BRITISH AND FOREIGN NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 57, 30 November 1907, Page 12

BRITISH AND FOREIGN NEWS.

NOTES PROM VARIOUS SOURCES.

THE UNITED KINGDOM

, London, October 18. i.Mr. ••Haldane,',.Secreatry for War, ad- ■ dressed- a meeting at Wakefield, last right', -'■iti'connection with, the Wakefield Education Guild,, a branch of the Workers': Educational ! . Association, whoso aim> is to promote higher 1 ; education among the workers of the country by bringing them: into touch with universities '.and other' educational' bodies.' 'Tho Bishop iof Wakefield* presided, ■ ■■-'."■ . . Mr. Haldane,swho was cordially received; • said that higher education was of the groatvest value to .tho British nation, whether'it was engaged in , industrial pursuits or, whe'.tlier'.it, was not.. r The chain of .reasoning > ' .laid :down by Karl Marx that capital must .iget the betterofi'labour had been disproved;' • The"position of the skilled labourer was.fin" '"tetter'than it'was 50 years ago, and.it was .; 'getting,better and.better.;. Why?..: Because ■ 'the skilled labourer was''a man of . a great :dea] j ..of knowledge. Unfortunately.-for the nation he (Mr.,-.Haldane) had to be :a. great- '■ ,purohaser'of munitions of war. .. He. found ywhen ; he wont down to Sheffield'magnificent .machinery that had been devised and in'vented within,, the I last few years, and -there jfino work .wasbeing done by men who worked .with their heads as well as with their .hands' .(cheers). That was tho class of men who *on;the;one hapd.;,had falsified -the:'prediction .of .-Marx* On n thQ!other hand, the..capitalist; .wasino, longer, what the capitalist was :in the : -days .of Dickens' and Thackeray,'.when'lie .cpuld autocratically dictate his terms. . Tlie capitalist to-day, : generally . was the jbint; stock company* and / the multiplyingof shareholders had( completely .individual The capitalist was the -savings of the public; Some of the working 1 •.classes! tUemselves'invested their savings in ■these [ .concerns. What was tho ' conse--tquence of that?: Small amounts of. capital 'twere everywhere competing for enployment, and the rato of interest on capital had. dis- ' And where had , the profits ''of industrial enterprises £one? Ah, there was : : the great secret of which he was speaking.. ' ,They had gone to,the man of brains; to-the mfrn,'who'had. the' power of production. ll; l.fc'■ was' (| the man" of,',brains, the man ; ,!'qf k'nqw-: ledge, I 'the niari "of education, tho .man, .of science, the man. of invention, who .had-.the.. power, of applying,the energies, and; resources Jying'.'around him,who was to-dayTeaping the: • fruits I 'of ' the'.earth. And what did r that : point-to? ■ It pointed to this : that it was vital "to those ivjio were engaged in trial enterprises that they should havo com-' ' marid ; of; science and that ..they' 'should have BSfmuch knowledge as they could got. \°. ..

...CENSORSHIP OF. PLAYS. ,; r ~ln about s month's time a petition will be ready for presentation to the Prime "Minister urging the abolition of the office of .the Ceri- : sor.'ofcPlays.■;'"'"The'document. is being ;signed. by' a large number of the most ■■prominent' / and distinguished English dramatists; novelists, and critics, tho list including those N / who will be universally regarded as the chief among contemporary writers. * . .. The matter; has been in contemplation for . gome time, but. has been brought to a head by the attitude of . the Lord • Chamberlain's office in fqrbidding the , performance 'cf Maeterlinck's "Monna Vanha" and Mr. Edward Garnett's play,'"The Breaking Point."' The signatories point out that the'judgment pf and.illogical—sei-r lous works bding banned and frivolous .musical''plays permitted. . : ''They have'no " personal feeling' whatever , against* Mr. IWdford, but their: contention is that/'no other'"department "of, art- is placed under, such a disadvantage as that which prevents plays'of serious purpose being represented, on the English stage..

BRAKES ON TRAINS.

