problem in industrial production, why don't we hear more about efficiency in that department? What benefit is it to the consumer or employer if the cost of producing an article be reduced, and the cost of distributing increased? What is the net result? Nothing, except that the worker in the shop has put more brains or time into the article, for which he has received no enhanced compensation.

The unions are generally said to be opposed to much of the efficiency stuff now on the market, and there is less talk about it in organized trades than in unorganized trades. This is due in part to the fact that there is usually more skill employed in the organized trades than in the unorganized. A more potent reason is that organized labor is in a position to get a portion of the increased production welded into wages. As the efficiency people don't want improved skill nearly so much as they desire fatter profits, their incentive is lessened when they know the worker will compel them to hand over his share.

That gives us a clue as to why distribution is not attracting so much attention from the efficiency bugs. The persons and the forces engaged in distributing what we produce can make the average manufacturer "give them theirs" when anything is given out. Among the forces used in distribution is advertising, and it is said much of the money spent on it is wastesome say 50 per cent., some say a larger amount. If efficiency were to be applied to that element in distribution something could be saved. It would be at the expense of the papers and magazines, and the manufacturers would be slow to offend so important an element in our commercial life. That would be too dangerous an undertaking, for it might result in some truth about the goods or the conditions of production slipping under the public eye.

Then there are the wholesaler, jobber, retailer, and drummer, who all figure in distribution. The expenses, wages and profits of each one of them is tacked on to the selling price of the article without adding a mill to its value. A few manufacturers have cut out some of these factors, but they are few and far betv.cen. The average manufacturer is afraid to do so, for each one of them brings him trade. They are all important cogs in the machine. In this clumsy method is concealed the reason for a portion of the increased cost of living. The efficiency expert, however, sees no way by which he can make the profits of each or all of them trickle

into the pockets of the average manufacturer so he leaves comparatively alone the field of distribution. Indeed, in that sphere in many instances there are devices which have no other reason for being than that they offer an excuse to just another expense and another profit on the article.

The big concerns who go direct to the consumer rarely give that poor person the full benefit of that method. They usually resort to some sort of fake to eat the savings of the "efficiency" that has wiped out the jobber or retailer. A landholding company composed of the officials may be found. It will lease or re-lease buildings to the trust for its store at such a high rental that nearly all the profits will be eaten that way.

Efficiency in methods of distribution will be tackled in a worth-while manner some day, when real losses will be eliminated. There will be large drafts on socialist philosophy in that day, and utility rather than profit will be the governing motive.

The treatment of the mutinous prisoners in the Michigan penitentiary aroused the civilized world. The men responsible were freely denounced as savages. Yet there is one if not more names on the board of control which also appear on lists of union-hating employers. If a man would revert to savagery for the sake of maintaining discipline, wouldn't he do it for love of profit? When their masks are torn off, there are many men with savage instincts in the ranks of our opponents-and that is why they are there. Thirty or so years ago the right to inflict capital punishment on employees, was one of the things unions contested. We won in the court of public opinion. That victory is

one in a long chain of "tyrannies" that disturb some Michigan manufacturers.

shown in pressing the far-fetched charges of murder against Ettor and Giovanniti, the strike leaders whose alleged incendiary language is claimed to have led to the death of a woman striker, shot, in all probability, by a policeman.

While the strike was in progress, Dr. Charles Niel, Commissioner of Labor, was sent to Lawrence to investigate. His report, just published, shows that in the textile industry the entire family must work in the mill in order to exist; that working full time a family of father, mother and three children earns $8.00 a week, but so much time is lost that the actual average earnings of the family are about $5.00. Earning such an income they are content with the coarsest and cheapest food, in many cases twenty adults are housed in a five-room flat. This gives an inkling of the horrible conditions described in the report which, incidentally, says that like conditions exist in all the distinctly textile towns of New England.

An attempt, made by some reactionary Senators, to suppress the report, failed. The number of copies printed was, however, so restricted that it is almost impossible to get one. Every citizen is entitled to a copy of public documents of this kind. Write to one of the senators from your state and ask for one. If he says he is unable to furnish it, ask why, and you will find that the Senate deliberately and purposely limited the number of copies printed so as to prevent the general pub lic from being informed of the poverty, misery and degradation of the "protected" textile workers of Lawrence.

