The Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard

WHAT NEXT? Now that the elections are over and the Government is as strong as it wa's before they began, ,i nd even stronger, the question is, what next? This is the third time the present Government has received the approval of the people, and once the veto of the Lords is got out of the way, as it certainly will be got out of the way, Liberals hope that there will be no more fooling about with plural voting, official election expenses, Home Rule, Welsh Dis- establishment, elections spread over three weeks to suit people, some of whom have forty or fifty votes, and many other subjects which the Lords have been able to block up to the present time. The existence of a permanently Conservative House of Lords, no matter what the opinion of the majority of the people may be on other subjects, is doomed, and it is to be hoped the shrift will be short. We do not rhink there has been a Government during the past half-century which has been so repeatedly and emphatically assured of the confidence of the people as the one now in office. There will now be no hesitating or wobbling. A number of old political scores must be wiped off, so that the way may be cleared 'for progressive reform, the rank and file of the people do not want the embodiment in legislation of wild-cat Socialism, nor do they desire to see the ancient aristocracy of the country treated with harshness, or contempt, or injustice. What they do want, and are determined to secure at any cost, are the full rights of citizenship. We know how very difficult it is for long- pedigreed peers to realise that ordinary workmen are as much human beings and quite as ntelligent as they are, and perhaps have greater and fuller knowledge of life and its obligations and responsibilities. We are anxious, whether Conserva- tives believe us or ll'ot" that the govern- ment of the country should not be made a cause of exasoeration that tends to revolution. There are Tories of the extreme sort who would be satisfied with nothing but an autocracy. On the other hand. there are Socialists who would be satisfied with nothing but the abolition of capital, the equal division of unequal earnings, and the abolition of individual rights. Be- tween the two extremes there are Liberals and Conservatives whose aims are the same, but whose methods are different. There is nothing- to be greatly regretted in these differences L, o'f tactics. and from time to time in every free country there will be changes in policy, and party defeats and victories will follow each other. Ever since last January there has been a deepiy-rooted belief in the Conservative camp that if another general election could be forced upon the Government the Conservative party would come back to power. No effort has been spaced by the Opposi- *r\rt mrtv IpndArc TllP Btirl<rpfc lilprp I opposed by the Lords, and the ques- ton of the Lords' veto came up and had to be settled. The attempt to settle the veto by means of a confer- ence failed, and then there was abso- lutely nothing for it but another election. The people have declared for the abolition of the veto, which means such a reconstruction of the House of Lords as will make the iuture dominance of the Peers over the People impossible. The howling Unionist newspapers have done their utmost to degrade political conflicts into brutal, dis- honest, and shameful squabbles. The quickly-reveared confidence of the people in the Government did a great deal to quickly modify the Torv screeching, and as the days passed it grew less and less and at last tended to take the form of cowardly accusa- tions against Liberals. Where the Liberals are weak is in not fighting their battle steadily year after year. In Montgomery Boroughs, for instance, we knew from the beginning of Sir J. D. REES'S presence there what he was, and we I made no secret of our opinion. The danger now is that nothing more will be done by the Montgomery Liberals until the next dissolution, and then there will be another hurried fight with whatever result may befall. We believe in constant, patient, steady perseverance and complete organisa- tion such as there is in Merionethshire. When the Conservatives bring out a candidate in Merionethshire, he is not abused or in any way belittled in the columns of this paper. The Liberal managers are always at work and thev do it well and steadily. The best thing that Mr. HUMPHREYS OWENT can do is to consult Mr. HAYD JONES, the Liberal member for Merionethshire, as to the Liberal fighting arrange- ments in that county. We do not believe in attempts to win an election in a ten days' scramble. Personal qualities may win, as in the case of Colonel PRYCE-JONES, or caieful and untailing attention to parliamentary duties may win, as in the case of Mr. VAL-GHAX DAVIES, but we believe in the victories which are due to well- organized political forces ?nd to con- stant remembrance that the time of battle may come any day, as they are due in Merionethshire. It is not every place that can find the skilful organiser, but often a great deal more can be done than is done, not only to win victories, but to make opposition