be no corruption. If poor men are elected to the Legislature, poor men will be elected to the Senate; but if good men are elected to the Legislature we shall have some very able men in the Senate, and will have no bribery. Therefore, if we have rich men in the Senate and bribery is the chief evil, it is the fault of the people. Whatever evils now and then exist under the present system do not arise from any fault of the system itself, but from the body of citizens themselves -non-attendance at caucuses and primaries, non-attendance at registration and polls, slavish fidelity to party organizations and party names. The corrupt custom of contributing to and winking at the use of money at nominating conventions and elections, and the encouragement and tolerance or individual self-seeking in respect to holding offices causes public trusts. This custom, I say, is the outcome of temptations given people by direct voting for their representatives. But no man is positively secure from the influence of circumstances, and certainly not more so because he is elected by direct vote of the people than if by the Legislature.

The constitutional provision for electing two senators by the Legislature was put down as a corner stone necessary to secure the rights and safety of the states. A legislative instead of a popular election was adopted as necessary to the deliberative will of the state in its character as such, represented in all its parts in the way in which its own constitution distributed power.

The people of the several political divisions of the state should have the right to express their choice through their legal representative as they do in making laws, and not be overwhelmed by a mere weight of numbers that might occupy only a corner of the state and possess interests and cherish ambitions quite unlike those of all the other sections of the commonwealth.

The members of the Senate have been as free from any just accusation of corruption, either in their election or in their course as senators, as any equal number of men connected with all the employments of private life.

stands in strong contrast to the election of senators by the direct vote of the people in the states, especially in the states where political parties are nearly equal.

In ninety-five cases out of a hundred, if there be an evil or inadequate senator or other officer in the public service, it is because the power that elected or appointed him has been grievously negligent. To think otherwise we must believe that the people's government is a failure.

The Senate of the United States has proved itself to be the best upper house in existence, and has been recognized as such, the present system being widely copied by the Southern Confederacy, Switzerland, Germany, and by the South American republics.

I do not believe any person who advocates a system changing the constitution of a government which has given us over a century of states representation, of states rights, of security, as well as wonderful national progress as a people. has any ground to stanu upon.

Election of Officers.

The time is about here when we will have our annual election of officers again. I am going to bring up something which I have never heard of being brought up before.

I do not believe in electing engineers, or members who are engaged in pursuits other than actual firing service, to of fices such as protective boards and representatives at our national conventions, to make laws for men in actual service. I am well aware of the fact that each and every member has a right to vote and to hold office, but it is not right for them to do so. Step down and give the younger members a chance to learn and lead, men who have to earn their living with the shovel.

sent the firemen. What do they know about the hardships a fireman has to go through?

Let us make a change, and nominate and elect men who are in actual service, and bar all promoted men out of office. The idea that you can not get a man to fill a place is all bosh. This is a progressive age. The man who is always hunting office usually has an axe to grind. MEMBER.

Argentine, Kan.

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Grusts and Working Men.

It is immaterial to the average laboring man whether his employer is termed individual, corporation, or trust. The

blacklist against which it appears impossible to enact or enforce suitable laws.

The trusts claim that their one desire is to bring about the lowest possible cost of production. In other words, their sole object is an economical one, and if such were the case a perfectly laudable and desirable one.

The facts in the case do not indicate this to be their sole object. While from the great extent of their operations they can produce more economically than a small concern, their methods and objects are wholly selfish. To be convinced, one has but to read the dividend reports of the Standard Oil Company, the Steel Trust, and many others of the same ilk.

Chairman.

corporation was and is more exacting than the individual employer, and the trust more arbitrary than the corporation.

What trade unions, or industrial unions fear the terms are nearly synonomousis that as the control of each division of trade centralizes in the trust, feeling its great power it will endeavor to bend labor to its every wish, and exact that a man out of employment in one place can not find employment in another, for he will be virtually seeking work of the same employer, and be compelled to submit to a form of

Wage reduction is one way of bringing about economy. It may not be done by direct reduction; it may be done by the introduction of machinery, or it may be done by systematizing the work and getting more out of each employe by having him do only one certain thing, so that at this one thing he becomes very skillful, in fact merely a human machine. With machinery of late date, in different trades, one man may do the work of ten, and in some cases, as those of weavers, he may do the work even of twenty, and often the one operator works for less pay oper

ating the several machines than he did for one, or the production of the manufactures by hand. The effect in either case is one of wage reduction to the employe, and many times it means no employment for some of the old employes. This economic production brings no relief to the consumers of which the working class form a large per cent, as the tendency of the trusts has always been to increase the price of commodities to the consumers. This is really another form of wage reduction, and the wage earner is compelled to bear it, unless, by reason of the strength of the trade union to which he belongs, he can secure an advance in pay equal with the advanced cost of living.

It is an undisputed fact that the wages of unorganized labor are the lowest and their work the hardest of any class of labor. Connected with every industry are a number of workmen who are not skilled but who are necessary to the carrying on of the work, and yet they are not eligible to membership in that particular trade union and are often not able to form one of their own, and this has led to the formation of what is termed industrial unions. These do not abolish trade union lines but aim to bring the employes of one industry into harmony, and give to the weak ones the support of the stronger. While this finds objection from some of the stronger unions, yet the fact stands out boldly that there must be no division of labor when it comes to the adjustment of labors wrongs. While a skilled worker may feel that he is making a sacrifice by joining his interest with the unskilled workman, yet the unskilled workman with modern machinery under the direction of an able foreman may be able to fill his place in time of strike or lockout and his aid is necessary. The trusts are setting the example by binding together all the small corporations under one head.

To meet the restriction of output, which is one way of increasing trust prices, labor will be compelled to restrict the hours of labor in a corresponding degree. With commodities at least fifty per cent higher, labor must secure an advance in compensation or suffer a virtual wage reduction.

Another thing that must not be overlooked, and which may yet require national legislation, is the age limit put in force by trusts and corporations in the last few years, and this is a vital point

to every working man. Where formerly a man was considered at his best when from fifty to sixty years of age, now there are many places where forty-five is the limit, and some where thirty-five is the limit, even for a common laborer. With wages so low that a man can not lay aside a sufficiency against extreme old age, what condition confronts him when he is to be retired from service at middle life when he should be in his prime, and what is to be the effect of such methods on the working people as a whole. Will the wage earners be condemned to pauperism or crime after reaching middle life, or will means be found to overcome this. It is a problem for the future. Such a condition of things is not conservative of good government any more than judicial injunction abuse.

The effect of the trust on labor has been to reduce wages; first, by actual reduction; second, by machines and the division of labor; and third, by increasing the cost of commodities.

The trust decreases the chance of his securing employment; either because he is discharged by one foreman and cannot secure work at another place for there is but one employer in this kind of work, or by reason of the age limit. The latter is the worst of all, for it closes a man's occupation to him when he is old and unable to enter another that has not an age limit.

The age limit question needs the careful consideration of every trade unionist, for some day it will become a personal one and it should be considered from the standpoint now.

W. L. FRENCH.
Missouri Valley, Iowa.

State Organization. This seems to me to be a very important question and one that should be carefully considered by every brother and in every lodge room, and the delegate sent to our next convention should be instructed on this most important question.

I am partly in favor of this from a point of economy, on account of long expensive Grand Lodge sessions. Look at our two last conventions and see how much of the first week was used in wire pulling as to who should hold the offices, whereas, if they had got down to business from the start all would have been done nicely in a week, and they would not have