Pioneer

Llantrisant and District Notes. i Trades and Labour Council. I ] The annual meeting of the Trades and Labour I Council w as held at the Bute Hall on Saturday, January 25th, w hen delegates from all the trade I j unions in the rural district were present. The statement of accounts and balance slieet were accepted as satisfactory. Mr. James Dicks. Tonyrefail, was re-elected president. Mr. Fred Kempster, Pontyclun, and Mr. Davies, CWBI, were elected vice-presidents. Mr. W. H. Haw- kins, secretary, and Mr..1. S. Jones, Tonyrefail, .treasurer, were re-elected. For the first time in the history of the local Labour movement, women delegates were present on behalf of the Llantri- sant and Pontyclun women's section of the local Labour, Party. County Council Seats: Important Decision. I The Council decided unanimously to contest, in the interests of the workers, the two County Council seats in its area, one of which is a new one. [t is so long since there was a contest for the County ..Council in this area, that very few people re member one. This is the first time for Labour to come in the held. The decision brings Labour up against the capitalist parties from the elections for Parish Councillors to the elec- tion of a member of the House of Commons. No chance of contesting the right of the capitalist parties to represent the workers is to be lost. Labour is in a fighting mood. There will be J stirring times shortly, when the Parish, Rural District, and County Council elections take place. Bvery seat is to be contested. It is the right j spirit. Go in and win. Coed Ely Colliery Workmen. I A general meet!)]? of the iJautrisant secnon of Coed Ely Colliery workmen was "held at the Town ]Hill: tit- ?n Sunday. January ûth, ?h. Price, i 4)f the Cwd Kiy Lodge, being in the c hair. The Secretary, Mr. I Arthur Jones, dealt with the statement of ac- counts and balance-sheet, which showed a very successful year. It was decided to appoint six men examine the working places of the ool- Miery. Mr. Tom Young (checkweigher) dealt very .??y with the Agreement existing between | the men and the C"ther\ Company. Certain ?ctauseh of this Agreement prevent outsiders and iiieii I)eln?,, oil tli(? (-oil..?kft-er [clauses referred to should be deleted, but that considerable discussion it was agreed that the | the remainder of the agreement he:d)uwed to stand. ? w'as aLso agreed that steps be taken to obtain pay on Friday. The meeting concluded | with a vote of thank to the owners of the hall. The War Memorial and Mr. Williams' Letter. I in spite of Mr. W illiams advertisement of his one-time membership, of the X.V.R. he is in fact, and in sympathy, as his letter witnesses, a member of the lower middle classes, or, as some readers of the Pioneer would say (when swanking), a member of the petite bourgeoisie. In our note, we deduced from Mr. Williams' financial proposal, the fac; that the voting powyr in the hands of the Tradesmen, etc. would be five as compared to the workers' four. This does not ap|>ear to be good enough. Mr. I Williams sots up a Committee in his letter show- ing the tradesmen, professional men and minis- ters to be six to the workers' tour. Fivtto four was had enough, but six to four makes it per- fectly safe for the class to which Mr. Williams belongs. The whole imsLnoss thus stands ex- posed hy Atr. Wiihams' h'ttcr as an attempt to get the workers to help in providing a hall, which by a permanent six to four majorit-y would I¡,e ¡u the hands tii' tlj(- tL)- peal to all classes to unite, for such a t.JK'ron?hiv rank class proposal, we will not characterise so strongly as we might. We will assume for charity's sake that it is due to his unconscious class bias and prejudice. Mr. Williams is mis- taken in his interpretation of what was said at t he public meeting respecting the power of the Parish Council to hwy a vote to huild a liall. The Parish Council has the power to levy a rate to repay, with interest, the loan necessary to build a hall. ]i Air. Williams will walk to Creigan he can see such a hall. Wo could give him a h.stof others. One is needed in the Tonyre- fail Ward and one, badly, in the LIantrisant Ward. It would not add quite a penny a week to the rent of a workman's cottage, to do it in this way. So iar as the difficulties about sites are concerned they could be composed amongst the wei'k'M> by discussion inside their own or- ganisations. We are not so sure about the mid- dle classes wh o see. along .1. Williams' lines a l»etter chance to obtain control. These six to four majorities are very tempting. Tf Air. Wil- liams is so sine that the money would be forth- coming, and if the middle classes are not out to snatch a class advantage, the it let .such money '?-subscribed and handed (?vet-to the Parish Councu. \«rat<'nMedthen be imposed. This is the acid test of the talk about patriotism, love oi soldiers, sailors and the like. I'nder one of Air. Williams' crazy committees a hall would soon share the fate of the Red Dragon and become private property. Only by vest ing it in a public body like the Parish Council, can it be made for all time a public memorial. Only in this way can the workers have a say equal to the other classes ill its management-, and only in t his way can a memorial worthy, not of theVapi- talist war, but of our thankfulness for its end. be raised. Ihis question will give us the measure of the other classes' gratitude. AVe shall see whether they are prepaid to sanction an expen- diture sufficient to build a liall in a democratic way, or whether they prefer to talk about it and spend only sufficient to provide a puny little use- less monument in some-out of the way corner We: hope the workers will not permit themselves to be camouflaged into supporting a class con- trolled hall, by gush about victory, helping the soldiers and the like. The help the soldiers need is to rid them of the class, who by means of high prices fleeced, like common footpads, the women and children of their pitifully inadequate allow- ances and pensions while the men were in the rent-lies. The workers should not support a class controlled hall, hut only a democratically controlled hall, that is, a Parish Hall.

