than they did when he said, "Let Him who is without sin cast the first stone."

We do not do violence to history when we call Christ the first labor unionist, for he not only said "the laborer is worthy his hire," for He seemed to disregard the previously taught idea that. work was in the world as a punishment for sin, as a curse; but He dignified it beyond all previous ideas of it when He said, "My Father worketh hitherto and I work." He gave to labor its proper potential poise in the great economy of the world, nay, the universe. He taught that only by labor can man attain to that bodily and mental condition which fits him for the stern duties and destinies of his being.

It is our belief that the world is beginning to understand the humanity of Christ, to know that he taught and thought of the here quite as much as of the hereafter, and that the elevation of humanity must begin on earth and is an infinite progression. The labor unions, grasping the ethics of this idea, make declaration of and stand for its fulfillment by placing around the laborer a chance to improve his social conditions by an improved environment, and a modicum of leisure and bodily rest. We have little hope for a bodily, mental or spiritual growth where the conditions of employment necessitate constant toil or necessary sleep.

It appears to us that the tendency of the past, and likely much of it now, was and is to crystalize the vital elements of love and tenderness-humanity-all out of Chirist's religion and make it an opaque adamantine mass, wherein was no virtue save in austerity. The mission of the labor union is to dissolve this crystalized misconception of Christ's mission and leaven it with the overwhelming human solicitude so apparent in all his teachings and acts. "Peace on earth, and among men good will," was the essence of the heralding of his appearance on earth and all his future life was in consonance with that forerunner. So that when the labor unions make merry and celebrate the birth which gave christianity its name and impetus, they do so with the thought

and feeling that he was one of them in very truth, and yearned to alleviate their condition. Add to the herald of "good will among men" the concentrated essence of all humanitarian ethics, "do to others as you would that they should do to you," and we have the sum and substance, the beginning and the end of the hope of christianity. This applies to the high, the low, the rich, the poor, and he who follows this divine conception of duty, be he king, millionaire or the most menial worker, is in very truth leading a christian life.

And this is really what the Christmas festivities are for-to remember particularly, once a year, the Christ, who was so far ahead of the time in which he lived-whose vision and ultimate hope of the human race is perhaps centuries ahead of the time in which we live, but which fits into every phase of the ever-changing panorama of human actions and feelings with a nicety and precision suggestive of contemporaneous life.

The more we study the life and doings of Christ, the more we are convinced of the beauty and value of the simple lifethe life whose major existence is spent in help, work and hope for others. In such lives we see laid the substantial foundations upon which are to be built the superstructure of continued business and social integrity, a confidence in fellow man, without which the commercial structure of our country would be scattered like card houses in a hurricane.

In closing the fully written book of the year 1905 we bid you do so with a large measure of retrospection-not particularly of regret or sorrow, but a retrospection in which is deeply mingled a determination to so write the pages of 1906 that when its time for closing shall have arrived, our backward glances over its pages will show fewer blots, more and better services in every way showing that we have contributed to and brought a little nearer "On earth peace, and among men good will.”

To one and all we wish a joyous Christmas and a bountiful, prosperous New Year a year full of the best kind of happiness.

The recent decision by Judge Bethea in the famous "Cattle Case" gives food for thought on the agitation of rate regulation. In the first place, the decision shows conclusively the injustice to which the roads would be subjected by the passage of a law making the decision of the Interstate Commerce Commission operative at once and to be kept in force till the courts had decided the question. In this case the roads declare that had the decision of the Commission been effective immediately, a single western road would have lost more than $300,000 revenue, and the seventeen roads involved in the litigation between two and three millions.

It is interesting to note some of the findings of the court:

That the livestock rates are reasonable in themselves.

That the cost of carrying livestock is greater than that of carrying dressed meats and packing house products.

That the value of the service of carriage is greater to the packers because of the higher price of a car of dressed meats, valued at twice that of livestock.

That the rates in question given to the packers at the Missouri River and St. Paul were the result of competition.

That the rates were not made voluntarily, but from the necessity arising from competition, the necessity being that of carrying the goods at the lower rate, or losing the business.

That there was not competition enough at said points to lower the rate as to live stock.

That the competition in question did not result from agreement of the defendants, but was actual, genuine competition.

That the welfare of the public, including the shippers, consumers and all localities and markets, does not seem to be materially affected by the present

rate.

The court proceedings were brought under sections 1 and 3 of the interstate commerce act, and section 3 of the Elkins amendment. Section 1 of the for

mer provides that all rates or charges shall be just and reasonable. Section

3 prohibits "undue or unreasonable" preferences to any traffic, person, corporation or firm or to any locality. Section 3 of the Elkins law provides for action by the commission when there is belief that the published tariff is being departed from, or that discriminations are being practiced.

The court indicated a lack of sympathy with the contention that competition did not enter into the present adjustment of rates. He declared that the competition for the packing-house traffic was keen, and that the traffic was controlled by a few people. The Great Western had a longer route than some other roads, and in order to get its share of the business reduced the rate. The other roads then met the reduction. This, the court declared, was true competition, such as the very law which the commission had invoked in its aid was intended to preserve.

"The evidence shows," said the court, "that in substantially all cases the factor of competition alone controls the rate. The Supreme Court in all cases has held that competition may be controlling. When all the factors are considered together, the conclusion may be reached that the preference and advantage in question is not 'undue' or 'unjust', and section 3 of the interstate commerce act has not been violated; nor has section 1 of that act, nor section 3 of the Elkins act."

