mand the support of all thoughtful citizens. As is natural, it lays great stress upon the value of trade-union organization and opposes any interference with its complete control of industry. It regards low consumption as the primary cause of unemployment and advocates increased wages as a means of terminating unemployment and leading to increased consumption. It finds the principle of providing employment for idle workmen on public work as an expedient at best, and one which will not permanently remove the cause of unemployment. It contends for increase in wages, reduction in hours of labor and protection against child labor. It advocates cooperation between producers, as securing higher prices for their products, and yet placing these in the consumers' hands at lower prices than they would otherwise command, upon the theory that the middleman and his profit thereby will be eliminated. It yields to the ignis fatuus of government ownership and operation, declaring that "public and semi-public utilities should be owned, operated or regulated by the government in the interest of the public," including all wharves and docks connected with public harbors among those utilities and also advocates the development of the American merchant marine under government control; recommends the future enactment of legislation providing that the governments, federal and state, should own, develop and operate all water-power over which they have jurisdiction, supplying the power thus generated to all citizens at rates based upon cost. It advocates, through graduated taxation, measures preventing large tracts of useable land from falling into private ownership and enactments whereby tenant farmers or others may " purchase land upon the lowest rate of interest and most favorable terms consistent with safety, and so safeguarded by governmental supervision and regulation as to give the fullest and freest opportunity for the development of land-owning agriculturists".

Closer control over corporate organization and activity is urged and the restriction of immigration, so that its flow shall at no time exceed the nation's ability to assimilate and Americanize the foreigners coming to our shores, nor permit it at any time when there exists an abnormal degree of unemployment. Better housing of workers is to be attained through a governmental system of building model homes,

under a system of purchase by which the workers may borrow money at the lowest rate of interest and under favorable terms to build their own homes.

Perhaps the most conservative recommendation is that concerning taxation, reading as follows:

One of the Nation's most valuable assets is the initiative, energetic, constructive and inventive genius of its people. These qualities when properly applied should be fostered and protected instead of being hampered by legislation, for they constitute an invaluable element of progress and material development. Taxation should, therefore, rest as lightly as possible upon constructive enterprise. Taxation should provide for full contribution from wealth by a tax upon profits which will not discourage industrial or commercial enterprise. There should be provided a progressive increase in taxes upon incomes, inheritances, and upon land values of such a nature as to render it unprofitable to hold land without putting it to use, to afford a transition to greater economic equality and to supply means of liquidating the national indebtedness growing out of the war.

The need of education for all the people is declared, and large standing armies, or the use of militia during industrial disputes, while the courts are open and the civil authorities competent to maintain the supremacy of the civil law, is opposed.

A provision which is greatly to be regretted is that respecting" the people's final voice in legislation." This declares that an insuperable obstacle to self-government in the United States exists in the power which has been gradually assumed by the Supreme Courts of the Federal and State Governments to declare legislation null and void upon the ground that, in the court's opinion, it is unconstitutional.

The statement that this power has been gradually assumed by the courts historically is untrue. The right and duty of the judiciary to pass upon the constitutionality of legislation has been continuously asserted and enforced from the foundation of the government to the present day. It is the one function which distinguishes American self-government from the pretenses of democracy in many other so-called republics. Written constitutions are adopted for the protection of the individual citizen and of minorities against the tyranny of majorities. When the Declaration of Independence declared that all men are born with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, it adopted a

philosophy which required government to be organized so as to protect every citizen in the enjoyment of those inalienable rights. Hence, written constitutions were established under which legislatures and executives are restricted in their action. To secure against the overriding of these limitations of power, jurisdiction was conferred upon courts to act as referee or umpire in determining when legislative action violates the rights secured in the Constitution to all the people, in the interests of some of the people. It is always open to the people to change their constitution, if they desire, in the method prescribed for its amendment. The suggestion in the Federation's program that "the people acting directly or through congress or state legislatures should have final authority in determining which law shall be enacted," strikes at the fundamental principle of American institutions, and threatens the continued existence of those rights, to secure which the government exists.

