NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 264, 3 August 1933, Page 8

NOTES OF THE DAY

Additional emphasis is given by the New Zealand Educational Institute to the demand for an alteration of the law in respect of mortgage relief which enables the mortgagees of stock, .mainly banks and stock agencies, to secure the payment of their own interest in full and also to apply any surplus to the reduction of the principal. The Institute points out that by the application of this preference its invested Superannuation Funds are subject to serious losses. It is of course well understood by this time that no particular section of the community is immune from the general effects of this difficult financial period. For that very reason it is inequitable that particular sections should be specially privileged under the law as it stands to demand satisfaction of their own claims to the exclusion of others affected.

Tempers are running'high in the Irish Free State, as the report of the debate in the Dail goes to show. Nor is it surprising that attempts to disarm one section of the community, a large and responsible section, should arouse uneasiness and positive alarm when another section, the young and irresponsible hotheads of the Irish Republican Army, are left in undisturbed possession of munitions. If the State fails in its duty to afford equal protection against open menaces, it cannot complain if citizens set about organising in their own defence. The Dublin correspondent of The Times says that the situation is developing rapidly, with General O’Duffy as a possible rallying-point. Fascism may be adopted as the political philosophy of the constitutionalists, just'as the republicans are said to be drifting toward communism. That would be in accord with developments in other countries, where fascism is identified with the middle class.

Industrial unrest is reported, to be widespread in the United States, according to a message published to-day. Except in the lumber industry it does not appear that the operation of the new industrial codes is directly responsible. It will be remembered, however, that the textile factories, which are affected, were among the first to adopt a code under President Roosevelt’s scheme. Textile workers and coalminers are among the worst paid of American workers. Even in boom times attention was often drawn to their miserable lot, in many districts amounting to serfdom. If the codes have failed to improve conditions, the unrest may be a symptom of sharp disappointment, although a domestic question as between unionists and non-unionists is stated as the issue in some cases. Developments will be watched with interest by the whole world. Everywhere attention has been caught by President Roosevelt’s gigantic experiment, aimed at restarting simultaneously all the wheels of production, primary' and secondary, and so restoring prices,, employment, purchasing power and demand—all in one huge operation.