INDUSTRIAL WORLD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18323, 13 August 1921, Page 14

INDUSTRIAL WORLD.

NEWS AND NOTES. Bx J. T. Paul. MUNICIPAL HOUSES. It is apparent that the Wellington City Council has not solved the problem of providing cheap housing for the people. The Housing Committee has reported that it had fixed the prices of the followjnK houses at Northland, and was arranging for a ballot to be held to decide their allotment:— 'Five rooms and conveniences, £1575. Five rooms and conveniences. £1405. Five rooms and conveniences, £1420. Five rooms and conveniences, £1375 LABOUR IN RUSSIA. M. Lenin’s sympathisers in this country (writes a correspondent to the London Daily Telegraph) would do well to study the following figures, showing the appalling fall in the number of workmen employed in “Red” Petrograd;—

These figures have been taken from Soviet official -uiblications. It is remarkable howcrushing the evidence against Bolshevism is which can bo extracted from the voluminous statistics of Soviet officials. INDUSTRIAL POISONING. “I suggest certain general blood testa whereby susceptible persona can be eliminated from occupations inimical to then' well-being,” said Kir K. Goadby. the Home Office specialist referee for industrial poisoning, in a lecture at the Royal Society of Arts. “By this means not only would industrial poisoning in many occupations be reduced, but some trades now regarded as dangerous might even be rendered safe. Natural susceptibility is a factor of primary importance in industrial diseases. The usual painters’ colic is turpentine poisoning, which causes hardening of the arterial tissues and increased blood pressure. My investigations after 20 years’ experience in lead works also suggest that a considerable proportion of the population show susceptibility to lead poisoning.” Industrial disease was undoubtedly a cause of unemployment, and therefore to decrease unemployment, not only should disease be prevented, but an attempt should be made to select for employment persons whose specific and individual powers of resistance were best suited for the particular type of employment. / This side of problems of industrial disease was rarely given the consideration it deserved, but the mere prevention of the disease by striking out of an industry some special forms of poisonous or partially' poisonous compound might operate more hardly on persons eliminated from employment than it operated beneficially in .protecting the fraction of susceptibles from risks.

DEAN INGE AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS. Addressing the British Science Guild recently, Doan Inge said the most ruinous feature of modern society was the strike. By degrees the trade unions had ceased to bo detensivo organisations and had acquired the power of throwing tho whole mechanism of civilised life out of gear and of blockading tho nation. Strikes had become acts of civil war. They wore prepared for months beforehand, and the question now was not when the employers would come to terms, but how long could the nation stand being deprived ot the necessaries of life. The Labour leader had become a wealthy and powerful person, and no one knew how groat his nnnvowod and tinavowable sources of emolument may be. He negotiated on more than equal terms with the Prime Minister, and his power was conditional on his continuing to make mischief. One might suppose that the trad© unions would hasten to use their immense coercive power to become producers, freezing out the old companies, but notoriously they would not look at any such schemes, preferring civil war, blackmail, and indemnities, levied on tho Exchequer. This seemed to be tho most ominous feature in the situation. It was not merely a now social class obtaining power to force their fellowcitizens, but a large class apparently becoming consciously anti-social. The best nrospeet of finding a way out was to got the facts put before the people, in season and out of season, till they soaked in. The effect of class war ought to be brought home to everybody. The British workman was not at all a bad fellow. He fought splendidly, he was not a revolutionist, and he was not a fool. The Labour leader; tho professional politician, the acaiTemicial ■ Socialist, were pests and parasites of the worst kind.

LENIN’S “STRATEGIC RETREAT.”

