South African campaigns, who "prick up their ears at the word 'war'." Some go for yet grimmer reasons. There was in Chicago a man, fifty-four years old, formerly a sergeant in the English army, when the war broke out an artisan earning something like $100 a month, with a family dependent on him. His oldest son went back at the beginning of the war, serving in the cavalry. During a battle he was thrown from his horse and the reins twisted about his arm forming a tourniquet. The story brought back by his comrades, and believed by his kindred, was that a German officer riding up said, "At least that arm will never do any more work," and with a sword-stroke cut it off. When this word came to the father, he straightway left his work and his family and went back to "get a few of them." Some of those who are interested in the English families feel regret that so many men with dependents have gone back when there are unmarried men still here. Many of those who went were, of course, business and professional men whose families had sufficient resources, but, as has been said, 350 families are now receiving allowances from the British consulate in New York. Any woman who wishes an allow ance may apply for it to the consul, bringing papers to prove that her husband is really fighting. Evidence is required, also, that the family was in fact dependent on the man at the time he left. For instance, women who were deserted some time before sometimes come to claim their allowance when they hear that the man has joined the army. In such cases assistance is refused. The officials recognize that the allowances so far have been inadequate, but if the increases which went into effect in England on June 1 apply to families here also, the situation will be far more satisfactory. The families also receive help from various private societies, the English from St. George's Society, the Scotch from St. Andrew's, the Irish from the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. For example, 100 to 150 of these families have received some help from St. George's Society, in addition to the government allowance. Sometimes this merely tided them over the two or three months that usually elapse before they receive the government allowance; sometimes it supplemented the allow ance. No regular amount is given the families, but when special crises occur, they can come to the office of St. George's Society for special help, money or medical care or whatever else may seem necessary. In addition, a good many families who had relatives in England have been sent back there. A special "war fund" has been raised by St. George's Society for this purpose and about $1,500 was given from it last year. Incidentally, it is interesting to know that this society was organized before the revolution and reorganized in 1786 for the care of English families in distress. The Canadian Club of New York is caring for the families of all Canadians. here on the same basis as the Canadian Patriotic Fund. The English consulate has already had to face the problem of the care of the returning soldier. Some of the soldiers have been held up at Ellis Island, as they return without resources, suffering from wounds and shock. One of the consulate staff then goes over and stands sponsor for them. Perhaps this, too, will be different, now we are "in." (It is strange how that one little word is the symbol of our whole new attitude toward the old world and its war, now ours.) They have a small fund which is used to tide these men over while they help them get jobs, necessary surgical appliances, etc. This work is described very briefly at the consul's office, but one does get a sense of the understanding welcome that the men receive and the help extended in getting through the difficult process of readjustment. Much of this money. is later refunded, "so you can help some other fellow through." The French and Belgians THE problem of the care of families of Belgian reservists is not, of course, a large one. About 180 soldiers have gone back from New York, but only forty-five families are receiving government allowances through the Belgian consulate. Moreover, all but a very few of these are fairly well-to-do families who really do not need the allowance, some of them even sending it on to the soldier at the front for his own use. The family heads are many of them business or professional men; others have been making good use of the skill which they had acquired in the old country, diamond-cutting, in New York, or raising endive on farms in Michigan. son. The allowance itself is very small; one franc and twentyfive centimes per day for the wife, and fifty centimes a day for each child under sixteen. Mothers and fathers receive one franc and twenty-five centimes a day if they have one son at the front and sixty centimes a day for each additional These allowances are obviously inadequate for the support of a family here. In cases of need they have been supplemented by the Belgium Bureau, a society in existence. before the war, which has a special fund for reservists' families. This money has come both from wealthy Belgians and from Americans, and while there has been a recent falling off in the number of such contributions, they are still able to give whatever is necessary to the individual families. One of the finest pieces of war-relief work being done here is among the French families. Their care has been entirely in the hands of the French Benevolent Society, through whose office the government allowance has been paid. This allowance is supplemented from the funds of the French Benevolent Society with a genuine effort to adapt these gifts to the needs of individual families. The society generally gives, however, $3 a month and also pays for the depreciation in the value of the allowance caused by the rate of exchange, so that a woman who is to receive sixty francs will get $12. The allowance is sent by check each