U.S. SOCIALIST JOURNALIST.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1042, 3 February 1911, Page 4

U.S. SOCIALIST JOURNALIST.

. . . . HERE TO STUDY. . SIDELIGHTS ON AMERICA. Among the passengers to arrive from San Francisco by the Aorangi yesterday was Mr. Charles Edward Russell, who was concerned in the publication of tho "Chicago American" until 1902. and was later editorinl writer on the "New York American," and has been a well-known contributor to magazines since 1001. Mr. Bussell, \wlio resides in Chicago, is an author of'some note, having written "The Twin Immortalities," "The Greatest Trust in the World," "The Uprising of the. Many," "Lawless Wealth," "Thomas Chatterton, tho Marvellous Boy," and "The Songs of Democracy." Mr. Russoll is oroud to be known as ono of tho. noblo little band of "muck-rakers," journalists who sot ,themselves out to dig into the evils of super-wealth and . society, aud municipal and national corruption which blight the fairest of countries. Hβ is not altogether'a stranger to New Zealand, and as the: result of .a previous visit to the Dominion wrote ' some articles for "Everybody's Magazine" on the public "ownership of utilities—trams, telegraph,- telephones, • and railroads—in which he contrasted our system to that of private ownorshio as it exists in .America. Mr. Husscfl is frankly a Socialist, and was. a Socialist candidate for the Governorship.of New York. He was not elected—did not exnect to be—but what was most encouraging to him was the big. increase in the number who polled against the representatives of vested interests—interests that are being fought vigorously and with hope. One of the big blocks to rapid progress was the existence of long-term franchises, where telegraph, telephone, and • transit corporations have become immensely-rich at the expense of the public, and still have twenty or thirty years of their term to go. This time Mr. Russell comes prepared to studv New Zealand's Labour laws.

Mr. Russell remarked that kjiuo of the United States papers had more than hinted at the probability of a depression in trade in America. Hβ considered that they were right on the edge of it. The country had never nuite recovered .from the set-back of 1907. The recovery had not been so real as it seemed on the surface. For instance, the banks ■ wero (jiving longer credit than before, which lent a superficiality to the financial position. Ho considered" that the. causes were not confined to the. United States. They were, in his opinion: (1) The passing of the world to a single monetary standard—gold; (2) over-production and undcr-consumption, inevitable under the present economic system. The steel industry was in a pretty bad wny, and in some, if not all, the. "black" towns, half the employees were out of work. It was whiter there now, too, and the chances were- that there- was much distress in some of the industrial centres.