Pioneer

Merthyr Notes i PovKiq^ AND TI-IFFT.-Before the Re- corder (Mr. E. W. Milner-Jones) at the Merthyr Quarter Sessions on Wednesday John Murphy (49), a steelworks labourer, pleaded guilty to breaking and entering the warehouse of J. D. Price and Son, pro- vision merchants, and stealing ten tins of corned beef. Mr. Stanley Evans (in- structed by Mr. M. Pulliblank, Merthyr) prosecuted. The chief-constable (Mr. J. A. Wilson) gave evidence, and Murphy plead. ed poverty arising from his enforced idle- ness because of the steelworkers' strike. Sentence of two months' imprisonment, with hard labour, was passed. MERTHYR'S NEW TRAINER.AIec Leake, the old English international half-back, has been appointed trainer for the Merthyr Town A.F.C. In the 'nineties Leake play- ed for Smallheath and then followed six years with Aston Villa, whom lie left in 1908 to captain Burnley. Tlfree years later he. quit football, and after a year managing Wednesbury Athletic, he became trainer for Crystal Palace, where he remained until war broke but. Lately he has been assist- ing in the Villa training quarters. EX-SOLDIERS PENSION.—At the Merthyr Quarter Sessions on Wednesday Mr. St. John Francis Williams (instructed by Messrs. Simons, Smythe, and Daniel, Mer- thyr) appealed for Charles Denehay and John McCarthy, of Dowlais, against sen- tences of three months' hard labour for as- saulting a police-constable. Mr. A. T. James (instructed by Mf. M. Pulliblank, Merthyr) supported the conviction on be- half of the chief-constable. The appeal by McCarthy was dismissed, but in order that Denehay should not lose his pension as an ex-soldier his sentence was reduced to three months' imprisonment without hard labour. DR. HARCOURT RESIGNS.—A sequel to the complaints made by Dr. Alexander Duncan (medical officer of health) to the Merthyr School Management Committee re- specting his lady assistant, Dr. Harcourt, was the tendering by the latter of her re- signation. Mr. L. M. Francis, seconded by Mr. J. Williams, moved at the School Management Committee meeting, that the resignation should not be accepted, but the motion was lost on a vote. CYFARTHFA WOUNDING AFFRAY.- Thos. Lyons (55), a labourer at the Cyfarthfa Steelworks, was indicted at the Merthyr Quarter Sessions on Wednesday with I wounding Stephen Keefe, a night foreman at the works. Mr. Stanley Evans (instruct- ed by Mr. M. Pulliblank) prosecuted, and Mr. A. T. James, Llewellyn, and Co., Mer- thyr) defended. The defence was that Keefe had threatened Lyons with a shovel, and Lyons struck Keefe in self-defence. The jury returned a verdict of "Guilty," and the man was sentenced to four months' im- prisonment, with hard labour. MILK FINE REDUCED.—The Merthyr Re- corder on Wednesday heard an appeal by H. V. Reeves, Goitre Dairy, Merthyr, against a conviction for selling milk 12 per cent. deficient in butter fat. Appellant was represented by Mr. St. John Francis-Wil- liams (instructed by Messrs. Simons, Smythe, and Daniel, Merthyr), and the ap- peal was opposed by Mr. A. T. James (in- structed by Mr. M. Pullibiank, Merthyr). The police sample was obtained from an employee named Glover. For the appellant it was submitted that Glover was not authorised to sell, and that the milk was re- ceived from a Carmarthenshire firm of dealers under a warranty. The appeal was dismissed, but the penalty was reduced from f,20 to £ 5. Mr. Francis-Williams asked that a case should be stated. DIED IN A TRAIN —Mr. David Jones, a travelling draper, of Brunswick-street, Mer- thyr, died in a train between Dowlais and Ccfn Coed on Monday. He had hurried to patch the train at Dowlais Top.

