bosses rented houses and held the rent so high that some assistance had to be given to enable the men to pay the rent, but then one can hear almost anything here and it does not do to put too much credence in all one hears; anyway those who were not in the "swim" kicked at the injustice of being left out, and things were just beginning to be interesting when an order came out not to work any more overtime. Now there is a corresponding dissatisfaction on the part of those who were in the "swim" at those kickers who could not keep still, but the kickers are now reasonably happy, feeling that at last they are on an equal footing wit ihhe "truly loyal.

It is to be hoped this order will make better men. The incentive to "stand in" being now to a great extent removed, it will have more of a tendency to set men thinking that after all unity is not a bad thing, now that I can't make any more by "standing in" with the boss than I can by standing in with the men.

Last

But I must not draw my letter out too long this month, as I believe a new correspondent is elected, and I don't want to entrench too much on his privileges so I will close with a description of the social event of the month. month it was a wedding, this month a birthday anniversary. One night I was awoke by the strains of a German concertina, accompanied by the nullifluous voices (that mellowness that beer imparts) of a party gathered together as I first supposed to keep the neighborhood awake but as I afterwards learned to celebrate the birthday anniversary of one of our blacksmiths, a German named Williams, and a glorious time, judging by the noise, did his German fellow-citizens have. Half the sweetness was lost to the writer through the songs being sung in the vernacular, but so well pleased were they that the spree was continued the second night, the only difference being the interspersing of English songs with the Dutch which made the noise a little more amusing if not less annoying. Finally the oft repeated request sounded in my ears: "Now, then, h'all 'ands join h'in the chorus." "H'everybody sing."

OCCASIONALLY.

WHAT CO-OPERATION IS DOING IN CHICAGO"

Semi-Annual Statement of The Knights of Labor Co-Operative Manufacturing Tailoring Co. The success achived by The Knights of Labor Co-operative Manufacturing Tailoring Company is phenomenal, when viewed from an ordinary business standpoint; and, when considered in all its bearings, it stands out pre-eminently as an almost marvelous attainment. Entering the field where it met competitors with limitless capital and boundless resources, with but $305.00 in actual means, it has done a business in fifteen months of $43,693,26, and is still rapidly increasing its trade. This institution stands now as a monument to the united efforts of the intelligent and industrious, and fully demonstrates the feasibility and practicability of co-operation and profit

Dividend available, as per our by-laws, 10 per cent of net gain; leaving 90 per cent of the net gain to increase the business. Dividend payable semi-annually.

It will thus be seen that the total sales are over sixteen times the paid up stock; merchandise bought, over eight times the paid up capital stock; paid for manufacturing, over three times the paid up capital stock.

We have made 100 per cent on investment, and placed our total sales in the hands of the consumers for a net profit of but 6 per cent-a direct saving to the consumer of 20 per cent or $8,738.64.

The calculations of profits to those holding shares in the company show for themselves; and the estimated saving to the consumer is based upon a knowledge of the precentage added to actual cost by the establishment doing business under the ordinary methods.

The trade of The Knights of Labor Co-operative Manufacturing Tailoring Company, now amounts to upwards of $35,000.00 annually, and is constantly and rapidy growing. This is much better than many of the oldest and strongest establishments in the same line can boast. It makes The Knights of Labor Co-operative Manufacturing Tailoring Company a first-class investment. Stock purchased and paid for, as it can be out of your small earnings, gives at once a safe place of keeping, and an investment which will guarantee you handsome profits, and leave your means where you can control them, by controlling the business in which they are employed. Some of the stock of the company yet remains unsold. Shares can be had upon application to the secretary.

at as low a wage as possible, get as much from their labor as he can and to sell or exchange the products to the best advantage. He can hold the product for better prices.

Men who have labor to sell have the same desire as the employer, they wish to make the outgo as low as possible and wish to sell as high as possible, but they have a product that must go every day or it is lost forever, there is no holding of it for a higher price, and are, therefore, at the disadvantage of the employer. Both these classes have met with competition; the employer with those who have similar products to sell and the competition has often proved disastrous to all; it has followed that combinations have been made, pools and trusts have been formed which are but a union of product sellers to keep prices up and they have, as a rule, proved successful, this has been to the interest of individuals only. The labor seller has met with the competition of other laborers and they too have formed combinations to raise prices. The struggle is just the same, it is merely changed from individual against individual to combination against combination with the advantage with the combination of produce sellers, for the laborer not only depends on them to buy his labor but also to sell him the product; how can there be equal advantages so long as such is the conditions of life?

Two men try to sell their labor where the labor of only one is wanted, one underbids the other, both being compelled to sell at the same time, how can effective combinations be made? The buyer of labor takes the one that he considers will bring him in the greatest return for the least expense.

Every man being for himself, under such conditions the man at work buys of the necessities of

life where he can buy the cheapest without any thought as to why of two articles of the same class and quality one is often sold for less than the other. Neither does the employer consider why he worked for less than his fellow. The starvation wage or slave condition of workers somewhere may have made the article the workman bought the cheaper of which he took advantage. Hunger or other conditions compelled him to work the cheapest, a condition that the employer took advantage of. The whole struggle tends to crush the weaker.

It is from these conditions that the social questions that are agitating the people arise, a solution of which will only relieve life's struggle, and this appears to rest entirely on the possibility of changing human nature itself, or in the placing of all men on an even footing, and to accomplish the one appears as difficult as the other.

