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the final reason why it should be the mission of the state to regulate the conditions of industry. The only danger in the movement, as at present conducted, lies in the fact that it is a partial movement, and antagonizes those whom it does not include. It may certainly be regarded as the duty of the whole to readjust the social machinery in such a way that the issue shall be a higher type of character, and that there shall be a moral continuity to society answering to its industrial develop- ment. This is the attempt of factory legislation. It is con- cerned in the maintenance of a certain standard of life, and would exercise such social control over the conditions of indus- try as to prevent the lowering of that standard. After all, society as society is interested in this, and there is no more obligation upon workingmen to maintain a standard of living than there is upon the rest of us. It is well, sometimes, to remind ourselves that, after all, the mass of mankind work with their hands.
Is it too much to hope that in time other citizens, as well as trade-unionists, may be educated to ask themselves : " Does our industrial machinery, or does it not, make for the greatest amount and the highest quality of character ? " And that when it is answered, as it must be at the present moment, that the state does not concern itself with the character of the producer, but only with the commercial aspects of the product, is it again too optimistic to predict that those other citizens will feel a cer- tain sense of shame and recognize the fact that the trades unions have undertaken a duty which the public has ignored ?
Jane Addams. Hull -House.
