Chapter LII: Section 4: provides that ‘Any difficulty or disagreement (3)

"The method is really a very simple one. Employees subscribe
for stock, one or two shares apiece. The shares cost $82.50,
or less than the market value. Each employee pays in monthly
installments, taken from his wages, and he may have the
payments made small or large, as he likes, save that not more
than 25 per cent. of his wages may be so used in any month,
and he may not be more than three years in completing payment.
Dividends at the rate of 7 per cent. a year go to the
subscriber from the date of his first payment. Interest at 5
per cent. is charged on the deferred payments. In other words,
the corporation sells stock below the market price, on credit,
and pays the holder 2 per cent. a year in dividends more than
he has to pay in interest. Here is a direct inducement to the
investment of savings. But this is not all. Inducements are
offered the employee to complete payment for his stock and to
hold it. As soon as he has fully paid for it, the certificate
is issued in his name, and he is free to dispose of it. But to
make it worth his while to hold it and at the same time keep
his place as a working partner in the company’s service, the
corporation says to him: ‘If you hold your stock, and
beginning with January next year you show it to the treasurer
of your company, and present a letter from the proper official
that during the preceding year you have been in the employ of
the company, and have shown a proper interest in its welfare
and progress, and you do this each January for five years, we
will give you, in addition to the dividends paid you, a bonus
of five dollars per share for each year. During the second
period of five years, we will pay you a further yearly bonus,
as a reward for your continuous faithful service.’ The amount
of the second bonus cannot now be fixed, but it will doubtless
be larger than the first one. Ample provision is made for the
protection of subscribers who from one cause or another are
unable to complete payment. Subscribers who discontinue
payments get their money back and keep the difference between
the 7 per cent. dividends and the 5 per cent. interest. In the
case of subscribers who die or are disabled while faithfully
serving the corporation, after having paid for their stock,
the five dollars per share yearly bonus is not lost, but is
paid over to them or to their estates."

_Walter Wellman,
The Steel Corporation Points the Way
(American Review of Reviews, March, 1903)._

"On December 31, 1908, it was reported that 22,960 employees
had purchased shares under this plan and at that date either
held the certificates or were making monthly payments for them
on account. This is about 10 per cent. of the total number of
employees, so that the scheme has not failed to enlist
support. Indeed, it appears that in certain years, in 1907,
for instance, the allotments of stock to employees were
over-subscribed by 100 per cent. In May of this present year
it was announced that since the scheme went into effect
193,493 shares of preferred stock and 15,318 of common stock
had been sold to the employees at a total price of
$17,491,680. For 1909, the preferred was allotted at $110 per
share, and the common on the basis of $50 per share. Indeed,
one might opine that of late the attention of the lucky
employee-holders might have been concentrated more on the
ticker than on the steel hammer. Their paper profits have been
figured at over $6,000,000, and it is asserted that much of the
stock has been sold by the fortunate investors."

_New York Evening Post,
July 29, 1909._

{408}

A plan of profit-sharing with its employees similar to that of
the United States Steel Corporation was introduced by the
International Harvester Company, 1909, and by the Youngstown
Sheet and Tube Company at about the same time. The plan of the
former company was described very fully to the National Civic
Federation, at its tenth annual meeting in New York, November,
1909, by Mr. George W. Perkins, chairman of the finance
committee of the company. The result of the plan is "that a
man begins to buy a share of the company’s stock at a price
below the market value; he is allowed to pay for it in
instalments, paying 5 per cent. interest on deferred payments;
he is credited with 7 per cent. dividends on the preferred
stock and whatever dividends are declared on common stock. In
addition to this, he is credited with, respectively, $4 and $3
per share, each year, on the preferred and common stock, and
at the end of five years receives a further benefit by way of
a share in a fund made up of such $4 or $3 deposits as are
made by the company on account of those who do not continue
under the plan. It will be seen that this offers the men an
exceedingly satisfactory form of investment in the business in
which they are employed, and gives to the company the great
advantage of anchoring its organization to the business.

"The stock offered last summer was largely over subscribed,
and the company to-day has more than 4,300 employees as
stockholders."

LABOR REMUNERATION:
Wages Regulation by Law.
The English Trade Boards Bill.
To Suppress "Sweating" in certain Industries.

A Bill known as the Trade Boards Bill, which had passed the
House of Commons already, had its second reading in the House
of Lords, almost without opposition or serious criticism, on
the 20th of August, 1909. The second reading was moved by Lord
Hamilton of Dalzell, who said in doing so that "its object was
the establishment of a _minimum_ rate of wages in certain
sweated industries. The establishment by statute of a
_minimum_ rate of wages was, he supposed, a new
departure, but the regulation of the conditions of labour in
certain trades was by no means new, and ever since the passing
of the first Factory Act Parliament had from time to time
agreed to legislation having that object. Every one knew what
sweating was, and every one acknowledged it to be a great
evil. It was not a new thing, but the Government were of
opinion that the time had now come when the only practical
remedy should be applied. He understood that in Germany
legislation dealing with this subject was imminent. He
commended that fact to any one who might be afraid that by
legislation of this sort the trade of this country would be
driven abroad.

