Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



675 



SOCIAL QUESTIONS FAR AND NEAR. 



BETTER THAN INDUSTRIAL 

 ARBITRATION. 



Under this title Hugh H. Lusk, in The 

 Forum, gives a masterly review of the industrial 

 situation to-day. He also submits a remedy. 

 As he points out, the essential defect of arbitra- 

 tion as a cure for industrial disputes is that it is 

 necessarily governed by a spirit, not of absolute 

 justice, but of temporary compromise. A law 

 that is founded on the radical truth that labour 

 in all trades is of necessity the partner of capital 

 embarked in those trades, and provides that the 

 partnership shall be acknowledged and acted on 

 by a sharing of profits, would have the valuable 

 quality of permanency, as well as the sanction 

 of justice. He says : — 



The difBculties in the way of framing a law to give 

 effect to such a principle are by no means so serious as 

 might be imagined. The workers, it may be said, 

 would, of course, demand wages, so that the 

 capitalist who found the money to pay them would 

 be forced to take all the risk, and at the best to get 

 only a part of the profit. This, it may be admitted, has 

 in it an element of truth, but is very far from being the 

 whole truth. It is really a part of the old idea that the 

 men whose skill and energy must be relied on to do the 

 work are, after all, only tools, to be used and treated like 

 any of the merely mechanical machinery of the trade. 

 The idea was, of course, always a mistaken as well as a 

 selfish one; it is now something more — it is impracticable. 

 But even from this point of view the principle can be 

 accepted. If it is said that wages must be paid, whether 

 the business pays or not, it is equally true that the 

 machinery used in the production of the manufacture must 

 be maintained and new improvements must be added 

 whether the market for the product is good or bad. The 

 wage-earner is at least as necessary a condition of success 

 as the machinery, and both must be kept in working order 

 as the first essential condition of successful business. 

 Hitherto this condition has been admitted grudgingly, 

 but nothing more has been admitted ; and it is here that 

 reform becomes not only necessary but profitable. The 

 worker must live and not only so, he must live in such 

 a condition as will enable him to do efficient work. 



FEEDING NECESSITOUS 

 CHILDREN. 



How Paris Beats London. 

 In School Hypiene Cieorge R;iinev contrasts 

 the French and the English method of caring for 

 the necessitous child. In London we feed 

 grudgingly, and we supply food to children who 

 are so poorly clad that in cold weather much of 

 the benefit derived from the meal is lost. In 

 Paris they set out with the definite object of 

 securing the effiriencv of the child at all costs, 

 and money is spent ungrudgingly to promote it. 

 Where it is found thnt food alone does not 

 suffice, clothing is ridded, and. bncked bv the 



per year, working on the experience of' the 

 French, we could abolish rags in London, supply 

 the children with meals, clothing, linen, boots, 

 and proper medical inspection. Mr. Rainey 

 shows in this article the full working of the 

 system, and he draws a pleasant picture of 

 dinner at one of the Paris schools : — 



I watched the boys assemble for dinner in the dining 

 hall, which forms part of the school building, and in- 

 spected a batch of about forty as they filed by.. Every boy 

 had good boots; their clothing was clean and tidy, and 

 they were expected to keep it so. To protect it each boy 

 is compelled to fasten a napkin in at the front of his 

 collar before he sits down at table. I walked down the 

 lines as they sat at dinner and was much struck with their 

 appearance; they not only looked well cared for, but alert 

 and vigorous, and it must be remembered that with few 

 exceptions they corresponded to the necessitous children 

 of the London slum. The menu that day consisted of 

 soup, macaroni, and roast leg of mutton, each portion 

 being charged one halfpenny to those who pay; the soup 

 is served very hot and looked quite satisfying at the price. 

 The basin is so constructed that the plate containing the 

 second portion fits over it very cleverly and keeps the con- 

 tents warm. I was invited to taste the meat and 

 macaroni ; the latter was excellent, and was fried in some 

 kind of fat. The meat is cut into small cubes, so that it 

 may be eaten with a spoon, and is rightly served out 

 separately in exact quantities — 35 grm. to each boy, 30 to 

 a girl, and 25 to an infant. A master dined with the 

 boys, apparently sharing their food, and perfect order 

 and discipline prevailed. The meal, I noticed, was eaten 

 leisurely and not gobbled after the London fashion. 



authority of the State, the schools insist that it 



shall be kept clean and mended. For ;^35,ooo glad to receive your gifts 



FOR COMFORT AND GLADNESS. 



We come again to you with our appeal on 

 behalf of the poor children of Walworth, for 

 comfort and gladness at Christm'astime. To the 

 poor, who have so little, a little extra means so 

 much. And surely we who hail the anniversary 

 of the coming of the Christ-Child cannot have 

 much of the Christmas spirit if we grudge to 

 those who suffer from lack of the common neces- 

 saries of life something which shall bring them in 

 tune with the message of the Christmas bells. 

 The warmth of a cheerful fire, the comfort of an 

 adequate meal, the little gift " of her very own " 

 that makes so much of gladness to the child who 

 has nothing : all these we want to give this 

 Christmas, as ever. Think of what the gift of a 

 toy means to a child who has nothing of. her 

 own ! C)nly the other day we found a class of 

 forty children, only seven of whom possessed one 

 single toy. Will you help to bring some of the 

 gladness that the Christmastide should bring 

 into these dreary homes? Though .so bare, 

 many of them, of all material comfort, yet, too, 

 they are rich in self-sacrifice and love and brave, 

 patient courage. W\\\ you help to make the bur- 

 den lighter for them? The Warden, F. Herbert 

 Sr<>ad, Browning Hall, Walworth, S.E., will be 



