucky hit, a stroke of good fortune, does sadly
degrade the achievement contemplated and undervalues the
unerring wisdom and inflexible justice with which the universe is ruled." Those who are continually seeking an unearned happiness are the people that the world can best spare.
An education which is itself acquired by hard work cannot
be considered as a device for getting along in the world
without work: it merely makes our work the more effective,
it enables us to work at the long end of the lever,-but
work we must. Genius is sometimes looked upon as a substitute for hard work, but this too is an error, as we shall
quickly recognize when we read the biographies of a few
men of acknowledged genius. In fact, most men of this class
have exhibited an astonishing capacity for work. On the
other hand, it is really surprising how closely the results of
application and energy resemble the results of genius.
Any system of education which fails to develop in the
individual a clear recognition of this great law of work must




The Gospel of Work.                5
remain unsatisfactory. The individual who fails to recognize this law or who does not act according to it cannot be
considered as educated.
The old system of education, in which the time was spent
in studying Latin, Greek, and mathematics, was an excellent
system for those to whom it appealed, as is proved by the
grand characters that have been developed by it. It was,
however, a very wasteful system, as many of the young men
who went to college did not become interested in this particular kind of work. Some of this latter class, however,
were nevertheless educated by the contact with earnest and
educated men and by the countless other educational forces
continually at work outside of the classroom at every college.
But too large a number of men succumbed to the habit,
formed by four years' practice, of doing lifeless things in a
listless way.
An abundance of leisure is a trial to which few men are
equal; it is a trial that should not needlessly be thrust upon
young people before habits of work have been established.
As the weakness of the old system came to be recognized,
new subjects were added to the college curriculum to make
it more generally attractive, or, as some would say, to make
it "broader." There were added a little modern language
study, a little history, a little political economy, a little
science, and so on, until the older college course was so
diluted that it offered very little training in serious
scholarship, and the results very well illustrated the old
adage, " He who embraces too much, holds but little."
While the old difficulty was far from being overcome by
these changes, a new difficulty, a lack of thoroughness, was
introduced. "A broad education,"- what crimes have been
committed in that name!
The demand still frequently voiced for a fixed course of
study which shall best fit the "average man" for the life of
to-day is wholly irrational. It is not worth while to exchange the tyranny of the old fixed course of study for the
tyranny of a new fixed course of study.




6                 The Gospel of Work.
Owing to the endless variety of human characters and
human tastes, and owing to the present extent of human
knowledge and human activities, such a course of study is
an absolute impossibility.  Such a process for producing
machine-made men would be prodigally extravagant of human material. In thus attempting to produce a uniform
product, the very best part of the mental equipment of
many men would be cut away or hindered in growth to
make them fit into a system which at best is artificial. The
best preparation for the life of to-day is to know well something worth knowing, —if possible, to know it better than any
one else knows it. Such a knowledge is attained only when
the work necessary to it strikes a responsive chord in the
individual mind.
Our American universities are tending in the right direction, it seems to me, in offering the student a wide range of
studies and then allowing him to select for himself those to
which hie will devote his attention. A university with unlimited means should extend knowledge and offer instruction in every worthy subject. A subject to be worthy must
be, first, such that its serious study offers good mental
training, and second, such that a knowledge of it tends toward human advancement. But the university with unlimited means is an ideal which has no realization.
It is the first duty of a university to do well that which
it undertakes.  There is no doubt but that much of the
criticism which has been called forth by this introduction
of "electives" into the university curriculum is more than
justified by the consequent crippling, owing to inadequate
means, of work previously undertaken, and to an equipment wholly inadequate to do justice to the new work.
The expansion of the curriculum under such conditions is
thoroughly dishonest, and the results are most deplorable.
It is a vulgar form of self-advertisement to which no university should stoop.  Desirable as it is to have a wide
range of studies from which the student may select, expansion of the curriculum in any given institution is justifiable




The Gospel of Work.                 7
only when the work already undertaken is adequately done.
Since all universities are hampered from a lack of funds,
it is eminently desirable that all universities should cooperate in this expansion of their curricula, and instead of
following the old and narrow policy, dictated by petty
jealousies, of establishing new departments because they
have been established elsewhere, let each university look to
develop where other universities have not developed, so
that somewhere, here or there, the student will be able to
find the thing he needs for his highest development.
With ample opportunities for studying worthy subjects
the student should be able to find in the university that
thing which will best enable him to find his sphere of greatest usefulness in the world, that thing which awakens his
enthusiasm,- and it is not of great importance what the thing
is; it is the awakening that is of supreme importance; that
is the first great step towards a sound education.
One student will gain inspiration from  the great epics
of Homer, Dante, or Milton; another will be thrilled and
incited to higher effort by reading the earth's history in
the earth's crust; a third will have his soul stirred and be
able to detect nature's immutable laws by the study of the
venation in the wings of insects. Any work which is thus
capable of inspiring men to new and nobler effort can ill be
spared from our educational system.
James Russell Lowell is reported to have said that his admiration for Dante lured him into the little learning that
he possessed; while the direction of Darwin's work was
determined by his desire to know all about coral reefs. As
often as not it is the teacher, and not the subject taught,
that first arouses the interest of the student.
Thomas Jefferson said of one of his old teachers, that the
presence of that man on the faculty of the College of William and Mary fixed the destinies of his life. The university that has a Mommsen, a Lowell, or an Agassiz in its
faculty is in the possession of a power for good that is beyond estimation. How  important it is that the student




8                 The Gospel of Work.
should be able to arrange his work so as to come into intimate
contact with such men!
The fear is often expressed that with such possibilities of
choice the student may not choose wisely, - that he will overspecialize, that he will be too narrow  in his selection;
and, strangely enough, this fear is most frequently expressed
by those who look back to the older classical system as
probably, after all, the golden age of education, and who
look upon the new changes as an unwise catering to a
popular demand. Will there ever again be such magnificent specialization as when the student pursued the study
of Latin for three years in the preparatory school, for four
years in the college, and as much longer as his schooling
extended?
Indeed, it was, in my opinion, just this specialization
that enabled the older system to produce such excellent results. The thorough and extended study of a subject produces the best kind of training.
" The only true enthusiasm lies in specialization, and the
effort to compass the whole realm of knowledge ends in bewilderment and failure." The fear of narrowness that leads
to a scattering, that kills enthusiasm and produces superficiality, is far more to be dreaded than narrowness.
It is serious study that broadens; not the study of any
specific subject or of many subjects. Thorough knowledge
of any kind begets respect for, and sympathy with, thorough
knowledge of every kind. The mastery of one subject gives
strength to master another.
So long as universities refuse to give place in their
courses to the trivial, the superficial, and the sham, overspecialization is a danger that need have no terrors.
The student who enters the university and selects his
studies with a view to their bearing upon his future calling
is pursuing a thoroughly rational course. After spending
four years in the serious study of things, even though they
have a direct bearing upon his life-work, if the mind of the
student is still narrow, then there is no implement in the




The Gospel of Work.                9
educational workshop with which it can be broadened. It
is well for us to remember in this connection that there are
minds which no system of education yet devised seems to
broaden, minds which never gain the power to look upon
any subject except from the bread-and-butter point of
view.
In an address, delivered not long since, Professor Charles
Eliot Norton deplored the tendency of our times as exhibited
in the decay of principle in our public men, and as an antidote
to this he recommended a more universal and a more
thorough study of English literature. Even among those
who believe the evils pictured to be true, many would be
inclined to smile at the remedy suggested.
Yet the remedy is a good one. Its value lies not in any
specific quality of English literature as distinguished from
other branches of knowledge, but rather in the inspiration,
the uplift, and the appreciation of truth that comes from
earnest and thorough study of any worthy subject.
The advocates of the older system of education are now
for the most part ready to admit that recent changes are
perhaps justifiable upon purely utilitarian grounds. Indeed, when we look about and note the wonderful material
advancement made possible by a more general and a more
exact knowledge of natural laws, it would be captious to
deny this. But many of them still believe that, when it
comes to the development of real culture, the new education
can only helplessly appeal to the old.
In consequence, we hear much about so-called " culture
studies" as distinguished from others, which, by implication
at least, stand on a distinctly lower plane. In this connection allow me to quote from a recent editorial in the Nation
called forth by certain changes in the entrance requirements of Columbia University intended to permit the substitution of an increased amount of mathematics for some
of the Latin previously required.
" President Low's recommendation," says the writer in the
Nation, "will certainly be cited and appealed to as a




10                The Gospel of Work.
precedent by lesser colleges and universities; and in many a
Western faculty Columbia and Cornell will be held up as
bright examples of modern tendencies in the education in
the East.... We have before us the problem of articulating the public school with the college. It is no easy
task. Western  universities (most of them  are really
colleges), growing up under local conditions and holding
utilitarian or scientific ideals before them, have not been
vexed by the problem, but our stronger Eastern universities
and colleges have it still to work out.
" While these institutions have met the modern demand
for scientific training, they have also sought to retain their
ideals of culture, and most of them have succeeded in the
effort. The modern public school, being nearer the popular
heart, has sacrificed ideals of culture to those of science, so
that, while the ordinary public schools can send up to the
college or university students prepared to continue their education along scientific lines, most of them are unable to furnish the necessary propoedeutic for culture. President Low's
idea of a solution is simply and frankly to follow Western
experience; to unify the two along the line of physical science
and utilitarian aims - a line of least resistance —and let
the culture go.... Thus, when we are forced to the conclusion that our classical machinery of elementary culture
is inadequate to modern intellectual life and to our modern
educational conditions, we think we must abandon culture,
at least elementary culture, altogether, and devote the
earlier years of training to a preparation for the pursuit of
science. Small wonder if those of us who cannot ignore the
value of culture are thus compelled to oppose the development of science as the only means of retaining what culture
there is in our educational system."
According to this writer, it would appear that culture is
something that cannot possibly be attained by the study of
any science. Does culture, then, consist of a certain number
of definite attainments, the possession of which means culture, and the lack of which excludes culture? Is it possible




The Gospel of Work.                11
that a certain prescribed course of study produces in all
minds the uniform results which we call culture, while in all
other things we observe the most striking differences in the
ways in which different minds react toward one and the
same discipline?
Is not culture rather a combination of character and attainments?  A true basis for culture in the individual is a
sincere love of truth, and a firm belief that all truth is safe.
Emerson says of the possessor of culture: "He must have
a catholicity, a power to see with a free and disengaged look
every object." Culture is found among men of the most
widely different training, and it is also frequently lacking
in men whose training has been all that thought could
suggest.
May we not therefore justly conclude that there are many
roads leading to culture, and that, owing to the great diversity of minds and characters among men, when we limit the
number of these roads we simply diminish the number of
persons who attain culture? The evidence seems clear that
there are many who attain culture by a study of the ancient
languages and literatures who never would attain it by a
study of the physical sciences; likewise there are many who
reach culture through a study of the physical sciences who
never would reach it by a study of the classics.
Why not leave both avenues of approach unobstructed?
The folly of keeping a Pasteur at writing Latin verses is
quite equalled by the folly of keeping a Tennyson at peering through a microscope.
The notion is prevalent that such freedom of choice,
which renders possible the easy following of one's own inclination, cannot possibly furnish the same discipline as
may be had by the student's being forced to pursue some
line of work that may perhaps be more or less distasteful.
It is doubtless true that human beings, like other things in
nature, tend to follow the line of least resistance. Yet it is
by overcoming resistance that we gain strength. There is
here a real danger to the student which can be avoided




12               The Gospel of Work.
only by the constant vigilance of the university authorities.
Only worthy subjects adequately cared for should be
found in the university curriculum.
As has been already stated, the most important thing to
be acquired in a general education is the habit of work, and
this is most easily and most surely acquired by doing work
that is congenial. This habit once acquired, all work assumes a different aspect, and growth in all directions is
henceforth possible. On the other hand, the attitude toward
work and the habits acquired by enforced contact with uncongenial work are apt to dull enthusiasm, to stifle ambition, and future growth becomes much more problematical.
It is quite human for the man who has enjoyed the
privileges of the older classical education and who has
drawn therefrom inspiration, pleasure, and appreciation of
the beautiful, to look upon the trend of modern education
with misgivings and suspicion and to raise his voice in a
cry of warning. It is perhaps equally human for the
scientist who has likewise drawn from his work, and without the aid of the classical education, inspiration and pleasure and appreciation of the beautiful, to lose patience with
the claims of superior excellence advanced for the classical
training. Is it not time, however, for educators to borrow a
page from one another's experience, and to recognize once
for all that the desirable qualities that we class under the
head of education and culture are not produced in different
minds by identical processes? May we not welcome every
new field of knowledge and recognize its power for training
youth? May we not look upon it as some new tool in
our workshop by means of which we may be able to reach
some minds that it has been impossible to reach with the
old implements?
This joining of hands upon the part of educators will require some exercise of culture, some "power to see with a
free and disengaged look every object." We must make
some effort in order to understand one another. We must
remember that our estimate of the relative importance of




The Gospel of Work.              13
things is largely a result of our point of view, and that the
same things appear quite differently from different points of
view.
Human knowledge has now vastly outgrown the grasp of
any single mind; ignorant in some departments of knowledge the most scholarly and the most industrious must remain, and that without shame. Let no one deceive himself
with a superficial omniscience. The next best thing to
knowing a thing well is to know that we do not know it.
Why should educators waste time and energy in trying to
compare the values of different forms of knowledge, when
their lack of omniscience renders them incapable of forming
just judgments? Our own specialty is obviously to each of
us the most important form of knowledge; let us show this
faith that we have in our specialty not by criticising or
ridiculing other forms of knowledge which we are incapable
of understanding, not by hindering and checking the
growth of other things, but rather by advancing that
specialty to our utmost by honest work and earnest endeavor.
Many of the faults ascribed to over-education and its unfitting of people for their true spheres in life can be directly
traced to the undue importance which has in the past been
attributed to particular forms of knowledge and activity
and to a consequent implied degradation inflicted upon
equally meritorious forms of knowledge and activity.
Aristotle's dictum that "all manual work is degrading,"
that " all paid employments are vulgar," has cost the world
dear by the long maintaining of false ideals.
Slowly, however, more just views are prevailing, and already the men who do the world's work are meeting with the
esteem due them from all right-minded persons.
The student who is graduated from a university where he
has had large freedom of choice in the selection of his studies
has less excuse for remaining uneducated than one who has
been forced through a prescribed curriculum, much of which
may have possessed no interest for him. Upon you, therefore




14               The Gospel of Work.
as graduates of Stanford, rests the increased responsibility
of proving yourselves to be educated men and women.
It may safely be assumed that a considerable majority of
you have formed the habit of work, that you have accumulated a fund of useful information, and that in accumulating it you have learned how knowledge is obtained. You
are then prepared to walk on your own feet and to think
your own thoughts. But no one supposes that your education is ended. If that were the case this would have been
called " Ending Day" instead of " Commencement Day."
In closing, I will, if I may, leave with you this short prescription for happiness: Choose your life-work with care,
with deliberation, if need be; but when it is chosen, enter
upon it with zeal. Let your attitude toward your work be
such as was recently advised by President Hadley from
this platform, "Not how much you can get out of it, but
rather how much you can put into it." Be not overparticular about the importance of your first position  the
important thing is not where you begin but where you end.
At first the chief thing is to begin. Do not flatter yourself
or discourage yourself by comparing your own progress
with the progress of your neighbor or your friend, but rather
live up to your own best all of the time, and that best will
constantly grow better and your progress and ultimate
success will take care of themselves. Fix your eyes upon
the advantages that you have, rather than upon those that
you have not.
Finally, "Look forward, not backward; look up, not
down; and lend a hand."




51ST COINGRESS,             8ENATE.                      M Wis. Doc.
1st Sessiont.                                             No. 212.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.
AUGUST 14. 1890.-Presented by Mr. Carlisle and ordered to be printed.
LETTER OF THE COMNISSIONER OF LABOR TRANSMITTING A
STATEIENT SHOWING THE DIRECT COST OF LABOR IN THE
AiAlTUFAC'TURE OF ONE TON OF STEEL RAILS IN THE UNITED
STATES, GREAT BRITAIN, AND ONA THE CONTINENT OF BUCROPE.
DEPARTMIENT OF LABOR,
Washington, D. C., August 13, 1890.
SIRE: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of
August 8, in which you ask for a statement showing the direct cost of
labor in the manufacture of 1 ton of steel rails in Great Britain and
on the Continent of Europe, such statement to be prepared in the same
way as that sent to Senator Edmunds on the 6th instant, relating to
the cost of steel rails in the northern district of the United States.
In reply I send you herewith three statements:
First, an analysis of costs in 1 ton of standard steel rails made in
the United States. This analysis is based mainly on establishment No.
1, reported on page 35, House Miscellaneous Document No, 222 of the
present session, and is substantially a copy of the statement sent to
Senator Edmunds on the 6th instant. I have repeated it here because
it was hurriedly made for Senator Edmunds, and the proper credit for
the value of scrap produced in the ingot and rail departments was not
made. The cost given in the statement of the 6th instant related to
total gross cost of 1 ton of 2240 pounds of steel rails in the northern
district of the United States. This statement shows the total net cost
of such a ton of steel rails. It varies but 11 cents from the total cost
given as for establishment No. 1, page 35 of the document referred to.
As stated, this statement is based mainly on establishment No. 1.
It is not wholly so, because of the impossibility of tracing from the
schedules relating to establishment No. 1 the labor cost of all the materials entering into the manufacture of I ton of standard steel rails;
so labor cost has been taken from several establishments mnaking steel
ingots. Using an average as derived from these several establishments
makes a variation of but 11 cents in the result. This fact clearly establishes the soundness of the analysis of cost as based on establishment
No. 1, and as reported onm page 35 of the document referred to, The
credit for the valune of scrap produced raises the per cent. of cost of
direct labor in the production of 1 ton of standard steel rails from 45
per cent., as stated in the letter from  this Department of the 6th to
Senator Edmunds, to 47 per cent,, as shown in the last item in the
statement herewith sent.
Second, a statement showing the analysis of costs in one ton of
standard steel rails made in Great Britain.  The caleulation in this
statement is based on establishment No. 11, page 35, House Miscellaneous Document, No. 222. In this case we started with the cost of
steel rails as given in the establishment just referred to, and were able
to trace the costs back through the preceding processes of making the




2            COST OF MANUFACTURING STEEL RAILS.
blooms, ingots, pig-iron, coke, coal, and limestone, because all these
elements were made under the direction of the same company that
made the rails, and we had schedules covering all these costs. As to
the iron ore, we did not have the exact mine from which it was taken,
but we did have a representative mine in the same district from which
it was taken, and we also had the cost for transportation given, so that
the element of possible error in calculating costs is of necessity very
slight.
As to "profit to producers,'" shown in the item relating to iron ore,
a part of this is accounted for by the royalty or rent paid to the owners
of the soil, which amounted to about 60 cents for the amount of ore
shown in the statement. The remainder was made up by deducting the
costs as calculated from the ore schedule from the cost delivered at the
furnace, as charged in the pig-iron schedule. You will notice that the
total net cost of 1 ton of steel rails, as stated in this analysis, is
$18.614, while the cost. as shown in establishment No. 11, page 35 of
the report referred to, is $18.588, or a difference of only 2.6 cents,
The labor at the establishment for which this analysis is made is
paid  less, I am  informed, than at most other steel-rail establishments in Great Britain, but we were obliged to take this establishment,
as it was the only one having a schedule for standard rails and for the
previous processes, and furthermore, it is a representative establishment, whose production largely governs the price of standard steel
rails. The other statement (No. 10) for Great Britain, on the same
page, is for light rails, and the processes are not comparable fully with
those for making standard rails.
Third, a statement of analysis of costs in 1 ton of standard steel
rails made on the Continent of Europe, this statement being based
mainly on establishment No. 3, page 35, House Mis. Doe. No. 222. The
rails covered by this statement are standard steel rails, like those
in the first and second statements just described. In making this
analysis for the Continent of Europe we were enabled to follow the processes back, as in the case of the English establishment, until we came
to the pig-iron, when, owing to the incompleteness of the pig-iron
schedule for establishment No. 3, we found it necessary to use another
schedule for the cost of converting materials into pig-iron.
For the costs of materials themselves, except limestone and iron ore,
we had data from establishment No. 3, and we used the schedules of
that establishment. For the limestone we had the cost as reported at
the pig-iron furnace, but had no schedules for the Continent of Europe
showing the amount of labor, etc., in 1 ton; so we used the cost as
reported at the furnace, and subdivided that cost into its elements in
the same ratio as that indicated in the limestone schedules for the
northern district of the United States. The iron ore used was the
same kind as that used in the English case just given; so we used thes
same schedule from which to ascertain the cost of it.
In other respects the same plan was pursued as in the English case?
except that it was found that the cost of pig-iron, as charged in the ingot
mill, amounted to $1.46 more than as figured from the materials; so
we were obliged to charge that amount to the profits going to the pigs
iron produced. The net cost of standard rails per ton, as given in the
schedule for establishment No. 3, with which we started for this analysis, is $i9.576, while as shown by this careful calculation it amounts toc
$19.635, an excess of 5.9 cents only by the use of other factors to supply
those missing in the schedules of establishment No. 3.
I desire to say, in forwarding you these statements, that I have made



COST OF MANUFACTURING STEEL RAILS.                  3
hem up for three localities, instead of for two as requested, because of
the resolution introduced yesterday by Senator Edmunds and now pending,  Should that resolution be adopted I could not at present more
fully answer it than I have done in this letter. The facts called for by
you and by Senator Edmunds in the letters of the 6th and 8th ilnsts.,
on account of the difficulties which I have intimated here, could not
have been incorporated in the preliminary report, House Mis.  Doc. No.
222. In the completed reports I am in hopes not only to give more
elaborate analyses on the basis of these sent herewith, but for certain
typical establishments, those that largely regulate prices, I anticipate
being able to trace back through all the processes of manufacture the
various labor elements entering into the production. The difficulty of
doing this is at once discernible on a very casual examination of the
facts.
You will pardon me if I call your attention to one analytical feature
which should be observed in the use of the analyses herewith forwarded.
Labor cost in one ton of steel rails-I mean after all the materials have
been assembled in the steel-rail works and are ready to be subjected to
the proper manipulations for the production of standard steel railsshould be less per ton relatively in this country than in Great Britain
or on the continent, because American producers of standard steel rails
dispense with at least one expensive process still adhered to by the
foreign producer; and, furthermore, our materials, ore, etc., are purer
than those used in most other places, so the quantity of ore, for instance, required for the production of a ton of standard steel rails is
less in this country than in other places, and of course the labor required to produce one ton of steel rails is, so far as the purer materials
are concerned, less here than abroad.
By reference to tnhe statements herewith submitted it will be seen
that in establishment No. 1, for the northern district of the United
States, 4,137 pounds of iron ore were necessary for the production of
one ton of standard rails, while in establishment No. 11, for Great
Britain, 5,127 pounds, or nearly 1,000 pounds more, of iron ore were
necessary for the production of one ton of the same kind of rails than
in the United States, while on the continent of Europe, in establishment No. 11, 5,701 pounds, or nearly 1,600 pounds more of iron ore were
necessary for the production of one ton of standard steel rails. Very
many of those things which appear to be incredible when studying -the
total figures given disappear on a close examination of the analysis,
and reasons for the figures can, as a rule, be found in the analysis if
properly studied.
The establishments selected for the statements herewith forwarded
are thoroughly representative, and are far more indicative of the true
conditions surrounding the production of standard steel rails than any
of the others given in the preliminary report referred to.
Of course, as remarked in a letter from this Department to Senator
Edmunds, the cost of making rails, over and above what is in the
previous statements denominated "direct labor cost,"' is largely resolvable into labor; that is, a very large percentage of the items above
direct labor are labor in some form, but it is difficult to separate the
elements, as in transportation, for instance.
Trusting that the statements herewith handed you fully answer your
communication of the Sth,
I am, very respectfully,
CARROLL D. WRIGHT,
Horn. J. G. CARLISLE,                            Commissioner.
United States Senate.




ANALYSIS OF COSTS IN ONE TON OF STEEL RAILS MADE IN THE UNITED STATES.
[Based mainly on Establishment No. 1, page 35, H. R. Mis. Doc. 222.1
Other expenditures.
Expendi-                                                          Difference beMaterials and successiv  stages of conversion.tures                                                 Trans-              tween foregoing
"Mateialsand  uccesive tage of cnverion.for direct  Officials  Supplies                            portation             actual costs and   Total.       0
labor.       and        and    Taxes. to point  Timber.cssa   hre 
clerks.   repairs.              where               at the blast fur-used.              niace-presuma-H
bly profit to
producers.                   I
For production of 4,137 peunds of iron ore —........................                               $2. 112    $0. 124    $0. 807  $0. 081    $4. 893  ---— $2. 926  $10. 9713
-For production of 1,497 pounds of limestone........................ 205. 018. 025. 001. 318  ---—. 036. 603  ~
For production of 4,808 peunds of bituminous coal --------- -----------                              1. 973. 068. 149. 013 — ---— $0. 042  ----------           -      2. 245
F4or cenversiou of above coal into 3,532 pounds of coke -----------------              -.598. 076. 072.009.718 --------------- -                 1. 493    C~
For cenversion of above ore, limestone, and coke, and 213 pounds of cinder, into 2,649                                                                                                            I
pounds       pg-ro  — of —--------------— n —— 1 —-576 —-----— 134157.34.7718      04    ------ 054 —— 2. —-— 4 —-22.82;
For conversion of above pig-iron and 79 pounds of scrap and formo-manganese into 
2,488 pounds of steel ingots-.........91. 689. 120. 503. 011 ------ -------------- 2.323                           H
For fuel (1.11 tons bituminous coal) for conversion of above pig-iron, scrap, and ferro-                                                                                                          c
manganese into 2,488 pouinds of steel ingots ----------------------.912. 012. 089. 006. —----         09 —-------- 1. 038 
For cenversion of above steel ingots into 1 ton (2,240 pounds) of steel rails —------                1. 540     (a)        1. 000. 050. —----  ------------- 2. 590
PAor fuel (1.17 tons bituminous coal) for conversion of above steel ingots into 1 tont (2,240                                                                                                       i
pounds) of steel rails....................................962       - 033       -073. 007 ------           2 —--- 1. 095 ~
Total cost of above processes. —----------------------    --- 11. 597. 605     3.416     -232.    5. 949. 081              2.962 I24. 842      H
For cost of 233 pounds of cinder entering into the pig-iron (this is for material and is additional to its conversion included in line 5, above) ---------------   094 
For cost of 79 pounds of scrap and ferro-manganese entering into the steel ingots (this is for material and is additional to its conversion included in line 6, above)              -       7937
Total gros cost of  1 ton (-2, 240 pouuds) of steel rails-.........................................................25. 873
a, Not reported.




STATEMENT SHOWING THE PRtOPORTION OF COST ATTRIBUTABLE TO DIRECT LABOR IN THE PRODUCTION OF ONE TON OF STEEL RAILS.
Total cost of ore, limestone, and coke (coal included) for 2,649 pounds of pig-iron -------------------------------------------— $15. 314
Cost of direct labor in production of ore, limestone, and coke (coal included) for 2,649 pounds of pig-iron —4.918
Per cent. of cost of direct labor in production of ore, limestone, and coke (coal included) for 2,649 pounds o pig-iron ----—.................                        32 ----
Total cost of converting the above materials, and 211 pounds of cinder, into 2,6 9 pounds of pig-iron ----------------------------------— 2.482
Cost of direct labor in converting the above materials, and 211 pounds of cinder, into 2,649 pounds of pig-iron ------------------------------                              1.576
Per cent. of cost of direct labor in converting the above materials, and 231 pounds of cinder, into 2,649 pounds of pig,-iron. - ---------------------    63 —— 61Total cost of converting the above pig-iroin, and 79 pounds of scrap and ferro-toanganese. into 2,488 pounds of steel ingots..-.......................3.161
Cost of direct labor in converting the above pig-iron, and 79 pounds of scrap and fert-ro-manganbes, into 2,488 pounds of steel ingots -----------------— 2.601
Per cent. of cost of direct labor in convertin  ibe above pi -iron, and 70 pounds of scrap and ferro-manganese, intoi 2,488 pou-nds of steel ingots —-------- 77 ----                  )
Total cost of conv erting the above- steel ingots into 1 ton (2,240 pounds) of steel rails ----------------------  -----------------                                        3.685    0
Cost of direct labor in converting -the above steel in-,;ots into I ton (2,240 pounds) of steel rails --------------------------------- ----— 2. 502                                  W
Per cent. of cost of direct labor in converting the abovet steel ingots into 1 tsr (2,240 pounds)'of steel rails —---  ---------------- 68. —---
Total net cost of above ore, limestone, coke (coal included), cinder, scrap, and formo-manganese, and of converting them into 1 tou (2.240 pounds) of steel rails ---— 24. 666        0
Cost. of direct labor in the production of ore, limestone, and coke (coal included) and in converting them and the cinder, scrap, and ferro-manganese, into 1 ton
(2,240  u ds     f'telralspound —-------— of —--— steel —                         -     ---- -rails —---------— 1 —------— 597 1.9
Per cent. of cost of direct labor in the produaction of ore, limestone, and coke (coal included) and in converting them and the cinder, scrap, and ferr-m  a-ngaes-e
cl
fr-~
z_
qx




ANALYSIS OF COSTS IN ONE TON OF STEEL RAILS MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN.
[Calculation based on establishment No. 11, page 35, Misc. Doc. H1. R. 222.]
Other expenditures.
Expendi-                                                        Difference bet lsadsucsiv tae fo.tures for             Trans-             tween foregoing
direct    Officials  Supplies           portation            actual costs, and
Supp~ies   portatiolh         costs as charged  Ttl
lao.  and       aend    Taxes.  to point Timrber  nn  weeusd    otl                   -
clerks.  repairs.             where                by establishI                                     m~~~~~~~~~~~~lent where used.
used.
Presumably profit
For production of 5,127 pounds of iron ore-............-.............                         $0. 860    $0. 025    $0. 185  $0. 030    $4. 166 — $2 241   $7. 507 
For production ef 941 pounds ef limestone —........................ 163    -----—.16.4..............220.
For production ef 4,778 pounds of bituminous coal             —...................             2. 083      - 110       1 08    -062 -...... 0. 334-               - -......... 2. 897 
For conversion of above coal into 3,512 pounds of coke           —..................             440         019. 298 --- -------—............                          777 
For conversion of above ore, limestone, and coke; and 341 pounds of scrap cinder, etc.,
into 2,912 pounds of pig-iron. —-----------------------------                                    784      - 019      -754        016   —.......... -.........- -           1.573 
For conversion of the above pig-iron, and 383 pounds of scrap and spiegeleisen, into0
2,798 pounds of steel ingots -------------------------------                                    702       - 060      -942.007 —--      -     -     -............ 1. 711           H
For fuel (361 pounds of bituminous coal and 171 pounds of coke) for conversion of                                                                                                         c
above pig-irona, scrap, and spiegeleisen into 2,798 pounds of steel ingots —-- ------           279. 015.052. 008    --—....41..........                 395 
For conversion of above steel ingots into 2,700 pounds of steel blooms. -  ------      -     -   492        - 030.419     - 004 -    -     -----------—.....945
For fuel (810 pounds of bituminous coal) for conversion of above steel ing-ots into 2,700
pounds of steel blooms - --- ---------------------------------.353. 019      - 052    -, Oil  --                 __ -    -------        492 
For conversion of above steel blooms into one ton (2,240 pounds) of steel rails                 L. 368. 025. 348    -003 -......................... 1. 744
For fuel (672 pounds of bituminous coal) for conversion of above steel blooms into one 
ton (2,240 pounds) of steel rails.. —---------------------------                                293       - 015      -043    - 009     --—...     07.........                  407
Total cost of above processes —--------------------------                                 7. 817      -357      3. 417    - 150    4. 207     7479              2. 241   18.6688
For cost of 341 pounds of scrap, cinder, etc., entering into the pig-iron [this is for material and is additional to its conversion included in line 5 above] ---------           286
For cost of 383 pounds of scrap and spiegeleisen entering into the steel in,,ots [this is for material and is additional to its conversion included in line 6 abovel ----- 2. i187
Deduct     osscovalue of      2,20 scrap producedis.......in...th....ingot,.....bloom,.....and...rail....departments.......2....727.2i.34
Todutvalunetcs of 1ca    ton(2,240 pounds)of, steloman rails.prmns...   ------------------------------------—. —.    18 —--. 627 4




STATEMENT' SHlOWING THEl PROPORTION OF COST ATTRIBUTABLE TO DIRECT LABOR IN THE PROD1UCTION OF ONE TON OF STEEL RAILS.
Total cost of ore, limestone, and coke (coal included) for 2,912 pounds of pig-iron........................................................$11.............................. 401
Cost of direct labor in prod- ction of ore, limestone, and coke (coal included) for 2,912]pounds of pig-iron.............................-.............  3. 546
Per cent. of c st of direct labor in production of ore, limestone, and coke (coal included) for 2,912 pounds of pig-iron............................................ 1...1.....
Total cost of converting the above materials and 341 pounds of cinder, scrap, etc., into 2,912 pounds of pig-iron. —............... —....-..-..1........... 1. 573
Cost of direct labor in convertinlg the above materials and 341 pounds of cinder, scrap, etc., into 2,912 pounds of pig-iron.........-.784
Per cent. of cost of direct labor in converting the above materials and 341 pounds of cinder, scrap, etc., into 2,912 pounds of pig-iron............................  50.
Total cost of converting the above pig-iron and 383 pounds of scrap and spiegeleisen into 2,798 pounds of steel ingots -----------------------— 2.106
Cost of direct labor in converting the above pig-iron and 383 pounds of scrap and spiegeleisen into 2,798 pounds of steel ingots.-......................981
Per cent. of cost of direct labor in converting the above pi-iron and 383 pounds of scrap and spiegeleisen into 2,798 pounds of steel ingots........47.............
Percent. of cost of dir                                                                                                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~47 —--
Total cost of converting the above steel ingots into 2,700 pounds of steel blooms.. —....................................................................................             1.437  C
Cost of direct labor in conver ting the above steel ingots into 2,700 pounds of steel blooms —...............................................................................  --.845 
Per cent. of cost of direct labor in converting the above steel ingots into 2,700 pounds of steel blooms. — — 59...........................................................- 59
Total cost of converting the above steel blooms into one ton (2.240 pounds) of steel rails..-.........-.....-....-..................... 2.151
(Cost of direct labor in conversing the above steel blooms into one ton (2,240 pounds) of steel rails............................................66t 
P'er ebnt. of cost of direct labor in converting the above steel blooms into one ton (2,240 pounds) of steel rails —.......................... 77Total net cost of the above ore, limestone, coke (coal included), cinder, scrap, and spiegeleisen, and of converting them into one ton (2,240 pounds) of steel rail s a-          1- 8.614 
Cost of direct labor in the production of ore, limestone, and coke (coal included), and in converting them  and the cinder, scrap, and spiegeleisen into 1 ton (2,240
pounds) of steel rails -................7....................................  8.1..................... - -- -- -- -.......................  7.817'
Per cent. of cost of direct labor in the production of ore, limestone, and coke (coal included), and in converting themrn and the cinder, scrap, and spiegeleisen into 1
ton (2240 pounds) of steel rails.......................-.......................................................................................................   42........
C
H
H
I1_'




ANALYSIS OF COSTS IN ONE TON OF STEEL RAILS MADE ON THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE.                                                                                          0
[Based mainly on Esta blishment No. 3,page 35, Mis. Doec. II. R. 222.]
Other expenditures.
Expendi-                                                        IDiffereaces beMa terials ahd successive stages, of conversion.                          tuesTan-tw al foregoing    otl
fo-r direct  Officials  Supplies          portationaculossnd Tt.                               Q
labor.       and       and      Taxes. to point, Tibe. costs as char.,ed
clerk-s.   repairs.           -where       me.by establishm~ent                    J
usod,             where -used-pro-H
anmably profits
to producers.
For prod c-ctiou of 1,781 pounds of iron ore_ —-----------------------------                     $0. 957    $0. 028    $0. 206  $0. 033    $3. 744 ---— $3. 815   $8. 783 
For prodnction of 1, 582 ponnds of limestone. ----------------------.174        - 018. 021. 001. 086 —------------           -.298 
F or production of 4,927 pounds of bitumi ous coal-  _.  - -------------— 2. 126.1375      - 115. 042 — ---— $0. 480 —--------           -       3.338 
For conversion of above coal into 3,509 pounds of cok~e —------- -------— 1-90                                 -01.0847    -024        M 064     --  ---------      -.776 
For o   esio  ofabove ore, limestone, and coke into 3,061 pounds of pig-iron  -    -          124         -12      0-11       ()-1.76                                          314 
For conversion of above pig-iren into 2,612 pounds of steel ingots -------   ---           -       - 512.110.852.012 —------------              -     ------- 1.486;>
For fuel (752 pounds of coke) for conversion of above pig-il'-on into 2,612 pounds of
steel ingets.... —— 649                                                                                     -050.081       06 —---                7 —-------                 903     H
For conversion of above stool ingcots into 2,580 pounds of stool blooms ----------    203                     - 049      -240    - 049 -------------------                            541 
For fuel (217 pounds of cokie) for conversion of above stool ingots into 2,580 pouands of
steel blooms ------------------------------   -------                                              180       -01         02      - 005 -------.3        -------             251
For conversion of above steell blooms into one ton (2,240 pounds) of stool rails --               1. 043     (b)        b.418. 010 -------------------                         1.501     Z
For fuel (474 pounds of hituroinous coal) for conversion of above steel bloomis in'to oneQ
ton (2,240 pourods) of steel -rails-......... —------------------                                  2241     - 017      - 030     0054 —---        -.046 ----------                321
Total gross cost of one ton (2,24.0 pouands) of steel rails ---------— 8. 104.531      2.643     - 196     3.5894.663               5. 291   21. 322
Deduct value of scrap p,-roduced in ingot, bloom, and rail depart-ments —----------------                -      ----                                                               168
Total net cost of one ton (2,240 pounds) of steel rails                                                                                       19. 631 —   -------------  ------------- 1. 87
a Taxes a-re inclodod in " Supplies and repairs' not separable.           b Sniarics paid olilcials and clerks are included in "Supplies and roepairs "not separable.




STATEMIENT SHOWING THE PROPORTION OF COST ATTRIBUTABLE TO DIRECT LABOR IN THE PRODUCTION OF ONE TON OF STEEL RAILS.
Total cost of ore, limestone, and coke (coal included) for 3,061 pounds of pig-iron —-----------------------------------------— $13. 195
Cost of direct labor in production of ore, limestone, and coke (coal included) for 3,061 pounds of pig-iron..-.:.      --                                   -, — -    -------------                                 4.047
Per cent. of cost of direct labor in production of ore, limestone, and coke (coal included) for 3,061 pounds of pig-iron —----------------------                                                                  31. —Total cost of converting the above materials into 3,061 pounds of pig-iron —----------------------------------------------- 3.124
Cost of direct labor in conVerting the above materials into 3,061 pounds of pig-iron ----—..................................... 1.246.Per cent. of cost of direct labor in converting the above materials into 3,061 pounds of pig-iron --------------------   -----------— 40.
m Total cost of converting the above pig-iron into 2,612 ponnds of steel ingots-....................... —--------------------- 2.3S9
-Cost of direct l abor in converting the above pig-iron into 2,612 pounds of steel ingots -----—........................1.161
Pc - cent, of cost of direct labor in couverting the above                        pgiro into 2,612 p oun ds o f st eel in go ts.-49. —Total cost of converting the above steel ingots into 2,589 Pounds of steel blooms. —------    ---—....792...........................
Cost of direct labor in converting the above steel ingots into 2,180 pounds of steel blooms. —----------.............................183    -
Per cenat. of cost of direct labor in converting the above steel ingots into 2,580 pounds of steel blooms -48 —------------  ----------    ---
Total cost of converting the above steel blooms into one ton (2,240 ponnds) of steel rails. —-----------------------------------    -- 1. 822
i~Cost of direct labor in converting the above steel blooms into one ton (2,240 pounds) of steel rails........................  I —---------- 1.267
Per cent. of cost of direct labor in converting the above steel blooms into one ton (2,24:0 pounds) of steel rails. —------------------— I —---                                                                  70. —Total net cost of above ore, limestone, and coke (coal included) and of converting them  into one ton (2,240 pounds) of steel rails. —-----------------— 19.615 
Cost of direct labor in the production of the above ore, limestone,-and coke (coal included) and in converting them  Into one ton (2,240 pounds) of steel rails....... 8.104
Per cent. of cost of direct labor in the production of the above ore, limestone, and coke (coal included) and in converting themn into one ton (2,240 pounds) of.......................................................................................
steel rails-..........                                                                    41~~~~~~~~
Hi








THE ADVANTAGES
o —OF
EDUCATED LABOR
IN MISSOURI,
By S. W AT1ERHOUSE.
A Lecture delivered at Washington University,
April 26th, I872.
EDITION-10,000 COPIES.
ST. LOUIS:
E. F. Hobart & Co., Printers and Stationers, t(61 i.Ccstnit street.
1872.








THE ADVANTAGES
— OFF
EDUCATED ILABOR
IN  MISSOURI,
By S.o V ATIEPROUSE.,
A Lecture delivered at Washington University,
April 26th, I872.
EDITION-10,000 COPIES.
ST. LOUIS:
E. F. Hobart & Co., Printers and Stationers, 615 Chestnut street,
1872.








THE following lecture on "SKILLED LABOR" is published in
compliance with the accompanying request of the St. Louis
Board of' Trade, the recollection of whose personal courtesies
will be gratefully cherished by the author of these pages.
OFFICE ST. LOUIS BOARD OF TRADE, April 3oth, I872.
PROFESSOR S. WATERHOUSE, Washzingtoon TUJiversity.
DEAR SIR: I enclose herewith the resolutions
passed by this Board at its meeting on the 29th inst., and trust
that you will accede to this request, and furnish for publication
a copy of your very able and interesting address on "Skilled
Labor."
I was individually deeply interested in the facts it contains,
and believe much good will result from giving it a wide circulation at home and abroad.
With assurances of' my very high personal regard and also
that of the Board over which I have the honor to preside,
I am your friend and obedient servant,
B. R. BONN/ER, PRESIDENT.
At a meeting held April 29th, 1872, the following resolutions
were unanimously adopted by the St. Louis Board of Trade:
Resolved, That we regard the recent Lecture of Professor
Waterhouse on Skilled Labor of such public value as to merit
our official sanction, believing that its impressive facts and convincing reasonings would, if widely circulated, exert an important influence upon the material interests of' Missouri.  Therefore
Resolved, That the President of the Board be instructed to wait
upon Professor Waterhouse and solicit a copy of his address for
publication.








THE ECONOMIC VALUE
OF
SKILLED LABOR IN 3IISSOURI.
Of the useful and aesthetic arts, some were discovered and others
adopted by our city for the prolmotion of the public interests.
Nor do I wish to speak upon subjects whose discussion will confer
no practical benefit, but rather upon those topics whose treatment will
tend to ameliorate thile condition of mankind.
ISOCRATES.
While feeling a reverent admiration for the higher departments
of abstract thought and Eesthetic culture, I do not sympathize
with the fashionable  depreciation  of utilitarian studies. In
some minds the grandeur of a thought seems to be proportioned
to its uselessness, but it may be doubted whether knowledge for
its own sake is better than knowledge for the sake of mankind.
The progress of civilization, in which industrial art has been
so important a factor, attests the truth that a devotion to material interests is not necessarily sordiId.  It is upon the feundations of practical thought that education and religion have
reared their finest structures. Even the halls of this University
owe their existence to the commercial success which amassed the
means of their erection-to the intelligent and appreciative liberality which devoted to the service of culture the wealth which
business sag-aeity had ac(cumulated.
The postulate of Archimedes is a universal need-to move the
world there must be a material stand-point. The creative genius
which devotes its energies to cheapening the necessaries of life is




6
an efficient ally of moral progress. The successful conduct of any
business demands and develops a special scholarship, which is
not less valuable as a means of discipline, because it is so useful
as a source of wealth. The business man may be narrow, but so
may the scholar; and in either case, the narrowness results not so
much from the necessities of the vocation, as from the character
of the man. But to comprehend the broader relations of trade and
manufactures requires a depth of insight, breadth of inductiont
mastery of facts, knowledge of political economy, mechanics and
chemistry that will test the capacities of the best minds. The
executive ability, soundness of judgment and knowledge of
human nature which are essential to a symmetrical and usefiul development of faculties are evoked, not by processes of abstract
thought, butby the experiences of business life. A recognition
of the fact that some of the best trained minds in every community have been disciplined exclusively in the schools of active
industry will not permit me to speak with disparagement of the
professional scholarship which a devotion to business develops.
THE TRIUIMPHS OF SCIENCE.
Applied science has transfigured the world. With  Bfidas'
touch it has created the wealth of nations and transmuted every
object into gold. It has apprenticed the elements, invested the
earth with a nervous system, endowed machinery with the at'
tributes of intelligence, utilized the resources of nature, disciplined mental powers to greater efficiency, elevated and beautified human life. It has brought nations into nearer neighborhood, enlarged their exchanges and strengthened their friendship.  It has relieved the severity  of human toil, multipliedc
domestic comforts and increased the means of refined enjoyment. From the analysis of a planet to the observation of
microscopic life, there is no department of physical research
which it has not invaded.  On every field of battle with ignorance it has won rich spoils of victoiry. It has fortified our faith




7
with stronger proofs of a divine cause and broadened the borders of Christian civilization.  Indeed, the spiritual efficacy of
mechanical and chemical appliances has been one of the potent
forces of modern reform.
It would be difficult to exaggerate the moral power of machinery in ameliorating the condition of mankind by the diffusion
of knowledge and the promotion of culture. But it is the
economical aspect of our subject which to-night solicits attentiono
CAPITAL AND LABOR.
I shall be obliged to omit the discussion of the relations between capital and labor. Even a brief treatment of this topic
would exceed the narrow bounds of a single lecture. This omiso
sion, however, occasions less regret from the fact that the relations between capital and labor are less susceptible of control
by discussion than the immediately practical interests which tonight demand consideration.
RAW MATERIALS AND WAGES.
The enhanced values of manufactured products strikingly
illustrate the wealth-creating energy of skilled labor. Ceramic
art converts a few grains of comparatively worthless kaolin,
quartz and feldspar into a Sevres vase costing $5,000. Metallurgical skill transmutes ten cents' worth of iron ore into $10,000
worth of steel springs. Textile craft increases a hundred fold
the value of the materials which are fabricated into point lace,
Cashmere  shawls, Brussels carpets and Gobelin  tapestries.
Belgian lace-thread, even before it has received its highest value
in the finished beauty of the gossamer tissue, is worth five hundred lollars a pound. From a window-pane to the field-glass of
a telescope, from the toy wNagon of a child to the mammoth
engine of an ocean steamer, friom a photograph to a Titian, there
is not a production in the whole range of articles of use or
virtu that does not show the influence of skilled labor in apprec;iating the value of raw materials.




