Fortunately, I live in New Jersey. How any one living in New York can read the reports on Sing Sing prison and sleep I cannot see. Is there not a State Prison Commission-a voluntary, semi-official body? Sing Sing is only an hour from New York. Mr. Connoughton is polite, willing, open-minded. Where are the clergy, the "good people?" And do they read Matthew xxv? J. D. HOLMES. New York. "UNEARNED INCREMENT" TO THE EDITOR: I have read with much interest the moderate letter of Dr. A. L. Benedict in your issue of April 22 relative to the increase in value of city real estate. It seems to me unfortunate that the public should have gotten into its mind the idea that there is a vast "unearned increment" connected with the ownership of real estate. The word "unearned" suggests that those who profit by it receive what does not of right belong to them, to the detriment of others. The fact is that anyone who has any money has the option of purchasing real estate and of profiting by the increase in value, if there is any. The hazards of the business are not materially different from the hazards of any other business, and the chances of extraordinary success are quite as small as they are in any other business. To the inexperienced, the sight of large areas of land lying idle through a period of years suggests the thought that selfish speculators are holding the land out of use. As a matter of fact, it has not yet become available for suitable improvement. Again and again we have seen owners and builders on the verge of bankruptcy from over-building. The reason of the overcrowding has been such that the building of new houses in the vacant areas would not have relieved it. An area destined to be built up with $25 apartments, if prematurely built upon, would simply overstock the market for that grade of apartments without helping those who could only pay $15 a month. It is surprising to those who have not figured it out that unoccupied land, when it is finally sold for building, does not represent much more in the final sale than the original cost with savings bank interest added during the intervening period. And yet, at intervals the assessed value of the land has been marked up and those unacquainted with real estate matters note the "unearned increment," conveniently forgetting the loss of interest on the investment and the taxes and assessments of many years which may easily represent substantially the whole of the increase. To them it is all unearned increment. There is in fact no evil which needs remedying and the only equitable way of changing the manner of real estate holding is to enact such laws 441 as shall have their effect spread gradually over a series of years, so that the public may adjust itself anew, without the practical confiscation of the profits which have been fairly earned in the real estate field. CHARLES E. MANIERRE. New York. WEST VIRGINIA COAL STRIKE In reference to letters published on pages 225 and 226 of your issue of May 10 in regard to the West Virginia Coal Strike, I wish to say that if Mr. Shaw lived in West Virginia four years and still has the heart to say a word in defense of the Cabin Creek or Paint Creek employers in this present controversy with labor, it stamps him to my mind, at least, as being a sympathizer with the most heartless and brutal exploitation of labor to be found in America. Harold E. West of the Baltimore Sun has in his report doubtless understated things rather than overstated them. I am particularly interested in this controversy because I have been through the territory myself. I have investigated every coal field in America east of the Rocky Mountains, and the West Virginia camps are the only ones where I was prohibited by the company from having access to their men in times of peace. At Glen Jean it was necessary for me to have an escort of farmers to give me protection while I went into the segregated precincts of the coal company, and instead of the employes being treated like civilized white men, I found that they were treated like enslaved savages. Whether or not you care to run this in THE SURVEY, I will take occasion to make my language about as strong as I feel in regard to West Virginia. None of the constitutional rights are even considered so far as the miners are concerned, and those who speak in defense of the miner are compelled to take the same chance that Patrick Henry and Ethan Allen took in their day. The coal exploitation companies have reduced. the miners to desperate conditions and then they ask us to look at the class of people they employ. West Virginia coal lands have been surreptitiously acquired, it is reported, by those who claim to have been in the employ of the Standard Oil Company. To protect their interests they have completely debauched every institution in the state. The former editor of the Wheeling Register told me when I met him in Kansas some