OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

Evening Star, Issue 14515, 5 November 1910, Page 12

OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

THK GREAT MUCK QUESTION*. Tho Minister of Works, Mr Arthur Griffith, says that he is out to smash tho brick combine, whereat small builders and contractors are inclined, somewhat prematurely, to rejoice. Tho bigger men are not so jubilant, for they aro shareholders in the combine aforesaid, and they havo been giving the small men a lively time. They have not only to pay a prico which they believe to lie exorbitant, but to submit 10 dictation in other matters which ought to bo under their own control. For instance, one builder says that ho was threatened with the refusal'of any ordinary bricks because ho had ventured to use concrete bricks in the construction of a house. Ono can quite understand peoplo saying: •• If wo are to havo tyranny of this kind, let it bo the tyranny of the Government." But they forget that tyranny of any kind ought to be unthinkable in a country that professes to be free. Mr Griffith 6ays that ho is going to erect Government brick works and supply the public with cheap bricks. It sounds weß till it is critically examined. It is quito possible that by careful manipulation of tho accounts it might be possible to make the Government bricks appear cheap, and to sell them at a low prico accordingly. Wo havo seen something of this kind in connection with other State concerns which, with less justification, enter into competition with the taxpayers who find tho money which tho officials spend. But in the long run it is pretty certain that bricks made under the " Government stroke" would cost moro than bricks made under private enterprise, and that the taxpayer, sooner or later, will awake to the moiistrosity which is being perpetrated at his expense. "My tronbles," says the builder, " so long as the combine gets a knock, and wo get cheap bricks, the future look out for itself." Now. this is just, tho fallacy that a Government should exposo aud withstand, instead of eagorly rushing to pander to it. TYRANNY. There is another question. The brick combino are autocratic. But their autocracy is nothing to that of the Government departments when they get full control, as everyone who has to transact business with them can testify. Nominally the departments aro run by the peoplo and for the people. In reality they are run by the officials who control them, and there is quito as much of the spirit of domination and pragmatism about tho public official as about any man who is engaged in private business. Indeed, thero is more, as a general rule. Xo man can succeed in business without, at tho commencement at any rate, considering tho convenience of the public. The official is under no such obligation. All his responsibility is to his superiors, and they usually acquire a very "forthwith" modo of dealing with the "inferior" people whom they are supposed to represent. Wlien builders have to depend on officials for tlieir bricks they will find that they are out of the frying pan only to find themselves in tho fire. It is always the destruction of competition which gives vantage ground and opportunity to commercial tyranny. Wo seo this in strong force in "aggrcssivo" trade unionism, in industrial and commercial combines, and in monopolies, whether run by the State, or, like the gasworks, by private persons. The degreo in which they are freo from the fear of. free competition is, roughly speaking, the measure of their rapacity ' and audacity. A State monopoly involves the complete destruction of an invaluable safeguard. NEW BTIOOMS.

Some of tho new Ministers havo given an rainest of their sincerity by plainly stating their attitude and intentions in their several departmetns. Mr Nielsen, for instance, has already delivered a shrewd blow at freehold tenure. Labor candidates who wished -to persuade their hearers that thero is nothing in the '• nationalisation" pl»nk can. however, breathe freely, despite tho exposure. Those who were elected aro safe for three years, and thoso who wero not elected havo no further interest in the matter. Mr Beeby, too, tells us th it ho is going to administer tho industrial law with vigor. This is as i', should be, though it is quito possible that it may not tun out precisely as ho wishes. Nothing brings out tho true tendency of legislation like stringent administration. Mr Booby has a shrewd idea that tho law is being evaded in a wholesalo mannor. He is going to havo fresh inspectors appointed, with more inqiisitorial powers than they now possess, and a crusade is to be instititei against persous who find it convenient to work on terms not specified by the awards. Some of tho religionists of tho bad old days had a maxim to tho effect that if persecution failed to extirpate heresy it was because they did not persesit'} enough. _ It is qnito logical, though not a very bright look-out for the persons who are to bo harried. But in may be regarded as evidenco of sincerity, even if in a mistaken cause. And in days so limp and flabby as these, sincerity is something to be thanlcfr.l for. The trouble with industrial legislation hitherto has been ihat while Dick, Tom, and Harry wero jubilant in tho thought. that others wero to be made to " sit up," io did not enter their minds that they might be made to sit up themselves. The. new Minister for Labor promises to change all that. They desired change. He will soon make them dodre a ehango in another direction, which is the normal cycle of Australian politics. ON THE PULSE. Labor is now presiding over the body politic. Thoughtful observers who are not partisans, but who are prepared to givo due credit to the new power if it acts wisely, are asking whether it understands tho position. Tho body politic is a living, pulsing organism By its activities come all tho prosperity and all the happiness and delight in life, so far as they depend on prosperity, that wo can expect. But all its activities, fraught with such far-

