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Economy and Waste. THE METHOD IN THE PEACE MADNESS. SIDE-TRACKINC PUBLIC OPINION. Has not economy been held up for a long time, with all the authority of the British State, anù with all the strength of voice of its spokes- men, as a vital principle to live by, to be rigidly observed by every individual of the na- tion Has it not been preached both in and out of •^ajson, and have not the working classes," in Particular, been time after time seriously ad- monished for everv seeming breach of the golden l'ule True-to live on the minimum, and to prodtiee up to the maximum have been the hopes of sal- yation from dire national distress, vigorously en- joined on young and old—rich and poor. Substantially, such teaching has been sound, for it needs no great intellectual profundity to realise that after the appalling waste of over four years of war, to establish real national pros- perity economy in a thorough sense is essential. There is some disagreement, though, as to what "economy" exactly means, for there are disre- putable people about who have different ideas Oil the subject to those held by more, respectable citizens. NATIONAL SPENDTHRIFTS. When the foregoing considerations are thought of one is struck by the contradictions of the happenings of the Peace" week-end. The Government proclaimed a period during which the nation should rejoice for the glorious vic- tor >es vouchsafed to Allied armies, incidentally, ^.ight million deaths, millions Af maimings, mil- lions of starved, tortured, and defective infants ,are something to give thanks for. There are other things to make glad over, too. Remember, however, this rejoicing and making ^erry has been at Government dictation, and the collossal expenditure thereby entailed has been officially arranged and encouraged. The amount of money spent on flags, pageants, sports, dress, luxurious feeding and drinking, in fvery town and village of the entire country, is beyond compute. The whole business is be- wildering to think of. The want of iogic of some people is amaÚng. know towns w here prizes were given for tho kno- priZeS (rlv(?ll for tlio ind thos(? !)e(,ame al taking prizes were magnificent spectacl ec of de-I corative colour In many cases these are the streets in which, in miserable conditions, are living the poorest and most abject fo the toilers. Can anyone calculate how many trucks of coal, timber, tar and oil have been burnt in the huge bonfires set blazing throughout the land? Does anyone think it strange that the Govern- ^ent should plan such a tremendous fall from the heights of Spartan economy to which we liave been pleaded with to aspired | METHOD IN MADNESS. If so. a little close examination will disclose to them method in this apparent madness. Days of pomp have always been of good service to all militaristic states, but let this aspect be passed by for the moment. In the course of an article delating to the Prime Minister in a Sunday paper the writer remarked that Conscription for men of o() and for Ireland was not necessary, as a War measure, but was devised .simply as a means of taking the public mind off the black days of March and April last year." Thi-> may or may not be strictly true, biit I, is an ape illustration of a policy diversely used, and usually with success to its users. Peace ■Celebrations, as so prodigiously carried out, have scored more than one point to the good, in the Covernni tit's estimation. SIDE-TRACKING OPINION. Tiie Soiithport Conference decided that on duly 20th and '21st British Labour should voice • a great united protest against the Allied crime of intervention in Russia. But 1 am afraid this demonsiration suffered sadly as a consequence of the Government strategy. Peace Day was de- clared for .July 20th. Thus much of the strength of the protest against the Allied attitude towards Russia was insidiously sapped away. The people have been side-tracked, confused, !(,d astray, and the protest could not possibly be what it ought to have been. Then look at the organisation of the Peace celebrations. First, atmosphere was created through all the many channels so powerfully controlled by "the powers that be." The thorough organisation of the whole many-sided proceedings was next un- dertaken bv local authorities. The different in- terests of different people were all appealed to, so that most people could not but he busily en- gaged in their pleasures oil the great day. Then the State, through its educational system, readily took advantage of its control of tli,, child's hody and inind. Perhaps never before I)o d Itl i ln lTn( l have the children been used to such mass