pressed or degraded condition of the la borers; they point rather to the fact that the laborers have become so far emancipated from their earlier lot as to be able to direct their attention to a better state, and strug gle for its attainment. The workman in Mexico or Egypt, on the other hand, who dares not look up from his task lest he miss his scanty daily sustenance, makes little noise or contention in the world. He is absorbed in his immediate work, and his actual plans do not reach much beyond. his meagre supper and the following rest of the night. In general, it may be said that the sounds of discontent come not from those countries where the laborers are still least prosperous and feel most the heavy hand of their employers, but from the countries of the most advanced civilization, where the industrial classes have attained the most favorable standing. Under the hard conditions of the least favored nations, with few rewards and no prospects, the laborer sees nothing before him to stimu late him to revolt against his fate. But when in the course of time his circum

stances have become more favorable and he is able to look about him and before him, he catches glimpses of a condition which he would strive to attain. Then it is that discontent with his lot appears; and this discontent will last as long as he sees before him some better state yet unattained but attainable. From this point of view the progress of the bulk of a nation illus trates the general progress of social enlightenment. With every step forward, whether in the case of an individual, or of a class, or of society at large, there are revealed attractive positions still further on; and it is the view of these that arouses discontent with the present; it is the view of these more attractive positions yet unattained that makes the world move. The upward movement in the progress of society is not towards completer contentment, but towards more perfect activity.

If one would know the condition of the majority of the people of the progressive nations at the close of this restless century, he must cast a glance over their history; and when he does this he will find that

they have risen from dependent and servile positions to be both independent and free. In the very early phases of society they were essentially slaves, and in all respects. were subject to the will of masters. Here the clearly recognized relation was that of inferior and superior. The first step which the workman took upward from this lowest position was to the status of a mediæval serf. Yet even after this change one industrial class held a position of recognized superiority over the other, and felt itself charged with the protection of the persons below it; while these, in turn, acknowl edged their subordination and dependence. From this position the laborer in modern times has moved forward over two impor tant stages. By the first advance he became a free man under an individual personal employer; by the second he became the subject of an industrial or commercial corporation.

At first, under the complete superiority of the master, the slave was immediately dependent on his superior, not only for his daily food and clothing, but also for the

privilege of life. Later the master's power to impose the extreme penalty on his slaves fell and was taken up in the power away, of the political sovereign; and thus, one by one, the acknowledged prerogatives of the master or employer were cut off, until in the beginning of this century, in the more enlightened states of the world, the workman stood as a free man in relation to the employer for whom he worked. But the relation between them still continued to be a personal one. The workmen relied somewhat on the good-will of their superior, and the employer acknowledged still a certain moral obligation to hold towards his workmen a kind of paternal attitude, an attitude implying something more than merely the pecuniary obligation of a specific contract.

The second stage in the modern progress of the working classes carries us over important phases of the great industrial and commercial revolution of our times. The most significant feature of this revolution, with reference to the relation of employee to employer, is the transition from personal

to corporate industry. The introduction of the machinery which followed the idea of using steam as a motor, gave beginning to this transition. It produced important new industries, and also made it profitable to aggregate existing industries into large establishments; in other words, it gave a decided advantage to production on a large scale. But this involved greater risks than any individual person was willing to assume; it involved, moreover, greater accumulations of capital than single private persons could furnish. Commercial and industrial corporations became, therefore, in one sense necessary. They became necessary as a means, where the end was the greatest possible economic advantage in production. The superior profits of business on a large scale was the force which called them into existence; and they have already in large measure occupied the field. The old industrial and commercial organization is giving way to a new organization, in which the personal employer disappears and the laborers find themselves in new and strange relations. They find themselves