COUNCILS, and two by the cooperatives; the remaining seven are People's Commissars or heads of related government departments. It is under the general direction of a "præsidium" or governing body of ten members, nominated by the Central Executive Committee of Trade Unions and confirmed by the Council of People's Commissars, with a President (or Commissar of National Economy) appointed by the All-Russian Executive Committee. The routine work of the Supreme Council is distributed among some sixty sections, of which ten have to do with distribution or are of a general nature (statistical, legal, inspection, etc.) and fifty with production. Of these latter, each has general control of one or more nationally organized industries. (See INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION IN RUSSIA; NATIONALIZATION IN RUSSIA.)

Surplus Value Theory. The central point in Karl Marx's explanation of the history and influence of capital. Morris Hillquit summarizes the surplus value theory as follows: "Since the individual capitalist owns the tools without which no labor can be performed in modern society, and the laborer owns nothing but his ability to work-his labor power, the workingman is compelled to sell that labor power to the capitalist for a fixed daily wage. His labor power is sold to the capitalist to be used for a day of a duration of eight, ten or twelve hours, according to agreement, and the products of his labor are divided between him and his employer. The portion of such labor that falls to the share of the workingman is his wage, and the portion retained by the manufacturing capitalist Marx calls. 'surplus value.' The 'surplus value' of the manufacturing capitalist is by no means his clear profit; as a rule, he is forced to divide it with. the landlord, the money lender and the merchant. 'Surplus value' is the source of all profits of the manufacturing and trading capitalists, the rents of the landowning capitalists, and the interest of the money-lending capitalists. Thus the capitalists of all types depend upon the production of 'surplus value,' while the working class depends upon wages. Since wages and 'surplus value' come from the same source, i.e., labor power, it is clear that the proportion of the one will be relatively larger as the proportion of the other is relatively smaller, and vice versa; in other words, the greater the share of capital in the created values, the smaller the share of labor. The economic interests of capital and labor are, therefore, opposed to each other, and while it is in the interest of the class deriving its income from 'surplus value' to maintain the present system of distribution of wealth, the interests of the working class lie in the abolition of that system." (See LABOR THEORY OF VALUE.)

Survival of the Fittest. According to the Darwinian theory of evolution, all forms of organic life undergo a process of continual change or modification under the influence of environment, constituting in effect an unending "struggle for existence," and in this struggle those individuals "which are best fitted for the complex and in the course of ages changing conditions to which they are exposed generally survive and procreate their kind," the weaker or unfit forms being gradually eliminated in this process of "natural selection." The industrial barons of Darwin's day were not slow to grasp the surface implications of this theory, as applied to the economic field; and from that day to this it has been widely and generally utilized to justify the most ruthless forms of economic exploitation, on the false ground that it was no less applicable to man's artificial arrangements than to the process of natural evolution. From this standpoint also, SOCIALISM and kindred altruistic theories are held to be arbitrary interferences with natural law, and therefore predoomed to failure. The real significance of Darwin's theories, as far as they may be applied by analogy to the industrial field, are, however, almost wholly on the side of the social idealists. (See MUTUAL AID; COMPETITIVE SYSTEM.)

Suspension. See FINANCES OF TRADE UNIONS; DISCIPLINE.

Sweat Shop. A place where industrial work is carried on under the general conditions described in the entry, SWEATING SYSTEM. Low rent and a situation in or close to the congested districts of foreign-born workers are commonly the most essential factors in the case of sweat shops. Such shops are usually found in city alleys, in attics, on top floors, above stables, and often in the tenements or other homes of the workers. If machinery is required, it is almost always of the foot-power type.

Sweater. A common designation for any employer of labor under conditions involving excessive working hours, meagre wages, and insanitary or otherwise unwholesome surroundings for the workers. In the garment trades the "sweater" is usually a contractor or sub-contractor who takes out material owned by the "manufacturer" and returns it to him as a finished garment. On the other hand the small manufacturer may impose the same oppressive and unwholesome conditions upon his workers as does the contractor, and so is no less a "sweater." (See SWEATING SYSTEM; LITTLE Master).

Sweating System. A term rather too loosely used to permit of exact definition, but in general applying to any industrial work in