effect and to such base purpose, as during the past week. Think of practically the whole of the younger generation "revelling for a week or more in the stuntiug and deforming spirit of a nar- row and militaristic patriotism On a huge scale, militarism has been poured into the receptive minds of the boys and girls, bv zealous and dut?fn?ly patriotic teachers, ,tving no knowledge of their own ignorance. Lessons In nas-wavin? jin?) an<? n?htrng: son?s. aU the s'mhols of an ImpNwl,tstl(, nationalism have b,4?n 'I'lieD, quite na- turallv the children could not but draw their parents into the excitement of the flag-waving. There was so much to do, so TlW n," instructions from teachers, flags had to be bought for the boys and girls, and thus, step by step, all be- came linked up in one vast throng of flag-waving humanity. They were caught in the thrill of it, swayed by the throng—they danced to the tune. That kind of patriotism is a spirit-a pes- sessiug spirit. Reason retracts, and the spirit of jingoism is given free reign. Of course, many things were quite rightly re- nunnberotl in the Peace celebrations; but, on the whole, the proceedings have meant retrogression. Manv stops will have to be painfully retraced. Reactionary feeling has been stimulated, re- ceding passions again aroused, and the crowd has been swept off its feet in what can be described in no other words than a general orgy of mili- tarism. INSIDIOUS WEAPONS. I The above suggestions make .sorry reading, but facts must be recognised and faced. There is no need to give concrete evidence, but such is abundantly to hand. Many incidents show simply an artificially* incited gust of spurious patriotic fervour, in what is always the ignor- ant and unstable crowd, but much cannot be so lightly ignored. A general survey of the situation makes one rea lise profoundly what subtle weapons Govern- ments possess, how they can be used to defeat progress. Tw struggle with such forces means indeed a strenuous fight, never ceasing vigilance, untiring educational propaganda, and. above all —hard heads and stout hearts. Need any more be said to explain the seeming contradiction lwtween "economv" and a riotously wasteful and illogical "peace" cele- hration:- What his Labour to say now? The battle between darkness and enlightenment must go oil, and it will go on. The wave rolls back, but the tide flows on. But there is danger at the present stage. Is militarism still to keep the people in chains r Are the workers going to be blinded by the glamour of it, thus failing to wel- come the heralds of the new mxler r Russia is an "acid test for organised La- bour, as it has been for the Allies. Is the es- sential stand to bo made which will proclaim the workers of all lands as one common brotherhood, and which will mark the downfall of the old re- gime of exploitation and degradation? ft will be calamitous if defeat is to be permitted for yet another generation, Is the substance to be given up for a dancing shadow? The Peace celebrations have been the climax of "victory." A.G.G. 's recent article, What Is Peace," was well worth perusing. At the present mo- ment, reviewing the peace rejoicings, it can be read with even greater appreciation than when first published. In one passage the writer says: Mixed with that sense of gratitude (to the sol- diers) there will undeniably be an enormous ele- ment of the crude idolatry of militarism. De- feat is a wholesome and lowering medicine, but victory is an intoxicant that. few nations can withstand. It goes to the head and turns the brain. Victory converted the Germans, who are naturally less warlike than ourselves, into a nation of warriors, fed on the philosophy of war ;ind swollen with the prid« of w p' Defeat will convert them into much more sensible people. But will victory have the conquerors the nice reasonable, peaceful people they were up to 1 m I? Is there no danger that in capturing the wild beast, they have contracted the virus, and that instead of killing the beast they will only train him in new kennels for new adventures." The Peace celebrations, which were rather war celebrations," show that these questions are very real ones. Hvents may decide much, but complete victory to vitlier,side, in the strug- gle between Rpadionand Progression, will be determined in the early future by the attitude towards this issue—" Militarism, or Social Emancipation." Choose one or the other—you cannot have both. E. H. WILSON. I

