Protectionism does not seem to improve Labour conditions in America.
The country is full of strikes, the most im- portant one being directed against the Beef Trust, which raises the price of food, and they are all marked by a savage bitterness and readiness to resort to violence from which our own strikers have nearly worked themselves free. The object of the strikers is always an increase of wages, Protection, though it is not extended to cereals, increasing greatly the general cost of living. It is asserted that the capitalists rather like the strikes, as producing an impression that Mr. Roosevelt's policy leads to disorder ; but American publicists grow so excited during a " Presidential " year that it is difficult to rely upon their accounts of facts. It is, however, admitted on all hands that the Labour troubles are serious.
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