Welsh Newspapers
Search 15 million Welsh newspaper articles
7 articles on this Page
William Harris I
William Harris I I AS I KNEW HIM. A CRATEFUL MEMORY OF A CREAT CHIEF It is a melancholy task this of laying a wreath 'Of remembrance about the memory of one's per- sonal friends and co-workers in the cause of Humanity, that death has hade depart to the abode of their forebears. Even when a long and honourable life has faded imperceptibly into the twilight of life's eventide, and the bonds that fas- tened to life have naturally loosened, the while the kindly fingers of old age have fretted the forehead with the wrinkles that command vener- ation, and has softened the hard lines of the fighters mouth and jaw into new contours—even then the task is melancholy. Hut then at least it is expected it is natural as it were. When, -as is my task now. the brain and pen are bade to do their painful duty for one of one's own -generation a mess-mate as it were in the ser- vice, who has been called away in the midst of the campaign, then the mind reels from the task; the effort to think in the past tense of •-one whose personality is intimately stamped upon everything in the present is unnatural." I have tried to think of some better word than that" unnatural but not one of them so accu- rately describes my own state of mind. ester- 'day the hawklike face; the slender, whip-cord ''body, and keenlv analvtic mind of William Hai lis was the centre of the Labour Movement throughout the Merthyr Borough, to-day wheels that he had set in motion before the last illness struck (juickly at him, revolve according to the plans 'he planned to-morrow, and for many to-morrows still to be. policies that lie framed, -and tactics that his master mind laid down will be worked out as he said they should be worked out—and yet the master-mind that was behind it all is silent in death; the hand that steered the ship of local politics so steadily among the rapids and shoals of keenly active political and ,lass antagonisms has stiffened in the last un- thinkable paralysis of death that no-one i%-Iio has not died shall ever understand. And I who am the reporter of those movements, the professional .;obsei-ver of the currents and undercurrents that he understood so well, that he diverted for the purpose of our Party, and that to-day run along -channels that he charted, and dredged, and bu ilded as a, waterway, I am compelled to draw- up sharp, and realise that he who did these things will never do them more. It is unnatural, and I again feel that old strangeness that first dragged me as a boy into Rationalism when I think of all that lie meant to everything and yet see men whose lives are the lives of animals exu- berant in a health that was denied to his use- fulness. Time alone will neutralise the hurt, the wickedness, the idiocy of his death—time that slowly matures his last works, rtnd makes "of them past history. "THE MEASURE OF LIFE. I have before this deplored the habit of bio- graphers whose memoirs merely speak of years -of service. I cannot do that, for to me, not time but intensity, not length but quality of service is the criterion of service. For years, since its reconstruction, William Harris was secretary of the Trades Council. What particular informa- tion could that give, even though it were modi- fied and emphasised by all the adjectives and ■adverbs that a vocabulary of superlatives might add? I have known Trades Council secretaries who have grown grey and moribund in their posts; whose service speakers and writers have eulogised in not untruthful terms of superla- tive strenuousness, but I do not know one so much the administrator, so much the plotter, so mtuli the initiator and guidoi, 1m much the dip- lomatist and statesman, as was William Harris in the secretariat of the local Trades Council and Labour Party. Never have I met a man so acutely alive to the local affairs of his town who at the same time could co-relate his thoughts and activities with the wider movement of his times nationally and internationally. I have known good organisers in their local centres, or their trades-unions, but I have never known -another than Will Harris, who could organise lo- cally. and co-ordinate nationally as he could. All of which merely comes to saying what all who -have come in contact with him have instinctively recognised, or have had borne in upon them by the force of conviction that he was one of the few .men of his time who had bom in them that Wondrous impulse of idealism that forms such a mighty dynamic in correct proportions with the faculty for organisation that too often is the solitary gift of nature to a man, and that makes of the man a successful business king. And wedded to those two choicest gifts was a brain that vied with the finest, razors in its keenness, and the incisiveness for cutting down to the base of a thing. HIS CLEAR VISION. If I were asked what I considered to he the greatest events in local politics during the past and present I should bracket the municipal secondary school on Cyfarthfa. Park—the first of its kind—and the water scheme that to-day strangles Merthyr-a veritable terrible old man -of the sea. And it is natural that in connection with both it is The name of Will Harris that stands out strongest. The story of the school -he himself has told 111 the Democrats Hand- book for all to read, though with an instinct of