Llais Llafur

A REBEL AND A REVOLUTION. By HERBERT TRACEY. rwo books in the last instalment of II Messrs. Williams and Norgate's Home University Library have a special claim upon the attention of those who are interested in the Labour and Socialist movement of our day. The first is the wonderfully illuminating and stimulat- ing colume of Professor Gilbert Murray, entitled "Euripides and His Age." Not long ago I heard Mr. Bernard Shaw tell an enormous audience of the most intelligent people in London to read this book, which he said should have been entitled the "Quintessence of Euripides." That is indeed precisely what it is. It is the sublimation and distillation of one of the greatest and most challenging figures in antiquity. Professor Murray, who is professor of Greek at Oxford University, has suc- ceeded in a marvellous degree in mak- ing the figure of the old Greek drama- tist live again for the profit and en- lightenment of this age. And no one can read the book without becoming conscious of the essential identity of human nature under all the differences of race and time, and without seeing that the problems of humanity have always presented the same aspect of challenge and opportunity to those who face them courageously. ANCIENT AND MODERN PROB- II LEMS IDENTICAL. A few weeks ago I had the oppor- tunity of meeting Dr. Murray and talking to him about the bearing of his studies upon the problems of modern life. He pointed out to me that it was folly to expect a direct answer from history to any special problem, but that in Greece in the fifth century B.C., they had just the same kind of problems as we have now, and were seeking the same kind of answer—an answer that was consistent with law and democracy, with progress and the free pursuit of knowledlge. What sort of answer the ancient Greeks found on a small scale, amidst condi- tions much less tangled than we have to deal with, can be gathered from the remarkable little volume he has con- tributed to the Home University Library, of which he is, by the way, one of the general editors. THE REBEL. Dr. Murray's sympathetic under- standing of the rebel is very clearly expressed in this book. "When I met him I a.sked the reason for this sym- pathy, and he told me he liked rebels in the sense of those who were helping to wake up the world, and that the rebels he liked best are those who rebel out of pity for others. In Pro- fessor Murray's sense, Euripides was a rebeL "Every man," he writes, "who possesses real vitality can be seen as the resultant of two forces. He is first the child of a particular age, society, convention; of what we may call in one word, a tradition. He is secondly, in one degree or another, a rebel against that tradition. And the best traditions make the strongest rebels. Euripedes is the child of a strong and splendid tradition, and is, together with Plato, the fiercest of all rebels against it." TRADITION'S GREATEST TRIUMPH. Without any attempt at paradox Dr. Murray insists that a tradition is pro- bably at its best not when it is univer- sally accepted, but when it is being attacked and broken. "It is then that it learns to search its own heart and live up to its full meaning. And in a sense the greatest triumph that any tradition can accomplish is to rear noble and worthy rebels." He shows us the great figure of Euripides stand- ing out against the background of his time, an artist and thinker, in specu- lation a critic and freelance. In the chapters in which Dr. Murray traces the outlines of that tradition of thought in which the Greek dramatist specu- lates, and pieces together the surviving facts about his life, we do indeed see something of the greatness of his spirit: and thereafter it is an awakening ex- perience to read the chapters in which Dr. Murray expounds the plays. From this book a multitude of working men readers will want to turn to the trans- lations of the plays themselves and study them in the light of this exposi- tion. THE PRESENT, AN AGE OF REVO- LUTION. They will do this all the more eager- ly when