slow progress of the labor movement, would have us hasten it by what they lead themselves to believe is a shorter route. No intelligent workman who has passed years of his life in the study of the labor problem, expects to wake up any morning to find the hopes of these years realized over night, and the world on the flood-tide of the millenium. With the knowledge that the past tells us of the slow progress of the ages, of trial and travail, mistakes and doubts yet unsolved; with the history of the working class bedewed with the tears of a thousand generations, and tinged with the life blood of numberless martyrs, the trades unionist is not likely to stake his future hopes on the fond chance of the many millions turning philosophers in the twinkling of an eye.

Much of our misery as enforced wageworkers springs, not so much from any power exerted by the "upper" or ruling class, as it is the result of the ignorance of so many in our own class, who accept conditions by their own volition. The more intelligent, realizing their inability to create a millenium, will not descend to trickery or juggling with terms. They seek to benefit themselves and their fellow men through trades unions and trades union action, and, by bearing the brunt, be in the vanguard in the cause, and hasten on the process of education that will fit humanity even to recognize the millenium when it arrives.

Each ism has stood but as an evanescent and iridescent dream of poor humanity groping blindly in the dark for its ideal; and it has caused many a heart-wrench to relegate some idealism to movements which do not move, to the dead ashes of blasted hopes and promises.

Throughout all these dreams and hopes and fears and attacks, vituperation and misrepresentation, the trades unionsts have plodded along their weary way since the miner of Laurium, three thousand years ago, laid down his pick; and, though phantasmagorias and dreams have lived and died, the wage-earners, with pick and shovel, with hammer and saw and plane, with hands on the lever of the highest developed machines, kept, and keeps, organizing and plodding along toward better conditions of life.

Political Action.-The trades unions not only discuss economics and social problems, but deal with them in a practical fashion calculated to bring about better conditions

of life today, and thus fit the workers for the greater struggles for amelioration and emancipation yet to come.

No one having any conception of the labor problems-the struggles of life-would for a moment entertain the notion, much less advise the workers, to abstain from the exercise of their political rights and their political power. On the contrary, trades union action upon the surface is economic action, yet there is no act which the trades unions can take but which in its effect is political.

But in the exercise of the political power of the workers—that is, the casting of the ballot-we are sometimes urged to throw to the winds the experience and the tangible results of ages, and to hazard the interests of labor in a new era of political partisanship.

We want legislation in the interest of labor; we want legislation executed by labor men; we want trades unionists in Congress and more trades unionists in the State Legislatures, in our municipal councils and in our executive offices; we want trades unionists on the magisterial benches, and those convinced of the justice of our cause, with the courage of their convictions, in the highest offices of our land. We shall secure them, too, by acting as trades unionists rather than turning our trades unions into partisan ward clubs.

Our movement is of the wage-earning class, recognizing that class interests, that class advancement, that class progress is best made by working class trades union action. That we shall receive the hearty coöperation of others, goes without saying; but it is only as the trades unions grow in numbers, in power and in intelligence, shall we disenthrall the minds and freedom of action of sympathizers with our cause, who gladly await the hour to place the best sheaves of their laurels of learning at the feet of the advancing hosts of organized labor.

The Only Hope.-Spencer has said that it has always been the remnant in society which has saved it from reaction or barbarism. Today modern society is beginning to realize that the trades unions are the only hope of our civilization, and to regard them as the only power whose mission it is to evolve order out of our social chaos, to save us from reaction, brutality and perhaps barbarism. Our progress may be slow, yet it is the fastest, the safest and best evolved

from the human mind; and even in its present form is the germ of a future state which all will hail with glad acclaim. Then to nurture it, to concentrate our energies in order that its progress may be sure, that its advancement may be unimpeded, that its development may be unrestricted and its success unimpaired, is the duty of every intelligent worker, every lover of the human

race.

The toilers of our country look to you to devise the ways and means by which a more thorough organization of the wage-earners may be accomplished, and to save our children in their infancy from being forced into the maelstrom of wage slavery. Let us see to it that they are not dwarfed in body and mind, or brought to a premature death by early drudgery; to give them the sunshine of the school-room and playground, instead of the factory and the workshop. To protect the workers in their inalienable rights to a higher and better life; to protect them, not only as equals before the law, but also in their rights to the product of their labor; to protect their lives, their limbs, their health, their homes, their firesides, their liberties as men, as workers, and as citizens;

to overcome and conquer prejudice and antagonism; to secure to them the right to life, and the opportunity to maintain that life; the right to be full sharers in the abundance which is the result of their brain and brawn, and the civilization of which they are the founders and the mainstay; to this the workers are entitled beyond the cavil of a doubt. With nothing less ought they, or will they, be satisfied. The attainment of these is the glorious mission of the trades unions. No higher or nobler mission ever fell to the lot of a people than that committed to the working class-a class of which we have the honor to be members.

WM. THORNE

WM. INSKIP.

The Industrial Commission thus far has shown a disposition to take life easy, for, as has been reported, it will ask the labor organizations to send reports of conditions that are not satisfactory, and the Commission, it is inferred, will be good enough to attempt to do the rest.

As the Journal stated in the October issue, the Commission is too large to be of any practical use, and, again, its formation is against it. What with ten professional politicians on it to commence with, together with the business representatives, the labor end of it is so small that there is not much to be expected from it in a way beneficial to the interests of labor.