In this same program, it is declared that the very life and perpetuity of free and democratic institutions are dependent upon the freedom of speech, of the press and of assemblage and association"; and it is insisted "that all restrictions of freedom of speech, press, public assembly, association and travel be completely removed, individuals and groups being responsible for their utterances". The rights of free speech, of free press, and of the people freely to assemble and petition for redress of grievances, are among those secured by the Constitution. They cannot exist at all, if they are subject to constant interference by the legislatures and popular referendums. Nor is it true that those rights, even in theory are wholly unrestricted. There is, for example, no right to incite to the overthrow of government, and we are being taught by current events that inflammatory utterances against established government inevitably lead to acts of violence and destruction of life and property, and that prevention in this respect is of more importance than punishment. Punishment cannot fully protect the community in the enjoyment of peaceful, normal and regulated life. In the interests of the peace of the nation, inciters to the overthrow of all civilized order and advocates of the use of the torch and the bomb, must not be allowed to preach their subversive doctrines unchecked, upon the theory that

their arguments will fall upon deaf ears, or that if some unbalanced mind is led to put their teachings into practical application, his punishment will deter others from following his example.

A fallacy also is involved in the unqualified declaration contained in this same program, that "the right to bear arms is a fundamental principle of our government, a principle accepted at all times by free people as essential to the maintenance of their liberties and institutions. We demand that this right shall remain inviolate." Experience has shown that the right to bear arms, like other rights, requires regulation in the interests of the safety and welfare of organized society, and that there can be no vested right in the anarchist to carry under his coat the incendiary bomb or the bludgeon. There is so much that is admirable in the program commented upon, that it is to be regretted that it is marred with the advocacy of principles which are fundamentally incompatible with those which constitute the foundation-stones of American institutions.

A farmers' program of reconstruction

The agricultural interests of America also have formulated their ideas of future progress. A farmers' National Conference on Reconstruction was held in Washington, D. C., in January last, which was attended by representatives of state grangers, state farmers' unions, the American Society of Equity, the Ancient Order of Gleaners, the National NonPartisan League and a number of smaller organizations, at which a program for economic reconstruction in American and for international reconstruction was unanimously adopted. As was natural, it laid stress upon methods of securing employment in agriculture for returning soldiers and sailors, and adopted a declaration of certain principles which it regarded essential to the successful prevention of future war among which are the following:

(1) Recognition of the common interests of the working people of all countries regardless of the form of political government under which they live.

(2) International control over international trade and international investment.

(3) Freedom of production and uniform and equal free exchange between all peoples.

(7) Complete and direct control by the peoples of every established country of their own government.

(8) Unrestricted passage for legitimate commerce over land and sea.

(9) War must be made democratic by the agreement of all nations to declare war only by the majority vote of all, men and women.

It also declared for

living wages to those engaged in industry, commerce, trade, mining, railroading, and in all other legitimate activities as of direct benefit to farmers because they increase the purchasing power of those so engaged, and not only increase the efficiency of those workers, but provide the most economic and advantageous market for farm products-a home market.

Proposed international labor bureau and annual Conference A consideration of these various recommendations of the organizations of the workers in England, France and America, will afford a better appreciation of the meaning and effect of the provisions contained in the Convention, creating a permanent organization for the promotion of the international regulation of labor conditions, which has been adopted as a part of the treaty of peace by the Paris Conference.

Article XXIII of the amended peace Covenant declares:

Subject to and in accordance with the provisions of international conventions existing or hereafter to be agreed upon, the members of the League (a) will endeavor to secure and maintain fair and humane conditions of labor for men, women and children both in their own countries and in all countries to which their commercial and industrial relations extend, and for that purpose will establish and maintain the necessary industrial organizations...

It was with such an end in view, that the Peace Conference, on January 31st, appointed a commission

to inquire into the conditions of employment from the international aspect, and to consider the international means necessary to secure common action on matters affecting conditions of employment, and to recommend the form of a permanent agency to continue such inquiry and consideration in cooperation with and under the direction of the League of Nations.

Organizations of labor in different countries have come more and more to realize that high wages and opportunity for advancement in one country serve to stimulate immigration from countries where conditions are less favorable. The great influx of cheap labor from Europe into America in the past operated to keep down wages and to retard improvement in conditions under which men, women and children were employed in industry in the New World.