Pioneer

I Historical May Days. LESSONS FOR THE DEMO- CRAT. By W. J. EDWARDS. Since we have been deprived this year of the inspiration which the elo- quence of the speakers at Labour May Day demonstrations instil us, it will not bo amiss if we turn our thoughts and attention to some May Days in history so full of meaning to, the modern proletariat. The 1st of May, 1215, has a curious signicance to the workers of the pre- sent day. The conditions of the work- ers in that period of England's his- tory can be gauged by the fact that even the mighty barons were in ter- ror of their lives and dwellings. King John, whom Dickens called a miser- able brute." and of whom it has been said that hell it-self is fouler by his presence, was on the throne. Greedy and cruel, and withal an arrant cow- ard. his only objects in life seemed to be land, money and sensual gratifi- cation. In the pursuit of these he waged wars upon foreign cities and his own, and offered violence to the highest women of the realm, and he fawned upon the Church of Rome when he needed the Pope's blessings and assistance in his greedy plots. When he caught his enemies he shut them up in dungeons and starved them to death. Every law of the land he broke, and, like the present Liberal Party, made promises of re- forms he never carried out. Un 't I' his reign no man's person or goods were safe; justice was bought and sold in open court; rights were for- gotten. Peasants, artizans, city bour- geois, barons—all groaned under the weight of his iron rule. However, the barons, John's vas- sals, soon became tired of his reign, and. seizing a favourable time after one of his foreign defeats, t1 ey de- manded that he ratify and henceforth obey the traditional law of the land. Not many days from the first of May, 1215, J'ohn capitulated, and summoned his belligerent barons to a conference at Runnymede. What was born of that conference may yet be seen in the Tower of London-the Magna Charta, or Great Charter of English liberties. It is true the Great Charter contained nothing which had not previously been known and acknowledged in some form or other. Yet here was the first written constitution wrung from a king by his subjects, a germ which has ex- panded into the present British Con- stitution and code of legal procedure, under which capitalism has so power- fully developed as now to leave the road open to Socialism. May, 1648. I It is said that after being forced to sign the Magna Oharta, King John fell on the floor in his f ary, and, biting the straw with which it was strewn, cried out in rage against the barons. But what would he have said could he have seen the state of things in England on the first of May, 1648, some 400 odd years later? Then was to be seen a king a prisoner in his own dominions, and with a great army in the field sworn to bring him to account for the blood he had shed in his long career of misrule and in curable duplicity. That was Charles 1. of the House of Stuart. With the aid of his wife and the Presbyterian Archbishop Laud, as well as the iron- handed Earl of Stafford, his whole reign was an attempt to restore the autocracy, which, 400 years before, had been wrenched from the hands of John. He set Scotland against England, and Ireland against both, in the hope of reducing all three to his power, finally, in dire need of money, he was forced to call a par- liament. This parliament eventually raised an army, which, headed by Cromwell, captured Charles, made him prisoner, and scattered his troops. This was on May Day about 260 years ago. Parliament demanded Charles to be tried. The House of Lords refused its consent, whereupon the House of Commons declared itself the representatives of the people. The trial was held, and the king sentenced to death, and executed at Whitehall. This is the second memorable May- Day. but note what a difference. First it was barons against king for the exaction of certain rights. Se- condly, it was the people against the king for the maintenance of these rights. Here we have also the de- claration that Parliament is the true governing body, and the assertion of the right to execute a king for his crimes against the nation, and the establishment of a republic. May, 1789. 8_ ?, Again tne scene snuts. mis time we are in France. It is the first of May, 1789. The conditions of the French workers were terrible. Like the beasts of the field, they often eat grass. (Did not Foulon recommend them to do so? When the same workers caught Foulon they cut off his head, filled his mouth with grass, and carried the head through the streets on a pike.) The aristocracy were touched in their tenderest spot by the heavy taxffi put upon them. They were angered by the king's power to put them in prison without trial. Backed up by these forces and many others, the rising capitalists of France compelled Louis XVI. to grant a parliament. And here it was assembled on May 1, 1789. actually declaring itself to be the States Gen- eral. The nobility and clergy refused to sit with the Third Estate, the six hundred of which therefore declared themselves to be the National Assem- bly. "Why, this is revolt!" ex- claims Louis when told of it. "No, sire, it is revolution I" replied the Duke of Liaucourt. A revolution it was. A constitution was made for France. But the capitalists failed to fulfil to the people their cries of Liberty, Equality. Fraternity. The people attempted to take up the revolution where their rulers left off, but they were finally beaten down. The expectations held by many for the socialisation of the tools of pro- duction were doomed to disappoint- ment. But not to death; early in its life's history the human race was communistic. Economic possibilities and developments were against that system then. and in the struggle with private property it went to the wall. Still, the possibilitie's for a return to communism filled many minds, and so it came to pass that on the first of May, 1871, we find the wage slaves of Paris giving their blood and their lives for their ideals. On the surrender of Napoleon III. Paris again declared the Republic The French capitalists, fearing the workers had become too strong, called upon Prussian arms to capture their capital for them. This was done, and thereupon the capitalist statesmen of France, headed by Louis Thiers, be- gan their insidious campaign to de- feat the working-class strength of the city, and reduce it to their terms. On the first of May the army of the capitalists captured two outposts, those at Clamart and Issy. On the 23rd the city gates were forced, and the Paris Commune de- feated. Four days later groups of men. women and children were marched and shot down by the hire- lings of the money bags and factory owners of Paris. Thus was the first attempt of wage slaves to govern themselves smothered in its own blood. May, 1915. I This is 1915: forty-four years after that memorable first of May, when we saw the Communists dying brave- ly at their outposts. We may be sure that noble blood has not been shed in vain. These historical May Days point only one way. Begin- ning with Magna Charta, down through the uprisings against Charles 1. strengthened by the .French Revolution, and still advanc- ing with the Paris Commune, we can trace our goal. We have seen how class after class arise against their oppressors, until we have reached the end. Below the modern prole- tariat there is no other class left, and before many May Days are past its victory shall strike away for ever the last remaining sTiackles from the slave.

