The German Emperor's project of an International Con- ference on
Labour is so far successful. It seemed at first as if the Governments of Europe, alarmed at its scope, would decline to attend it ; but after explanations, during which the scheme was a good deal whittled down, they have all, except Russia, agreed to send representatives to Berlin on March 15th. Even France, at first sullen, has given way, and will be repre- sented by M. Jules Simon ; and the Swiss Council has post- poned its own Conference with the same object. Each Government will select, it is said, one diplomatist and two -experts, and each will instruct its agents as to the subjects on which it must not be committed. The "committal," however, will not be deep, for the Conference will have no executive powers, and will be, in fact, very like one of tbe philanthropic Congresses recently so numerous. It is even doubtful whether it will not avoid "burning questions" like that of the limita- tion of hours, and whether it will not deal mainly with the labour of women and children, the suspension of work on Sunday, freedom of combination, insurance societies, and the other arrangements already reduced to law in England. 'These are all subjects of importance, but they hardly touch even the fringes of the Socialist question, which concerns not so much the comfort or safety of workmen and their wives, as the method of distributing the results of labour between the capitalist and the worker. The discussion is to be in French, and let us hope in secret, as otherwise it will become as wordy and as useless as a Wednesday's sitting of the House of Commons.
