Pioneer

Confusing The Jury." I CORONER AND A MERTHYR RAILWAYMAN A serious conflict in evidence at an inquest held at Merthyr on Saturday upon a cleaner, Wilfred Davies, of Caradog-street, who was found dead a.t the Great Western Railway Shunting Yard, led to severe criticism by the coroner CHr. R. J. Rhys) of a witness, Henry- Alfred Addicott, a locomotive foreman, who was in charge of an engine by which the dead lad was believed to have been struck. Two witnesses, David Thomas Abraham and William Lewis, both cleaners, stated that the engine when Davies got off the foot-plate, was on a line which was immediately next to the pot near the sand-house, where the boy's body was discovered, whilst Addicott and a cleaner, Trevor Rees, declared that the engine was an- other" road" about ten yards away. Dr. Ernest Ward, who conducted a post- mortem examination, stated that the liver was ruptured, one lung completely torn off its at- tachments, and seven ribs fractured. In his opinion the young fellow must have received a heavy blow on the back of the right chest and most probably was struck by the connecting-rod of the engine. Commenting upon the evidence, the Coroner said it was perfectly obvious that the boy was struck by the locomotive engine and equally plain was it, too, that the witnesses. Addicott and Rees, were trying to confuse the jury and were not telling the truth. Turning to Addicott Mr. Rhys added: Wo are willing to believe this boy was killed acci- dentally. No one believes for a moment it was any wilful act upon your part or that it was due to carelessness. But there was nothing at all-no other traffic in the vicinity—to kill the boy but your locomotive. Addiccrtt: I am innocent. The Coroner rejoined there was nothing to -be guilty of, but (he declared) Addicott had tiiTed to cover himself up. Add-icott- No, I didn't. Coroner: You have, my dear man. It is as plain as the nose on your face. You have tried) to cover it up, and you have not told the truth. I am very sorry to have to say it. "Accidental death was the verdict returned. The jury also expressed dissatisfaction with the evidence of Addicott and Roes.

t. The Easter Conference Evehy delegate to Leicester this week must have felt strongly how inadequate words are to convey a fair unpression of the Annual Confer- ence of the I.L.P. as we have had it this, year. There has been a spirit. present that .eludes graphic expression, a spirit diametrically op- posed to the surface appearance of sloth which only led us to the second, page of the N.A.C. proposals on platform and sonstitution by the end of Monday's sitting, and left that bulky volume of resolutions and recommendations to be crowded into the short five hours or so of Tuesday. But to measure conference by this standard of progress would be quite unfair, and if a critical analysis of the discussions on the N.A.C. Report, and its outcroppings that so crowded the two sittings of Monday leaves a feeling of dissatisfaction over the vague generali- ties, some big, vital proolems opened that will re-echo in several forthcoming Easter gather- ings ere they are formulated in that clear-cut language that everyone of us would like to hear when our policy, principles and platform are ut- tered. One essential that we have to bear in mind in looking back over what has been done, is the fundamental one thaw-he I.L.P., as the premier Socialist propagandist body of the King- dom, has drawn to itself Socialists of every school of thought, from the ultra-Radical, whose idealistic Socialism has drawn its inspiration from the heart and its economics from anywhere amongst the orthodox economists, to the, con- vinced Marxian, who has based its Socialism on the doctrine of the "Critique" and "Das Capi- tal" in economics, and found its philosophic school in the monistic works of Josef Dietzgen. Our ranks contain many battalions, and those battalions, united on the common platfprm of ultimate realisation of the Socialist (Common- wealth, have not been, and are not, without marked differences of opinion on the best prac- ticable means of furthering that end which wo all have in common. Nay, further than that, we have even had, and still have, divergencies of opinion as to the expediency of certain acts and moves that loom large on the horizon of the present and the immediate future. With a very essential one the Conference concerned it- self in its discussion centring around the ques- tion of our representation on the Executive of the Labour Party, and the decision to nominate Fred Jowett was in our opinion a sane and sound one. Another mixed question, which, un- fortunately did not coagulate into anything more definite than an open generality was that ef the attitude of the party to the rapid rise of the industrial social-consciousness, and the part that the Socialist organisations, as such, must play in the immediate future of the indus- trial movements of Democracy in this nation. Here again there is a. clash of opinion inside the party, and if the view be taken that the imme- diate task is to preserve the unity of the party, whilst leaving considerable freedom of ,scope to individuals and branches to shape the course of events and activities as individual consciousness or local circumstances determine, then the some- what hazy definition that was accepted may be taken as satisfactory for t-he moment, and the deeper question left to develop itself for twelve months, when, undoubtedly, it will