AND ON THE CONTINENT,

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ticcs of tlio J’eace ill their native places. A representative ol‘ theeotton operatives of Lancashire had been sent by the Governmentto the Berlin Conference for the protection of workers, where heand another English member had really been the only operatives.Tim Home Secretary had lately visited the offices of the Amal-gamated Weavers at Accrington on his journey through Lancashire ,and had there been introduced to the representatives of thesociety. On the Board of Trade the excellent Burnett, a formermachine-litter, took a. high and in every respect esteemed position.In the present existing iloyal Commission for Examining theConditions of the AVorking Classes, operatives sat next to em-ployers and aristocrats, with equal rights, and were treated by themas equals. All these things showed how much thei operative, whoformerly stood without the State, knew to-day how to attain anesteemed position within it.

lie doubted, however, whether the operatives would use theirinlluence for helping forward on a large scale the changing ofprivate undertakings into public ones. Ho would not give hisopinion about other branches of trade, because he held this ques-tion as one to be decided in each individual instance and accord-ing to practical considerations. In numerous cases, especially inLondon, the Socialists who demanded State undertakings mightbe right in regard to the municipalisation of water companies,tramways, gas-works, and docks ; regarding transport arrangements it was questionable. All 'this he only knew from hearsayBut regarding the cotton industry, which ho knew, ho said:“ Hands off.” A State institution was here impossible, becauseofficials would defend the world’s market worse than privateemployers. A mere fraction of a penny often decided at thepresent time the battle of nations. In advanced economical andsocial relations private undertakings guaranteed the cheapest formof payment of the manager, who, at the same time, ensured themost skilled management. If Socialists pointed to the “limited”principle as a proof of the possibility of their ideas, they thoughthereby of that unsound form where the shareholders themselves,standing quite aloof, were often—only too often—wronglyled. In Oldham the shareholders were skilled employers.

If, however, the difference of employer and worker could nothe given up, extreme differences between rich and poor counter-balanced one another. By the fact that great capitalists fre-