they realise that in essentials our own age is akin to the age of Euripides, in that it is, as Dr. Murray points out, an age of criticism follow- ing upon an age of movement and action. We are, he writes, "in re- j action now against another great age, an age whose achievement in art are memorable, in literature massive and splendid, in science and invention abso- lutely unparalleled, but greatest of all perhaps in the raising of all standards of public duty, the humanising of law and society, and the awakening of high ideals in social and international poli- tics. The Victorian Age had, amid enormous differences, a certain simi- larity with the Periclean in its lack of self-examination, its rush, and chival- ry and optimism, its unconscious hypo- crisy, its failure to think out its prob- lems to the bitter end." Like Euripi- des we, in this searching and innovat- ing time, accept the standards on which the movement and action of the former time were based, and condemned the present because we are false to those standards. A remarkable feature of Euripides is his attitude towards women, and there he is so intensely modern that snatches and scenes from his plays are often reproduced at suffrage meetings. Ho was in truth, as Dr. Murray points out, an aggressive champion of women as beings of character and courage, not the mere playthings of mQn that was the ideal of his age, and is still the ideal among not a few in these davs. On all these grounds this book is one to read and re-read. It helps greatly to the understanding of the time in which we Jive and give a long perspec- tive and proportion to whatever work of idealism we have in hand. THE REVOLUTION. The second book, which ought to be read next to Dr. Murray's study, is the little volume by Mr. H. N. Brailsford, entitled "Shelly, Goodwin and the Circle." It is a fine study of the forces which went to the making of the French Revolution, so far as that profoundly disturbing event in history bore upon the life of England. From his very first sentence Mr. Brailsford challenges at- tention with the declaration that, in England the Revolution began with a sermon and ended with a poem. The sermon was delivered by Dr. Price to his ardent congregation of Nonconformist radicals in the meeting house at the Old Jewry on the theme of civil and religious liberty: the poem was Shelly's "Hellas," and between the two there stretched a period of thirty two years, which covered "the dawn, the clouding, and the unearthly sunset of a. hope." The old Radical's sermon can be reheard in the loftiness and vigour of this peroration, quoted by Mr. Brailsford: "I have lived to see thirty millions of people indignant and reso- lute, spurning at slavery and demand- ing liberty with an irresistible voice; j their king led in triumph, and an ar- bitrary monarch surrendering himself I to his subjects. And now methinks I I see that ardour for liberty catching and spreading, a general amendment be- ginning in human affairs: the domina- tion of kings changed for the domina- tion of laws, and the dominion of priests giving way to the dominion of reason and conscience." In Mr. Brailsford's eloquent and picturesque pages we can trace the rise and fall of that great hope of human betterment and emancipation which inspired the old radical and re-inspired the music of Shelly, when it seemed to have passed into eclipse. Thus it rings out again in the latter's poem: "The world's great age begins anew, The golden years return, The earth doeth like a snake renew Her winter weeds outworn. Heaven smiles, and faiths and em- pires gleam Like wrecks of a dissolving dream." For the eager revolutionist no better check and corrective can be imagined than these two volumes, read side by side. They teach sanity and proportion and a large charity. They show why revolutions fail, and what are the per- manent conditions of success in the un- ending fight against the forces of re- action. They teach the lesson that it is not in leaders but in Ideas that the final emancipation is wrought out. — ♦ •» «

