lead will be leaders, and if they are not conscien
tious persons they will lead to the detriment of
their followers. With clue reverence for the
Knights of Labor, an organiz.tition whose ob
ject is. a grand one, permit us to say what we
know to be true,.that there are organizations con
trolled by persons who do not do, nor never did,
an honest day's work in their lives, but who have
the tact of magnifying the faults of the capitalist
and leaving the impresslon that they are the real
knights in the cause of labor.
The position which women hold on this
question is an important one. We believe that
there is no other power save the power of God
Himself which can accomplish more good than
that of woman. Let us beseech her to manifest
more interest, not in public alone, but in her
home also, upon this question, instead of trying to
crawl into her brother's pants and preach wo
man suffrage. A convention of women whose
object would be to find out the condition of their
sisters among the laborers
. and to establish boards
of instructions in housework in the villages and
towns of our country would be of more practical
benefit than a convention to prove that Eve was
created with all the privileges of Adam. Inquire
into the family condition of the laborers and you
will agree that "one half of the world does not
know how the other half lives. "
There are plenty of men who return to their
homes after a hard days work to be received by
their sour voiced wives, who instead of being a
comfort to them are a source of discouragement.
They spend their husbands earnings without ex
ercising the least judgment, keeping them always
in a state of poverty. Instead of the women be
ing help-mates they are often an obstacle to their
husbands progress.
The aristocratic tendencies of the church are
doing a great deal to increase the difference be
tween capital and labor. Instead of the church be
ing the house in which the laborer may cast off
some of his burdens by communion with God, it
is too often the palace pf the wealthy capitalist.
THE FREE LANCE.
The poor laborer is not encouraged by either. the
pulpit or the pew. It is true he is asked to become
a member of the church, but in many cases he is
not regarded as a brother after joining. We do
not mean to say one word against the churches,
but nevertheless they do not exercise•the influence
in settling labor disputes that they should.
We think, after reviewing the situation of the
laboring people and the varied efforts to obtain
their just share of the profits of labor, that if
there were more economy exercised by both man
and wife, more ambition to attain something
other than present gratification, more reliance in
a providence, there would .be less reason to
com
plain. j. S. w.
'"Truth forever en the scaffld, wrong forever on the throne,
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the fiilll unknown,
Standeth God within the shallow, keeping watch above his own,"
Last autumn the Reading managers advanced
the wages of their miners eight per cent and also
increased the selling price of their coal so as to
cover the advanced mining cost several times
over. At these rates the company was making
money, and the miners having steady work and
good wages, felt they were able to make their
homes more comfortable and life more tolerable
than for years before.
in view of the wretched mismanagement
which the company's business :had suffered for
years, and its consequent financial disasters, ►t
would seem that only the most extreme
urgency could justify any action tending
to destroy this mutually satisfactory situ
ation. Yet at the first of this year the managers
attempted to take off from the miners wages the
eight per cent which had been added a few
months befo're, but they steadily maintained the in
creased selling price. The public were obliged
to submit and pay the high (if not exorbitant)
price demanded, but the miners resisted, by a
general strike, the reduction in their wages, as a
flagrant act of injustice, It is scarcely credible
ARBITRATION OR DESPOTISM
'WHICH