Pioneer

SELECTION OF LABOUR CANDIDATE. I A REPLY TO A MISLEADING REPORT. I TO THE EDITOR. I Sir,—The "South Wales Daily News" of Monday. May 13th, published a fearfully muti- lated and misleading report of the Labour Con- ference held at the Docker's Hall, Port Talbot, on Saturday, May 11th, for the purpose of se- lecting a Labour candidate for the new Aber- avon Parliamentary Division. We have ad- dressed the appended letter to the Editor of the "South Wales Daily News," requesting its publication, and in order to give this official denial as wide a publicity as possibler >we earn- estly hope you will be good enough to give the attached letter prominence in the next issue of the Pioneer." Thanking you in anticipation, -We are Yours fraternally, G. T. Owns", Hy. S. BATEY, Members of the E.C. of the Aberavon Divisional Labour Party.

Miss Sylvia Pankhurst in CI j UMerthyr. DEPRESSING SPEECH IN THE RINK. The two aerations on which—previous to last Sunday—tho Merthyr I.L.P. had advertised Miss Sylvia Pankhurst to speak, And upon which inexorable circumstances had compelled her to disappoint crowded audiences by sending a deputy in her- stead, affected la,st Sunday's at- tendance at the Rink on the occasion of her third advertised visit. The audience was by no means .small, but remembering those two occa- sions when her name had packed the huge building, it was a small audience for Miss Sylvia Pankhurst. Miss Sylvia Pankhurst was herself not. the vigorous logician, and planful speaker that, we have always foilud her hitherto, and though there was much of interest in her long speech, it was a speech of patchwork frag- ments that lacked sequence and a constructive message. She opened by a reference to the Maurice letter, and declared that the com- plete victory" which had been scored by Lloyd George, according to the Tory press that backed him, was not a,t all obvious to the reader of the official report of the Debate supplied in Han- sard. This led to a survey of the secret treaties, and a recounting of the Austrian peace over- tures of last year. in which again the connec- tion of Lloyd George was emphasised. Indeed, Lloyd George did not out a very pretty figure in these opening stages, but Miss Pankhurst seems to have lost faith in all poli- ticians as well as in the Wizard of Wales." For instance, she declared that Mr. Asquith- the Liheral only alternative to Lloyd George— was no better than the present Premier; while her opinion of the good faith of Lord Lansdowno as a peace Premier was so low as to be non- existent; her reason being that he was Foreign Secretary and subsequently Minister of War at the time of the Rocr War; was the. Foreign Secretary who signed the public treaty to maintain the integrity of the Sultanate of Mor- roeco, who signed the secret treaties partition- ing Moj-rooco between Spaiii and France, and who was at the head of our Department for .Foreign Affairs when the seeds that have grown into the present war were sown. Her opinion of the noble Lord's present activities was that he was seeking to secure the Foreign Secre- tariat under the next Government so as to en- sure the continuity of the Foreign Policy that had three years a.go such ghastly and disastrous results. THE RUSStAN WAY. Having thus told us that she regarded the three orthodox party men who are looked upon as the only possible head of the British Government, as about equally undesirable from the point of view of Democracy, she proceeded to touch lightly upon the Labour Party men, whom, apparently, she found no better than the Tory blue, or the Liberal yellow, or the Coalition any. colour favourites. Altogether she WaB terribly depressing on politics, and her peace policy was equally heavy, for there is only one way to peace in her esteem, and that is the Russian way, for Sylvia is keenly enthusiastic for the Russian way, and a considerable pro- portion of her speeoh was devoted to telling us about it and the Ukraine difficulty, which she described to the difference that Russia was whole-baked Socialist, and the Ukraine half- baked Radical, her oomparison of Ukrainian politics being that they were in the stage of Mr. E. D. Morel before the war; a comparison that would have been happier omitted. ALL LLOYD GEORGES t I Foreign politicians were just as easily dealt with as our own, and President Wilson and M. Clemenceau were presented as the American and Frenoh counterpart of Mr. Lloyd George. The dutch peace emissiary, against whom Lord Robert Cecil had warned the nation, WJvs men- tioned, and the te-rms that he offere d on behalf of Germany, reproduced in Mr. Jowett's Notes last week, were characterised as about as good terms as Capitalism could offer. But they did not satisfy Miss Sylvia since they fell so lament- ably short of the Russian terms. MR. WEBB OUT OF DATE. I After that we got somewhere around the ele- ments of the Marxian Socialism and with the peculiar cheap, personal criticism that the dogma arises in some of its adherents. but which we did not expect from Miss Pankhurst, Mr. Sydney Weob was gently chid for the work which he has