TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13612, 22 December 1909, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Mr Cecil Raleigh, to Underpaid whom wo are indebted Actors. for many a wholesome, breezy melodrama, had a sorrowful talc to nnfokl to the Dramatic Debaters in London o few weeks ago as concerning the question 'Why actors are underpaid." In these days when those upon the topmost rungs of the professional ladder toy with incomes unattainable even to a Cabinet Minister, and when music hall artists of the first flight count their earnings by thousands sterling each month, the statement that thousands of actors got no moro than £2 per week is almost unbelievable. The ttverage actor (average, one fears, in more senses than one). Mr Raleigh said, was engaged for about twenty-fivo weeks a year. If ho was very lucky it might be thirty-Jive weeks. Some faced the footlights for a princely retainer of 30s a woc-k or even £1, and there was a system known as a "joint engagement," under which, man and wife were secured at 35s per week for the two. The minimum annual expenditure of an actor, Mr Raleigh stated at £37 5s 10d, which left £32 14s 2d a year for food, or about 12s 6d a week. "This, to an educated! man," ho added, "is rank, horrible starvation." Tracing the causes, the speaker eaid the prime factor was the competition of the inoom--1 potent. "An actor is everyone who says that he can act, and is paid for doing his worst. Every shop-girl who thinks ehe ie pretty, every plumber who imagines that ho has the histrionic gift, answers one of the countless theatrical agents' advertisements of the 'previous experience unnecessary , type, and is promptly dumped upon the stage for a fee ranging from one to twenty guineas." And worst of all, the very occupation of the lean Thespian, miserably paid though it be, appears to be menaced. Business in the provinces is falling off, and such companies as are enabled to do a. little poor, but honest, baxn-stortning aro rapidly filling with premium-paying amateurs.' Clearly the play is anything but the thing under these melancholy circumstances. A mild; form of trado unionism was suggested by Mr Raleigh as a panacea. Perhaps then Shy look would be awarded his pound! of flesh.

A cable message to-day The announces that Mr Louis Gyroscopic Brennan has trnneferred Railway. his British rights in the gyroscopic railway to the Army and Navy, in consideration of their assistance during the preliminary experiments. The only information that has previously been vouchsafed us at this side of the world has referred to successful trials of models of the remarkable invention. News is now to hand by the latest mail testifying to the complete triumph of the gyroscopic principle under practical renditions and applied to a full-sized railway car. It will be remembered that Mr Brennan gave the first hint of his adaptation two years ago, when he astonished the learned members of the Royal Society by exhibiting at the Burlington House conversazione the working model of a railway truck running on a single rail. This single rail consisted of a span of wire cable stretched like a tight-rope, and across this tbe little car ran, balancins itself upon its single row of wheels in defiance of the law of gravity. An application of the mysterious gyrpscopic force which keeps a spinning-top from falling over was the explanation of the apparent miracle. Two rapidly-revolving gyroscopic discs fixed within the body of the little car maintained its equilibrium. The test under "service conditions" was made on November 10th, at Gillingham, by Chatham. The car employed was 40 feet in length, 10 feet wide, and 13 feet high. It weighed 22 tons empty, and would carry a load of 10 tons. The two gyroscopes which balanced it -ipon the single rail were of 3ft 6in diameter, weighing together one and a half tons, and spinning at the rate of 3000 revolutions a minute. A petrol engine on the car iteclf generated the electric yower by which the gyroscopes were rotated and the running wheels driven. Some forty passengers were comfortably stowed in the car, which carried them in perfect safety and comfort uj and down a single track and »-ound and round a circular track measuring a furlong. Mr Brennan declared at the trial that a train adapted to the mono-rail principle could attain a speed of 100 miles an

hour without the slightest risk. The India Office., the War Office, and the Kashmir Government have assisted Mr Brennaii in the development of 'ins invention, and this accounts f° r tnC handsome acknowledgement he has made by han-iing over his rights to the British nr.val and military authorities. Since the model was" shown many safety devices have been added, including an automatic control of the precession of the gyro.scones, which keeps the car in equilibrium At the recent test all of the passengers moved over to one side of the car, and it immediately adjusted iUelf to the new balance. The announcement that a German engineer had imitated the invention, caused Mr Hrennan to anticipate the disclosure of the capabilities oi his forty-foot truck, but lie was onablfd to thoroughly convince those nterested and versed in such matters thai the new system has a wide sphere of usefulness before it.

Tim exhibition of motor cars Cheap at Olympia in London last Motor month wa.s interesting from Cars, a good many points of view, oik- of the chief features being the manner in which the por>r man (so called) was catered for. B"t when the motor-car makers talk of "poor men" tb"y moan those- with incomes of £-"00 a year. Resources twsed upon purses so fashioned, were shown to be capable of securing «i car seated for four at a cost of £2CO. The running expenses of such a machine wore estimated at £50 a year, exclusive of tyres and repairs. Two-eeaters wore offered, complete, at £160. The ,; poor man' , - doubtless looked with eyes of envy upon the £2000 motor caravan built to the order of Mr A. Dii Cros, -M.P. It afforded sleeping accommodation for six peepie, exclusive of the cook and chauffeur, who were provided with bunks on the roof. A diminutive kitchen was attached, and the occupants of the drawing-room inside could communicate with tho chauffeur by telephone. In all of the more expensive cars wonderful little devices for' securing extra comfort were to be seen. In some machines the front seats as well as the rear once were enclosed in bodywork and! gtass, making practically a luxurious drawing-room on wheels, with soft carpets, swinging, delightfully-.p'added armchairs, «nd rich mahogany panelling. The exhibition aliso served to demonstrate the supremacy of the British manufacturer, who, after lagging behind his rivols for several years, has now firmly established his pre-eminence. Of the makers represented at tho show seventy were British, twenty-two French., four each American and Swiss, threw each Belgian and Italian, and one Austrian. One looked 1 in vain, however, for indications of the fulfilment of Edison's prophecy that tho time would come when motor cars should be within the reach of every working man. No matter how devoutly desired such a consummation might be, it appears to bo deferred indefinitely, or, at least, until the Arbitration Courts can be induced to fix the standard minimum wage at £500 per annum.