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"For some reason or other, women form habits more easily and break them with more difficulty than men. A woman will make one or two tentative advances toward some fad, and, before she realizes it, she is fast in the clutches of an iron-bound routine. Men, too,, are creatures of habit, but they seem better able to regulate their tyrants, if these are not deposed altogether.

"Given an equal number of women and an equal number of men who begin the moderate use of intoxicants, and the eventual percentage of drunkards will be larger among the

women.

"Even a moderate amount of alcohol will have a worse physical effect on a woman than on a man. Her nervous system is more delicate, and therefore more easily thrown out of gear. Alcohol plays havoc with a woman's nerves. The more she takes the more she wants, and the time may come when cocaine or morphine will take the place of the cruder sedative."

Revoluting Human Nature

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Scarcely a number of Brooklyn Life appears without its quota of wise utteron some theories of Socialism. For example, on July 27, the editor expressed his opinion in regard to the impossibility of carrying out the socialistic theories on account of the inherent antagonism of human nature to such altruistic ideals. He said:

"We were surprised recently to encounter a gentleman, and a manufacturer and employer of labor at that, who having expressed himself in perfect accord with our views on the principle of protection took direct issue with us on the question of Socialism. It became apparent before the controversy had progressed far that we parted company at the very premises. We contending that the ability of a people to tolerate or carry on a socialistic system of government would necessitate a complete revolution in human nature as well as in the present form of government, he that human nature as it existed was the effect and not the cause of existing social conditions and that if we were to change social conditions, human nature would change to conform with them. Here we seem to arrive at a paradox, for if we are merely the creatures of social conditions or of circumstances how can we possibly change them and if we can change how can we be the creatures of them? As a matter of fact changes for the better in social conditions occur whenever the public intelligence, or conscience has been raised or aroused to a point at which it can clearly perceive a wrong and is determined to right it, but until a proposed reform can secure the backing of a majority of the intelligent public any attempt

to enforce it is worse than useless. As for Socialism, to wit: public ownership of all land and instruments of production, which would involve an entire code of new laws and regulations, we are ready to grant that even this might be considered a possibility of the not remote future, if it were possible to believe that the majority of its political followers was actuated by the pure and disinterested motives professed by the gentleman to whom we have alluded. Certainly a man who possesses capital and is a beneficiary of the tariff yet is ready and willing to have his property confiscated, if necessary, to give up a comfortable and certain income and take his chances of what a socialistic regime might have in store for him; in other words, to sacrifice his own interests to the principle of the greatest good for the greatest number, must be very nearly the noblest work of God; but how many such are there? Are there enough of such pure and disinterested humanitarians in the entire country to fill a fair sized town hall? A general willingness to sacrifice self interest entirely for the sake of the common good is, we contend, a sine qua non of an enduring socialistic state and it is as essential that this should be the animating spirit of those who would gain, as of those who would lose by it; for obviously the man who espoused Socialism from self interested motives would be the first to become dissatisfied and turn against it if the rewards fell short of his expectations. Nevertheless though he professed to believe that Socialism would come into existence peacefully through the ballot our socialistic friend acknowledged that it would probably require several generations to bring it about and in the same breath admitted that it would be impossible to arouse the interest of the wage earner in it by telling him that it was something for posterity from which he himself could hope to reap no benefit. It would appear then that the socialistic wage earner is a victim of misplaced confidence and we are inclined to wonder whether the capitalist who professes Socialism is as nobly disinterested as he appears to be seeing that it is posterity which is to suffer the consequences of his self sacrifice. Our own belief is, as we have remarked before, that a socialistic state will be possible only when human nature generally has become so imbued with altruistic sentiment that self interest will be the exception and not the rule and when that happy day arrives, the millennium will be here, and it will not matter whether it is a socialistic millennium or not. But there is no telling what in the meantime may be done in the name of Socialism by the misguided persons who look to it as a means of escape from their present ills and who are certain to be bitterly disappointed before they get through with it. Such persons if there are enough of them are amply capable of tearing things down but powerless to build them up. English critic of our people has remarked that

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we are very strong on generalization but extremely weak in analysis. If this is true the arguments of our parlor Socialists are characteristically American."

