New Britain herald., 1921-04-23

New Britain, as in >other cities throughout the country, and with the cost of material reduced and la bor costs also coming down re- sumption of building activity may be looked forward to. This may not be on a large scale but it will at least mean a start in the right direction.
 Public opinion does not uphold strikes at this time. It is realized that the most important factor in any operation, building or industrial, is the labor cost. If business through out the land is to become stabilized employees must promote tranquility by helping to reduce prices. By so doing they hasten the day of prosperity when a dollar will buy a dollars worth of merchandise.
 Unorganized labor everywhere has accepted reductions in wage scales. Organized labor must be prepared to do the same. Unionism can win strong place in public favor by ap- preaching the problem in the right spirit and showing that it is anxious to cooperate
 Among the islands Of the Pacific ocean which will pass under tho con- trol of Japan if mandates arranged by the European allies are executed is New Britain, one of the Eoolynesian group. This island is not far distant from Tap, the pie of rock over which the United States ir greatly concerned because of ita strategic location and importance as cable station.
 New Britain is about 23 miles wide by $40 miles long. It's coasts are precipitous in some parts and on the north are studded with volcanoes ris- ing to height of 1000 feet.
 The Encyclopaedia Britannica, among other things. says of the island of New Britain: 'The people of New Britain, especially toward the west resemble those of eastern New Guin- ca, height about five feet, six inches with matted curly hair: the women appear stunted and oppressed. They are a finer race than those farther east in Duke of York and New Ire land. who. excepting an evidently Polynesian colony on tho south coast of New Ireland, rather resemble the Solomon Islanders. Both are thor ough cannibals. Their weapons arc clubs (stono headed in New Brithin) |. spears, tomahawks and slings. They perform complicated surgical opera tiona with an obsidian knife a sharks tooth. They construct ingen- ious fishing weirs. The villages are clean and well-kept, the, housea vary ing from n1isera blc huts eight by five feet without furniture to neat we'll built semi houses, thq roof extending to the ground behind with front of wicker work, leaving a space for the door. The common dead arc buried exposed to sharka on the reefs: bodies of chiefs are exposed in the fork of tree. N
 Girls for some time before puber- ty are confined in cages of panda- mus leaves about four feet diameter. possibly to fatten them, an old Poly neSian custom.
 Justice ia executed and tabus, feaSts, taxes. etc, arranged by 9 mys- terioua disguised figure, the 'duk- duk' Only the chief and thoso who have been initiated payment of a heavy fee know who what he is. Women>and children arc forbidden to look on him. The custom perhaps. points to time when there wat 8 priesthood, aiding the chief to rule the people. "The population is divided into two exogamoua classes. The children be- long to the class of the mother, and when the father dies go to tho village for support. the land and fruit trees in each district being divided between the two classes. There are several dialects the construction resembling Fijian.'
 Automobilists will fervently thank the state senate for thwarting the scheme for the reversion of percent age of police court fines to the city Or town where violators of the automo- bile regulations arc arrested and con- victed An attempt to push through the passage of such an amendment to the state code was made during the present week but it was short lived and quickly went onto the scrap pile.
 The autocrats of the road. overcon- scientious consta bles in small towns, dedicate their lives to taking the joy out of automobiling unless they are restricted (Ask the man who has met one.) If the measure to allow percentage of fines for automobile law violation were permitted to become part of our statutes, there would be no peace in Connecticut, which has an average sized crop of motion picture constables with hate in their heart for "city slickerS'' who would be en- coura ged to make arrests upon thh slightest provocation for the purpose of filling up the town treasury. Only the very wealthy could afford to take a spin on a pleasant Sunday because it would be necessary to take along a few spare wallets in addition to spare tires which now decorate the tails and