merely that the business shall not be run at a loss, but that the business shall be run under such conditions that the owner of the capital on the one hand is willing to risk his capital in the business, and the possessor of that special ability which is required to organize and conduct a successful business will be led to use his greatest efforts in that direction.

Unless the profits of businesses are such as to tempt capitalists to risk their money, the money will seek, not participation in business, which necessarily involves great risks, but will be put into classes of investment where there is supposed to be no risk whatever.

Unless men of exceptional business ability have the promise or possibility of large rewards they will not be led to develop or use those special talents or capacities which we find in the leaders of great businesses-the men who have made or managed them.

What the exact amount of profit is which is necessary to make men risk their money in business, and how great the rewards must be in order to develop the leaders of industry are, of course, matters which cannot be decided by any general rule.

STRIVE ΤΟ INCREASE EARNINGS.

Second-The employes should strive to make the earnings of any business as large as possible.

There can be no greater mistake for the workingman than to restrict the output of the individual.

You must make the total earnings of the business in which you are engaged the largest possible. By earnings in this connection I mean the aggregate fund available for paying workingmen, capitalists and managers. Make that aggregate large and there will be plenty for all among whom it is to be divided.

The most potent factor in securing large profits is the avoidance of waste, and the greatest source of waste in the industrial world is unused, undeveloped or misdirected human effort. To the correction of that evil trade unions should direct their attention.

Let every one engaged in the business work with the greatest possible efficiency

and diligence consistent with maintaining himself in good condition to work thereafter, and leaving himself the leisure necessary to the performance of his duties to his family, to his state and for his own development and pleasure.

The hours of labor should be reasonably short; but during working hours each individual should work hard and earnestly, and under conditions leading to the greatest possible efficiency.

Any restriction upon the output of the individual reduces the fund of profits available for distribution, besides demoralizing the man who is so restricted.

It follows also that differences in efficiency between different individuals must be recognized and rewarded; and that those who can work faster and better than others must not be retarded by the less efficient. The industrial superiority of America is largely due to the absence of restriction upon individual effort; to the encouragement of the individual by giving him the fruits of his efforts.

Your federation opposes socialism, but to ignore the difference between individuals would lend strength to socialism and communism.

LIMITATION IS WASTE.

A limitation of the production of the individual is pure waste. The business is merely rendered less profitable, and the man whose production is restricted is injured also.

Nor does the restriction of the output of the individual make more work for others. The amount of work to be done is, in a country like ours, in no sense fixed; for the amount of goods or service men buy is not fixed. The amount bought is as a rule limited only by the ability to buy.

If you waste human effort you make the product cost more. If you raise prices without increasing incomes you have simply limited the amount that will be bought. You have not made work for more people. You have merely given people less for their money.

Another great factor of waste in most businesses is the cost of inspectors, foremen and assistant foremen-men whose services are in large part required only

because so many employes work, not as hard or as well as is possible but only hard enough or well enough to pass the inspector or foreman.

Every man should look out for himself, should do the work without inspector or foreman watching him like a policeman. The dishonor and the expense of unnecessary inspectors and foremen should be avoided.

Trade unions have already done much for the manhood of the workingman. They should teach him that it is a disgrace to manhood to require watching.

WORK SHOULD BE STEADY.

Third-The unions should demand for the workingman steady work.

In order that the pay of the individual may be large it is necessary not merely that the business as a whole be profitable, but also that the individual be given full opportunity to work for his share of the profit.

Most controversies between employers and employes have arisen upon claims for what is called higher wages; that is, for a higher rate per day or per piece. But the rate per day or per piece is only one of the factors which go to make up wages.

The important question is not how much a man is paid per day nor how much per piece, but how much can he earn in a year. He may have high wages and an opportunity of working only half the year.

For instance, it appeared in the anthracite coal strike inquiry that the men worked only about 181 days in the year.

Lack of earnings is only a small part of the evil which results from irregularity of employment. It is the uncertainty as to a job which produces a large part of the care of a workingman's life, and the days of enforced idleness which lead to most of the bad habits.

