all others. There is no such thing as complete and absolute independence, and it is well that it is so. Our interests are so interlaced in the loom of the Almighty that we cannot live apart if we would, and we would not if we could.

The theme which is uppermost on occasions like this is organized labor. There has been a decided advance in the cause of labor during comparatively recent years. The evolution in our industrial conditions, which is the marvel and admiration of the world, has rendered it necessary that labor should organize. Labor organizations have their origin in the instinct of self-preservation, of mutual advancement, of common good, and are as natural and legitimate as the organization of capital. In fact, the organizations of labor and capital naturally go hand in hand. The one is essentially the complement of the other.

The growth of labor organizations has been comparatively rapid, and, like all growth, has been accompanied by travail and mistakes. It is not surprising that it is so. It would, indeed, be remarkable if it were otherwise. All great movements in society, and all great undertakings in commerce, are attended by successes and failures, by victories and defeats, in the accomplishment of their purpose. The success of all great undertakings depends upon wise and courageous leadership.

Those who represent the various labor organizations are charged with important and delicate responsibilities, and it is essential that they should be men of good judgment, of forceful character and worthy of confidence. They should be men knowing the rights of labor and willing and able to assert and maintain them. They should likewise know the rights of capital and be willing and able to respect them. It is a most reassuring fact that the principal leaders of the great labor organizations today are men who have been chosen because of their sound judgment, their wisdom and their integrity of purpose. They must reason with capital, and know the measure of the rights of both

labor and capital, and how to secure a just recognition of the interests which they represent. They must possess not only the confidence of labor, but of capital as well, if they would accomplish the best results.

That labor organizations have done much to advance the cause of labor there can be no doubt. They have been earnest advocates of education, knowing full well that knowledge is real power. They have established newspapers throughout the country, intelligently devoted to the promotion of their interests. They have founded benevolences and paid millions of dollars to their membership. They have increased wages where inadequate, and secured reasonable hours of service. They have abolished or modified conditions in the sweat shops of great cities which were undermining the health and morals of the operatives. They have stood against the abuses of child labor. They have taught the necessity of the observance of contracts, knowing full well that contracts are founded in honor and are the basis of commercial success. They have increased and seek to maintain a higher morale among their membership. They are opposed to anarchy. Anarchy has no greater foe than they. They know that labor's best interests are dependent upon the maintenance of orderly and stable government.

There are more than twenty-five thousand local labor unions in the United States, with a membership of more than two millions. What infinite good can be accomplished by this mighty army of peace and industry if held true to its opportunity. Its success will depend upon the character of its leadership and upon its adherence to sound and rational principles. It must spurn those who would prostitute it to the accomplishment of mere selfish purposes or political party ends.

One of the functions of organized labor is to secure the recognition of its rights by capital through pacific means. War is destructive, and labor wars are no exception to the rule. It has seemed to me that through organized labor the misunderstandings between labor and

capital can be minimized, turbulence and disorder largely avoided, and that stable conditions may be maintained. The strike should be the last appeal and resorted to only when other means of securing proper redress have failed. This is, indeed, the fundamental theory upon which organized labor is founded.

The collisions between labor and capital have been many, and they have been destructive. During the last twenty years strikes and lockouts involved a loss to employes of $306,683,223, and to employers of $142,659,104. Many millions more have been lost to those who were not immediately involved in the strikes, but who were dependent upon the continuance of production, which was suspended. That many of these strikes were necessary there can be no doubt; that some of them were unnecessary and should have been avoided there is also no doubt.

We have wished that contests so tremendous in their results could reasonably have been avoided, and that some rational and effective method might have been devised for their settlement. The problem has been recognized as a grave and difficult one, and a satisfactory solution has been earnestly desired. Arbitration has been much discussed and sometimes invoked by mutual consent, but the difficulty of establishing an arbitral tribunal in which both interests would have absolute confidence has been generally recognized.

Compulsory arbitration has been suggested, but it has found few advocates. It is not acceptable to either interest, and wherever it has been attempted it has been abandoned, except in New Zealand, where the experiment is not proving altogether satisfactory, and has not accomplished all its authors hoped. Compulsory arbitration is regarded as an unnecessary and grievous limitation upon the freedom of both labor and capital. It reduces labor to slavery and is a menace to capital. It is destructive of free agency. The relations between these two great forces are so delicate that they are not to be governed by the rigid fiat of either the congress or the legislature.

We want no slave labor. Two million men, with their blood, wiped away slave labor forever. We want no labor, either black or white, in a virtual state of serfdom. Labor must be free, with all the prerogatives which pertain to freedom. It must be free to sell its commodity in the highest market. So capital must be likewise free to buy labor where labor desires to sell its commodity. There must be reciprocity of privilege, reciprocity of opportunity.

Labor bureaus and commissions have been established in many of the states at the instance of labor. They have done much to promote the interests of labor, and have successfully mediated many cases of difference between capital and labor.

