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[No title]
Those Radicals who are seeking to secure "unearned increment" for their Party out of references to the housing problem, must have found the Liberal Press comments upon the recently issued Local Government Board Memorandum on the work of housing and town planning rather disconcerting. With the best will in the world to assist in the manufacture of a case for Liberalism in respect of a problem which Liberals have alternately mismanaged and neglected' as consistently as Unionists have, since the days of Disraeli. sought to solve it, the "Daily Chronicle," one of the most in- fluential London Liberal journals, devoted the best part of a column to comment upon the report dealing with the solitary, effective housing measure standing to the credit of the Government. Unlike some of its Ministerial contemporaries, the "Chronicle" has some regard for facts, and the result is that its references to this Liberal Act form an indictment of Liberal policy which is all the more effective 'because it is unintentional. We learn from the "Daily Chronicle's" survey of the Local Government Board Memorandum that the pet housing measure of the Government, by which during the last two Sessions useful Unionist Bills which would have removed the worst features of prevailing conditions in this respect were killed, has, in practice, merely increased the urgency and gravity of the problem wit,h which it dpals. Like most Liberal Acts, its influence is destructive rather than creative: "the number of closing orders and demolition orders mounts steadily," while in respect of the provision of new accommodation "it is by no means clear that the need is being met." The "Chronicle" confesses that "there has been an undoubted nnlling-off in t'hor speculative supply of such" (working-clas0) "housing since about 1910," the date of the mis- nim-ed, and now thoroughly discredited, "People's Budget." Our Liberal contemporary is, how- ever, as a good partisan, reluctant to ascribe this "falling-off" to its actual cause—the Land Taxes which have harassed and injured property owners, large and small alike, harmed the building trade and the import-nut section of the labour market to which it is related, and generally discouraged housing development. To the "Daily ChronIcle," the decline appears to be due mainly to "the boom j iu the building of business premise* and j the stem rises in the costs of labour and ?;'t?'ia? /'?n.th? pr?M?e that ay '!?!me¡fji« îr-'7a..air'nH"iom;tÝ i7fth k?e hut it is not Hkely to envines whom Liberal mismanage- ment neglect have kept in unsuitable IwHsivt? conditions, or those who are con- nected with the industry which, according tr, this lame argument, has declined because of its prosperity. We take one further notable extract the "Chronicle's" comments upon the I Local Government Board Report. "It is i r(-mar k s t h ,s I- particularly gratifying," remarks this Ion- don Liberal newspaper, "to notice the increase in public cottage building in the rural arras; yet in relation to the deficiency disclosed by the Land Inquiry Report., it seems but a flea-bite." If the maximum under the Liberal Fi)tlsin!T 'Art, of 1PQ9 is "but a flea-bite," th", action of T ihp.TM in slnn^hter- insr the recent Unionist Housing Bills be- comes all the more reprehensible. The Unionist- 1:-T r." rf +1.. /vovVmn- Classes Bill would have provided hv State-aid TOO.(MX) cottages in the rural districts— rcT'rhlv the number bv Ministerial Buokeemen to be urgently rrqllired-and a minion nounds a year for the clearance of vn-ban slump. It secured the support of the National TTonflinjr Town Planning Coun- cil. th*» 'Pollr;>] P." 0usin.q Association, the V'orkmen's Housing Council, and the National Tjird an d Home League, and vas burked in Committer in two successive fossions by foe Liberals, whose own solitary prncticrl effort, m this direction1 has had. the T l->crnl Pve.^s admits, no more effect than a "flea-bite. ———— .$--
[No title]
In Spite of our boasted progress, and ad- vanced civilisation, it must be confessed that there are some things in modern life which, can only be characterised as relics of barbarism. Such an one, in the opinion of many people, is the law with regard to capital punishment, which has been brought into considerable prominence recently by certain executions which have taken place. In 'the case of the unhappy boy, named Kelly, who was hanged at Oldham for par- j ticipating in the murder of an old man, a tremendous outcry wa's raised in the North of England. His fellow criminal was re- prieved by the Home Secretary, but no mercy was shown to the one who, in the opinion of thousands of persons of all classes, was not one iota. more blameworthy. Then, again, last week, a man was hanged at Shef- field for a brutal crime which it is possible, having regard to the history of his family, end the circumstances, might have beencom- mitt-ed under the mysterious promptings of an insane mind. At all events the motive was so inadequate, and the border line be- tween sanity and insanity is so indistinct, that it is perilous to attempt to say with certainty what was the murderer's condition of mind at the time.