Welsh Gazette and West Wales Advertiser

SANITATION FOR THE PEOPLE. [BY DR. WALKER.] I.-ITS NECESSITY. IT is usual for politicians of the Liberal school to say, in reference to any great question-" We will trust the people." A previso would be necessary, however, before submitting such a question to a plebiscite, viz., that it should be understood. Having mastered the question, and with the issue fairly and squarely before them, the people would be better judges than our statesmen, of many of the social problems of the day. There is less casuistry, less balancing of side issues, or compromising with vested interests, in a popular vote. In this matter of sanita- tion we must enlist the people. Their partnership, is essential, their hostility is fatal to success. If they once recognize (and I do not doubt their intelligence and capability for doing so), the necessity for sanitary reform, there will be no difficulty in gaining their consent and co-operation in carrying it out. Let me try to prove this necessity, and to bespeak attention and favourable consideration for this most im- portant subject. There are forces in nature which are so tremendous and awe-inspiring, that, in presence of them, we all feel our im- potence and littleness, and the limitations under which we labour. Need I mention the earthquake, the tempest, the mighty forces of water, wind and fire, the majesty of mountain, plain or ocean. That Universe, of which our planet, great though we think it, is so insignificant a part, is so inconceivably great, that our thoughts refuse to carry us in an adequate contemplation of it; and we have to confess that even our minds seem chained, as our bodies certainly are, to this poor rolling globe. But, if nature in its stupendous manifestions becomes so terrible, the forces which are unseen and silent are no less so. Indeed it would not be wrong to say that the might of the silent agencies in nature far surpasses those which are calculated to impress our senses by noise or destructive- ness. The Bible, true to the elemental laws of nature, has placed the manifestation of Diety not in the mighty wind, nor the earth- quake, nor the fire, but in the still small voice. And now, in these latter-day discoveries of science, we are taught that the invisible and unheard forces of nature are infinitely more influential than those that are seen and heard. "Things that are not, bring to nought things that are," is St. Paul's para- dox and even in the material world this is as true as in the spiritual Of these unseen and unheard forces the greatest, as regards humanity, are those myriads of living atoms, which we now know exist all around us and even within us. Though simple and structureless they are more than a match for the complex organism which we possess, and of which we are often so foolishly proud. In every breath of air we draw, in every particle of food or drink, in every tissue, in our very life blood, in clothing, books, furni- ture, in the house, in the field, by day, by night, our ubiquitous guests teem in countless hosts. We live by sufferance, and our existence hangs on a thread. It is well for us that these forces are not all hostile ones. Without any open alliance we have powerful friends among them; and, amidst a constant conflict between these invisible foes, we pass our time from the cradle to the grave. This is no fancy picture. Many of these living atoms have been seen and studied, their mode of propagation has been ascertained, their deadly effects have been demonstrated beyond the possibility of deception. I do not mean to say that very much has yet been done in the direction of destroying them, but enough progress has been made as to lead to the hope, that remedies will be found for them all. The special bacillus or bacterium, from which some' diseases arise, has been found to present under the microscope certain char- acteristics by which the disease can be identified. It is the reasonable expectation of scientists, that each disease has its own special microbe, and that the identification of it will some day be accomplished. From this the hypothesis arise that each bacillus has its own destroyer, and, when such is discovered and applied, disease may be stamped out. This may be too sanguine a prospect, but, even if incapable of realization in full, great progress may be made towards this grand consummation. Meanwhile, two important facts have been positively ascertained—(1) That many diseases spread by the propagation of an invisible germ or bacillus, which by sanitary precau- tions may be prevented from spreading or even destroyed, and (2) that insanitary conditions will, by reducing the vitality of the tissues and the resisting power of the constitution, make those who. are living under them an easy prey to disease. T t, is not asking too much of the UlINic, the; ef ore, if salutary reformers desire,, nay, insist on a hearing, and an intelligent compliance with the reasonable precautions which they recom- mend. They have- no end to gain but the welfare of the penpl- Tl- medical profes- sion which advocates these sanitary reforms is entirely unselfish in thnt advocacy, for it pays the doctors- much better to have plenty of illness. I am often tempted to lose patience with people whose humanity has led them to surround paupers, unatics, and criminals with those precautions which are intended to preserve and lengthen their days, and steadily refuse to avail themselves of the same means to preserve their own health, and that of those nearest and dearest to them. I leave this thought to sink deep into the minds of my readers, and to create a little painful reflection, ere I go on to deal with the object, and method of sanitation.

