The Irish standard., 1914-10-10
Social Service Bulletin


these conditions will be submitted
to such penalties as may be imposed
by the commission.
On account of the mutual benefits
derived from the truce the employers
and employees should each pay one
half of the expenses of the commits
sion.
Two-Third of Worlds People Are for
Peace.
| Peace treaties between the United
States and Great Britain, France.
Spain and China-four countries
whose combined population is more
than two-thirds Of the total of the
earth have been signed by the re-
spective nations.
The Washington government at
taches the highest Importance to the
signing of the new treaties. because
it believes the peace of the United
States will be made secure with 948,-
OOO,OOO people.
It is happy news indeed that
amidst all the alarms of war Mr..
Bryan's peace commission treaty
with Great Britain is now ready for
signature. The treatise provides for
a permanent joint commission which
will be able to undertake the inves-
tigation of disputes. The greatest
danger of friction between nations
is thus removed by postponing all
hostilities for one year.
Minimum Wage in Washington.
The Washington state minimum
wage commission has adopted a rate
Of 50 week as the minimum for
telephone girls throughout the state.
except in small exchanges. This is
the fourth minimum wage adopted
by the commission, the others being
$40 week for mercantile workers,
$500 for factory workers and 50 for
laundry and dye workers.
Nothing New in Socialism.
There is nothing new in Socialism,
so far as it offers scheme for the
betterment of social conditions. It
is nothing new that the state should
own railroads, telegraph lines, or
what are termed the tools of labor,
and man does not have to be So
cialist to believe that the parcel post
is an improvement over express COM
panies, and that the government
might run the telegraph systems for
less money and under more satisfac-
tory conditions than private cor
poration. All those theories have
been or are now being put into prac-
tice in some part of the world, and
they were carried out years before
Karl Marx was born, or Socialism
was invented. Even in this country,
the government owned the railroads
and the canals at first, and still owns
most of the canals of the country,
notably the Erie. The government
owns railroads, particularly the Pan
anna. 1t runs steamship lines and is
contemplating the exploitation Of
mines, and doing other Industrial
work, so that there is no need Of a
man becoming a Socialist in order to-
favor and advocate public ownership
of utilities. Neither is it necessary
to believe in Socialism to favor the
extension of government control
from railroads to other occupations
and business enterprises. If the
government owned the railroads it
probably would speedily go into the
business of making cars, and engines,
and conducting steel works, and
there are many other lines of work
that it might take up-:in fact, any
one has a perfect right to decide in
his own mind how far the state
should go in that direction. That is
not Socialism-it is simply carrying
out policies that existed long before
Socialism existed, and which Social
ism has appropriated, and is endeavor-
ing to claim as its own.
Never before was the vast major
ity Of the human race as we'll clothed
and fed as today, and if the condi-
tions are yet far from ideal the won
derful progress of the past is a sure
guarantee of the progress yet to
come. Socialism would tear down,
not build up. Thus, for instance,
the ideal condition is for every man
to own his home, and to live in his
own house, surrounded by his fam
lily, as in his own castle. But Social
ism would abolish private ownership
of property, would destroy the indi-
vidual home, would break up the
family, by it's theory of free love, and
would Danish God and religion from
the fireside.