number of children under 14 years of age employed in factories fell from 12,448 in 1890 to 1002 in 1894, on account of the operation of educational laws. In Baden the number of working women amount to 33 per cent, of all workers, and in Bayern in 1893 to 25.4 per cent, and in 1894 to 24.7 per cent. In Great Bntam in 1870, 60.4 per cent, of the laborers in the cotton industry were men, and in 1890 the proportion stood at 60.6 per cent. In Great Britain the number of females over 10 years old having employment increased from 34.05 in 100 in 1881 to 34.42 in 1891; but in the large industrial cities a smaller per cent of married women was employed in 1891 than in 1881. In the German Empire in August, 1890, the whole number of married women (excluding widows) employed in the textile factories was 130,079. Of the whole number of females 15 years old and older employed in Germany in 1881, 697,639 were married and 821,302 were widows. A detailed study of the employment of women in the Baden textile industries is made on the basis of private information secured from the firms.
The conclusion is reached that the extension of the employment of married women in the textile factories has been relatively the same in Great Britian and Germany. Where the social conditions of the English textile industries are essentially better than those of the German, the former enjoy in this respect no advantage over the latter. A table is given comparing conditions in several industries in various other states, including Massachusetts, from which it appears that the proportion of married women in the latter place is much below that in any other important state.—R. Martin in Zeitschrift für die Gesammte Staatswissenschaft. January 1896. Tubingen: H. Laupp'schen Buchhandlung.)
The Social Question in the Catholic Congresses.—A general interest in social questions began after the war of 1870–71. The subject-matter at the various congresses differs in some degree in different countries; but there is much common to all programmes—arbitration and conciliation, housing of the poor, benefit associations, cooperation and profit-sharing, various schemes of mutual insurance, factory and tenement-house inspection, loan funds, credit associations, etc. The younger clergy revolt against routine proposals, and advocate some form of restored guild with power to compel its members, or an increased supervision and activity on the part of the state. Agitation has been carried almost to the danger point over proposals to shorten labor time, establish a minimum wage, to give legal personality to trade unions. The dilemma which the church has to face is: how to reach the workingmen without adopting the methods of the unions. There was little friction in the earlier congresses because the employing class did not take them seriously; but now every concrete question of wage payment rouses hot discussion. The standpoint of the church is always that of the communitv rather than that of the individual. The concern of the employer is invariably with the "short run;" of the church with the "long run." The church seems to have committed itself to the principle that control from without is a necessity in modern industrial life. Through the influence of the employing class the center of demand for reform has been shifted to international ground.—John Graham Brooks, in International Journal of Ethics, January 1896. Philadelphia: International Journal of Ethics.
Human Welfare and the Social Question.—This is the first of a series of articles on the psychology of industry. I. Individual welfare in general. In one sense, "everyone is the forger of his own welfare." If we understand wherein another's welfare consists, we cannot give him the qualities necessary for the appreciation of it. On the other hand, no one is complete master of his welfare. We are the sport of circumstances, of our abilities, experience, and education. But though the happiness of an individual life cannot be determined, its general conditions can be fixed. Immediately these are of little value to the individual. Society is never able to consider the welfare of the individual as such. It can lay only the general foundations. Welfare has the character of desire. It is not a single desire but the resultant of many desires. These desires are both spiritual and sensuous. To understand the nature of welfare, it is necessary to examine the various kinds of desires. If the desires of various men were not comparable, there could be no knowledge of welfare in
