Pioneer

The Steel Strike MEN'S DEPUTATION IN LONDON. A deputation of the skilled steelworkers on strike at Dowlais, Ebbw Yale, and vicinity have been in London this week seeking an interview with the Minister of Labour, but up to Wednes- day, we understand, the Minister had proved in- accessible. The purpose of the deputation is to again urge intervention with a view to breaking the long silence with which the masters are meeting the men, with a view to a settlement. The services of Sir David Shackleton are also being enlisted with a view to some movement being secured. Meanwhile, the national executives of the various unions have been communicated with, and failing an early move, national movement on the part of the men's organisations may be looked for. We are asked to flatly contradict the sugges- tion being sedulously thrown out in certain quarters that any offer of a day-to-day con- tinuance of work was ever offered or suggested by the masters during the negotiations, if such they can be called, preceding the down tools.

RUSSIA AND DIRECT ACTION. I Sir,—I read with interest and sympathy the letter of the Rev. D. D. Walters, which ap- peared in your issue of to-day. However, in addition to his question—" What is the matter with Labour?" I should like to put another question What is the matter with the Ohurch? The Rev. Prof. Sydney W. Brown, B.A., said: It has always been a mystery to me that the need of such a society as a Peace Society ever arose. I should have thought that the Christian Church that owns the Prince of Peace as its great head, would have rendered the very exist- ence of such a society superfluous. Alas, it is not so, And the society has a greater part than ever to play in the social reconstruction that will take place when this appalling war is over. \Yar at all times and under all circumstances is contrary to the teachings and example of the Lord Jesus Christ." The noblest ethical system have taught men to be true, honest, sincere, not hypocritical, de- ceptive, prejudiced. (Matt, vi., 1-18). Govern- ments fear the truth of pure Christianity, but they do not fear the churches! Let the Church, Labour, and Radicals, co- operate and go in for direct action and stop this intervention in Russia, which has already cost us £ 70,000,000. America and France have al- ready withdrawn from a war which is not a war but a meddling with other people's business- just like John Bull."—Yours in Peace. It, E. DAVIES. I Trimsaran, August 30th, 1919.

I WHY? Sir,-Aft(-i- a close study of the principles of Socialism, J am somewhat disappointed with, and astonished at, the attitude of those advo- cates of Socialism who, having entered into matrimony (which is, in the opinion of a vast number of present-day students of Eugenics, nothing other than legalised and licensed pros- titution) appear to enjoy imitating their poli- tical antagonists by procreating children. It is evident that the majority of Socialists consider the present Capitalistic System detrimental to the development of those potential faculties existing in human nature and necessary to the building up of a cultured and virtuous race. Furthermore, it is reiterated daily from Social- ist platforms. that we exist to-day under a system that not only enslaves the people, but concomitantly produces suffering, misery and destitution; consequently I ask, Why, in the name of all that is designated moral, do Social- ists procreate children; thus bringing them into a world system that is not only abhorrent, but entails worry to parents and a hideous economic future for their offspring.—I am, yours, etc., I llargoed, GARFIELD Bargoed, September 2nd, 1919. <

I Dowlais and Its Meaning THE air of mystery which is effected to surround the serving of notices on 2,000 employees of M essrs. Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds at their Dowlais steelworks is really too naive. There is no mystery at all, but there is a moral to draw and a principle to apply if this sort of social misery-making for the people is to cease. The vague adumbrations of the daily press ascribing the step to the" unsettled state of the laboiu- market," leaves the question up in the air, as far from elucidation as before its utterance, un- less the question of the unsettled state of the labour market in Dowlais is particularly speci- fied, and the responsibility for its unsettledness properly understood and allotted. The closure of Cyfarthfa last week, followed by the dramatic handing out of the twenty-eight days' notice to about 2,000 Dowlais workers on Monday, must be conceived as episodes in a battle already joined, and adjudged from the prospects of forces still to collide there in the near future, if it is to be understood. For two months the skilled tradesmen at Dowlais. Ehbw Vale a.nd associated steel areas in the vicinity have been kept idly walking the streets without any attempt on the part of the masters to meet them. From the moment that the demand for a revised scale was served by the skilled craftsmen upon the Joint Board some ten or eleven months ago in all, the policy of the steel bosses has been one of studied inactivity. On every conceivable excuse the question was held up during the long months that the possibility of an amicably settlement without cessation of work was possible, -the slenderist of excuses served to brifth considera- tion of the question at one side, and when, on the first of July, the skilled men downed tools the best they could get from the masters was an offer representing