POLITICAL POINTS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 112, 7 November 1908, Page 12

POLITICAL POINTS.

THE UNEMPLOIMENT PROBLEM. Respecting the Trade Union Congress j and the question of unemployment, the Spectator says : — The remedies suggested at the Congress were mainly two — the provision by the State of work for all who ask it, and the legislative prohibition of overtime. Tho first measure would get the difficulty out of the way ; the second would make getting it out of the way less costly. The first would make the Stat.o the wagepayer of all workmen who could not find private employment ;. the second would lessen the amount of wages the State would j have to pay each man. But when every one at present oui of work had thus been disposed of for the time being, what would be the prospect awaiting us ? We should be faced by a constantly growing demand. Men would be less careful to keep the places they have, because they would know that if they lost them they would have the State work to look to. Whether the Government would really be a better or a pleasanter master than a private employer we need 'iot enquire. The knowledge that the Go\ernment was the servant of the elector as well as the employer of the workman would be quite enough to make the State service the more attractive of the two. To all the ordinary causes of unemployment, therefore, there would be added a Constant inducement to desert every other employer. I Commenting on the American presidential campaign, the Spectator draws attention to the fact that the Democratic party is labouring "to explain away such former unsuccessful Democratic policies as bimetallism and the Government ownership ot railways. The Democratic ideal, in fact, has now become the restoration of competition. With the reservation that the Democrats dislike a strong naval programme, one might sum up the situation by saying that each side is outbiddijg the other as a professed exponent of Mr Roosevelt's policies. It is a unique tribute to the President.'- -<} Tlie King's telegram to thfl Sultan will," in the opirion of the Saturday Review, "be a titter-sweet dose for its illustrious recipient. To be assured that he will be venerated by remote generations will bo small compensation to a sovereign of Abdul Hamid's kidney for the loss of power in his lifetime. There is a delightful irony in the ine'dent which j appeals to our sense of fun, and it will not be lost upon the French. The German Anglophobe will see in it only another Machiavellian move. But it is distinctly astute, for it tends towards the ' roping-in ' of , the Sultan to his present standpoint * Less than three months ago Abdul Hamid wa.i all-power-ful ; now things are ' under the able direction of your eminent Grand Vizier.' This will please the Reform party, and Sir Gerald Lowther's term opens auspiciously for him, for the revolution has certainly improved the British position in Constantinople. The Guerrhof incident seems likely to have no immediate ill effects, though its tendency is disquieting." The New Zealand authorities, in their crusade against pornographic fiction — it would be an abuse of language to call it literature — might consider a recent suggestion by Sir James Crichton Brown© in his notable address at the annual conference of the Sanitary Inspectors' Association, which has attracted so much attention in Britain. His address concluded with a vigorous onslaught on "cesspool" literature and journalism, which was dangerous to the public health, and should be dealt with like adulterated food. Sir James has simply stated an actual scientific fact, too often overlooked. The subject is really one within the cognizance of a modern health department. In our own islands, the State, so far, seems to have been more successful in dealing with imported garbage than with the local product. The Spectator, commenting upon the [ attempt that is to be made to set the German Imperial finances in order, sajfi : — In 1877 the Imperial debt was only £8UO,0G0 ; to-day it is no less than £212,500,000. This remarkable increase has taken place, it should be noticed, in a period of undisturbed peace.. There has been no national crisis to explain it or justify it. 'llio service of the debt alono costs nearly £8,000,000 a year, or, in other words, nearly ten times the amount of the whole debt of 1877. It may be said that, in spite of tho long reign, of peace^ Germany has been indulging in expensive armaments, and that -when the huge indemnity exacted from France after the Franco-German war was exhausted, the money had naturally to be found elsewhere ; it may be said, in fact, that the expenditure, though abnormal, ifc justifiable because it is for a particular and vita 1 object. This argument is at once discounted by a comparison with British finance in recent years. Not only have we maintained a more expensive navy than the German navy, but we have borne the immense i strain and tho after-effects of the South African War, and meanwhile we havo ; regularly reduced ouy debt instead of adding to it. This is a startliug cou-tra-st, and one very gratifying to us, although, as we have said, it is to be v accounted for by a difference of methpd in keeping the nations books, not by a wholesale dissimilarity between the "resources of the two countries. If "the German Imperial Budget meant wbart it might be taken to mean at fir,st sight, Germany would indeed be on the verge of pauperism. Reviewing the report of tho Solect Committee on Lotteries and Indocent Advertisements, the Westminster.' Gazette deals with tho "limerick ' competition" question. There were difficulti.es, "but tho committee treat it as a cternstructivo lottery, herein following , a recent opinion .of the Courfc of Appeal. Tho .ground of this opinion is, ,i/:ia.t the encfrmous- number of competitions prevents it from being anything else." It. says further — "We believe that many of the proprietors of periodicals who have countenanced 'tho limerick' in the belief that it was an innocent game, and have found themselves involved step by step in what, contrary bb' their intention, proved to be a lottery, will heartily endorse the decision of the committee. Not only was the limerick if self a lottery, ,but the circulation and profit to be obtained from it also became a lottery. 'Mushroom periodicals sprang up in a night, and by means of a, limerick obtained scores of thousands -of readers who would not otherwise havo bought a single copy of them. Serious and etaid publications which treated thsjr public with respect found themselves compelled either to fall in with the crazjt? or to see their rivals running away from them. All this has been extremely disheartening to those who wish to cater for the public in a serious way and to improve the literary level of the periodical press. Much is said in these iJays about the naif-educa-tion of Bengalis and other Indian natives, but when we look at our own people and see vast numbers of them given over -to the ' 'missing word' or the 'missing line' craze, and filling their leisure with anxious and excited efforts to win thtjse prizes, can we be quite contented with the state of education among Auglo-Saixona I" ,