"As a matter of fact there was no reason to believe that any
trade would be killed by the Bill. He did not know of any
better proof of that than was found in the fact that almost
all connected with the trades mentioned in the schedule, both
masters and men, warmly supported the bill. He imagined that
there would be a levelling up process. Employers who had paid
fair wages would continue to do so; employers who would like
to pay fair wages but were afraid of having their prices cut
by the class below would now be able to do so, while the
genuine sweater would have to pay fair wages whether he liked
it or not. Girls living at home with their families and
married women who had no children were often willing to work
at considerably less than the market rate for the purpose of
earning a little pocket money, and it might be said that if
both parties were agreeable to this arrangement there was no
reason to interfere. Seeing, however, that these people
dragged down the level of wages and inflicted a serious injury
on those who had to carry on trade for their living, they were
included in the Bill. If their work was worth having, it must
be worth paying for. The trades selected for the purpose of
the Bill were certain parts of the tailoring trade, the paper
box making trade, certain parts of the common lace finishing
trade, and certain parts of the chain making trade. These were
all trades in which sweating was acknowledged to exist. The
Bill could be extended to other trades by a Provisional Order
Bill, and in this way the control of Parliament would be
maintained. The _minimum_ rate of wages in the specified
trades would be regulated by a Central Trade Board assisted by
local committees. Notice would be given when it was intended
to fix a minimum rate of wages, and there would be an interval
of three months to give those who desired to raise objections
an opportunity of being heard. During the intermediary period,
which would last six months, the rate of wages fixed by the
Board would not be compulsory. He admitted that the
establishment of a minimum rate of wages was a new principle.
In certain quarters it had been objected to as an undue
interference with freedom of contract, but the principle would
only be applied where the workpeople had shown themselves
incapable of any action for themselves. The conditions in
those extreme cases clearly called for legislative action, in
the interests of the community as well as of the workpeople
themselves."

Almost every speaker who discussed the Bill, Liberal and
Conservative alike, gave it cordial support.

LABOR REMUNERATION: Wages and Cost of Living:
Germany and England compared, 1908-1909.

Results of a statistical study of labor conditions in Germany,
compared with those in Great Britain, were published by the
British Government in the summer of 1908, and the showing
favors the British workingmen. As nearly as the different
housing of their class in the two countries can be compared,
the average of German rents is to rents in England as 123 to
100; while the cost of food to the Germans is to that of the
English as 115 to 100. On the side of necessary expenditure,
therefore, the wages of the German workman are drawn upon more
heavily than the Englishman’s by fifteen or twenty per cent.,
at the least. In other words, he would need to have higher
wages than the Englishman, by as much as fifteen or twenty per
cent., to put him on a footing of equality with the latter in
the circumstances of his living. Instead of which his wages
are lower by a number of points, the statistical ratio being
83 to 100 in the average of weekly wages, and 75 to 100 in the
average of hourly rates. But this does not end his
disadvantages, for he renders more hours of work, in the
measure of 111 to 100. Notwithstanding all which handicaps, it
is quite commonly conceded that the German workingman is
physically more vigorous than the English, as a rule, and
contrives, by more thriftiness in his living, to keep it on a
higher level. Which is an extraordinarily creditable fact.

{409}

That the German workman lives and labors under the conditions
produced by a high protective tariff, which is claimed to be
protective of high wages as well as high prices, while the
British workman’s conditions of life and labor are the product
of free trade in everything but a few tariff-taxed articles of
luxury, such as wines, tobacco, silks, jewels and the like,
are facts to be borne in mind when these comparisons are
considered.

The following is from a report by the British Consul-General
on the trade and commerce of the consular district of
Frankfort-on-the-Main for the year ending April 30, 1909.

"In last year’s report it was stated that the belief was
gaining ground that wages in Germany were not only approaching
those paid in the United Kingdom for the same class of work,
but in some cases even exceeded them. That the German workman
to-day lives better than he used to there can be little doubt.
The standard of life has been raised all round; the lowest
aspect and standard of years gone by no longer exists. Food
has improved, clothes have improved, Germany has become a rich
country without the lowest grades of poverty which exist
elsewhere. Wages have been increased in keeping with the
higher level. Yet I do not think that, generally speaking, the
German workman lives as well as the British workman."

After giving a table relating to savings bank deposits the
report says that while during 1900-1905 the number of deposit
books increased by 22.7 percent, and the total deposits by 44
per cent., during 1905-1907 they increased by only 7.95 and 10
per cent. respectively. This is considered to be attributable
to the increased cost of living, and also to the fact that
"with increasing wealth people are apt to become less
thrifty."

LABOR REMUNERATION: France, Germany, and England:
Workmen’s Living Expenses compared, 1909.

A British Board of Trade report on the conditions of
industrial life in France, published in May, 1909, summarizes
as follows, in a prefatory note, the conclusions drawn from
the mass of facts collected, as to the comparative cost of
living to workmen in France, Germany, and England: "As regards
rents, it appears that the French workman pays somewhat less
than the English workman for a corresponding amount of housing
accommodation, and therefore much less than the German
workman; but against this must be set the fact that his
housing accommodation is, as a rule, decidedly inferior in
quality. The difference between the rent-levels of the capital
and of the rest of the country is quite as marked in France as
in England or Germany.

"The range of town price-levels is not very wide in any one of
the three countries investigated, and in France, as in the
other two, the differences between one town and another in the
cost of living (so far as it relates to expenditure on food)
are, as a rule, by no means great. When the relative levels of
food-prices in the three countries are compared, so far as the
_data_ permit, it appears that the general ratio of
French prices to English prices for corresponding
commodities is the same as that of German prices.

"On the assumption which has been adopted for the purposes of
these international comparisons it follows that an English
workman, with an average family, who should go to France and
endeavour to maintain there his accustomed mode of living,
would find his expenditure on rent, food, and fuel
substantially increased—though not to so large an extent as
if he had gone to Germany. On the other hand, he would find
his wages to be lower than in the latter country and much
below the English level, in spite of longer hours.