- Hanging is a perpetuation of the old law of a life for a life, or something less. Hang- ing faT sheep stealing continued in this coun- try up to the early part of the last century, but its abolition did not result in the multi- plication of that offence. On the contrary, the mitigation of punishments for petty of- fences has accompanied a decrease, rather than an increase of crime, so that the de- terrency argument, which is always used in favour of the death, penalty, has lost much of its force. Murders are either planned de- liberat-ely or committed under a, mad and overmastering impulse, but in neither case does the fear of the death penalty operate as a deterrent. Solitary imprisonment, or penal servitude for life, would, there is reason to believe, prove equally effective in this respect. In any case, it would prevent the possibility of an innocent person undergoing the doom intended only to be inflicted on the guiltiest of men. Cases have occurred from time to time which prove that miscarriages of justice have been brought about in regard to lesser! crime", and if this is possible in relation to ( robbery or forgery it is equally possible in trials for murder, where the evidence very often is only of a circumstantial character. But while men who have been unjustly im- prisoned can be released, the sentence of death, when once carried out, is irrevocable. Just as custom dulled the perception of the Roman citizens to the hiideousness of their gladiatorial contests, so our ancestors came to regard the ghastly apparatus of ropes and drops necessary for the safety of society. it is true that in the past few years France has revived the use of the guillotine, but it has not diminished the number of murders, and in that country, as in this, there is a. growing public opinion in favour of the abo- lition of capital punishment, —————— .————
[No title]
There as every indication that a fierce storm of controversy is about to break over the British Navy. An organised effort by a section of Liberals (amongst whom Sir John Brunner stands out pre-eminently) to prevent Mr. Winston Churchill from pro- viding in naval armament that which he deems essential to the security of this coun- try, was, a week ago, invested with greater significance and importance by a declara- tion of approval and support from Mr. Lloyd George, next to the Premier the Chief Minister of the Crown. The old ques- tion of a big or a little navy has thus been reopened under conditions which make the ultimate answer vitally grave to us and more than interesting to the rest of the world. It is a. sinister disclosure of the natdonail spirit that the subject of the military forces of this country has ceased to occupy the public mind, and that the foremost soldieff of the age, though granted the co-operation of the best brains in or out of the service, has failed to produce any electorally effec- tive impression by his warnings of our un- preparedness with the Regular Army, short of its establishment to the extent of 8,000 men; and the Territorials, 60,000 below the point that its founder declared to represent the minimum for safety. For the hour, such thought as is given to national defence is focussed upon the navy. The Armament Reduction Committee is tak- ing to the platform to create opinion in fav- our of saving money by stinting men and ships; the Navy League is responding to the challenge and is inaugurating a cam- paiign of argument and appeal designed to arrest the hands stretched out to tker with the mighty mechanism composed of brain, brawn and metal which stands between us and irremediable disaster, loss of em- pire, prosperity and even existence as a free and independent people. From the battle about to be joined by the conflicting ideas which the two bodies respectively represent the people of West South Wales cannot wholly detach themselves; we would be proud to think that nowhere in the King's dominions are there communities taking a more earnest, intelligent part in it than ours. For infinitely greater interests than those of persons or parties axe involved in the final issue. It should be helpful So sound judgment to dispose at the outset of insinuations and suspicions which have no foundation in fact and are merely unworthy means for casting discredit upon the opposing side. The little Englander does not want to see his country belittled; the appellation really only signifies the belief of his critics that the natural effect of the triumph of his views would be fatal to the greatness of the Em- pire. And credit for good faith must be conceded to the pacificists who, in the teeth of the unmistakable lessons of history, have convinced themselves that war can and should. be abolished, and the disarming of a richly endowed country a safe and praise- worthy purpose. Further, the rich cos- mopolitans who wield such influence in this country should be acquitted of any definite disloyalty to Britain; only cosmo- politanism implies unconsciousness of and indifference to the national feeling which stimulates susceptibility to danger from without and readiness for sacrifice to avert it. On the other hand, the suggestion that scares are got up in this country in the in- terest or by the subterranean, influence of the firms that supply armaments to the Army and 'Navy, discloses either a. morbid I Oil: an unbridled imagination, or has its I origin-a more charitable con,dusion--in a crass ignorance of the public men. and the Press of this country. The list of the share- holders in every one of the armament firms is public property, open to inspection upon payment of a nominal fee, and the re- quirements of the law in regard to such companies are such as to render impossible actions of the kind recently attributed to KTupps and other German concerns. As for the newspapers, not a British journal, so fair as our knowledge goes, is under the thumb of a company or person engaged in the production of axmonents--if one were the fa-ct would be speedily made know-n- and during a Press experience of over thirty y-ears the wTitea7 has never heard of or ex- perienced an attempt on the part of any armament firm to influuence the organs of Public opinion. With the deck thus cleared of fallacies and prejudices, which tend to obscure the vision, a.nd giving and taking credit for I honesty of purpose and genuine convictions on either side,, let us encle&voiix to under- stand the momentous question' regatd,in,iz w'hiicih the electors sooner or later will have to answer. In the first place, three pro- positions stem self-evident to the advocate of a, British fleet adequate to satisfy