Pioneer

Have the Surface Workers been Duped A CRITISICM OF THE NEW ACREEMENT? BY A VICTIM. Signs are not wanting that the now agreement entered into between the South Wales Miners' Federation and the Ooalowners with regard to the hours of sun ace workers and Craftsmen is giving rise to expressions of keen disappoint- ment. From the inception of the agitation the Miners' Executive unmistakably conveyed the impression to surface workers that they would 'insist upon an agreement which conceded to all surface workers precisely the same hours as those workmen handling coal on the pit surface. At the conferences of the coalfield convened for the purpose of discussing this question a similar impression was created. Vernon Hartshorn, writing in the columns of the ''South Wales Daily News left no doubt in the minds of the workmen that it was intended to resolutely de- mand hours of lahour similar to those enjoyed by workmen handling coal. A RUDE SHOCK. The publication of the new agreement, 11ow-1 ever, comes as a rude shock to those who cher- ished the hope that these promises were going to he fulfilled. Who gave the Executive Com- mittee power to agree to the inclusion of a clause in the agreement Tsliich hopelessly de- stroys the very basic principle of the eight-hour day ? Certainly not the surface workers and craftsmen. It is in no way surprising, then, that the terms of the agreement are causing general dissatisfaction and a lack of confidence in 11-ie Executive. Impartial observers will readily appreciate the justification for such a regrettable aftermath. One of the clauses in the new agreement provides: "The arrange- ment for the division of hours shall be those of the workmen handling coal but the hours shall be varied in the case of workmen who may be required to work either earlier or later than the men handling coal." A loosely-worded clause similar to the fore- going enables the employing interests to "play the hear with the spirit of the agreement. It is open to a very wide interpretation. It has been readily seized upon by colliery officials to frente a variety of proposals for the commence- ment and completion of overlapping shifts. We hear of one section of men asked to commence vork at 7 a.m., another section at 8 a.m., and vet a third at 9 a.m. And this forsooth at the ;a.m(> collieryf And who can dispute the right of the management imj>osijig these ridiculous hours since the agreement provides that the hours shall be varied in the case of workmen who may be required to work either earlier or fater than the men handling coal? AN INIQUITOUS CLAUSE. The whole of the South Wales Coalfield is seething with discontent since the full meaning this iniquitous clause has been revealed. Lurking behind the ridiculous overlapping shift the colliery companies can easily discover ex- cuses for making still further inroads into the spirit of the agreement. If this clause is al- lowed to stand what is there to prevent the ar- rangement of hours imposing upon the majority of surface workers and craftsmen the obligation of commencing the shift, say at 8.30 a.m. ? The surface workers and craftsmen have been duped. Tt is time they woke up, solidified their forces ;)nd offered unrelenting opposition to the new agreement until this pernicious clause is re- moved.

The 1 heatre Royal I I took my kiddies to see "Aladdin "at the Royal this week, and I am not sure whether they or I enjoyed ourselves most. I am quite aware that there are weaknesses in the company, hut the; are rather weaknesses of organisation than of caste, and they are not quarter so marked as A he remarks I had heard about the,town had led me to expect. It is about time that some of those playgoers whose experience does not trans- cend an occasional visit to Cardiff ceased to pose as oracles, and enjoyed shows that are enjoy- able instead of adopting the attitude of carping c ritics. Few provincial pantos, this year will get ahead of "Aladdin, with its excellent principal boy in Gertip Cordon, its channillg little princi- pal girl Louie Lester, sweet Evelyn Zonie as Pekoe, and a good strong company of come- dians including Harry Sheard as the "Widow Twankey." The specialities are very good. By the way, J noticed that the heating apparatus has been overhauled and the warmth is grateful after the stormy streets. Next week wo are to have the strong American play that has just crossed the Atlantic Betty's Mother." played by a Will Glaze Company—a certain guarantee of the exceHence of the stag- ing and stafSu?. I notice that the title part has fallen to Ada Champion, and I am at a loss as to who should be first congratulated: Will Glaze in securing the services of the brilliant protean, or Miss Champion on finding a part so -idmirablv suited to her -fi-t. PLAYGOEK. J