Every man should have the opportunity of working every day in the year excepting Sundays and holidays and such time as he properly wishes for a vacation. In some trades this is impossible, but in many trades where the irregularity of work is accepted as a necessity, it would be found that if the

effort were duly made the amount of slack time could be greatly reduced.

Where men are engaged in trades which on account of the physical conditions can be followed only during a part of the year, there ought to be found for them work at some other trade for the remainder of the year.

PROVIDE AGAINST IRREGULARITY

No industrial condition can be satisfactory which does not tend to remove the thing called "day labor," which does not seek to make the work of the workingman as steady as that of the clerk or salesman.

If

No adequate effort to provide against irregularity of work has been made. the unions once formulate demands for steady work and coöperate with employers to secure it, an immense improvement on these lines will undoubtedly result.

Steadiness of work is nearly as important to the employer as to the employe. For instance, the great aim of the manufacturer must be to run his factory full all the time. Many factories can earn their profit only if they do. If the factory runs all of the time, and the employes work all of the time, it is obvious that the owner can be satisfied with a much smaller rate of profit and the men can be satisfied with a smaller rate per day or per piece than they would have to get if the factory and the employes were idle part of the time.

The manufacturer and the men will get less per piece, but more in the aggregate, and if you can keep the price low the demand for the article, whatever it may be, will be increased.

That is, if you can get your goods cheaper and yet have the men who make them earn in the aggregate as much as when the price of the goods was higher, you are increasing the amount of work, not diminishing it. In other words, it is by increasing the output per man, not by restricting it, that you give work to more men.

And therefore every bit of efficiency that you can add to the ability of an individual, and every bit of waste that you can avoid and thus enable the goods

and long overcoat, greatly resembling An uncanny feeling stole over

his own. the Professor.

The stranger paused in his labors, seeming at a loss to continue. Then he began pointing at the various objects in the place, waiting for the Professor's reply each time. Seagraves got an inkling of his meaning.

"Table, chairs, telescope, chart, window," he said in turn. But the stranger shook his head sadly at each rejoinder, as if unable to grasp its significance. Then Seagraves continued, hoping to strike some word which might start a logical train of thought in the visitor's befuddled mind.

"Hat, typewriter, lamp-post, man, woman, love-"

"At last, at last!" cried the stranger, in a sepulchral tone, yet with a ring of ecstasy. "That magic word 'love'the keynote of every language, clime and sphere for ages! It is the shining link which joins me to my previous existence in this benighted world. Now, sir, I am prepared to listen to you. You were saying?”

"The fellow is certainly mad!" thought Seagraves. Then he said, very mildly "I was about to suggest that, as you are quite unknown to me, some explanation of your business here might be in order."

"I came to get my bearings. I have lost my way," said the unknown.

"Lost your way? Don't you know where you live? The street or housenumber?" He shook his head sadly. "But you certainly know your own name-why not consult the city directory?" asked Seagraves.

Were I an inhabitant of your city, or indeed of this world, I would be glad to follow your suggestion," said the stranger. "But since I am a skimmer of the skies, an astral messenger bound for a given point, I am compelled to consult a directory of the heavens, having lost my way."

"This fellow is liable to become violent," thought the Professor, edging toward the door.

"Listen," cried the stranger, "ages ago I was Obeb, a Chaldean who loved

Zadie, most beautiful of maidens. But she was cut down in the flower of youth, and I, becoming inconsolable, embraced the science of astronomy, hoping to ascertain to which star of the heavens her gentle spirit had fled. Centuries have passed since then, and our two souls, passing through many separate and successive existences in different worlds have at length become ripe for final union. But tell me," he said, suddenly, "have any of your scientists been experimenting at signaling Mars?" "Can't say," replied Seagraves, "although it is possible. Why?"

