TOPICS OF THE DAY,

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 107, 7 May 1909, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY,

With the example of San Francisco before us, we are not Justice Fettered, yet quite bertain that Pittsburg may congratulate itself on the fact that sentence has been passed of heavy fines and imprisonment on the Pittsbnrg ' grafters." One, the cable message states, has been "sent to gaol," but so — nominally — was Schmidt, of San Francisco, and his penalties, both of fine and imprisonment, so far, might be described as of the "subjective" order. The Pittsburg frauds wero brought to light about Christmas last through an investigation ordered by Mr. ltoossvelt, and out of some sixty councillors involved seven were charged with bribery. The bribes were paid to secure concessions to a company, and the city was robbed of a large sum. Trial, conviction, and sentence have followed, but in the United States one can never be certain that the course of justice will go beyond that stage in the case of rich and influential offenders. The late President's strong personal influence apparently did nob extend far enough to secure that the law should be administered. The Thaw scandal is one of many cases in which the worst offenders, after trials involving enormous cost, have evaded the law. Two men, who murdered an outspoken journalist and social reformer a few months ago, ar.> still at large. The crime was deliberately planned, the man was shot in the open street in the presence of his wife, and a whole city was moved to indignation. The criminals were . convicted of "murder in the second degree," and are still availing themselves of "the law's delays." Excitement has cooled down, new sensations have arisen, and no one expects that the law will assert itself. As for the colossal fines inflicted on the Standard Oil and Railway trusts, io would be preposterous to suppose that any one ever thought that any serious effort would be made to enforce them. It is different in Britain. The "grafters ' of Poplar and West Ham knew that the law could bite as well as bark. They — excepting the unhappy men who hanged themselves — went to gaol like common criminals. No more will seven of Africa's tawny lions roar in the desert, Hunter and or spring upon the Hunted. gazelle by the pool. Mr. lloosevelt has slain six members of . the animal royal family, and his son Kermit has put fatal lead into the golden crown of one monarch — and the pelts of the kings are to be refilled for exhibition in the Smithsonian Institute, of Washington, with a suitable placard describing the manner of their decease. Mr. Roosevelt is a-hunt-mg, in the "vejy latest style," which, liowsver, is not altogether of hie seeking. The modern touches are mostly thrust upon him by a world which declines to lose sight of him, even when he goes into the wilderness and tho. mountain fastness, where the beasts have their dens. Day by day the world, ppr America, insists on peeping into his gamebag, and counting tho content*. While the ex-President was on the high seas, in quest of the wild, New York knew how many pipes he smoked per diem, and whether his son Kermit hung a pallid head over the steamer's rail. Wireless messages gave the more excitable American papers a foundation for the erection of startling columns of loud type. The press kept an eye rigidly trained upon the prospective lion slayer all the way round to Mombasa, in Easi, Africa, and there the telegraph office at once began to be busy. Does , Bpmfl), member of the gartjj; the

knowledge of Mr. Roosevelt) trail % telephone wire from Mombasa to the lairs of the lions? Or is Mombasa picked up by wireless as soon as a noble leonine hea-d bites the sands under Mr. Roosevelt's unerring aim? The great huntsman, who is to get two dollars a word for a personal narrative of his exploits, has warned press trespassers off his preserve, but the doings of the eeeker of exhibits for the Smithsonian Institute are displayed, in hoarding style, in American papers, day by day. So far as the world can see Mr. Roosevelt has one foot in New York and the other in Africa. < He is in the desert' and in Broadway simultaneously. Was evera hunting expedition of old so wonderful? Were ever lions more famously killed? The shades of Nimrod, Eeau, Bahrain, Stanley, Livingstone may be in a rare state of commotion by thesemodern developments. With such subtlety as comes to rulers in countries where rival "In the interests clash, Mr. MurAbstract." ray, Premier of Victoria, answered the deputation from the Trades Hall, which urged that at the beginning of each year the price of flour and bread for the ensuing twelve months should be gazetted. Mr. Murray said he "agreed with the deputation in the abstract, but public opinion was not ripe for the change." What did the Premier mean by "in the abstract"? Did he indicate that it would be a good and glorious thing to know in January that the price of bread in December would be at a modest 3d the 21b loaf. It would indesd be a comfort for the consumer to have the staff of life a fixture in the corner, with the certainty of a uniform substantial length for 6d. But this dream is a thing of which the business of wheatgrowing will take no account, just now. To fix a price for such a variable, commodity as wheat for twelve months implies the placing of an industry in a strait-jacket. The sequel, apparently, would be that the State would have to take charge of the bread business, from seed to cottage-loaf, but even then the price would not necessarily be known definitely in advance, for the business mi?ht be run at a loss, to be borne .by tho breadeaters. It is very likely, therefore, that the Trades Hall's scheme must remain in that beautiful dream-land, "in tho abstract," for an indefinite time to come. The proposal is characteristic of the attitude of some sections of tho Labour Party towards mighty problems in economics. They see an evil wrought by gambling in "futures" on the American and oth^r, stock exchanges, and they imagine that the cure lies in an Act of Parliament to fix prices- over a long period. Governments may do something to check deplorable gambling inithe people's food, but they who see* to check "gambling in futures" cannot themselves indulge in "gambling in futures" by fixing prices twelve months ahead.