The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1906-04-28

If it We're possible to present three
different conceptions of an ideal state
on the same chart John Mitchell might
= be portrayed as standing at q point
equidistant from that occupied by the
late Johann Most on the one hand and
that held. by George F. Baer on the
other says the New York Herald.
Most professed to believe in anarchy,
which has no actual meaning |, many
of u.s. but is pictured by his school as
a condition in which. there being mo
chief" as the word implies, and, con-
sequently, no oppressor, every member
OF society will somehow find himself,
after those who disagree with his
economic views have been slaughtered,
in possession Of his per capita share
of everything worth having. Walt
Whitman once epitomized the idea in
the phrase. The best of everything
for everybody" though he did not call
it anarchy.
Baer if his views as to divine right
have been accurately reported, holds
the opposite opinion to that expressed
by Richard Rumbold two hundred
years ago. w1,o according to Macaulay,
declared on the scaffold that "he never
would believe that Providence had sent
few men into the world ready
booted and spurred to ride and mill
ions ready saddled and bridled to be
ridden"
Mitchell stands as far from one of
these extremes as the other. He does
not believe that the millennium will
arrive during his lifetime nor that the
few shall forever continue to prosper
at the expense of the many. He thinks
that the average wage Garner has
made up his mind that he must re-
main a wage Garner. and that he de-
sires present adequate reward for his
labor, without any reference to a near
or distant Utopia. Mitchell has formu-
lated the demand of the workinginan.
He asks on his behalf q sufficient wage
to permit of "the American standard
of living" and explains just what that
means.
Mitchell declares that the ordinary
unskilled workingman in cities of from
5000 to 100000 inhabitants should be
enabled to have comfortable home
Of at feast six rooms, which should
plumbing, parlor, dining room
kitchen and sufficient sleeping room
that decency may be preserved; that
he should have carpets, pictures, books
and furniture with which to make
home bright. comfortable and attrac-
tive for himself and his family, and
an ample supply of clothing suitable
for winter and summer, and. above
. all, a sufficient quantity of good
wholesome and nourshing food at all
times of the year; that he should be
enabled to keep his children in school,
until they have attained the age of at
- least sixteen years, and to lay by sufti-
,cient to maintain himself and his
family in times of illness, or at the
close of his industrial life, when age
and weakness render further work i'm
possible, and to make provision fol
his family against his premature death
. from accident or otherwise.
The very least amount upon which
an unskilled workman can maintain
this standard of living Mitchell TOLD
the Coal Strike Commission of 1902
was $500 a year. The effect Of such 6
minimum wage, he declares. will be
of great benefit to society at large
as we'll as to the unskilled workman
himself. Not only" he says, "is the
workman who has comfortable home
with proper sanitary appliances {
better and more efficient workman
than he who sleeps in dirty lodging
house or crowded into a tenement, bu
society gains in other ways. Once thu
learns how to use it the drink bill O
the community will be diminished, tn,
expenditure for apprehending, trying
and imprisoning criminals will be re
duced, and many other evils of societ,
will be lessened. The most importan
result, however, of such an increase o
wages upon the part Of the unskillet