Webber & Son Ltd., 266, Oxford St., Swansea. Immense Stock of the most FashoDable and Up-to-date JEWELLEE/Y Gem Rings, Bracelets, Necklets,Pendants, Lockets,Long Chains, Alberts,Goldand sliverwatches, Sterling Silver, Electroplate, Marble, Hall and ChimingClocks OCCULIST OPTICIANS AND SPECIALISTS IN SPECTACLES. Manufacturers of Scientific Instruments, Mining Dials, Levels, Theodolites, Anemometers, Barometers Telescopes and Field Glasses. WEBBER S SON, Ltd., 266, Oxford Street, Swansea OPPOSITE THE MARKET.

BOYS IN THE MINE. I A PLEA FOR BETTER TREATMENT I A correspondent in the "Daily Citi- I zen'' on Tuesday, wroteOf all the things that want remedying in coal- mining none is more scandalous than the treatment of boys, the death-rate among whom is very high. Last August I made a protest in the Press against the proposal to Hog pit- boys for the ill-treatmentof pit-ponies. I contended then that these ponies were ill-used because the poor drivers had to contend with awful conditions. I pointed out the dangerous state of road- ways, how ill-kept they generally are, how the ponies themselves often have to work double-shifts, and the drivers are often bullied at one end by the stall-men and at the other by the road- men. The roadways are fuli of dirt till there is only just room for a tram to run through. The boy stumbles or is run down by wagons and ponv because there is nowhere to get out of the way. They are often crushed while releasing trams that run off the road or get stuck in the rubbish. The most fruitful source of accident is the dangerous practice of riding on the crank or connecting-road between horse and tram, but this the boy is almost forced to do because the ponies get so aIel-fashioned and knowing. They will rarely follow the boy if he goes in front, and if the boy walks behind I the trams the pony is entirely master of the situation because there is no room for the boy to get to him. So the only thing the poor little chap can do is to sit tightly perched on his crank. Then the pony may run away with him, kick him off or lie gets knocked off by low roof or timber, or, as is frequently the case, the pony rubs on the timber- ing once too often and it is pulled out and pony and boy are buried under a heap of rock. As the result we have 71 small boys mangled to death in one year. SIMPLE REMEDIES. The remedy might be simple. The Miners' Union or Government inspec- tors should insist on roadways being of such width as would allow lads to walk alongside the pony anywhere. Any, miner or mining official knows that nothing pays better than good roads, but roads get bad mainly through slackness of officials. No one seems to hold anv brief for the boys. They have no official to re- present them. They cannot call meet- ings as the men frequently do and take action. And the men seem to have be- come familiar with these conditions that they take it as a matter of course. Only last week I helped to get a lad out from under a fall who was com- pletely buried. I have heard people who have no connection with mines complain at the obscenity of pit-boys' language but it is the treatment meted out to them at work which causes it. E.M.

ITALIAN TRADERS I t In Welsh Mining Valleys SUNDAY OPENING MENACE 1 EFFECT UPON THE YOUNGSTERS I A casual visitor to the Rhondda police courts cannot help being struck by the numerous Antonios and Dominicos ani other Italian names which are called by the court oiffcers. Never a week and never a court goes by without the pic- turesque cognomeais, which conjure up a vision of sumny Italy, cropping up in pro- fusion. The question then arises, "What are these Italians doing in the Valley, and what bring them under the ban of the law?" The answers are to be found in every street and on every day. Throughout the Valley there are scores of Italian refreshment houses where An- I tonio serves forth cooling ices in sum- mer, warm drinks in winter, and cigar- ettes and sweetmeats at all seasons of the year. On Sunday he is as busy, in- deed, busier than on Saturday, and the sight of the crowds of youths who besiege the door and crowd -the premises gives ground for serious reflection, as to the rising generation's want of regard for the s.anctity of the Sab both. It is this Sunday trading which brings Antonio to the police court, and the cheerfulness and I regularity with which the 5s. fine and the 7s. costs a.re paid clearly indicate that j it pays him to keep his doors open on Sunday, despite the penalty he incurs thereby. SUNDAY OPENING Time was, and not so long ago, when the Italian vendor's premises were small and humble. When he ventured to open on Sunday it was with furtive glance and trembling step that the youngster wandered in. To-day this all changed. Bands of boys and young men enter the shop as confidently as then entered the chapel of old, and there they spend the Sabbath, evening in laughter, jest and feasting. The smokers (and 95 per cent. of the lads of the valley seem to be inveterate ciga-rette smokers), purchase their cigarettes, their bottle of pop or gla^&.of-j milk, their cakes and succulent ice-cream wafers. It is, perhaps, natural that the boy should spend his time and money during the week with Antonio as a just recompense for the provision for his creature wants on Sunday. And indeed the Italian dealer is wi se in his genera- tion. The boy is able to obtain in the Italian premises little luxuries which no Englishman seems to provide. There i are, for instance, the quoit and ring board and all the pleasures usually as- sociated with a church or chapel club, I and these without any restrictions. PROSPEROUS TRADESMAN The slot machine with prizes or blanks goes far to inculcate a love of gambling. Meanwhile Antonio smiles broadly and ¡' grows fat. The application of the ancient and, truth to tell, unsatisfactory Lord's Day Observance Act is to him a blessing in disguise. The poor widow struggling to maintain herself and family by the tiny I shop in an obscure street sells a half- penny candle or maybe a pennyworth of sweets on Sunday and pays the penalty which closes her door henceforth for ever on Sunday. With even her poor com- petition removed Antonio, with his well lighted and spacious premises in the main street, goes on from strength to strength. He educates his sons, pur- chases houses, invests his surplus, and in the course of comparatively few years returns to the country of his birth a prosperous gentleman. He leaves in the Rhondda our police courts and reforma- tories. ——————— ——————

