in accordance with the recommendation to be made by the International Labor Conference as to their practical application:

1. In right and in fact the labor of a human being should not be treated as merchandise or an article of commerce.

2. Employers and workers should be allowed the right of association for all lawful purposes.

3. No child should be permitted to be employed in industry or commerce before the age of fourteen years, in order that every child may be insured reasonable opportunities for mental and physical education.

Between the years of fourteen and eighteen, young persons of either sex may only be employed on work which is not harmful to their physical development and on condition that the continuation of their technical or general education is insured.

4. Every worker has a right to a wage adequate to maintain a reasonable standard of life having regard to the civilization of his time and country.

5. Equal pay should be given to women and to men for work of equal value in quantity and quality.

6. A weekly rest, including Sunday, or its equivalent for all workers. 7. Limitation of the hours of work in industry on the basis of eight hours a day or forty-eight hours a week, subject to an exception for countries in which climatic conditions, the imperfect development of industrial organization or other special circumstances render the industrial efficiency of the workers substantially different.

The International Labor Conference will recommend a basis approximately equivalent to the above for adoption in such countries.

8. In all matters concerning their status as workers and social insurance foreign workmen lawfully admitted to any country and their families should be insured the same treatment as the nationals of that country.

9. All States should institute a system of inspection in which women should take part, in order to insure the enforcement of the laws and regulations for the protection of the workers.

Voted by Plenary Session.

They were altered by the Peace Conference itself in the fifth plenary session on April 19:

Mr. BARNES said it would be remembered that there was embodied in the report of the Labor Commission a reference to nine resolutions which the Commission had adopted, each one of which was accorded two-thirds of a majority vote. It was intended to have dealt with them at the last plenary session, but they were not reached. Difficulties had arisen even

then, and were developed later on in regard to the draft. He endeavored. on behalf of the Labor Commission, to get an agreement on a re-draft, but he was sorry to say that he was unsuccessful. Sir Robert Borden was more successful, and he [Sir Robert] was going to submit them now.

Sir ROBERT BORDEN (Canada) read the amended text, which he now moved as an amendment to that originally proposed:

The High Contracting Parties, recognizing that the well-being, physical, moral and intellectual, of industrial wage-earners is of supreme international importance, have framed a permanent machinery associated with that of the League of Nations to further this great end.

They recognize that differences of climate, habits and customs, of economic opportunity and industrial tradition, make strict uniformity in the conditions of labor difficult of immediate attainment. But, holding as they do that labor should not be regarded merely as an article of commerce, they think that there are methods and principles for regulating labor conditions which all industrial communities should endeavor to apply, so far as their special circumstances will permit.

Among these methods and principles the following seem to the High Contracting Parties to be of special and urgent importance:

First. The guiding principle above enunciated, that labor should not be regarded merely as a commodity or article of commerce.

Second. The right of association for all lawful purposes by the employed as well as by the employers.

Third. The payment to the employed of a wage adequate to maintain a reasonable standard of life, as this is understood in their time and country.

Fourth. The adoption of an eight-hours' day or 8 48-hours' week as the standard to be aimed at where it has not already been attained.

Fifth. The adoption of a weekly rest of at least 24 hours, which should include Sunday wherever practicable.

Sixth. The abolition of child labor and the imposition of such limitations on the labor of young persons as shall permit the continuation of their education and assure their proper physical development.

Seventh. The principle that men and women should receive equal remuneration for work of equal value.

Eighth. The standard set by law in each country with respect to the conditions of labor should have due regard to the equitable economic treatment of all workers lawfully resident therein.

Ninth.-Each state should make provision for a system of inspection, in which women should take part, in order to insure the enforcement of the laws and regulations for the protection of the employed.

Without claiming that these methods and principles are either complete or final, the High Contracting Parties are of opinion that they are well

fitted to guide the policy of the League of Nations; and that, if adopted by the industrial communities who are members of the League, and safeguarded in practice by an adequate system of such inspection, they will confer lasting benefits upon the wage-earners of the world.

Sir ROBERT BORDEN added that these represented no alterations in substance. There was, however, a new arrangement, and the phraseology had been somewhat altered. For example, the difference of conditions among different nations, which was alluded to in paragraph 7 of the articles as originally drafted, was now recognized as a condition which must apply to all the principles here laid down.

Further than that it was thought that it was not possible to establish a code which should be permanent or enduring, and in the new draft emphasis was laid upon the view that this was an enunciation of principles upon which from time to time, if need be, a code might be built up.

