dustries, says it will show that under the "State use" system the prison population can not, even with greatly increased efficiency, come anywhere near supplying the market which the law has thus provided for prison-made goods. In addition, at the Onondaga Penitentiary the stone quarry is to be so developed as to supply sufficient work all the year round for the convicts there.

Here we have methods for employing prison labor which have been shown through practice to be productive, as nearly as possible, of unmixed good; viz., manufacturing articles to be used in public institutions and breaking stones for roadmaking. Further, some States have successfully employed convicts in making roads.

It is now generally agreed that convicts should be paid for their labor and that a part of their wages should go to their families. With these features, the New York program, supplemented by roadmaking, presents the leading requisites of an effective salutary scheme. Under it prisoners may be self sustaining, as presumably they were, on the whole, while at liberty.

THE WAGE-EARNERS-UNION AND NONUNION.

With a population of a hundred millions under its flag, and a total area almost equaling that of Europe, the United States contains large districts, together with considerable strata of society in every district, in which non-unionism is the normal and natural condition of the family breadwinners. In our agricultural States and in the dependencies, wherever, in fact, the landowner and the tiller of the soil are one, or even where the qualified tenant farmer is yet so rare as to be in demand, the principle of trade unionism invariably makes slow head way. Also, among many professional and commercial men who, though offering their labor for a hire, find it difficult to establish a common scale-the expectations of each being to find himself some day in one of the highly prized places of his calling-the prevailing spirit decidedly favors competition as against one another, though it may favor combination against individuals not yet admitted to their ranks. Even members of the typical professional society or league who do not term their remuneration wages, but fees or salaries, are often unaware of having taken up with trade union principles by organizing and have no sympathy with wage strikers.

In the earlier days of our Republic, when agriculture was the pursuit of three-fourths of the population, individual initiative, knowledge of one's calling, and the virtues of personal thrift were usually sufficient to bring at least a modicum of success. At a time when developing trade unionism was absorbing much public attention in Great Britain, and being hailed by the working people there as an institution promising more for their material welfare than any other, Americans in general were as yet bestowing upon the organization of labor scarcely a passing thought. Remedies for low wages or non-employment for our wage-workers of that period were to go West, or to move from place to place, or to change from one occupation to another-in any event to "hustle," "reach out," with faith in the abound

ing opportunities then existing in the new and rich land. The social spirit encouraged each man to launch out and do for himself. "I paddle my own canoe" was a popular boast. The individual proved his manhood by getting ahead-which almost invariably meant shrewdness in amassing wealth, no matter by whom produced. The oldest of the trade unionists of this country can remem. ber when the maxims which guided men to prosperity in business, or in election to office, or to prominence in any walk of life, were those which imposed injunctions upon each person to work for himself exclusively and avoid entangling alliances with others, especially with any of his weaker brethren. The youngest of our trade unionists may every day hear of people who believe that these maxims still hold good.

Trade unionism in this country has had to make its way against what was undoubtedly the original American spirit-in business. All citizens, includ ing the farmers, were assumed to be in business, producing and selling for themselves. If a man was not in business, he was, if made of good stuff, expected to be on the way, through working skimping, and saving, to going into business, whether in agriculture, trade, manufacturing, or a profession. To a self-made man who ardently held to this conception of society, which involves the principle that to be successful one must "rise," must be an employer, must show his superiority in acquisitiveness over his fellows, the proposition that there should be a wage-workers' combination, possibly to be operative against himself, seemed almost a blasphemous breaking away from the moorings of accepted morality. Such a union was to his mind contemptible, composed of an aggre gation of failures, a startling evidence of social degeneracy. Many men, self-made or made big through heredity, their dependents and those attached to them by social ties, therefore felt it a bounden duty to stamp out trade unionism, to continue to uphold the ancient precepts that led to the success they had worshiped, to proclaim that the possession of property was evidence that the possessor was a mental giant, to hold that an employer's business entitled him to manage itand the employes-as he willed.