a. decrease in the real wages they received. Refusal to accept those impossible terms, has been followed by a silent hunger war, and has been aggravated by this further declaration of hostilities against the un- skilled and semi-skilled operatives whose six months' notices to terminate present contractu, and introduce a new pay-roll scheme would expire in November. There is the story in full. There need have been no unsetthtl state of the labour market" had the firms displayed a modicum of conciliatory, human spirit. The un- settled state of the labour market in Dowlais differs only from the unsettled state of the la- bour market the civilised world over, in the degree that the masters themselves have con- sciously unsettled it. The mystery is no mystery. It is the age-long class-war being fought out with intensity by the opposing haves and have- nots: the producers and the takers. And it is well that we should realise tliat and shape our tactics accordingly. Let us take the theoretical side first. The whole story of the present and the future is in it. What are the workers of Dowlais? What do they soil to Messrs. Guest, Kecln and Nottlefold ? and How much do they get for it ? Wherein do Messrs. Guest, Keen and Nottlefold benefit, and for what reason do they oppose the men's demands? Once those two queries are comprehended the class nature • of the struggle is apparent and the mystery of the unsettled labour market rendered as clear as crystal. What are they? Men, women a.nd children, obviously. Men and, women and children whq preserve their human nature by the consumption of food produced by workers, carried by workers, served out to them by workers; who are clothed in cloth made, by workers on machines fashioned by workers, and tailored by workers; sheltered in houses builded by workers, from materials quarried and cut and transported by workers. What do they sell? Their power to work, obviously, for if they will not work they are not,wanted; if they are inca- pacitated from a.ny cause their service is dis- pensed with. And for what do they sell this power to labour?—for the price it will command in the labour market—a price that oscillates around, but never rea<-hes far above the bare cost of reproducing the energy expended, of re- placing the clothes, and keeping the family that in turn will take its place in the ranks of the workers, and that no less than the worker him- self is a necessity to the employer if lie is to replace the human beings lie. scraps with less concern than he scraps a machine. Why does the capitalist buy that power to la bour? Be- cause the price lie pays for it only represents a portion of the value that it creates. That is, he buys the labour-power of the worker over a given number of hours—say eight—but in four that labour has converted a raw material into a finished article that has added a new value to its former state equal to the wages that lie has received for the whole eight hours that he will work that day. But his contract being to work for eight hours, 'he continues the process and produces another new value equal to his day's wage, for which lie receives no payment. That is the bosses' profit. It is the unpaid-for hours that a worker works after he has earned his wages. That unpaid-for labour is profit, and profit is capital to-morrow. All capital is un- paid-for labour of the past-the portion of pro- duction of which the worker has been robbed in his helplessness. Now we should be beginning to see the meaning of Dowlais more clearly. If the workers' demand an increase in their re- muneration, if they send up the price of their labour—they can only realise it—conditions of production remaining equal-at the expense of the capitalist, whose share will diminish as the workers share advances. For over one-hundred years the capitalists have ruled this nation. They have controlled its law-making, and there- by its courts, they have corrupted its religion, they have condemned its children to be reared in slums, to be badly educated, to die by the mil- lion of preventable disease, to be mere tenders of machines; they have controlled its armies and its navies to buttress their ethic of fraud and force, they have filled the land with agony and untold misery—and they have contributed noth- ing in themselves to its advance. They have been the controlling power, but themselves have never been controlled. At their will they have said that works should cease, and thousands of human beings should be plunged into the abyss of despair, reduced to the lowest statfcs of society, compelled to commit crime and people the gaols. They have indirectly murdered the little children, and the unborn babe—they have turned sane men and women into jibbering luna- tics -by the misery they have made. Their only control has been the licentious control of their greed. They have given us bloody wars. Their order has been chaos and anarchy. In their ir- responsibility these creators of nothing; these unknown folks who by the power of their theft of labour's produce from labour's share, have divorced labour from the possibility of life ex- cept upon the terms that they in their owner- ship shall dictate, have arbitrarily said a works shall run or a works shall close. And those works, marly, you, representing a social process of production—the only conditions of which are that raw material gathered by workers, shall be available for manufacture by other workers into something different through the instru- mentality of power furnished as the result of