The true solution of the questions arising between labor and capital lies in an awakened public conscience; in a thorough inculcation of the principles of fair dealing among men; in organization, and in wise, humane leadership, and in the establishment of boards of conciliation or arbitration, which are absolutely free from the polluting touch of selfish interests or political demagogues, to which the interests concerned may freely and confidently appeal.

We have hitherto found a powerful aid toward the adjustment of disputes in an intelligent and just public opinion. After all, the most powerful influence for good is an enlightened, wholesome public sentiment. There is a potency in the public conscience which is stronger than constitutions, statutes or judicial decrees. If that approve there is no wrong that will not be righted. With its approval no strike can fail; without it none can succeed. To its omnipotent fiat all must ultimately yield.

One of the most gratifying and reassuring developments of recent years has been the formation of the Civic Federation. It is composed of the representatives of both labor and capital; of men eminent for their wisdom and their sense of justice; men possessing in a marked degree the public confidence. The functions of the federation are essentially advisory. Its kindly offices may be in

voked by either labor or capital, whenever labor and capital are disagreed. It has already amply justified its creation. Although but two years old, it has composed many differences acceptably to those concerned.

Its distinguished chairman, Senator Hanna, informs us that it has failed but once to effect a settlement of the differences attempted by it, and that was in the case of the deplorable strike now in progress in the anthracite coal regions of Pennsylvania. In that case both parties did not invite the assistance of the federation. Had they done so I firmly believe that it would have effected an adjustment upon terms of entire justice, honorable alike to all the great interests now contending for the mastery.

The work of the Civic Federation will be watched with hopeful interest. That it will be successful in all cases in effecting satisfactory settlements no one believes, but there is no doubt that it will be able in many cases to point the way to a just solution of the matters in difference, and that many lockouts, strikes and contests, wasteful and destructive to both labor and capital, and embarrassing to the community, may be avoided or settled. Let us hope that we are making progress toward the substitution of some rational, peaceable method for honorably and sensibly composing the disputes which are likely to arise between these two great forces in our civilization.

Organized labor has undoubtedly done much to secure a reduction in the hours of labor. The movement for reduced hours has accomplished much that is beneficial-beneficial not only to labor, but to the community. There should certainly be some time out of each day when the toiler may have an opportunity to cultivate the home and the fireside, and to make of himself something more than a mere part of the machine with which he works. There should be a margin of each day for self-cultivation, for the improvement of the man, rather than the machine. In the end there will be a better man and better worker, and

better results to the employe, the employer and the state.

There is no greater evil than that of child labor in workshops, factories and mines. Labor organizations have done much to correct this evil in many of the states and are making commendable effort to eradicate it where there are no laws to govern it. Public attention is being sharply drawn to this crime in Southern cotton mills. A condition exists there which is intolerable and which should not be permitted to continue in an American state.

Mr. E. J. Lister, a representative of the Dry Goods Economist, has carefully examined the subject, and publishes the result of his investigations as follows:

"First-That from one-tenth to onefifth of the total number of cotton operatives are mere children.

"Second-That they work from eleven to twelve hours a day.

"Third-That they are paid from ten to fifty cents a day.

"Fourth-That boys and girls from fourteen to eighteen make from fifty cents to seventy-five cents a day.

"Fifth-That adults rarely earn over one dollar a day, and that on piecework.

"Sixth-That the children's work, though not heavy, is grinding and nerve racking.

"Seventh-That the constant buzz of whirring wheels, the high temperature and vitiated air-conditions inseperable from cottom mills-wear down the stoutest frame and strongest nerves, and the children so employed ere long lose the bright eye, healthy glow and elastic step which are the common heritage of youth.

"Eighth-That in many cases these urchins are held in hopeless bondage to their illiterate, heartless and avaricious parents.

"Ninth-That the normal order of things is, also, too often inverted, and the saddening spectacle presented of weak children supporting able-bodied parents, in lieu of parents supporting their offspring.

"Tenth-That not one out of twenty of such toilers can read and write."

The American Federation of Labor reports similar results. It is estimated that there are upwards of 22,000 children, under fourteen years of age, in the cotton mills of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina, and that nearly one-half of these children are under twelve years of age, while some of the number are not more than six years old. It is reported that some New England mill owners have been establishing factories in the states where child labor is not prohibited, in order that they may reap the unholy advantage of it.

Attempts have been made by organized labor to secure the necessary legislation in the states where this crime against humanity is unchecked, but they have been defeated by the mill owners. The defeat, however, is but temporary. No such abuse can long endure when the moral sense of the country is aroused, as it is being aroused. Mere selfishness can not long stand in the way.

It is a gratifying fact that in most of the states laws are upon the statute books which protect tender childhood from the rapacity of such as are now arousing the moral sentiment of the country in many of the cotton mills of the South. This is not a sectional question. It is an humanitarian question which knows neither section nor latitude.

