can bring such pressure to bear as to secure demands far beyond their just deserts, and part of what they are able to extort is at the expense of their less fortunate brethren. To those who have more is given, while from those who have not is taken away part of even the little that they have. The rules governing apprenticeship sometimes aim at monopoly. The stay-at-home vote is as fatal to competent leadership in the labor world as in politics. The sympathy of the public with labor is sometimes so strong that it condones acts of violence. On occasion the demands of labor are so immoderate as to threaten the goose that lays the golden egg. It is possible that this condition has about been reached in the case of railway labor. The professed object of the militant branch of the Industrial Workers of the World is to take over the capital of the country by destroying the business of the employer. To this end, costly strikes are precipitated, materials and machinery wantonly damaged, the good will of the business wilfully injured, and inefficiency on the part of the workers openly encouraged and practised. The fact that organized labor, in general, is seemingly so indifferent to increasing the efficiency of the workers and so largely contents itself with strengthening their bargaining power is to be regretted. It unwarrantedly interferes at times with proper discipline by the employer. The shallow view that the way to make work and raise the general level of wages is for every man to confine himself to a minimum stint is unfortunately too frequently a fundamental article of faith in labor circles. Organized labor less frequently aims at increasing the efficiency of production than organized capital.
IV
There are some indications that private property, far from being on its last legs, is taking on new life. At any rate, it is showing symptoms of great vitality. Man has an incurable desire for property. This is nowhere more conspicuous than among a large portion of the foreign born. The industry and thrift of the German immigrants are proverbial, and much the same thing is true of the Norwegian, Swedish, Italian and Jewish immigrants. The Poles in the Connecticut Valley work from early dawn till dusk at weeding onions and practise the strictest economy. They are buying farm after farm and are noted for meeting their obligations on the dot. The yearning for one's own is so deep and strong that in many Polish boarding houses each man's meat, potatoes, etc., is purchased for his individual account and cooked in separate vessels for his personal use. If some portions of the population are given to extravagance, other portions carry the practise of thrift to an excess, in many instances going without things necessary to health which they are abundantly able to buy.
