NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 255, 22 July 1920, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

More light is needed on the request that Messrs. Armour and Company be permitted to export meat from New Zealand than is forthcoming in the petition to Parliament. It is contended by the petitioners that the issue of an export license to Messrs. Armour will lead to increased competition for meat Vhnt wiil benefit producers. It is difficult to believe that a firm conducting l operations on tho Armonr scale if it 'interests itself in our meat trado at all will be content to remain n mere competitor with the existing companies. A pamphlet describing their operations was recently forwarded by Messrs. Armour aud Company to Tuf, Dominion. In it is disclosed, for instance, that in the- United States alono in 1919 the Armour houses paid out for hogs, cattle, sheep, and calves a sum of 535 million dollars, equal at current rates of exchango to 133 million pounds. The value of New Zealand's export of meat, tallow, hides and (skins during tho same period was tho mere trifle of 15J million pounds. Besides these colossal operations in tho United Slates, which alone brought in a Kross income from sales equal to ten times the public revenue of New Zealand, Messrs. Armour have enormous interests in other countries, particularly in South America,. It is stated in this pamphlet that only by working "on a national scale" is U possible to effect "tho many economies that make for low cost operation." Presumably Armours will desire to operate in New Zealand on a scale sufficient to securo as much economy as our limited output will permit. But will the undoubted efficiency of this foreign corporation bo of any benefit to *he people of New Zealand or the purchasers of their meat abroad?

After remaining for sixty-nine yonrs in the coffers of the New York Yacht Clnb the America Cup Apparently goes nt last to the custody of the Iloyal Ulster Yneht Clnb of Belfast. Since Britain lost the ('•up at Cowes in ISSI no fewer llian thirty-one unsuccessful efforts were miirio to rceover it, three of them being by Sir Thomas I.ipton, who has spent a fortune on the contests. His first challenger, the original Shamrock, appeared twenty-one years ago, and sportsmen

throughout the world will feel tlwi liveliest satisfaction in seeing his efforts at Inst crowned by success. By mutual agreement, tho Shamrock IV and tho Resolute were built to a water-lino length ot 75 feet instead of the full 90 feot allowed by the Cup conditions, but thero are several striking differences between tho two 'boats. Tho Shamrock's mainEl net, for instance, is ICO feet, as against tho ltcsolute's 129-foot stick. Her keel is of extra length, lier stern low and flat to file water. Tho floor o£ the hull is Hat, tho bilges hard, and on tho water sho sits as flat as a frog. She is also notable as being the first challenger ever built to carry a centre board, lier sail area was estimated at 11,000 square feet. Sir Thomas Lipton has declared that in C. E. Nicholson he had tho best yacht designer in the world, and in Burton tho best skipper. Nicholson has spoken of his craft as the "glorious adventure," and events have not belied those American critics who described her as an exceedingly dangerous craft.

Aro the revolutionary Labour extremists preaching the doctrines of the '"class war" and disarmament the dupes of schemers in Europe whoso objectivo is anything but the welfare of tlioso whom they gull? This view is put forward in a letter to "The Times" by Mr. Adolphe Smith, from 1882 to 1910 official AngloFrench interpreter at tho congresses of the International. Mr. Smith says it is a significant fact that when German influences became supreme in the International measures of practical achievement desired by the British and French Socialists wero pushed into tho background. Time was wasted on tho more learned Marxist maxims, although they had no bearing on practical politics. When the war came it was Boon evident that what was of littlo avail in the field of economics was very useful in weakening feelings of patriotism and the instinct of national defence. The "class war" was particularly useful, in setting class against class and lending to national discord and thus weakening tho military strength of tho enemy. "Direct action" and strikes abroad are useful to Germany. Hostility to Poland, the barrier to German expansion, is also desirable, and so is the "hands off Russia" cry. Mr. Smith asks if Germany is responsible for the sudden advent of newcomers who have been swamping tho Socialist movement, particularly in France. The young and inexperienced recruits prefer violent ways, and ho alleges that tho German agent is in the background, with plenty of money, to encourage this preference, and so weaken the Allies that Germany, having lost the war, may win the peace. Mr. Smith makes a 6trong case, and tho trades unionists of New Zealand would do well to scrutinise the motives of those who would have them offer themselves as clay in the hands of the German potter. * * * # Tho increased wages announced this morning as having been awarded to American rnilwnyiuen are evidently the outcomo of their claim for a year, or rather its equivalent in dollars, as a minimum wage. In the hearings of tho railwaymen's demands in May it was alleged that this sum was barely sufficient to enable a working man's family of fivo to exist "even in decent poverty." The railwaymen's spokesmail, it is interesting to note, blamed the great American corporations as a chief factor in raising the cost of living. Ho declared that tho earnings of the trusts during the three years ending in 1918 wero greater by ,£900,000,000 than in tho three previous years, and quoted figures to demonstrate that sineo the armistice tho trusts had been levying a toll amounting to .£3OO a year on overy family of five, These arguments were not taken at the full faco value by tho Railway Board, but seem to have been sufficiently strong to justify the award of three-fifths of tho increased pay demanded. , '