support. In this class, broadly speaking, may be placed anti-blacklist, anti-ironclad, anti-truck, and, of recent years, compulsory arbitration laws. These are mainly attempts to compel the employer to do something, either directly or by negation, which a union fails to accomplish owing to its lack of numbers or the indifference of the general public to its wants. Trade unions ought not to give a great deal of countenance to laws of this nature. Their time, money and influence ought not to be diverted from the legitimate and natural channels in the direction of legislative bogs, where, as we have seen, 'they become so frequently mired. What trade unions cannot obtain through organization and discipline of their members and education of public opinion they cannot force upon the public by statute law. Take for example the experience with "anti-truck" laws, which were all praiseworthy efforts. In nearly every instance after the unions had spent months in agitation and drained their treasuries, the courts declared such laws inoperative and unconstitutional. (C They violate the freedom of contract;" or, "interfere with the employer's business." We do not hear nowadays that the cigarmakers unions are asking for the passage of anti-truck laws. Yet fifteen years ago there was hardly a town in the country where the cigarmakers did not receive their scanty wages in the most conglomerated kind of truck. When the cigarmakers union attained its present standard the truck system disappeared without legislation, and there is no case on record where its disappearance caused a violation of the "freedom of contract or interfered with the employer's business."

To show that it is the repeal of bad laws that we want rather than the enactment of new ones I will cite a recent case. The trade unions have received a most gratifying concession from congress in the passage of the sailors bill, through the efforts of the A. F. of L. This was but the repeal of an old law that was exceedingly oppressive to a large number of American workmen, but the public did not recognize its injustice until the sailors formed a trade union.

There is another serious aspect to this question. So far as the labor problem is subject to interpretation by courts, it is evident that industrial jurisprudence is but in its infancy. The decisions already made and the reasons for them are very conflicting. A law at best stands but for the present conception of what is right to do or not to do. This standard, as experience teaches, changes. The courts of last resort in the several states are piling up almost an hundred volumes of decisions annually. These decisions will in a large measure bind and hamper future generations. Two illustrations will show what confusions already exist. A court in Pennsylvania holds that a trade union is a combination to control by artificial means the supply of labor, and consequently is unlawful (Cote vs. Murphy, 28 Atl. Rep., 190). In Minnesota the court declares that any man, unless bound by a previous contract, has a right to refuse work for any man or class of men he sees fit (Bohn Mfg. Co. vs. Hollister, N. W. Rep., 1119).

It is clearly the duty of trade unions not to add to this confusion by asking for the passage of laws every time some abuse or injustice, whether real or apparent, is discovered. The danger of hasty legislation is shown by the fact that a well meaning legislator recently framed an anti-blacklist law which in the shape it was drawn would have been a most effective anti-conspiracy law. It might have been used to destroy labor organizations. Yet the intent was to serve labor. The careless phraseology made it dangerous. What the trade unions want is not more laws but more freedom and a better conception of their rights. I do not mean to disparage the efforts for child labor, factory and mine inspection, sanitary, prison reform and similar laws. These come under the class referred to at the beginning of this paper; and yet, even such laws are much more readily enforced if trade unions have aroused public opinion in their behalf. During the recent legislative session in the several states there have been more so-called labor measures introduced and doubtless more will become laws than any preceding year, yet trade unions will be just as necessary and the industrial struggle fully as intense as if these, in most cases com. mendable efforts, had not been made.

Let organizations rather than legislation be the watchword of the trade unions.

'WHEREAS, We regard such incendiary attempts to intensify class hatred through the medium of wild, exaggerated dreams of idle soldiers in quest of distinction, dangerous alike to the peace of the commonwealth and perpetuity of the republic.

"Resolved, That inasmuch as the mission of organized labor is to raise itself from the slough of present industrial oppression to more acceptable conditions by bold, plain spoken, yet constitutional agitation, we desire to enter our indignant protest against the intemperate language attributed to General Martin, of the police commission.