The struggle for existence is so sharp and constant from the cradle to the grave that it is rarely one is found that is willing to sacrifice something himself for the sake of others or to aid in removing the obstacles that have been met and which posterity will have to meet unless removed.

To place humanity on the same footing in life's struggle means, if it means anything, intellectual and physical equality, for it is universally accepted that if there was an equal distribution of the wealth and natural opportunities of the world it would be only a question of time before there would be as great a disparency as at the present time; one would certainly not give up to another if he could help it, which would consequently prove that they were not on the same footing unless they were equally strong intelligently or physically.

What will lead to this is for the present to consider. The whole

trouble lays with man himself, the remedy must be applied through man himself. It is folly to think that by the enactment of any particular law, the establishment of any theoretical form of government, or the overthrow of one "Man's inhumanity to man" is going to be removed; so long as men think, see, understand things as they do the conditions of society that arise from it will continue no matter what form of laws are written or governments established.

The studious industrious man, the one who learn nature's laws and follows them must certainly be in advance of his opposite, no law can equalize them, no government can compel the one to do as the other, but men can be shown the benefits and encouraged by those who are but a step ahead of them to advance; the race can be improved with each generation, and the intellectual and physical inequalities thus gradually removed and man's condition, as now seen, accordingly improve, those artificial barriers and imaginary inequalities will disappear at the same time as a mist before the sun.

An ambition to excel, to rank with the foremost, well established in youth will follow mankind through life, but that ambition must be for something higher than the acquisition of wealth, or to be able to command a higher wage from another, if it accomplishes the desired object; that ambition must point toward being able to command each his own resources, to direct his own energies, to be the peer of any in all that goes to make man the superior in nature.

That idea that comes to us a relic of hereditary rule, that God creates every man in a certain station where he should be content to remain must be rooted out, for it poisons hope, and an intelligent development will only do it.

Those who have the hardest struggle now, who occupy the most menial positions must learn that God had nothing to do with their condition, and that it is not only their right but it is their duty to raise themselves as high as possible, teaching the rising spirit into their children that they may go on where they left off, that they may ultimately stand on the highest plain that human efforts can reach. Such a struggle in life carries with it hope, and without hope life is not worth living.

The man that takes life as it comes without a question why it comes as it does, giving no thought to the future, or to improvements of life's conditions, being perfectlysatisfied that his children should follow the same existence he has, is no better than the beast of the fields, for life to the one is the same as the other, a mere existence. So long as men have such views of life so long will he be subjective to the power of more ambitious men, and not only that but the artificial barriers that have already been built to keep him from raising will be strengthened.

AGITATION AND THE AGITATOR.

What would the world now be if there had never been any agita-tion, if men's minds had not been. kept stirred up by agitators? It. would have remained in its primitive state and there would have: been no nineteenth century civilization to boast of. Each advanced step has been forced forward by the agitation of the minds of the majority, by the minority each. step back, or when human affairs were in a stagnant condition records a period of no agitation, men's minds were asleep.

What we of the present era enjoy we can thank the agitators of the past for, those who pointed out danger, who sounded the alarm,

who taught humanity the use of new discoveries and how they should promote the welfare of all. It has been the names of great agitators only that have stood the test of time and are honored by the childrer of men, however, such men have generally been dispised in their own day and generation, history recording evidences of that, and it can be reasonably expected that they will be in the present and future, which is proof that men, in order to be benefactors of humanity, must be of strong moral courage.

When a man feels that a wrong exists, when he discovers a danger lurking in the path of progress, when he sees a class suffering an injustice because they are ignorant of their rights, or of the possibilities at their command as children of earth, and is possessed with the heart of a true man he will become an agitator, a teacher, a promoter of progress. Teaching or inspiring men to do for themselves is benefiting them greater than doing for them; teaching one to raise two blades of grass where only one grew before is better than giving him two.

The obstructionist to human progress, the opposite in character to the agitator, those who profit or believe they will by having conditions remain as they are, dislike agitation, they hate the agitator, when their power is sufficient they distroy him, this is true through all time and is true to-day. Russia gives a good illustration, there the royal family do not want a change, they know the only hope of retaining what power they at present command lays in preventing the minds of the people from being agitated up to that point where they will learn their own power and make the change.

The Tory government of England representing the landed aristocracy of Britain has done all in

its power to prevent the agitation of the Irish question, for they know where it will lead to. What has been and is true of political questions is true of religious ones. Christ, the agitator, was crucified, his followers were persecuted, those who did it wanted no agitation they wanted no change, but invariably obstructionists to human progress have gone down in disgrace, their names are synonyms for scorn and hatred.

When a change is effected there are those that helped to effect it or who enjoying it feel satisfied, that become the obstructionists.

To be an agitator means to be engaged in setting men's minds to thinking, to nvestigating what is believed will be of benefit to them, adopting it, rejecting it or improving it by their own fee will as the opposite of forcing them to do it.

Preachers of religion, temperance or prohibition advocates, authors and newspaper writers, political speakers and the advocates of political reform are all agitators, yet many would feel insulted if called such.

The application of words in one direction often change the general acceptance of their application, and it is especially true of the word agitator, which is now used most exclusively to designate those who are interesting men in the labor question, and it is used derisively by those who are opposed to having men think of that question.

It is not uncommon to hear the man in the pulpit or the newspaper writer sounding a warning to beware of the agitator, and they do not need to say labor agitator to be understood.

It appears ridiculous when coming from such sources, especially from the man in the pulpit who of all others is a professional agitator, paid by a body of people to keep them agitated so they will