E. C. McDowell, representing Local No. 1.

union is not the labor question. If every labor union in existence were to be abolished today, the labor question would still be present.

"The trades union is a symptom. It is the effect and not the cause of the industrial evolution through which we are passing. It has been accused of numerous indiscretions, and there have been occasions when some employers have been justified in relentlessly fighting unreasonable demands; but the trades union must pass through its periods of hysteria, just as has been the case in practically every great reform movement, including the church-for one need not go very far back in the history of the church to find duplicated everything that we deplore in organized labor today, even down to the boycotting and the slugging. However else the Church and Labor may disagree, we can at least sympathize with each other in the mistakes that we have both made.

"The trades union has a moral and ethical value which is rarely appreciated. It is the greatest force in the United States for Americanizing the immigrant. It demands equal pay to men and women for equal work. It supplies a liberal education in its meeting halls and through the labor press. It opposes child labor. It struggles for better sanitary conditions. It is an influence for more temperate living. It invites membership regardless of race, creed or color, and it is fighting for universal peace. While recognizing the mistakes that the trades union has made, let's give it credit for the good that it has accomplished.

"At a recent sociological conference, somebody declared that during the past twenty-five years the Church had increased three-fold, but that during the same period, social unrest had

also increased three-fold. The speaker concluded that the Church-as a means of keeping down social unrest-had been non-effective. As though it were the business of the Church to keep down social unrest! Rather is the opposite true. It is the business of the Church to create social unrest. There are no labor troubles in Darkest Africa, but if the missionaries that the Church is sending there are on to their jobs, you will soon hear of demands for better social conditions among the workers. They will soon come to see the possibilities for them in a Christian civilization. This has been the history of the Church in practically every generation. However dark the age, the Church has always been the whitest light in history, and when reform came to the Church, it came from within and not from without. The Church has made mistakes, and it is falling short of its duty in the world today, but just as I would insist upon a square deal for the trades union, so I would insist upon a square deal for the Church.

"The Church must preach a social message. It must not fail to demand that the American workingman should get his share of our common production. For while it is true that the American workingman is the best paid workingman in all the world, compared to what he produces, he is the poorest paid workingman in the world.

"The Church must also make a fight for the masses of the people living in our great cities. The filthy slum, the unsanitary factory, the dark tenement, the long hours of toil, the lack of living wage, the back-breaking labor, the inability to pay necessary doctor's bills in times of sickness, the poor and insufficient food, the lack of leisure, the swift approach of old age, the dismal futurethese weigh down the hearts and the lives of the multitudes in our great cities. Many have almost

forgotten how to smile; to laugh is a lost art. The look of care has come so often and for so long a period of time, that it is now forever stamped upon their faces. Their ethical souls are all but lost. No hell in the future can be worse to them than the hell in which they now are. They fear death less than they fear sleep. Some, indeed, long for the summons, daring not to take their lives. To such, what does it matter whether the doors of the Church are closed or open? What attraction has the flowery sermon or the polished oration? What meaning have the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man? Where is God, they ask; and what cares man, they say.

"It is in meeting the needs of these that the Church must be aggressive. It must tell the truth about the people, as well as those who are oppressing them. For this is what Jesus did. It must tell the truth even though it is crucified, as its Master was. It was because Jesus went to his death for your sake and for mine, that His power is growing today, as it has never grown before. Infidels may scoff at the arguments of Christian scnolars, but the life of Christ has stunned them from the first century down to the twentieth. He is today the King of the civilized world. He is the court of last appeal. Workingmen are saying that if Jesus were on earth today He would fight the battles of the laboring man, and they are right. He fought them when He was upon earth. The progress made by working people throughout every generation has been due to the influence of Jesus in all ages. He has been their champion and their friend.

"Is it not a cowardly thing to ask Him to fight the battle alone? Dare you. as workingmen, take your place beside Him, telling Him that you will follow whither He leads? It is only fair that you should do so. What I have asked for workingmen and for the Church, I now ask for Jesus a square deal."

Potatoes 25c a Bushel.