month, with a receipt and return envelope accompanying it. Visits are paid to the families at intervals by the social-service nurse of the French Benevolent Hospital. The hospital has provided also free medical care in the home, the clinic and the hospital for all who need it, especially in confinement cases. At first, out of a desire to shelter from anxiety women who had given so much, the French Benevolent Society assured the applicants that their needs would be entirely provided for. Soon, however, the society came to realize that, in view of the anxious state of mind of the women, it would be wiser from the start to encourage them to make some effort to help themselves, instead of trying to worry along on a greatly reduced income. Nevertheless, many of the women whose husbands went to the front had never done any work outside their homes. Many of their husbands were skilled artisans or clerks and had earned $75 to $100 a month. The women were crushed by the sudden disaster, overwhelmed with loneliness, so that it took tact and patience and skill to open up opportunities whereby they might contribute to their own necessities. One young woman who had just moved into a $100-a-month apartment took humbler quarters and was sent pupils in French. Another was helped by the women of the committee to get the laundering of the finest lingerie blouses. For these she could charge a good sum. Another who had not worked outside her home for a good many years was found a position as cook and is now earning $60 a month. Others were helped to work up little businesses, caring for the apartments of "bachelor girls" and making $15 to $18 a week. Some became seamstresses. Then, of course, there were the less skilled who did ordinary day's work. The women were further handicapped by their inability to speak English. One woman who had been here twenty-seven years and was a competent worker could only seek employment within walking distance of her home, because she could not, or would not, learn to say "Tenth avenue car." Those who had little children were not, of course, expected to work regularly. If there were not too many children they did part-time work and put the children in the French day nursery and kindergarten, the French Benevolent Society paying the fee. If there were a good many children, other plans were made. A special committee provided shirts and pajamas for women to make at home, paying them fifty cents for the latter and thirty cents for the former, so that they were enabled to earn $3 to $5 a week. Sometimes the committee would arrange for two families to live together, one mother caring for all the children and sewing at home, the other taking a job outside the home. Thus, with government allowances and some help from the private funds of the French Benevolent Society, the families of the French reservists have been managing. At first it was hard to persuade some of them to take up work, but little by little the enthusiasm for independence, for bearing a share of France's burden, has grown. Now there is hardly a woman who is not earning something. It has meant, however, very careful work on the part of the committee to overcome initial hesitancies, to learn the real possibilities of the individual women and to organize employment opportunities. Altogether between 800 and 1,000 positions have been secured for these women. The experiences of this committee should be of value to social workers who are charged with the responsibility of caring for the families of our own soldiers. Two of the most active members of the committee had served as members of a district committee of the New York Charity Organization Society and brought the results of that experience into this new wartime activity. Altogether $239,000 has been spent in government allowances and $60,000 in private relief funds. A few families have been sent back, but only when, because of age, the number of little children, or for some other reason, it has seemed impossible for them ever to become adjusted to conditions here so that they could at least partially support themselves. For every village in France has its community kitchen, where one can get a big bowl of stew for two or three cents, and a common coal-bin, where one can buy at cost. So, in France, too, a $3-a-week government allowance makes life possible as it does not here. Yet in that Thirty-fourth street center in New York, also, one feels that there must be for these women a real sense of home, of personal interest and devotion, something which indeed outweighs in value the government allowance which they receive, essential as that is. It is certainly a difficult problem with which the Italian consulate is wrestling, as one realizes after a visit there on the morning, once a month, when the pensions are paid. A very beautiful woman of noble type, with dark hair and worn face, sat beside the vice-consul's desk, telling of the death of one of her fourteen-months-old twins. The other child was in her arms. She had received an allowance of $27 a month from the government and the Italian Red Cross for herself and her five children, but this would now be reduced probably to $23. She was granted an extra allowance of $10 toward the baby's funeral expenses. Another woman, rosy-cheeked, with red-gold hair, carried a little child with the same gold in its tight curls. She told us that she received $15 a month for herself and her two children and earned $3 to $3.50 a week, besides "finishing" at home. All the women stood in a big waiting-room until they were called and then, standing in line, went up to the desk to receive the monthly allowance, at one window from the government and at the next from the Italian Red Cross. One felt everywhere the happy, kindly spirit of our southern allies, and there was evident a genuine solicitude for their welfare on the part of the staff in the office. But the latter recognize quite frankly the difficulty