the re- quirements of the most far-flung Empire known since the b<aginnn'ntg of time :(11 CotmmaJid of the sea is vital to the existence of such s n Empire; (2) it cannot alone di- win or allow its striking power to sink be- low that o!f possiMe enemies without invit- I ing attack; <M'? (3) since all it? influence, territories, trade, commerce, liberties and I privileges are depe-ndent upon capacity to resist attack, sacrifices to ensure efficiency in that regard amount to no more than reason- able insurance against risks, and should be limited only by the actual needs. In support of this triad of conclusions, testimony of weigtht could be adduced from a great variety of sources. For present I purposes we select testimony the more con- vincing, becajuse it is diTILwn from the un- Kkeliest quarter. Three years ago, at Cric- ciieth, Mir. Lloyd George said of our naval supremacy: We maintain it and must maintain it against all challengers, even it it Games to the spending of our last penny." At the Mansion House, in July last, he de- clared No indin-icliial countcry can afford to slaakien. We cannot give in. We' cannot cease strengthening our forces. We oajn- not wea/ken in the slightest degtree the immunity we have got against, invasion." And in the subsequent- August, in the House of Commons, he pointed out that nothing but a. octmplete understanding be- l, tween the nations could stop the expendi- ture on armaments, and went on to akdld "One country alone da,re n-t fton it. T have never accepted that doctrine. No country can afford to run the risk. ) What has happened since August last to impair the force of the foregoing declarations or to justify his encouragement of an organ- ised effort to induce the Government to pursue the suicid&l course, in effect stigma- tised as such in his last year's speeches? There is no agreement with other countries to reduce armaments; on the contrary Ger- many is now engaged in giving effect to a law whereby, in addition to the ordinary expenditure upon army and navy, £50,000,000 is being raised for a colossal in- crease in armaments, and Franoe, following suit, has increased the two years' compul- sory service to three, involving an excep- tional expenditure of 236,000,000. There is not a first-class Power on the Continent that is not reinforcing army and navy. The possibility of an international agreement to reduce armaments was never more remote. The sole effect of the late Mr. Campbell Bannerman's proposal to call a pause was to encourage a special effort on the part of Germany—quick to de- tect signs of weariness in fcha y Power that stands between her and a supremacy on sea similar to that on land-to which later we had to respond in hot haste and under wasteful conditions to prevent bein re- duced to a position of manifest inferiority. Mr. Churchill's appeal for a holiday in naval construction had no response in Ger- many, where the development of naval power continues without pause or remifc. sion; that of Mr. Lloyd George, committing the Liberal party as a duty to fight for rb duced armaments in this ooontry, has been received with derision as evidence that the Teuton is making the pace too hot for the British. Count Reventlow, probably the most influential contributor on naval and military topics to the German Press, asserts that the utterances of the Chancellor tend to deepen German distrust of this country. Meanwhile all the resources of Germany are being steadily applied with equal assiduity to the enlargement of the pre- viously most formidable army in Europe, and of the navy, easily second in the world, and making giant leaps towards the fore- most place. And yet a responsible Minister of the Crown, casting over his shoulder the common sensible views of a few months ago, now openly associates himself with the fac- tion of amicable pacificists, nationally in- different cosmopolitans and short-sighted Socialists, who are for doing that which the Chancellor himself only a few months ago considered unthinkable. Leave the politician far the practical student of war. Admiral Maban, an American, and therefore free from the suspi- cion of any taint of British Jingoism, has in a sense reduced naval warfar,e to an exact science. His books contain standard inter- pretations of battles on the sea in the past and so much guidance for future naval war- fare that the Kaiser insists upon all ships in his navy having Ma- han's works in their libraries. Writ- ing a few days ago the famous Ameri can emphatically affirmed "With its pre- sent strength the British Navy is too weak for its work." His conclusions—and they will be decisive with all thinking men-may be summed up thus The British Navy can* not abandon the Mediterranean without dis- aster to the Empire, but it cannot hold the Mediterranean without disaster to Great Britain. And yet it is seriously proposed that instead of trying to make up leeway we should give up the struggle and fall further back, thus encouraging rivals to go full steam ahead to win a predominance that would presage the inevitable fall of the Brit- ish Empire—its widely separated parts fall- ing asunder like the pearls of a necklace when the string is cut—and the loss of the freedom which has been the boast of our islanders for a thousand years. The people capable of such blind folly would deserve to be helots of Prussia and suffer the fate of the Alsatians of Zabern, arrested and thrown (men, women and children) into the cellar of the barracks for laughing or being suspected of laughing at the soldiery. A concrete example or two—and very recent—may illustrate the truth set out in general terms by Admiral Mahan. Mr. Winston Churchill has made our position in regard to Germany in a naval sense clear by stating that our warships ready for action at the "average moment" must be equal to the defeat of the German warships at their "selected moment." In other words, we have to be