struction is the religious instruction. The Count therefore takes the stand taken in the middle ages; namely that sectarian instruction is more useful than knowledge. Out of the 19,866 elementary schools, more than 10,000 are in posession of the different churches. In these schools the catechism is not only taught, but it really dominates the entire course of instruction.

A good idea of the condition of the agricultural serf in Hungary can be had from the report of Dr. Ignatius Daranyi, Minister of Agriculture, in what is known as the "Act of 1898." He says in part:

"The agricultural crisis, which sprang from the general decrease of prices of agricultural produce, has been acutely felt by the agricultural laborers. This depression was increased by a combination of unfavorable circumstances. In the first place following a scarcity of agricultural labor for more than a decade, a great quantity of labor saving machinery was introduced and all the laborers, who were engaged on river improvements, were without employment as a result of the discontinuation of this work. The demand for labor being thus greatly decreased, and the supply proportionally increased, the wages and earnings of agricultural laborers were greatly reduced. This led to general dissatisfaction and finally to such a point that disturbances took place, which gradually increased to such an extent that the present existing order of society was threatened.

Of course Minister Daranyi took special precaution by strengthening the police and military force of these special districts to prevent the laborers from organizing for higher wages. The government went so far in an effort to protect the landlord's profit, as to organize a reserve army of laborers* on the State Farm at Mezőhegyes, and a supply was furnished on short notice by telegraph or telephone to any landlord, who was menaced with a strike. Extra precautions were taken to get the strongest laborers, who could be armed, and these were sent on a special government train. The Home Secretary ordered the military authorities to obey the county officials and to send troops whereever needed. The entire force of government was used to crush the workers. The daily papers were placed under the control of the Attorney General, who at once confiscated all those who alluded to higher wages, or even strikes. In order to make all their acts lawful or rather to give them a lawful character, the government passed what is known as the "Slave Act," or the 2nd act of 1898. This act tries to regulate the relations between employer and employee, and had the effect of preventing the laborers from raising their wages or improving their conditions.

Strike breakers.

According to this law, the landlord and the worker should make an individual contract in winter for the following summer, in which the wages are stipulated. Of course the laborer has no idea in the winter of how the crop will turn out during the following summer. All the contracts are "percentage of crop" contracts and in case of rain or unfavorable weather it may cost the laborer double pains in harvesting. But he must live up to his contract or go to prison!

Section 37 of the 2nd Act. "If a workman does not arrive punctually without just cause, or leave his work without previously having asked permission to do so, the *first authority is obliged according to the contract of both parties to lead the workman immediately to his work, even should violence be necessary." "The workman cannot appeal against this law."

Section 62. "The workman, who offends this law or breaks any part of his contract, is to be punished with 60 days imprisonment.

Section 66. "He, who does not appear by free will on the field, or he who has been violently brought to his work and does not continue his work without interruption or he who purposely executes his work imperfectly, shall be punished according to Section 62."

A. Sec. 66: "He who misleads an agrarian workman so as to cause him not to procure certificates as a workman, or causes him to commit a breach of contract, or incites workmen, not to follow a contract regardless of under what conditions it was made."

C. Sec. 66: "He who openly praises one who interrupts work or he who makes a collection to aid or assist such a person shall be punished by imprisonment for 60 days and shall be fined not to exceed 400 crowns."

The above are a few of the striking paragraphs of this infamous law which makes a strike impossible and places the agricultural laborer in the hands of the landlord.

Only last summer 2,000 laborers refused to work for starvation wages. The summer's crop had grown exceedingly tall and later on was laid very low by heavy rains, therefore costing double pains and time to harvest; but the contract was made a winter before, so the then Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Home affairs ordered the starving laborers "numbering 2,000 imprisoned in store houses." "The contracts must be obeyed", declared Mr. Darnyi before parliament. Feudalism is not very dead in Hungary.

The daily wages of a Hungarian agrarian laborer are as follows: Springtime 23 cents (116 filler); summer 36 cents (182.

A young man chosen by the landlords.

filler); during the winter season 21 cents (108 filler), or an average of sixty dollars (300 crowns) a year.

The agitation caused by the infamous "2nd Act" caused the government to pass what is better known as "The Charity Law" or in other words, the XVI Act of 1900:

"In order to assist and relieve agricultural laborers and servants, each landlord must pay *I crown 20 filler a year for each worker or servant in his employment, while the poor workman or servant must pay yearly 10 crowns 40 filler to the government, same to be used for the benefit of the laborers. The state paying 100,000 crowns yearly to this fund.

In case of an accident the worker receives during the space of 60 days one crown daily. Should he be unable to work at the end of this period, he receives 10 crowns a month. Should he die as a result of such an accident he is to be buried. If he is married and is the father of a family at the time of his death his family receives a lump sum amounting to 400 crowns.