done for the Labour Party. Mr. Webb's methods are becoming anacliromistic these days to the sturdy new Socialists. The trouble is that Miss Sylvia had no remedy to offer to us. And her own statement that she would not vote for anyone who was not an In- ternational Socialist was about as helpful as her expression that an agreement between the soldiers on both sides would establish a just peace and remove the fea.r of invasion ie hope- ful, or as her pessimistic opinion that this was the first of a cycle of big Capitalistic wars was likely to spread joy and enthusiasm. Taken as a whole the speech struck us as being an extempore oratien far below the level of Miss Sylvia Pankhurst as we have always known her. A speech that threaded complex mazes of diplomatic intrigue only to come out with a. poisoned distrust of everyone, and not enlightened by anything more substantial than vague hopes and nebulous programmes. There was one innovation that we hope marks a real new beginning amongst the I.L.P. women of Merthyr. We had for the first time a female chairman, and Mrs. R. Davies, to whom fell this honour, did wonderfully well in the position, making a fine appeal to the ladies to "join up" so that they might learn how to conscientiously and intelligently use tho fran- chise that had now been given to them.

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A Handful of Pamphlets I PRODIGIOUS OUTPUT OF MARX CENTEN- ARY MONOGRAPHS. Karl Marx, His Life and Teaching," oy Zelda Kahan Goates, a Centenary commemoration pamphlet. B.S.P., 2d. Marx and Modern Capitalism," by J. T. Wal- ton Xewbold, LA, B.S.P., 2d. Solidarity Amongst the Shipowners," by J. T. Walton Newbold, M.A., with a foreword by Tom Mann. Reformers* Bookstall, Glasgow, 2d. War or Revolution," bv Leon Trotsky. S.L.P., 3d. If we had to thank Marx for nothing else, we should owe him a. debt for the wonderful way in which the Centenary of his birth has stimu- lated our press these last few weeks, and that despite the difficulties of obtaining paper that press in particular upon the Socialist presses of the country. As I look back over that sentence I realise how Irish it is, for if we had had to thank him for nothing else there would have been nothing to thank him for now, for there would have boon nothing in his centenary to celebrate, b11 t Irish or not it will do as well as another to introduce this paragraph. I wrote I some fortnight ago about the excellent little biography and summary of the Marxian theory that the Glasgow Plebs had published from the pen of A. E. Cook, and the "Pioneer" of that week was scarcely on tho machines before Zelda. Kohan-C/oates' monograph on the same themes arrived from the B.S.P. Office. In a clear, readable style that we can heartily commend Miss Kahan-Coates cleverly works her outline of .Marxian doctrine into the biographical struc- ture of her story in its proper place. It is the sincere work of a.n earnest foltower of Marx, and its weaknesses, such few as they are, are .the weaknesses of ardent disciples-hip, that will be readily forgiven by all the readers of this little pamphlet who enter into the spirit in which it was executed. • NEWBOLD'S NEW ISSUES. j J Simultaneously them arrived two new produc- tions from the pen of the indefatigable Walt-on Nerwbold. In Marx and Modern Capitalism" (B.S.P.)-whieh is excellent as a follow-up to "Karl Marx, his Life and Teaching" just noticed above,—Walton Newbold takes up the Materialist Conception and proves it from his own investigations into the Iron and kindred trades. In a style slightly more narrative than is usual with Mr. New bold, he follows the lines of Boudin in Socialism and War," only giving us definite IJamcs and faet" relative to the deadly clutch of the iron and steel magnates and the transportation lords, where the great Americ-an works out his theories on broader ab- stractions on the consolidation of Capital and its necessary outcomes. THE SHIPOWNERS. I In his second pamphlet, Solidarity Amongst the Shipowners (Reformens' Bookstall)—of which Tom Mann in his foreword declares that in it is to be found Mich an abundance of high explosive ammunition as will enable all to be immensely more effective than we possibly could be witho'ut it "—our author returns to his old style of reciting names and facts in a form that does not make for easy reading to-the average man. I am the last person in the world to dis- count the importance of the work that Newbold is so singularly assiduous in collecting and pre- senting, but I find that the presentation is not easy, whilst its utility is more valuable to the student than the general reader, who does not want to be bothered with an investigation into iron and steel, or shipping in order to compre- hend the concentration of Capital, and the tre- mendous powers that go with the control of key industries, and means of communication by a relatively small circle of financiers. Coal—Iron and Steel—(especially Armaments)—railways— shipping, this pamphlet shows how inter-related are all these, and the moral is to point out how enormously the economic and political power of the capitalist class, has been enhanced by the ?woi-l<i-ii-ide industrial unionism of the fhipown- ing and railway magnaws. The fourteenth page is particularly interesting since it deals largely with South Wales interests, and the as- sociation of P. H. Thomas—nephew of Lord Rhondda—with the shipping octopus. R-onghly summaxised Mr. Newbold reduces the great group of shipowners in Britain to five, and then further reduces these to two: the Cunard- P. & O.