NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 11542, 29 November 1900, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Crowned headte are being called upon to participate by messages of panegyric and prophecy in ceremonies of much pomp and circumstance, -which in 27,000 cities and towns of America will, on the last night of 1900, speed the old century in passing, and on the first morning of 1901 greet the new with acclamations. It is a gigantic celebration of the centuries that is planned, and in all its details it is worthy of the unfet- j tered 'imagination of that .large hnd of j wealth and! wealth-destroying hurricanes. The Red Cross Society of America needs £100,000, and it proposes to get that sum by seeing the old year cut «nd the new year in at 27,000 v atch meetings. At each of these meetings messages to America, and to the world for that matter, from the greatest men and women of the time will be read. They will be terse communications, touching en the deeds of time past, and expressing the hope for the future. The prevalent idea that a century is a natural division of time that is born, waxes strong, and dies, gives this plan a grip on the imaginations of the public. One century will die and another be born that night, and rightly enough it is expected that everyone will be eager to hear what verdict great minds give on the past, and what they presage for the future. Emperor William and the Czar have promised messages, and the Queen has graciously promisee! to consider the request. Major Higbie, of Chicago, an officer of the Red Cross Society, is in London arranging for the collection of messages. The American Embassy is aiding him. The world is being covered in similar fashion. The Prince of Wales, Lord Salisbury, Mr. Rudyard Kipling, Lord Kelvin, all the leaders of the waning century, are to give messages. These messages are to be kept secret, and placed in sealed packets. The four great American express companies, which have offices in 27,000 cities and towns, will handle the packets. In each town they will arrange a watch night meeting. A sealed packet will be delivered to the manager of the meeting for £5. He can charge what admission he desires, and pocket the proceeds, but the Red Cross has £5 sure. From 27,000 meetings the Red Cross would net £135,000. The contents of the packets will be read to the audiences, which will hear messages from Queen, and King, and) Kaiser, and Emperor, statesmai, poet, orator, historian, and scientist. In New York and Chicago immense meetings will be held, and the names of the message givers will be printed in electriclight upon the walls. Much has been heard of the famous Gothenburg system, but the Bergen folk have not been less successful with iheii own little scheme. You rarely rnd an intoxicated man in this bright and interesting town today. Thirty years or so sirce he was the most familiar spectacle. The Bergen authorities, taking advantage of the law passed! by the Storthing, bought up the rights of all dealers of spirits in the town. Next there was started a company called Bergens Samlay for Bravndevinshandel, which, under the supervision of the magistrates, took over the entire management of the retail spirit trade of the town. . This company did not ask for any privileges in regard to the sale of beer, which remained free to everybody in Bergen. Nor did the company receive or ask for, any control over the wholesale trade in wine and spirits. The new company proceeded to establish 12 places in Bergen where spirits and wine are sold. The manager of each house is paid by salary, and has no interest whatever in the sale of the liquor. The manager must not sell more than one glass of schnapps to each customer. Consequently, if a man desires to get thoroughly drunk he has to travel round the town from liquor shop to liquor shop. Even then he is likely to be defeated in his object, for directly Ire shows signs of having had more than enough, he is sent away without getting his schnapps by the manager ot each shop he visits. If the manager sells to an intoxicated man he is liable to severe penalties. How Well this system works is shown by the fact that very many thousands of applications for drink have been refused in the course of the year. A Bergen boozer or a visitor to the city, can, no doubt, by

