ence at work among a class which ten years ago was denominated 'miscellaneous labor,' and which is now organized into a craft. Broadly viewed, the application of this pension system will affect, directly and indirectly, at least 105,000 persons in the city of New York.'

The first thought that will probably come on reading this is that here at last is some evidence of the softening heart of a great public service corporation-a proposal to give a liberal pension to aged employes, a generous plan to superannuate those servants who have rendered long and honorable service. At first blush it would appear to be a very fair and even magnanimous proposal from a powerful monopoly-a monopoly that one might deem to be too busy making money to stop to show even passing consideration for its men.

But consider a moment. President Vreeland speaks as though this plan was intended to apply to the whole of the 15,000 men in the employ of the Metropolitan Street Railroad Company, and to work a benefit upon the 90,000 other persons dependent upon them. Well, if it might do so-when?

The pensions are not to begin until the employe has reached his sixty-fifth year. How many of the present employes are 65 years old and have been in in the service for twenty-five years? Indeed, how many of the employes will ever see their sixty-fifth birthday anniversary and a twenty-fifth year of service in the employ of that company or of any of its constituent companies?

Go further and answer what proportion of workingmen, and especially men in the street railroad treadmill, live sixty-five years? Not a large proportion; and the increasing tension of American life, and especially of life in the metropolis, is not delaying but quickening mortality among those who bear the strain and the burden.

"Employ young men, was Mr. Carnegie's advice to the captains of industry. Why? Because, obviously, young men are at the fullness of their powers. He did not, perhaps, say all that his speech implied, for he would have said: "At all times employ only young men; get rid of the old ones if they do not get rid of themselves." And that this is the rule now observed in most of those vocations where the captains of industry command and where the trade unions do not exist to prevent it can be seen by anyone who will look about him.

Would it be unnatural for the captains of transportation to follow the policy of the captains of industry and endeavor to recruit with young men, since young manhood is full of alertness and nervous energy?

But how is it with the men themselves? The vigor of their best yearsthe years of their greatest strengthsets a pace which they cannot long keep up without increasing effort. Yet the competition of new generations of young men for their places makes the incumbents strain to keep up to the old pace for fear of being dropped. And so the end of the story is soon reached, they rapidly wear out and die off, and 65 is not a common but an exceptional age for them to reach-if they keep at the street railroad vocation.

How, then, can this pension proposal be such a general benefit to the street railroad men in New York City, and become a matter of interest to the street railroad men over the rest of the country? Was President Vreeland speaking in satire? There are only a few men who can enjoy the pension plan immediately and only a comparatively few who can enjoy it at any other time, the generality of them falling out of the service from a feeling of sheer inability to keep up the furious and unbroken exertion, or, on grimly keeping to it, being claimed by death before they reach the pension period.

It may be argued that few men like to think that they will not hold out for the biblical three score and ten, and that the pension scheme has the advantage of at least offering hope of a competence in their old age.

Perhaps that is the very thing that the management of the greatest street railroad monopoly on the western hemisphere has in mind. Hope works wonders in men. And now, when, taking a number of years together, the struggle for a living is growing more and more intense among the masses of men who have nothing in this world but their labor to sell, this kind of a hopethis promise of ease at the sunset of life-may curb the natural spirit of independence and a too active disposition to engage in industrial wars. If we could hear what the monopoly managers say among themselves is it improbable that the words would be, "Even if most of the men cannot come to enjoy it, this pension proposal may inspire them with hope and deter them from engaging in

strikes.'

If this conclusion be gratuitous, is it more SO than President Vreeland's statement that all of his 15,000 employes and their 90,000 dependants, or 105,000 persons together, will be beneficiaries of this pension plan? The truth is that that I have made no mistake about this matter. It is a wretched piece of business. If the Metropolitan Street Railway Company really desired to do something substantial for its men the short and easy way would be to devote a frac

tion of its enormous earnings to an increase in wages and to a reduction in the working hours,

This would be an immediate benefit. It would make new men of the 15,000 employes and it would make them anxious to keep their places. Indeed, it is questionable if the company would actually lose much money by the operation because of the improved service the men would give. Experience proves that. But these street railroad magnates are not in this kind of business. They would rather hold out the promise than give the reality.

