Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/654

 640 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

these provisions has already been tested in New York and Massachusetts.

One other matter the state legislature has power to control the number of hours in a working day. It is a disgrace to the state of Illinois that she has no laws whatever limiting the num- ber of hours which a man or a woman may work in a day or a week. The only law which she had on this point was adjudged unconstitutional. The hours of child labor are restricted to ten per day ; but the state ought to amend her constitution, if neces- sary, and enact a similar law for men and women at the next session of the legislature. Let it be a ten-hour law to start with, if she will. This will be vastly better than the present state of affairs, under which one can be compelled to work from twelve to fifteen hours per day without redress. It is probable that all these points will be brought before the legislature at its next session.

One other point for legislation is urged by some thinkers the establishment of a minimum wage. This might do something to keep wages above the starvation level, but would be beset with a good many practical difficulties.

To effect the organization of the workers some assistance may be necessary. It is work of this kind, organizing girls' clubs and teaching them how to protect their interests, to which Miss Ashby, the English socialist and sociologist, devotes a part of her time. The men, perhaps, need less assistance than the women, but with the less intelligent of the men help would be valuable.

Closely related with those who expect much from organiza- tion of the workers are those who feel that the whole existing order of society is unjust, and that the remedy is to be found in socialism, a state of society in which each man shall have just what he produces, no more and no less. It is undoubtedly true that at present there is a class who do little or nothing to add to the sum total of the world's goods, and yet who have most. It is also true that many of those who work hardest have least. Something is wrong if these conditions can exist; and, whether or not the solution lies in the inauguration of the socialistic state,