Investments in Russia. I MR. WINSTONE AND CABINET MINISTERSI TO THE EDITOR. I understand the "South Wales News were good enough to telegraph to the following gentlemen Sir Walter Long, Sir Eric Geddes, and fix- Right HOIl. Austen Chamberlain, with a view to getting them to deny the statement made by me on Sunday, July 20th, at a Labour demonstration lield in Pontypoel, and in each case the paper was able to get a denial. Person- ally, I thiuk .it would have been fairer to me and more in keeping with what a public man might expect if. the journal had asked me first of all to supply it with the facts. However, as it elected to take another course, which, in my opinion, will be the .means of putting them deeper in the mud than they were in the mire, the responsibility must be that the the N ews." The statements I made at the meeting referred to above were :— The soldier boys who had enlisted for the duration of war were sent to Russia to defend vested interests. It is estimated'that there is to-day invested in Russia £ 1,600,000,000 of European capital, most of it British. There are three members of the British Gov- ernment with financial interest there: The Right Hon. Austen Chamberlain, the Right Hon. Walter Long, and the Right Hon. Sir Eric Geddes. Now, what are the facts? And, indeed, they I are very illuminating, and can be verified by th( Somerset House records:— SISSERT MINING CO. Shares. Date. Rt. Hon. A. Chamberlain 1000 Aug. 4, 1914 1000 Dee. 30. 1916 1000 May 8, 1918 ANGLO-RUSSIAN TRUST. Rt. Hon. Walter Long 500 Apr. 9, 1912 11 3000 Dec. 31, 1918 KYSHTIM CORPORATION. The Right. Hon Sir Auckland Geddes aon J H n. 2, 191.9 Right Hon. Sir Eric Geddes 440 Jan. 2, 1919 The last two have taken their shares after the war with Germany was ended, and when this British Government was openly treating the Rus- sian Government as an enemy. I shall be pleased to know what the South Wales News" have to say and what they have to say respect- ing the validity of mv statement.—I am, etc., J. WINSTONE. Park View, Pontnewynydd, Mon. July 28th, 1919. I

Noah Tromans at Bargoed. TELLINC PROPAGATION OF SOCIALIST FAITH. There was a good attendance at the Work- men's Institute, Bargoed, last Sunday, when Mr. Noah Tromans, Mountain Ash, was the speaker Mr. Will Jones, in the chair, explained that unrest was not necessarily a had thing; we must get at the cause ( f it. Unr Capitalism, wealth had accumulated, in certain hands, be- yond what the rich could find a use for at home so they sent it abroad to be used in developing foreign countries—with foreign low-paid labour. This depressed the standard of living at home, and was one cause of the racial feuds of which we have heard so much lately. Some people had toe much power,- tiil, resulted in virtual slavery for the others. Reading of anti-slavery agitation 100 years ago, it seemed to him a wonderful thing. a.nd on" of the truest marks of a truU great nation, that the British people should have willingly paid t20 millions to abolish shivery. They had thus abolished that particular form of slavery, but now, those who own tha tools and the raw materials, hold the others in virtual slavery. To-day, the one idea of many people was to amass a fortune: b*t lie trusted the day was coming when it would be a disgrace to die rich. Real democracy was impossible till people could afford t.o disregard money. As it was. a miner, if disabled by accident or illness, had to go short of something and miners were well off as compared with many of their fellows in the working-class. People should have the means to find their phu-os as it was, this was,a world of misfits, many, people doing work they didn't, perhaps couldn't, care for or believe in. Mr. Noah Tromans followed up these last re- marks with instances from his own private know- ledge of plain working-class people writing with a natural culture equal to any educated and intellectual" people, but who had no chance to rise, owing to Capitalism. Socialism attacked not individuals but the system. Many people thought, or seemed to think, that Capitalism had always existed, whereas it had only come into existence withiu the labt 300 years or so. Their great counlfagainst Capitalism was that it made man's labour a mere commodity in the market, that is, a thing produced for sale and not for use, or only incidentally for use. Chattel- slaves ran away, were hunted down, and if caught were sometimes chained to their work. Wage-slaves ran after their work instead, to sell the one thing they-liad tassel!, their labour- power. At the moment the cry was raised against the workers that they were upsetting the work of reconstruction, and the recovery of foreign mar- kets. Now these last had been developed to the neglect of home-markets, us giving more profit. As an instance of our ruling-classes thinking nothing worth while that didn't yield profit