walking from place to place, get mora than i giod for him, but it is next 10 imposs: e f*r him to get gloriously drunk on spiri • Within the space of two years, the gale f spirits in Bergen dropped by onehalf The shareholders In the Bergens : Sam v get a dividend of 5 per cent, for their I mon . and no more. The remainder of | the "ofits are devoted to public purpose*. ! By ! ink the authorities have planted rows of nl trees in their town ; by clink bourht I man; books for their library; by drink erect 1 workmen's dwellings ; by drink asi sists the Children's Home and by drink , start ['and kept'up an institution for fallen i worn . (n conclusion, it may be pointed out t it the Bergen folk made not the least I fuss ' outcry when this liquor reform was I effect i They accepted it quietly, and ! have ever seriously agitated for any altera, tior. ; the law. Its success has been complete In be Review of Reviews Mr. Stead, in an aiicle on the general election, has an inters ing reference to the way American politica parties set about educating the elector befc i a Presidential election. He says: — j "Wen the Democratic party decided to maW tree silver the issue in the Presidential ! elec on four years ago, the Republican mesj senfrs found themselves confronted with | the July of educating an electorate stretching |rom Maine to California, and numbering lany millions, most of whom had hardly any Acquaintance with the reality of the econinic questions involved in the problem of to currency. To educate a nation of 70 mllions as to the fundamental facts underling the currency question, was a task from vhich any but Americans might well have *;oiled. Instead, however, of recoiling. tliy set on foot a campaign of education tht memory of which Should never be forgotta. It is an encouragement and inspiratiol to all who believe in democracy and refuse to despair ot government of the people. W the people, and for the people. All the (faculties which confront us in attempting m educate our electorate are the merest chti's play compared with those which the republican managers successfully overcame. To begin with, our general elector, in wbtever part of the three kingdoms he ;ides, has a common language. In Wales, to doubt, some candidates may find it necisary to address their constituents in Wish ; but with that exee|'t ; on there is no necessity to print our electoral literature ii any language but English. In the United wStates the campaign literature had to be isiied in no fewer than 10 different languages -4 namely, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Swedish. Norwegian, Finnish, Dutch, Hebrew, and. of course. English. When i was at The Hague I had an opportunity bearing a good deal about the way in which; the literature department of the Republican campaign was worked from Mr. Holls. wh held a position of great importance in diecting the work of propaganda, especially among the foreign-horn citizens or the: United States. The first thing that diffeentiates the American campaign of educaion from the miserable and piffling attempt! made to educate our electorate was the -Etct that they had an un limited command of funds. Mr. Hanni levied apparentlyat discretion upon the mil lionaires ot the party for contributions t< the campaign find, and almost the whol( of that money wis spent in paper and ink. During the campaign the Republican National Committee issued over 2CO.Cn ) 000 publications hi die kind and another, besides about an extra 50.000.C00 which were sent out from the headquarters at Washington. This literature was usually distributed from the Central Committees of the State. About 20,000 express packages of documents were shipped, nearly 6000 freight packages, while half-a-million packages went through the post. But they did not by any means confine themselves to the distribution of literature specially prepared and printed by the Bureau of Publication and Printing. They devoted infinite, attention to the task ot utilising the country newspapers in very State in the Union. The journals of the country were divided into categories. The first, with an aggregate weekly circulation of 1,650.000, received «very week three anc" a-half columns of specially prepared matter. The second category, with a circulation of a million, received their campaign copy in stereoplates ; and the third class, with a circulation of three millior.s per week, .vere supplied with specially i-epared articles from headquarters, which they published in the rest of their reading matter ; while the fourth class received special supplements ready printed for distribution with their sheet. It was calculated tha"; five mi'lion families every week received newspapers a various kinds containing political matter issued from the Republican Bureau. But tin's was only one department of activity oi these men who undertook the task ot acting as political and economical schoolmasters to a whole nation, while it is probable that their posters, their cartoons, their pictorial placards did quite as much to drive their conclusions home as the more carefully printed arguments in their leaflets and their newspaper articles. The Republican Committee in 1896 issued about 500 different political posters, many of which were admirably printed in five colours, and which, when displayed upon hoardings throughout the country, made every street a political picture gallery for the instruction of the electors. Nor was it only in posters that they displayed their ingenuity. The caricaturists in every newspaper vied with one another in pointing a moral and emphasising the lesson that their leaders on the platform and the press were endeavouring to bring nome to the mind and conscience of the people. Such was the campaign of education as carried out in America in 1896.