Pioneer

Were Macdonald There! I OLR local Coalitionist champion, < Sir Edgar Jones, seems to be making the central argument in his appeal for the suffrages of the Merthyr electorate revolve around the question of the comparative suitabilities of Lloyd George or J. Ramsay Macdonald as Britain's chief representa- tives at the Peace Conference of the nations. Whilst agreeing with the world-wide importance of the decisions of that Conference, and its mani- fold implications for good or evil, we deeply re- gret that Sir Edgar has been so far lost to the real basic facts upon which solution depends that he has had no more feeding mental food to offer his auditors than this confusion of the personality of imere delegates with the great fundamental principles that must underlie the proceedings and conclusions of that Conference if all that we hope from it is to be materialised in the subsequent history of civilisation in Europe. We have all yearned that at the con- clusion of the great war the Peace Conference that would sit would be so guided in its judg- ments that the justice of its decisions would be internationally recognised, and that its binding powers would serve to lead to the formation of that League of Nations which alone would snap the binding chains of militarism from off the hands and feet of humanity, and render possible the scrapping of armaments and the free, uni- fied development of the Continent, cemented into that grand ideal of W. T. Stead's of an ITnited States of Europe. That we have hefted for; that the people still hope for, blinded in their ignorance to the fact that the representa- tives of Capitalistic Executives, calling them- selves national governments," are not the peo- ple to consummate such a great and worthy democratic ideal. The spirit of that Conference is what will matter—the sense of reliance and good will which each representative will feel in the other is what counts. Xot even Sir Edgar t even Sir Fdgar I .Tones has yet had the audacity to declare that the charming personality of the leader he is so unrea.soningly, prepared to march behind is one that will commend itself to the representatives lof the Central Empires, how ever much it may bring the tears to the eves of the cynical Clem- enceau, or ungrudging the admiration of Vene- zelos or Wilson. And. after all, if the Confer- ence is to be in any wise different from a pre- historic (as well as post-historic) meeting of suc- cessful warrior cheiftains to dispute over the division of the booty, the attitude of the Ger- man and the Austrian towards the representa- tives of the other powers is a matter of pro- found niomtnt. Lloyd George's career has been too full of promises and too sparse of perform- ances. too full of contradictions to have com- mended him to anything but the envy of out- distanced rivals. Even had he remained true to his Liberal friends—for whom lie always spoke the incendiary word—he would have been the tll(? inc-t?ii d iar- last man in the world for the mission, but with his glaring somersault into the camp of the re- actionaries. into the midst of those who desire an "economic war" on Germany, who stand in violent opposition to all that the new states of the Central Empires represent, with these things before their eyes and in their minds what will be the spirit with which the representatives take their seats on the opposite side of the table to Lloyd George? What hope is there that the representative of such interests can ever find or give practical expression to a settlement in ac- cord with the universal will of the nations that will meet. For in what does that universal will consist? Assuredly in the will of the common peoples of all nations, a will .that responds read- ily to all that is good and true and noble; com- mon peoples whose oppressions are alike though their tongues are distincts, whose aspirations are the same, though they be spoken in viva- cious French, guttural Teutonic dialects, explo- sive Russian, liquid Italian, or plain English. Insofar as the settlement is a settlement of any- thing but a despoilers' claim to plunder, must it represent those aspirations and that will of the great common peoples. And to those peo- ples, aye. to French peoples and the Italians quite as much or more tha.n to the Germans and the Austrians, who would most commend himself—the tricky will-o'-the-wisp politician made Premier by a newspaper clique, the man whose coat of Literal yellow, has been cast off for the Tory blue, though it, may be camouflaged as a Coalition green at the moment-such a man as that, or a man of the people, welcomed guest at the people's conclaves of all lands, fellow- worker with democracy's giants of every nation, member of the people's International, upholder of the principles of national honour and safety and development, dauntless preacher of the gospel of International fraternity, when the preaching meant that the preacher would be subjected to all the malignant hate of the domi- nant military caste and their poison-gas press and pulpit? Of the two men which will aid most in securing that the will of the common people shall prevail? The common people's representa- tive, unbound by vested interests, inspired by the loftiest ideals of International justice, and informed with knowledge of the peoples of all nations who know and love him is James Ram- say Macdonald. Would he be less likely than Lloyd George, the suspect power hunter, to in- spire the trust and confidence that the proceed- ings of such a Conference so urgently demand5 Would he not be more likely to bring perman- ent peace, based, as it can only be based, on the irrefragible justice and goodwill of a common humanity, than the man