The opportunities existing in a rich, sparsely settled country, the emulation afforded in every community through the example of its self-made men, the social atmosphere in which adulation of the strong and independent was accepted as a phase of truth itself-these were factors giving nourishment to the spirit of non-unionism. Another, and a most notable factor, arose with the appearance of labor organization. It was made possible through the crudities in the form and operations of the first organizations and the natural blunders of their representatives, blunders which persist on occasions to the present time. when the organized are under an improved dis cipline.

When, however, we mingle among the wage-earners of the industrial centers, of the railroad world, of the mines, and the undertakings in general requiring workers in large numbers, we speedily find ourselves in a society by itself. It is living in close contact with the harsh facts of today; it is educated in branches of economics not usually emphasized in the college curriculum;

it is fighting the battle of the worker pushed hard by conditions of the live labor market; it is aninated by a moral code which is the outcome of the necessity of its defensive warfare; it is busied in divers ways with advancing the welfare of not only the organized workers, but of all-men, women, and children-in the wage-working ranks. One is enabled to affirm, in sober earnest, that the sentiment of this wage-workers' society in the United States today is almost wholly union. The statistics of the present paid-up membership of the American Federation of Labor, the railroad brotherhoods, and the as yet unfederated unions show very nearly three million members. But this number does not express the sum total of unionists as it exists in fact. Unionism, in its ebb and flow, is made the more possible to a larger and larger number through union sentiment continually preceding organization itself. Beyond the forces organized and paying dues to the unions are the masses that long to be with their comrades who are bearing the burdens of labor's uplift through union methods. A large proportion only await the opportune time to fall into line. In the progress of organization errors have been made which for a time have caused serious losses to the unions; there has been on occasion poor leadership; unwise strikes have taken place. But, whatever the cause of their falling away, it may be confidently asserted that after men have once experienced the help of the union, never will they be again satisfied with the state of non unionism. They know that most of the betterments they enjoy come to them, and are maintained, through the power of organized labor. Three millions, therefore, is too small a number for trade unionism. If it were as easy for men to enroll themselves in a union as in a political party, trade unionism in America would today count its four millions-or five or six, whatever number is necessary to cover the vastly predominating force in all the trades and callings that have been covered by our modern industrialism.

. . In among the workers, the non unionist can offer no live argument for his beliefs, no moral principle in self-defense, no sentiment of brotherhood, no just reason for standing aloof from his fellows.

THE SOCIAL UPLIFT.

It can be safely laid down as an indisputable proposition that the nearer the systematic observer gets to the laborer, and the longer he studies the labor movement, the more lively are his sympathies with the laborer and the firmer are his convictions that, on the whole and all things considered, the labor movement of this country has done whatever good has come within its possibilities. It sometimes happens that social workers, fresh from their college books after being brought up in homes of the professional or business classes, find themselves acting on the erroneous assumption that "working people," indefinitely, need their ministrations. But they soon find that they have been theoretically studying, not the working classes but merely the statistics of exceptions, the reports of conditions among social strata not representative of wage-workers in general, indeed the state of affairs among the dependent and un

socialized. The novitiate social worker resembles in his inexperience those members of the police force who, in their daily familiarity with crime and their comparative isolation from normal life, are in danger of regarding all men as potentially criminal. But the social worker's calling gives him in time the practical advantages of getting close to the people, in their homes and at their work, and of studying their own special organizations. In the early stages of his studies at first hand he finds himself asking: What institution stands at the head in promoting the welfare of the wage-earners? Or, it may be the query is: How are they best helping themselves, besides practicing individual thrift? He finds answer in such facts as these: The managers of philanthropic employment offices, of church benevolent societies, of eleemosynary agencies in general, are united in testifying to the care the trade unions extend to their own unemployed, necessitous, or sick members. The social worker thereupon feels that in doing such work on so large a scale the unions rightfully hold society as indebted to them. Pursuing his inquiries as to unionism further, be finds that in every direction in which amelioration of the lot of the worker is directly practicable, the unions are actively at work. As the voice of labor, unions are naturally the chief reliance of the agents of the State and national labor bureaus; they have for decades been foremost in pressing upon the attention of legislators the necessity for laws protective of wage-working women and children; they give life to these laws, to the benefit of even the nonunionists; they conduct their own schemes of insurance; they enter a field not touched by philanthropy when they shrink the workday and expand the wage bill they present to the employer. The indebtedness of society to the unions thence becomes a theme in the writings of the social worker, as it is in the reports of the government agent, and of every other systematic observer, almost without exception. The trade union uplift of the wageearners is referred to in many pages in the volumes resulting from the Pittsburgh "survey." It has been an accepted commonplace fact in labor bureau reports. Rev. Dr. Washington Gladden, of Columbus, gives his testimony upon it in a work just issued.

