course looked upon as a distinct class although the two categories at times, according to the pressure or shortness of work at one point or another, recruit and supplement one another. But obviously the wages of the braccianti cannot be permanently raised without such improvement having, at any rate, some effect upon the wages of the contadini. Then there are the poor people employed in cultivating the rice-fields, standing and moving in muddy marsh water under an Italian sun. We sometimes think our own dog-wood peelers badly used; but the unsanitariness of their occupation is not to be compared with that of the poor mondarisi of Italy. The work was formerly given out in contract to "sweaters," who selected by preference young children for the work, because their labor was to be had most cheaply, and so left them all the larger a margin of profit on the 80 or 90 centesimi (per day of twelve and thirteen hours) which the cultivator allowed them per head. In this way the contractor managed to net 15, 20, and even 25 centesimi a head per day on labor, toward which he himself contributed nothing except to higgle for it in the market. More wasteful, reprehensible middleman exploitation there never was. The braccianti, who have done much for the rising generation of Italy by diminishing child-labor, offered to undertake the work themselves. The convenience of the arrangement recommended it to the landowners. The result is that children have been excluded from the unwholesome employment, and that the adults engaged in it now receive 1 lira, or even 1 lira 10 cent., per day of less hours. Surely the braccianti of Modena deserve the medal which they received, in token of good work done, at the last Co-operative Congress of Milan.

The work of the braccianti of Budrio has been similarly fruitful of good results, though federation has not yet, in their case, been carried equally far. The union embraces only two mandamenti-Budrio and Molinella-and comprises about 2000 members. Wages have been raised from 1 lira to 1 lira 80 cent. and 2 lire. (As much as 3 lire is earned at piece-work.) And the men who

used to live, as trustworthy witnesses have assured me," like beasts," paying a soldo a night for quarters in tents and hovels put up in the fields, are now, at any rate, more decently housed. They have always work, and secure the pick of the work going. I have not the last balance-sheet, which has not yet been printed. But the secretary assures me that the society has again done well. In Ravenna wages have gone up to 2 lire 50 cent. and more. And so it is in Argenta, in Medicina, in Arezzo, in Spezia, and elsewhere. Combination under able guidance has effected what strikes and warfare never could have accomplished. The men were much too weak to engage in such polemics. They have formed their "bundle of sticks," to enable them to stand, and, having formed it, have entered into competition with their foes, overcoming them, just as the 700 cabinet-makers of the Milan country, whose tale I have related elsewhere, have by the same means, with the help of their little shares of £2 paid up by instalments, overcome their tyrannically sweating masters.

Look a little further. Wages are not everything. Generally speaking, the men have become better men and better trained for their work. There are many societies, unfortunately, to which this praise does not apply, in which what we call the "co-operative spirit" is altogether lacking, which do badly, either because circumstances are hopelessly adverse, or, more generally, because they deserve to do badly. But, wherever the lesson has been properly learned, a sound spirit and an understanding of the principle of combination have been infused. And that is the only manner in which the difficulties obviously standing in the way of organization of unskilled labor, weak, and at the outset wanting in cohesion, can be surmounted. Those difficulties, so the official report of 1890 explains, have been balanced by "a degree of enthusiasm which is perfectly astonishing, and by a spirit of self-sacrifice which appears to make the men capable of overcoming every obstacle." I have no space left to say much about the sister societies of muratori, more important in one aspect, and

perhaps on some points more successful, but less likely to interest ourselves, inasmuch as our building trades, with their fully developed organization, appear quite strong enough to hold their own against unfair employers. What few co-operative builders' societies we have, as at Brixton and Kettering very promising as they are-have obviously sprung up with an entirely different object in view. Their end is not to bring employers to terms, but to become their own employers, whether other employers are fair or not. They are quite right. The Italian muratori societies have been driven to the same aim, but only because that was for them the only way of effecting what our trade unions effect by fighting.