ready for an unforeseen premedi- tated attack by a fleet prepared behind a screen and liable to be launched at a mo- ment's notice against the opposing force when the latter has no apprehension of a change from peace conditions. People who would dismiss such a contingency as im- probable merely advertise their ignorance of the beginnings of past war. The most recent-that in the Balkdris-was on the part of the Allies arranged for months in advance the bulk of the troops had reached their allotted positions before hostilities were declared. The Turks were caught by surprise as it was designed beforehand that they should. The writer, who signs-himself "N a-valis"— one of the best informed-in the "National Review," reminds us that if war cornea it will come suddenly, as Count Reventlow, Admiral von Stiege, and General von Bernhardi have told us. "The first news of it may be a series of attacks delivered upon our naval forces. Nor can we safely assume that the Irtish P' will be con- centrated and reinforced even if a diplomatic crisis precedes the actual attack. Naval preparations and movements on our part at such a juncture would be construed as hostile acts, and British Ministers, who love the "wait and -see" policy, or in other words procrastination, would hesitate to take that risk. The nation had a startling example of this in the MV.T^CCO crisis, when the British dispositions left everything to be desired. Though the German Admiralty countenanced the publication of German pamphlets, accusing the British Govern- ment of meditating a treacherous attack on Lthe German forces, the fact wa.s that on one of the most critical dates, when the German fleet was ready and concentrated, the British Fleet was divided and exposed to defeat in detail. There is good reason for adding that the German Government and Admiralty meditated war and were only deterred from it by financial difficulties and the hesitation of th,o Kaiser." We have surrendered the Far Eastern Seas to the Japanese; the Pacific and At- lantic to the Americans, acid without French aid are at the mercy of Austria and Italy in the Mediterranean. These two par- ties to the Triplice will in 1915 have sixteen Dreadnoughts to our four in the tideless sea. Without French aid the chief thoroughfare of British- commerce and British food supplies cannot possibly be held for the White Ensign. And utteramoes such as those of Mr. Lloyd George and the pacificists are calculated to make Frenchmen despair of and distrust the British. With dire potential consequences. For, as Garvin wrote recently in the "Ob- server" "If we present Franoe with a choice of evils and drive her into the arms of Germany, as we may, her Navy would hold the balance of naval power, not only in the Mediterranean; we should proba-bly see the abatement of Continental military Bud- gets and an unexamplad increase of fleets; and in return for our isolated and selfish pursuit of cheap peace we might possibly have to pay a price in blood and tears, in money and territory, which would stagger, not merely humanity in our own time, but his- tory for ever. If the ruin of British democ- racy and the British Empire are to come, they are most likely to come just in that way. "Navailis," with his unique sources of information, enforces the lessons of the naval manoeuvres of last yoar. Sir George CaJlaghan, who in 1912 obtained as com- mander of the attacking fleet a remarkable victory against odds, was, in 1913, in charge of the defending force. Though granted an advantage of two to one in DreadnoughtA, 33 per cent. in battleships and Dreadnoughts combined, and 66 per cent. in destroyers and submarines, he failed to prevent for- midable raids on the £ a«t Coast by the enemy, which we can it^ely assume to have been meant for the i. r^ian fleet. So de- cisive were the result that the Admiralty ordered the mancauvrea, to end at once, and tried to keep knowledge of them from the public. And yet, after recalling all effec- tive battleship units from foreign stations and denuding the Far East, the Pacific and the Atlantic Coasts of battleships to concentrate them in the North Sea, the Brit- ish Admiralty had available for action in the autumn of last year only 34 battleships and battle-cruisers to the German 33, and a margin of only .14 per oent. in destroyers and submarines. We have to rm-irge,- unless from sheer blindness we are content to perish, that the present disposition of the British Navy implies (confession that, except in the North Sea, our old predominance is gone; that the expectation of muddling through in a war with Germany is discredited in advance by the experience of Drutaark, Austria and France. And, further, we have to recog- nise that mere wealth-unl- it can be qmckly exchanged for men and arms—is no longer a determining factor in war. As the naval correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette" had recently occasion to remark; The great wars of the latter half of last century and the opening years of this tell a different tale. Almost without exception the poorer country has been the victor. Prussia was poorer than Austria, United Germany than France, Japan was poorer than Russia, the Balkan States than Tur- key in ultimate reaources. The reserve wealth of France ocly served to pay an in- demnity to her wtctoticua foe; the reserve wealth, of Russia. could not provide her with a freeh navy when hers had been destroyed at Port Arthur and Tsru-shima. Wealth, in fact is of no service in war unless it can be rapidly transformed into armed force. A swift and sudden blow will end all before the power of wealth can be brought to bear. And, under modern conditions of warfare, by land, and more especially by sea, wealth cannot be rapidly transformed into armed fcrce. The. only which the unden • able power of wealth can be brought to bear is by its considered usi in making adequate preparation for war beforehand."
