NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20959, 24 August 1931, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

JUSTICE AND THE GANGSTERS. " The United States has let grow up in its midst a monster which will require more courage to stay it than that country lias ever been called upon to exercise in its domestic affairs." said the Melbourne. Argus recently. " Bootlegging has led to murder, murder to corruption; around the vending of alcohol is enwrapped a rnesh of political ' graft ' and juridical inefficiency. The circumstances of this evil circle are peculiar to the United States but it remains an example of horror for the rest of tho civilised world. It is easy to condone crime, easy to make heroes of the lawless, particularly when they are serving one's own illicit ends, easy to see in the man who preys upon society a modern buccaneer with all the glamour of piratical heroism about him; it is difficult to see him in his true colours as tllief and murderer, battening upon the miseries and blunders of the world. It is easy to let things slide, to let the gunmen of Chicago and New \ork blow out one another's brains and the brains of innocent bystanders and escape through a series of judicial loopholes; it is much harder, as was done in England, to bring down a man who was among the highest and most honoured in the land because he was adjudged to have broken the code under wliioh civilised men have agreed to live in amity together. The world has had two object lessons. It may think of the gang murders in the streets of New York and Chicago and the impotence of the American Courts; and it may think of Lord Kylsant's trial and the magnificent inflexibility and impartiality of British justice." DISPARITY OF " REAL " WAGES. . Accordng to official estimates from such particulars as are available for workpeople of corresponding grades weekly full-time rates of wages in Great Britain aro about 70 per cent, and hourly rates of wages aro about 90 to 95 per cent, on average above the level of July, 1914. At June 1, 1931, the average level of working class cost of living was approximately 45 per cent, above that of July, 1914, so that the average increase in " real " rates of wages w-ould appear to have been about 17 per cent, in the case of weekly full-time rates of wages, and between 30 and 55 per cent, in tho case of hourly rates of wages. These figures take no account of changes in average earnings resulting from increased - unemployment and short-time working, or from changes in the proportions of workers paid at time and piece rates of wages. A comparison of the " real " rates of wages in various countries, based on standard rates in representative towns revealed a wide variation. Taking wages in Great Britain as 100, on July 30, those in Italy were equivalent to 39, Spain 40, Austria 48, Germany 73, Netherlands 82, Canada 155 and the United States 190. The index numbers were calculated by ascertaining the ratio of the average hourly wage of adult male workers, in a limited rumber of occupations to the cost of an international budget comprising certain quantities of food, fuel, light and soap at the average of the prices ruling in the towns covered. PARLIAMENT AND ECONOMIES. " No thoughtful man can fail to realise that there is a growing feeling of disappointment and disillusionment spreading among all classes in regard to the results recently achieved by the machinery of our political system. Particularly is this feeling noticeable in the sphere of economic endeavour," says the Times Trade Supplement. 11 The result is the demand for the transfer of economic questions from the consideration of Parliament to a body specially created to deal with such matters in the national as opposed to party interest. Let us have, it is suggested, a body composed of Ministers, economists and men of affairs, capable of evolving a sound policy. At first sight the idea seems attractive, but a moment's consideration reveals grave practical difficulties. Obviously tho proposed body would have to be either advisory or executive. If it were advisory, its proposals would still have to be debated in Parliament. If it had executive power it would be above Parliament and have the fatal defect of not holding any mandate from the nation; its composition would be arbitrary, and if it over-ruled the elected body the resignation of tho Ministry would be inevitable. The consequent general election would turn on the point at issue, with the result that tho new body would become an elected Government, or, conversely, would be unable to carry out its policy against the will of the people. It has been urged that no Government would oppose the unanimous recommendations of such a body, but of the prospects of such unanimity there is and can bs no • assurance. Indeed, everything points to the extreme improbability of any such occurrence, for the most disconcerting feature of the present position is the conflicting advice offered by the professional economists on every conceivable subject."