I CORRESPONDENCE. I The Attack on Coun. Parry. I I HIS REPLY. I I TO THE EOIXOK. J Dear Sir,—Kindly insert the following in au- swer to a paragraph which appeared iu the "Mertltyr Express" of the 4th inst. concerning a statement supposed to have been made by me at a meeting of the Merthyr Town Council held on December 18th with regard to getting the men who were employees of the Council back to civil employment. I understand the letter is from the Soldiers' and Sailors Association and demanding from me a public apology through the press. The infer- ence is that I was against the men being ap- pealed for. I wish to state at once that such a statement is a lie of the basest kind. I voted for it. What actually happened was this. The Town Clerk read a letter from Mr. Frederick Hughes, Assistant Waterworks Engineer, ask- ing the Council to appeal on his behalf to the Military Authorities for his release from the Army—(note this is for Mr. Hughes only and not for the men), It was the Labour members who demanded that the men should also be in- cluded in the appeal. Alter the letter was read, I asked the Mayor what work there was for Mr. Hughes to do. should he come back, since there are sufficient officials already under the Corporation. My idea was to re-adjust the present staff in order to fit him iu, seeing that Mr. Harvey (Water- works Engineer) was already doing the work of Engineer to the Waterworks Committee. At this point Coun. Win. Jones, Treharris, inter- jected, and accused me of arguing against M-r. Hughes' return. I fail to see anything in my remarks to justify the accusations levelled at me. As a public man I claim the right to ques- tion the staffing of our official positions. And, further, there is nothing that would please me better than to see all soldiers home again amongst their families and friends. I am al- ways prepared, as I have always been in the past, to do all I can to that end. In fact, L have already assisted mothers and wives to fill in forms for the purpose. The motive of the persons responsible for this letter is to prejudice me in the eyes of the public and soldiers' dependents. My conscience is clear, and 1 can look back with pride upon my achievements on their behalf. When the war started. a.nd men began to enlist, allowances were sometimes several weeks before coming through to soldiers' wives and mothers. Dozena of them came to me destitute, seeking advice and help. Neither I nor my wife ever turned one from our door without giving them food and money to help them along. Aye! from my own hard-earned cash, earned as a collier, and not "got" from charities as some supposed philan- thropists do. J have acted since the war on the Local Pen- sions Committee, and I claim that I have been the means of getting thousands of pounds for soldiers' dependents, which they would not have got had I not been there. This is a tall order, but T can prove it. I initiated a discussion at our Council meeting a few months ago concern- ing moue." due to the dependents of the Borough Police who were in the Army, and got t300 for them in one stroke. During the past four mouths, through negotiating with the War Office direct, I have had over £ 200 in back pay and at the same time have succeeded in getting allowances increased in fifty six cases out of sixty, from .') to 20/- per week. Now all the above is true, and I can produce ample evidence to back it up. And throughout I never asked any person what was his, or her political colour. I don't think that there is any fair-minded person will say that I owe an apology after read- ing the above. Neither am I going to offer one. In fact, it is the person responsible for the letter who should apologise to me.—Yours sincerely, DAVID PARRY. [Other letters on the Six-Hour Day. and Rus- sw 11 Intervention are held over owing to pressure on space.—Ed.]