"The results of the comparison are somewhat modified if we
take as its basis the foreign rather than the English mode of
living. A French workman living in England according to his
French standard would find a certain reduction in the cost of
food, but a rise in the cost of housing accommodation. On the
whole his expenses of living would be somewhat decreased, but
in a proportion by no means so great as that by which the
English workman would find his expenses increased on migration
to France."

LABOR REMUNERATION: United States: 1905-1906 compared with 1890.
Gains to Labor.

Bulletin No. 71 of the United States Bureau of Labor,
published in July, 1907, is devoted mainly to an elaborate
report on Wages and Hours of Labor in Manufacturing
Industries, 1890 to 1906, exhibiting "the average wages per
hour, the average hours of labor per week, and the number of
employees in both 1905 and 1906, in the leading wage-working
occupations of 4,034 establishments in the principal
manufacturing and mechanical industries of the United States."
The report does not cover salaried employees in any
industries. With it, in a separate article, the retail prices
of food in different parts of the country, 1890-1906, are
tabulated. A summary of deductions from the figures detailed
is submitted by way of preface to the tables and from this the
following is taken:

"In the year 1906 the average wages per hour in the principal
manufacturing and mechanical industries of the country were
4.5 per cent higher than in 1905, the regular hours of labor
per week were 0.5 per cent lower than in 1905, and the number
of employees in the establishments investigated was 7 per cent
greater than in 1905. The average full-time weekly earnings
per employee in 1906 were 3.9 per cent greater than in 1905.

"The variation in the purchasing power of wages may be
measured by using the retail prices of food, the expenditures
for which constitute nearly half of the expenditures for all
purposes in a workingman’s family. According to that article
[on prices] the retail prices of food, weighted according to
consumption in representative workingmen’s families, were 2.9
per cent higher in 1906 than in 1905. As the advance in wages
per hour from 1905 to 1906 was greater than the advance in the
retail prices of food, the purchasing power of an hour’s
wages, as measured by food, was greater in 1906 than in 1905.
{410}
In 1906 the purchasing power of an hour’s wages as expended
for food was 1.4 per cent greater than in 1905, and the
purchasing power of a full week’s wages was 1 per cent greater
in 1906 than in 1905, or, expressed in other words, an hour’s
wages in 1906 in the manufacturing and mechanical industries
in the United States would purchase 1.4 per cent more food
than an hour's wages in 1905, and a full week’s wages in 1906
would purchase 1 per cent more food than a full week’s wages
in 1905.

"As compared in each case with the average for the years from
1890 to 1899, the average wages per hour in 1906 were 24.2 per
cent higher, the number of employees in the establishments
investigated was 42.9 per cent greater, and the average hours
of labor per week were 4.6 per cent lower. The average
earnings per employee per full week in 1906 were 18.5 per cent
higher than the average earnings per full week during the ten
years from 1890 to 1899.

"The retail price of the principal articles of food, weighted
according to family consumption of the various articles, was
15.7 per cent higher in 1906 than the average price for the
ten years from 1890 to 1899. Compared with the average for the
same ten-year period, the purchasing power of an hour’s wages
in 1906 was 7.3 per cent greater, and of a full week’s wages
2.4 per cent greater, the increase in the purchasing power of
the full week’s wages being less than the increase in the
purchasing power of hourly wages, because of the reduction in
the hours of labor."

In 40 of the 41 industries covered by this report the greatest
increase of wages "was in the manufacture of cotton goods,
where the average wages per hour in 1906 were 11.2 per cent
higher than the average wages per hour in 1905. In the
manufacture of electrical apparatus and supplies there was an
increase in wages per hour of 10.1 per cent. In street and
sewer work done by contract the increase in wages per hour was
8.7 per cent; in iron and steel, Bessemer converting, 8.5 per
cent. and in the manufacture of cigars, 8.4 per cent. In the
manufacture of bar iron the increase in wages per hour was 6.9
per cent, and in the building trades 6.1 per cent. Briefly
stated, two industries show an increase in hourly wages of
more than 10 per cent., 7 industries an increase of 5 per cent
but less than 10 per cent., and 31 industries an increase of
less than 5 per cent. In one industry, paper and wood pulp,
there was a decrease of wages of 1.1 per cent. In the
industries as a whole, weighted according to importance, the
increase in wages was 4.5 per cent. …

"The per cent of change in hours of labor in 1906, as compared
with 1905, was not so great as the per cent of change in wages
per hour. In 5 industries there was a decrease of hours of 1
per cent or more, while in 25 industries there was a decrease
of less than 1 per cent. In 5 industries there was an increase
in hours of labor per week; in no instance, however, was the
increase more than 0.3 per cent. Five industries show no
change in hours of labor. The hours of labor were not reported
for slaughtering and meat packing, for the reason set forth in
footnote on page 58. The decrease in hours of labor in the
industries taken as a whole was 0.5 per cent.

"In 1906 there was an increase in the retail price of food,
weighted according to family consumption of 2.9 per cent as
compared with 1905, an increase of 3.6 per cent as compared
with 1904, an increase of 4.9 per cent as compared with 1903,
an increase of 4.3 per cent as compared with 1902, and an
increase of 10 per cent as compared with 1901. The retail
price of food was 21.2 per cent higher in 1906 than in 1896,
the year of lowest prices, and 15.7 per cent higher than the
average price for the ten years, 1890 to 1899."

----------LABOR REMUNERATION: End--------

LABOR TRAINING:
Technical and Industrial Education.

See (in this Volume)
EDUCATION.

LADRONES.

See (in this Volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901-1902.