The world-wide spirit of unrest, of dissatisfaction at the inefficiency and discontent at the injustice of the present order of . things finds like expression in all countries which have reached the same stage of industrial development-in the organization of the workers in unions to win better conditions through the collective bargain, backed by the strike, and in the development of independent working class political parties to force concessions through legislative action.

The membership of the unions affiliated with the A. F. of L. is at high water mark and still growing. The individual unions are becoming more powerful and aggressive. The spirit of organization and of revolt is in the air. The strike of the pressed steel car workers at McKees Rocks, of the mill operatives of Lawrence and the long series of similar strikes of unorganized and unskilled workers still in progress will add thousands

At

to the ranks of the organized workers. the same time, the demand of the men and women who toil for a larger share of the product of their labor, for more and more and yet more, becomes more constant and insistent as the national wealth grows apace and the struggle to live becomes more and more intense.

In sympathy with and as a necessary result of this ferment in the industrial field is the disintegration of the old and dying political parties, the demand for radical changes in our machinery of government and in the constitutions and laws of state and nation.

The "progressive" movement is the expression of a middle class realization that something is wrong, a blind groping for something better without knowing what or how to attain it.

This discontent finds more logical, coherent, purposeful and constructive expression among the workers, through the trade union movement in the industrial field and through the Socialist party in politics.

The influence of the school room and the trade union meeting is reflected in these growing movements. The working people of our country are reading, listening, discussing the social problems of the day and are beginning to think clearly and connectedly and to reach positive conclusions. They feel that in the midst of the abundance produced by labor there should be sufficient of the necessities and good things of life for all. And above and beyond this, they realize that life is more than meat and drink; their hopes and aspirations are aroused, ambitions are kindled, ideals inspired. This hunger for more life and a fuller will not be appeased by petty concessions but will demand its perfect satisfaction.

Organized labor the world over recognizes that the work of the union in the industrial field must be supplemented by equal activity of the workers in the political field. The right to organize and to strike, to picket and to boycott, of free speech, free press and public assembly, must be maintained; the abuse of the injunction power of the courts, and the trial without jury of contempt cases arising out of refusal to submit to the invasion of our rights as free men, must be ended.

In every industrial country but the United States the policy of independent working class political action is followed and is most effective. As yet we are divided on the question; some of us favor the world wide policy, others cling to the

idea that we can gain our ends, and gain them more speedily by supporting the party or candidates that promise to enact the legislation we desire.

To assist our readers in deciding as tc whether we can best secure our ends by voting for the party of the working class or for one or other of the parties which profess to exist in the interest of all classes, we publish in this number that part of the platform of each party in which it states its policy on questions in which we, the workers, are especially interested.

Whether we credit the good work to the efforts of the handful of trades un-. ionists and the lone socialist in the Lower House or believe that the majority of the democrats and the progressive republicans were sincerely anxious to enact some legislation in the interests of the working class or ascribe it to the desire of the representatives to secure re-election, whatever the motive, we cheerfully credit the retiring House with having enacted an unusual number of measures of value to the people who work for a living.

which passed Among the measures both House and Senate and which now have only the gauntlet of the courts to run,

are:

(1) The amended eight-hour bill which extends the scope of the law to work done for as well as by the government. There are some rather broad and indefinite exceptions and the law needs to be strengthened but it is a most excellent measure.

(2) The Industrial Commission bill, establishing a commission consisting of three employers, three wage earners and

three representatives of the general public to investigate industrial relations between workmen and their employers and to suggest means for lessening the friction between them and securing a more equitable distribution of the products of industry.

(3) The bill creating a Children's Bureau, the duty of which is to safeguard the health and well-being of the boys and girls, our citizens of the future.

(4) The provision in the Postoffice Appropriation bill restoring to employes ín that Department the rights of association and of free speech and petition taken from them by the gag rule executive order issued by Ex-President Roosevelt and broadened by President Taft.

(5) The bill prohibiting the use of white phosphorous in the manufacture of matches.

(6)

The bill giving an eight-hour day to postoffice clerks and letter carriers. (7) The extension of the Federal Workmen's Compensation for Injuries Act. (8) The bill removing the disabilities previously imposed on trade union and fraternal publications.

Among the bills enacted by the House but buried in committee in the Senate and the future of which is uncertain, are the following:

(1) The Seamens' Bill, to give sailors the right to leave employment in an undesirable vessel whenever they reach port. At present a seaman exercising this legal right of all other workers is subject to imprisonment.