"Resolved, That while General Martin may be a most available officer in time of war, now that we are not threatened by either revolution or invasion, we feel satisfied that his relegation to private life would secure to him more honorable distinction and approbation for whatever mental and manly qualities he may possess than he could hope to attain through the further enjoyment of the powers conveyed to him as a police commissioner.

"Resolved. That we consider any person subject to such hallucinations and inflamatory declarations, having a voice in the manipulation of the police force, as not the proper man in a very proper place."

.

THE new government bonds which were sold recently by Grover Cleveland on a basis of 1041⁄2 to the foreign banking house of which the Rothschilds are operators, are now being sold in New York city as fast as they are offered at 1202. The Cleveland-Rothschild syndicate is said to have scooped in about $13,000,000 on that deal. No one would be mean enough to say there is any "innocuous desuetude" about this important stroke of foreign policy. There need be no wonder now that congress refused to ratify the bond sale or give its sanction to the gold plank of that monstrous measure,

RIPE FOR ACTION.

NEVER in the history of trade unions has there been a time more ripe for a thorough organization of all classes of wage earners than the present. The past is gone and can not be recalled, except as an occasional reference to guide us in making calculations for the future. The experimental stage is past and the trade unions emerged from the ordeal in such satisfactory manner that even their most ardent advocates are surprised at how well they stood the test. The depression from which we are emerging for prospects point everywhere that better times are at hand-harrowed men's souls and put their unionism on trial. On every side the employers and middle men tried to drag down wages and increase hours of labor in order to cheapen the manufactured article," they said, and wherever organization was weak they were in part successful. On the other hand, where organization was strong the manufacturers' economics were shown to be idle vaperings, and were unceremoniously thrown into the waste basket. It is an ill wind that blows no good; the depression bas caused men to think who never did much in that line before; it caused them to reason, one with the other, as to the righteousness or villainy of the causes which thrust the depression on us, and each in his own manner sees some way in the future to prevent such a catastrophe from again causing such widespread hardship and misery. Our free silver friends have a remedy, and the more it is spoken of the more friends it begets, which is indeed a healthy provision. Robert Ingersoll prophecied a few days ago that the next nominees for president of the United States would be free silver men, and that no single standard advocate could be elected, and those who know Ingersoll best say he is good authority on things concerning terra firma and whatever appertains thereto. Our socialistic friends have a remedy, and to all appearances it also is making rapid headway. A few years ago a socialist was pictured after the fashion of a savage aborigine, but now he is a mighty big factor in our social make-up. He has got his whiskers trimmed and a modern cutaway takes the place of his unshapely jerkin. He says what he listeth and finds large audiences to say it to. He is a hustler, a reasoner, and has come to stay as part of our political arena. We have other friends of a philosophical tendency, who have followed many "isms," but have got the right one at last. They are brainy men and usually know their subject. They have been reading and comparing notes, and are only waiting for the balance of mankind to come up to their standard and the question will settle itself in the one word FREEDOM.

We might continue the procession, but it

would not enhance our point, so we will drop back to first principles.

These three isms are to-day children of the labor movement, and have in great part assumed their magnitude owing to the periodical visitation of depression and want. The disciples of each belief recognize the potency of organization as necessary to the utility of their principle, for it is through organization and collective thought that they and their friends have reached their mental altitude. The question now is, how are they to get their fellow-men up to their level? Can it be done by dropping the rank and file and trimming their sails for another altitude? We think not, but it may be done by our friends holding to what they have acquired with one hand and with the other joining the rank and file, and by utilizing that persistent will with which the friends of one

ism" sometimes oppose the advocates of the other "ism" rally the unorganized and get them on the high road to prosperity. There is no theory about this proposition, it is a practical solution. Neither is it experimental, for it has been shown that the experimental stage has been passed. With dull times the cigar makers increased their membership, last year, by over a thousand members. How was it done? Not by theorizing upon what might be, but by an efficient corps of practical organizers who knew where to begin their work and started at the correct point. Dr. Livingstone, in trying to Christianize the African negroes soon found that long sermons and earnest prayers were of no avail unless he first set in to civilize them, and this he commenced to do by sending to his native country for spoons, and commenced the work of civilization by learning his audiences to eat their food with spoons instead of conveying it to their mouths in the palms of their hands. He thus formed an objective point from which he knew he could prepare for civilization.

