The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-01-09 00:00:00

Eke 3tourbribge Ofoerinr,

SATURDAY, JANUARY 9th, 1886.
INDUSTRIAL DEPRESSION.

Now, if ever, is a fitting time to ponder over
the industrial depression from which the
country is suffering. A new year is open-
ing up before us; into its undawned days we
look with hope. The backward grance is
tiark and discouraging. There needed no
elaborate compilations cf statistics to carry
conviction to the observant mind that in
zaany directions trade has been bad, and
work in consequence scarce, not only in the
year just ended, but for some years past.
T.; e fact had already made itself painfully
Watt. Bat the milestone of time which
we have passed has its inscripticn. There
liave been particulars published in Dlenty
tefling the sad tale of stagnation The
Royal Commission on Trade 'Depression will
find thervin much material For is investiga-
tion, and the subject is certainly one calling
for the anxious consideration of all states-
mom -warthv of the name No party differ-
ence eliouid be permitted to prevent public
men from entering with activity and deter-
mination into the whole matter. Its im-
portance is far beyond the theoretical diverg-
ences of Liberal or Conservative, or the dis-
treesin;.; quarrels and teeeeless contradictions
of Free Traders and Protectionists. The
eliee inn of the sn4ject should be ap-
proached ritlaput-regerd to prejudice and
witl:s bs•Diute freedom L.oru the trammol4 of
the stereotyped lims of thought identified
with this or that political party. Party
remedieshave hitherto failed to cure indus-
trial paralysis: • Some more drastic medicine
must be disco, ere some potent application
which will at upon the disease in every
direction in which its effects have attacked
the na ion's smitten body. The causes must
be sought out with an impartial eye, and
mimed with a firm and confident hand. I
is a difficult case, this depression disease,
its eradieat:on cannot be accomplished by
the most skilful practitioners unless every
ramification has had skilful and mature con-
sideration. The ailment must be studied,
as becomes its surpassing seriousness, in
every minute detail. Then, after anxious
consultation, the political physicians may go
to work with their treatment—but in concert,
or result would be disastrous. It will be
worse than useless healing one limb at the
expense of another, or patching up some
affected part to the neglect of another
equally in need of attention. Nothing short
of a thorough driving out of our national
eedustry of the unwholesome elements which
have wrought paralysis in the system will
bring satisfaction. The results nre every-
where apparent. What are the causes?
ITere the doctors differ. And with each
varying diagnosis comes the suggea'ion of a
dissimilar prescription. And so he poor
suffering patient—our unhealthy industry—
is in danger of being dosed to death. By
all moans let skilful specialists apply them-
teeives to the reduction and ultimate re-
me' al of evils which have had their thorough
*tut' arid with which they are peculiarly
litt•A to deal—so long as they are free from
•the crotchets of this or that school of think-
ing, and can act with an unbiassed judg-
ment te the end of relieving not a local ail-
ment alone, but with the wider object of as-
sieting in securing a complete mastery over
the complicated disorders which have taken
such painfel hold upon the whole body of
the nation's industre. On the eve of tin,
asisr-mbly of a new -Parliament, which will,
i it 2arne,itly hoped, take up this matter of
-
parr,monnt importance with a view to well-
wighed legislation ,we would submit that
the chief cause of all the mischief has been
largely overlooked amid the commotion en-
gendered by party strife and the short-
sightedness resultant from slavish adhesion
to the conventional methods of examination.
There is a great first cause of all this de-
pression. It is intensified and at timeb
greatly varied by other evils, many of which
it has in fact called into existence, but it
remains still the source and mainspring of
the mischief. We allude to the unwise em-
ployment of capital in immense and ii-con-
sidered nver-prodaction ; the injudicious in-
vestment of wealth and application of labour
in the provision of supplies for which there
is no demand. Take one instance only—
that of the building trade, now in such a
deplorable state. Dwelling-house erection
and land-leasing are convenient forma of in-
vestment for small capitalists. House-
building became the rage, and indescribable
over-production resulted. Now hundreds of
thousands of empty habitations—from tene-
raent to mansion—cover the country abound-
ing in almost every eligible situation. They
are eating off their own heads and eating
out their owners' hearts; and. worse than
that-, greatly- depreciating contiguous pro.
perty for which there is a legitimate call.
This waste of the nation's wealth is sadden-
ing indeed to the thoughtful. Its eonse-
e :enees are far more serious than the mere
dif4ster to those whose folly has wrought
the iii. Here is a large village or little town
—within sight of the smoke of London—in
the subnfes of which you may count over a
hundred new houses which never had an
oeeepa —bailt all unneeded. Houses of a
superior son! , worth on an average say £5OO
eeah. Th.:s= t horn these follies in mortar
and brick beio...-r: are hiding the wealth of
which they are the t:•astees in a napkin, and
letting it lie in idleness and rust. The
capilal should have been embarked
in useful sarii:7e to its owners and the inci-
dental e-aiployment of industry. This
£50,000, judiciously invested in manufac-
turing concerns, or other productive business
I,r which ciemand irould bring work
and 2r,ippiness to all the sufferers from in.
&Atrial depression in the district. We need
some sounder controlling force to direct the
employment of the nation's means of life
and livelihood than ihap-hazard speculation,
and indiscrimminate haste on the part of
individuals to gather gain to themselves by
outwitting others. The inherent selfishness
wiiieh is the soul of the business of to-day
is unmistakably responsible for much of the
suffering and depression which afflict our
own industries and those of other States.
The world's resources are common property,
and cannot be manipulated with a view to
the aggrandisement of individuals or com-
binations of individuals to the exclusion of
the rights and neglect of the needs of others
without bringing About a distressing train of
revenges, which superficial observers speak of
as fluctuations of the market, or periods of
industrial depression. Those who live for
themaelve alone, or for their owe little circle
talk lightly enough of business being essen-
tially selfish, and regarding the ebbing and
_lowing of trade, and the changing condition
--a different industries as circumstances
either altogether unadvoidablu, or at any
rate beyond their control. The moving
sr) irit of business need not, we firmly be-
lieve, however, necessarily be interest, but
war be principle. Were that taken as a
golden guiding rule, a revolution wonld be
brought about grander than any world has
yet mar. We are not looking, nor arguing
for an impossible Utopia, but we tire optira-
istical enough to hope that the deep things
of life may yet be regarded by statesmen and
their electors with the view of securing the
coral:nen good. When that comes about
industrial depreseion will ()ease to be a
lktllreS of **OIL

