Review of Reviews, $0/3/06. 



L eading A rticles. 



289 



THE WORKWAN-MINISTER. 



A Sketch of John Burns by Mr. Donald. 



To the Nineteenth Century Mr. Robert Donald, 

 the editor of the Daily Chronicle, contributes a 

 character skeitch of John Burns, the Workman- 

 Minister. 



PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAI> GOVERNMENT BOARD. 



The following sumniarv' of the duties of John 

 Burns's imw post will be read with interest : — 



As President of the Local Governmeut Board Mr. Burns 

 has multifarious duties committed to his charge. He has 

 to sanction local loans, supervise the finances of local 

 authorities, hold inquiries into proposed new undertakings, 

 exercise the (almost) legislative powers which Parliament 

 has delegated to him by way of provisional orders, and is 

 armed with large powers of initiative inspection, revision, 

 and veto, so that in some respects he can revolutionise the 

 whole system of local administration. In the domain of 

 Poor Law his authority is paramount. He revises, for 

 example, the rules and regulations wliich guide the system 

 of relief and the administration of the Poor J, aw, passes 

 plans for new workhouses, settles the wages of the nurses 

 and porters, and fixes the amount of snuff (if any) which 

 a pauper may receive. Sanitary legislation is also under 

 his supervision, as he acts as Minister of Public Health, 

 and beyond the more strictly local governmental functions 

 belonging to his department, there is the social side of his 

 work such as the administration of the Allotments Acts, 

 the Unemployed Act, inquiring into housing conditions, etc. 



A MEMORABF-E SPEECH. 



Mr. Donald recalls the fact that John Burns's 

 speech from the dock in 1886 contained demands 

 most of which have already been conceded: — - 



Mr. Burns's speech from the dock was chiefly concerned 

 with the unemployed, and he set forth their demands upon 

 the Government, which were: — 



(1) To relax the severity of the outdoor relief. (Granted.) 



(2) To urge local bodies to start useful relief works. 

 rNow done to some extent.) 



(3) To direct the Metropolitan Board of Works to build 

 artisans' dwellings on \'^cant sites in London, especially 

 on abandoned prison sites. (Since done by the L.C.C., 

 partly through Mr. Burns's efforts.) 



(4) To reduce the hours of work in Government employ- 

 ments to eight hours per day. (The first thing which he 

 accomplished as am M.P.) 



(5) To give no contracts to firms who did not observe 

 trade-union conditions. (Now done almost all over the 

 country by the Burns labour clause.) 



(6) To establish a legal eight-hour day for railway and 

 tramway employes. 



(7) To establish relations with Continental Governments. 



(8) To secure a reduced working day in all trades and 

 occupations. 



When he entered the County Council he put out 

 a more extended programme : — 



Many of the specific reforms which ho advocated have 

 been carried out, such as the purification of the Thames, 

 efficient sanitary inspection, cumulative rating — in the form 

 of more equalisation — useful work for the unemployed, 

 trade-union hours and wages, erection of artisans' dwell- 

 ings, municipalisation of the water and tramways. Two- 

 thirds of the reforms in his programme have been realised. 



J. B. AS WRITER AND SPEAKER. 



Mr. Donald tells us that: — 



It is Burns's custom to prepare his chief speeches, writing 

 rlown the heads of his arguments, his statistics, his epi- 

 grams, and quotations, although his impromptu utterances 

 in debate have never lacked fulness a.nd vigour. 



In recent years Mr. Burns has developed considerable 

 power as a writer. But for his Ministerial appointment he 

 would have become more and more of a writer, and he had 

 planned a history of Battersea and a book on his travels in 

 America and Canada. His public lectures on social, labour, 

 municipal, and industrial topics are succinct studies well 

 paeked with facts, clearly and forcibly written. 



WHAT HE HAS ALREADY DONE. 



Mr. Donald says : — 



That Mr. Burns will use the official machinery placed at 

 his service to the best advantage has already been seen. 

 Wittiin an hour of taking office he appointed a committee 

 to distribute the Unemployed Fund. Befor£ the end of the 

 year, he had amended the unemployed regulations, pre- 

 pared a cirtuilar on housing for local authorities, inter- 

 viewed his inspectors, issued administrative orders affecting 

 Poor Law, and announced the appointment of a committee 

 to recommend a better system of audit for municipal ac- 

 counts. His touching speech to the inmates of Battersea 

 Workhouse on Christmas Day will not be forgotten. 



For twenty years he has advocated the calling up of the 

 militia in tlxe period of the year when unemployment is 

 greatest, and this system has now been adopted. 



THE PROGRESS OF THE SOUTHERN "STATES." 



In the Arncncmi Kcvieiv of Reviews Mr. R. H. 

 iMJmonds describes the South's amazing progress. 

 He heads his article with a table of statistics, con- 

 trasting 1880 with 1905. From this it appears that 

 the number of spindles and cotton mills has sprung 

 from 667,000 to 9,205,000 ; the cotton crop from 

 313 million dollars to 680 million dollars; the coal 

 mined from 6 million tons to 70 million tons; capital 

 invested in manufactures from 257 million dollars 

 to 1,500,000 million dollars ; exports from 261 mil- 

 lion dollars to 555 million dollars ; the property as- 

 sessed from 3,051 million dollars to 6,500 million dol- 

 lars; petroleum from 179,000 barrels to 42 millions. 

 The writer then proceeds with a more detailed state- 

 ment. He regards the manufacture of cotton as the 

 greatest industry of the world, and says that in the 

 South three-fourths of the world's cotton crop is 

 raised. To the South, Europe pays for cotton a 

 tribute of over one million dollars dailv. An ex- 

 penditure of 20 million dollars on the levee work on 

 the Mississippi River would reclaim an area of 

 30.000 square miles fertile enough to yield more 

 than the pre.si-nt crop of the Southern States. Of 

 rich coal lands there is in the entire State a total of 

 6.^^957 square miles, against a combined total for 

 Great Britain and Germany of 12,600 square mile^. 

 Of iron ore, says the writer, Alabama has such vast 

 stores that the three or four leading companies of 

 that State have much more than the United States 

 Steel Corporation. Agriculture has been booming 

 ahead not less than mining and manufactures. Rice- 

 growing began onl\ in 1886, and now in Texas 

 alone there are 234,000 acres under rice cultivation. 

 The first depot in Louisiana has now become the 

 centre of many thriving towns. Railroads have in- 

 creased in the South from 20,000 to 60,000 miles. 

 The South would have taken this commanding posi- 

 tion in the national life earlier but for the terrible 

 waste of life in the Civil War The writer confi- 

 dently anticipates that the South will, within the 

 next quarter of a century, rival in agricultural pro- 

 duction and in manufactures the rest of the country. 



The Grand Magazine verifies the vaunt printed on 

 its cover, " Every page in this magazine is interest- 

 ing. 



L 



