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prevail among dependent producers, for, their conomic position being weak, and isolated as they are from one another, they really belong to a grade of workers lower than those who have the power to combine to control the conditions of their work. These workers respond to every pressure of their employers ; those who work at home render organization difficult for workers in shops, and, by introducing an element of sharp competition, frustrate every effort of the latter to improve their condition. They have no conception of solidarity, and are con- tent during bad times to work for a mere pittance. This class is firmly established in the East End of London as well as among the wretched immigrants in New York.
Among the steps taken or proposed as remedies for this condition are : registration of home workers, dwelling and workhouse inspection, introduction of license which is granted only when the premises are adapted to industrial labor, organization and insurance of workers, prohibition of home work, imposition of a heavy tax upon contractors, the marking of products as in the case of the American Consumers' League, erection of central shops for those who now work at home, immigration restrictions, and obligatory minimum wages.
The main remedies will always be sought in legislation, self-help, and ad- ministration. The elevation of home workers is a stupendous problem, the gradual solution of which, even under the most favorable conditions, will take many years. Nor can a single legislation furnish satisfactory relief. A striving for social improvement must animate the legislature and the administration, and a system of " small causes " must be carried into effect since the world can be improved only step by step.
Before a remedy is applied, careful observations must be made of the con- crete evils as well as of the economic foundations of the respective industries. We must also allow personal judgment to mature, and must not content ourselves with bringing about a compromise between two conflicting interests. Opinions in inspectors' reports should not be blindly adopted, but regarded merely as a basis for original researches. EUGEN SCHWIEDLAND, in International Quarterly, June-September, 1903.
The Past and Future of the Collective Contract of Work. It is the characteristic role of the collective contract, in the thought of its partisans, to diminish the frequency of strikes, so inauspicious at this time to masters and workmen, and so harmful to industry. It is a question of passing from the war period to the diplomatic period in these industrial conflicts, of substituting for the collective refusal of work the collective contract of work.
It ought to be said that the collective contract of work is not a contract of work except in name, but solely of the conditions of work salary, length of day, number of apprentices supplementary hours, etc. The contract rests on condi- tions agreed upon by a master or a group of masters, on the one hand, and a united body of workers, on the other, with this peculiar character that the stipulated conditions accrue to the benefit of collections of individuals.
In England, according to the Webbs, 90 per cent, of the workers in the skilled industries find their wages, their hours of work, and often other details fixed by a collective contract, in which they have not taken part, but in which their interests have been supported by the representatives of their class. These in- dustries are for the most part those in which competition has been most severe. The first service of the collective contract is to limit, though not to destroy, com- petition.
In the second place, it diminishes the number of strikes. From 1896 to 1902, in England, strikes diminished by more than 50 per cent. From 1897 to 1901 about 72 per cent, of the strikes begun were settled by the collective contract and in point of numbers 80 per cent, of the strikers were benefited by this mode of solution.
As a third service the collective contract conserves individual liberty. It leaves to each employer the choice of workmen, and to each workman the choice of his employer ; reserves to each employer the indispensable direction of work