Y Gwenith Coch. I Yng nghanol son am ddifrod, Yn rhu magnelau broch; Y gwelais yn fy mreuddwyd erch Gynhaea'r byd yn goch. Mi wyddwn am alanas Rhyfelwyr creulon byd; Mi wyddwn fod cyfandir bras Yn waed a chnawd i gyd. Mi wvdwn fod aelwydydd Yn noddfa i famau trist; Ac fod llofruddion yn cael drwa I fynd i demlau Crist. Mi wyddwn am y ffosydd Yn llawn o laid a gwaed; A gwyddwn am y miloedd gwyr Yn welw o dan draed. Mi wyddwn fod y mulod, A gwyddwn fod y meirch, Yn suddo'n carnau yn y gwaied Ar feysydd haidd a cheirch. Mi wyddwn am greulondeb Tu hwnt i feddwl Duw; A gwydwn fod piceUau dur Yng nghalon dyn yn fyw. Daeth cysg i chwalu'r gofid, Daeth hun i'r emrynt blin; A gwelais y cyfandir mawr Yn dawel wedi'r drin. Mor ber oedd breuddwyd tawel Ar ol ryferthwy cad; Mor ddiddan ydoedd gwaith a chan Y gwieithwyr ym mhob gwlad. Yr hauwr ar y meysydd Heb gofio'r diluw coch; Y wei-in dan ganiadau'r coed Heb gofio'r fagnel froch. Mi wehvn yr ysguba.11 Yn dod o'r meysydd llawn A bendith y cynhaeaf aur Yn plygu yn y grawn, Ond O rood y corsenau I gyd yn goch eu lliw; A gwrid y gwaed yn cyraedd brig Yr aur gorsenau briw. Fe hauwyd y cynhaeaf Ar faieysydd llawn o waed; Pan gerddai y medelwr trist 'Roedd beddau dan ei draed. Ni ellir cael cynhaeaf Yn felyn mcgis cynt; Ar ol i Ryfel dramwy'r maes A dinistr yn ei hynt. Daw ffrwyth y gwacd i'r byrddau. I greu gialedd mwy; A gwelir eto wledydd byd Yn wylo dan eu clwy'. o wenith gwyn a melyn, Ffarwel i ti am oes; Cynhaeaf coch fydd cyfran gwiad,- A thlodi, mg, a loes. I T. E. NICHOLAS.

