Rangitikei Advocate. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1908 EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9087, 4 March 1908, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1908 EDITORIAL NOTES.

THE Socialists of Prussia have decided to inaugurate a general strike on March 18th, the anniversary of the revolution of 1848, as a , protest against the refusal of the Prussian House to widen the franchise. Exactly how a strike will forward the end in view is not very clear, hut it probably seems to its promoters the only way in which they can make themselves disagreeable to the ruling classes. In Prussia the term ruling classes is no mere meaningless phrase as the franchise is of the most mediaeval description. Members of the Imperial Reichstag in which all the German States are represented are elected on a comparatively popular franchise, but in Prussia an extraordinary system prevails. The inhabitants of a district are divided into three classes according to wealth, each class possessing one-third of the property of the district, and the three classes choose representatives who select the member of Parliament. Thus it may happen that the first-class may consist merely of two or three wealthy men, while the first and second classes must always outvote the third which contains the majority of the poorer citizens. The result is that the Prussian House is the most reactionary body in the world, and the Socialists who can elect many members to the Imperial Reichstag cannot return a single member to the Prussian Parliament. To expect such a body to reform itself is absolutely hopeless and we can sympathise to some extent with the Socialists who feel that something desperate must be done in order to alter the existing state of affairs.

A NOVEL suggestion has been put forward by a section of the Labour Party in Australia to the effect that the Imperial Government should approach the Powers with a request that Australasia should bo considered as non-belligerent and that differences between that portion of the Empire and other Powers should be submitted to arbitration. We cannot doubt that 'the proposal will be scouted by practically the whole population of Australia and ..that New Zealand will contemptuously reject the request that she should join in the humble petition. If the proposition is a good one for Australasia it should certainly be advantageous for the whole Empire and we should have the ignoble spectacle of the British Empire asking the other Powers to consider her as a uou-belligreut. The Powers would readily assent on condition that Britain’s naval and military forces were disbanded as they naturally would be under the new circumstances, and the eagles would soon gather to demolish to the carcase. The Empire must stand or fall as a whole and if Australia is too tired to do anything for her own defence it means that the burden will fall more heavily on the other portions who prefer to defend their liberty with their lives rather than leave it to the charity of an Arbitration Court composed of hostile foreigners. We may safely, however, leave in the hands of Mr Deakin the extinction of the unpatriotic and childish proposal to which we have referred.

FOR an outsider it is not easy to discover the exact rights and wrongs of the Blackball dispute. The miners have undoubtedly disobeyed the provisions of the Arbitration Act, but they are not the first to do so, and doubtless will not be the last. The outstanding question appears to be whether the‘employers are to bo allowed to dismiss men whom they consider inefficient oi whether, as the men desire, a ballot must be taken when men are to be dismissed in order to settle who are to go. The contention of the men seems such an extraordinary one that in the interests, not only of employers, but also of workers, it should be resisted to the bitter end. The of an employer who has to cut down his staff is bad enough, but if, in addition, he has to run the risk of a ballot which may deprive him of his'most efficient workers, it will be made [far worse. The men also, will be deprived of one of the chief incentives to good work, the hope of securing permanent employment.

NOW the band contest is over it may be permissible to refer to the extraordinary character of the marking. A glance over the figures shows that the ( judge, though doubtless an excellent musician, can have no idea of the meaning of figures. Take for example the A

grade test in -which seven bands competed, and the band which was placed first received 146 marks, while the last scored 130. It is impossible to suppose that seven bands were so nearly equal as to receive marks in which the highest and lowest were only separated by about 10 per cent. Any examiner who set a paper in which the lowest candidate received 90 per cent of the marks would be at once condemned, either as too lenient or as having set a paper that was ridiculously easy.