Mr, Herbert Smith, the Yorkshire miners' leader, is dead and he died just as he probably would have desired—at work to the very end. He had just cast his vote in a by-election at Barnsley, headquarters of the Yorkshire Miners' Federation, and returned to the office where he was found dead in his chair.
Few trade union leaders in England have contributed to the movement so substantially as Herbert Smith, and few exercised such a personal ihfluetice in the affairs of the movement and the course of its struggles for recognition and power. Herbert Smith was nearing his eightieth year and for 50 years had been connected with the Yorkshire Miners' Federation of which he was president for seven years, but even after he had vacated the presidency his influence continued to be a powerful factor for he was so well-known in the district where the Federation is in existence. Not only did he participate in many meetings and labour negotiations in England but attended many international conferences where he was admired and respected. Perhaps the secret of his success and popularity lay in his rugged and homely personality. To talk to him was to talk to a man who knew all about the coal miner afd his job. He himself entered the pit at a time when children were born and raised to the eventual idea that they would also get a job in the pit, but since those terrible days there have been tremendous improvements although it inspired the veteran mine leader to remark during the war when relative comparisons of danger were discussed that the "miner is always in the trenches." In the Barnsley neighbourhood, he was a familiar figure and he wore the cloth cap of the men he represented, shared in their pursuits and never considered himself anything but one of them. Trade unionists will consider his death a great loss to the movement, Shanghai Under Water Shanghai has experienced many floods in recent years but none of the persistency of the present. For nearly a week there -has been a constant downpour of rain giving doleful confirmation to the Chinese belief that we are in for a long spell, and the result hasbeen large areas of the Settlement and the French Concession have been under water, curtailing traffic, preventing sporting activities and causing general inconvenience. The French Concession, especially around Avenue Joffre, has suffered worse than any other part of the foreign areas and it does not seem possible that there will be any subsiding of the floods for some days even if the rain stops, for the district nas been so thoroughly saturated. Accustomed to these and other emergencies of a man-made character, Shanghai has philosophically accommodate itself to the disabilities created by this unusual deluge and perhaps in the near future the authorities may have an opportunity once again to study the flood problem which has not yet been generally solved in spite of all sorts of schemes for increasing the levels of the roads. The'Bund and the Central district have proved an exception and one of the highly satisfactory features has been the relative frecdom of this area from inundation. Up to a few years ago there was a recurrence of serious floods which did considerable damage to the basements of buildings in the Central district and it was not until a comprehensive scheme to increase the height of road levels, coupled with the installation of a pumping system, that the evil was overcome. Convincing evidence of the success of this scheme has been provided during the last few days for which the Public Works Department is to be congratulated.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.