In the Chicago Packer of July 1st appeared the following significant bit of information:

"Car lot shippers who have been at the expense and trouble of looking over the situation, and who ought to be able to speak advisedly look for the opening price for Minnesota grown stock to be around 25c per bushel."

The Chicago Packer is the "mouthpiece" of the great commission houses that have been "Robbing the Hand that Feeds" so vividly portrayed in Everybody's Magazine for June.

Twenty-five cents is about half of what the farmer should receive. He can not raise potatoes for less, one year with another, without loss. Freight and handling adds about 15c a bushel more, and 10c a bushel-dealer's profit-should be ample for so necessary a food product. So the consumer, then, should get them for 75c a bushel or 20c a peek.

As it is now, however, when these twenty-fivecents-a-bushel potatoes reach the consumer in the city they will have increased in value about 300 per cent., running them up to $1 a bushel and the city consumer will actually be told that the d farmers are robbing the country. And if the question of farmers' organization is brought up such organization will at once be charged as

responsible for the high prices of all food products just as the farmers were made to believe that the result of organization among city workmen was higher prices for all kinds of manufactured products.

Neither conclusion is correct. That does not matter, however, so long as the "robber" can run the bluff, keep the two great classes of producers prejudiced against each other and prevent effective co-operation.

Both classes, the farmers and the city mechanics, are now quite thoroughly organized. Both classes are producers.

Both classes are consumers.

The farmers produce the food and clothing for the world and consume about 75 per cent. of the products of manufacturers.

The city workmen produce the manufactured products so largely consumed by the farmers and consumes about 75 per cent. of the farm products that are shipped to the cities.

The Thirteenth Annual Report of the U. S. Commission of Labor, 1898, shows the labor cost of several articles used exclusively by farmers and the retail price as follows:

It is stated that the above figures do not include cost of raw material, wear and tear of machinery, etc., but it shows what you, Mr. Laborer, get out of the FAT FIGURES paid by the farmers. The cost of raw material amounts to but a few cents, while the wear and tear on machinery, etc., chargeable to one article is an insignificant item, hence it is clear that there is some "robbery" going on between you and the farmer. This robbery is spoken of as the "dealer's profit." And the dealer has been industrious in his efforts to make the farmer believe that such high prices were caused by you-organized laborers-getting such big wages (?). Until recently they have believed it. They would still believe it had it not been for the efforts and teachings of the American Society of Equity.

There is a necessity for similar education among the trade unionists so that you may know and realize that there is an equal robbery going on between you and the farmers, and so that you may help to correct it.

This can be illustrated by a comparison of prices similar to the above:

The time cost in each instance should be noticed as the farmer's sole income, for the whole year must come from the one crop, as of course, after allowing for the winter season there is only time to produce a single crop in any one year, hence in the vernacular of the "business man," the farmer can turn his "stock" but once a year, and if he gets only actual cost or less he is deprived of any surplus with which to buy the manufactured products that you are making for his use and the use of his family, or the possibility of making up another deal for one full year. The result is hard times, slow sales, closed shops and factories, and thousands or tens-of-thousands of willing workers thrown out of employment. This affects the farmer adversely, also, as the artificially produced conditions caused by the "robbers" beating down the farm price, thereby preventing the farmer from buying what he and his family needs, and thus curtailing the consumption of the things you manufacture, has by a similar process robbed you of a "job" and reduced your purchasing power of food products to the minimum, thereby making it more difficult for the farmer to sell what he has raised even at the low prices he is offered.

THE UNION LABEL THE SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM.

Many farmers, even good members of the A. S. of E., can not realize that the city union man is really a friend instead of an enemy-thanks to the thorough teaching of the "robber" between.

An object lesson at this time will do more toward uniting these two great classes of producers and paving the way for a system of "effective co-operation" which will result in profitable prices to the producers and equitable prices to the consumers-than anything else that can be done.