It recalls the story of the two men who stood on a hilltop. One of them called attention to a flock of sheep. "I wonder why they are kept here," said he. "The ground is stony and barren, and they have little or no grass. "But," said the other man, "what a grand view they have!" So it is that the New York City street railroad magnates are willing to let their employes have a "grand view" of a pension, but are unwilling to relieve the present struggle for a living.

But men are much the same in like circumstances, and it does not seem possible that these New York City captains of transportation would, with no other purpose than to make the men work harder while in their employ, deliberately hang up a prize that they did not intend to give. No; there is behind this pension scheme something more than that.

The magnates a short time ago announced a big transportation merger, and, obviously, they want to keep the men quiet while they put it in operation. The mammoth street railroad combination is to be turned over to a company of still larger capitalization, which, in turn, is to turn itself over to a yet larger company. This is what the wise people in the banking world call "financing," but what the ordinary men would call "juggling with bookkeeping" and "inflating with water.'

There may-there probably will-be a merging with other transportation facilities, but when the trick is completed the capitalization of the new company will be seen to be several times the sum of the present valuations of the separate companies. The people will hear a lot about "economies due to combination" and like familiar things, and the end of it all will be that the new transportation balloon will be placed" with the investing public; that is, a great number of persons will be induced to buy the stock and bonds and the promoters will "draw out" to engage in other inflation enterprises.

This is the plan, and the first steps have already been taken. But much de

pends upon the acquiescent state of the public mind. How unfortunate would anything like a strike among the street railroad employes be while this is in progress! Investors would be almost certain to take alarm, and would refuse to buy the new "securities" or would hurry to sell if they had already bought any of them. Is it not as plain as daylight that the street railroad employes should be kept quiet? Offer them something-a pension or anything else-but nothing that will really cost the management a material sum of money, for the cost of operation must, in the new prospectus, be made to figure just as low as possible.

And so here we come to the truth at last. The men controlling the public service monopoly know, as the Metropolitan Street Railway Company propose to form a still greater monopoly by merging with other transportation companies and then to water the stock of the combination and sell out to a great number of investors called, for short, "the public." To keep the workmen in their employ quiet while they perform this operation, the managers make a sham pension proposal.

In the ancient days it was said: "Beware of the Greeks bearing gifts." We might now say: "Beware of the monopolies offering pensions."

This case of the New York city street railroad company and its pension proposal is not alone and without precedent. It is really an old dodge that privilege has of trying to make itself secure against attack. The Carnegie Company has put a considerable amount of its stock in small parcels around among the most influential of its employes. The Carnegie Company has important privileges, and it knows that these small stockholders will be stubborn fighters for its defense.

Some of the railroad companies have recently sold small parcels of their bonds to persons whose whole wealth amounts to but a few hundred or a few thousand dollars. The officials know full well that no bondholders will do more to keep public opinion favorable to the roads or do more hard service to preserve its "interests" than these small owners. The monopolists instinctively feel that there are tempestuous times ahead, and that everything in the nature of a privilege will have to run the gauntlet of public opinion. They are endeavoring to put on an appearance of existing for the general good by enlisting some advocates in their behalf from among the body of wage earners.

The only way the Metropolitan Street Railroad Company differs in its actions from that of the other great monopolies is that just now it is about to increase

and inflate its privileges, and it wants to keep its employes and the people generally quiet while it does the job. Let street railroad employes in all the other large cities of the country study the matter well, for if the trick should be successful here it will certainly be tried elsewhere.

We all know what organization has done for the street car men in all parts of the country and we are continually bearing witness to the results brought about through organization. The day is past when men, as individuals, may hope to obtain through demand. Collective bargaining is the phrase which stands for the work organization is doing and may be defined as the process by which the general terms of the labor contract itself, whether the contract be written or oral, are determined by negotiation directly between employers or employers' associations and organized workmen. We all know that it is beyond dispute that employers are much more likely to enter into collective bargaining and conciliation if they feel that their men have back of them the power which comes from formal organization. The street railway men have demonstrated their power and each year has so added to its strength that an aggressive policy will no longer be entertained to curb its growth. Politics must be employed, and in casting about to find a bait that will appeal to their instincts for self-protection in old age and at the same time rob the Samson of his locks, they have hit upon the pension scheme.

