NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1656, 24 January 1913, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

We have-been very glad to place our space at the disposal of the Federation of Labour lor its long official reports of the conference now proceeding' in this- city. With much of what is said there we heartily disagree, but wo have always preferred, as most people know, to give more room in our columns to those who do not agree with us than to those who_do. But we really do feel that the federation's reporters might , have condensed the uncommonly foolish speech delivered by the Christchurch "anti-militarist" yesterday. ■If ■ this i gentleman had had anything fresh or useful to say, he might have had, a column and welcome. But whore he was not reiterating threadbare fallacies, he was talking brand-new nonsense. The delegates must have known, as they listened .to him, -that it is a poor case which depends on such astonishing assertions as that more than 100,000 men in this country are hos.tilo to tho defence system. Yet Mr. Mackie did make just that suggestion; and he underlined its folly by adding that military men generally in all countries opposed compulsory training. /The kernel of his address was his statement that "when national crises came the dangor came from the focussing of thought on tho military idea. That is to say,' the anti-militarists fear that when our country is attacked our people may actually become obsessed with the idea that it will be an excellent thing to attack the invader. . Guns will probably go off, and somebody will be killed, in the time of invasion. Dreadful! Of courso, it would be less expensive if we simply arranged a Mayoral welcome to the enemy, 'and we can hardly think of any other alternative than that to "the military idea" on which the public can "focus" its thought in the time of crisis. But Mr. Maokie, no doubt, has said all there is to be said for his side. We. shall be interested to know what the conference will have to say on a system which labour men all over the country have warmly defended, much to their credit. '

The short-lived strike on the North Eastern Railway, which figured in last month's cables, presented some remarkable features. It will be remembered ■ that an engine-driver named Knox was fined at the Newcastle Police Court for drunkenhebs. , This was follawoc! by his raductionto the post o! drirer of a

pilot engine, of course at' lower wages. Knox's union lodge took up the case, and engineered a strike,

which quickly became general. Although the men suggested that they were convinced that there was a miscarriage of justice, they gave as the

main object of the strike the establishment of the principle that the company cannot "control" the actions of its employees when these are off duty. The company took the stand that no question of personal liberty was involved; but that its duty to the travelling public required that -none but sober, trustworthy, and steady men should be entrusted with passenger engines. If an accident happened in the future to a passenger train driven by Knox, what could the company say or do if it were shown that it had had knowledge of -Knox's conviction ? N As a result of the striko there was a re-hearing of Knox's case, and ho was re-instated. A great many people pointed- out that a nonunionist could not get the Government to order a rehearing. But it is noteworthy that nearly all the newspapers, .Radical, Liberal, and Unionist, were agreed that the strikers were hopelessly in the wrong. And to do them justice, the central officers of the A.S.R.S. also declined to justify the behaviour ofthe men. It is satisfactory that in Great Britain tho trade unionists are not as a body convinced that it is their duty to support- every strike, however unjustified: but it is not a good sign that the Government should so hastily h'av<s listened :to the' clamour of. the section on strike. "It is felt," as one journal put it, "that if- it had not been a trade union ca>e, but that of a chauffeur who had been convicted of drunkenness and dismissed by his employer, no such re-trial would have been ordered." : ' . v

Sir George Birdwood, the veteran author, surgeon, traveller, and statesman, who has rendered such 'nolfeblc services to the • British' Government in India, had' a brisk little letter lately in the London limes, which compelled wido attention. He was moved, by, some letters on longevity, to give the teaching of his 60 years Of life. This is his conclusion (andone can feci sorry that R.L.S. is not alive to use it as tho text of another "Acs Triplex"): — "I attribute my senility-let others say senectitude-to a certain playful devilry of spirit', a ceaseless militancy, quite suffragette; bo that when I left the India Office on a bilked pension I swore by all the gods I would make up tor it by living ten years, instend of one, winch was all an insurance society told me I was worth. The devil in me has avenged mo; and now-I am going, quite sportfully, to.live.on to eighty-four, because that r.ge/chaurasi, among Hindus, constitutes one a 'beatus'for evermore— howev,er big a blackguard you may have been. As for th 6 prescription of-lying m bed until noon-day, I would rather bo some monstrous flat-fish at tho bottom of the Atlantic than accept'human life on such terms.". ,

It is this buoyancy of spirit, reacting as.' a ispecies of', tonic upon the bodily frame, that makes for tliq ''joy'of living," and, wo seriously' believe," is a contributory factor to a hale and vigorous old ago. It is not, as.the Westminster Gazette remarks in a reference to Sir George Birdwood's letter, a question of how to live'to four-score or fivescore, but "how to live proficiently and, profitably, and pleasantly aliko to yourself and 'for others." There i are others -like Sin George. '■ Lord Strathcona, at" 92,' appears at every Imperial function of importance in London, a,nd delivers speeches, _ besides ■ attending to the' multitudinous affairs with which his vast interests are concerned; Sir Frederick ' Villießs, the veteran war correspondent, who was at Plevna, is now in the Balkans; Lord Roberts,/ Sir Evelyn Wood, Lord Wemyss, are all- in what the world nowadays would regard as advanced old age, yet their virility is amazing, nnd their interest in life and its affairs astonishingly active and keen. In these old gentlemen is manifested the truth of the saying, that "a man is as'old. as his heart." They have learned the wisdom of Stevenson's noble maxim, that one Bhould just "live and bo done with it."