LAFAYETTE, Marquis de:
Representatives of the Family invited Guests
of the United States.

See (in this Volume)
UNITED STATES: A. D. 1902 (MAY).

LA FOLLETTE, Robert Marion.

See (in this Volume)
WISCONSIN: A. D. 1900-1909; also,
PUBLIC UTILITIES, REGULATION OF.

LAGERLOF, Selma.

See (in this Volume)
NOBEL PRIZES.

LAKES-TO-THE-GULF DEEP WATERWAY.

See (in this Volume)
CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES: UNITED STATES.

LALLA R’KIA.

See (in this Volume)
MOROCCO: A. D. 1903.

LAMA, The Dalai.

See (in this Volume)
TIBET.

LAMSDORFF, Count: Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

See (in this Volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1901-1904.

LAND: In the United States:
Reclamation of Arid Lands.
Wasteful Culture.

See (in this Volume)
CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES.

LAND: The Small Holdings Act in Great Britain.

See (in this Volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1907-1908.

LAND: Taxation proposed in the British Budget of 1909.

See (in this Volume)
ENGLAND A. D. 1909 (APRIL-DECEMBER).

LAND LAWS, IRISH: THE WORKING OF THE SUCCESSIVE LAWS.
The Act of 1903.

See (in this Volume)
IRELAND: A. D. 1870-1903, 1905.

LAND LAWS, RUSSIAN: THE AGRARIAN LAW.

See (in this Volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1909 (APRIL).

LAND OFFICE FRAUDS.

See (in this Volume)
UNITED STATES: A. D. 1903-1906.

LAND PURCHASE ACT, of 1909, IRISH.

See (in this Volume)
IRELAND: A. D. 1909.

LAND QUESTION, IN AUSTRALIA.

See (in this Volume)
IMMIGRATION AND EMIGRATION: AUSTRALIA.

LAND, RUSSIAN CROWN: SALE TO PEASANTS OPENED.

See (in this Volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1906.

LAND SYSTEM, OF NEW ZEALAND.

See (in this Volume)
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1905.

LANDIS, Judge K. M.:
Judgment against the Standard Oil Company, imposing a Fine
of $29,000,000.

See (in this Volume)
COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL, &C.:
UNITED STATES: A. D. 1904-1909.

LANDLORDISM:
Overthrown Politically in Denmark.

See (in this Volume)
DENMARK: A. D. 1901.

LANGLEY, Samuel P.

See (in this Volume)
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: AERONAUTICS.

{411}

LANSDOWNE, Henry Charles, Marquess of:
Secretary for Foreign Affairs.
Despatch explanatory of Agreements between England and France,
April, 1904.

See (in this Volume)
EUROPE: A. D. 1904 (APRIL).

On each of the Two Defensive Agreements with Japan.

See (in this Volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1902, AND 1905 (AUGUST).

On the Budget of 1909.

See (in this Volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1909 (APRIL-DECEMBER).

LARRINAGA, Tulio:
Delegate to Third International Conference
of American Republics.

See (in this Volume)
AMERICAN REPUBLICS.

LATHAM, Hubert.

See (in this Volume)
SCIENCE AND INVENTION; RECENT: AERONAUTICS.

LATIN BIBLE, Revised Translation of.

See (in this Volume)
PAPACY: A. D. 1907-1909.

LAURIER, Sir Wilfred, Premier of Canada:
At Colonial Conference in London, 1902.

See (in this Volume)
BRITISH EMPIRE.

At the Imperial Conference of 1907.

See (in this Volume)
BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1907.

LAURIER MINISTRY:
Supported in the Canadian Elections, 1904.

See CANADA: A. D. 1904.

LAVERAN, Charles L. A.

See (in this Volume)
NOBEL PRIZES.

LAW AND ITS COURTS: England:
Institution of a Court of Criminal Appeal.

An important innovation in the administration of criminal law
was introduced in Great Britain by an Act of Parliament "to
Establish a Court of Criminal Appeal," approved August 28,
1907. In part, the enactment was as follows:

"1.
(1) There shall be a Court of Criminal Appeal, and the Lord
Chief Justice of England and eight judges of the King’s Bench
Division of the High Court, appointed for the purpose by the
Lord Chief Justice with the consent of the Lord Chancellor for
such period as he thinks desirable in each case, shall be
judges of that court.

"(2) For the purpose of hearing and determining appeals under
this Act, and for the purpose of any other proceedings under
this Act, the Court of Criminal Appeal shall be summoned in
accordance with directions given by the Lord Chief Justice of
England with the consent of the Lord Chancellor, and the court
shall be duly constituted if it consists of not less than
three judges and of an uneven number of judges.

"If the Lord Chief Justice so directs, the court may sit in
two or more divisions. The court shall sit in London except in
cases where the Lord Chief Justice gives special directions
that it shall sit at some other place. …

"3. A person convicted on indictment may appeal under this Act
to the Court of Criminal Appeal—

(_a_) against his conviction on any ground of appeal
which involves a question of law alone; and

(_b_) with the leave of the Court of Criminal Appeal
or upon the certificate of the Judge who tried him that it
is a fit case for appeal against his conviction on any
ground of appeal which involves a question of fact alone or
a question of mixed law and fact, or any other ground which
appears to the court to be a sufficient ground of appeal;
and

(_c_) with the leave of the Court of Criminal Appeal
against the sentence passed on his conviction, unless the
sentence is one fixed by law.

