THE WEEK.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LVII, Issue LVII, 19 August 1910, Page 4

THE WEEK.

Although no definite statement has been made concerning the progress tn,n is being effected by members of the Veto Conference, the mere fact that they are still sitting lends color to the newspaper inferences that the opposmg parties do not, after all, find themselves in situations of uncompromising hostility. And, as the Spectator, in ■».&• issue of June 25 points out, the act of meeting together on this great constitutional question gives a demonstration of the "value of the spirit of compromise. It is hardly too much to say that it is the spirit of compromise whijh has secured Ijhe success of the British Empire. Englishmen have an instinctive feeling that there a»e very iu\v principles which can safely be driven to their logical conclusion, and they habitually act upon this instinct without reasoning about it. Yet the purest reason, may be appealed to to show that the instinct is a sound one. For in tl'u complexities of human life there is necessarily such a multitude of conflicting causes tha«fc it is almost imp )ssible to discover any definite principle which qnn be adhered to without exception. The utmost we can in practice do is to mark out the lines upon which it is desirable that individuals or societies should move, and keep as close to them as possible. That is virtually what the ordinary Englishman means bj^jpris distrust of logic, although this distrust, as usually expressed, amounts to little more than an exqpse for loose thinking. The conflict lies between the illogical attempt to treat principles as if they were of universal application, and the desire to secure peace and progress by adapting principles to tlip practical conditions which have to I c faced." Of course the Conference may arrive at no arrangement thoroughly acceptable to a majority of both parties, but it will be surprising if the discussion again becomes as violent as it was just prior to the death of the King. Tho spirit of Compromise appears to haye worked with ' sweet persuasiveness. A rather important aspect of the suffragette agitation at Home has been very properly given prominence by Mr Lloyd George. The Chancellor of the Exchequer voted, it may be remembered, againat the granting of Avoman suffrage and during the course of 'an ad dress to the oarnarvon Women's Liberal Association he appears to have fell himself bound to explain his conduct. His explanation, if it did not please his lady hearers, doubtless satisfied many that in opposing Mr Shackleton's Bill he was not a "traitor to democracy and womanhood." Mr Lloyd George declared tliat Mr Shacklcton's Bill was an undemocratic measure, bpcause it proposed to give a vote to every woman with property, whereas barely one-tenth of the working womon have any. To extend the franchise ti women when the easiest qualification is the occupation of lands or tenements worth at least £10 a year, or of lodgings of the same value, would obviously play into the hands of the propertied classes. A rich man could, with the aid of the family solicitor, qualify his wife and daughters out of his grea;o possessions, while the poor man might not havo value enough to spare for more than himself. With the democratic franclicise in New Zealand the iss le was a simple one when it came to a question of extending the franchise to women, but in England, where man- ( hood of itself is not entitled to a vote, the position is much more difficult. .\o doubt some day tho electoral basis of Britain will be recast. The report that President- Taft has made terms with the "insurgents" of the Republican party closes for the time being a most unsettling dispute The Administration is not. to help Mr Joseph Cannon's re-election to the Speakership. "Uncle Joe," Speaker and "boss" of the Federal House oi Representatives, has been for the pat.t six years the most powerful figure (apart from the President) in American politics. It was tho votes of the twenty-five insurgent Republicans, adJled to the strength of the Democrats, which brought about the downfall of the Speaker, and Cannonism is iio more. In explaining the position re ccntly the Melbourne Argus said that to understand the situation it must he remembered that in the United States the Speaker of the House of Representatives is the active head of the majority party. As such, ho is in a measure responsible for carrying into effect tho legislative programme of the majority. But Uncle Jq© has iuterpretec] his pow-

ers and responsibilities in a way that would indicate his belief that he himself is the party, and the rank and file mere automatons By his privilege of appointing the members of xhe committees that consider aIL Bills before they are introduced in the House, Speaker Cannon has forwarded or stilled legislation according to his own sweet will. Of all the committees ,the one most powerful in the manipulation ot legislation is the Committee on Rules. And I it was in a fight to a finish over this Committee tha«c Cannon met his Waterloo. By a vote of 181 to 164 the House decided that a committee 011 rules should be named by the House itself, and not by the Speaker. Furthermore, it decided that the Speaker should not be a member of the committee. A motion was made by a member of the Democrat party calling on the Speaker ;o resign. Most of the insurgents, however, voted with 'the regular Republicans, and the motion was defeated. Cannon is personally most popular, and there was no wish to in-ess the matter to his degradation. lsy ousting him from control of the ' Committee on Rules it was felt that the Speaker's wings had been clipped close enough. 'ho practical effect of the defeat of tho Speaker will be to make it more difficult to stifle legislation introduced 03 members honestly desirous of the goo- 1 of the people. It also means that the control of the Republican party will probably pass over to its more Radical wing — the men who swear by Roosevelt, and are opposed to the corporate interests that so often shape legislation to suit themselves. The disastrous fire which occurred at the Great International Exhibition ;.tBrussels adds another to an .already long list of conflagrations of a like kind. At the Melbourne Exhibition in 1907 that extensive and picturesque pile known as the Exhibition Buildings had a narrow escape. The old Exhibition Buildings in Sydney, in Brisbane and in Hobarv, were all destroyed. At Milson Exhibition, 1906, there was a most destructive outbreak while a series of fires did extensive damage at the World's Fair at Chicago. The latest estimate of the damage at the Brussels fire is £2,000,000, but this i? probably much exaggerated. A cable a day or two ago represented the British loss at £100,000 but a.message to-day gives it as only £2500, covered by insurance. It is rather distressing to learn that it was a watchman who was responsible for the blaze, ashes from his careless pipe being the cause. At first a defeat in an electric wire was held responsible. Of course accidents will- happen but exhibition promoters should have learnrrt by now that some organisation to check fire in case of fire is essential. At Brussels the fire-fighting seems to have been a dreadfully muddled- business. Parliament has occupied a good deal of valuable time during the p.ast three weeks discussing the Financial Statement. As usual the opportunity whs availed of by members to talk. Most of the speeches were duplicates of platfoam utterances, containing little or nothing that was new and adding no thing to the sum of political knowledge. Protests against this waste of time in the earlier part of the session havo been made so frequently that to repeat ..them would, be. as fruitless as tht speeches themselves. Indeed the waste seems just as inevitable as the sessionend rush which always has been and' (we ire afraid) always will be experienced. The temptation to say ov->r again in Parliament what they have frequently said outside is apparently irresistible to the average politician. 1 This weakness', however, may be a special dispensation of providence, for it Parliamentarians were not engagvl in reiteration, they would perhaps bi occupied in unnecessarily swelling thn already heavily burdened statutes. Still the Dominion would prefer to ste our representatives more profitably em ployed. This week Taranaki has settled down in sober earnest to meet the approaching rash of work. The weather has been less propitious and on Thursday, besides being wintry jn character, there was an unusual experience of thunder and lightning. ,