THE APRIL FORUM. 



The reader must be hard to please who 

 does not find in the April Forum some- 

 thing to suit his taste. Matters commer- 

 cial, political, musical, and literary, all are 

 duly represented and the list of writers 

 includes none that is not an expert in his 

 own particular sphere. The table of con- 

 tents is as follows: "The Dangerous De- 

 mands of the Interstate Commerce Com- 

 mission," Milton H. Smith; "England and 

 France in West Africa," Thomas Gibson 

 Bowles, M. P.; "The Political Situation in 

 Europe,'' Maj-Gen. Nelson A. Miles; 

 ''Central America: Its Resources and Com- 

 merce," William Eleroy Curtis; "The 

 Economics of Genius," John Mackinnon 

 Robertson; "The Handel Revival in Ger- 

 many." Prof. Bruno Schrader; "The Eng- 

 lish Governing Oligarchy," Sidney Low; 

 "Professor Munsterberg's Attack on Ex- 

 perimental Psychology," Prof. Charles B. 

 Bliss; "Is there Work Enough for All?'' 

 Hon. William T. Harris; "The Kalevala," 

 Charles Upson Clark; "Recent Histories 

 of Literature," Prof. William P. Trent. 



Human wants and desires have come to 

 demand more than the mere necessities for 

 living. Before a complete supply of such 

 necessities is reached, society demands 

 creature comforts and means of luxury. It 

 accordingly sends out its demand for la- 

 borers who have greater skill of manipula- 

 tion and greater power of invention, and 

 invites them to ascend to better-paid in- 

 dustrits. These include manufactures that 

 are adapted to luxury and creature com- 

 forts and which require a high order of 

 educated, technical ^kill. This culling 

 out of the higher class of laborers relieves 

 the pressure on the lower orders, wherein 

 machinery displaces the mere hand-laborer 

 It is obvious all along the line that a new 



cycle of employments which add luxury 

 and creature comforts may draw into it 

 the laborers of the lower class as fast as 

 they can be dispensed with below. Sup- 

 pose that an extreme limit is reached, and 

 that one person out of each hundred of the 

 population is able to supply with the aid 

 of machinery all the raw material that is 

 needed. Suppose again that one person 

 out of each hundred of the people engaged 

 in manufacturing, when aided by machine- 

 ry is equal to the task of producing all the 

 articles of necessity. Suppose the same 

 in the spheres of transportation and com- 

 merce. When once the labor was readjus- 

 ted it would be found that the ninety-nine 

 laborers out of each hundred could be 

 profitably employed in providing a better 

 quality of clothing, more commodious 

 dwellings, more comfortable furniture, 

 better transportation facilities, and more 

 healthful mills and working-places for the 

 laborer. The entire surplus of laborers 

 could be taken up into this higher order of 

 occupations that increase the means of 

 luxury and comfort for the people. 



This readjustment of vocations may be 

 accomplished well enough, provided the 

 laborers are generally intelligent. But this 

 is a very important proviso. The popu- 

 lace must bo educated in the common 

 schools and have that superior intelligence 

 which comes from knowledge of the rudi- 

 ments reading, writing, arithmetic, geog- 

 raphy, industrial drawing, etc. And with 

 education the laborer becomes able to as- 

 cend from mere handwork to the supervis- 

 ion and direction of machinery, and to 

 those employments requiring greater skill, 

 which furnish the articles of luxury and 

 creature comfort. HON. WILLIAM T. HAR 

 RIS, in the Forum. 



How a workingman can "feed" in Chica- 