time ago that he had in his official capacity learned of the intention of the managers of affairs in West Virginia to put me out of the way for daring to invade the state and that how I escaped with my life was a conundrum to him. In the past the only person that could get to the miners to help to organize them was old Mother Jones, and she escaped death purely on account of her sex. Whatever the miners do now in reprisal will be simply the culmination of long years of tyranny. Kentucky has been called the dark and bloody ground. That is a mistake, that appellation belongs to West Virginia since its coal mines have been opened to the world. F. P. O'HARE. St. Louis. THE BELGIAN STRIKE TO THE EDITOR: Having presented the Socialist side of the Belgian strike by giving space to W. E. Walling, "a member of the radical wing of the Socialist Party," you will, I suppose, in justice to your readers, readily accept the "other side" of the event. One might express his astonishment that a journal of constructive philanthropy, evidently sailing under Christian colors, should endorse1 the utterances of one who stands for social revolution and the antithesis of its program as indicated in excellent social survey work. Suffice it to point out a few main facts. The real object of the recent general strike in Belgium was not so much the reform of the franchise system as the fettering of the Catholic church through an overthrow of the party now in power. Says a Liberal sheet, the Petit Bleu "If the strike fails, it will mean the consecration the mort main or dead hand of the bishops on property; a fastening of religious teaching on the schools; and a clericalization of the magistracy and the army." To all appearances the strike was in reality a fizzle. At the last election the main issues before the country were the final settlement of the education question and the reform of the franchise. With an increased majority the Catholic Party, which has made Belgium the most prosperous of countries, was returned to power. This angered the outvoted Socialists to such an extent that they determined to appeal to forces outside the constitution. If the workers of Belgium had been agreed in a wish to get rid of the government they elected a few months before, the general strike would certainly have given them the most effective weapon. But they were not agreed. In battalions the Christian union men had voted for the successful candidates. They had voted for educational equality and for the right of parents to chose what school their child should attend. They had settled that at the polls. In this country as well as in England, there is a prejudice against plural voting. Belgium enjoys universal manhood suffrage. But in addition its franchise system grants additional votes to men with legitimate issue and some property and to those having a certain degree of education. While it may be objected that money and property are made qualifications, we ought in justice concede that men having an interest in the welfare of their country justly deserve more electoral privileges and power than does the tramp and loafer who has just as much to Also in "justice to our readers" we shall continue to publish the writings of those who may or may not agree with the editors of THE SURVEY without necessarily either endorsing or condemning what they write. The Belgian strike was reviewed from two distinct angles. This communication adds a third view, certain phases of which we should certainly hesitate to endorse, Ed. say in this country as a man of President Wilson's abilities. Moreover, we do not give a minority party its just representation in Congress. If the Progressives and Republicans enjoyed the same rights as do the Belgian Liberals and Socialists, they would control Congress. Their combined vote greatly exceeded that of the Democrats. Nor can it be argued that the Catholic Party in Belgium remains in power in virtue of the plural system. The political divisions which cut Belgian society, says the London Tablet for April 19, are not horizontal, but vertical. "The Catholic party represents all classes, and all sorts and conditions of men, and would be nowhere but for the disciplined and enthusiastic support it has received at election after election from the toilers and the wage-earners, and the peasant owners of the fields.' Hence, the decision of the Belgian Socialist Congress, stampeded by Anseele and other radical leaders against the protests of Vandervelde, their greatest leader, to call a strike, although the party committee had feared to take this step, was merely a leap into the dark. Last year and again in March, 1913, the government had declared its willingness to consider the franchise reform problem at the proper time. According to even the Associated Press reports that, and nothing else, is what the Belgian Socialists were promised once more after the