to private individuals or private companies when the Government, was selling off the national fac- tories ("boodling," as the Americans would say). the employees went to Sir Robert Home to urge. that if kept the property of the nation they would not only give employment and prevent the manufacture of a vast amount of iint-iiipl,iv. nient, but they would help to supply the lack of houses. Sir Robert couldn't imagine how so the workers reminded him that doors' window- frames, furniture, etc.. could all be made whole- sale in the government workshops. Still he did not see it. Also, a, Ohiozza Money has pointed out, our margarine manufacture has been built up from almost nothing during the war, under pressure of necessity, till now there is a sur- plus for export. But foreign markets are of more importance to the ruling class, because they give higher dividends. The ruling class do not invest in war-ioans, if they can find some- thing else more profitable. He did not blame them, he would probably have done the same if he had been so unfortunate as to have been born one of them but he had had the good fortune to be born a worker, and he was speaking as a worker when he declared that we ought to com- bine political and industrial action. Compensation should be sufficient to live on women and children ought not to be drawn into ihe struggle for existence. In a recent case he knew of the judge awarded 10/- a week this was not the judge's fault, but the law's. This was less than the value a decent horje ran to during the war, and human beings ought to be treated as something better than horseflesh. Then, when workers were no longer able to work, owing to accident, illness, or old-age, they had to go before the guardians, who were usually of the richer class,owing to the workers being so stupidly false to their own class. Piece-rates, again, were a device to turn the strong, able- bodied worker into a slave-driver for the rest. The strong, able-bodied worker ought to consider that he might not always remain so. The old way of attempting to remedy these things was to lobby M.P. 's of other parties, who commonly re- ported that they, personally, were in favour of what was proposed, but that they had failed to win over the otliei M.P.'s. This went on till the workers began to elect representatives from among themselves and these, again, for a long while, were»merely Lib.-Labs., tied to the older party, till the I.L.P. arose and struck out for itself. And now that they had got to the length of demanding the nationalization of the mines, they were met with the cry of "Bolsheviks." calling names being the traditional substitute for argument. And the I.L.P. by now was ac- tually the constitutional party the trade unions by now were actually more advanced, demanding direct action, of which there might have been no need if the people had had the sense to elect 370 "Labour M.P.'s. But the best defence of the I.L.P. is to recite the things it had not done. For instance, it did not put the income-tax onto the workers, ndit increase the railway fares. There was a time when children used to work in mines: and when it was proposed to stop that, it was urged that the industry would go to ruin without them. The same cry was raised when women were taken out of mmes while, when the eight-hour day canie Instead of which production, and the standard of production, ac- tually increased and methods were improved machinery was introduced but all this was done for private profit.

Nationalisation or Civil War H. M. HYNDMAN'S EXAMINATION. Reviewing tin- coal question in the light of the national financial position in the current issue of Justice Mr. H. M. Hyndman, the veteran Socialist, says:— If we go on as we are going, Great Britain is hopelessly and irredeemably hankrupt. This is well known to all capable men of business. But they think they will bring about a panic if they openly say so; An ostrich policy of this sort will certainly not save us from the results of the criminal folly of our politicians, in failing to prepare for the horrors of peace, even in the midst of the horrors of war. NOT THE FAULT OF THE WORKERS. This deliberate and ruinous neglect, as I have often pointed out, was no fault w hatever of the workers. Trade unionists and Co-operators, Socialists factory hands, miners, railway men and agriculturists implored the Government, p l ,ol., from September, 1914. onwards, to see to the cultivation of our own land, in order to enable us to feed ourselves; to nationalise our coal mines in order to improve and cheapen the pro- duction of our fuel to make careful plans for the conversion of our machinery (vastly speeded