Jan, 13, It is evident from the proceedings] at the annual conference of the Scottish I. L. P. held in Edinburgh that the adjective by which the party describes itself is construed in a limited and peculiar sense. It exercises "'the glorious privilege of Being independent" in a manner which is distinctly embarrassing to the leaders of the Parliamentary Socialist Party. It also accords a large measure of individual indeppendence to those among its own members whose views tend to extremism. But any exhibition of independence which savours of moderatism, or happens to conflict at any point' with the doctrinaire policy adopted by the party with regard to current questions, is bitterly resented. By his courageous and outspoken defence of the Weir steel houses, the Socialist member for Paisley, for example, has brought upon himself the condemnation of his fellow-members of the I. L. P. Mr. Rosslyn Mitchell, censured for "lack of discipline, and he is also to be carpeted by the Paisley branch of the I. L. P.
The weakness of the Socialist! position, and the increasing, difficulies with which the leaders of the Parliamentary Socialist Party are faced, are well illustrated the result of the Edinburgh discussion on the nationalization of industries und services, A solution put forward by the executive, which recognized the principle' of compensation, was by a large majority rejected—in favour of amendments which called for confiscation. Compensatory xo. efalization on a nation: course, impracticable able, "Tt would mean a double lows. The' community would still remain under financial obligations to them whose enterprises had been purelased by the State, and the socialized enterprises would very quickly. become inefficient and" unprofitable. The nation would have to bear the burdens of both heavy interest payments and of bureaucratic oxtravagance und mismanagement.—Only the latter of those burdens would have to be shouldered by a country which adopted the confiscatory method, but, as the example of Russia shows, it' would be heavy enough of itself to crush and paralyse economic life. There is a touch of irony, probably not quite unintentional, in the opinion expressed in one of the amendments adopted, that cases hardship caused by confiscation might be met by State assistance to aged persons and widows and orphans. The Edinburgh—confercence indicates the near approach of British Socialism to a point at which there must necessarily be a of the ways. The division Dotween those who accept. the mate and ruthless logie of Soci doctrine and those who stand for} the principle of compensation and for socialization by the methods of "gradualism." The latter are. th: Girondins of the movement, and they must inevitably yield to the Tacobins.
Transmitting Images by Wireless It is stated that Mr, John Baird, a Scottish engineer, has sueceeded in sending through the ether the actual images of people placed before his apparatus; and, whether his invention becomes " " practical] success or not, his work on television ix certainty receiving a large amount of attent Mr. Baird ax had a remarkable career. Educated at Larchfield School, Helens-burgh, he was for a time employed with the Clyde Valley Power Company. Weak health disabled him for: war service, but he turned his scientific mind to some account by patenting and manufacturing the Baird Sock, preventative for trench-feot.' Ill-health has always been his bane, and it drove him in time to the West Indies, where, arriving without prospects and practically vio funds, he state on its feet of Tines made profitable enterprise, and after 2 period of convalescence he opened in the soap business in London. Again he sucsveded, making a profit of as much as S10) a week, and him this. time to the South Coast, where he started seriously on the television invention which he had experiments interested many prominent men, chief among them Mr. Win. lo Queux, the novelist, who is by way of being a wireless expert. When I met Baird last winter he was located in Sohx and had got_as far} as his slender means would allow— the transmission of a blurred imags, bat was seriously handicapped by the quality of the material he had! perforce to work in—cardboard, Wireless apparatus, tin, and even fan old bicycle gear-wheel. being among his accessories. Baird has many. of the qualities of genius, outstanding an amazingly fertile mind and a remarkable resource, has had a long and a hard struggle, but the hope is that he is now firmly established on the road to
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.