The effect of dexterity upon wages is also equally conspicuous.
The inexpert workman always receives the lowest remuneration. But as the hand gains a deftlier cunning, and the mind a
clearer intelligence, so the rate of compensation advances. The
ignorant laborer who can barely earn a living may acquire a
scientific skill that will enable him not only to amass a fortune,
but also to promote the material interests of the world.
THE FORTUNES OF INDIVIDUALS.
Nearly a century ago, there lived in an English hamlet a lad
whose history fitly illustrates my argument. His father was a
humble laborer. By unremitting toil, he was barely able to
procure the means of subsistence for himself and family. In his
ceaseless struggle with poverty, he was cheered by no hope of
preferment, no leisure for healthful recreation, no opportunity
for self-improvement. The son was early compelled to assist his
father in procuring the means of livelihood. At the age of nine,
he was earning two pence a day; at fourteen, he was tending the
furnaces of a colliery engine; at eighteen, he did not know a letter of the alphabet; but before he was twenty, partly by unaided
efforts and partly by instruction in night schools, he had mastered
the elements of reading, writing and ciphering. From this time
his progress was rapid. Quickened by the impulses of genius and
guided by a natural aptitude for mechanics, he devoted himself
assiduously to the study of civil engineering. As his scientific
attainments qualified him for more important positions, he was
promoted to higher trusts, till at length he became one of the
foremost engineers of the age, the father of the railway system,
and the builder of great public works. Wealth, fame and usefulness crowned his success. With a natural patent of nobility, far
grander than the title of princes, he could well afford to reject
the honor of knighthood. Skilled labor had received its reward.
His son was reared under more favorable auspices. A scientific education, enriched by the experience of his father, was a




rare discipline for the duties of professional life. The energies
of his powerful mind, utilized by technical training, left their
impress upon the fortunes of mankind, and constructed upon
both continents works of public usefulness and enduring fame.
These examples, so memorable in the history of civil engineering, are full of weighty suggestions. The father and son were
gifted with an extraordinary similarity of natural endowments.
The chief difference in their careers was due to the effect of
scientific teaching.  More than one-third of the father's life, with
all its possibilities of usefulness, was squandered through want
of education.  For many years after he had reached manhood,
and while he might, if he had been properly  educated, have
been building the great highways of commerce, he was toiling
with slow and painful progress through the rudiments of mathematics. A nd during all these years the world was losing the service of his splendid abilities. His lack of early training was a
life-long impediment. His progress was often obstructed by
problems whose solution would have been facilitated by an acquaintance with the formnule of science. In the first years of professional service, his mind was perplexed with practical difficulties which a knowledge of mechanical and physical laws would
have enabled him easily to surmount.  The scientific information, which cost the unaided engineer years of valuable time and
dearly-bought experience, could have been acquired in a few
months in a technological school.
But the son spent his earlier years in training his faculties for
professional service, and, at an age when his father had scarcely
mastered the alphabet, he was a learned engineer and the superintendent of important public works.  His great powers were
fully utilized for the benefit of mankind. None of his time and
usefulness was lost through lack of early instruction.
It would be difficult to illustrate by more impressive examples
the value of technical instruction.
But while a genius like that of the Stephensons is granted to




10
few men, the principles of political economy which their lives
inculcate measurably apply to the humblest departments of
skilled labor. There is no pursuit so lowly that its follower may
not increase the utility and value of his services by the aclquisition of an intelligent dexterity.
THE WEALTH OF EUROPE.
Before discussing the application of skilled labor to the resources of Missouri, it will be well to investigate the polytechnic
causes of foreign wealth. Differences in the various countries of
Europe in wages, rates of interest and expense of living affect
the cost of production, but they do not alone account for the relative superiority in manufactures. The nations which enjoy the
most favorable industrial conditions are not always the foremost
in manufacturing prosperity.  The great secret of European success is skilled labor. It is this which develops national wealth
and controls the tidal movements of commerce.  Without it, no
country can maintain an ascendancy in any department of manufactures. An active, vigilant, progressive competition would
soon wrest the sceptre of industrial supremacy from the hand of
an unskilful rival.
In Europe, skilled labor is fostered by the State. Hundreds
of industrial and polytechnic schools have been liberally endowed and sustained by the government. The polytechnic buildings at Stuttgart and Munich cost 1,000,000 florins each, and the
liberality of their endowment equals the splendor of their construction.  Under the  imperial government of France, an
annuity of $200,000 was given to three technological schools,while a yearly grant of $400,000 was bestowed upon academies
of higher art. Since 1852, the South Kensington Museum of Industrial Art has cost the British government $5,000,000, and
theyearly appropriation for the encouragement of technical
skill is $400,000. Emperors have deemed such institutions worthy of liberal patronage, and prime ministers have labored to,




11
e n sure their success. The means of public-spirited citizens and
the services of distinguished men of science have been devoted to
their advancement.  The result sanctions the wisdom  of these
efforts and expenditures, and attests the profitable economy of
skilled labor.
The  copious wealth which  flows along the channels of successful manufactures springs from a polytechnic source.  In Europe there is scarcely a fine or useful art that is not fostered by
special schools of instruction. Technical academies promote the
growth of every leading industry. There are " schools for instruction in the arts of designing, engraving, coloring, dyeing, silk
and ribbon weaving, lace making; of the making of horological
instruments of various kinds; stone-cutting and general carving;
of manufacturing the most delicate patterns and elegant forms of
glassware; of working the metals-both useful and preciousinto nearly every variety of form, for the consumption of the
most refined and cultivated nations-schools, likewise, of various grades for instruction in the principles and practice of the
more complex and comprehensive arts of mining, engineering,
agriculture, etc."  These schools are taught by skillful professors, furnished with libraries of technical science and equipped
according to their varying requirements, with laboratories, works
shops, niuseums of models, and collections of materials in the
crude state and in the various  stages of manufacture.  It may
be stated, as an evidence of imperial liberality in providing
facilities for artistic illustration, that the French government recently distributed to the schools of Paris 35,000 models of the
finest workmanship and taste for the instruction of little children in the art of drawing and design. It is obvious'y impossible, within the limit of an hour's discussion, fully to describe the
peculiarities of the several schools. The precision of detail must
yield to the vagueness of generalization. In all of these institutions, learned professors elucidate the principles and applications of industrial science. Every step, in the best processes of




12
converting raw materials into the finished product, is traced with
minute care and philosophic exposition. The wastefulness of
unskilful methods and the economy of scientific treatment are
demonstrated. In the manufacture of fine silks and woolens,
France stands pre-eminent. In lustre and brilliancy of impression, in exquisite taste, in beauty of design and harmony of colors, French fabrics rival the productions of the artist's pencil.
This supremacy is not due to accident nor to the happy conceptions of untrained inventive skill. The consummate art which
in these higher departments of industry controls the taste, fashion and trade of the civilized world, is the result of scientific
study and discipline. Even thle climatic and physical conditions
under which the crude material is produced are carefully investigated, and every process of cleansing, bleaching, carding, spinning, weaving, dyeing and finishing is studied under the fulil
est illumination of modern science. Creative minds strive to
devise better chemical methods, improved machinery, finer patterns and more elegant combinations. Elaborate expositions
of the principles which control the harmonious blending of
colors are illustrated by the finest products of textile art. Industrial msthetics constitutes an important part of the course. The
cultivation of taste begins in childhood. Little children are
taught to observe every form of grace and symmetry, every
beauty and variety of floral tint, every splendor of the sunset
sky. The effect of this culture is discernible not only in the
superior workmanship of the educated artisan, but also in the
higher taste and general mesthetic refinement of the French people. But whTat are the commercial results of all this devotion'to
industrial science? France is to-day supreme in many of the
higher branches of manufacture. The economical significance
of this supremacy may be illustrated by a few statistics.
In 1863, the looms  of Rheims produced $16,000,000 worth
of woolen fabrics; 55,000 workmen were employed in this in



13
dustry. In 1864, the value of the highler woolen manufactures
of Roubaix was $40,000,000.
In 1863, France exported woolen goods of superior quality to
the amount of $56,600,000. In 1866, the silk ribbons fabricated
in the mills of Saint Etienne were worth $12,000,000. Out of a
population of 90,000 people, 23,600 were engaged in this branch
of manufacture.
In 1867, France sold $40,000,000 worth of silk goods to her
British rival.
And  in 1860, the  exports of French silks amounted to
$70,000,000, and the aggr egate product was valued at $140,000,000.
Such are some of the practical results, representative of a
wide range of manufactures, which are almost exclusively due
to the influence of industrial schools. Wherever polytechnic
instruction has been most, general and thorough, there have
sprung up those prosperous manufactories which have des eloped
cities with an American rapidity of growth and raised impoverished populations to competence and the opportunities of education.
In) 1830, Flanders employed more than 275,000 workmen in the
manufacture of flax. But  subsequently the mechanical improvemnents of other countries paralyzed this industry and involved a people, dependent upon it for their means of support, in
suffering and ruin. In this extremity, the Belgian government
resorted to the  establishment of technical schools. The experimnent was successful, and from that day the Belgian mills
began to regain their formner prosperity.
In 1851, the British government appointed commissioners to
investigate the causes of decline in English manufactures. The
report ascribed  this decline to a conspicuous deficiency in
tec hnical'instruction, and the government, seriously alarmed by
the depression of manufacturing industry, loss of trade, and
tl-e (onquests of foreign skill, at once instituted a general syseonquests of forcion            b ~~~~~~~~~~~ sys-~~




14
tem of polytechnic instruction.  The influence of this training
soon manifested itself in the greater economy of manufacture,
superior excellence of the product, and renewed vitality of
trade. This example forcibly illustrates the importance of industrial schools. Cheap capital and fuel, together with educated
skill, have made England the workshop of nations and given
her almost a monopoly of all the lower grades of cotton and
woolen goods. The value of this monopoly, which skilled labor
will enable her to preserve, may be inferred from the following
figures.
In 1867, England manufactured 380,000,000 pounds of wool,
and the product, independent of worsted goods, was worth more
than $100,000,000.  In 1866, nearly 900,000,000 pounds of cotton were fabricated in English mills. The total value of the product was more than $500,000,000, of which $248,000,000 wortP
was exported.   In 1870, British exports, almost exclusively
manufactures, amounted to nearly $1,000,000,000.
It is not strange that the English government was alarmed by
the jeopardy of such vast interests, and that it should strenuously
cherish the technical art which was an effective means of their
preservation.
DOMESTIC AGRICULTURE.
Skilled labor, which has been productive of such enormous
amounts of foreign capital, is to-day the supreme material need
of Missouri. The enrichment of its magic touch would be felt
throughout the whole range of our industries, but nowhere would
the economic worth of technical skill be more conspicuous than
in the operations of agriculture.  In this country there has
been a strong prejudice against scientific husbandry, but this
feeling cannot rest upon any tenable basis of fact or reason.
The application of scientific truth to every other department of
practical industry has proved of the highest economic value,
That agriculture is no exception to the universality of this prin



15
ciple is shown by the surprising results which scientific farming
has already achieved. Observe the progress in  agricultural
machinery. A few years ago, a friend of mine who was traveling in Greece saw some rustics vexing the earth with a knotted
stick tied with ropes to the horns of oxen. The advance from
this rude implement to the steam gang-plow of England is immense. The value of our improved reapers lies not only in the
economy of human muscle and greater power of accomplishment,
but also in that rapidity of operation which permits laborers to
attend to other work till the full maturity of the cereal harvests,
and then to garner them quickly with but slight exposure to
damage by storm. The annual saving by this speedy rescue
from the destructive force of the elements must amount to
millions.
it is probable the world never before  saw  such perfect
breeds of domestic animals as the scientific propagation of England has developed.
Skill in grafting, or in combination of varieties, has produced
a marvellous improvement in the richness and delicacy of our
apples, pears, peaches, grapes and strawberries. Through the
beneficence of science, the modern laborer enjoys fruits of a
more delicious and exquisite flavor than ever gratified the taste
of an ancient epicure.
It is science that preserves the perishable fruitage of summer
for the luxurious dessert of mid-winter, and concentrates meats
and farina for Arctic voyage or sanitary use. It is science that, by
the application of improved fertilizers, increases the bounty of
our harvests, and restores the productive energy of exhausted
soils. It is science that compels the sentinel lightnings to herald
the approach of storms and to guard our property on land and
sea against the elemental forces. Who then shall dare to say
that science has been of no service to husbandry?
The European schools of agriculture are equipped with a liberality befitting their importance. The Russian school at Petrovs



koi is sustained by an imperial annuity of $100,000.  The Austrian farm at Krumau origin ally comprised 300,000 acres. All
the schools devoted to agriculture are furnishled with laboratories
and workshops, improved inmplement, and machinery, models and
products; and the farms are supplied with the finest breeds of aninmals, the choicest varieties of cereals and vegetables, and the
best selections of plants, vines and fruit trees.  Some of these
schools have factories for practical instruction in the manufacture of vinegar, starch, sugar, wine, etc. Thus, every branch of
agriculture is enlightened by the tuition of' science.  The economlic results of skillful tillage justify the expense of agricultural
schools. It is hardly an extravagance of rhetoric to say that
the chemical discoveries of Baron Liebig have increased the harvests of the civilized world.
I hope the time is not far distant when the European system
will be extensively introduced into MBissouri.   Then its garners
will overflow with the larger returns of intelligent cultivation,
and its greater prosperity rest upon a scientific ground-work.
Then the analysis of soil and vegetable, the special relations of
climate to production, the conditions under which foreign plants
and animals can be naturalized, and the al-plications of economic
botany will be subjects of profitable investigation.  Then the
<cultivation of fishes will be a lucrative employment. Then veterinary skill will measurably rescue our domestic animals from
the ravages of epidemic disease, and entomological science, sensibly arresting the devastations of insects, will annually save a
wealth of fruits and cereals that would be more than sufficient
for the erection and endowment of an agricultural college.
Then farming, raised to the dignity of a science, will furnish not
only ampler means of material greatness,  but also exhaustless
resources of philosophic study and expanding thought.




17
COMMERCE.
Educated skill is the directive power of modern commerce.
High mercantile success implies broad views and sagacious
combinations. Only large, resourceful and well-informed minds
can control the great interchanges of nations.  The untrained
merchant can seldom successfully compete with a well-disciplined
rival. Commerce is no exception to the general truth that
knowledge and skill are guarantees of victory. A wide range
of professional learning lies open to the merchant. The mysteries of book-keeping; the principles of banking and insurance;
local wants and products; the inter-relations of demand and supply; the causes of fluctuations in prices and rates of exchange;
geography and channels of communication; processes of manufacture, adulterations, and the impositions of trade; common
and international law; commercial history and political economy, challenge investigation and reward the intelligent student
with broader visions of mercantile life and greater assurances of
personal success.
The youthful merchants of Missouri should ever remember
that the great prizes of commerce are always won by superior
knowledge under the guidance of practical skill.
MANUFACTURES.
In treating the application of skilled labor to our manufactures,
the multitude of topics that solicit consideration is simply bewildering; time permits but a hasty glance at subjects which
only an elaborate discussion can render interesting.
The dexterity of English manufacturers enables them  to
purchase the cotton of India, pay the profits of production, incur
the cost of manufacture,  defray the, expense of a double transportation, and yet under-sell the native products in a country
where ten cents are liberal wages  for a day's work. And
American ingenuity has, in certain branches of manufacture,
B




18
triumphed over the cheapness of British labor and capital, and'
profitably exported to England and the continent locomotives,.
sewing-machines, watches, and coarser cotton fabrics. It will,.
then, in this discussion, be assumed that skilled labor can achieve
immediate success in many departments of productive indus —
try, and an ultimate independence of European manufactories.
Domestic skill will yet fabricate our wool, cotton, flax and silk:
into the myriad products for which we are now paying so costlya tribute to foreign looms.
In 1871, England bought of the United States more than
$180,000,000 worth of cotton, and by the application of textileskill, realized a net profit larger than the original cost of the raw
material. This single fact shows the possibilities of opulence
which cotton mills in our own State would enjoy.
Iron of almost every useful variety is found in more than
sixty counties in Missouri. According to the sober calculations
ofgeology, this State contains 1,000,000,000 tons of iron ore, and
100,000,000,000 tons of coal.  Yet the actual revenue which
Iissouri derives from this vast mineral wealth is far smaller,
than that of less favored regions. In 1871, this State produced
about 85,000 tons of pig iron, worth something less than
$4,000,000; in the same year England made from very inferior
ores more than 6,000,000 tons of pig iron, worth in the crude,
state nearly $100,000,000. The annual productive value of the
iron and coal mines of Pennsylvania'is $120,000,000. Of the
2,000,000 tons of railway iron annually consumed in the United
States, by far the larger portion is required for the roads of
the Mississippi valley. While AMissouri has such natural facilities for supplying this demand, most of these bars are imported,
and the very rails that run to our mountains of iron were rolled
in English mills. Capital and skilled labor will yet provide,
domestic supplies for every demand of hardware.




19
Possessing more than 15,000 square miles of coal, rich with
inexhaustible stores of motive power, Missouri is yet largely
dependent upon adjacent States for its supplies of fuel.
With galena enough in her mines to satisfy the wants of the
whole Mississippi valley, our State imports lead from Europe and
even from China.
Our abundant resources of copper, nickel, zinc, hydraulic
cement, fire-clay and granite, are waiting for the hand of skilled
labor to utilize them for the service of man. Vast quantities of
cobalt, baryta, and ochres of every hue lie embedded in the soil
of Missouri, ready for technical art to convert them into valuable paints. Our quarries are full of richly-veined and beautifully mottled marbles for the embellishment of our homes.
Kaolin, of superior purity for porcelain, and  sand of the
finest quality for glassware, exist in Missouri in exhaustless
abundance. With these materials, skilled labor could create
great and profitable industries. The example of Belgium, which
twenty years ago produced 50,000,000 square feet of sheet glass
per annum, Missouri would do well to imitate.
Iron pyrites, from which sulphuric acid is made, occurs in
unlimited quantities in this State. This is a fact of great economlic moment. No other chemical agent has such general use
and value in the practical arts. The success of many of our most
important industries depends upon a cheap abundance of this
material. This acid is an essential element in bleaching, dyeing, calico printing, in the refinement of coal oils, and in the
manufacture of super-phosphates, carbonate of soda, glass, soap,
candles, etc. It is estimated that in Missouri alone the annual
consumption of sulphuric acid amounts to 3,000,000 pounds. It
is fortunate for our material interests that the State contains
such exhaustless sources of this powerful industrial agent.
France is enriching itself by the annual production of
1,200,000.000 gallons of wine. Chemical analysis, meteorological




20
observation, and practical experience show that we have a soil
and climate admirably adapted to the culture of the grape. With
10,000,000 acres suited to the growth of the vine, the vintages of
Missouri ought to equal in extent, quality and'productiveness
the best wines in Europe.  IBut this great source of' wealth can
only be unsealed by the hand of skilled labor. The successful
competion of some of our native brands in the wine markets
of Europe reveals the brilliant possibilities of our grape culture.
Thus far only the utilization of our own resources has been
discussed, but there is no reason for any such narrow limitation
of our productive energies. The manufactories of England
bring their crude material from every quarter of the globe.
I have long thought that St. Louis, with its comparative nearness, partial water transportation, and cheap coal, possessed
unusual facilities for the reduction of the Rocky Mountain
ores. Our northern rival has already established smelting works
for this purpose. St. ILouis has too long neglected a rare opportunity of establishing a great and lucrative industry. The
mountains invite us to relieve their distended veins and infuse
their golden currents into our own circulation. Only an unreasonable spirit of self-denial can induce us to decline so generous
an invitation. The silver ores of Utah are carried to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and even Wales for reduction. Two hundred and fifty car loads a month have been sent to Swansea, and
recently one Welsh firm had at their works $600,000 worth of
Utah ores. It is said that the ocean freight alone-$6.60 a ton
in gold-is equal to the cost of refinement in this city. If our
mountain ores can be profitably transported 4,000 miles for
reduction, the financial success of smelting works at St. Louis
cannot reasonably be doubted. Large quantities of these ores
are now shipped to Wales by way of San Francisco and Cape
orn —a distance of not less than 15,000 miles. In 1870, the
amount of ores exported from Utah and Colorado for foreign
reduction, was more than 100,000 tons. This is an exhibition




21
of energy which our citizens should emulate. Reductive works
would also create kindred industries and our metropolis would
become the great central manufactory of gold and silver ware~
Artistic design and decorative skill are important elements in
the value of such products.
CIVIL ENGINEERING.
Civil engineering is a branch of skilled labor too essential
to be ignored in a formal discussion of the means of developing our resources. Its usefulness is conspicuous in the determination of legal bounds, in the sewerage which preserves
the health of cities, in the drainage which reclaims malarious
districts for fruitful tillage, in the water-works which supply
towns with copious streams of healthful water, in the tunnels
which undermine lakes and pierce mountains, in the bridges
which span great rivers, in the canals which open new  channels of communication between states and continents, in the
railroads which facilitate domestic exchanges, in the steamships
which bear the commerce of nations, in the machinery which impels the mightiest industries. But these works, without which
our present civilization would be impossible, are the exclusive
achievements of scientific skill. The civil engineer must be
thoroughly conversant with mechanical drawing, the constructive principles of machinery, the tensile and compressive strength
of materials, the dynamic effects of temperature and atmosphere,
the static and hydraulic power of water-in fine, he must be
familialr with mechanical forces, chemical properties, physical
laws, mathematical science, and executive management, or he
cannot command high success in his vocation.  The calculations
upon whose exact accuracy the erection of our great St. Louis
bridge depends fill a large'volume. But the skilled labor of
the civil engineer is indispensable to a full development of the
resources of Missouri. New avenues must be opened to our agricultural and m' neral wealth. In many localities, our treasures




22
of iron, lead and coal have but little present worth for want of
means to transport them to market. The vast forests of excellent
timber which cover the surface of southern Missouri are now
comparatively valueless, in consequence of their inaccessibility.
The skilful engineer, providing facilities of access and transfer,
will be an important factor in our industrial development.
GEOLOGY, MINING, AND METALLURGY.
The millions which England and Germany have spent in the
prosecution of geological surveys and the maintenance of schools
of mining and metallurgy have proved an enriching expenditure. The technical science acquired in the schools and utilized
in the surveys has developed a mineral wealth a thousand fold
greater than the cost of instruction and exploration.
There are, in all the world, few richer fields for geological
investigation than the mineral formations of Missouri; and in
these fields only skilledlaborers command employment.  Economic geology will be one of the plastic forces of our greatness.
The geologist will examine the water power of the state and guide
the manufacturer to the best mill sites; analyze soils and reveal
their adaptations; develop building  materials, sands, clays,
ochres, and cements; indicate the position and extent of mineral
veins, ores and deposits; and, by his knowledge of formations,
modes of occurrence, animal and vegetable fossils, save the inexperienced miner many useless and costly experiments. The
geologist, verifying his scientific researches with the wonderful
diamond drill, can point with unerring accuracy to the buried
treasures of Missouri. Mining and metallurgy supplement the
labors of geology. To construct tunnels, sink shafts, raise ore,
expel gases, secure ventilation, remove water, manipulate compressed air and the new explosives, economize motive power
and mechanical forces, analyze fuels and fluxes, construct furnaces, utilize waste gases, control the chemical operations of
smelting and refining, forecast the cost of works, and understand




23
the administration of mines, furnaces and workshops-these are
duties whose economic discharge requires educated ability.
For the following examples of what skilled labor is capable of;:accomplishing in these departments of industry I am indebted
to Prof. Potter.  The ore in the district of Cleveland, England,
ihas only 28 or 30 per cent. of iron. Our Missouri ores contain
more than 50 per cent. of iron. Yet under the rigorous treat.
mient of science, the Cleveland district produces from its inferior
ore more and cheaper iron than any other region in the world.
Where, less than a quarter of a century ago, there was not one
house, there is now a population of 100,000 people, with an annnual production of nearly 1,900,000 tons of pig iron.
The total value of the crude metals, coal and other minerals of'Great Britain in 1870 was almost $240,000,000. Truly the results,of skilled labor are not insignificant.
The lhad ore of Freiburg, Saxony, is so extremely poor tlsat
in this country it would not, under existing conditions, pay the,cost of reduction. But in 1867, an exhaustive scientific refineiment extracted from 31,000 tons of ore 65,000 pounds of silver,
4,660 tons of lead, 1,200 tons of sulphur, 604 tons of zinc, 160
tons of arsenic, 70 tons of copper and 12 pounds of nickel and
~cobalt, with a total value of $1,393,885, and now a more skilful
concentration in the treatment for other metals swells this ag-;grogate by an annual addition of $30,000 of gold and bismuth,
which even an analysis of the original ore failed to detect. Thus
the economy of science compels an inferior ore, which here would
simply be thrown away, to yield ten valuable and remunerative
-3roducts.
Chemical superintendents are employed at most of the iron
and steel works in Europe. Is it merely a coincidence that
the greatest metallurgical and financial success is always found
tt those works which are under the constant supervision of proCessional chemists?
In foreign schools of mining and metallurgy, not only every




24
step from the opening of the mine to the completion of the metal
product is elaborately taught, but the mind is trained to extreme
vigilance of observation. Peculiar appearances of ore, novel behavior under treatment, the slag of the furnace, the dust of the
refinery, and the gaseous condition of the surrounding air are
carefully investigated for possible suggestions of more economical processes.
What wealth such skill, operating on the vast mineral resources;
of Missouri, would develop!
CHEMISTRY.
Chemistry, too, will be one of the great formative energies
of our industrial prosperity. Many of the most brilliant and
useful achievements in the domain of practical art have been
wrought by economic chemistry.
e This science sustains nearly the same relation to the industrial arts that air does to animal life. There is scarcely an article of use or beauty ever devised by the ingenuity of man that.
is not in some way indebted to economic chemistry. It is this,
science that provides comforts for the humble home and luxuries.
for the imperial palace; that reclaims waste lands and refines.
metals; that discovers remedies, disinfectants and anesthetics;,
that derives from coal-tar the exquisite aniline hues, and fo:ms,
the colors which embellish our fabrics and glow upon the canvas; that extracts the fragrance of a thousand flowers from the
refuse of the stable, the flavor ofpine-apple from putrid cheese, aad
the essence of pears and apples from fetid fusil oil; that forms zrtificial ice in tropic lands; that perfects the light which beacowm
mariners to safety; that works the infinitely varied miracles o:
telegraphy, photography and metallurgy; that moves mightyin,
dustries and cheapens the necessaries of human life. What
chemistry has done to lessen the price of common articles a sin,
gle example will illustrate. Formerly ultramarine was worth
more than its weight in gold. But chemical skill has reduced the




25
cost from $50 to 50 cents a pound. The annual value of the
chemical products of France is $250,000,000. There is no more
fruitful field of applied science than economic chemistry, and
none which I would more earnestly urge the youth of Missouri
to cultivate. But its vast harvests can be gathered byno unskilled hand. Only scientific culture can garner its golden fruitage.
ENTERPRISE AND INVENTION.
Thus even a general discussion of the applications of skilled
labor to some of our leading interests forces the mind to a conviction of its transcendent value in every branch of industry.
One of the grand advantages of polytechnic training is that the
educated workman can avail himself of the best means of effecting his end. Hie wastes no capital in impracticable experiments
and squanders no time in acquiring the costly lessons of untaught experience. No plans are disheartened or frustrated by
ignorance of physical laws. But all the forces and economies of
science are his business partners. Enterprize, too, is stimulated
by a scientific knowledge of the means of accomplishment; and
conceptions, which the unskilled mind might perceive but could
not embody, are speedily realized through the agencies of science.
But economy and productiveness are not the sole advantages of
skilled labor. A technical education is a powerful incentive to
invention and discovery. The significance of nature's hints is
not always perceived by the unlearned mind, but the cultivated
intellect trained to habits of scientific vigilance, is quick to take:
intimations. To the spirit of observation and inquiry which a
professional culture develops the world owes many of its most.
wonderful achievements.
But few years ago, the polarization of light was regarded as a
curious optical phenomenon utterly unrelated to human uses,
but now, in all sugar refineries, the angle of rotation of a polarized ray is the unerring criterion of the requisite degree of refine



26
ment. The sensitiveness of certain chemical substances to the action of light was long a useless fact, but behold what a miracle
skill has wrought!
Now photography not only fills the earth with art and beauty
but also promotes science, depicting the magnified planet and
animalcule with a delicate perfection that manual art can never
equal. Its latest achievement is to form surfaces fiom which
impressions can be printed, and the pictures, struck off just like
steel plate engravings, retain the exquisite softness and fidelity.of the photograph.
For centuries, a subtile and seemingly worthless force was
-allowed to squander its energies, but now, under the discipline
of science, electricity guards our homes from burglary, protects
human life in the regulation of railroad trains, moulds type,
spreads golden  beauty  over the baser metals, secures the
operations of agriculture, regulates the movements of fleets,,and controls the commerce and politics of the world.
For years, the spectrum of flame was considered the valueless
~discovery of abstruse scholarship, but now spectral analysis is
an important agent in one of our mightiest industries. In the
manufacture of Bessemer steel, a powerful current of air is forced
through the molten mass of iron, chiefly for the purpose of consuming the excess of carbon. A mistake of a few seconds in
the length of the process would ruin the product. Only the,most experienced and critical eye could determine, from an in-:spection of the flame, the exact moment of highest excellence.
Such skill was rare and costly. But now the spectroscope affords a cheap and infallible means of telling when the work is
done. While the carbon lines are visible in the spectrum of the
-flame, the operation is incomplete; but when these lines disapl
pear, the process is finished, and the air-blast must be instantly
-arrested.
The spectroscope enables an ordinary workman to determine,the precise moment when the requisite chemical change has been




27
effected. Thus a curious physical discovery, apparently destitute
of all practical value, has proved to be an efficient factor in a
great industry.  This novel use of the spectroscope is a beautiful
illustration of the simplicity, certainty and economy of some of
the processes of applied science.
To the infinitely varied applications of steam, whose motive
breath vitalizes every industry, we now add some of the finest
effects in the coloring of woolen fabrics, and even engraving, by
means of the sand-blast.
These examples prove not only the practical usefulness of
scientific truth, but also the expediency of cultivating the inventive faculty. A single discovery often enriches the world. A
polytechnic education, stimulating the inquisitive and creative
power of the human mind, tends to develop one of the most
productive forces known to political economy. Scientific research
may yet discover other agents as useful as hydrochloric acid
in-' bleaching, mercury in the refinement of metals, or sulphuric
acid throughout the range of industrial art. It may yet devise
a cheap and effective means of eliminating sulphur from iron without coking the impure coal. It may yet utilize electric energy
as a motive power. It may yet so improve machinery, simplify
chemical processes, and reduce the cost of living as to secure
for our State a golden pre-eminence in manufacturing industry.
ACTIVITY OF BUSINESS.
Now, most of our raw material is exported, and nearly all our
domestic wants are supplied by importation. One of the beneficent results of the introduction of skilled labor would be a more
general establishment of home manufactories. This would save
the immense sums which we are now paying away for double
freightage, reward the producer with the larger net gains of a
domestic market, utilize our resources, retain within our own
State the cost and profits of manufacture, and inspire every
industry with prosperous life.




28
THE PRESENT DUTY OF MISSOURI.
Never in our history has there been a more propitious moment than the present for the introduction of skilled labor.
In Europe, the increasing expense of living, and the greater
difficulty and cost in obtaining ores and coal lessen the advantages of the foreign manufacturer, while the social, political and
industrial condition of Europe favors emigration. Missouri should
avail itself of the auspicious opportunity. The introduction of
educated skill is worthy of legislative encouragement. Trustworthy expositions of our resources, issued under official salictions which will command confidence should be disseminated
in foreign lands.
DOMESTIC INSTITUTIONS.
But the acquisition of European dexterity ought not to be
the limit of our endeavors. Polytechnic schools of our own
should be equipped with every facility for the professional education of the youth of Missouri. George Stephenson once wished
to emigrate to America, but was prevented by poverty. The
accomplishment of his purpose might have changed the fortunes
of the world. The financial value of such a man is beyond
the calculations of' political economy. But our polytechnic schools
may develop Stephensons of our own.
PERSONAL CHARACTER.
If it be alleged that the tendencies of a technical education
are sordid, the charge is refuted by the logic of experience
Throughout Europe, it is found that industrial training not
only surrounds the artisan with competence and physical comforts, but also begets in him a spirit of inquiry and greater
general intelligence. It raises all its beneficiaries to higher
planes, and some to lofty eminence. The mind which has
gained an exact knowledge of any branch of practical science
is stirred with a restless desire for a deeper insight into the laws




29
and forces of physical nature; and the education that blesses the
home with greater plenty and the means of mental culture also
quickens the intellect with the spirit of scientific inquiry.
Before the establishment of technical schools, the industrial
masses of Europe wore generally poor and ignorant, and frequently profligate and lawless. Sunk often in sensual grossness, they were destitute of the virtues that ensure domestic
happiness and. the aspirations that guide to a higher life. But
instruction, opening sources of purer enjoyment and disclosing
possibilities of personal elevation, initiated a radical reform. It
promoted civil order, public health, and private morality.
Workmen who had been accustomed to squander their small
wages in dissipation now spent their larger earnings upon the
means of self-improvmeent; and strove to bestow upon their
children the scientific culture whose practical value they had experienced in the advancement of their own fortunes. With a
clearer perception of their industrial, civil, and moral obligations,
they became more intelligent artisans, more orderly citizens, and
-more exemplary men-teaching by personal proof the grand
fact that even an economic education promotes not only the material welfare of States, but also the higher interests of morality
and civilization.
HIGHER CULTURE.
Wealth naturally precedes culture in the order of national development. It is idle to talk of the charms of literature to him
whose utmost efforts can barely procure a living, or to speak of
the beneficence of universities to communities which lack the
riches to build and endow them. On every side greatpossibilities
fail for the want of means to realize them. But the wealth derived from the practical arts should not be the ultimate object
of human aspiration. Applied science is grandly useful in raising
the massesto higher levels of happiness, and giving them  the
means and opportunities of intellectual cultivation. I have no




30
fears that the wealth created by educated skill will be devoted
to ignoble uses. History records no finer examples of intelligent munificence than those which embellish the annals of our
own country. The consecration of private and public resources
to beneficent charities, popular education and higher culture inspire an assured confidence that greater opulence would only
be the means of a broader usefulness and a truer refinement.
Then let the practical arts with utmost speed lay the material
foundation of a higher civilization —a civilization that shall rise
like the fair fabric of a Minervan temple, sacred at once to culture and adoration-a civilization whose spiritual wealth shall be
far above all material riches, and whose refined art shall glorify
the canvas with images of grace, chisel the -marble into forms of
celestial loveliness, and adorn the page with creations of poetic
beauty.












ARBITRATION
AND ITS
RELATION TO STRIKES.
WILLIAM B. -WEEDEN.








Arbitration  and  its  Relation  to  Strikes.
AN ESSAY READ AT THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF UNITARIANS
AT SARATOGA, SEPTEMBER, I886.
BY
WILLIAM B. WEEDEN.
BOSTON:
PRESS OF GEO. H. ELLIS, 141 FRANKLIN STREET.
I887.








ARBITRATION AND ITS RELATION TO STRIKES.
BY WILLIAM B. WEEDEN.
A MAN of moderate but independent fortune, living in the suburb of
a large village, awakes on a cold December morning, and finds the furnace
fire out, the house chilled and cheerless in the gray dawn. He rings for
a fire, but gets no answer. Then his wife sleepily tells him the condition
of the family affairs., He had come home late at evening, and did not
know of a certain unpleasantness occurring after supper. The mother
with an infant had rebuked a nurse, whose duties conjoined those of a
housemaid, for snapping the fingers of a sensitive, three-years-old girl,
intrusted to her charge. The Most Worthy Nursing Mistress of the District Association of Nursery Maids had telephoned at once that nurses
must have the right to snap children with the thumb and finger, or universal society would dissolve into its primitive elements of savagery. The
mother - believing in the right of parents to discipline their own children,
and not experienced enough to know that mistresses must obey their servants  discharged the rebellious maid. The cook was a fifth cousin of
the nurse, and moreover, in the forenoon, had asked for more wages. It
was not in human nature that she should remain silent in such a discussion,
and she interfered loudly and effectively. She was an old hand,-of much
influence in the higher circles of the order of cooks. While the mistress
sobbed in the parlor, the telephone reported the discord of the family at
head-quarters. The Most Ancient Master of Gastronomic Artists had signified that an economic deficiency in wages, combined with a wound in the
sensibilities of a fifth cousin, involved grave questions, affecting the whole
permanency of the relations of capital and labor; that, pending the question of wages, an apology must be rendered by the mistress, or not a chop
could be broiled or a dish washed in that household. Hence, the deadlock
in the affairs of that mistaken housekeeper,- the oppressor of her kind.
The wife and mother proceeds to build the kitchen fire, and attempt
a breakfast. The father should have made the fire, and put the kettle on;
but, unfortunately, having mail contracts, he must be at the railway station
before breakfast, to superintend his own business. In the midst of the
household reports, he runs to the stable for his horse and buggy, always
ready at that hour. He finds the stable closed; and his excellent man,
Patrick, lounging about, listless, yet respectful. In a shamefaced way, he
said that he was sorry that he could not lift a finger for a gentleman who
had always treated him well; but the interrupted privileges of the nursemaid, the outraged sensibilities of the thrifty cook, had convulsed the




highest circles of the protective associations of the employed. The General Meddlesome Patriarch of the Amalgamated Order of Coachmen,
Hostlers, Gardeners, Washerwomen, Cooks, Housemaids, Nurses, Butlers,
and Scullions, had ordained that the whole domestic affair should be
submitted to arbitration. Pending the decision, a general strike of the
household was ordered. The Patriarch had considered, in council, a general strike of all the households in the village. But the telephone wires
not working surely, on account of a storm, the more moderate thought it
better to begin with the household in question. Only ten minutes remaining for the oppressor of his kind to get to his business, as he espies a man
in the street, he offers him a half-dollar for instant help in harnessing the
horse. The man answers reluctantly that, though he needs money to buy
bread for his own family, the hostlers on either side of the street had
warned him of a broken head, if he should interfere with the rights of
labor in that stricken household.
Fables have illustrated truth since literature began.  Though these
incidents seem grotesque in the relation, they differ in no essential principle from daily occurrences in our industrial life, when it is disorganized
by the irruption of strange and unnatural forces.  These new powers,
seizing the latest forms of organization,- created to construct,- turn them
to the destruction of the organisms of industry. The sudden shock of a
strike jars down the whole delicate fabric of industry, and deranges the
social order on which that fabric rests. The mischief done, —the vital
forces of production destroyed,-then a judicial procedure is proposed,
and arbitration is summoned to award justice, — justice, where contracts
are broken, property destroyed, personal rights and liberty overwhelmed
by mob violence, either committed or apprehended and feared.  There
is not a tittle of exaggeration in the allegory. Industrial life is even more
complex than domestic households. These fantastic situations, not present, but possible, only bring home to each individual man and woman the
keen anguish which industrial leaders directly, the whole community indirectly, suffer from the arrogant action of hordes drilled to ape the ways
of civilization, to use civilized forces to destroy the organisms civilization
has built up.
The incidents of the fable are not chosen hap-hazard. The questions
agitating society are not economic alone, or in the greatest part. Sentiment as well as self-interest impels men to attack the present social order.
Wages are wanted, but more is wanted. A new deal is sought, not only
in money and property, but in all the social advantages accumulated by
experience and culture.  The disturbances proceed not from  the bitter
cry of outcast society. It is well-paid labor which demands more and yet
more, excluding and maltreating all orders of society not so well conditioned -as itself. An enormous majority vote, using the secret methods of
a despotism, is to crush the present order of society, and right the wrongs
of labor.




For concrete information, let us review briefly the main facts of one
strike as it occurred last spring. This deranged or suspended totally the
industries of half a dozen great States,- the territory of an empire. The
difficulty began in the discharge from the Texas Pacific Railway Company
of a foreman in their shops at Marshall, named Hall. Captain Henry, of
Cleveland, Ohio, was delegated by the United States Circuit Court to investigate the facts afterward. He stated that Hall was a "' worthless workman by reason of his indifference to his duties, his attention being absorbed
in studying the rules of the Knights of Labor, and devoting time to committee work for his order that should have been given to the railroad
company." Captain Henry examined the company's books; and, under
Hall's foremanship, the work in the shops "had cost the company fifty
per cent. more than it did under his predecessor." The strike, first on
the Texas Pacific, then on the Missouri Pacific, was ordered by Martin
Irons. And who was he? Born in Scotland, a machinist by trade, a
rover in fact, he had been a Knight of Labor about one year. After
three months' service, he became Master of his Local Assembly. In a
few weeks more, he was Chairman of the Executive Board of District
Assembly No. Ioi. This made him virtual dictator of thirty Local Assemblies from Missouri into Texas, with about five thousand members,
bound by oath to obey the orders of the Chairman. Irons made a written
statement, to the Congressional Committee of investigation of this strike,
of the reasons why he ordered it. He stated that delegates of the Knights
of Labor were sitting at Marshall just before Hall was discharged. The
discharge was regarded as a slight to the order, and Irons tried to get
him reinstated. Passes for three to Dallas were given to HIall, where
grievances and Hall's discharge were to be discussed. The board of
Knights of Labor numbered five. Moreover, the passes were handed to
Hall, and not to Irons. He regarded this act as another slight on the
order, and declined to use the passes or to go to Dallas, telegraphing to
that effect. He telegraphed again that, unless a reply came by two
o'clock the next day, he should call out the men. He received no reply,
and did call the men out. "Seeing it was useless to hope for an adjustment of grievances, he afterward called out the Missouri Pacific men."
These are Irons's own statements, in substance.  The Congressional
Committee pressed him to know what the grievances of the men actually
were, and what he had done for settlement of them before ordering the
strikes. He reluctantly admitted that, in the only specific grievance ever
submitted to Mr. Hoxie or his officers of the Missouri Pacific, he carried
his point, and it was remedied. Now, we must understand that, in the
vocabulary of the Knights of Labor, a "grievance " is a sentimental injury,-not only an injustice, but a wound. We must try to comprehend
this Irons, an Oriental potentate,-in dirty shirt and brass jewelry, filthy,
and reeking with tobacco,- and to appreciate his chivalric sensibilities as
they were lacerated by slights to his order. Goethe thought highly of the




6
manufacturers as "mediators " between the needs of labor and the hard
instincts of capital. But this new order of elective kings displays the
wrath of despots rather than the sympathy of intercessors or the equity
of judges.
Despot is a hard name, but it may represent a very good thing. Despotism may mean good social order and the best adaptation of means to
ends. What evidence is there that this new ruler would or could better
the issues he raised, or that he even tried to comprehend them? In
fact, 3,7I7 workers struck, assigning no definite reason, and forced out of
employment 10,598 other workers on this railway system, who were contented with their lot. When Irons was questioned by the Congressional
Committee of the number of strikers, he answered, "About five thousand."
When asked how many more it affected, he said, "It is no concern of
mine."  Did he not know "that nine thousand men in the lumber business had to stop work on account of your strike"?  " No: I don't concern myself with a census of the United States." Boycotts on the Texas
Pacific and the Wabash systems were ordered, with as little consideratiqn,
according to his testimony, —" An injury to one in the order is an injury
to all."  "Missionaries" were sent out by the Executive Board to persuade men to strike. The results of the missions appear in the testimony
of Joseph Cramer, who was ordered verbally, and afterward in writing, to
report to the Master Workman at De Soto, Mo. The Master Workman
ordered him to assist'" to stop trains."  He refused. "'Very well. You
needn't do anything, but you can go and swell the crowd.' I replied, I
didn't propose to violate any laws or make myself a criminal in any way.
He told me I was a coward." This conversation was in the Knights of
Labor hall. Cramer was afterwards expelled "for refusing to stop trains
and damage the railroad property."
Every " missionary " has a gospel which impels him to his work. What
is this new gospel? A witness before our committee read from shorthand notes a speech of Irons at a Knights of Labor meeting at East St.
Louis. "Talk to the scabs. Go to their houses, and talk to their wives,
and make them  quit. Do everything you can to make them come out;
and, if they won't, give them some pills, and  -  them out. To hell with
the Chinese! To hell with the scabs i We won in the Chinese fight, and
we will win this."
It might be presumed from these utterances in a civilized country that
a " scab" is a leper or unclean person, to be cast out from his kind. But
he is simply a man holding his own opinion, and trying to exercise his
right of judgment,-such a man as Philip and Alva, of Spain, roasted.
Martin Irons.is out of fashion just now; but turn to the testimony before
our Committee of Litchman, First General Secretary of the whole order
of Knights of Labor, who went to St. Louis as the authorized representative of Mr. Powderly. In defining a "scab," Litchman was asked, "Do
you not acknowledge the right of any man to work and earn wages, and




support his family?"  A.-" When you put the question abstractly in that
way, I must answer it,' Yes.' But I do not acknowledge the right of any
man, at the time a great conflict is raging between labor and capital, to
step in between, and scab."
In this case, "stepping in" means the conduct of men like Cramer,
regularly at work, trying to do their duty and obey law, and not men
seeking a new job, as it sometimes means. The power is assumed and
exercised by these labor associations of extending strikes and boycotts
into the business of any and all innocent parties. This deserves especial
consideration from all students of political philosophy, for it goes deep
into the roots of social order. A dispute affecting labor in any way, once
begun, no consideration of justice or mercy can restrain the will of the
order. That works, ex cathedra, by direct inspiration, and can make no
mistake. When the Missouri strike wavered, it was proposed to strike
and boycott coal mines, to bring the railways to terms. Mr. Bailey, of
General Executive Board Knights of Labor, was reported as saying they
would repeat the programme until all coal mining was stopped in Illinois.
"Will not that cause immense suffering among innocent people? " Probably. So does war cause immense suffering among innocent people. If
the coal company refuses to accede to our demand, it is they who are
responsible for the consequences, not we."
It may be asserted that Irons is not a fair type of the controlling
powers in this new imperium in imperio; that a new order of leaders is
being developed, capable of leading laborers and capitalists - all society
-into better and more prosperous paths. Men like Irons always take
the initiative, when a crisis arrives. But consider Powderly, the master of
them all. Is his course wiser, more consistent, and more masterly, though
it may lack the tigerish ferocity of Irons? He palavers about his responsibility, greater than that of kings or presidents. What does he do? In
the grasp of a strong intellect, like Gould's, he loses his initiative, and
bends his policy to the stronger will. Then, beaten in tactics, he shrieks
like a fish-wife. He shouts hard names, and appeals to the passions of
unreason throughout the whole land. Is this the work of one greater than
a statesman,- a democratic Bismarck? In spite of Powderly's orderly and
amiable talk, in his heart he believes in the irresponsible force at his back.
Irons testified, "Labor produces everything: capital produces nothing at
all." Powderly's acts confirm the same dogma. In his talk about the
militia, he did not reveal any capacity of seeing in the musket the right
arm of the law. He saw a lot of individuals, each one a laborer, or who
might be a laborer. Therefore, he would handle his musket as labor
might direct, not as the law directs. Powderly has not the first conception
of the organism of society, order, law, justice, or administration. Labor
does not make a railroad, nor even a shovel. Labor does not create, it
cannot create. Social order, civilization, law, accumulated capital, give his
opportunity to the laborer. As a laborer, he has nothing but his hands.




