NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 23, 22 October 1920, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

If the representatives of industrial organisations wL\o are to meet in the Trades Hail to-night wish to achieve useful results, they ought to set the following item at the head of their agenda pnpor: Is the policy of organised Labour ! to aim at promoting the welfare and . prosperity of the working population, or at putting welfare and prosperity out of their reach? Ostensibly the official representatives of Labour aro vastly concerned over the cost of living, and tfcie late increase in tho price of butter particularly awakens their wrath. Actually, however, they are carefully evading the most essential issues raised in connection with the cost of living. To realise this it is only necessary to contrast their outcry about t'iio price of butter with their <load silence regarding the methodical an A long-' ccntinued policy by whichi the miners have forced up the price of coal,' and as a consequence the price of thei products of dozens of other industries which depend on coal supplies. Men who stand up in a Labour gathering or anywhere eOse to talk about the cost of living and ignore what the miners some other unions have done to force up prices and penalise the rest if the community either are very obtuse or are intent chiefly qji hiding or evading the truth. Moreover, at the same time they are giving tacit, if not explicit, support to a perversion of Labour organisations which makes it a burden to working people instead of being the means it ought to be of securing them increasing benefits.

TJie latflst return of election results in Queensland leaves the Labour Government in an even n-orsj position than was foreshadowed in earlier announcements. At the previous general election, in 1918, Labour secured a majority of 2-1. It now has a majority of only 4 in a Houso of more tliau 70 members. Even this measure of success contrasts somewhat oddly with the results of the last Federal general, election at the end of l'Jl9. Out of ten seats in the Commonwealth Houso of Kepreseutatives allotted to Queensland, Labour captured only ■three, and subsequently lost one of tlie=o at a by-election. As the parties nro now divided, Queensland politics ought to be worth watching. By ordinary standards tl* financial position of the Government is 'almost desperate. A small surplus is claimed- for the last financial year, but this follows on three annual deficits aggregating nearly fi million sterling. Queensland State taxation under Labour government is extremely high, and there is no obvious way of escape from the dilemma in which .the Premier, Mr. Theodore, was left by his failure a month or two ago to raise a loan of nine millions in London. Apart from any new borrowing that may be attempted, Queensland loans to the amount of about 428,000,000 must be redeemed or renewed between now and 1925. Tluse and other financial problems are not made easier of solution by Mr. Theodore's attacks during the election campaign on what he describes a 9 "the capitalistic ring in Great Britain, nor by lis reported statement that millions of pounds of money earned from Queensland's ljesgurcos are being sent abroad every year, and that it may be considered necessary to retain this money in the State., In view of the present financial and commercial outlook, the opponents of the Labour Government may ba as well it should remain a little longer iu officii. .

In July Mr. Statham hold a tangi in Parliament over the corpse of tho Progressive Party. Now we havei Mr. M'Callum providing us with rumours of still another party. Mr. StathamV party of thirteen— unlucky number—was very much dead;. Mr. M'Callum's fifteen appear in tho end to bo not a party, at all. Th(jjr are just free lances, and there is no cohesion among them. They merely hope to be a party some day. A party of fifteen cannot have fifteen leaders, and in recognition of this insuperable difficulty the M'Callumites will meantime patriotically support the Government as friendly critics in tho task of rehabilitating the country in the postwar period. We have no, doubt, that fourteen members of this non-cohesive group will take exception .to being described as "M'Callumites," but we must have a name of sumo sort for convenience of reference. In his interview in Auckland, Mr. M'Callum gave tlio new grouping of the House as follows:— Reform Party 43 Liberal Party 11 Extreme Labour 8 M'Callumites _ l!i This excludes the Speaker, Mr. Myers, who is in England, and Mr. Lysnar. If the M'Callumites have no cohesion, it does not appear that the erstwhile Liberal Party possesses that quality in a notable degree under Mr. Wilford. Mr. M'Callutn's revelations are principally remarkable as disclcsing the fact that the official Opposition is now definitely down to eleven members. Nor is it clear that it has even jvt reached rockbottom, .as Mr. Isitt optimistically asserted the other day.

Although -tlici other members of the Pankhurst family have settled down again to comparative obscurity sinw tbe coming of the war and the enfranchisement of women, hier suffragette expediences 6Min to have left Miss Sylvia Pankhurst with a permanent craving lor notoriety. She paid a visit to Russia recently and succeeded iu imbuing Lenin with th'o id?a that iu addition to breaking windows, sticking pins into Cabinet. Ministers, and banging their hats down over their ears, she whs also capable of leiidiuj,' a Bolshevist involution iu Britain. Now she has got herseJl' arrested on a charge of sedition. Mise Sylvia pankhurst ia not a person of great consequence, but she means to do all the mischief she can. Last year she took part in a secret Bolshevist conferenco held in London. Soma two or throe hundred delegates were present, and "The Times" slated that it was agreed that an endeavour should be made to bring about a Bolshevist revolution by means of a general strike. It was claimed that support was forthcoming from many lodj«8 of the Miners' Federation,

An endeavour was to he made to capture tlie Triple Alliance of Labour, but if. was recosniscd that to do this the opposition of the railwaymen would 'have to bn overcome. It was declared that the police would not move asainst the strikers. If unable to obtain the co-operation of tho priuters it was proposed to suppress the newspapers by cutting off power and light. It was claimed also that through Bolshevists in the Post Office they could tap official messages. At a concluding mass meeting of tliis cheerful gathering Hiss Pankhurst delivered a vinlent speech, in which she 6<iid that if Rosa Luxemburg were dead it vaa setter to die. like her than to die in bed or of a broken lieart. In view of the present situation Miss Sylvia Pankhurst is doubtless now seeing red and very muc'lii in need of opportunity for detached reflection out of the* limelight.

In addition to his present onerous duties the City Engineer will shortly be called upon to supervise the ions list or new municipal works on the construction of which a sum of nearly two million pounds is to be expeuded under tho lean scheme. One of Mr. Morton's duties is. to supervise the tramways. Tho Eastern Suburbs League suggests that the time i$ opportune for a chance. Tramways boards aro in existence elsewhere, and last week the City Council decided to aypoint an outside board to control the Milk Depot. The league, therefore, urges that a tramways expert should be aspointed as general manager, and a board of i'our business men set up to act with him in managing tile tramways and giving' effect to the policy decided on by the council. The suggestion is frorth careful examination. Councillors aro becoming very -much overloaded with jvork in consequence of llie rapid growth of the city's undertakings, and it is unreasonable to expect them to give up almost the whole of their spare time, as some do, io looking after our municipal affairs. The arrangement put forward by the Eastern Suburbs League would still leave the council with full control of the tramways, but councillors ivoiil'l bo relieved of tho onerous task of considering details of management. At tho same time Mr. Morton, who has been tarrying a very heavy load for some time past, wouftl be enabled to concentrate his attention more effectively on the 'piogramme of new works, and we ha\e no doubt that problems o£ labour and supplies alone in this connection will need close and careful handling until the new construction is complete, whenever that may be.