Bargoed Notes. I Soermus at Bargoed. I We have had aff^rmus here for the first time. As Morgan Jones said, we all'hope to have him here again before very long. It was in the W orkmen's Institute on Sunday evening, the IJaigoed Glee Party having graciously postponed dtcir (mu concert till next Sunday cvoning to ma ke room for ns. for ?hi<h \\? ought t?? repay them by going to tlieii-s. Tli(? Ex- press, South Wales Daily N<-?h and "West- ern Mail han' a'l been good etW)n?h to give us a I ree advertisement over the slight disturbance at the finish, and all but the Western Mail'' )t.n"a!so been good enough to give a reasonably accurate report of S<ernius' speech. But to give my own observations and impres- sions. Morgan Jones, in the chair, said we met under a sense of great Toss, because, of the death of Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg. Opinions might. differ a.s' to the wisdom of the iiie-in-s they took, but not as to their faithful- ness and devotion. Liebknecht wa.s popular here during the war (and before it) for his opposition to Kaiserdom since then our lying press had characteristically represented him as having been shot whilst running away. But lie was not one to do so; and the medical evidence showed that he was shot at close quarters. His brother Is, very properly, pressing for a non-military in- quiry ,we have had our own experiences of offi- cial whitewash). Jaures, Ad lor, our own Grand Old Man, and now Liebknecht, they have died, as they lived, for the people. Soermus has him- self been in itil but, on comparing notes of per- sonal experiences with him, it appears that Rus- sian jails are, in some aspects, humaner than British ones. Over 70 C.O.'s (referring especial- ly to the petition on their behalf, of which copies were in the hall for signing) had been sent to prison since the Armistice. Even America has released her political prisoners. What about our own lasted liberty ? Harry PhiIIips having given Us a piano piece, -Ntoi-g,iii iiit,i-:Klti(-ed Stermus by reading his state- ment, as we may call it. The governing classes are now destroying each other, and thus pre- paring the way for Labour, which therefore (so he quoted Lassalle) must act with the dignity and sense of responsibility of one destined to rule. Progress means victory over materialism, and the emancipation ot the soul. Beethoven expresses the love of nature; Wagner of man and woman Bach oi' God. So SUTIUUS gave us Bach's Chaconne," unique as being written for the violin only. Then he gave us Home. Sweet Home," explaining his reasons in a tell- ing little speech. Wars and revolutions pass, but the teaching of Christ remains (this by way of a beginning, from one of the supposed enemies of all religion!); in particular, "Love your enemies." The English arc a very religious people; such numbers of churches and chapels, and so well filled. But they art- putting the real Christians in prison. He had seen one such, "not a terrible Bolshevik like me" —(laughter)— but one who, having learnt of Christ, refused to recognise any men as his enemies, since all men arc brothers. So lie and others like-minded wore shut up, far from their homes. And English prisons are not like Russian ones, there you could shake hands with visitors, but not here. Alter seeing him, he (Scerniuo ) felt ashamed to be at liberty and comfortable, so he had tried to provoke the government to arrest him, but so far in vain. But it was not only the C.().'s who were far-from their hornet; there are thousands of Englishmen perishing in Russian snows. The Alurman line was built by German prisoners, who nearly all died of the climate. Itil", Ills never came to England to kill you but you are sending soldiers to kill them. And why? He. in Russia, who is not working is not eating; the 97 per cent.