8
No massing of forces, votes of majorities of Knights, or edicts of Lichmans and Powderlys, can reverse this eternal principle: Naked thou
came into the world, naked thou shalt return. These prevalent notions
that Labor is a sacred essence, and the laborer its high priest, superior to
all law and all experience, are absurd.  If not so tragical in their results,
they would be ridiculous.
An observer from another planet would say, If your premises be sound,
whence the conclusion? If this be the genesis of strikes, how comes it that
strikes get headway, and inflict such injury? Here is the effect, present,
effective. Where and whence is the cause? How can a highly civilized
community give way to the passions of barbarism, and submit to barbaric
havoc? We answer: The cause is not remote: it is nearer than most of
us think, within reach of any average intelligence. The cause is in you,
here, now, —latent, but potential.
Pure socialism has but few advocates. It has been well said that its
apostles divide into two parties and pursue two ideals. The one is absolutist,- absorbing all the productive and directing forces of society, like
banks, railroads, factories, and property, into the State, substituting "scintific stirpiculture" for the family. The other is democratic, tending to
anarchism, making any individual will the sole authority, superseding all
government, all combination for political or social ends, — a universal
laissez-faire. Neither of these fancies, which dominate certain small fractions of people, possesses you. Nor do they possess the laborers and
workingmen to any great extent. But they affect you in your daily walk
and thought, as they affect the workman at his bench or in the halls of his
order. A socialistic fervor is in the air. Each generation likes experiment, and the old proven ways are prosy and dull.
When the Texas and Missouri Pacific strike began, New York as well
as other intelligent communities sympathized with the strikers. Men of
business and the public generally said: Well, those fellows are not getting
much. Jay Gould has a great deal. Let them get more. It is so easy to
disgorge others' wealth. Such ample justice rules the average economic
juror as he reads telegraphic reports of distant troubles, and calmly awards
a dividend of others' goods.
But soft! The fungus became decay, rot and disease seized the body
politic. Transportation throttled, eight hours demanded at the price of
ruin, industry palsied, farmers ruined, with barns full of crops, builders
halted, contracts stopped,- Heaven spare us! This is our property, our
prosperity, our social order. We meant Jay Gould. Capital is so informed
with order and prosperity, so linked in every chain that binds each part of
the body politic into one whole, that even the hated capitalists became
dear. In the twinkling of an eye, the trembling citizens, seeing the spectre
of industrial anarchy hovering over their own firesides, turned, and thought
the hard sense and worldly wisdom of Jay Gould was worth saving, however unlovely his whole character might be.




9
I alluded to the attempt of the Executive Board Knights of Labor to
stop the mining of coal, and to compel the Missouri Pacific to terms.
When the general eight-hour movement was projected, the labor managers
intended, if necessary, to bring on a general cessation of industry, and
thus to force a shortening of the hours of labor. Direct proof of this is
unnecessary. Such was the dream of the International in Europe. It is
the natural and inevitable evolution of the idea underlying the Knights of
Labor movement. Such a body must drift toward such a crisis, to complete logically the purpose which starts to control all society according to
the will of labor.
It was unfortunate that this purpose was not worked out and accomplished. The shock of the Chicago bombs and the deaths among the
gallant police ended the concordant movement of socialism and labor
agitation. This wholesale murder with foul weapons drew the line between violence abhorrent to all healthy public opinion and violence which
might hope to divide an obtuse public and to array a party on the side of
the labor agitators. But it would have made the solution of the Americanl
problem shorter and simpler, if a general suspension of transportation and
industry had been precipitated. The Anglo-Saxons have learned how to
deal with political problems tending toward revolution or anarchy. We
should have then learned how to treat industrial anarchy, a much more
terrible situation. If the strike had been consummated in the whole land
east of the Mississippi, probably flour would have moulded in Minneapolis
at the same moment that it was selling in New York at fifty dollars per
barrel. There are five hundred thousand, possibly seven hundred thousand,
Knights of Labor. There are some seventeen out of sixty millions who
labor directly for their own support. It has been fairly estimated that, if
the wildest theory of the most capable agitator could be realized, not over
five to six millions could ever be massed into one organization, like the
Knights of Labor. How long would the whole people have submitted
to the rule of these five hundred thousand tyrants, as it rent their social
system and brought actual famine into the land? The people, the whole
people, would have made short work of the universal strikers.
Since the Chicago massacre, the Knights of Labor have shrieked loud,
and spluttered that they did not believe in bombs or in anything else not nice.
They have tried to avoid the odium of anarchy. It is true, as I have
stated, that the Knights of Labor and hardly any workingman believe in
socialism, pure and simple. Almost to a man, they believe in property, in
the family, in some form of law and order which yet admits the disorder
of their order. But the socialistic ideal affects their demands.
It is so commonly asserted that labor in itself and out of itself produces
all the goods on which society rests that few consider how absurd and impossible the dogma is. Claimants should show at least one social system
in which the laborer has produced the goods on which that system depended. In historic fact, how has labor been initiated, moved, or con



IO
trolled? The savage directed his captive to labor; the barbarian directed
his slave to labor; the fief-holder directed his vassal; the feudatory paid
wage to his servant. As matters go to-day, who controls the workingman, laborer, trades-unionist? The employer? Not at all. Our admitted
facts show that, though the employer may pay wages, just as a bank-teller
pays a check, he has no control of the laborer beyond the certification of
his wages in his contract. This is a disputed point in political economy.
But I am considering the facts and the modern principles of action from
the laborer's point of view and that of his especial advocates. In fact,
the only absolute director and controller of the workingman to-day is the
dollar. The mint-stamp of society, the direct force of money, is the only
ruler recognized to-day by those holding the dogma that labor produces all
things,- those purblind philosophers who cannot see that wealth is produced by all the powers of society, the mutual exercise of mutual desire,
all together producing that living, constant demand for service, out of which
labor, as labor, gets its opportunity and its reward. A short way to the
dollar is the ultimate of the new doctrines and the new demands of labor.
The Knights of Labor, in convention at Cleveland, June 1, as reported,
said, in a petition to Congress, "that, while human labor produces all
wealth, those who have performed no honest labor have amassed the most
of the wealth, and those who have performed the labor have least to enjoy;
that we feel this state of things to be largely due to both vicious legislation
and want of proper legislation by Congress.... In one part of the country,
money is worth only two per cent. per annum; in another, twelve per
cent.; in another, twenty per cent.... That you fix the measure of value
by establishing a just, uniform, and invariable rate for money loaned." In
the bill recommended to Congress with this petition was a provision "for
the loaning of money by the government at three per cent. per annum."
This notion that a socialistic use of the powers of government, first in
finance, and finally in all productive forces, will result in special benefit
to labor, is one fallacy. Another is that the less there is produced, the
more will be distributed; that less hours of work will afford more comforts
and more culture (for a definite statement, see George Gunton in Forum,
vol. i., p. I38). These two fallacies underlie the whole labor movement in
our country.
I have outlined the motives and issues of strikes, and of the theories
prompting the labor movement, not merely to arraign and condemn them.
I would depict the actual forces working in the minds and passions of laborers on the one hand, and the attitude of the whole people, the tendency
of public opinion, on the other, in order to explain the processes of arbitration, which is my main theme. Whatever our view of the present, we must
take things as they are. Our present business is to search for any idea,
any concept, which may promise to check the drift toward the chaos of
strikes. Attempts to amend the situation proceed generally from theories,
which class themselves in these three divisions:



II
I. Laissez-faire, or unlimited competition; the individual right to let or
hire, never interfered with, but always sustained, by legislation. To this,
critics rejoin that legislation has already interfered largely with contract
and with independent production; that the natural competition of each
with each, of group with group, has been nullified by combinations of
laborers on one side, and by closer and more thorough organizations of
employers pending on the other; that peaceful industry is gone; that hostile camps have replaced the old quiet; that a new social order, though
in transition, is nevertheless at work.
II. Co-operation and Profit-sharing. This method is expected by many
theorists to absorb the better energies of capital, capitalizers, and laborers,
to take away motives for conflict by a more harmonious joint action.  Many
instances of failure and a few notable successes can be shown here. Probably, most agree with Mr. Carnegie that, if successful, it would be remote;
that now, under present conditions, there would be twenty failures to one
success.
III. Arbitration and Conciliation. Those who have seen most of the
actual conflicts of this generation, both here and in Europe, recommend
arbitration, formally constituted and sanctioned by legislation, or by a
public opinion more powerful than any law. It is practically established
in the hosiery and manufactured iron trades in England. Indeed, both
failures and successes can be cited in great numbers. But the advocates
claim that, on the whole, the method gathers strength, and justifies itself.
At best, any change must be a choice of evils. If American industry
had developed on its own lines, competition would have regulated the interplay of capital and labor. But alien elements have interfered. Together
with the great benefits of immigration, we have received the defects and
vices of a heterogeneous and undisciplined horde.
In this effervescence of social and industrial activity, arbitration fills
the air. Every striker talks of it, after he has done all the mischief possible. Then he turns to this shibboleth, as if it were a panacea for all ills.
The icy Mr. Gould appears to be as ready for this adjustment of difficulties as the most inflammatory agitator. What is it, what is in it, that it'
should possess the imagination of the time?
An arbiter is one who goes to see the matter in hand, hence an ex_
aminer or judge.  Arbitrators are chosen by opposite parties in dispute to
decide the difference. Two parties of arbitrators choose the final referee,an umpire or odd-numbered arbitrator. Arbitrary and arbitrariness mean
either capriciousness or despotism, will inspired by fancy or will absolute.
Here the judicial essence is inverted, and becomes the desire of the disputant converted into irresistible force. Note the Knights of Labor development. A grievance exists. Call Knights of Labor to arbitrate it; the
order is offended; a strike and stoppage of industry; destruction of property, violence, perhaps murder. If arbitration is to be the court of judicature of the coming generation, if the will of employer and the passions of




12
employed are to be subjected to courts whose decrees shall be stronger
than the common law, then society has something yet to learn. Order
must be established before any court can sit, and established much more
thoroughly, for a court of arbitration.
There have been efforts and tinkering by legislatures, but nothing like
arbitration in its true sense, in this country. Conciliation in the form of
arbitration has been effected in a few instances,- notably by Straiton and
Storms, cigar manufacturers of New York, and by Mr. Washburne, among
shoe manufacturers in Philadelphia. But a general submission of disputants to an even serene justice is far away from our present mood.
I assume that labor associations are permanent. That workingmen
will cast themselves into one great Asiatic despotism, like the Knights of
Labor,-this seems hardly conceivable. Or that they will federate in local
and special assemblies, more like the English trades-unions. Either mode
involves stronger and stronger combinations of employers for resistance.
The strike is here, and well known. The lock-out has hardly begun, especially in our older communities. These combatants will be supported
by you. Did labor qua labor create you?  You hold the supplies> and
finally recruit both Capital and Labor. Wisdom is shy and rare: we cannot expect much from her; but exhaustion and prostration may bring a
desire for peace, and arbitration may accomplish itself. I think Mr. Weeks
— the most experienced student of this subject -is correct, when he says
the future arbitration must be voluntary, and not enforced by legislation.
Legal or State arbitration has succeeded in France and Belgium. For that
reason, it is not likely to succeed in a community differing so much as ours.
I have cast the thoughts suggested by this study into several propositions, as follows:I. Arbitration proper begins after all methods of conciliation, by conference or by negotiation of grievances, have been exhausted. Arbitration
is a submission of the will of both parties to judges, disinterested and
beyond the pale of dispute.
II. Arbitration implies an organized industrial system. The employers
must be associated in fact or in sympathetic accord. The employed must
be banded together, acting under trained leaders, trusted from long experience. The sanction would come from the deliberate action of these representative bodies, supported by the larger judgment of the whole people.
Arbitration would be through a joint board, selected equally from disinterested representatives of employers and employed. The board would
choose an umpire, and a decision of the majority must be binding on the
disputants.
III. No strike, lock-out, or any suspension of work can be permitted
while arbitration is pending.
IV. The right of employers to hire and discharge must be conceded.
V. No interference with employers or employed, by individual or joint
action, by boycott, employers' black list, or violence of any kind, can be
permitted by any of the parties to systematic arbitration.




1 3
VI. Voluntary agreement to submit to arbitration, backed by industrial
sentiment and confirmed by public sentiment, will be a more effective sanction than any legislation.
It is easy to criticise these propositions, to show that they are impracticable under present conditions. It is as easy to prove that no progress is
possible until workingmen and the general public shall be educated and
disciplined enough to make some similar system effective. You may or
may not like employers and capitalists, the present trustees of industry.
You will not better them until you lift the whole constituency into a larger
sense of law and order. No arbitration, no co-operation or profit-sharing,
can be administered until labor agitators and workingmen are forced -yea,
compelled - to see that they must respect the rights of others. Here is the
key to the whole problem. The principle has been worked out politically.
The State has enlarged its basis until it rests securely on the rights of all.
It is for you and those like you to apply the principle to the industrial and
social system which underlies the State. We washed our land in blood to
right the slave. Have we not force enough, moral and physical, to protect the "scab " and " knobstick," with the victim of the boycott?
I do not argue with workingmen or labor agitators. They have their
own modes of discussion. The matter is at the bar of public opinion.
My question is with society as a whole. Preachers, publicists, politicians,
and speculative thinkers have encouraged, by various means, the agitation
in our country, until it has culminated in the organization known as the
Knights of Labor. It is time that they show cause why. The consequence is on you, the issue is yours. You have to deal, not with a body of
men and women in their capacity of citizens of the United States, but
with a horde banded for one arbitrary purpose. This horde is not moved
by the genius of a Timur or a Gengis. It is directed by the ferocity of
an Irons, and animated by the feeble sentiment of a Powderly. Remand
these disturbers of the public peace to the ranks of the people. Then
arbitration and other forms of public order will be made easy, by the
people and for the people.
















REPO RT
ON I HE
PlaclieaI 0pelaiioln of Arhiraliol   and Coxni alion
IN THE
SETTLEMEINT OF DIFFERENCES BETWEEN EMPLOYERS
AND EMPLOYEES IN ENGLAND.
By Jos. D. WEEKS,
SPECIAL COMMISSIONER OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA,
ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF THE IRON AGE, ETC.
H A   RR I S B1 U It G
LANE S. HART, PRINTER AND BINDER,
1879.








R E P O R T
ON THE
Practical Operation of Arbitration and Conciliation ill tile
Settlement of Differences between  Employers and  Enmployees in England.  By Jos. D. Wteeks, Speeial Commissioner of the State of Pennsylvania, Associate Editor of the
Iron Age, etc.
PITTSBURGII, December 26, 1878.
SIR: I have the honor to forward you the accompanying report of my
investigations, the past summer, into the practical operations of arbitration
in settling differences between employers and employed in England.
I found, at the beginning of my inquiries, that though there were at
least three laws on the statute books of England on this subject, they
were virtually dead letters, and, therefore, I directed my attention to the
workings of the voluntary Boards of Arbitration and Conciliation, that
exist in a number of the trades of that country, and have given, in this report, some account of their operations, with copies of the rules of the most
important. These rules will be found in appendices to the report, together with the latest act of Parliament on the subject of arbitration.
The condition of the laboring class, and the strength and extent of the
labor organizations, were subjects to which I was forced to devote considerable attention, in order to correctly understanrl and appreciate the
workings of arbitration; but I have touched upon these subjects incidentally, and only so far as was necessary to an understanding of the difficulties to be overcome.
I have to make grateful acknowledgements of the uniform kindness with
which I was met, and the readiness with which every facility was extended
to me for acquiring information. I should make a special acknowledgement, however, to Mr. Rupert Kettle, judge of the county courts of Worcestershire; Mr. A. J. Mundella, M. P.; aMr. B. Samuelson, M. P.; Mr.
Thomas Burt, M. P., representative of the colliers; Mr. Ed. Trow, seeretary of the National Amalgamated Iron Workers Association; _Mr. George
Howell, formerly secretary of the parlimentary committee of the Trades
Union Congress; Mr. George Broadhurst, present secretary of the same;
Mr. Alsager Hay Hill, editor of the Labour News; Mr. W. H. S. Aubery,
editor of Capital and Labour, and especially to Mr. Charles Wheeler, of
Wolverhampton, who was most earnest in his aid and most helpful in forwarding my inquiries.
I would most respectfully suggest that this subject is worthy of a more
extended investigation than I was enabled to give it in the time at my disposal, and I would recommend that some legislation be adopted to this
end, and also that the inquiry be extended so as to include the workings
of this principle in other European countries, as well as to the condition of
labor.
Very respectfully,
JOS. D. WEEKS.
To His Excellency Jo-IHN F. HARTRANFT, Governor of Pennsylvania.
1-ARBITRAT ION.




2                  ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.
SECTION I.
PRELIMINARY. CONSEILS DES PRUD' HOMMES.
ARBITRATION IN ENGLAND PRIOR TO 1860.
Inclustrial arbitration and concilation had their origin in France early
in the present century. The system established was the outgrowth of the
trade guilds which had existed in that country and regulated trade matters, in some cases from the Middle Ages. These were abolished during
the last days of the monarchy of Louis XVI, a time when the constitution
of industrial as well as political society was being overturned. After a
few years of imperfect legislation, in 1806, at the request of the workingmen of Lyons and by command of the First Napoleon, courts of arbitration
and conciliation were established by law. These, with some slight modication, have continued until the present under the title of "L Conseils des
Prud' honmmes."  These councils are judicial tribunals, constituted under
authority of the Minister of Commerce, through the Chambers of Commerce, which are established at important trade centers of that country.
They are composed of an equal number of employer and workingmen
members, each class electing its own representatives, with a president and
vice president named by the Government. The authority of these'ouncils
extends to every conceivable question that can arise in the workshop, not
only between the workman and his employer, but between the workman
and his apprentice or his foreman. There is but one question they cannot
settle-future rates of wages; but even this can be done by mutual agreement. Arbitration is compulsory upon the application of either, and the
decisions of the court can be enforced the same as those of any other court
of Jaw.
The workings of these courts have been beneficial to French industry,
especially in conciliation, by which more than ninety per cent. of all cases
brought before the tribunals are settled.  In 18479 the sixty-nine councils
then in existence had before them nineteen thousand two hundred and
seventy-one cases, of which seventeen thousand nine hundred and fifty-one
were settled by conciliation in the private bureau, five hundred and nineteen more by open conciliation, and in only five hundred and twenty-nine
cases was it necessary to leave formal judgment. In 1850, of twenty-eight
thousand cases, twenty-six thousand and eight hundred were settled by
conciliation.  There were, at the close of 1874, one hundred and twelve
councils in France. This is a most satisfactory showing, but it falls far short
of expressing the great benefit these councils have been to French industry,
especially in removing causes of differences or in preventing them from
growing into disputes. Their success is sufficient justification of the praise
so lavishly bestowed upon them by M. Chevalier: " Une des plus nobles
creations dont notre siecle 1'Uonore. 
Tribunals similar to the Conseils des Prud' hommes, of France, are in
existence in Belgium. Their success, however, has not been as marked as
in France, owing in part, no doubt, to the fact that they have in some
cases criminal jurisdiction.
In Great Britain, though a law somewhat similar in its character to that
of France, and evidently framed from it, has been on the statute books
since the fifth year of the reign of George IV, (1824,) so little use has been
made of its provisions that its existence was practically forgotten. England did not possess the organizations necessary to its successful workings, and the compulsory features seem especially obnoxious to both employer and employed. As Mr. Rupert Kettle, to whom the cause of in



ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.                    3
dustrial arbitration owes such a heavy debt, says: "It is agreed that, according to the spirit of our laws and the freedom of our people, any procedure, to be popular, must be accepted voluntarily by both contending
parties."*''he history of arbitration and conciliation in Great Britain
fully justifies this remark.
Previous to 1860, a year which marks an epoch in the history of industrial arbitration in England, it had frequently been applied to the settlement of industrial disputes. Legal sanctions, however, were never sought
for the awards. They were loyally accepted without any constraint, except a man's sense of honor, and a certain esprit du corps, both among the
employers and employed. These arbitrations were not only frequent, but
in some trades were systematically used in every dispute which arose. The
pottery trade furnishes a very good example of continuous and successful
arbitration. In this industry, one of the most difficult in which to harmonize the conflicting views of capital and labor, by reason of the large
number of trades into which labor is divided, and the peculiar customs
that have come to be regarded as rights, in this trade there has not been a
general strike since 1836, and the reason given is that disputes have been
invariably settled by arbitration. The yearly "  contracts for hiring," contained the following clause: " If any dispute arise between the parties as
to the prices or wages to be paid, by virtue of such an agreement, the dish
pute shall be referred to an arbitration board of six persons, to consist of
three manufacturers, chosen by the masters, and three working potters,
elected by the workinginen." This clause does not provide for a board to
settle future rates of wages, but both sides have formed what may be called
the habit of arbitrating, and they have appealed to this principle in trouble.
As a result, for over thirty years this clause has prevented strikes in this
trade.
It is not necessary to extend this report by giving other examples, showing the history and success of arbitration, prior to 1860. It was often
appealed to in many trades, though in none does it appear to have worked
as well, or to have been tried so continuously, as in the pottery trade.
There had, as the result of these trials, grown up, especially among the work
people, a decided feeling in favor of industrial arbitration and a willingness
to give it a trial, which, doubtless, rendered the attempts to establish it
as a principle much surer of success.
SECTION II.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF VOLUNTARY PERMANENT BOARDS OF ARBITRnATION AND CONCILIATION IN ENGLAND.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.
As already stated, the year 1860, marked an epoch in the history of arbitration and conciliation in Great Britain, and gave it a new character,
one more in accordance with the tone of modern thought and the changed
relations of capital and labor. Late in that year, mainly through the
efforts of Mr. A. J. Mundella, the first permanent or continuous board of
arbitration and conciliation in England was established, in the hosiery
and glove trade, at Nottingham. Mr. Henry Crompton in his admirable
little work on "1 Industrial Conciliation," in speaking of the establishment
*Strikes and Arbitrations, page 26. London, 1866.




4                  ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.
of this board says,* i" Mr. Mundella must be regarded as the inventor of
systematic industrial conciliation."  In view of the fact stated in the previous section, that the large majority of cases brought before the Conseils
des Prud' hornmes were settled by conciliation in the private bureau, this
claim can hardly be made for Mr. Mundella.  The distinguishing feature
of the board organized by his efforts, and at the same time the marked
characteristic of arbitration since 1860, is that it is systematic conciliation
or arbitration organized on a purely voluntary basis, without an appeal to
legal processes, even to enforce its decisions. That is, its novelty is not
that it is systematic-the French Conseils were that-but that it is both
systematic and voluntary, and these the French prototype were not.
The voluntary feature of these boards is one to which I desire to call
particular attention. Both,Mr. Mundella and Mr. Kettle, to whom the
cause of arbitration and conciliation in England owes much that it is. and
who represent somewhat diverse views on the subject, agree that these
boards should be voluntary, and not compulsory.  Though there are acts
of Parliament which provide compulsory legal powers, by which either
side can compel the other to arbitrate on any dispute, these powers have
never, in a single instance, so far as I could learn, been used; but the large
number of differences that have been settled by arbitration in Great Britain
in the last eighteen years, have all been voluntary in their submnissMon, and
in the enforcement of the award. Mr. Kettle would provide, that in certain
cases, the awards should become part of the contract between the employer
and the employed, to be enforced at law as any other contract; but as
these contracts can be terminated by a short time notice, it does not take
away from  the voluntary nature of the arbitrations under what is known
as the Wolverhampton system. How this voluntary feature has worked
in practice, will be evident in the course of this report.
In discussing this subject, it is very important at the outset to distinguish
between arbitration and conciliation. Though the former is a generic word,
and the one more commonly used in referring to the system, there is an
essential and important difference between arbitration and conciliation.
Unless this is clearly impressed on the mind, and the scope and working
of each clearly understood, it will be impossible to learn the secret of the
success that has attended these boards, and the reason of their continued
existence. Arbitration deals with the larger questions of trade, conciliation with the smaller. Arbitration with the whole trade, conciliation oftener with the individuals. Conciliation is not formal; it does not attempt
to sit in judgment and decide in a given case what is right and what is
wrong, but its efforts are, in a friendly spirit, to adjust differences by inducing the palties to agree themselves. It removes causes of dissentions
and prevents differences from becoming disputes, by establishing a cordial
feeling between those who may be parties to the same.  Conciliation, in a
word, may be defined as informal arbitration.  Arbitration, on the other
hand, is formal. It sits in judgment.  It implies that matters in dispute
by mutual consent or by previous contract have been submitted to arbiters,
and an umpire, whose decision is final and binding on both parties. Mr.
Crompton, in his work on "6 Industrial Conciliation," says* when contrasting arbitration and conciliation, " conciliation aims at something higher —
at doing before the fact that which arbitration accomplishes after. It
seeks to prevent and remove the causes of dispute before they arise, to adjust differences and claims before they become disputes.  A board of conciliation deals with matters that could not be arbitrated upon, promoting
* Page 33.    ** Page 17.




ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.                      5
the growth of beneficial customs, interfering in the smaller details of industrial life, modifying or removing some of the worst evils incidental to
modern industry, such, for example, as the truck system, or the wrongs
which workmen suffer at the hands of middle-men and overseers."
It is this preventive feature that gives conciliation a value beyond estimation. It is a most admirable and praiseworthy object to provide means 
for settling disputes when they have arisen. It is much more desirable to
prevent them from arising, and the tendency of conciliation is to do this, by
removing the old feelings of bitterness, by inspiring respect for each other
and fostering, at the same time, a spirit of independence, and compelling
a recognition of the dignity and worth of labor and the necessity and beneficence of capital.
And yet, after all that may be said in praise of conciliation, it is conceded, even by its warmest advocates, that back of all conciliation there
must be arbitration. The time may come, and in the setttlement of certain
questions, generally will come, when no friendly offices are sufficient to
enable capital and labor to see alike. Self-interest renders it impossible
for either to decide fairly, and something more than a master of ceremonies or a concilator is needed. There must be power to determine as well
as hear. That is, arbitration must intervene, and its decisions accomplish
what conciliation is powerless to bring about.
To show the workings of arbitration and conciliation, I have given in
the following pages a detailed account of the organization and operation
of several of the most prominent boards. The records are mainly those
of arbitration, not of conciliation, as in war it is the battles that are recorded, not the skirmishes and movements for position.
SECTION  IlL.
THlE NOTTINGHAM SYSTEM OF ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.
The so-called Nottingham system of arbitration or conciliation owes
its establishment to Mr. A. J. Mundella, at present one of the members for Sheffield of the House of Commons. Mr. Mundella has been
most earnest and untiring in his efforts to make arbitration the prevailing
and recognized method of settling all disputes that may arise between
labor and capital, and it is not too much to say, that to his intelligent
efforts much of the success that has attended conciliation is due.
The hosiery and glove trade, with which Mr. Mundella is connected, is
one of the most localized in Great Britain, being carried on only in the
immediate vicinity of Nottingham, in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, and
Leicesterbhire. I need not point out that such a concentration of one class
of skilled labor led to union, and a c nsequent power not always judiciously used. According to all accounts, the relations between employers
and employed in these trades, prior to 1860, were as ugly as could well be
imagined.  From  1710 to 1820, there is a frightful list of murders, riots,
arsons, and machine-breaking recorde:, all arising out of industrial differences. An act was passed by Parliament, early in the century, punishing
machine-breaking with death, and in 1816 six persons suffered this penalty. In the remaining forty years of the century and a halt, from  1710,
while the worst features of this industrial strife nearly or quite disappeared,
the relations were in no wise improved, though the strife assumed a differ



6                 AIRBiTRATION AND CONCILIATION.
ent form. Suspicion, distrust, hatred, were the sentiments cherished towards the manufacturers by the workmen; and arrogance, oppression, and
an equally strong hatred were returned. War, or at least an illy-kept
armistice, was the condition of the hostile camps. Strikes and lock-outs
were constantly occurring, and no judicious, honest effort was made to end
them. In 1860, there were three strikes in one of the three branches into
which the hosiery trade is divided, one lasting eleven weeks. It was
during this strike that the board of arbitration and conciliation was formed.
Though the strike was confined to one branch, it was soon discovered that
it was supported by the workingmen in the other branches, and, in what
they considered self-defense, it was proposed by the manufacturers to lock
out the entire body of workingmen in all branches. Some of the manufacturers, Mr. Mundella among them, shrank from the misery and suffering, and perphaps crime, that would be the result. " Some of us thought,
says Mr. Mundella,* "that we might devise some better means of settling
the thing. I had heard of the Conseils des Prud' hommes in France, and
with one or two others I built up a scheme in my imagination of what I
thought might be done to get a good understanding with our men, and
regulate wages."
At a meeting of the manufacturers, a committee of three was appointed
to invite the workmen to a conference, which they accepted. 6 We three,"
to quote Mr. Mundella again,*' "met perhaps a dozen leaders of the trades
union, and we consulted with these men, told them that the present plan
was a bad one, that it seemed to us that they took every advantage of us
when we had a demand, and we took every advantage of them when trade
was bad, and it was a system mutually predatory. And there is no doubt
that it was so; we pressed down the price as low as we could and they
pressed up the price as high as they could. This often caused a strike in
pressing it down and a strike in getting it up; and these strikes were most
ruinous and injurious to all parties, because when we might have been supplying our customers, our machinery was idle, and we suggested whether
we could not try some better scheme. Well, the men were very suspicious
at first; indeed, it is impossible to describe to you how suspiciously we
looked at each other. Some of the manufacturers also deprecated our
proceedings, and said that we were degrading them, and humiliating them,
and so on. However, we had some ideas of our own, and we went on with
them; and we sketched out what we called a Board of Arbitration and Conciliation."
The result of this action was the formation of "' The Board of Arbitration
and Conciliation in the Glove and Hosiery Trade," the first permanent
board established. The rules adopted were very simple,t and have worked
so well in most particulars, that they have hardly been amended since the
day they were made. The object of the board is declared to be to arbitrate on any question of wages that may be referred to it, and to endeavor,
by conciliatory means, to put an end to any disputes that may arise. The
board consists of twenty-two members, half operatives and half manufacturers, elected for one year, each class electing its own representatives.
The delegates have full powers, and the decisions of the board are considered binding upon all. There is provision for a committee of inquiry to
whom all differences must be referred before the board will act upon them.
This committee has no power to make an award, acting only as conciliators. A month's notice is to be given to the secretaries, before any change
*Trades Union's Comnisision, 1867. Tenth report, p. 74. 
tA copy of the rules will be found in appendix A.




ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.
in the rate of wages will be considered. Regular meetings are held quarteily. The chairman, in the original constitution of the board, had a vote,
and a casting vote as well in case of a tie. This was one of the weak points
in the organization, and, as the chairman was an employer, trouble resulted.
Mr. Mundella, who was the first chairman of the board, speaking of this,
says: i" I have a casting vote, and twice that casting vote has got us into
trouble. And for the last four years it has been resolved that we would
not vote at all. Even when a working man was convinced, or a master
convinced, he did not like acting against his own order, and in some instances we had secessions in consequence of that, so we said,' Do not let
us vote again, let us try if we can agree,' and we did agree.:"
In the Wolverhampton system this error was avoided. An independent
umpire or referee was elected by the board, whose decision was final and
binding in case of an equal vote by the board. The Nottingham board
has also changed its rule, and the chairman no longer gives a casting vote,
a referee appointed for the occasion being called in in case of a failure to
agree. I cannot but regard the Wolverhampton system of a referee elected
previous to a' dead lock," as much the better plan. This is the course
adopted in the lace trade of Nottingham.
The proceedings under these rules are very simple. When any difference arises between employers and employed, the secretaries endeavor to
arrange it. In the event of their failure, it is brought before the committee of inquiry, who try to settle it, and it being unable, it is then brought
before the board. One of the invariable conditions of any arbitration is
that work shall be continued pending the trial of the case. That is, that
there shall be neither strike nor lock-out. The proceedings before the
board are very informal. The members sit around a table, workingmen
and employers interspersed. The discussion is without ceremony and the
differrence is settled by endeavoring to arrive at the best arrangement
possible under the circumstances.
The most serious questions brought before this board are those of wages,
which, considering the nature of the trade, are very difficult of adjustment.
On this point and of the success that has attended its efforts to adjust
wages, Mr. Mundella said in a speech at Bradford:' " The articles manufactured in the hosiery trade are exceedingly numerous and varied in
character. All work is paid for by the piece, at the rate of so much per
dozen. From time immemorial these rates have been fixed by printed
statements, and the battles formerly fought were as to whether masters or
workmen should make these statements. Since the foundation of the
board, all variations in prices, up or down, have been referred to it, and
no st.,tement is considered legitimate without the signatures of its members.'" It is very rarely that the price origin illy proposed by either masters
or workmen is the price ultimately agreed to. Some alterations or concessions are generally made on both sides, and the price once fixed, is considered mutually binding. In times of depression, when foreign competition has interfered with any branch, a fair reduction has been generally
submitted to, and in times of prosperity, when advances could fairly be
given, they have been invariably conceded; but in order that the trade
may not be taken by surprise, that manufacturers may finish their contracts
in times of advance, and that no hasty decisions may be made against
either party, we have a resolution on our minute-book, that a month's
notice shall be given before any change of prices can be discussed. O wing
to the variable character of the trade, small differences and disputes are
constantly arising. Some extra work may be required in an article f r




8                  ARBITRATION AND CONCILATION.
which the workman may think a shilling would be proper compensation,
while the manufacturer may think six pence is sufficient.
"' If the workmen of any branch conceive that they have grievances to
complain of, in addition to the ordinary representatives of that branch, a
delegation may attend the board, and lay the case fully before them. The
first business at our meetings is invariably to receive delegations. They
retire after having made their statements, and the board proceeds to deliberate. We have never met without settling at least half a dozen questions, some important and some trivial, which, if allowed to remain open,
would produce irritation."
The benefits this board have conferred on the hosiery and glove trades
are incalcuable. A most friendly feeling has taken the place of hostility,
and confidence and mutual respect exists, when formerly all was suspicion
and hatred, This was not the result of a day nor was it accomplished without occasional lapses to the old state of things. The strifes of a century and
a half are not so soon forgotten; but troubles in the board have been so
infrequent and unimportant, that I am justified in saying that it is a complete success. Strikes and lockouts are unknown; contact has developed
respect  The changed relations of employer and employed have been recognized, they have met about the same table as equals, and out of this has
grown a condition of affairs that will make it impossible for the olceconditions to return.
A large part of the credit of the success of this board, and of this change
in the relations of the two classes, is due to the provision for regular meetings of the board; I do not hesitate to say that this is the most valuable
feature of these beards. The great curse of industry, and the fruitful
cause of difficulty, is a foolish obstinacy and a false pride. This arises
in many cases from a want of knowledge and a lack of common courtesy
in matters concerning both capital and labor, and in which both have an
equal interest. This quarterly coming face to face, this meeting as equalsand, in all questions that can come before these boards, they are equals,
and it is foolish to ignore this fact-and this discussing subjects of common
interest as sensible men, seeking for the facts, and inclined to moderation
and concession, if need be, have had a marvelous effect in removing this
pride and obstinacy, and bringing about that respect and courtesy that
must be at the basis of all friendly negotiations between capital and labor.
These meetings have also given the men a knowledge of the conditions of
trade and its necessities, which they could not get in any other way, and,
from this knowledge, they have been led to moderation in demands or willingness to concede reductions that otherwise they would not have possessed.
if the arbitration features were wholly removed from these boards, and
they only retained this feature of quarterly meetings of recognized representatives of trades unions and of manufacturers' associations, their adoption, generally, in this country would be productive of incalculable benefit.
SECTION IV.
THE WOLVERHAMPTON SYSTEM OF ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.
Some three years after the establishment of the Nottingham board, a
system of arbitration, differing from it in some essential particulars, was
adopted in the building trades at Wolverhampton. This plan was worked
out without any knowledge on the part of its chief promoter of what had




ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.                    9
been done at Nottingham. It avoided some of the errors of that plan;
but at the same time it lacked some of its admirable features.
The building trades are peculiarly liable to industrial contests. These
contests have been not only over wages, but over certain customs of the
trade, which have been regarded as rights on the one side, and submitted
to on the other from necessity. Building is so much a matter of contract,
and the portion of time in a year in which it can be carried on so circumscribed from various causes, that strikes in its trades are very frequent.
At Wolverhampton, prior to 1864, these strikes were of common occurrence, and seriously interfered with the business of the town. One in 1863,
lasted seventeen weeks, and left a feeling of discontent that promised
trouble at the opening of the building season in 1864. To avert this, the
mayor called a public meeting of the trades to devise, if possible, some
means of preventing the strike. A meeting was accordingly held, at which
one branch of the building trade-the carpenters and joiners-appointed
six delegates to confer with six delegates of the employers, and endeavor to
arrange their differences, the latter appointing six delegates on their part.
This was on the 14th of March, 1864. On the 21st of March, the twelve
delegates met, and they then saw the propriety of choosing a chairman, who
should have a casting vote, before they entered upon any other business.
This was done by each party using a list of six names, and means were
taken to determine by chance whether the "6 master's or the men's " list
should have priority of consideration. As the first name upon both lists
happened to be the same, a chairman was easily chosen. The chairman
thus chosen was Mr. Rupert Kettle, judge of the Worcestershire county
courts, a gentlemen most admirably fitted for the responsible position of
arbitrator he has so often been called to fill; of clear insight, a judicial
mind trained by his long experience on the bench, and a most happy faculty of graphic expression. His awards, to quote the language of Mr.
Henry Crompton, were "6 remarkable for very vigorous analysis and skillful unraveling of complicated facts."  For ten years Mr. Kettle devoted
most of his time to arbitrating industrial disputes, until his judicial duties
and private business compelled him reluctantly to decline longer to serve
as arbitrator.
The scheme adopted by Mr. Kettle* was a simple but admirable application of the principles of common law. A code of rules is framed; these
rules, signed by the arbitrators and umpire, are posted in all the workshops represented in the board, and a copy given each workman on his
hiring, he being informed that it is the contract under which he is to work.
If any question arises, it is referred to the board, or the conciliation committee under the amended( rules, and it is by them decided. Any breach
of the rules is a breach of contract, which can be punished the same as the
breach of any other contract. It should be noted that this idea of a
contract enters much more largely into the question of wages and the relations of employer and employed in England than with us.
These rules, as originally drawn, had no provision for conciliation. All
disputes were to be referred to the full board, and the thirteen members
brought together to settle the most trivial matters. This was soon found
too troublesome, and the conciliation rule (rule No. 2) was adopted. Mr.
Kettle says this has been "found in practice more useful than the arbitration rule."
There are two radical differences between this plan and the Nottingham
system. The latter provides no method of enforcing the awards of the
*A copy of the rules will be found in Appendix B.




10                ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.
board, while under the Wolverhampton system, provision is made for their
enforcement the same as any other contract. As to which system is the
best is a question much discussed in England. It is evident that no board
can force a manufacturer to run his mill at a loss, nor can he be accused
of dishonesty or disloyalty if, when an award goes against him, he closes
his mill or mine, if it can only be operated at a loss under the terms of
the award. On the other hand, there can be no power to compel a workman to continue work unless he choose. So in these senses it is evident
that no provision can be made for enforcing awards, and whether they
shall be carried out must be a question left entirely to the will of the parties to the arbitration. Of course, when conciliation is used, there is no
question; it must be in all respects voluntary.
There are circumstances, however, in which the awards can and should
be enforced at law, and under a scheme that contemplates a code of working rules like those adopted at WVolverhampton, it is perfectly feasible to
do so. These rules, and the penalties attached, do not contemplate that a
workman may not be at liberty to terminate his contract with his employer,
or vice versa. It will be seen that this can be done on very short notice;
but while the relations of employer and employed continue, they are on
certain terms, and when it is desired to end them, there is a business like
way of doing it. That most outrageous custom of ceasing work inca pet,
at a moment's notice, causing the loss at times of thousands of dollars'
worth of half prepared material, as, for example, in the glass trade, when
the pots are full of melted glass, cannot occur under these rules, or if it
does, there is a remedy at law for breach of contract and damages for loss.
Indeed, the business-like methods of some of these rules must commend
them to the good common sense and judgment of business men. Mr. Kettle
has done an immense service in insisting on the business character of these
boards. As the system becomes more perfect, the aim will be to reach in
a business-like way what is fair and just under the circumstances, and then
to do it.
A second difference in the two systems, is the provision for the election
of a permanent arbitrator or umpire. This is a feature which I regard as
of the greatest value. Mr. Crompton in his work, though strongly favoring conciliation, confesses that "6 every board of conciliation must have an
ultimate appeal of some kind."*  Mr. Mundella found that his method of
giving the chairman a casting vote caused trouble.  The best plan seems
to be the appointment of a standing umpire or referee. Whether he should
attend the regular meetings of the board, is an open question. It seems
that should he attend, much time and expense would be saved, and one of
the objections to arbitration met.
Another of the rules embodied in this system is deserving of more than
passing notice-it is the third. "Neither masters nor men shall interfere
with any man on account of his being a society or a non-society man." The
society men pledge themselves not to annoy, nor allow annoyance, to nonsociety men. The system of arbitration accepts the fact of combination
among both employers and employed, and uses it as an agent to accomplish
the ends it aims at-the establishment of peace and good will.
To show the practical workings of this board, it will be interesting to
append Mr. Kettle's account of the first arbitration before it.
In November of the first year of its existence, a difference arose between
one of the master builders and some of his carpenters as to the right con* Industrial Conciliation, page 24.




ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.                   11
struction of one of the rules-that which provided for extra payment tor
working in winter months upon unprotected buildings.
Upon receiving a request in writing from each party to settle this difference under the rules, the umpire ascertained what day would be convenient
to both sides, and then called a meeting of the delegates —who had, by the
operation of the individual contracts of service, become in law the arbitrators in this dispute. He also, through the secretaries of the two societies,
caused the master and the workmen between whom the dispute existed to
attend the arbitration, treating them as the parties to an ordinary reference.
At the time appointed, the arbitrators, the umpire, two men who represented the workmen, who were parties to the dispute, and the master from the
works where the dispute had arisen, met. As the men were the complainants, they were asked (as plaintiffs) to state their case. The master answered, (as defendant,) giving his reading and view of the rule alleged to
have been broken. The workmen's arbitrators were then asked-taking
them in succession as they sat at the table-to express their opinions. The
opinions of the master's arbitrators were then taken in the same way. It
was a case of conflicting arguments upon construction. The umpire decided that the men had put the true construction upon the rule; and he
offered to make an award which could be legally enforced; but the master
said he would willingly abide by the result, and at once pay the men aIcordingly. In this the men, on behalf of themselves and their fellow-shopmates, cheerfully acquiesced, and so we are deprived of a precedent from
this case of the procedure for enforcing such an award.
The Boards of Arbitration existing in England embody the best characteristics of both of these systems. While they differ in detail, their main
features are the same. They are all voluntary. They are composed of an
equal number of employers and employed, each class electing its own representatives. There is in all of the boards a provision for conciliation
without convening the entire membership. Regular meetings of the board
are provided for, whether there is any business to be transacted or not.
And in some form or other there is a power to which either party can appeal without pride or shame, that has power to determine as well as to
hear, and whose decisions are received without exultation or humiliation.
That is an umpire. The practical workings of some of the boards will be
given in succeeding chapters.
SECTION AV.
ARBITRATION AND  CONCILIATION IN THE MAiNUFACTURED IRON
TRADE.
It is important to the purposes of this report to show the practical workings of arbitration and conciliation in some industries in which our State
has a special interest. In two industries Pennsylvania stands pre6ininent
among the States, viz: Those connected with the manufacture of iron and
the mining of coal. It is also in these that labor troubles are most fiequent, and the contests the most severe. If arbitration has been successful in averting or mitigating industrial strife in these trades in England,
this fact should be a consideration of no small weight in favor of its trial
here. In view of the circumstances, in none of the trades of England has
arbitration and conciliation had a greater success than in these. This is
especially true of the manufactural iron trades of England. The wages




12                 ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.
of all classes of labor in the English rolling-mills are settled, and have
been for nearly ten years, by arbitration. An award has just been given
in South Staffordshire, reducing the price of puddling, and other wages,
and the North of England arbitration board has decided on a corresponding decline.
Some account of the establishment and practical workings of the Board
of Arbitration and Conciliation in the North of England iron trade cannot
fail to be interesting, as no severer test of the value of arbitration and
conciliation can be found than in the circumstances accompanying its workings in this trade. This trade, including that of the Cleveland district,
begun to assume importance as recenttly as in 1860. For tell years its
growth was marvelous, and at the end of this time it rivaled many and
surpassed most of the older centers of English iron manufacture. This
wonderful growth, at a time when other districts were increasing, created
a demand for labor that could not be met from the ranks of those already
skilled in the various processes of iron manufacture, and workmen were
drawn from all classes and grades of laborers. The result was a most heterogenenous collection of workmen. There were no ties of friendship or
locality. There were none of those attachments that long companionship
causes men to form among themselves and for their employers, and even
for the very tools with which they work.  " Earning higher waged than
those to which they had been accustomed, unable to appreciate the difficulties incidental to a trade so liable as the iron trade to great and sudden
vicissitudes."*  The result of this state of affairs can be easily imagined.
It was endless disputes; strikes were of frequent occurrence. In 1865-66,
there was both a lock-out and a strike, the latter lasting four months, and
in the end nothing was settled, except that capital could hold out longer
than labor. " Between that time and the winter of 1868-69, repeated reductions in wages became necessary, and gave rise to feelings of resentment,
which rendered it more than probable that any considerable increase in the
demand for iron would be the signal for peremptory demands on the part
of the workman."t  Trade began to improve in 1869, and the demand
came. To avert the trouble, arbitration was suggested and on March 22,
1869, the board was formed, and has continued in successful operation
until the present time, and, for these ten years, has settled the wages and
other industrial questions in this trade.
+ This board consists of two representatives from each works joining it,
one chosen by the owners of each works joining the board, the other by
the operatives.  It chooses from  among its members, a standing committee, to whom all differences are in the first instance referred, and whose
recommendations in minor matters are generally accepted. This committee, however, has no power to make an award except by mutual agreement
of the parties to the dispute. All questions not settled by it, are brought
before the board as soon as possible. In cases of re-adjustment of wages
over the whole district, on one occasion two arbitrators had been chosen,
who intervened between the board and the independent umpire. The coimmittee meets when there is any business. The board twice a year, or oftener
if necessary. The expenses are paid equally by employers and employed.
At the close of 1875, it represented thirty-five works, and thirteen thousand
subscribed operatives.  These works had nineteen hundred and thirteen
puddling furnaces-more than all, Pennsylvania, and half as many as the
* From a paper read by Mr. B. Samnuelson, M. P., before the British Iron Trade Association, February 24, 1876, page 4.
f Mr. Sarmuelson's Paper, pp. 5-6.: A copy of the rules will be found in Appendix C.




ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.                     13
entire United States. During the jrear 1875, the standing committee investigated( forty disputes. Since its organization there have been eight or
nine arbitratons on the general questions of wages, and scores of references
in regard to special adjustment of wages at particular works.
Since 1874 this board, and the adherence of the workmen to its decisions, have been put to a severe test, and to their credit, it should be said
that, with a few unimportant local exceptions, they have been loyal to the
rules of the board. It is a well known fact that strikes and lock-outs
generally occur on a declining wages market, and the real test of the value
of any method of settling wages is not on an advancing market, but a
falling one. The first action of this board was, under the umpireship of
Mr. Rupert Kettle, to decree an advance of 6d. From  its formation in
1869 to 1874, wages were advanced from  8s. per ton, for puddling, to
13s. 3d. In 1874 the turn came; 9d. were first taken off. In the middle
of the year 3d. added, and from that time there has been a constant decline
in wages until now puddling is only 7s. per ton of twenty-four hundred
pounds. That is wages have been reduced, under the action of this board,
without any serious difficulty, forty-seven and a half per cent.
Does any one believe that this could have been peacefully accomplished
without arbitration?
The success of arbitration in the South Staffordshire Iron Trade has not
been as marked nor have its operations been as continuous as in the North
of England. The Board was originally formed by the two iron associations in the district, representing employers and employed, viz: The South
Staffordshire Ironmasters' Association and the local branch of the Iron
Workers'  Union. The Board represented only these Associations, no attempt being made to give a representation or to allow a vote in selecting
representatives to those who were outsiders and non-unionists. This
course-unlike that of the North of England, where the operative members are elected by the vote of all the employes of the works, unionists and
non-unionists-was the cause of the failure of the first Board. "6 It was
quite powerless to bind those men who were not in the Ironworkers' Union,
even though the master himself was bound."
Out of this failure has grown an organization known as The South Staffordshire Iron Trade Conciliation Board, now some three years old. Profiting by the former experience, it has avoided some of the errors of the
old Board, while retaining its valuable features. Its rules and constitution
are not the same as in the North of England.  The Board consists simply
of twelve employers and twelve operatives, but every works joining the
Board shall, if possible, have a representative of the employers and a representative of the operatives. The Board elects a president, not connected
with the iron trade, whose duty it is to attend at meetings when questions
are brought before the Board to be settled, but to take no part in the discussion, beyond asking explanatiorls sufficient to guide his judgment.
Besides the president, there is a chairman and vice chairman, who are
elected by the Board from themselves, but whose functions are not clearly
defined by the rules. Instead of a committee of inquiry, the rules, which
are not very precise, say, that 6 In case of any difference arising at any
works, it is intended that it shall be settled by the works representatives,
but in case of their failing, it is open to them to refer it to the chairman,
vice chairman, and the two secretaries, who may call the Board together
if they see fit."
The president of the Board is Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, M. P. for Birmingham, who has been quite successful as an arbitrator, and still retains
the confidence of the operatives, though he has for several years been




14                ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.
forced, by the state of. the trade, to award reductions in wages. As the
result of the discussion, at a meeting of the Board, held October 7, 1878,
wages were reduced to the point mentioned above. At this meeting, Mr.
Capper, one of the workingmen's representatives, stated that the reductions conceded since January, 1874, amounted to 52- per cent. Mr. Chamberlain stated, however, that he had seen no reason to believe that any of
his past decisions were wrong, or, in fact, that they were not such as were
absolutely.necessary, having regard to the state of trade. In the course
of his remarks, he asked what was the intention and object of a Board of
Arbitration?  Surely it was to arrive at a fair decision, without the painful necessity of a strike. If this was so, he had to ask himself what would
be the result of a strike, if there were no Board. Suppose, for a moment,
there were no Board of Conciliation to settle the matter, and that the employers thought themselves entitled to ask for a reduction to 7s. of the
puddlers' wages. Did anybody doubt, that grievous as such a reduction
might be to the work people, they would, under the existing state of trade,
be obliged, in the long run, to submit to it? He was there rather as a conciliator than as a judge, and the feeling he had, that if there were no
board, the operatives at the present time must yield to the demands made
by the employers did certainly weigh with him very much in consering
the present application of the employers.
At a meeting of the Board, held since this report has been in press, the
members on both sides expressed their continued confidence in the Board,
and their implicit faith in Mr. Chamberlain.
As the two districts mentioned are among the largest and most important of the iron producing districts of Great Britain, I think I may confidently point to the success of arbitration in their iron mills, as giving strong
grounds for predicting the success of arbitration in our iron works, were
it tried. The fact that good feeling has been fostered, and severe reductions of wages accepted, without strike-, is abundant evidence of its value.
SECTION VI.
ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION IN THE COAL TR.ADE.
The working of arbitration and conciliation in the coal trade is somewhat different from its history in the iron trade. The nature of the work
in collieries does not admit of so many different trades as in iron working,
and, as a result, there are fewer unions. They are larger, more united,
and in a better position to enforce any demand they may make. Though
this is true, and though, further, there is not, with possibly an exception,
a permanent board in this trade, there are many cases, during the last
few years especially, in which differences have been adjusted by temporary boards or an arbitrator. The awards have not always been loyally
accepted. It is too much to expect that they would be. The fluctuations
in this trade in the last five years have been both rapid and large, and the
strain on any system that could be devised would have been too great not
to have caused it to give way at times. Notwithstanding this, after a careful and thorough study of all the facts I do not hesitate to say, that arbitration and conciliation in the coal trade has been a success. The wonder
is it has not failed oftener. There have been cases where both employers
and employed have refused to submit their demands to arbitration, and
there have been cases where the award, when made, has been rejected; but




ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.                   15
the exceptions are so few, that it can be fairly said that for some years,
until very lately, arbitration has settled the wages question in the coal
trade, and both sides have abided its results.
To illustrate its workings in detail in this trade I have selected the
Northumberland, Durham, and South Wales districts.
In the Northumberland coal trade wages and other industrial disputes
have been settled for some years by confci ence or conciliation between the
mine owners and workmen, each side having its unions or associations.
Since March, 1873, up to the close of 1877, a joint committee consisting
of six employers and six workmen have settled all questions'6 of mere
local importance affecting individual pits." This committee had no power
to deal with the question of wages. When this was to be discussed a
board was created for the occasion, consisting generally of two arbitrators
for each side, presided over by an umpire. Mr. Rupert Kettle, who acted
in this capacity at an arbitration in 1875, defined the constitution of the
court veryv clearly. " We are one body of five, and if, by and by, it shall
be found that you are two and two, and, therefore, cannot arrive at a conclusion, the decision will be with me; but until that time arrives you are
the judges and I am only assisting you."
The last arbitration in this trade in Northumberland was in July, 1877,
In May, of this year, the employers gave notice of a reduction and a witkdrawal of the allowance of free house and free coal. The nmen refused to
permit the reduction, and, also, an offer to arbitrate, and twelve thousand
of the fourteen thousand miners in the district went out on a strike.  So
bitter were the men against arbitration that their trusted leaders who suggested it were hissed and hooted. After several weeks idleness they, however, agreed to arbitrate.
Two arbitrators were appointed on each side, with Mr. Farrer Herschell,
M. P., as umpire. This arbitration was an important one, as introducing
new considerations as reasons for reductions. The employers did not rely
upon the claim that there had been such a reduction in the selling price
of coal as to justify a reduction in wages, but claimed it on the ground that
other districts had advantages over them in the greater number of hours
worked per day, and days per week, which, added to a higher wage they
were compelled to pay, placed them at a decided disadvantage in the market. The award was in favor of the men, but it recommended that the men
in order to aid the pit owners to compete with other districts, should work
six hours instead of five, at the face, twelve days perfortnight; to increase
the out-put of large coal, and the throwing back of small coal. These recoinmmendations practically discredited the umpires own decision, but they were
faithfully adhered to by the employers, while the recommendations were
carried out with little grace by the employes. A quarter of an hour was
added to the working time, and the other recommendations were ignored.
This arbitration was a most important one in its results. On the 24th
of November of the same year, notice of a reduction of twelve and a
half per cent. was posted, and the miners, refusing to accept, went on
strike on1 December 7. The employers refused to withdraw the notice,
and also in view of the circumstances attending the last trial, refused to
submit their case to arbitration. The men yielded so far as to agree to
accept ten per cent., and arbitrate the remaining two and a half per cent.,
but this was refused, and, after eight weeks' strike, the men went to work
at the full reduction. I have given this case in detail, as it is often referred
to as showing the failure of arbitration. It certainly did not fail, for it
was not, tried, and no one who has had an opportunity to know the present
feeling of the men, doubts that there is trouble ahead. The employers,




16                 ARBITaATTON AND CONCILIATION.
maybe, have been justified in the course they took. As to its wisdom there
is an opportunity for discussion;
In the Durham  coal trade, a much larger one than the Northumbrian,
arbitration is in full operation, though it has been subject to a most severe
strain in the large reduction of wages that have been decreed. This district has been described as one in which "reason and calm  discussion
have preeminently taken the place of force." The miners in this region
number some fifty thousand. Beginning with March, 1872, up to May,
1873, wages had been advanced fifty-eight and one half per cent. In May,
1873, the decline began, wages being reduced ten per cent. In October,
1874, Mr. PRussell Gurney, Recorder of London, after a very exhaustive
investigation, awarded a reduction of nine per cent. This was accepted,
though not with very good grace. Mr. Kettle says he always expects a
little sulking when the award is unpleasant. So great was the depression,
that in February, 1875, only three months after the announcement of Mr.
Gurney's award, another reduction was claimed, and five per cent. awarded.
At the close of the same year, Mr. Hopewood, M. P., was appointed arbitrator, and awarded, in February, tenll per cent. reduction.  In May, 1876,
a notice of a reduction of ten per cent. was given and arbitrated. In August, six per cent, and in February, 1877, ten per cent. more. In March,
1877, a sliding scale was adopted for two years. Under this it was provided that any differences that might arise were to be settled by reference. All these reductions have been accepted, not always pleasantly, but
nevertheless accepted; and under the sliding scale the men are now working, referring questions as they arise to be settled by conciliation.
In South Wales, a strike occurred in 1875, lasting seventeen weeks, and
involving one hundred and twenty thousand workmen, whose loss in wages
was variously estimated at from ~3,000,000 to ~5,000,000. This was settled by conciliation. Immediately after this, as the result of an extended
consultation, a sliding scale, based upon the selling price of coal, with a
fixed minimum and maximum, was adopted; all other differences arising
to be settled by arbitration. In 1876, several reductions resulted, which
caused considerable dissatisfaction, and a vote of the members of the union
was taken to get its views on continuing the scale, and abiding by its
action. Eighteen thousand four hundred and seventy-five voted for it, and
eight thousand nine hundred and thirty-four voted against it, though wages
had been in some cases reduced thirty per cent. Late in 1877, the price of
coal had fallen so low that the " Coal Masters' Association "' asked the men
to consent to lower the minimum of the scale five per cent., which they did,
confirming their action in February, 1878, and again in June.
There have been other arbitrations than these in the coal trade all over
Great Britain. In South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire, Mr. Mundella
has arbitrated a number of disputes the present year. At Barnsly an eight
months' strike was settled by Mr. Whitwell and Mr. Mundella. There have
have been successful arbitrations in the coal trade at AshtoD, Oldham, North
Staffordshire, Cleveland, North of England, and Lancashire. In South Staffordshire, a sliding scale was adopted in 1874, but its working was not satisfactory, owing to the decline in coal being much greater than was expected. At Radstock there have been two awards, one by Mr. Kettle, and
the other by Mr. Thomas Hughes, M. P. In North Wales there have been
several arbitrations, In all these cases there has seemed to be an earnest
desire on the part of the leaders of the unions to hold the men to the award,
telling them that they were bound in honor, and threatening to withdraw
from their positions if the men were false to their word. The Welsh colliers are rough, uneducated men, however, and have forgotten honor and




ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.                    17
interest, and rejected awards that have bein matde, and, at present, arbitration is not practiced in this district.
SECTION VII.
ARBITRATION IN OTHER INDUSTRIES.
I have spoken at length of the workings of arbitration in the coal and
iron trades for the reason assigned-that they are the industries in which
our State has so large an interest. It must not be inferred that it has been
only in these that its success has been obtained and its adaptation for the
purpose designed established. Of its workings in the hosiery trades of Nottingham and the building trades of ~Wolverhampton, I have also given an account in previous sections. Of its workings in other industries, I can give,
for lack of space, only the most meager account, and that simply for the
purpose of showing to what a diversity of cases arbitration is applicable.
The lace trade of Nottingham has a board which was started very soon
after Mr. Mundella's, in the hosiery trade. As the rules of this board are
regarded by this gentleman as the model rules, they are given in full in the
A.ppendix.*  This board was a complete success for over fifteen years. Latterly there has been some dissatisfaction regarding awards, and a desire to
repudiate them; but there has been no more difficulty than was to have
been expected, or than there will continue to be, so long as human nature
remains humlan.  In the textile trades there have been but few attempts at
systematic arbitration. The Macclesfield silk tra le had a board suggested
by the Conseils des Prud' homnznes, as early as 1849. The failure of this
board is to be attributed to the fact that, though organized to put an end
to strikes and lockouts, it used them as a means to compel obedience to its
awards. In other branches of these trades, notably the cotton trades of
East Lancashire, a spasmodic kind of conciliation has been practiced in
the:-)ast, but during the recent very disastrous lockout, though arbitration
was proffered by the employes, it was refused by the manufacturers, on the
ground that there was nothing to arbitrate, as unless they could get the
reduction asked for they must cease work.
In the building trades, a number of boards have been established, and
though it is in many respects a very complicated trade, their history has
been such as to indicate their great usefulness in these trades.
Among other industries in waich arbitration has been successfully tried,
mnay be mentioned the potteries, iron and stone mining, iron tubing, quarrying, chemical, and boot and shoe. The best examples of the workings
and success of boards, are, however, to be found in those industries treated
of at length in preceding sections.
SECTION VIII.
THE ACCEPTANCE OF AWA_\RDS BY THE PARTIES TO THE ARBITRATION.
A very important question to be answered in arriving at a true estimate
of the value of arbitration and conciliation is, how have the awards of the
boards been received?  Have they been frankly accepted, and loyally
obeyed, or have they been rejected, or if accepted, received sullenly, and
* See Appendix D.
2 ARBITRATION.




18                 ARBITR&TION AND CONCILIATION.
obeyed grudgingly, and with a determination to renew the struggle in the
near future.
So far as relates to conciliation, these questions are easily answered.
From its very nature its awards or decisions can meet with but little opposition. When differences are settled, through the good offices of committees of inquiry, or the conciliation committees of these boards, it is without
an award, and a decision is reached, because the parties themselves agree
to such decision, and, of course, in such cases there is little or no opportunity for the rejection of the result. The same is true, though not so
generally, where conciliation boards exist without a final appeal to an umpire or referee. In these cases the subject in controversy is settled by
what the men call "a long jaw,"' and an agreement is reached by a compromise, or by coming to the best arrangement possible under the circumstances. This is a contest, to be sure, but it is of a far different character
than a strike or lockout. It also offers an opportunity for rejecting a decision, and under the working of the Nottingham  board, which is on this
principle, there have been cases of such lejection. Mr. Mundella mentions
one example of a small branch of the hosiery trade, employing some two
hundred men, who made a demand, which the whole board deemed unreasonable, the representatives of this branch were outvoted, and in a fit
of ill humor, seceded from the board. They found themselves, however,
isolated and deprived of all sympathy and support, both of their fellowworkmen and the public, and they soon expressed a desire to be restored
to membership.
WThere there has been formal arbitration and an award, especially in the
coal and iron trades, I am constrained to confess that there are more cases
of rejection or attempted rejection of awards than there should be. There
should be no case of a refusal to accept an award made by a duly appointed umpire or a board. It is worse than useless to submit a case to
arbitration, unless both parties agree to be bound by the result, and are pre.
pared to act upd6on it in good faith.  The pirties to the arbitration are in
honor bound to this course, however unsatisfactory the result may be, or
however unwelcome the award.
It is unfortunate, also, that most of the repudiations of the awards have
come from the workmen, and these have at times been coupled with most
gratuitous insults to the gentlemen who have acted as arbitrators. A
recent case of this kind is the action of the nut and bolt trades of Birminghanm, in which Mr. Chaimberlin acted as arbitrator. The award was
not rejected, but Mr. Chamberlin was so grossly insulted, that he refused
in an indignant letter to serve in a subsequent case in the same trade. Mr.
Chamberlin said: "' I have always been of the opinion that arbitration, as a
means of settling such disputes, could only be successful where there existed on both sides a belief in the principle, and implicit confidence in the
discretion, impartiality, and fairness of the ambitrator. In the present case,
these conditions appear to be wanting, for you will recollect that when recently, at very considerable sacrifice of time and trouble, I settled a dispute which had arisen in your trade, my decision was made the subject of
abusive complaint, and my honor was called in question, and improper motives were attributed to me."
Another example was the rejection of the award of Mr. Sergeant Wheeler,
by the North Wales colliers, who stated in their resolutions that the reducti.n was "' a gross imposition," and gave notice of an immediate demand
for twenty per cent. advance. A. three month's strike grew out of this.
In addition to these cases and others that might be given, there are
some in which there have been cases of disloyalty to the Board at par



ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.                    19
ticular works.  This has been true, even in the North of England. It is interesting, however, to find that the employers, in a recent document, submitting their case for a reduction of wages, most readily record their opinion that, with a few local exceptions, which do not affect the general principle, the operatives, as a body, have been loyal to the rules of the board,
one of these rules being that, in the event of a dispute, the operative shall
not abandon his work, but continue his employment pending its adjustment. And this is confirmed by Mr Kettle.  He writes as follows:,b Except in one or two instances of a few days' sulks at particular works, my
award being against the workmen, I think all have been approved, and all,
without exception, have been practically acted upon, and for six years the
peace of the trade, generally, has not been interrupted."
It is also interesting to note that Mr. Chamberlain, at a recent meeting
of the South Staffordshire Conciliation Board, stated, that during the three
years that Board had been in existence, three successive reductions had
been made in the wages of the operative, but in all these cases his award
had been strictly observed, both by employers and employed.
The cases that have occurred when awards have been rejected have, without doubt, brought arbitration somewhat into disrepute.  But there are
some things forgotten by those who, for these few cases, condemn  the
principle. It should be remembered that the rejection of an award will b`
more widely known, and commented upon, than the acceptance of a score,
and it must further be remembered that the test to which this principle has
been subjected in the last five years, has been a most severe one.  WTages
in the coal and iron trades have reached, in some cases, a lower point than
they have ever touched before. A reduction of ten per cent., or even five
per cent., has come to mean want and misery, and human nature is often
too strong for honor. The wonder is, that the awards have not been oftener
rejected.  Coming, as I did, from a district in which the iron workers are
better paid than in any other district in the world; and seeing the self-restraint of the iron workers of England, in the face of constant reductions
of wages, and the too evident fact that others were to come, I could but
admire the honorable action of the men, and conceive(l the highest respect
for the principle which enabled these great changes to be made without
strikes andc lock-outs.
SECTION IX.
ADVANTAGES OF ARBITRATION.
There are two or possibly three objects sought in the formation of boards
of arbitration and conciliation.  The first is to prevent differences between
employed and employers from becoming disputes, and leading to strikes and
lock-outs; and the second is to settle disputes that have unfortunately
arisen, and to put an end to strikes and lock-outs, should they occur. The
third object, which is possibly included under the first mentioned, is to
promote mutual confidence and respect between these two classes. The only
sufficient reason for the adoption of the principle is that it accomplishes
these purposes.
Whether it has accomplished these objects in the trades in which it has
been fairly tried in England, can be jud.ged from the facts set forth in the
preceding pages of this report. For myself, I do not hesitate to say that
it is not only the best method yet devised, but the only rational one for
adjusting the relative rights of employers and employed under the present




20                ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.
constitution of industrial society. In mnaking this statement, I do not forget the method by strikes and lock-outs, nor do I consider it. These
methods are neither rational nor civilized. A victory or a defeat for either
side, under the pressure of strikes or lock-outs, neither proves nor disproves the justice of a position assumed; but it is fair to infer that an
award given by a board of arbitration, after due consideration, would be
as near just and right as it is possible for human judgment to reach. It
is to be observed, also, that a decision of a board should not be and in
most cases is not regarded as a victory by one side, or a defeat by the
other. There is no exultation over victory, no smart over defeat, nor a
determination to wait for a convenient season and revenge. The burning
questions that arise are settled in a friendly manner.
Another advantage of a permanent board of arbitration, with stated
meetings, is that it furnishes an opportunity, seldom possessed without
these, for the workmen to obtain a knowledge of the needs of trade and
the demands of the future, both upon them and the manufacturers. Labor
troubles are as often the result of a lack of information as to the true state
of a trade as of any other one thing. It is true, that workmen may be
told the facts rendering a reduction necessary, but they are not inclined to
credit them, and believe that affairs are not as represented. In the working of the English boards, especially in fixing prices, notice is taken of the
state of trade and competition with other countries and other districts, and
the information thus gathered, not by the employer members, but by the
board, is brought to bear in the settlement of wages. In his testimony before the trades unions' commission of Parliament, Mr. Mundella says:'" We
sent two of the workmen to France last year, and a third to Germaany to
see for themselves the prices paid there for that work. They came home
and said, ilt will not do, we must be content as we are for the present,'
and we produce on the table the articles made in France and Germany, and
the men are convinced by their own senses of the justice of what we say
and by their knowledge of the laws that govern trade, because this system
has been a complete educational process for our men; they know as well
as we do whether we can afford an advance or not; they know whether the
demand is good or bad, and at what prices the article can be made in
France or Germany, and they are accustomed to consider the effect of a
fall or rise in cotton just as we do; and when they think that things are
going well, they ask to share in the benefit, and when they think that things
ale going wrong, they are willing to take low rates."'
Facts gathered in this way and supplemented by statements of those in
whom the workmen have learned to have a degree of confidence, have a
greater influence than unnumbered assertions of men who are brought together only to struggle for a victory.
This suggests another and a most important advantage of these boards.
Accepting  the fact that unions of workmen exist, and will doubtless continue to exist, it is only through boards of arbitration or conciliation of
some kind that the trades unions and those of employers Can meet except
as antagonists. The manufacturer and his workman can never be brought
face to face. to discuss trade questions, except when their interests are
hostile. With these boards there is a possibility of meeting as fellow members of the same trade whose interests are indissolubly joined.
Another and perhaps the most important advantage of these boards is
the bringing of employer and employed together, and thereby increasing
their respect and esteem for each other and the consequent growth of confidence. One of the greatest barriers to an understanding between capital
and labor is a feeling on the part of workingmen that they are regarded




ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.                    21
as holding a servient position, and a feeling on the part of manufacturers
that theirs is a dominant one. Out of these feelings, which are altogether
too common, come a brood of evils that have cost our industries dear.
Even when nothing is further from the mind than the thought of cherishing
such sentiments as these, suspicion, ever quick to grasp an appearance for
a reality, catches at some chance word, and all the hornors of a labor war
are the result. Judge Kettle, in speaking of strikes from matters of sentiment, says:'J If in the common intercourse of life this is felt, how much more in the
excitement of a trade dispute must men be sensitive to influences which
clash with their just estimate of their own position; and still more keenly
must they be felt, when those influences are directed to controvert the
means taken to maintain what they believe to be their right."'
For this want of confidence and suspicion, these permanent boards of
arbitration furnish a remedy.  Confidence is cherished.  The intercourse
of representative workmen with representative employers, as equals with
equals. breaks down all class distinctions, removes suspicion, and makes
the task of harmonizing differences a much simpler proceeding.
But the chief advantage of these boards is that they form an open market, where labor and capital can come together, and in a friendly spirit
fix what is "'a fair price for a fair day's work "  In these boards, the
statements made by each side can be challenged, each others arguments
answered, and estimates impeached.  "' I verily believe that, without
limiting the influence of fair competition, boards of arbitration, properly
worked, affrd the best means of fixing the market price for a fair day's
work. I believe, moreover, that their action has a tendency to secure the
maximum prices which are consistent with steady employment, and that
the presence of an umpire prevents the ruinous consequences to both
parties which follow separation upon a disagreement."
SECTION X.
DIFFICULTIES OF ARBITRATION, AND OBJECTIOzNS TO THE SAME.
In the course of this report, I have incidentally referred to the diffii:ulties that stand in the way of the successful workings of arbitration, and
some of the objections to the same. It may not be amiss to group together some of these, and to consider others, selecting those that may be
regarded as typical rather than taking up each objection in detail.
The chief obstacle encountered in the formation of boards of arbitration
and conciliation, as well as in the earlier operations of the same, is suspicion and prejudice.  These are the sources of some of the most bitter and
ill-advised strikes and lock-outs that the history of industry has known,
and it is this tendency to quarrel up n what Juitge Kettle so aptly terms
"' matters of sentiment," that stands most in the way of arbitration   Happily, these feelings are passing away; a more intimate knowledge and a
more generous estimate of the acts of each other are removing this suspicion and prejudice.  Once boards are established, their very existence, as
we have shown, tends to the removal of all sources of strife founded upon
passion or ignorance.
Another difficulty that arises immediately upon the decision to form a
board, is the selection of an umpire. Shall he be a permanent officer, or
chosen to decide a particular case? Shall he be practically acquainted




22                 ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.
with the trade in which he is called to act, or is this not necessary, so that
he have the other qualifications? These are questions that it seems almost
impossible to answer from the results of experience. Judge Kettle, who
has been a most successful umpire in some of the most important arbitrations in England, and especially in the coal and iron trades, has no practical
knowledge of these trades. Mr. Thomas Hughes, M. P., (Tom Brown,)
Mr. Herschell, M. P., Mr. Thomas Brassey, M. P., Mr. Russell Gurney,
Mr. Henry Crompton, and others, are all gentlemen who are not practically
connected with manufacturing or mining; but have been very successful
as arbitrators. On the other hand, Mr. A. J. Mundella, M. P., Mr. Joseph
Chamberlain, M. P., Mr. David Dale, and others, who have been just as
successful umpires, are or have been very extensive manufacturers.
On the part of the workmen there have been very strong objections at
tinmes to what they term ";a stranger referee;" but it will be found that
the success of a referee will not depend upon his practical acquaintance
with the trade, so much as it will upon the man himself. If he is at all
fitted for his responsible position in other ways hli can gain sufficient knowledge of the trade to enable him to give a just and intelligent decision.  It
seems, however, advisable that when it is possible, the referee should be
an officer selected by the board, with a tenure of office the same as the board.
It is not well to wait until the struggle begins, and each side, perlaps, is
striving for victory and all they can get before the one who is to decide between them is named. It is best to select him when judgment and reason
rule. In this country, I think little difficulty will be experienced in securing umpires. I think it possible to name men in our own State in whose
fairness and judgment our iron and coal industries would be willing to confide.
When the practical operation of these boards are considered, a very serious
difficulty is found in the absence of any recognized definite principle as a basis
on which awards shall be made. For example: first and foremost among
industuial questions, is that relative to the wages of labor. When this is before a board for decision, the question arises at once, what shall be the
basis upon which the award shall be made?  It is because of this very
difficulty that arbitration boards exist. If there were such a basis definitely established, and universally acknowledged, the decision as to the
wages at a given time would be a simple question of arithmetic or of bookkeeping. It is to endeavor to discover what is fair and right at a given
time that these boards are organized.  As a matter of information, it
may be said that in the practical operation of the boards, while all the
facts relative to prices, competition, demand and supply both of labor
and products are considered, wages are generally based on the selling
price of the articles produced. Mr. Kettle, in a noted arbitration in the
coal trade, found a certain date at which the wages paid for work about
the collieries were satisfactory to both sides. This became the ideal and
served to fix, in a general way, a ratio of wages to prices that would be a
satisfactory one to both parties. Due notice was taken of any changes
that had occurred that should serve to increase or diminish this ratio,
such as reduction in the hours of labor, increased expensa from mine inspection laws, &c., and the arbitrator in his award endeavored to approximate this ratio as near as could be done without injustice or injury.
It has been objected to this course that it involves an exposure of' secrets
in connection with ones business, that a manufacturer should not be called
upon to make,  To arrive at the wages paind and prices received for any
commodity at a given time, an inspection of books is necessary. This objection must arise from a misapprehension of what is really done. The




ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.                   23
books are not brought into the board, nor are the arbitrators as a body,
nor any one of them permitted to inspect them. An accountant, sworn not
to divulge the details, but only the results, and these only to the 0oard,
unless they direct differently, is elected. He ascertains not how much it
has cost to produce an article, unless so agreed upon nor how much profit
has been made, but what was the actual selling price of the commodity
at the times desired. There can be no objection to this. No secrets are
divulged, the accountant covering his work in such a way that it is impossible to trace a sale.
It is further argued as against arbitration that an umpire may make
mistakes. They are human and consequently liable to err. What would
be the result if they did?  It would be a very careless or ignorant umpire,
one who had nol business to occupy the position, who would make a mistake
of say two per cent. in his award. This would be if the award held for
six months equal to about half a week's work-three days.  Would not
this loss be better than a' strike or a lock-out for probably many times this?
A more pertinent answer to this objection might be to ask the question,
whether an arbitrator is any more liable to make a wrong decision than
a strike or lock-out? That is, is cool deliberation more liable to err than
passionate impulse?
There is another objection that I imagine will have more weight inEngland than in this country.  It is that arbitration is an attempt to interfere
with the operation of natural laws-by which term is meant the politicoeconomical theories of Adam Smith and his successors and followers. It
is not germane to the purpose of this report to discuss the truth or falsity
of these theories. It is enough for us to say that at present our knowledge as to industrial laws is extremely linmited, and that the assumed facts
upon which theories have been based, or from which these laws are deduced,
have been questioned by some able political economists. However this
may be, the law or theory is good only so long as the facts or phenomena
remain the same. There is nothing eterl.l in an economic law, and, when
the facts change, or are modified, then the law, which is only a statement
of these facts and their relations, changes, or is modified.  Would it be
wise or truthful to say that the facts or phenomena of labor have not undergone a wonderful change in the past century?  Have not elements been
introduced that promise permanence, that have produced marked changes
in the relation of labor to employment, and demand changes in the statements of these relations, or, in other words, of the laws? But no argument is necessary on this point. No one will deny that interference with
these laws is possible. Demand or supply may be increased or diminished,
and thus, by a deliberate interference, changes to our advantage or disadvantage made to occur.
Just here I suggest the vital question as to the advantage or d(isadvantage of arbitration is to be asked. We must acknowledge that just so long
as labor maintains its present constitution, interference with these so-called
laws will occur. Now, is it better to interfere with these laws by the peaceful and friendly methods of arbitration and conciliation or by the destructive and hostile ones of strikes and lock-outs?




24                 ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.
SECTION XI.
THE RELATION OF TRADES' UNIONS TO ARBITRATION.
A most interesting and important study in connection with this subject
is its relations to trade unions; that is, how do these societies regard arbitration and conciliation as a means for settling industrial questions?
What part should they have in the fiormation of boards, the conduct of
cases, and the enforcement of awards?  Whatever may be one's views of
trade unionism, it is a fact, and will doubtless continue to be one. It is
more than probable that, not only in England, but in all countries, labor
will tend more and more to combination, at least until there is some radical
change in the relations of capital and labor, and the decisions, as to rates
of wages and other economic questions, will be largely controlled by these
combinations. I an aware that there are certain economic laws, the action
of which no union can prevent however much it may hinder, and these laws
will, in spite of unions, prevail; but even the outcome of many of these
may be very much modified, and of othels entirely moulded, by combinations. It is not germane to my purpose to enter into a discussion of how
far unions can affect the rewards of labor. It is a fact that they do, and
so great an authority as the Duke of Argyle, in his Reign of Law*,states
that combinations of workingmen for the protection of their labor are
recommended alike by reason and experience.
Such combinations cannot fairly be objected too. They are but unions
of the workingmen's capital-labor, and it is a question if, after all that
has been said about the eavils of unionism, it is not better to have organized
labor, which is always somew'at conservative, than disorganized labor
which is radical, and which. when it unites, becomes a mob, with no past
to conserve and no future for which to provide.
These unions have been a large factor in freeing labor in Europe from
the industrial slavery of the feudal system, and in bringing about industrial independence under the restraint of an enlightened intelligence, and
equitable customs and laws. Notwithstanding some of the black pages of,the history of English unionism, it has been a benefit to English labor, and
an important means of its advancement. It is destined largely to rule it
and direct its future, and, in proportion as it surrenders its indefensible
practices, will be its value.
It is these facts that make important the views of trades unions as to
arbitration.
As to their views in general, it can be said that they have for years been
its warmest advocates. The report of the trades union committee of the
Social Science Association, made in 1860, is full of evidences of the truth
of this statement. The two largest industrial interests in England to-day
are the coal and iron. They have the largest and most ably managed of
the unions of that country. In an interview which I had with Mr. Thomas
Burt, once a miner, and now a member of Parliament, elected by the coal
miners, he expressed his warm. approval of the principle of arbitration.
Mr. Edward Trow, the successor of Mr. John IKane as secretary of the
National Amalgamated Association of Iron TWorkers, writes me as follows:
i" With regard to my views on arbitration, I believe it is the only fair and
honorable mode that can be adopted fr settlement of questions between
capital and labor; that where both parties meet with an earnest desire for
a fair and honorable arrangement, and discuss the various questions in dis*The Reign of Law, by the Duke of Argyle, 16th edition. London, 1872. Page 373.




ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.                    25
pute in a kind and conciliatory spirit, there is no fear of failure; buit, on
the contrary, the old feeling of mistrust and jealousy is banished, and confiderce in each other is established.
" The fault in connection with arbitration is when workmen come to
meetings, jealous and suspicious, believing that employers are their natural
enemies, and employers, by not conversing with delegates in a free and
friendly spirit, foster their suspicion, and only through this action is there
any fear of failure. Arbitration in kngland is regarded with a reat fiavor
by the workingmen, and only in a few solitary exceptions has it been refused, or its awards been rejected by workmen.
"' If you wish arbitration to be successful, employers must meet delegates
in a kind and concilistory spirit, so as to gain the confidence of the workmen by proving that they only desire full and free discussion, and that no
advantage will be taken of men for speaking their opinions. Let this be
done, and arbitration will prove successful, and will be a blessing to emplovers and workmen."'
The rules of this association which, at the time they were drawn up,
numbered thirty-five thousand members, contains the following clause:
16. Arbitration to be offered in all disputes.  That in the event of any
misunderstanding or dispute arising with the members at any works an4
their employers, if connected with the North of England Board of Conciliation and arbitration, they shall, in the first instance, refer the particulars
of their grievance to the general secretary, who shall investigate the
claims of the applicants accoidian g to the spirit of the arbitration rules,
and endeavor to settle the matters referred to him. In the event of the
general secretary being unable to settle any question calculated to produce
irritation betwixt employer and employed, he shall call upon the standing.
committee to hold a meeting at an early day for the cldue consideration and
settlement of such matters in dispute; and, if necessary, the full board
shall be summoned to settle the same.
If a dispute takes place at any works not connected with the Northern
Board of Arbitration and Conciliation, the general secretary shall hold a
meeting with the general council to consider and, if possible, t) settle the
same. If desirable, a deputation from the counsel shall visit the works,
in accordance with the instruction given by the general council.
The Duty of Members to form Arbitration Boards.
17. Where works are not connected with the board, the members of this
association shall -Ise their influence with employers and others, to join the
present board, and to form new boards to suit the local circumstances of
such works and workmen. And in case any dispute should arise where a
board of conciliation and. arbitration has not been formed, the workmen,
who are members of this association, shall, before any step be taken calculated to produce a loss of employment, first make an offer in writing to
the employer or employers, to settle tile question in dispute by an appeal
to conciliation and arbitration.  This is the organic law of one of the most
influential of English trade organizations.
There is held yearly in England, a convention known as the Trades Union
Congress, or, as it is familiarly called, the Labor Parliament.  This is a
very important body, composed of delegates from  the various unions of
Great Britain. At the ninth convention held in 18T6, at which one hundred and thirteen societies, and five hundred and fif-y-seven thousand four
hundred and eighty-eight members were represented, the following resolution was carried:'That this meeting, recognizing the benefits conferred on many of our




26        ~       ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.
great industries by the adoption of the principles of arbitration and conciliation, pledges itself to use every endeavor to extend the application of
those prin.iples to caes of dispute in which there ma.y be a prospect of
peacqeful settlement by such means."
At the tenth session, held at Leicester, in 1877, at which one hundred
and twelve societies and six hundred and ninety-one thousand and eightynine members were represented, the president elect, on taking his seat,
said:
"; The principle of appeal to facts and reasons instead of brute force is
rational, and at once commends itself to the judgment of men. There is
no wonder, therefore, that the principle of arbitration for settling disputes
has grown very rapidly. In the hosiery trade in the midland counties,
we were among the first who adopted it, and we do not regret having done
so. The workmen sometimes have had adverse decisions; but on the
whole it has worked better than the old mode.  It is gratifying to
find that the workmen generally are the first to adopt this intelligent and
enlightened system. In some disputes which have aiisen in the country,
notably the West Lancashire strike, the employers refused to submit to
arbitration9 although the men suggested it on three occasions. My own
experience as a member of one of these boards, has led me to thisx onclusion: If a board be properly constituted, and proper arrangements are
made to give publicity to the facts of a case, the result generally will be a
iighteous award. I was glad to hear that the National Miner's Union
have decided to offer arbitration in every dispute, and it forms a part ot
their rules  It is a ratimnal arrangement, and it would be a good( thing
if all would adopt it. I think, too, arbitration boards should be open to
the press and the public. Workmen have nothing to fear from either the
one or the other. We want right and justice to rule, and we are not
afraid of publicity. When men and employers gather round a board to
talk over differences and try to adjust them, they give evidence of their
manhood. Beasts and reptiles fight and tear each other, and carry out
the law of the strongest; but men reason and( think, and by this means
show their dignity, and arrive at much better conclusions and far less
costly. Boards for settling disputes would not do away with unions, they
would still be needed, and under increased necessity to enforce the decision of the board when given in favor of the workmen."
The constituency which these bodies represent is so large as to fully
justify the statement that the trades unions of Great Britain are decidedly
in favor of the principle of arbitration as a means of settling labor disputes.
In the practical workings of arbitration, trades unions have been found
essential to its success. They have formed thecenter around which the
entire body of labor, non-unionist as well as unionist, has gathered, and by
which the workmen members of the boards have been elected. As the result of his long experience, Mr. Kettle says:
6 I confess I see no organization but trades unions to fall back upon for
the purpose of conducting the business of electing workmen delegates.
It must be distinctly understood that I do not here intend that members
of a trade society should elect the workmen's arbitrators. In all our staple
trades there are unions, but the proportion of their members, to the total
number of workmen, differs greatly in different trades. In all there are a
greater number of what are called non-society men.'6 All the workmen, wther unionists or not, should be represented at the
arbitration board. I suggest that the trades' union organization is, at present, the most accessible means of carrying this out."




ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.                      27
The organized union also gathers the facts upon which the arguments for
the labor side are based, an4l it is in them that the moral power resides which
has been found not only essential, but sufficient to the enforcing of the
awards of the boards.
SECTION XII.
ARBITRATION AND THE STATE.
As has already been stated, arbitration and conciliation in their practical workings in England have been purely voluntary.  Not only is this
true of the submission of the dispute or difference, but of the acceptance
and carrying out of the awards. The very nature of conciliation precludes
the idea of legal sanctions for it. awards, or a legal enforcement of the
same.  With arbitration it is different; its methods are nearer those of a
court of law, and its decision somewhat of the nature of a verdict based
on testimony, and it is possible to give them the force of judicial decisions, capable of enforcement, with penalties in case of evasion.  Some of
the warmest and most intelligent advocates of arbitration have insiste
that arbitration should have this legal aspect, while others, equally friendly
and intelligent, have argued that to take away its purely voluntary character would be to destroy its usefulness.
There are at present, in the statute books of Great Britain, three acts
relating to arbitration.  The first of these, passed in 1824, and generally
referred to as 5 Geo. IV, cap. 96, and the others later, passed in 1867 and
1872,* known commonly, respectively, as Lord St. Leonard's and Mr. Mundella's.
The, first of these acts is evidently based on the French law for the establishment of Conseils des Prud'hommes, and, like that, gives considerable powers of compulsory arbitration. There is no permanent board or
council established, but a justice of the pesce or a referee appointed by
him  acts as umpire or referee.  The operation of the act is restricted to
disputes in certain trades, and upon certain subj ects; and, although it admnits of very extensive application, yet the act has not been generally received with favor. It only provides for the settlement of existing andi not
future disputes, and contains a proviso that, " nothing in this act contained
shall authorize any justice or justices, actting as hereafter mentioned, to
establish a rate of wages, or price of labor or workmanship, at what the
workman shall in future be paid, unless with the mutual consent of both
masters and workmen." The time, also, within which complaint is to be
made is, as to disputes about materials, within three weeks, and, as to
complaints from any other cause, within three days.
As to the character of the awards, section thirteen of this act provides:
"As well in all such cases of, dispute as aforesaid," (meaning those
enumerated in the second section,);6 as in all other cases, if the parties
mutually agree that the matter in dispute shall be arbitrated and determined in a different mode to the one hereby prescribed," (that is by justices, referees, &c.,) 6" such agreement shall be valid, and the award and determination thereon final and conclusive between the parties, and the same
proceedings of distress, sale, and imprisonment, as hereafter mentioned,
sh11l be had towards enforcing such awards," (by application to any j astice of the peace of the county, stewartry, riding, division, barony, city,
* The act of 1872 will be found in full in Appendix E.