who will head a Gov- ernment, admitted by such an anti-democrat as Lord Nortlicliffe, to be a "Junker Government?" If we believed in the personality of delegates much more than we do, we should, on the evi- dence alone, implicitly rely upon Macdonald, and regard George's presence as a huge error of judgment. But we don't. The spreading wave of Democracy, that has flowed over Northern and Western and Middle-Europe, is to-day bear- ing Southward and still more Westward. No natural or political barriers can stay it. AJ- ready it is lapping our shores, and that wave will automatically give expression to the will and aspirations of the common peoples of the earth, will resettle anew the peace settlement if that settlement is in contravention of that will and those aspirations. When that "correction" of the settlement is made it will he the Mac- donalds of the nations that will meet, not the Lloyd Georges of discredited politics.

Co-operation and Politics ONE of the proudest facts of the present elec- tion to us has been the linking of Co-operation with the other forces of Democracy into a solid phlanax of Labour. For years we laboured, as editor of a magazine ran by one of the largest and most progressive of the Northern Societies, for the political unity of the forces, and the coming of that unity has marked for us a mile-stone along the almost ended road that the workers of the world are called upon to travel ere they reach the land of emancipation. Co- operation has always stood to us as one of the advanced posts of Democracy, for inside of its ranks alone were the workers uniting with the object of socialising production. It was inevit- able that the Rochdale Pioneers should not see that; it was almost as inevitable that their mil- lions of successors in the present should be doing this great economic spade work instinctively since the educational facilities that have been so grudgingly doled out to us by men who con- sidered our class as mere working-animals did not provide the elements of real historical fact and reasoning, and was not calculated to carry the workers further into economic investigations than the gulping of the wordy mental poisons of a class-controlled press—a press, mind you. that was dependent upon the advertisements of Co-operation's worst enemies because they were Co-operation's business rivals. It is not won- derful, theny that the spur of a painful experi- ence should have been necessary to shatter the fears of officials that politics would harm Co- operation, and to start the huge memberships of the movement marching along with their bro- thers of the trades unions, and the political or- ganisations towards a common goal. Even to- day there are hundreds of Co-operators who have not grasped the real injustices that have d r"L- l been deliberately imposed upon Co-operation by the late Government against the eloquent and uncontrovertible arguments of Co-operation's re- presentatives. For instance, it is hardly yet universally recognised amongst the ordinary members of our societies that a deliberate wrong was perpetrated upon Co-operation under the Excess Profits Tax, although the distinction be- tween the Co-operative Society and the private trader is markedly obvious to even a superficial examiner, and despite the fact that that distinc- tion was again and again called to the attention of the Chancellor, the Premier and other mem- bers of the Government. Let us look at this point more closely. The private trader is in business for the purpose of amassing profits by the sale of goods to other people. He. (lok's not sell his goods to himself for his own consump- tion. We have finished with him. But exactly the reverse is true of Co-operation. The Co- operative Society is an association of consumers for the purpose of purchase and sale by them- selves, and to themselves of the goods they re- quire. For the purpose of securing the com- mand of ready capital so that they could enter the markets at an advantage, the earlier Co-operators distributed the goods amongst themselves at or about the ruling retail prices, and the accumulated surplus over buying price and selling price was hold in hand and periodi- cally distributed. Unfortunately this practice became a fixed custom and is continued to-day as dividend "—a mistaken policy as we see it. Nevertheless, neither in the older societies or our modern movement has that surplus even been a profit. The co-operator buys the goods wholesale and re buys them from himself at re- tail prices, hoarding the difference for three months. The whole process may be likened to the purchase of an article at wholesale prices by the coins in the left hand pocket and. the repurchase by the original purchaser of the same article at retail price by the coins in the right-hand pocket. A man cannot make a profit out of himself, nor can a co-operator, for he is in just that position. Yet the Government, ignoring this elementary fact, has pretended that the co-operator does make profits out of himself, does, in fact, perform an economic miracle, and has taxed the co-operator for loyalty to a principle that cut diametrically across every class privilege that the members of that Government represented. No wonder then that co-operators have turned to the use of the political weapon, and no wonder that with one accord they have found themselves part of the great Labour Movement builded up, conducted and controlled by men of the working-class—by co-operators for the most part. The time has come when the co-operator, and especially the housewife, has her opportunity to answer the Government action during the war, that he and she will do it effectively by voting Labour we do not doubt.