self-erasement that was typical of him. All may read of the strategy and tactics there in unvarnished letterpress by its leader; for he Was too logical to ever be anything but incisive in telling of work done, or to be done. The story of the water scheme has yet to be told—when its last chapter is written. But here let me say -as a. truthful snap-shot of the Will Hams that we all knew, that at the time when even Labour wasenthusiastie for the scheme, it was the voice of Will Harris that was raised in criticism, his was almost the lone arm raised in opposition, but eyes Iesls clear than his, heads less logical swayed the day, and Mertliyr lifted upon its shoulders the strangling legs of its burden. Too late the pessimism of Will Harris was found to be not pessimism but clear vision. And it was equally typical of him that the discovery of the correctness of his diagnosis should not come to 'him as a thing to be proud of, but as an evil to be remedied. The scheme for a. co-operative water-shed was his scheme, and when Newport was seeking a new source of supply it was he who threw himself into the fight against the nabobs of Newport who organised the Newport workers to see his plan and provisionally endorse -it. It was he who convinced the Corporation of Merthyr that that way alone lay safety and economy, and it was with him as chief and di- rector that I travelled down to Newport, entered the statutory meeting to promote the Bill that would make his scheme impossible by committing Newport to Talybont; distribute the figures worked out to his formulae, and defeat the New- port Corporation. Just what all that. meant none who were not in the fight will ever know. Even those of us who worked w ith him only dim- ly realised the whole of that complexity that he -controlled without effort. And that, mark you, was but the normal course of his life. The same masterly touch that saw the end when others were enthusing over a specious beginning, and i that at the right moment presented a finished plan for a way out, and that at the same time could scheme and contrive the propaganda and strategy that would lead to the adoption of the way out, was equally apparant in all he did from the. small ,things to the large. Indeed, for him there were no small and large in his cosmos. All ranked as equally important tasks to he done and done well. CO-OPERATION. I In co-operation he was equally active, and his was the brain that planned the amalgamation of the Merthyr and Tiroedyrhiw societies, his the voice that largely dictated the fusion-—and his one of the keenest brains tha t from the Commit- tee-room of the conjoined bodies moved towards the final fusion of Dowlais and Treharris into a homogeneous whole of co-operation, for therein alone he saw the workers salvation from the threat of monopoly that the rapid trustification of distributive trades in the valley is developing. HIS PROFESSION. I In his own profession as a teacher, he was also a- force that made for progress, and the teachers this year made him a tardy return for his long and vahiable service by electing him as their Executive member for Wales. Of his various other aet,ivis it is impossible to speak, for on every hand they spread—and wherever he was active he was a power to be reckoned with. In social movements it is not the scum that. rises consistently to the top, but the talent, ability and energy of the individual. Whatever he ns- sociated himself with Will Harris rapidly rose to the top, and 'having risen staved t here. A LITTLE KNOWN SIDE. I And all this was done at the cost of his family life, and ultimately of his life itself. For Will Harris the tremendous energy of his per- sonality and the reality of his grasp on the affairs of life demanded that his house should he a commander's headquarters, and offices—and so they were. The problems of a movement or an individual were alike dealt with there. And the dealing was the same efficient dealing whether it were the domestic cause of a poor old woman, a decrepit old man, the troubles of a parent over his child or a huge movement that concerned the welfare of an industry, a cause or the town. There is a thin depression in the door-step or 6 King Edward Villas, and largely it was worn by the shoddy shoes of poor folks, who took their pension and other troubles to Will Harris to he settled. That was an aspect of his life that not his most intimate friend di scovered from him, but that was forced 011 lIlpin travel- ling home with him noon and night for some months. And somehow it seems to me that when I think of him in the future it will not be the general, whose very faults were the faults of greatness and caution, massing his forces to carry through his great plan of social service that I shall first visualise, but the human being who was a friend of all, and whose friendship meant so much to so many whom the world had forgotten or overlooked. That is how I see him now, saying with Marcus Aurilius:- For we are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to nature1; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and turn away." Will Harris was one of the greatest men I have known and worked with. His loss is an irreparable one, not alone for Socialism in the town, but for the whole town. So long as 1 live he will live in my memory, and when I am !rone mv children after me will take off their hats to his memory.. A.P.Y.
