TOPICS OF THE TIME.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 18, 20 July 1907, Page 9

TOPICS OF THE TIME.

FROM THE WORLD'S PRESS.- ■ £50,000 FOE A SCOOP. One of tho moet noteworthy newspaper "scoops" in recent years was that ' made by tho Daily Mail, Mirror, and '■ Evening News in its attack on the proposed soap trust. Lever Bros, were tho chief objects of the attack, and th^y retaliated with r.n action for libel. A few days ago a cablegram advised us < that the action had been settled by tho '. payment by defendants of damages to the tuno of £50,000, and the. withdrawal of imputations against Mr. Levor. The I . libel in tho main consisted of state- I ] montii that "the plaintiffs fraudulently : sold soap by short weight (15 ozs. as : 16 ozs.) taking measures to conceal tho : fact oven from their own employees ; i that they for their own aggrandisement , dismissed largo numbers of their em- ' ployees without regard for their wcl- i fare, and wore intending to dismiss, \ many moro ; that they mads a corner in . raw materials used for the manufacture : of soap, and wero rigging the share mar- ■ kot, attempting to bribe- the press and J freezing out competitors; and also that j the announcement by them that the so-, ' called Soap Trust had come to an end! ! wa.*i falsely made with intent to de- . ; ceive." Tho "soap trus?" did not live* | long. But it was a costly "scoop." ' ' UNHAPPY 'FRISCO. Advice from San Francisco last month l stated that lawless-ness' and disorder in s that city had reached such dimensions owing to the rigour of trade-union boycotts tha.t the people wero stopping the- < work of rebuilding tho city in order to ' fight union labour with 'its own weapons. : According to a report made to the ( Governor no fewer than 40,000 work- ' people were out of work. Of these, 1 10,000 brlonged to the building trades. '. Four thousand street-railway workers walked tho street's daily in droves look- 1 ing for work. It was merely a. ques- i tion, said the correspondents, which < woulcl etarvo first, employers or work- i men. i THE POORLY-PAID CLERGY. ] Recently the- Ecclesiastical Commis- ( sionei-s (England) laid £250,000 for a ( ponsion scheme for poor clergymen. ] The only criticism that can be offered i is that tho enterprise should have been , started years ago. Of the poverty of -, tho general body of the clergy there can bo no 'question. It is established , by figures from workhouses and asylums, and still moro firmly by tho facts given by our bishops from time to lime of ' the dire distress nnder which many incumbents carry on their work and en- ' deavour to bring up their families. Tho smallness of ecclesiastical incomes ' has long been a disgrace to the Church : of England, and would bo a serious dan- ' ger if/tke instances wero fewer in which rectors and vicars us© their private 1 * means to subserve their responsibilities. i Nonconformist bodies make no such mioI take ns tho Church' of England. Thpy provide Tor, first, a lightening of labour, and then for complete retirement. Their | : congregations, as well as their ministers, ( benefit accordingly. THE RAND STRIKE. ! A cablegram to-day indicated that the : Rand miners' strike -is practically at r.n end. In view of tho reports received by cablo of dynamite outrages, it is in- i tsresting to learn from lata papers that I the Minors' Association, whilo urgrng I all the men to strike, hid issued a notice enumerating tho. s penalties •for violence and aalcing the men to bo orderly. Tho-'CcrrttpiaSon also sought to indue© the Dntch to refuse to act as "blacklegs" by promising 'them equal treatment with its own member? after the strike is over. HOW WILL IT END? Latest returns chow v tliat eight pf>r-■-ons out of every thousand of the population of Ireland emigrated in ICO6. Nearly thirty-six thousand loft their nativo land — 19,645 men find boys and 16,275 women and girls ; in itself a tragic story. That 'year after year and generation after generation, Ireland should pour out its life's blood into countries? overseas is a terrible reality j which stands out vivii! nmid all tho | biting and clashing polemics of our lime (comments an English weekly). While England and Ireland sulk, Ireland is* drained of her sons and daughters/ and another nation gets them, to the weakening of' th:> Empire. The population of Ireland has shrunk in sixty years from eight million^ to four and'ai half millions. If this had happened in Eugland, in Scotland, or in Wales, Parliament would have demanded means of stopping th 3 drain ; but in Ireland it goes on, because tho political parties rannot compose their misrerablo differences and a'-jree upon a practical scheme of Irish reform. IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT. It will come as a surpriso to many people 1 to learn that imprisonment for debt i 3 steadily increasing, in the Old Country.' Figures demonstrating this aro given in tho Civil Judicial Statistics for 1905, just issued. During lh.it year 11,427 debtors were imprisoned in England and Wales, as against 11,096 in tho previous year, and tho average j of 10,218 for the five yearn including I 1005. Tv.-cnty .years before 1905, the roport state*, there were only about onethird as many warrants of commitment issued and about one-half as many debtors imprisoned. STANDARD 73lL~EXTENSIOX. The tentacles of the octopus extend. It ih reported that a departure of the highest interest to the varnisbiug and allied trades all the world over is to be made by the Standard Oil Company, which is investing an initial .'mm of £5,000,000 in the purchase of turpentine and timber land's jn Florida, Texas, .Louisiana, and the Mississippi Valley, thus abolishing completely the small farmer, who hitherto has handled the product at first hand. It is further stated that hencefoiward the Standard Oil Trust will be the leading interest in the turpentine and rosin trades of the United States, whence Europe draws practically till its supplies. ' NOT PLAYING THE GAME. ' Once more the visit of a British squadron to American waters has been attended by a. large number of desertions. While tho Fiwt Cruiser Squadron was in Hampton roads recently, the Argyll lost three men, tho Good Hopo thirty-two, the Hampshire thirty-seven, and the Roxburgh eighteen — ninety men in all from a rquudror of four fchips». It is a fact which everybody knows (says a writer in ap English paper) but of which few care to talk, that it ia consistent with American ideas of "playing the gnnws" to offer heavy inducements "to tho trained men of foreign Powers to desert their Hag. Tho thing is Regularly organi.'ied, viih agents appointed to "seduce the men from their 7 allegiance with di'inlc and promises. If the American authorities will not cease to wink at this breach of ucighbourlincss, it will be necessary for the Admiralty to decline ull invitations to American ports by way of administering a mild lesson in the virtue of playing iair. It is high time that public attention was called to tho matter. Vt'e do not provide an expensive training in ouder that ths American navy may piolit by it, however much we hope and dsi-hc that thnt navy may be found in alliance Milk our own, if the occasion should arise.