be re-intro- duced for discussion. At the same time, it must be recognised .that this is no settlement, and one is sorry that neither Ramsay Macdonald nor any of the GuTTd Socialists took advantage of the opportunity to offer words of guidance or advice that might have helped to oring the ques- tion into a clearer atmosphere than the fog which at present .seems to envelop it. We have never shared the view that the conversionss from war-weariness and mere agreement on some humanitarian points of practical policy constitute suiffcient evidence of intelligent Socialism to allow of prognostication, all too common, that the years following the war are to be followed by an InHux of conscious Social- ists. We rather fancy that social memory in the past has been all too apt to survey past crises in the spirit of humorous optimism. The ?ty.t(l days of the cotton famine must have pre- sented Lancashire with an economic horror as bad almost as the present holocaust to many of the workers, yet hundreds of people who lived and sutiered in those days learned to be proud I of their experiences, and to boast of them, and never paused to draw an economic social moral from their experience. A long strike such as we have known in South Wales, is within two or three years of its ^termination remem bered w-itn joy, though its immediate evils must have engendered a pessimism soul-depressing in its darkness. The food shortage which to-day brings curses from the men and furrows the forehead of the housewife with the wrinkles of care, will he recalled with quips and laughs when it is a mere memory there is no more guarantee that the soldier who returns will he a. Socialist or Pacifist than there is justification for a contention that all those who suffered the horrors of Sevastopol joined the old S.D.P. In- deed, the facts were otherwise. There is one series of events that may make Socialists by the hundreds of thousands, and that series are purely economic. The introduction of superior methods of management and production, the breaking down of the old craft barriers, the in- troduction of women into industry, and the con- solidation of Capital, are probably going to prove the graveyards of much that we have re- garded as stable. Trades Unionism is bound to be seriously effected by the intensification of the competition of labourers in the Labour market, and from that competition will come a hetter class-consciousness that may run amok unless it be educated in advance and guided aright when it arises. It is for this reason that many felt that a. clear determination of our part, in this task of education and guidance needed preceding by a clearer definition of the Party's attitude towards Trades Unionism, so that national unity might be secured in the aims, if not in the methods employed. As it is, the present position has merely served to intro- duce the question, and not to solve it. While this question will demand vigorous attack on the political field, it is in its essence an economic problem incapable of solution by less than a readjustment of the economic relationships ob- taining between the classes, reIationshipR deter- mined not by legislative enactment, but by the ?'hard rules of the market, rendered still harder by the financial needs of the nation brought to the verge of bankruptcy. In that readjustment the industrial associations of the workers will be called upon to play a, leading part, and we as the Intelligent ia of Democracy should be for- tified with an unanimous polity of immediate action conjointly with those industrial associa- tions. Still the question has been opened, and its intensification is as certain as anything can be, and we can still hope to move so much more rapidly than the mass of the workers tha/t we shall "be in a position to offer effective- educa- tion, adTice and guidance when it is called for.

Political Notes By F. W. Jowett, M.P. AN OPTIMISTIC LORD. I LQrd Deverhuime is of opinion that the war might take from three to four years more, but, even so, lie will have no peace with an unde- feated Germany. However long the war lasts ?t,h(, head of the great soap combine says there must be no conference with Gennans to arrange peace terms. As to the probable cost in British lives—not to mention the total cost in human life, irrespective of nationality—if the war is to go on until one side or the other is able to dic- tate the conditions of peace, Lord Leverhulme has not ta ken the trouble to express an opinion so faT as the public is aware, but, he has ven- tured to forecast the probable cost in terms of money. I think lie has ventured to predict that the national debt of this country will probably amount to no less than £ 10,000.000,000. But he doesn't care how big our debt may be." The profits of his soap combine are colossal and he is not afraid-if only the workers will put their shoulders to the wheel and produce more instead of conscripting wealth as they talk of doing. Levei- Brothers' shareholders are cre- dited with a net profit of £1,2,11,000 this year, i an increase of £ 234.