In the concluding paragraph emphasis was laid upon the consideration that these methods and principles were not to be regarded as complete or final. It was quite impossible to foresee all developments and all ideals that might arise in the future, and therefore this was put forward as a tentative enunciation of principles which it was believed would result, if they were followed out as they should be, in the improvement of labor conditions throughout the world.

M. VANDERVELDE (Belgium) said he would have preferred the text as drafted by the Commission because it was more definite, but, as we desired to secure unanimity among 32 different nations, some softening of the language at the expense perhaps of making it a little less definite, was unavoidable, and it was necessary to accept it.

Sir ROBERT BORDEN'S motion was carried.

The session was declared adjourned at 5:40 p. m.

In that form they appear in Article 427 of the Treaty of Peace with Germany.

V. PEACE CONFERENCE ADOPTS TEXT FOR TREATY.

The work of the Commission as completed and reported on March 24 was approved at the fourth plenary session of the Peace Conference on April 11. The proceedings at that time constitute an important statement of the intentions of those who framed this section of the Treaty and also afford evidence of the manner in which the Commission's work was received at the outset by responsible statesmen. The proceedings in extenso follow:

After introductory remarks by the President, Mr. BARNES (British Empire): We have issued, along with our report, two separate and distinct drafts, one being the text of a scheme of international organization, the other a collection of nine resolutions for insertion in the Peace Treaty, or to be issued therewith. Before dealing with the documents, however, perhaps I may be allowed to say a few words in regard to our conception of the task intrusted to us.

First of all, I want to say that we approached our work, as I am sure you would have had us do, in a sympathetic spirit and from a humane standpoint. Some of us knew our labor world at first hand, and we knew that there were many in it condemned to lives of toil relieved only by spells of compulsory idleness. In the old times, before the war, labor conditions were largely the outcome of blind chance. Age and want, that ill-matched pair, haunted the mind of the average workman in his working life, and we must remember that the laborer still lives in pre-war memories and is determined not to return to pre-war conditions. Those pre-war experiences of labor have laid upon the world a heavy burden and a great danger. They have produced a man who is class-centered, who regards work as a blessing and who has been deluded into the belief that the less work he does the more there is left for his mates to do. This feeling, and the practice based upon it, is demoralizing to the individual and harmful to the community, but it is based on the fear of want, and can be eradicated only by security of employment under improved conditions.

In saying that, I am not casting stones at any class for existing conditions—it has not been conscious of cruelty-but rather the long arm of circumstance that has cast a devil's chain around the lives of some workers in some countries. I do not deny that some may rise to share in the pleasure of life, but, nevertheless, it is true to say that the mass remain a misfit in their present condition, a source of concern to all lovers of their kind and a menace to the peace of the world.

Integral Part of Conference.

It is this last aspect of the matter which makes labor regulations and improvement an integral part of the work of a Peace Conference. The question we had, therefore, to consider was how to provide the means whereby to promote a better mental atmosphere, as well as to produce improved material conditions.

Hitherto, it has sometimes been found that efforts at improvement in a country have been checked by the fear, or the plea, of competition from other low-wage countries. I do not enter into the question as to the validity of that plea, although in parentheses it may here be said that the highest-wage countries are not the least successful in world competition. I merely mention it as a factor in sometimes preventing improvements in countries of a relatively high standard of life.

For the first time in history, we are now seeking to get the co-operation of all concerned. States, employers and workers engaged in a common cause and animated by a common desire to raise the standard of life everywhere.

At the threshold of our proceedings, however, we were met by two real obstacles-first, the difference in industrial development as between countries; and second, the limitations of states in regard to acceptance of international decrees. We had perforce to give up the idea of uniformity of coercion, and to rely mainly on the good will of states to accept or reject advice and guidance as might be decided by their own competent authorities. I freely confess that at one time I was in favor of penalties. Closer inspection, however, led me to the conclusion that penalties must be kept well in the background, and imposed then only through the agency and with the authority of the League of Nations. That provision is now embodied in our organization. But, while my mind was driven from one channel, it was at the same time attracted to the possibility of another. Publicity and agreement presented themselves in clearer and better colors. After all, it is not coercion which is needed, so much as knowledge and good will.

We have, therefore, provided for conferences of states, employers and workers to be held in the light of day, to be representative of all concerned, and to be armed with the fullest possible information. It will be the business of the organization which we propose to establish to collect and distribute information, to stimulate healthy public opinion, and to let light into dark places, wherever such may be found to exist. This, then, may be said to be the fundamental, and as we believe the effective, idea in our organization, the creation and mobilization of humane public opinion.