-0f workers are now in power, instead of a per cent, of ex- ploiters. Lloyd Georgc" Milner. etc.. are not plo,It(?t-?. l,loyd Gc?oi-ge, (?t(, sending miners, etc. Miss Davies and Air. Del, Griffiths then sang for its,, the latter in the stead, at very short notice, of our Pontycymmer comrade, prevented by influenza. Then SUM nuts gave us Chopin's Nocturne a piece of I'aganini's "Gipsy Love," by Saraste, and then some Russian revo- lutionary pieces, expressing first despair, then a revolutionary inarch, and finally a funeral march. The Russians, h" told u, love their lives less, and so are more ready for self-sacri- fice. Then lie gave us the Intemational." and finally (after Harry Phillips had given us "Church Bells") he was just giving out the "Red Flag," when a soldier appeared on the staircase and shouted out: Were we going to let him preach revolution and bloodshed?" I told him lie hadn't heard Su-rmus. Alorgan, to wlioni the Soulier was especially insulting, pro- mised to meet him 'any time, so order was re- stored, and we concluded by singing The Red to I may add that the hall was so crowded that Mor gan had, at the outset, to ask as many as possible of the members to stand, to provide seats for the visitors. What, then, will it be like when Saunius conies again, as we are all hoping he will before very long, especially after the magnificent free advertisenrent that the aforesaid papers have given him f Where shall we find room ? There -were rumours of an in- tended disturbance, but that proved rather a fiasco, as you have seen.

Tonyrefail Notes. I Coed Ely Matters. I A general meeting of the Coed illy Colliery workmen was held on Sunday, the 26th, at two places, to give facilities for all the workmen working at Coed Ely to discuss the single-shift agreement referred to in these columns last week. In the morning at Llantrisant, where it was resolved that the clause in the agreement that is depriving the day-wage men of the rights of going on the coal when they so desire, be de- lefed from t]),c, In the afternoon another meeting was held on the same question, and it is most amusing that the, very persons who where so much opposed to shelving the agreement for a while, to meet the abnormal cir- cumstances should pass a resol ution permitting two day-wage men to go on the coal every month, providing that they were single shift places, when rule (or clause) bix distinctly states tlla t: "Colliors on the double shift shall ^jtvive the right, by seniority of employment, to be placed in the single shift places as the vacan- cies occur." To my way of thinking the LJan. trisant resolution was a wise one, in deleting the clause preventing the day-wage men from having a place oil the coal, hut the TonyreTail resolution permitting two day-wage men to go on the coal every month, has knocked the very stuffing out of the agreement, by breaking the only two clauses of any importance in the agreement. Clause t reads that. when new stalls are open- ed and it has been mutually agreed that certain places are to be worked on double shift, then the oldest hand in the heading shall have the right to claim the new stall opened." It must be un- derstood that tke Tonyrefail resolution is the one to be worked upon ow ing to it being passed by a much larger number than the Llantrisant one. Now it becomes necessary for this resolu- tion to be put into working order. There is the No. 2 Seam and the No.J Seam with its morn- ing and a fternoon, and night shift, to choose .two men by order of seniority to go on the coal. This will be anything but fun to those responsible. TheAtternative. I Just a word of warning to the local dyjfcrict councillors anent the action of certain member^ of-the District Council in trying to dep-rivi''the workers ot this hwality of opportunity of holding meetings on Sundays—which is the only day that WP can come together owing to tin- double shift at the Colliery and the Cinema and Insti- tute being engaged (Pit showing pic- tures. Should such attempts materialise, then upon your own shoulders will rest the responsi- bility for the resurrection of the old Mabon's day.

