CURRENT TOPICS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12618, 23 March 1903, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

So long ago as tho beginning of 1901 the opinion was widely held that

A industry and prices in . the wonderful United States had readied a keoord. climax, and must of necessity

recede. But the record of 1902 .not only signally disproves that idea, but goes to show that the American industrial boom is still at its height. Indeed, to. such a feverish pitch have commercial operations attained that cautious men are beginning to inquire how long the .pace.can last, and what the end is likely to be. The London Financial Nows of recent flat* declares: "A decline in the American home demand would probably be the signal for the letting looeo of a flood of American jiroduots on defenceless Europe. Those who are almost erazily eager to detect the first incipient signs of a decline in the American trade boom should reflect that tlie brunt of a reaction .will not be , borne by the United States, but by European manufacturers—our own principally; for'the Con' tinont is protected to some extent by tariff barriers." The business and financial facts of the year 1902 in tho United States are thus summed up by that accepted statistical authority Bradstreot: "To say that 1902 was the best year the United States has ever experienced, while truthful in the main, does not suggest fully the enormous strides which the country hae taken. Practically every branch of ordinary trade and manufacture showed on increase above- the best of the previous years, and yet this immense enlargement of output was not sufficient of itself to satisfy the growing, it might he even termed tho insatiable, demand for all kinds of materia]." Some of America's ascertained accomplishments during 1902 are remarkable enough to be chronicled. The United States raised.2s33 million bushels of corn, worth 40 cents a bushel; 670 million bushels of wheat, worth 63 cents; 988 million bushels of oats, worth 30.7 cents; 135 million bushels of barley, worth 46 cents; and 34 million bushels of rye, worth 50 cents. The value of the principal farm crops was nearly 2600 million dollars. The crops of corn, oate, barley, rye, and potatoes were the greatest 'ever known. The cotton production 'was' 11 million bales, out of a world's production of about 15£ millions. The States produced nearly 27J millioa tons of iron ore arid' about 18 million tons of pig iron , ; 665 million pounds of copper; gold to'the amount of oror 80i millions of dollars, and silver worth 31 million dollars. They' built 6D26 miles of railroad, 4070 locomotives, 195,284 freight cars, and 3495 paesenger cars. They collected 278£ million dollars for Customs duties and 250 million for internal revenue taxes, and closed the year with 613 million dollars of ■ gold in the National Treasury. The amount of money in circulation increased ovor 100 million dollars. In Wall street they traded at the Stock Exchange in bonds to the par value of 891£ millions, and bought and sold 183 million, shares 'of stoclw."

How much of America's prosperity is due; to the high standard and. tabflity the of the average American workAUEMCAN man is a point around which WOBHfAN. r«ges much' discussion. An article of special interest in the International Quarterly, entitled "The American Workman and the French," contrasts the enormous divergence between the methods and spirit of; labour in the "Ifew 'World" and." tfie ' Old. The Americaa Workman rarfijr"'' sterta a new business, from the ■ fam* that

the trust development makes 6uei ventures impossible, apart from enormous capital. But he gate on, just ae well and often better, »; an employee. A table of relative wages shows that in some trades, such as bricklaying, the American earns 4dol a day ne against the Frenchman's ljdol. And in the gre»t combinations ho may become a manager or head of a department, with an income larger than that of most heads of houses in France. Yet the cost of living in tho States is not more, on the whole, than 10 per cent, over that of France, The American workman is independent, and outside business hours is ns good as his employer.; The high wages piiid in the United States are one of the great stimulants to invention. Tho workman is ■rewarded for any new ideas he can bring, in which the employer co-oper-ates, tho latter knowing that new labour-saving machinery reduces the great item, of , hie expenditure, 'i'he conclusiohs arrived at by the writer of the article referred''.to are that the States' workmen, whilst most progressive industrially, j are Conservative politically. They share in j the prosperity of the country, belong to : tho comfortable classes, and cherieh no | reyolutipnary design*. They partake to the Ml of .'.the boundless energy and self-con* fiaenee of the Amorican nation as ft- whole. Oil, the other hand, it would seem that the i American, workman, like his New Zealand i confrere,. does not know when he is well off; and isalwaye agitating for more. Recent advices from New York state that tho

aggressive attitude of leading labour organisations has - caused » !<ms in net earnings during the months of December and January ■ laßt on many railroad systems whoso gross' earnings showed substantial gains', and that the entire labour situation is one of., the : moot serious problems before the American people,

But.if the United States has much to be proud of, tho American ■ CHiID lAEb'-OH people should surely hang IN their heads in shame over KEW IOKK. the recent revelations con- , ' cerning the permission of child labour under condition: which amount to ;acti)al slavery. Already the agitation for child labour laws is bearing fruit, and there aro signs that this crying industrial abuse will bo promptly extirpated. The committee appointed to investigate into the extent to'which child labour obtains in Now York City found that there were school children who delivered milk from 4 o'clock in the morning until school time. There were others] especially :'n the employ of bakeries and laundries, who delivered wares from 6 o'clock till 8 in the morning, and from ha'f ; past 3 till 7 at night. Some of these children were completely exhausted and dulled.for tlieir school work by tho long hours of. toil during play time and skep time. '.'Many of those children wore under 12' years of a,ge, and tlieir employment is entirely legal, for tho existing child labour laivs'in the States only cover work dono in«ido of factories and stores. The delivery companies employ all day children pf 13, 12j and' even 11 years of age. Many of boye begin work at 7 in the morning and return to the office at the end of llio'r last trip between 9 and 10 o'clock at night, whilst on Friday nnd Saturday nights they work, until 'midnight. Similar evils are exposed jimongst the newehoys, bootblacks, messongor boys, ond peddlers. In the factorifo and shops it was found that hundreds of ob.ild.rcn under H were steadily employed in. disregard of tho law. To remedy the false declaration of age which makes this condition of things possible, tho committee proposed that tho comjulsorr education .lays .and.the child labour laws'should be nr.cde to fit into one another si as to support each other.