notoriety attached to a court action. Where she has had others dependent upon her, her spirit of self-sacrifice has inclined her to put up with abuse rather than to subject her dependents to possible suffering by refusing to suffer herself. Then, the position of being dictated to in the family prepares her for accepting silently in the industrial world what is offered to her. "It never occurred to me", said one highly trained, valuable worker, "when I was starting out, to question whether I was receiving adequate compensation for my work; I thought that I had to take whatever was given to me".

But the Oregon statute or similar statutes readjust abuses for woman in industry without causing suffering to the unseen dependents; the statute brings to her the feeling that the commonwealth values her sufficiently as one of its citizens to obtain for her the justice she may not have been able to obtain, and by increasing her appreciation of her worth, instills into her a confidence to work for her own rights and emoluments. This is especially instanced in the penalty attached to the dismissal of an employee for testifying in case of violation of the law, and in the provision that she may sue by civil suit for back wages even though, under the force of circumstances, she has agreed to work for less than the law has provided.

The third indirect effect of the statute has been to arouse in the public a realization of its share in the adjustment and prevention of industrial hardships on women and minors. The operation of the statute arouses in the public a realization that the ultimate success of the legislation rests with people at large. They are the ones on whom as taxpayers, the cost of the underfed, overworked employee eventually falls; they are the ones whose pleasure is the all important objec tive of many employers; and an active interest in consumers, in the wages, hours and conditions of work of an establishment is as powerful as anything to affect decent conditions in that establishment. The operation of the statute brings to the attention of the public the fact that the solution of some industrial problems lies even farther back than the age of majority when a young

woman is supposed to be able to earn a self-supporting wage. It lies in the pre-industrial period, the school life of the child until she is sixteen years of age, before she is in the hands of the employer and while she is in the hands of those who have charge of the education of our youth. Recent legislation tends more and more to tighten the restrictions against allowing minor children to enter the industrial world. Their presence there is a concession, partly to the need of the family and partly to the expressed need of the employer for cheap help. The term "apprenticeship" as applied to the "learning" period of inexperienced workers in machine industry today is deceptive and a misnomer. Real apprenticeship as an institution has practically disappeared and nothing in industry, as it is organized at present, is supplying its service. In mediaeval ages when a workman was a "craftsman" when skill meant unusual ability resulting from thinking mind and deft hand, when both were the outcome of a long period of application at increasingly difficult tasks, then apprenticeship was an educational institution from which the apprentice emerged with a definite, ready, valuable fund of knowledge. But the Iron Man of Industry has emptied this school of its young students, has put them at his own deadening, unskilled tasks and left them only an unmeaning name, apprentice. Formerly it meant shelter, board and instruction in a trade; now it connotes less than a living wage and no training. Thus the public is confronted at the Conference table with personal representatives of the "blind alley job", the industrial tramp, the young "jack of all trades and master of none". Very probably after a few sessions the thinking man and woman are asking themselves these questions: Does the solution of the problem of the young worker who starts his working life with no or very little equipment rest with our educational system? Shall we turn our secondary schools into "trade schools" and train children chiefly for their advancement in commercial life? Does the solution lie in the "Part time school"? Does it lie with the employing establishments? Can they save the young

worker the "drifting" years from 15 to 20? Or in other words, will intelligent selection of an employee, careful placement in occupation, sympathetic oversight in the performance of his duties and the prospect of more than a minimum wage as an incentive, offer the solution? Does it lie, as Ralph Adams Cram has said,114 where "the solution of the industrial and economic problem that now confronts the entire world" lies? in the restoration, first of all, of the holiness and the joy of work? If such a law as the one which established the Industrial Welfare Commission of Oregon causes persons who had taken no interest before its creation, to ponder on the above questions and try to answer them, it will have done enough to justify its existence.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS.

While the general public, the vast body of employers and the vaster body of employes are looking towards the great industrial "peace", a peace founded on honest and equitable terms, certain suggestions to assist toward the accomplishment of our dreams are before us. One of these concerns a reorganization in our school system. The project plan of conducting "classes" has been employed most successfully even to the entire exclusion of the "control" or present plan, in a few rural schools and in sporadic instances, in certain classes in some city schools. Marks, text books with set lessons, and "grades" as we know them are eliminated. Achievement is the basis of advancement. Relation of the "lesson" or task to some vital interest of the child often suggested by him, is the method whereby he is induced to learn. Enthusiasm is characteristic of his daily approach to his work. What the results are in thoroughness in work, in foresight, initiative, ability to reason out situations, development of careful judgment, are all related to the question of the training or apprenticeship of the worker. But another important result from the standpoint of the younger generation's ultimate good, is that it develops a love of study and desire to advance as was shown in one rural school experiment

where eighty-five per cent of the children in a Projectplan conducted school went on to high school. So different is its method of training from our present setcurriculum, and so efficacious its apparent results that though a "blind alley job" should fall to the lot of a boy or girl thus previously taught, training in direction of his activities should help him, when away from his work, to overcome its deadening influence.

A second development which seems to be working "towards the great peace" is the system of family allowances to supplement wages which has been tried in various European countries for ten years.415 It is the result of an attempt of industry to furnish a "family man" with an income sufficient to support his dependents, and to avoid the complications which arise in determining the cost of living of single and of married men, when the question of agreeing upon a minimum wage applicable to both arises. The method of operation is similar to that of American Mothers' Pension Systems, but the source of funds in Europe is from joint funds established by employers and from Governmental appropriations. The method of administration is to pay to the married workman an individual wage which is "supplemented by an allowance for each dependent child, to be paid to its mother". Mention is made of the system here because its effect should be to keep the young worker out of industry for a longer time, as increasing the competency of the father to support his children when they are very young ought to enable him to support and educate them for a longer period than would otherwise be the case.

One final consideration concerning women in industry needs to be touched upon. Will the Minimum Wage increase the permanency of women as wage earners? Permanency of women as a group in industry under the capitalistic system is undoubtedly settled; but the writer believes that the Minimum Wage will not increase the permanency of the individual woman, or to state it in another way, the Minimum Wage will not remove the transient character of individual women in industry. There are two reasons for this and the minor one is by

far the less important; that is, that the Minimum Wage is not so high that it is an inducement to young women to stay in industry for the independence and "luxury" which it gives.

women.

The second reason is found in the very nature of This is the fact that they are more inclined to domesticity than they are to any other mode of life and "all the king's horses and all the king's men" cannot change that fact. Gainful employment for the vast majority of young women who seek it must be only a stepping stone to a marital career if our nation is to continue to exist. For there is another truth which must be freely admitted and that is that the stability of our nation depends upon the stability of our homes. Yet what is happening to the vast number of homes where the mother is either the sole or assistant wage earner outside the home? One single instance will illustrate the need for adjustment of the situation of wage earning mothers away from home. An investigation of the Women's Bureau of the Federal Department of Labor in Passaic, N. J. in 1921 "challenges our attention" with the following facts:416

"That one-half of the 100,000 bread-winning women in Passaic were or had been married; that nearly threefourths of these were mothers; that more than one-half of the mothers were working outside the home and that of the 1,800 mothers working outside of the home, over 900 had children under five years of age."

The question had been suggested, "What care is provided for these children?" To answer this, the representatives of the Women's Bureau visited over 500 of the mothers, bread-winners away from the home and found:

"(1) That over one-fifth of the mothers worked at night, caring for the children in the intervals between indispensable rest taken during the day.

(2) That nearly one-fifth left children with neighbors, landladies, or boarders.

(3) That another fifth left children with mother's or father's relatives, about one-fourth of such relatives living outside the home.