When a worker reaches the age of 65 years, he receives once for all a sum amounting to 100 crowns. In case of the death of such a person (over 65 years of age) his family receives, should he have been a member of this fund for 5 years, 200 crowns, for 10 years 250. crowns, and for 15 years 270 crowns.

There are in Hungary about 4,500,000 agricultural laborers and servants (without women or children) and although for years the provisions of the oppressive laws were obeyed and harshly enforced, thereby preventing organizations, yet the reaction has set in lately and the agricultural laborers are now organizing with a rapidity that is astonishing. It is a great task to organize agricultural laborers, who cannot read or write, who are subject to every oppressive law of the landlords and who often, very often, receive punishment from the master in the form of a chastisement which means a week in bed. This is styled "home discipline" and the landlord cannot be brought to trial for this. Hungary is "Asiatic," but is awakening with a rapidity that will startle the world in a few years. The cry for political enfranchisement is the main issue now-then will come the land question. Hungary cannot remain half slave, half free.

NICHOLAS Klein.

* 24 cent.

T

Dietzgenism.

HE attempt to present a view of Joseph Dietzgen's philosophy within the limits of a magazine article is almost hopeless. His own writings are clearer and simpler than any digest of them can be made. But they are too little known. No one who has read the two volumes of his works published in English translation by Charles H. Kerr & Co. can fail to wish that others too could feel the elevating power of his grand conceptions.

The scattering passages on philosophy and religion which are to be found in the workshop of Marx and Engels are too meager to carry the average reader over into monism, particularly if he is suffering under the disability of a good training in bourgeois schools and churches. In fact these fragments are more apt to work antagonism than conviction. But with Dietzgen it is different. He presents his views with such good humor, such perfect mastery of the subject, such frequent repetitions in different forms, adapted to different habits of thought, such knowiedge of his predecessors and cheerful recognition of their services, that you not only learn to love the man, but find in his comprehensive system ample room for both the idealist and the materialist, provided they are willing to be a part of nature only and not the whole thing. His philosophy might be well characterized as the philosophy of the Whole and of the Parts.

It is for this reason that the former religionist finds perfect satisfaction in the monism of Dietzgen when properly understood. The great trouble is the quarrel over the name. It is commonly called by Socialists materialistic monism. Dietzgen himself refuses to suggest any name, wisely recognizing that our present language has no accurate name for an idea heretofore unknown. We will call it Dietzgenism, and try to explain one or two points of it, chiefly for the purpose of getting others interested. But it must be borne in mind that any attempt to condense Dietzgenism into a few paragraphs leaves broad openings for attacks and misunderstandings which can only be removed by going to the lucid writings of the master himself.

Dietzgen recognizes that matter is prior in time to mind; but when mind has once made its appearance in human life it takes its place as a factor of the Universe coordinate with matIn fact its reaction on matter is constantly increasing. Ponderable and tangible matter is not matter par excellence. Sounds, colors and smells are also material. Forces are not mere

ter.

appendices or predicates of matter, and tangible matter is not "the thing" which dominates over all properties. Our conception of matter and force is, so to speak, democratic. One is of the same value as the other; everything individual is but the property, appendix, predicate or attribute of the entire nature as a whole. The brain is not the matador, and the mental functions are not the subordinate servants. The function is as much and as little an independent thing as the tangible brain mass. (Dietzgen, Essays, p. 301.)

The Universe embraces everything conceivable both in mind and matter, and thought itself becomes cosmic substance,-subject matter for investigation and consideration. The phenomena of mind must be studied objectively with the same methods as those used for physical science, not by boring into the brain as an anatomist, but by an examination and comparison of intellectual products as a historian and philosopher. Mind must be studied inductively, as matter itself can only be studied with induction. Though matter and mind both belong to the Universe they cannot be reduced to one common, homogeneous element, except perhaps to the extent of saying that tangible matter contains the germs out of which the brain and the mind are subsequently developed. But properly speaking mind and matter find their unity in nothing short of the infinite and eternal Universe, which is the only genus high enough to include them both.

This Universe is not the physical Universe of astronomy, but the Universe of both mind and matter, comprising things which are not seen and houses not made with hands. It is not created but is self-existent. To demands a creation is to assume that the natural state of things is nothingness, which is absurd. The natural state of affairs is positive, not negative, a something, not nothing. Nothing is only a relative term. There is no absolute nothingness.

The law of cause and effect which applies to the different parts of the Universe as among themselves has no application when applied to the totality of all things, or the Universe itself. To assume a cause for this is to deny its infinity. All thoughts, philosophies, religions, deities etc., are only parts of the Universe, fractions of a Unit. There cannot be two infinities; they would coincide with each other and be one. To speak of an infinite god is wrong. Anything less than the whole cannot be infinite. The totality of all things both mental and physical is the only infinity. All gods are idols in that they are only fractions of a whole and the whole is greater than any of its parts.

This gives the bourgeois ample scope for idealism, spirituality etc., because these are not excluded from Dietzgenism as they were from the old materialism; but they must come in as