a two-day conference on the legal minimum wage preceded the meeting of the Association, and a whole sheaf of minimum wage bills introduced by private members into the Chambers of different countries was before the delegates, together with an official measure of the French Government. To watch this change of attitude was to see international thought in the making. To appreciate its full significance, it is necessary to bear in mind the different aspects presented by the 'sweating' difficulty in this country and in the great industrial States of the Continent. The French or German social reformer sees it mainly, if no longer exclusively, as a problem of home work. Now home work in Great Britain is a by-product of a strictly limited class of industries, affecting a comparatively small class of the population; in France and Germany it forms a highly important section of the general industrial structure, it is interwoven, to an extent rarely grasped by British students, with the life, and habits, and productive power of the nation. Much more courage-and greater freedom from prejudice—was required in the one case than the other. The remarkable advance towards definite action on the part of the State in relation to the establishment of minimum rates for home workers which took place between 1906 and 1913 could not have been achieved in so short a time but for the labours of certain voluntary associations led by men of insight, candour, and indefatigable devotion. In this connexion the pioneer work of the late Comte de Mun and Professor Raoul Jay has been of inestimable value. Realizing themselves, as did few unofficial reformers, the wide nature of the movement in which they had engaged and the impossibility of confining it in its sweep and effects to a section of the manual workers, they succeeded in gradually bringing home to the ablest among their fellow-workers the necessity for closing the gulf which French mental habit had fixed

between factory and home workers and preparing to treat both classes on a similar footing of equity. In Germany, -where, as we might expect, there was less forwardness to launch unofficial schemes and a disposition to work rather from the first through authoritative channels-experiments were being made under the Home Work Act which, if of little value in themselves, seemed the earnest of much better things.

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If this result only had been attained, the meetings of the Association and the labours of the sections would not have been in vain. But far more was in process of achievement when the work of the Association was interrupted by the catastrophe of the European War. The adoption in all industrial countries of the English week', with its halfholiday so much coveted by the continental worker-the establishment of a uniform working day-the gradual introduction of the eight-hours shift into such continuous industries' as steel-smelting and glass-blowing-an international agreement to eliminate the use of lead from many branches of the pottery industry and to limit and safeguard its use in all others, these were only some among the questions which study and investigation and discussion had brought to a stage at which the Association could look upon them as fit matter for potential international conventions in August 1914. Now that its activities are, for the most part, in suspense, it is well to remember that its greatest achievement was the proof, again and again renewed, that it is possible for persons of twenty different nationalities, holding the most diverse opinions on nearly every subject under the sun, not only to act together but to find common motives of action so strong as to break down every sundering barrier of political doctrine and religious creed. Whatever of suspicion or antipathy might flourish outside the boundaries of the international association, these evil weeds have never taken root inside them.

Is it Utopian to dream, when the days of peace shall have returned, of a reconciliation within its borders for those between whom at present the great gulf of division seems hopelessly fixed ?

BOOKS FOR REFERENCE

History of Factory Legislation, Harrison and Hutchins. Macmillan. Revised edition.

Frederic Keeling, Child Labour in the United Kingdom. P. S. King. Clementina Black, Sweating. Duckworth.

R. H. Tawney, Studies in the Minimum Wage: (i) Chainmaking ; (ii) Tailoring. G. Bell & Sons.

J. A. Hobson, Work and Wealth. Macmillan.

Edward Howarth and Mona Wilson, West Ham: A Study. Dent. Sir Thomas Oliver, M.D., Dangerous Trades. John Murray. Annual Reports of International Association for Labour Legislation (British Section), 1906-14. To be obtained of the Secretary, Queen Anne's Chambers, 28 Broadway, Westminster.

Ernest Barker, Nationalism and Internationalism. C.S.U. Pamphlets, Mowbray, Oxford.

Dr. Bauer, International Legislation. Mowbray, Oxford.

Ernest Francke, 'International Labour Treaties,' Economic Journal (June, 1909). Reprinted separately, Macmillan. Albert Métin, Les Traités Ouvriers. Armand Colin: Paris.

E. Mahaim, Le Droit International Ouvrier. Librairie RecueilSirey Paris.

Fagnot, Millerand et Strohl, La Durée légale du Travail. Félix Alcan Paris.

Paul Boyaval, La Lutte contre le Sweating System. Félix Alcan: Paris.

Students might also consult the following Reports:

Le Travail à Domicile en France. Ministère du Travail : Paris. Le Travail à Domicile en Belgique. Ministère du Travail: Bruxelles.

XI

COMMON IDEALS OF SOCIAL REFORM

EARLIER ages were more able than ours to believe in the good old days. We, knowing more of the past than our forefathers did, can find in it no golden age. But our eyes do not rest even upon the present. In the nineteenth century men thought they were at the end of a process, and their evolutionary creed was often only a polite method of saying what fine fellows they were. Now we look forward. The future seems to us longer than the past and more important than the present; and we ourselves seem to be at the beginning rather than at the end of time. A knowledge of the past has made it impossible to believe that growth has stopped, and we understand how different the future may be, in part at least, by perceiving how different even this grimy and blood-stained present is from the still more inhuman past.

Among the recorded changes the Economists write of an increasing interchange of goods, and we can see as well an increasing interchange of ideas across the frontiers of States. Music, painting, literature, and science have all been influenced; and ideas concerning political, economic, and social facts have been affected by that interchange which has developed our philosophy, our science, and our art. No one nation has originated all; and each nation has depended on hints and hypotheses which have arisen in others.

But the interchange of ideas on social life has led to an increase of ideals, which are plans of action emotionally appreciated and therefore motive forces. Some of these

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are the Utopias of individual thinkers; but we shall consider here only those more powerful ideals which are shared, however vaguely, by many. In this case also, as in the purely intellectual sphere, the fire spreads from group to group, from nation to nation; and as the interchange of ideas increases knowledge, so the exchange of enthusiasm makes action more powerful. A really effective ideal, however, cannot arise except from the perception of definite evil. Vague discontents may cause such revolution as leads to reaction; but the clear sight of evil is the only source of reform. We may take it for granted, then, that although an ideal is nerveless if it is not passionate, it is futile unless it is based on knowledge. Therefore a hint must be given of the evils from the knowledge of which ideals of social reform now rise. That all is not well in the relations of man to man or of group to group must be fairly obvious to any one with imagination enough for sympathy. General dissatisfaction and universal cures for society are childish; but the perception of this and that evil gives rise to different plans for reform which all originate in the enthusiasm which is an ideal. We may put aside the long history of the growth of this shared enthusiasm for better relations between men, whatever their ability, their rank, their race, or their government.

The common ideals of the present are the result of a gradual development, but we shall consider them here. as attempts to deal with existing evils and plans for a better future.

Some social evils of the present are perhaps as old as any settled civilization. Such are disease and personal violence. Some are due to forces which have come into existence recently, owing to increased communication and accumulated wealth. Such are extreme poverty and the