general strike of April. That American editors interpreted this as a victory unparallelled in history, does not change matters and only reveals their lack of information and judgment when it comes to European events of this kind and the amazing extent to which they are enslaved by the JudeoMasonic cable service. Dubuque, Ia. "OUTSIDE ORGANIZERS" TO THE EDITOR: ANTHONY J. BECK. Mr. Fitch's recent article on the labor disturbance in Paterson quotes business and professional people as saying that "outside agitators" had no right to come to their town, meaning, of course, that if the silk workers had grievances, local leaders and committees were the proper persons to organize them and to treat with the employers. A few months ago Rochester, largely a nonunion city, awoke from its dreams to find that ten thousand garment workers had organized and gone on strike, the last straw in accumulating dissatisfaction being the discovery that they were working on goods from the New York factories where their fellow-workmen were striking for better conditions. Ladies in parlors, business men on the street, professional people in offices, all with one accord made a great moan, "if it weren't for these outside organizers of the A. F. of L., who come in and make the trouble, there would still be peace in our town." A few weeks after the strike was over and settled advantageously for the workers, a great campaign was instituted in Rochester, to raise 1913 COMMUNICATIONS 443 $750,000, for a new Y. M. C. A. Firms which school, cooks the dinner, washes the family cloth- The whole undertaking had been under the direction of out-of-town leaders imported for this especial purpose. As Mr. Fitch quotes from a candid Paterson business man, "It makes a difference on which foot the shoe is." Rochester. FLORENCE CROSS KITCHELT. A FEMINIST THEORY ATTACKED In your issue of May 10 there is an interesting letter advocating the employment of mothers as teachers, the wisdom of which is unquestionable. But toward the close of the letter a further interest develops because of the psychology revealed in one phrase the writer uses. In this phrase her speech betrayeth her. The few words to which I refer indicate certain facts about this lady: 1. She is still in single blessedness. 2. She is a feminist, though not a perfect follower of the ablest apostle of feminism. The words are these: "Mothers have become the parasites of society." Now Worcester defines a parasite as "a plant which grows upon the living parts of other plants, from the juices of which it derives its. nutriment," or "an animal which lives upon the bodies of other animals." Biologically considered, therefore, it would appear difficult to class mothers as parasites-the word would seem better to describe the babies, would it not? In deed, mothers would seem to be the only people. in the world who never could be parasites. The one job which cannot be let out in palace as well as hovel is the job which makes a woman into a mother-no one can bear our children for us! And no woman who has borne the pain and perils of childbirth, no woman who has taught her little children at her knee, no woman who bas seen them go out into life in their manhood and their womanhood to make this earth a better place to live in, can in her most modest moments feel herself wholly a parasite. Boston. MRS. WILLIAM LOWELL PUTNAM. TO THE EDITOR: The Label Shop, founded two years ago at 8 West 28th street, New York city, was an answer to an almost universal question, raised by the stories told by the Consumers' League, of underpay and sweatshop conditions in the manufacturing of even the most expensive clothing. Speakers were asked where to buy Consumers' League label underwear or Trade Union Label garments. It was practically impossible to find a store which would willingly sell label goods. Many attempts, more or less sporadic, were made to create a demand by inquiring at various stores for label goods. Then a show case was installed in the rooms of the Women's Trade Union League where orders were filled. No really effective step could be taken, however, without capital, and two years ago Carola Woerishoefer made possible the formation of a stock company and the opening of the tiny shop in West 28th Street. Members of the Consumers' League, Women's Trade Union League, collegiate alumnae and others subscribed to the stock and from the start the shop has had a not unsuccessful career. At the end of the last fiscal year a small dividend was declared. Recently, to keep pace with the upward trend of business along Fifth avenue, the shop has moved to 14 East 37th Street. Several departments have been added since the first small beginning. There are now, besides simple tub dresses, quite elaborate afternoon and evening gowns, all with the Trade Union Label, and a department of hand embroidered lingerie, bearing the French Consumers' Consumers' League