"4.
(1) The Court of Criminal Appeal on any such appeal against
conviction shall allow the appeal if they think that the
verdict of the jury should be set aside on the ground that it
is unreasonable or cannot be supported having regard to the
evidence, or that the judgment of the court before whom the
appellant was convicted should be set aside on the ground of a
wrong decision of any question of law or that on any ground
there was a miscarriage of justice, and in any other case
shall dismiss the appeal: Provided that the court may,
notwithstanding that they are of opinion that the point raised
in the appeal might be decided in favour of the appellant,
dismiss the appeal if they consider that no substantial
miscarriage of justice has actually occurred.

"(2) Subject to the special provisions of this Act, the Court
of Criminal Appeal shall, if they allow an appeal against
conviction, quash the conviction and direct a judgment and
verdict of acquittal to be entered.

"(3) On an appeal against sentence the Court of Criminal
Appeal shall, if they think that a different sentence should
have been passed, quash the sentence passed at the trial, and
pass such other sentence warranted in law by the verdict
(whether more or less severe) in substitution therefor as they
think ought to have been passed, and in any other case shall
dismiss the appeal.

"5.
(1) If it appears to the Court of Criminal Appeal that an
appellant, though not properly convicted on some count or part
of the indictment, has been properly convicted on some other
count or part of the indictment, the court may either affirm
the sentence passed on the appellant at the trial, or pass
such sentence in substitution therefor as they think proper,
and as may be warranted in law by the verdict on the count or
part of the indictment on which the court consider that the
appellant has been properly convicted.

"(2) Where an appellant has been convicted of an offence and
the jury could on the indictment have found him guilty of some
other offence, and on the finding of the jury it appears to
the Court of Criminal Appeal that the jury must have been
satisfied of facts which proved him guilty of that other
offence, the court may, instead of allowing or dismissing the
appeal, substitute for the verdict found by the jury a verdict
of guilty of that other offence, and pass such sentence in
substitution for the sentence passed at the trial as may be
warranted in law for that other offence, not being a sentence
of greater severity.

"(3) Where on the conviction of the appellant the jury have
found a special verdict, and the Court of Criminal Appeal
consider that a wrong conclusion has been arrived at by the
court before which the appellant has been convicted on the
effect of that verdict, the Court of Criminal Appeal may,
instead of allowing the appeal, order such conclusion to be
recorded as appears to the court to be in law required by the
verdict, and pass such sentence in substitution for the
sentence passed at the trial as may be warranted in law.

"(4) If on any appeal it appears to the Court of Criminal
Appeal that, although the appellant was guilty of the act or
omission charged against him, he was insane at the time the
act was done or omission made so as not to be responsible
according to law for his actions, the court may quash the
sentence passed at the trial and order the appellant to be
kept in custody as a criminal lunatic."

{412}

LAW AND ITS COURTS: France:
Reform of Judicial Procedure in Criminal Trials.

Criticism of French judicial procedure in criminal trials,
under the system which puts the duties of a prosecuting
attorney on the judge, was much sharpened in the autumn of
1909 by the attention drawn to a sensational murder trial at
Paris—the Steinheil case. The result was to impel the
Government to undertake measures of reform, beginning with the
appointment, November 20, of an extra-Parliamentary commission
to study the whole question of reform. Within a month after
the appointment of the commission one of its leading members,
in an article in the _Matin_, indicated the main points
of the recommendations which the commission was already
prepared to make. It would recommend that the authority of the
President of the Assize Court should remain intact, and that
the Judge should as heretofore continue to direct the jury and
preside over the whole process of the instruction or
preliminary inquiry. In the view of the Commission the Judge's
moral authority cannot but be augmented by the proposal to
relieve him of the duty of cross-examining a prisoner at the
bar. It would be recommended that in future a summary
statement of the case by the Public Prosecutor, or in a civil
suit by the plaintiff, should be followed by a presentation of
the defendant’s case on the part of counsel for the defence.
The jury would thus be made acquainted with the issue, and the
witnesses would then be called. Each witness would be liable
to cross-examination on behalf both of the defence and of the
prosecution, and the Judge, remaining aloof from the
discussion in his new rule as arbitrator, could not but gain
moral authority in a degree which would materially promote the
ends of even-handed justice.

A Bill on these lines was introduced by the Minister of
Justice in the following month.

LAW AND ITS COURTS: International:
Naval Prize Court, and proposed Judicial Arbitration Court.

See (in this Volume)
WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1909 (OCTOBER).

LAW AND ITS COURTS: United States:
The Question of Injunctions in Labor Disputes.

The question of the issuance of writs of injunction by the
courts in connection with labor disputes came much into
discussion during the canvass preliminary to the American
presidential election of 1908, and was a prominent subject of
declaration in the platforms of the political parties.

See (in this Volume)
UNITED STATES: A. D. 1908, APRIL-NOVEMBER).

Subsequently, President Taft, in his first annual message to
Congress, cited the pronouncement of the Republican party on
this question, and said: "I recommend that in compliance with
the promise thus made, appropriate legislation be adopted. The
ends of justice will best be met and the chief cause of
complaint against ill-considered injunctions without notice
will be removed by the enactment of a statute forbidding
hereafter the issuing of any injunction or restraining order,
whether temporary or permanent, by any Federal court, without
previous notice and a reasonable opportunity to be heard on
behalf of the parties to be enjoined; unless it shall appear
to the satisfaction of the court that the delay necessary to
give such notice and hearing would result in irreparable
injury to the complainant and unless also the court shall from
the evidence make a written finding, which shall be spread
upon the court minutes, that immediate and irreparable injury
is likely to ensue to the complainant, and shall define the
injury, state why it is irreparable, and shall also endorse on
the order issued the date and the hour of the issuance of the
order. Moreover, every such injunction or restraining order
issued without previous notice and opportunity by the
defendant to be heard should by force of the statute expire
and be of no effect after seven days from the issuance
thereof, or within any time less than that period which the
court may fix, unless within such seven days or such less
period, the injunction or order is extended or renewed after
previous notice and opportunity to be heard."

