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CARMARTHEN UNDER THE SEARCH…

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CARMARTHEN UNDER THE SEARCH LIGHT Crmc crop, tnl sit you down you stall not budge You shall not go, till I set you up a gla-s, Where you may ree the itmost part of you ————— SHAKISPKABK. Golf is making great progress. Several menibers who used to be quite dumb can now speak it with amazing fluency. Mr Pickard. of University College, Aber- ystwith—tlhe horticultural lecturer for the Carmarthenshire County Council-is now in this neighbourhood delivering lectures at rural centres. Carmarthen Borough is Cill titled to have a course of ithese lectures; but sho has never made application for them. We pay the rates for these county expenses; but we never claim any of the county privileges. When Mr ¡,Yo Lileweiyn Williams, M.P., visited Carmarthen. last week, he was waited on by a deputation of the coraclemen who washed him to use his influence to have the season extended. The coraclemen wish a uniform close time, for the district-if not for the kingdom. At present, the Teiifi has a much longer season tlhan the Towy. Mr Lle\veiy;n> Williams .advised the fishermen to get the Conservators to pass a resolution- to that effect, and said that then he hoped with the co-operation of the member for West Carmarthenshire to endeavour to get the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries to sanc- tion the change. ••• It is to be feared that the local Fishery Board is a fatal bar to such a change being carried out. The Conservators are not very much in favouir of any proposal which would mean a considerable curtailment of the close season. It is hopeless to expect the authori- ties in London to sanction a drastic change, unless it is warmly supported by the Fishery Board; they do not always agree to drastic changes even if the Fishery Board favours them. If a uniform close time be ever adopted, It is much more likely—in view of current ideas on the subject—that the longest close time and not the shortest will be taken as the basis of the uniformity. The, Rev W. D. Rowlands made some re- marks the other evening on the Cigarette Bill, which convince me that he has not given the subject sufficiently close attention. He suggests that elders will have the power to search the pockets of youngsters and to confiscate for their own special bene-fit any tobacco which they find in the pockets afore- said—I am trying to express the idea legally. This lookso-ni the face of it Ike a great helnefit to parents and guardians. But like many other protmising schemes, it its a mockery, a delusion, amd a snare. In the good old days—or the bad old days -ciora,rotit,es were beyond the roach of the average boys. Thirty years ago, cigarettes were a luxury; they were only smoked in the highest circles in this country; and they were miade of the choicest Mends of tobacco. A packet could 'not be had for less than six- pence—it was usually a packet of ten; and they were really considered "no class." In those primitive days, boys who wished to smoke bought a penn'orth of plug, and a ha penmycllay pipe. Three or four con- spi.rators similarly equipped would foregather in a stable or some similar retreat and pro- ceed to consummat.e their guilt. By the time they had got half way through the first pipe, they felt that they were really desperate characters who could march proudly to Tower Hill with smiles on their faces. By the time they had got three quarters of the way through they felt that if somebody would only take them and bury them where the daisies grow, they would be happy for ever more. A degenJerate race of youths who could not face this initiatory ordeal, find the five-a- penny cigarette an easy read to wickedness. The present age has produced many "royal roads" to learning. There lare systems on the market 'by which you cam learn French or German in three months—and forget it all in three weeks. Even poor old Euclid is to be disestablished and we are go'nig to have mathematics taught on a more gentlemanly principle. Eucid always wished to prove everything—although most of us wore quite willing to take his word as a gentleman with- out his going to a.l the trouble he did. The generation which produced the free wheel bicycle puts a free wheel on education, and in nothing has it succeeded so well as in the practice of smoking. But the suppression of cigarette smoking will not provide the parent with mare tobacco It may have quite the contrary effect. When the small boy in the palmy days of Queem Victora could not raise a penny for twist, lie used to watch a suitable chance and liave a "fill" out of his father's tobacco pouch. The father used to notice that his tobacco was going very quickly; but a recollection of his own doings in the palmy days of Geo. IV. never suggested an explanation, to his mind. This is the sort of thJimg which we may expect when the sale of cigaretltes to children is stopped. AVhenever anybody proposes any- thing in the way of moral reform, there are always opponents who prove conclusively that the suggested reform