Label. These are made in a Parisian co-operative fac'tory L' Entr' Aide, in large well-ventilated and well-lighted rooms. The prices of these articles are about the same as that of French lingerie in the department stores, and there is advantage in knowing that here one does not encourage underpay, unsanitary conditions, nor run the danger of getting disease germs with the garment! Now that it is easy to purchase label goods, it remains for the public to show that there exists a real desire to buy only where good conditions are guaranteed. An opportunity is thus offered to the shoppers of New York to show their symdaily bread is characteristic of the loose think-pathy and interest in an eminently practical and effective way. The application of the term to those women "who do not go out of their homes to earn their ing of the day, if indeed it can be called thinking at all. Is the one who bears the children, tends the baby, gets the older ones ready for New York. ALICE P. GANNETT. JOTTINGS BOYS TO EARN WAY AROUND WORLD Early in May a company of boys sailed from Boston on the Arabic bound around the world. They will represent the picked all-round boys of a dozen American cities, every lad a musician, an athlete and a gentleman. They are planning to earn their own way by band concerts, athletic entertainments and dramatic portrayals of American boy life. Major Sidney S. Peixotto is in charge of the expedition, and his Columbia Park Boys Club of San Francisco has furnished the nucleus of the tour. The average age of the boys is sixteen years. They will be gone for a year, traveling by way of England, France, Italy, Australia, China and Japan. The purposes of the trip are to afford the boys an opportunity for practical education, to demonstrate the possibilities of training in artistic lines for the average boy and to exhibit what American boyhood can be and do. In former years Major Peixotto has conducted elaborate tramping tours for his boys through California and a nine months' trip through Australia. But the venturesomeness of this present extended tour surpasses anything hitherto attempted by boys' clubs. A LIVING MUSEUM" FOR CHILDREN A suggestion of the human service our government may render was put forth by Julia C. Lathrop, chief of the Federal Children's Bureau at a meeting of the Monday Evening Club in Washington recently. Her idea is that we should establish a "children's Smithsonian museumsome living museum," she explained, "some palace for the youth of our land, in which should be installed, not only in historical array the story of the life of the various types of children in the world, the Indian and the Eskimo, but where there should be set forth the best knowledge of the world about the care of children. about recreation for children, about employment for children." EDUCATION OF THE IMMIGRANT At the Conference on the Education of the Immigrant, called by the North American Civic League for Immigrants in New York May 1617, domestic education proved to be a subject which brought together an interested audience. The fundamental idea was said to be to teach women how to make the most of their own resources. The attitude of the families visited by the domestic educator, it appeared, varies from that of the home in Buffalo where she is welcome because "she knows how to manage fits," to that of the one in New York where a mother not used to a definite plan wrote at the bottom of her budget "If I thought of everything, my health wouldn't stand it." MINNEAPOLIS TO FLAG CONFERENCE SPECIAL The Social Service Club of Minneapolis extends an invitation to eastern pilgrims on their way to the National Conference of Charities and Corrections in Seattle to tarry a while in Minneapolis. It is announced that: "A committee on entertainment has been appointed. This committee promises to have sufficient automobiles to give the whole train a ride, including the firemen and engineer. We will give you a glimpse of our beautiful boulevards and lakes, a reception at one of our finest country clubs, Minnikada, and an opportunity to take a dip at the finest inland bathing beach in the world, Lake Calhoun." TO REPRESENT AMERICAN BOY LIFE ON A TRIP AROUND THE WORLD. Columbia Park Boys' Band, Major S. S. Peixotto, leader, San Francisco, the nucleus of the boy travelers. An old-age pension bill has been introduced into the House by Representative Kelly of Pennsylvania as one of the program of measures proposed by the Progressive Party. The bill provides for pensioning persons above the age of sixty-five whose income for the twelve months preceding application for a pension shall not have exceeded an average of $6 a week. The amount of the proposed pension varies from one dollar to four dollars a week. PROBATION CONFERENCE AT BUFFALO Instead of meeting as usual with the National Conference of Charities and Correction, the National