LAW AND ITS COURTS: National and State Legislation.
Need of Uniformity.
Movements to secure it.

Speaking in 1906 at a dinner of the Pennsylvania Society, the
Honorable Elihu Root, then United States Secretary of State,
addressed, in a few words, a very pregnant suggestion and
admonition to the lawmakers of the States in the American
Union. He spoke first of the strongly nationalized sentiment
of patriotism that has had its rapid growth of late in the
country, saying: "Our country as a whole, the noble and
beloved land of every citizen of every State, has become the
object of pride and devotion among all our people. North and
South, within the limits of the proud old colonial
commonwealths, through out that vast region where Burr once
dreamed of a separate empire dominating the valley of the
Mississippi, and upon the far distant shores of the Pacific:
and by the side of this strong and glowing loyalty to the
nation, sentiment for the separate States has become dim and
faint in comparison." Then he added, warningly: "There is but
one way in which the States of the Union can maintain their
power and authority under the conditions which are now before
us, and that way is by an awakening on the part of the States
to a realization of their own duties to the country at large.
Under the conditions which now exist, no State can live unto
itself alone and regulate its affairs with sole reference to
its own treasury, its own convenience, its own special
interests. Every State is bound to frame its legislation and
its administration with reference not only to its own social
affairs but with reference to the effect upon all its sister
States."

Quoting and affirming these remarks of the thoughtful
statesman, the _National Civic Federation Review_, of
July, 1909, says: "The plain truth is that the movement of
people and of merchandise goes on in our day without any
regard to State lines; and it is becoming increasingly clear
that unless the States will legislate with substantial
uniformity on a number of subjects the tendency toward
centralization and a corresponding increase of Federal power
cannot permanently be resisted."

In its preceding issue, of March, the _Review_ had made
the following announcement: "The National Civic Federation,
through its experience in holding national conferences on such
subjects as the trusts, taxation, immigration and election
reform—conferences to which the Governors of States sent
official representatives—has become impressed with the
necessity for a systematic national effort toward securing,
within reasonable limits, more uniform legislation in the
States of the Union.

{413}

"There are useful national organizations of farmers,
manufacturers, wage-earners, bankers, merchants, lawyers,
economists and other organizations which hold national
meetings for the discussion of affairs peculiar to their own
pursuits and callings. The Civic Federation, however, provides
a forum in its annual conference for representatives of all
these elements to discuss national problems in which they have
a common interest. Heretofore there has been no effort to
crystallize into State organizations this representative
membership for the accomplishment of concrete aims.

"A committee has been appointed to organize a Council of one
hundred representative men in each State. Mr. John Hays
Hammond has accepted the chairmanship of this committee, of
which the following are also members: Messrs. Alton B. Parker,
New York; Myron T. Herrick, Ohio; David R. Francis, Missouri;
Curtis Guild, Jr., Massachusetts; Nahum J. Bachelder, New
Hampshire; Edwin Warfield, Maryland; Herman Ridder, New York;
C. F. Brooker, Connecticut; Bruce Haldeman, Kentucky; Victor
Rosewater, Nebraska; Clark Howell, Georgia; P. I. Bonebrake,
Kansas; James Lynch, Indiana; Harry Pratt Judson, Illinois; A.
H. Revell, Illinois; John B. Lennon, Illinois; John H.
Holliday, Indiana, and Benjamin Ide Wheeler, California.

"The continued existence for eighteen years of the Annual
Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, created by
the different States at the instance of the American Bar
Association, shows that the State Executives and Legislatures
are fully alive to the importance of this subject. The
last-named organization has been instrumental in securing the
passage in thirty-five States of a uniform negotiable
instruments law, and is promoting other commercial measures,
including a uniform food law to conform to the national law.

"This necessity for uniform legislation is further illustrated
by the proceedings at the annual meetings of the National
Association of the State Attorneys General and of the State
Labor Commissioners, Insurance Commissioners, etc., etc."

Discussing the subject in the July issue of the _Review_,
President Amasa M. Eaton of the Commissioners on Uniform State
Laws, said: "The subject of uniform legislation is in the air
all over the United States. At the instance of the President,
a National Conference to secure the conservation of our
national resources has been held in Washington, and to carry
into effect the conclusions of this Conference there must
follow uniform State legislation. At the instance of Governor
Guild a conference of the Governors of the New England States,
with other delegates, met in Boston last fall on the subject
of forestry, shell fisheries and automobiles, all subjects
calling for uniform legislation. A similar conference of the
Governors of New York and the adjoining States has met in New
York, at the instance of Governor Hughes of New York, to
consider a uniform automobile law. A National Divorce
Congress, called by Governor Pennypacker by virtue of an act
of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, has framed a uniform
divorce law which has been indorsed by the Conference of
Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. In March a Conference on
Uniform Child Labor Laws in the Southern States was held in
New Orleans at the call of the Governor of Louisiana, at which
the Governors and Delegates of those States were present. The
result was the formation of a permanent organization, with the
Governor of Louisiana as Chairman, and the executive committee
of that organization is to draft a Uniform Child Labor Law and
to submit it to the legislatures of the several Southern
States.

