hrough the world and prepare agents for the
conference. It will publish a periodical in French and English and
possibly other languages. Each state agrees to make to it, for
presentation to the conference, an annual report of measures taken to
execute accepted conventions. The governing body is its executive. It
consists of twenty-four members, twelve representing the government, six
the employers and six the employes, to serve for three years.

On complaint that any government has failed to carry out a convention to
which it is a party the governing body may make inquiries directly to
that government and in case the reply is unsatisfactory may publish the
complaint with comment. A complaint by one government against another
may be referred by the governing body to a commission of inquiry
nominated by the secretary-general of the league. If the commission
report fails to bring satisfactory action, the matter may be taken to a
permanent court of international justice for final decision. The chief
reliance for securing enforcement of the law will be publicity with a
possibility of economic action in the background.

The first meeting of the conference will take place in October, 1919, at
Washington, to discuss the eight-hour day or forty-eight hour week;
prevention of unemployment; extension and application of the
international conventions adopted at Bern in 1906 prohibiting night work
for women and the use of white phosphorus in the manufacture of matches;
and employment of women and children at night or in unhealthful work, of
women before and after childbirth, including maternity benefit, and of
children as regards minimum age.

Nine principles of labor conditions are recognized on the ground that
the well-being, physical and moral, of the industrial wage earners is of
supreme international importance. With exceptions necessitated by
differences of climate, habits and economic developments, they include:
The guiding principle that labor should not be regarded merely as a
commodity or article of commerce; right of association of employers and
employes is granted; and a wage adequate to maintain a reasonable
standard of life; the eight-hour day or forty-eight hour week; a weekly
rest of at least twenty-four hours, which should include Sunday wherever
practicable; abolition of child labor and assurance of the continuation
of the education and proper physical development of children; equal pay
for equal work as between m