COMMENTS ON CURRENT TOPICS.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT will be among the
first important matters to engage the atten-
tion of Parliament, and the intentions of
, Ministers respecting the subject are the
t heme of much comment at this moment.
Forecasts have been published tannin!:
that that the new Local Govemment B. 1
will deal separately with England aid
-Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Such will be
well, for the present needs of the three king-
doms are widely varied. The ruling prih-
ciple of the bill will doubtless be the Pre.
mier's pronouncement that "people in their
own localities should govern themselves."
The questions of central authority and con-
trol where so much will depend on the har-
monious working of self-taxation and self-
administration, will of course call for much
deliberation. The discussion may be carried
on with calmness, for Liberal and Conserva-
tives are agreed on the necessity for reform.
If a wise and well-planne 1 scheme be
adopted for the attainment of the objects in
view in England and Wales, Scotland and
Ireland, the prosperity of the United King-
dom will thereby be permanently increased;
for in matters local local men are much more
callable of effecting the best and most
_ economical administration than are officials
and Government departments at a distance.
Irish local government—or Home Rule, as
it has come to be called—presents the most
perplexing difficulties; but Parliament will,
we hope, be equal to a satisfactory solution
of even that puzzling problem.

- A CAPITAL suggestion is made by some
tk-.horities of the City of London, that every
fire shonld form the subject of a public in-
quest, on the model of the coroners inquiry.
The adoption of the idea would doubtless
have the effect of preventing many destruc-
tive fires which are not the result of acci-
dent. A thorough investigation by a duly
appointed official and a jury, would be much
more feared by persons vile enough to set
their own belongings or those of others On
fire, thali is tho examination conducted by
the insurance society agents. And a fire is
often an occurrence which concerns and af-
fects the property and lives of others be9ides
those immediately connected with the spot
in which it originated, If London gets a
fire inquiry officer, the prov:nces will, we
feel sure, desire to do likewise.

THE msnia for muzzling dogs, originated
in London, and adopted by several large
towns in the country, has extended to the
Continent. Every dog found straying un-
muzzled in France henceforth is to be de-
stroyed by officers of the municipalities, un-
less the animal is wearing mn its arrest a
collar inscribed with the owner's name. The
numerous reported rabies among dogs had
certainly become alarming; but we think
the police, in London at any rate, are carry-
ing their vigilance a little too far. The regu-
lation muzzles are most uncomfortable and
unsightly, and the idea of stalw -rt constableb
going about with iron iod and lasso, gaiters
and hide-gloves, to capture stray pets for
subsequent destruction, borders upon the
ridiculous. The best preventive of rabies in
dogs is cleanliness, kindness, and good feed-
ing; and if, when any of these are neglected.
the owner were called upon to give up his
canine possession, the safety of the public,
the dignity of the police, and the good of
the dogs themselves would thereby be en-
hanced much more than by the existing ar-
rangements of Sir Edmund Henderson.

IT is sadly te be feared that, though thE.
guardians of the peace are, on the whole, it
zeurinentlable body of men and a grear
soarce of protection to the public, there are
in every division or district police some mer
whose doings are not altogether creditable
to those entrusted with responsibilities o,
constabulary duty. The reports of proceed.
tugs before the metropolitan stipendiarie3 ot
late have shown several cases of arrests or
trumpery charges, accompanied by violencc
on the part of men in blue; and more than
once the officers have drawn down npor
themselves severe magisterial censure, whii•
their unluckly prisoners have been dismissed.
Such action on the part of its officer;
scarcely vindicates the majesty of the law.
rhen the other day a lady told, in some oi
the London daily papers, a strange story of
outrageous conduct on the part of a police-
man towards her late at night. The polict
as a body of course sternly repudiate and
discountenance improper behaviour of this
description ; but—there are black sheep
every flock, The police force must purge
itself of any member who yields to the
temptations which beset him to leave the
plain path of duty and honour. A constable
should be like Ccesar's wife, altogether above
suspicion : for if the public cannot repose
confidence in his integrity he is valueless as
a public servant. So long as he adheres to
rectitude he will be highly esteemed, and
command the kindly sympathies of the cora-
mnnity ; bat if once the watchmen of the
night fall from his high estate he will fine
the public alter its demeanour with regard
to him most materially.