that human life may not be destroyed. Equally so that idea. runs through the new relationship of nations toward one. another.

Mr. Norman Angell, who is just now here in your midst, has been showing the nations the waste of war. You spend all your substance, and when you are through you haven't gotten anything for it, and the nation that has conquered has not got anything more than the nation that has been conquered. I think that idea can be pressed too far. I don't believe the actual cost in money will deter nations long from going to war. My ancestors lived in Ireland, and although I have never wanted to look up their record very far, I can easily imagine that, when they were in a certain frame of mind, if anybody had told them it would cost them a fortune if they knocked the head off an opponent, it would not have deterred them for a moment. Passion never cares anything

about cost.

But when you go further than that, when you carry this idea of conservation further, as we do to-day, and realize what we might attain with all these millions of dollars which we are squandering; realize that we are turning all our substance to dissipation and waste, and throwing into the bottomless pit resources that we might devote to the rearing of cities and homes and institutions; realize that we are spending money on hate which we might be spending on love; that we are spending money in tearing down that might be spent in rearing some beautiful city of God in the world - then we are going to stop and ask, Are we forever to go on pouring our millions into this "bottomless pit," as my friend Alfred Noyes calls it? or are we going to use them for old-age pensions, schools, colleges, and wipe out all the poverty of man? If you should take all the money England, for instance, is going to spend this year on armaments, there need not be a poor man in England, nor a man to fear poverty in old age. By building schools and colleges and hospitals you would turn England into a paradise and add to the conservation of human life. We are not going to spend our love and our money much longer in rearing up beautiful boys to the age of twenty

one, simply to kill them as soon as we have made them worth something.

That is the second idea that is growing everywhere in the world, and it means ultimately the end of war.

I close simply by asking you to bear in mind this also, that the one note you will hear to-day, especially in Europe, though somewhat in our own country, is that there is a bond between men greater than nationalism; that the men of Germany and the men of France who pursue the same ideals, who seek the same great things in life, who have the same common problems to solve, are more closely united than they may be to some in their own country who have no sympathy with them in ideals or purposes.

This new sense of unity, this unity of manhood rather than of nations; this unity of common purpose rather than unity of race; this unity even of idealism rather than the unity of creed, is everywhere growing rapidly in Europe to-day. You find it of course in socialism, you find it of course in tradeunionism, and you will find it in the churches. Some people might think the church the last place in which to find it, but nevertheless it is there. I have just been talking with a man who organized the meetings of German and British clergymen, and there exists a certain bond between them that is closer than any national bond they might have.

This sense of world unity is growing everywhere in the world to-day, and it has in it the promise of a new order, in which judicial methods of law and brotherhood shall be substituted for the methods of force and greed.

PRESIDENT Wendte. We will now listen to the last address of the afternoon, by one of the most distinguished of our fellow citizens of the Commonwealth, the Honorable Joseph Walker, of Brookline. As the introductory address of the afternoon had something of a "stand pat" character, it is wise we should give an opportunity now for the Progressives to be heard.

THE FORWARD LOOK IN POLITICS

HON. JOSEPH WALKER

I have been asked to speak briefly on "The Forward Look in Politics." Those who look forward with clear vision see the absolute necessity of certain reforms in our governmental machinery and in our industrial and social system.

Our representative system of government has developed. evils peculiar to itself. These evils must be frankly faced and so far as possible corrected. The last vestige of the representative system in electing representatives was abolished by the adoption of the Constitutional Amendment providing for the direct election of United States senators. The representative system of choosing party candidates has been abolished in Massachusetts and soon will be abolished in the nation. Experience has proved that the old representative system of nominating and electing public officials played directly into the hands of professional politicians who frequently served some interest other than the public interest.

For the old complicated convention system, so easily manipulated by machines and bosses, is now being substituted direct nominations, direct elections, and the short ballot. These measures result in direct responsibility to the voters, and permit the independent public official to appeal over the heads of bosses and machines directly to the people. It is a wise and necessary reform, and yet we must not expect too much from it.

Simple, direct political machinery will not of itself assure good government. That depends upon the way such machinery is used by the voters. The ordinary disinterested citizen cannot neglect the commonplace duties of citizenship and expect to get good results. If the rank and file of citizens will not take the time and trouble to vote and to vote regularly, independently, and intelligently, then the government, whatever be our political machinery, is sure to fall into the hands of those who have some interest to serve other than the public interest. The neglect of the citizen, however, furnishes no argument for indirect, complicated machinery which makes the task of the citizen still more difficult.

We can never do away with representative law-making bodies. Experience has proved, however, that these bodies are peculiarly susceptible to the hidden and subtle influence of private and special interests. Frequent revelations have weakened public confidence in legislatures. Two remedies must be applied.

First, and most important, is an awakened civic conscience which will demand the selection of representatives who can be trusted, men who are truly independent, independent both of the private interest and of the demagogue, men of such character that they place the public good above their own personal ambition and mere party advantage. To secure such representatives is a problem always with us.

The second remedy is to provide a proper and orderly method of appeal from legislatures to the people.

The initiative and referendum, properly safeguarded, is a sane and wholesome measure which brings the government back into the hands of the voters. The ultimate tribunal in this country is the body of the voters. Our faith and dependence must be placed in them. It is an axiom of free government, to which we are committed, that the rights and the interests of the people are best safeguarded by the people themselves. I am familiar with the objections which are raised to direct legislation. I am conscious also of the evils to correct which this system is proposed.

The wisest course to pursue, in my judgment, is to strive

for better representatives and, at the same time, provide for an appeal from them to the people.

In this connection let me remind you that the body of the people is composed of women as well as men, and, therefore, women should be enfranchised. To-day, women not only live in the home and understand the problems of the home, but they work in our mills, our factories, and our workshops. They are found in our mercantile establishments, our stores, and our offices. They are educated in our schools and colleges. They enter our professions. Their interests, their health, and their very livelihood are affected by our laws and their administration. As men and women together have made the home what it is, as men and women together have made the church what it is, so men and women together must make the State, if the State is to be what it ought to be.

Those who look forward in politics wish not only to simplify and perfect our political machinery, but wish to see that machinery so used by the people as to insure better industrial and social conditions — social justice, as it is now called.

The time has indeed come to examine our industrial system to see how it affects the lives and the welfare of the multitudes who work in our industrial establishments. Are we granting to children a fair opportunity to develop into normal, healthy men and women? Are we adequately protecting the citizenship of the future? Are hours of labor, especially the hours of women and children, reasonably limited? Do our industries pay wages which enable men and women, and especially young girls, to live in decency and in honor? Is there not need to establish by law a minimum wage? Do we adequately protect the toiler who happens to be injured? Is not such injury really a part of the cost of production, and ought we not, by a proper workingman's compensation act, to lift the burden of such accident from the shoulders of the individual toiler who happens to be injured, and place it on the broader shoulders of the community? Do we sustain the widow, the old, and the unemployed? Should we not indeed check the strong and protect the weak in the cruel struggle for existence? These are the real questions which are press