SOCIETY INDICTED.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 320, 6 October 1908, Page 7

SOCIETY INDICTED.

THE UNEMPLOYED. TROUBLE IN TRAFALCAR SQUARE. SOME ARRESTS. (hi Titßonirn—niEss association—corritiaiiT.) (Rec. October 6, 10.40 p.m.) London, October 5. Four thousand unemployed held a demonstration in Trafalgar Square on Sunday. Mr. Stewart Gray, ono of their leaders, advised them to march to Windsor Park, and suggested that a mimbor of them should sit down in tho Squaro until they Were moved on, as a protest against tho injustices of socioty. A number of tho men did so, but at sunset tho polico scattered tho crowd, and ar-' rested soven, including Gray, despito some ugly rushes and an attempt to rescue them. "CLARING ANOMALIES." GOVERNMENT WILL TRY TO REMOVE THEM. INDIVIDUALISM MUST REMAIN. (Rec. October 5, 10.40 p.m.) London, October 5. Tho Prinjo Minister, Mr. Asquith, addressing a gathering of 4000 people at Earlston, Berwickshire, said that the land question was only part of tho wider and morecomplex social problem of how to mitigato tho glaring anomalies of modorn society, while also stimulating and not'stifling individual energy and initiative. Tho Government was compelled by the exigencies of the political machinery to proceed piecemeal with tho work of reform. Old ago pensions were only a step toward a. comprehensive and complete dealing with allied problems concorning tho workers. Mr. Asquith continued: "Under existing oconomic conditions wo will never wholly got rid of unemployment, but wiso legislation could reduco its area and make permanent provision against extraordinary emergencies." By tho /Licensing Bill, tho Government, ho added, hoped to diminish tlio facilities for intemperance. By their land legislation thoy sought to check tho constant efflux' of population from tho country to tho towns. Ho dofended the Scottish ' Land Bill as sound in principlo,

LAND PROBLEM: SMALL HOLDINGS. The interim report of tho two Commissioners of Small Holdings, published in August, throws an interesting light on the results of' tho Liberal Government's Small Holdings' Act. Commenting on aud summarising tho report, the "Daily Hail" affirms:—"Tho progress is not all that tho first wild promises suggested, and both from confessions and omissions in tha report it is clear that almost nothing lias been done to givo the urban or suburban dwoller a chance of a country life. Tho 'return to tho land' has not been promoted by tho Act; though solid progress has been made in turning the country dweller into a small farmer, and the necessity of intensive cultivation is to that degree advancod. Over 2000 acres of land liavo boen taken by local bodies for small holdings, the percentage of successful applicants Ill's been high, and many of the applicants aro found to have unexpected amounts of capital. It will, for example, astonish those unacquainted with tho byways of rural economy to learn that 208 applicants in such a purely agricultural county as Dorest have .£14,Q00 in cash betweon them, or nearly JCGB a head. The gross figures do not convey much real information, but it is at least a proof of a profound social movoment that nineteen thousand men have applied for 300,000 acres."