We do not say that we entirely oppose the pension scheme, but will say that where pensions are given they should apply as do government pensions, which guarantee absolutely to a man that for which he has toiled and paid, and does not place it on the basis of favoritism or put it into the hands of any man or men to reward treachery to his fellows or to deprive him of that which is rightfully his because of his fealty to a principle. We have got to look at it from a practical standpoint, taking man, not as the original account said, made in the image of his Maker, but as he is in this day and generation.

ty of men. If you will take a party of comparatively young men under a pension system, imperfectly developed, it would not exert the influence for the tearing down of their organizations that it would assume a few years hence; but organizations are not only of today or tomorrow, but for the years to come, and thought must be given to the culmination of a plan which has for its one purpose the dissolution of organization. The very strength of organization lies in the unanimity of action on the part of its members, and the nearer these organizations can come to embracing the entire number of men, the nearer they can come to dominating any situation that may confront them. And when you have gone on with this matter for a few years, take one-fifth or even one-tenth of the men employed, after serving under a pension system for, we will say, within ten years of the time when they would reach the period when benefits would accrue to them, and what would be the result if they were confronted with a problem that forced them to choose between a sacrifice of their prospects for a pension and a strike-between the interests of their organization of which they were members and which represents their interests and between the company? A body of men like this that every official is human enough to know are absolutely under their guid ance so long as any matter of this kind is in existence, would be an eternal menace to the usefulness and moral strength of the organization, because the moral strength of an organization is the outgrowth of the power that it might, in extremity, exercise, and if you convince the men whom you desire to influence that the extreme power cannot be exercised, he is in position to make light of your requests, scoff at your demands and follow the line indicated by his own sweet will and self-interest.

character after it has been demonstrated that the men are able to care for their interests in this manner? Were all men provident, then the necessity for a pension would not exist, but we do not believe in any system that has ever been

devised that places the power of robbing the men of that which is theirs of right, because if they pay in, their benefits should not be terminable as a matter of discipline by any man or set of men whom they may be called upon to serve.

The part that discontent plays in the lives of men engaged in train service is no small factor in influencing the running of the machinery that obtains for our railways. In every branch of service we have those of whom it may be said are chronic discontents. They are pessimists by nature and weave their doctrines in every act of their lives so to speak, until the world in its brightest colors is only seen as one bleak, desert waste full of obstacles that an unseen power has placed in their way. Luck is constantly against them. Everybody gets his share of the cream but the chronic discontent. If favors fall among his fellows or if rewards are bestowed. they never touch him. He does not understand why he, with all his experience and knowledge of executing the work should be persistently overlooked. His self-esteem is wounded and as he looks over the broad territory under the operating department he sees nothing but mismanagement on every hand. The whole system is bitterly criticised beginning with the right of way which has been surveyed around hills and over humps that two men and a boy with a fire shovel might have graded down to a level had the company used judgment when the road was built, thus saving all the doubles and extra miles traversing a pumpkin-vine, ram's horn pike that kept the men too poor to get away when once they accepted service on it. No train is made up just as it should be nor handled to his satisfaction whether it be fast stock, time freight or a light composed of only caboose and engine. A hundred things arise every trip to annoy his peace of mind whether they be

things in which he is directly interested or not. He recites his grievances to his fellows at the end of every trip, and frequently succeeds in gaining an appreciative audience down on the caboose track. He tells them in detail the incidents of the trip and berates every person from the humble dispatcher down to the one armed man who flags the crossings. He is a pestilence wherever he goes.

We do not assume that there are any who have not at times felt a feeling of discontent under certain conditions. It is inevitable that discontent must follow when conditions become a hardship. But the man of energy and tact will not long endure this. He does not seek a remedy in a tribunal that is selfconstituted and within the walls of a four wheel dog-cart that follows in the wake of a freight train nor proclaim his grievances on the street corners. Determined, businesslike methods mark his fight for better conditions. Prudence and discretion also mark his actions and words. He is a stumbling block to the hot head who wants to "annihilate the whole office force," and if concessions are gained through this same prudent man the discontent cannot see that they have been gained through the exercise of prudence but terms his brother and friend a "foxy guy" who "played 'em to a standstill."