A Splendid Tribute. I
A Splendid Tribute. I WILLIAM HARRIS' HEADMASTER ON OURI LOST LEADER. TEACHERS SUFFERED AN ALMOST I IRREPARABLE LOSS. Mr. Jenkins, the new ly-retired master of Abermorlais Boys' School, writes as follows:— I was deeply moved when 1 heard of the death of Mr. W. Harris, a faithful colleague of mine for nearly a quarter of a century. He was a brilliant man, of untiring energy, putting into his strenuous life of 48 years, work that no ordi- nary man could accomplish in 70 years. He was fond of mathematics, science, and English literature; a. great reader, his general know- ledge w as encyclopedic; naturally a great or- ga-niso b o'vs, ii- h o held He was very fond of his school-boys, who held him in the highest respect. They looked upon him and treated him as a hig brother, thinking there was no one like him, and they were not far wrong. Like their teacher, his pupils were great readers, great workers, and exceptionally successful in their work, as their record number of passes annually into the secondary schools testify. His chief characteristic was earnest- ness, his enthusiasm knew no bounds. What- ever he undertook to do, he did it with his whole might. By his death the teachers of this district have suffered almost an irreparable loss. Well might it he said of him Yr hyn a allodd hwn, efe ai gwndcth"; Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
Shop Assistants' Move.
Shop Assistants' Move. DISTRICT SCALES CAMPAICN. NECOTIATIONS COMPLETED WITH THREE CO-OP'S. The Pontypridd, Rhondda, Aberdare, Merthyr Valleys District Council of the Shop Assistants' Union are now conducting their campaign for the establishment of their District Rate of Wages and have up to date met with much suc- cess. The district secretary (Mr. A. J. S. Sainsbury) and D. Evans (chairman) have con- cluded negotiations with three large Co-opera- tive Societies, Mid-Rhondda, Penygraig, and Treharris, the committee of whioh have agreed to accept the scale. Negotiations are also being conducted by the National E.C. with the mul- tiple firms in the district, while all private em- ployers will he approached at a very early date. A conference of employees from drapery estab- lishments is to he held on September 22nd, to discuss the minimum rates offered by the Drapers' Chamber of Trade, and representatives are being sent from this district to support the amendments laid down. The demand is a vary modest one when the cost of living is taken into consideration, and the officials feel confident that employers with an eye to business will readily meet them. The best employers realize that to be really successful in business they must have an alert and contented staff. Low wages, where men and women have trusted to them large amounts of money or stock, is alone responsible for the "falling from grace" of some of these workers. 4
Labour Notes. I
Labour Notes. I AN ATTACK ON TRADES UNIONISM. I Evidence accumulates of a growing conspiracy against Trade Unionism. We have on the one hand the circulation of a, form calling for volun- teers for strike-breaking. This form appears to have been issued hy a Government Department, and is being circulated privately amongst pro- fessional associations. The beginnings of the open attack on Trade Unionism—apart from the suppression of the Police Cnion-were seen, first of all, in the highly suspicious answer of Sir Robert Home on the question of compulsory de- lay in strikes. We have now a further develop- ment in the following very significant resolution submitted to the National Union of Manufac- turers this week:— In order to make good government and ad- ministration of this country more secure the Government be requested to extend the pro- visions of the Police Act to an nationalised pub- lic services, including the Telegraph, Telephone, Postal, and Excise Services, together with the mines and railways, if and when nationalised. "That in each case the servant be made to swear an oath of loyalty to the State. That Trade Unions in those services be prohibited. That the advocacy of a strike in any national service be a penal offence. That tribunals be created to deal with any