(2) The Anti-Injunction Bill, providing that no injunction shall be issued in a labor dispute that would not be issued under other circumstances.

(3) The Contempt Bill, providing for a jury trial in cases of indirect contempt. (4) The Department of Labor Bill, providing for a Secretary who shall be a member of the President's cabinet and have equal standing with the Secretary of the Department of Commerce.

(5) The Dredge Workers Eight-hour Bill, to give these workers the same rights as the laborers and mechanics with whom they are associated in employment.

(6) The Convict Labor Bill, providing that where the laws of a state require that prison made goods shall be branded as such, convict made goods shipped in from other states shall be distinguished in the same manner.

(7) The bill extending the scope of the Bureau of Mines so that the dangers to which miners are exposed may be lessened.

Among other measures enacted that are interesting to us, as lovers of liberty and progress, are:

(1) The constitutional amendment providing for the election of United States Senators by direct vote of the people.

(2) The abrogation of our treaty with the Russian government because of its barbarous treatment of American citizens of Jewish birth.

(3) The experimental adoption of the parcels post.

While these useful, equitable and desirable laws are almost lost in the mass of legislation enacted in the interests of the owning and employing class, they are sufficient to show that the politicians are heeding the demand for practical legislation that will relieve in some measure the unnecessary` hardships and the injustice to which, under our present system, the mass of the people are subjected in order that the privileged few may possess tyrannical power over the lives of their fellowmen.

In active opposition to every progressive measure stood the old guard of the republican senate supported by the equally reactionary old guard of the democratic party. Root of New York, member of the cabinets of Roosevelt and Taft, chairman

of the republican convention, Lodge

of Massachusetts, brilliant apologist for crooked capitalism, assisted on the democratic side by Coal Oil Bailey of Texas and the Sugar Trust senator from Louisiana, fought every inch of the way.

The only open and active opposition to the initiative and referendum at the last session of the Illinois legislature came from the Chicago Civic Federation.

The present law in Illinois permits only three propositions to be placed on the ballot at each election. The Chicago Civic Federation is spending money freely to secure signatures to petitions for three other propositions so as to crowd the initiative and referendum off the ballot at the coming election. If it succeeds, it will postpone until 1916 any chance for the people of Illinois to secure a voice in the making of the laws they live under. By the same indirect trickery the Federation is trying to head off and defeat a vote on the amendment in favor of woman suffrage.

These cunning devices show the true character and objects of the Chicago Civic Federation, the first born of the fertile brain, the first creation of the apprentice hand of the resourceful secretary of the National Civic Federation, Mr. Ralph Easley. While under his guiding hand, the Chicago organization never disclosed the reason for its existence by such crude tactics, though its reactionary work was more effective than that of today. The facile and plausible Mr. E. must feel indignant at this injudicious give-away which necessarily reflects discredit on the more imposing aggregation which he now so skilfully manipulates and so graciously adorns.

The union men of Ohio did their duty on September 2nd; they proved themselves intelligent, independent and progressive citizens. The credit for the adoption of the amended state constitution belongs chiefly to organized labor; the thousands of unorganized city workers who voted for the amendments were induced to do so by the tireless work of their organized

fellows.

Comparisons are odious but the truth should be told and credit given where due. The amendments were carried by the city vote the farmers would have defeated them. The reactionary attitude of the farmer, who is exploited almost as thoroughly as the city worker-the tenant farmer to a greater degree as he works harder and longer and receives less for his labor than any city worker-is undoubtedly due to the fewer opportunities the farmer has for education and to his neglect of the opportunities he has. Instead of reading progressive magazines and papers, attending lectures and improving his mind, he keeps his nose to the grind-stone for sixteen hours a day and is so weary when he gets through that he is fit for nothing but sleep. If the farmer is ever to learn anytring, we must get him interested in the shorter work day. As long as he spends his life in working, eating and sleeping, we cannot expect him to develop intelligence.

There is just one fly in the ointment of our satisfaction; the amendment providing for woman suffrage was defeated. The distillers, the brewers and the saloonkeepers led the fight against it. Happily the adoption of the amendment providing for the initiative enables the progressive workers of Ohio to correct this injustice as soon as popular prejudice is overcome.