-R.M.S.P.-Ellerman group and the Furness-Withy interests. an ideal illustration of the con cent rati on of capital, that will be very effective to Socialist lecturers, to whom in particular we commend the volume. Walton would reap more credit for his achievements if he would cultivate in his economic writings the romantic storyteHervein that, he undoubtedly possesses if one may judge from the Author's Note." In this note Walton tells us how he collected his information, and his touch here is that of the best school of detective fiction when, after telling us of the capitalist sources from which he has culled his facts, he adds "checked and supplemented by a careful reading of brass plates on office entrances, name-plates on wa.g- gons, and by other uses of a certain faculty of observation. I like that, and wish that t-liat art of conjuring up a vivid little monochrome of a Socialist sleuth trailing wagons, and seniti- nsing back-stair office doorways, had been ex- tended to the body of the work. LEON TROTSKY'S SOCIALISM. I But the best and most scholarly work of all is Leon Trotsky's "War or Revolution" (S.L.P.) in which the Commissary of the Russian Peo- ple's Government admirably cites the experi- ences of Democratic history internationally to trace the development and antagonisms of Socialism land Capitalistic Imperialism. Says -,t i c Imp?ei- i a l l,,ni. Saya Trotsky, The whole globe, land and sea has become one economic workshop, the differ- ent parte of which are inseparably connected with each other. The present war is at bot- tom a revolt of the forces of production against the political form of nation and state. It means the collapse of the national state as an independent economic unit. The nation must continue to exist as a cultural, ideologic and psychological fAct, but its economic foundation has been pulled from under its feet. The real objective significance of the war is the breakdown of the present national economic centres, and the substitution of a world economy in its stead." Hence, the outcome of the struggle is that the victorious great power shall become the World Power of Capitalist Imperial- ism. This struggle has led the nations into a chaos the most prodigious in history. Tho first wave of events rallied the peoples around i national governments and armies, with an en- thusiasm hitherto unknown to history, but equally, the revolutionary reaction of the masses will be the more powerful, "the more prodi- gious the cataclysm which history is now bring- ing upon them." Not, national aspiration but imperialist interest, it is argued, has mobilised 2o million soldiers on the field of battle, but in the pot has boiled out all the unsolved political racial problems of the past. Ii Tn these historical circumstances the work- ing-class, the proletariat, can have no interest in defending the outlived and antiquated na- tional "Fatherland," which has become the main obstacle to economic development. The task of the proletariat is to create a far more powerful fatherland with far greater power of resistance—the Republican United Spates of Europe, as the foundation of a United St.aM! of the World. The only way in which the proletariat can meet the imperialistic perplexity of Capitalism is by opposing to it, as a practical programme of the day the Socialist organisation of world economy. War is the method by which Capitalism, at tho climax of its development seeks to .solve its insoluble contradictions. JDo this method the proletariat must oppose its own netbod. the method of the social revolu- tion." This is briefly the text upon which Trotsky preaches his sermon, and lie preaches it won- derfully powerfully. It will be seen that the basis of Trots ky's Socialism is the class division and consciousness that will give reality and co- hesion to our International professions, and that will engender the growth of tho revolution- ary spirit, that. has flared up in history so fre- quently oflly to burn itself out ineffectively because under ite, ideology has not been a snffi- t cientlv practical programme, based upon a re- cognition of fundamental facts in social and economic evolution. The collapse of the second Intel-national is diio to the fact that "ortho- dox" Socialism had become ingrained in the national states, which economics had outgrown. The crash of the nationalist state, brought down the national Socialist parties also. But the watchword "Immediate Stoppage of the War" is one around which Socialism may reassemble its scattered ranks. A Socialism with a. real jnter- national consciousness, and an international tional econoimc policy.