of acting intelligently; of knowing how much to give to the individual family; of helping to solve the problem of individual families. In addition to the 800 families of Italian reservists in New York city, there are 300 in the New York district, including Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey. The Italian Red Cross only helps the families in New York city. At the present time the government allowances amount to about $5,000 every four weeks and the Red Cross about half that. The Red Cross has spent altogether only $12,000 or $13,000 since the war begun. But they proved to be unreliable and lazy. The young woman, who was an expert sewer, could have earned $8 or $9 a week in the factory while her mother cared for the children, but this she refused to do. The man, moreover, was on the police force in Italy, not at the front. He wanted her to come over where he could care for her, but she refused to go. Consequently, while the government allowance continued, the help from the Italian Red Cross was withdrawn. In contrast, take another family which was receiving help from the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities as well as the Italian government and the Red Cross. This woman had five children when her husband went back in July, 1915, and was expecting another. He had been here seventeen years, but was not a citizen. The consul promised to give his family $12 a week, but after two payments he had to decrease this amount. At the end of three months they were getting only $6 a week and in March, 1916, only $3 a week. From that time on the wife received $14 a month regularly from the consul and irregular help from the Italian Red Cross. The Bureau of Charities tried to arrange for the mother to have hospital care in her confinement, but she refused to accept it. There was a decided discrepancy between her income and her normal expenditures: The bureau, therefore, gave her an additional allowance of $5.50 a week. The first time the visitor carried the money to the family, the aged father's eyes filled with tears and he said that they could not realize what it meant to have this regular weekly gift. This spring, however, so our points of view change, Mrs. X. is again asking to commit her children because her income is not adequate. There is, of course, no doubt that the problems faced by the French and Italian organizations are very different. The French had a well-established private relief agency, whose secretary had been for years accumulating experience in dealing with French families in distress. Moreover, the group of agencies-hospital, day nurseries, etc.—was a center where the French families would naturally turn for assistance and to which the consul could also delegate this responsibility. Moreover, they were dealing with a group of frugal women, who had the skill to achieve economic independence, in so far as it was wise for them to do so, with some outside For a guidance. On the other hand, no matter how competent a committee, its members would find it very difficult to secure well-paid work for Italian women, who are largely untrained, though they probably need such guidance even more. Most The Italian Red Cross has one investigator; the consulate none. This investigator visits all families before the Red Cross begins to help, but obviously can make no attempt to keep in touch regularly with them, except as the women come for their money. As a result, probably some families are receiving money who could get on without it; while others do not receive enough to enable them to maintain proper standards. I heard of one young Italian woman whose husband has gone back as a reservist and who lives with her widowed mother. The latter has two children, sixteen and twelve; the former three, three, two and one year of age. time they received $11 a month from the consul and $9 a month from the Red Cross for the daughter and $5 a month for the mother. They also received $20 from a special fund. of them are apparently supplementing their allowances by doing finishing at home, of course the most poorly paid and unsatisfactory form of woman's work. It has not so far been possible for me to study extensively the problem outside of New York city. It is probable that only in the few large cities is there any private society to supplement the government allowances, but that in the smaller communities there are usually few reservists to whom fellow countrymen probably give kindly, generous assistance. For instance, in Newark there are only twenty-six Italian families receiving government allowances. When a family is in particular distress it writes to the consulate in New York and a special additional allowance may be given. Only among the French was any attempt made to visit families outside the city from the office here. They occasionally send They occasionally send the social service nurse to nearby cities, especially to see that families have needed medical care. Baltimore sent 900 Italian reservists, but they were almost all single men, and only three families in that city are receiving the government allowance. There is no private Italian society which might assume responsibility for the families if the need were greater. Three French families receive government allowances, and the French Benevolent Society is prepared to interest itself in any families of their soldiers. The general attitude of the charitable agencies in New York, at the beginning of the war, was that if a foreign government was calling its men back to fight it must bear the expense of maintaining their families here and this attitude, which was probably a logical one, has been adhered to. That in the main the families have managed after a fashion is shown by the small number of applications for help received by any of the general charitable agencies. So far as I could learn, practically no English or French reservists' families have applied to either