The Press Dictator. Now there may be something to bo said for a dictatorship, but there is nothing to be said for an anony- mous dictatorship, effected by the simple process of capturing the news- papers and using them to poison pub- lic opinion. A dictator has to come into tho open. He is seen and known, into the open. He and be stands or falls by virtue of his own visible acts and purposes. But an anonymous dictator, who skulks be- hind his newspapers, can play the secret assassin without ever being seen by the public, ever being called on to explain his rnotives. ever suffering the penalty of exposure. Let us see what thw; power means in the hands of an unscrupu lous adven- turer like Lord Northcliffe. And in the first place let us remember who Lord Northcliffe is. He is a man whom the public has never seen and never heard. Ho came to fortune by exploiting the shallowest form of journalism, represented by "Answers." "Comic Cuts." and a multitude of si- milar sheets. And these journals are the measure of his mind. He has be- come the master of "The Times," but he still retains the outlook of An- swers" and Comic Cuts," and his whole career lias been a record of vulgar sensationalism. divorced not only from any moral purpose. but from any intelligible meaning except the exercise of -Dower.-A. G. G.. in the News and Leader." 5/22/15.

GERMAN PEACF. EDITOR ARRESTED. The Central News Agency reports that" Vorwiortg" reports the ar- rest of a German editor of Elber- fieH, Otto N'tobtihr, owing to the is- sue of a peace number of the news- paper ((:Iorgenrot."

PLEASE MENTION THE PIONEER WHEN ANSWERING ADVERTS.