HEAR THE OTHER SIDE. ELSEWHERE we print a report of the Aberystwyth Licensed Victuallers' Annual Banquet held on Thursday evening, under the presidency of Mr. GEO. FOSSETT ROBERTS, of the Brewery. All the utterances were characterised with a commendable modera- tion, and we believe that the Temperance Party will heartily endorse not a little of what was said—but from a different motive. Temperance reformers will readily agree with Mr ROBERTS that the trade comprises the most respectable portion of the community," if we may take his state- ment as a minor and not a major premise so as not to. exclude other respectable people, for, certainly the whole of the most respectable portion of the community is not comprised in the trade, gigantic as it is. We always admire the frankness and good humair which characterise Councillor SALMON'S sayings. Mr SALMON said he could assure his audience that the great cause the Temperance Plaxty fought upon-the downfall of the drunkard—was equally regretful to them, for the downfall of the drunkard, said Mr SALMON, was the down- fall of the publican. Now, this is exactly what Temperance workers have insisted upon fon many a generation. We do not question Councillor SALMON'S integrity of motive but is it not a painfully familiar fact that too many publicans treat the drunkard as a spent force," and it is well known that most Temperance reformers regard the inveterate drunkard as being beyond all hopes of reclamation, and they, therefore, limit their efforts to the work of prevention. The Temperance Party has long recognised the fact that the mainstay of the trade is not the habitual drunkard, but the moderate tippler. They also maintain,' and in this, no doubt, they radically differ from the publicans, that the difference between the tippler and the drunkard is one of degree and not of kind. Any dictionary will tell us that the person who gets drunk occasionally is not a drunkard, the term drunkard implies a habitual state. And that habitual state is the result of a process. It is a question of cause and effect, and on this ground the publicans and the Temperance Party are forced to join issue, and the latter believe with the poet, that the publicans in discarding the drunkard" shun the mischief which they cannot heal." The references made to the enormous revenue derived from the trade" and the endowment of education with drink money recalls the stinging words of COWPER, who said over a century ago that this very trade was "a public pest That, like the filth with which the peasant feeds His hungry acres, stinks and is of use."

DISTRICT COUNCILS. Speaking on the work of the local councils in Wales at a meeting in London last week Mr. J. H. DAVIES, of Cwrt Mawr, stated that the country has not yet fully appre- ciated the machinery ready to its hand to deal with questions of roads, sanitation, allotments, light railways, and public libraries, and he maintained that it could not properly appreciate its powers until a central authority—some kind of Local Government Council for Wales bu established to deal with matters of local reform as the Welsh Central Board deals with educational matters. In technical and manual instruction the Councils have fallen far short of what was expected of them. and have not taken advantage of the authority with which they were vested. The difficulty in rural districts is not mainly one of new powers, but the better employ- ment of existing ones. In spite of the establishment of democratic institutions the people still need much training in the use of the powers they already possess. Public apathy and lack of initiative is due not so much to unwillingness to improve as to ignorance of the methods of procedure and wcaggerated ideas oi costs. Mr. LLOYD GEORGE, who presided, endorsed Mr. DAVIES' views as to the want of a central Welsh authority, which should be a source of light and vitality to the local bodies. Mr. LLOYD GEORGE added that he would not say that the powers entrusted to the local bodies were adequate, but they are great if the people would only put them into operation.

NOTES AND COMMENTS. ,Th,rmelting of the snow has led to severe I., floods in many parts of the country, and inueli ii-amage to property has lesulted. The estate of the late Sir HENRY TAn has been valued at c£1,2()J)()!) gross, in- cluding personalty of the net value of £ 1,228,097. Mr. Humphreys-Owen, M.P., is confined to his room by a severe chill, and was there- fore unable to be present at the Liberal Conference in London on the 14th inst. The chairman of the Llangollen School Board called the attention of the Board at its meeting on Thursday to the fact that the irregular attendance of the children at school resulted in an annual loss of £ 200. Local lime-burners are taking steps in the direction of making an advance in the price of lime in consequence of the abnormal in- crease in prices that are being so well main- tained in the coal trade,, particularly in anthracite. Among the most recent issue of Bills is one to enable any county council to purchase by agreement any monument situate in such county or in an adjacent county, and at the request of the owner to consent to become the guardians of any such monument, and to undertake or contribute towards the cost of preserving, maintaining, and managing it, whether they have purchased it or become guardians of it, or not. At the Manchester County Court last week Judge Parry held that a licensed victualler who had sub-let his billiard depart- ment to a professional billiard player who had not obtained a licence to carry on a billiard saloon could not recover rent due, as the contract was illegal and against public policy. Merionethshire lacks a general hospital, and the