TOPICS OF THE DAY

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13227, 22 September 1908, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

Snort at times takes Motor-Boat strange forms. "With Racjng. her engineer overcome by heat aud gas, but still holding his levers in a mechanical way, with hor captain gasping for air, the Dixie 11., on Monday last, defeated tho two English boats which had beeii sent over to recapture the Harmsworth Cup. It was a plucky and well-de-served victory, tho men having lived for sixty minutes with exploded gas shooting into their faces, blinding, scorching, suffocating vapour." This is an extract from a report in the NewYork "Evening Post" of a motor-boat race in America, from which it will be seen that this form of amusement affords an excellent instance of the sadness with which Anglo-Saxon* take their pleasures. Motor-boat racing is said to bo not quite so dangerous as racing in a motor on land, but very much more uncomfortable. Everything is sacrificed to speed. The Dixie 11. is only forty feet long, but thero are 3000 explosions in her cylinders and 900 revolutions of her screw every minute when sho is going at her highest speed, thirty-six miles an hour. Tho eight exhausts belch out poisonous vapour right in front of the engineer and captain. If they were placed elsewhere speed would bo sacrificed, and speed is everything. It apparently docs not matter that in the engineer's tiny compartment 150 degrees of heat may be registered in a race, or that the captain may have to take a holiday to got tho poison out of his system. Such boats can be built so well that, thin shells as they are, tho great strain caused by their powerful engines does not let in a drop of water, provided that they are not driven through rough water. "They are meant for smooth water, and they are useless for any purpose save raring, the ono for which they are built. They offer little pleasure to anyone, excepting that exhilaration which fast speeding produce, in the eye-witness. They are toys which may be cast aside next year because they are outclassed by newer and more capablo craft." It is said that the owner of ono of tho fastest racers has never been out in her more than twice. He likes to see her race and win, but as for suffering the discomfort of a contest, that is something he avoids by staying on tho committee boat.

Japan can do many things Crimo well, but apparently she has in not yet learned how to orJapan. ganiso a police force of Western efficiency. A correspondent of the "Standard" sends a disquieting account of the increase in lawlessness in Japan. During tho lastthree years, crimes of violence have increased to an alarming extent, foreigners no longer find it safe to wander alone about the environs of Japanese cities, and even in tho public street foreign women have been relieved of their purses in broad daylight. Piracy is increasing along the coasts and in tbe Inland Sea. Tho police system seems to be very antiquated. The Japanese policeman does not patrol the streets, but stays in ono spot, a place often difficult to find, and the criminal feels pretty secure in operating atsomo distance from it. Tlie night-watchmen go about banging two pieces of wood together, which, of course, gives criminals ample warning of their approach. The police 6eem afraid of the criminal element, and not without reason, for the Japanese malefactor is apt to draw a knifo and use it without compunction, while in tlie mass he can make things very ugly for authority. Not long ago a crowd of coolies were making a disturbance outside the houso of a foreigner who was entertaining guests. When ho requested them to bo __uiet, they were insolent. A complaint to the police led to the coolies returning and bombarding the housa with bottles. When the foreigner complained to tho police again, he was told that the offenders were not the crowd of which he complained in the first instance. This is described as a typical Japanese method of evading a clash with the lower element. Tho average citizen has little faith in the administration of the law, and frequently takes matters into his own hands, stabbing being a favourite method among tho lower orders of settling differences of opinion. The Japanese newspapers are continually complaining of the decline of moral standards, and education is declared to bo ineffective to meet tho danger. Some attribute the evil to Western influence, but others maintain that what is needed is an adequate and effective moral ideal, such as that provided by Christianity. Tlie question is being asked whether Japan can meet the requirements of tho modern world independently of tho ideals which have produced modern Christendom. Mr W. T. Stead, as the A Reply result of another visit to to Russia, contributes to the Tolstoi. ''Daily Chronicle" a vigorous criticism of Tolstoi's "tremendous indictment" of the Russian Government's methods. The great Russian protested with all his forco against tho executions that wero taking place daily hy order of tho Government. Mr Stead retorts that tho Government would be shirking its plain duty if it did not enforce the law. For five consecutive yeare before the present troubles began, there was not a single execution in the whole Russian Empire, and to-day no man can be executed savo by appeal to a military tribunal. The 240 executions which to-'k place last year wero as a punishment for 1111 murders, the victims including women and children. Moreover, tmir thousand people were wounded! by assassins. "Messieurs lea Assassins set the example, and there is not an Englishman who shuddered with horror over Count Tolstoi's indictment but would be the first to denounce the shameful weakness and inefficiency of his own Government a 1? in any part of the United- Kingdom 1000 thuo-ders took place, and only a couple of hundred murderers were hanged." A landlord of Southern- Russia told Mr Stead that no qne who had lived for tho last three years in his part of the world could be anything but a reactionary. All round his place hundreds of country residences had been looted and burned, and machinery and stock destroyed by peasants who imagined that they would get the land for nothing. Mr Stead deliberately fastens on Tolstoi some of tho responsibility for these outrages, whioh in turn hare provoked the executions Tolstoi deplores- It is true that Tolstoi deprecates force, but "muidh as a man deprecates the outbreak of fir© when- he thrusts a lighted match into the thatch of a neighbour's cottage." Tolstoi has passionately proclaimed to ignorant, excitable, and starring peasants, that they were being robbed by the'rich, lias quoted with approval tho peasants' saying that no man but a thief can live in a house with a ceiled roof, and has, "with all the fervour and) authority of a prophet," declared that no individual has any right to own land. It is not surprising, therefore, tliat the peasant should seize his neig—bours'laiid and destroy his property. '