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An anonymous correspondent (whose let- ter is not admissible because it is not ac- companied by the name and address of the writer) challenges the accuracy of the Mayor's statement to the effect that SWaIDr sea rates at 8s. 8d. in the £ are below the average for towns of the same proportions and character. The contention as that as- sessments are higher here than elsewhere, j and consequently tliei rates appear less than, in fact, they are. This is based upon a mis- conception. The principles of assessment are the same all over the country, and if in any area the rating authorities fail to keep the awessment up to the point fixed by the law, they are lax in the performance of their duty. On the otlier hand, the pro- perty-owner or tenant who believes that the assessment is excessive has the right to ap- peal, first to the Assessment Committee, then to the Quarter Sessions, and, if still dis- satisfied, can take the matter into the High Court. The basis of the assessment is the letting va-lue of the property in the open market, and in the case of houses this is determined by the rent paid for them or similar houses. Hence, if the rent goes up, so does the as- sessment. At the present time houses are scarce at Swansea and rente are exception- ally high, a circumstance which reacts upon the rateable value, leading to the wrong impression that aaeeasments are excessive. If the supply of houses exceeded the de- mand the standard of rents wouM fall, and likewise the assessment of houses for rating purposes. High rents hit the tenant in two ways; the more he pays in rent the more the rate-collector will demand of him. Un- der the existing conditions house-property is compelled to contribute more than its normal proportion to the rates: hotels and public-houses, on the contrary, have been so reduced in letting value by the increased Imperial and other charges imposed, that the loss from this source is more than equal to a half-penny rato in the £
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"The Timieis" on Thursday puiblisfhed news of great lmpo.rtGinipe to hiuiiraainity. Cancer, from wblich thirty-five thousand peo- ple die annually in Great Britain, is in several wavs the most terrible of the major pkngues of civilised peoples. Radium has latterly been employed to combait it, and a series of experimental treatments conducted at the Cancer Research Laboratories of the Middlesex Hospital by Dr. Lazarus Barlow has yielded remarkable and encouraging re- sults. The canoeir diapajrtment of the hos- pital deals only with oases that have passed beyond the aid of the sturgeon. From June to September of 1912, 24 patients died out of 24 who were admitted. In a similar period in 1913, 68 cases were admitted: 36 died and 32 patients "were in so favourable a state as to be discharged from the hos- pital—an unprecedented event. Miost of these patients were now going aibout tlhledr daily work." A reduction of nearly fifty per cent. in the mortality arising from a proloniged and agonising malady is a boon of prime im- portanoe, and the Middlesex Hospital ex- periments inspire anew hopes baffled again and again in tAM past, it ?s true, which can- not, however, r. dis&ppaænted imdefin- itely. The new century has brilliant achievements to its record 'in the domain of the a.rt of healing. The patlls haive been discovered that will lead to the extirpa- tion of mailaria and venereal disease. The historical consequences mojv be memombl, malaria is believed to have been one of the most ruinous of the influences that brought the Roman Empire crumbling to the dust. The lives saved will be incalculalble in their number—tihe soldier may slay litis thousands, the physician is savinig his tens of thou- sands. Now cancer promises to follow the other pestilences alor.g'th? road to destruc- tion. Should xiadium succeed in but one half of the oases dealt with, wlhat a world of pain and misery will be abolished I Hull Corporation has induced the Post, ma.ster-General to sell out the Hull section of the National telephone system. The c by the Humber may give a powerful im- petus to a movement for. granting cd municipalities power to manage the locai tel-ophon-es (as they are deemed fit by Par- liament to centrol electricity, gas, water and tramway systems) if it secures a satis- I factory service and the Postmaster-General fails to improve upon that provided at pre- sent. It is to be hoped that II ull will rise to its responsibilities. On the face of it, a Telephones Committee of a Corporation, composed of business men who know how to secure efficiency in their own businesses, and are smarting under personal experience of telephone defects, is a more likely instru- ment to attain the end desired than an im- pervious, unresponsive and immovable offi- cialdom, over which Parliament can exer- cise no control or supervision worth speak- ing of.
