The Evening Star SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 1930. RED THURSDAY.

Evening Star, Issue 20428, 8 March 1930, Page 14

The Evening Star SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 1930. RED THURSDAY.

Uxkmj’T.ovmknt Day was organised by the Communists as a world-wide demonstration. Under existing economic conditions, which in most civilised countries present much the same characteristics, varying in intensity according to the degree of industrialisation reached, it was quite possible that such an occasion might easily develop into revolution. Apparently the authorities everywhere were well prepared. Police were mobilised in the centres where most trouble was likely to occur, and in the breaking up of processions and Jispersal °* mass meetings there were some broken heads. But only in Berlin is there any loss of life mentioned, and there only two persons were killed when the police had recourse to their revolvers. In some United States downs the police, as they have done during recent riots, made use of tear-gas bombs, a weapon before which a mob is practically defenceless. Curiously enough. from Chicago, which has earned notoriety for its almost chronic lawlessness, “no disorder of any kind ” is reported. Jn general, -the summing up of the historians of the outbreak is that on the whole it was not considered serious. There can he read into that verdict fay those who are mindful of censorships and occasional suppression of.the 'full truth for general consumption where the facts . are awkward, a cer- . tain air of reservation. But, after making allowance for such a possibility, and taking also into account the deterrent effect of repressive preparations by the authorities, it is notable how small a proportion of the workless and of the dissatisfied workers publicly took their stand under tlie Communist banner. To-day, where Communism is involved, one naturally searches, Russia as a source of inspiration, and as a would-be director of destruction throughout the world by means of local agents taking their instructions from Moscow. For years past, in general,, and during tho last few weeks in particular, ■ Russia, by reason of her conduct of her own country’s affairs, has not obtained a particularly alluring advertisement. Peasants by the thousand are leaving the country and crossing the frontiers absolutely destitute, because they find survival, under the Boviet’s “ new economic policy ” as applied to primary production quite impossible. And they leave .behind them the dead bodies of neighbours who were unwise enough to indulge in resistance instead of precipitate flight and the abandonment of all worldly possessions and prospects. Again, in most parts of tho civilised world at 'present there is contemplated a day of universal prayer for Russia, because of her Government’s diabolical religious persecution. The. exact scope and intensity of it is not accurately known, for categorical denials -have been made to some of the statements in what is complained of as being deliberately organised anti-Soviet propaganda. Yet mankind has still use for the age-long proverb that where there is smoke there is fire. Probably the most bitter disappointment is felt in high Soviet circles over Friday finding the world not much different for the incidents of “Red Thursday.’’ The relative failure of the demonstrations must not be taken as ending, even temporarily, the potential dangers arising from what appears to those passing through it to bo as serious an economic crisis as tho world has ever passed through In olden times crises comparable in severity were mostly traceable to famine.. To-day, because of the system of world transport and finance, crop failure even in one hemisphere does not necessarily raho tho spectre of starvation. By many investigators one of the main causes of the poverty of an unusually largo section of whole communities is stated to bo over-production. Man lias evolved the machine, and the machine in some aspects is developing tho traits of a master instead of a servant. Machinery did not inaugurate the phenomenon of unemployment, hut promoted it from a minor irritation to one of tho chief plagues of mankind. “ One man and a machine replace ten hand workers ” is tho motto of the Power Age.. A minor example of it was provided in tho cabled news that tho Hororata has just left. London for New Zealand with automatic firing of her boilers replacing the human stoker. At our own doors an industry can be cited where modern machinery enables tho output to he trebled by a th'rd of the former number of employees, which is equivalent to one man being needed instead of nine; and this change has taken place within only the last month or so. It is only within recent years that the mandisplacing effect of machinery has been felt. Tho initial introduction of machinery into England caused no not unemployment, hut the reverse. As prices of manufactured goods fell, Britain’s foreign trade increased, and human labour was needed to cope with the demand. But now machinery has spread all over the world. One reads constantly of new plants being installed in such countries as India and Japan. Tho consequence is over-production, with an increasing number of countries seeking export markets for their surplus production among a decreasing humber of countries willing to admit importations. Though Governments in different countries have not been seriously shaken by tho protests of Unemployment Day, they remain face to face with tho basic fact of which it was meant as a reminder and a warning. As a somewhat obscure American journal acutely remarked in discussing the “prosperity outlook” for 1930; “ Drastic measures will be required to meet tho problem. A nation whoso chief economic problem is over-supply cannot, without being self-convicted of criminal callousness, permit any part of its people to suffer from undcrsupply. The time is not fur off, wo believe, when employment statistics will supplant financial statistics as tho measure of the nation’s prosperity