NOTES AND ABSTRACTS.
Some Aspects of the Labor Problem. — The labor question is one of ethical principies and ideals, as well as or economic facts. It most be considered in its relacion to the organization, tendencies, and ideals of hoinan sodetr as a whole. ( I ) " The laissiz-faire spirit, which during a considerable part of thi'^ century has pre- vailed in economic discussion, and which has so strong an affinity for an essentially materialistic philosophy, is selfish and heartless." (2) " The indolent, optimistic spirit is as foolish as the laissez-faire spirit is heartless." The evolution of society is a process wronght out through the intelligent endeavors of men. .\long with the present process of indostrial organization, two ideas are becoming fixed convictions in the popular mind. '" One is the right of wage-earners to organize for the protection and advancement of their interests ; the other is the necessity that wage-earners shall organize for their own protection as long as competition between capital and labor remains the controlling principle in economic life." The labor question is not (l) a question merely of more or less wages. (2) It is not a question merely of the more equal division of wealtb. (3) It is not merely a question of the control of industry by the workingmen. (I) "There is a very deep feeling, which many employers share, that the relation between employer and employ^ ought not to be a mere cash relation." The workman's labor is not merely a commodity, it is at once his capital and his life. (2) "There is also among laboring men a feeling that labor is inequitably divided." " .\ more equitable division of labor in producing material values would leave breathing space and leisure for the increased production of other and higher values." (3) "There is a conviction also, which grows deeper and more widely extended every day, that a vast amount of unpaid labor is exacted from the working class." This evil is traceable partly to the present economic organization in con- nection with the instinct ot human selfishness. " The labor question is thus a question of a great social and industrial readjustmenL Its solution is looked for in a social order that shall modify, by political as well as moral forces, the pitiless operation of so-called ' natural laws ' of trade ; that shall reduce selfish competition to the minimum ; that shall allow no man, or group of men, artificial and exceptional advantages in the race of life ; that shall compel idlers to become beneficent producers of values, or lose means of wasteful and debanching self-indulgence ; that shall make it possible for every man who will work, not only to work, but also to receive his full share of the product of his labor by a more equitable division both of labor itself and of the fruits of labor ; and that shall make life richer and sweeter for all the people, so that the privileges of intelligence and culture shall not depend solely or chiefly on the individual possession of wealth." — Rev. Phiup S. Moxom. Publications o/tAe Ckrisiian Social UnioM, Na 47.
Coostuners' Leagues. —While direct employers are often helpless, consumers have the power to secure just and humane conditions of labor, if they would only use it. The great difficulty for consdentioos purchasers is that of learning what fair conditions are. and where they do and do not exist. To meet this difficulty constmieis* leagues have been established, first in England in 1890. in New York in 1891. " Recognizing the fact that the majority of employers are virtually helpless to improve conditions as to hours and wages, unless sustained by public opinion, by law, and by the action of consumers, the Consumers' League declares its object to be to ameli- orate the condition of the women and children employed in the retail menrantile bouses of New York city, by patronizing, so far as practicable, only such bouses as approach in their conditions to the ' standard of a fair house,' as adopted by the league, and by other methods." The advisory board is required to prepare and
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