I 1748,932. I I MERTHYR CORPORATION'S INDEBTED-I NESS UPON LOANS. I NEXT RATE: 15/6 IN THE A. I A Local Government Board inquiry held at Merthyr on Thursday for the purpose of eliciting what ,'mplo."ment could he afforded demobilised service men on proposed public works produced interesting facts as to tlie financial commit- ments of the Corporation. Evidence given by various members of the Town Council present largely consisted of references to the high rates existing in the borough—13/8 in the t, as com- pared with 10/42 1 in HH-l-a forecast being made that in the event of the expenditure for the next six months equalising that of the past half- year there would be a further increase to 15/6 in the £

I Labour Notes. j THE NEW PARLIAMENTARY PARTY. 1 lie composition 01 the lal)our 1 arty in the House of Commons presents a very different complexion from that of the groups in preceding Parliaments. Only two or three of the new La- bour membesr in the House can be described as Socialist representatives. The remainder are trade unionists, and among them the represen- tatives of the mining industry form by far the largest group. There are 27 miners' representa- tives, including one who belongs to the surface- craftsmen, and another who ran as a co-opera- tive Labour candidate; the next largest group is that of the metal, engineering, and ship- building trades, represented by six members, who received the official endorsement of the Party, and two (including Mr. G. N. Ba-rnesl who were not recognised as ofifcial candidates. The transport workers and railwaymen have five representatives in the House, including one who. although a co-operator, belongs to the transport trade another railwayman, Mr. G. J. Wardle, belongs to this group, but his position iu relation to the Parliamentary Party is some- what ambiguous. Textile workers have four re- presentatives; the printers two, including Mr. G. H. Roberts, whose relationship to the Party has yet to be clearly defined; the general workers, five representatives, with two other members (Messrs. Jack Jones and Jas. Parker), for whom the General \Vorkers' t'nion was finan- cially responsible, but who did not receive the official endorsement of the Party. There are 200 co-operators and three representatives of miscellaneous trades—Mr. Will Crooks (coopers), Mr. W. R. Smith (Boot and Shoe Operatives), and Mr. Tyson Wilson (Carpenters). A new member who cannot be classified amongst the trade unionists is Mr. W. S. Royee, who sits for Holland with Boston. This makes a total of 58 members, including two or three unofficial La- bour candidates, and excluding the four Labour Ministers who did not resign from the Coali- tion after the decision of the special Electoral Conference. LABOUR'S NEXT STEP. I Although Labour has some cause to be disap- pointed with the results of the Election, it can- not be said that the returns are in any sense discouraging. The Party has materially in- creased its representation in the House and polled nearly a quarter of the total votes cast at the Election. These figures are all the more significant when it is realised that hardly more than half the electorate troubled to vote at all. Lack of adequate organisation in many of the constituencies made it extremely difficult to get voters to the poll. Longer time was needed to educate the new voters, especially the women, as to the meaning of the Labour policy; while the prejudices excited during "the w ar against the leaders of the left wing of the organised movement had their effect upon the minds of the voters who did not trouble to scrutinise the policy and programme upon which Labour based its appeal for their support. At the first meeting of the National Executive of the Party after the General Election the whole situation was reviewed in the light of the returns, especially those from constituencies in which there had been a high Labour poll; and the Committee decided that the Party's suc- cesses justified immediate steps being taken to organise the Labour forces in preparation for the next Election. It has been Tesolved to submit definite recommendations to the Annual Confer- ence in June in regard to the electoral organi- sation and finance. The Committee also dis- cussed the Parliamentary situation created by the return of Labour members, and a conference has been held with the new Parliamentary party to discuss future arrangements in regard to its work in Opposition and its relations with the organised movement in the country. DRAUGHTSMEN AND LABOUR MOVEMENT. The Association of Engineering and Shipbuild- ing Draughtsmen was born a good many years after the majority of the other Trade Unions in this country, hut it is making up the leeway as fast as it can. It was registered as a Trade Union on Armistice Day, and now it has held a very successful conference at which the whole policy of the Association came uuder review. There were resolutions on the agenda proposing affiliation to the Trades Union Congress and the ,tffillatl on to t l it, I't.. loca ) trades councils, and another advocating political action by the association and affiliation to the Labour Party. The former proposals were, carried by large majorities; the proposal to