Theatre Royal I :\l.'fi}1t.i('lpatioÎl with respect 10 the welcome extended by Theatre Royal audl?mt? to 1(. Armitage and Leigh on their return nSlt has been more than justified. Enthusiastic soenes have greeted the appearance of Louis Hecftor and his clever confreres each evening—calls being made at the close of each act, and as many as four and five curtains being called for at the close of each performance. And they have deserved it all, for there is noT. a company on the road that possesses the all-round artistic merit of this happy combma.tion. Ev-ery player is An artiste and every artiste is not only a star, but a star that twinkles just right to give homogeniety to the work they handle. Ability is next to useless without a sense of proportion; balance is the secret of true inter- pretation. and it is in proportioned balance that the real strength of the Armitage and Leigh Company lies. Great as is Louis Hector, his .greatness would be wasted were it not. that his greatness is properly set.—a^ a good jewel should be—by the sparkle of those who surround him, and the result is a flawless piee*> of work that does honour to the company, and credit to the author. The result is what it cannot help being, big houses that are carried away with enthn-* siasm that enter really into the life of Luckv Dnrlulm." that, thrill to his great Socialistic common-sense declamations and that feel the glowing transport of his final grea t. deuunoia- tion. There is not an artiste who does not de- mand long and praiseful notice, and I hope be- fore their threes-week stay is out to find space to treat- of the niiin features of the work A the individual members. In the meantime I counsel all my readers to set, two nights a we" k from now on to the Theatre Royal. From •to- night, Thursday, to the end of the week Henry Arthur Jones' Hypocrites will take tiio place of Lucky Durham," in my opinion an- other instance of saving the best wine to the- latter end of the week. Though better wine still is to be served from Monday to Thursday of next. week in The Lion and the Mouse," and an equally sparkling brand is announced for the ultimate half of next week when the company is to present Rex Beache's great book "The Barrier," a play that for intense situa- tions, great themes and opportunities for ar- tistic rendition—gives not, a jot to its three great predecessors. There is a probability of an entirely new production during the third week. PLAYGOER. <

[COPY.] [COPY. ABERAVON DIVISION. I Candidate Selection Scene. TO THE KTHTOli; SOUTH WALES D.VI1.Y NEWS." I Sir,—Under the above heading there appeared in the "South Wales Daily News" on Monday last a lengthy report and interview with Mr. William Jenkins, the miners' agent, with refer- ence to the conference of Labour organisations held a.t the Dockers' Hall, Port Talbot, on Saturday, the Lith inst., for the purpose of selecting a Labour candidate for the now Aber- avon Parliamentary Division. The report re- ferred to is so misleading and contains so many inaccuracies that we trust you will permit us to correct some of tho many mis-statements. The Conference did not, as your report suggests, "End in a fiasco." The untoward incident which induced Mr. William Jenkins to leave the Conference followed by a small band of re- presentatives of a section of the minors' lodges was an exhibition of heroics which does not re- flect very great, credit upon Mr. Jenkins. And when your correspondent implies that because of this the Conference ended in a fiasco, he throws voracity to the four winds. Mi-. Robert Williams is not, as your report suggests, associated with the Transport Workers' Union of Swansea. No such trade union organisation exists, Mr. Williams is general secretary of the National Transport Workers' Federation—a huge organization com- prising a multitude of trade unions catering for all classes of labour engaged in transport work. Ostensibly to belittle the support behind Mr. Williams' nomination your report tersely sug- gests that Mr. Williams was the nominee of the Independent Labour Party. Such perverse statements in a report are obviously inspired, and in order that the public may form a more reliable idea of the support given to Mr. Wil- liams' nomination we give below the names of some of the trade unions who nominated the general secretary of the Transport Workers' Federation a.s Labour candidate for tho Aber- avon Constituency. They are as follows: All branches of the National Union of llailwaymen, all branches of the Dockers' Union, all branches of the Steel-Smelters' Union (after Mr. Percy Cole withdrew), all lodges of the