NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1407, 6 April 1912, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

The Gaze.tte. of Thursday brings down to March 'i the railway figures of the year ended March 31. The position on March 2, with 48 weeks gone, and only four more wecks'to go, was distinctly the reverse of encouraging. Indeed, there are abundant signs that the railways management is drifting as badly as ever. To deal first with the last four of the -18 weeks: the outstanding feature is the continuance of the Southern slump- For that four-weekly period the net revenues from the Northern and Southern systems were as appear in the following table: Nel revenue MilesoF per mile line. Not revenue, of lino. Xortli !'"■'! .(3,718 .LSI) IS -2 .Son 111 1023 .t'31,270 .£2l 1 !) Compared with the corresponding four weeks in 1911, the net revenue from the Smith shows a falling off of £10,793. This is very disturbing, but otill morn dioturbing is tho Boutliorft taaaU ins Uio whole 4g

weeks. The leading figures may thus lie tabulated: Not Not. revenue, revenue. Inc'. iaifl-11. I!III-12. or dec. " C ■£ Xorth ... f>78.503 032,1811 53,1520 inc. South ... MI,CO I WII'.ISS 10,1111 dec. There can no longer be much need to tell anybody that there is a sharp comment on the policy of railway construction in the fact that although the Southern system comprises 1025 miles of line against the 1173 miles of the Northern system, the net return from the smaller system is 2a per cent, greater than that from the larger system. Whatever the explanation may be—whether it is over-railing in the South, or higher charges in the North, or extraordinarily high expenses in the South, or all of these—it is manifest that the management 01 the railways is hopelessly bad. The increase in gross revenue in the South for the •18 weeks was just under £40,000, but to cam this extra £40,000, the expenditure had to rise by just under £60,000. It is already obvious that the year will end with another substantial deficit. The one consolation is that the "Liberal" party will no longer be able to stand oft the demand for an investigation into the management of the railways and a complete clearance of the bungling and inefficiency fostered by political control.

The news that Mr. Emil Seidel, the Socialist Mayor of Milwaukee, has been overwhelmingly defeated upon offering himself for re-election is no surprise. It was evident months ago that there would be a combination of all parties to drive the Socialists out of office. Milwaukee has tried Socialist rule and does not like it. The outgoing Administration began with a huge programme of collectivist novelties, but soon came into conflict with the laws of the State. The Supreme Court of Wisconsin declared against a number of their schemes and quashed several of their appointments. They wished to discharge officials who were politically opposed to them, but finding that this was beyond their powers, they cut down their salaries. The oflicials applied to the Courts, with the result that these reductions were declared illegal. Meanwhile the cost of the city government was rapidly mounting up. The tax levy submitted by the city clerk last October showed that Socialist nilc would cost the taxpayers nine hundred thousand dollars more in (he current year than did the old order of things in the year immediately before Socialism. The increase over last year was four hundred, .thousand dollars. Socialism if, a costly luxury, and the people of Milwaukee have not found it worth the money. Probably they would never have tried it if they had had a decent city administration before, but the failure of the people of the United States to solve the problem of municipal government is notorious. Control by the party machines has been ■accompanied by gross evils in nearly every xVmerican city. "Everybody knows," says the New York Post, "what it means to have a publicbuilding steal, or padded registrations, or a horde of needless henchmen paid out of the city treasury, or venal and ruffianly police magistrates, or stolen franchises." To put a stop to abuses like these, "the better element" in many of the cities has succeeded in giving the "commissioner system" a trial. In a few others it has helped the Socialists to victories which the voting strength of Socialism alone could never have achieved. 'But the experience of Milwaukee has been a? disgusting to "the better element" as to the regular political parties, and the lesson will no doubt have a widespread and sahitary effect.