In the Kitchen Garden. KOHL RABI, This vegetable is a member of the brassies, (cabbage) family, having been developed out of the wild cabbage. Kohl rabi is not, strictly speaking, a root crop, although the base of the stem thickens upon the surface and in time becomes as round as a tur- nip. This so-called "bulb" is very nice-eating indeed and wise gar- deners substitute it for turnips where they cannot water their plots. Turnips require a moist growing season to be tender. In dry and hot soils they become stringy and woody. Kohl rabi, on the contrary, can en- dure drought, once past the seedling stage, for the roots are strong and vigorous like the ordinary cabbage. Transplanting the seedlings is per- missible. but naturally those sown where intended to remain root more deeply. The shift must brake the root, and sever the diving roots which would have supported the plant in rainless spells. Breaking the roots leads to a massed root nearer the surface, that, with the crop in question, is no advantage. Seeds of "Early White" or "Early Purple" should be ordered at once. Then prepare the ground by one or two spit digging and a moderate allowance of food—decayed dung, if obtainable. Of course, double dig- ging encourages finer produce with almost every flower, fruit. and veget- able. but kohl rabis will do well in shallowly worked soil. Sow the seed now, half an inch deep. and thin out to one-foot intervals. As the "bulbs" get round, odd leaves will form thereon. These should be rubbed off, letting only the one head of foliage remain. The present sow- ing will be ready for use within three months. A fortnight before lifting, the bulbs should be blanched, which considerably improves their flavour I This job consists in drawing up the soil to just cover the bulbs. Upon reaching their full size, the bulbs are at their best; yet they will keep in condition for weeks earthed up, but then require a little longer in the cooking to make tender eating. Spraying Fruit. I Supposing the fruit trees and bushes are free from what may be called major insect and fungoid pests, the minor pests can be kept in check, or entirely disposed of, by ordinary liquid and dry insecticides. While the blossom is open, powder in- secticide is much safer than solu tion. however mild; but once the crop has set, periodical sprayings of liquid insect-wash of the usual strength are more efficacious. A detail in applying the dry pre- paration is that the foliage and bloom is damp, otherwise the powder cannot stick. The powder may be shaken over the tree through a muslin bag; still, the most economical way of using tobacco powder or some other stuff is with a rubber distributor or with powd?r bellows. The early morn be- fore the dew has dried, or following a spring shower, is the best time for the application. The powder will not harm blossom, fruit, or foliage, so should not be washed off the trees. A few gardeners prefer these powdery insecticides all though the season. and use them for their roses. We never advise syringing or hos- ing a tree for obtaining a moist sur- face, for watering may wash the pol- len that yellow fertilising dust in the heart of some of the blossoms out of the flowers. It is the transfer- ring of pollen from male to female blooms by bees and wind that re- sults in fruit. If you have a syringe with a vapoury spray, or a bend to throw up the moisture, no harm can come from thu damping the tree. Do not point the syringe into the clusters of flowers, but let the vapour fall down upon them. Apropos of liquid insect destroyers: The mosb powerful mixtures, such as the caustic winter wash, or the strong paraffin and soda solution, must be used in winter. Two summer washes that can be mixed at home, and will stain neither leaf nor fruit out of doors are: Tobacco juice, the quanti- ty according to the directions on tho fin, and a tablespoonful of soft soap, dissolved in a gallon of hot water. Or, into two gallons of hot water, double the quantity of soap and a quarter of a pint (half an ordinary tumbler) of paraffin oil. The mixtures are more effective when applied while tepid, and the advantage of adding soap is that a sticky preparation remains lon- ger upon the tree or bush. The even- ing. or a dull day, is the best time for spraying. Hot sunshine upon the moistened leaves and fruits might possibly stain tb(,Tn. A further pre- caution is not to spray stone or berry fruit after it ha;: begun to soften, for the scent of nicotine or paraffin might get through their thin skins. The merit of using these, not sweet- smelling, washes is that they serve as a preventive of insect", as well as killing thosse in the tree. If you are out to destroy American blight (the woolly aphis) upon an apple tree. you have a choice of the two cures. If the tree is barren, there is no objection to slightly staining its foliage, and then the easiest remedy is to spray at monthly inter- vals with the paraffin solution, doub- ling the quantity of the oil- With an apple in fruit, one would have to touch each towny spot with the neat oil. Just paint the oil over the white portions of the tree. Do not oil the whole tree nor scrub it into the bark Touches of paraffin will not hurt the green shoots but only discolour them. As for the bark its colour will pot be changed, and the shoots will have turned brown and woody by next spring.

In the Goitre Pond. I PENYDARREN MAN'S I DISCOVERY. An inquest concerning the death of Charles William Rickwood (37), until recently residing at Alexandra St., Ebbw Vale, was conducted at the Belle Vue Hotel, Merthyr, on Tues- day by Mr. R. J. Rhys (coroner). John Bowen. manager of the Mer- thyr Electric Theatre, gave evidence of identification. Rickwood had called on him some weeks ago regard- ing a job as doorman. He last saw Rickwood on Saturday, the' 15th inst. when it was arranged that he should commence duties at the Electric Theatre on the following Monday. Deceased had told him that his wife was living at Pontypridd, and that he had been worried because of her illness. David William Davies, Penydarren, said that whilst walking near the Goitre Pond at 4.30 a.m on Whit- Monday morn ing he saw deceased in the water. He was apparently in a standing position. P.C. Lewis deposed to having con- veyed the body, which was fully clothed, including an overcoat, to the mortuary. There were a few documents in the pockets, and Hd. in money. Lillian Rickwood, wife of deceased, who stated that she was living apart from her husband, said she had not seen her husband for about six weeks, when she met him casually at Ponty- pridd. Dr. C. Newman said that death was caused by drowning. The body had been in the water for at least a week. A verdict of Found drowned was returned.