up at the cost of the whole people) for the pur- pose of maintaining our exports after the peace; to be ready to organise our national labour im- mediately demobilisation began. All these sug- gestions were contemptuously thrown into the waste-paper basket by our rulers. So was the fine, statesmanlike proposal of the Co-operative Societies to place their splendid distributive or- ganisation at the disposal of the country and the Administration. Therefore, I say, the producers of Great Bri- taitt are no more responsible for the impending bankruptcy of our country than they are, or were, for the Ni-liolesale incapacity, waste and corruption of the so-called "State Socialism, managed by the capitalists and the middle-class, throughout the war. entirely in their own in- terest. OUR DESPERATE POSITION. Tilings being so desperate as they really are, I rejoice that Sir Auckland Gedde whether rightly or wrongly, has added six shillings to the price of coal per ton. Nothing short of some such dramatic stroke would have compelled the nation to look facts in the face. Even before this huge increase we vor,, quite unable. tinder our present conditions of production, to com- pete successfully with foreigners in many branches of manufacture based upon coal. We were living in a fool's paradise. Our wasteful and inefficient system of coal-mining and coal- using have put us quite behind our most formid- able rivals. This again was not the fault of the miners. For this our capitalists and manufac- turers were entirely to blame. The mi ners had no control whatever over the belated methods of our coal companies and iron and steel companies. Even if the workers as a class could not have done better, they most. assuredly could not have done worse than our profit-making employers did WHY HESITATE? There is no ground whatever for hesitation. Delay may easily he fatal. Unfortunately, just as our politicians think only in terms of votes, so our miners and workers generally still think only in terms of wages, and revolt only in the form of strikes. This, too, is fatal. Nationali- sation and .socialisation of coal production and distribution is all inevitable step in our general re-organisation. But this cannot stand alone. There is no reaspi. why we should not at once arrange that the ablest coal miners should be associated with the ablest coal experts—calling in foreigners if need be—to determine forthwith the best, possible methods of dealing with our coal iu the interest of the whole people. The landlord ooalowners and capitalist exploiters would be quite out of place on such a commit- tee. They are not wanted at all. Somehow or another they have to\be got rid of, as Judge Sankey's Committee decided and as the House of Commons unanimously voted. We Social- Democrats have stood up for political action and Parliamentary methods for nearly forty years. We hold by them now But if the decision of a serious National Committee is to be set aside, and the deliberate and unanimous judgment of the House of Commons is to be upset, by trickery and self-interest, as is now being done, then there is only one alternative, and it is just as well we should all recognise this—not direct action by strike ,but Civil War iindar arms. inobliing could be more lamentable: nothing un- der si-ell circumstances, more inevitable. CO-OPERATION v. BANKRUPTCY. The nation can only be saved from bankruptcy and anarchy by national co-operation. This we have said plainly before. We repeat it still more seriously now. Nationalisation and socialisation of coal mines must be accompanied by nationali- sation andsocialisat,ion of transport, nationali- sation and socialisation of land, nationalisation and socialisation of distribution, nationalisation and socialisation of shipping, nationalisation and socialisation of the factory industries. That means the commencement of the Co-operative Commonwealth of Great Britain. We are in the Social Revolution in this island already. Shall the glorious transformation be organised and peaceful, or anarchical and bloody? That is the question for us all.

Restoration of Pre-War Practices Bill. Although strong efforts were made principally by Lieut. Commander Kenworthy, Col. Grieg, and a member of the National Democratic Party, to amend the Restoration Bill on lines unacceptable to the Trade Unions concerned, the Bill has passed its Committee stage almost exactly in the form which constituted the agreed Bill. The Minister of Labour and the Labour representatives on the Committee not only utterly routed the self-constituted guardians of industrial freedom in debate, but on a division were able to defeat them by 15 votes to 10.

