A Commission of the Peace - Conference has drafted a Conven- tion
for the international regulation of labour questions, which at any rate sets an ideal standard to which the various countries may conform hereafter. America was unable to accept a proposal that any draft Convention adopted by two-thirds of the nations at an International Conference should be ratified or rejected by each national Legislature within a year, because Congress has little power to deal with labour questions, which are within the competence of the several States. Japan and Italy abstained from voting. We shall evidently have to wait many years for the international labour code, from which we have everything to gain and nothing to fear. How far advanced we are in labour legislation may be judged from the principles tentatively suggested by the Commission. "The labour of a human being is not to be treated as an article of commerce " ; that is a declaration against slavery and serfdom. " Employers and workers shall be allowed the right of association." "No children shall be employed in industry before the age of fourteen." " A weekly day of rest " shall be allowed, with an eight-hours day and a living wage. Many of the countries which compete with us in trade have not begun to consider the possibility of giving their workmen the elementary rights which British work- men take for granted.
