The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-04

London, March 14-(SpecfaL) )-'I don'i
 mind confessing to you that my new jof l IS a sinecure. There isn't half enough
 work in It to suit me, but I can't hon. estly say that I would like to be busier ' This remark was made few days aga
 by John Burns, the ex-labor leader, whe
 became a cabinet minister, and who re- signed because he was not in agreement with Asquith and the other members of
 the cabinet about the war Burns, after
 he left the cabinet, was appointed chair man of the government committee for the relief of distress arising out of the Var, and it was this job that he was re- feiring to a sinecure.
 Never in all my experience, and it goes back for 40 years or nore," said Burns. have l known the English working peo- pie so prosperous. There is work for ev- erybody who wants it at higher wages than ever before and there isn't any dis tTess. It is my business to find any if it exists and l know
 Burns statement Is borne out by the experience of the Prince of Wales fund for the relief of distress which now amounts to about $25,OO00O0. There is lit- tie or no distress for it to relieve. In all it has spent less than $2000O0 in the six porths or the war in relieving distress. About $5,000,000 has been spent in making things easier for the dependents of sol diers before the increased government allowances came into force, and some hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent in helping the Belgian refu- gees. There is a big balance left for, the relief of the poverty which is ex- pected during the readjustment at the end of the war. when the hundreds of thou- sands of discharged soldiers are thrown on the labor market.
 john Burns is working very hard get ting things in shape for that time which, by the way, he expects will not be so long delayed as some people seem to think.
 Do you know what will end the war;" he said to a friend the other day. All this talk about starving out Germany and about an economic collapse Is all very fine, but I will tell you how to end the war. We want men, and men, and more men, and the more men we get the quicker the war will be over.''
 In fairness to Burns it must be said that his attitude to the war has been much misrepresented. He has been called a pro-German. and it has been recalled that the Kaiser showed him good deal of during his visits to England The Kaiser, however, ''honored" a good many people in this way, and nothing is farther from the truth than that Burns is or ever was pro-German. Now that Britain is in the war he is doing all he can to help his own country to win. His at titude at the beginning of the war, or rather before Britain got into it, was that of the pacifist who believes that no war, no matter how successful it may be is ever worth the price that must be paid. He wished England to keep out of it. and he honestly thought that she could do so.
 Burns present job is unpaid as well as a sinecure. Of course, he draws 5000 q year as a member of Parliament, but that is a trifle compared with the $25. 600 a year which he gave up for the sake of principle However, John Burns is not badly off Shortly after he took of flee, he was asked by a newspaper ac- auaintance why he did not take a larger house. His reply was characteristic of the man.
 "In these days" he said, newspaper men and cabinet ministers should save at least half of their salaries. They never know when they will be out in the cold.'
 Home of Strange Secret
 By member of the Russian embassy, who was my neighbor at lecture, yes terday. I was told of a strange little town in Western Europe of which con- paratively little is known by the out side world. This town is Sadagora and it Is only couple of miles away from Czernowitz. but such is its reputation for sanctity--it is a mixture of Lourdes and Rome-that both Russians and Aus trians carefully avoid the place while fighting It is the home of the religious sect known as Chasidm.
 Chiefly known for it's strict piety the sect indulges in curious outbreaks Once a year, all men dance from their homes to the market place of Sadagora, and then to the place of worship. They form up in lines of about two dozen and taking each others arms, they do steps strongly reminiscent of ragtime jgs. They are great fellows for learning and arguments, and the little town has pro- duced hundreds of quite celebrated scholars One reason, perhaps, for their cult of eheerfulness, it that, to all in- tents and purposes, they never do any work!
 It is the rule among the sect that, for the first 10 years of married life. the girls father has to support the young couple and any children that may come along. After that period-fixed so as to enable the young man to continue his theological studies-the father-in-law sets the couple up in business. Curiousy enough, the wives of these Chasidim are known for their shrewdness in business and their capacity for driving hard bar gains. But possibly they need this facul- ty to make up for the studious nature of their husbands.
 Prince Visits Fighting Front
 Europe's handsomest royal boy, the eld- est of the three children of the hero-King of Belgium, has just had his dearest wish fulfilled by being allowed to go over to the fighting front in the country over which he will some day rule if-well, it is pretty big if! Prince Leopold is II years of age, and when the Germans bombarded Antwerp he was packed off to England with his younger brother, Prince Charles, and his little sister, Princess Marie-Jose. There they found hospitality with Lord Curzon, while Queen Elizabeth remained with the King in Flanders
 Martial little Leopold, however, wanted to see something of the war. and finally his father yielded to his entreaties and allowed him to go over to Flanders During the past few days, he has visited number of field ambulances, and, un- der the wing of King Albert, has seen the trenches and been presented to tho valiant Belgian army. Besides being un- auestionably the best looking royal youth
 in Europe, this small prince Is precocous in the best sense of the term. When he was 12 he wanted Qike Master An thony Asquith to be an aviator, and af- ter much coaxing persuaded his father to let him take little flight toward the sky. Before he wanted to be sky pilot he was a poet-this at Hand suffered rather severely from the somewhat acid criticisms of his brother Charles, Count
 of Flanders, and his sister, Princess Marie-Jose When he was only a month old, moreover, Prince Leopold figured as the hero of charming little ceremony.
 His mother, the Queen of the Belgians, sllptr.intends a charita ble organization for