SPILLERS AND BAKERS. In the House of Commons last week, Mr. Snowden (Labour) asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer "Whe- ther the Treasury Committee have received an application from Messrs. Spillers ifc Bakers. millers, to allow a fresh issue of capital of £ 500.000, and whether in view of the war profits already made by this firm coincident- ally with the price of bread, you will make it a condition of consent to their application that the profits on the new capital shall be on a slifling scale varying inversely with the price of bread in the principal towns of the country, any surplus to be paid into the Exchequer." The Chancellor of the Exchequer in reply said application had been made for an increase of capital. but so far it had not been allowed. Mr. Snowden further asked the Ad- miralty and the War Office if their at- tention had been drawn to the state- ment of the chairman of Messrs. Spillers and Bakers that they were not under large obligations to the service for food supplies. He asked for particulars of the contract. The reply was that the firm na-med had received a considerable amount of orders. Details would be furnished the honourable member if he desired, but prices would not be included.

I Among the Flowers. STAKING SWEET PEAS. The first thing to do is to decide whether intending to stake with tree branches or with made supports..For our part we like the twiggy pea sticks, and think them more artistic, and healthful to the pea haulms, than wire netting, and arrangements of iron or wood with wire or cord. At the same time we have often seen splendid growth and crowds of large blooms upon made supports. Certainly the labour of establishing pea sticks is less than either patent or home- made pea supports. When fixing tree branches against a fence, lean them slightly to that fence. To make a large branch extra secure it is a good idea to hammer in a short bare branch crosswise. As to the height of supports, in ground of average richness, dug two spades down, plants will easily run up 6 and 7ft. tall. They are better kept within that limit by cutting lengths of stem for the vases with the blooms and buds thereon, else the lower haulms become barren. Very important is the early support ting of infant peas. Directly tendrils (thin, wire-like shoots for clinging to anything) are noticed, place twiggy pieces slantingwise against the seed- lings. This encourages them to climb. Some folk save their rose cuttings for the purpose. Indeed, with the made supports, this is necessary, for the young peas are not, easily led to catch hold of the first length of wire or string. Putting in the permanent supports as well while the peas are quite small also seems to cause them to run up. Besides, the grower will appreciate doing 'such heavy work in the cooler weather. Staking the peas with large and small supports keeps cats and birds away. By-the-bve, some gardeners cut out the short lengths (the pieces for the seedlings) when the plants are a couple of feet high. This makes surface-stirring more easy.

'Phone 597. 'Phone 597.1 j William Treseder, Ltd. I THE NURSERIES, CARDIFF. WREATHS, CROSSES, CUT FLOWERS, &c. BEDDING PLANTS. Asters, Stocks, Dahlias, Marguer- ites, Lobelia, &c. Tela: TSISIDBB, FLoitIST, CARDIFF."

