The South Wales Daily Post

~N^T1S~AN D~C0MME NTs'7 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1910. The cleaD- sweep made by the Municipal Reform party at Tuesday's elections renders the verdict emphatic and unmistakable, more especially after the unopposed return a week before of Councillors E. G. Protheroe, Percy Molyneux and T..Merrells. Except at its ex- tremities. where political prejudices have so far remained unshaken, Swansea is de-1 cisively for Municipal Heforn;. Tuesday's voting left the alleged Progressive party without a. shred cf comfort. It revealed the old regime completely discredited. A year ago it was possible to claim for the latter a seeming victory in the East Ward, but on this occasion its champion was defeated by nearly three hundred votes, the figures clearly indicating that Mr. Ben Thomas j owed his return to Municipal Reformers. who, on Tuesday, either abstained from vot- ¡ ing, or supported Ald-erman David Williams. There can be no vestige of doubt regarding the significance of the decisive victories, dis-! closing in every instance an increased vote I for the Reform party. It is that the town is becoming weary of the political and de- nominational factor in municipal affairs and that an increasing number of electors are yielding to the oommonsensible view that the business of the town should be con- ducted on business lines by business people. The victories are not for the Conservative party aT for the Church, but for Municipal Reform, and we owe them largely to Liberals fl and Nonconformists who, in the interests of good government, have had the strength of will to resist the appeals made to their politi- cal and religious convictions—appeals that unfairly associated civic stagnation with Liberalism and Nonconformity. On the eve of the elections the prediction \\<1" made in these columns that the fiue., J ccos of the Reform candidates would in-ea'i | the disappearance ui the political and de- j nominat.ional element from municipal con- tests. Swansea stands to gain immeasur- ably by the fulfilment of that prediction now rendered more probable by the utter discomfiture of the section responsible for placing the, Free Church Council and the Liberal Association in the forefront as the chief impediments to good government. The Nonconformist ministers who entered into the fray against Reform should be now in a mood to .-ei'ious'y reflect upon the effect of their misplaced activity, having regard to the proved sympathy cf a, considerable proportion of their flocks with the move- nient, and the bitterness naturally arising from a widespread impatience with pastors, whose primary function is to promote peace and goodwill Vather than to aggravate and intensify warring passions in the domain of municipal politics. As for Dr. Rawlings,! I in his capacity of party pamphleter, the nature of his interposition in both St. Helen's and Ffynone Wards was .so insulting t.' the candidates whom lie sought to In- iurc that t-Iw triumphant return of both m-y l'oasouabiy be regarded as their com- pletc personal vindication. It is realiy in- tolerable that public men offering them- selves i:i good faith for the service of the town should be subjected to the insults implied iu unctuous phrases which presume a fcorc cf priestly superiority in the author. ^6 earnestly hope to see the Reform paiiy penetrated more anxJ more by Libe- rals and Nonconformists, bo that they may inJiucnce its counsels and destroy every lin- i gering doubt as to its non-political chara-e-j Ler. To identity Liberalism and Nonconfor- mity with the support of practises which cannot be justified, or with abuses which no one carej to defend, is a grave disservice toi both, and alto to the town, which is becoming big enough to require for its ad-1 ministration the best capacity available. One of the things ardently to be wished,' when vacant seats come to be filled pre- sently, is the appearance in the field of; candidates, who, whilst steaàfast to. their own religious and political convictions, arc, nevertheless, convinced and avowed Muni- cipal Reformers. Wo believe that the eh-j listment, for municipal work, of a. gentle-1 man of the typo of 'Mr. Arthur Eden, repre- < sents a gain of enormous value, not only be-' cause of its immediate effect upon the man-! agement of the business of the town, but also because of its palpable influence in in-1 aucing others like him (to whichever party j they may belong) to come forward and help i in giving Swansea the government it de-j serves.

