a certain amount of goods or conditions of living, and then in terms of money wages. The following definitions will prove suggestive and helpful:

"Undoubtedly the first moral charge on the national income. is such a sum as is necessary to bring up a family, providing for health, education, efficiency of work, and the conditions generally of a moral life. Anything below such a level subjects human beings to hardships and temptations to which they should not be exposed, and to conditions in which men and women are not free but in bondage to physical wants. If the present system or any system did not promise this at some not distant period, we should have to say, like Mill, that, if this or Communism were the alternative, all the difficulties, great or small, of Communism would be but as dust in the balance'" (Smart, Studies in Economics, p. 302, note).

"The necessaries for the efficiency of an ordinary agricultural or an unskilled town laborer and his family in England, in this generation, may be said to consist of a well-drained dwelling with several rooms, warm clothing, with some changes of underclothing, pure water, a plentiful supply of cereal food, with a moderate allowance of meat and milk, and a little tea, etc., some education and some recreation, and lastly, sufficient freedom for his wife from other work to enable her to perform properly her maternal and her household duties.

In addition, perhaps, some consumption of alcohol and tobacco and some indulgence in fashionable dress are in many places so habitual that they may be said to be conventionally necessary, since, in order to obtain them, the average man and woman will sacrifice some things that are necessary for efficiency" (Marshall, Principles of Economics, Book. II., chap. iv., sec. 2).

Professor Munro defines a living wage as "a yearly wage sufficient to maintain the worker in the highest state of industrial efficiency, and to afford him adequate leisure to discharge the duties of citizenship" (Economic Journal, June, 1894, p. 365).

Mr. Devas summarizes the minimum livelihood that should be guaranteed to all workers thus: the means of physical existence; practical possibility of marriage; separate homes; insurance against sickness, old age, and industrial accidents; and some access to the treasures of literature, art, and culture (Po

"There is a growing feeling, not confined to Trade Unionists," say Sidney and Beatrice Webb, "that the best interests of the community can only be attained by deliberately securing to each section of the workers those conditions which are necessary for the continuous and efficient fulfilment of its particular function in the social machine" (Industrial Democracy, p. 590).

The Conference on the Christian Organization of Industry held at Holborn Hall, November 29, 1893, interpreted a living wage as a remuneration that would "enable workers to maintain healthy and human homes."

Professor Patten holds that the workingman has a right to a home; to become the head of a family; to self-development; to a share in the social surplus sufficiently large to make him comfortable; to the leisure that is necessary for the revival of physical and mental powers; to recreation for the sake of symmetrical development; to cleanliness in and about the home; and to some development of his sense of the beautiful (The Theory of Prosperity, pp. 218-227).

According to President Gompers, of the American Federation of Labor, a living wage is "a wage which, when expended in the most economical manner, shall be sufficient to maintain an average-sized family in a manner consistent with whatever the contemporary local civilization recognizes as indispensable to physical and mental health, or as required by the rational self-respect of human beings" (The American Federationist, April, 1898).

Father Vermeersch's estimate of the things procurable by a living wage comprises the following: moderate food, clothing, and shelter for the laborer and his family; festival days and some recreation; proper education for the laborer's children; and finally, suitable provision against accidents, disease, and old age (Questiones de Justitia, p. 576).

DISCUSSING AUTHORITIES.

It will be observed that all the estimates above given are in tolerably close agreement except in the matter of provision for sickness and old age. The reason of this variance lies in the different view-points from which the question is regarded. Writers like Marshall and Munro, who start from considerations of social utility, look upon a living wage as the remuneration that is required to maintain the laborer in a state of industrial

because they are not describing what the laborer needs for his own sake, but what he needs in order to work well. How they would have him supported after old age compels him to cease work altogether, we cannot say. The definitions cited above throw no light upon this question. On the other hand, those who, like Devas and Vermeersch, approach the subject from the side of morals, and whose first concern is the laborer's rights, rather than his productive efficiency, make explicit mention of all his essential needs. Consequently, they hold that if his wage does not make possible a provision for sickness and old age, it is less than a living wage.

The following is my own estimate of the minimum amount of goods and opportunities that will suffice for decent living and the, rearing of a family:

1. Food, clothing, and shelter for the laborer and his family until his children are old enough to become wage-earners.

(a) The Children. As to the number of children to be taken as a basis in estimating the family needs, the average number found in workingmen's families is the only practical standard, and, stated approximately, it is a sufficiently fair standard. A study of the families for which statistics are presented in the "Cotton Group" of the Seventh Annual Report of the Department of Labor leads to the conclusion that the average number of children in the families of full size there described was 4 2-5. The families enumerated in that group numbered 2,132, were distributed over 17 States, North, South, East, and West, and represented 15 nationalities. So far as size is concerned they may, therefore, be regarded as fairly typical of laborers' families in America.