complaint, and to ad- judicate upon any issue, and to co-relate from time to time the wages paid in the public ser- vices with those paid in the open market. "And that, in view of the increasing number of public servants and officials, and of their power to extract promises in their favour from those seeking election to Parliament—to the detriment of the good government of the Stat.e- the names of all persons receiving income for services from the State be removed from the Parliamentary, but not from the municipal, re- gister of voter- It will be seen that this resolution means not merely the complete suppression of all Unions in nationalised industries, including the Miners' Federation of Great Britain and the National Union of Railwaymen when these services arc nationalised, but also makes the very advocacy of a strike into a crime. Further, it not only would destroy the industrial rights of the workers, but would deprive them of that ele- mentary right of citizensrip which consists in voting for members of Parliament. WOLVES AND THE FLOCK. I Resolutions are at present being passed by Shipping Employers' Associations urging that shipping control should cease. It is admitted that shipping control depends on food control, but it is hardly proposed that food control may go, too, and it is further pointed out that British shipping men have the consolation of knowing that the facts are appreciated by Sir Joseph Maclay, the Shipping Controller, who led all Government Departments in the direction of de-control. It may very seriously be questioned if Mr. Lloyd George's much-advertised plan of bringing in "business men" into his Govern- ment has not had somewhat the same effect as the placing of sheep under the careful guardian- ship of wolves. BREAD AND MILK. I In November milk will become Is. a quart. The seriousness of this cannot be under-estimated. It is clear that the present system of control does not go nearly far enough. The powerless condition of the food of the people is not fully realised because the price of bread is kept arti- ficially low by the subsidy of o() millions a year, all of which comes out of the taxes. Were this large sum put on the price of bread it would be clearly seen that nothing short of national purchase of wheat supplies and municipalisation of milk supplies would enable the high prices to be brought down. THE MOVEMENT OF THE MINERS. I The demand for better conditions in the mining industry is by no means confined to the British miners. A movement is on foot in the United States and in Belgium 011 very similar lines. At the Convention of the United Mine Workers of America, held at Cleveland, Ohio, attended by 2,000 delegates from all parts of the United States and Canada, a programme of wages reforms has been put forward, which will be pressed when the present wage contracts ex- pire at the end of the war, which the Trade Unions take to mean when the Senate has rati- fied the Peace Treaty. The miners are demanding a six-hour day, in- stead of eight hours as at present, and a five- day week, with increases on wages ranging from 25 per cent. to 40 per cent. higher than those prevailing at present. In Belgium the Federation of Miners of the Charleroi Basin has formulated a programme which includes a demand for the nationalisation of the mines a minimum wage; control of pro- duction and exploitation the setting up of a g^erning body for the industry, in which Gov- ernment representatives and miners' delegates will be included and also a demand for the pay- ment of the balance of wages lost between 1914 and 1916. In Upper Silesia the miners have been on strike in the Dombrowa District, and have just resumed work on the basis of an agreement with the Government which provides for a. 30 per cent. increase of production guaranteed by the miners. The agreement also fixes a minimum wage, and a week's holiday with pay after one year's employment and a fortnight's holiday with pay for following years. STEELWORKERS' DISPUTE. Twenty-four unions connected with the Ameri- can Steel Industry, at a, conference in Washing- ton, on September 10th, decided to recommend a strike to take effect next