Working Classes and Welsh Church Mr T. P. O'Connor, in an article en- titled "Christmas Refieetiom," deals with Christianity and democracy, and the fight against wrong without distinction of creed or race, incidentally referring to the indifference of the working classes to such a fight as that for Welsh Disestab- lishment. "It was not," he says, "until Lloyd George, with that instinct for popular appeal which is part of his re- markable genius, gave his passionate an- swer to the cry of sacrilege by his per- sonal appeal to the history of the Cecils and the other great families, whose hands as he put it, were dripping with the fat of sacrilege, that the working classes really begaii, to understand what demo- cratic issues lay behind the Welsh Church question. But the indifference essentially remained." The -reason the working classes (he continues) turn away from what they regarded as sectarian issues is that they have, though dimly and unconsciously perhaps, conceived a higher ideal of Christianity than many of the churches and chipels. And this is largely because the churches and the chapels havo lowered the Gospel of Christianity. In the Anglican Church they seo often the Christian Gospel used as a weapon to perpetuate all the class distinctions and all the. hoary privileges and monopolies that stand between the people and their national heritage. In some of the chapels they see simply a great organisation or middle-class pros- P(--rity and selfishness, and in the strife of these two great bodies they seem to think that there is nothing nobler than the jealousy of smts. I think they are but half right in that view, for, as I have said, I regard the establishment of Democracy, and by and by as one of its most powerful weapons. But they are right in thinking that the elevation of the standard of living, the obliteration of class privileges, the gospel of charity is more fundamental Christianity than the institution of bishops in one communion or of elders and deacons in the other. I I

Robert Coles, of Gloucester road, Croy- don, spent his 105th Christmas in bed on a. light diet of fish and milk. He was very gratified on receiving on Saturday a Christmas greeting card from India,, sent by the Durham Light Infantry, in which he served for fifteen years, when it was the 68th Foot. The old man also re- ceived a telegram, conveying hearty con- grat-ulations and good wishes, from the offioers and men of the regiment's home battalion. Coles expressed great hopes on Saturday of being able to get out on January 1 to draw his quarter's Army pension.