Except, possibly, during school vacations, no child of either sex should be employed as a wage-earner under the age of 16 years. Until that time of life is reached children are not, as a rule, sufficiently strong to work day after day under the direction of an employer. Besides, if they are taken out of school at an earlier period, they get less than a fair proportion of the educational opportunities so generally provided by the State for the benefit of all. Their share in the industrial opportunities that depend so largely upon education is likewise diminished. Attendance at school until the age of 16 would seem to be essential in order to give the workingman's children a fair start

(b) The Wife. The welfare of the family, and likewise of society, renders it imperative that the wife and mother should not engage in any work except that of the household. When she becomes a wage-earner she can neither care properly for her own health, rear her children aright, nor make the home what it should be for her husband, her children, and herself. In the words of the Second Congress of Christian Workingmen at Rheims, "la femme devenue ouvrière n'est plus une femme ""The wife become wage-worker is no longer a wife" (Quoted in Tolman's Le Catholicisme Social, p. 55). p. 55). Among the

Catholic authorities that have protested against the employment of wives and mothers, or at least of mothers, may be mentioned: the Union of Catholic Associations and Workingmen at Fribourg, Switzerland (1893); the Catholic Association. of Holland (1897); the Social Christians of Germany; the Christian Democrats of Belgium (1894); the Second Congress of Christian Workingmen at Rheims (1894); The Catholic delegates to the Industrial Congress for the Protection of Workingmen at Zurich (1897); the Count de Mun; and Cardinal Manning (Idem, pp. 50-58).

(c) Food. The laborer should have food sufficient in quantity, quality, and variety to maintain himself and the members of his family in normal conditions of health and vitality.

(d) Clothing. He should be able to provide himself and family with clothing adapted in quantity and quality to the reasonable requirements of comfort. In addition, they all should be able to appear in becoming attire on "social" occasions, in school, in church, and in public gatherings of a holiday or festal nature. It is impossible to state precisely the minimum that is reasonable in this matter, but speaking generally we may say that the laborer and his family should possess an outfit of "holiday" apparel, distinct from their ordinary or "every-day " garments. This much is essential if they are to appear among their fellows without loss of that self-respect and natural pride which are required to maintain human dignity and to live decently.

(e) Shelter. Under this head it is sufficient to say that the dwelling occupied by the laborer and family should consist of at least five rooms, and in general conform to the requirements of reasonable comfort. Three rooms (one for the parents, and one each for the male and female children) are the minimum

because they are not describing what the laborer needs for his own sake, but what he needs in order to work well. How they would have him supported after old age compels him to cease work altogether, we cannot say. The definitions cited above throw no light upon this question. On the other hand, those who, like Devas and Vermeersch, approach the subject from the side of morals, and whose first concern is the laborer's rights, rather than his productive efficiency, make explicit mention of all his essential needs. Consequently, they hold that if his wage does not make possible a provision for sickness and old age, it is less than a living wage.

The following is my own estimate of the minimum amount of goods and opportunities that will suffice for decent living and the rearing of a family:

1. Food, clothing, and shelter for the laborer and his family until his children are old enough to become wage-earners.

(a) The Children. As to the number of children to be taken as a basis in estimating the family needs, the average number found in workingmen's families is the only practical standard, and, stated approximately, it is a sufficiently fair standard. A study of the families for which statistics are presented in the "Cotton Group" of the Seventh Annual Report of the Department of Labor leads to the conclusion that the average number of children in the families of full size there described was 4 2-5. The families enumerated in that group numbered 2,132, were distributed over 17 States, North, South, East, and West, and represented 15 nationalities. So far as size is concerned they may, therefore, be regarded as fairly typical of laborers' families in America.

Except, possibly, during school vacations, no child of either sex should be employed as a wage-earner under the age of 16 years. Until that time of life is reached children are not, as a rule, sufficiently strong to work day after day under the direction of an employer. Besides, if they are taken out of school at an earlier period, they get less than a fair proportion of the educational opportunities so generally provided by the State for the benefit of all. Their share in the industrial opportunities that depend so largely upon education is likewise diminished. Attendance at school until the age of 16 would seem to be essential in order to give the workingman's children a fair start