hopeless. The referendum dodge is abandoned. This wretched device has lowered its authors in national esteem. The Con- servative referendumites may hear more in the future than will be pleasant about that device. Liberals have no objection to referring any great question of policy or tactics to the people. All that is necessarv is that the issue shall be simple, clear, and certain. As far as we can judge, the Con- servatives will not be able to come into office again until they have something better to offer the nation than taxed bread, excessive armaments, and general opposition to the will of the people. Sheer stubborn resistence to popular desires, even if the desires are wrong, will not serve as a government policy. Education is spreading. Interest in politics is growing. National needs are becoming more and more clamant. Mere abuse of the other side will not carry Conservatives to victory, as is shown by the fact that not a single member of the Govern- ment has been defeated during the recent appeal to the country. It is not for us to define a Conservative policy, but the fact has been made clear during the past three weeks that the people are not going to eat taxed bread and are about weary of being told that the people of other nations are eager to go ~to war with them. There are immense possibilities of many kinds of national develop- ment. It is in the direction of those possibilities that Conserva- tives will have to look for a policy. At present Conservatives arc nothing but blockers, and that game is played out. Before the present Government goes out of office the political highway will certainly have been cleared of some ancient obstruc- tions, and both sides will have to find a constructive and progressive policy. It will be interesting to see what next will be done in the political arena. For the time being Liberals are victors and their opponents have largely defeated themselves. The one great, indisputable fact is that what the nation felt and believed a year ago it feels and believes now, and its con- fidence in the Government has not been shaken in the least degree.

TO REDUCE HUMAN SLAUGHTER. MANY times we have referred in these columns, in the strongest language we dare use, to the utter indifference of local governing bodies and others to the human slaughter, which goes on owing to sanitary neglect. A meet- ing was held at the Pavilion, Aber- ystwyth, on Monday night, to create interest in the movement initiated by Mr DAVID DAVIES, M.P., to establish as a memorial to the late KING sanatoria in Wales for the treatment of consumption. Lord KENYON was present, and in the course of his speech said that although the scheme embraced sanatoria, the aim was mainly by means of education "to catch the enemy young and stamp 'I' it out, as well as to raise the stand- "ard of health of their dear old "country." Principal ROBERTS said that in Germanlv the average con- sumption death-rate had been re- duced by one half. Mr. DAVID DAVIES said that Wales had covered her hillsides with places of worship and was now pro- vided with a splendid and complete system of education but so far had been negligent of the public health." Mr. THOMAS JONES said that c'in 'c Wrales during the past ten years nearly 40,000 people had died of con- sumption, while the death-rate for the same period had been practically stationary, in spite of increased "scientific knowledge." Principal PRYS said that he feared there was in Wales an appalling amount of ignorance of sanitation and the con- ditions of health. Think of chapels and their ventilation, or, rather, their lack of ventilation. Science had now opened the door of hope which he hoped the people of "Wales would no longer, by ignor- ance, or negligence, or want of endeavour refuse to enter." Prin- cipal PRYS referred to a renovated house near Aberystwyth whose win- dows were not made to open. There I is in Aberystwyth at the present time a house that was deemed by the Coun- cil to be unfit for human habitation when it was first built. It is now occupied, but it is still as unfit for human habitation as it was at first. Consumption cannot be stamped out as iong as the existing apalling ignorance in reference to sanitation exists. There are in every town and village, and all over the rural districts, mad violations of the ordinary laws of health and, as far as our experience goes, nothing can be done to prevent those violations. The MAYOR of Aberystwyth presided over the meeting on" Monday night. The Aberystwyth Town Council has officials—sanitary officials-but there is no enforcement of sanitary laws. As we have frequently pointed out, the byelaws are daily broken. One of those byelaws says that "no person shall sweep or otherwise remove from any shop or house into any "street any waste paper, shavings, or other refuse." These words are plain enough and quite reasonable. Every day all the year round every sort of abominable and highly danger- ous filth is swept from houses, shops, and other premises into the streets. The Council does nothing. The officials do nothing. The police do no- thing, and the whole community may go to anv hell there is in this world or the next