settle
international differences but, like us, they have failed to suggest any
plan that has proved to be practicable.

The largest nation of Zik has advanced far ahead of us on the labor
question, but this was not reached until the contest between capital and
labor had left its blood-marks through many centuries.

A brief description of the manner in which the industrial problem was
solved will not be out of place. I will waste no words n showing the
many points of difference between our customs and those of Zik.

After hundreds of years of painful struggling, the many laborers of this
largest nation completed a solid organization and thereby gained control
of the whole government. Then, in their zeal to legislate in favor of
the laboring classes, the ruling element stepped to the other extreme by
passing many unreasonable laws. Things passed along in this unsettled
condition until a certain few of the labor leaders, having become
wealthy themselves, yielded to a heavy bribe and amended the laws so as
to favor the wealthy minority. The magnates of capital shrewdly took
advantage of this traitorship and, in the following campaign, won the
national election.

The wealthy, now having the reins of power in their own hands, took the
initiative and called for a consultation between the heads of the
government and the chief leaders of labor.

This proved to be a wise political move and, as a result, a new system
of laws relating to all trades and occupations was enacted. The
following conditions still prevail:

1. A day's work consists of one-fourth less hours.

2. A minimum scale of wages is adopted for each trade. This scale is
based upon the price of certain staple articles, and within a certain
limit it rises or falls with the price of these necessities.

3. All regular citizens must be supplied with work if they desire it. If
they cannot get employment from some firm or corporation, the government
officials represented locally must supply it or its equivalent in money.
The government controls enough of the business to employ two-thirds of
the male population. This enables the government to take so great a
responsibility and bear it with satisfactory results.

4. Any man through negligence failing to support his family is put to
the government penitentiary service, and his family is thereafter
supported from the public treasury.

5. A widow or orphan is cared for by regular authorities. The by-laws
of this fif