Defends David Goldstein

David Goldstein has an energetic champion in the person of Rev. J. P. Lauer, of Rome, N. Y. Since Mr. Goldstein lectured in that part of New York State he has been made the subject of most vicious attacks on the part of Socialists. Rev. Fr. Lauer has come to his defense and most capably, as is shown in the following excerpts from a letter published in the Utica, N. Y. Press (Oct. 8):

Mr. Goldstein has proved and conclusively so, that "Socialism is destructive of human society; ignores the chief aims of life; is unjust toward owners of private property; robs for public ownership; holds false views of relationship between capital and labor; is no friend of the workingman; is the death knell to liberty; is a menace to woman; and a deadly foe to all Christians." These Mr. Goldstein proves from Socialist literature, such literature as is profusely advertised on folders accompanying "the season ticket for the Lyceum course. (Int. Soc. Review, Sept. '12; p. 259.)

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Socialism as a party spreads these books which advocate materialism and atheism, which teach most irrational and dangerous doctrines touching upon "God, the nature of man, and the nature of government." They teach materialistic evolution, and base Socialism on that overworked and now almost abandoned system which arrogantly assumed, but never proved, that all distinct species gradually evolved into higher species; that man, evolved from the lowest species of cell life, has reached the highest degree of simian development, and in consequence has no spiritual soul.

They teach that the first and last destiny of man is to range for food, to avoid suffering and to grasp for pleasure.

Regarding Property-Their doctrine is that need is the only foundation for its possession, and that he who has more than he needs is a thief.

Regarding Labor-They teach that labor is the only source of value, or, as Marx has it, that exchange value belongs to the laborer, and hence the laborer should seize upon capital, and thus despoil the despoiler.

Regarding the Right to Produce-They teach that the State alone has the right to produce and to distribute and hence all private production and distribution is a crime.

Concerning Labor-They teach that it is to receive all it produces, hence capital is barren. Regarding the State-They profess that the will of the individual must be absorbed by Social Democracy. Thus they would make the so-called social State a juggernaut and give it power to crush all private and inalienable rights of individuals and families.

Regarding Society Itself-They advocate the materialistic evolution theory, the materialistic interpretation of history, or materialistic determinism, if you will, and teach that all institutions among men, whether religious or civil, are but the results of long struggles for food and distribution, and that, with a change of the manner of production and distribution all necessary changes must follow in religious, political and other human institutions.

Such doctrines not only ignore but even spurn God and the Christian religion. A peculiar entity is that man who this moment can wear the cloak of Christianity and the next moment the cloak of Socialist philosophy; or, in other words, he who dares this hour to stand up and say that religion is the living intercourse between man and God which is effected by teachings revealed by God, which truths are eternal and unchangeable, and in the next breath asserts that religion is no more than the result of economic conditions.

The party denies the doctrines which it uses every means to spread. To illustrate: "Human thought, action and institutions are molded and determined by material and economic conditions." (Int. Soc. Rev. p 205.) "The wageworkers are developing a morality of their own, in which respect for property plays no part." (P. 270.) The former ignores revealed religion, while the latter spurns God's commandments. How strange, but true, that there should exist men who are such intellectual cowards, who recoil from professing publicly what they profess through their party literature.

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A movement that has been greeted with great commendation from press and public is the campaign for agricultural development and education which was started three years ago by a group of Western bankers, and to which tremendous impetus was given by the Executive Council of the American Bankers' Association at their meeting at Westchester county. Twenty-three State bankers' associations have already plunged into the work by appointing sub-committees to conduct the campaign, and it is expected that before long every other State will have its committee of bankers engaged in spreading the propaganda. Briefly the objects for which the bankers are making a combined effort are three-fold:

The teaching of agriculture in the primary schools and high schools of the rural districts and domestic science and vocational training in the cities.

Federal aid for the farmers of the country through appropriations for the maintenance of field demonstration experts in all agricultural States.

Co-operation between bankers and farmers along lines somewhat similar to the systems of Germany and France of long term mortgages on farm lands at low rates of interest.