This Commission, as far as the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen is concerned, was expected to do something aside from meeting at Washington and asking someone else to do the work that was supposed to belong peculiarly and particularly to the Commission.

If this body of representatives is to do nothing but hold meetings and issue newspaper interviews, it might as well be paid off and gotten out of the way, that there may be no further disappointing experiences. It appears that this honorable body needs to be straightened out and set going in the right direction, which is not solely toward a large office chair beside a steam radiator close to a window with a good view of the Potomac and the Capitol.

If the Commission has not discovered where there are conditions that demand attention, the Journal will fill the order by pointing to Virden, Ill.; to the New England cotton mills; to the mines of Pennsylvania, and to the iron works of that same State; to the wire workers, the glass workers and the shoe workers, all of whom are working at reduced wages; and, while the honorable seekers after information on the labor question are looking, they can look at the sweat shops of the large cities. and into every corner and crevice of the factories where female and child labor is employed.

Here are nineteen able-bodied men, nine of whom are working for the modest sum of $3,600 a year and "found," for the purpose as indicated in Sections 2 and 3 of the bill, which read as follows:

Sec. 2. That it shall be the duty of this Commission to investigate questions pertaining to immigation, to labor, to agriculture, to manufacturing, and to business, and

to report to Congress and to suggest such legislation as it may deem best upon these subjects.

Sec. 3. That it shall furnish such infor

mation and suggest such laws as may be made a basis for uniform 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.

The Commission has said in effect: "Bring in your questions and we will investigate." The Journal has tried to keep from finding fault, but this Industrial Commission, from which so much was expected, has already given many of us an attack of "that tired feeling" that comes from unnecessary disappointment.

The Journal believed in the passage of the bill, and it yet believes the bill is all right, but it knows that the manner in which the Commission looks at the measure is wrong. It is not a political nest, feathered for the purpose of keeping anyone warm for two years. We expect something besides office recommendations, that sound as if the Commission knew something of what it was reporting to Congress, as it will do under the provisions of the Act.

While we are at it we might as well call the attention of the appointing power to the fact that the portion of Sec. 1 that reads "and nine other persons, who shall fairly represent the different industries and employments, to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate," has, in our opinion, been somewhat overlooked.

Two printers and a coal miner hardly represent the different industries of the United States, and while we have every regard for the men who were appointed to represent labor on this Commission, the Journal feels that the interests of the railroad men have been neglected.

In his address delivered at Chicago to the railroad organizations, the President was kind enough to say:

The railroad men of the country have always been for the country; the railroad men of the country have always been for the flag of the country; and in every crisis of our national history-in war or in peacethe men from your great organizations have been loyal and faithful to every duty and obligation. I bring to you today not only my good will, but I bring to you the good will and respect of seventy millions of American citizens.

if the Commission, as it has been represented, is to sit at Washington and wait for

results, the Journal is glad that the onus of failure will not fall on a railroad man; for, unless there is a decided change in the attitude of that body, it will receive more cen

sure than has been given to any other body

of representative men.

Personally, the Journal has the highest regard for the men appointed to represent the organizations; they are representative men of good repute, and will do as their sense of fairness dictates. But the Journal

believes that with the railroad interests of a

country like ours, and employes of standing and worth like ours, an industrial commission on which they are not represented is not a representative body.

Labor Legislation.

So much has been said about the restrictive legislation of the State of Massachusetts when the cotton mill strike is discussed, and as such legislation is cited by employers, when drawing comparisons with the cotton manufacturing of the South, it will be of interest to note what that legislation is:

Factories and Workshops.- Chapter 150 of the Acts of 1898, of the State of Massachusetts, relates to factories and workshops. Section 44, if strictly enforced, prohibits the operation of sweat shops in Massachusetts. Section 45 provides for effective sanitary inspection. Section 47 compels merchants who sell sweat shop goods imported from other States, to label each garment with a tag "not less than two inches in length and one in width, upon which shall be legibly printed or written the words tenement made,' and the

name of the State, and the town or city where said garment or garments were made."

Convict Labor.-Chapter 334 relates to convict labor, and provides "as far as possible" for the manufacture of all articles, materials, etc., used in public institutions to be made at State prisons and reformatories. Chapter 365 provides for the employment of convicts in preparing material for road-making. Chapter 393 provides for the purchase and reclaiming of waste lands with convict labor, and the subsequent disposal of same.

Payment of Wages. Chapter 481 makes it obligatory on corporations and "all contractors, and to any person or partnership engaged in this Commonwealth in any manufacturing business," to pay wages due employes weekly.

Employment of Children. - Chapter 494 prohibits the employment of children under fourteen years of age "in any factory, workshop or mercantile establishment;" prohibits the employment of such children in any work performed for wages, to whomsoever payable," during the hours when the public schools are open. "No child under sixteen years of age shall be employed in any factory, workshop or mercantile establishment," unless school certificate" for such child is on file. The parent or guardian, or "whoever having under his control" a child under age, or whoever employs such a child, in violation of the child labor law, is subject to punishment.

a

"No person shall employ any minor over fourteen years of age, and no parent, guardian or custodian shall permit to be employed any such minor under his control, who cannot read at sight and write legibly, simple sentences in the English language, while a public evening school is maintained in the