TOPICS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume 105, Issue 4, 6 January 1928, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

For the first time in Australia an aeroplane has been used to run down criminals —or perhaps on© should write to fly them down. When speed cars developed it appeared that a new and powerful weapon had been placed in criminals' hands, and in many countries—fortunately not in this one to any appreciable extent —that anticipation has been realised, for tho "getaway," always a ticklish portion of the desperado's job, has been facilitated to a remarkable degree. Moreover, the desperado has not always been traceable through tho abandoned car, since it is often the practice to steal not only the goods but also the conveyaneo to and from the place to bo raided —a jpractico that has morei than pneo. led

to tho arrest of entirely innocent carowners. Barely, however, lias a car boon employed in long-distance escapes in waterless country, in tho circumstances reported from tho QueenslandNorthern Territory border. On wide, unsettled tracts, with limited cover, tho airplane seems to be the ideal conveyance for carrying justice in pursuit of transgression. One disquieting thought, however, arises. What will happen when the crime-gangs themselves use aeroplanes'? Mr. Henry Ford has written that the day 'of personal j aviation, like personal motoring, is uohr at hand. Apparently the next Sherlock Holmes will be found studying charts of air-currents, and the heavy villain of the story will have tho eagle eye and the beak-like nose of "a typical bird-man." -:* * «- Christmas and the New Year, appear to have been chosen, probably by accident rather than design, for the distribution of communications from tho Commissioner of Taxes which are in no wise seasonable. The family man who at this season finds his income far i too small for the demands upon it has j the unpleasant surprise of an incometax assessment. Such assessments must, of course, be made, and it is not the j fault of the taxing officers that the notifications nre being sent out at this time of the year. But one fact is to j be noted. Income taxpayers in the professional, salaried, and small business classes have now clear and definite proof that the "adjustment" effected at the instance of the Minister of Finance has placed a heavier burden upon their shoulders. The Minister made light of this when the question was before Parjiament. Perhaps he then convinced the middle-class taxpayers that they would be required to pay only a trifling additional amount. They know now that the addition is substantial and much more than they may hope to receive back when the deferred Customs tariff remissions (which are shared by all classes) come into operation. The fact will not bo forgotten, and the taxpayers selected for this ;additional impost no doubt will, before and during next session, make their protest in no uncertain terms. After a long light it appears that Stalin has triumphed over Trotsky in the tussle for control of the Soviet Party organisation. Messages received in the last few days indicate a complete victory for the Stalinites. Trotsky and the other erstwhile leaders are now thrust into the outer darkness to which they themselves formerly consigned all who had the temerity to oppose the party in power. But tho Stalin triumph may be short-lived. Trotsky, and the men who have been expelled with him, are not ordinary opponents. They know the workings of J the machine, and at any time they may j grip the controlling lever. The uncertainty of political life in Eussia is j illustrated by the steps taken by the Stalinites for the complete suppression of their opponents. Following the revolution the monuments of Tsarism were smashed. Others were erected, but few in permanent materials. There are probably no effigies of Trotsky, to bo destroyed now that he is disgraced. But ho and other "renegade Leninists" have been honoured as their leader was by naming towns after them. Orders have now been issued to find new designations for these places. But in order to avoid trouble in futuro the new names to bo adopted are those of institutions and dead leaders, rather than those of living Communists "who may become renegades." Under the Soviet system no man is trustworthy while he is alive. Only when he is dead can his fidelity, or at least his harmlesaness, be certain. Bishop Barnes, in a New Year sermon, remarks that "the movement to restrict tho immigration of prolific people of a lower culture is gaining headway." His eyes are no doubt on tho United States, where prohibitions of various kinds are on trial, but the dispute over liquor takes so much of the limelight that the working of the quota system in immigration passes comparatively unnoticed. And yet it is a "Thou shalt not" law with tremendous import to the whole world as well as to America. To the whole world, because if the American legislation works out it will be copied; to the United States, because the economic influence of immigration has in the past been immense. "There can be no doubt (wrote D. D. Lescohier a few years ago in "The Labour Market'?) that the important cause of the increase in immigration in the last twenty-five years has been the necessity for more crude labour to work in conjunction with our labour-saving machinery and expanding capital in the development and utilisation of our national resources." Other writers of the period (about 1922) complained that, as between unskilled and skilled labour, a lino of cleavage and class feeling existed between the immigrant and the American workman, racial differences intensifying the difference between their industrial standings. Native-born, Amoricans were rarely among tne unskilled labour at big plants, and the immigrants were also intellectually incompatible, and not assimilable. "Approximately half of all immigrants return to their native lands." On these and similar arguments the quota restriction came into force. If the United States has benefited culturally, hare its industrial costs benefited, and how will'the change register in the export of American manufacturers? Again, what will be the ultimate reaction in crowded Southern Europe? Does not Mussolini ."present agitation about mandated territories, and room for surplus population^ find some of its cause in the Washington policy?