the labour of still other workers, operating machines the handicraft of yet still other workers. Labour alone is the creator the capi- talist as a capitalist creates nothing. He merely interpolates himself between the labourer and that which the labourer creates. And every commodity between which and its producer lie interpolates himself increases his power over the labour of still other labourers. The right to take illicitly from the present and the future is not established by the illicit taking of yesterday and tlia. day before. It is ethically, economically, politically wrong. It mut cease. But how? By the opposition of all labour in a solid fight- ing front to all Capital. The unsettled state of the labour market in Dowlais would never have been unsettled had the steelworkers learned the lesson of their exploitation in the past, and had scrapped their multitude of competing unions to build up a solid fightillg trade-union, based not upon craft distinctions, but upon the sure foundation of just work and its necessary con- flict with not-work, which is capital. The end of its tribulations can only come from that re- cognition of the commonalty of all work, and the class-war slogan of impropriation of the expro- priators." When Dowlais says that Dmdais will produce steel for use and not for profit, and per- suades its industrial fellows elsewhere.to a like- minded ness, then the terrible, haunting fear that last Monday became a dread reality in 2,000 Dowlais homes will be exorcised for ever. The world for the workers, means the end of Capitalism and the implements of capitalist ter- rorism, the strongest of which is the fear of the unemployment for which there is no real need so long as steed is wan tod. The world for the workers, means work for the Dowlai s workers, and it means more. It means the product of! the labour of the Dowlais workers for the Dow-j lais workers, and not for absentee parasites. That is the moral, the remedy. Politically and industrially the workers of Dowlais, as of else- where must master and apply Jt.

The Case of T. C. Morris ii.'K decision of the i-.i of South Wales last Sunday to postpone direct actiou in the case of Mr. T. C. Morris, until the national movement for his reinstatement by the Taff "ale Co. shall have had time to mature, was tactically an excellent one and one as Mr. Morris himself would he the first to counsel. That the failure by a narrow majority to precipi- tate matters by an immediate deputation and the tendering of -If.i. hours' notice to hold up the system, means that the railwaymen have no in- tention of forcing the issue is merely a canard of the Capitalist Press—and one in which they themselves can repose no trust it they are ac- quainted with the fine democratic spirit, and fighting organisation of the South Wales rail- way workers. That they themselves have very little faith in the I that they have pro- pound(>d in their columns may be guaged from the soft soph istries of their .self-styled "Labour'' Correspondents, who have gone out of their way to soft-soap Mr. Morris, ere suggesting that there has been no victimisation, and a man of Mr. Morri s' heaven-sent genius will experience no difficulty in getting a new berth far from the maddening crowd of South Wales railway- men. It may be that according to the strict letter of the regulations Mr. Morris did incur the legal penalty of dis.missal by refusing to ac- cept the company's decision against granting him lpaye to attend to his public duties, duties entailed by his prominence as the representative railwayman of South Wales, but the men are not prepare to quibble about literal interpre- tations. They know that the moraJ obligation to correct a penalty inflicted upon a man be- cause lie was their representative over-rides any mere technical point, as to the company's right to dismiss, and they are intent upon fulfilling that moral obligation. Mr. Morris will be re- instated. or there will be bad trouble for the Taff Yale. Of that there is not the slightest question. And we are at one with the South Wales N. U.R. men in this. To quietly allow a flagrant case of this description to pass without a fight, if fight be necessary, would be to court a policy of selective dismissals calculated to menace the whole organisation which ha,s cost years of unremitting effort, every moment of which has demanded unrelenting vigilance, and frequently drastic, action. In South Wales, if not throughout the entire country, signs are everywhere evident of a merciless and hut thinly disguised campaign on the part of the powerful commeTciaJ interests that is directing itself to- vards a determined tack upon trades union- ism. The one tMng that can stop the full de- velopment of that campaign—with its brutal striking at the men through their women and children that such efforts always mean in the long run-i." a straight fight on the principles attacked under pretext in the early stages of the "campaign. The coming winter with its general chaos, its increased 'prices, its corrupt government, and its stark "grab" policy on the part of big business interests is going to be bad enough, for the workers without there being added to it the horrors of long industrial dis- putes, with the consequent wholesale disturb- ance of the public, mind, and the hell of misery of unemployment that results. A straight, firm stand now will help to steady things, and check the development of industrial conflicts before they have rea>ched the point to which they are heading at the moment.