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The Kaiser has discovered within the past few days that when the Zabern affair was at its hei, -At., his son, the Crown Prince, telegrapher to the military authorities in Alsace Loifaine in colloquial language that betrays the school-bovish and irresponsible temperament of the Heir Apparent, bidding them to "stick to it" and make things hot for the civilians. Doubtless the august father reflects that it is a judgment; the sins of the parents visited upon the child- ren-he, too, in his time, has used the tele- graph (or, to speak correctly, the cable) and dispatched messages equally as impulsive and mischief making. The Crown Prince, who has been estranged from the Kaiser for several years past—largely through tem- peramental characteristics that indicate ??.ture's reaction in the son against the occasionally excessive seriousness of the father-has the best of retorts at the tip of his tongue if he is the subject of paternal chiding; the effects of the Crown Princely telegraphic indiscretion of 1914 are at least confined to a more restricted field than the Imperial blunder in 1896. But the dis- closure has none the less increased the irritation of the German people, to whose liberal endowments of patience and docility there are limits, for they see in the Zabern affair and its court martial sequels a great test case that is to decide whether pre- posterous military pretensions are to be checked and an exasperating arrogance curbed. Lieutenant Forster—who supplements the animal spirits and boistenousness of youths of his age of all classes and all countries I with the obsessions and touchiness upon the point of "honour" that are peculiar to the Prussian officer-lim been sentenced to im- prisonment for his share in the proceedings at Zabern that suggested the garrison had gone clean out of its senses. Colonel Reuter irt now under trial for an offence that may briefly be described as "bumptiousness." Some of the evidence against him reads like an extract from the libretto of a music-hall farce: "It will be a good thing if blood does flow. I will not have people standing about. I will not have people laughinsr." are some of the statements ascribed to him. His be- haviour, and that of the men acting ?dt orders, ful)??, accord with tiedr spirit, The good people of Za.bern were, without a ) doubt, arrested by the military-in spite of the protests and even the interference of the local magistrates and police—not only for laughing but for the mere suspicion of haviing laughed. Groups of children who made faces were dispersed at the bayonet's point. Whistling youths found themselves the centres of military escorts armed to the teeth. The civilian populace was chased off the streets or locked up in coal cellars, and Colonel von Reuter, declaring "Mars is in the ascendant here" (Bacchus' sway offered a more plausible explanation), boiled with rage at the suspicion of -a snigger and was stirred to positive bloodthirstiness by a laugh. Colonel von Reuter is, however, but the personification of defects common to the Prussian character. The Prussians are often likened to the Scots, and both peoples alike "joke wi' difficulty." The absence of a sense of humour and of tact are amongst Prussian defects. Undoubtedly, Prussian officers, as a class, have characteristics of their own, as a. caste, which render them a national problem, and also to some far from inconsiderable extent a European problem as well, as their class and type are the domin- ant power in the German Empire—a power at grips, politically, with the massive but ineptly guided forces of the commercial and industrial classes. Prussia has not a monopoly of disagreeable people, or of others who commit acts that baffle compre- hension. If it were not so—if everybody were amiable and urbane, and everybody acted rationdly-hfe wouM be a very dull and featureless business, flat and spiritless, j
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• But although much may be done to stimu- late the production of foc^et-uffs within the Empire, the faot cannot be ignored that- for aarne considerable time to come the prices of foods-tuffs will probably show no ten- dency to fall. Manufacturing: industries are developing more swiftly than agricul- ture, and the demand for food is increasing at a more rapid rate than the supply. It is clear, then, that something m1Í.st be done in order to increase the purcsh.ising- power of our working classes. Mr. Bonar low has again and again said: "The (greatest of all sociaa reforms would be to raise the standard of watges throughout the countiy, and we know that such a rise is impossible without a change in our fiscal system." Sh long as oux manufacturers have to meet the unre- stricted competition of the Frarplus produc- tion of foreign countries in our duty-free market, for just so long must- the present miseraibly low average of wiages be main- tained. The direct result of our present Free is that wages aire !kept down to their lowest possible level, and indiustriiati unrest and re-volt naturally follow. We see, then, that the solution of" the food problem lies in Tmpcria.1 Preference and Talriff Reform—two pairts of one indis- soluble scheme; for by the one the food re- sources of the Empire will be developed, a result of immense importan,co to the Mother Gauntly, and by the other the standard of wiages will be raised amid the purchasing power of our working clalESIeS increased.
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The announcement of the death of Mr. Arthur Thomas came ae a great shock to Swansea comrnercial circles. Up towards the end of last week he was visible, cheerful and smiling, as usual. But a deadly disease —pneumonia—had nevertheless fastened its grip upon him. To Sir Griffith Thomas tfii" sudden death of a nearly inseparable brother is the severest possible blow. -? t ?  The liner Indrani, which has taken in a large consignment of tinplates at the King's Dock for New York, is unquestionably one of the best fitted out ships that has ever visited this port. Designed for the Far Eastern trade, she has few rivals for com-- fort. Every conceivable convenience seems to have been thought of. from electric fans to a hospital. Fire alarms are on the bridge, which indicate the exact position of a fire, and steam can be ejected into any of the holds, and the conflagration thus quenched. Wireless telegraphy is also in- dal]rd, and an elf?t"ic flash lamp is situated J at the fore mast-hoad, • I