the Department of Public Charities, the Charity Organization Society or the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities. A larger number of Italian families have asked additional help, but still an almost negligible one compared with the number cared for. The danger is probably rather that they struggle to live on an inadequate income. Many of them doubtless have had other sources of income, including earnings. Nevertheless, the stories of the few families visited by the charitable societies indicate that the income available has in some instances at least not been enough to maintain good standards. There was one Italian woman with five children, the oldest seven, whose husband went back in August, 1915. She received regularly twelve dollars a month from the consul, but the Red Cross grant was uncertain from the first. She earned a little by taking lodgers and at times did some washing. The Charity Organization Society was deeply interested in the family and helped to secure medical care and special diet for the children, two of whom were suffering from scurvy and rickets. They felt, however, that the Italian government should make adequate allowances for the maintenance of the families of Italian soldiers, and would do so if the need was definitely presented to them, and were therefore unwilling to give a regular supplementary allowance. The Department of Public Charities also felt that the responsibility should rest with the Italian government and not the city of New York, and were therefore unwilling to commit the children when the woman once applied. The Italian consul agreed fully with this position, but was unable to increase the allowance beyond that authorized by the government, and the funds of the Italian Red Cross were at that time low. All he could do was to offer her transportation back to Italy (it was before the U-boat campaign) where she could live on her government allowance; probably a wise suggestion. But the woman was unwilling to go and there the matter rested. So the woman is apparently managing on three dollars a week each from the consul and the Red Cross, supplemented by what little she can earn-two dollars to three dollars a week, according to last reports. As the man's maximum earnings were said to have been one dollar and seventy-five cents a day in the Street Cleaning Department, this does not fall so far below his earnings, but it is obvious that at present prices it is impossible to provide adequate nourishment for six people when the total income is nine dollars a week. Moreover, this family and several others seemed to need better standards of living and medical care which they might well be helped to secure during this period of crisis. To sum up the situation as a whole, there are now in New York and vicinity some 1,500 families whose men are at the front fighting in the armies of our allies. So far, they have been left entirely to the care of the consuls and their fellow countrymen here. This probably was logical at the beginning of the war, but our own entrance into it makes it necessary to reconsider this question. Moreover, the problem will in all probability increase in magnitude since the allied. governments are now at liberty to recruit men here. Already a few of these families have asked for special allowances. One can hardly generalize as to what needs to be done because of the great difference in the service now being rendered to the various nationalities. In Canada the Patriotic Fund has assumed the same responsibility for the families of reservists as for those of its own soldiers. There is a special Franco-Belge Committee, including on its staff some fifty French and Belgian women, which is caring for the families of reservists of these two nationalities. During the first year there were 612 French reservists families and 116 Belgian reservists families. The money for the care of this group comes from the regular Patriotic Fund, but the allowances are on the whole larger because the French and Belgian soldiers do not receive enough pay to assign part of it to their families. During the first year the average monthly allowance from the Patriotic Fund for the families of Canadian and British soldiers was sixteen dollars; for families of French and Belgian soldiers twenty-six dollars and for the families of Italian soldiers, nineteen dollars. The experience of the Canadian Patriotic Fund indicates how absolutely essential it is that allowances for these isolated women be accompanied by the most thorough and kindly personal interest and service. The American Red Cross here is, of course, assuming the same attitude in its insistence on trained service as part of our obligation to the families of soldiers. The question which may well be raised is whether we should now make any offer to our allies of cooperation in the case of these families. No such request has come from them, but an offer from the American Red Cross might be a gracious method of expressing again our sense of our joint interest in the war and of our joint concern for those who are desolated through it. We should at least be aware of the number of these families who are here and should be prepared to serve them in whatever way seems best to the representatives of our allies. Beyond the value of this offer as a demonstration of alliedness, have we not a responsibility for this group of families who, as much as our own soldiers' families, have a claim on the best service we have to offer and who are not yet receiving it? F the thing were done that ought to be done the whole dirty low-down bunch would be taken out and strung up without ceremony." It was in San Francisco on June 14. I was in the office of Edward Cunha, assistant district attorney, and we were talking of the bomb cases. "They're a bunch of dirty anarchists," went on Mr. Cunha, leaping from his chair and moving about the room. "They're a bunch of dirty anarchists, every