The muratori societies are organized on much the same lines as the braccianti, with this difference, that, to be able to undertake every kind of work which may offer, they must make their ranks more comprehensive, and take in a larger variety of, so to speak, undercallings. The braccianti associations have braccianti, in the narrower sense of the term, and biroccianti (barrowers), seganti (hewers and sawyers), spondini (embankers), and very often a few muratori and suolini (bricklayers and paviors). The muratori do best where they have stone-workers of every description. So organized, they are able to undertake very considerable works, which the authorities who give them out own to have been done to their entire satisfaction-for instance, the large water-tower of Milan, the cemetery wall of Musocco-each of which stands for about 500,000 lire of outlay-and most of the sewer works in Milan and in Rome. The question has been asked in this country whether in such contracts the provision of the material can with advantage be separated from the supply of hand labor. There are, in Italy, very few contracts indeed given or taken for work only. M. Garibotti tells me that in Cremona there have been one or two. But really it is very difficult to separate the two things. The working men, of course, are loath to surrender what is generally recognized as the best "fat" of the work; and, over and beyond that, by supplying their own material, they

often have it in their power to do a good turn to some other co operative association. Probably the muratori of Milan and the " Vitruvio" of Romethe former consisting of about 1000 members, and the latter of about 100 -are entitled, thanks to good administration, to rank as the best societies of their class. The muratori of Milan did indifferently at first, until M. Mariani, an admirable organizer, but a socialist of the purest water, took the matter in hand. With such opportunities as offer themselves to builders in Milan, even though private individuals held aloof, there could not be much difficulty about setting the matter right in little time, and now the muratori are doing well. Like their sister societies, they have rendered very appreciable service to the trade. They keep down the number of boys, and allow no boys under fourteen to be employed at all. They do a good deal in the way of technical education, maintaining schools and classes. They are particularly careful to improve the social condition and domestic surroundings of their members. Most of these were a little time ago wretchedly housed in hovels, from which it was impossible to keep out typhoid fever and cholera. The society is gradually remedying this evil. Last, not least, this and other societies have come very near solving the problem of prevention of accidents. They have, in fact, scarcely any. It stands to reason. Their object is not to make large profits out of the hire of other folks' labor and the exposure of human life to peril, but to provide steady and safe employment under satisfactory conditions to as many men as is possible. Accordingly, the instruc tion driven home most pressingly and most persistently into every capo squadro is this: Above all things avoid risk, and keep your men safe! Scaffoldings are properly seen to. Everything is made as safe as can be. And the result is, that the Milan muratori in several years have had only one serious accident to report-and that one the victim. an apprentice, brought upon himself by larkingly engaging in acrobatics on a dangerous point of the scaffolding in the dinner-hour. Combination has secured better wages

among muratori as among braccianti, though perhaps the increase is less striking. In the Budrio Society wages have gone up by from 50 to 100 centesimi a day. In Milan, as compared with 2.50 lire to 2.80 lire paid outside the society, the society men receive 3 ́lire to 3.30 lire. Generally speaking, the wages may be set down as averaging from 2.50 to 3 lire a day, which is not bad. In addition, of course, there is a provident and sick fund, and an association capital growing up which promises to make employment all the more secure, and perhaps all the more remunerative in the future.

Altogether, then, the Italian working-men's societies have undoubtedly good results to show. Indeed, amid a mass of need and trouble and distress with which statesmen find it difficult to grapple, this movement of combination among working men forms one of the few bright spots which encourage one to hope for better things. It is all the more encouraging since it touches the very foundation upon which national society rests, and promises to strengthen the framework of the social system. Prosperous working-classes must mean a prosperous community. The movement is still in its infancy. All its efforts have thus far been directed to striking root. It has scarcely had time to expand; and expansion is even now not easy. However willing the Luzzattis and Dallolios and some others may be to see the societies grow numerous and strong and thriving, there are a good many men still in high places who frown upon them. So far as they are properly organized, and aim at producing the best possible work in return for the best possible pay, I feel satisfied that they will grow and develop in spite of such opposition. For they apply a sound economic principle at the proper poiut, where its application must assure advantage alike to buyer and seller of work, economizing labor, while securing for it a higher remuneration and benefiting the laborer, at the same time educating and raising him, at the cost actually of no one. The question remains to be asked: Are we in a position to profit by the lesson which the foreigners spoken of are teaching? I believe that we are. I do not think that it can be necessary