Uantrisant and District Notes, I 1 HOUSING.—The District Council is slowly moving on the Housing Question. The minutes of the District Council for Septem- ber nth, 1919, show that the general lay- outs of the various areas were submitted and approved of. The Council also empowered the Engineer to arrange for the building of houses in blocks of four and semi-detached as follows Gilfach Goch 20, Tonyrefail 62, Penrhhvfer 261 Llantrisant 14, Talbot 60, Tynant and Beddau 100, Church Vil- lage 28, Tonteg 12, total 376. In all cases the houses are to be built along existing roads. Having regard to the agitation by Lord Rothennere and Co. to repeal the Housing and Education Acts, the pressure of the Ministry of Health upon local author- ities to build only along existing roads, at the present moment, leaving the develop- ment of roads, etc., an essential part of any rational housing scheme, for future con- sideration, is significant of an official readi- ness to abandon housing schemes at the earliest possible moment. RaNTS AND FINANCE.—The engineer sub- mitted particulars of rents fixed by adjoin- ing authorities. The minutes do not give the particulars. The District Council also resolved That the Clerk advertise for tenders for raising on loan the amount necessary to proceed with the immediate building of the number of houses to be erected at once on existing frontages." It will be interesting to watch this tender and see how much is obtained by those who wait." DEMOCRACY NOT CONSULTED.-It is not unusual wherever there is such a strong La- bour Movement as there is in this district for the women and Trades Council at least to be consulted respecting the types and conveniences and rents of houses proposed to be built by a public body. An the plat- form we are told that it is the women to whom these things are of the greatest im- portance, and they should always be con- sulted about the labour-saving devices, ar- rangements of rooms, larder, bath, etc. Ap- parently we have not reached the democra- tic age yet. We elect a few superior people to think out all these things for us.. It is so much more convenient, you know. The other thing is intended for platform use only. WHEN WILL HOUSES BE BUILT.—We were promised 100,000 houses, within 12 months after the armistice. The twelve months are nearly up, but the houses are not. The District Council invited us to be- lieve that we were to have 2,150 houses in this District, and that housing was to take precedence of roads, sewers and everything else. Now, more than six months later, they approve plans for 376 houses, a mere trifle in such a district as this under present circumstances, and they are not over confi- dent of obtaining these, as the following re- solution which they deemed it expedient to pass and forward to the Housing Commis- sioner and Ministry of Health shows: — That having regard to the urgency of the housing problem, and the alarming over- crowding in the fast developing industrial parts of the district, this council presses for facilities to proceed with building at the earliest possible moment." The District Council may be doing its best in this mat- ter, but we wonder if they yet realise that the first essential to a proper solution of the housing question and reconstruction gener- ally is the overthrow of the present Gov- ernment. OLD AGE PENSIONERS.—We take the fol- lowing from an article in. the Daill, Herald of October 25th, by the Daily Herald's Special Commissioner Poplar is the only district that I have visited that was little better than the average. There the Board of Guardians, of whom 16 out of 25 are La- bour men, have taken it upon themselves to grant an additional allowance of food up to the value of 4í --this is always done on the recommendation of the medical ofifcer. There are about 100 old age pensioners who come every week to get this allowance, which consists of a 4 lb. loaf of bread, I lb. of meat, b lb. of sugar, 4 oz. of tea, and 1 lb. of margarine. Even with this extra allowance these people are not living in the lap of luxury." This all goes to show that our own Board of Guardians can, if they will, relieve the terrible privation of the old age pensioners. A FOOTBRIDCR.-Tlie Parish Council would be well advised to secure the early repair of the footbridge on the Castellan to Penycoedcae footpath. Complaints are being justifiably made in the neighbourhood of Castellau that people well advanced in age have to use the bridge fairly frequently and that a fall into the brook, now the dark nights are here, ought to be guarded against, as it may have serious conse- quences. FOR LONDCN WHOSE TURN NEXT.