Mr. Balfour, in his recent speech at Edin- burgh, referred to the fact that the cause of preference ha.d been distinctly advanced by the report of the Commission on Trade Re- lations between Canada and the West In- die-s. That report showed that the prefer- ence given by Cani.da to other parts of the Empire is of enormous advantage; it show- ed also that "public opinion in the Domin- ion might come to regard the continuance of t,he prosent conditions, under which the preference is onesided, as unsatisfactory, end. on that ground the preference might be a.bolllihed." As the report is signed by such orthodox Free Traders as Lord Balfour of Burleigh and Lord Islington, it is, as Mr. {< Balfour said, "the most important step which has yet been taken in all that part of the Tariff Reform policy which deals with preference." The report cannot be without its effect upon the electors of this ootmtry, and we share Mr. Balfour's convictrion that "they will see how great are the advantages, from an Imperial and from a commercial point of view, of such an understanding with our Colonies, and will refuse any longtsr to adopt the purely scornful and negative attitude which has hitherto characterised his Majesty's advisers." Even Free Traders in Canada, are agreed & that the work of the Government must be carried on cLuJijr bv tho revenues derived from the Customs. Direct taxation as a substitute is au impossibility. Upon the farmer of the West no less than upon the manufacturer of the East the burden of in- direct taxation for the upkeep cf the country | must fall. Hitherto the farmer has escaped lightly, and if his expenses have increased he hciis recouped himself by charging higher prices. On this point. "Industrial Can- ada," the organ of the Canadian Manufac- furors' Association, in its September issue, .>A\s: HPS the farmer a real grievance v, lien, he pays x0 per cent, on his agricultural implements' In ten yoars the farmer has paid no increase in the cost of his farm xm- plements. How about the stuff he has sold to the. manufacturer ? The good old days of ten-cent, butter and eggs, where are they? Gone beyond recall. 'I he city man. the "Workman, and tne manufacturer payr more "Workman, and the manufacturer payr more doubie ill many casjt—for what the farmer &pphcs him. Thoy continue to sell the fannei "what tney produce at the same old pike. In other words, the iarmir has re- imbursed himself for greater labour costs by hoxstung the pi ice of his products out of SJ"3'ht. The manufacturer has met the greater cost of labour by dev ising labour- saving machinery and by increasing his cut- put." It is clear, then, that the Canadian farmer is not seriously handicapped by the tarili, and that "Free Trade," or reciproi it\ with the United Staler so far from benelit- i-.g him, would, by inflicting an irreparable injury upon Canadian industries, deprive hiu: oi a valuable market. The "Free Tiade" agitation in Canada is, I as we have said,'being engineered from out- side. The Free Trade Union are taking a hand in the game because they see that the ciuef strength of Tariff Reform lies in Im- perial preference and if they can mana-ga to check that movement in Canada they will obstruct the progress of Tariff Reform in this country. The manufacturers of the Unite:! Suttee are lenuing their aid because tney wish to have free access to Canadian markets, ;,Œd to drive Canadian manufac- turers out of the held. A Chicago manu- facturer recently put the case thus "Of course I am in favour of reciprocity. Our fiun makes goods for the farmer and it sells 1 them in every State in the Union. We have, in consequence of our large output, reduced costs to the limit. Throw down your tariff bars, and we will enter Wcwtern Canada and burn up any Canadian ,:om- petitioll that we meet." Canadian manu- lactumts, however, have no intention of t allowing themselves to be "burnt up" by < American competition, and they fully realise that the tariff—and the tariff alone 1 interposes an insuperable barrier against | such mischievous incendiarism. j c If then. Free Trade," or recipi-ocity be- t -twt"oCn Canada, and the United States, is under present oonditiorts, impossible, how is Canada to find an outlet for her increas- ing trade ? We ha.ve no hesitation in saying I that Imperial preference shows the way. By reciprocating in British markets the c preference already given in Canadian mar- ( kets to British piodncts we shall largely j increase the demand for Canadian goods in the United Kingdom as well as for British t goods in Canaxia. We shall render it un- necessaay for Canada to seek commerdad ( alliances with other nations, and we shall draw closer the oommercial bonds between ci the two countries as well as the bonds of f natural affection amd loyalty. Western farmers, when they are being hamangned by t "Free Trade" oTators, most of whom have c axes of their own to grind, should remem- her that Imperial prefeirenoe means to them T a vastly extended market far their grain in this country—an advantage which is worth < much more to them than the saving of ten | per cent, m the price of "harvesters." They will also realise, wo doubt not, that a uniform national development is well worttt paying for, and that the manufacturing m- te rests of the Eastern Provinces have an j equal place with the farming industry 01 the West in the national well-being of Canada. • i

