subjects of labor legislation which follow we must not lose sight of the fact that only 5 of the Democratic states have made provision for factory inspection services for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of the labor laws which will be under consideration.

Free Employment Bureaus.-The movement to establish free public employment bureaus, where working people in search of work and employers desiring help might be brought together without expense to either, was started in Ohio by the passage of a law requiring the labor bureau of that state to establish agencies in the leading cities. Other states followed Ohio's example, until at present laws providing for such agencies have been enacted in 13 states. Of these 11 are Republican and 2 are Democratic.

Boards of Arbitration and Conciliation.-Twenty-one states have enacted laws providing for either state or local boards of conciliation and arbitration. Of these 16 are Republican and 5 are Democratic states.

Eight-hour Law.-For many years labor organizations have been endeavoring to secure legislation prohibiting labor on government works or public contracts for over eight hours per day. At the present time 17 of the 45 states have such laws on their statute books. Of these 14 are Republican and 3 are Demócratic. In addition to these, 5 Republican states and 1 Democratic state have laws declaring eight hours to be a legal working day in the absence of a contract.

Child Labor.-Ever since the introduction of the factory system, over a century ago, the greatest sufferers from the greed of inconsiderate and cruel employers have been the helpless children, who often at a tender age are placed in factories. It is a principle recognized in all civilized countries that children under 12 years of age should not be employed in factories, and nearly all civilized countries have laws placing a minimum age limit of 12 or 14 years upon such child labor. In our country 28 states absolutely prohibit the employment of children under 12 years of age in factories. Of these, 19 are Republican and 9 are Democratic states. Three of the latter, however, did not enact such laws until last year. Of these 19 Republican states, 17 have factory inspection services to see that the laws are enforced, while only 4 of these 9 Democratic states make provision for such inspection.

Many states have enacted laws placing certain restrictions upon the employment of children, usually under 16 years of age, and in some cases even upon the employment of all minors. Of this class are laws limiting the hours of labor of children in factories or stores, which have been enacted in 27 states. Of these 19 are Republican and 8 are Democratic states.

Twenty-eight states have placed restrictions upon the employment of children of school age or of illiterate children, of which 22 are Republican and 6 are Democratic.

Thirteen states prohibit the employment of children or minors in places where intoxicants are sold or handled. Of these 9 are Republican and 4 are Democratic.

Thirteen states prohibit the employment of children in operating dangerous machinery or cleaning machinery in motion. Of these 11 are Republican and 2 are Democratic states.

Woman Labor.-Next to the children the greatest victims of abuse by greedy employers when unrestrained by law are women. Investigations have shown that their condition is sometimes pitiful where employers are given free scope in their employment. Their protection, in the interests of humanity and morals, has also been the subject of legislation in nearly all civilized countries. In the United States 38 states have legislated upon this subject. Of these 38 states, 27 are Republican and 11 are Democratic. Again it is interesting to notice that of the 27 Republican states regulating woman labor 21 provide for factory inspection, while of the 11 Democratic states mentioned, only 4 make such provision.

Seats for Females in Shops.-Legislation on this subject needs no comment. Any man who has a daughter or sister employed in a shop or store, and every physician, knows what a hardship it is to a woman to be compelled to stand all day at a bench or behind a counter. Fortunately in 31 states legislation has been enacted requiring employers to provide seats for females. Of these 31 states, 22 are Republican and 9 are Democratic.

Sweatshop Legislation.-There is no greater menace to the health of the working people, and nothing which tends more to lower and degrade human beings, than to crowd them together in small, filthy workshops, where they are often compelled to work, eat and sleep without regard to health or morals, and where the hours of labor are often so long that the victims, who are usually foreigners unacquainted with our language, are shut out from all opportunities for education or betterment of any kind. The scenes observed in these shops by official investigators have been revolting beyond description. Long ago efforts have been made to regulate these so-called "sweatshops," and 12 states have enacted laws looking to this end. Of these 12 states 10 are Republican and 2 are Democratic. Nothing more need be said on this point.

