GENERAL CABLE NEWS

Southland Times, Issue 17225, 21 December 1912, Page 5

GENERAL CABLE NEWS

(Sydney Sun Serviced A HANDY RIFLE. CAVALRY'S NEW WEAPOX. I.O.VDOX, December 11. T)n> French cavalry are being armed willi a rilie tlial will bo found a great improvement on the one wilh whieh they were formerly .supplied. Tiio new weapon is simple in eonsi run ion, and capable of being used under all conditions and in any country. XO SYMPATHY FROM THE RICH. MRS ASQIMTH OX I'X CM PI.OVM ENT. LONDON'. Decomhor 11. In opening a eliurch relief and labour depot at Brixton to-day. Mrs Asquith said: "There is only one way in whieh the problem of unemployment will be .solved, and that is by love. There is no oilier way of serving God titan by serving our poor fellow-ereattires.” A labourer itmonj; the audience remarked lb a I he met with no sympathy from Die rieh. Mrs Asquith replied; "1 think the poor are very sympathetic for the poor, and help one another more than the rich help the poor."

CO-PARTNERSHIP THE REMEDY. A VISCOUNT’S SUGGESTION. LOXDOX. December 11. Viscount Hythe, oldest son of Earl Brassey, speaking before (lie London Chamber of Commerce, advocated copartnership as a remedy for industrial disputes. Capital, lie contended, had a right to receive wages .inst as workmen did. He suggested that the capital invested in a business should receive a fixed dividend of five per cent.—or, perhaps, more in tite case of certain kinds of business — and. after that had been paid on the capital, the workmen should he credited in a bonus fund with a percentage of his wages at the same rate as the dividend paid to shareholders in excess of their fixed five per cent. The bonus fund, said the Viscount, should not he regarded as a means of keeping down wages. ROMANCE OF A PICTURE. £1 7,400 FOR A DEGAS. LONDON. December 12. A picture hy tlie French painter Degas has been sold in Paris to an American for £17.400. This is a record price for Hie work of a living artist. Degas originally received £2O for the picture that lias now realised quite a fortune. Hilaire-Germain Edgard Dogas is one of the greatest impressionist painters. He was born in Paris on July 19, 1534, and is therefore in his 79th year. F.IERY SUFFRAGETTES. A NEW NUISANCE DEVELOPED. LONDON, December 12. The Birmingham Fire Brigade lias been receiving numberless calls from street alarms and public telephone boxes, but there have been no fires. The police have no clue of ihe persons making the calls, hut they tire evidently the work of suffragettes. Postcards have been received inscribed: ‘‘Votes for women; extinguish us if you can." SYNTHETIC RUBBER. GERMAN RESEARCH. LONDON, December 13. Professor Perkin, addressing the Royal Scoiety of Arts, said that synthetic rubber, when made of starch and sawdust, would cost only Is a pound.

At present it was neither possible nor probable that the rubber industry would suffer the fate of other industries which had been killed by synthetic products. A German firm was allotting £1,000,000 for research in connection with synthetic rubber. , ■ ' CARNEGIE'S .MILLIONS. HOW THKY MIGHT BE SPENT. LONDON. December 11. In an article on Mr Andrew Carnegie, of whom he presents a long character study, the editor of the “Daily News,” Mr A. G. Gardiner, writes:— “Having failed to get rid of his fortune by building 1500 libraries, 6000 church organs, palace and peace institutions, and by founding Scotch University schemes and hero funds, why doesn’t he try another method? Why does he not spend the rest of his days and resources warring against the twelve-hour day and the seven-day week of the Steel Trust, which is the most colossal monument to Mammon that modern industry lias conceived? "Its capital is 1.500,000,000 dollars, half of which is water, and upon that water vast dividends are paid out of the excessive hours and the under-pay-ment of thousands of unhappy serfs. That cannot be a pleasant thought to Mr Carnegie as lie wakes to the sound of the bagpipes at Skiho Castle. It was he who broke the union that gave these serfs the least fighting chance.’* ACTIVE RESISTERS. BURNING A TAX-COLLECTOR. LONDON. December in. The inhabitants of the little Spanish village of Eenagever had a grudge against the local tax collector, and while he was asleep they sprinkled petroleum on his clothes, and set lire to them. The house was burned out, and the police had great difficulty in rescuing the inhabitants. NEW SWISS PRESIDENT. LONDON, December 11!. M. Edouard Muller lias been elected President of Switzerland. He was born in ISIS, and was formerly in the army, with the rank of colonel, hut had more recently been chief of the Department of Justice and Police. in politics the now President is a Radical. The President of the Swiss Confederation and the Vice-President of the Federal Council are elected by the Federal Assembly in .ioint session of the National and Slate Councils for one year, and are not eligible for re-election to the same office until after the expiration of another year. The VicePresident, however, may be. and usually is, elected to succeed the outgoing President, and this course has been adopted on the present occasion. -MUSIC HALL TRAGEDY. KJFLB EXPERT MISSES THE MARK. LONDON, December 13. A tragic affair happened at a musichall in Brussels last night. One of the star turns was that of a shooting expert, who, with several assistants, had nightly been giving an exhibition of his skill with the rifle. During yesterday evening’s performance, however, tin; expert missed the target at which he aimed and the man who was holding it was shot dead. AIR DANGER. FLYING OVER FORTS, LONDON. December 13. During a display of aerial (lights at Colombo a foreign airman named Pourpo flow over the fortifications. Thereupon the Government forbade further attempts pending the signing of an agreeinnt he the pilot that he would not cross certain limits. The airman’s camera was seized, and ids plates developed by Government olficials. BLACKS AND WHITES. BILL TO PREVENT MARRIAGE. WASHINGTON. December 13, Mr S. S. Roddonberry has introdiu.-ed in the House of Representatives a bill lo Pi ohibil the intermarriage of blacks and wiiiles. lie declared that nothing could he more villainous than the license authorising Jack Johnson (o wed a white woman. and to bind her in wedlock to black slavery.

Mr Roddenhcrry bitterly attacked 1 lie Chicago authorities for having granted the licence to .Johnson, to whom he referred throughout his speech as “that black brute." THROUGH WITH THE NEGRO. CHICAGO. December 13. It is reported that Messrs Anderson and Wright, the attorneys for .lack Johnson. have refused to have anything to do with (lie negro since his marriage with Lucille Cameron. PRESIDENT TAFT'S FUTURE, A UNIVERSITY POST. i,ON DON, December 12. A New York telegram reports that President Taft, at the expiration of his term of ollicc, intends to accept it professorship of law at Vale University. THE TADBY CAT CRAZE. LONDON. December 11. Two of the competitors at the cal show at the Crystal Palace are a chinchilla. valued at £l.lOO, and a red tabby, valued at £.IOO.