Reviews. "THE SOCIALIST REVIEW." May, 1915. 6d. net. If our prophet is stricken low, we have a poet in Mr. Bruce Glasier who can hearten us while we await his re-coming. Lamb wanted a grace before reading." The editor supplies an excellent example to his Out- look." It is not his fault that some of the men and matters lie has to deal with have to be talked down to, thus somewhat marring the superb literary level at which he commences. Some of the subjects which come under his ken are: "The Ban on Peace Talk"; The International"; ei M. Vandervelde s Position," with a timely piece of advice that others might take to heart, and an expres- sion of triumphant joy we can all re- echo; "The Labour Party." with a mention of salt that cuts and smarts "The Defence of the Realm Act, with an acknowledgment of good though it came from Nazareth; "The I.LP. Conference," "Women's Peace Crusade," and "The Late Walter Crane. The Initiative in Disarmament (S. V. Bracher), commencing with a quotation from Nietzche on the impli- cation of your neighbours' immorality by your own preparations for self-de- fence, passes in review modern and ancient cases of non-reistance. One of the inhuman phases of war is well brought out on page 532:—"It is of the very nature of war that the inno- cent suffer as well as, or instead of, the guilty. Scarborough is bom- barded because some gentleman in London made war on Germany, and it is suggested that a number of other persons should avenge Scarborough' by killing people who had nothing whatever to do with the .bombard- ment." The greater good we have done by example than by what a former nerd Derby called any policy of meddling or war" is touched upon, while in the closing portions on the Initiative we have the matter suc- cinctly put:—" The soldier's way of killing fear is not open to us, but there is a better. We have to clear our thinking from the passions and excitements that falsify it, and dis- cover our fellow-men by inquiring of our own hearts. A little use of reason and the armies and navies will melt away." Further "Discussions on Interna- tional Socialism and the War" ap- pear between Hamon and Roubano- vitch on the one hand and Glasier on the other. Hamon pleads for using the war for our own ends and the detruction of the Prussian and Aus- trian autocracies as a method of weakening the Russian autocracy. He seems to have firm faith in the com- ing independence of Poland, and be- lieves that the huge taxes necessary to pay for this war will kill militar- ism. We cannot help feeling when rea- ding Hamon that his standpoint is a national one, and as Mr. GIasier points out, the excuses he puts for- ward for one nation can fairly be ad vanced by its opponent An hypotheical case is then put before us of England and France quarrelling after this war and in a mast vivid passage we are given a list of French episodes the English Jingo Press might rake up from the past to urge the necessity of wiping France off the map, or, as the "Daily Mail" put it, "roll her in mud and blood." The three courses open. according to Hamon, to French Socialists are well countered by the only three courses open to Socialists. Then follows the short discussion with Roubanovitch, centring mainly around his speech at Brussels on the eve of the war. In The Worker in Current Literature," S. H. Halford is out on behalf of an aspect. of the Labour movement that has so far not received much* atten- tion tho mis-representation of the worker and his speech by our novel- ists and other writers. He objects to representing all workers as using ab- surd sounds that are true of njne. while the working man is often drawn as a thriftless, lazy, beery being, and all, our author suggests, to pander to the supposition of superiority held by his betters." who supply mos,; of tho readers of such piffle. Besides International Notes," the number contains articles on "Quakers and the War," The Church and the War," and on "Professor Cramb." The whole number is a distinct aid to a wider outlook, a cleprer vision and saner judgments of men and matters of our day. REPORT OF THE I.L.P. CON- I FERENCE, NORWICH, 1915. Price 3d. I in these days, when the Party has free access to only a very few periodi- cals. and because so many issues el- bow each other out in their claims for space, to know what happened at the Conference, you must gjet this re- port. In its 128 pages we have also lists of the N.A.C. members and dele- gates, reports of the N.A.O. and the Parliamentary Party, various balance sheets, manifestoes and resolution of British, Foreign, and International Labour and Socialist bodies. Theieis much food for reflection in these re- ports, resolutions and manifestoes, and as we are in danger of living for this night of war only, it is well that the object. and programme of the party are included to remind w that we are for the morning."

HAPPENINGS AT HOME & ABROAD. "CONSCRIPTION OUT OF PLACE." Writing in the "Evening Stand- ard" on Kitchener's Armies. Col. F. X. Maude, C.B., shoe's that with the new Armies of 2 million men our military forces have now been brought very near to three millions. "Of course there have been losses from sickness and the enemy's fire. which, so far, have not exceeded 200,000, and a good many men have had to be weeded out of the new Armies as un- likely to make good and efficient soldiers, so that another 300,000 are now called for in oraer to keep, the Army, as a whole, at its full nominal strength. In addition to all these numbers we must reckon up the men on the ac- tive list of the Navy, the dockyard workers, railwaymen. merchant sea- men, workers in armament factories, and so forth and so on, all in th& prime of life and falling well within the age limits at present in force, but none of whom can possibly be spared, and who collectively amount to about a million, so that the total number of men absorbed by the services of the fighting line cannot be less than 4 millions, and may well be somewhat- more. Now, since the numbers fixed bet- ween the limits of military ago now fixed-18 to 40 are under 7 mil- lion, and this 7 million includes the lame, the halt and the blind, we have by this time approximated very closely to the two-thirds ratio. be- yond which even the French law of conscription has never gone. By the time we have got the 300,000 men that are now called for, we shall probably have outstripped it. Under these circumstances the cry for com- pulsory service appears to me to be altogether gratuitous and out of place. • ■