23                 A RBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.
town, burg, or place within which the parties shall residle,) " as are by this
act prescribed for enforcing awards made under and by virtue of its provisions.'"
The proceedings to enforce awards are as follows: Section 47 enacts
that, " If any party shall refuse or delay to fulfill an award tunder this act
for the space of two days after the same shall have been reduced into writing, it shall be lawful for any such justice as aforesaid, on application. of
the party aggrieved, and he is hereby requ'reod by writing under his hand,
according to the form (A) of the schedule hereunto annexed, or in some
other form to the like effect, to cause the sum and sums of money directed
to be paid by any such award to be levied by distress and sale of any
goods and chattels of the person or persons liable to pay the sa  e, together with all costs," &c. And in case there is no sufficient distress, " it
shall be lawful for any justice, as aforesaid, and he is hereby required by
warrant under his hand, according to the form (C) of the schedule hereunto annexed, or in some other form to the like effect, to commit the person or persons so liable as aforesaid to the common gaol or some house of
correction within his or their jurisdiction, there to remain without bail for
any time not exceeding three months."
Section twenty-five provides for committal to prison in the first instance,
where the justices think the issuing of a distress warrant would'}be attended with consequences ruinous or in an especial manner injurious to
the defaulter and his family.' 
Section twenty-six provides for the release from prison upon paying by
the person committed "6 to the governor or keeper of the prison the full
amount of the sum awarded, with all reasonable expenses incurred throug i
such refusal or delay."
Section twenty-eight says: 6 No appeal or certiorari shall lie against
any proceedings under this act,' and section twenty that "; no proceedings
under this act shall be invalid for want of form."
The fees t) be taken under the act are very low —2d. for a summons,
4d. for an order, 6d. for a warrant, 4d. for service of summons or order,
Is. for execution and sale, 3d. per diem for custody of goods, &c.
The act of 1867, commonly called Lord St. Leonards' act, is entitled
"An act to establish equitable councils of conciliation to adjust differences
between masters and men."  Quoting Mr. Kettle's analysis of this act:
"' It proposes that the councils should be formed under license of the Home
Secretary, granted upon the petition of masters and men in any particular
trade or place; such petition to be based upon the resolution of a puilic
meeting called for that purpose.  This is subject to certain restrictive conditions as to residence and other qualifications.  The bill provides that
the petitioners shall elect the first council, and that succeeding councils
should be elected each by registered members of the trade —masters and
m-nen-who shall be licensed by the council and have resided six months
in the town, &c.; and as to men, have worked seven years in the trade.
The bill further provides for the appointment of a chairman, (who must
be unconnected with the trade,) a clerk, and other officers.  it also provides for registration, polling, the holding of meetings, the making of bylaws, and other matters necessary to carry on proceedings as a body corporate.
6 The provision for determinino disputes is section five, and is as follows: iThat a quorum of not less than three (one being a master, and another a workman, and the third the chairman) may constitute a council for
the hearing and adjudication of cases of dispute, and may accordingly
make their award; but a committee of council, to be denominated the com



ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.                    29
mittee of conciliation, shall be appointed by the council, consisting of one
master and one workman, who shall sit at such times as shall be appointed,
and be renewed from time to time as occasion shall require; and  all cases
or questions of dispute which shall be submitted to the council by both
parties shall, in the first instance, be referred to the said committee of conciliation, who shall endeavor to reconcile the parties in difference.  When
such reconciliation shall not be effected, the matter in dispute shall be remitted to the council, to be disposed of as a contested matter in regular
course.  "
By the fourth section power is to be given to these councils to hear
and determine all questions of dispute and difference between masters and
workmen, as set forth in the 5th George iVT, cap. 96, which might be submitted to them by both parties; and, as to which, the council is to have
all the authority granted to arbitrators and referees by the before-mentioned act. The council are to be further authorized to adjudicate upon
and determine any other case of dispute or difference submitted to them
by mut uat consent; but with the same proviso as in the act of George IV.
against fixing future prices.  Such awards to be enforced according to the
provisions of the last-mentioned act. This bill of Lord St. Leonards would
also establish a committee of two for the purpose of conciliation, in adcldition to the council before mentioned.  The power would not be operative
until a dispute had commenced, and then the two conciliators, or the two
trade members of the quorum, would be in the position of ordinary arbitrators, and the independent chairman in that of the umpire.  The defect
in the system of Lord St. Leonards is that it does not make it obligatory
to settle future disputes by the means provided in his act.  His lordship
had, no doubt, some good reason for confining his system to the settlement
of existing disputes; but it is remarkable that the general law as to the
binding effect of agreements to submit future disputes to arbitration has
been finally settled by a most able judgment of his given in the case of'Dimsdale vs. Robertson' (2 Jones and Latouche, 5S,) given when hig
lordship was Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
The last act, that of 1872, we have given in full in the Appendix.  This
act was the result, in some measure, of the sentiment in England in favor
of Mr. Kettle's plan. It is to be regretted that it was not passed as drawn
up by Mr. Kettle.  This act gives all powers consistent with freedom  of
contract for the establishment of permanent boards of arbitration, with aun
thority to fix future rates of wages, and power to enforce their awards by
legal process.
Notwithstanding the existence of these laws, I was unable to learn of
any recent cases of their use, if, indeed, they have ever been used. Moral
coercion, in case of any attempt to repudiate the awards and what Mr.
Kettle so happily terms, 6 that aggregate honor of individuals, which our
French neighbors call' esprit du corps,' " have generally been sufficient to
secure the enforcement of an award.  The love of justice and fair play,
which has led the parties to agree to submit their disputes to arbitrators,
has also led them to act in good faith when the award has been made. Still
it would not be without its effect if some simnple inexpensive legal method
were provided for enforcing such of the awards of arbitration as in their
nature are capable of such enforcement. I am aware of the impossibility
of enforcing  an award that relates to a future rate of wages, the most prolific source of disputes. In the very nature of the award, when it includes
working rules or rates of wages, these rules or the contracts for hiring
must be subject, so far as the individual is concerned, to termination on
short notice, and therefore the award in its action, must be bounded by




30                 ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.
this notice, but it seems just and right thatuntil such notice has been given
and the contract ended in accordance with its terms, it should be conformed
to, or penalties provided for its non-observance.
There is another obstacle to legal arbitration. An employd cannot be
compelled to work unless he choose, nor a manufacturer to run at a loss.
The advocates of the Wolverhampton system do not claim nor propose that
this shall be done, but they wish to provide that one party shall not, on a
momenL's notice, discharge the other, nor shall the latter cease work without a moment's warning.  This does not in any degree detract from the
voluntary nature of arbitration. It simply is carrying out the evident
truth that whilst one remains a party to an agreement, he is bound to abide
by the terms. If he does not like the terms, his remedy is to free himself
in the proper way. Legal arbitration in the sense in which Mr. Kettle
advocates it only proposes to secure by legal means the performance of
honorable obligations.
SECTION XIII.
CONCLUSION.
In the forgoing pages I have endeavored to give in as brief a space as
possible the history and practical workings of Industrial Arbitration and
Conciliation. My inclination and the importance of the subject would
have led me at times to much fuller details and a more complete discussion
of the subject, had I not rigidly adhered to a determination to include this
report within such limits as would secure a reasonable probability of its
being read. With such limitations, it has been impossible to more than
touch upon the history and accomplishments of arbitration and conciliation.
In fact, a large part of its history, especially that which relates to the working of conciliation, by which ninety per cent. of the cases are settled, is
of such a nature that its details cannot be given. It can only be known
by its results, and these have been a better and more cordial feeling between
employers and employed, and a mutual cooperation and trust that promises
the most satisfactory and speedy solution of some of the most vital questions that vex industrial society.
I have not forgotten that the present constitution of industrial society
is not for all time. There are great and vital changes that must take
place. There are even at the present time important re-adjustments in
progress in the relations of capital and labor. These must continue, and
with these changes new modes and new expedients must be adopted.
While this is true, the practical question for us is, what, in the present
condition of the relations of capital and labor, is best calculated to harmonize those relations, and give to each its just proportion of the results
of their united energies?
I believe that the practice of arbitration and conciliation will tend to
these ends. As a result of the fair and open discussions of the boards,
knowledge will be acquired, the views of each modify those of the other,
and out of it, and as a result of it, will come such relations between
capital and labor as will effectually put an end to industrial conflict.
Of the great value of arbitration and conciliation as means of settling
trades' disputes, there can be no question. That it is infinitely to be preferred to the barbarous method of strikes and lock-outs, is scarcely a subject of argument. In the terse language of Mr. George Howell, formerly
secretary of the Trades' Union Congress, "1 the whole question lies in a nut




ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.                    31
shell.  Is brute force better than reason?  If it be, then a costermonger
may be a greater personage than a philosopher, and Tom  Sayers might
have been considered superior to John Stuart Mill."
I do not claim for arbitration that it as a wonder worker.  It is not
perfect.  It is used by men that are very human, and who, under the
present condition of things, are extremely selfish.  For these reasons it
will fail to accomplish all that is expected.  Though it may fail at times,
when it is fairly and honestly tried it will in most cases succeed; and
under its action, wherever established, an intelligent cooiperation between
emp)loyers and employed will be effected, and steady employment secured
at those rates of wages which the industrial conditions of a competitive
market enables capital to pay.
As before stated, differences between capital and labor must constantly
arise.  They are here now. It is for our workmen and manufacturers to
say how these differences shall be settled, whether by reason or by brute
force. Decide they must, and in some cases soon. The solicitude to discover some more rational way of settling these differences than by the barbarous methods of strikes and lock-outs is shared equally by workmen and
employers, and probably most of all by the on-looking public.  While this
end may be the immediate object of the solicitude of these classes, underneath it lies an earnest desire to find a permanent, honorable, reasonabe
solution of this and other phases of that most important of all human problems, the labor question.  We are greatly in the dark on this subject.  I
believe we are moving toward the light.  Looking back a hundred years,
we can see the gradual brightening of -what was then the darkest of all social
problems, and need have no fears of the result. It may be delayed; but
reason will rule and determine the nature of the relations of capital and labor.
There are certain facts that we may refuse to acknowledge, and, refusing to
own, may go on in the old way; but the new way of reason and a respect for
the rights of each other will win. I believe that arbitration and conciliation
will aid in brinD ing about the recognition of these rights. It is not an end nor
a solution of the problem. It is on the way to the end, and is much nearer
it than a strike or a lock-out. It will be a day of the greatest promise
when in our State we shall put aside our preconceived prejudices and the notions of the past, when we shall realize that something higher than brute
force has come into the affairs of men to adjust and harmonize them, and
when acting on this belief, we shall urge forward an industrial reorganization on the basis of reason and right.  There can be no nobler or more
sacred work for men to do.
APPENDIX A.
BOARD OF ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION FOR THE HOSIERY AND
GLOVE TRADE.
Rzules.
1. That a board of trade be formed, to be styled the C6 Board of Arbitration
and Conciliation for the Hosiery and Glove Branches."'
2. That the object of the said board shall be to arbitrate on any questions
relating t ) wages that may be referred to it from time to time by the employers or operatives, and by conciliatory means to interpose its influence
to put an end to any disputes that may arise.




32                 ARBITRATION AND CONCILTATION.
3. The board to con-ist of eleven manufacturers and eleven operatives.
The operatives to be elected by a meeting of the respective branches. The
manufacturers to be elected by a public meeting of their own body. The
whole of the deputies to serve for one year, and to be eligible for reilection.  The new council to be elected in the month of January, in each
year.
4. That each delegate attend the Board with full powers from his own
branch, and that the decision of the Board shall be considered binding upon
the branch he represents.
5. That a Committee of Inquiry, consisting of four members of the Board,
shall inquire into any cases referred to it by the secretaries. Such committee to use its influence in the settlement of disptutes.  If unable amicably to adjust the business referred to it, it shall be remitted to the Board
for settlement; but in no case shall the committee make any award.  The
committee to be appointed annually.
6. That the Board shall, at its annual meeting, elect a President, Vice
President, and two Secretaries, who shall continue in office one year, and
be eligible for reelection.
7. That the BoarA  shall meet for the transaction of business once a quarter9 viz: the first Monday in January, April, July, and October; 4but on a
requisition to the President, signed by three members of the Board, specifying the nature of the business to be transacted, he shall, within seven days,
convene a meeting of its members. The circular calling such meeting, shall
specify the nature of the business for consideration, provided that such
business has first been submitted to the committee of inquiry, and left undecided by them.
8. That all complaints submitted to the Board for their investigation, be
embodied in writing, stating, as clearly as possible, the nature of the grievance complained of; such statement to be sent at least one week prior to
the Board meeting.
9. That prior to any advance or reduction in the rate of wages being
considered by the Board, a month's notice shall be given in writing to the
Secretary, that such change is desired.
10. That the President shall preside over the meetings of the Board, and
in his absence, the Vice President.  In the absence of both President and
Vice President, a chairman shall be elected by a majority present. The
chairman to have a vote, and, in case of members being equal, the chairman to have the casting vote.
11. That any expense incurred by this Board, b_ borne equally by the
operatives and employers.
12. That no alteration or addition be made to these rules, except at a
quarterly meeting, or a special meeting convened for the purpose. 2Notice
of any proposed alteration shall be given in writing one month previous to
such meetings.
APPENDIX B.
R,ULLES OF TIHE WOLVERAtAMTPTON BUILDING TRADE.
Btules for Regulating the Carpenters' and Joiners' Branch.
We, the undersigned, (A. B.,) umpire; (C. D., E. F., and four others,)
arbitrators, appointed by the master builders; (G. H., I. J., and foul
others,) arbitrators, appointed by the operative carpenters and joiners,




ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.                   33
having fully and fairly discussed certain alterations in the rules proposed
on behalf of the masters and men respectively, of which due notice had
been given, do hereby certify that we have, by unanimous resolution,
agreed upon the following rules, to come into operation on the 1st day
of May next:
Arbitration.
Rule 1. That if any trade dispute shall arise between mIster and workman, such dispute shall be settled by the award of (C. D., E. F., and four
others.) on the part of the master builders, and (Go. i., I. J., and four
others,) on the part of the operative carpenters and joiners, who are hereby
appointed trade arbitrators, or by a majority of them; or in case they or
a majority of them cannot agree, then by the award of A. B., who is hereby
appointed umpire; and that in case any or either of the masters' arbitrators shall happen to die, or cease to carry on business in the town of Wolverhampton, or be ill and un able to attend to the business of arbitration during the continuance of these rules, then the surviving or remaining masters'
arbitrators shall appoint another or other master builder or builders then
carrying on business in the town of Wolyerhampton, in the place of him
or them who shall so have died or ceased to carry on business, or become
incapable of acting; and in case any or either of the workmen's arbitrators
shall happen to die, or cease to work as a carpenter and joiner in the town
of Wolverhampton, or become ill and incapable of attending to the business of arbitration during the continuance of these rules, then the surviving or remaining workmen's arbitrators shall appoint other or another
carpenter and joiner, then working in the town of WVolverhampton, in the
place of him or them who shall have died or ceased to work, or become
incapable of acting. And in case either or any of the masters or men appointed arbitrators shall be a party or parties to the dispute to be decided,
other arbitrators shall, for the purpose of that arbitration only, be appointed in manner hereinbefore provided for filling up vacancies.  That
upon any dispute arising, either the master or workmah may forthwith
give notice to the umpire of the same, who shall thereupon summon the
arbitrators to meet at some convenient time and place within seven days,
for the purpose of hearing and determining the said dispute. At the meeting so to be held both parties, and such others as the arbitrators or umpire
may think necessary, shall be heard; and both parties shall produce before
the arbitrators anul umpire such documents in their possession relating to
the dispute as they or either of them shall require. The award of the
said arbitrators, or a majority of them, or in case they or a majority of
them cannot agree, then the award of the umpire shall be binding and conclusive upon all parties to the dispute arbitrated. The award shall be
made within three days after the'sitting, or if more than one, after the
last sitting of the arbitrators. The award shall not be void or voidable
for want of form; and may be referred back for amendment in form to
the arbitrators or umpire, as the case may be, by any judge or magistrate.
No proceedings whatever at law or in equity shall be taken against either
arbitrators or umpire, or any of them, for anything done under this rule.
And lastly, that the arbitrations hereinbefore provided are intended between masters and workmen to be, and for all intents and purposes shall
be, taken and held to be under the provisions of section thirteen of the
5th of George IV, cap. 96.
Conciliation.
2. That in case any trade dispute or difference of a private nature shall
arise between any individual master and any individual workman or work3 ARBITRATION.




34                ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.
men, by which the general interests of the trade are not directly affected,
then in such case, before proceeding to arbitration under the last rule, the
master shall nominate one of the hereinbefore appointed masters' arbitrators, and the workman or workmen one of the hereinbefore appointed
workmen's arbitrators, who shall as soon as conveniently may be meet together, and endeavor, if possible, to arrange such private dispute or difference without proceeding to a formal reference, and in case they cannot
so arrange such difference to the mutual satisfaction of both contending
parties, the matter in dispute shall be determined by arbitration under
rule one, as though no such meeting for conciliation had been held.
Society and Non-society Men.
3. Neither masters nor men shall interfere with any man on account of
his being a society or non-society man. The society men pledge themselves not to annoy nor allow annoyance to non-society men.
Masters' Conduct of Business.
4. Each master shall have power to conduct his own business in the matter of the employment of any man he thinks fit, on any work he considers
him capable of doing; in taking apprentices; in using machinery and implements; and in all details of the management of his business, not infringing on the individual liberty of the workman. Provided that, on any job
where a number of carpenters and joiners are employed, their instructions
shall be given by the employer, or, in his absence, by the general manager,
through the carpenter and joiner appointed to take the lead of the job.
TWages, Payment by the Hour.
5. All time shall be reckoned and paid for by the hour, at the following
rates: The class of men who have hitherto been paid five pence three farthings per hour shall be paid sixpence per hour, and other classes of men
in proportion; but men working only on unprotected buildings shall be
paid one halfpenny per hour additional for six weeks before and six weeks
after Christmas day. Provided that when a man employed on unprotected
buildings has the option of making up his full time by working in the shop,
he shall be paid at the ordinary rate only, it being the intention of both
parties that men of the same class shall have the opportunity of earning
the same wages in each week.
Time of Work.
6. The shops and works shall be open from six o'clock in the morning
till half past five o'clock in the evening for the first five working days in
the week; and from six o'clock in the morning till four in the afternoon
on Saturday, allowing one and an half hour per day for meals; but from
six weeks before till six weeks after Christmas day, workmen on unprotected buildings, who are not provided with work in the shop to fill up their
full time, shall work from seven o'clock in the morning till five o'clock in
the evening, on the first five working days of the week, and from seven
o'clock in the morning till four o'clock in the afternoon on Saturday, with
one hour per day allowed for meals. Provided that for nien who wish to
be paid at the office on Saturday, between one and two o'clock, under the
next rule, the hour of ceasing to work on that day shall be one o'clock instead of four.




ARBiTRATION AND CONCILIATION.                   35
Reclconinq and Payment.
7. Time and wages shall be reckoned up to Friday night in each week,
and wages shall be paid at the pay office at the shop, on Saturday, between
the hours of one and two, to all men who require a half holiday; the men.
requiring payment then to walk to the pay office in their own time. Other
men will be paid either at the pay office, at the shop, or upon the job, at
four o'clock, as heretofore.
Overtime.
8. All time made at the request of the master between eight o'clock in
the evening and five o'clock in the morning, shall be paid for at the rate of
ninepence per hour, and on Sunday shall be paid for at one shilling' per
hour.
Distant Worck.
9. Walking time shall be paid as follows: that is to say, if the distance
of the work or job be within two miles from the High Green, Wolverhampton, the men shall walk in their own time. If more than two miles from
that place, then walking time shall be allowed at the rate of three miles
per hour beyond the first mile and a half. The men to walk back in their
own time, except on Saturdays, when the wages are not paid on the job
or place of work. Lodgings to be paid for at all j obs beyond four miles distance, at the rate of two shillings per week. Railway fares shall be matters of special arrangement between master and man.
Notice.
10. One working day's notice shall be given before a man leaves an employer, or before a master discharges a man.
Rules, Hlow Long in Force, and How and Wlhen to be Altered.
11. These rules shall come into operation on the 1st day of May next,
and shall continue in force for one year. Should either party require an
alteration in these rules at the end of the time specified, notice shall be
given to the other party of such required alteration, in the month of January next. If no such notice shall be given, then these rules shall continue in force until the 1st of May in the next year, and so on from year
to year, until either party shall give notice to the other in the month of
January in any year, that an alteration in these rules will be required-on
the 1st day of May next following such notice.
Printing, Publishing, and Proving these Rules.
12. That these rules shall be printed and posted up in some conspicuous
place in each of the master builders' workshops in Wolverhampton, and
that a printed copy of these rules, issued by the umpire, shall be read as
evidence of the contract and submission to arbitration, between any master builder carrying on business in the municipal borough of Wolverhampton, and any carpenter and joiner, in any proceedings to inforce any award
made under these rules, unless a special contract in writing shall have been
entered into between the parties.
Dated this 31st day of March, 1866.
[Signatures of Masters' Arbitrators.]
[ Signatures of Men's A rbitrators.]
[ Signature of Umpire.]




36                 ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.
APPENDIX C.
BOARD OF ARBITRATION AND CONCILILATION FOR THE NORTH  OF
ENGLAND MANUFACTURED IRON TRADE.
Rules.
1. The title of the Board shall be "6 The Board of Arbitration and Conciliation for the Manufactured Iron Trade of the North of England."
2. The object of the said board shall be to arbitrate on wages, or any
other matters affecting their respective interests, that may be referred
to it from time to time by the employers or operatives, and, by conciliatory
means, to interpose its influence to prevent disputes, and put an end to
any that may arise.
3. The board shall consist of one employer and one operative representative from each works joining the board. Where two or more works
belong to the same proprietors, each works may claim to be represented at
the board.
4. The employers shall be entitled to send one duly accrediter&representative from each works to each meeting of the board.
5. The operatives of each works shall select a representative by ballot in
the month of December in each year, the name of such representative and
of the works he represents shall be given in to the secretaries on or before
the 1st of January next ensuing.
6. The operative representatives so chosen shall continue in office for
the calendar year immediately following their election, and shall be eligible for re-election.
7. If any operative representative die, or resign, or cease to be qualified
by terminating his connection with the works he represents, a successor
shall be chosen within one month, in the same manner as is provided in
the case of annual elections.
8. Each representative shall be deemed fully authorized to act for the
works which has elected him, and the decision of a majority of the board,
or of its referee, shall be binding upon the employers and operatives of
all works which have joined the board.
9. At the meeting of the board, to be held in January in each year, it
shall elect a president and vice president, one from  the employers and
the other from the operatives, also a deputy president and a deputy vice
president in like manner, and two secretaries, who shall continue in office
till the corresponding meeting of the following year, but shall be eligible for re-election.  The president and vice president shall be ex-oficio
members of all committees.
10. At the same meeting of the board a standing committee shall be
appointed, as follows: The employers shall nominate ten of their number, (not more that five of whom shall be summoned to any meeting of
the committee.) and the operatives five of their number; The president
and vice president shall be also ex officio members of the committee.
11. All questions shall, in the first instance, be referred to the standing
committee, who shall investigate and endeavor to settle the matter so referred to it, but shall have no power to make an award, unless by consent of the parties. In the event of the committee being unable to settle
any question, it shall, as early as possible, be referred to the board.
12. The president shall preside over all meetings of the board, and in




ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.                   37
his absence the vice president. In the absence of both president and
vice president a chairman shall be elected by the meeting.
13. All votes shall be taken at the board by show of hands, unless any
member calls for a ballot. The chairman and vice chairman shall not be
entitled to vote, but the works for which the chairman and vice chairman
respectively were elected shall be entitled to nominate another representative in each case. If at any meeting of the board the employer representative or the operative representative of any works be absent, the other
representative of such works shall not, under the circumstances, be entitled to vote.
14. In case of an equality of votes at the board, it shall appoint an independent referee, whose decision shall be final and binding; but when-.
ever such equality of votes arises on the choice of independent referee,
the original question shall be referred to and finally decided by the award
of three indifferent persons, or a majority of them, one of such persons to
be named by each section of the board, and the third by the two persons
so named by the board, within fourteen days of such meeting.
15. The board shall meet for the transaction of business twice a year,
in January and July; but on a requisition to the president, signed by five
members of the board, specifying the nature of the business to be transacted, and stating that it has been submitted to the standing committee
and left undecided by them, he shall, within fourteen clays, convene a
meeting of the board. The circular calling such meeting shall specify
the nature of the business for consideration.
16. All questions requiring investigation shall be sulbmitted to the standing cormmittee or to the board, as the case may be, in writing, and shall be
supplemented by such verbal evidence or explanation as they may think
needful.
17. No subject shall be brought forward at any meeting of the standing
committee or of the board, unless notice thereof be given to the secretaries
seven clear days before the meeting at which it is to be introduced.
18. The standing committee shall meet for the transaction of business
prior to the half-yearly meetings, and in addition as often as business requires. The place of meeting shall be arranged between the president
and secretaries in default of any special direction.
19. Any expenses incurred by this board shall be borne equally by the
employers and operatives, and it shall be the duty of the standing committee to establish the most convenient arrangements for collecting what
may be needed to meet such expenses.
20. The sum of ten shillings for each member of the board or standing
committee shall be allowed for each meeting of the board or standing committee, together with such percentage addition as is for the time being
made by order of the board to the standard wages. This sum shall be
divided equally between the employers and operatives, and shall be distributed. by each side in proportion to the attendances of each member.
In addition each member shall be allowed second-class railway fare each
way, and when an operative member is engaged on the night shift following the day on which a meeting is held, he shall be allowed payment for a
second shift.
21. If any works desires to join the board at any other time than is
contemplated in rules four and five, such desire shall be notified to the
secretaries, and by them to the standing committee, who shall thereupon
admit such works to membership, on being satisfied that representatives
have been chosen in the manner prescribed by the rules.
22. No alteration or addition shall be made to these rules, except at the




38                 ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.
first meeting of the board to be held in January in each year, and unless
notice in writing of the proposed alteration be given to the secretaries at
least one calendar month before such meeting. The notice convening
the annual meeting to state fully the nature of any alteration that may be
proposed.
By-Laws.
RULE 5. In the month of November in each year, the secretaries shall
issue a notice to each firm connected with the board requesting them to
elect representatives in the month of December, and shall supply them
with the requisite forms.
RULE 10. The committee shall have power to fill up all vacancies that
may arise during the quarter.
RULE ll.  An official. form shall be supplied to each representative, on
which complaints can be entered. Either secretary receiving a complaint
shall be required to forward a copy of the same to the other secretary,
and the complaint shall be considered as officially before the board from
the date of such notice.
RULE 17. This rule to be interpreted to mean that no case in which the
committee are called upon to deal finally with a complaint from anyXmember of the board shall be taken up without seven days' notice has been
received  but this not to apply to routine business, or to such preliminary
investigation of complaints as may be necessary.
RULE 19. The sum of 3d. per head, per quarter, shall be deducted from
the wages of each operative earning 2s. 6d. per day and upwards (in case
he does not object in writing to such deduction) on the first pay in the
months of January, April, July, and October. Each firm shall pay an
amount corresponding to the total sum deducted from the workmen.  The
contributions shall be forwarded on official forms, to be supplied by the
secretaries, to the bankers (the National Provincial Bank of England)
within one week from  the pay when the money is deducted from the
operatives.
RULE 20. If any member be compelled in the service of the board to
attend meetings on two or more days consecutively, the sum of 3s. 6d.
each be allowed per night. This is not to apply to any members living
in the place where the meeting is held.  Members attending meetings on
any day except Mondays or Saturdays, and being that week employed on
the night turn, to be paid for two days for each sitting.
The board earnestly invites the attention of all who belong to it, either
as subscribers or as members, to the following instructions:
If any subscriber of the board desires to have its assistance in redressing any grievance, he must explain the matter to the operative representative of the works at which he is employed.
The operative representative must question the complainant about
the matter, and discourage complaints which do not appear to be well
founded.
If there seems good ground for complaint, the complainant and the
operative representative must take a suitable opportunity of laying the
matter before the foreman or works' manager or head of the concern,
(according to what may be the custom  of the particular works.)  An
official form on which complaints may be stated can be obtained from the
secretaries.




ARBITRATION AND CONCTLIATION..                     9
The complaint should be stated in a way that implies an expectation
that it will be fairly and fully considered, and that what is right will be
done.
In most cases this will lead to a settlement without the matter havino
to go further.
If, however, an agreement cannot be come to, a statement of the points
in difference must be drawn out, signed by the employer and the operative
representative, (and, if possible, by the employer also,) and forwarded to
the secretaries of the board, with a request that the standing committee
will consider the matter.
It will be the duty of the standing committee to meet for this purpose
as soon after the expiration of seven days from  receipt of the notice as
can be arranged.
It is not, however, always possible to avoid some delay, and the complainant must not suppose that he will necessarily lose anything by having
to wait, as any recommendation of the standing committee or any decision
of the board may be made to date back to the time of the complaint being
sent in.
Above all, the board would impress upon its subscribers that there must
be no strike or suspension of work.  The main object of the board is to
prevent anything of this sort; and if any strike or suspension of worl~
takes place, the board will refuse to inquire into the matter in dispute till
work is resumed, and the facts of its having been interrupted will be taken
in account on considering the question.
It is recommended that any changes in modes of working requiring
alterations in the hours of labor, or a revision of the scale of payments,
should be made matters of notice, and, as far as possible, of arrangement
beforehand, so as to avoid needless subsequent disputes as to what ought
to be paid.
APPENDIX D.
BOARD OF ARBITRATION AND CONCILIA-TION FOR THE LACE TRADE
FOR 1876.
Rules, as adopted at the hMeeting of Delegates, held at the Mechanics'
Hall, September 17, 1874, and amended July 10, 1876.
1. That a board of trade be formed, to be styled the "1 Board of Arbitration and Conciliation for the Lace Trade."
2. That the object of the said board shall be to arbitrate on any questions
that may be referred to it, from time to time, by the joint conlsent of emrployer and workman, and, by conciliatory means, to interpose its influence
to put an end to any dispute that may arise.
3. This board to consist of twelve manufacturers and twelve operatives,
five of each to form a quorum. The manufacturers to elect six levers, three
curtain, and three plain net representatives, and the operatives six levers,
three curtain, and three plain net representatives, each to be chosen by
their rtspective associations. The whole of the delegates to serve for one
year, and to be eligible feor reiLlection.  The new council to be elected in
the month of January in each year.  That when a special question arises,




40                 ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.
upon which the members of the board have not sufficient information, it
shall be competent for either side to introduce, after seven days' notice to
the secretaries, not more than two extra delegates, who shall give information and enter into discussion upon such question; but, in every case,
only members of the board shall vote. The above alteration shall also
apply to special meetings of each branch. No changes shall be made in
the extra delegates whilst the question is under discussion.
4. The decision of the board shall be binding on the parties to any dispute submitted by them.
5. That a committee of inquiry of six members of the board, three employers and three workmen, engaged in that particular branch in which
the dispute arfses, shall inquire into any cases referred to it, such committee
to use its influence in the settlement of disputes.  If unable, amicably, to
adjust the business referred to it, it shall be remitted to the whole of the
members of that branch upon the board, and, should no agreement then be
arrived at, the case shall be submitted to a full board, but in no case shall
the committees make any award.  The committees to be appointed annually at the first meeting of the board.
6. That the board shall, at its first meeting in each year, elect a president, vice president, treasurer, referee, and two secretaries, who shall continue in office for one year, and be eligible for re6lection.
7. That the board shall meet for the transaction of business once a quarter, viz: The second llonday in January, April, July, and October; but
on a requisition to the president, signed by three members of the board,
specifying the nature of the business to be transacted, he shall, within
seven days, convene a meeting of its members.  The circular calling such
meeting shall specify the nature of the business for consideration, provided
that such business has first been submitted to the committee of inquiry,
and left undecided by them.
8. The parties to any dispute remitted to the board shall, if possible,
agree to a joint written statement of their case, but if they cannot agree,
a statement in writing from each party shall be made, and in either case
forwarded to the secretaries within seven days of the board's meeting.
9. That the president shall preside over the meetings of the board, and
in his absence the vice president.  In the absence of both president and
vice president, a chairman shall be elected by the majority present.  The
chairman to have but one vote, and in case of numbers being equal, appeal
shall be made to the referee.
10. That the decision of the referee shall be final and immediately binding on both sides.
11. That when at any meeting of the board the number of employers
and workmen is unequal. ail shall have the right of fully entering into the
discussion of any matters brought before them, but only an equal number
of each shall vote. The withdrawal of the members of which ever body
may be in excess to be by lot.
12. That any expenses incurred by this board be borne equally by the
operatives and employers, and the accounts to be produced and passed at
each quarterly meeting.
18. That no alteration or addition be made to these rules except at
a quarterly meeting or a special meeting convened for the purpose. Any
member of the board intending to propose an alteration or addition shall
furnish the exact terms thereof, in writing, to the secretaries twenty-eight
days before such meeting, and the secretaries shall give twenty-one days
notice of the same to each member of the board.




ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.                    41
APPENDIX E.
ARBITRATION ACT OF 1872.
Mlasters and 1W1orlemen (Arbitration) Act.  (35 and 36 Vict., Chap. 46.)
An Act to make further provision for arbitration between masters and workmen.
6th August, 18S72.
WHEREAS, By the Act of the fifth year of George the Fourth, chapter
ninety-six, intituled  "An Act to consolidate and amend the laws relative
to the arbitration of disputes between masters and workmen," hereinafter
referred to as the "1 principal Act," provision is made for the arbitration in
a mode therein prescribed of certain disputes between masters and workmenl;
An4d whereas, It is expedient to make further provisions for arbitration
between masters and workmen;
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty. by and with the advice and consesnt of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in
this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as
follows:
As to agreements  I. The following provisions shall have effect with referunder this act.  ence to agreements under this Act.
(1.) An agreement under this act shall either designate some board, council, persons or person as arbitrators or arbitrator, or define the time and
manner of appointment of arbitrators or an arbitrator; and shall designate by name, or by description of office or otherwise, some person to be,
or some person or persons, ( other than the arbitrators or arbitrator,) to
appoint an umpire in case of disagreement between arbitrators.
(2.) A master and a workman shall become mutually bound by an agreement under this Act, ( hereinafter referred to as "' the agreement,") upon the
master or his agent giving to the workman, and the workman accepting,
a printed copy of the agree ment: Provided, That a workman may, within
forty-eight hours after the delivery to him of the agreement, give notice
to the master or his agent that he will not be bound by the agreement,
and thereupon the agreement shall be of no effect as between such workman and the master.
(3.) When a master and workman are bound by the agreement, they shall
continue so bound during the continuance of any contract of employment
and service which is in force between them at the time of niaking the
agreement, or in contemplation of which the agreement is made, and thereafter so long as they mutually consent from  time to time to continue to
employ and serve without having rescinded the agreement. Moreover,
the agreement may provide that any number of day's notice, not exceeding
six' of an intention on the part of the master or workman to cease to
employ or be employed shall be required, and in that case the parties to
the agreement shall continue bound by it, respectively, until the expiration of the required number of days after such notice has been given by
either of the parties.
(4.) The agreement may provide that the parties to it shall, during its
continuance, be bound by any rules contained in the agreement, or to be
made by the arbitrators, arbitrator, or umpire, as to the rates of wages to
be p.aid, or the hour or quantities of work to be performed, or the conditions or regulations under which work is to be done, and may specify pen



42                 ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION
alties to be enforced by the arbitrators, arbitrator, or umpire, for the breach
of any such rule.
(5.) The agreement may also provide that in case any of the following
matters arise they shall be determined by the arbitrators or arbitrator, viz:
a. Any such disagreement or dispute as is mentioned in the second section of the principal Act; or,
b. Any question, c4se, or matter to which the provisions of the master
and servant Act, 1867, apply:
And thereupon, in case any such matter arises between the parties while
they are bound by the agreement, the arbitrators, arbitrator, or umpire
shall have jurisdiction for the hearing and determination thereof, and upon
their or his hearing and determining the same no other proceeding shall
be taken before any other court or person for the same matter, but if the
disagreement or dispute is not so heard and determined within twenty-one
days from the time when it arose, the jurisdiction of the arbitrators, arbitrator, or umpire shall cease, unless the parties have, since the arising of
the disagreement or dispute, consented in writing that it shall be exclusively
determined by the arbitrators, arbitrator, or umpire.
A disagreement or dispute shall be deemed to arise at the time of the
act or omission to which it relates.
(6.) The arbitrators, arbitrator, or umpire may hear and determiMe any
matter referred to them in such manner as they think fit, or as may be
prescribed by the agreement.
(7.) The agreement, and also ally rules made by the arbitrators, arbitrator or umpire in pursuance of its provisions, shall, in all proceedings, as
well before them as in any court, be evidence of the terms of the contract
of employment and service between the parties bound by the agreement.
(8.) The agreement shall be deemed to be an agreement within the meaning of the thirteenth section of the principal Act for all the purposes of
that Act.
(9.) If the agreement provides for the production or examination of any
books, documents, or accounts, subject or not to any conditions as to the
mode of their production or examination, the arbitrators, arbitrator, or
umpire, may require the production or examination (subject to any such
conditions) of any such books, documents, or accounts in the possession
or control of any person summoned as a witness, and who is bound by
the agreement; and the provisions of the principal Act for compelling the
attendance and submission of witnesses shall apply for enforcing such
production or examination.
II. This act may be cited as s" The Arbitration (Masters' and- Work
men) Act, 1872."
MI[EMORANDUM,
The Uses of the Act.
Briefly stated, the uses of the Act are three, viz:
1. To provide the most simple machinery for a binding submission to
arbitration, and for the proceedings therein.
2. To extend facilities of arbitration to questions of wages, hours, and
other conditions of labor, and also to all the numerous and important matters which may otherwise have to be determined by justices under the provisions of the ": master and servants' act,"' 1867.
3. To provide for submission to arbitration of future disputes by anticipation, without waiting till the time when a dispute bas actually arisen,
and the parties are too much excited to agree upon arbitrators.




ARBITRXATION AND CONCILIATION.                  43
Mode of putting the Act in operation.
1. A form of agreement must be drawn up and printed either by the
employer or by the workman. Such a form is appended, (No. I.) But this
form is not obligatory, and it may be varied to any extent not inconsistent
with the provisions of the Act.
2. When the form of agreement is settled and printed, it will become
binding on an employer and a workman, reciprocally, upon the employer
giving to the workman-and the workman accepting-a printed copy. But
the workman has forty-eight hours to consider and satisfy himself of the
effect of the agreement, and if within that time he gives a written or verbal notice to the employer or his agent, that he rejects it, he will not be
bound by it. If, after accepting the copy, he does not give such notice,
then both he and the employer will be bound by the agreement during the
agreed term of employment, (whether that term be a day, or a week, or a
year,) and no longer. The agreement, however, may itself provide that
six days' notice shall be given of an intention to terminate the employment.
And, in any case, upon an expiration of an agreement, it may be renewed
in the same manner as before.
3. In case any dispute of a kind to which the agreement relates, arises
between the parties bound by it during the continuance of the agreement, the
dispute will be heard and determined; not by the parties, but by the arbitrators in the mode prescribed by the agreement; or, if no mode is so prescribed, then at their discretion. The attendance of witnesses, and the
production of evidence may be enforced in the manner provided by the
Arbitration Act of 1824, (5 Geo. IV, c. 96.)
4. The award of the arbitrattors may be in the annexed form, (II.) And
it may be enforced in the manner provided by the Arbitration Act, 1824,
(5 Geo. IV, c. 96,) by distress, or imprisonment, and otherwise, or it may
be enforced by plaint in the county court.
5. An analysis is appended of the clauses of the Arbitration Act, 1824,
which will be applicable for the purposes of this Act
Forms of Agreement and Award.
I. FORM OF AGREEMENT.
The Arbitration (Masters' and fWforkmen) Act, 1872.-A B., (here insert
name or usual description of the employer's firm and the name of the
works;) and C. D., (here insert the name and occupation of the workman.)
1. The arbitrators shall be E. F. and G. H. (or an arbitrator shall, on
or before the    day of...,18., be named in writing by H. Io on
the part of the employer, or by J. K. on the part of the workman.)
2. The umpire, in case the arbitrators are equally divided, shall be L. iM.
(or shall be the person for the time being holding the office of.
or shall be appointed by N. O.)
30 In case a person by whom anything is to be done under this agreement as an arbitrator or umpire, or as a person appointed to nominate any
arbitrator or umpire, dies or declines to act, or becomes incapable of acting, or is interested as a party or otherwise in the matter referred to him,
a person shall be appointed in writing' by P. Q., or if P. Q. do not appoint
within three days after request in writing from either party to the agreement, then by R. S. to act in the place of the person so dying, declining,
or becoming incapable, or being int-erested.
4. Six days notice shall be required of an intention on the part either
of the employer or of the workman to terminate the contract of employment and service in respect of which this agreement is made.




44                 ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.
5. The parties to this agreement agree to the following rules, (or to
such rules as may be made by the arbitrators on the following subjects,)
Viz:
(a.) As to the rate of wages, (here insert any such rule agreed on.)
(b.) As to the hours and quantity of work to be performed, (here insert
any such rule agreed on.)
(c.) As to the conditions or regulations under which work is to be done,
(here insert any such rule agreed on.)  The penalties for the breach of
the above rules shall be the following, (here insert the penalties.)
6. The following disputes arising between employer and workman during the continuance of this agreement, shall be determined by arbitration
under this agreement, viz:
(a) Any such disagreement or dispute as is mentioned in the second
section of the Arbitration Act, 1824, (5 Geo. IV, c. 96,) except (here insert
a description of any such disagreements or disputes which it is intended
to except.)
(b.) Any question, case, or matter to which the provisions of the Masters' and Servants' Act, 1867, apply, except, (here insert a description of
any such question, case, or matter which it is intended to except.)
7. The arbitrators or umpire shall hear any matter referred to them in
the following manner, viz: (Here insert any regulations by whicff it is
desired to govern the proceedings of the arbitrators or umpire, e. g., that
they shall decide on written statements from each side, or that they shall
hear oral evidence.)
8. The following books, documents, and accounts shall, on demand by
the arbitrators or umpire, be produced, and submitted for examination,
subject to the conditions hereafter mentioned, viz:
(a.) Books, documents, and accounts.  (Here insert a description of
them, or any such books, documents, and accounts as the arbitrator or
umpire think fit to demand.)
(b.) Conditions. (Here insert any condition as to the mode of production or examination.)
[I. FORM OF AWARD.
The Arbitration (Masters' and ITforlcmen) Act, 1872.
Award.
We, A. B. and C. P., (name the arbitrators or umpire,) the arbitrators or
umpire in the matter in dispute between, (here state the names of complainant and defendant,) do hereby adjudge and determine 1 that (here
set forth the determination.)
(Signed)                                                   A. B.
C. D.
This..cldayof.... 18
(1. Note e. g.-That A. B. left his employment without due notice, and
that A. B. shall pay to C. D. the sum of..... for his breach of
contract; or that C. D. dismissed A. B. without clue notice, and that
C. D. shall pay to A. B. the sum of... for his breach of contract)
Analysis of the Applicable Sections of the Arbitration Act, 1824, (5 Geo.
IV, C. 96.)
~ 9. Attendance of witnesses by a justice of the peace by summons or
commitment.




ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.                    45
~ 23. Acknowledgment of fulfillment of award by the person in whose
behalf it is made.
~ 24-30. Performance of award may be enforced by distress or imprisonmnent.
~ 31. Costs and expense to be settled by the arbitrators.
~ 32. Exemption from stamp duty.
~ 30-34. Protection of arbitrators, &c., from actions.