Organization therefore must be the objective point for all shades of " isms" in the immediate future. This is the subject on which all must agree. The capitalistic classes are scared of their pilfering and grabbing habits now, owing to the fact that the toilers are thinking, and if a concentrated effort is made all along the line to get the unorganized into their respective crafts, the above mentioned scare will develop into a better understanding by which he who produces will receive more and more the fruits of his labor until he can and will demand its full value as being his.

Organize all along the line is the toilers shibboleth for this year, and should be kept up unrelentingly until all crafts are economically in a position to grapple with the social question,

The vanguard of trade unionism has recently been attacked from all sides. Gigantic railroad syndicates, municipal, state and federal governments have all had their innings by using injunctions, ordinances, laws and the federal courts. The attorney general has applied the anti-trust law and other schemes, while the stuffed prophet has had his guns out and scrupled not to use them. What is the result? The attitude of the railroad syndicate has now made possible government ownership of the railroads. Municipal defection has caused the governed to look for other kinds of aldermen, and state legislatures will hereafter be composed of men more in touch with Tom, Dick and Harry. New judges are being demanded everywhere. Puritanical Olney has decided that it is not the business of the federal government to interfere in state affairs until the state has utilized its resources, and even the president has ceased cannonading and has gone into the bond brokerage business, on Lombard street, London, and duck shooting on the lower Chesapeake. Yet trade unionism lives and a direct question will receive the pointed answer that the union man has a more formidable antagonist in the non-union man than in any or all of these other forces. The weapons to remedy this are Webster's dictionary and the compulsory education law on another page of this issue. The work is pleasant and can be well pushed if all work together and give organization of the masses, through these two agencies, their undivided support. Organization is ripe for action, and the A. F. of L. "expects that every man, this year, will do his duty."

BURNS MISCALCULATES.

THE short comings of the labor movement in the United States are known to no persons better than to the thinkers, organizers and leaders of the movement in America. They unflinchingly write, work and agitate for better conditions, are glad at any time to receive assistance and show due appreciation to whatever source from which the aid emanates. That our condition at present, emerging, as we are, from a tidal wave of unprecedented depression, is satisfactory, no one will aver; that we will take precept from any source worthy of emulation, all will admit; that the visit of John Burns, last December, helped the work of organization, we readily concede; but that the United States, of all places on the face of the earth, is most in need of outside assistance, is a statement that can not be taken as final without due consideration. Yet that is practically what Mr. Burns said of us in an interview, after his return to merry England.

Here is a paragraph quoted from the above

mentioned interview, and which paper was forwarded from London to this office by himself: And, in spite of it all [meaning his criticisms], they have asked you to come again?"

66 Yes, next autumn. And, if I can get away, I shall go there. For nowhere in the world is there more need of an Englishman's helping hand, or more gratitude to him who gives it. Helping lame dogs over the stile is the best of friendship, even though other curs should bark."

In early life, being schooled in a somewhat puritanical community, we were often reminded that the best way to see a mote in our neighbor's eye was to first get the beam out of our own, and in no instance since then does this lesson seem to fit in with such well-jointed neatness as to this declaration of Bro. Burns. The word "Englishman" conveys the idea that nowhere in that marvellous country do such conditions obtain as are found here. Bro. Burns must have forgot all about the "black country" in the north of England, where the chains that go to help make England's greatness are welded by the husband and wife working at one forge; where the cry or laughter of a suckling babe laid in a rude and sooty hammock, near to the anvil, makes a sorrowful discord to the ring, ding-dong of the sledge hammer, as the mother, bare to the waist, swings it as her husband directs, so that between them they may earn a pittance to sustain life and contribute to England's greatness. our fraternal delegates to the Cardiff convention can say or do anything during their sojourn in old England to help the wife-mothers of the "black district," their visit will not have been in vain, even if they accomplish nothing else; but in the name of fairness and justice it is to be hoped they will not fall into Bro. Burns' mistake of creating an impression of their country that does not exist. Had John Burns thought of his kinsman's (Robert Burns) remark:

"O would some power the giftie gi' us
To see ourselves as others see us,"

If

he would not have been so pronounced in his declaration.

