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PLAIN POLITICS. * ]

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PLAIN POLITICS. ] lBY MAEXHIR.] (Note.—" Maenhir" alone is responsible for what appears in this eoliunn.—Ed ]. We fancy we are a free people. Many even of the working classes cherish the belief that the ages of tyranny are past, and that they can no longer be persecuted for their opinions. They do not know Conservatism in of the Merthyr Boroughs. I met a collier in Merthyr last week who told me something about the way m which the Tories are carrying on their work. Of course, their main reliance is on beer. That is only natural. Men who have no arguments must fall back on beer, or they are done for. The I)eer, I understand, is dispensed at'gather- ings which are called smoking concerts." This is a new way of educating a constituency, invented by the shrewd organisers of the Primrose League. You get a number of men into a tap-room, you supply them with refreshments, you sing them some elevating and refining poems, such as The man that broke the bank at Monte Carlo," or Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay then you incidentally remind them of the necessity of preserving the union with Ireland, defending the Church, and upholding the House of Lords, and then they go away and--vote for you. Well, perhaps. But beer and good advice are not the only things sriven away at these meetings. I am told that real cigars are handed round. Of course, a cigar is a great luxury, to which a humble collier has no right to aspire, unless it is bestowed on him by Tory poli- ticians. Under ordinary circumstances, if a coalowner met one of his men in the street smoking a cigar he would at once go down to Cardiff and give notice to lower the Sliding-scale percentage on the ground that the colliers were earning too good wages, and squandering their substance in riotous living.. But of course, when the cigar is a Conservative cigar, (imoked on behalf of the Union, and in defence of the Church of England, all is changed. Expense is evidently no object with the supporters of the Tory candidate It would be interesting to know who pays for these smoking concerts. Possibly some of the money comes from the pockets of distinguished members of the Coalowners' Association, and, while they are cutting down the colliers' percentage with the on3 hand, they are generously returning the money in the shape of beer and cigars with theother, "doinggood by stealth, and blushing to find i'ø fame." All these things can be inquired into by the election judges, in the extremely unlikely event of the Tory Party gaining a majority at the poll. If the friends of Sir William Lewis' son confined themselves to these means of advancing their cause, I should not be inclined to waste much time in de- nouncing them. There are plenty of people in the Merthyr Boroughs who know the value of the Ballot Act, and are perfectly willing to take the Tory cigars, light them outside, and then walk into the polling booth and put their crosses against the names of Liberals. But unfortunately this young man's sup- portersdonot confine themselves to these mild methods of persuasion. Coercion, I am told, in its worst form, is already being brought into play in more than one colliery in order to advance the Tory candidature, and to crash out all opposition. There is one colliery which enjoys an evil notoriety for this sort of thing. I will not name it at present perhaps there is no need to name it at all I daresay most of my readers can guess which I mean. But on one thing I am determined, that these tactics shall not pass without exposure, and if it becomes necessary, later on, I will teach some of the officials of that col- liery the danger they run in intimidating men to vote against their convictions. There are criminal laws to deal with these gentlemen, and it shall not be my fault if some of them do not find themselves in the dock if they go much farther. This may seem strong language, but it is time to use strong language if all that I have heard is true. The collier I have already referred to told me a story about this colliery. It appears there was an elderly man who had worked there for many years, and who was known as a particularly ardent and stalwart Radical. As soon as Sir William Lewis' son came out as the Tory candidate the screw began to be applied.by, all the gaffers and the:petty Jacks-in-office about the pit. A dead set was made at the old Radical, and every means was taken to bring him over, or, if that failed, to induce him to hold his tongue, and cease to preach the Radical faith to his fellow-workmen. They compelled him to come to a smoking concert, where they plied him with the usual cigars and songs. But all was in vain. He sat and listened unmoved to Sir William Lewis' son, and even to "The Man that Broke the Bank. Not even the strains of A bicycle made for two" could win his faith to the Church of England, and 'E duano where 'e are" seemed to him to apply particularly well to the House of Lords. He came away unconverted. Then the supporters of Sir William Lewis' son began to show their teeth. His pay was suddenly cut down from 5s. 6d. a day to 2s. 9d. It will be observed that he must have been a pretty steady workman to have been in receipt of the 5s. 6d. Still he was not to be crushed. He would not falsify his conscience, he would not bow his knee to the golden image which Sir William Lewis had set up. Sir William's son's friends decided to stamp on him. They dismissed him from the colliery, and threw him on the streets to starve. The collier who told me the story is a poor man kimself. But he has a heart to feel, and he is not an agent for Sir William Lewis' son. On the Saturday night, hearing that this poor old man was actually without food in the house, he sent round his little girl with what he could spare for the old man. When the child came back, the poor, tender-hearted little thing was crying at the distress which she had seen. It was wrong of her, but she did not know any better. She could not realise that the starvation of her old friend was necessary in order to maintain the Union, and to preserve the Established Church. I wish Sir William Lewis' son had been there to see that weeping child. Her tears would, no doubt, bave encouraged him in his candidature, and shown him how popular he was becoming among the inhabitants of the Merthyr Boroughs. And I wish, too, that I had a picture of the scene, that I might frame a copy, and hang it up in every polling-booth at the next election, and see whether there was one working man in all Merthyr degraded enough to vote for a man, to advance whose candidature such deeds had been done by servile supporters. If Sir William Lewis' son deems such a trifling matter as this worthy of his attention at all he will probably try to excuse himself by saying he gave no direct authority for this crud and wicked act. It makes no difference. If he stands by pod allows these things to be done in the interest of his candidature, he must bear the respon- sibility. If he pretends to disapprove of them, there is an easy way to test his sincerity. I know the old man I have spoken of, and I can prove my state- ments. I shall not supply his name to gratify idle curiosity, but I give Mr. Herbert Lewis this challenge: If he will undertake to have this victim of his candi- dature reinstated in his former position, and give me his written guarantee that he shall not be further persecuted, I will furnish the particulars. I shall wait till next week for a reply. In the meantime let the working men of Merthyr see to it that they are not one by one depri ved of all their rights as free men, and dragged like slavesat the chariot-wheels of this young Tory gentleman. There was a time when such attempts as I have described would have been met by something more than mere indignation, and when there would have been enough resolute men to band themselves together and make it impossible for the candidate whose supporters com- mitted such outrages ever to hold a smoking concert in the borough again. I have tried to write calmly and temperately, — not an easy thing when I am dealing with such a subject. I have tried to refrain from vindictive language, and to say nothing calculated to arouse passion. But I do not promise that I shall always be able to restrain myself. If the tactics I have described are to go on until the next general election, and if that election finds me upon a platform in the Merthyr Boroughs, 1 warn certain persons that I shall come back to this subject in a very different spirit. I shall think of that old man's misery and that child's tears, and I shall cast prudence to the winds and say things which may lead to consequences of which they little dream.

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