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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 26 April 1907, Page 1

Ail official Report of the last Inter, national Working Men's Congress, held I in Vienna, has just bei-n issuc-1 by the i Commonwealth Government ai a Parliamentary paper. Sir J. A. Cockburn, ' the representative of the Commonwealth I was the chairman, and in tho course cf i his address he made interesting allusions ' to' industrial legislation in Australia. i Referring to tho old-agepensiouß acts in JNew South Waks fliid Victoria, he Eaid that no direct contribution towards the ! payment of these pensions is required from either the employer or the employee, tha obl : gation being regarded as one concerning the whole community. Australians, lib said, inclined to tho view that the mero fact of having borne the burden of life for 65 years constituted b sufficient claim to support from the slate. In snppoit of hs ad vocacy of these systems, Sir John GcekbUrn said that men would not be so eagtr to seize their fellows by tho throat if thay wero sfire that their declining years would bo free from privation for themselves find their families. Mr Charles Stedman Hanks has just ] placed before tho Chamber of Cummtice a striking summary of tho results of an investigation of data collected by ' the Inter-State Commorce Commission (tays "The Tribune's " Boston correspondent). Mr Hanka declares that if the present ordtr of things continues " it will only be a question of time when our corporations will have the absolute : ownership of the property of this . country." Already, he estimates, they ' control nearly a quarter of it. The latest census report givea the total national wealth in l'JOl (I convert tho figures approximately) at 221,421 millions, an increase of one third in four years. Of I this immense aggregate £22id lies in ' tha steam railroad corporations, .£1976 millions in mnniifnctunng eorpcralions, ' £730 millions in iudustn.:l corporations otl.er than, manufactures, .£441 millions I in strset railroad corporations, .£lBO • millions in private gas and electric light coi porations, £160 millions in telegraph and telephone corporations. Of the re- j mainder of the business wealth of ths country J6BOO millions is real and per- > sonal property belonging to municipalities, J51003 millions tfee property of religious, charitable, and educational corporations, *275 millions the surplus ana undivided property of our ua ional banks, and about as much more that of State and private, banks and loan ai.d trust companies : while £uOO millions is the estimated value of mines. Another 15 per cent of the total belongs to other opmpanies, so that ;it is fair to say that only about 60 per cent of the property of this country is now in the control of our people." VVorse 6till, •' more than seven-eighths of it is owned by less than 1 per cent of our population, leaving on9-eighth for the remaining 99 per cent of the people. Further, we know that of the total annual income of this countrj one-half goes to one-tenth of our people, and that the other halt is divided among the remaining niuc-ionths."