"As I traversed space on my way to meet Zadie, my spirit-love, I came in contact with an electric wave, which was speeding toward your nearest celestial neighbor. This caused me to be precipitated to your accursed planet. Here the incessant roar of traffic, the towering height of your buildings, and the strange antics of the natives, so befuddled me that I could no longer distinguish that bright particular star which is my destination. Seeing the dome of your observatory, I came here to get my bearings. I took the liberty of appropriating the shadow of your hat and overcoat, to make myself presentable," he added, apologetically.

Seagraves was amazed to discover that his hat and ulster cast no shadow upon the wall against which they hung.

"He

"This fellow is a hypnotist as well as a madman," thought Seagraves. will have me believing him after a bit.' Then he joined Obeb at the chart.

'Zadie! Zadie!-I never heard of it!" "You call yourselves astronomers!' cried the astral visitor. "Oh, little earthly men! Oh, infants in the arms of infinity! Know, there are millions of stars which are not recorded on your charts! Where is Zadie, which should be in the constellation Leo? Where are Vini Gallici and Saccharum Akba, which should be in Virgo?"

He strode to the telescope and peered into it long and earnestly.

"At last!" he cried. "See yon twinkling point of violet velvet light? It is the star of my pre-ordination, the home of Zadie, my spirit-love, for is it not the

very color of her eyes? She waits for me! I must go to her-farewell!"

"Hold on!" cried Seagraves, "how about Vini Gallici and the rest of them?” But like a flash his astral visitor was gone; the Professor's hat and coat once more casting a shadow on the wall.

Seagraves peered into the telescope, then sank back into his chair with a gasp of surprise; for at a point in the heavens which had hitherto been blank and unbroken he distinguished a little speck of violet velvet light. Leaning over his chart the Professor recorded the appearance of a new star! Three weeks later the Astronomical Society, on the suggestion of the discoverer, named the new luminary "Zadie."

Then

While Seagraves felt little disposed to doubt the agency which had prompted his wonderful discovery, he never accepted the story of the Chaldean and and his spirit-love as gospel truth. One day he was reading a deceased author, who made a specialty of fantastic tales. He was struck by the similarity of his style with the narrative of Obeb. Seagraves concluded that his astral visitor must be the ghost of this writer, who had perpetrated so many lies in his books while in the flesh that he was punished while believing them himself in the spirit; and who carried into the great beyond a hazy remembrance of the last pharmaceutical means employed to stay his fleeting breath!

"There is so much bad in the best of us and so much good in the worst of us, that it hardly behooves any of us to talk about the rest of us." We came across that maxim some time ago, somewhere, and took a copy of it, which soon disappeared in that chaos a writer is apt to accumulate every few weeks, of fragments written by somebody And so much of it is written in our days, foolish or wise, that it is almost impossible to take cognizance of but a small portion of what is published. Somehow or other the sentence or dictum in question made its appearance just in time for us to apply to the subject we desire to dwell upon in our present short essay.

It has often occurred to us that we are yet in the wrong track of too much time spent in foolish talk about each one of us. We thus forget to talk about what is needed for every one of us to live a sensible life. Perhaps it is worse than that. Perhaps we fall into the habit of losing all taste to talk on educating subjects, or prefer to remain silent when we should talk, or resort to the reading of insignificant events rather than to think on some of the important matters

of the day. And there is so much to think about worth thinking and talking for the daily improvement of all of us! And life is so short, after all! Why, then, to waste it in nonsensical talk or nonsensical reading? And we think we are great readers today. Are we sure that we don't often read for the purpose of saving ourselves from the trouble to think?

Before we plunge ourselves into a correct analysis of the problems above indicated, let us attempt to establish or suggest a simple classification of the word "knowledge." The writer has never come across any such classification, and we have often asked our prominent people for it, and never received a satisfactory answer. Who has time to answer any important questions today? It seems to us that the word knowledge should be subject to the simple and natural classification of fundamental, incidental, and ornamental, the two latter departments as complementary elements of the elementary one, the fundamental knowledge. Would we yet be entangled, mixed up in the meshy snares of our complicated prog