Most of the countries of Europe have 'rown about childhood the protecting arm of the law. The employment of children of tender years is prohibited. The hours of work for others are carefully prescribed. A recent writer on the subject says:

"The states of the American Union, where an intense feeling of prejudice against legislation restricting or regulating labor prevails, may read the exhibit from Europe with possible shame and we hope with profit. States which send their little tots to the factories by lamplight, which consign them to long hours of poorly-requited toil, which make no provision for the education of these children, that they may lead freer and happier lives, belong in the same

class with effete Spain and semi-barbarous Roumania, and are far below the land of the czar or industrially progressive Italy."

Child labor is not wrong done alone to childhood. Society is vitally interested in the fullest possible physical, moral and intellectual development of its members, and in the end it suffers if the children who are to constitute its membership are atrophied in the essential qualities of healthy citizenship.

It is inconceivable that any legislature in the Union should refuse to prevent the flagrant abuses of child labor. Greed should not be allowed to coin the sweat of childhood and rob children of tender years of two of the richest jewels they can possess-health and education.

It has been a part of our national policy to permit the people of other countries to share with us our national blessings. Many millions have come hither to unite their fortune with ours and join in upbuilding the country. They have been in the main desirable. They have been industrious, self-sacrificing, patriotic. When the national honor has required they have stood shoulder to shoulder with the nativeborn and won enduring glory.

For many years there was no limit to our hospitality. There was no prohibition against the coming of any who desired, but in recent years we have deemed it in the national interest to exclude certain undesirable classes, among whom were contract laborers. We did not consider those desirable citizens who should be induced to come under contract to take the places of American workmen. We have not regarded it in the national interest to admit people who came under contract to labor, and not of their own initiative, to become joint sharers in the splendid privileges of our institutions.

Chinese were, until comparatively recent years, permitted freely to come and enter the field of labor. It became apparent after a few years of experience that without restriction immense numbers of the subjects of the densely-populated Chinese empire would sweep through the western gates, invade the

Pacific coast, cross the Rocky mountains down into the Mississippi valley and to the Atlantic coast, taking the places occupied or to be occupied by American workmen.

The Chinese have no ways in common with us. They are not of our religion. They can never become blended into our excellent citizenship. Acting upon the principle that our supreme duty is to our own countrymen, we closed our doors against the further admission of Chinese laborers. There were those who believed their admission wise; that thereby we would obtain abundant and cheap labor, but those who so reasoned, reasoned against our ultimate best interests.

Cheap labor is not the sole end we seek in the United States. It is our pride that this is not a cheap-labor country; that labor is better paid here than in any other country. The sentiment is proclaimed over and over again from platform and press. Cheap labor? No, we do not want cheap labor. We want well-paid labor. We desire not only well-paid labor, but want that labor steadily employed.

The currents of immigration are strongly set towards the United States. During the last ten years 3,615,163 have landed upon our shores, and during the fiscal year ending June 30 last 648,743 aliens were added to our numbers. It will be seen in one year enough arrived to found four cities as large as Kansas City; more than enough to make a city as large and populous as the great metropolis of St. Louis, and, if the present rate of immigration continues enough will be admitted in five years to make a state as great and populous as the state of Missouri. Many of the arrivale are desirable. Many of them possess the qualities which will make good citizens, and many of them give no promise that they will strengthen our institutions.

The quality of our immigration is not so good nor so desirable as it was in the earlier days. The percentage of illiteracy has increased in a marked degree. Of those admitted last year above the age of 14 years 162,188 could neither read nor write. They came chiefly from the

countries that contribute our least desirable immigrants. May we not, in the exercise of a wise national policy say to such as are not able to read or write that they shall not come to be educated at our expense, or to enter into competition with educated American labor? If they want to come and enjoy our priceless heritage, let them be better prepared to wear the robes of American citizenship. May we not justly apply a reasonable educational test? Bills have been pending in congress for some years, and have passed one or the other branches, adding to the class of aliens excluded from admission to the United States those physically capable and over sixteen years of age, who can not read or write the English language or some other language, but reasonable exceptions were made so as not to exclude such as were over fifty years of age, and whose admission should be allowed out of humanitarian considerations. The application of this slight educational test last year to those above fourteen years of age would have excluded about 160,000.

Let us not be too profligate of our opportunities. In being generous to others, let us be entirely just to ourselves, native and foreign-born alike. The quality rather than the quantity of our citizenship is the all-essential consideration. Who will say that we have not the right to exclude those who are illiterate, above a reasonable age, and who are not entitled to admission because of family considerations? Who will say that it is not our moral duty to do so? And who will deny that such exclusion is not justified in the best interests of American labor and American citizenship?

There are few subjects more worthy of our consideration than that of labor insurance. One of the most beneficent provisions in our domestic economy is insurance; life insurance, fire insurance, fidelity insurance, accident insurance and the like. The wisdom of the distribution of loss resulting from death, fire, dishonesty and accident has long been recognized. The extension of this principle to those who are dis