TOPICS OF THE TIMES.

Southland Times, Issue 22472, 7 November 1934, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE TIMES.

Cards of Honour. In various towns in Germany “cards of honour” are being issued to mothers of families, with three and more children, which will entitle them to be served before other people waiting in shops, and in particular, to swift _ attention in all waiting-rooms of institutions, clinics, and public offices. It is argued that the working-man’s wife with a young family at home is the one person who should not be forced to spend too much time outside her home against her will, as her time is more valuable than that of more fortunately placed women. New Russian Industry. Approximately twenty-four thousand people will be employed at Russia’s newest giant industry, the Kranmatorsk machine-building plant in the Don basin, the centre of the Russian coal industry. The announcement was made at the formal opening in September of this enterprise which is to produce the machine that will make the machines. It is claimed that the plant will be the largest of its kind in the world; its output will be twice that of the great Krupp works, which have hitherto supplied Russia with much of her equipment for heavy industry. No longer, it is held, will the country be dependent on foreign markets for the purchases of equipment for her ferrous metallurgical industry. The Soviet Government is not repeating the practice of former years, when costly equipment in newly opened factories was entrusted to semi-skilled operators, peasants fresh from the plough. Russia now has called in her young engineers, the products of her technical training schools, and placed them in command, each with a number of apprentices. Kramatorsk will provide annually equipment for six blast furnaces, thirty opeq-hearth furnaces, three blooming mills, sixteen rolling mills, equipment for chemical and coke industries, and cranes with a lifting capacity up to 20,000 tons. While in the inauguration of her industrialization programme, only six years ago, Russia relied primarily upon foreign technical guidance, this plant, the Press proudly asserts, was constructed largely with Russia’s own technicians, very few foreign engineers having been employed.

Night’s Boon of Silence. London’s zone of silence has proved so popular that its extension, now operative, to all built-up areas was a foregone conclusion (states the Daily Telegraph). The elimination of the hoots which destroyed sleep all the more thoroughly because they were both irregular and penetrating is a real boon. The sick doubtless welcomed it most, but it has meant much

to all who live on or near one of London’s major thoroughfares. It is now the common blessing of all our centres of population. Disuse of the horn at night could not have become a general practice as soon as it was officially enjoined if it had not commended itself to the common sense of motorists and pedestrians alike. The warning which a horn gives becomes unnecessary if all who use the roads keep a proper look-out. No doubt it is easier to note an approaching car by night than by day, because its moving lights catch the eye. Nevertheless, the knowledge that a warning toot may not be given is rendering both drivers and pedestrians more careful and should promote that good driving ajid good walking which make for safety on the roads by day as well as bv night.