.     I   I',




CONTENTS.                           47
CONTENTSe
Page.
Letter accompanying Report,..............             1
SECTION I.
Preliminary. Conseils des Prud' Hommes. Arbitration in England
prior to 1860,...............    2
SECTION II.
The establishment of Voluntary Permanent Boards of Arbitration
and Conciliation in England. Difference between Arbitration and
Conciliation, I...................          3
SECTION III.
The Nottingham System of Arbitration and Conciliation,......     5
SECTION IV.
The VWolverhampton System of Arbitration and Conciliation,...   8
SECTION V.
Arbitration and Conciliation in the Manufactured Iron Trade,...  11
SECTION VI.
Arbitration and Conciliation in the Coal Trade,..........   14
SECTION VII.
Arbitration in other industries................   17
SECTION VIII.
The acceptance of awards by the parties to the Arbitration,....   17
SECTION IX.
Advantages of Arbitration.................  19
SECTION X.
Difficulties of Arbitration, and objections to the same,......  21
SECTION XI.
The relations of Trades Unions to Arbitration,.......       24.   4
SECTION XII.
Arbitration and the State,...............    27
SECTION XIII.
Conclusion,...........              30








T1HiE CLAIMi'S OFi C1 PITAL CONSIDERttED.
BY WILLIAM BRowN.
The conflict between labor and capital becoimes moie and more
tlhe struggle of the age.  On both sides there are titanic porwers
engage(l in what appears to be headlong and indiscriminating war.
There may be now and again a lull in the contest-there may be some
kind of truce proclaimed-some good sort of people may approach
the conmbatants'and induce them for a season to lay down their
arms. But to the calm looker-on it is evident that all the fine talk
about mutual forbearance, sympathy and good will, is only a
makeshift; that each party returns to work with its passions but
restrained for the moment or for the occasion; and with not only:
the expectation of a speedy renewal of the contest, but with a
determination, when the time:again comes rlonund, to fight it out to
the bitter end.  Is it not one of the strange things in this strange
world that industry should thus be constantly arrayed against its
own productions-the wealth of the world in constant antagonism
to the producers of that wealthl? After all thait has beeni lost and
won, can it be said that eitlhei' party is in a better position' or permanentlysecure from further strife?
Providence is constantly calling us, by tlhe events transpiring
around us, to consider our ways. The struggle between capital and
labor, whatever be the isfue, ought to directl the minds of thoughtful
anrd reflecting men to a siubject of unquestionably the first importance in relation to the geneial well-being of society. On the surface
of this question, and amidst the contendinmg factions there, we shall
glean little or ndthing. We niust dig deep -for the information
requisite to enable: us to form a correct judglment of the matters
in dispute. I propose therefore in the present paper to make some
examination into the claims advanced by capital, with the view
of ascertaining if in any way or in any measure, industry, out of
its resources, can yield to these claims; and will endeavor at the
same time, to weave into my argument some essential principles in
political economy, witlhout a proper consideration of which, the
great questions at issue will never be satisfactorily settled.
I need not tiouble thle reader with any long quotations from the
economists in definition of the term "capital." It is sufficiently understood I daresay by the general reader. The following extracts from Mr.
Mill's Principles of Political Economy will for the present suffice.' It has been seen in the preceding chapters that besides the primary and universal requisites of prodtuction labor and natural
agents, there is another requisite without which no productive operations beyond-the rude and scanty beginnings of primitive industry
are possible: namely a stock, previouslyaccnmllu-lated, of the. products
of former labor. Tlhis accumulated stock of the produce of labor
is termed capital. The function of capital in production it is of the
utmost importance thoroughly to understand, since a number of the
erroneous notions with which our subject is infested originate in
an imperfect and confused a)pprehension of this point.




2
"Capital, by persons wholly unused to reflect on the subject, is
supposed to be synonymous with money. Money is no more
synonymous with capital than it is with wealth. Money cannot, in
itself, perform any part of the office of capital, since it can afford no
assistance to production.  To do this, it must be exchanged for
other things, and anything which is susceptible of being exchanged
for other things is capable of contributing to production in the
same degree.  What capital does for production, is to affobrd the
shelter, protection, tools and materials which the work requires,
and to feed and otherwise maintain the laborer during the process.
These are the services which present labor requires from past, and
from the produce of past labor.  Whatever things are destined
for this use-destined to supply productive labor with these various
pre-requisites-are capital."
The above extract may be taken as representing the views
generally held by economists on the subject of capital.  The
definitions may be considered as in some measure correct.  They
are not such as, in the use of exact language, I would employ. I think
a better and more guarded definition can be given-better in so far
as it would close every door against the entrance of those
" erroneous notions with which our subject is infested," of which
complaint is justly made by Mr. Mill. I have elsewhere had occasion
to remark that political economy, more than any other science, has
been worm-eaten with that incautious language which a modern
writer has aptly declared to be " the dry rot of the world." Bearing
upon, as it does in every direction, the most vital interests of
humanity, this great science demands, and can be satisfied with
nothing short of, perfect accuracy in thought and expression on the
part of all its expounders.
I define capital simply as the produce, the tools, and the appliances
of labor. As a question of property, capital is the produce of laboras a question of productive agency, it is its tools and appliances.
This definition embraces all that can be said and all that can be demanded. The capitalist himself may feel alarmed at so simple a definition, and may be inclined to regard it as one of those " hard
sayings " with which restless people are continually troubling the
world. But as the sweetest kernel may sometimes be found in the
roughest shell, so the most precious truths have not seldom come
to us enclosed in the hardest sayings.
Having made this statement, I think it is fair, before proceeding
further, that I should set forth what I consider the weak points in
Mr. Mill's definition above quoted, a definition more or less objectionable according to the interpretation which it may legitimately
bear.
He states that money in itself cannot perform any part of the
office of capital, since it can afford no assistance to production;
that to do this, it must be exchanged for other things; and that
anything which is susceptible of being exchanged for other things
is capable of contributing to production in the same degree.  If
this language be not wholly ambiguous, it sets forth that money,
when exchanged for other things, then and only then becomes an
agent in production; and that anything susceptible of exchange is,
from that very fact, exalted to the rank of a productive agent.
Now, money, in a high degree, is susceptible of exchange, and must
therefore be included in the latter statement. There are thousands
of products on which you may cast your eye every day as you pass
the shop wibidow;s which  oiuld nQt by any stretch Qf fancy be




3
considered as productive agents; and yet they are all susceptible
of being exchanged, else they would not be exposed for sale. The
usefulness of the tools to the workman does not consist in the ftact
that they may be sold for money, or exchanged for other things,
but that they are properly fashioned and fitly made by industrious
hands to aid these hands in continued produc-tion.  I think it is
quite evident that there has been a rotion floating in our author's
mind-some indefinable idea, something intangible which he calls
capital, and which he proclaims as superior to and independent of
money, tools, and materials. He does not tell us what it is. It may be
a myth: and we fear that thonsands of good people, who think they
know all about the matter,:are in the same position with regard to
this myth   It is not industry. It is no product of labor. It was
never seen ny mortal eyes, n1ld yet men everywhere stand in awe
of it.  They would not dare to utter a word or pen a sentence to
prejudice or discredit the existence of this ghostly shadow which
flits around every mart, whicth casts its mysterious influence over
every Exchange, and which, like others of its kind insensible to
either lead or logic, fills us all with some indefinable sort of lfear
and robs us of our very manhood.  That Mr. Mill had some such
idea in his miitd is evident from his own words. What capital does
for production, he says, is to afford the shelter, protection, tools
and materials, which the work requires, and to feed and otherwise
maintain the laborers during the process.  If words have any
meaning, what does all this imply but that there is something which is called  capital, something  over and above industry, wi-ch furnishes shelter, houses, factories, etc; not the
tools and materials themselves, or the industry which  produces them, but something else which "affords " or furnishes the
tool and materials; not the food and other means of maintenance
for our bodily frames, but something outside of labor which feeds,
clothes, and maintains these frames.  Can it be money itself to
which he has reference? I can hardly say. His language on that
head is that money is not synonymotus with capital. And yet, in
other parts of his writings, he leaves one under the full conviction
that he fell into the error of attributing to money the power of
fteding, clothing, and maintaining inldustry.
Mr. Mill seems to have taken all the good things which industry can
produce, and, placing them in the laboratory of his mind, or rather
in the crucible of his imagination, immediately there is separated
something without form and void; having neither body nor parts;
acknowledging to neither length, breadth, nor height; giving not
the slightest evidence that it has ever been t,,uched by the hand of
labor: and forthwith we are commanded to bow down and cry,
This be thy God, O Industry I Is there a man, with a spark of
intelligence, to obey such a summons?
It is no trifling or light matter which now engages our attention.
The subject is of such momentous and fir reatching importance,
at.d leads us away down into the midst of a world of such misery,
wretchedness, and unrequited toil, that we may well be excused if
we bring before the reader another extract from Mr. Mill.
"c Suppose, for instance, that the capitatlist is a hardware manufacturer, and that his stock in trade, over and above his machinery,
consists at present wholly in iron goods. Iron goods cannot feed
laborers. Nevertheless, by a mere change of the destination of
these iron goods, he can cause laborers to be fed. Suppose that




4
with a portion of' the proceeds he intended to maintain a pack of
hounds, or an establishment of servants; anld that he changes his
intention, and employs it in his business, paying it in wages to additional work people  These work people are enabled to buy and
consume the food which would otherwise have been consumed by
the hounds or by the servants; and thus without the employer's
having seen or touched one particle of the food, his conduct has
determined that so much more of the food existing in the country
has been devoted to the use of productive laborers, and so muchi
less consumed in a manner wholly unproductive."
Now, if this be not a deliberate shutting of one's eyes and running full tilt against the impregnable walls of political economy,
I do not know what is. It is not simply a mistake, an error-it is a
thoroug-h subversion of the method and order of political economy;
an attempt to blot out industry itself from its position as the great
factor in the world's production. It is not by a change in the destination of iron goods, or of any other goods, that a capitalist can
cause laborers to be fed. It is not by paying wages to work people
that workers are enabled to buy and consume the food which
would otherwise be consumed by hounds and servants. It is not
the "' conduct " of the capitalist which has determined that so much
more of the existing food has been devoted to the use of productive
industry. The truth is, the bits of money paid by the capitalist are
powerless in the case. The power is wholly on the other side.
The production is entirely with the laborers. They do not use the
capitalist's money; neither do they eat the capitalist's food.; It is
their own money they spend-it is their own fbod they consume.
If the capitalist places tools in their hands, he takes good care that
the workmen pay for their use through either of the only two possible channels-reduction of wages, or enhanced price of the things
made. Wages are always paid in money, and the workmen have
given full value for that money. The capitalist hands over to
them certain little coils upon which he bestows no toil from the
moment they come into his possession till the moment they leavethe workingmen   hand over to him the substantial evidence of a
full week's personal toil and exhaustion. Whatever doubts may
arise in the mind as to the earnings and toil of the capitalist, and
as to the legitimacy of his great rewards, of one thing we may be
certain-the men leave behind them, at the week's end, fiull and
substantial value for the pittance they carry to their homes. At
the sanle time I may be permitted to say that I am just as certain
the noble mind of John Stuart Mill did not fully realise what was
written wheii his pen traced the lines which I have transferred to
these pages; and which, unhappily, are not by any means fitted to
restore, the beautiful temple of industry, so long laid in ruins.
All attempts thus to frame the system of political economy, or
an-y of its great principles, on the li'e or death of a pack of hounds,
or of' a lot of domestic servants, or of a number of balf-starved
laborers, must, in the end, only expose our system, if not ourselves,
to the ridicule of' critical and intelligent men.
Industry is anterior to capital, and must, in the nature of things,
be continually anterior to it, seeing that it is a principle (now
happily being recognised more and more) thait there is no value
without labor. The savage who first fashioned a bow and arrow
or hollowed out a canoe, illustrated the truth of this principle. It
must ever be so. The fact that industry has gradually framed an




immense quantity of tools and other good and serviceable material,
will never subvert the natural order of things. Were the proposition or theorem of Mr. Mill true, that industry is limited by capital,
then there never would have been any capital.  To say that industry is limited by the very things it fashions is manifestly absurdl.
If' any philosophic statement is really necessary on the subject, I
would reverse the theorem of Mr. Mill and say that capital is limited
by industry-that whatever is yielded or has been yielded by industry may be assumed as having had its limits clearly defined by industry itself.  When a man is toiling up a mountain, and a friend
in passing gives him a lift to-its summit in his waggon, on condition, we will say, that he drives and guides the horse; no one
would allege that the journey had been limited, when it had been
actually aided, by the horse and waggon. If io produce mlerclhandise be the goal of life, as the top of the mountain was the goal of
the journey, then capital, as I understand it, aids industry towards
that goal.  The power of physical endurance indeed presents a
limit to industrial effort. Increasing age and feebleness will glradually impose a limit to effective force. Although it may be said,
and said truly, that the fishes and wild animals and berries which
sustain savage life are in a certain sense anterior lo industry; yet
it is also true that, as an industrial question, the labor necessary
to secure them is anterior to the produce-the labor is first exerted,
then the results aplpear.  Those who hold that industry is limited
by caLpital do not mean to set forth the simple truism that every
created thing necessarily has its limits.  They meanl to propound
something very ditferent from that-indeed, so far as latbor is concerned, a most dangerous and  destru ctive heresy. To say that
industry is limited by capital, in the sense in m hich the cconomists
use the phrase, is to say that the parent is the offspring of the
chil(; that capital is the master and manl the slave; that dead inert
matter rules and reigns; and that intelligent andc strong-limbed
men must implicitly obey. In short, it is to put thle dead in the
place of the living; to take fiom industry its birthright, its blossoml,
tand its crown.
-Another of Mr. Mill's fuindamental propositions regarding capital
is, that it is the result of saving.  This, hbe says, is the source or
relates to the source, from which it is derived.'l We may say tilat
all capital, and especially all addition to capital, are the roeult of
saving."   After what I have already stated, I think feiw, if any, of
my readers will feel inclined to pin their faith to so foolish a proposition. But seeing that it has been elevated to the. ralnk of an
axiomatic truth in economic science, we do not wotnder that this has
ftrllther been set fortli, with all due solemnity, -a sort of twin brotller,-tllhat, when industry abstains from usi!ng its productions, then
it is on the high road to prosperity,-a statement diametrically opposed to truth.  It, seelns to me very strange. that Mr. Mill should
apparently have been so anxious to divert tile nmind away from the
only true source of production, labor. By what sort of arguments
does Mr. Mill seek to establish his proposition?  By such as these:
that, were all persons to spend all they produce, capital could not
increase; that farmers, even in the simplest states of society, must
save a little for seed over and above their personal-consulmption;
that all that any one employs in carrying on labor other than his
own must have been originally brought together by saving; that,
in a certain state of society, the increase of capital has usually been




derived from privations which, though not generally called by that
name, are essentially the same with savings; and so forth. Some
of these are plain and simple truisms, and have little or no relation
to economic science. Not one of them bears out the proposition
that capital is produced or increased by saving. In fact, industry
not only produces the capital, bult cares for it afterwards, keeps it
in repair, and thus " saves" it for use. Nobody will dispute the
fact that, if a factory or piece of machinery is not burned up or
otherwise destroyed, it will be found standing in its place ready
for its work; in fact " saved;" just as nobody will dispute the fact
that a horse is a horse and a cart is a cart, or that you cannot both
eat and have your cake. Mr. Mill seems to think that all persons
can spend all they produce, and that, in such a case, capital will
not increase. All persons could not spend, in the sense in which
Mr. Mill applies the term- that is that there should soon be nothing
left for anybody-even in " personal indulgences" all they produce.
The thing is impossible. But most producers part with all they
produce in exchange for equivalents. It is incorrect to say that
" all that any one employs in carrying on labor, other than his own,
must have been originally brought together by saving."  ft was
originally brought together by purchase or by labor. The man
who has it, got it originally by exchanging for it his labor or the
fruits of his labor, else he should not have it at all. Here is just an
example of that " incautious language " which not only leads so
many readers astray, but brings into reproach a science which
presents before the enquiring mind a field of investigation not
surpassed in interest by any department of thought.
Over against all these statements I place the simple economic
truth which a child may understand-that industry!is the " source"
of capital, and capital the "lresult" of industry.
But Mr. Mill could not shut his eyes to the obvious fact that every
thing produced by mortal hands gradually decays and disappears;
that " dust to dust" is written over both man and his works. lHe
therefore advances another theorem, that though capital is saved, it
is nevertheless consumed.  To save it for yourself you must, he
says, have it consumed by some other person, not by yourself. Are
we, then, to believe absolute impossibilities?  If laid by for future
use, he urges, it is not saved, it is then only hoarded.  Why there
should be any real distinction of this kind between the flour I sell
to a laboring man to be immediately consumed by himself and
family, and the flour I keep past me and consume in say three or
six months hence, is a species of economic legerdemain I cannot
comprehend.  What is there involved that should cause the one
transaction to be spoken of approvingly, the other in terms of
reprobation? Mr. Mill makes a vast deal out of what he calls the
unproductive consumption of the good things of this life, such as
wines, equipages, and fine furniture.   He speaks of them being
" destroyed" by being consumed, so as to lead one to infer that
they are as effectually put out of existence as if some stout fellows,
club in hand, had smashed them to pieces, bottles, equipages, and
all.  The thing is too preposterous to bear investigation.  Is one
man to be reviled because he makes for himself a handsome turnout-even though it be a four-in-hand, livery, cocked hats and
all-and another to be praised because he is content with a creaking
old cart? Is one man to be reproved because he grows a field of
grapes, and turns out some puncheons of generous wine; the other




to be praised because he aspires no higher than a draught of good
cider, or mayhap is content with a glass of milk from his cow? Is
one man to be railed at because he makes for himself by his labor,
or purchases for himself by the produce of his labor, a set of nice,
polished, and comfortable furniture; and another praised because
he is content to lie on a rough plank?  There is no" destruction"
in either case.  The very object for which all labor is undertaken,
personal satisfaction, has been equally attained in each of the cases
supposed. To say that it would be better to have the labor which
is expended in the production of all these good things diverted into
some other channel, such as the production of more tools for the
workmen, or capital so called; or to say, as Mr. Mill says, that
society collectively is poorer by the amount expended in these
things, is to say what is manifestly untrue. It would be to sweep
away much that makes life pleasant and enjoyable; much that
tends to the advancement and refinement of society.  Setting
morals aside, and looking at it only from an economic point of
view, I could not have a word to say against the man who spends
ten thousand a year on hunters, hounds and racers, so long as he
expends the produce of his own labor. An economist whose recent
death we all mourn held that abstract political economy is
susceptible of reduction to a single equation-in the same way as
Lagrange reduced abstract mechanics-the fundamental idea of
which is, that every person seeks to employ his productive powers
in the way which will yield him most.  Whilst questioning the
propriety of attempting such a reduction of this noble science, we
may yet accept of the statement so far as it goes, or so far as it is
related to production. And so it stands out in bold antagonism to
the proposition of Mr. Mill. The position held by the economists,
that " had men ealways consumed their produce in the gratification
of their immediate wants and desires, there would be no such
thing as capital at all."* is so startling that one can scarcely
believe it to have been advanced in sober earnest.  There is not
the least truth in it. It subverts the very order of nature. Itputs
aside, as of no moment, the very end and aim of all industrial effort.
It is to gratify their wants ahd desires that men work and consume
the produce of their work. Men do not eat up their ploughs and
spades and harrows; they do not swallow their steam engines and
their ships; but they clothe and feed themselves generally as well
as they can, and they love to decorate their homes. The reverse
of the statement of the economists is the truth.  If men had not
always consumed their produce in the gratification of their wants
and desires, no such thing as capital would ever have existed; and
they would all soon have descended to the position of miserable
starvlings. It is the steady production of all that is good, and the
no less steady consumption of these good things which go, if men
would but live and let live, to clothe. industry with its productive powers, and to yield it to those"satisfactions after which
it constantly strives.:How is it possible, as Mr. Mill alleges, to save your products for
yourself by having them consumed by some other person? The
products are gone when they are consumed. Those who have consumed them have purchased them. They have but put an equivalent in their place. The original producer or owner has got an
equivalent for them, something else in exchange, that is all. Is it
*Ency. Brit. 8th Ed. Arlt Pol  ctnomy.




hot a fact worthy of most attentive consideration, that the econdo
mists, in their desperate efforts to build up the present system, have
been compelled to drag to ruins every vital principle in political
economy, exchange among the rest?
Mr. Mill has a fourth fundanTental proposition respecting capital,
namely, that it supports and employs productive labor. This
theorem  must embrace money itself; for he speaks of capital " or
other funds" devoted to the sustenance of labor. As I do not wish
to weary the reader, and as what I have yet to say will bear upon
the point, I feel as if the best answer I can give at the moment to
this proposition is, that, in the sense in which it is advanced by
Mr. Mill, it is not true.
Here I part company with Mr. Mill, for how can two walk together except they be agreed; and it is far from a pleasant task
thus to have to criticise one whose writings have, in many respects,
(lone so much for the science of political economy. And yet, notwithstanding all the influence of his great name, much of what he
laid down as fundamental principle must eventually disappear in
presence of calm and sober reflection. For it is quite plain to me
that Mr. Mill, like many before him, and like some others since,
frequently though unconsciously suffered the powers of his great
mind to be overborne by the vulgar, arrogant, and commonplace
maxims of the commercial world. He is not alone in having taken
up ideas, those regarding capital, so called, which go far to vitiate
much of what he and others have written on the subject. I have
in the course of my reading become more and more impressed with
the necessity of watching like jealous sentinels at the very portals
of our science, for once an error creeps in there is no saying whither
it may lead. Well would it have been for us, humanly speaking,
had the " little ones " of the daughter of Babylon been taken in their
infancy and dashed against the stones. A vulgar error in political
economy, as in Scripture interpretation, only needs to be sent forth
with the endorsation of a great name, and forthwith a crowd of
lesser mortals join the cry, and centuries may pass away ere it is
run to earth. What would my readers think of me were I to parade
before them the naked savages of' New Guinea as samples of
-civilization and christianity? Or were I to enter a lunatic asylum,
and shutting my eyes and ears to the outer world, proceed to reason as if what I wtitnessed there were a fair representation of human life and society?  Would that be anything more absurd than
to accept of the ignorant, degraded, hand to mouth multitudes, struggling all day long for their daily bread, and retiring at night like
the beasts of the field to their u-iserable l'airs, as the true and legitimate fruits of the workings out of industrial and economic science?
And yet it is reasoning fiom just such data that has led numerous
economists to fill into sulch errors and absurdities as these: to exalt
money at the expense of labor-to view it as practically a productive agent-to invent the myth of the wages fund-cto claim separate
and distinct rewards for the tools and appliances of labor-to set:
money, true money, aside-to give the name of money to bits of
paper, and thus to make the very acknowledgment of debt to industry a means of payment, so called, of its just demand-to set forth
that "credit," or the getting pf the proceeds of labor into one's
hands without payment, is actually a blessing to industry-to fall
into the perilous sort of security which accepts of what we see
aroullnd us as the ilnattlul l  tland. inevitable collditioi of' tlillgs-to




exercise, by spr ing a few  gold pieces around the base of the
mighty mountain of paper, the heinous and constant deception of
what is facetiously called "the specie basis" (that "cunningly devised
fable" which has led such multitudes astray)-to perpetuate, under
the pretence of paying by paper promises to pay1 a universal suspension of payment, thus convicting us as a nation of being, like
the Cretians of old, " always liars"-and to say amd do many other
things at which reason and morality alike revolt.'In a word, the
economists have labored hard and brought forth, not a mouse, but
a monster.
I will now advance two distinct propositions or theorems on the
subject of Capital, and then proceed to lay down a few principles
in political economy, which, though they may be new to most if
not all of my readers, in my judgment throw so clear a light over
the whole field of Capital as, I trust, will induce those who love
truth for truth's sake to follow up the very interesting subject for
themselves.
1st. Capital, as such, cannot receive any reward from Industry.
2nd. Industry, as a productive agent, cannot afford any return to
Capital.
Each of these theorems is the corollary of the other. If one is
true, both are true. And if both are true, then it follows that
there never was and never can be an equitable or other division of
profits between labor and capital, between industry and the things
which it produces. In that case, if capital be divorced from the
producer, there cannot but be unceasing conflict between the two.
There is no such thing in nature, and therefore no such thing in
political economy, as demand for labor. What is there to demand
it?  Is there anything outside of labor itself to demand it?  Do
men work for others or for themselves? Can money demand
labor? Money is simply a product of industry, in general and
gratuitous use by industry in the exchange of its products. It is
produced by industry, is emphatically for industry, and surely
must, be owned by industry. It is designed for circulation
throughout all the fields of labor, so that wherever a product ot
labor is found, there also will be found or ought to be found, another product of labor, money, with which to buy. In its universal
and gratuitous use to industry, money may be said to be its very
slave. It is where it should be when it is in the hand of industry;
for the absolute title which labor gives to the products of its own
toil can never be destroyed. Would there be any reason in calling
such a thing as this, or calling buying with such a thing as this, a
demand for industry? A series of buyings, on the part of the
capitalist, from the raw material all through up to the finished
product, is not production, for buying a thing or selling a thing is
not producing it. It is simply an exchange of money for the products of labor, and the buyer, as such, is never the producer. You
may please to call this continued series of purchases investing,
but there is no production in it at all, not even to the extent of the
most slender thread. Labor can only sell its products. For these
there is a demand; and of these there is a supply. If you buy a
human being from some one who claims to own him, and set him
to work for you, you will have a slave in your possession. He
never owns property, the produce of his toil. You simply keep
him in life for the sake of what his labor will yield, by giving him
a bare sustenance out of the things he produces; but it is impossi



10
Mbe he can ever rise above the position of a slave. And yet, at
you must well know, it is his labor which keeps you in life. If a
system  prevails by which the generality of men receive only
days wages, and never own the things they produce, their position
will practically be similar to that of the slave. They will get the
bare necessaries of life, nothing more. A home, a dwelling, with
all its pleasant surroundings, they will rarely if ever own.  They
will remain strangers to all elevating and refining influences.
They will see all the good things they create-the good houses, the
good clothing, the good food, the good equipages, the good furnishings of all kinds-continually passing away, as if by some
inevitable law, out of the hands of the many into the hands of the
few, out of' the hands of the producers into those of the non-producers. The stately steamships which they build will rarely carry
them across the ocean on a visit of pleasure, or of recreation for
their wearied frames. Is not this the very condition in which we now
find the industrial world?
It is impossible, under our present system, that it can be otherwise. It is a provision in economic science that the human race is
to be greatly advanlced in culture, condition, and refinement, by the
universal exchange of' the products of every land, and by the profits realized in such exchange. If the whole earth lad been of the
same temperature and yielded the same products, there would have
been but little occasion for different nations to seek each other out
in order to exchange their various commodities. The diversity of
climate, surface, and natural products, sustains foreign trade, and
vastly increases the intercourse between nations. Now, men exchange their products with each other in order that they may
secure a profit by the exchange. If there were no profit, there
would be no exchange. But what is this profit?  Men like to
make as much of it as they can, but how few of them ever consider what it really is. I think the best definition 1 can give of it is,
that it is labor saved. It is not a definition cumbered with words,
but it tells the whole story. To save labor, we must labor. Men
exchange the products of their toil for other products of toil,
because they see that they can save their labor by so doing-they
find it cheaper to exchange than that they should themselves
make the things they are in quest of: Thus we are compelled to
throw our skill and energy into one channel, and in that particular
channel or branch of industry we naturally become proficient.
This definition, so simple, brings before us at a glance the prolific
source of all those vast emoluments which are represented by the
general term " income "; all of it the fruit of industry; all of it the
wealth of labor. Of course the true profit in every case is secured
when the two products are exchanged at their true value-that is
at the value of the actual labor embodied in each, reckoned in but
never arbitrarily measured by that article of universal use and
desire which is taken from the mine; and which, though it be
called a medium of exchange, yet exchanges nothing but the labor
value it contains. It is evident, also, that this profit or saving of'
labor is a most powerful and important factor, though silent and
unseen, in the progress of our race, bestowing upon us vast resources beyond all computation. And thus also we see how it
comes round that the products of industrial skill and effort flow
into the very channel-that of exchange-thlough which these
beneficent forces are broughtt into full and best play.




Now, so far as the products of manual or muiscular labor are
concerned, it is obvious that the profit should fall to the lot of those
who have actually embodied their personal toil in the making or
necessary handling of the commodity to be exchanged. Wherever
needful actual labor is given, there profit should accrue.
Mr. Mill has, I think, entirely missed the point in his definition of
profit.  He is not alone, however, in this respect.  He says, "' the
cause of' profit is, that labor produces more than is required for its
support." Now, this cannot be true, however well it fits in with the
ideas of capital. Labor does not produce more than is required for
its support.  What object would it have in doing so?  A shoemaker makes more shoes than he can himself wear out, but that
fact is not the cause of his profit.  He makes more shoes than
he can consume, but he needs other things in exchange for the shoes.
How could industry make profit out of useless surplus which would
have to lie and rot? It is as striking as it is instructive to see
with what regularity all the great staples of life are produced and
consumed, consumption following as closely on the heels of production as night follows day.  Even the luxuries of life are all
called for and consumed, else they would not be produced.  Has
h.salf famished indllstry, as we daily witness it around us, more than
it needs for its support?   Would it not be glad to have a great
deal more of even the necessaries of life, let alone its comforts.and
luxuries?  The truth is, my definition of profit is too simple for the
economists.  Simple and truthful though it be, it plays sad havoc
with a multitude of fine but baseless economic theories.
If these principles be correct, it becomes a question of gravest importance how or to what'extent the'laboring population, our working
hired millions, can possibly receive profit on their labor. They make
nearly everything that is produced. All the labor value that these
things contain flows from  their hands;. But do they ever own the
things they make? or do they ever exchange them? The ownership
falls immediately into the hands of parties who have not labored and
produced, and by them they are exchanged. And if it be needful, as it
seems to me beyond all doubtit is, that the laborer or producershould
personally own the things he makes in order to secure the lawful
profit by their exchange; and if, as is the fact, the workers never own,
these things; then it follows that the millions of actual producers are
inevitably shut out from all profit on their labor. This great source of
elevation and progress is practicallyclosed against them. The wealth,
whatever it is, goes into another channel and fklls into other hands.
Industry produces it and loses it-capital claims it and gets it. Under
such a system the doom of the working classes is effectually sealed.
Though they produce the world's wealth, they have, in the way of
reward, no part or lot in the matter.  As a body it is impossible
they  can ever rise above that low plane of exi.stenace on which,
from the cradle to the grave, they spend their unambitious, sad,
and hopeless lives.  Hence also we perceive how it is that all the
vast resources, in the shape of machinery, now ini the hacds of industry, allied as these are with some of the most powerful forces of
no ture, have failed appreciably to affect for the better the condition
of industry itself. Nations without values to exchange will either
remain in an uncivilized state or become extinct. Industry, in the
persons of its producers, never owning and exchanging the products
of its toil, is reduced to the position of a beast of burden. Capital,
the product of industry, and designed to be its best friends thus




iS
becomes, in the hands of the non-producers, its most dreadful
oppressor, never halting even for a moment in its insatiable demands,
but ever crushing our poor humanity beneath that hopeless bondage
out of which death is the only escape. This is industry in ruins;
and industry in ruins is, without doubt, humanity itself hastening
rapidly to destruction.
But it may be urged that if the laborer gets $5.50 a week, and it
only costs him $5 to live, he' has gained 50 cents on his labor for
the week. This would not shew that he gained a profit out of the
things made. It would only disclose the fact that he had been able,
by extraordinary pinching, or denying himself some of the
necessaries of life, to keep his expenditure within his income by 50
cents. Nothwithstanding all that may be urged as to the little
savings of a few of the more skilled hands, it is a notorious fact
that the great bulk of workers are constantly living on the edge of
poverty, and that the slightest stagnation soon brings them to
actual want.
Think, also, of the radical difference between selling the products of industry, and selling, as it is called, a day's or week's labor,
or labor separate from its products. Do men, in each case, meet
on equal terms? Far from it. In selling the products of industry
men do indeed meet on equal terms. If' the thing is not wanted at
the moment, there is no pressing hurry. It can lie a while. Labor
is fairly matched with labor, service with service, value with value.
But in the other case men meet on unequal terms. On the one side is
the gigantic power of capital, of accumulated wealth; the factories,
the houses, the machinery, the tools, the means of transport, all in
the hands of non-producers-on the other helpless industry, wearied
and anxious, wasted, broken down, with suffering at the door: on
one side all earth's goodly products to fall back upon, on the other
famished children it may be crying for bread.  There could not be
a more unequal conflict. In the disposal of commodities there may
be a law of demand and supply, where each party brings with him
his own supply and his own demand, but here it would be a shameful perversion of language to speak of any natural law of supply
and demand as existing at all. If' commodities are not in demand,
they will simply cease to bz. made. But it labor, in its present sad
condition, ceases to be " employed," as it is termed, it will cease
to live.  The forces at work are different, as well as the objects on
which these forces are expended.  On the one hand products of
industry matched against products of industry-on the other hand
all the products of industry arrayed against industry itself in the
persons of its producers; in other words, against human beings.
Here we are brought face to face with the great question of human labor considered in the abstract, or as apart from the proceeds
of the toil of the active, intelligent and responsible being in whom
it is lodged. Can it be sold as a commodity can be sold? Have we
considered how closely man's moral and material interests are linked
together?  Is it consistent with his dignity, independence, rights,
and progress, that he should sell his labor otherwise than through
the produce of his toil-that the great bulk of the world's commodities should never be owned by the people who toil for them —that
the man and the material produce of his hands should be brought
to the same level?  It is a question of profoundest interest.  I
have my own'thoughts on the subject, but for the present I must
leave the problem in the hands of' the reader.  We know, at all




13
events, what a wise man said on the subject long ago,-" Also
that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his
labor; it is the gift of God: there is nothing better than that a
man should rejoice in his own works."
It will help us much in ou' investigations if we bear in mind
that it is not the material of which products are made, but the la,
bor embodied in the product, which is sold. This truth comes too
seldom to the surface, We appropriate nature's gifts-we sell only
men's labor. Froim the richest and rarest of her products (the
diamond for example) down to the cheapest and commonest of
them all, the same truth prevails: it is labor only which can be
sold.  I would invite the capitalist especially to take this great
truth irk hand, and see whither it will lead him, and what it will do
with all that he so fondly calls his own.
It may be necessary to remind my mercantile readers that they
also must submit to the inevitable laws regulating value and exchange.  Political economy has no special rules for them.  They
can be paid on no other principle than that on which the laboring
man is paid.  If they think that the mere touch of their fi igers, or
the mere act of purchase, separates in some mysterious manner a
large portion of the world's wealth for their pockets, they are deeply mistaken. They can claim for their labor; for all they have got
to exchange; for all the value they add to commodities; and for
no more. Can one expect to reap where he has not sown? The
broker who spends a few hours of each day rushing up and down
the street must account for his labor just the same as the farmer
who follows his plough.  The laws of value and of the exchange
of values embrace each with the same firm grasp. Labor demands
at the hands of every man a service of some sort; and it must be
a true industrial service if it is to come within the circle of
exchange.  Trade is but buying and selling.  Eichange is the
appointed channel through which a profit comes to industry; and
though it cannot come unless an exchange is made, yet it does not
come simply because the exchange is made, but because an exchange is effected. of things in which certain parties have embodied
a determinate amount of labor value. If any one presumes to intercept a portion, whether great or small, of that profit flowing to the
producer through this, nature's own channel, he must, it is very
plain, be able, by a labor title and by no other, to establish his
claim to the share he appropriates, otherwise he will wrong labor
by taking that zwhich does not belong to him,  Commerce is not a
vast grab-bag into which a man may thrust his hand at pleasure.
Possession is not necessarily ownership. Broad lands do not become yours because some marauding baron of old looked over them
from some distant height, and said to sundry of his followers: All
this will I give you if you will fall down and worship me. Property
got by fraud or violence must ever be a source of reproach and
shame; property got by values incorporated with it by other hands
can never be a cause for boasting; property accumulated as the
result or equivalent of personal toil must ever be a source of honorable pride and satisfaction.  The eye of truth itself can discover
no flaw in the title conferred by an exchange of labor value for
labor value; but it is a questionable sort of title which comes with
property whose price has been greatly depressed by the urgent necessities of the man whose toil it represents. Are there many comrnmercial transactions really able to pass through the ordeal of




14
labor?  Have we mulch property in possession able to stand the
fiery trial, and to produce, on demand, labor's grand and unimpeachable title?
The next proposition which I have to make is one of great importance with rettrence to the question of capital, Itbears directly upon it, and, so tar as it goes, preseitts an insuperable obstacle
to its claims. It is this-tlat in every act oJ exchange theprofit is on
the side of' the 9moan with the labor, not on the side of the man with the
money. I have elsewe e laid this down tts a principle in political
economy, and given, with some fulness, the argument in support of
it.* Money is an absolutely unpioduc;ive commodity. Labor is
finished with it flolil the moment it leaves the mint. Its general
service to the hunman family in helping barter or exchange, and
in placing in the hands of industry at all tiL:es absolute security
for its work or for its goods, no at ithmetical terms can fully embrace. But in its special work in the act of-exchange between man
and man, it can bring back n thing to its holder except the labor
value enlbodied in the coins. Though we are in the habit of calling it a mvediunz of exchange, it exchanges nothing outside of itself.
Of course. if it (lid not circulite, men would not desire it. But it
does circOlafte% and it does own value; and these are the reasons why
indusiry acclunts itself saife in investing its labor in it for the
time being.  Labor itself will permit no questionings on the
point; fbr it considers itself, and justly so, absoluttly safe in such
an investment, AW!\ith gold aind silver in hand it not only feels secure,
but is secure, and in the midst of the wildest panic, is perfectly
serene. Nothing can eqlal a labor title, and gold and silver have
that, title perfect.  Labor knows it gave toil f.r its specieit knows the specie is always in demand —and with that in its
hand, it can laugh in the midst of the greatest commotion. But
profit on the bit of money, there is no.,e. That was all settled for
when it passed from the mliutor from the hand of the man who dug
it from the mine. Profit can only accrue when labor is spent; never
when money is spent. It may startle the reader to tell him so.
It is true nevertheless. And it is well that it is so; for industrial
prosperity for the world does not consist in the quantity of money"
in existence, nor in the accumulation of money in particular hands,
but in the quantity of good things produced by labor, and distributed wherever other labor establishes its claim  to a share. I need
hardly pause to point out how or to what extent this important
economic truth bears on the subject of capital and its claims. The
reader may intuitively make the application. Fixed and circulating capital are the two divisions generally made of the subject by'
{he economists. Money is consequently held by them to be capital,,
and entitled to rewards. But if the principle I have laid down be
correct, it can receive no return from industry; and there is surely
no other conceivable source from which it can be supplied. And
then, let it be borne in mind, the laborers are always paid their
wages in money, or in what pretends to be money.  It needs. no
argument to shew that the worker gives toil, and that the man
who gives a bit of money, gives an article on which he has bestowed no toil. If he claims a profit because he has given a bit of
money in exchange for labor, as all capitalists do, he claims what
labor can ntver: give without most. serious loss and suffering.
* New Catechism on Political Economy, p 36.




15
Money, instead of being a blessing to industry, will then be turned
into an instrument of oppression.  In exchanging a pair of boots
for a pair of pants, the tailor and the shoemaker each receives his
full labor back again, and a profit besides, because each has
brought skilled and effective labor to bear on the things made,
and labor is mutually saved by the exchange. The skill of the tai -
lor is transferred to the shoemaker, and the skill of the shoemaker
becomes the property of the tailor. But in exchanging the boots for
a five-dollar piece, the owner of the money can claim no profit,
because he bestows no labor, skilled or otherwise, on the
piece.  Where he has given no labor, it is certain he can claim
nothing for labor saved. Hence money conveys a profit to the producer for the things he makes and exchanges, but can never impart
profit to the person who simply pays it away. When that producer
comes, in his turn, to partwith the money, he parts with it without
a profit.
It is plain, then, that if the capitalists, or anybody else, claim a
profit on the mere exchange of money, of this so-called circulating
capital, they claim what labor, at any rate, never can afford to
give.
It may not be out of place to consider, in passing, what really
constitutes the capital of the Bank of England. It is made up of
three things: specie, paper, and credit. As related to industry,
the first is real, the second valueless, the third a myth. It may
have some other things in possession, such as bills discounted, or,
in other words, vast claims against the commercial and manufacturing classes, and which the industrial classes are constantly in
the act of paying out of their hard toil. But the three things
mentioned are those by which it principally does its work. The
specie has been all produced by the hand of toil. It has been got
by much labor. It is the property of industry. It ought to be in
the hand of industry, busy exchanging the products of industry.
It could not be more out of its place than stowed away in a bank
vault. The Bank of England never gave a bit of genuine labor
for a single sovereign or bar within its vaults. I do not say that it
has been gathered in there out of the hand of industry for the
known pu, pose of destroying industry; but I say that the -effect of
its being so gathered is to destroy industry. The next thing is the
bit of paper, nicely engraved, promising to pay industry its money
on demand. As related to industry, that bit of paper must not
only be valueless, but ruinous; for, so long as it floats, it suspends
payment, draws vast returns out of labor, and thus uses the capital
of labor to ruin labor. It is absolutely impossible that you can
ever hand to me a bit of paper in exchange for my labor, without
you making a gratitious use of my toil for the time being.
It is generally held up  as an honorable and creditable thing
for the Bank of Fngland to pay specie on demand. Why
should it be so  considered?  The money does not belong
to  the bank-it belongs to industry.  Trace it back to the
man who produced it; or trace it down from that man till it was
intercepted by a bit of paper. Is there anything creditable in the
Bank paying back to the man of labor the gold which belongs to
him, and which the other has originally got out of his hands in
exchange for a bit of paper? Is this all that can be said in favor
of specie payments, or of a return to specie payments-a question
which is at this.moment convulsing this western continent?  Is it




16
such work as this that we are satisfied to call creditable and honorable? Has industry any real interest in such a question? Not one
whit. Paper men may worry themselves to death over the subject,
but what interest has the great world of industry, the toiling
millions, with the question of specie payments, so called?  Will it
be better paid by one sort of nicely engraved paper being substituted for some other sort?  Will it be paid any better by a bit of
paper called a promise to pay than by a bit of paper called a
legal tender in payment? What difference will it make to toil?
That is the question at issue.  Then there is the thing called
credit, a myth so far as industry is concerned in its production or
handling, but, alas! not a myth so far as industry suffers by its
exactions. It is a fine word, a most honorable word, a most
plausible word. Did industry ever produce it, or handle it, or see
it?  Industry says: Your credit is said to be good, when you can
get much, very much, of our money and goods into your possession
without payment; and you make us constantly pay tribute for the
exercise of your credit. Who is it, think you, that pays the vast'sums on account of this credit? It is all paid by th3 men who
toil, and by none else. The statesman thinks the strength of the
British nation lies at the back of the Bank of England. I pity his
delusion. Alas! the weakness of the British nation is in the Bank
of England. The violated laws of political economy are the
terrible things with which that nation has yet to deal.
The rudest implement ever fashioned by savage hands, to aid in
moving the soil, was a step in the creation of capital.  It relieved,
so to say, from the necessity of scratching the ground with the
fingers for the reception of the seed. It was a veritable production
of capital, and in that respect not different from the construction
of the most complicated and skilfully prepared piece of machinery.
The savage into whose-brain there first flashed the idea of making
a hoe, and who first fashioned and employed such an implement,
would at once be placed in a position superior to his fellows. Until
similar hoes were made throughout the community, his rewards of
toil would be in excess of those of his companions. To make him
a live capitalist, it would only require some sort of paternal government (such as we are blessed with in these days) to take into
its head that the best way to promote the general prosperity of its
subjects is to create monopolies for particular branches of industry,
to invent a patent law, and thus deny to all the other members
of' the tribe the privilege of making hoes. But the inventive faculties of industry, once aroused, can never sleep more; and so another
step forward is taken.  A spade, or somethingsafter the modelofa
spade, is fashioned; and this relieves from the necessity of scratching
the soil with the hoe. A third step is taken; and some Tubal- Cain not
only sends forth the plough, but instructs other artificers to do the
same.  According to the definition of the economists, these three
well known and ancient implements of husbandry are entitled to
be ranked among capital. Inde d, when we consider how much
the human race from the earliest ages has been indebted to the
plough for its very sustenance, and how widely that instrument
is distributed throughout every nation, may we not conclude that,
as a labor-saving instrument, it takes precedence of all others ever -
made, or likely to be made, and stands in the front rank of
capital.
There is thus not the slightest difficulty in comprehending how




17
capital is created, and how it is at once the produce and the property of toil. It is simply an aid to industry, and so far must be
considered as the tools and appliances with which further production is to be accomplished; and, in this respect, if we are very
fastidious about the matter, as embracing also all that shelters,
clothes, and feeds industry.
The important question new comes before us, Tn what manner
and to what extent can capital itself' receive rewards from industry?
The capitalist says that he is entitled to receive a return from
industry for the employment or use of capital: I say that industry
can never afford to give a return to capital.
The capitalist says that the employment of his capital in the
hands of industry, and the reception of a distinct and separate
reward for himself as the owner of that capital, is a blessing to
industry: I say that the employment of capital by industry, in its
own hands, and for its own behoof, is a blessing; but that the
giving of a distinct and separate reward to capital is a curse
instead of a blessing to industry, and can never generally be done
without industry being brought, as a direct consequence, to utter
degradation and slavery.
The capitalist says the profit can be divided between those who
do the work and those who own the machinery: I say that profits
can never be so divided without serious injury to industry.
The capitalist says the profits may be doubled by the employment
of capital, so as to give one profit to the laborer and another to the
capitalist: I say that it is impossible for labor ever to get a double
profit out of the exchange of its products, and that every legitimate
exchange transaction yields on each side only a single profit.
The capitalist says it is better for him to " give employment" to
thousands of laborers than to let them starve: I say it is better to
do so, much better; better that men should work and earn even
wages than not to work and starve; but that this is no argument at
all on behalf of the claims of capital, and does not throw the least
ray of light into our subject.
These propositions, as I have put thern, are distinct and antithetic., If one stands, the other falls: bcth caniot be true: either
industry or the capitalist must be relegated beyond the sphere of
political economy.
I think I need hardly say to the intelligent reader that the question is not, Ought I to give the use of my capital without fee or
reward? or, Ought the working men to make use of my capital and
give me no return? Happily, the economist is not called to adjudicate upon questions of that sort. What men may do or will do
belongs to another department of thought. Our duty is to expound
the principles of our science, and to show what industry can do
and what it cannot do.
It seems necessary also, just at this point, to remind the reader
that industry receives its rewards, or equivalents, from the produce
to which it gives birth. Out of that source alone can it be paid.
I suppose there can be no dispute with the capitalist on this point;
for I will admit, as the capitalist will also admit, that if capital-is
entitled to a reward, it can be got out of no other source than the
produce of industry. The, more ample things made by the use of
capital will bring in the more ample returns than if the tools in
aid of labor had never been fabricated. Simple and self-evident
though it be, it yet seems necessary to keep continually in mind




