THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, JULY 23, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8189, 23 July 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, JULY 23, 1906.

Amid all their "hustling" the Americana of two cities have time to look after those who fall behind in the race of life, through physical or social defects. New York and Chicago have special employment bureaus for securing suitable work for the handicapped. The New York bureau deals with those who [are physically handicapped by loss of limbs, sight, or hearing, or dis eases of tho heart or lungs, wrecks of dangerous trades, such as lead making, to return to which ia certain death, men who have broken themselves of drink and the drug habit, and criminals who have reformed their ways. These are the unfit who may be fitted to earn a living, and added, as au Amerioan writer says, "at least as 4 f tactions to the total of productive labour, instead of becoming the minus quantities by, recruiting the ranks of the mendicant and the unemployed" There are, says this writer, in the hospitals of all large cities, many men whom suitable work Gould be found. For instanoe, a man with valvular disease of the heart may drop off instantly if employed under improper conditions, but may bo an efficient workman for years if the proper Kind of employ-

menfc Is found for him. The difficulty arises from the fact that these men are ofteu unable to find suitable employment for themselves, and thia is where the bureau oomes in. The bureau believes in creating a public sentiment in favour of the orippled, and that a careful investigation should be made to deteraihe the occupations still open to these defeo lives. A large employer of labour, says the bureau, should be ashamed to employ an able-bodied man at something a handicapped man may do, prov ded, of course, the ablebodied man is capable of a better class cr grade uf work. Of couiae a certain number of the handicapped will be found to be absolutely unemployable, but it is believed that after a careful investigation of the subject the majority may be found to be worth something to society, and not to constitute a dead weight or a positive menace. It is, In short, an economic rather than a philanthropic problem. 1

The absence of n Q \vs from Commander Peary may menu no more than that his wireless telegraphy apparatus is out of order. Peary left New York in the Roosevelt; on July 14th, last year, intending to make as far north as possible before the ice closed in, to winfer in North Greenland ur Grant's Land, and in February to set out for the Pole. The Roosevelt, which was specially built for this expedition, is constructed so as tog withstand the heavy Ice pressure, and is so shaped that the pressure of the ice-pacb will have the effect of raising the vessel out of the water. Both bow and stern are armoured with one-inch steel plating. She is 185 ft long, 35ft beam, 1,500 tons displacement, and draws 16ft of water. The ship carries a wireless telegraphic outfit, whioh, with one or two relay stations in Greenland, was expected to keep her in communication with the permanent telegraph station at Chateau Bay, Labrador, and thence by existing lines with New ¥ork. By the same means communication with the explorer should have been possible, at least for a portion of the distance when in February the sledge party left the ship for the northern dash. The Roosevelt presents a complete reversal of previous custom, in that, instead of a sailing ship with auxiliary engines, she is a powerful steamer with auxiliary sail power, and ComSander Peary expected her to make greater progress than any other Arctic ship bad done in the first summer. But it was reported last year that the ice conditions were rather against him. He intended to establish a permanent sub-base at Cape Sabine, on the west coast of Smith's Sound, and, after securing the services of the necessary Eskimos, to force the vessel through Kane Basin and Kennedy and Robeson Channels to the northern ooaßt of Grant Land or of Greenland, if the conditions should compel it, and there winter within 500 miles of the pole. From these winter quarters a start north over the polar pack was to have been made in February. The advantages claimed for this route were that Peary's fixed laud base would be 100 miles nearer the Pole than on any other route, that a more rigid ice-pack extending Poloward would be found than on the other side of the Pole, and that there was a richer land hnse to which to return, with a wellknown line of communication, and retreat from the ship to comparatively low latitudes.