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All Neath is whispering "Have you paid your gas bill?"—("Hotspur.") Charles Kingsley, the novelist, spent some little time at the Vicarage, Kilvey. He married one of, the Grenfells. "The wise men came from the Eaat." Fourteen men have taken orders from Kilvey I parish—a record which no other local parish 4n beat. Foxhole, according to the late Dr. Eben- vzer Davies, was one of the most healthy spots in the borough. Presumably the smoke acts as a disinfectant. "Mr. Asquith returns to town," is the heading of a London newspaper paragraph. When is Mr. Asquith "going to the coun- try," is what a weary electorate fervently desires to know. Can a tradesman dispense with his Corporation water if he wants to?" This was one of the conundrums propounded be- fore the Swansea Waters and Sewers Com- mittee on Thursday. How's this for a broad hint. The jury at the Sheriff's Court asked to retire in the first case. "Gentlemen," said the Under- Sheriff (Mr. Geo. Isaac), I have not got àIlother jury." The hint was taken and the retirement lasted a minute or two. Sbrne of the Swansea common lodging- houses are not satisfactory, according to the Borough Medical Officer. As regards muni- cipal hostels for wtoanen there atre only three in existence in tihe seventeen largest towna. This man," said Mr. St. John Francis Williams at the Sheriff's Court, "ought to have been a politician. He is a master of phraseology which means nothing, and that is essential, of course, to a politician." Well, now! I I The chairman of the Corsgrogaiaonal Union (Rev. Morgan Gibbon), at Morriston, said there were pewple who were always "giving" to religion, but there were a great many wfho had no right to give any- thing. "Charity is often the conscience money," he added, "that justice pajya for fear the lash may come down." Mr/and Mrs. W. M. Williams, the master and matron of the Penmaen Workhouse, pride themselves on their ability to beautify the surroundings of t'ie inmates under their charge, ai,u ihftj,- iwR e vtoeivvd many COiO" pliment* from the Guardians. For Xmas they excelled themselves in transforming the House. > x 'I' Silent tragedies are always with us. On Thursday, in a Swansea lodging-house on the Strand could be seen a tear-bedimmed woman standing at a table peeling potatoes, Her little child was lying dead a few feeit away. Her grim silence while pursuing her daily duties lent a heroic touch to the ,ad dened picture. <3xsxExtx5x!> It must have beten a slight inadvertence for a Swansea tradesman to ask the authord- ties to take away his water supply. What he was chagrined over was his meter, he only using one-third of the minimum for which he was charged. It was the meter he wanted to get rid of-and they came and took his meter, water and all. When some of the members of tihe SWiIl- sea Waters amd Sewers Comrmittee saw sec- tions of the old-corroded pipes that had been taken up they were flabbergasted." Some were more than hnlf filled with corro- sions, and through this wa-ter had been passing for years foT the people- to drink and there aire likely to be scores of other pipes in a similar state. "Father!" "Yes, Willie." "A boy in our school who comes from Llamelly told me that Swansea is the worst governed town in the country." "Oh, did he?" "Yes, father; and I asked him if he could name the place where they built a dock without an entrance." "Ah, then I need not ask you where vou picked up that eye?" "No, father; but you ought to see his nose!" Wheme do the corrosions in a water-pipe come from? They are extraneous mattem in the water, and once a particle sticks, or j there is the slightest flaw in the lining, thf corrosion begins in earnest. The sections inspected by the Swansea, committee on Thursday we, we should say. the limit. for pipes were obstructed with hard, solid matter, which 'ha dgrown as big as a power- ful fist--onlv not so %hoptly. People living in those parts of the town where the water pipes are oldest can now realise what the water tpasses through before it reaches the domesic tap. 4 ♦ > In the early part of last century the hope was expressed in an old Swansea j document "that an Act for paving and lighting the town will be next resolved upon. When we consider the trading importance of this place (Swansea), the respectability of its inhabitants, and the vast assemblage of fashion which annually resorts hither, it becomes a matt.er of sur- j prise and regret that so necessary a measure should have been so long delayed." So we are. really doing a -little better nowadays. .t   <  -?>-<t? It is always gratifying to hear of the suc- ocss of Swanseaites in the outer world, even if it be the Northern Union, and one is duly impressed with the glowing accounts of that land of milk and honey up North. But cynics recall the story, as related by one yEsop, of the fox who went a-wandering, and returning without his tail, tried to per- suade the other foxes that tails were nn- necessary and unfashionable. There is (writes "Prospero"), fortunately for sport, still a certain glamour in playing the game of Rugby football for the love of the game. Retribution in the form of a complete thaw followed swiftly on the evil deedai wrought by two lads of tender age during the recent frost. They of malice afore- thought 'did each evening construct a1 "slide" in close proximity to HJe H swing doors of an establishment, wherein are dispensed beverages which make glad the heart of man, and retiring to a discreet dis- tance spent a joyous time watching aCToba tic displays whi6h out-ragged the wildest tangoist who ever tangoed, incidentally Lay- ling up for themselves a treasure of violent I. languagr which should last them through I their wicked lives.