NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 176, 13 April 1923, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

AN announcement that negotiations in the British building trade dispute have broken down may mean that the United Kingdom is about to experience an industrial upheaval comparable in importance’ and damaging effect with the 'miners’ strike in 1921. In the present case the issue turns on a proposal by the building employers to in-' crease hours and lower wages. The employers maintain that those changes are necessary in order that other industries may be enabled to proceed with building plans which meantime are held up by excessive building costs. It has been represented also that even under the new conditions proposed, building trade workers would be better olf than those engaged in other important industries. The employers proposed originally that wages should be reduced twenty per cent., and tho working week lengthened by four hours. These proposals may have been modified to some extent in the course of negotiations. A cablegram to-day mentions that half a million men are directly involved in the dispute, but if no settlement is reached the total number affected directly and indirectly of course will be very much greater. Whatever the precise merits of the case may be, the strike now threatened undoubtedly would be an unqualified disaster.

Very interesting possibilities are opened up by the action of the Angora National Assembly in approving tho Chester scheme —a scheme under which an American syndicate will take up and operate extensive commercial concessions in Turkey- The suggestion that Turkey will now be able to play off America against the Allies appears in some respects rather far-fetched, particularly in view of the fact that the American observer at the Lausanne Conference (Mr. Childs) strongly urged the Turks to accept the Allied peace proposals. It is possible, however, that America may be to regard the Mosul question as still open. That apart, it seems clear that if the American. Government even tacitly approves the Chester scheme its attitude will imply a definite departure from the policy’ of avoiding foreign entanglements. The American Government presumably will not permit an investment of American capital in Turkey on the scale proposed unless it is prepared if necessary to protect the legitimate interests of those by whom the investment is made. State Department officials, it is reported, freely admit the responsibility which the concession puts upon the United States. Whether tho'United States is prepared to accept this responsibility has yet to appear.

A belief is fairly widespread that once the Highways Board begins work New Zealand's main roads will bo miraculously transformed. Tho mileage of the arterial roads to be placed under tho control of the board is high; its finance is limited. There are certain sections of arterial road in the interior which will require a very heavy expenditure if they are to be put in even passable condition, and tho building of these sections of road is of importance not only from their arterial character but as providing the only access to large stretches of farming country. In any case,- the board begins with a thin layer of money to cover a very long length of road. County councils in the older settled parts of the Dominion will need strong claims for support if they are to receive large grants in the early years of the Highways Board’s operations. The Highways Act comes into operation next year, but it would be extremely unwise for the Hutt County, or any other county, to sit back and expect the plums to fall into its lap, on tho principle that the loss it docs for itself the more the Highways Board will do for it. The arterial road scheme is not a substitute for effort by tho local authorities, but a supplement to their efforts.

Some of the amalgamated groups in which the British railways aro now organised show financial results for the past year which, at a direct view, and as paving the way to a reduction in rates, offer promising evidence of an improvement in trade conditions. The Great Western group, an amalgamation of seven big companies and twenty-six subsidiary undertakings, earned last year a net profit of 6 per cent, on its total nominal capital, and was enabled to pay it-' shareholders a dividend for tho year of 8 per cent. Salaries and wages paid by the companies of tho Great Western group show an increase of 150 per cent, on those paid in 1913. The railway outlook in America is also described as good, but' meantime most of the leading American companies are earning small profits. The American Inter-State Commission fixed the “fair return” on railroad property at 5J per cent., but at a recent date only one of the eight principal lines was earning this amount. It has been computed in the United States that 45 cents of every dollar (100 cents) earned on the railroads is’ spent in salaries and wages and only about 134 cents in interest and dividends.