NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19144, 9 October 1925, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

STATE FARMING FAILURE. A report by a select committee on the estimates of the British Ministry of Agriculture states that under the Act of 1919 the Ministry has engaged in direct farming operations. Arrangements were mad® to manage some of these farm settlements on a profit-sharing basis, but so far no profits have been available for distnbu tion. " The Ministry is greatly disturbed at the financial losses at the profit-shar-ing farm at Batrington, Yorkshire," says the committee. " Apart from the cost of it, it has been a very successful piece of work as a piece of practical land settlement. There is a very much larger population on the land than ever was employed before, living in good conditions in decent houses and with decent wages If it was the intention of Parliament to make such costly experiments, it is not for the committee to criticise the policy, but in its opinion it is right that thHonse of Commons and the country should realise the cost to the taxpayer at which this scheme has been maintained. The committee adds that negotiations are pending for disposal of several of the properties, and remarks that in its opinion " no new farming operations should t» carried out by the Ministry, and that any new small holding Bcheme that may be undertaken should be on an economic and self-supporting basis." THE CAUSE OF WAR. " The real ground for disappointment to-day is that what is usually described as modern progress, or modern civilisation, has not made for peace or abated the evil passions of men. We live in an age of extraordinary material progress," said the Bishop of Lincoln, preaching in Stockholm Cathedral to delegates to the conference of the World Alliance for promoting international friendship through the churches. He recalled that when the great exhibition of 1851 was opened it was hoped and believed by many that it would inaugurate an era of peace. The result had been far otherwise. Modem conditions should have made in the direction of peace, but there must be some causes that had not only neutralised these tendencies, but had beep potent enough, in spite of them, to plunge mankind in the mad mischief of war. " I believe such a cause can be found, and that, in a word, it is human pride. Man's conquest of the world of nature has been so sudden and so amazing that he has been intoxicated by the greatness of his own achievement," said the bishop. "Nationalism, which, if inspired by love, may be so noble a thing, if inspired by pride becomes a temper in a high degree dangerous and destructive. It has been frequently urged that one predominant cause of war is fear. Fear may lead to the accumulation of armaments, and so may make peace burdensome and war more terrible, but it is hardly fear which causes war. I am convinced that the root cause of war is far more often to lie found in national pride, and that it is the same pride which hindeis all the efforts of those who wculd seek peace."

AMERICAN LABOUR. One adventure into party politics has 1 been enough for the American I - ©deration of Labour, Its experience in the last presidential campaign has led the executive council of the federation to declare its conviction that " the launching of third party movements has been proved wasted effort arid injurious," and that labour to be successful must pursue a non-partisan political policy. The New York Outlook explains that the federation learned this lesson last year—and paid quite dearly for it. The long-standing policy was abandoned and endorsement was made of the La Follette candidacy. Those who succeeded in having this done believed that labour would constitute the backbone of a third party of real importance in the a flairs of the nation. Indeed, the endorsement of La Follette was looked upon as the beginning of a Labour Party in the United States similar to the labour parties of Europe. The election proved that American citizens will not be delivered in mass, even by commitment of an organisation that they trust as much as union labour trusts the federation. Members of the federation voted much as they would have voted if there had been no commitment—some for Coolidge, some for Davis, some for La Follette. The organisation had the. humiliation of public demonstration that it could not control its members in the matter of voting for a.president. The Outlook adds that late Mr. Samuel Gompers, the genius of the federation, had always stood for a non-partisan policy and had maintained it up to this time. He was over-ridden in the last year of his life. But the triumph of his enemies was shortlived. The Gompers policy is, perhaps, more strongly established now than ever before—possibly more strongly established than it would have been if the old war horse had lived. THE GOLD STANDARD. " The return to gold has already adjusted itself, and the confidence of the Government and their advisers is fully justified as a measure of intelligent foresight. The pessimists who in April foretold disaster have been proved wrong," says Mr. Walter Leaf, chairman of the Westminster Bank, in the bank's review. " Their forecast was for a large rise in the bank rate to prevent anticipated ex ports of gold, a consequent restriction of credit to the great hurt of prod uc tion, a great fall in prices and a great increase of unemployment. In every one of taese forecasts they have proved wrong. The return to gold has been followed not by large exports of gold, but bv imports; the bank rate, instead of rising, has been reduced, and the mar ket rate for discounts has fallen. The Government has been borrowing on its Treasury bills at a materially cheaper rate; and credit has not been restricted but extended. The chief feature in tin bank returns for the last six months has been the notable increase in the all-im-portant item of loans and advances to customers. This is no doubt, in large measure, due to the great growth in the imports of raw materials and partly manufactured goods, the raw material of further processes in Great Britain. The demand for loans means that the moderate rate of interest has been no deterrent; our manufacturers have supplied themselves from the banks with funds to carry their stocks of raw materials while in process of manufacture. Meanwhile there has been a reduction of the cost of living, accompanied by a small rise of wages, so that the position of the worker has distinctly improved during the first six month* of the year."