The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-04-07
4 GOOD FEATURE
 OF GOAL STRIKE: Inland Waterways Resumed
 Activities BURNS MAKES REPLY Answers Critics by Saying Old Maids Should Be Compelled to Adopt Children - Improving the
 British Fleet
BURNS MAKES REPLY

London. April e.-One of the opti- mistic features during the coal strike was the resumption of activity on the inland waterways of England. The kingdom is covered with network Of natural and artificial canals. It is now | believed by transportation experts that these canals can he proftably operated 1 by the use of oil in the power plants of the canal boats
 | With freight trains standing empty on the sidings for lack of fuel Shippers had their attention called to the long. neglected waterways, and the railways l will now find a powerful rival in the canals. Already large Midland firm | of carriers has started a motor barge service between London and Birming- ham. The boats are htted with en- i gins using fuel oil. One firm, whien has had two barges i.. service on the canals for some time, has placed an order for 10 new vessels and rush orders have been given for their eqtlip- ment. These new carriers will ecover the distance between ~ondon and Bir- mingham in 4S hours, ,Jr half the time usually taken by the ordinary canal craft Using crude oil the cost of power in the boats will be about one cent mile.
 Experiments have shown that the cost of the ordinary rse-drawn and steam driven barges averages roughly
 % cents mile, which gives some idea of the economy of the new system. l Replying to parliamentary critics or l his administration of the Poor Law
 schools, John Burns, president of the l local government board. declared
 that every old maid in England wno
 owns more thantwo cs,s or more than
 one dog should be compelled to take q ichild from the poorhouse. He main
 tained that his policy of removing the children from the poorhouse to the care of private families had proven markedly successful.
 Referring to the children who have
 been boarded out, Burns said: "lncreas- i ingly both rich and poor are adopting
 poor law children. If l had my way l
 would make it compulsory for all women
 who keep more than two cats and one dog 10 have a poor law child on which
 to divert some of the cash and a good 1 deal of the wasted sentiment which many people put upon animals to an extent
 which is absurd
 The board of admiralty is at present paying a great deal of attention to the l improvement of the smaller units Of 1 the British fleet. the submarines and torpedo boat destroyers, vessels which many experts believe would be of greater use in case of a war than even the big modern battleships and battle- I ship cruisers.
 1 This country has at present a fleet of over 50 submarines, some of the latest even mounting small guns to re- i pei attacks, and improvement is still | being effected. The men of AS, lost of Portsmouth fin February, were engased l in carrying out tests of new appliances. i the secrets of which are known. only to | the admiralty. one of the reasons that so little was heard of the cause of the | accident and such pains were taken t0 prevent prying eyes from examining the hull after 1t was raised. A foreign sal