Work for Ex-Service Men CORPORATIONS CONCEPTION OF FAIR WAGE. TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—May I call attention to the following an- nouncements :— One is the Report of the Wages Board Com- mittee of the Corporation, which sets out the new scale of wages to be paid to such persons as are fortunate enough to be Merthyr Corpora- tion Employees. In no case is this scale to fall below t3 4s. 7d. per week, which appears to re- present the Corporation's estimate of a fair living wage. This being so, it is rather difficult to under- stand the invitation offered bv the Public Libfa ries Committee to partially disabled sailors and soldiers to become caretaker of the Arcade Public Library at a wage of 25/- per week, plus war-bonus of 13/ making a total of rather more than half the weekly sum to be paid to a lavatory attendant. At a meeting of the Corporation when the question of unemployed demobilised men was being discussed, some of the City Fathers ap- peared almost feverishly anxious that work should at once be found, or even created, and a fear was expressed that unless we mako a move something serious might happen in the town," so apparently there is still hope, but unless the suggested move has the effect of doing away with such barefaced attempts to ex- ploit the labour of those who have been maimed or incapacitated through serving their country, "something" most assuredly will happen. II. I W. E. THOMAS, Hon. Sec., (Welsh National Fed. D.S. and S.)

I Koltchak: Supreme Ruler 1 I UKRAINIANS' STRONG LICHT OF I PUBLICITY. I DANISH DOCTOR'S LACK OF FAITH IN I KOLTCHAK OR DENIKIN. [We take the following from "The Ukraine'' -the weekly bulletin of the anti-Bolshevik Press Burca1" in London. Comment is needless- I -FÆ1,] We will give General Denikin a few !lI()- ments' rest and for a while turn the limelight on to his colleague and chief, Admiral Koltchak, the Supremo Ruler. It will need to he » stronger light, for lie, poor man, is right a\nlY in the wings—indeed, almost off the stage. BIt the Admiral, although he has lost .some of his attraction in certain reactionary circles in this and other countries, for he is in full retreat far !y beyond the Urals, is, nevert heless, in being. and the serpent, though scotched, is not killed- TD rji(, t-Iii,;tjiie of August 2 we quoted from an article which appeared in the United States publication, the New Republic," in it* issue of July 9. (The Independent Labour Party has rendered a great service to democracy by republishing this article in pamphlet form, price (kl.) This article gave a faithful account hy an American witness, Dr. Rosett, of the methods of Koltchak, whom he characterises as folloni-s Koltchak, who I have seem break up a de- mocratic Government in Siberia with a ruthless- ness -of a lartar conqueror; who ha.s suppressed free speech and free Press who has either jailed or exiled or murdered every member of the Rus- sian Constituent Assembly upon whom he could lay his hands and who oaused the opponents of his rule of the list to be tortured and killed.' "This attack on Koltchak by Dr. Rosett, al- though the first to attract widespread notice, is by no means alone, tand evidence accumulate on all sides as to the general suspicion (to put it mildly) with which the Admiral is regarded. Signs are not wanting that so fa.r as America is concerned the stock of this Saviour of Rus- sia" is now very much at a discount. The* "New York correspondent of the "Manchester ) Guardian," wiring on the 16th inst., observes thatcoincident with his military collapse and the tnsurrections against him comes the report of Mr. Roland Morris, American Ambassador to Japan, wh« has been on a special mission to Omsk to investigate Koltchak's claims to re- cognition. It is semi-offieially indicated that Mr. Morris confirms a previous report made by Mr.. Reinwh. American Ambassador to China. These reports are that the Siberian popula- tion does not trust Admiral Koltchak, that he is a reactionary, that he lacks capacity to lead in the regeneration of Russia, and that his Gov- ernment is essentially military. All this is noW admitted by the New York Times," the paper which led the movement in support of