(XX) on last year's record. MR. ASQUITH WORRIES. I Unlike Lord Leverhulme, Mr. Asquith does I caro how big our debt may be." Mr. Asquith believes that the size of the debt will dominate [everything. The country will be confronted after the war with something more than a spectre in the shape of a debt when the war ends. It will be a reality, and Mr. Asquith is [ worrying about it already. The lawyer poli- tician and the super-Capitalist profiteer are, however, agreed on one point, which is that the worker will have to work harder to pay the in- terest on the debt. A cheerful prospect this is for the soldiers who return home. FABRICATION OF CREDIT. And what is the nature of this debt which the worker is expected to produce more in order to pay interest on it? Bankers have pretended to advance money, millions at a. time, to the Gov- ernment. but the only exchange between the two parties—the Banlts and the Government— has been an exchange of paper, a fabrication of credit. The Bank in such transactions gives nothing but a permission to the Government to spend, which permission the Government does not require. Not a single depositor in the Bank has a penny less to his credit after the Bank has carried out the transaction. The Bank shareholders hand no money over to the Govern- ment. They, too, lend nothing. All that has happened when the transaction has been carried through is that the Bank officials have made' en- tries in their books creating a credit in favour of the Government on the unnecessary authority of which the- Government proceeds to print "John Bradbury s" and issue treasury notes. On the Bank credits so created the people are expected to pay interest. For this purpose the workers, according to notions- of Lord Lever- hulme and Mr. Asquith, must in future produce more. A very beautiful sc heme, but it witJ not ii ork. The burden has ljecome too big to be tucked away. The proposed fraud is too colossal. OUR CONFERENCE. I The I.L.P. Conference at Leicester has proved a great, disappointment y> the yellow press. One of the local papers of that colour published let- ters protesting against the Conference being hold in the town of Leicester, and the editor of the paper in question backed up the writers with a distinct incitement to disorder. "We are no advocates of disorder," ?M.i?d the editor of the "Leicester Mail," "but we dc?lar? without equivocation that it is a pnHic insult w Leices- t,qij.jvoe.t-ion that, Lt is a pijblie lmsii lt to Loices- in this hour of t,rial. If those who feel deeply on the matter .showed their resentment in an emphatic manner it would be neither surprising nor reprehensible." The response of the people of Leicester was that ahout, 4.0Q0 of them as- sembled on Sunday morning in the Do Montfort Hall to hear the I.L.P. speakers. and about the same iiiiiiilicr ifie evening meeting on the same d,.iN-. kt neither of these meetings was there any si^n of opposition, but. on the contrary, hoth meetings were most enthusiastic and manifested their complete approval of the object of the meetings. LlCHNOWSKY SUB-EDITED. I At the first of the two demonstrations men- tioned above Mr..Macdonald dealt with the re- cently published memorandum of Prince Lich- nowsky, a groat deal has been made of this memorandum by the opponents to peace by ne- gotiation. but it is necessary to state that with one or two exceptions the press has published only selected passages from the memorandum. One of the omitted passages a state- ment To the effect that when the ultimatum to So-via was delivered by Austria the "Standard." 'tria tii Stan d ard. a. well-known London newspaper that lias since changed hands was always in low water and apparently was paid by the Austrian?. This is interesting, for at that time the "Standard was carrying on a violent campaign against Socialists in this country. So apparently Aus- trian money helped to pay for that particular anti-Socialist stunt. FUNNY. According to their nationality the war party in each country denounce or praise such men as Lichnowsky, Morel, Romain Rolland and other criticsj.of their respective governments. Each is regarded as a traitor by the war party in their own country, and as noble and disinter- ested men who suffer for their fideltv to the truth by the war parties of enemy nations. This makes the position of all such men extremely difficult, and it is flll tii-o more creditable to- them that they do not bow their heads to the violent storm of opposition directed against them. All the same, one marvels at t,he blind- ness of the people to the perfectly obvious game played in each country to discredit their own critics whilst making the fullest possible use of critics in the enemy camp. Prince Lichnowsky, for instance, is denounced as a traitor by the Junker press in Germany, but, for the time being, he is the one honest man to be found in all Germany according to the British Jingo press. In both countries, also, extracts only of what has been written or said, carefully selected, are quoted in order to heighten the effect and produce the intended result. ALEX M. THOMPSON. Tli-c- first day's proceedings at the Conference were the subject of most misleading comment by the Speciad Correspondent of the "Daiiv Mail." I regret that Mr. A. M. Thompson, who hap- pens to have been the special correspondent of the "Daily Mail on the occasion referred to, should have given such a misleading report. of the Conference to any newejjaper. He stated, for instance, that the Chairman's bitter in- cidental reference to Mr. Henderson's Labour Party was explained in a later debate on the reconstruction of that organisation." The fact is that the Chairman made no reference at all to Mr. Henderson's Labour Party, bitter or otherwise. A MIS-STATEMENT. Mr. Thompson also reported that the I.L.P. executive proposes to admit outsiders like Dr. Lynch