It is the move for the Union man to make. The matter should be taken up in every Trades Union and your delegates to the central bodies be instructed to work for the appointment of a special committee to visit the commission men and wholesale dealers and request them to purchase their potatoes this year through the Potato Growers' Department A. S. of E. and bearing the farmers' union label on the sacks in which they are shipped. Then go a step further and instruct your groceryman to demand potatoes from the union farmers.. Then insist that they get them. If they do not, develop some plan locally so you can order direct and prove through these orders that you are in earnest and will do your part.

Further details, any additional information or special instructions for ordering, etc., will be cheerfully furnished on application. AddressPotato Growers' Department A. S. of E., Madison, Wis.

First Farmer-I hear the railroads are getting so hard up they are closing some of their telegraph offices.

Second Farmer-Yes, I reckon they're hard up all right. My boy works at the depot, and I heard him say something about the operators having to patch the wires. C. C. K.

The Problem of the Twentieth Century.

BY JOHN M. DORNEY.

Some few months ago I gazed on a splendid painting. As a work of art it fascinated me. The subject was inspiring; the coloring perfect; the figures superb, but while the artist's work charmed me, there came flitting through my brain thoughts that appalled me. The title of the painting was "The Parting of the Centuries." The ninteenth century was typified by an aged, decrepit man. He was passing from view into a dark cloudinto oblivion, into eternity. The Twentieth Century was pictured as a youth in the full vigor of young manhood; young, vigorous, full of daring. He was walking with confident air toward the rising sun of the new century. As I gazed upon the symbolic figures of the centuries, I pondered over the mighty questions, the terrible problems that the dead Ninteenth Century had been forced to meet and solve. I saw, as if in a vision, the Corsican King-maker, that mysterious Adam of humanity-he, whom the maelstrom of the French Revolution had hurled to the surface. I saw that strange being rated by some a God, by others a Devil, grasp the imperial power, make his name a terror to the world and bring order out of chaos. I saw him in that strange meteoric career of his, now forming that wondrous code of laws the Code of Napoleon. Again thundering at the capitals of Europe, now making vast internal improvements in France. Again wasting the blood of her sons. I saw his downfall; the return of the Bourbons, the revolution of '48; the return of the Bonapartes; the fall of the Third Napoleon; the horrors of the Commune and the rise of the French Republic. All this I saw in France.

In Russia I saw the freeing of the Serfs; the growth of intelligence; the consequent growth of unrest; the demand from the multitude for betterment; the reply of the educated (?) classes"the better born"-in the shape of the "knout" and the march to Siberia; the iron hand of the Czar forbidding open agitation; hence the inevi

table growth of secret plotting-of Nihilismand the bombs.

In Germany I saw the welding of petty states into a great empire; the growth of Militarism to gratify the vanity of a half-crazed Hohenzollern; a million of men torn from productive labor turned into man-killers; the burden of their keep placed on their brothers, in order that a band of idlers might live in luxury.

In Italy, Austria, Spain, the same wretched conditions. In the British Islands, among those with whom we share the English tongue, I saw the same horrible injustice. A horde of noble (?) loafers, English, Irish and Scotch, plundering the toilers. In England the horrors of child labor; of women in the mines; "the best citizens" as a rule opposing all reform. I saw John Bright in his splendid fight against the infamous Corn Laws. I saw the magnificent O'Connell forcing the Emancipation Bill from Christian (?) statesmen of England. I saw the horrors of the Irish Famine, caused by the infamous scoundrels who owned (?) Ireland. I saw the utter misery of the people in Scotland; the Cotters reduced to such misery that, as they put it, "they feared the landlord more than they did the lord of the universe." In all these civilized (?) countries of Christian (?) Europe, I saw all manner of temples, well cared for-temples of art, song, science; temples of religion, temples of law-all well cared for, while the temple of the Holy Spirit, the plain, common man, was trampled, brutalized and plundered. It mattered not whether the ruler was Czar, Emperor or King, or whether those noble (?) scoundrels professed Protestantism, Catholicism, Judaism, or Scepticism-the plain, common man was used as a beast of burden. I saw the spread of popular education; I saw the rise of trade unionism. In Europe-particularly among the people of the British Islands, I saw that strange march of the Aryan Race, from Europe to America-westward, ever wastward. Over twelve million of men, the very pick of the brain and brawn of Europe. I saw the tremendous growth of this Republic, from a weak, scattered people along the Atlantic, into the Giant of the world, reaching from ocean to ocean, from the Lakes to the Gulf, from three million of people to ninety million of God's children. I saw the trail of that "Covenant of Hell"-Human Slavery-in our Republic, that had proclaimed to the world the right to life, to liberty and a pursuit of happiness to all men. I saw Jamison, Phillips, Lincoln, Lovejoy and their associates pleading with Americans, imploring them to abolish that crime against God and man. I saw the insane act of the Slave-ocracy, encouraged by worshipers of gold in the North-Editors, Statesmen (?), Merchants, Manufacturers and Oh, the shame of it, by men in pulpits. I saw the beginning and the end of our Civil War. I saw its frightful harvest -five hundred thousand men who went down to the grave-five hundred thousand more men crippled by wounds or disease. A debt of three billions of dollars saddled on the toilers; a system of highway robbery-the Tariff-fastened on industry. I saw those twins resulting from the tariff robbery-Millionaires and Tramps. I saw the rise of the Knights of Labor; the growth of Trades Unionism. I saw before me the conditions confronting the Christian (?) world to

