NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 45, 17 November 1920, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

Behind closed doors this morning it is reported that the shipping companies and the waterside workers will meet in secret conference to decide whether further burdens are to be placecl on (he public's broad back. The scries of amalgamations in shipping interests that lias taken place has left the companies in such an exceedingly strong position that it is tlie simplest matter in the world for them to pass on to the public any increases in working costs. Passengers by sea have just been compelled to accept the abolition of the old-established return ticket concession, and in some cases the single rato lms been raised substantially as well. Freights also are 011 a high scale. The waterside workers are already exceedingly well paid relatively to other workers. The exceptionally favoured portion they have won for themselves in collusion with the'companies Ims not been accompanied by greater efficiency and rapidity in handling goods;' quite tho reverse. ■ They demand continually more and give less in return, and their attitude in meeting needs and convenience of the community has been- one, of tyrannical despotism, with stop-work meetings and perpetual stoppages oil the water-front, often for childishly trivial reasons. If the public is to be asked to put more money into the coffers of shipping companies and the pockets of waterslders, let us have all the cards on the table. These secret conferences are simply taxation without representation, and a united and . emphatic protest against their continuance is long overdue l>v the public bodies and industrial and commercial organisations of (he citv and district.

Whatever the eifect of General Wrangel's defeat, it is not likely to 'bring peace and contentment. The Tnurida Province, over which the elimination of the Wrangel Army gives the Bolslievilcs an undisputed control, is one of the richest grain-growing districts of Russia. The peasant, however, is not regarded with, favour by Lenin and his minions, lie is simply a human milch cow from which sustenance for town workers has to be extracted by fair means or foul. The position was stated with a cynical candour in an interview with the British Labour delegation, of which a verbatim record has been preserved by ono of its joint, honorary secretaries. "The peasant," said Lenin, "is a: small capitalist. Therefore. the dictatorship of the ptoletnriat moans the government of Russia by the towns. We do not recognise equality as between peasant and town worker. The rate of voting power* of peasants to town workers is 1 to 5." What this means will be realised when it is remembered that in Russia 148 million poople are' rural peasants, while only 2G millions are town dwellers. How Bolshevism extracts produce from the producers was explained by its dictator. "We force peasants to give 'up their corn. . . . The peasant is obliged to

give corn in exchange,for paper. .If the peasant refuses we send armed workers to the village," Leuin added in passing, "The paper money costs us nothing: we only print it," and was very amused at making the peasants accept this worthless paper by the use of force, laughing as ho explained it. It Is, of course, only the abysmal ignorance and fatalism of the Russian peasant that make such'a rf-stem of parasitism noßsible. What benefits the vast peasant majority of Russia are gaining from Bolshevism the British Labour delegation seems to have been unable to discover.

Such comfort as users of petrol in this country will derive from the nient of a reduction in its price by a' cent a gallon in New York and Louisiana will probably be of an altruistic nature, arising from ft fellow-feeling with American consumers. The connection between the price of petrol in the United States and abroad is too remote to build great hopes of a corresponding decline here. British users were recently endeavouring to discover what there was tfl account for a retail price of petrol in New York of between Is. lOd. and 25.-a gallon as against the English^price rf 4s. 31d. a gallop. The freight fixed by the Government in January, 1919, for tank steamers from North Atlantic port? tp any port in tlio United Kingdom was 1.3d. a gallon, and this was held to include a working Tate of profit. The chairman of tlio Anglo-American Oil Company, ill reply to the prevailing criticism, said the price charged in Britain was simply an expression of tlio "law of supply and demand." This provoked the sarcastic comment that it was to be noticed that it was not a question of. the cost of production, handling, and distribution, with a fair profit on the capital invested. As petrol has risen in price so have oil' shares soared, and larger and larger dividends been paid on inflated capital. The British Committee of Inquiry retorted that the international combination of oil companies was probably too extensive in its ramifications for control bv any one Government. That finding j remains merely a pious expression ol opinion, for it cannot "be said that any serious attempt at control lias so far been clironielcd in any country.

Ireland still lias a few secluded spots where tho inhabitants nro engrossed in other things than stalking policemen. One of theso is nt Ardrce in County Louth, where experiments in the electrification of seeds are being conducted. This work lias been carried on at Hothamsted in England under Government control einco 1918, the pioneer in tho process adopted being Jfr. H. E. Fry. Pot tests with wheat have Riven up lo Sti.4 per cent, of increase .of (»rain for treated over untreated seed, and 111 farm tests in Dorsetshire the increases have been 01 per cent, for oats, 48 per cent, for barley, and 3d per cent, for wheat. Ai: Ardri'O the work lina been tukou up on commercial lines by ihe local bread, cumpuny, which has provided a plant for llm'treatment of the wed, ami pushins the sale of treated seed among the farmers of the country. The electrification takes place in tanks in each end of which is fitted a largo iron plate, a nositive wire being attached to one plate and a negative wire lo the rther. The §eed is' filled into the tank and covered with water, and a continuous current applied. Barley, cats, inansolds,' wheat, and flax have been treated in this, way for tho past two vcars. and the results seem to have given decided satisfaction to the farmers. Unfortunately effective controls have not been established and comparisons between treated and untreated seed on tho same land are not available from Ardreo. Ejiough has apparently been done to demonstrate that tlie undertaking is sound commercially ami woll worth consideration t Ise'vliere.

Hi'ligion ami politics is n cumbinnlion llinl in ' piairtieal experience usually spells an.ylhiiiK but concord and nniil.v. It was Hie Hiemc of the address of the new Modoratoc in Uis inaugural address

t<) the Presbyterian General Assembly last ovening. Mr. Cnrrio spoke in a. spirit of wide' toleration and sympathy. As individuals we see tilings go differently that for the Church to project itself into politics in. identification with any political programme is to embark on a sure road to strife, and no strife is. 60 embittered as that which' has its roots in divergent and irreconciliablo religions beliefs. The tusk of tho Church is not with tho daily stuff and business of politics, but with the ideals that shape and guide it. The success of all political institutions depends on the loyalty to principle, tho vision, and the solid worth of character of politicians and private citizens alike'. It is this foundation, of national character upon which the whole edifice of politics and industry rests that is the especial concern of the Church.

" 'Art: for Art's sake' has no timo for either morals or religion," declared Mr. Currie last night. Wo must confess that we do not follow him in this dictum. With what he said of degraded mi and literature we'are entirely in agreement. Hut if "Art for Art's sake" means anything, surely it is the embodiment in his work by the artist of the true and beautiful as he sees it? His art will be good or bad as his vision is .false or true. The art .that deliberately sets out to point a moral or teach a lesson is usually very bad art. An artist's business is not to prepare a thesis, but to transcribi! life- as he sees it. A beautiful p'rospeet from a mountain side has no moral tag written across it, but it inspires all who behold it. So with art that is really art for art's sake we arc lifted out of ourselyes as the artist has vision and is true to it. We can meet* Mr. Currie in agreeing that the phrase has been abused and offered as an excuse for a great deal of pernicious stuff by people who have either no vision at all or can direct it only to the gutter.