THE COST OF LIVING I Why Food Prices Must Rise I I GREATER COMPETITION I The prospect of a steady increase in food prices for several years to come is foreshadowed in some of the weekly re- views a.nd trade papers. Perhaps the most Interesting is an acticle in "The Economist," forecasting a steady rise in the price of meat. I It in pointed out that meat now ranks next to bread in the family budget, ami with the rise in the general standard of comfort has come an increase in prices. Figures are quoted which show that Scotch mutton, which is only «aten by well-to-do persons, shows a steady in- crease in value on the other hand, New ZeaJand mutton, which represents the food of the less wealthy, does not show so great an increase. Argentine beef, however, which is largely consumed by our working classes, shows a steady rise in price until the end of 1912. The fact that the growth of our popu- lation long ago outstripped the home pro- duction of meat is emphasised, and it is pointed out that during the last ten years Britain has become practically de- pendendent on Argentina for the foreign supply of beef. New Zeland is the chief source of supply for mutton, but the Ar- gentine supply is increasing. "The United States has now ceased to be a beef exporting country. The growth of her population has overtaken her pro- duction of meat, and she is now import- ing meat to a slight extent, both from the Argentine and from Australia. The Australian trade is likely to grow, as the shipping facilities across the Pacific are improving rapidly. A big 13,000 ton boat, fitted with a large amount of re- frigerating space, was placed on the Sydney- Vancouver service this year, and other boats of a. similar type will be uii ning in a year or so. American meat interests have also been turning their attention to Australia as a, source of meat supply, and are spending a. large sum of money in the erection of fre-Lin works on the Brisbane River at Pinken- bah. "Our supplies of meat from ("an;.da have almost ceased, and we are now practically dependent, as regards foreign supplies, on the Argentine for beef, and on Australia New Zealand and the Ar- gentine for mutton." Discussing the possibilities of in- creased supplies, the writer goes on to say that South Africa may become a great exporting country, but not for some years. The Argentine has by no means reached the limit of its productively, but the American Beef Trust controls a large part of the supply. There are immense possibilities for an increase in cattle rearing in Australia, but until recently the industry has been neglected owing to the counter-attrac- tion of sheep rearing. About half the beef and 80 per cent. of the mutton pro- duced in New Zealand is now exported, but there are not the same prospects of increase in New Zealand as in Australia. "From these facts it would appear that a large increase in the world's meat sup- plies could be obtained in a few years from the existing sources of supply, but it cannot be long, however, before the clamour of the working class populations of Germany, France, Belgium, and Austria-Hungary forces their respective Governments to admit the supplies of frozen meat, which are at present ex- cluded in the interests of the landed classes. This would add 150 million consumers of frozen meat, who would compete against our own 44 millions for the world's supplies. The effect on prices c ait well be imagined, and it 's almost certain that pastoralists and graziers are going to make big profits in the near future." A writer in "The Irish Homestead, in dealing with the same subject, pre- dicts that food prices are bound to go higher until they reach almost incon- ceivable figures. The current of food supply has been turned to the other side of the Atlantic. "We all remember when America was supposed to be capable of supplying the world with meat. Ontario and Quebec have been denuded of cattle. They were driven across the border into the States. Three years ago Canada sent to these islands three million boxes of cheese. This year it is down to a million and a half boxes. In three or four years the States will eat al their cheeses. New Zealand has supplied the shortage here, but New Zeland is already making con- tracts with western America, with San Francisco, its richest and nearest mar- ket. Then there is Germany, whose im- ports of food stuffs have gone up 30 per cent, in seven years." I .———————

26,000, 000 LETTERS. I POST OFFICE'S HEAVY RECORD FOR I CHRISTMAS Statistics which have been compiled to date by the post office officials re- veal the enormous work of the Christ- mas week. It is estimated that as many as 26,000,000 country letters passed through the Mount Pleasant office during the week, and that no fewer than 216,000 registered letters- showing an increase of about 2j- per cent.—were dealt with. One of the most marked features of the Christmas postal traffic was the amount of work entailed by the foreign mails both inward and outward. It is estimated that the total number of articles dispatched from England for places abroad has been over 60,000,000, which represents a gross increase over last year of roughly 7 per cent. The arrivals from India and Australia showed a total number of 2,300 bags, as compared with 2,100 last year. From the United States and Canada came 6,300 bags, as against 5,500 last Christ- mas. The Indian and Australian mail con- tained 17,400 registered letters, which constitutes a record. The Canadian mail brought 32,000 parcels, the Indian and Australian mail 13,800 parcels, while the Mauretania brought over 19,000 parcels from America. The ar- rivals from the Continent were also ex- tremely heavy. ————— ..$< .——————