• Curiosity is aroused a.s to whether next year's Mayor will receive the distinc- tion of being the first Lord Mayor. -Swansea to have the honorcr of being made a city, you mean? Yes. But why! Well, it is thought that some recog- nition will come in view of the two great eveuts of the year—the Coronation and the Investiture. Can't see it. Why should Swansea be singled out for any such honour? The King is not being crowned in Swansea, and tlie Investitm'e of the Prince does not take place here. The incst that the new Mayor can hope for is to be included in a general mc xunmajid to attend at one or both of the [unctions. Well, that is a great honour. Certainly it is, and it is a distinction lo be mayor of the borough in the Corona- tion year, but take it from me Swansea is not going to have the dignity of a city CQIl- "erred upon it because of either of these ,wo Suaie functions. » There is one thing we can all agree upon concerning the Swansea elections, whatever we think of the result. There is as genuine and widespread a public interest in them as you could desire to see. And that's a. healthy symptom. Depends upon the verdict, which is the outcome of this interest. Let that be as it may, there is still room for n little improvement in the per- centage of votes polled. The remedy, I should suggest, is the simple one of disea- franchising everybody who didn't vote, and who couldn't produce satisfactory evidence why he did not record his suffrage. That's pretty drastic. And it wouldn't voik in cases-they occur occa- sionally—v.hire one of the candidates is a hopeless duffer. Your remedy would re- sult in a heavy expense and a lot of un- necessary trouble in a •'Mse where, under normal circumstances, just enough men would go to the poil to pitch the wrong 'un out. 1 liese cases aren't common enough. There's too much apathy in other elections besides municipal; in some towns you only get a poll of about fifty per ccnl..V vote ,signifies a certain obligation, and if a man neglect it, he tacitly admits he doesn't consider his citizenship worth a rag. So disentrunchiso him, say I. It « «■ There is a let of dissatisfaction over the present jury system. In fact, th- re ap- pears to be one law for the rich and another for the poor. That's a serious statement to make. No doubt, but it can be borne out, of the facts. LMOSU juries are composed of small tradesmen whose presence in the courts often means IOPS of business. The case of those tradesmen who cannot afford S to employ fully qualified assistants is one of great hardship, and yet it seems that most jur:j are composed of this class of citizens. There are many hundreds of men in Sivan- sea to-day whose names are on the jury lists, and who have never been asked to serve men of leisure, who can play golf in the afternoons, and whose time is their own. Why are not these men ever called upon? --I cannot say, but there is no dcubt that men in good positions do escape service altogether. \íhi..11 is a down-iigbt scandal. How can jurymen, smarting under a sense of wrong, administer justice? I have been told' that in the retiring room, considering a vsr-, diet' .such remarks as these are heard :"Well, let's settle it one way or th eother," "I want. to get from here." "I'm sick of it, and so o:i. When such sentiments as these are ul-1 tered, where does justice come in? That's an aspect ci the case which calls for the .gravest attention of the au- thorities. We pride ourselves on the hon- our and pumy of our tribunals, and we pay our judges handecrne salaries, but as you infer the jurymen on whose judgment and good faith the course of justice most depends are treated with the scantiest con- sideration. Exactly, and the sooner the present system oi selecting men to serve on juries is altered the better for everybody. <OIl --An excellent, idea that of placing certificates of wa.gf-.vi before judges of county court's. -In judgment sum mouses, you mean? --Yoz,. -A good idea in theory, but in rrae- tice I think a kttle leform is wanted. As a rule the previous four weeks' are given. A man might have been out of wcrk for six months before that, but it makes no inference to the court, which sees so much aauungs fOT the past four weeks, and there- oie a certain apparent ability to pay. The period should be extended. Then, again, 11 many of the works the workman has to say the helper, but the books of the firm 10 not show this, so that in this respect .he certificate is decidedly misleading. W hat remedy do you suggest for .h a.t ? A difncult point to deal with, unle.-s (ou get tile certificates from the men show- ng their nu. earnings. An impossible idea where in some :ases you have unscrupulous and illiterate iebtois to deal with, The real cure for he evil is to make it difficult for a person ,0 get into debt. -Or better still, make it difficult for ,he creditor to recover. -Same tiling in the end. But for the :iise with which tradespeople can sell their lebts to a debt recovery agency methinks -here would not be many cases of ordinarv lebt in our county courts. They should either have the courage to make the claim hemselves or lose the money, and if this vholesome principle were adopted I'll wager here would be fax less credit given, and 1 >f course far less county court cawos of the tort. -But you would be rather hard an the )oor people. Not a bit of it. Through the county x>urt the cor, ii they only knew it, pay dirough the ncse for what they get on ireclit. There are, I know, times wliere a fertijy must food tyid .clothing, for vhich they cannot pay at the moment. But ¡ my sharp tradesman ought to be able to distinguish between the honest poor and ■hose who incur debts without the slightest nteution of paying. Real downright dis- lonesty, I call it. -Robb.e,ry, you mean; and the remedy, is you say, lies with the shopkeepers them- selves.

