of speculation, mērchants and manufacturers would themselves be forced to carry the risks involved in changes of prices and to bear them in the intensified condition resulting from sudden and violent fluctuations in value. Risks of this kind which merchants and manufacturers still have to assume are reduced in amount, because of the speculation prevailing; and many of these milder risks they are enabled, by “hedging," to transfer to others. For the merchant or manufacturer the speculator performs a service which has the effect of insurance.

In law, speculation becomes gambling, when the trading which it involves does not lead, and is not intended to lead, to the actual passing from hand to hand of the property that is dealt in.

The problem to be solved, The problem wherever speculation is strongly rooted is to eliminate that which is wasteful and morally destructive, while retaining and allowing free play to that which is beneficial. The difficulty in the solution of the problem lies in the practical impossibility of distinguishing what is virtually gambling from legitimate speculation. The most fruitful policy will be found in measures which will lessen speculation by persons not qualified to engage in it. In carrying out such a policy exchanges can accomplish more than legislatures.

[The conclusions of the committee were "directed to the removal of various evils," and "to the reduction of the volume of speculation of the gambling type." The committee repeatedly emphasizes the difficulty of distinguishing by law between proper and improper practices. It is impressed with the results of the German law of 1896 which failed to reach the abuses and which was modified and largely repealed by the law of 1908. The committee repeatedly declares that the exchange, with plenary power over members and their operations, could provide correctives and should do so. While it makes a few specific recommendations for legislation, the conclusions are in large part negative and conservative, as compared with popular views on the subject.]

DIFFERENCES IN EFFICIENCY OF WEAVERS

[THE Tariff Board, in the study of the cost of producing woolen cloths, observed in the weavers widely "varying degrees of efficiency in the same class of goods (exclusive of learners)." A letter was sent to manufacturers, asking: "What is wrong in the mental or physical makeup or application of the inefficient weavers and on the other hand what are the qualifications of good weavers?"

The replies, a portion of which are here given, may be taken as throwing light on the differences in the efficiency of workers in general, whether in the same trade, or in different trades. (Report of Tariff Board on Schedule K, transmitted to Congress, Dec. 20, 1911. Printed for the use of the Committee on Finance. Selections from pp. 1065-1074.)]

Establishment No. 1. The loom is seldom out of order and is generally fixed within a very short time, an hour or two at the most. The warp and filling having been made in large lots in our worsted mill will run exactly as well in one loom as in another. The weaver varies. Some weavers have that peculiar knack of watching their warp and putting their bobbins in the shuttles carefully, and always alert to notice anything that is going wrong, and are onto the many tricks of the trade that make their work run easily. Others are careless, cannot do any of the many little things that make their work run easily, and hence have to do a great deal more stopping than a good weaver. At one time we had a young woman who did more and better work than any of the other men and women weavers in the mill. Quite often we do not have the proper loom to weave with the greatest efficiency certain cloths, but it would not pay us to change, as possibly the next orders might require that very loom to weave efficiently on.

Establishment No. 2. Most of our weavers are either persons too old to learn any new trade and have lost all ambition

and are perfectly content to jog along from day to day with not much worry for the future, or floaters, who drift from one mill to another, who will get off an exceptional week's production, but pay day will see them on the road once more, bound for some other town. Spinners are even more difficult to procure, and in brief labor conditions have reached a stage where we are forced to take any one who applies in order to keep our machinery running.

Establishment No. 3. It is more difficult to weed out the poor weavers in a mill located in a small community, as there is no waiting list to select from to fill their places, and vacancies are usually filled with learners, whereas in a larger place, having a number of weaving plants, it is practicable to insist on a maximum production, owing to the supply of experienced weavers near at hand to draw upon.

A good weaver-that is, one who can produce the maximum amount of good cloth-must be quick, with nimble fingers, good eyesight, clean and methodical, and anxious to earn and receive a good wage, and willing to pay the price by being on the job all the time. The poor weaver is sure to lack some of these qualifications.

Establishment No. 4. The weavers (and in fact all our employees) are not nearly as efficient and as steady as they were some years ago, and we do not get as good work as we used to. The new labor that we get is largely Polish, as compared with English, German, and Irish a few years since. The Polish are not nearly as good a class of help as the former, and they are not as well educated. Then, we have more changes of employees than we used to; consequently, we are continually breaking in new help, which tends greatly to reduce the efficiency.

Establishment No. 6. Under normal trade conditions there is a scarcity of good weavers, and help have to be taken on who are ignorant of our requirements, and thus more or less incompetent. Recognition of this fact has stimulated the adoption of automatic devices on looms for the prevention of

bad work. Many persons following the weaver's craft have missed their calling; nature intended them for other occupations; the deft hand and alert eye, so essential to successful weaving, are plainly lacking. They mean well, but their work gets ahead of them, and they spend their days in futile efforts to catch up; before one fault is corrected another appears, and it is from such operatives that most of the imperfect cloth comes.

Weavers in dress-goods mills, particularly where there are automatic looms, run more looms than in men's-wear mills, and when the latter are busy they draw heavily upon dress-goods organizations for their supply of weavers. In turn the dressgoods mills draw on the cotton mills for recruits, and it takes several months for a cotton-weaver to become a good worsted weaver. Meanwhile efficiency is not the highest.

The class of weavers is numerous that prefers easy, comfortable work with medium wages rather than work of higher grade and better pay. This lack of exertion and absence of ambition on their part tends to keep down efficiency.

The weavers do not all possess equal skill or physical power. In our employ are many weavers forty-five years and older, who are still producing good cloth, but whose product is being impaired by advancing years. Some of our most competent weavers are women twenty to thirty years of age, who right in the stage of their greatest efficiency relinquish their occupation and get married. In Europe weavers are more contented with their vocation and plan to remain in it all their lives. In numberless instances entire families for generations past have all been weavers, and such operatives acquire a measure of dexterity and skill which is not so fully met with in American mills. Neither is it the rule for young women to give up their mill occupation upon marriage; most of them continue their mill employment for several years after.

Establishment No. 9. As to the qualities of good weavers, it is hard to describe them. The essential qualities are alertness and dexterity, and as the work is not heavy, requir

ing no great physical strength, women are often as good. weavers as men, and sometimes better. Above all things, however, a weaver must have years of training in weaving all the different kinds of fabrics before he or she can really be called a good weaver. Under the hitherto prevalent violent fluctuations in the industry such life-long training has only been possible in very exceptional cases and in such places where local conditions have been more like those in Europe. This has again been brought to our special notice during the past summer. When the mill was running part time, many of our best and most energetic and ambitious workers, whom we had with great trouble educated for our special kind of work and who were dissatisfied at not making full wages, sought other industries. Now, when we are running full time again, we find we have only the poorer help and are almost in as bad a position as when we first started. It is impossible to repeat too often the great advantage possessed by the older European centers of the woolen and worsted industry. The operatives in those towns, even if they earn less than they might do elsewhere, will not break up their associations and move away as they do here. They are attached to their work and to their homes. Here the operatives have scarcely time to become domiciled before business is subjected to a violent setback and they are forced to seek work in other towns. The disadvantages of all this for mill owners are twofold: First, we thereby lose our best people, and secondly, upon the resumption of activity we have to break in new people again.

Establishment No. 10. Weaving is much more difficult than the average person who comes from the farms and rural districts, not only in this country but from foreign countries, anticipates; and the average that makes good is one in twelve.

As you will see by the names of all our employees they are very largely made up of foreigners, and to this we attribute the constant coming and going, as they come to this country