NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15307, 21 May 1913, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

HOW LABOUR. HITS. LABOUR. , It is a wise striker, . says the Sydney , Daily • Telegraph, that knows who will , suffer when he lays down his :■ tools. The , blow he aimed at his employer may hurt j also, not merely the general public, which, , of course, has no rights, ; but his own ] fellow-unionist. An example of this kind , of thing is going on just now. The South , Coast miners, who stayed out so long with - so little apparent cause, took vno account of the fact that their ceasing work would ( take the bread out of the mouths of v sym- , pathisers hundreds of miles off. But it .. has the mines at Cobarhave been forced , to close down because of a failure in their ■■ , coke' supply, due to the. South Coast strike. . Hundreds of men away ; in the north-west have become involuntary, if not u'nwillipg, ( partners in the industrial troubles of the Illawarra. Apparently the ; Cobar miners will remain out of : work for some timeThe Minister for Mine?, Mr. Edden, has done his best to see that the railway authorities shall send the coke to Cobar as soon as ever it is ready for the trucks, but nothing more •'can be done. It certainly is, as Mr. Edden says, a very great pity. But so are many other ill-effects that strikes bring constantly upon quite innocent people and little children who will not for a long while be. old enough to know who to blame. The industrial: activities of the whole community are so related that an ; interruption anywhere is bound not only to add a. little to the general ill-effect that often escapes all but the statistician's notice, though it mounts and mounts, but also, to cause trouble to crop up ' here and there in most: unexpected places. ,' :.■ ,';■'-.''- '•' .■.y-''^- v ;": '■ -- J. HANDWRITING DOOMED. V;The 'rapid deterioration arid disappearance of handwriting in modern business ; offices is testified to by London business men. " The penmanship of the applicants who have answered our advertisement f for clerks is so very poor," said ythe -manager of a prominent firm i recently, that we have begun to think good penmanship is a lost art. The almost universal use of typewriters to-day raises the interesting question as to whether, the world's handwriting is deteriorating." This firm is offering 75 guineas in prizes for specimens of handwriting sof -only four lines. -The I astounding decrease in the use of .the; pen is made apparent by the opinions of London business men, whose activities have been most affected by the change.. ''There ' is no question," said the ; manager .; of Clark's College, " that writing with a pen will be practically unknown in the business office in a very short time. ,;<• Five years ago the employer : took skill in writing more or less for granted, and> inquired as to an applicant's ability to use a typewriter. Now the query" is just the other way: Can the clerk use ■-. a J pen legibly ? .:Knowledge of : ,the typewriter; is assumed. Our students are still required to master penmanship, mainly ,as a matter of private accomplishment, but greater emphasis is put on; much more complex accomplishments." Machines are attacking the pen and inkstand in their' last strongs ; hold, namely, its use or i making entries, invoicing, billing, and posting ledgers. "With us," says the manager.; of the Elliott-Fisher Company, "it.,; is : not "a matter of competing; with . the • pen fwe mean; to abolish it completely. "There ; is nothing that can't be written by- machines arid written better' and quicker than the pen can do it. Our - American business brethren have been quicker to ■• see• this fact than Englishmen, _nd already the pen is practically unknown,, save for. signing letters, in large American business offices." There is plenty of evidence, too, : that the typewriter -is 5 invading ;' the journalistic, clerical, and even the social world. Most typewriter firms now provide ;{. machines with- big, bold J type for the preacher to read from in the" pulpit, with dainty; type for the social secretary ,or the college professor, italic type for the ; author, Sand square .typeft ' children. '■""English people," V says one typewriter ;'manager, " are still V somewhat conservative in; the matter of typed social correspondence, _ut it is only a matter of time before we will follow the lead of other nations, arid admit that breaking with an ' ancient - rule of social etiquette has been but a kindly effort to; save the time and spare .the tempers of our friends-"