— From the minutes of the District Council for September nth we note that Council- lors Peter Jeffries and E. J. Da vies were Ichbsen to represent the District Council at a conference on tuberculosis at Westmin- ster on October 16th, 17th and 18th, and thatN the surveyor and Councillor Millward are to represent the Council at a Roads and Transport Congress Exhibition to be held at the Royal Agricultural Hall, London. from November 20th to 27th, 1919. In a previous note we gave particulars of the cost sending the chairman and a lady health visitor to a London conference on Mater- nity ad Child Welfare. We wonder if the defeated candidates at the last local elec- tions have given up sighing yet? A CONTRAST.—In our notes of October nth we criticised the making of a Closing Order by the District Council in respect of houses on Lanelay-roacl, of which the owner was given as Mr. Gomer S. Morgan. As a glaring contrast to that case we quote the following from the District Council min- utes for July 24th. It was reported that an order had been obtained in the police- court for the carrying out of the work at the houses at Lower Penygawsi belonging to Mr. Shields, by September 14th, failing which a penalty of 2/6 per day would be imposed for each day during which the work remains undone." THREE YEARS IN PRISON.—On Friday evening, November 14th, 1919, Emrys Hughes, chairman of the Welsh Division I.L.P., will lecture for the Llantrisant I.L.P. on Three Years In Prison." As the lecturer himself has suffered three years imprisonment with hard labour, the lecture should be of great value in showing us what prison is like, not from the point of view of a member of the governing classes, a home secretary, a governor, a warder, or prison visitor, but from the point of view of a prisoner—and that matters. Tickets, 6d each, will be on sale for the lecture

Not Established. S6me time ago a claim was submitted by the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation to the South Wales Siemens Steel Association (I) That six shifts for five be paid to ali datal men who were in receipt of six for five previous to the introduction of the 4^- hours' week on or since March 3rd. 1919; (2) That six shifts for five be paid to ail datal men who went oil eight-hours' shifts on or since March 3rd, 1919. The matter was referred under the Con- ciliation Act, 1896, to the Court of Arbitra- tion on the loth October, and the award of the Court, issued on Tuesday, is that neither claim has been established.

| Bargoed Notes. 1 A CONSERVATIVE'S OPINION. Sunday, the 26th, for a change we had a Conserva- tive speaker, Ivor Davies, brought here by Mr. Harris, the Pengam station-master, in the Workmen's Institute, afternoon and evening. Mr. Harris took the chair in the afternoon, and many of the audience thought that he took too much time intro- ducing the speaker, who, after all, was the one we came to hear. Mr. Harris urged that those who would kick the Government over would thereby ruin the country; that Morgan Jones, in urging the claims of the railwaymen to higher wages, forgot that dividends had also depreciated, which made things hard for the widow, say, who by in- dustry and thrift had saved a little and in- vested it. (If I remember aright, Lloyd George, in his Radical days, expressly- pointed out how the widow, this same un- scrupulous widow," was alleged to have in- vested in every fraudulent company, and every iniquitous speculation that was threatened with exposure and ruin.) As for war-profiteers, he considered that, human nature being what it is, they couldn't be blamed. Ivor Davies, who was certainly much better listened tox urged that a living- wage was necessary for all; which he de- fined as one that they could live comfort- ably on; not one in which high wages wer simply consumed in high prices. He agreed that the war had left many people disin- clined for work; but work was needed, as we could only pay for our food with ex- ports. But there were those, Tom Mann for instance, who preached that it was our duty to get all we could, and work as little as possible. (This on the assumption that shorter hours must needs mean less produc- tion. What had the Commissioner on In- dustrial Fatigue to say about it?) He agreed that everybody ought to work, but didn't say how to make them. There was nothing to prevent a working-man from getting what he wanted by constitutional means. Houses were now so expensive to build, it would be impossible to let them at an econ- omic rent. So the community would have to pay for them, and for education also. Capital must be attracted into the country. As for a capital levy, he was in favour of an inquiry into whether it was feasible. There must be more brotherhood between em- ployers and employed; they must work to- gether for the benefit of the community. He was for co-partnership, with wages at the same rate as dividend. Socialism was a beautiful ideal, but it was against human nature. I led off the questions with what Morgan Jones afterwards described to me as a hot one Were the eulogies on the soldiers all bunkum ? or had the soldiers sel- fish motives? He said that, in their case, patriotism came in as well; but some people, unfortunately, were not patriots; they were conscientious objectors. He must have been discontented at the applause, the heartiest that afternoon, with which they were greet- ed, so I didn't press him further about the C.O. 