will really be the ruin. of the country so I thought I woud be first in the matter of the cigarette. When disaster follows on such legislation, I hope the public will remember that I have warned them. **# The Carmarthenshire Education Com- mittee is vastly troubled over the problem of the school attendance of babies. It seems that in many districts the schools prove too smal for the simple reason that children from three years upwards—aind sometimes downwards—are sent there. This looks at first bluish lilke a tremendous enthusiasm for education; .biit it isn't. It is a tremendous determination on the part of the mothers to get rid of them. Stall the mothers ought not to be judged too (harshly. Those who do not know what it is for six children to live in two rooms ought not to poss an opinion on the difficulties of life in a crowded industrial distract. It is only .natural that the mother should not want to have them at home until they are five years old. When the four year old has fallen with his head in the coal bucket and is howl- ing for rescue, the two year old seizes the opportuliiity of the diversion to put into prac- tice a long cherished desgn of having a good square m-eal of yellow soap. Whilst these two little affairs are beinig straightened out, the mother hears a scream in the kitchen, and is divided between two fearful surmises— whether the baiby has pulled the kettle off the fire or has pulled the eight-day clodk down and is suffocating ^beneath the ruins. ••• If the children are kept in tlhe house until they are five years old, the Asylum will have to be enlarged to meet the great influx of mothers. If the children are allowed to go out to play in the streets, one never knows what terrible things to expect. There is nothing so painful as to see the look on a motorist's face when he has to pull up to avoid running over a ibaiby. To give them fairplay the motorics do not waiiit to run over babies. The, safety pins get into the tyres and cause a lot of trouble. Still acoi- dents may happen; and it e not advisabe to have the traffic pbst-eted by babies. Under the circumstances, the school ap- pears to be the most natural place for them. There are people who say that what is wam,ted is not a school but a creche. I don't approve of these foreign iraivenitons. I am not quite sure what the French word mea.ns; but it is sure to be something immoral, and on general principles it, ought to be opposed. All that is wanted is some place where the children will be taken care of and properly locked after by ,alfi¡ experienced matron, whilst their mothers attend to their duties. It may be that this oughit to be provided at the public expense; but if so, the public ought to pay for it with their eyes open. They ought not to be deluded into paying for it under the guise of an Education Rate. **< Industrial school boys are a regular feature of our local police courts. The youth who appeared on Saturday before the magis- trates came from Sheffield. This boy had stolen a lamp. This may have be oil due to a laudable desire for more light; but the dcings of tll I;; class of 'boy shows that it is immaterial to them what they take sometimes. They are sometimes seized with a desire for change of scenery. The usel-essness of the articles which they take would seem to suggest that their only desire is to retain some little memento of their happy life in Wales. It i3 quite comforting to find that the Te-iiai, s Club has had its annual meeting, and has made its arrangements for the coming season. Tennis—the very word—carries with it an atmosphere of green, lawn-3, long summer evenings, and 'bright sunshine. It is good to think that people, are making arrangements for such a s ;.te of affairs again —even thouL at present we wallow in at atmosphere of damp, cold, and influenza. I was told on Saturday night that there were 300 affected with influenza in Carmar- then. This statement needs correction, There aire 301 victims now. Typhoid still hangs persistently eibout Car- marthen. It might open the eyes of the general public, if they knew how long this disease has clung to the town without inter- mission. Once mponl a time it was announced with a great flourish of trumpets that the town !had long been in a very unhealthy state, but that now everything was going to. be put right. I won't say that there is more typhoid in town than. ever, because someibody might rake up some record of an epidemic during the last century, and prove that things were very bad at one period. But there is cer- tainly a remarkably steady succession of typhoid cases ill, Carmarthen—so much so that unless it stops, very serious notice will have to he taken, of It. Is our water supply quite above the suspicion of contamination? «** Carmarthen has been, treated to the un- usual spectacle of a prosecution against a person who pursued Ihas "ordinary calling" on Sunday. We have had plenty of Sabbath- breaking in Carmarthen. For one thing, in the summer time hundreds of motorists go careering through the -LoiN-n-certa,iiily to the great annoyance of the public. Every chauffeur who drives a