The German Labor Movement

Among the most rem:irkuble and significant s igns of the times are the recent utterances of the Germán emperor on the labor ciuestion. In his rescrlpts to two of tiia ministers the emperor declares that "t is the duty of the state to so regúlate the duratlon and nature of labor as to insure the healtb, tlie morality and the pupply of all tlie economie wants of the workinginnn.'' This utlerancc is the most stinging and ítag;erii)g blow that laissezfaire has ever received in Europe. It is In complete oppos'.tion to every percept of the Adam Smith and Manchester fchool of philosophy; it is the announcement of the adlierence of the inost absolute, with tlie exoeption of the cznr, of the civilized monarch of Europe to the new 'gospel of the labor and its relation to the state. The tlieory of the English school of philosonhers concerning the functions and actions of the state not only in relation to labor, bui to all other conditions that it was assumed were purely personal, has been absolutely non-interference - laissezfaire. They have condemned uirect inierieiencc oí me scaie wiui lauor as an interfeiencc in the Industrial freedora of ils citi.ens. Tbis for ycars was the spirit of the laws, not only of the continent of E urn pc, bilt of England as wtll. ISut England has gradually, in the face of its theoretical adoptiou of the doctrine of laissez faire, been placins upon its statute books a body of legislation tliat is in direct opposition to tliis tlieoretic:il idea. IIow erent has been this movement Stanley Jevons shows ia hls reinarkable little book, "The State in rclation to labor," and there lays. down what it scems to us is the true limit of legislation in this matter, viz : that "no laws, no customs, no rights of property are so sacred that they may not be made away with If it can be clearly shown that they stand In the way of the greatest happiness." In the place of that uietaphysical incubu?, laissez faire, Engllsh legislation, and American Logislation too, has been followiug the higker principie, salut populi, regurding this as the Ux suprema - higher even thau the so-called univers:il and unalteiable rule of lat'xsez-fuire. In this country, so fur as concerns the individual labor, we have not yet placed upon our statute books as rnany or so modern provisions for tlieir health and morality as heen done In Kilnnd or in some of the continental nations; luit in a broader and better sense we have placed among our laws provisious tliat so concern the wi-lfare of the laborer as to place him in a posiüon of such Independence aB to demand and cnforce methoda that shall ensure bis health and safety. This we have done In the system of protcctiou that gives our working men such wages and such a degree of Independence tbat they eau insist upon those provisions in connection witU their work that shall provide for their safety and their health.- American Munufacturer.