"All these are but expressions of the deep-seated necessity
for uniform legislation that has existed ever since we
acquired our independence of Great Britain, intensified by the
requirements of a progressive civilization knitting us ever
more and more closely into union as a nation."

The whole movement was planned to receive effective
organization at a National Conference in Washington which the
National Civic Federation, after consultation with other
bodies, announced, in the summer of 1909, its intention to
call, for January 5-7, 1910. The Conference was held
accordingly, in conjunction with a meeting of the Governors of
States, which gave attention to the same subject.

LAW AND ITS COURTS:
President Taft’s Recommendations for Expediting Procedure.

The following is from President Taft’s first annual Message to
Congress, December, 1909:

"The deplorable delays in the administration of civil and
criminal law have received the attention of committees of the
American Bar Association and of many State Bar Associations,
as well as the considered thought of judges and jurists. In my
judgment, a change in judicial procedure, with a view to
reducing its expense to private litigants in civil cases and
facilitating the dispatch of business and final decision in
both civil and criminal cases, constitutes the greatest need
in our American institutions. I do not doubt for one moment
that much of the lawless violence and cruelty exhibited in
lynchings is directly due to the uncertainties and injustice
growing out of the delays in trials, judgments, and the
executions thereof by our courts. Of course, these remarks
apply quite as well to the administration of justice in State
courts as to that in Federal courts, and without making
invidious distinction, it is, perhaps, not too much to say
that, speaking generally, the defects are less in the Federal
courts than in the State courts. But they are very great in
the Federal courts. The expedition with which business is
disposed of both on the civil and the criminal side of English
courts, under modern rules of procedure, makes the delays in
our courts seem archaic and barbarous.

"The procedure in the Federal courts should furnish an example
for the State courts. I presume it is impossible, without an
amendment to the Constitution, to unite under one form of
action the proceedings at common law and proceedings in equity
in the Federal courts, but it is certainly not impossible by a
statute to simplify and make short and direct the procedure
both at law and in equity in those courts. It is not
impossible to cut down still more than it is cut down the
jurisdiction of the Supreme Court so as to confine it almost
wholly to statutory and constitutional questions. Under the
present statutes, the equity and admiralty procedure in the
Federal courts is under the control of the Supreme Court, but
in the pressure of business to which that court is subjected,
it is impossible to hope that a radical and proper reform of
the Federal equity procedure can be brought about.
{414}
I therefore recommend legislation providing for the
appointment by the President of a commission with authority to
examine the law and equity procedure of the Federal courts of
first instance, the law of appeals from those courts to the
courts of appeals and to the Supreme Court, and the costs
imposed in such procedure upon the private litigants and upon
the public treasury, and make recommendation with a view to
simplifying and expediting the procedure as far as possible,
and making it as inexpensive as may be to the litigant of
little means."

See (in this Volume),
CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY.

LEAGUE, ALL-INDIA MOSLEM.

See (in this Volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1907 (DECEMBER).

LEAGUE OF LIBERATION.

See (in this Volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1905-1907.

LEAGUE OF UNION AND PROGRESS.

See (in this Volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1908 (JULY-DECEMBER), and after.

LECOT, Cardinal.

See (in this Volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1905-1906.

LEGARDA, BENITO.

See (in this Volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901.

LEGISLATION.

See (in this Volume)
LAW AND ITS COURTS.

LEGUIA, Augusto B.:
President of Peru.

See (in this Volume)
PERU: A. D. 1908-1909.

LENARD, PHILIPPE.

See (in this Volume)
NOBEL PRIZES.

LEO XIII.: Death.

See (in this Volume)
PAPACY: A. D. 1903 (JULY-AUGUST).

LEOPOLD II., KING OF BELGIUM:
His Administration of the Congo State.

See (in this Volume)
CONGO STATE.

LEOPOLD II., KING OF BELGIUM:
His death.

See (in this Volume)
BELGIUM: A. D. 1909 (DECEMBER).

LERROUX, Señor:
Socialist-Republican Leader in Spain.

See (in this Volume)
SPAIN: A. D. 1907-1909.

LÈSE MAJESTÉ:
Prosecutions in Germany.

See (in this Volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1903 .

LETCHWORTH PARK.

See (in this Volume)
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1907.

LEWIS, THOMAS L.:
President of the United Mine Workers of America.

See (in this Volume)
LABOR ORGANIZATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1909.

LEWIS AND CLARK EXPOSITION.

See (in this Volume)
PORTLAND, OREGON.

LEWIS ESTATE, Evicted Tenants of the.

See (in this Volume)
IRELAND: A. D. 1907.

LHASA: A. D. 1904.
Reached by British Expedition under Colonel Younghusband.

See (in this Volume)
TIBET: A. D. 1902-1904.

LIAO-TUNG PENINSULA.

See (in this Volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1904 (FEBRUARY-JULY).

LIAO-YANG, Battle of.

See (in this Volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1904 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).

LIAUTEY, General:
Operations in Morocco.

See (in this Volume)
MOROCCO: A. D. 1907-1909, and 1909.

LIBERAL-CONSERVATIVE SEPARATIST PARTY.

See (in this Volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1904.

LIBERIA: A. D. 1904-1905.
Good Relations between Colonists and Natives.
Improved Prospects.