Wage Payments.-In order to insure the prompt payment of workingmen's wages in cash when due, 21 states have enacted laws requiring employers to pay wages weekly or fortnightly, and in some instances prohibiting a longer interval than one month between pay-days. Of these states 15 are Republican and 6 are Democratic.

Protection of Members of Labor Organizations.-Fifteen states have enacted laws, that are now in force, prohibiting employers from discharging persons on account of membership in labor organizations, or from compelling persons to agree not to become members of labor organizations as a condition of securing employment or continuing in their employ. Of these 13 are Republican and 2 are Democratic states.

Protection of the Union Label.-Thirty-eight states have adopted laws allowing trade unions to adopt labels or trade-marks to be used to designate the products of the labor of their members, and prohibiting the counterfeiting or the use of such labels or trademarks by unauthorized persons. Of these states 27 are Republican and 11 are Democratic.

Earnings of railway employees in the United States, 1902. [From the Fifteenth Annual Report on the Statistics of Railways by the Interstate Commerce Commission.]

The State is potent, Corporations and combinations which derive their breath from the State are within its absolute and perpetual control.—Hon. C. W. Fairbanks, at St. Paul, Minn., August 31, 1903.

It remains true now as it always has been, that in the last resort the country districts are those in which we are surest to find the old American spirit, the old American habits of thought and ways of living. Conditions have changed in the country far less than they have changed in the cities, and in consequence there has been little breaking away from the methods of life which have produced the great majority of the leaders of the Republic in the past.-President Roosevelt at Bangor, Me., Aug. 27, 1902.

THE ADVANCE IN PRICES.

It is doubtless true that there has been an advance in prices of certain manufactures and food stuffs in the United States since 1896, though the recent reports of the Labor Bureau show that this advance has not been as great as the advance in wages. This subject of the relative advance in prices and wages is discussed under the heading of Labor, Wages, and Prices, page 203. Great effort has been made by the Democratic fault finders to make it appear that the increase in prices has been brought about by the trusts and great combinations of this character.

The principal causes of this advance in prices may be enumerated as follows: 1. Great increase in demand at home, due to increased earnings and business activity. 2. Increase in cost of labor to those engaged in the production of the articles in question; and, 3, increase in cost of materials used in manufacturing.

That the increase in the earnings and business activity, and therefore the purchasing power of the people of the United States is very great and that such increase in all cases affects prices is too well known to require discussion. A contrast of conditions to-day with those of 1895 and 1896 and the demand for products of the farm or factory and the increased earnings with which to purchase such products is of itself an explanation of the advance in prices which would naturally follow. In all lines of business the demand has been fully equal to and in many cases has exceeded the supply, as is proven by the enormous increase in importation of many articles for which consumers were accustomed to rely upon the home market.

In iron and steel, for example, the demand of 1302 and 1903 was so far beyond the capacity of the home manufacturers to supply that the importation of iron and steel in their various forms increased from 17 million dollars in 1901 to 512 millions in 1903. As a consequence of this excessive demand, steel billets, which may be accepted as a representative article in iron and steel, advanced from $16.75 per ton on January 1, 1899; to $35 per ton on January 1, 1900, and stood at $29 per ton on January 1, 1902, $37 per ton in the middle of that year, and at $31 on January 1, 1903. By the middle of the year 1903 the excessive demand upon the home market began to grow less, and in July the price fell to $29; in November, to $23, and has stood continuously at $23 per ton from November, 1903, down to May, 1904.

DUTIES ON IRON AND STEEL NOT PROHIBITIVE.

