The splendid fight that workers in other countries are making against proposals for compulsion has won the admiration of many who believe in voluntary institutions. But under our republican form of government there is developing an officialdom that is endeavoring to deprive government employes of the rights of free work

ers.

Governmental

institutions have grown in proportion to the development of the country, increases in population and the increasing functions that the state has assumed. Increases in the numbers of civil service employes have been proportional.

Formerly civil service positions were part of the so-called spoils system. The civil service system was adopted, which, in theory, was based upon merit and afforded protection to efficient workers. It is general information that the civil service is subject to "influence," that it functions in a mysterious way to advance the interests of some and leaves others helpless against the purpose of a great machine.

We have heard much from ebullient theorists of the dignity of public servants and of the greater respect that will obtain for governmental employes rather than for employes in private employ. These advocates of governmental ownership and operation are confronted with disheartening facts. Public servants, city service employes, have not the rights of ditch diggers, hod-carriers, or "common laborers."

Civil service employes have been denied the right of free speech and free press. They have been denied

the right to petition for redress of grievances. They have been denied the right to participate in the political life of their community or of the nation. And finally they have been

denied the right to quit work. Compulsion in our country demands our attention as much as compulsion elsewhere.

Recently twenty-eight post office clerks and carriers of Fairmont, W. Va., quit work. They committed no violence; they destroyed no property. They made no effort to interfere with the mail. They wrote their resignations, turned over their keys, and left the postal service. In their resignations they made grave charges against the postmaster of Fairmont and then left the petty injustices and the "speeding-up" policy of the post office. They felt that to work longer was to lose self-respect. Surely free men could not be compelled to work and to work under such conditions. Such submissiveness would indicate very tame natures.

Nevertheless these twenty-eight who resigned-just that, nothing more were charged with criminal conspiracy to delay the mails. They are now on trial for the crime of determining that to work longer under existing conditions was to sacrifice their self-respect.

as

Such an interpretation is an sumption that "enlistment" obtains for civil service employes-that they are subject to a rigid discipline for service and to compulsory authority to enforce compulsory service or go to prison.

If the right of the Post Office Department to enforce compulsory service is maintained, government employes lose the right to freedom. This is the most daring contention made by any governmental agency. If such policies prevail in the civil service they will result in the development of a spineless class of workers, without the courage to declare their rights or the will to contend for them.

Victims of Political and Religious Persecution Will Not Be Barred

Washington, Feb. 5.-Last Monday the House Committee on Immigration reported favorably the Burnett immigration bill, in which is included the illiteracy test.

The bill is substantially the same as was passed by the last Congress and vetoed by President Wilson, but in this instance the committee is more explicit in recommendations regarding the admission of those who seek to evade persecution because of religious or political beliefs.

The committee reports that the following be exempted from the operation of the illiteracy test:

"All aliens who shall prove to the satisfaction of the proper immigration officer or of the secretary of labor that they are seeking admission to the United States to avoid religious persecution in the country of their last permanent residence, whether such persecution be evidenced by overt acts or by laws or governmental regulations that discriminate against the alien or the race to which he belongs because of his religious faith.

"Nothing in this act shall exclude, if otherwise admissible, persons convicted, or who admit the commission, or who teach or advocate the commission, of an offense purely political."

These exemptions clearly indicate that there is no intention on the part of those who favor American living standards to have this country abandon its historic mission of being a haven for political and religious refugees. Under the proposed bill the political revolutionist, or he who is oppressed because of spiritual beliefs, is admitted, regardless of the illiteracy test.

In urging the house to adopt the bill, Chairman Burnett, of the committee, called attention to the "great labor and farmers' organizations of the country," the legislatures of Ohio, Virginia, Tennessee, Vermont and of many other States, together with other organizations that favor immigration restriction.

He stated that many of the ablest men of the country believe that after the European war millions of the poorest and most illiterate will come to this country. The best will stay at home to rehabilitate their stricken countries, and the worst will flock to our land and beat down the price of labor and erect the lowest standard of living which decent men can conceive. Mr. Burnett made this comment on conditions that are now known to exist in East Youngstown, Ohio:

"Is it right that American laborers and their families should be forced to live amid such revolting environments and such debasing conditions? Yet that is the result of pouring in the millions of illiterates from Europe to beat down the price of toil of the man who earns his bread by the sweat of his face. The illiteracy test is restrictive as well as selective and in normal times will keep out more than 200,000 of just such as brought about those conditions at Youngstown.

"The committee has labored earnestly in its efforts to keep out the most undesirable of those coming to our shores and at the same time encourage the immigration of those who come to make their homes with us, to promote the moral and material prosperity of our country and to become permanent citizens of our great

government."

The word Escalator was coined in the latter part of the year 1895. Its root is found in the Latin "Scala." With "E" as a prefix and "tor" as a suffix, the entire word may be roughly translated, "means of traversing from."

The inclined plane is one of the simplest mechanical elements. When man wanted to go from one level to another he first built himself a ladder, stretched it from the ground to a tree and scaled the distance. Then he discovered that it was easier to ascend at an incline than to pull himself up vertically, so he fashioned his primitive inclined plane, a crude device, but one that enabled him more easily to make his ascents, and to trundle up heavy loads.

Then, from the inclined plane evolved the stairway, the most useful and comfortable application of the idea.

The stairway, the ladder, the inclined plane, all are useful, but all require human effort to bring one from a lower to an uper level. Eliminate the physical effort and you have the ideal means of ascent and decent for short rises. The suggestion to move the stairway was the solution; so the stairway was placed on a set of wheels, connected to a motor and made the Escalator; just as simple and primitive in its idea as the rough plank which our ancestors employed, but infinitely more useful.

Prior to the year 1900 the Escalator was unknown to the public, but faithfully and steadily engineers had been working to perfect it, and in 1900 at the Paris Exposition, the first Escalator was introduced. That very Escalator is still in operation in one of our largest department stores.

Its instant popular approval in-
The public had

sured its success.

been patiently awaiting a moving

stairway for years. Now Escalators are operating in all parts of the world; in the gigantic railway terminals; in our department stores and large mills; in our theatres; in the elevated and subway stations of our great cities; everywhere, in fact, where it is necessary to keep thousands of people moving constantly and rapidly.

The success of the Escalator in solving the problem of inter-floor travel is due to its continuity of motion and its enormous capacity. The Escalator is constantly moving; you may step upon it at any moment and be carried upward or downward at a moderate rate of speed, comfortably, safely and without physical effort. It has been aptly called "an elevator with the doors always open." There is no time lost in loading, starting, stopping and unloading, and consequently its capacity is tremendous; approximately 11,000 people can be carried in an hour without overloading the machine.

There are two types of Escalators, known as the Step and Cleat types. Briefly their construction and operation are as follows:

The Step type begins as a moving platform; then as it goes onward it breaks into steps rising slowly into a perfect staircase, but moving steadily and noiselesly a little faster than one can ordinarily walk. On either side, a hand rail of flexible material moves upward at the same speed as the stairs, thus affording the passengers a secure support as they ascend. At the top the steps flatten out into a moving platform again from which the passenger steps to the stationary landing on the same level so easily that the transition from the moving to the stationary surface is hardly noticed. At the upper landing, the side corresponding to the balustrade of an