W. A. WILLIAMS, Phrenologist,  can be consuhed daily at the Victoria Ar(-ad, ide-ar the Market), Swansea. WEAR MASTERS 0 S Worm Winter Clothing Style — Comfort — Satisfaction All Assured. The Largest Variety in the Dis- trict to Select from. MASTERS & Co. (CLOTHIERS), Ltd., 18 & 19 Castle Street 282 Oxford Street Swansea 3 Green Street, Neath 17 Stepney Street, Llanelly, etc. DO YOU REQUIRE A MEMORIAL STONE .——— ———— Mr W. J. Williams has a large assortment in most artistic designs, kept in stock at Tstalyfera and Ystradgynlais and Brynamman ANY DESIGN EXECUTED TO CUSTOMER'S CHOICE. ORDERS PROMPTLY ATTENDED TO. Note the Address:- W J Williams, Ystalyfera, Ystradgynlais W. J U. WVV IilIllIiaclmlIlOQ MdBrynammaa Pianoforte & Organ Tuning REPAIRS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION First Class Work, Moderate Charges PIANOS TUNED FRGM 3s.6d. JAMES TARR Compton Terrace, Ystalyfera DON'T HESITATE, BUT GET THE HABIT RIGHT NOW, AND BE IN THE CROWD BY PURCHASING YOUR — — — — Winter Costume = Goods AT THE Bradford & Manchester Warehouse Co. 12 Gower-st., SWANSEA Opposite Mount Pleasant Baptist Chapel, late 22, Waterloo Street. ALL THE LATEST DESIGNS IN TWEEDS, etc., from ls.3d. to 5s.lld. per yard. SERGE from ls.6 £ d. to 6s.lld. SILK FINISH CHIFFON VELVET in Grey, Brown, Blue and Black, Is.Ild.

DEAD-BUFFER WAGGONS. I I NOT TO BE USED AFTER END OF I YEAR I COAL TRADE AND THE CHANGE I That dead-buffer wagons will cease to be employed on the railways of the United Kingdom on December 31, has already been noted. There is naturally some discussion in South Wales as to the effect of the change upon the coal trade, as some thousands of this type of wagon have remained in service un- til the present time. It is, however, not expected that any serious inconvenience will arise, al- though there may be a temporary shortage for a little while until the wagons have been converted or re- placed. It has been known for many years that from January 1, 1914, all wagons employed on the British rail- ways must have spring buffers at both ends, and the work of converting the old type of wagons has been going on steadily, with the result that the per- centage of dead buffers is comparative- ly small, and some of the old type wagons remaining will hardly be worth converting after service! for over a quarter of a century. The amount of inconvenience to the coal trade will depend a great deal upon the state of trade at the time of the change. If the demand for coal is good and wagons are quickly re- turned from the docks to the collieries, the removal of the old wagons will not be felt, but if the demand is quiet and traffic is held up in the sidings, the withdrawal of a few hundred wagons may mean temporary stoppage at the pits.

DO YOU REQUIRE A GOOD FOUNDATION? If so, go to W.Williams&Sons Practical Boot & Shoe Makers, BANK BUILDINGS & GOUGH BUILDINGS, YSTRADGYNLAIS See Windows. Best Stock of Winter Goods in the Swansea District. Try the Globe and Moccassin Brands, GOOD FROM 8s.lld. to 13s.6d. VERY BEST FROM 16s.6d. FOOTBALL BOOTS. LEGGINGS SEE WINDOWS Holdfast Boots-The Working Man's Friend-from 8s.lld. upwards. Children's Footwear a Speciality. REPAIRS. Ladies cannot afford to neglect their foot wear. WRINKLES AND FROWNS are more often due to imperfect tight than any other cause. q If you find it necessary to partially close the eyea thut causing crow's-feet" when reading or looking at distant objects, your sight needs assistance. C. F. WALTERS F.S.M.C., F.I.O., QUALIFIED OPTIGIAN, OXFORD STREET (Nearly opposite National School) SWANSEA 't.. f" fl.. r. I" JOHNSTON FOR DUTCH BULBS AND i FLOWER ROOTS Top Quality at Moderate Prices. Catalogues Gratis and Post Free. t 27, Oxford Street, Swansea ■ ■ —— ► Telephone: 567 Centra!. ► W. A. WILLIAMS, PkrMiolagist, eaa be consulted daily at the Tieteri. Areade (near tit. Market), SWUWIW