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CONSCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE.

AN ACADEMIC RESOLUTION J -...',-I

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AN ACADEMIC RESOLUTION J After -a protracted discussion at 1 Lane-ast.er, Jlie. Miners' Federation of Great Britain passed the following re- solution:— That this ,conforence, expresses its opposition to the spirit of conscrip- tion, and. determines to exercise a vigiLant scrutiny of any proposed ex- tension of the Military Service Act. This resolution is being sent to the Districts as a recommendation, and the Districts are requested to send to the general secretary within one month their decisions concerning it. Obvious- ly the decision should be one of cordial agreement. It is the business of all Labour men to oppose th spirit of conscription, and the spirit of war, but when war is upon us we have to take whatever measures are necessary to cope with the ev-il Nor is it cus- tomary to take a bigger dose of the medicine than circumstances dictate. Compulsion is an evil, albeit a neces- sary evil. Like the Miners' Federation, we wish it were not nece-s-iarv to com- pel mineowners to adopt the Eight Hour Act or to pay a minimum wage. Perhaps in an ideal world it will not be necessary to com pel non-unionists to join the Federation. If there are, eventually, proposals to extend the present Act, we shall subject them to a vigilant scrutiny. Of course, we shall. We shall just ask ourselves whether we can beat the Germans without extending the Act. If after a vigilant scrutiny, we decide that we cannot, we shall extend it, in spite of our opposition to the spirit of con- scription. In the peaceful months of 1848, James Russell Lowell wrote a poem satirizing the recruiting sergeant and declaring Ez for war I call it murder,- There you hev it plain and flat; I don't need to go no furder, Than my Testy merit fer that! But fourteen years' later, during the American Civil War, he wrote other poems upholding the North, support- ing Lincoln's proclamation of con- scription, brushing aside sentiments that were irrelevant to the crisis and prejudicial to the common good. He reminded his fellow-citizens that the conflict was between system not parties. He .jeered at the pacifists who would hand tracts to "mad buffalo-hordes," and asked Wut's words to them whose faith an' truth On War's red techstone rang true metal, Who ventured life an' love an' youth Fur the great .prize o' death in battle? The Miners' Federation need not fear that they are betraying liberty in fol- lowing thf^ .path of James Russell Lo- well and'ftA'hn Stuart Mill. They have passed ? academic resolution for which antbMv almost, from the ex- treme pacinst' to the extreme jingo, c? vote. We believe that the Miners' Federation is one of the greatest, as it is one of the most powerful trade *It is 0 -1?l( l the wcr l d, unions.-W the world, add "e expected something better from it than a colour- less, equivocal resolution. The dele- gates would have done wiser to have accepted the Act. and made no bones about it.

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YSTALYFERA NOTES. i !

THE ROSARY" AT YSTALYFERA.

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GRUFFYDD O'R GLYN"

LOCAL PROPERTY SALE.Ii II…

DIVORCE FOR SNORERS. I

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YSTRADGYNLAIS NOTES.

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