un- dertake political action, on the other hand, was turned down, mainly on the ground that the ap, propria te time had not yet fome. The Draughtsman," the bi-monthly organ of the Association, comments interestingly on these decisions: "The weakness of Parliamentary ac- tion on the part of Trade Unionism-since 190& has been that, very early in its career, its op- ponents discovered that it did not come to a real possession of economic power, upon which political power must lie based. That does not mean that the attempt to alter industrial con- ditions waf; utterly useless, but only that it was unnecessarily expensive and largely foredoomed -L_ to failure. The political wing of Labour had advanced too far at the expense of the industrial w ing. The experience gained on trades councils and the Ti-ade Union Congress and on educa- tional bodies will help us to a better judgment on the advisability of parliamentary action." The rate of the Draughtsmen's progress encour- ages us to hope. ANOTHER VOTE ACAINST WHITLEY. Many important questions of policy were de- cided at the recent Conference of the Engineer- ing and Shipbuilding Draughtsmen's Associa- tion. The Association's Special Sub-Committee on the Whitley Report recently reported strong- ly against the acceptance of that scheme, and the Confeience followed the lead of their Com- mittoe by an almost unanimous vote against the Wliitley Councils. The rejection of the proposals was evidently not due to any fear that they were too revolutionary, for another resolution that the Association should take control of draughts- men's labour by members only applying for situations which had been registered with the Association's vacancy scheme, was unanimously recommended to the members. The Conference also recommended an increased subscription. With sounder finances, a clear-cut policy, and a closer association with the Labour Movement, the Association should go forwards to a prosper- ous New Year. INDUSTRIALS COUNCILS. The Industrial Council for the printing trades has apparently been formed, the difficulty of the bastard Printers' Trade Alliance, a body formed by certain members of the Employers' Federation for the organisation of non-unionists, having been met by an agreement that no mem- ber of any body whose rules were not in harmony with those of the Industrial CoOncil should be allowed to take part in it. 'This resolution was finally adopted as a compromise, after the Fed- eration had refused to expel those of its mem- bers who were also members of the Alliance. The rules of the new Council, however, contain cer- tain provisions which seem to us rather danger- ous. In the first place, the National Council is to set up Works Committees, which are to be representative not of the Trades Unions but of the management and workers in particular es- tablishments, which seems as likely to result in the shelving of trade unionism locally; and se- condly, among the Council's objects appears the following: "To assist in the maintenance of such selling prices as will afford reasonable re- muneration to both employers ancf employed." and there is a further provision against those who try to sell either their goods or their labour too low. Provisions of this sort have appeared in the constitutions of other councils, but mostly in those whose importance was. too slight to make their vagaries worth troubling about. But when a trade as important as the printing trade takes to itself a function of this anti-social char- actor, that is another story; and we very much hope that some sort of effective protest Ni-ill be made. INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY. It is interesting to see that the Amalgamated Association of Beamers, Twisters, and Drawers have passed a resolution demanding democratic control of industry. It used to be thought that the cotton industry was the most hopeless centre of reaction in the trade-union world, but what with the wages and hours movements and this new development it looks as though this esti- mate will have to be revised. It is a pity, though, that the Association refused a motion to press the United Factory Workers' Association to make an alteration in the political fund so as to allow some part of the fund to be paid to local labour parties in textile districts, whether the Labour candidate is a textile man or not. For local labour work it cannot be too strongly em- phasised that all Labour men and trade union- ists should stand together. DIVIDINC LABOUR. -I What seems to be a dangerous misapplication! of the Whitley Report has appeared in the ac- tion of a firm near Rossendale. This firm, which has long been noted for the shortness of its working week, recently granted a further reduc- tion of hours to its employees, and took advan- tage of the occasion to make the further an- nouncement that they were about to set up an Industrial Council on the lines of the Whitley Report, in the belief that it would conduce to the en hanced comfort and betterment of the worker and to greater efficiency in production. The directors further added that, though they did not hope that such a Council could supersede the trade unions, there was plenty of room for it as well. From this we