ung emperor of
Germany, hotheaded, obstinate, and self-willed as he may be, is working
it would seem from as radical a conviction of deep wrong in the
distributive system. The Berlin Labor Conference, whose chief effort
seems to have been against child-labor and in favor of excluding women
from the mines, or at least reducing hours, and forbidding certain of
the heavier forms of labor, is but an echo of the great dock-strikes of
London and the cry of all workers the world over for a better chance.
The capitalist seeks to hold his own, the laborer demands larger share
of the product; and how to render unto each his due is the great
politico-economic question,--the absorbing question of our time.

We have found, then, that the problem is economic, and concerns
distribution only. There is no complaint that the capitalist fails to
secure his share. On the contrary, even among the well-to-do,
deep-seated alarm is evidenced at the rise and progress of innumerable
trusts and syndicates, eliminating competition, which restricts
production and raises prices. They make their own conditions; drive from
the field small tradesmen and petty industries, or absorb them on their
own terms.

Rings of every description in the political and the working world
combine for general spoliation, and the honest worker's money jingles
in every pocket but his own.

Granting all that may be urged as to the capitalists' investment of
brain-power and acquired skill, as well as of money with all the risks
involved, they are the inactive rather than the active factors in
production. They give of their store, while labor gives of its life.
Their view is to be reconstructed, and profit-sharing become as much a
part of any industry as profit-making.

This is a growing conviction; nor can we wonder that realization of its
justice and its possibilities has been a matter of very recent
consideration. An often repeated formula becomes at last ingrained in
the mental constitution, and any question as to its truth is a sharp
shock to the whole structure. We have been so certain of the surpassing
advantages of our own country, so certain that liberty and a chance were
the portion of all, that to confront the real conditions in our great
cities is to most as unreal as a nightmare.

We have conceded at last, forced to it by the concessions of all
students of our economic problems, that the laborer does not yet receive
his fair share of the world's wealth; and