as far as the members of the Aberystwyth Town Council are con- cerned. Muck—-sheer, unadulter- ated, pestiferous muckis nothing to them. They transact the business of the town in a building which is loaded with poisonous germs. We have no case to make out against the Aber- ystwyth Town Council. What is true of that body is true in even more aggravating degrees of the County Council, of the Rural Councils, of the Parish Councils, and of the Education Committees. Children all over the Principality are done to death bv sheer brutal disregard of the laws of health Principal PRYS referred to chapels. We believe that churches and chapels are perhaps the dirtiest and most dangerous places in Wales. They probably slay more bodies than they save souls. They are not only not ventilated, but they are not thoroughly cleansed. Consumptive people spit in their pews and the stuff dries and is breathed by the members of the con- gregation week after week. As far back as 1888 the writer of this article went all over Cardiganshire and delivered speeches in schools and chapel's, most of them hideously dirty. There have, perhaps, since then been improvements, but what is to be said or done seeing that in a town like Aberystwyth the most complete dis- regard is manifested by the Town Council in reference to the enforce- ment of its own sanitary byelaws? About half a mile from Llanbadarn, on the Goginan road, adjoining the high- way, there is a common kitchen midden. We have written about it time after time. Recently some of the ancient filth was carted' away, but enough has been left to breed a dozen epidemics. What does the Abervst wyth Rural Council care about a stink- ing kitchen midden ? Nothing. What do the people care? Nothing. The local authorities are useless. The Local Government Board is powerless. The tubercolised inhabitants just cough themselves into their graves and every- body is quite satisfied as long as there are nice funerals and no increase of local rates. We know, of course, that our readers have seen all this before, but what are we to do? Here is Mr. DAVID DAVIES trying to raise ^"300,000 in order to fie-ht down a disease which local governing bodies in every county in Wales encourage. Wre could excuse them in their ignorance if thev took children by the heels and bashed their brains out against stone walls. But they pass resolutions and "adopt byelaws, as at Aberystwyth. They appoint and pay officials and then they allow the wrong things to go on being done, to the peril of thte health and lives of the people. What is the use of trying to stamp out consumption as long as children in elementary schools have to use filthy privies, to drink polluted water, to sit in damp and dirty schoolrooms, and to walk in wet clothes to and from the schools in order to keep up high average attendances? We believe that Mr. DAVID DAVIES'S scheme will do something in the way df reducing the human slaughter now caused "by all sorts of sanitary neglect. The task is an enormous one and most difficult, for the people really to blame are County Councillors, Town Councillors, Rural Councillors, life-long deacons, and the over-burdened and antiquated Local Government Board. We have hope that the masses of the people who now accept the white curse as a sort of decree of Providence will ere long begin to realise that it is mainly the result of the crass ignorance, greed, and stupidity of the people themselves, and of the representatives whom they elect to administer their affairs. The movement with which Mr. DAVID DAVIES IS so closely and honourably identified is doing good work. We believe that it is already saving lives, and the more meetings are held the better. What is most needed just now is to try and induce local governing bodies to enforce their own byelaws and to carry their own resolu- tions. As long as the people have to live in pig-sties they will mainly be swine.

ONE OF THE FOUR NATIONS. ONE of the most regrettable features of the past general election was the presumption by Conservative speakers and writers that Ireland is not really one of the four nations of the United: Kingdom, but is a sort of alien or out- cast. This is an attitude that must. be resisted in every possible way. Ireland has suffered greatly in the past from misrule, but that phase m het history has now given place to a more, reasonable policy. During the past twenty years much has been done for Ireland, and the misery and injustice which formerly prevailed are giving place to prosperity, comfort, and equal treatment with England, Scotland, and Wales. More still remains to be done. How much can be done for Ireland may be judged from the fact that nearly three million acres of the land of the country consists of bog and other barren tracts. Since 1841 the popula- tion df Ireland has gone down from over eight millions to something less than four millions and a half. During the same period the population of England and Wales and Scotland has nearly doubled. The darkest period in the history of Ireland has been over for some years, and we think there can be no doubt that the country has now entered upon a time of growing prosperity and development.