It is very gratifying to reformers in the western continent to know that Mr. Burns is so well thought of in London that steamboats and streets are being named after him in compliment of his good work; yet there is no denying the fact that if he could assist in some degree in alleviating the social standing of his fellow beings in the district referred to, before visiting us again, his "helping hand" would receive a more fraternal grasp when he arrives than even was accorded him when he first set foot on American soil.

THE officers of the Bakers' National Union in New York state are meeting with great suc

cess in pushing their bill through the state legislature for the "regulation and manufacture of food products." The purport of the bill is to guarantee fair sanitary conditions in and adjacent to all bake shops. It is expected that the bill will pass and be signed by the governor. During its probationary career in the senate the following letter was sent to the president of that body and to Governor Morton urging them to favor the bill:

HEADQUARTERS

}

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR. DEAR SIR-We are informed that the "act to regulate the manufacture of food products" in New York state, and known as assembly bill No. 761, has been passed by the assembly and is now under consideration in the senate.

Permit me, in the name of the American Federation of Labor, to request you to give this act your kindly consideration and support. It is a meritorious reform, favorably affecting, not only the men employed in the bake shops, but the health of the community at large. All organized labor in New York state is awaiting your favorable action on this bill; nor is such anxiety confined to the labor organizations alone, for the great middle class-composing nearly the entire population -is aroused to the necessity for enactment of this measure into law.

The very unsavory conditions under which many food products are manufactured at the present time, and which have been vividly brought to your attention by statisticians and others, render almost imperative the adoption of stringent laws on this important subject.

Assembly Bill No. 761 provides for fair sanitary conditions, and if passed and signed will be the means of not only removing hundreds of existing nuisances in and adjacent to bake shops, but prevent the future augmentation of that disease-spreading system.

Again requesting you in the name of the masses to take a favorable view of this most important measure, I have the honor to be yours, etc.

MARCH 9, the date on which Bro. Chris Evans severed his connection with the A. F. of L. office, was made the occasion of presenting to him, in engrossed form, the resolutions passed by the Denver convention. Subsequently they were forwarded to his home, in consequence of which the following has been received:

NELSONVILLE, O., March 25, 1895. Mr. Aug. McCraith, Secretary American Federation of Labor, De Soto Block, Indianapolis, Ind.: DEAR SIR AND BROTHER-The resolutions engrossed and framed that were adopted at the Denver convention of the American Federation of Labor and ordered presented to me on my retiring from the secretaryship, have been duly received. In accepting the honored gift, I beg to return my sincere thanks, and to say through you, that my appreciation of the kind words expressed can only be equalled by my desire to cherish and treasure them in the days to come as the greatest compliment that my coworkers could have bestowed upon me for services rendered in labor's cause.

To feel that I have the confidence and esteem of those who have had an opportunity to work with me in the years gone by, is very gratifying, and carries with it a consoling influence that gives ample reward for all work done.

With kindest wishes for the continued success of the movement and a prosperous future for the new administration, I am, very truly yours, CHRIS EVANS.

VROOMAN'S NEW BOOK.

To such of our readers as are interested in or who desire to know something of "Government Ownership," a few snap shots from Rev. Walter Vrooman's new book on that subject will be of great value. He describes it as "being an account of 337 now existing national and municipal undertakings in the 100 principal countries in the world." The book is very largely statistical, and displays great care in compilation as well as in general information.

retort.