motor car fo.r hire or salary is liable to conviction under the Act of Charles II. Xobody ever suggests that they be prosecuted. **# Numerous parties drive in ibrakes to Llan- stephan on Sunday. The drivers might all be convicted under the Act. And the con- duct of the returning beanfesters is occa- sionally rowdy. Nobody suggests that they be prosecuted. Occasionally work is done in connection with steamers art the Quay on Sunday. Nobody suggests that the men be prosecuted. Every Sunday morning you meet post-men delivering letters. This is clearly a breach, of the Act; aind the postmen -.aaid probably "also the Postmaster-General —are liable to prosecution. Yet nobody raises a fii-iger againrt them. «#• Every Sunday morning you meet numerous boys selling newspapers. It is not the "British Weekly" they are selling nor even the "Sunday Companion." They are hawk- ing the kind of papers which give a full, true aind particular account written by a bigamist and desctilbing has adventures with his 32 "wives." These newspapers are hawked during .the time ithart church goers attend Divine Worship. And yet nobody proposes prosecution in such cases. After aid this, it is frivolous to speak of small shops selling sweets and light refresh- ments. But several small shops have done this. You can meet tlhe children on Sunday afternoon., munching their purchases. But at last, it has been decided to vindicate the law. So it was decided to prosecute a trader who sells ice cream-during certain hours at which he is licensed to sell refreshments. «** In the face of all this, the fact that this one man has been pounced upon really calls for some explanation. Two blacks do not make white. Neither do a hundred. But if a hundred people notoriously contravene the Act of Charles II., it loots raitber like perse- cution than prosecution to make a dead set against one offender and to ignore the other ninety-nine. Apparently, the Sabbath pos- sessed no sanctity in Caiirnartlie-n until an Italian came here to break it. It is difficuilt to find any adequate motive for this prosecu- tion but whatever it was, it wias scarcely a consistent respect either for the law or for the Sabbath. Let us enforce the law by all means; but don't let it rust in its scabbard and then sharpen, it up for the especial bene- fit of a solitary foreigner! **♦ There were 82 applicants for a vacancy which had to be filled by the Carmarthen- shire Education Committee this week. Of these, seven bore the historic name of Jones, and two of these bore the excessively patri- otic name of David Jones. *•* We often hear of the Medical Officer ordering schools to be closed because of the prevalence of measles. It is strange that the Sanitary Authorises (never insist on the sus- pension of all public meetings during the epidemic of influenza. Thus all political meetings, all Town Coilncil, and all County Council meetings might be prohibited for a week. -No doubt they conitriibuto largely to spread the infection. I say nothing about forbidding attendance at church. No check requires to be put in for tha.t, for people are not very enthusiastic aJbout it when they nave a plausible excuse for staying away. Still, if all public meertilngs were suspended for a week, it might do a lot of good; and I a'm sirre it would do nobody any harm. The Territorial Army is a i-nueli more com- plicated affair than the Volunteers. We have to find 12/ infantry men and 60 pontoon engineers m the Carmarthen district—which embraces Kidwelly on one hand and Laugh- arne on the other. If there is any enthusiasm for the movement at all, it ought to be easy to find this number of men. The pontoon engineers ought to be very popular. To build bridges at an hour's notice ds quite as interesting as cricket when you get used to it. Indeed if the Territorial Army is taken up in a proper spouting spirit, it ought to be a great success. ##» There is no concealing the fact that the Scheme is to a great extent depelndeitlrt on politics. It is a Liberal scheme, and there are many Tories who would be glad to. see it wrecked in order to discredit its promoters. Un the other hand, many Liberals in Wales are not much in favour of militarism. It is not likely that many Libeiial lea,ders will come forward and take a promniient part in stimulating the. movement.. So apart from those who have the real military zeal, the scheme will niot have mucin public support. Much more depends on the Territorial Army than many of us fancy If it fails there will be little between us and conscript tion. Many of us feel that we have: no inte- rest in that prospect as our grey hairs (or our bald heads) will protect us from the recruiting sergeant. But it may mean that every boy who is growing up now will have to spend a year in barracks. I am not at all convinced that conscription: would be quite a bad thing. We hear a good deal about German competition; but is iit not possible that much of the success of German labour military training. Whatever argu- ments may be used against it, there is this to belaid un favour of militarism-^that iit might have been the salvation of many