one of them, and they ought to be in jail on general principles. I'm disgusted with all this outcry over Mooney-making a hero of him, when he's an anarchist and a murderer. If he ought to be out of jail, let him get out. The courts are open to him. But I'm not going to help. If I knew that every single witness that testified against him had perjured himself in his testimony I wouldn't lift a finger to get him a new trial. "And now people like Judge Griffin are going around saying he ought to have a new trial. Judge Griffin almost cried there on the bench because we searched the Blast office without a warrant ; the Blast office, mind you, run by Berkman and that bunch of anarchists! Berkman is the man who shot Frick, and he told me he had no country and he'd as lief as not spit on the flag. I ought to have murdered him right there for saying that. My only regret now is that I didn't. "These are the people who have defended the Los Angeles dynamiters," he went on. "And they let such people talk on the streets! If I had my way I'd get a bunch of cops and go after them and beat their heads off." I had called on Assistant District Attorney Cunha because he was in charge of the prosecution of Thomas J. Mooney, who was convicted last February of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death by hanging. It took a dispatch from Russia to interest the people of the United States in Mooney. The strange story came under the sea that radicals in Petrograd were rioting in front of the house of the American ambassador because they believed that Mooney had already been hung, contrary to law. Next came news of the remarkable letters written by Oxman, the chief witness against the condemned man. And then one learned that the judge who had pronounced the sentence of death upon Mooney had said that the man ought to have a new trial. So I called on the attorney who represented the district attorney's office in the Mooney trial and he talked to me in the manner indicated above. It's a very strange case, and none of it can be understood without the recounting of many details. Perhaps it can't be understood even then. The Crime, ON JULY 22, 1916, during the preparedness parade in San Francisco, a bomb was exploded among the spectators that killed ten marchers and bystanders and injured fifty more. During the next few days the police department of San Francisco and Oakland, across the bay, were busy with clues. Many paraders and observers called at headquarters to tell what they had seen. In a few days arrests were made. After that, small interest was shown in any theories of the case unconnected with the prisoners. The chief of the Oakland police department abandoned the investigations he was making because the San Francisco authorities, who had the case in hand, were not interested. The San Francisco grand jury indicted five people, Warren K. Billings, Thomas J. Mooney, Rena Mooney, his wife; Edward D. Nolan and Israel Weinberg, charging them with murder. All of the defendants had been connected more or less directly with the labor movement. Billings, Mooney and Nolan had been especially active. Billings was formerly president of the local union of boot and shoe workers. He became involved in the strike against the Pacific Gas & Electric Company a few years ago. He was convicted at that time and served a term in prison for transporting dynamite. Mooney, just before the bomb explosion, had gone through with an unsuccessful organizing campaign on the cars of the United Railroads and had tried and failed to bring about a strike. In this campaign Mrs. Mooney had actively cooperated with her husband, although she is a music teacher and not connected with any union. Mooney has been very prominent in strikes and other labor troubles for a number of years. He, too, was indicted on a charge of having high explosives in his possession during the Pacific Gas & Electric strike, but was acquitted. The Labor Union Attitude EDWARD NOLAN is a member of the Machinists' Union and has been identified with a number of labor conflicts on the Pacific Coast. He was one of the leaders in the metal trades strike in Los Angeles in 1910. In July, 1916, he was a delegate from the San Francisco local to the convention of the International Machinists' Union, which met in Baltimore. Israel Weinberg is a member of the Carpenters' Union, but had been for some time a driver of a jitney. He is a member of the executive board of the Jitney Drivers' Union. None of the defendants was in very good standing with the labor leaders of San Francisco. Weinberg was practically unknown, but the others, Billings and Mooney especially, had the reputation of being trouble-makers, radicals and direct actionists. Their methods were not those of the orthodox trade unionists, and there was a feeling among the latter that such methods were bringing organized labor itself into disrepute. Consequently there was little disposition at first, on the part of organized labor, to come to their aid. Local bodies here and there passed resolutions and raised funds, but the State Federation of Labor refused to take. any definite action. The San Francisco Labor Council stood aloof. "This is not a labor case," was their attitude. "Some people have been indicted on a charge of murder. They happen to be trade unionists. But their plight has nothing to do with that fact." This in substance is what San Francisco labor men told me at Baltimore last November during the convention of the American Federation of Labor. But now all that is changed. Prominent trade unionists of San Francisco tell you that it is a labor case, that labor men are being railroaded to the gallows in order to fasten the crime of July 22 on the labor movement. The labor council of San Francisco has denounced the prosecution and declared its belief in the innocence of the defendants. Other labor organizations are becoming aroused and there is coming to |