"When it was decided in the United States to found a home for
repatriated Africans, the prior experiment of Sierra Leone
turned attention toward the same coast, and in 1821 and at
subsequent dates settlements were effected, firstly at
Monrovia, and later on at Roberts Port, Grand Basa, Sino, and
Harper (Cape Palmas). Usually those who conducted the
enterprise went through the form of buying small plats of land
from local headmen or chiefs; but, as a rule, the promoters of
this movement did not trouble overmuch about the rights of the
‘bush niggers,’ as the indigenous natives were termed.
Consequently the first fifty years of the history of Liberia
were marked by constant struggles between the
American-Liberian invaders and the native blacks. During the
last ten years, however, there has been a marked advance in
good relations between the American settlers and their native
subjects, as many of them may fairly be called. The wise
policy of President Barclay has greatly promoted this good
feeling since 1904. He has been able to assemble at different
times at the capital chiefs or their representatives from
almost all parts of Liberia, even from the Mandingo districts
just beyond the limits of the coast belt. Therefore they have
no subject of disagreement. Curiously enough one example of
this mild rule of black by black is that the white man in
Liberia is everywhere received with great friendliness,
because he is not associated in the minds of the natives with
anything like conquest or oppression.

"How far the original experiment will succeed the next twenty
years will, perhaps, indicate. The negroes of American origin
who have settled in Liberia have not, as a general rule, been
able to stand the climate very much better than Europeans,
and, as a rule, they have not been able to rear large families
of children. Yet it seems to me as though Liberians of the new
generation born in the country are beginning to take hold, but
this is partly due to the increasing and I think very sensible
practice of intermarriage with women of the fine, vigorous,
indigenous races. Probably the future of Liberia will be a
negro state very like Sierra Leone in its development, with
English as its government language, and such English or
American institutions as may prove to be suited to an African
country, a coast belt inhabited by negroes professing
Christianity and wearing clothes of European cut, and a
hinterland of Mohammedans dressed in the picturesque and
wholly suitable costume worn at the present day by the
Mandingos and by most Mohammedan negroes between Senegal and
the White Nile."

_Sir Harry Johnston,
Liberia
(Annual Report, Smithsonian Institution, 1904-1905,
pages 254-255)._

LIBERIA: A. D. 1907-1909.
English, French, and American attention to Conditions
in the Republic.

"The policy of the Liberian Republic has caused anxiety for
some time past both to England and to France, the Powers whose
territory adjoins the Liberian boundary. Some two years ago
President Barclay came to Europe to discuss the situation with
the British and French Governments. As a result of this
exchange of views, Liberia appointed Europeans to her Customs
Department, secured a gunboat to patrol her coast-line, and
arranged for a frontier force. These measures were approved by
the British and French Governments and also by the American
Government, and their execution was facilitated by a loan
negotiated on behalf of Liberia by the Liberian Development
Company.
{415}
The growth of British interests in the Republic led the
Foreign Office to appoint a Consul-General at Monrovia, the
capital, in the person of Captain Braithwaite Wallis, formerly
acting district commissioner in Sierra Leone. So far as the
first part of the reform programme was concerned the
consequences have been eminently satisfactory. Liberia has
been able to pay off some of her debts, and her revenue has
increased."

_Correspondent London Times,
April 22, 1909._

While these movements were in progress, in June, 1908, three
commissioners from Liberia came to Washington asking for aid
in maintaining and administering its government. Probably in
course of this application, the American Ambassador in London,
Mr. Reid, addressed a note to the British Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs, on the 29th of June, in which he wrote:

"We should be glad to have your views as to how the two
Governments could best co-operate at the present time towards
promoting the welfare of Liberia."

In his reply to this Sir Edward Grey said:

"As I had the honour to explain in March last to the United
States Charge d’Affaires, his Majesty’s Government have in any
measure they may be called upon to take in Liberia no designs
whatever upon the independence or integrity of the country,
and they do not intend to undertake any responsibility with
regard to it. The services of British officials have been lent
to the Liberians solely with a view to the better preservation
of order, more particularly in that part of Liberia which
marches with Sierra Leone, and improved administration.

"The French Government also, as your Excellency is doubtless
aware, takes a special interest in the affairs of the
Republic, and his Majesty’s Government have already assured
them that they would have no objection to the services of some
French officials being lent for the same objects as the
British officials. It is doubtful, therefore, whether there is
at the present time any scope for the co-operation of the
United States Government in the Customs or police, and if they
desire to render active assistance to the Liberian Government
they will perhaps prefer to direct their attention to other
branches of the administration which are as urgently in need
of reform.

"That reforms are required in one other branch at least his
Majesty’s Government have reason to know, for among the chief
difficulties which his Majesty’s Government experience in
regard to Liberia are the frequent complaints received from
British subjects as to the treatment they receive in the
Liberian Courts. If therefore the United States could see
their way to introducing reforms into the judiciary, either by
lending the services of an official to act as judicial advisor
or in some other manner, much good would in the opinion of his
Majesty’s Government be derived not only by the various
subjects of foreign nationalities resident in the country but
also by the Liberians themselves.

"While calling attention more specially to this one branch of
the administration, which has been a frequent source of
trouble, I need hardly add that his Majesty’s Government would
welcome the co-operation of the Government of the United
States with them in Liberia in any other manner which may
appear more suitable or more desirable on a consideration of
all the circumstances."

This and other information obtained by the State Department
led President Roosevelt, on the 18th of January, 1909, to ask
Congress for an appropriation of $20,000 to pay the expenses
of a commission to go to Liberia "to examine into the
situation, confer with the officers of the Liberian
government, and with the representatives of other governments
actually present in Monrovia, and report recommendations as to
the specific action on the part of the United States most apt
to render effective relief to the Republic of Liberia under
the present critical circumstances." The conclusion reached by
the State Department was that it "is quite clear that Liberia
is very much in need of assistance, that the United States can
help her substantially, and that it is our duty to help her."