competent to grasp the new order of things, pack away their old traps, and cry, "Hard times!

The scientist takes his instruments of transmission up into the air and sends his messages on electric currents without the aid of wire, and the makers of the wire will in their turn cry out, "Hard times!" And now the great power of nature, which enabled the establishment of an ocean-ferry, is in danger of displacement by still other powers, and the builders of the wonderful engines which have pushed the commerce of the world over all seas will, in turn, cry out, "Hard times!" So an examination, carried in any direction, demonstrates the proposition that all progress, every step in advance, is over apparent destruction, and, like every pioneer who has ever startled the world by his discoveries, and by them benefited his kind, is over the graves of men. Ignorance must give way to intelligence; pauperism and crime must give way to improved conditions.

As space and time have been overcome, inordinate differences in values have been overcome; the markets of the world have been equalized, sectional resources have become cosmopolitan in their character, as peoples of all the world have become acquainted. All these influences have disarranged trade, upset old principles; and we of the present time are living in a transition period of readjustment, or rather adjustment, that is like the early days of convalescence from fever, - painful from lingering weakness, but joyous in the full knowledge of progress. In this adjustment individuals go down. The divine plan to perfect all the creations which make up the universe takes no notice of individuals, and is apparently profligate of human life; but goes on with the work, crushing if need be, killing if it must, but always polishing, always purifying, always perfecting.

The wheel of progress rolls on, destroying the old as it rolls, crushing out ignorance; but it rolls all the time, and man is often obliged to give way before it, as the old machine is thrown aside for the new. Educated labor, as the pioneer, must step over human graves, over buried ambitions and lost opportunities; the law is infallible, even if in our short-sightedness we call it cruel. "Society grows upon laws and a regular succession of human events, like Vico's republic of the universe, the miracle of whose constitution is, that through all its revolutions it finds in the very corruptions of each preceding state the elements of a new and better birth."

1 Dr. F. H. Hedge: Ways of the Spirit.

:

The question of the removal of poverty is not wholly with the workingman the employer has as much to learn as he, and he is to be holden to equal, if not greater, responsibility. Ignorant labor comprehends ignorant employer. Insomuch as the profits of labor are equitably shared with labor, insomuch is poverty lessened; and, insomuch as poverty is lessened, insomuch is crime decreased. The employer should remember that if conditions become ameliorated, if life becomes less of a struggle, if leisure be obtained, civilization, as a general rule, grows up. If these conditions be reversed, if the struggle for existence tends to occupy the whole attention of each man, civilization disappears in a measure,1 communities become dangerous, and the people seek a revolutionary change, hoping by chance to secure what was not possible by honest labor.

In a state in which labor had all its rights there would be, of course, little pauperism and little crime: on the other hand, the undue subjection of the laboring man must tend to make paupers and criminals, and entail a financial burden upon wealth which it would have been easier to prevent than to endure; and this prevention, as I have already indicated, must come in a large degree through educated labor.

Of 2,663 full-support sane paupers above ten years of age, in Massachusetts, May 1, 1875, there were 633 from the lowest ranks of labor, and 1,037, or 38+ per cent, were illiterate. Of 4,340 convicts, at the same date, 2,991, or 68+ per cent, were returned as having had no occupation. The adult convicts numbered 3,971, of which 464 were illiterate; and the warden of the State Prison, in a recent report, says that of 220 men sentenced during 1876, 147 were without a trade or any regular means of earning a living.

In Pennsylvania, last year, nearly 88 per cent of the penitentiary convicts had never been apprenticed to any trade or occupation; and this was true of 68 per cent. of the convicts sentenced to county jails and workhouses in the same State for 1877. Will those men serve their time, and be discharged in their present unfit state to battle with the world? They may go out into society again, resolved to do right; but without a reliable means of support they are ill-prepared to meet the adversities of hard times, or the temptation to gain by crime what they do not know how to obtain by honest labor.2

1" Rawlinson's Origin of Nations.

2 C. F. Pidgin : Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 1877.

From all I can learn, the statistics quoted represent the conditions in other latitudes, and show what is true everywhere: that it cannot be claimed that any very desirable workingmaterial can be found among paupers and convicts. If we except the large number that are unable to work, we shall by no means find workers remaining. We shall find some with trades, able and ready to work, but the greater number unpossessed of a self-supporting occupation, and many unwilling to work. I believe that the unfitness for productive labor, whether it springs from lack of a trade or occupation, or from personal antipathy to work, is a great and predisposing cause of both pauperism and crime.