The rail ivay accident at Shrewsbury has again rai.sed -the question of the safety of the -brake -systems upon, our railways.: That in ,general use'is the automatic vacuum, whichi is almost universally regarded' as"thomost reliable':that can be obtained.) Mt'is-a" noteworthy fact;'.however, that this system was: fitted to the. trains to which the l serious accidents occurred at Grantham, Salisbury, and Glasgow, and public ■ enquiry is now directed' to the solution of the problem as to whether something even safer cannot be devised. -. -.

The cause of these three calamities was attributed officially to a fault on • the part of the | engine drivdrs, but, in evidence, the driver of the Glasgow train certified that his vacuum' bralje was "hard on!' when the accident occurred.'; As was the case at Shrews-" bury on Monday,' the drivers- of She other two trains, unfortunately, lost their lives;' and,'consequently, the cause of the disasters can never be actually known. • At the onquiry on Tuesday at Shrewsbury, 'no evidence on this point was' brought' other than the fact that the brakes were 'ih good working order, and from that it appears that the only reasonable conclusion that caii be arrived at'is'that they Vere- applied '.too late' when tHe'.train was rounding :a"sliarp curve:' ' " ; " The manager of the Vacuum Brake' Company is confident that his contriva'nco "cannot go wrong, and lid awaits the result of the Board of Trade enquiry, into tho Shrewsbury; accident with equanimity. Kit-should be decidod by. tho Board's inspector that the brakes wero in any way faulty, then, it would be time for him to show where and-how it was impossible for: the company's brakes to go wrong. ... On benalf of, the present brake, it is urged that it is impossible to provide strictly safe contrivances for trains travelling at 80 miles an hour while such short and rounded curves are allowed to exist, and many well-known railway experts are of the opinion that it is possible that the efficiency of the brakes could havo been suddenly impaired by centrifugal force set up by the curve or oscdlation:At Grantham technical witnesses stated that tho whole iof tho: brakes- were not upon the wheels when the train dashed on its deathdealingl courso "through tho station, ■ and it was '.also declared, by the guard ' that-the driver did actualjy put on his brake. ' That evidenco is certainly significant and loads to tjie. belief that- something must have been wrong with the mechanism and not with'tho man in charge. Thero is no doubt' that for ordinary requirements, the automatic vacuum brako is all that,vis nccossary, but whether it is equally safe at high speeds over complicated stretches of track, where extremely pareful driving cannot always ensure safoty, is, by many, held to bo a dcbatable 'ijuestion.

THE' CONGO QUESTION.

• An" influential - gathering of the' Church 1 clergy and Nonconformist ministers' of ;Liver- ; pool took place recently at the Churbh House' in that city under the presidency of'the* Bishop (Dr. Chevasse) to consider the latest developments of: the Congo question. Mr; Morel,-by invitation, addressed-the meeting,' and >tne following resolutions were put'and carried unanimously, after speeches had'been made bv the Bishop, Canon Smcthivick, the Rev. H. Elwyn Thomas, the llov. Joseph Jackson, and others:— • -: . , .-(1) "That this meoting of Liverpool ..clergy and ministers protests against tho perpetuation, of a state of. affairs on the Congo, shameful. to Christendom, and declares that the time has now come .for His Majesty's Government to take immediate diplomatic action with a view to securing for the native races of the Congo tho rights guaranteed to, them, undor . international agreements, to which this country is a signatory party." (2) "That the conveners of this meoting, acting , with tho local auxiliary of tho Congo Reform Association, bo asked to invite tho clergy and. ministry of Liverpool and district to, preach a special sermon on the,first Sunday of November on the duty of tho nation, in. regard to tho Congo; also that a united mass meeting representative of tho city be held during tho following week. . The Congo Reform Association have reseived a cable message from the headquarters

of tho American; Congo Reform Association, at Boston, to tho effect that, in view of the nature of tho annexation proposals of tho Belgian Government,-tho Association is renewing its pressure upon tho President and his CabiI "net,''with a Tien- to 'provoking • "immediate action'-' by the civilised Powers. Mr. Morel explains, in.regard to this communication, that the American Association, while it has publicly expressed upon several occasions profound distrust in tli'e ability, or willingness of Belgium under presoht circumstances to remedy' tliei state of affairs on the Congo, rallied,, .nevertheless,' .to ths attitudo of the British 1 Association, -which has' persisted, as is well known, in-supporting His Majesty's Government in their declared policy of postponing British action, pending the publication .of the Belgian Government's proposals. Tho position .of the American Association was also influenced by the circumstanco that the American •: Government had given assurances to the British Government of their willingness ;to co-operate with Great Britain in such action as the British Government might find it :reqtiisite to. adopt ultimately, with a view to bringing'the existing state of things on tho Congo to an end. ■