Non-unionists rarely hold meetings or have shop societies, or appoint committees. These features imply organization, which in any form is not encouraged by non union employers. Even the occasional benefit associations of non-union employes, which rest under the suspicion of possibly becoming the nucleus of striking labor organizations, are usually managed under the rules and direction of the interested employers. The pension features of the railroads and other large corporations, schemes to forestall union effort by binding the employe to his job, are economically a detriment to society in destroying the mobility of labor, in closing the labor market to men nearing a possible pension age, and in tending to suppress the activities of trade unionism. On the latter point, however, the intentions of the schemers have in frequent cases been defeated, when the employes, loyal to their fellows rather than to the employers who have set the pension bait for them, have courageously adopted union methods.

On mentally reviewing the hosts of sympathizers with labor organizations, and recalling numerous instances in which he has seen men and women of the well-to-do classes persuaded by the justice of the cause of organized labor to become among its supporters, the union representative may utter a word of warning to every opponent of trade unionism. It is, if you would remain its enemy, let the subject alone. It is dangerous to you. Some day, in a course of active opposition to the unions, you will surely begin to think your best thoughts and feel in accordance with your best manhood. You will put yourself in the unionist's place, see economic conditions as he sees them, and appreciate the preponderating facts in his life which have carried him over to his labor organization. You will sympathize with him, recognize the necessity of his work, and perhaps, as with other converts to his cause, join in his praise.

apolis and St. Paul. The four earlier volumes of the report, while going into the matter in less detail, show the same situation prevailing in other industries throughout the country. Among the cotton workers, girls living at home were turning in, in the South, 89 per cent, in New England, 96.6 per cent of their earnings; among the gar ment workers they contributed 93.2 per cent; among the silk workers 96 per cent, and among the glass workers, 86.4 per cent of their total earnings. As some workers would keep all their wages, and others a part, these percentages must indicate that the great majority contributed every cent to the family fund.

"The girl," writes Mr. Conyngton, "who works unnecessarily for the sake of spending money has long been used to explain the low wages paid women. In the light of this investigation, is it not time that she should be retired?"

Another writer, Anna E. Nicholes, in the Survey, has this, as to the "pin-money" girl:

"There has been a vague but comfortable feeling that women working in the stores live at home and spend their earnings for 'pin money' and are sup

Salesgirl.

The writer of a letter published in one of the New York weekly papers, after stating his estimate that 80 to 85 per cent of the department store workers live at home, went on to say: "Statistics can not be had, but I doubt if over half of these girls contribute at all to home expenses. They spend their pay entirely upon themselves-on clothes and frivolities." To this, M. K. Conyngton, of the Department of Commerce and Labor, replies by calling attention to some of the facts relative to the point contained in Vol. V. of the findings of the Federal investigation of the conditions of women and child wage-earners in the United States. Of 344 New York department store workers living at home, 290 turned in to their families every cent of their earnings, and only thirteen failed to turn in some part; of 1,532 girls working in factories and living at home, 1,349 turned in all their wages, and only ten failed "to contribute at all to home expenses." This particular investigation covered seven cities and everywhere a similar state of affairs was revealed. The proportion who kept their pay to spend "entirely upon themselves-on clothes and frivolities"-is so small as to be practically negligible, ranging from 6 per cent among the New York factory workers to 7.4 per cent among the department store workers in Minne

is accurate data on this disputed question. The investigation finds 16 per cent of those included to be women 'adrift,' i. e., women practically without homes, dependent on their own resources; and of the 84 per cent living at home, the large majority turn their entire earnings into the family fund-in New York city, 84.3 per cent of those employed in stores and 88.1 per cent of those in factories, and in Chicago and St. Louis the per cents were only a trifle smaller. What has this condition to do with the belief current among so many employers and accepted by the public that the girls who have homes work for 'pin money,' asks the report. The bogey of the 'pin-money' worker should be laid forever by the findings of this investigation. She, though representing so small a number, has set the wage level for the thousands of women wholly adrift in the world and for those who, while living at home, must turn their entire earnings into the family purse to provide all the necessaries which the women adrift must themselves purchase.