establishment of an institution of the kind would be an unquestionable ad- vantage to the county at large. It is to be hoped that the day will soon come when County Councils will be allowed to establish general as well as isolation hospitals. It is said that if black or native Indian troops are employed in this war the Govern- ment will lose more support than they think. Such a policy would, it is felt, enormously embitter Continental feeling against Eng- land, and would show that our political morality is lower that it was when Chatham and Burke carried public opinion in their protest against employing savages in the war with America. Mr. Augustine Birrell, M.P., the Liberal candidate for North-east Manchester, ad- dressed a meeting on Monday night at Newton Heath, and combated the notion that we were envied abroad because of our being a military Empire. The Frenchman and the German would say that, so far from their military system enabling them to expand, it ground them down and drove to America and our colonies tens of thousands of their ablest young men, who were only anxious to avoid all the glories of military empire. At the last meeting of the Aberystwyth Rural District Council a letter was read from Mrs. Fielden, complaining of the tin- satisfactory state of the drainage at Borth. Mr. W. Morris, the member for Cyfoethy- brenin, requested the reporters present not to take any notice of the complaint, as it might injure the town. Mr. James Jones promptly protested against the policy of concealing the sanitary condition of the place, and added that if people knew of the state of Borth they would never go there. The repressive measures advocated by Mr. Morris will do far more harm to Borth in the long run than any publicity the press can give it; for disease, like murder, will out. In the whole of the year 1899 there were registered in England and Wales 928,640 births, and 581,824 deaths. The natural increase of population, by excess of births over deaths, was, therefore, 346,816, the average annual increase in the preceding five years having been 376,880. The birth-rate was 29-3 per 1,000 of the population, which is lower than any other year on record. Compared with the average in the ten years 1889-98, the birth-rate in 1899 shows a decrease of 1-0 per 1,000. The death-rate in 1899 was 18-3 per 1,000, which is higher than the rate in either of the three years immediately preceding, but 0-1 below the average in the 10 years 1889-98. Mr. Labouchere, in response to an invita- tion to attend a smoking concert and dance in Aid of the Northampton Reservist Fund, forwarded ten guineas and a letter, in the course of which, after remarking that his own dancing days were over, and that his money would consequently be more useful than his company, he said, I have always thought that it is somewhat gruesome for fine ladies to get up balls in London to help the wounded, and that they would do better to contribute what they can without dancing over graves. But care of the families of Reservists is quite another matter, although the State should provide for the families of all who are ordered to the front." A conference of Liberals from all parts of the United Kingdom, convened by a large and influential committee, in support of the policy which has been placed before the country by Sir H. Campbell- Bannerman, Mr. Morley, and Mr. Bryce, was held in London last week. Mr. R. C. Lehmann was elected to take the chair, and in his opening speech he said many of them had felt recently that it would be necessary to marshal the forces of Liberalism to resist the aggressive Imperialism which was swallowing up our resources in life and _1 • 1- 1 i treasure, wnicn naa already committed us to one deplorable enterprise, of which no man could foresee either the cause or the end, and which threatened, by imperilling us in adventure after adventure, to convert the whole framework of our peaceful life into a vast and aggressive engine of militarism. The Conference denounced the war in South Africa as a crime and a blunder committed at the instigation of irresponsible capitalists, condemned the official excuses for it as insufficient and insincere, and demanded from the Government a ded;ration of the objects for which they were sacrificing blood and treasure. In the second place the Conference stated that it considered the alleged Dutch conspiracy against Great Britain in South Africa to be void of foundation, and regarded the Transvaal armaments as defensive preparations due to the Jameson Raid and the suspected com- plicity of Imperial officials, and called for the full publication of the suppressed correspondence and of other unconsidered evidence relating to the Raid. A protest was next entered against the constantly increasing expenditure on armaments, which made political and social reform impossible. Our last week s issi wag completely sold u ear y owing to th increased demand rrom our x ~uau>. Her Majesty's Commissi. iers of Woods and j. i j. c -■ i,vnnethe work or anorestation in certain nf Xnrth Wales, and the planting has btn entrusted to Mr. Thomas Lewis, of :M:essr:rjlibran and teens, baiuou. In another column will be fount some interesting letters from Air. J. M. Jtkins, a native of Talybont, who is now at the front with Bethune's Mounted Infantry. The news from South Africa during th* week continues to be re-assuring. The long period of defence in Cape Colony has ended, and a great forward movement has begun which has resulted in the Relief of Kimber- ley by General French. At a meeting of the Cardiganshire County Council, a full report of which will be found in another page, it was agreed, on the motion of Alderman C. M. Williams to con- tribute the sum of S450 