Many peculiar institutions illustrative of this idea may be found in Bel gium, especially in the coal, iron, and woollen districts. Most of these are voluntary in their origin, except the "Caisse de Prévoyance en faveur des Ouvriers Mineurs," which is obligatory upon every one receiv ing a mining concession. The object of this and of the numerous "Caisses particulières de Secours" is to set aside a sum equal to a certain per cent. (generally 3 per cent.) of each member's wages for provision against accidents, sickness, death, and for pensions for disabled and aged workmen. Besides these there are municipal institutions for similar purposes, such as baths, industrial, technical, day, Sunday, and night schools, and schools to educate laborers' daughters to become good and thrifty housewives, and many good and useful institutions, all voluntary in their character and chiefly supported, in many cases entirely supported, by individual manufacturing establishments for the benefit of their own laborers. The beneficiary institutions of the establishments "Société Anonyme de Marceneille et de Couillet" and Société Anonyme des Charbonnages de l'Ouest de Mons" will well repay the study and challenge the commendation of the social philosopher. Similar efforts are made by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company and other great corporations in the United States, varying only in their character. Such institutions cannot be too highly praised, and their effect is almost instantly noticeable in the morale and spirit of the workman toward his employers. They have an excellent influence, and add much to the hopefulness and cheerfulness of labor. The laborer who participates in these benefits feels that, notwithstanding the wide social gulf which separates him from his employer his employer at least cares something for him. The voluntary character of such institutions make them all the more effective. They are certainly stimulative of an active appreciation of the benefits to be derived from a more direct system of profit-sharing. It must be concluded that participation by workmen in profits in addition to wages is a true harmonizer of the interests of capital and labor. It does, in fact, identify the interest of the employé with the interest of the employer. It converts thein dustrial association of employer and employés into a moral organism in which all the various talents, services, and desires of the component individuls are fused into a community of purpose and endeavor.a

The Organization of Workmen, of Employers.Nearly all the remedies suggested under the class "industrial" might be treated under "organization." The suggested remedies other than cooperation and profit-sharing relate to checking the tendency to over-production, the manufacture of goods on demand only, less production, moré even production, the equalization of supply and demand, and the reduction of the hours of labor. It is probable that none of these features or suggested remedies can be experienced without organization, and yet ora Cf. Profit-sharing, Seventeenth Annual Report Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor.

ganization at the present day seems to constitute the chief bugbear in the public mind. The organization of capital or of the employing forces frightens the labor forces, and in return the rapid organization of labor forces frightens capital, and yet these two kinds of organization are suggested as remedies for industrial depressions, and it is probably true that much importance can be attached to the suggestions. Many manufacturers have said, in the course of this investigation, that if the employers in any industry would combine under an organization that should have positive coherence there would be no difficulty, so far as that industry is concerned, in regulating the volume of production in accordance with the demand, and that with this regulation of supply on a scientific foundation there would be no opportunity for labor troubles or depressions to occur. Such men recognize the fact of the too large supply of power machinery relative to the demand for the products of such machinery. On the other hand, workingmen almost universally are of the opinion that if they could organize on a strong, comprehensive basis, and in such a way as to preserve the coherency of their forces, they could regulate the rates of wages so that there would be uniformity and stability in their rates and uniformity in the hours of labor. If these results of the organization of employers on one hand and the organization of workmen on the other could be secured, depressions would have but little effect, either in severity or in duration. The manufacturers, so far as all the facts which can be observed indicate, are correct in their position. The workmen would be correct in their position if they embodied the amount of production in their view. This many of them do. There cannot, then, be much to fear in the complete organization of the employers on one hand and employés on the other; in fact there is great hope in such complete organization, for when organization is complete on each side, each force must treat with the other through intelligent representatives, and such treatment would result in doing away with passion, with excitement, and all that comes of the endeavor of a great body of men to treat with the proprietors individually. In addition to such a result would come the opportunity to reduce manufacturing, so far as production relative to supply is concerned, to a science. Any one great industry, under complete organization, can be regulated by all the forces acting understandingly and together, and it is only through such organization that production can be wisely regulated on the basis of necessity to supply the market. Hours of labor, through complete organization, can become uniform so far as uniformity is desirable. The rates of wages cannot be governed to a very full extent, because the rates of wages depend upon so many conflicting conditions; yet under complete organization, with the employer and employé working to one end, the success of the whole could secure far greater stability to the rates of wages and far greater stability to employment itself than can be secured under the present system, or, it might be said, under the present want of system. There

