[Dr. E. W. Hodsdon of Mountainview, Ossipee, is as well known as a student of economics as a general practitioner. He was educated at Dover High, Phillips Exeter and Washington University, St. Louis. He has served four terms in the New Hampshire Legislature, and has been medical referee of Carroll County for about 15 years. He has been selectman and town clerk, also, and is now postmaster and a member of the school committee.-Editor's note.]

What of New England?

tide of retrogression-cries which but affirm the existence of somnolence and the lack of enthusiasm.

Whosoever calls this "pessimism" in this critical stage of affairs but accentuates his lack of wisdom in the face of danger and seeks to perpetuate a false sense of security which is not warranted by bald facts-facts that may seem cruel and, at times, impossible, but which are definite and

What shall be its measure in the final analysis of distribution after the completion of war re-adjustment?

Will it continue on a downward business course, as its most ardent and optimistic friends admit is the situation at present, or will a way be found of development toward its commercial, financial and manufacturing glories of a century and a half-century ago?

of

What will atone for the loss supremacy in cotton textile production and boot and shoe manufacturing; the immense falling off in cigar-making; the threatened exodus of nearly all pulp paper manufacturing; the decline in shipping; the lessening of national financial importance; the retrogression in railroad and general transportation affairs, local as well as national, and the continued depression in agricultural matters and the noticeable loss of population in nearly all agricultural communities?

Where do we find prosperity and contentment among the people? Surely not where 48 hours for a weekly working limit is enforced and where rigid regulations of industrial pursuits prevail.

"Wake up New England" and "Boom New England" are the pitiful cries with which thousands of anxious citizens endeavor to stem the

of reasonable study based on business conditions and statistics of past and present performances. Optimism has no part in New England's scheme until some satisfactory solution of the great problem of self-preservation is found.

Let us see what "48 hours" has done for New England in three specific instances which are of the utmost importance to every citizen who wants to pass his years in the glorious region of the six northeastern states that were once rightfully and honorably regarded as the back bone of the nation.

So

In this particular it should be borne in mind that, while Massachusetts is the only manufacturing state in the union where a 48 hour weekly working law prevails, the time limit has been quite generally adopted in New Hampshire and portions of Maine, Rhode Island and Connecticut. the 48 hour handicap may be regarded in a general sense as one confined exclusively to New England industries. The law applies only to the working hours of women and children, but the protection is sought, also, by men who recognize that manufacturing establishments cannot divide their working forces into male and female classes. California is the only state beside Massachusetts where a 48 hour law is in