In the olden time (and not so very olden, either) "competition" was considered the "life of trade," but evidently the Interstate Commerce Commission did not look at it that way, or thought the truth of the saying only applied to ordinary retail trade. Indeed in the present case we may well imagine that competition was not only the life of the reason for that business, but it would not have existed but for the fact of those points from whence the trade originated being competitive points-the fierce. competition between the roads forcing

a rate by which the business was started and grew. It is easy to imagine that a single road tapping that country would have had a rate which would have been prohibitive, or so nearly so, that the magnitude of the present business would never have been attained.

Of course different people will look at the decision according to their own ideas of the existing conditions, some taking it to mean that additional regulation of rates is not needed and some will think that it shows that more regulation is needed, but whichever way one looks at it the truth must be borne in on us that the requirements in this field of railroad work-studying out and adjusting railroad rates-is not work, proficiency in which can be acquired in a day of a few months, but only after years of patient work and study and with an inclination and an intuition or inspiration which is born with one and not to be acquired. Or in this present case, it would seem that the Interstate Commerce Commission jumped to the conclusion that if the roads could carry a certain portion of the output of big packers between Chicago and Missouri River points for eighteen and two-thirds cents, the rate on cattle being twentythree and two-thirds cents, then the packing house product rate was discriminative against cattle, and the cattle rates were discriminative against the Chicago market. This might very truly be the logical deduction of most people who had not been raised up in the school of rate making and so, like the Commission, miss entirely the point of organic law involved, showing what a great power is liable to be placed in incompetent hands. And speaking upon the intricacy and complexity of the rate making business, Judge Cooley, probably the ablest man who ever sat upon the Commission, said while he was chairman: "The Commission would in effect be required to act as rate makers

for all the roads and compelled to adjust the tariffs so as to meet the exigencies of business, while at the same time endeavoring to protect the relative rights and equities of rival carriers and rival localities. This in any considerable state would be an enormous task. In a country as large as ours and with so vast a mileage of roads it would be superhu

man.

It might be interesting to note in this connection that the Commission has stated that in readjusting rates it is guided by certain "theories of social progress. We might say that true social progress depends upon the point of view, or perhaps it might depend somewhat upon the locality.

It seems to us quite noticeable also in this controversy that the actual work done by the Commission during its years of existence has not been more generally exploited-surely it is little known. As a safe assertion we may say that a vast number of cases have come before it, and that in a great majority of the cases the roads have complied absolutely with every order of the Commission. There have been cases in which the roads contended that the orders of the Commission were unlawful and they refused to obey the ruling and suits were brought, and in every contested case except two, we believe, during the entire eighteen years, the courts, upon hearing the evidence, have decided that the railroad company was right and the Commission was wrong. Sixteen of the cases went to the Supreme Court and every case was decided against the Commission. So it does not seem as if there has been so very much discord between the roads and the Commission, indeed the record of cases in which the roads have appealed from the decision of the Commission does not seem to be more numerous, if as much so, as appeals to the courts by large business interests in other lines of industry.

The report of the committee that was appointed will be presented for adoption at the next meeting of the ministers' union. A representative of the Chicago Typothetæ will be invited to present the side of the master printers at that time in order that no conclusion may be reached before both sides of the controversy are given a hearing.

Holding that "peaceful picketing" is not unlawful, Judge Grinnan at Richmond, Va., recently dissolved the injunction obtained against the striking printers by the typothetæ.

"The chief complaint of the employers appears to be that strikers have enticed away by some means or other, but never by intimidation, some of their employes," said the court. "I do not find that courts of equity enjoin such peaceful enticement, even when accompanied by money rewards."

And the Chicago Record-Herald very pertinently remarks editorially as follows:

"To the layman the decisions of the courts in so-called labor cases-cases involving such methods or practices as picketing, direct or indirect boycotting, and so on-present a bewildering variety. Not only do the courts of each state feel that they are a law unto themselves, but even within any given state the trial and the local appellate judges seem to recognize no settled, binding principles which they are obliged to follow. Ultimately the present confusion will be reduced to order and certainty, and the opposing sides will know exactly how far they may go and where they must pause. The process, however, is apparently in its first stage as yet.

"In this county the appellate court, in a vigorous opinion written by Judge Smith, has taken the ground that there can be no such thing as peaceful picket

ing. Injunctions of a sweeping character, prohibiting persuasion by pickets among other things, have been repeatedly sustained. Some weeks ago the Supreme Court of the State of Washington held that no man or body of men had the right to picket even peaceably an establishment and attempt to dissuade patrons from dealing with the "unfair" proprietor thereof.

In Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts similar views have been adopted by courts of the first and second instance, and the impression produced certainly is that the pronounced tendency of the judiciary is to place all forms of picketing and boycotting under a legal ban as unwarrantable invasions of personal and property rights.

"Yet in other states, and by other courts in the same states, decisions in conflict with those referred to are constantly rendered. At Richmond, Va., Judge Grinnan has just dissolved an injunction against striking printers similar to that which is now in force in this country. The judge refused permanently to enjoin peaceful picketing, peaceful enticement of non-union employes and persuasion, even when accompanied by offers of financial rewards. He did not see on what theory of equity courts could prohibit such actions. Not long since a New Jersey judge upheld peaceful picketing without reservation, and last year a Brooklyn Appellate Court declared such picketing and even boycotting unaccompanied by threats to be perfectly legal.

"Instances might be multiplied indefinitely on either side, but enough has been said to illustrate the unsettled state of the questions raised by industrial disputes and the great need of an approach to judicial harmony in the premises."

individually, as a community or as a nation. The town or city or state or nation which is governed badly for long, deserves to be. Deserves it because