This combination of circumstances with reference to prices of fron and steel is especially interesting in view of its relation to various assertions made by the Democrats regarding the relation of trusts and tariffs to prices. It has been asserted over and over again that the rates of duty on iron and steel are prohibitive as to imports, and that, therefore, it is in the power of the manufacturers to maintain such prices as they may choose in the home market. It will be observed, however, that imports responded immediately to the advance in prices. As above indicated, prices of steel billets, a representative article, which had been $16 per ton in 1898, began to advance in the early part of 1899. This did not occur sufficiently early in the year, however, to affect the importations of the fiscal year 1899, which ended June 30 of that year; the value of iron and steel imported in the year ending June 30, 1899, being 12 million dollars. The continuous high prices of 1899 and 1900, however, had their effect in increasing the importations in the fiscal year 1900 to 20 million dollars. By July of 1900 prices again fell somewhat and ranged from $29 per ton in July of that year to $20.75 in January, February, and March, 1901; and, as a consequence, imports of iron and steel fell to a little less than 18 million dollars in 1901. In the autumn of 1901 and the early part of 1902 home prices again advanced, reaching $37 per ton by the middle of 1902, and imports increased to 27 million dollars in the year ending June 30, 1902. Prices remained high in the home market during the remainder of 1902 and the early part of 1903, and as a consequence the imports during the

year ending June 30, 1903, were 51 million dollars, or a greater value than for 20 years with the single exception of 1891, which was about the same figure as that for 1903. In the latter part of 1903 and the early part of 1904, however, as already indicated, prices fell in the home market, and as a consequence the importations in the first half of 1904 fell from 381⁄2 millions to 21 millions. This great increase in the imports of iron and steel in response to the unusual demands of the home market and consequent high prices is of itself a sufficient refutation of the assertion that the rates of duty on iron and steel are prohibitive, and that the prices in the home market can be fixed by home producers without reference to competition from abroad.

Another important fact with reference to the movements of prices of iron and steel in the past few months is that they completely refute the assertion that it is in the power of the manufacturers to maintain high prices. The fact that this representative class of steel production-steel billets-is shown by the reports of the Bureau of Statistics to have fallen from $37 per ton in July, 1902, to $23 per ton by November, 1903, a reduction of about one-third, and remained stationary at that low figure since that time, refutes the assertion that prices can be fixed and maintained by the manufacturers. If the steel trust or any combination of manufacturers were able to fix and maintain prices it would be scarcely possible that they would permit a reduction of 40 per cent in prices of their products within a period of fifteen months and permit prices to remain at this comparatively low figure down to the present time.

LABOR AND RAW MATERIAL MUCH HIGHER.

As to wages, labor, as is well known, forms a very large proportion of the value of the manufactured article. In many cases it forms three-fourths of the total cost of the finished article, but as a whole it may be fairly set down as forming at least one-half of the value of the manufactures of the country. That the cost of labor has very greatly increased is too well known to require argument. As shown elsewhere, the reports of the Labor Bureau show a marked increase in wages of all occupation, especially as compared with the period from 1893 to 1896. The reports of Frederick W. Job, Secretary of the Employers' Association of Chicago, show that wages in many lines of occupation have increased from 20 per cent. to 50 per cent. since 1895, and when it is taken into consideration that from one-half to three-fourths of the value of the manufactured article consists of labor, in which such increases have been made in wages, this fact accounts for a large part of the increased cost of the article.

As to raw material. That prices of raw material have increased very greatly is indicated by tables taken from the official reports of the Bureau of Statistics and printed on page showing the import prices of articles required in manufacturing. They show, for example, that raw cotton, which was imported in 1897 at 11.2 cents per pound, averaged in 1903 18.9 cents; hemp, which averaged $126 per ton in 1897, was in 1903 $150 per ton; flax increased from $219 per ton in 1897 to $258 in 1903; manila hemp from $79 per ton in 1897 to $200 in 1903; sisal grass, for use in manufacturing rope, twine, etc., from $60 per ton in 1897 to an average of $156 in 1903; jute, from $30 per ton in 1897 to $48 in 1903; raw silk from 2.97 cents per pound in 1897 to 3.45 cents in 1903. India rubber, the import price of which averaged 50 cents per pound in 1897, was 692 cents in 1903. Pig tin, for use in manufacturing tin plates, which averaged 12.8 cents per pound in 1897, import price, averaged in 1903 27.3 cents. It will be seen from these few examples that prices of raw material imported increased from 25 per cent. to, in some cases, 150 per cent.

A table on page 244 shows in detail the increase in import prices of articles used in manufacturing and will repay careful study in a consideration of this subject.

ADVANCES IN RAW MATERIALS.