I Sir Edgar Jones and Free Press. ANXIOUS TO CAC HARDIE IN 1914. I I t want t.o know.' lw "aid (Mr. Edgar Jones), whether-( ask it respectfully-they (meaning the Government) cannot apply some kind of censorship to the writings of my col- league, the Junior Member for Merthyr Tydfil.' (Laughter). Year of grace 1914 A Radical Member of Parliament—out to put down oppression in Germany, proposing to reintroduce the in Merthyr. The little creatine apparently knows nothing about the years of toil, suffNlng, impri- sonment, exile, and, I think, but am not qmt<< sure, death, which the grand old Radicals of this time last century and for 50 years there- after, endux«»d to win a free press for their country." -d. KErR HARDIE (" Pioneer. Saturday. Nov. 21, 1914).

when yon ask him iii\yoii r simple way what you think would be good for a woman. THE ONLY CANDIDATE. I The politician does not as a rule like simple, straight questions, they sort of take his breath away. What you could say in six words, make it six hundred, add the same amount of curtsies and "Sirs," and he may understand you for the time being. There is one candidate in this division of yours who would be glad of the chance to carry out your wishes without a curt- sey or a Sir," emblematical of the feudal times, that is Bob Williams. Plain Bob," large of frame, but larger of heart, straight as a die," with a comprehensive knowledge or your sufferings and consequently of your needs, a trade union leader of International reputation, not a "Saturday night" politician, but of such a standing that he is feared even by Ministers before he gets to the House. He stands be- tween your young ones and further exploitation by the idle rich, like a gladiator with drawn sword, but he lacks just one thing which is in your possession to give him. This is YOUR VOTE, your most powerful weapon at present, without which even Bob, strong man as he is, will be as a lockless Samson. Make every will be as a loc k lebs '? effort to get to the booths to-morrow, put your mark alongside the name of Bob Williams, and T feel confident you will have done something that you and the generations that follow you will be immensely grateful for. By the way, the friends that canvass against your MAN at this election, keep their names for future reference for local elections, for the man who assists an enemy of the worktng-class into Parliament, cannot be allowed to represent the working-class opinion locally. I Yours fraternally in the great cause, CHAS. G. FORESTER.

