Eeview of Revieics, 113113. 



LEADING ARTICLES. 



6i 



cipal philatelists at home and abroad, 

 and that there is frequently an attend- 

 ance of as many as fifty buyers and 

 their agents at the periodical auctions. 



"FAMINE WAGES." 

 The December number of the Revue. 

 Genirale contains an article by M. de 

 Villermont, on Home Industries and 

 Sweating. He writes chiefly of condi- 

 tions in Belgium, but these are much the 

 same the world over. He thinks too 

 little is known about the question ; but 

 that can hardly be the cause of the in- 

 difference with which it is treated at the 

 present time. Already so much has been 

 written on the subject, and quite recently 

 an International Congress on Home 

 Labour was held at Zurich. The 

 majority of home-workers in Belgium, 

 as elsewhere, are women, who are com- 

 pelled by fear of losing their work to 

 make every concession to the demands 

 of those who exploit them. Already 

 much has been done for the protection 

 of factory workers ; their rights have 

 been drawn up, and assistance of all 

 kinds has been given them, while the 

 lamentable condition of the home 

 workers is totally overlooked. 



A writer in the Englishman for 

 January draws attention to the case of 

 the outworkers in the Irish linen trade 

 in Belfast. A committee of inquiry re- 

 ports that the payment works out at \d. 

 an hour for embroidery, and i~d. an 

 hour for thread-drawing. One firm, 

 however, pays between sd. and 6d. for 

 thread-drawing, though 12 out of 125 

 pay only id. The committee are of 

 opinion that this state of affairs can 

 only be remedied by the application of 

 the Trade Boards Act to some of the 

 processes of the making-up trades. 



PROFIT SHARING. 



One of the articles in Social Service 

 is devoted to the Board of Trade report 

 on Profit-Sharing and Labour Co-part- 

 nership. From it we learn that since 

 1829 — or, rather, since 1865, for only 

 one scheme existed before that — 229 

 profit-sharing schemes have been 

 brought into existence. Of these, 166 

 have since ceased to exist and 133 still 

 remain. These give employment to 



106,189 workpeople. This is not a large 

 number, compared with the total indus- 

 trial population. But it is satisfactory 

 to note that the rate of increase is pro- 

 gressing : 55 per cent, of the whole 

 number existing having been started 

 within the last ten years. The report 

 points out that the number of cases 

 where profit-sharing was abandoned, on 

 the ground that the system had failed 

 in producing the results hoped for, was 

 about two-fifths of the whole. The 

 average bonus paid under these schemes 

 in 191 1 was 55 per cent, of wages, which 

 happens to be the exact average for the 

 years 1901-11. 



The best profit-sharing plan seems to 

 be the one introduced by the late Sir 

 George Livesey in 1889 at the works of 

 the South Metropolitan Gas Company. 

 The net results have been that in 191 1 

 5800 employees of the company were 

 entitled to a share in the profits. They 

 held ^^301,490 of the company's stock, 

 and they obtain an average annual 

 bonus of 6.9 per cent, on their wages. 

 Out of the ten directors of the company 

 three are elected by its employees. The 

 answer of the company to the queries of 

 the Board of Trade is : — 



The system has jiroved satisfactory. 

 It has called forth extra zeal. 



It has tended to promote harmonious relations 

 and the avoidance of strikes and disputes. 



INTER-MARRIAGE IN INDIA. 



The Eurasian question crops up in 

 man\' wa}-s in the magazines. 



Dr. Ferguson-Davie contributes a very 

 reasonable article to Tke East and The 

 West, and his position as Bishop of 

 Singapore should give weight to his 

 counsels, even though they suggest the 

 counsel of perfection in advocating a 

 binding marriage ceremony as a mitiga- 

 tion of the evil. He concludes : — 



Until we can so raise the tone of Europeans of 

 all races as to minimise tliis, it seems rather 

 absurd to protest, on the s''ound of the weakness 

 of the i)roa:eny, ai::ainst that wliicli can alone be 

 the foundation of a strong Eurasian race — namely, 

 the lawful marriage of those who are to be the 

 fathers and mothers of the members of the 

 " mixed " races. Perliaps if marriaure were 

 generally regarded as the duty of everyone who 

 entered into tliese irregular unions, tliere would 

 be fewer of such unions, and consequently fewer 

 Eurasians of tlie less desirable type would be 

 born. 