Mr Krassin, in June last, granted an important interview to the London correspondent of the Petit Parisian, in the course of which ho remarked: “Lenin unceasingly asserts that the Bolshevist Government can only bo maintained in Russia by the outbreak of revolution'in' Western countries. I have never considered that a Communist State could live alone :n tho midst of capital States. Lenin to-day realises that tho light of progress has only reached advanced positions, and cannot be maintained there, and if his faith remains unshaken, yet he finds himself compelled to make a strategic retreat, a painful but inevitable volution, the necessity for which he has had the courage to proclaim. "Doubtless the revolution will yet blaze out through Europe—for myself lam convinced that it is not possible to forecast when or in what shape. Lenin, now persuaded that revolutionary progress abroad will be slow, haa’therefore changed his tactics. and on account of the international situation, as well as the economic collapse of the country, lias decided to come to terms with the opposition at home, the peasantry, equally "as with the opposition ahr.oad, the capiti'-'sts, in place of attempting to crush them.” Mr Krassin assorted tint Lenin would bo sufficiently strong to make the Commmi’st Party adopt this new policy. He emphasised that the Bolshevist Government was not alone responsible for the aettwd position in Russia. “V, T e have not been able to restore matters.” ho sa ; d, “hut with the of the great merchant and wealthy peasant classes, the intellectuals are now dni'v mining to us. and. the demo’ition of the o'd regime being completed, wn shall bo ready to construct" n now republic. The difficulties will largely depend on the forthcoming harvest.” SAMUEL GOMPERS WINS. For the fortieth time Mr Samuel Gompers has been elected president of the American Federation of Labour, one of the numerically strongest organisations in the world. After the long campaign against Gompers, which included an exceedingly bitter attack by tho extreme revolutionary section and tho opposition of the Hcarst Press, ho was re-clectod president by 25,022 votes against John L. Lewis, head of the United Mine Workers, who polled 12,321. Gompers was nominated by G. W. Perkins, who spoke as follows when putting his name before the convention: — “It is difficult to point out the multitude of reasons why ho should be renominated and triumphantly elected. You know he has the moral and physical courage that makes for leadership. What of his achievements? It is impossible to enumerate them, but you are as familiar with them as 1 am. He took a rope 01 sand, and made of it the strongest and best economic movement in the world. “It has been charged he is a reactionary and slipping. 'lhirty-eight years ago this man proposed what you self-styled progressives now propose. Let me say this of you, vou progressives; While he was preaching this you have been howling the ‘One Big Union’ and I.W.W. If you had hacked him up Labour would not ho in any danger to-day from tho open shop. “No man in tho Labour movement, or in the United States, has been more lied about or more persistently abused than the president of tho American Federation of Laboui. and it is because of his accomplishments.

“If a newspaper can defeat the head of tho American Federation of Labour, then it can disrupt and destroy the morale in each one of the affiliated organisations. The answer to-day should be that the men and women of Labour are going to. choose all their leaders for themselves. "They say he is gottinc old. In the last year he has made 150 addresses to Labour organisations and travelled 58,956 miles, and he made one of his trips in an airplane.”

Mr Lewis declared that there was no rancour in his mind as a result of tho decision, and that “he li-'d nothing but respect for Samuel Gcmpcrs.” JOTTINGS. Bidding for the women’s vote, three candidates Liberal, Coalition-Liberal, and Labour—spoke from the same platform at Bury (England).

The soldiers at Beei'burrum (Queensland) Settlement expect their winter crop of pineapples to run into 20.000 cases of prime quality pines. Some 500 workmen are now employed in the construction of Canberra, the Australian Federal capital, while there arc many architects, engineers, and other officers engaged. The National Economic Council of Germany has had the hours of miners under consideration, and has resolved that, in view of the situation produced by the sanctions and reparations, there can bo no question at present of the introduction of a seven-hour day. The negotiations are postponed indefinitely. The Moscow Soviet elections returned 1543 Communists, 553 Independents, and 39 of other parties. Eighteen Independents have been placed on the executive. A number of provincial returns from widely different parte of Russia give the total of 461 Communists and 175 Independents elected to Soviet executives.

Amongst the many curious letters received by a union secretary from time to time is one received in Auckland from a Maori in the country asking for work. The handwriting is good, but the wording is quaint and to the point. It runs: “July 22/6/21. Sir. —I have to inform you that I have decided to ask your permission to get jhe job as soon as possible. Please pay your attention to this matter at once. Waiting for your earliest conveniences,—Yours truly, Mr

Number Number Year. of works. of workmen. 1917 ... 529 405,827 1918 ... 529 331,101 1919 259 132,035 1920 ... 168 88,087 1921 ... 159 80,606