TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13109, 7 May 1908, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Newspapers have not A exercised suoh an inBoycotted Huenc© in Germany as Parliament, they do in Englishspeaking countries, nor has the journalist's calling comm_nde_ the samo respect. But tho Press ot Germany has just shown that it is a power in th© land, which those in authority would do well to reoogn.se. Irritated by interruptions which he believed camo from the Press Gallery, a member of the Reidhstag turned on the reporters and called them "swinish louts." As he"would not withdraw tbe phrase and the President did not call him to order, the journalist- held a meeting .and decided .to boycott the, Reichstag until _hey -rcceiTtM-.-a.p-Elic

expression of regrot for the member's unmannerly outburst. Only two journalists dissented from this resolution. The President of the Foreign Correspondent Association, speaking ou behalf of his colleagues, declared that they would stand side by side with the German journalists in maintaining the honour of the profession. The proprietors took the side of their reporters. The effect of the boycott -was remarkable. Of an important debate on colonial affairs, in the course of which tho Secretary for the Colonies made some notable speeches, not a word appeared iv the papers. The whole of the colonial estimates wero dealt with in a few hours, whereas if reporters had been present the discussion would have lasted a week. Deputies showed a marked reluctance to speak merely to the members of the House, and deputies and ministers realised to what impotence the absence of the Press representatives reduced them. The 'Berliner Zeitung" went further, and questioned whether the Press had not given too much space to Parliamentary reports. "There is scarcely a leading German journalist who has not frequently asked himself whether it is not a mistake to devote so many columns to the reports of proceedings in the Reichstag. Nothing but the good intention of stimulating constitutional instincts, which are so weakly developed in Germany, causes the Press to offer its readors day by day the oratorio odds and ends which deputies utter in the Chamber. Newspaper readers long ago recognised that every parliamentary report is practically nothing but the repetition of that which has already been written in the newspapers far more concisely, comprehensively, and clearly." Tho offending member apologised in tho end, and onco more Parliament figured in. tho papers, after having been taught a very useful lesson.

Almost under the shadow of New tho statue of Liberty, York's which is meant to welcome Shame, the immigrant to a land

bettor than the one he left, lie some of tho most terrible slums in the world. Just at the time when tho American Fleet was arriving in the Pacific Coast, an exhibition was opened in New York to bring bom© to the public the terrible overcrowding in the tenements of tho city. Thus in one week was illustrated, to quote the correspondent of "The Times," the glory and shame of American civilisation. The wax models of families who sleep in these flats by night and work by day told of conditions which seemed almost incredible. A windowloss room, looking like a Chinaman's opium den, was labellel, '''300,000 rooms like, this still left and occupied in various parts of New York." There were models of tenement blocks containing 2781 persons, and not one bath; of 1588 rooms, 441 were dark and had no ventilation, while 635 got their light and air from, a dark and narrow airshaft. Sweating shops were depicted as bad in unoleanliness and wretchedness as those in the East End of London. Many blocks in Manhattan have a density of population of 1000 to the acre, and over 50 blocks each have a population of between 3000 and 4000 per acre. "And this," commented a visitor, "is one feature of tie life in that America to which the poor and oppressed and persecuted of all nations have been looking as a haven of liberty and rest and unlimited possibilities." What of the futuieP About 200,000 new immigrants settled in New York last year, and an official estimate of the population of the city in 1920 is 7,000,000. It is no wonder that the correspondent, reflecting on these facts, wondered if the good work of legislation and philanthropy couJd ever keep pace with tibe epread of demoralisation. At any rate the evils are being earnestly grappled with. Commenting on this disquieting message, the "Spectator" remarks that it shows what some people are inclined to forget: that a slum is not necessarily a building bad in iteeif. Much of the slum life iv New York is to be found in massive buildings, and not in tumble-down alleys. "Buckingham Palace could be turned into a slum in a week if a few more families than it would properly hold—families of a low social order—were introduced into it."