may be some theory in this consideration of what would be the resulst of complete organization, because no such complete organization exists; but the wisdom of many men, and those the most thoughtful among employers and employés, indicate the tendency of things, and these men have full faith that out of complete organization will come a better state of affairs than now exists. It was said under causes, in treating of machinery, that the workman had not yet received an equitable share of the results growing out of the free introduction of power machinery. Profit-sharing and organization of all the forces of industry would aid in securing a more just division of the profits of production, and one of the first advantages to be gained would be a reduction in the hours of labor, considered by many as the only solution for labor troubles and the great panacea for industrial depressions. Probably these ideas are extravagant as to the complete potency of a general reduction of the hours of labor, but it is certain that under the present conditions of manufacturing through the aid of machinery the hours of labor ought to be reduced, because the drafts on the human system necessary to enable machinery to be well operated is so much greater than under hand processes. The manufacturing world is doing all in its power to build up industrial schools. Evening schools are looked upon in great towns as among the chief blessings of the poor, but there is little use in the establishment of evening schools and all the auxiliaries of industrial education unless time is given for their use, and in such a way that the evening does not add to the fatigue of the day. Long hours of labor in the presence of power machinery and evening schools cannot well go hand in hand. The establishment of the hours of labor by law cannot bring any such benefit to the working masses as can come to them through a voluntary reduction of working time. Law so far, where hours of labor have been established by it, has followed the general reduction and not preceded it. The law has been the reflection of the public sentiment which said that the old time was too long. Under complete organization of labor and capital, as represented by the proprietor and the employés, the hours of labor could be adjusted on a basis far more satisfactory than by law.

Another benefit of such complete organization would be the enlargement of the freedom of contract. Much is said of the freedom of contract; that the workman has the same power to make contracts for his labor as the merchant has for the sale of his goods. This idea is purely fallacious, for the merchant need not sell his goods to-day, while the workman must his labor, and he is, as a rule, at the mercy of the purchaser instead of being free to keep his labor if he cannot get his price. These are some of the features which would result, it is thought, from the fullest organization of the forces of industry, and it must be admitted by all that the results are to be desired.

The value of a sliding scale of wages, adjusted to meet the market price of products, has often been suggested as a remedy for disagree

ments as to rates of wages. Such a scale requires not only great intelligence to adjust it, but excellent moral attributes to enable both sides to abide by it. Whatever of value there is in the adoption of a sliding scale, and there is undoubtedly virtue in such a measure, would result in the highest benefits of which it is capable under such complete organization as that indicated.

Quality as well as quantity would be an element affected by thorough organization, and the community at large would reap a benefit equal to that brought to the workman and to the capitalist. The constant division of labor, as it has grown through the past century on the one hand, has stimulated the combination of industrial forces on the other, and this combination, resulting from the still finer subdivision of labor, may be confidently expected in the future.

There is no contest between labor and capital, nor between the laborer and capitalist as such, but there is a contest between the latter as to the profits of capital and wages of labor, or, in simple terms, as to the profits each shall receive for his respective investment, and this contest will continue so long as the purely wage system lasts. It is absurd to say that the interests of capital and labor are identical. They are no more identical than the interests of the buyer and seller. They are, however, reciprocal, and the intelligent, comprehension of this reciprocal element can only be brought into the fullest play by the most complete organization, so that each party shall feel that he is an integral part of the whole working establishment.

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CHAPTER V.

SUMMARY.

The endeavor throughout this report has been to present facts truthfully and fairly as brought to the attention of the Bureau through its original investigation, and to present the spirit of the testimony offered, fearlessly and impartially. It is therefore fitting that the treatment of the subject of industrial depressions, but more especially of the present industrial depression, should be summarized, that the reader may have whatever benefit accrues to one in the closest contact with the whole material collected.

Contemporaneousness and Severity of Depressions. It has been clearly shown that the depressions of the past in the manufacturing nations of the world have been nearly or quite contemporaneous in their occurrence. Summarized as to dates, the following table is deduced:

As to the severity of the present industrial depression and its duration, it can safely be asserted that the depression commenced early in 1882 and has continued until the present time. From the time the agents of the Bureau entered the field in prosecuting their investigations to the time they left it, a period of five or six months, there had been a marked change in the condition of business. At the present time (March, 1886), the effects of the depression are wearing away, and all the indications are that prosperity is slowly, gradually, but safely returning. The extent of the depression has not been so great as the popular mind has conceived it. An industrial depression is a mental and moral malady which seizes the public mind after the first influences of the depression are materially or physically felt. Falling prices, or any of the other influential causes by which an industrial depression is inaugurated, create apprehensiveness on the part of all classes, and the result is that the depression is aggravated in all its features. The severity of the present depression, while real and tangible, should be

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