"May we not hope that this report on wageearning women in stores and factories, besides giving us terms which we lacked, accurate data concerning her expenses and wages which we have never had, will contribute toward a movement to protect by law working women and girls from an exhausting workday, and to guarantee them a living wage?"

CALIFORNIA.

Petaluma.-G. W. Tooley:

Since last report the garment workers and the musicians have affiliated with the central labor union. Work is steady, and as a consequence there has been marked improvement in the earnings of the workers.

Sacramento.-J. J. Breslin:

Cement workers obtained the Saturday halfholiday and increased wages the first of the year. Employment fairly steady.

San Francisco.-John O. Walsh and Jas. A. Himmel:

Dredgemen organized recently and chambermaids are forming a union. Organized labor in fair shape. Cooks and waiters are making progress in unionism. City council passed a weights and measure law. The San Francisco Label Section is a very live label body. In December we held a union label show under the direction of the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union.

FLORIDA.

Fort Myers.-W. J. Burke:

This is a small town, and so far there is but one union here-the carpenters-but decidedly better conditions and somewhat higher wages have been secured by the union men since their organization. Miami.-B. Sutton:

The building trades here are well organized and are recognized. All contracts call for union labor. Work is steady. Wages have been secured without strike whenever the demand has been made.

St. Petersburg.-G. G. Cooper:

Carpenters are the only mechanics here that are organized. They have secured the eight-hour workday. The nine-hour day is worked in shops, and wages are $3.30 per day. Unorganized workers get whatever the employers choose to offer, and work from nine to ten hours per day.

GEORGIA.

Macon.-Frank M. Hobbs:

Organized labor in good shape, but the condition of unorganized workers does not compare with the improved conditions secured through organized effort. Work is fairly steady at this writing. Street car men, textile workers, and possibly the retail clerks will organize unions during the month.

Savannah.-Robt. Fechner:

All trades working steadily at this writing. Conditions among organized workers are good. There are but few unorganized workers here, and in most cases they profit by the improved conditions secured through organized efforts. Barbers are organizing at this writing.

ILLINOIS.

Belleville.--Edw. P. Baum:

Organized labor is generally recognized here. During the year just passed, wages have increased

in several instances. There have been no strikes of any consideration. A metal trades council has been formed here recently.

Glen Ellyn.-Wm. Laier:

Organized labor in good shape and steadily increasing in membership. All union men are employed at this writing. An advance in wages is being considered by all trades, to take effect April 1st. All building trades here have the eighthour day and four hours work on Saturday. Constant agitation for the union labels is carried on. Herrin.-Hugh Willis:

All union men steadily working at this writing. Clerks of Johnston City have formed union with twenty-four charter members.

The workers are well organized and enjoying good conditions. All trades report progress and everything moving in first-class shape. Employment generally steady. Tailors are organizing. INDIANA.

Boonville.-John Paton, Jr.

Condition of labor in this city is good. This city is as well organized as any city in the State regardless of size. Wages are good and the eight hours constitutes a day's work in all out-door labor. We urge the merchants to handle union label goods and we demand them when purchasing. Indianapolis.-Geo. A. Nolte:

Employment is steady, especially with railway men. An agreement has been secured from the K. & M. railroad. Have union of carmen under way at Oakdale, Tenn., and a union of bartenders at Somerset, Ky.

Logansport.-Dora Smith:

The close of the year just passed found organized labor in good shape. The various organized trades have secured improvements in working conditions and materially advanced their standard of living. There have been no strikes or lockouts during the past year. A union of patternmakers was organized by the State organizer of the Patternmakers' League. Hope to report unions of bakers and garment workers next month.