conclude that the trade ►unions as such are not to be represented on the Industrial Council, which means that in so far as thi. Council is intended to give the workers a share in the control of their industry, this share will be given not to the workers and their in- jdustrial organisations, but to them as employees of a certai n firm. And this will inevitably result in the division of worker from worker, in the emergence of an antagonism between the trade union and this glorified Welfare Committee, and a split in the ranks of Labour. Whitley ism practised by private firms is nothing more than profit-sharing in a new disguise, and coupled with the exclusion of trade unions as such it is fatal. j APPRENTICES. The Amalgamated Association of Apprentices has now been definitely formed. An apprentice is defined as any person -oming into any trade between the ages of 14 and 21 years, bound or otherwise." Resolutions were also carried demanding that all apprentices of 16 and over should be allowed a voice and vote on all matters appertaining to their respective unions, that the term of legal or bound appren- ticeship should be for four years, commencing at lfi. and that the apprentice should at 21 receive the full district rate. Further resolutions of interest warned apprentices to keep clear of Welfare Societies, and not to join any approved society other than a Trade Union, and suggested that arrangements should be made with the En- gineering Employers' Federation to enable a man leaving a district to take his son with him to complete his apprenticeship, thereby relieving the men from the burden of having to maintain two homes at once, in cases where the son's wagc-s were insufficient to support him. On tlk& question of wages there was the opinion of the conference: "That piece-work, specialisation. and premium bonus payment be totally abolished and that a wage be paid apprentices sufficient to maintain a iust and fair standard of life, such wages to be on a basis of a fair percentage of the District Rate bearing in mind, however, that the ultimate object is the abolition of the Wage System." The position of apprentices is one of the most important of the post-war prob- lems awaiting solution, and we wish all success to the new organisation. It is encouraging to note that many of the big Unions sent either re- presentative or letters of welcome to this inau- gural conference.

I Discontent Over the Eight Hours. I MEETINC OF SURFACE WORKERS AND CRAFTSMEN AT ABERAVON. I EXPRESSES STRONG RESENTMENT AND COUNSELS RESISTANCE. A mass meeting of surface workers and Crafts- men employed in Collieries in the Afan Valley was held at the Globe Hotel, Aberavon on Saturday night last for the purpose of discussing the changes in the hours of employment which came into operation on January 1st. Reports- were submitted from various collieries of the proposals made by the Colliery Companies re- garding the method whereby it was intended to gin. effpet to the agreement entered into -be- tween the Miners' Federation and the Coal- owners. Keen resentment manifested itself against the attempt which was being made by certain colliery officials to introduce what was described as an overlapping shift for the crafts- men. After a lengthy discussion a resolution was unanimously adopted requesting all surface- workers to resist such an iniquitous proposal and appealing to all colliery committees to render every possible assistance in this matter. It was furthermore resolved that since the agreement provided for an arrangement to lie entered into between the respective colliery companies and their ivoi-kinen all those affected should press for the commencement of the shift to be between the hours of 6.30 a.m. and 7 a.m. It was also decided to forward a strong pro- test to the South Wales Executive and to the district meeting against the overlapping shift, and demanding its deletion from the agreement. Overtime rates under the new hours were care- fully considered, and surface workers were asked to refuse to accept fractional parts of a half and whole shift for overtime.

I Electric Theatre I nknown 27 J," the star feature in next? week's programme at the Merthyr Electric. Theatre, is the story of a rich violinist who loses both his memory and baby daughter in an acci- dent. The baby is taken to an orphanage and is de signated "Unknown 274." An appealing narrative is woven around this situation, and. the film interpretation is beautifully conceived,, whilst June Caprice gives an admirable portrayal' of the violinist's daughter. "Hidden Hands" is a delightful kinecture comedy, and Chaplin pro- vides a huge and continuous laugh with his great absurdity "Charlie at Work." From Thursday onwards a seven-part "Ideal" feature. "God and the Man," tops the bill. Adapted from the novel of Robert Buchanan, it is a powerful drama of the futility of human hat-o and each of the reels abounds with stirring inci- dents culminating in the vanquishing of the spirit of hatred with peace and love supreme. In addition will he projected a selection of the latest comedy and drama releases. Printed and Published by the National Labour- Press, Ltd., at the Labour Pioneer Press., Williams' Square, Merthyr Tydfil.