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It seems that socialistic no more than capitalistic papers can do without funds, and for several weeks past M. Jaures's paper, L'Humanité, has been inviting the public to subscribe to an issue of $40,000 worth of bonds, which will bear interest at 4 per cent. So far only five-eighths of the amount has been forthcoming, in spite of appeals to labor unions to invest their funds in this way. Now, La Bataille Syndicaliste has made a similar appeal for only $20,000 in order to continue publication, while the ambition of L'Humanité was to enable it to increase its size from four to six pages. La Bataille sadly confesses that "there remains a large section of the healthy-minded population whose interest it

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Extension of the crusade against the white slave traffic is contemplated by the Department of Justice. Agents already at work will be greatly augmented. In every important city energetic young lawyers will be invited to co-operate on the understanding they will be paid in such cases as result in conviction.

Attorney General Wickersham has gone after the white slavers with vigor and persistence. Scarcely a week passes that important arrests are not made. The organization perfected by the department agents in Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and other Eastern States is now to be extended westward.

On February I the system of labor exchanges instituted in England by act of Parliament had received a two years' trial, and the results have an interest in this country, where similar plans for bringing unemployed labor in touch with employers have been agitated.

There are now 261 exchanges as compared with the 82 with which the experiment was begun. During 1910 notification of 458,943 vacancies was given by employers, of which 373,313 were filled by the exchanges, and during 1911 these figures rose to 757,109 and 589,770 respectively. In 1911 casual employment was provided through the exchanges for 112,492 men and 12,812 women. Last year

64,901 vacancies were filled by the transfer of applicants to districts other than those in which they were registered. To facilitate this movement of labor from one part of the country to another, an obstacle to which in the case of women workers is the lack of suitable lodgings, the suggestion is made of establishing women's hotels in connection with the exchanges.

During 1911 the demand for operatives exceeded the supply in the cotton, woollen and worsted trades, and in the case of women in

the clothing trades and in laundry work. One favorable outcome of the experiment is the growing confidence shown by both employers and workmen in the system and the prospect of friendly co-operation in extending its scope.

Recent data at hand discloses that 2,566 strikes and lockouts took place in Germany in 1911. 217,809 employes were involved in 10,640 establishments. Dissatisfaction with wages caused 1,964 strikes for 182,680 workmen. 752 strikes for 85,625 workers were for shorter hours. It is reported that 12% of the strikes were fully successful, 62% partially successful and 25% unsuccessful. 9,371 local unions, embracing 2,168,332 members, are affiliated with the German Federation of Labor. During 1911 only 310 local branches of the national unions were not affiliated with the Central Labor Bodies (Cartels) of their respective communities.

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The new State law of Kentucky, regulating the employment of female workers is now in vogue. The statute prohibits all female workers under twenty-one years of age from being employed in excess of ten hours a day, or sixty hours per week, with the exception of those employed as domestics, or nurses. In specific occupations it is made compulsory upon employers to provide seats for women. A number of valuable sanitary and hygienic safeguards are provided in the law.

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Alarmed by the showing in the last census of Wisconsin's decline in rural population, leading politicians and business men of the State have put forward a plan to draw homemakers to the State by the utilization of lands that have been lumbered and are now covered with stumps. A plan will be put before the next Legislature for the purchase by the State of large tracts of such lands from the big lumber companies and disposal of them to settlers.

The idea as put forth and generally approved by the people, who have made their views known, is that the State shall buy the lands wholesale and turn them over to homemakers at the prices such lands would bring in the market if bought in small parcels. The State is not to profit by this dealing. The amount paid above cost is to be put into a co-operation fund, which is to be administered

by settlers in various districts under the supervision of the State. It would be used for stocking farms and buying machinery and seeds. It is proposed that various district organizations should do their buying of supplies on a co-operative basis and market their crops in the same fashion.

Payments on the farms would be distributed over a series of years, perhaps twenty, with only enough interest charged to pay the State's interest on a bond issue covering its outlay. As the land affected is rich, it is believed that there will be no difficulty in inducing homeseekers to come here.