day. Individuals who toil not, worth one hundred million and millions of men-the, toilersunable to secure a decent living-viz.: its poor; they are not even sure of burial. I saw the awful indictment of our Christian (?) civilizationthe Tramp-five hundred thousand-houseless, homeless, hopeless men-pariahs, outcasts. Under the very shadow of university, art gallery, library and church-those modern Goths and Vandals are skulking.

I saw the vast army of little children in factories, being murdered mentally, morally and physically, by infamous scoundrels who pose as Christians (?). I saw the annual slaughter of railway employes on our railways-twice as many men killed or wounded every year as fell at Gettysburg. I saw the two armies, "Organized Capital" and "Organized Labor," lined up in hostile array. I saw the trail of disorder, suffering, blood, and death, that mark the past forty years in our Republic, through strikes, lockouts and labor wars. I saw our plutocracy gaining control of the government, increasing the army and navy, erecting frowning forts in the cities, forgetting in their money-madness, that a Republic must rest on the love of its citizens; that a Republic resting on bayonets is already dead. I saw the war, openly waged upon Organized Labor by the legalized thieves, who dominate the Tariff Ring and the law-breaking corporations. I saw them load up the Federal Judiciary and through their lackeys on the bench, trample on the Constitution. I heard their decision in the GompersMitchell-Morrison case, that freedom of speech, freedom of the press and trial by jury, was annihilated. On every hand I heard the cries for a stronger government, for more battleships, to learn the boys to shoot. I could hear the cry for Socialism, the hints at Anarchy-all those mighty questions passed before me as I gazed upon the painting "The Parting of the Centuries."

I seemed to hear the gloomy, pessimistic sermons, newspaper and magazine articles that are being hurled at the public from platform, pulpit and the press. From all these sources we hear the same cry. We are approaching a grave crisis

"A storm is brewing, so vast, so frightful, that when it shall have spent its force, the horrors of the French reign of terror will seem mild by comparison," and those croaking ravens tell the truth; but what is the solution offered-what says the wise men. Many of them reply, "There is no solution; 'tis the inevitable result of the violation of the Malthusian Theory." The Fools; the Scoundrels; whichever they be; the Atheists that they are whether they term themselves Protestants, Jews or Catholics; and from others who are living in luxury we hear the cry-"Oh, for the men of other days; for the O'Connells, the Brights, the Lincolns, the Jamisons-Oh, that they were here to solve the problems of the Twentieth Century." Such utterances are the very quintessence of puerility or senility-the men of other days had their problems to meet and solve. Each country has its problems to solve and the living men of that century must meet and solve them; useless to refuse to see them; madness to refuse to recognize them. The problem of this Twentieth Century must be met; must be solved; to refuse to do so is to invite destruction. The problem of this Twentieth Century, in