NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15025, 21 June 1912, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

t . .. 'O e' ? ' ' " • , r THE " PRESIDENTIAL FIGHT IN 0 " AMERICA. Every Presidential election, says the London Tunes, has, a greater bearing than V the last upon human Interests throughout 0 tho world and however 'imperfectly we r may understand'the why and wherefore of j. the! things that happen across the Atlantic, ■ their . happening must have"' consequences l ~ . elsewhere that directly concern the weln fare of vast and remote populations. . Ate tention is at present concentrated upon the 1 fight for nomination going on within the i. Republican party. That Mr, Roosevelt is proving himself the. stronger fighter, from 3 tho party point of view can hardly be y doubted by any one who realises the imL- mouse change effected in his position durj. -ing the last two months, or who notes how powerfully his oratory affects the people 0 at large in comparison with the quieter c appeals of the President. On the other i- hand,, the cleavage iii; the Republican party lS goes so deep that the distinction between , Republicans and Democrats has lost much '. of its importance. The party names have, 11 in fact, . cea6ed to have any real signifi- . e eance, and the struggle may very well turn >, upon contending principles, both of which j have large bodice of adherents in both » parties. If Mr. Roosevelt wins the Re- ' publican nomination, ..the. Democrats will, 0 in all probability, put up a Conservative .fc chanipieh. ;. 'If.' Mr. 1 Taft .carries the day 0 it will be 'the Democratic policy to appeal Q to the Radical feeling in both parties. _' Either way the struggle will be between ' " principles which divide "both parties, 13 though it will-too doubt be complicated by y .survivals of. loyalty to the. party -names r and watchwords for which men have been 1 accustomed to fight. .Almost anything is ' possible at, a' time . when, new forces are breaking through the cruet of conventions, I There is a. great deal more in, issue than is r covered by, differences -of attitude towards j. the ' " bosses." There ' is /' apparently growing dissatisfaction With certain features of the • State and ' with the '£ obstacles they put 'in the way of social i- legislation. Air. Roosevelt has made himQ self the exponont of that dissatisfaction. He does not commit himself to any pre- . ciso method of removing the bar to neces-. h sarji .change, but he, stands :for^.the pripie ciple that* the . State Courts shall not, in £ some respects, /exercise .what in practice is 6 legislative control. By eome considered ' form of™ Referendum' he desires that the ? people shall be able to confirm a law suited >© to their needs, even though a State Court t- declares it' * technically unconstitutional. e The practical control of the Legislature by the Courts, which is peculiar to.the Aineri- ; can. Constitution, does not fit in with l " modern needs; and Mr., Roosevelt has had e the sagacity ; to identify . himself with a if demand for reform which is bound to grow 0 in strength. The change may come soon or late; in the present conflict of force® a it'is impossible to predict the date. 1- . ' J" A BISHOP'S OUTLOOK ON SOCIAL . •• , REFORM. : - Bishop Gore, speaking at a dinner in c his honour, told a story of one' of his morn's ing; walks. Ho said : — I had not got my [;. episcopal togs on, .and I was 'therefore e . not recognisable. When a considerable distance from home I saw a man sitting , down by the side of a field, and I got • into conversation with him. He was occopied in the intellectual occupation of n scaring rooks off a cornfield. I ascertained that he ,had two sisters, who had gone to Canada, and s he was thinking of going himself. ,I asked him what it was that led him to think of this, and he said, 'Well, I think-that chaps like' us have not got much chance in these parts.' Weil, now," e continued the Bishop, " I fancy there are x _ vast numbers of our countrymen who are v saying that in different words. I am quite sure that the one task to which the nation 6 has got to set itself is to see that ' chaps' d, of all kinds should have a hope and a II chance, and, a sense that life was before [ s them and was worth living, and that they k could make the best of themselves. That is- my outlook on social reform. To make 0 our industry efficient, the first thing wo l- have to do is to consider, tho extent of rea- ', sonable, justifiable hopelessness in which n the great masses of the labourers at present live, and that ah increase of hope for 3 them would be an : increase of efficiency »• .for "industry." n ' —>—- - ' ' 6 * WILL IRELAND EVER GET HOME a RULE? 8 In the opinion of a leading London ' weekly it is very doubtful. Suppose, it : says, and it is an extreme supposition, that j- Unionist 'lea dership could keep the passion C of Ulster for two years from rising to flash q point. Suppose that an early appeal to the electorate of Great Britain could be suc--0 cessfully refused. Suppose that Unionists in both Houses proved to have hearts of l > Water, in spite 'of their bold words, and [- that the Home Rule Bill could be forced r through for . the third time without wrccking the Imperial Parliament itself. Sup* pose that Mr. Redmond's' party, by;their * "own Votes, should succeed under the Par- ® liament Bill in placing Home' Rule nomini- ally upon the Statute Book, to come into e operation at the earliest possible date, some time in 1915. We are presenting to iiie Ministerialists, it will be seen, every presumption that the most extreme Radical can -desire and the most sanguine can count upon.. Would that settle the matter Not, in the least. While there was chaos in Ulster,''the Dublin Parliament, as q a working institution, never could bo established. We cannot enter now into the practical details which make that fact cortain. The certainty of the fact is enough. 6 No new Parliament can be set up while s a-fourth of its subjects at least are in ree volt; while a' still" larger proportion of its revenue .iB refused; while the machinery of normal" political life is dislocated throughout' a /largo 1 part of'its ' territory. The 3 thing githply - cannot -bo "done.. We may

take it, then, that, even.:if- the most ; extreme Radical calculations upon the Parliament Bill are conceded, 1915 will be at ail end before any conditions can be established enabling an Irish 1 Parliament to exist. This means that nothing can prevent Ulster front holding out until another general election in, this country has been fought. If Unionists won that election, or even gained heavily upon their • present numbers, the Irish Parliamenteven if nominally placed on ~ the Statute Book under the Parliament Bill—would never come into real being. We are convinced that it never will. ». NON-STOP" RAILWAYS. A "non-stop'' railway system around the Aldwych site in the Strand, is the next development towards the solution oit London's traffic problem. In order that : the feasibility of safely loading and unloading passenger cars when moving at a constant speed of two or three miles per hour, may be determined, the London County Council have granted * to the'advocates'" of .the Atkins-Lewis, system a temporary use of their property. Mr. William Yorath Lewis, a jointinventor .of this ne# system of transport, stated recently that of the elec-. trical energy now consumed upon the average electric railway, only one per cent, was attributable to the weight of the passengers carried,, the remainder being used in starting and propelling the heavy rolling stock, or dissipated by the brakes in bringing the train to rest. Brake losses Mr. Lewii* estimated at no less than 33 per cent. With all this apparently wasteful expenditure Mr. Lewis - allowed that only a low : average speed was now obtainable, whilst to provide with the existing systems a service of sufficiently commodious and numerous trains to deal with dense : traffic streams heavy capital expenditure' and operating costs were inevitable. " Intermittency," he observed, " demanded heavy and bulky trains", with correspondingly long stations and spaciotis tunnels." The rolling stock had to be substantial to withstand the severe and the permanent way had to} be constructed with heavy feeder rails and elaborate signalling. The minimum distance between stations was half a miki, when twice as many stations to the mile were desirable, and even with the present interval a maximum schedule speed of only 1<) to 16 miles per .tour ; was obtained. ' The cost of subway train systems, Mr. Lewis estimated at £600,000 per mile, and the operating cost at between ,18d and .2d per mile. "Consequently," ho said, ."even at the prevailing high fare rates of .6d per passenger mile the receipts did not balance the costs, and further developments were held up in fill directions." ( In view of the demands <>f the future, said Mr. Lewis, in conclusion, "recourse must be made t6-the more sensible continuous plan of transit, becauue the difficulties attending the present cumbersome system did not there exist, and. the prospects of superior attainments were relatively much brighter." A model installation of the continuous service railroad to be constructed for public use in the Strand has been in successful operation at Ipswich for some months past. .