to the party. Yet Mr. Thompson was present and heard the position explained with regard to Dr. Lynch, which is that although Dr. Lynch has become a mem ber of one of the branches of the I.L.P. the Executive have not had anything at all to do with his admission to membership of the branch concerned. The I.L.P. Executive has not been called upon to decide whether Dr. Lynch is eligible or not sim- ply because no one has challenged his admission in the manner provided for according to the rules of the pa.rty. ANOTHER. The two examples I have given of the mis- leading effect of MT. Thompson's report of the I.L.P. conference by no means exhaust the list, nor are they the most important one; Far w orse is the statement that the conference ex- citedly discussed whether the I.L.P. should re- main attached to the Labour Party tinder such conditions, but finally decided to do .so by 312 votes to 74." The fact is that from the begin- ning ro the end of the Conference no proposal was made and no discussion took place re- biting to the question of withdrawal of the I.L.P. from the Labour Party. The conference did discuss a proposal to refrain from nominating an I.L.P. candidate for election to the Labour Party Executive under the recently adopted sys- tem of electing the Labour Party Executive. This is a very different thing from severing the attachment between the I.L.P. and the Labour Party, and it is difficult to understand how Mr. Thompson, who is specially recommended to the renders of the Daily Mail" as "The well- known writer on Labour Topics," came to con- fuse the difference between the two things. If Mr. Thompson was uncertain he could easily have made enquiries; and ascertained the true position, but the references in the official report of the National Administrative Council to the matter are so definite that a maji of Mr. Thomp- son's experience might have been expected to have known the difference without enquiry. I „ make these remarks with great regret. kol- Mr. Thompson is an old friend, whose tolerante and fairness to those who differed with his views al- ways impressed me during the years when we met regularly, "and for whom I always enter- tained feelings of great respect.

S.L.P. Conference at Glasgow MR. TOM BELL AND THE GROWTH OF SOCIALISM. Mr. Tom Bell, of Glasgow, presided at the opening of the annual conference of the revolu- tionary Socialist Labour Party at Glasgow. There were delegates from all over the country. The large industrial centres were represented and a good number of delegates hailed from the Clyde, which is the stronghold and headquarters of the S.L.P. The Chairman drew attention to the rapid progress which the Socialist Labour Party had made during the past twelve months. Unlike the other sections of the Labour movement, the S.L.P. gathered strength by its adherence to the principles of revolutionary Socialism. The influence of the party was not measured by the, fact that its membership had doubled since last conference; the real influence of the S.L. P. Jay i in its power as an educational force. The S.L.P. had conducted an active anti-mili- tarist agitation during the past year. Since [last November the party had carried on a virile propaganda against the war, hand in hand with the Russian wing of the S.L.P., the Bolsheviks. While Labour leaders of the sentimental type were repudiating the Bolsheviks, this conference would be asked to pass a resolution congratu- lating the revolutionary Socialists of Russia for their heroic stand. The S.L.P., continued the Chairman, had just finished a most active winter's work on the educational field. The party had assisted in the conducting of educational classes in every part of the oountry. These classes, which produced well-trained propagandists, had enrolled thou- sands of students. In the large works classes were conducted, and very soon the students would place their training in Social Science at the disposal of revolutionary Socialism. FUTILITY OF SECTIONALISM. In conclusion. Mr. Bell contended that the British workers were rapidly realising the futil- ity of sectional trade-unionism which divided La- bour. Up and down the country the wage- earners were learning the true meaning of the solidarity of Labour. Industrial Unionism was becoming more popular every day. For ten long year* the S.L.P. had advocated the need t'or Industrial Unionism and now in the Clyde area alone there were thousands of industrial unionists who realised that social reconstruction was only possible by the workers themselves con- ducting the. industries of the country on behalf of the community. That was the new aim of Labour and was a revolutionary aim. No form of persecution by the Government would hold back the growth of Socialism. The movement seemed to spread exactly in the same measure an the Government sought, to impose restrictions upon it. The Chairman asked the conference to register its protest against the deportation of Comrade Sbammcs, the Secretary to the Bolsheviks Con- sul in Scotland. Believing as they did that the Bolsheviks were the Russian counterpart of the S.L.P., the delegates would enter their protest against such deportations.

I JAS. WINSTONE PROPAGANDIST. Advantage has been taken of the visit of our Comrade Jias. Winstone to Leicester to utilise him as a propagandist. On Sunday he and Mr. McCarthy (Leicester) were the principal speakers at Coalville, and later in the week ho addressed a big meeting 8Jt Hinckly.