This is not the place for a homily on the dignity of labor; but the fact is, no man is realizing his capacity of enjoyment unless he has some congenial occupation, which should also support him. All cannot arrive at that happy state, for the drudgery of life must be done by some; but it is pure selfishness which sets apart any class of men to such labor. We all know that our young men have a great indisposition to physical labor; for the pick and the shovel, the spade and the hoe, savor of derogation. We believe in that kind of compulsory education that will fit a man for work and self-support. The right of the state to compel a man to train his eye so that he can read, and his hand so that he can write, will not be seriously questioned, and I hope will soon be seriously insisted upon. The state, then, surely has a right to compel a man to so train both eye and hand that he can support himself and others, and free the state from the burden of his support, unless in exceptional and well-understood cases. The true claim of an able-bodied man upon a community is not for support, but for a chance to support himself; and, if one community will not or can not furnish him this, he should try another. No able-bodied pauper should be supported in idleness while so many waste places are waiting cultivation.

The efforts of society at large, as regards pauperism and crime, must be directed, of course, in such a way as to secure a decrease in the number of both paupers and convicts. When men and women have become inmates of almshouses or prisons, then the authorities have to deal with them as a fact. Measures of prevention have failed, and measures of relief, correction, and reform become necessary. There can be no doubt that education is the best weapon with which to fight both pauperism, in all its forms, and crime. But it is not simply education of the mind that will

work the cure. The "gospel of work" must be taught as well; and no pauper or convict is fitted to leave the care of the state until he is able to work and secure a living. A workingman who labors and pays his way, though he be unable to read or write, is a better member of society than those mentally-educated individuals who will not work, or those who do not know how to earn their living. What society fails to do, in the way of book or work education, for paupers and convicts, should be made up by the authorities when the individuals come under their control. A man who will not learn to read and write, and earn his living, outside of a prison, when he is committed to one should stay there until he has made up his deficiencies. Concerning the question of education in prisons, a law of Massachusetts provides that "the county commissioners of each county, and the aldermen of the city of Boston, with the sheriff of the county, may, at the expense of the county or city, furnish suitable instructions in reading and writing for one hour each evening, except Sundays, to such prisoners as may be benefited thereby, and are desirous to receive the same." The necessary changes in this law would make it read that the proper officers shall furnish suitable instruction to those who are uneducated, and such studies shall be continued until the learners are benefited thereby. The state should be the judge of what forms a suitable education, and the criminal should receive one whether he was desirous" or not.

A complete registry of the social statistics of each pauper and convict would supply material which could not fail to be of great service in dealing with paupers and convicts individually, and with pauperism and crime in the abstract. I trust such statistics will be gathered and published as will show, especially, the number of illiterate paupers and convicts, and the number of those, in both classes, who are unprepared to earn a living by some recognized and profitable employment. The great secret of preventing the extension of pauperism and the increase of crime lies in this twofold education. The book education can be easily provided for. The industrial education will be a greater, and at first a more perplexing undertaking. But it would be better and cheaper to establish and maintain industrial schools in every prison than to establish more courts of justice for offenders, or build one more prison for their incarceration.

I do not believe that the right-minded workingmen of this country would see any danger to themselves or their prosperity if

the able-bodied paupers and the convicts were fitted to earn an honest living. I think, rather, that they would rejoice in that elevating process which would make self-supporting citizens out of the unfortunate and criminal classes. The real injury to laboring men exists in supporting thousands in idleness by the proceeds of taxation, and in letting out their labor for trivial wages which enable the contractors for prison labor to make undue profits or undersell their competitors in trade.

All these steps should be taken under uniform and energetic state control. In such case we should look, and I think with reason, in due time, for a decrease in preventable pauperism and ignorant crime; to a less expense or deficiency for the maintenance of charitable and correctional institutions, and a consequent lightening of taxation. All this would conduce to the relief and protection of the community, the alleviation of the condition of the poor and helpless, the judicious punishment of the wicked, and the practical reformation of the vagrant and criminal.

You inquire, What do these remarks amount to, practically and specifically? They are a plea for skilled labor, for educated labor, for industrial education; they are a plea to the States of America to undertake the prevention of pauperism and crime by spending their money freely for the absolute and compulsory education of the children of their working-people, and, if bread is essential to enable them to acquire an elementary education, to furnish it, the same as teachers and books and schoolhouses are furnished as essentials; they are a plea for the faithful inculcation of a broad religious culture, an education of the heart along with that of the head and hand; and with this plea I leave a subject whereof I have only been able to state but little more than the title itself.

DEBATE ON THE LABOR QUESTION.

Ar the conclusion of Mr. C. D. Wright's Report, an animated discussion took place. Mr. Elizur Wright of Boston said:

MR. E. WRIGHT. In neither China nor Japan, till lately, have they had any labor-saving machinery. Whenever an individual there makes an invention, the government purchases the right of the invention, and never allows it to be used. The object of that is, to make labor, and not to destroy labor by machinery. China has existed as a government 10,000 years, more or less, — with a present population of 500,000,000 people, and is now living under the twenty-fourth dynasty of reigning families. It is labor,