18
that industry can only get its returns and its profits out of the
things produced by human hands, by industry itself; a truth which
the general use and circulation of money has no doubt helped
largely to hide from view. For the use of money, whilst it practically simplifies every transaction of exchange, to the careless or
superficial observer appears as if it reduced the science to only
endless complications or a confusion of tongues which nobody
can understand. Neither must we emit to estimate the powerful
influence exercised over many minds by that intangible and incorporeal thing called credit; which, so long as it is only talked about
outside of industry,. is harmless enough; but which, the moment
it issues in getting hold of the products of industry, such as money
or anything else, without payment, and then adds to the price of
everything consumed by the producer, is a most hurtful and ddstructive thing, mythical though it be. Credit, when it continually
keeps possession, without payment, of the products of industry, is
doing a mean thing: credit, when il addition it makes industry
actually pay fbr the use of its own productl, is doing both a mean and
an unjust thing.
As is well known, it has been fund somewhat difficult to give a
proper definition of the science of political economy-to restrain it
within proper bounds. Its infinite value to the human race seems
to mock all our efforts to confine it within scientific swaddling
bands. The true economist rejoices in its grand embrace, and will
not trouble himself much about precise or positive lines of demarcation. But define it as we may, it deals with human beings as the
producing agents to whose lot, and as a recompense for whose toil
and energy, all returns must finally, nay directly, fall. It never can
be claimed that a spade as a spade, a plough as a plough, a thrashing machine as a thrashing machine, or a marine engine as a marine
engine, are entitled to profit or reward. The profit mu4t ever
accrue to the active and intelligent being who presides over all; of
whose inventive genius and skilful labor these are the products;
and without whose guiding hand and watchful presence and constant co-operation, all the tools and machinery in existence would
be nothing but so much useless lumber. The capital itself can no
more claim a reward than can those active forces of nature which
the skill and ingenuity of man render obedient to his will. Capital
has no more claim to take anything out of the hand of industry,
than the sun has as a recompense for yielding its heat or the moon
its light.
It will help to throw further light upon the subject if we also
keep before us the interesting truth so clearly and logically set forth
by Mr. Mill-that man's labor in its totality from first to last consists in nothing but moving things into position, or from place to
place. Every turn of the spade, every stroke of the hammer or the
brush, every movement of the plough, every twist of the thread,every
sweep of the scythe, illustrates this simple truth. All that man can
do is to bring matter into its right position-nature does the rest.
He may think till he can think no more about his work; about
making a spade, about hammering a plough, about constructing a
bridge, about building a ship; his thinking must issue in a product
before he can be paid in a product. From the lowest to the highest
piece of mechanism, from the simplest up to the most complicated,
the same truth prevails. There is no exemption in favor of capital
or of the use of capital. It is for this movement of the mortal




19
frame, for the muscular force requisite-in other words, for the
expenditure of toil, or for the sweat of the brow-that men are and
ever must be paid. All physical toil requires some mental toil,
some thought, more or less. If men are to be paid in a physical
product, such as money, the visible product must be the offspring
of physical toil, conceived in the mind, thought out there, and issuing
through the hand. The thing produced, as we say, by the hand, is
the fruitin every instance of the combined efforts of brain aid muscle, and must be accepted as paymentin full for all that goes beforefor all that brain and hand have jointly contributed towards the
product. There is a sweet and everlasting partnership between the
hand and the brain of every human being; and the fruits of that partnership are the endless things useful and beautiful which confer joy
and comfort, refinement and satisfaction, to society in general. The
hand and the brain can no more be divorced than canri the workman
and his tools. I admit that industry may be so degraded in ignorance and so reduced by oppression, that brains may arrogate all
the wealth, comfort and profit, leaving only bare life to industry.
But this never canl be done without the violation of natural laws
and of n tural rights, and the introduction into human society of a
train of misery whose terrible issues can only be fully known to the
divine mind.
But the capitalist may now urge, Does not the case of a skilful
inventor who, by the use of some new machine, turns out products at
a vastly increased rate, upset all your theories about men being paid
for actual toil? At first blush it appears to do so, but it does not do
so. If men were not paid according to the produc;' turned out, then
they would not be paid for their toil. If one improves his knitting
machine so that he turns out a hundred pa'rs of stockinlgs in the
same time as he useld to turn out fifty, the price of stockings will
tend to fall. Unless he were secured a monopoly of stocking
making, he would not long retain any advantage over his fellows,
for nothing can ever prevent human labor so distributing itself as
to become generally equalized in its rewards. Unless men arbitrarily interfere with natural laws, no department of labor can long
continue in the ascendant over other departments. Just as money,
true money, has a tendency to distribute itself abroad wherever
products of industry are offered for sale; so labor has a tendency to
equalize itself throughout every department of toil. There is no
measure of the value of labor but labor itself. Every product of
toil must submit to be measured by all other products of toil. I do
not set aside the efficacy of skill in all works of industry. The
most skiltful vorker is the best worker, and will reap the best rewards. The " skill " of the mind will be shown through the skill
and " cunning " of the hand. The expert workman who does his
work as well as his fellow and in half the time, will get a better
payment. Yet both are paid for their labor, for the amount of
toil-that is, the one has a certain return, in visible products, for
his toil; the other has a certain, and larger, return for his toil.
But is it money which really pays the great world of industry for
all its toil? Without money we cannot, in the ordinary sense, be
paid. The digging of money from the mine will pay its producers,
or make them richer than if they had not done any work at all.
And, after that, it will be the medium, but the medium only,
through which profits are brought to every toiling hand. Its genoral distribution at this tmoment would give to each family but a




20
trifling amount. So that it s not beingpaid in money which makes
the world richer. One form of economic wealth is, as I conceive it,
that there be siceh a conjunction of skill and toil in the same
individual and throughout every branch of industry, that there
shall yet issue, am0ong other things, a universal relaxation of lahor,,
and our race be saved from that severe and continued toil which
leads only to debasement and ignorance. And here, in passing, I
would throw out the thought thaltt exchange, and what is secured to.
industry by the principle of exchange, seem to h ave been designed
by our allwise Creator to restore to us the waste of' the sweat of
the brow-to return to the race, in thlee for  of profit, fiar more than
it can ever expend in the shape of personal toil  I have been longimpressed with the fact that all the laws of political economy have.
a merciful side. There is a deep and buneficent design in the interdependence of human labor, as well as in the, interchange of
blessing which all producers are unconsciously compelled to
bestow upon one another in the act of production and exchange.
I expect that the old truth is as fresh and vigorous as ever-that
the way to fill our barns and burst out our presses, is for industry
to consecrate its first fruits to the cause of suffering humanity in
every land. I am quite convinced that thoughtful men will yet
unfold the whole subject from points of view which will command
our deepest interest and attention.  The period is approaching
when, to the pulpit especially, the industrial and economic ethics.
of the Bible must be for the time being of paramount importance.
The man who works is the true and only producer. All that his
toil brings forth, aided or not aided by implements or tools, is hi.s
property, unless it can be established that there are other reasons
outside of production itself, which confer a title to a share of the
products of his toil for people who do not work. If the fact of the
ownership of capital establishes a claim  to a large share of the
products of industry, we may be quite sure that as an economic
truth it will fall in with every other economic truth.
On the one side we have the claims of the. capitalist: slet. That
he should have a share of the products of industry, because he
owns the ca-pital or appliances; 2nd. That he should have a share
because others use and employ what belongs to him. These two.
grounds, I think, fairly set furth and embrace his claims.
On the other side we have the claims of industry, antagonistic to
those of capital as just set forth: 1st, That all the tools and appliances of industry are designed and havebeen constructed specially
to aid the worker in his work, and 2nd, That -he cannot give a
share of the produce of his toil, such as capital claims, to those into whose hands his tools may have fallen; in other words, that he
cannot give away what he produces with the aid of the tools, without being reduced to the position he would be. in, were he still
compelled to struggle for a living without tools at all, or with
only those of the rudest description.
The laborer may urge, and surely with the utmost propriety,
that it is unnatural to divorce him  from his tools; to compel him. to support himself and family by his personal toil; and out of the
same toil, to have him give away all profits on his work to the very
tools designed and constructed for the help of industry; for it is
virtually doing this so far as he and his labor aie concerned. May
he not say, and say well, If the rate of profit you secure for the
capital, the tools, and.machinery of our work, is such as to cause




21
it to double itself in ten or twelve years, ought I not to see my
position as a producer advanced at a corresponding rate? Ought
I not by this time to have good clothes, good food, a home of my
own, and myfainily in comfort? Ought I not to be sharing, along
with you, in all the precious things I produce?  Ought I not to see
my children, if not myself, rising in the social scale, and inheriting
a share of all that is going? Ought I not tb be now getting quit of
my ig orance, my rags, and my wretchedness? Why should the
ground which I till not yield to me her strength?  Ts the very
curse of Cain upon me that I and my children after me should be
as fugitives and vagabonds in the earth?  Why should the little
ones whom [ love be takpn from their childish play to be ruined in
body and mind, and yoked to repulsive labor? How is it that the
very order of nature should be reversed, and the idler be rich and
ever accumulating more riches, and the toiler be poor and familiar
for evermore with poverty? Why should all these vast industrial
resources only issue in reducing me and my fellow laborers to mere
days wages and mere days labor?  What good do we get out of
them if we never own any of the things we make? Is it not our
labor which doubles your'capital?  How is it that we have lost
the ownership of the very tools with which we work? How is it
that the working mnillions, producing all that is handled in every
market, shduld still remain poor, very poor, and the few fortunate
ones, who neither toil nor spin, be rich, very rich?
These may be hard questions, and we may be troubled at their
presence; but never were more legitimate or more pressing enquiries
presented before the minds of thoughtful men. They must be
answered sooner or later, and he is far from being a wise or a
prudent man who shirks the investigation.  And they will be
answered when political economy, in the person of its expounders,
ceases to play the courtier in presence of capital.  God forbid
that, with such a world of s'lffering at our doors, we should any
longer barter the pure gold of this noble science for a lot of
sounding brass.
But the truth lies at our hand. The working  man is not able,
by his own work, to produce for himself and also for the capitalist.
It is beyond his capacity to do so. The very tools, in that case,
instead of being an aid become an oppression to him. To be able
as some may say, by an ingenious turn of the wheel of fortune, to
take all the appliances of' labor, all the inventions of industry,
out of its hands, and then put them back again with a demand
that all the visible produce of labor shall go into the pockets of
others than those who toil, is an utter subversion of what is just
and right, a complete destruction of every principle in political
economy. You may urge that possession is nine points in law, but
I am bound to tell you, on the part of the working world, that this,
accomplished, will ruin industry so thoroughly that there will not
be much to choose between white slavery and black.
The increased production flowing from the employment of these
aids to industry does not come to hand on the ground that the
worker oewns these resources or aids. The ownership is invested in
the hand which has toiled and fashioned. It is simply the fruit of
industry. Wherever the commodity goes, the ownership goes with
it, so long as the -labor title, or title of service can be produced.
When that fails, ownership also fails. The occupancy is there
because the ownership is there; and the ownership is there because




22
the title which labor gives is a complete title. The ownership is
one thing; the employment of all the implements and tools is
another and quite different thing. The laborer who owns his tools
has increased production, not because he owns,' but because he
works with them. It is certain, therefore, that there can be no
increased production (but the reverse) when capital gets possession of the tools and hires men to work for day's wages. The
increased produce appears, not because all these things are owned,
but because men work with them. The ownership has therefore no
relation to production, except, itmay be, as a stimulant to those who
own and work at the same time. Production is causedneither by the
owner as such, nor by the ownership. Production flows forth, not
because things are owned, not because things are hired, not because men are hired, but because men work. If, with the employment of certain agricultural implements, the farmer is able to
support himself and family in decency and comfort, he can do no
more if the ownership of his capital passes away into other hands.
_The vield will just be the same. Indeed, it will, if anything, be
decreased; for the stimulus to toil will be lessened, and those hopes
and inducements to labor which are inspired by a full return for
one's work, and by the pride and happiness of owning property,
will cease to operate. The farmer's returns, which formerly were
sufficient to keep his family in comfort and independence, will now
be so diminished by the returns demanded by capital, and by the
manner of' rating or estimating these returns in the form of a centage
on the money value, that he and his family will be reduced to all
but beggary. And all this because the capital, so called, which at
one time aided him so well, now calls for and obtains by far the
largest share in a definite amount of produce, not increased but
rather diminished in volume and value by the change in the disposition of the capital. The plough which in the hands of its
owner turns over its two acres a day, cannot torn over any more
because it happens to fall into other hands. The bit of ground
which, by means of labor spent on it, supports a man in comfort,
cannot at the same time support an idler in wealth. What a
terrible means of oppression does capital become when it is thus'
turned with grinding and destructive force upon the very hands
which produce it; not only arresting all those powerful moral and
social influences calculated to flow from healthy and well requited
toil, but opening a wide door for the entrance of all that is vile and
base and calculated to disorganise society. It will not do for you
to urge, in justification of what we see around us, and as so many
have urged before you. that if capitalists did not provide labor
with tools, labor would perish. For I might ask you, How did
capitalists come to get possession of all the tools and instruments
of labor? Was it by cunning or wit? Labor, from the very
beginning, has produced all the tools and machinery. Surely it
could not be mere accident that has thrown everything one.way.
Some great principle must have been violated to bring before us SO.
extraordinary and unnatural a spectacle as a complete divorce between labor and its tools. I might thus hedge you up from question to question, until you were at last driven to the wall; or
obliged to acknowledge, what indeed is the truth, that industry
has from the beginning lost its capital, and must continue to lose
it, by the utter perversion of every principle in monetary science;
by that cunning wlbich, shrinking from hard toil, or any toil atall,




23
has never ceased, since the world began, to play fast and loose wlt.h
honest and unsuspecting industry.
Whatever stress you may lav upon the circumstance that you are
the owner of the capital, the fact remains that it is the laborer's
toil which brings in your returns. That cannot be disputed. It
is out of his toil that you are raid. For if he did not work for you,
then you would have to take the tools in hand and work for yourself. And if you did so, you would just have the produce of your
labor as your reward. You would take the workingman's place,
and you would get the workingman's reward. Political economy
must ever regard the worker as the producer, to whom  a reward
single and indivisible must fall.  It is to the worker, and to the
worker alone, that the rewtard must ever come. It is therefore impossible that industry can ever pay you, or pay even itself, on the
ground of ownership.
Again, I might ask, AWhat about the decrease in production
caused by the capitalist ceasing to work? I suppose he was formerly
a producer. He could not be a capitalist (setting inheritance
aside) unless he had been a producer, for surely 1he must have
given value to the people in exchange for the people's capital.
The strange thing in the whole aff;-ir is-what has become'of
all which is alleged to have been given in exchange for the
capital?  Can any one lay his hands upon it?  Do you say
the multitudes have consumed it in food?  That cannot be;
for what they have produced is worth far more than their food
and  clothing. The capitalists are all fed too, and well fed
but in addition they have managed to get hold of all the good
things made by toiling hands; and furthermore, by means of
paper, to carry a claim against industry, the principal of which
is so vast that the present resources of labor could not liquidate
it for a century to come. You say the capitalist looks after his
property. But there is no production in that. Everybody is bound
to look after his property, and everybody does look after it. Could
you ask your neighbor to pay you for looking  after your own
property?  Does- production consist in buying the same goods, or
the same stocks, ten or a dozen times in the course of a day? Are
gambling and gat bling debts production? How much production
is there in Wall street or Lombard street? Is there any in speculation? These are the fields in which many a capitalist wastes his
life. But wohere is the production?
When a full and fuir profit is obtained by each of two workmen
in the exchange of the product of his work, it is evident -that there
is not room for further, and perhaps larger profits, for every one
of perhaps half a dozen people over the same products.   The first
and principal profit is secured by the producers.. The labor of
transporting to destination will legitimately be paid.  But tow is
it possible that additional profits can be given to those who do
nothing but speculate in the great staples of industry?
The writer of the article on Political Economy in the last edition
of the E-cyclopcedia Britannica asks, in the defence of capital, and
with a triumphant airi " What could the most skilful agricultlrist
perform without his spade and his plough? a weaver without.his
loom? or a' house-carpenter without his saw, his axes and his
p.lanes?"' There would be' very little  "performance"  indeed.
there might be enough to keep life in the body of the producer';
tiere would certainly not be so much: as. a bite for the: hungry




24
capitalist. The one, at all events, would live because he still did
some little work; the other would perish firom the face of the earth.
The one would, at the worst, have a hut and some skins to cover
him; the other would go naked and without shelter. Capital, in
putting such questions, pronounces its own condemnation.
But will Capital now permit Industry to ask a few questions?
What would capitalists do if there were no workingmen to make
the spade, plough, loom, axe and other tools? What would capitalists do if there were no persons willing to toil in the mine for
gold, on the land for food, in the bowels of the earth for fuel, or in
the forests for timber? What would capitalists do if they produced
nothing to exchange for the gold, the food, or the fuel? What
would capitalists do if industry refused to give away its tools and
machinery, its clothing and food and furnishings, unless for an
equivalent in labor value? In a word, what could capital do without industry?
I now ask every intelligent reader if he is not prepared, with
myself, to repel with scorn the gratuitous assumptions of these
writers, that something they call "' Capital" found Industry a beggar,
fed it, clothed it, and fostered it into life and vigour; when the
truth is that Capital is indebted to Industry for its very existence.
From all that has been stated it is quite evident that modern
workmen (and, alas! the children of modern workmen) are subjected to severe, constant, and depressing toil in order to provide the
vast returns demanded by capital. Let us just glance at what capital
takes, and what industry receives. I am willing to abide by the
verdict of any unprejudiced on-looker.  Are not the workingmen,
as a body, just kept out of the breakers, nothing more? Do they
get anything beyond a bare living, with a hard struggle at that?
Are not suffering and poverty their inevitable lot?  Contrast their
position with that of the capitalist.  Mark how the principle of
accumulation, once begun, continues to swell the hoard. The
veriest simpleton, one who knows as little of any department of
industry as an unborn, child, has only to invest in a successful
banking institution, and he begins forhwith to draw out of industry. The anxiety of the workingman is to keep himself and family
in life —the anxiety of' the capitalist is to add to his abounding and
increasing wealth. See how one man reaps as much as two or
three hundred producers. One of these capitalists has just died in
New York, leaving property worth one hundred millions of dollars.
Where is the equivalent, the other one hundred millions of dollars
given in exchange for the one hundred millions taken? Is it in the
shape of rents of houses? Is it houses, then, which pay rent? Let
me tell you, it is out of the toil of human beings that rents are taken,
and that industry has nothing left to represent these one hundred
millions it has given. It ought to have that amount somewhere in
houses or other property; for if labor has given this vast sum (and
of that there can be no doubt) to one man in New York, it ought to
have a corresponding sum to represent it. Do you think it has gone
to the laboring classes in food and clothing? It has gone no such
road. Mr. Astor did not feed the workingmen of New York. These
workingmen fed themselves by their own labor. But they have left
in one man's hands as much as would feed the whole population of
New York for two or three years.  You see then how interesting
the investigation really becomes when we begin to institute a
search for the equivalents of capital. I am quite in earnest in my




desire to have you investigate the question of rent as a return for
capital. You will find that the dwellings, the very homes of the
people, or what should be their homes, as well as' their tools and
machinery, are all passing into the hands of capitalists through
the violation of the same laws. In this investigation one illustration is as good as a thousand.  The same pernicious system which
takes away a man's spade, can take away his plough, his horses,
his stables and barns, and at last his house or home.  And is not
labor, to a very large extent, now really destitute of house and
home? If my labor fails to provide for me a home I can call my
own then the labor of my life has proved a failure, and other people, by some means or other, but not by labor, have got the best
produce of my life's toil.
I have studied these questions long enough to know that capital
has acquired its vast accumulations mainly through the practical
destruction, as an industrial instrument of exchange, of the money
provided for industry and produced by industry.  The economist
has investigated to little purpose who has failed to perceive the
almost unlimited power thrown by such means into the hands of a
class.  Capital (or some intangible thing called credit) has
gathered up the true Tho! ey out of the hand of industry (leaving a
fiction in its place) and concentrated and employed it for its own
ends largely in the fields of speculation and gambling; and
through the enormous increase of mere buying and selling, repeating of transactions over the same goods, selling and buying millions
worth of stocks in the course of a day, multiplying " paper" without end for discount. and concentrating all these enormous payments into a few so-called monied centres, has actually deceived
people into the notion that nature has failed in providing a
sufficient quantity of money for our wants. And there are not
wanting those on this side the water, who, apparently in the
extremity of their despair of ever understanding what all this confusion is about, do not hesitate to launch their anathemas against
even the gold and silver.  I do not say that it was through the
destruction of its money labor first began to be oppressed; but this
I say, that it is by such means the oppression has, in modern times,
become concentrated, systemised, and vastly intensified.  Any
government which has thus practically destroyed the true money
of its people, and cast the gold, or most of the gold, into the vortex
of speculation and gambling, has entered on a path so full of perils
that I tremble to think of the result. The road may be a long one
to travel, but sooner or later the end must come.  Every step in
that road is strewn with the wrecks of industry; and these
wrecks not only tell of the sufferings of the lowest ranks of society,
but of the ruin of millions above them who began life with bright
and joyous hopes. Now, it is deeply interesting to trace the manner in which capital exercises its cruel and unrelenting oppression
on labor.  It is said to double itself in a certain period, say in
eight or ten years.  A capitalist who invests his money in stocks
or shares expects it to be doubled in about that time. There are
certain bank stocks which, on the original shares, are doubled
every five or six years. The language in which all this is set forth
has become incorporated with the daily life of society. All these
vast returns come out of labor.  There is no other conceivable
source from which they can be taken. Personal toil, aided by its
own appliances, or what ought to be its own appliances, produces the




whole.  The products of industry, it is admitted, have been
greatly increased by the employment of machinery. Industry is
now able to accomplish a great deal more than it formerly did in
the s'ame space of time; but capital steps in and demands a fill
profit, a certain rate per cent., out of the entire value of all the tools,
factories, houses, warehouses, implements, and machinery employed;
and all this continued from year to year, so long as these various
appliances exist.  That is to say, labor builds a house rated at a
thousand pounds; capital demands from labor, and gets for that
house, during a course of years, fifty thousand or a hundred thousand pounds. Labor has put a value equivalent to a thousand
pounds, and no more, into the building. Capital,'under the name
of rent, compels labor, some way or other, to pay a continuous tax
so long as the house will shield from wind and rain,,amounting, it.
may be with compound interest, to two or three hundred times the
actual labor value embodied in it.  Labor builds a warehouse or
factory worth ten or twenty thousand pounds; under the demand
which capital makes for its inevitable rate, labor continues to
pay, whilst the building stands, an amount which may be counted
by the million. And so with tools and every kind of machinery
and appliance.  The things produced by labor thus beccnme instrumzents of oppression to labor. The working millions, instead of being
benefited by capital, are thus reduced to such a struggle to obtain
a living, that the painted and feathered savages who hunt over our
western plains, in their wild exuberance and joy, have a happiness
to which the wearied and anxious toilers are total strangers. Atnd
so, poor blind humanity, age after age, continually grinds in its
prison-house. Now, if labor owned all its tools and appliances (as
it certainly ought) what a different state of things we wolld witness. The working man would then begin to advance through the
only legitimate way by which industry canl ever advance-that is,
he would, either by himself or in equitable co-operation with his
fellows, own and sell the produce of his own toil, wrought out by
his own hands, and with the aid of his own tools.  Fie would own
the house, and the thousand pounds worth of labor invested; ald
he and his children after him would not only sit rent-fiee for life,
but every eight or ten years (if the estimated return of capital be
taken as the true rate of increase) he would have resources at
command equal to another dwelling worth a thousand poulnds.
The working men would, singly or in co-operation, own the warelkouses, factories, and all the tools and machinery, and the constant strain which capital now lays upon them would be turned to
their advantage. They would own all the goods they make, and
would derive the profits on the sale of these goods. The purchasing
power of industry vwould be increased a hundred-fold. The masses,
under the rigor of the reign of this capital, are so poor that they
may be said to have hardly any purchasing power at all.  Their
constant anxiety is to keep soul and body together.  What can
they do as patrons of hltxuries or the file arts, or even of the vast
mass of things which go to make up the general comforts of life?
But let them simply own their tools and mach-inery and factories —
enjoy, without paying for tihe use of, that which is their own-a-nd
see the change which would take place.  The gamnt poverty and
the crime which are now tle reproach of our inoderni civilization
would disappear as if by magic.  T'lhe mighty andl wealthy world
of industry would eumpty every market in a d-ay.  There would be




A call for goods, and the best of goods, which would set evesyr
wheel in motion, and stimulate every mind into thought and
activity. The wealthy would have about as many visible comforts
and luxuries as ever; those now poor and degraded would be lifted
to the same plane. All would work, and all would receive, under
the increased stimulus of new and improved machinery, everything
good to their heart's content.  Machinery would be so perfected
and arranged that repulsive work on any large scale, would hardly
ever require to be performed by direct manual toil. The wide gulf
which now  separates us into different ranks and classes, our
modern caste, would disappear.  Education and all the refining
arts of civilization would take hold of and leaven society. Think of
the complete change in our literature, and of the demand for pure
and stimulating works, with the great majority of men at once
thinkers and readers.  What a renovation there would be of the
bookseller's shelves i Where could a market then be found for the
disgusting products (literature we cannot call it) of diseased
imagination?   That which, in the hand of the capitalist, is now
the most terrible instrument of oppression to our race, would confer upon industry resources of such incalculable and beneficent
power, that nations might then be said to be born in a day. And,
last and most blessed effect of all, the uncounted resources of
industry, instead of being concentrated on self and accumulation,
would overflow in unmeasured largess to every land.
The average centage which is demanded and obtained by capital
appears to be the average division of not only all the profits of
industry, but of all its products too, after a 1provision is maode to
keel indusslry just in life. If capital be some great and independent force acting in antagonism  to industry; that is, if it be not
industry itself, but something outside of industry. whose interest
it is to take all it can possibly obtain from the producers, then we
may be certain that it will get industry so thoroughly into its power,
that anything which may be given to it beyond bare existence must
be looked upon in the light only of a gratuity.
The great and substantial truth that uttilities cannot be solcd, here
forces itself upon the attention, and we must follow it out in whatever direction it leads. It has been somewhat timidly approached
by the later economists. But if it be a principle in political economy,
we may be sure that it will never lead us astray. I have never
seen any reason to doubt that close and critical examination will
result in its being generally received as an accredited doctrine, and
perhaps one of the most important in the whole range of the
science. If utilities are all gratuitous, it follows that nothing but
labor, as represented by its productions, or as embodied in its handiwork, can ever be sold; that payments withheld, or given in consecutive periods, can never increase or diminish the real value of a
commodity;' and that no article, from a needle to an anchor, from
a palace to a cottage, can ever, on any ground whatever, receive,
permanently, more from labor than the labor value embodied. If
you will but ieflect over the subject, you will come to perceive that
to speak of the value of the use of a thing is really as absurd as to
speak of the weighing of a sunbeam, or of measuring in money, a
mother's love. Industry, as a prodlctive agent, call never both
produce the property and pay for the use of the property. If it is
compelled to do so, then its tools or appliances are not aids to industry, but the reverse. The economist nmust use terms in accordaince




With the principles of the science; and when we speak of value it
mVst ever refer to commercial or industrial value, or, what is perhaps
a safer phrase, value in exchange. It is not utilities which are sold,
but human labor. And around that human labor, as the grand
centre and regulator of all, everything that is represented by that
uncertain phrase "demand and supply" must continually revolve.*
The consciousness which men in general entertain of the amount
of toil they have embodied in what they have to sell, holds in its
inexorable grasp all demand and all supply; so that men, as a rule,
will neither give away their goods for less than an equivalent, nor
continue to produce things for which there may be no demand or
to produce them in similar or greater quantities when there is a less
demand. We do not reflect at all as we ought to do, that in every
exchange, demand and supply co-exist in each of the parties to the
exchange, so that four factors of equivalent power are ever at
work regulating the movements of the whole machine. Demand,
among civilized men, can never remain, as a rule, at the mercy of
supply, nor supply at the mercy of demand. On some far away
coast, an Indian may exchange an otter skin for a glittering bead,
but it is not an exchange of value for value. Civilization in this
instance, as in many others, has only over-reached ignorance and
barbarism.
It appears from all the foregoing considerations, that a " wagefund theory," for which a place in the realms of political economy
has lately been so strenuously sought, has no tangible ground on
which to rest, and no certain or reliable principles to present to the
mind. The system of days wages, as we now know it throughout
all the fields of industry, comes before the philosophic eye only as
a ruin-it may be a vast and splendid one, but yet only a ruin.
There is but one refuge more into which capital endeavors to
retreat. It lays claim to a return on the ground that profits may
be divided between itself and industry, or on the ground that profits
* "Utility and value are mere accidents of a thing arising from thle
fact that somebody wants it...... Money must have utility as the
basis of value."  " Money and the Mechanism of Exchange " by Professor Jevons. The learned Author would have us believe that mere
desire or clamor for money-the crying of the public baby-imparts
to money the " accident" of value, and that utility, not labor, is the
basis of value! Probably he has not given much consideration to
labor as the source of all value. Apart from this and some similar
errors, Mr. Jevons has produced an important treatise on monetary
science: Nothing could be clearer or more to the point than his remarks on International Money, and to American statesmen especially
what he has to say on "The future American Dollar" ought to prove
of profound interest in the present agitated state of the public mind. He
says: " The most easy and important step which can now be taken towards
an international money, consists in the assimilation of the American
dollar to the five-franc piece. There is little doubt that the adhesion of the
American Government to the proposal of the Congress (Monetary) of 1863
would give the holding turn to the metric system of weights, measures
and moneys. It is quite likely that it might render the dollar the future
universal unit. The fact that the dollar is already the monetary unit of
many parts of the world gives it long odds. In becoming assimilated to
the French dcu, American gold would be capable of circulation in Europe,
or wherever the French napoleon has hitherto been accepted. It may
seem unpatriotic in an Englishman to advocate a change which may lead
to the defeat of the pound sterling, but I look upon any one scheme of
unification as better than none. Whatever may be the ultimate results, I
desire to see assimilation between the French and American systems




inay be doubled.  I do not think that capital could venture ohi
more inhospitable ground than  this. It seeks a sorry refuge.
Political economy at once seizes the intruder and decapitates him
at a stroke.  The true remuneration of labor, as has been shown, is
not what is paid in wages, but is the amount of the things produced,
the visible product of handiwork.  The industry of the world can
never be remunerated except through the total industrial products
of the world.  As the products collectively are the remuneration of
all the toilers, so each particular product is the remnneratioh,
either in itself or by an equivalent, of him who has produced it. In
any other light than this, the phrase " the cost of labor" is a solecism.
The entire mechanism of exchange consists simply in an exchange
of services. These exchanges, from beginning to end, must proceed
onl the principle of equity. If there is a double profit for one of the
parties, then there is no profit at all for the other party.  If there
is a double profit for the one half of the number of producers,
then there is not a scrap left for the other half.  Such a principle,
it is evident, would at once strangle all exchange.  And so of the
claim on the ground of partition of the profit.  industry may, out
of accumulated resources, give away what it ple~ases in charity,
pleasure or amusement, or indeed for anything it may desire; but
as a productive agent, held in check and regulated in its profits by
a healthy and untrammnnelled competition, it can never afford to give
away to capital half or any portion of its profits. The increment of
profit has no natural tendency to resolve itself, as so many economists imagine, into certain parts or divisions, a portion for this, a
adopted as soon as possible. For reasons subsequently stated, 1 consider
the dollar so good a unit that it would be nlere national prejudice to
oppose it, were there a fair chance of its general a.doption. Evell if it
were not generally adopted, it would be a grieat step in advance if G-reat
Britain, America, and France were to agree to coin gold money identical in weight and fineness, which mighllt circulate indidlerently as
sovereigns, five-dollar pieces, and five-franc pieces." Protessor Jevons
adds that he considers the gold dollar and five-frane piece too small to be
coined in gold, as they- suier too much by abrasion. It may iulterest the
reader, and perhaps add some weighlt to the foregoing. if I here repirdilce what I stated on this important subject some y( ars since.  "T'he
decimal system of curreny, with which, lippily, woe in this Dominion
are now  so conversant, even though it be conIessedly artificial, is
yet oue we would not like to see displaced. Some years since we
went, all at once, and with extraordinary facility, fiom  the oil and
cumbrous method of computation by pounds, shillings and pence, to
the simple plan of dollars and cents; and thus a common system prevails
over all North America.  The example of the United States conl'lorred upon us this great boon, and the advantage to both our internation al and domestic commerce has beeti very great. I conceive it would
be a great advantage to the people of the United Kingdom if they should
at some future day adopt the decimal currency, and prefer tihe dollar
as the central unit, around which so large a portion of the commerce of
the wvold has revolved. I thilnk it would be well if all nations were to
bring their coins into decimal relation, and to adopt the dollar as the
monetary unit, with, to us, its famniliar ran-ge of decimal multiples and
subdivisions. But this is only out-I national idea; and the French people
will cling to the tfkniliar franc, and the English people to the no less familiar pound; aend although the pound sterling of England, the five-dollar
gold piece, or lialf-eagle of America, andl the proposed twenty-five ft acll
piece of France, approach eachl othlr in value, they are not the same
thling precisely, and it is just the precise equivalent tihat is wavnted in a system of international coCinaGg,', —-  -'at7l5Nvt'IONAJ   (u)INAW-li AND TOIHE
STsNI).ANDA.m D 1S 7 or VALUE,r




second for that, and a third for something else. It can only falthfully
evidence itself by the general advance and well-being of industry,
or of those who work and produce-not by accumulations of money,
but by all the visible comfortable surroundings of industry. Skill
and energy are the two forces which we bring to bear in the act of
production.  One who works harder or more skilfully than
another, will have more of the good things of this life, not because
he has made a greater profit than the other, but because he has had
more things to exchange. He will indeed have, in sum, a greater
profit collectively than the lazy or indifferent worker, but he will
have it because he has had more things to exchange with others
more diligent or equally diligent with himself.'Tis but poor profit
that is made out of the lazy portion of the community. They will
remain poor, not because they have small profits or half profits, but
because they have few things to exchange. When each works well,
all fare well. The principle of exchange has no premium for the ignorant or indifferent worker. The man who produces only one pair of
shoes a day cannot expect to exchange them against the five pairs
produced by some other in the same space of time. The value of our
labor is seen in what we produce. The five pairs of shoes will not
seek to exchange against the one pair, because value ever seeks for
an equivalent.  The five pairs will naturally seek to exchange with
some other things produced by some one equally skilful and
energetic.  Here like clings to like. The owner of the one pair
will get his profit according to the labor saved to him in the exchange; the owner of the five pairs will get his profit also according
to the labor saved to him-a single and indivisible profit on each
transaction. The true way to save our labor, and thus to earn
profit, is to work skilfully and well. For labor to share its profits
with aclass who do not produce (for in these days there is a great
deal of working, so called, the business of mere " busybodies," which
is not production but its opposite) is just as unnatural as to attempt
to double its profits. In either case the inevitable tendency would
be to the destruction and ruin of industry. To say that industry,
under the reign of capital, gets a share of profits, is to say what
is not true. It does not get the smallest remnant of profit. All
the profit is swept into the coffers of the capitalist, much of it to
be reissued in further oppression of labor, an oppression which has
its limit only in the capacity of industry to bear the strain. *
* I quote from the Report of Commissioners on Hours of Labor: Comrn..
monwealth of Massachusetts, 1866:
" The average wages of males throughout the United States in these descriptions of labor-manufacture of Cotton, Woollen, Clothing, Shoes,
&c-in 1860, were, males, $316; females, $176 per annum."
"' The wages in the cotton mills, of the six New England States, deduced
by the method stated, from the census of 1860, give:Wages for males, per annum..........................   $285 75
Do   Females  do.........................   158 75"
The average rate of wages over the whole of the United States is given at
91~ cents per day.
A letter to the Commissioners from one of the best paid journeymen
mechanics, a first-class shipearpenter, states that with his family of eight
persons, he has been driven to " a system of economy which has left painful evidences of its severity," and has been compelled to remove his
children from school to contribute towards the support of the family.
I suppose there is no one more competent, at least on this continent, to
judge of the emoluments of workingmen than M.r, E. 1-1. Rogers, who was




31
I have purposely avoided any lengthened reference, in the present
paper, to what is generally understood by brain work or in ellectual labor. I have hardly felt it necessary that it should engage
our attention, as I think it does not materially affect the argume nt.
It has come under our observation for a few moments only as related to the visible ps'oducts of toil, or, in other words, as in a sort of
" silent partnership" with the hand. ~ This part of the subject is
far from being devoid of interest, but requires more consideration
than I can at present devote to it. The equivalents of manual
labor are not difficult to distinguish. A gold dollar is the exact
equivalent of another gold dollar, and a bushel of barley, as
nearly as may be, of another bushel of barley. Most people, and
even some economists, think that gold is dearer than silver, and diamonds, in their price, more precious than flour; and even some governments, professing to be very wise,have,on this and other grounds,
demonetised their silver; but a day's labor of digging silver is just
worth a day's labcr of' digging gold, and the labor of producing
diamonds is just worth the labor of producing flour. The equations
in each case are at our haud. But who is acute enough to discover
the unit of value when we come to compare material products
with immaterial?  Is there any true ratio of exchange between
things so different? If there be no ratio, can you arrive at an
equation? What is the exact money value of a thought?.  Has it
money value at all?  Can you measure it in a quart or a peck?
We pay more for a song from Jenny Lind than from some ordinary
singer-more tor a good than for an indifferent teacher; but where
is the standard of value?  low much is a song worth? In reading this article,you will pay for the paper on which it is printed, for
the ink, for the type setting, for the press work, the folding, the
stitching, or, in other words for the labor embodied in all these
processes, but I am sure I could not tell you what, if any, is the mint
value of any thought there may be in it, and as little can you. The
thought may have commenced before some of my readers were born.
I am conscious of no small amount of brain work, and yet the
thought has no dimension, no weight, no parts at all. You cannot
manipulate it, or place it in your scales, or adjust it by your most
delicate balance. It may have a general relation to other thought,
or special relation to thought on economic science, but what relatoin has it to a bit of money? Any value of this kind you place
upon it must be merely an arbitrary value. The only manual labor
I have had with it is in handling the pen, and that you know is not
worth mentioning. You cannot pay me for what some may call
my " time," for I have none of it to sell, and political economy
cannot turn time into a commodity. The present work has been to
me emphatically a labor of love, and I dont think that I could be
repaid in anything but similar coin. Has nature made such a
oneof the Commissioners on Hours of Labor, appointed by the State of
Massachusetts. He says, in the above Report. " With constant thoughtfulness this income ($1.25 per day, Sundays included) necessitated an
economy penurious in its character, often failing to meet the demands of
health in clothing; and throwing the support of aged parents on more
favored relations."  " Wages," headds, "' as at present paid are not an
equitable return for labor performed. It is universally understood that the
laborer has only a living. The idea of what a living is, is comparatively
elevated in this country; but figures show that the wages of labor do not
reach on the whole that point."




dividing line between  Intelligence and Work  as that one p.rty
shall be able to say, We have all the iutelligence and must get all
the products of toil, except what is jnlt able to keep you, Work, in
life? Has she sacrificed Labor in her desire to endow Intelligence?
Is the one to be galnfill to the other, or does it exist only to oppress
its partner in toil?  What good things is it possible for cunning
or shrewdness to leave, as exchange, ill the hItlds of industry?  It,
is along those everchanging values whooe stability has been all
but destroyed by the present nmercalltile system  (undoubtedly a
system of the most dangeroLs communisnm) that our modern man of
business  rea,'s  hist fortune, tnd  when he dies, the pulpit atnd
press apllantdingly clap their hands anid hold him  up, so ftar
as his gains are  concerned, as a bright model to the rising
generation.  But -where is the production?  What has industry
reaped for'll that it h' s given, r ra t.her that has been talken
away from it. Whlat has he left behind?   A  lot of money in
his will? or avast deal of service in the hands of his toiliing
fellow mien? ShallI use nly "wVit" in taking what does not belong
to me?  One man, we will say, is engaged within doors in somne
light pleasant fiincy work; or lie nlmy bte  a professional i1itiii"
writing a few letters, or sweeping doll;rs by the hundred into his
colffers by the mere stroke of his pen  tand lie looks down from his
wiindow on another toiling in a deep and olthly c tvity in the street,
clearing  away some obstruction which threatens mia:smal and
disease to a whole neighborhood.  Who gets the best returi?
Which of the two ought to get the best returll?  I do not s'ty they
ought to change places. Each may be in his right place. All I ask is
who should be best paid?  The economists are c-treful to tell us
that risk and disagreeableness are imporltant elements in determining prices.  Do they determine prices or values in this case, or
in ten thousand like it around you every day?  We know that it is
hand-work which really does pay for all the brain-work which
claims and receives payment.  As we gencerally understand the
term, payment, it could not otherwise be paid.  tBut there should
be an interchange, a true conmnerce,  a just reciprocity, ought t.here
not?  None should be burderned.  The brains should surely be
coming over, by this time, to the side of tlie hand. If products pay.for intelligence, then intelligence should be largely the property of'
toil. But is it so?  If brain takes away the produce of hliand
surely hand should get the produce of brain. Industry by this
time should be so well taught to do its work as never more to nced
a teacher. We are fond of talking of out nlental labor, and of whallt
we should get for that labol but it is atll simply thozughl. As regards
visible products it is not worth a rap till yot put out hand and let
us see some fruit.  I fully believe in brains taking industry by the
hand; but, within the range of industriil application, I have as
little faith in brains without industry as in industry without brains.
Separate them and you destroy them.  (Can you tell me to what
extent intelligence or intellect has itself suffered by being divorced
firom work?  How has society f.ired?  Perhaps we have a weakling, a silly nondescript, where we might have had Spartan brain
and vigor. Is not the mutual helpfulness of the family circle to be
carried out into the larger circle of general humanity?  Whait if we
have hitherto missed a great economic truth in the general constitution of society as a colony of w orkers?  Is it the design of Providence that this great, illtuh.uial I live is tlo be helpful tlo the weank,




03
the needy, the less-favoredl tile flr-iotl' hea:then of every lallid?  Is
this the giand design of illdustry, or of the exchlange of the products of industry?  If so, it will be fulfilled.  Wh'at if it should be
part of the order and method of the science itself, that intellect,
in all that it is competent to accomplish separate from the toil of
the hand, is to be the gratuitous servant of hunianity? Would it in
anywise lessen its true value or take fiom its dignity?  If industry
finds its satisfactions in'material products, where should intellect
find its satisfactions? -Did you ever reflect that it is from the tillage of the field that the greatest amount of values is realized?
Is the greatest amount of values returned there? You see, thein, how
many grave and grand questions there are yet to challenge our
attention and investigation.  Do you think you can settle them
by shelving them?  Are you vain enough to think that questions
such as these will remain for ever buried in the dark?  Let us be
humble. We know nothiug  yet as we ought to know.
Before closing this paper, it is' right to state that Mr. Mill seems
to Pave assumed, throughout his writings, the existing relations
between capital and industry as the natural foundation on which
to rear his entire system of political economy.  It is no doubt
through this assumption that he has been led to lay down principles
which, when really put to the test, are found to be very rickety
indeed. It is this which vitiates page after page, and prevents
his work being, in any great degree, a reliable guide towards a
perfe:ct understanding of the leading elements of political economy.
As this science is fast becoming the most important of the day, I
think it is of the highest consequence that students in our schools
and colleges should be put upon their guard in reading Mr. Mill's
i" Principles," as a text book. And yet, notwithstanding all this, I
lope, and doubt not, that Mr. Mill will long continue to be read. His
laborious application; his simple, massive style; his clear logic; his
extensive information; his evident sympathy with workingmen; the
master thoughts on some important economic subjects which he
las thrown out so far in advance of his day; and the mass of important instruction he, has given to the world; must ever entitle him
to the gratitude of manukind. And though it is inevitable that the
fabric he raised with so much diligence will have to be taken down
and rebuilt on a different mrodel, munch of the material which he so
patiently gathered and so skilfullyr prepared, will ever continue as
a monument to his name. As to living economists, I cannot express
half what I feel in regard to the solemn responsibilities of the hour.
I confess -that I am somewhat sorry for capital. It seems such a
pity to destroy so pleasant a delusion. It has hitherto passed as a
respectable sort of personage. His retainers have, during the last
twenty or thirty years, given him  some hard knocks. There can
be no question as to wlich side has fared worst in the strife.
Capital as well as industry has cudgels in his hand, and sometimes
it is worse to be locked out than to be locked in. There has been
plenty i" striking " going, but there can be little doubt which of the
two has got the most bruises.  The sad thing is that amidst all the
din the voice of reason cannot be heard. If capital has truth on its
side it will renlain-if it is built on error it will pass away. And
I can say to both capital and industry that there are more thoughtful men than ye wvot of pondering over these momentous questions.
It is a hopeful sign of the times that there is everywhere abroad a
spirit of Iree inquiry and scrtlti]y, a spirit which is growing from