Probation Association this year will hold its annual conference at Buffalo, August 26-28, with the International Congress on School Hy. giene. A special symposium on probation and juvenile court work will also be held in Seattle during the week of the National Conference of Charities, which meets there July 5-12. The symposium will be presided over by Dr. Lilburn Merrill, director of diagnosis in the Seattle Juvenile Court. Those attending the Buffalo and Seattle meetings can avail themselves of the reduced railroad 'DON'TS" FOR ASSOCIATED CHARITIES 445 A page not often found in the report of an associated charities appears in a recent account of five years' work of the Portland, Ore., society, under the title What We are Not Organized to Do: Keep families supplied with groceries, clothing, and rent indefinitely. Look for jobs for able-bodied men and women when they are able to do so for themselves. Collect wages for people who do not perform their work properly. Supply tools to shiftless men who sell or pawn them. Pay room rent and furnish provisions and clothing for women who will not do the only kind of work they are able to do. Provide support for children whose parents want to shift their responsibilities. Take children away from parents whose only fault is their poverty. Send people to other cities without knowing that they will be cared for when they get therefor this is not fair to the other city or kind to the person sent. Cultivate the spirit or practice of mendicancy. SOCIAL WORKERS' TRIP TO JAPAN A trip to Japan, planned to start just after the National Conference of Charities and Correction in Seattle, is being arranged by Rev. Sydney Strong of Seattle, and his daughter, Anna Louise rates granted to the Congress on School Hygiene Strong. The party will leave Seattle July 15 and the National Conference of Charities respectively. INTERNATIONAL HYGIENE EXPOSITION Information comes from Consul General James A. Smith, Genoa, Italy, that pamphlets in English relating to the International Hygiene and Marine Exposition to be held in Genoa in March, 1914, and containing rules and regulations for exhibitors as well as programs of the exhibits, have been placed on file with the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Department of Commerce, Washington, D. C., where they may be obtained on application. PROBATION IN MASSACHUSETTS Evidence of the increased use of probation in Massachusetts is contained in the Fourth Annual Report of the Commission on Probation of that state. The number of persons placed on parole in 1912 was 17,538 or 1,651 more than in 1911. Probation officers last year collected $136,511.85 which exceeds the figure for the preceeding twelve months by over $50,000. Of this increase $36,247.77 was in non-support cases. The total sum collected in the seventy-one courts exceeds the cost of the probation system by more than $20,000. It would seem, however, that there is a lack of standardization in the issuance of probation orders. The number of cases put on probation in different courts varies in nine municipal courts from 3.6 per cent of the total cases tried to 20.9 per cent; in the thirteen police courts from 3.9 per cent to 36.4 per cent; and in the forty-seven District Courts from 1.9 per cent to 32.5 per cent. on the Japan Mail Steamship Company's Steamer Tamba Maru and return on the Shidzuaka Maru. They expect to arrive in Seattle on September 11 having four weeks in Japan. Any who desire to remain longer in Japan or to proceed to China or Korea will be able to make suitable arrangements. Details concerning the trip can be had from either Dr. Strong or Miss Strong at 508 Garfield Street, Seattle. WAIST MAKERS FOR CONTINUATION SCHOOLS While the white goods manufacturers are already experimenting, in co-operation with the New York Department of Education, with plans for establishing continuation classes for their foreign-born and often foreign-speaking workers, the Waist and Dress Manufacturers' Association is endeavoring to build upon the experience of other trades and other lands. With this object in view George M. Price, director of their joint sanitary board is this summer making a study of the continuation schools of Holland and France, and Samuel Floersheim, secretary of the association, is studying the schools of Munich. BOOKKEEPING FOR PROBATION OFFICERS The New York State Probation Commission has supplied probation officers in the state with a complete set of books for keeping account of instalment fines, restitution and family support collected from persons on probation. The amount collected in these forms during the past year probably exceeded $80,000. Inquiries by the commission have shown the need of better methods of book-keeping and of a state-wide system. The system prepared by the commission includes a parallel columned cash-book, loose leaf ledgers, and official receipt blanks. |