The above discussion relates to prices of imported raw materials, and it certainly can not be charged that these advances are due to control by tariff-protected trusts, so called, since the

articles in question come from so many parts of the world and in a large proportion of cases from countries in which tariff rates are extremely low, such as silk from China and Japan; fibers and india rubber and cotton from tropical countries; sugar chiefly from the Tropics; and wool from Argentina, Australia, and Southern Asia and Europe. Nor can this advance be charged to our tariff, since most of these articles are on the free list.

A similar advance in prices occurs in a large proportion of the raw materials produced in the United States and used in manufacturing. The price of raw cotton, for example, in 1898 averaged 5.95 cents per pound, and in 1903 11.18 cents, having practically doubled during that time. These figures are supplied to the Bureau of Statistics by Mr. Alfred, B. Shepperson, a wellknown expert in matters of this character. Prices of wool, as reported to the Bureau of Statistics by Mauger & Avery, a well known and reliable firm of New York, were, for October, 1896, 18 cents per pound, and in 1903, 32 cents for "fine" grades; for the "medium" grade 19 cents per pound in 1896, and in 1903 312 cents; for that graded as "coarse," 18 cents per pound in 1896, and 28 cents in 1903. Of iron ore, the price as supplied by Mr. A. I. Findley, editor of the Iron Trade Review, Cleveland, was, in 1897, $2.65 per ton, and in 1903 $4.50 per ton. The Bureau

of Statistics quotes the price of Lake copper on January 7, 1898, at $10.90 per ton, and in April, 1903, at $15. Crude petroleum is quoted in September, 1898, at $1 per barrel, and in December, 1903, at $1.90. Bessemer pig iron, while the first stage of manufacture, is nevertheless a manufacturer's material, and is quoted by the Bureau of Statistics at $10.50 per ton in the closing months of 1898, $25 per ton in the closing months of 1898, and $23 per ton in the opening months of 1903.

Prices Have Also Advanced Abroad.

While it is true that the United States has witnessed a marked advance in prices of many articles since the low tariff period in which lack of earnings of the people so reduced their purchasing power that values fell to their very lowest level, it is also true that great advances have also occurred in other countries. Prof. Sauerbeck's tables, showing the course of prices of 45 commodities during the last 25 years, published by the British Statistical Society, present figures showing the prices of many leading articles in London during past years and furnish an illustration of the fact that the advance in prices has not been confined to the United States. These figures show, for example, that Scotch pig iron, which was quoted in London at 42s., 8d. per ton in 1894, was 69s., 4d. per ton in 1900. Iron bars show an increase from 4% pounds sterling per ton in 1894 to 9 pounds sterling per ton in 1900; Straits tin, from 68 pounds sterling per ton in 1894 to 134 pounds sterling in 1900; pig lead, from 95% pounds sterling in 1894 to 174 pounds sterling in 1900; manila hemp, from 22 pounds sterling per ton in 1894 to 39 pounds sterling in 1900; merino wool, from 114 pence per pound in 1894 to 154 pence in 1900; linseed, from 20 pounds sterling per ton in 1894 to 301⁄2 pounds in 1900; and linseed oil, from 38 shillings per quarter in 1894 to 54 shillings in 1900. Beef shows an advance in the class designated as "prime" from 47 pence per 8 pounds in 1894 to 51 pence in 1900; in the class designated as "middle" from 37 pence per 8 pounds in 1894 to 42 pence in 1900; prime mutton, from 55 pence per 8 pounds in 1894 to 59 pence in 1900; butter, from 98 shillings per cwt. in 1894 to 102 shillings in 1900; dry hides, from 51⁄2 pence per pound in 1894 to 8% pence in 1900.

Attention is again called, before leaving this subject, to the fact that while an advance has occurred in prices of certain manufactures and foodstuffs by reason of increased cost of raw material and labor, the advance in wages has more than kept pace with these increases. This is fully and clearly shown from the reports of the Labor Bureau of the United States Government, in the article on Labor, Wages, and Prices,

This is not and never shall be a government of a plutocracy; it is not and never shall be a government by a mob.-President Roosevelt at Butte, Mont., May 27, 1903,