Monday week, un- less satisfactory arrangements are effected with the Steel Corporation. The workmen declare that the American Federation of Labour has failed altogether to secure a conference, for them with the heads of the Corporation, and although President Wilson has undertaken to arrange a conference with a view to averting the strike, there is no sign that he will be suc- cessful. The head of the Steel Corporation, Mr. Gary, has definitely refused to negotiate with the Steel Workers' Unions, and the latter de- clare that the Steel Trust is attempting to de- stroy their organisation. It is stated that in Western Pennsylvania the Steel Workers are denied the right of free speech, and it is alleged that seven of their or- ganisers have been murdered by the Mill Guards and professional gun men. At Hammond, in Indiana, five strikers have been killed and 15 wounded, as a result of an encounter with the police. The strike there has been in progress for two months. THE MARSEILLAISE. -11 I A general strike of the workers in Marseilles I is in progress. This has been organised by the trade unions forming the Marseilles Cartel, in support of the strike of dockers which has been in progress for some time. The dockers demand an eight hours day at 20 francs a day, and the abolition of overtime, and have unanimously re- jected an offer made by the employers of a wage advance of 16 francs a, day. A. DISHONOURAEL-E PROPOSAL. 1 The V iceroy of India made an amazing state- ment at the opening session of the Indian Legis- lative Council. He declared that an Act would be passed indemnifying Government officials for the illegal acts they committed in suppressing the disturbances due to the Rowlatt Coercion Acts." Now there is a Commission appointed under Lord Hunter to enquire into these illegal acts of Bi-itisb ofifcei-s in the Punjab. And before this Commission has time to report, the Government is to rush through an Act indemnifying these British officers from any penalty whatsoever, no matter what atrocities may turn out to have been committed. It is the Ceylon scandal over again. In Ceylon British officials, as was proved in the subsequent official enquiry, shot down men without trial, and committed deeds of vio- lence unwarranted by the situation. The Gov- ernment hurried through an Act of Indemnity, and when the Judicial Commission of Enquiry reported, severely condemning the crimes com- mitted by the officials, there was no means of getting at the guilty men. Is this the way to increase the respect for British justice in India ? ANCLO-TSARISM. In the midst of last week's shattering ex- posure of the whole Russian adventure and be- trayal, the Government has been calmly pur- suing its policy. Sazonov, the embodiment of Tsarism, the ex-Foreign Minister to the Tsar, and now Foreign Minister to Koltchak, is to be received by our Government as the head of the Russian Embassy in London. The inhuman blockade of Soviet Russia, denied a few weeks ago by Mr. Rarmswortli with the usual current standards of ministerial honour, is now being pursued with such vigour that Swedish workmen seeking to succour and receive starving Russian children are prevented from doing so by the threat of British warships. Finally, as a cumu- lation to the deceit and betrayals of Prinkipo, of the Bullitt missions, and of the Nansen offer, comes the news that a British journalist, who is believed to be the bearer of a new peace offer from the Russian Soviet Government, an Eng- lishman of high standing, is put under arrest at Reval (the sinister scene of the meeting of King Edward and the Tsar in 1907) by the action of the British outhorities, so that not even the faots of the offer may be known in this country. j
Advertising
