For the constitution of a debating club the following outline articles are offered: 1. This club shall be known as the. 2. Its object shall be to hold debates on political and economic questions at such places and times as may be hereafter decided upon. 3. Its officers shall be a president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer, whose duties shall be those incumbent upon such officers in similar organizations. 4. Its officers shall be elected annually on the..... 5. The membership of this club shall be limited to. admissions shall require proposal and seconding by members, and the affirmative vote of three-fourths (or other proportion) of the members present at a regular meeting. The by-laws may take some such form as : I. The meetings of this club shall be held fortnightly, beginning . and ending.. .... II. The place of meeting shall be.. III. The season's subscription shall be... .payable on election, and each subsequent season payable to the treasurer in advance. IV. The officers of the club together with.... ....other members to be chosen at the annual meeting shall form an executive committee. Its duties shall include the presentation of questions for debate, and the suggestions of books and articles to be read in connection therewith; and the selection of the principal debaters. At the close of each meeting the program for the next shall be announced, and this program shall be sent forthwith by the Secretary to every member of the club. V. The club's debates shall be governed in accordance with the rules of Cushing's Manual. The first and third speakers shall be on the affirmative side, the second and fourth on the negative; each of the four shall not occupy more than fifteen minutes. The speakers who follow shall be limited to five minutes, and no one shall speak oftener than twice unless three-fourths of those present so desire. Land. Value. zation of rental value. diminishing returns. Ulster tenant right. A LAND AND RENT. TERMS FOR DEFINITION. fee simple. A mortgage. Rent. CapitaliAssessed value. Speculative value. Law of Unearned increment. Eminent domain. SUBJECTS FOR ESSAYS. Ricardo's theory of rent, with the criticisms of Bonamy Price, F. A. Walker and others. "The single tax," with the criticisms of John Rae, F. A. Walker and others. The Torrens system of land transfer. Title guarantee companies, their aims and methods. Irish land legislation since 1870. QUESTIONS FOR DEBATE. Does the right to property in land differ from that to other property? Is the private enjoyment of "unearned increment" just? Is the sequestration of property in land by the "single tax" just? It has been proposed to make proprietors their own assessors by requiring them annually to declare the value of their property; such value, with a certain percentage, to be receivable as purchase price any time within a year of declaration. Is this a desirable method? Is increase in the value of land increase of national wealth? RELATIONS OF CAPITAL AND LABOR. TERMS FOR DEFINITION. Wealth. Production. Capital, fixed and circulating. Labor, productive and unproductive. Consumption, productive and unproductive. Wages. Real wages. Profits. Interest. Co operation. Profit-sharing. Arbitration. Conciliation.". SUBJECTS FOR ESSAYS. How wages have been affected by the progress of invention and discovery. Wherein capital has been gainer and wherein loser by this progress. The rate of interest and the causes of its variation. The change during thirty or fifty years in the lot of the domestic servant, laborer, operative, mechanic, artist and professional man in the United States. Causes of difference in rates of wages in various trades and various districts. The rise and development of co-operative house building in Philadelphia and elsewhere. Co-operative distribution in Great Britain. Co-operative banking in Germany. Co-operative production in France. History of the Irish boycott. the boycott in America. History of trades unions. tive production and distribution in the United States. movement. Gradual modifications in the character of the organization of the Knights of Labor. History of Co-operaThe Granger QUESTIONS FOR DEBATE. What is the source of wages-a from which labor is paid, or both? What makes the rate of wages? 66 wages fund" or the produce Is the rate of wages dependent most on the efficiency of labor, the efficiency of machinery (capital), or what is termed the protection of industry by statute? In a manufacturing industry, is it true that the operatives who receive the highest wages produce goods at the lowest cost? Is poverty more prevalent at present in the United States than fifty or a hundred years ago? The same question as to England, France, Germany and other countries of high civilization. Has the application of labor-saving machinery to the useful arts ever permanently impoverished a nation or any portion of its people? Are co-operation and industrial arbitration cures for strikes and lockouts? Is the American mechanic too well off to organize co-operative industries? Would capitalists be benefited by distributing a portion of their profits among their employees? What elements concur to yield the maximum of wages to labor? The maximum of profit to capital? Has the accumulation of wealth and the increased power of production in recent years tended to diminish poverty? Is there any better method than the wages system for the remuneration of labor? It being assumed that an individual has a right to withhold his custom from a business house, on what ground can it be considered wrong for a number of individuals so minded to organize a boycott? Is it ever right for a majority of workmen to coerce a minority of their fellows into joining them in a strike? Is it right for railway engineers, or others similarly circumstanced, to strike at a time and in places imperiling life and property? Have State boards of arbitration proved useful? If not, should they be reformed or abolished? Would an eight-hour day, if legally established, improve the real wages of labor? Could it be enforced? What is the reason why, for the same work, women are paid less than men? Is their work, in fact, as a rule, equally efficient? Are the interests of labor distinct from those of the community so as to warrant the existence of a labor party? In certain trades apprentices are limited in number by the trades-unions. Is this right? It is held that certain trades-unions have caused the wages of their members to be increased. Granting this, would the general organization of employees into unions increase wages? |