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The Labor Department of Canada reports it has obtained data showing there are 133,132 organized workers in the Dominion; 86,542 are members of 1,139 local unions belonging to international organizations affiliated with the American Federation of Labor; 32,873 are members of 393 local unions of internationals not affiliated with the American Federation of Labor and 13,717 are members of 191 local unions chartered directly by the Canadian Trades and Labor Council and the Canadian Federation of Labor.

It is said that in Germany there are so many flying machines that the men who operate them have an organization of their own called the League of German Aviators. This league has been the means through which the aviators have made a concerted demand for a higher rate of pay. The sum demanded is modest, considering the risks involved in operating airships. The demand is for only 300 marks per month, which is less than $75. This is the limit fixed for taking long chances with death in the ordinary course of their occupation. Some of the aviators have been paid as little as 150 marks per month, or about $37.

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to the House Committee on Labor, assisted her father, Hon. William B. Wilson, Chairman of the Committee, and while the bill was under consideration she sat next to the Representative who frequently advised with her as the debate progressed. Miss Wilson, like her father, is an active trade unionist and is a member of the Stenographers' and Bookkeepers' Union of Washington, D. C. This is the first time a woman has sat in the House while it was in session.

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Secretary Fisher, of the Interior Department, has issued an executive order withdrawing from the public domain 640 acres of coal land adjacent to Grand Junction, Col., upon the request of Congressman Taylor, of that State. The secretary has also drafted and presented a bill which would authorize him, in his discretion, to patent 640 acres of government coal land for each city and 160 acres for each town under conditions providing for prompt and continuous development of the coal, the prevention of any assignment or transfer of the land, the safeguarding of the health and safety of miners and others handling the coal, the prevention of undue waste of mineral resources, and other restrictions. If the plan as outlined is carried into effect cities and towns within reasonable distances of coal bearing lands will be enabled to procure coal at a greatly reduced rate without injury to the best interests of the coal diggers.

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The cotton spinning and weaving industry in Japan is expanding by leaps and bounds. During the last fiscal year eight new corporations were formed with a capital of $6,280,000 and operating 133,000 new spindles. Many of the old companies have increased their capital and have added new machinery to their plants. The Japan Cotton Spinners' Association report for March 1912 that they had 32 mills operating 1,867,026 spindles, running 26 days a month, working 23 hours a day, producing a daily average of 131⁄2 ounces for ring spindles and 81⁄2 ounces for mule spindles. They consumed during the month 48,828,283 pounds of cotton, employ 17,967 males and 97,124 females, paying the males an average of 230 per day and the females 15c a day. This is equivalent to an increase of almost 5% over the wages paid during the year 1911,

If this industry continues to expand in Japan and China with the same relative proportion the prospects for the export trade to those countries in the cotton industry of the United States and Great Britain will be very materially restricted.

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By a special act of Congress the widow of John Ferrell, a Bureau of Mines rescuer, who lost his life several months ago while in the performance of his duty, has been granted $1,080, one year's salary. Since the death of Ferrell, Congress has included the employes of the Bureau of Mines in the general compensation act, which provides a year's wages to the heirs of Federal employes killed while engaged in hazardous occupations.

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More than $366,000,000 was lost in wages because of 13,400,000 cases of sickness among wage-earners in the United States last year, according to a booklet on industrial diseases now being mailed by the New York Department of Labor to the 14,000 physicians, hospitals, and dispensaries in the State. For the purpose of preventing such diseases as are directly due to harmful and avoidable industrial processes, reports of certain diseases of occupation are now required by law to be filed with the Department by physicians practicing in the State.

It is the intention of the Department to inform manufacturers and physicians of preventive and safer industrial methods, and it is hoped that with the assistance of the medical profession, the necessary facts may be gathered not only as to the six reportable diseases, but also as to any other diseases clearly attributable to employment. To this end the Department's Quarterly Bulletin, containing material on industrial diseases, is circulated widely among manufacturers. In addition, there is now being sent to physicians, hospitals, and dispensaries in the State a revised and much improved reporting certificate in form similar to the United States standard death certificate.

M. Lepine, the famous chief of the Paris police, who has just been elected an academician or member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, over eight competitors, gives an explanation involving a combination

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