34
day to day. The capitalist who refuses investigation will only
gather around him greater perils. For I suppose there is nobody so
silly as not to perceive that there are perils. If the economists in their
long and labored endeavors, and under the names of capital, credit,
and so forth, have conjured up nothing but a spectre to crush the
industry of the race, and to scare free inquiry, we have only to take
the shadow in hand to know what it really is. These sort of things
are only fearful in the dark-the light of day puts them all to
flight. "He that doeth truth cometh to the light." Who can doubt
of the ultimate triumph of every vital human interest over error
and wrong.?
It is neither my inclination nor my duty to enter upon a tirade
against capital. Railing accusations are generally fruitless things,
aWld can only react in injury to the cause which we advocate.
We must remember that we are all the victims, more or less, of the
system under which we have been trained. We cannot charge the
capitalist with doing a wrong thing when he hires laboring men,
and pays out wages.  I do not feel called upon to say that the
capitalist is doing a wicked thing when he invests his means in
any of the recognized enterprizes of the day. le is perhaps, in the
circumstances, doing the best thing possible.  I am conscious of
the same respect and kindly feeling towards capitalists as towards
working men; and I am aware of the noble and spotless lives led
by very many of them. But I think it Is of the utmost consequence
that both Capital and Industry know exactly where they stand
and what they have to stand upon. Let us have a calm  and
thorough investigation of the whole subject. The interest of money
is not to be weighed for a moment against the interests of truth..
We can do without the one-we can never do without the other.
The views I have set forth in this paper are worthy of the most
careful consideration; and I hope, moreover, they are able to stand
examination. If these views be sound, there is one thing the capitalist can do-he may look with a more favorable and kindly eye
on working men, as the real producers of his wealth, and may give
to them a larger share than they now enjoy of the produce of
their toil. I hardly know anything better which I could recommend
capitalists to do. If Corporations had souls-which it is said they
have not-I would be inclined to say to them also that there is
nothing at any rate which would bring them in more true enjoyment. Blessed is the hand which relieves poverty, but more blessed
still is the hand which lifts workingmen above poverty.
It may be said of humanity in general that men born into the
world launch upon life under the necessity of earning their
bread by the sweat of the brow. It is the inevitable condition of
existence from which the race can never escape. It is the mark
which this old world must carry to its' grave. As all must live, so
all must labor. Physically a man lives by bread alone. It is from
his own labor and not from that of his fellows, that he must provide for himself food,clothing and shelter. Labor gives the true title
to all property, to everything framed by human hands. What
comes to you by inheritance, still comes to you, or ought to come
to vou, with that labor title intact. All that is above and beyond,
the higher and better things, are for the higher and better life.
The soil of the hand, the sweat of the brow, the rude bargainings of commerce, cannot touch them,-they are removed by
their very nature beyond the common-place circle of things




35
merchantable and perishable.  For it appears as if no really
equitable adjustment could ever be made between the thoughts
of the brain and the toil of the hand.  It is, as I have already said, only when these thoughts of the brain find expression
through the labor of the hand, that the products stand on a common platform where values can be rightly appraised. Where is the
economist who would venture to price, in perishable gold, those high
ministries which directly contribute to spiritual culture?  Does it
not seem that the higher and more powerful the ministry, the further it is removed, by that very circumstance, from the comparatively mean measure of earthly values?. Therefore, although it is
within reason that they who minister about holy things should live
off the things of the temple, it is not the less true that carnal things
reaped can never be the measure of spiritual things sown.  For
things spiritual can only be reckoned in terms spiritual.  It was
not the bit of money cast into the treasury which gave it the value:
it was that which lay behind which made the very small gift a very
large gift in the eye of Him who seeth not as man seeth. Why
should the spirit of earthly ambition or gain annoy us with either
its computations, its cavillings, or its lamentations, when we
choose to break our alabaster box? And herein lies a truth for
all workers, whether in the pulpit or the pew, who would forget
self in their efforts after the good of their fellow creatures, and
who desire to live superior to those low-born motives, which, it is
to be feared, too often impel men of great talent and power to sell
themselves to " the highest bidder."  Let earnest and thoughtful
men ever keep before them this high ideal, and they shall not fail
to leave a lasting impression for good on their own and succeeding
generations. The men who have laid the world under the greatest
charges have themselves been " chargeable to no man." Christianity itself would have been strangled in its cradle by a modern endowment. It must ever be so. For there does seem, after all, to be
a kingly sphere, into which things sordid may not enter-where
the baubles of earth and the babblings of commerce are alike out
of place-a quiet and humble sanctuary consecrated by the great
travail of the mind, and where mightier bolts are being forged than
have ever rung to the worklman's hammer.
I confess that the condition of industry in this our boasted age
of civilization lies like a heavy burden on my soul. I cannot shake
it off. It haunts me night and day. I have no faith that the therapeutics of modern commerce will ever beal its wounds, or cause
life and health to course through its veins. In patient study and
painstaking investigation lies much of the renovating power. It
may be that we will have to build the wall in troublous times.
Surely industry expects of us that we expound the principles of
political economy in such a way as to secure to it the fruits of its
own toil. The science itself has been handed over to the dominion
of mob law, and has become the sport of every scatterbrain who
imagines that he has a call to pronounce, at first sight, upon the
subject. In this western world we are at this moment flooded with
a literature which gives but too certain and sickening evidence of
the truth of what I have just stated. I need not waste words in
urging upon the cultured men who read these pages the vast importance of the matters I have brought under review. I have but
endeavored, according to my humble ability, to open a door here
and there to the great temple of economic truth. How inviting is




36
the field! And wit;, t a giUlorio;_ exre(cise to) both the ilntellect andZ
the heart to grlapple with sicul mighty iwoblets!'he claims of;
1.ibor mnlllst a ll forth tile waL'1rmest sym)pathies of every trule-lheairte d
man.  Ought it not greatly to mitigite the rigor of the judgment
we are, accstomed   to pas, even u)pon1 the lowest and most abandoned classes of society, when we consider  the chartacter of the
systeml of wlhich they care to so large ian extent the unhappy victims?
Where is the manm to refuse,a sigth or a tear over melancholy and
broken-hea rtied toil —over conltless millions of our fellow'creatures
for ever divorced from vall tlaLt manikes life bright, and joyous:-over
the maijestic temple of industry in utter desolalion and ruin? I am
sure every lhumlane:L  reader mlat join me ill the hope that';he daty may
soon arrive when the sciee.-ce of politiea:l economy shall be resclled
from its present ehaos and disorder, and remodelled and established
on su'h a basis that the sad iilmlritianee of hopeless and unrequited
toil which has been for so many genertations transmitted  from
father to soIn, Imay be exclmnatd for those allple, equtilable and
sure rewnarls destined to m ikee millions of helarts hl ippy, and to
throw  the light of jtoy and glatdness over every  land  and  into
every home..WORKS ON THE LABOR AND MONEY
EQU ES1TIONS.-BY WILLIAM BRowN.
1. Thoughts on Paper. Currency and Lending on.interest, as affecting the prosperity of Labori, Commoerece and Malnfiactures:
247.pa,.g'es...........................     75 cts.
2. A Nesw.Catechisrl on Political Economy: 68 pages........ 20 cts.
3. No filnd in Commerce or Labor for Lending on Interest: 11
pages................................................................ 1cts.
4. The Church, our Modern System  of Commerce, and the fulfilment of Prophecy: 24 t ages.....................  10cts.
5, The Claims of Capital considered: 36 plges................ )10cts,
Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5 sent, post p-: id, for 30 cents.
Piiblished by JoHIN ILeviItJ,  l Montreadl and Roulse's Point, N.Y.
The'L Thoulghts," botnlld in cloth, can  lso be h i.d from  Messrs.
Sampson Low & Co., London.
No, E. —All letters, newspaetls, reviow;, i c., intended for the Aulthor.
are requested to be ddre(ssed t t tihe care otltlM. Lveill, as above. Friendhly
readers can rCIde'r iml)Ort.anut aSSistnLCee by colt ributiollS, however sall,
in aid Ol the priltin  tltad circutlaton oi these ttracts,




Fa d aysyem
OF THE
0~~6~fll    tnen
oan61~
ot4~tation








Workingmen's  Loan Association,
Office, No. I Beacon Street, Room 63,
BOSTON,, MASS.
OFFICERS.
CHOSEN APRIL 20, I893.
PRESIDENT.
ROBERT TREAT PAINE,..                                    6 Joy Street
VICE-PRESIDENT.
FRANCIS B. SEARS,..                                       53 State Street
TREASURER.
R. T. PAINE, 2d,.                              I Beacon Street
CLERK.
ARTHUR LYMAN,.. 53 State Street
OTHER DIRECTORS.
EDMUND BILLINGS,                                    987 Washington Street
HENRY B. CABOT,.                                   Fiske Building
WILLIAM ENDICOTT, 3d,                                I113 Devonshire Street
CHARLES W'. HUBBARD,.    I33 Essex Street
ARTHUR S. JOHNSON,                                7 Commonwealth Avenue
JOSEPH LEE,.53 State Street
ARTHUR LYMAN,.     53 State Street
HERBERT LYMIAN,.                                95 Milk Street
JOHN F. ooRS..                                    I II Devonshire Street
ROBERT TREAT PAINE, Jr.,                             I13 Devonshire Street
FRANCIS B. SEARS,... 53 State Street
CHARLES L. YOUNG,.                            National Union Bank
SAMUEL CARR, Jr.,                                          Ames Building
(Appointed by the Governor.)
CHARLES C. JACKSON,                                     24 Congress Street
(Appointed by the Mayor.)








WORKINGMEN'S LOAN ASSOCIATION.
The Workingmen's Loan Association received its charter from
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on March 8, 1888, and was
organized April 19 of the same year.
In Boston, as in all large cities, there were numerous moneylenders lending at exorbitant rates of interest upon chattel mortgage of furniture and of other personal property. Tile rates of
interest charged by them varied from three per cent. to ten per
cent. per month.
Under such rates of interest the borrower could seldom pay up
the principal of his loan, and year after year he would go on paying a heavy interest and never lessening his debt,- often, in the
end, to have all he possessed taken from him when the lender demanded his principal. There was no company or person affording
the opportunity of borrowing on such security at reasonable rates.
It was for the purpose of providing such an opportunity to people of moderate means to borrow upon easy terms that this company was formed.
It was designed that the company should transact a business,,
but a business conducted economically, at the very lowest rates
that would yield a fair return to the capital invested in the enterprise.
The charge for interest was at the outset fixed at one per cent.
per month; and this rate has been constantly adhered to in all
loans that the company has made on chattel mortgage, upon
which almost all of the loans of the company are secured. The
system was adopted of requiring with each payment of interest the payment of an instalment of the principal equal to about
five per cent. of the loan, thus encouraging the borrower to save
and to pay off his loan.




4
Before the company was organized, Robert Treat Paine had
caused to be conducted an experimental work, beginning on Aug.
1, 1887. At the time when the company was organized the loans
outstanding made by him amounted to the sum of $10,778.89; and
these loans were transferred by him to the company upon its beginning business, with a sufficient guaranty against loss.
The company began business with subscriptions to its capital
promised to the amount of $66,600: this amount was raised later
in the year to $78,200. The capital was called in gradually, and
was loaned readily, borrowers eagerly seeking the advantages that
were offered. The total number of loans gradually grew until in
March, 1889, less than a year from when the company began business, the whole capital was loaned. The profits of the first year
afforded the payment of a dividend of two per cent. and a siall
surplus.  During the second year (1889-90) the capital stock
was $78,500; and $25,000'was borrowed at a low rate of interest
(41 per cent.), and used in the business. Losses proved heavy
during this year; but the profits were sufficient to pay four per
cent. upon the stock.
The company had the same capital and used the same amount
of borrowed money in the years 1890-91 and 1891-92, as in
1889-90. The results, however, were more successful; and six
per cent, dividends were paid each year. In the year 1892-93 the
company extended its business,- having in use at the end of the
year $89,500 paid on account of capital stock and $28,000 borrowed money. During this year the office of the company was
changed to a more central financial location. This change has
brought to the company many more borrowers,- more than the
present capital of the company can supply.
During this latter year a six per cent. dividend was paid to the
stockholders, with a moderate surplus remaining. It should be
noted that the company pays full taxes to the State upon its
capital stock.  The amount paid in taxes in 1892-93 was
$1,051.27. The total number of borrowers on April 1, 18938, was
fourteen hundred and ninety.
The results accomplished during these five years have been encouraging. Loans have been repaid very fast, averaging about one




5
year and a half in duration. The company has made since its
beginning $449,673.15 of loans; and of these $326,837.09 have
been paid off. In 1892-93, $80,591.81 of loans were paid off,
or about four-fifths of the total amount of the loans existing at
the beginning of that year. Nothing could speak more strongly
for the merits of the system than the speed with which borrowers
have been able to pay off the principal of their debt. The charge
for interest amounts to so little upon small loans as to be lightly
felt, and a loan of the company seldom proves to be a heavy burden. Often illness or misfortune comes, when even an honest
and industrious man cannot meet his payments. In such cases,
wherever it is possible, the company relaxes its demands, and gives
him time until his circumstances shall improve.
The relations of the company with its borrowers have generally
been friendly. In most cases, the borrower's feeling is one of cordial appreciation of the efforts of the company to promote his
welfare.
METHODS OF DOING BUSINESS.
The charge for interest is one per cent. per month. An additional charge is made on the making of each loan, sufficient to
cover all money expended in investigation and recording the
mortgage, and to give the company in ordinary cases $1.65 for
the time spent in appraisal and drawing papers. Nearly all of
the loans of the company are made on the chattel mortgage of
furniture and household effects.
These mortgages, in pursuance of the law, are recorded in the
city or town hall where the borrower resides, and also in the city
or town hall of the place where he principally does business. A
few loans were made by the company in the beginning of its existence on pledges of jewelry; but this practice has been discontinued. Loans are occasionally made on insurance policies having
a cash surrender value, on second mortgages of real estate, indorsed notes, stock and other securities. On March 1, 1893, approximately one-thirteenth of the total value of the loans of the
company outstanding had been made on such miscellaneous secu



rities, and the remainder, or twelve-thirteenths, on the chattel
mortgage of furniture.
Each applicant for a loan is questioned with great care.  If the
circumstances seem favorable for making the loan desired, he fills
out a blank application, giving his residence, previous residence,
business, good references, and other desirable information, and
leaves a deposit of thirty-five cents.
An appraiser then goes to his abode, examines his security, and
makes a schedule of the articles to be mortgaged, placing against
each article the price that it would bring in an auction-room.
A loan may be made to the amount of three-quarters of the total
value so estimated; and this margin is, in almost all cases, required.  The schedule, with the appraised values set upon each
article by the appraiser, is entered by him on the back of the
application, and filed in its proper place for future reference.
The borrower is required to show receipted bills for his furniture or to account satisfactorily for the absence of the same, in
order to prove his ownership, and to show  that, if bought on
instalment, it is fully paid for.
The records are then examined to ascertain whether there is
any existing mortgage on the property.  In most cases, inquiry is
made of the persons referred to or of other persons as to the character of the borrower.
If the investigation proves the loan to be a desirable one, the
borrower signs a mortgage and note for the amount borrowed, and
receives the money less the expenses charged.
Where the borrower is married, the signature of both husband
and wife is required; and, generally, a general clause is inserted
in the mortgage covering all furniture and household effects of
every kind in his house.
Payments of the interest and instalments of the principal are
made monthly, and receipts given for the same. In case of default
for more than ten days, a notice is sent, with a charge of ten cents
for the same, if it is the first notice. If the first notice proves
futile, more imperative notices follow, for which a charge of
twenty-five cents is made.
No investigation of the property mortgaged is made after the




appraisal. The notices sent serve to inform the company of any
change of abode of the borrower, as in that case they are returned
to the company by the post-office; and, by the attention that the
borrower pays to these notices, a very good estimate can be made
of the danger of losing the loan, and the measures of the company
shaped accordingly. In nearly all cases, the deterioration of the
property is more than made good by the monthly payments of
principal made on each loan, so that a constant inspection is found
not to be necessary.
The borrower's name is entered on a card, with his address; and
on the back of the card there are entered in pencil the amount of
interest and the date when it is due. The amount and the name
of the month are changed from month to month, the interest growing less as the principal is paid off. These cards are so arranged
as to show exactly what borrowers are delinquent at any time.
They serve, therefore, as a convenient reminder of what loans are
in arrears; and the amounts and date upon the back of the cards
show exactly what interest is due and at what time.
The risk of the company from the danger of loss by fire of the
goods mortgaged is met by requiring an insurance in its favor in
the case of the larger loans. In the case of loans under $100, a
small yearly payment is made by the borrower instead of taking
out an insurance policy. The receipts fromn this source are credited to a "; Risk Fund."  The company, however, has been careful
not to assume the position of an insurer. The charge is fifty cents
on loans under $50 and $1 on loans of from $50 to $100. Sometimes this system is extended to loans from $100 to $200.
RISKS OF THE BUSINESS.
The company has charged off since its organization as bad debts
$4,133.44, and has at present estimated badc debts amounting to
$1,106.73, a total of $5,240.17.
The amount of losses that it has suffered shows the risks to
which lenders on such security are subject.
Many of the losses have occurred in the case of loans on other
security than furniture mortgage; and experience has proved that




the safest way of conducting such a business is to confine loans
almost entirely to chattel mortgage of furniture and household
effects. It has been found that furniture can be sold at auction
quickly and easily. It generally brings the prices at which it is
appraised. It is estimated that only one-quarter of the purchase
price of the furniture is loaned upon it by the company. The
loan is thus so small in comparison with the value of the furniture
to the borrower that there is a strong incentive to pay the loan.
Loans on horses, carriages, boats, pictures, merchandise, stocks
in trade, druggists' stores, and machinery, have been made by the
company, and have generally proved unfortunate.' Loans are seldom made on furniture in storage, as the storage
charges are a constantly increasing lien on the furniture, if their
payment is neglected by the borrower. Loans are avoided to keople of constantly changing residence or disreputable character;
and to certain of the foreign races, especially where their residence in the city has been of short duration. Constant care is
needed to protect the company against lending on goods encumbered by lease or mortgage.
With all the care that can be exercised, losses will occur: certain bad borrowers disappear with their furniture: it is found too
late that the security is encumbered: furniture is destroyed or
worn out or sold. These losses are one of the necessary expenses
of the business, and only great vigilance upon the part of the
officers of the company can keep them down to a moderate sum.
Many inquiries have been made of this company by men in'
other places who have been interested in its work, and have desired to found similar institutions elsewhere. It is hoped that the
success of this company in Boston, during the five years of its existence, may help to induce people in other cities to create similar
companies to give working men and women facilities of borrowing money, at reasonable rates of interest, to meet their varying
needs.




LOANS.
No.
loans  Amount loans Amount loans Amountloans
made.     made.       repaid.    at end of year.
1888-89......    781   $99,398.38   $22,143.83   $77,254.55
18S9-90......    909    94,177 52    67,097.29   104,334.78
s1890-91.....      8 75    81,043.15    80,944.24   103,375.84
1891-92.....     840    73,506.26    76,059.92    99,866.08
1892-93......    1,092   101,547.84    80,591.81   119,709.06
Total........   4,497  $449,673.15  $326,837.09
RECEIPTS, DIVIDENDS, AND  GENERAL EXPENSES
(NOT INCLUDING INTEREST PAID AND TAXES).
General ex-  Interest re-  Charges re-  Risk fund  Dividends
penses.    ceived.,   ceived.   received.   paid.
1888-89....    $2,484.62   $4,367.66    $337.58      $53.00    2 o
1889-90...          4,334.34   10,456.49     734.92     108.57    4 o
1890-91.             4..  4,331.12   12,133.92  732.67  302.75    6 
1891-92....       4,368.23   12,029.06     802.77     347.46    6 c
1892-93...         5,822.03   12,555.81   1,659.64     609.81    6 o
Total.....   $21,340.34  $51,542.94  $4,267.58  $1,421.59




TRIAL BALANCE, MARCH 31, 1893.
Dr.                                                                                                                                             Cr.
Loans............$.119,709.06    Capital stock....                                       $78,500. 00
Cash....................  1,602.63  Prepayments upon'stockl not issued.                                                              8,700.00
Notes payable:
Hospital Life Insurance Co.                  $25,000.00
Third National Bank........   3,000.00     28,000.00
Dividend No. 9.....                            2,355.00
Unclaimed balances....                                           73.55
Risk fund (against our loss by fire)....                       1,000.00
Bad debts (estimated)..                       1,106.73
Undivided profits from the year 1892-193                         1,576.41
$121,311.69                                                                $121,311.69
INCOME ACCOUNT, 1892-93.
PAYMENTS.                                                                   RECEIPTS.
1893.
Mar. 31. General expenses..........$5,822.03   Undivided profits,* March 31, 1892......    $1,921.43
Interest paid Hospital Life Insurance Co. @ 4%.  1,125.00   Credited by vote of Directors to "Bad Debts (estiState tax.2mated)..........  1,051.27                              mate.d)"....      1,921.43
Interest paid Third National Bank.......                 52.301   Interest received..tk.                                   $1'2,555.81
1892.Credited to  Bad Debts (estimated)" account..           308.00   Profit and loss, sundry profits                                  1,659.64
Oct.1892.  Dividend of3                                                   Risk fund received during the year                    $609.81
t1893.  Dvdnof32,355.00   Add risk fund, March 31, 1892                                                                          811.78
1893.                                                             ~_......
Apr. 19. Dividend of 3%...............  2,355.00                          Total risk fund received........  $1,421.59
Profit for year, credited to " Undivided Profits".  1,576.41   Credited to profit and loss.........    421.59     421 59
Balance risk fund (against our loss by fire).   $1,000.00
$14,637.04                                                                 $14,637.01
*The amount to the credit of undivided profits on March 31, 1892, was reserved by vote of the Directors to meet probable losses on a schedule
of the bad and doubtful loans then existing, as stated in tbe last report for the year 1891-92. This amount, therefore, of $1,921.41 has been
credited to a new acconnt, " Bad Debts (estimated)," and to this new account has been credited $300 from earnings of the current year to cover
losses actual and probable (in addition to those in above schedule).




BY-LAWS.
ARTICLE I.
OFFICIEI RS.
The officers of the Company shall be a President, a Vice-President, a Treasurer, a Clerk, and a Board of Directors, not exceeding sixteen in number, including the officers first mentioned, who shall be members thereof ex officio, and
including one Director to be appointed by the Governor of the Commonwealth,
and one Director to be appointed by the Mayor of the city of Boston, conformably to section four of the charter of this corporation. After the first election,
all officers shall be chosen by ballot at the annual meeting of the Stockholders,
and shall hold their offices until their successors shall have been qualified.
Vacancies occurring during the year may be filled by the Directors.
ARTICLE II.
PRESIDENT.
The President, or in his absence the Vice-President, shall preside at all
meetings of the Stockholders and of the Directors.
ARTICLE III.
TREASURER.
The Treasurer shall have charge of the funds of the Company; shall give
bond in such sum as the Board of Directors may determine, with sureties for
the faithful discharge of his duty; shall keep all its books except the records
of meetings; and exhibit a statement of its affairs at the annual meeting of the
Stockholders, and whenever required by the Directors.
All moneys belonging to the Company shall be deposited in its name in
some bank in Boston approved by the Directors, and shall be drawn therefrom only by checks, signed by the Treasurer or such other person as the Directors may designate by vote, who shall pay no bills unless approved in writing in such manner as the Board of Directors may determine.




12
ARTICLE IV.
CLERK.
The Clerk shall notify all meetings of the Company and of the Directors, as
hereinafter prescribed, shall keep a record of the proceedings of such meetings,
shall keep a record of all leases and deeds, and shall present at the annual
meeting a full report to the Stockholders of the doings of the preceding year.
ARTICLE V.
DIRECTORS.
The Directors shall have full power to manage and control the affairs of the
Company, and may, by a vote of a majority of the whole Board, remove ally
officer. They shall hold meetings quarterly. They shall procure a suitable
seal for the Company, to be kept by the Clerk.
ARTICLE  VI.
I MEETINGS.
The Company shall hold its annual meeting on the third Thursday in April,
at such time and place as the Directors may appoint. The Clerk shall notify
each Stockholder of the time and place of the annual or any special meeting
that may be called, by advertising such time and place in some newspaper
in Boston, at least four days before said meeting, and by such other notice,
if any, as said Directors shall by vote from time to time, or any time, direct.
Five members present in person shall constitute a quorum, provided that
not less than one-half the capital stock is represented; but a majority of Stockholders present and voting may adjourn any meeting from time to time until
the business shall have been finished. Absent members may vote by proxies
in writing; and at all meetings each Stockholder shall be entitled to one vote
for each share owned by him.
The meetings of the Directors shall be notified by delivering, at least twentyfour hours before the time fixed for the same, a written or a printed notice to
each member of the Board, or by mailing the same to such address as shall in
writing be designated to the Clerk by the individual member, provided, however, that a meeting of the Directors shall be held without previous notice
after each annual meeting.
Five Directors present shall constitute a quorum. In case of the absence of
the President and Vice-President at any meeting of the Stockholders or
Directors, a President pro temnpore shall be chosen.
Special meetings of Stockholders or Directors shall be called by the Clerk,
on the written request of the President, ten Stockholders, or three Directors,
respectively, or by a vote of the Board of Directors.




13
ARTICLE VII.
INDEBTEDNESS.
No officer, agent, or member of the Company shall incur any debt or make
any contract in behalf of the Company, except by authority given by vote of
the Directors, duly certified in writing by the Clerk.
ARTICLE VIII.
CERTIFICATES.
Certificates signed by the President, or in his absence by the Vice-President
and Treasurer, shall be issued to each Stockholder on payment in full of all
assessments on stock, in the following form: —
CERTIFICATE.
Workingmen's Loan Association.
of
is proprietor of          shares
in the Workingmen's Loan Association, which shares are transferable by a
conveyance in writing, recorded by the Treasurer of said Company.
President.
Treasurer.
Boston            18
(and on the reverse) a blank form, by executing which the same may be transferred as follows, subject to the other provisions of these By-laws.
For value received, I hereby sell, assign, and transfer to
of                  shares in the
Workingmen's Loan Association.
Dated at Boston, this               day of          18
Recorded in Book                    page               with transfers of
Workingmen's Loan Association this                                 day of
18
Treasurer.
ARTIC LE X.
AMIENDMIENTS.
The By-laws may be amended by a vote of the Stockholders at any meeting
thereof, provided that the proposed amendment shall have been inserted in the
notice of such meeting.




ACT OF INCORPORATION.
In the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-eight.
CHAPTER{IEI 108.
AN ACT
To incorporate the Workingmen's Loan Association.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assenk,
bled, and by the authority of the same, asfollows:SECTION 1. Robert Treat Paine, Charles W. Dexter, John S. Blatchford,
Francis C. Foster, John D. W. French, I. Wells Clarke, George W. Pope,
Charles H. Washburn, Robert Treat Paine, second, Thomas T. Stokes, and
Henry R. Gardner, their associates and successors, are hereby made a corporation by the name of the Workingmen's Loan Association, to be located at Boston, for the purpose of loaning money upon pledge or mortgage of goods
and chattels or of safe securities of every kind, or upon mortgage of real
estate; and all the powers and privileges necessary for the execution of these
purposes are granted, with all the powers and privileges, and subject to all the
duties, restrictions, and liabilities set forth in chapter one hundred and five of
the Public Statutes, and in all the general laws which now are or hereafter
may be in force in relation to such corporations.
SECT. 2. The capital stock of said corporation shall be twenty-five thousand dollars, to be divided into shares of one hundred dollars each, and to be
paid for at such times and in such manner as the board of directors shall decide: provided, that no business shall be transacted by said corporation until
said amount of twenty-five thousand dollars is subscribed for and actually paid
in; and no certificate of shares shall be issued until the par value of such
shares shall have actually been paid in in cash. The said corporation may increase its capital stock, from time to time, until the same amounts to five hundred thousand dollars.
SECT. 3. Said corporation is hereby authorized to borrow money on its
own notes not exceeding the amount of its capital paid in, and for periods not
exceeding one year.
SECT. 4. The government of said corporation shall be in a board of directors, chosen as the by-laws may prescribe, conformably to law: provided,




15
however, that one director shall be appointed by the governor of the Commonwealth, and one shall be appointed by the mayor of the city of Boston.
SECT. 5. All loans shall be for a time fixed and not more than one year;
and the mortgagor or pledgor shall have a right to redeem his property mortgaged or pledged, at any time before it is sold, in pursuance of the contract
between the parties, or before the right of redemption is foreclosed, on payment of the loan and rate of compensation to the time of the offer to redeem.
SECT. 6. The corporation shall give to each pledgor a card inscribed with
the name of the corporation, the article or articles pledged, the name of the
pledgor, the amount of the loan, the rate of compensation, the date when made,
the date when payable, and the page of the book where recorded.
SECT. 7. The commissioners of savings-banks shall have access to the vaults,
books, and papers of the company; and it shall be their duty to inspect, examine, and inquire into its affairs, and to take proceedings in regard to them in
the same manner and to the same extent as if this corporation was a savingsbank, subject to all the general laws which are now or hereafter may be in
force relating to such institutions in this regard. The returns required to be
made to the commissioners of savings-banks shall be in the form of a trial
balance of its books, and shall specify the different kinds of its liabilities and
the different kinds of its assets, stating the amounts of each kind, in accordance
with a blank form to be furnished by said commissioners; and these returns
shall be published in a newspaper of the city of Boston, at the expense of
said corporation, at such times and in such manner as may be directed by said
commissioners, and in the annual report of said commissioners; provided, however, that said commissioners may cause any examination to be made by an
expert under their direction, but at the expense of the corporation.
Approved March 8, 1888.




FORM OF MORTGAGE USED BY THE CORPORATION.
KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS,
T H A T...........................................
of..............................in the county of..........................-.......... and Corommonwealth
of Massachusetts, vendor, in consideration of           -        -...........
-                      o..........................Do llars paid  by the WORKI'NGMIE N'S LOAN ASSOCIATION,
vendee, a corporation  under the laws of said  Commnonwealth, the receipt
whereof is hereby acknowledged, do hereby grant, sell, and deliver unto the
said vendee the following goods and chattels:.........................................................
And all beds, bedding, carpets, crockery, china, glass and silver cware, and every
article of household furniture  now owned by...........-........ and  situated  in  house
No...................................and....................................    that may be owned and added
by.................../o said goods and chattels during the continuance of this mortgage.
To IAVIES AND TO HOLD, all and singular, the said goods and chattels to
the said vendee, and its successors and assigns, to their own use and behoof
forever.
And................... hereby COVENANT with the vendee that................... the lawful
ow ner of the said goods and chattels that they are free from  all encumbrances,
and that...............-.... will WARRANT AND I)EFEND the same against the lawful
claims and demands of all persons..-............-...........................
PROVIDED, NEVERTHELESS, that if....-........shall pay unto the vendee the




17
um     of......................................                      Dollars,
in one month from this date, with interest at one per cent. per month, as stated
in a note of even date herewith, signed by................., and shall pay said sutll
with interest at said rate at any other time that it shall become due under the
provisions of this mortgage, and until such payment shall keep the said goods
and chattels insured against fire in a sum not less than the amount of this mortgage for the benefit of the vendee, in such form  and in such insurance companies as it or they shall approve; and shall pay to the vendee any sums which
it may pay for any such insurance; shall not waste or destroy the said goods
and chattels, nor suffer them or any part thereof to be attached on mesne
process; shall not, except with the consent in writing of the vendee, attempt
to sell or to remove from  aforesaid house the same or aly part thereof, and
shall not make any change of place of abode without giving previous notice in
writing to the vendee, then this deed aind said note shall be void.
BUT UPON ANY DEFAULT in the performance or observance of the foregoing
condition the vendee may SELL the said goods and chattels at public auction
or private sale, first having given notice of the intention to sell by mailing such
notice, postpaid, ten days, at least, before such sale, to the address given to the
vendee, by the vendor, or................. representatives, or publishing such notice
once a week for three successive weeks in some newspaper published in said..........................  And out of the money arising from such sale the vendee shall
be entitled to retain all sums then secured by this mortgage, whether then or
thereafter payable, which it is agreed include all costs, expenses, and counsel
fees incurred or sustained by it in relation to said note, or any extension of the
same, or to the said property, or to discharge any claims or liens of third persons affecting the same, rendering the surplus, if any, to.......................................
and holding vendor to pay any balance that may be due thereon.
AND IT IS AGREED  that................... and..................  heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns will keep the condition of this mortgage; that upon any
breach of the condition, or upon any loss or destruction by fire or otherwise, of
the above property, in whole or in part, the above note, with interest apportioned to the time thereof, shall become due and payable; that the property is
conveyed under this mortgage under the above conditions and agreements further to secure the vendee for any other sums that are or may become due to it
from....................., besides those above described; that the vendee or any person or persons in its behalf may purchase at any sale; that until default in the
performance or observance of the condition of this deed,.....................   may
retain possession of and use the mortgaged property, but after such default the
vendee may take immediate possession of said property, and for that purpose
may enter forcibly, if necessary, and without being guilty of any trespass or
tort, or liable in any way therefor, upon any premises on which said property
or any part thereof may be situated, and remove the same therefrom; or may
as aforesaid. at all reasonable times before or after such default enter any such
premises for the purpose of inspecting the above mortgaged property; and the




18
assigns of each party shall have all benefits and be subject to all burdens of
such party under this mortgage.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the said vendor,...
hereunto set........................hand and seal this................................
day of................   in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-.  -----------
Signed aind sealed in presence of
J     --------------------------------------------.189.h.........................................................................
M. Received and entered in records of Mortgages of Personal Property in the,
clerk's office of the...................................................of.................................................




WTORKINGMEN'S LOAN ASSOCIATION,
63 ALBION BUILDING,                No. 1 BEACON STREET,
BOSTON.
APPLICATION FOR LOAN.
Name in full.
Amount of Loan?
What Security?
Where is it situated?
Where is your present residence?
H'ow long have you resided there?
Previous residence during the last five years?
What is your business?
Where?
Have you receipted bills for the property?
Does all the property belong to you?
Is there any encumbrance on it?
Name two references.
What amount of principal will you pay monthly?
Do you agree to pay interest promptly?
Is your property insured, and for how much?
Will pay......................yearly, in place of insuring, but such payment shall not
make company an insurer in any event.
Signature,....-.-...............................................
Dated,..................................189
The borrower must rely, for any extension of the time  of his Loan, utpon his own
punctuality and yoodfahith in dealing with tlhe Association.
Deposit....................................................................................................
E xam ine............................. ----------- -—........................
Tak-e -......... -..............................Horse car to................................Street.
















LFrom the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters ]
DISTRIBUTION  OF PROFITS.
A NETW  ARRANGEMENT OF TtHAT SUBJECT,' BY PnROF. A. 0. WRIGHT.,
The following is offered as a new arrangement of the subject of
distribution of profits, differing in some important particulars from
the arrangement given in any work on political economy with
which the writer is acquainted.
In civilized communities nearly all Production requires the
union of capital and labor. The proceeds of production are then
distributed in various ways between the capitalist and the laborer.
In actual practice the capitalist and the laborer may or mav not
be the same person; but in theory we may separate the shares of
capital and labor. There is still a third party concerned in production, the business manager, who stands between the capitalist
and the laborer, and by his skill in superintendence increases the
proceeds of the business, and thus makes himself a sharer in the
proceeds.
The share which always belongs to the capitalist is called interest, when it is paid for the use of money, and rent when it is
paid for the use of real estate.  The rate of interest and the rate
of rent vary according to fixed laws which I need not give here.
The share which always belongs to labor is called wages (or in
some cases salary).  This also varies according to well-known
laws.  After deducting interest or rent, as the case may be, and
wages, including the salary of the business manager, the net
proceeds are the real profits of tle business.  In some cases instead of profits we should say losses, but this does not change the
conditions of the problem.  Whoever receives the profits should
also bear the losses, and generally does. There are then two questions in regard to every kind of production: first, what are the
profits (or losses); and second, who gets them.  In solving these




2
questions I make the following five cases, each of which presents
a different phase of the question:
CASE I.
In this case, capitalist, business manager and laborer are combined in one person. Examples of this case are farmers who own
land and furnish their own labor; mechanics who own their own
shops and tools and do their own work; and merchants who
own their own stores and stock in trade, and keep no clerks. This
case is the simplest in practice and the most difficult in theory.
As one person combines the functions of capitalist, business manager and laborer, there is no distribution of the proceeds. No one
pays interest or wages to himself.  The question, who gets the
profits, is easily answered. But the question, what are the profits,
is much harder to answer, and indeed the producers who corin
under this class rarely attempt to answer it. They confuse together
interest, wages and profits in one lump sum, and often fail to separate their personal or family expenses from the expenses of the
busines, or to account for the proceeds of the business which they
or their families consume.
To find the true profits df such a business, not only should all
business expenses be deducted from the gross proceeds, but also
interest on the capital invested and wages for the labor done.
The farmer, mechanic or merchant, as the case may be, owes himself as a capitalist interest on the capital invested. He also owes
himself as business manager and laborer, wages for labor performed. But all products of the business consumed in his family
should be added to the gross proceeds Gf the business, and charged
to family expense account.
In this case a real business loss is frequently concealed under
the profits of capital and labor. The producer thinks he has
made so~ much out of his business, when in fact the business has
made nothing, and his receipts are really less than interest and
wages should be. So also a real business profit is frequently concealed under extravagant personal or family expenses.
But it does not always follow that a farmer is losing money
who does not clear the interest on his land and stock, and wages




3
for his labor. HIe hias the advantage, if he is free from debt, of
receiving interest without the trouble and risk of lending money
or renting a farm, and he has work all the year round.  He can
put in odd hours and days of labor for himself where he could
not in working for some one else. The great advantage of small
farms held in fee simple is that more work can be put on them than
could be done by hired labor. This is an advantage both for the
farmer and for the whole community, as the case of France since
the revolution shows.
CASE II.
In this case capitalist and business manager are the same person, employing one or more laborers.  Th;s case differs from
Case I only in the employment of laborers; and as a farmer's, mechanic's or merchant's business grows, it naturally runs into this
case.
In this case there is no distribution between capitalist and business manager.  The net profits of the business are found as in
Case I, except that the labor is partly or wholly paid for, according as the proprietor himself works or not. This payment of
labor thus makes wages visible as a business expense. But the
proprietor's own labor, as manager or laborer or both, must be
accounted for as in Case I.
The remuneration of the laborers hired is generally (a) wages.
But it may be (b) a share in the gross proceeds or in the net profits, or (c) partly wages and partly a share in the proceeds or
profits. As the gross proceeds are so much more easily estimated
than the net profits it is found in practice usually better to give a
share in the proceeds in those cases where the laborer receives a
share of the results of the business. Thus on the cotton plantations in the south, since the war, the negro laborers are often given
a share in the crop, a thing which they can easily understand and
in which they cannot easily be cheated; whereas if they are to
have a share in the net profits it would be easy to cook up the
accounts so as to cheat them, and with -the utmost honesty on the
part of the planter it would be hard for him to make the negroes
understand the accounts he kept. But the simplest and most ob



vious way is to pay the laborer wages, reserving to the proprietor
interest on the capital invested, salary as business manager, wages
as far as he performs labor, and the profits, if there are any.  In
many kinds of business it would be hard to introduce any system
of sharing the profits with the laborer.  Thus in a printing office,
where the workmen are constantly wandering from one office to
another, or on a farm where in harvest and threshing extra men
must be hired, or in a store where the amount of sales and the
net profits are both matters that often must be kept secret from
the public and from rivals, -in all these cases it would be hard
to introduce any system of giving the laborer a share either in
the proceeds or in the profits of the business. But where such a
system can be introduced it has obvious advantages over the system of wages. It produces a greater interest in the business on
the part of the laborer and therefore more faithful work atrd
greater care to prevent waste.  It is the usual practice in the
great mercantile houses to give the best clerks a partnership, that
is, a share in the profits.  The hope of this is a constant incentive
to the younger clerks, and the offer of a partnership prevents the
best clerks from carrying their customers to rival houses or setting up in business for themselves.
CASE 1II.
In this case the capitalist employs the business manager and
the laborer, giving them (a) wages or salary, (b) a share in the
profits or (c) a combination of the two. The capitalist takes interest, and the net profits (or losses) of the business.  In this case
the interest is concealed by the profits, but can be easily separated.
Thus if a capitalist builds a woolen mill, and employs a super.
intendent and several laborers, he usually pays a salary to the
first and wages to the secoud.  But he may give the business manager a share in the profits, thus virtually making him a partner.
Or he may make him  formally a business partner, reserving the
title to the mill, and rent for it, to himself.  Or he may give both
the superintendent and the hands a share in the profits.  The usual
practice. on a whaling ship is for the owner to receive one-half the
oil and whalebone, and for the other half to be divided among the
captain and crew, in so many " 1bys," or shares to each.




A variety of this case is where the capitalist is a corporation, as
in the case of a railway company, an insurance company, a national bank, a city newspaper or a manufacturing company.  In
this case interest and profits combined appear as dividend. In a
large corporation there are often several business managers, each
with his department of the, business. Very generally the managers are also stock-holders, and receive dividends in that capacity
as well as salaries as managers.
The questions raised by the subject of stock companies and
their dividends, are important questions in Distribution. But they
call for a separate treatment, and are omitted in this paper.
Another variety of this case is when a number of persons are
associated so carry on a co-operative store. Usually the capital
of each partner is quite small; but for the purpose of carrying on
the co-operative store they are capitalists, even if they earn their
living as laborers.  They simply club together their individual
savings, so as to make a mercantile association, and then employ
a manager and clerks, and sell to one another and to outsiders on
such terms as they choose to offer. In England these co-operative
stores have been quite successful.
CASE IV.
In this case the manager carries on the business, borrowing
money or goods of the capitalist or renting land or buildings of
him and employing laborers.  In this case the distribution is, to
the capitalist interest or rent, to the laborer wages, and to the
manager salary for his services and the net profits (or losses.)  It
should be noted that the case is very rare where the business
manager can borrow  money, buy goods on credit or rent land
without capital of his own as a basis of confidence.  On that
capital he should also have interest.
The best example of this case perhaps is the system of agriculture in England.  There the capitalist is the landlord, who rents
land for a term of years, generally now for twenty-one years, under definite conditions in regard to crops and improvements, and
for a fixed rent in money. The* business manager is the farmer,
who receives salary for his services, interest on the capital he
invests in the shape of stock, tools, improvements on the land




and advances made to the laborers before his crops are sold, and
the profits (or losses) of the business. The laborers receive wages,
often miserably inadequate.
A very common example of this case in this country is where
a merchant as business manager invests a small capital and buys
goods systematically on credit, renting a building and hiring
clerks.  In this instance the capitalists are the owner of the store
who receives rent, and the wholesale dealers of whom goods are
bought on credit, who receive interest directly, or indirectly in the
enhanced price of the goods, and perhaps also the bank of which
the merchant secures accommodation loans from time to time,
paying a high rate of interest. The business manager is the
merchant who receives interest on the capital he has invested,
salary as business manager, wages as salesman, and the profits
(or losses) of the business.  The clerk or clerks receive wages. I
need not say that the result of doing business in this way is in
nine cases out of ten a net loss, which falls either upon the merchant or fully as often upon his foolish creditors, the wholesale
dealers.
A variety of this case which almost deserves to be set off as
a case by itself, is when the business manager gives the capitalist
a share of the proceeds or of the net profits in lieu of interest or
rent.  The most familiar example. of thisis where a farm is rented
on shares. This is the usual method in the United States of renting farms, when they are rented at all.  It is also, under the name
of Metayer rent, the usual method in France and Italy. In this
method of carrying on business, the distribution to the laborer is
wages; the distribution to the capitalist is rent in the form, of a
share of the crop, which on the average of years is more than a
fair money rent.  But this is usually more than offset by the tenant's neglect to keep up the land, as he holds only from year to
year.  And the distribution to the business manager who in this
case is the tenant, is interest on the capital he has invested, if any,
wages for bis own labor and net profi!s (or losses) after paying
any laborers he has hired and giving the landlord his share of
the crop.




7
CASE V.
In this case all association of laborers borrow capital and employ a business manager who may or may not be one of their own
number. This case is a favorite one with many persons in theory,
but it has never thus far been found to work well in practice.  To
avoid misconception, it should be noted that corporative stores do
not come under this case- The laborers who organize a corporative store, do not as a rule work in the store, and are therefore in
regard to that business not laborers, but capitalists.  They are
really a stock company to carry on a mercantile business and
therefore come under case lIT. as we have already seen.
But when journeymen shoemakers, for instance, form a co-operative association, they come under this case. As in all kinds of
business, capital is needed to begin it and to carry it on.  This
capital may possibly be obtained in one of three ways: (a) By
borrowing money of some capitalist, which could not be done
ordinarily; or (b) by renting a shop and buying materials on
credit, a hazardous undertaking both for the association and for
the capitalist; or (c) by combining their separate earnings, which
would be the usual method.  In this case the association as a
combination of capitalists employs its own members as business
manager and laborers.
This case in the last form differs from case I only in being the
case of a combination of individuals instead of a single individual,
that combine in one the three functions of capitalist, business
manager and laborer.  But in this case, while there is no distribution between the association and outsiders, there is a question
of distribution between the members of the association.  Of the
various methods which might be adopted, the following is the
most in accordance with the principles of political economy. Let
the members be credited with the capital advanced by each as so
much stock in the association; let the members be paid for their
services at the Inarket rates, and if possible, by the piece and not
by the day, aid after paying these wages and other expenses, let
the members divide the profits or losses on the basis of the capital
a(tvanced by each, like any stock company.  All these five cases
have their plIce in the transact'ions of busin:css, an(l every form of




8,productive industry must faii under some one of them.  I summarize them in closing:
Case I. Where the same person is capitalist, business manager
and laborer.
Case II. Where the capitalist and business manager are the
same person, employing laborers.
Case III. Where the capitalist employs the business manager
and laborers.  All business corporations are a variety of this
case.
Case IV. Where the inanager carries on the bnsiness, borrowinog or renting of the capitalist and employing laborers.
Case V. Where an association of laborers employ themselves
and furnish their own capital.