Mr. Vrooman is a brilliant young American of an old and honorable family in western New York. He has the benefit of a good education, and having lived for some time in Kansas, is possessed of that ready wit and lack of conventionality which makes our typical western people so pleasing in conversation and so apt at Mr. Vrooman pays his compliments to our English friends by quoting an interview he had with an official of the British consular staff in this country, whom he visited to secure data for the chapter on Great Britain in his book. He asked the official for information on socialized businesses in his country, and was told in reply: "My dear sir, we have none. H'individualism is the basis of our h'institutions.' The writer adds:

"While this representative of the British government was thus assuring me that in 'H'ingland' all business was conducted by 'h'individuals,' I had in my pocket a list of 269 enterprises that in his country are owned and operated by the government, and the list was still incomplete."

Mr. Vrooman makes a hit in summing up his preface by quoting a paragraph from Mr. Sydney Webb's "Socialism in England," which shows in terse language how people believe in and enjoy socialistic surroundings, unless when such surroundings are called by that name. The paragraph in question says:

"The 'practical man,' oblivious or contemptuous of any theory of the social organism or general principles of social organization, has been forced by the necessities of time into an ever deepening collectivist channel. Socialism, of course, he rejects and despises. The individualist city councillor will walk along the municipal pavement, lit by municipal gas and cleaned by municipal brooms, with municipal water, and seeing by the municipal clock in the municipal market that he is too early to meet his children coming from the municipal school, hard by the county lunatic asylum and municipal hospital, will use the national telegraph system to tell them not to walk through the municipal park, but to come by the municipal tramway, to meet him in the municipal reading room, by the municipal art gallery, museum and library, where he intends to consult some of the national publications, in order to prepare his next speech in the municipal town-hall, in favor of the nationalization of canals and the increase of the government control over the railway system. Socialism, sir,' he will say, 'don't waste the time of a practical man by your fantastic absurdities. Self-help, sir, individual self-help, that's what's made our city what it is.'" (!!)

The subject matter of the book is explained in an introductory which, in opening, reads:

The purpose of this book is to combat the principle of paternal government and to prove that the tendency of society in both civilized and uncivilized countries is toward fraternal government. Progress consists in rescuing human affairs from the domain of chance and making them subservient to law. When in primitive times, the strong man with a club, who has used it too freely upon his fellows, is overcome by the many weaker members of his tribe, then, the general interests begin their long conflict against unrestrained indidividual caprice. The history of this struggle is the history of the development of civilization.

Without going into detail on the value of this publication, suffice it to say, that an average idea of the places mentioned and manner of treatment is here furnished by quoting the very interesting report on

ICELAND.

Area, 39,756 square miles. Population, 70,927 in 1892. Iceland furnishes another social surprise. Here is a land crossed by the Arctic Circle, which has its own constitution and a representative government. (See charter of August 1, 1874.) At the head of the administration is a minister nominated by the king of Denmark. Besides him, the people elect a governor as their highest local authority. There are two amtmands, or vice-governors, for the west and north of Iceland. The althing (or parliament) has thirty-six members, six of whom are nominated by the king of Denmark and thirty elected by popular suffrage. The suffrage is universal, both men and women participating.

There is not an illiterate person on the island above seven years old. Teaching is done very largely at home, although there are primary schools in the various villages, some high schools, two colleges, one medical, one theological, one agricultural, and one nautical. Children of twelve know Latin, the language in which their ancient literature was written. The people are plain, chaste, temperate, intelligent. There are no police, because there are no thieves. There is only one jail, but at last report there had been nobody in it for seven years. There are no poor houses, because there are no paupers; or, perhaps better, because there are no plutocrats to make paupers. There is an universal spirit of hospitality, and a remarkable disposition toward co-operation.

The book is neatly published and bound by the Patriotic Literature Publishing Co., 108 East Franklin street, Baltimore, Md., costs $1.00, and is worth many times the price, and, in its title page, shows the reverend writer's good sense by being ornamented by the union label of the I. T. U.

THE cheering news comes from Hot Springs, Ark., that President McBride is improving under the medical attention he is receiving. His ailment being severe, it takes time to restore him to his old-time vigor, but his doctor is authority for the statement that he is progressing as favorably as could be expected from his debilitated condition when arriving there.

EVERY member of a labor organization should be a subscriber to the AMERICAN FEDERATIONIST.