We have "foxy guys" at the head of our government; at the head of our army and navy; at the head of our colleges; at the head of our trusts, commerce and railroads; at the head of every successful business institution in the land. They are parts of a great anatomy that

comprise a nation that is forging far ahead of every other country on the globe. The foxy guys of our railroads who meet the foxy guys in their employ are not to be buncoed by the threeshell game nor any other play, real or imaginary, in arbitrating differences. They want facts supported by the merits of the case, told in a frank, straightforward manner. Upon the merits of any case they base their judgment and decision. Upon the merit the man possesses they base his worth as an employe. Merit is the key note then of success in any connection. It will not thrive in the soil of discontent nor be found amid contention, bucking, and kindred practices in the family of discontent.

Burke Cochran in a copyrighted article in the Chicago American under the caption, "Luck Depends on One's Self," which we have permission to reproduce in part, says of merit,

All civilization is seeking the most capable men in every department of human industry.

I have never known a case of undiscovered merit, and I have never known a case where merit failed to achieve success. I have known many men gifted with great ability who failed miserably in life, but in every instance the failure arose from neglect to develop natural talent into trained capacity.

Merit cannot be overlooked, even if its possessor tried to conceal it. It is as impossible for a really meritorious man to conceal his merit as it is for a precious mineral deposit to remain undiscovered.

The human race is quick to discover that which is valuable and to utilize it. Wherever the earth contains anything of value, no matter what impediments surround it, no matter what distance may separate us from it, whether it lies beyond the frozen confines of the Northern sea or under the blinding glare of a tropical sun, thousands and tens of thousands will rush to find it-fresh recruits ever pressing forward to take the places of those whom hardships and disease have stricken down in the search.

Now the earth holds no mineral within its bosom so valuable as a skillful man upon its surface, and nothing is sought with equal ardor. The truth of this statement will become apparent on very slight reflection.

If a man intends to build a house, is he not seeking the best architect? If he

wish to engage in making chairs, tables or clothes, is he not seeking the most skillful laborers?

If he be involved in disputes with neighbors, is he not seeking the most accomplished lawyer?

If he fears danger to his health, is he not seeking the best physician?

You have but to conceive the number of persons engaged in building houses, manufacturing chairs, tables and articles of clothing, involved in disputes or threatened with pain and suffering in order to understand how many pairs of eyes are seeking capacity in every department of human endeavor.

From such a search nothing can escape. If a capable man were anchored in a diving bell at the bottom of the sea his capacity would become known, expeditions would be fitted out to discover him, to rescue him, to bring him back to labor, to usefulness, to happiness, to

success.

Therefore waste no time in vainly seeking the aid of others. You may not hope to be the very best in the pursuits you choose, but you can be among the best.

Prepare yourself, equip yourself, qualify yourself and all men will combine to establish a market for your servicesprovide theaters for your ability.

Above all, let no one excuse to himself neglect of the task at his hand by the delusion that he would be industrious if he found a more congenial occupation.

A man often tries to explain his own inefficiency by persuading himself that he is fitted for some higher field of labor.

"Here I am," he says, "doomed to obscure toil, when I am fitted by natural ability and educational equipment to direct the labor of others; condemned to pass my days adding up columns of figures, while I am capable of directing the largest financial institution in the country."

The way to reach a higher field of labor is not to neglect but to cultivate assiduously that in which you find yourself.

If a horse drawing a hansom cab believed that he was better fitted for competitions of speed on the race course than for drudgery on the highway, there are two ways in which he might attempt to change his condition.

He could proceed to trot with such vigor and power that the bystanders would perceive his merit, even if his owner failed to perceive it, or he could kick the hansom cab to pieces.

In the first case he might not succeed in reaching the race course, but he would most certainly be taken from the cab and used in some lighter vehicle,