shirkers if they had had at an early age to Undergo twelve months hard training during which 01l'y warn to do as they were ordered whether -it was agreeable or mot N where will the appointment of Mr J. Lloyd Morgan, K.C., M.P., as Recorder of Swansea, be more appreciated than in his native town of Carmarthen. The appoint- ment necessitates a bye-election. Mr Lloyd Morgan is .not permanently disqualified; but he cannot sit in Parliament until lie is re- eected. It used to be the custom of Kings and Ministers to buy up M.P.'s by giving them good jobs and in order to remedy that evil it was decided that any member accent- ing an office. of Profit under the Crown should have to resign ihis seat. If his constituents were satisfied with his conldudt they could return him; if they thought it was a "jolb" in more aenses- than one, they might decide to have somebody else to represent them. It is not likely that there will be anv opposition to the election of Mr J. Lloyd Morgan. The slight differences which he had at one time with certain of his constitu- ents have long since evaporated. The very fact that a man honestly expresses his dis- agreement on a certain point—which is now as dead as the Jacobite question—makes his agreement with his party on all other poillts all the more valuable. On the other hand, Mr Lloyd iMoragn is not likely to be opposed by the Conservatives. Apart from politics, they have every confidence in him and they are not inclined to have a fight in West Car- marthenshire, the most Radical constituency in Wales, on a purely political issue. ••• It is much to be regretted that one of the Socialist speakers at the Guildhall the other night should have made rather an uncalled for attack on the morals of the upper classes. No good is done by introducing personal matters into any political or religious con- troversy. these are questions of principle. Besides the attack on. Society is not quite justified. It is not "Society" which keeps the Divorce Court busy. If you go through the records of the ^hundreds of cases decided in a term, you will find that the bulk of them are cases in which butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers are involved. It is a great pity, perhaps, to shatter the delusion that the upper classes are a frightfully bad lot; but they really aren't. Lei: anyone take Whit-takers' Almanac or Debrett, and work through the nobility be- ginning wiith the premier Duke and winding up with the junior haron,. There are hun- dreds of names there. Let the enquirer check of all who have been implicated iin scandals, and work out the percentage. Ho will )e vastly aistonisbed to find out how lie ha.3 been gullrd! 0*0 When somebody high in society gets divorced, na.turally enough the papers are full of it. A dozen bricklayers, and car- penters, and shoemakers can get divorces between the opening of the court and the luncheon interval, and there is only a two- line paragraph in the papnrs-in fact they are so niumeraus sometimes that they receive no notice at a'lll. In the slums these diffi- culties are settled by rough and ready methods. There is, unfortunately, plenty of vibe in the. cottage homes of England, and it makes us no purer to g'oat over the sins of others. «*• The charge against Socialism is not that they are individually men of evil lives; the chalrge is that the system in. its logical exten- sion must inevitably do aiway with the domestic circle. The private opinions a'nd much less the private lives of individual Socialists are little to the point. Many men are better than their creed, and many men have been much worse. The point is this Under Communism could homes and fathers and mothers and children, exist as they do, -,c or would we have a series oif large public institutions? For years, the Socialist pro- paganda has been allied with an anti- Christian, propoganda; but lately the anti- religious -aspect of the question has been kept out of sight. When the present Parlia- ment was elected, llr Blaitchford boasted in the "Clarion" that the Labour Party would not onlly destroy both political parties, but all the churches in the country in the course of time. He has perhaps been advised that that is indiscreet, for he has left Christianity alone lately. It is quite true that Agnos- ticism has no imilereii-t connection with Socialism. All Churchmen are not Con- servatives all Nonconformists are certainly not Radicals; all Roman Sat ho lies alre cer- tainly not Home Ruler's. In the same way it can be said that a)ll Socialists are not opposed to Christianity. This, however, is purely a theoretical ques- tion. The workmen who support the party are not Socialists by conviction in nine cases out of tern. The Socialists are the party who are likely to get them what they want, and they will support Socialism until they get their particular .grievance redressed. We shall have Old Age Pensions and a few other bits of Socialism; but if we have to wait for them untill the whiolle Socialist programme is adopted, we shall be gone beyond the need of them. ALBTHXU.

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