TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 11790, 13 January 1904, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

•Mr Charles E, Hands, in a A Labour contribution to the London Tyranny.. "-Daily Mail," casts a lurid light on the methods of American trades unionists, spurred on by that curious, product of the States, the, walking delegate. Mr Hands describes the rise of a gigantic engineering business from the humblest of beginnings, and its rapid descent into liquidation under the oeaeelese demands and strikes of ita workmen, over 2000 of whom are now looking for other employment as the result of their own folly. Only nineteen years ago, the foundations of the business were laid by Edward P. Morse, a young engineer, who began repairing small boate on the water front at South Brooklyn. He commenced with one mechanic as hie assistant, in A a month be required two more, and at the end of his first year he had a hundred men at work. In cix years, the employees* list had expanded to 600, and a financier had been introduced. The little firm had become a small company, and this in turn gave place to the Morse Ironworks and Dry Docks Company, with greatly extended capital. Twenty-one acres of land were covered ■with new works, half a million dollars' worth of 5 per cent, bonds were issued in addition to the half million dollars' worth of ordinary shares, and the bondholders v.ere protected by a trust company. The number of employees grew till finally the company had 23C0 men on its wages sheet. But already* trouble had arisen with the workmen. With hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of profitable oontracta waiting to be taken, the company could not haggle over a trifling concession demanded by the employees, and it gave way. Immediately the horizon was black with ap« preaching labour-leaders, strike masters, organising secretaries, collectors, and walking delegates. Other small strikes arose, and always, for the «ake of the bigger stake at issue, the company yielded. The" discovery of a- big concern that was doing so well as to be always ready to give way, was as good as a rich gold strike, and unions, with paid officials, were formed by the dozen. One of these actually struck until a director paid the arrears of a member who was in default with his subscription to the union. Last year there were ; twenty strikes in the Morse Works, each i increasing the cost of labour and diminishing the output. The dividend on ordinary stock disappeared, the market values deprei dated, atd the company had to borrow I largely to meet its obligations. When it i was unable to borrow any longer, the works closed down, and went into the i hands of the official receiver. Thus the i energy and enterprise of the walking dele- ! gate "gave the quietus to one of the most I important concerns of its kind in America, I a company which owned the biggest floating dry dock in the Western Hemisphere, and ran its business with a weekly paysheet of £5000.

, Tbe reports of the AnsThe Australian tralku grain crops, cf Wheat Crops, which that of the South Australian harvest, published in this issue,, is the 'awM show unmistakably that the apricultßjdsts of the Common wealth ara experiencing a Ml measure of the prosperity that has for so long deserted them. Recent estimates placed the entire

harvest ©f vheat at conndmWy * ovar V sixty million bushels, of which some forty- * five million bushels will be available fox export. This constitutes « wholly unpre- -, s oedented record, for it means that an ftw .' '. age of 19 bushels per acre all round ,ritt ■; have bsen obtained and that the exportable -i surplus will be more than twice as as in any previous year, and in consequence *'■ aii increase in the total value of Australian" - ' exports of more than £6,000,000. Not :J only is the crop the largest erer. obtained ' * in the aggregate, but never before hw the yield per acre beea so large. It is not wise, of course,, to baie.futar© calculations' ; i upon this wholly abnormal result. In the : . preceding decade—the period of the drought '■ —the arerage annual yield vas only 8 ' • bushels per acre, a yield which did, indeed, : leave a small margin of profit to the fanner of "South Australia, but which meant serious loss to the farming community of all tins other States. Tlu> experience is that a 10 bushels yield will return a small profit all round, although a satisfactory result ia only obtuiued when from 10 to 12 bushels l are harvested. The great curse of Aus- ■ " tralia is the periodic drought. It is very much to be hoped th*t the report of a new - variety of wheat having been raised in the dry regionsof North America is true! This, indeed, would go a long way towards minimising: losses during periods of drought in Australia. If an assured quantity of wheat could be raised irrespective of the drought, a great fillip would be given to the hope of Australians that'at some time their country might •become one of the chief granaries of the world, such a position as is held by Canada,'which aspires to be known as the granary of the Empire. The United States at present is the chief granary of the world, i» worthy of notice that the average wheat,yield there / during the past ten yearn was" under 14 " bushels per acre.

The London "Timee" re'•Tho Times" eently announced the t «. - Literary suit of the huge competiCompetition. tion which it organised in connection with the "Encycloptedia Britonnica." The questions were framed, so "The Times" says, in such a way as to indicate the extent to which, without previous knowledge, anybody '*■ could obtain from the "Encyclopedia" alone, with comparatively little trouble, I detailed and authoritative information conoerning any number of points of varying - intricacy and obscurity relating to all " branches of human affairs. Also tome idea that the competition would increase tb.4 sale of the "Encyclopedia" was. probably not far from the minds of the proprietors. , ' The originators of the competition assert- * \ ed that ice conditions gave no real advan- * tage to actual attainments. In fact, it was considered probable that actual knowledge would often be a positive stumbling block iv compiling the best answers, as it would xnake competitors less thorough in tracing » the proper passages to which reference na _, required. The list of prize winners, how- - a ever, shows a decided preponderance of \ literary people, and the winner, * a sue- '■{_ cessful Army tutor, who pockets £1000 for * outdistancing 11,079 other *• was "inclined to -think that educated peo- "X pie had a decided pull all through." De-., [■■ spite the suggestion of "The Times" that all one had to do was io search the ''£»• /j cyclopedia" diligently, the "Daily Mail" ' i declares that the competition was sot one *• •for the masses, this conclusion being based '•; on the fact that over half of the. prizes %; were won by professional men Mid women, several of whom are well-known fur tlteir / intellectual eminence. Seventeen: of - the \ iwinners were masters of arts, and etaren ,; were bachelors of arts. Among the pro- J fessions, that of tutors and schoolmaster* i provided eevent**ii winners, medicine-com- ,>' iug next with thirteen successful repregentatire». Twelve clergymen ;«cured I*4 prizes, and the law, with ten winners, wa» v| the only other profession to reach figures. A feature .of ahe competition , m.;:,, the success of the ladies, "who approgri' ated twenty oat of the awards, though, the..' fourth prizeV.rJl taker, Mrs Sandars, widow of one of '~-j tlie original members of the "Sfeturd.-g Review's" staff, merely entered .-for toe-% competition, and handed the work-over her son,' while she w«nt off to enjoy her' self in Spain. The labour involved. compiling answers is shown by the that ilift winner spent never lees than one 'is hour, arid frequently four or five hoettVy|| daily for three months" oa the tack.;' ; -|| difficulties were intentionally' increajed -M a certain niunber of "catchy" questions, ' one of which., however, if. a 'correspondent >%'J| of the v 'tt)aily Mail" is to b» belter*!, the 'J;| examiners over-reached themselves; and caught in a trap they laid dealing with the :.-|| occurrence of a leap, year day in the between January Ist and March 26th frtt-ri| style) in the year 1764-5. . This .way ex-Vjg plain why the winner of the £1000 could not think "which question' it wa» that'Vjj floored him," as was «tat«i- by 4 The & Times" to be the <ase. TJ»e first as we have Raid, was £1000, th*-Becon3 />% £225, third £125, then came two of each, three of £50, five of £50, and eightj\- ( j others of smaller amounts. '■•.§.