N.L.P. Our Books & Pamphlets A SELECTION ONLY. Socialism and Society By J. RAMSAY MACDONALD. "This is really an original and interesting study of Socialism outside the beaten track of reiteration." (" Reynolds.") Cloth 2/6 (Post Free 2/10) Paper 2/- (Post Free 2/4) Six Weeks in Russia in 1919 By ARTHUR RANSOME. 2/6 (Post Free 2/8) The History of the Russian Revolution to Brest-Litovbli By L. TROTSKY. 2/6 (Post Free 2/8) Militarism in Education. By JOHN LANCDON-DAVIES. Cloth 3/6 (Post Free 3/9) Paper 2/6 (Post Free 2/9) READY. ORDER AT ONCE. ACROSS THE BLOCKADE SPECIAL I.L.P. EDITION. 2/6 (Post Free 2/8). In this volume this distinguished writer gives a most fascinating story of a recent three months' tour through the revolutionary and famine-stricken countries of Central Europe Austria, Hungary, Poland, and Germany. To understand the state of Europe to-day this book must be read As the Edition is limited you are advised to place an immediate order, either with your Branch Literature Secretary, or with the Nat-ional Labour Press, Ltd. Industrial History of England By H. de B. CIBBINS, M.A. 5/- (Post Free 5/6) Capitalism and The War By J. T. WALTON NEWBOLD, M.A. 6d. (Post Free 7d.) THE CASE FOR THE MINERS. THE ECONOMICS OF COAL NATIONALISATION OF MINES By JOHN THOMAS, B.A. By R. PAGE ARNOT. 3d. (Post Free 4d.) 1d. (Post Free 11d.) THE MINEOWNERS IN THE DOCK PALACES AND SLUMS. By I.L.P. Information Committee. PALACES AND SLUMS. 2d. (Post Free tid.) By JOHN ROBERTSON, M.P. id. (Post Free lid.) THE MINERS' CASE FOR NATIONALISATION THE EARTH IS THE LORD'S Facts v. Fairy Tales. ROBERT SMILLIE'S TEXT. 2d. (Post Free ttd.) id. (Post Free lid.) LATEST I.L.P. PAMPHLET. Borough Councils By the I.L.P. INFORMATION COMMITTEE. Deals with their Constitution and Election Procedure; shows how they Work; and explains their Powers iii Sanitation, Food, Housing, Educa- tion, Municipal Enterprise and Finance. Should be in the hands of every Labour and Socialist supporter. 2d. (Post Free 2 £ d.) SEND FOR OUR CATALOGUE. SPECIAL TERMS FOR OUR BRANCHES. The National Labour Press, Ltd. ——— 30 Blackfriars Street, Manchester, and ——— 8-9 Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, London, E.C.4.
Electric Theatre.
Electric Theatre. Immediate Lec- is the bill topper at the Merthyr Elec-ti-le Theatre from Monday to Wed- nesday next week. It is a stirring tale of the Western Plains where passion and revenge were as primitive as the rugged hills. Fjiiiik Borzage, a player new to Merthyr film audiences, plays Immediate. Lee. a cattle-ranch foreman, giving splendid horsemanship and straight shooting. Anna Little presents a wonderful interpretation of a saloon siren" and Jack Ricihard son, the most villainous of screen desperadoes, is the bad-man." Vv itli such a combination thrills are assured over a five-reel length of brilliant motion photography. More of Mack Sennet's delightful comedies are coming. In this pro- gramme his studio is represented in one of his host burlesques, Her Screen Idol," a continu- ous laugh featuring the foremost of his clever players. Then there is another Reel Life picture showing how beads of rose petals are made in California, the catching of fish and pre- paration for the market, and a topical item il- lustrating the use of a motor-scooter on a golf course. The famous actress Maxine Elliott, with a world-wide reputation in legitimate drama, plays in "Fighting Odds," the big feature in the programme for the latter end of the week. The Circus King" serial instalment is a sensational episode and the Sennet comedies will be represented in a good farce, Ladies First. These, of course, are only a few of the items in a. couple of fine shows.
Disabled Men's Thanks.
Disabled Men's Thanks. I TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—May I claim the hospitality of your columns to thank all the .subscribers, including many discharged and demobilised men, who so generously contributed the cost of the outing on Thursday last for our totally disabled men. Especially are the thanks of the Branch due to the vicar of Cyfarthfa (Rev. E. R. Davies) and Mr. Burr, for their prompt and practical sym- pathy after our dogged and unavailing efforts to obtain assistance from the Peace Memorial Fund. lcan assure them that the remembrance of their kindly act will not be lost upon the members of our branch. I would also tender our grateful acknowledgements to the director- ates of our local cinemas for their ready and will- ing co-operation in the cause of the disabled men.—I remain, yours, etc., HARRY CALDERWOOD, Secretary.