him. "Now we have the testimony of Dr. Camilo Martiuj*. of tlie Danish Red Cross, who has just returned home after three or four years' stay in Russia, during the last twelve months cf he has b< < n head of the organisation there. In that capacity Dr. Martiny has had the duty of protec ting British and the subjectS" or all the princ.pal foreign Powers, and has I'onu into close contact with members of th»> r Soviet Government and all circles of tlie people. [ hi the course of a conversation with Router's correspondent at Conhag(:. Dr. j | Martiny remarked that he had little, if any, i faith in the ultimate success of Koltchak and Denekin, at any rate unless nomethin? can bo done to remove the tear and suspicion with which they are at present lvgarded even by the bourgeoisie, or intelligenxia, in Russia. He re- nuuked that the opposition to them there in- creases the more territory they occupy. Thi: is largely due to the fact that it is alleged and believed that their entry into any town means the advent of the White Terror;that not only are Bolsheviks who have committed crimes put to death, but all who, though by no means Bol- sheviks, have been compelled by the terrible pressure of circumstances to serve under their regime, in the army or otherwise, suffer a like. fate. The advent of the White armies is. there- fore, feared even by the bourgeoisie."

The T heatre Royal Mr. al Stevens opened his once-nightly weekly season at the Theatre Royal on Monday night worthily when lie lifted the curtain on the U po, Dance musical comedy prod uction, Yes, t nde' a ?tory founded upon OlW of the most biilhaut chef-de-anivres of a French master of ?(-ome(ii-I by two of <?)r I vest playwrights, and with America in the pei-son of Nat D. Aver con- tributing the musical trimmings and colourings the piece might well be called international. Whether it he so called or not it is being re- ceived for what it is a perfect little gem of musical comedy, done with all the grace and finish of a. polished Dance Company. How the house rocks at the antics of Bobby Summers," as told by Mr. Leonard Neville, at the wit and wisdom of Katie Vesey's teDim: of Mabel Mannering," and at the excellent character work of Alec Young as "Uncle Brabazon Hollybone." Geoffrey Norman, who as the hero-artist "George Bellamy," starts the whole merry chapter of errors going by marrying "-loan" (so charni- inly done by Alma Green) whilst having com- mitted to writing his intention to wed his beau- tiful and romantic model Lolita Casablanco !(Mvri- ss Rene Buckingham) ha$ a hot time before the situation straightens itself at the close of Act 2. Piquancy is given to the merry piece hy its excellent lyrics, and in particular that quar- rel duet by George and Joan will live in Mer- thyr's playgoers' memories as long as their de- light in the stage shall last. The chorus is just perfect, and the setting is simply gorgeous as well as gorgeously simple, in particular the great last scene. Le Bal does Quat'z Arts" touching a height of art both in setting and dressing such as I seldom recollect on a provin- cial stage. For next week Mr. Stevens is keeping the same standard up, for he has secured the repro- duction of the ever popular The Belle of New York," which was re-run with such great suc- cess recently at .the Lyceum. And by the bye, several of the caste which Mr. J. Bannister Howard brings next week are the artistes who scored to highly in that revival. The haunting melodies of this musical play are sure to please a Welsh audience. The part of Yiolet Gray— the Belle of New York, is in the safe hands of Miss Joan, Lyn, while Miss Nixon makes a. chic and piquant Fifi, Blinky Bill is played bv Mr. Johnnie Schofield (junr.), who played the part in the London production, and always scores a success with the excellence of his dancing and whistling, rchabod Bronson is admirably im- personated by Mr. George F. Strong, who gives the necessary American flavour to the part, while the part of the Lunatic is cleverly por- trayed by Mr. Charles Leverton-the whole being rounded off with a prettily-dressed chorus. The box-office is now open, and we recommen d all lovers of musical comedy to secure their seats early. 0