reaching consequences, depend on individual volitions and actions. These, in their turn, are not isolated or self-centred. Thoy are the result of mutual agreement. They are services rendered, one to another t for mutually satisfactory considerr.tion. The more activity, the moro-prosperity. So also tho mora freedom, tho moro activity. When third parties come in with ideas of . their own as to what other people shall j do; and succeed in embodying their ideas I in penal enactments, then just to the exj tent that these enactments become really operative it seems morally certain that a check must be administered to this pulsing r.clivity, and therefore to the prosperity ' that, flows from it. It is not in human I nature to be as energetic under dictation I as when it is free, especially when the dic- ; tat ion takes the form of extortionate re ■ ouirements. It is curiously instructive, however, to note that those who are be- ' \ ginning to feci tho thraldom most keenly - j are also most eager to fetter others by • j similar cast-iron "conditions and stipulations. II —On Thorns.— ■ I Mr K J. Young, the Deputy P.M.G., I mt'.st havo spent a bad half-hour listening -' to the tale of the' doings, or misdoings, of ' his department on election day and there- ' after, as recounted by the conference of I country newspaper men on Thursday. One 5 after another got up and told how teJc- ' grams lodged on tho nijiht of the election 1 did not reach their destination till noon | next day, though tho people thronged the • streets expectant till after midnight. Some ' got tho first side of a long message, and had to wait twelvo hours or so for the re- ■ j mainder. Although the country offices ! paid high rates for telegraphic intelligence, i yet in numbers of cases the Sydney news- | papers containing the news wero delivered i before the local papers could be put into | iho hands of their readers. Thero was not ! a great deal of comfort in Mr Young's reply. Magrant cases of delay, ho assured ; his hearers, would be strictly inquired ! into. For the rest, ho asked them to re- ! member that it is impossible to effect reforms suddenly. Jt was reassuring to learn that there is now no scarcity of money. But there seems to be a scarcity : of competent men to do tho work that is ! required. Tho telegraphic troubles did'not. occur a few years ago as they do now. ; They eeom to date from the introduction jof tho "urgent" message, which takes ! precedence of all otheis. It follows that J if there arc a sufficient number of "urgent" ' messages nothing at Press rates will come ; through at all, and the public may whistle | for its ne.v.-?. But the news is looked for bv thousands, whilst tho "urgent" mes- ' sago is usually of little benefit to anyone but the sender and receiver. It would seem only reasonably public-spirited to make provision for the transmission of imIKirtant items of news on the "urgent" basis. i —A Big Contract.— 1 Peoplo whose interests arc centred about Granville and Parramatta aro jubilant. One of the very last acts of tho outgoing Government, in" keeping with the spasm of •'give everything to everybody" which marked tlieir dying moments, was to let a contract to the Clyde Company for the construction of fifty locomotive engines. If there are not sufficient skilled artisans in the State to do the work—and it seems certain there ate not—then they will have to bo imported from elsewhere. Butwill if. be i>ossible to keep them employed? If not, what will they do? This is an ago in which it is deemed a sign of insanity to look beyond tho end of one's nose. Therefore no* answer to these questions is forthcoming. All thingfi aro lovely for the present. What more can the most exacting require? 'Jno worst that is expected to happen now is that tho shipyards and machinery works are likely to be short of men, and to have to pay" very high rates for work deficient in quantity and inferior in qualify. But the real pinch will come when there are too many men and too little work for them. Mr Wade would havo been well advised (though probably Mr Nobbs does not think so) if he had either been content to operate on a smaller 6cale, or else to leave the contract to his successors in office. Once an industry of this character is started on a certain basis, a strong obligation to keep it going on that basis or better is created. We are a people who profess to be anxious above all things to promote closer settlement in the country, yet wo pour out public money' like water" to keep them at work near the cities, I and to impart an arbitrary prosperity to I certain suburban centres, j October 28.