's but asked if there was no room for patriotism in business. He seemed to think that there wasn't. He maintained that co- operation was more autocratic than Capital- ism The capitalists were not now on top There was a Labour government coming. The unemployed were wasters who, so long as it lasted, would rather live on the unem- ployment dole than work. W. T. Lloyd im- mediately challenged this, as having regu- larly to do with them, and demanded if the government had (uot power to refuse the dole for all sorts of reasons. The lecturer didn't know, or wouldn't believe that it was so. Then Morgan Jones tackled him 011 the blockade. PREFERRED CZARDOM.—There was much more of an attendance in the evening. The chairman was converted, it seems, to the belief in all people having a right to their opinions. He urged that strikes only added ( !) to the workers' burdens; but also that r there was no need to get down to the pre- war level. But change was so rapid nowa- days, we didn't know where we were. He didn't himself. But this was clear, that workers should be co-partners. Ivor Davies. expressed his delight at having an indepen- dent chairman. He urged that nationalisa- tion (his announced subject for the even- ing) would only increase the amount of parliamentary and other corruption. Every mine ought to pay for itself; Government control simply meant slackness—(how about the Army and Navy?). Government offi- cials \.ere practically irremovable. French State railways and State mines in the col- onies, were a proverb for mismanagement. As for the Navy, it was not run as a paying concern. He agreed that there was some- thing to be said for Nationalisation. The strike of the railwaymen was against the community (as to what is the community,. he didn't enlighten us); their rate of wages was safe ( !) till March next, and- they w ere on the losing ( !) side in the strike. The Government was democratic (cries of Ire- land and Featherstone.") The strikers being fed by the Co-ops. was evidence of a plot. Trade unionists generally were not enough interested in trade unionism, but they were waking up. (General applause.} There would be no starvation in Russia under a firm government. Personally, he would prefer the Tsardom, as there was more liberty under it ( !). Under Lenin, people had no chance of a fair trial (" No more had I," Morgan Jones struck in.) As for the Herald (which he had already re- commended as a cure for Socialism !), if he were Prime Minister he would put it down. Trade unions ought to let politics alone. After trying to evade many questions he was challenged to a public debate by Mor- gan Jones, at any time and at any place in Bargoed that might be agreed on; and Mor- gan even offered, to help to pay his expenses We are waiting to see if the challenge is, accepted.

I Electric Theatre. Theda Bara stars in When a Woman Sins," the top-notcher on the Merthyr Elec- tric Theatre programme for Monday to Wednesday next week, and the manage ment, perhaps with a view to avoid hurt to the susceptibilities of the unco' guid, make bold to announce that it is not a picture to interest children. In the very first scene the tragic note of beginning life in the wrong environment is struck and the con- clusion brings the message of there being, always hope for a woman, even when she sins. It is a strong drama, told and acted with strength. Thursday, Friday and Saturday comes Virginia PearsOn in Queen of Hearts," a mystery play that eludes solution until the last moment. It opens with a New Orleans. broker stared with ruin, who re-starts life for the sake of his young daughter. H(; opens up as a gambling club owner, and his death by violence brings about a determin- ation by the girl to avenge him. Hbw her lover is brought under suspicion and how the real murderer is eventually revealed makes a wonderfully gripping story. Like the Bara film, Queen of Hearts is pro duced by the Fox Company. Mack Senuett screens more picture-fun in "The Village Chestnut," and Eddie Polo is again seen in thrilling interludes in the current instalment of The Circus King. As usual, the bills are completed with a fine array7 of short-length drama, comedy and news releases. Both are shows that hold interest from the beginning to the end. Printed and Published by the National Labour Press, Ltd., at the Labour Pioneer Press, Williams' Square, Merthyr Tydfil.