Road to Ruin. WHAT DEARER COAL MEANS." "STARTLE STUNTS GIVEN AWAY BY CAPITALISTS. BY ALFRED MORCAN. In the course of a leader under the above heading in the Weekly Dispatch for Sunday, July 13th, it was stated that the price of coal from American ports was half that of coal from British ports. It was also stated that the com- paritive coal prices are reflected in the prices of American and British steel. Fortunately for some of us, our sources of in- formation are not confined entirely to the Sun- day papers. But still all the information I will produce will he from capitalist sources. PARLIAMENTARY DENIALS. In the House of Commons last month Mr. Bridgeman is reported to have stated that there was no restriction Oil the import of coal into this country, but that American eoal could only be delivered into this country at a very much higher price than that'at which British coal was obtainable. Again, according to Mr. A. Geddes, the lowest price for American coal in European ports is over 1:30- per ton. and there is no question of finding a ready market for all coal we are able to export. STEEL PRICES. To take the second statement- by the "Weekly Dispatch," i.e., that the comparative coal prices are reflected in the prices of American and Bri- tish steel. In other words, that the prices of coal is responsible for the difference in the prices of steel. It will be found upon examination that the second statement is a bout as base less as the first. It was in the year 1899 that Chas. M. Schwab made a statement. It was at a time when coal- owners, steel-owners and royalty-owners had very much of their own sweet way in this coua- an incidentally in other countries, too. When there was no South Wales Miners' Federa- tion or M.F.G.B., to restrict output, reduoe hours, and increase wages. Chas. M. Schwab was an American. He said: We can make rails for less than 12 dollars a ton; England cannot produce pig iron at actual cost for less than 11 doliars 50 cenfys per ton even allowing no profits on raw materials, and cannot put the pig iron into r8-ils for less thaa 7 dollars, 50 cents.. "This would make rails at cost to them of 19 dollars per ton. We can sell at this price and ship abroad so as to net 16 dollars for for- eign business, nearly as good as home business has been. What is true of rails is equally true of steel products. As a result of this, we are going to control the steel business of the world. As is well known, Chas. M. Schwab was a partner of Andrew Carnegie's, and the company, during the year the statement was made, was making a profit of a million dollars every fort- night. The Carnegie Company paid more in pro- fit that year than the capital stock of the com pany. Here is a question to the traducers of the miners. How do they account for the pheno- menal success of the Carnegie Company? How do they account for the millions made by Car- negie and his partners, at a time when condi- tions of labour were apparently on a level in both countries, and still at the same time to successfully compete with us in our own mar- kets y There is an answer, but I doubt whether they will give it. To put it vulgarly, I don't think they'll give the show away.

Bedwas Deadlock. OWNERS STILL INSIST ON RICHT OF RECKLESS EXPERIMENT. The dispute at the Bedwas pit over the ques- tion of the safety of the miners lives under the doubtful experiments with the conveyor in- stituted by the management is still unsettled. A further meeting of the parties wa.s attended by Messrs. Noah Ablett and Rhys Evans, as repre- senting the men, at Cardiff on Monday, but the persistence of the owners' demand to the right to experiment with the M4 conveyor led to a deadlock. The men's representatives accepted the challenge thrown out by the Bedwas man- agement, and visited the Yorkshire field, where they found that stone packs were being put in along the conveyor face, between the conveyor road where the work was being carried on on the advanced system. The representa-tives are prepared to recommend the men to return to work conditional upon the adopt on by the man- agement of the same system as they found oper- ative at Thureroft main colliery, but this the masters' brutal insistance to experiment at what the miners believe to be the likely cost of men's lives prevents. The workmen's representatives have power to call a Conference of the coalfield on the Bedwas dispute, but this they are loth to avail them- selves of until they are assured that the pos- sibilities of a negotiated settlement are worked out. and so another effort is to be made to se- cure a settlement.

Aberdare's Advance. At the half-yearly meeting of the Aberdare District of Miners on Tuesday, Mr. Owen Powell (Agent) said, with reference to the rearrange- ment of wage standards under the Sankey Award that the amount to be asked for in South Wales was 14.2 per cent., and in his opinion the v employers would agree to this. The accounts for the half-year showed an in- come of CIO,119 15s. 3d., made up chiefly of members' contributions zC5,094 3s. 5d., and the balance from the previous half-year of £ 4,632 Os. 4d. The expenditure left a balance in hand of £ 4,983 16s. 10d., and included £ 3.365 13s. 3d. sent to Central Fund, and £ 350 Bedwas levies. The average membership for the half-year was 10,138, an increase of 2,211. (