towards the repairs and alterations of the Aberystwyth Town Hall. t At the adjourned meeting of the Aber- ystwyth Infirmary on Saturday Mr. John Gibson was again in a cavilling mood, but he found more than his match in Mr. William Thomas. It would be well for Mr. Gibson to master the provisions of the scheme, as Mr. Thomas seems to have done, before going to the meeting to indulge in aimless criticisms. A training college for Sunday School teachers—the first of its kind in England- was opened on Monday afternoon at Hands- worth, Birmingham. The Institution has been founded by the Birmingham Sunday School Union, the aim being to equip teachers with higher education in religious subjects and greater efficiency of teaching. The scheme is a branch of the Free Church movement. The college has accommodation for twenty resident students, and the classes will also be open to non-residents. Students are to pay a moderate fee for tuition and: maintenance. The Rev. Dr. Horton per-- formed the opening ceremony. In a letter to the Manchester Guardian the Hon. C. H. Wynn, Rug, says The infant death-rate in Kimberley from want of proper food, especially children under one year, is truly appalling. Can nothing be done to save these poor little innocents from the consequences of this miserable war ? I fail to see that the Boers have in any way proved themselves to be such bar- barians—no matter what has been written of them—that a request should not be sent with fair prospect of success, to let the women and children through. No feeling of pride should stand in the way of this request, and when our turn comes we.should do likewise." A new order from the Education Depart- ment was submitted at the meeting of the School Attendance Committee of the North- wich Union last week. A discussion took place as to its probable effect i-pon agri- culture, and eventually it was resolved that if any child shall have obtained a certificate that it has made 300 attendance in not more than two schools during each of five preced- ing years it shall be entitled to the same exemption :l:; prescribed in the by-laws. It was further resolved to raise the age of ex- emption in the Northwich Union from. 11 to 12, and the standard of partial exemption from the fourth to the fifth standard, and for total exemption from the fifth to the sixth. It was resolved not to accept any of the special conditions for partial exemption of children to be employed in agricultural pursuits. The columns of the Manchester Guardian are quite deluged with protests against the proposal to invite Mr. Chamberlain to pre- side over a meeting at Wesley's Chapel-the. Cathedral of Methodism. Dr. Lunn, in acknowledging an invitation, writes as follows" I should like to accept this invitation, but I feel that if I did accept it it could only be for the purpose of protest- ing, as I now do by letter, against the position of honour you have given to on& who will to-morrow be morally impeached by the leaders of one political party for alleged complicity in one of the greatest crimes ever committed by Englishmen—the Jameson Raid-and who, moreover, is believed by a large section of our Church to be responsible, by his maladroit diplomacy, for the present terrible conflict between two Christian nations. The presence of the Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain at a ban- quet in the Cathedral of Methodism at this crifis in our national history goes far to commit our Church to the approval of a policy which many of them believe to have been directly opposed to the teaching of Jesus, possibly fatal to our South African Empire, inconsistent with the traditions of peace and social reform which have been upheld by our governing body the Confer- ence for so many years, and diametrically opposed to the teaching of the great religious leader the anniversary of wbo,o death you will be commemorating. I intend to send this letter to the press, and I hope it is not even yet impossible that something may be done to avert so calamitous an incident." Speaking on the Welsh County School System before the members of the Man- I chester Welsh National Society, Mr. F. E. Hamer, of the Manchester Guardian, said that the test of the success or failure l of the Welsh plan was not whether it com- plied with this or that tradition, or with the preconceived ideas of critics who assumed that what was suitable to England must necessarily be suitable to every other part of the world, but simply whether the Welsh scheme supplied the Welsh people with what it was intended to supply-whether. in short, it actually did the work it w? created to do. The great central object:'} to the Welsh plan, out of which all its le^er defects were said to have arisen, war'hat too many schools had been establisliet, with the result that the cost as regards bldirigs and staff had been multiplied over over again that the type of school A,S smalt and local, instead of being like at of the typical English grammar '=' school and that the schools, instead of remaizii4 secondary schools in the true sense of tht word, would degenerate into mere highe:ade schools. The one fault about such ,!ltlCs was that, < like the War Office, they -tde no allowance for the conditions of -e country. The Welsh system was basec' on the principle to which Matthew Arnold foreign experience led him—that educatir1 to be effective must be taken to the stu.ent, not the student brought to the elation. The Welsh system was serving the country as no other system could ha^ done; it was giving secondary educat011 to hundreds, who would otherwise biveliad to go without, and the local school i* every district was a per- manent apped and stimulus to educational sentiment ai(^ effort, sentiment lid effort,