"A clean sweep for good"—Tuesday's elections. N.B. or rather E.G. Next year's Mayof of Swansea has not yet been selected. 1. Mr. C. T. Ruthen on Monday evening!' To-morrow my opponent will be sent into private retirement," Swansea seems to be losing its reoetffc good character. There were 50 cases at Police Court on Monday. The Swansea election results cajne through in record time, and the "Post," o< course, sent them out in "ditto." "'8' One Swansea man, who had a vote in two wards, spent so much time in deliberating where to go first that he never voted at a!L It is a point, said counsel at the Swan- sea County Court, as to whether the doctor must come to the man or the man go to the doctor. We were sent a poem on Tuesday for in- sertion on Wednesday about the downfall of the "Munecipel Deformers." But we feel charitable -+- The Y st-alyfera branch of Young Liberal is reported "missing, and a kind-hearted Socialist is (says a Valley correspondent) offering a reward. The Swansea election results seemed to be in at an exceptionally early hour. By 9.15 the wc-rst of the agony was over for some people—and had come for others. A debtor at the Swansea County Court had been lent money to pay certain other debts, and he asked in defence: "Would it .surprise you to know that —— has not been paid? At a recent meeting in Swansea, it was stated that a well-known local Labour leader was offered a post carrying with it tempting salary, which offer was refused with contempt. One of the Swansea candidates said he knew how to conduct his electioneering business himself, and would not take any tips from the "Daily Post." Consequently, he figures among the "also ran." The ring of the shipwrights' mallets now corning from the large ship Angelo, in the Cambrian Dry Dock, was once a familiar round, b.tt now i-prdy heard through the; _l O decay oj. wooden ships. A frivolous person who has read a 'Tost Bag" asking—"Which would be the easiet prey; a burglar or a bookmaker?" sayai • "Not a burglar, because he wouldn't be likely to make 'slips.' Oh! Tha metal-sheathing industry meant a lot to Swajisea at one time, for this neighbour* hood aimost had the monopoly of majiufac- turing the yellow metal which sheathed all sorts of ships, from tea clippers and "wood" en walls" to small yachts. -+-+- --+- At Swansea Police Court on Tuesdayj the mother oi a boy, who was 14 vears ol age on the tollowing day. as summoned by tho school authorities fyr not attending school, and the magistrates deservedly snubbed those responsible for the issuing of the summons by ignoring it. Mord waste of ratepayers' money. A woman at Briton Ferry had a new gal sto>e pat into net tcailery recently, and the gas litter who put it in tried the light to see that all was in order, but omitted tA turn L out v.ucn lea\iug. A Ticighb-cuvi calluig a mouth later, was shown the ne* gas sic e. i,«;, uoUcnig the gas alight and no ute being maUe of it asked the reason. and was informed that "it was alright—th* gasman had left j" like that, and it w:-< always kept alight." When tho gas bill It is worthy L..i note that among the 520 odd people who recorded their votes at the Waiter-road booth up to 3.30 on Monday after noon, there was not a single illiterate* It was at this booth that a somewhat path- etic: incident occurred during the day. Ao aged man was driven up to record his vote. W ith great tenderness h3 was assisted to alight, and with some difficulty-owing to his infirm condition—escorted into the booth, and carefully given a scat. It was then discovered tha.t he had no vote. There appears io be a large number ot foreign sailors in the Joe); t (If Swansea at the pjesent time. Some of them found their way to the Mumbles on Sunday, and as the local police officers are always cos- mopolitan in their collection of offenders they "se-lected" a Norwegian, who is to ba brought up on a charge of being drunk. One of the Swsik.-ea J.P.'s will therefore have. another chanoe of impressing the offender with th.) heinous nature of tippling on the Sabbath—that is if he can talk: Kon, egi an. Mr. C. B. Nicholl, the old Welsh Rugby international footballer, was a spectator at the Cardiff v. Leicester match on Saturday. Mr. Nicholl is now the headmaster at a big public school at Grantham, in Lincolnshire, where he has built up a strong Rugby team, the Association code having been thrown overboard. Another ex-Welsh Rugbyite who is fostering the Welsh na-tional game in the Midlands is Mr. J. H. Bowen, who play- ed centre three-quarter for Cardiff about twenty years ago. He is on the committee of the Rugby club at Nottingham, where he holds an important position in the postal service. There is one young man in this country who is not following in his father's foot- steps. This is Mr. Richard Lloyd George, elder son of the Chancellor of the Ex- chequer, who told the London E ening Times," a new evening paper, that "I don't care a bit for politics." Mr. Richard Lloyd George is a handsome, tall young fellow of twenty-one, fresh from Cambridge. Edu- cated at Dulwich College, he underwent » good deal of ragging on account of .lut father's attitude towards the Boer War. Subsequently he came to Wales, and hav- ing passed the Welsh Central Board exam- ination entered Christ College, Cambridge- According to his own statement, Le had a rattling good time at college. Like his father, he is extremely fond of golf and motoring. Having passed the engineering tripos, he is now starting his career as • civil engineer.