NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1199, 7 August 1911, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

A very singular method of earning money is reported in a cable message to-clty- For a week past- great forest fires have been raging jn the mountains in the south-east of California, and have caused a vast destruction of property. Amongst the fire-fighters, it appears, were a number of Mexicans, and it has now been discovered that these men have actually kept the conflagration going in order to prolong their employment. Does not their action supply a particularly good rcduclio ad übsurdum of tho common Labour view of unemployment? Whenever (here is any large volume of unemployment the first thought of. the igi/orant is to provide relief) works—to "make" work, in short. The doctrine of "the right to work", is a demand that the State must "make" work for idle hands, or if that is impossible, to pay wages at any rate It is the classic fallacy of the broken window over again: broken windows are to be Welcomed i because they provide work for glaziers. This fallacy has b'Ccn seriously defended in the past, and would probably be defended by many present-day Radicals and Socialists. To be consistent the people who cherish this silly idea, and thorwho demand what they call "the right to work" should argue that in principle the felonious, activity of the Mexican fire-fighters and the resultant destruction,of property are very good things, since they provide work for fire-fighters and subsequently for armies of carpenters, masons, plumbers, and artisans of all kinds.

Some truly remarkable amendments to the Factories Act have been proposed by a conference of trade unions in Victoria. One of them is that "no person who is temporarily employed in any hairdi'cssing saloon shall bo permitted to acccpt temporary employment in any other saloon in the afternoon or evening of his weekly half-holiday." Other proposals are—that no man must dissuade another from marrying; that 110 girl or man may work in a factory One day and in a shop the next; ancl that no girl shall bo asked to lift more than 20lb. It is difficult to know what Victorian Labour policy is coming to wheii we find it soberly suggested that a workman who wants to marry the girl' of his choicc must be protected by the law against his employer's insidious advocacy of continued singleness. Sheer perversity alone can explain the proposal that no girl shall "be called upon to lift more than 20lb. in weight. As the Age points out, there is not a woman in Australia who does not violate that jH-oposal every time she carries linen to the line. Another suggestion was that "nobody may be employed more than four hours without a meal," and there are a crowd of proposals to have the pettiest details of employment taken out of the hands of the Boards and fixed by Act of Parliament. The Age's comment upon the amendments as a whole is a comment that can be made also upon the activities of trade union leaders in this country: "They show the reckless spirit of restriction that is abroad in some men's minds. They would have the whele industrial world made a network of perils, amidst which no man could walk scathless." .

The Ministerial organ in Christchurch is beginning to flounder rather badly over the fight for the Christchurch North seat. Our reference to the fact that the Government had not dared to bring out a candidate of its own has caused the Lyttclion Times to rush to the rescue of the Ministry with the following amusing explanation:—"They [the opponents] of the Government," it explains, "had hoped that flic differences between the various sections Of tho progressive party—the Liberals, the Labourites, the Prohibitionists, ancl the Socialists—would have enabled their own candidate to slip into the seat, ancl now the Government has declined te assist them in bringing about this result." Quite so. The Government having lost the support of the so-called "progressive sections of the community dares not bring out a candidate bearing its own label. But our contemporary is a little forgetful, The Second Ballot Act was designed to prevent the very "slipping-iir process of which it speaks, and the Second Ballot Act is still in force. But the hjitdlmi Times of course knows quite well that there is only one reason why the Government has not dared to bring forward a candidate —it knows that the candidate would be almost certain to be beaten. For the rest it. :s merely concerned to presei.it the best face possible to an unpleasant situation. Indeed, in its own impetuous way it has decided that the election is over "bar shouting," for it already writes of Mr. Isitt as "Mr. Taylor's successor," which, if a little rash, is perhaps a relief to its feelings. The Christchurch Ministerial journal is well aware that one of the greatest dangers with which the Continuous Government is faced at the present moment is the. feeling which is growing ujj in tho minds of tho "progrcs-

sivcs,"- as it calls them, that tlieir shortest road to officc is through the Keform party. There is an increasing volume of feeling in favour of throwing out this Continuous Government, even if only for a long enough period to enable a glimpse behind the scenes to be obtained by an independent body of men, for the first time for twenty years. Afterwards, well, the n so-called progressives will have a _ better chance of dealing with a new Government than they would have with the Continuous Government if it is given_ a new lease of life. The labour unions and the Socialists may not have any great love for the Reform party as a party, but they have less still for Government, which has traded on them for so long, and they arc fast coming to the opinion that the first real step on the road to their own goal is to oust the Government, no matter who may immediately succeed it in office.