298 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



modern labor orgcanizations — " Trades Unions," " Knights of Labor," 

 and the like — have come to resemble and be assimilated to the ancient 

 "</?«7f7s"/ with this marked difference, that in the old craft-guilds, the 

 masters or employers of labor remained in and participated in the or- 

 ganization ; but in the modern organizations of labor, the masters or 

 employers are especially excluded. 



In Germany the extensive intervention of the state in industrial 

 and social matters has come to be, in recent years, a fundamental liolicy 

 of the Government ; and is resulting in a series of experiments for 

 controlling or even entirely absorbing great industries — as sugar and 

 distilled si)irits — and for promoting the economical and moral pros- 

 perity of the people — as schemes for compulsory insurance of life and 

 against accidents — which have hitherto had no precedents in the legis- 

 lation of any country. At the same time, in all these movements the 

 Government makes no secret of its desire in fostering the interests of 

 the i^eople to at the same time augment their ability to pay taxes. 



In the United States, the recent action of the French Government, 

 in providing that nothing shall be bought for public use Avhich is not of 

 domestic production, and which the outside world has regarded as a 

 policy unworthy of an enlightened nation, has had its counterpart and 

 precedent in the previous legislation of quite a number of the States ; 

 with this exception, that in France the discrimination is made against 

 foreigners onl}'^, while in the United States the discrimination is made 

 against their own countrymen living in diflPerent political divisions of 

 the country. Nothing, moreover, can probably be found in Europe to 

 parallel the recent legislation of one of the leading States of the North- 

 west (Minnesota), and a large part of which was the work of a single 

 legislative session (limited to sixty days) in 1885, and which has thus 

 been described by a recent writer : * Prominent in importance were 

 statutes providing for the weighing, handling, and inspection of grain ; 

 the construction and location of grain-warehouses, the providing of cars 

 and side-tracks by railroads, and the regidation of rates of transportation. 

 Next, was legislation respecting State loans of " seed grain " to farmers 

 whose crops had been ruined by grasshoppers ; for the subsidizing of 

 State fairs from the State treasury ; for enabling farmers to avoid the 

 payment of a portion of their debts ; for protecting butter-makers from 

 the competition of artificial products, such as "butterine"; for regulat- 

 ing the details of the cattle-industry, to the extent of registering and 

 giving State protection to brands and other modes of identification, 

 and of stamping out contagious diseases with small courtesy to the 

 rights and wishes of individual owners ; and for regulating the lumber- 

 business to such an extent, that not a log can float down a stream to 

 the saw-mill for which it is destined without official cognizance. One 

 State board regulates the practice of medicine and the admission of new 



* " The American State and the American Man," Albert Shaw, " Contemporary Re- 

 view," May, 1887. 