To the Voters of Kenfig I Hill! I I AN OPEN LETTER ON THE CAMPAICN. I I IN YOUR HANDS IS THE DESTINY OF OUR I RACE. Fellow working men and women, There is not, I am sure, one man or woman of the working-class in Kenfig Hill, hut who do not picture to themselves the probable future of their sons and daughters in the industrial and social sphere of the near future. How many a father and mother having a bright boy or girl have dreamed of something better than the I ("oal-milH' or factory for them, to be rudely awakened to the stern fact that economic pres- sure makes such a tliliig 'itid these bright young hves?et thrown on to the Labour market like so many beasts of burden. With a sigh, you realise that to be dependent on the fruits of your labour-power does not carry all the glamour and glory that certain indi- vidnals would have us believe, and you capitu- late, embittered and disappointed, but withal somewhat mollified in your simple belief that if a grateful country, presided over by «>qually grateful statesmen, t'ould not possibly afford to give you adequate sustenance in your old age, when your toil-wrecked body is thrown on the scrap-heap, how much more difficult would it be for these poor overworked statesmen to provide your sons and daughters with a free highly specialised education. Of course not! Besides, why should workmen's children ever want edu- cation beyond what is provided by the e lemen- tary school ? It only makes them dissatisfied and, consequently, bad workmen, when what they were horn for was to swell the surplus-pro- fits of their employers. CONSISTENCY. When will the working-class realise that all the beauties of nature, art, literature, music are theirs for the asking, why should you toil and slave so that the sons and daughters of the parasitic class shall have all the good tilings that wealth can procure for them when it is you and your politically and economically in- significant, but numerically preponderating, class that produces all wealth. Why should you be satisfied with the husks of everything when those who live in idleness get the kernels of all that makes life worth living ? Let us come nearer home and see if you are in the least con- sistent. Two colliers work together and share the earnings, one of the colliers does not do enough work to please the other, and lie takes steps to get him removed. Do you do this with the other society? No! You allow not one per- son to ride you, but hundreds; but are recon- ciled in the fact that they produced" the capi- tal that found yon employment, thus it is your bounden duty to give of your best for this "bene- factor." That we tolerate such a state of affairs only goes to show how ignorant we must be, or perhaps how hopelessly we are in the chains of wage slavery. How are we going to get out of this horrible mess: only in one way, by trusting a Coalition Government? an amal- gamation of vested interests, by trusting a crew of political tricksters, who cater for capi- talist monopolies, who promise nationalisation a National Public Health Service, and give us slums; no niggard hand to be employed in the administration of pensions, and what of the widows of soldiers in this place, are they well cared for and removed from t4ie care of want? ask some of them! Better wages? yes, if you fight. and half starve first of all to get them. Better houses? yes, if you say yourself how they shall be built and not the landed class in the Coalition. Easy access to the land quite true, you have always had that even if it was a paupers portion, 6ft. by 2ft. by, 9ft. Restora- tion of Trade Union conditions? yt, gods, was it ever theirs to give back to you. Abolition of all unnecessary restrictions on liberty of person, of speech, and of the press! Oh, how. can we keep quiet like we do! Is freedom of person, speech and press a thing that can be pledged with men of this class and then retrieved at the sacrifice of our self respect ? YOUR ICNOMY. Men and women, can you realise what ignomy you are allowing to be attached to your class by supporting such carrion as these, arc your memories so short that you forget the lessons of the past and again venture into another morass like the one we are not clear of ? Have you no thought of your little ones, those who will guide the next generation ? Think of the terrible, responsibility in your hands, look care- fully into the opposition and see if one of them has anything in common with you. No, you can see it, yet you appear drawn to them as surely as a serpent draws its prey with its fear- ful fa scination, so will your little ones by your teachings, or apathy, get fastened in the coils of the treachery of unmeaning promises. All these fine promises are merely a bright coat of paint, a camouflage, to hide all the sordidness of vested interests, so that you may be led off the track of commonsense to pursue the mirage," and find to your sorrow that the Waters of Gommorah," are nothing in com- parison, but will he as vinegar and gall, not only for you, but for yours. There is one re- medy, fathers and the majority of mothers will have the right to vote, fancy what a concession for you who go down into the valley of death," and who are made but a little lower than the angels," will be able to record your vote and say that you think you would like one of your class to represent you in the House of Commons as you are sure lie will not be shocked (Continued at foot of preceding column).