66

66

to enter into particulars now, even if I had the space. There are few persons connected with the employment of labor in this country who will not be able readily to call to mind cases in which a need more or less corresponding to that which has been effectually mitigated abroad exists, for which our present methods of championing the claims of Labor afford no relief. What has succeeded in the worse case abroad ought to have a chance of succeeding in instances of less severity. We have the same classes of labor to deal with, we have the same kind of work wherewith to employ them, much in the same way-and other work besides which might be dealt with in a similar manner. We have a much larger quantity of private employment to bring into the market for the benefit of our unskilled men. And our public bodies are not likely to prove less considerate than the Italian. We have a War Office which has introduced the eight hours' day. We have a County Council which, by the exclusion of sweated" labor from its contracts, has, as East end workmen of sweated" trades have themselves assured me, done more for the suppression of "sweating" than any other body, public or private. At any rate, I earnestly commend the subject to the consideration of those who act as leaders in Labor movements. Up to the present very little indeed seems to be known about it in this kingdom. However, it deserves to be studied, and that is why I have ventured to set pen to paper. There is nothing in this form of combination to which any one on the Labor side can at all object. Socialists as well as anti-Socialists can find a place in it. And there can be no combination more legitimate, more called for, more calculated to enlist the friendly sympathy of the community than one which brings help to those who undoubtedly need it, and who have no other means of relief open to them-combination which benefits them without taxing or wronging any one, without taking anything from any one, except it be from those who by an unscrupulous abuse of their opportunities have deliberately forfeited their claim to consideration.-Contemporary Review.

YEARS ago a young and thoughtless man carrying on the profession, trade, or business of a free-lance journalist presumed to congratulate a friend upon the dignity of his position as assistant editor of a great daily paper. Those were the days when editors were editors, when nobody dreamed of assigning the title of "News Editor" or "Sporting Editor" to the man who divided his time between the scissors, the paste, and the noisome and oleaginous flimsy, or to the man who knocked into shape the effusions of the sporting reporter. Those were the days also when to be an assistant editor was to occupy a position of responsibility, trust, and power; whereas in these times the assistant editor is too often nothing better than the editor's secretary. The assistant editor and the free-lance journalist were not far apart in age; they had almost been contemporaries at Oxford; but the man of dignified position had a harassed and weary look, tired eyes, and a ragged beard; and the free-lance was young and lusty as an eagle. And this was the answer to the congratulation :

66

My dear X, wait until you have tried your hand as an editor, then you will know what it is to long for the days that are past; you will realize that the life of a tolerably successful contributor is a thousand times more choiceworthy than that of an editor. I used to write with pleasure, and to take a modest pride in my work. Now I never write a line except to fill up 'white,' or to make an article turn the column. Much of my time is spent in spoiling the work of others."

I was the free-lance, and I owed many an obligation to the clever man who never altered except to improve; but I left him then, sitting with a bundle of wet proofs beside him under the glare of an Argand lamp; and when I reached my club, and told the story to another casual contributor, I was quite ready to endorse the comment, "Poor A is one of those men who never know when they are well off." But since

those days I have become an editor, and A has returned to the ranks of the contributors. He came to see me a few days ago, full of spirits and goodhumor, looking, and avowing that he felt, ten years younger, in that he had passed "from penal servitude to liberty." He observed also, truthfully enough, that the wear and tear of editing had turned my hair gray.

