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Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16852, 4 June 1920, Page 6

Tho census of the United Kingdom which mil be taken on tlie first Sunday in April next year will be unique in one respsefc. It will proceed on lines which will enable easy comparison to be made with the results of the census to bo taken at tho same time in all parts of the British Empire. That at least is reported to be the recommendation of the committee of the, Ministry of Health, under whose direction the census will be taken, and Parliament is expected to offer no objection to this coordination of census returns. It is sa'd to bo unlikely that any attempt will be made to obtain answers to any more intimate questions than those which hare been asked in recent census papers. Suggestions have be;*n made that enquiry should ho made as to the prevalence of certain diseases, but it is obvious that information furnished on this point might bo very unreliable, as, unlike the question of age, in regard to which there is reason to believe the •truth is sometimes strained, tlvre would bo no means of checking the* accuracy of the statements made. The difficulty, as one official admitted, is to get household to answer the already on the census, form ; indeed, there are many who think people are already asked too much, and are inclined to resent the Government's inquisi'tiveness. That is, of course, quite a wrong attitude. As a matter of fact, census returns which are now but dry reading, would train immensely in lr.imnn interest if they made provision for the recording of individual Ifkes and dislikes, and if those who filled up the papers did so as though thev all lived, for the time at least, in the Palace of Truth.

The growing dnnc;pr of the streets, a feature of daily life which is attracting some attention even in Chris tchurch, is shown by the latest annual report to he. a serious. matter at Home, where last year 51,326 street accidents, of which 2628 were fatal, were caused hy vehicles. These figures compared badly with those for 1918, when the accidents numbered 37,925, including 2193 fatalities. The railway strike was responsible for a portion of this increase, for it sent daily into the already crowded streets of London some two million persons who would otherwise have travelled by the tmdergroimd, but other causes mentioned as contributing to thr* accident-roll were the presence in the streets of ex-Army drivers, "who had not got over their war recklessness," the <rreat increase in the number of vehicles, and the carelessness of pedestrians. Only to the last-namod can be attributed the fact that 6679 people were injured and 187 killed by tramcars, since only by sheer lack of com-mon-sense and complete disregard of the most elementary precautions against accident can anyone como to harm from a tram-car. Motor-ears are becoming more dangerous, benng resnon*sible for 1823 deaths and 26,319 injured persons in the year, and even the ordinary "push" bicycle caused the deaths or 178 persons and the injury of close upon 8000, which may in part be attributable to the bad condition into wlxTbh many thoroughfares fell during the war. B*it as more than half the accidents, fatal and otherwise, were caused by motor vehicles of one sort and another, it is obvious that the community's power of self-protection has not kept pace with the developments of vehicular traffic. It will achieve this in time, partly by imposing deterrent penalties upon careless drivers, but it must also help to work out its own salvation by acting on the "safety first" motto, and by remembering that the pedestrians' right to.use the streets does not imply the right to monopolise them.

Among tho New York establishments which have succumbed to the vigour of the "dry law" is tho Columbian cafe, a plain unpretending bar, which presented to tho passer-by no feature that marked it oilt from a number of other places of tho same kind, and that offered no indication of a connexion with modern literature. Yet a New York paper asserts that there is no doubt that it was in the Columbian Cafe that "John Masefiekl swept the floor, oiled tho counter, polished the brasses, and occasionally helped to keep tho peace, theieby holding body and t.oul together while he was turning over in his mind tho plots of "Tho Everlasting Mercy, 7 '

! and "The "Widow of Bye Street." Masefield, it appears, when a young man, j dropped into the Cafe for a drink on i one of his visits to Xew York as a j sailor, and found a job which for the j time suited him bettor than seafaring, j Tie left it subsequently to go back' to I London in company with Joseph Conj rad. Years later, when he next visit- ! cd the States, it was as a literary lion, | and tho Universities of Harvard and I Yale were proud to grant the ex-bar-J man's assistant honorary degrees to j mark America's appreciation of his I genius!

Faced with the unpleasant fact that the bank overdraft was £52.000. the governors of the London Hospital, the largest hospital in the United Kingdom, decided at the quarterly meeting in March that in future patients must pay something towards the cost of their food, if they can afford to do sr>. The hospital last year treated 19.700 in-patients, and 119,000 outpatients, the latter receiving altogether 450.C00 attendances. These numbers were greater than in any previous year. And so were the ernenses. In 1914 the hospital paid £5000 for milk, last year the bill was £10.000. The expenditure on meat in the samo period rose from £5200 to £10,900, and mirsos T salaries increased from £10,000 to £19,PC0. Before the war linen sheets cost 5s each; this year 1500 cotton sheets have already been brought at 19s 6d each. Every patient now costs £3 17s a week, and tho governors in deciding that each, if able, shall pay 10s a week, are not asking anything unreasonable. Tho London Hospital mainly benefits the working-class, which has hitherto assisted it bv workshop collections. In view of the high wages now earned by workers in practically every industrv. the proposed chargo for the most skilled attendance in one of the great hospitals of tho world, should bo met Willingly. The alternative is closing down half of the hospital, thus lessening its usefulness, and placing great difficulties in the way of re-open-ing it fully again.