_Decisions of the Executive Committee._—In order to insure the collection of the extra tax of ten cents per quarter, levied by the Congress, the moneys sent in for dues will be credited to the extra tax account for the preceding quarter year, should such delinquencies occur. Any section in arrears for three months will be notified, and if within one month thereafter the section has not restored its good standing, it will be declared defunct. Where sections cannot appoint their own newspaper agent from among the members, they may appoint any person as their agent, but such agent must be personally responsible. Where sections fail to report gain or loss of members, they will be charged for dues and extra tax, according to the number of members enrolled at the last report. Every section shall be judge of its own members, but no expulsion from the whole party can be effected except as provided for by the constitution. No person can be a member of two sections at the same time. _Amendments to the Constitution._—Paragraph 3, division 4, under “Sections.” First amendment, adopted December 16th by a general election: In addition to one section (composed of men of each language of any locality) there may also be organized one section of women under the same regulations as the others. Second amendment, adopted July 15: Article 1, paragraph 4, is amended to read: “For the Congress to be held in the year 1887, the expenses of each delegate will be borne by the section or sections represented by him.” During the winter of 1876 the excitement on the possible outcome of the national election prostrated business throughout the country. There were even rumors and threats of bloody conflict. Capital naturally hesitated, and investments were confined to projects in which there was no element of chance and for which the returns were measurably certain. The Socialists of Chicago sought in every possible way to make the most of the situation by inflaming the minds of the unemployed against capital, and labored to secure proselytes by urging that such a state of affairs could never exist under Socialism. Meetings were held wherever either a hall or a vacant lot could be secured. A. R. Parsons, Philip Van Patten, George A. Schilling, T. J. Morgan and Ben Sibley, who had hitherto figured only before small street crowds, now became prominent as speakers at large gatherings, and their harangues proved that they were apt students in the Socialistic school, and ready expounders of the proposed new social system.