—("Prospero.") A prominent Swansea fish merchant spends J6250 a year on telegrams. The Cowboy's Wedding is followed at the Royal by "It is Never Too Late to Mend. What had the cowboy been up tof Percy Jones, the Porth boxer, can say in several senses of the phrase that he had a Mill-on at the Liverpool Stadium on Thumb day. < x!?<:x$>-4>- 0 Once ex- Deputy-Chief Constable Gill ef- fected an arrest at Plasmarl and had some trouble with his man in getting along. Its did not meet another policeman until hd came to High-stret! A Swansea haulier named MoN ei-gh was at Neath fined for leaving his horse un* attended. It is said that the "neigh" oi the animal drew the attention of thi constable to the matter. <SxX>-<$xJx5> Swansea people seem to manufacture mud. From the New Out Bridge to Wind-street, the road is all cobble stone pawed. Yet it is coated every inch of the way with « slimy, greasy compound. 000000 The fact that there war, only one case at the police court on Friday, and that busi- ness on other days was also slack, will in- duce Mr. Colwill presently, in a spirit of economy, to move the reduction of the strength of the force by 75 per cent. The little Swansea girl who was sent to a fish shop to ask if the proprietor had any plaice arrived home breathless to tell hear mother that the man told her he had plenty of room in the house, as he only had two lodgers and could do with more The variety provided by witnesses in the delivery of the oath seems unending. At Neath on Friday a Glyn-Neath witness gave a new and revised version. Ha said: "I swear that th° hevidence I shall give to the Court shall be the whole truth. S'elp my blessed God only." There wasn't enough ccal to keep a fire in the waiting-room of the G. W. R. Station on Friday. Travellers, it is said, had to run up and down the platforms to keep themselves warm. Rumour went round this morning that a man has been told off to pdok a few buckets of cinders. "1 am only a boy," writes "H.D. "but I believe I have solved the 'market gate* problem." He is rather late in the field, but his solution of 7&. 9d. is correct. "H.D." has worked it out at considerable pains, which sucr--sts that he at least takea a delight in his home lessons. A Soccer enthusiast who gained a big 3,aputtt.tioa in a certain local circle by fore- casting the score in the Swans v. Cardiff City match, has been bombarded this week for his prophecy on the Merthyr g?me. Ey Friday morning he ww positively ?taurby' Frida -Y ti? S?L9 were mentioned. wb,en Whilst the s.s. Indrani was taking in bunker coal in the King's Dock, Swansea the galley dwr became jammed. A Chins- ttteR d'bScc^c-a wov<<i) sky1 "nt, unfortunately got hung up by his waist belt over the hot stove until released. His antics would have filled the Empire twice over. Mr. Abraham Thomas—a J.P. who always sticks up for the Welsh language—mi^ed a treat by not being present at the police court on Wednesday, when two Loughor youths were up in connection with an in- cident that involved the expression of the opinion that "anybody who can't speak Welsh is a fool." The teacher was giving her class of littla scholars a lesson on appetite. "Now, can anyone tell me the meaning of appetite?" he asked. After a little while one of the scholars replied, "When you are eating, sir, you are 'appy, and when you are finished you, are 'tite' Then the next lesson was put on. The miniature sanatorium purchased by the Gower Guardians for phthisis cases is still on their hands without an occupant. The Swansea Poor. Law authorities have a. few cases of phthisis which t.hev asked the Gower Guardians to admit to the Penmaen Workhouse, but the members did not enter- tain the suggestion at all. 0< x X x!  We have received the following communi- cation. Can anybody make it out? :Hi,h rents at Swansea mean high assessments. High assessments mean low rates. Con- versel v. if low rents mean low ass-r^sments, will low assessments mean high rates? If they do, in't it as broad as it is long?" No prize offered for solution. <XX X >-<!x > In his racy address at Swansea this week Mr. Greenshields, the Arctic missionary, said that in the past missionaries were re- garded as "Jonahs" on board the whalers. On one occasion he was one of the ship's com- pany, and he managed to hold a religious service. "Another nor' -easter to-night after that," said one of the crew. "And, sure enough, there was," said Mr. Greenshields, "and I was blamed for it I" The epithet used by M. Qemenceau in re- ference to Mr. Lloyd George was incorrectly translated as mountebank." The real meaning is impulsive, thoughtless man." M Clemenceau, by the way, is as 100d a Celt as Mr. Lloyd George—or anyone else —and holds the record for throwing out Ministries. But if he tackled the. limpets at present clinging to .office in England we fancy M. Clemenceau would be baffled. Engineering miscalculations at the Cray cost Swansea a pretty penny. But the Cray isn't the only place where engineering figures have been "out." It was estimated that 96 million cubic yards of excavation would suffice to complete the Panama Canal. In June last the estimate was raised to 232 million cubic yards. The cost and amount of work. as a matter of fact, prove that the American experts were hope- lessly at sea. On the last occasion on which "Peter Pan" (which visits the Grand Theatre, Swansea, the week after next) visited France, some of the members of the company elaborated a little joke which caused consternation and amusement when they arrived at the Gare du Nord Station at Paris. When the train pulled up it was observed that Rob Harwood, George Shelton, and some cf the other gentlemen of the company had in the button-holes of the lapels of ther coats thic small red ribbon indicating that the wearet was a member of the Legion of Honour. One of the compnny informed those wait- ing to receive the Peter Panites that a deputation had gone from Paris to the coast and had there decorated the gentle- men who were wearing-the priced ribbon. It was not until a considerable time had elapsed that it was noticed that the decora- tion was made not of ribbon but of wood, and that an infamous actor had carefully broken the worst matches in the world, which arc supplied by the French Govern- ment and arc red, and had pinned them through" the button-holea.