:: ■••''' IT NEEDS WATCHING. ■ The. movements of'the United States Tariff Commission,who, after visiting Paris, Vienna, and-Budapest,' have now arrived in Berlin, should be. carefully watched in this country. The activity, recently, displayed by the United States in France precipitated the arrangement of a Franco-Canadian treaty, by which it will .almost, cprtainly: be. found that the differencial advantages enjoyed by the United Kingdom over, France in the Canadian .market will be.curtailed. .'The.differential advantage wo enjoy in the same market over Germany is still greater, for, while French goods are admitted under the Canadian general tariff, German goods are subject to a curtax of 33 1-3 per'cent. : In an interview with Mr. Reynolds, who is head of the American Tariff Commission now, in Berlin,' it was ascertained that ,the three gentlemen composing the Commission hope to call on the leading German exporters and manufacturers, and to establish a better understanding between Gorman and United States,exporters.'. It is, of course, conceivable t,hat one-of;the ; objects of tho Commission's visit to'. Germany'is to' arrange the system of declaring .values ! on .German exports to tho \UnitedStates, .which, it will bo remembered, was the main concession 'which Germany extracted from the "United' States Government' in/returnfor the.' minimum tariff which she agreed.,to levy on .United-States goods. Sir 15; .Grey, declared'in Parliament at the time that similar concessions would be, extended by the' United .States to British exporters; hut it:,was,pqinted.ouli.;by critics on that occasion hoTir .difficult,l6. was to i enforce this concession. . Mr. Reynolds added' that the Commission desired .'mainly to 'get the views and opinions of business men on.lquestions of general in-, terest to them. They had no programme, and were' not troubling about any special lines of manufacture.. They hoped to get the views in German official circles; on a number of difficulties wliich are constantly arising in export,. and'to' 1 find'how it'is'proposed to avoid these difficulties.'in'the future.

it'will bo interesting-to see if the Commission,'when they have done their work in Germany, will visit this country on a similar evrand. PARTY STRIFE. Dramatic • scenes marked tho inaugural meetings of tho'Constitutional Speakers' League, an organisation of working men, formed ■to fight Socilism; • There were three open-air meetings, the last, which was held at' Brixton, being'broken rip.'by an angry mob of Socialists:

The disturbance^, which for a few moments, threatened' to/di;velop'intd ; an extremely, serf-! pus affray ,_ was brought about by an accusation of-.bribery levelled by one >of tho crowd at Mr. Broughton, the chairman. The interrupter-, declared] that .Mr. Broughton, while acting for-.the Municipal Reform Association, hadi offered: to. pay him £2 a woek to abandon his position as agent for tho Socialist, Party iin Walworth, ■ and to becomo a muni-cipal-reform speaker, i / 'I The map was. at once invited on to the platform, from which :he repeated his statement. " -■■,•■- '■•■-,• : "There'is onlyi one reply to such an assertion," declared Mr. Broughton, vehemently, "and thatviS—liar 1" ••• . . ■ The next moment the meeting was in an up-roar.'-Mr. Broughton and tho Socialist stood angrily facing-each other on the platform. Although they were in hot altercation their words were inaudible above the din. Mr. Broughton l at'last'tried to push his opponent off the platform. ' The man resisted, but several" 'Weil ' wlio r went "to the chairman's help hustled him to the ground. Furious dries were raised, and the crowd made a determined rush on the Constitutional van, in which'eight or nine persons were seated. But for the quick action of the police tho vehicle would liavo been overturned. An 'attempt was made to provent a bored to the van, but this was; frustrated,'and the van was eventually driven off down Brixton Road, with a section of the mob in pursuit. They were eventually shaken off, anil the speakers escaped unhurt.""' ■. ■ "It was the nearest thing I liavo cvor ex-perienced,"-said Mr. Broughton. "I think we- had a very narrow escape from being overturned and trampled to death."