THE ULSTER SITUATION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 18, 12 May 1914, Page 4

THE ULSTER SITUATION.

It is small wonder that foreign newspapers have found the Ulster situa tion hard to understand, remarks the “Lyttelton Times.” They were told in the telegrams from London tl.ai army officers were dictating to the Government as to whether >r not a change should be made in the civil administration of a portion of the kingdom, and yet they comd not learn that anybody had been shot or hanged. “This, according to German views, is nothing less than sheer mutiny,” said the “Berliner lagoblatt.” “The spectacle of officers of a feudal cavalry brigade setting themselves against the orders of the Minister of War can only appear to us as astounding.” The waerts” said that the British Parliament, the mightiest in the world, had “fallen back before rebel officers.” “British people have discovered,” it added, “that the army is ruled by a small aristocratic caste, and that it is a willing tool of the privileged ranks against the government, 1 arliament and people. They may well ask' themselves what will happen when a troop of soldiers sent against strikers hands in notice of resignation. As the rejection of the ll 5 0‘) Budget was paid for by the abolition of the absolute veto of the House of Lords, so the Curragh revolt will be paid for at no distant date by the dernneratisatiou of th# Army, if indeed the price of this piece of folly will not he heavier.” The conduct of the Unionist officers evidently boro lunch th# sain# appoaranoo wk#a flowed aoroit tbs Xortk Sea as it did at (his diutaiifcs from the sceae.

THE BEEF TRUST.

A notable American, Mr Charles Edward Russell, writes unsparingly of the beef trust and its operations. Amongst other things he says : Three times a day this power conies to the table of every household in America, rich or poor, great or small, known or unknown; it comes there and exacts its tribute. It crosses the ocean and makes its presence felt in multitudes of homes that would not know howto give it a name. It controls prices and regulates traffic in a thousand markets. If changes conditions and builds up and pulls down industries; it makes men poor or rich as it will, it controls or establishes or obliterates vast enterprises across the civilised circuit. Its -lightest word affects men on the plains of Argentina or the by-streets of London It fixes at its own will the price of every pound of flesh, salted, or smoked, or preserved meat prepared and sold in the United States. ... It fixes the price of every ham. every pound of bacon, every pound of lard, every can of prepared soup. It has an absolute monopoly of our enormous meat exports, dressed and preserved. It fixes for its own profit the prices the farmer of the west shall receive for his cattle and hogs, and the prices the butcher of the east shall charge for his meat. e s It lias in the last three years increased for its own benefit the expenses of every household in America. It controls or influences the prices of onehalf of the food consumed by the nation. It has its share in the proceeds of more commodities of daily consumption than all other trusts, combinations and monopolies together, and the prices of these it seeks, to augment for its own self. Its operations have impoverished or ruined farmers and stockmen, destroyed millions of investments, caused banks to break, and men to commit suicide, precipitated strikes, and annihilated industries.