It is in the capacity of an editor, and with the view of proving that even a worm will turn, that I offer some observations suggested by the article on "Editors," by "A Contributor," which appeared in The National Review for June. My remarks cannot take the form of a reply, because "A Contributor's" disjointed anecdotes do not amount to an indictment of editors in general. Nor shall I permit myself references to individuals, easily to be understood by the public, since, in my poor judgment, to speak of an editor who is " reputed to set more store by the names of his contributors than by the quality of their contributions," to describe another as "Euphues Junior," and to pour whole sauce-boats of melted butter upon two or three named editors (who are not at all likely to value the unasked flattery), is to set an example unworthy of imitation. Nor shall I address my observations to writers of experience, who, because they know their business and the limitations under which an editor works, never complain, and are the backbone of periodicals and of journalism. Such men staud in no need of advice or of gentle reproof. They may not have contributed to five daily, eight weekly, six monthly periodicals, and to one quarterly periodical, as " A Contributor" tells us he has. Their work, indeed, is performed so well, is delivered so punctually, and reaches editors so perfectly ready for use, that the number of channels through which it is distributed to the world grows ever less and less. But there is another, and that a very large, army of writers for the Press, and in that army "A Con

tributor" has a place. In it are men and women of all ages, who circulate their productions profusely among editors. A great volume of their work passes under my eye. Sometimes the manuscript bears the marks of many journeys through the post. Sometimes it has the ornament of a fresh front page to disguise its age and its history of misfortune; often it is accompanied by a note, which, to me personally, seems touchingly pathetic. The writers of these notes ought to read Mr. Thackeray's Thorns in the Cushion; so reading they would learn that appeals ad misericordiam may pain the editor, but must not be permitted to influence his judgment. The magazine, the weekly review, and the daily paper are offered to the public which refuses to make any allowance for imperfections in the finished production, and does not see the heart breaking plea which accompanied it to the editorial office. In this same genus of peripatetic manuscript is a species emanating from writers who deserve no sympathy at all. They are more irrational and not less troublesome than the prowling cabman. He, at worst, confines his importunity to wayfarers who appear likely to be able to engage him. They, on the contrary, waste innumerable postage stamps in forwarding to editors utterly hopeless manuscripts which, by their very tone and length, prove that the writers have never so much as wasted a thought upon the character and the quality of the paper conducted by the editor upon whom they design to inflict trouble. How many Radical squibs have been placed into Tory letter-boxes? How many Tory essays have been hurled at Radical editors? Why do women attempt to storm the fortresses of serious journals with columns of so-called gossip, the said gossip consisting of stale scandal and rubbish about chiffons? All these time-wasting insults are flung at numberless editors every day. Yet, even at the most unpromising contribution, the editor must glance, for, in the accumulated mass, he may chance to find that pearl without price, a useful contributor, who, pace "A Contributor," is uncommonly like to a black swan. But that is no excuse NEW SERIES-VOL. LXIV., No. 4.

for the reckless want of consideration of the general contributor whose conduct gives rise to the suspicion that he keeps a clerk for no other purpose than that, with a list of some hundreds of heterogeneous publications before him, he may send on to the next station, so to speak, the rejected addresses of the morning's mail.

66

After making all reasonable allowance for the disappointment of unsuccessful writers, after admitting that no honest editor can expect to be popular among contributors, the plain fact remains that the casual contributor does not understand his true position. His demands are frequently unreasonable, and there need be little hesitation in saying that he receives far more consideration than he deserves. 'Not to answer a civil letter on business is at once ill-bred and unbusinesslike, whether the recipient occupies an editorial chair or not." So writes "A Contributor" but the observation is unsound and absurd. In my private capacity, I receive, every day, civil and even fulsome letters on business, offering to lend me money, to sell me cigars, wine, baby's socks, and a thousand things. The writers offer me something I do not require or cannot afford to buy; and I answer, as no doubt "A Contributor" answers, by silence. In strict logic the uninvited contributor stands in precisely the same position as the volunteer money-lender. When unasked he sends his goods on approval, in the face of a notice to the effect that rejected articles cannot be returned, he stands in the same position. as the tobacconists who send out sample boxes of cigarettes. But he obtains far more courteous treatment than is accorded to the tradesman. An attempt, at the least, is made to read the most ill-written manuscript; sometimes it is even sent up to the printers in the faint hope that, after they have wrestled with it, the meaning of the scrawl may be extracted. If it be rejected, it is almost invariably returned, whether stamps have been enclosed or not. Such is the practice of nearly all reputable publications; there are, however, a few exceptions in the shape of papers which give distinct notice that they will not take the trouble to return un

31