Miners' Feder- ation outside the Afan District, the Amal- i gamated Society of Engineers, the Class Teachers, tho Municipal Employees, the Cor- poration Workers' Union, and several other smalk-r trade union societies. It will be observed that we have purposely withheld the names of the Co-operative Socie- ties, the I.L.P. branches and kindred associa- tions, and mentioned only the purely trade- union organizations. This we think is a suffi- ciently effective reply to Mr. Jenkins' undigni- fied and utterly untrue statement that confer- once was dominated by an insignificant fraction of Labour strength in the division. It may I also be interesting to observe that the only trade union support behind Mr. Jenkins was the miners' lodges sitxxated in the Afan Valley (and not all of them), and a small number of branches of the Tin and Steel Millmen's Asso- ciation. The incident which led up to the departure of a section of the miners from the conference is also grossly exaggerated. The only miners' delegates to leave were those representing lodges in the Afan District. After their de- parture the chairman invited the remaining miners' delegates to vote sectionally in order to ascertain the exact number of miners I lodges still represented. The tellers reported that there were sifill 38 miners' delegates present representing every miners' lodge in the consti- tuency outside the Afan Valley and two lodges within the Afan Valley, viz.: Tormynydd and Argoed lodges. The recital of these official facts therefore shows how unreliable and misleading is your re- port when it is suggested that the whole of the miners' delegates left the conference. It is true that Mr. Jenkins' supporters endea- voured to raise a discussion upon the question of a ballot, but conference had decided by an overwhelming majority to carry out the pro- cedure laid down by the National Labour Party. In face of such a decision the chairman would have landed himself into a whirlpool of difficul- ties had he permitted such a discussion to take place. The proposal was entirely out of order and the feeling prevailing at the conference was opposed to re-opening tlfe question. We deeply regret to notice the veiled attempt 111 the report to belittle the chairman of the Divisional Labour Party. Mr. Jos. Branch is a well-known figure in Labour circles in this district. As an official of the Dockers' Union he commands a great deal of confidence and respect. For many years ho has been a mem- ber of the Briton Ferry Urban District Coun- cil, and has occupied the position as chairman of the Council. When he was elected as chair- ivan of the Divisional Labour Party he re- ceived the unanimous support of the' whole of the trade union societies including the miners' lodges in the Afan Valley district. The statements made by Mr. William Jenkiife in the course, of an inrterview with your repre- sentative call for brief comment. The divisional Executive Committee had a lengthy consulta- tion with Mr. Jas. Wignal, J.P., and Mr. Arthur Peters (national organiser) who repre- sented the National Labour Party. Mr. Jen- kins was not present at this meeting, and the misleading statements he made to your repre- sentative of what took place at this private consultation is, to say the least, amazing. BotJ) Messrs. Wignal and Peters in a subsequent ad- dress to the delegates poured ridicule upon the suggestion of a ballot The Labour Party," declared Mr. Peters, "anticipated running be- tween 300 and 400 Labour candidates at the rext General Election, and if every constitu- ency whose geographical boundaries were al- (Continued at foot of next oolumn).

tered by the passing of the new Reform Bill demanded a ballot, they %■ould not only be un- prepared with their candidate by the next elec- tion but he had grave doubts whether they would be ready even by the following General Election. He was a firm believer in Democracy but Kurelv this proposal was Democracy run mad. Just one other point in conclusion. Mr. Jen- kins' irrelevant outbursts about being dragged at the heels of pacifists and pro-Germans is re- grettable. That he should deem it dignified and honourable to throw mud at those who have patiently laboured to frame a constitution amenable to all sections of the Labour Move- ment is an exhibition of pique unworthy of one who jjp a public man of many years standing, who th: pretends to be anxious to consolidate the forces of Labour both industrially and politicaUy.-Thanking you in anticipation,- we are, yours, etc., G. T. OWEN, Hy. 8. BATEY, Members of the E.C. of the Aberavon Divisional Labour Party. Port Talbot, May 14th, 1918.