which the following conditions prevail: (1) A rate of wages inadequate to the necessities of the workers or disproportionate to the work done; (2) excessive hours of labor; (3) insanitary or otherwise unwholesome working quarters. The system is now chiefly confined to the manufacture of garments, paper flowers, millinery ornaments, and other cheap hand-made articles. It is possible, however, in any industry carried on (1) in large and overcrowded cities, particularly in those containing a considerable percentage of foreign-born workers; (2) under the CONTRACT SYSTEM; and (3) by hand work only, or with inexpensive machinery. In its earlier form the sweating system was practically identical with the system of SUB-CONTRACTING, "the difference between the price paid the contractor and the price paid the sub-contractor or actual worker being considered as 'sweated' from the normal earnings of the latter. Of late years, however, the tendency has been to reduce the cost by eliminating the sub-contractor, without in any way changing the labor conditions." According to Professor Commons, "the system to be contrasted with the sweating system is the 'factory system,' wherein the manufacturer employs his own workmen, under the management of his own foreman or superintendent, in his own building, with steam, electric, or water power. In the sweating system the foreman becomes a contractor, with his own small shop and foot-power machine. In the factory system the workmen are congregated where they can be seen by the factory inspectors and where they can organize or develop a common understanding. In the sweating system they are isolated and unknown." According to Adams and Sumner, "three principal varieties of sweating have been distinguished. First, individuals may labor in their own homes with the assistance only of members of their families. A great deal of custom work is done in this way by skilled journeymen tailors. For the most part, however, this is the lowest type of sweat shop labor, and is frequently carried on under conditions of indescribable filth and squalor. . . . Secondly, individuals may labor in their homes with hired assistance for particular operations. This is the typical form of sweating, under which the living apartments are turned into factories in which outsiders are employed, and frequently also boarded. . . . The sWEATER, in this case, is not merely a contractor, but is the head workman, and often the only person in the shop who understands all the different processes involved in the making of a garment. It is against these shops that legislation is particularly directed. The third variety of sweating is carried on in workrooms used especially for that purpose. These are sometimes con

nected with the living rooms of the sweater, but sometimes they are in buildings which are not used for residential purposes. As the size of the shop and the number of employees increase, the sweater becomes more and more an overseer, driving the laborers to the greatest possible speed for the longest possible hours." The evils of the sweating system have led to regulative legislation, of one sort or another, in several European countries and in twelve states' of this country. (See CONTRACT SYSTEM IN THE GARMENT TRADES; TASK SYSTEM; HOME WORK; SWEAT SHOP; TENEMENT-HOUSE WORK; LITTLE MASTER; PARASITIC INDUSTRIES; CONSUMERS' LEAGUES.)

UNDER-EMPLOYMENT;

Swedish Industrial Conciliators. Under a law which came into force in 1907, Sweden is divided into seven districts, and an industrial conciliator is appointed by the crown for each district. The conciliator must reside within his district, and his principal duty is to promote the settlement of disputes between employers and work-people or between members of either class among themselves. He is also on request to advise and otherwise assist employers and work-people in framing agreements affecting the conditions of labor if and so far as agreements are designed to promote good relations between the two classes and to obviate stoppages of work.

Swedish National Federation of Trade Unions. See LANDSORGANISATION I SVERGE.

Swift. See SPEEDING UP.

Swiss Federation of Trade Unions. See SCHWEIZERISCHEN GEWERKSCHAFTSBUND.

Sygekassen. See MUTUAL AID SOCIETIES.

Sympathetic Boycott. A labor BOYCOTT instituted by persons not directly involved in any dispute between employers and employees, but whose action is due to sympathy with the cause of workers who are thus involved.

Sympathetic Strike. In its commonest form, a STRIKE called by workers who have no direct grievance against their employer but who are acting in order to bring pressure to bear in favor of other workers who are involved in a strike or LOCKOUT. The purpose which such a strike supports is usually economic-that is to say, it has to do wholly with relations between employers and employees. But sympathetic strikes for political ends are by no means a rarity. In

such cases they are generally intended to exert pressure in favor of some worker or group of workers suffering actually or supposedly from governmental persecution or injustice. Very little mention is made of sympathetic strikes in the written constitutions of the national unions. Two or three except sympathetic strikes from the restrictions imposed in other cases, so far as to permit local unions, though forbidden generally to strike without the previous approval of the national executive board, to join in a sympathetic strike without previous approval, and still to be entitled to the support of the national organization, provided the national executive board is satisfied, after investigation, that the local acted with discretion. The sympathetic strike in its common or economic form is occasionally referred to as the "multiplied strike." It has been most frequently resorted to in the building trades.

Syndicalism. Derived from syndicat, meaning a local trade union, the French term syndicalisme meant originally "trade unionism," and is still often used in that sense in France. The opposition between revolutionaries and reformists in the French labor movement gave rise to the terms syndicalisme révolutionnaire and syndicalisme réformiste, as designations for the opposing theories and methods of the two factions. Then later, because of the preponderance of the revolutionary group, its doctrine came to be known as syndicalisme simply; and from that usage the name passed into other countries. But it is important to keep in mind the original meaning of the term, as showing that syndicalism is not merely an untried theory or philosophy, but a practical development from actual facts and conditions in the French labor movement. The central doctrine of syndicalism is that the worker should control the conditions of his work-that industry should be managed solely by the producers, organized in INDUSTRIAL UNIONS. Its underlying basis is the CLASS STRUGGLE, "the war of the exploited against the exploiters," the denial that social peace is possible or desirable under CAPITALISM. In the minds of syndicalists, the political State, with its army and its official BUREAUCRACY, exists to protect and foster capitalistic property, and so the State must be swept away before capitalism can be abolished. The actual producers, organized in industrial unions, TRADES COUNCILS, and a general federation of industrial unions and trades councils, will carry on the present activities of the State. Syndicalism is thus, in essence, REVOLUTIONARY UNIONISM with the State left out. In regard to method, Marx's phrase, "the emancipation of labor must be the work of labor itself," is the watch