In Memory of The Martyrs RINK MEETINC HONOURS ROSA LUXEM-i BOURC AND KARL LIEBKNECHT. I,at Sunday's meeting at the Rink, Merthyr. will ever stand out in the memory of the huge audience therein assembled, by reason of one thing-a nd that an act of sympathy and unity that passed over the hate-dictated harriers that have been erected by the Capitalists to exeludc Germany from the rest pi us. An act of sym- pathy not towards the Kaiser, whose tools we have been declared to he. and whose gold is sup- posed to have found its way into our pockets and coffers, hut an act of sympathy and reverancc towards the Kaiser's, most persistent and con sistent enemies in his own country—the late Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht. To many present, if not to most, those two names have conveyed nothing more than the doubtful encomiums "of a more doubtful press during the early days of the war, a praise that turned to malignant hatred when as leaders of the Sparta- cus group they endeavoured to lead German v into the paths of Bolshevism in the immediate past. Yet underneath the travesties that the capitalists have presented as portraits was a feeling of unity, a psychological know ledge com- ing from no one knew where, and permeating that huge audience as it stood bareheaded in honour of the martyrdom. the while Stermus' violin seyt forth its weird message of the Revo- lutionary Funeral March in a minor key. Two figures, indistinct, but vaguely great: figures that had flashed momentarily and portentiously upon the canvas of history at unexpected times: two figures that had paid the price of sincerity and conviction first in the maddening constric- tion of German police cells, and last of all by the supreme sacrifice of life itself. Two figures that lived and moved and had their being in Ber- lill and its environs—and yet a Welsh mining audience of three thousand persons who would have heard with indifference of the death of a crowned head and its consort-stood "itll bowed heads, and a quickening heart pulse, to mark titorj?as?i))? hence. AN IMPRESSIVE SICHT. It was ,-in impressive sight. A queer electric spark that burned bright yet mystically incom- prehensible seemed to be around and about us, infecting us with a feeling that could not be analysed. It was a promise of to-morrow in thy action of to-day. In that act so simply per- formed. so natura))y carried out, so reverently observed that ithadthema?icf?f a religions observance for a true believer was clearly dis- played the futility and folly of those years wasted in instructing us in the doubtful caden- cies of the Hymn ot Hate. For four years every Gentian has been plastered with mud by the maiicious sewermen of the Press, for four years the historians, parsons and politicians have de- filed themselves and dishonoured their high callings to tcacli us the new ethic that would suffer no German to persist, yet. at the very first moment the loving sympathy of kind with kind takes wing and associates itself from the deepest depths of tts hem? \\1th its kind. Barriers are for those who cannot fly," said the father of (ierman Social Democracy—Ferdinantf Lassa lle, once, and the Aterthyr Sociahst.sr??'' on easyi pinions that knew not of those cumbersome bar- riers sei? around Germany by four years of la- horio?se?ort. Alore than any act that has gone before it, did that bare-headed throng declare| uneqiiivocably and M itb true sincerity that could not be misunderstood the unity of the proletariat the world and the true dawn of that unity in the understanding of the After such an act even the burning words of (,otlllcillt)t. Joll(,s seemed insipid the apprecia- tions of Scermus unnecessary, and the chairmanic reni;wk.s of Air. D. B. Jones, of the Craftinen's Association I utile. If w as a great devotional act wo had performed, and something more—wo had re-consecrat(Ml ourselves to the service of Demos, w illing and ready to die, if need be, as those others had died before us in the greatest cause the world has known.

Ground-Rents and Royalties. MERTHYR GUARDIANS ADVOCATE TAXA- TION FOR LOCAL ADMINISTRATION. The bogey of municipal bankruptcy was paraded at Saturday's meeting of the Merthyr Boartl of Guardians by Air. David Evans (Mer- thyr) who moved a resolution requesting the board to take steps to again ask Parliament to amend the laws relating to the assessment of property so that landlords' profits from ground rents and lanclow nor*' profits from royalties on coal, minerals, etc., should be liable to taxation for local administrative purposes. I:-ipeaking to the motion, Mr. Evans declared that at present two-thirds of the burden of local administration was borne hy tenement property and only one-third by coal and minerals. In tll't, union of Merthyr worth of assessable values was going unassessed. Merthyr rates wore 1-V6 in the t, and the town was on the verge of bankrllpteYldtik the union stood oil the brink of insolvency so far as local admin- istration and liability to rates was concerned. About i ,000,000 toils of coal was produced yearly in the parishes of the union, and that number of sixpences or threepences was going into the pockets of tlik- "tIcl landowners, who never pa-id a penny for the production of the coal or towards local expenses. These people spent not their money in Merthyr, they were to be found a.t Carlo and elsewhere. (Laugh- ter.) They, admittedly, paid .Imperial taxes, but so did every citizen. Air. F. T. James (clerk) pointed out that there could be absolutely no insolvency so far as the union was in question. The indebtedness of the union was comparatively small—about £ 45,000 the ratable value was some thing over £ '600,000. The motion was seconded by Air..John Prow le (Aberdare) and adopted.

Newport Water Supply. COMPLAINT OF APATHY OF RATEPAYERS. ■* ^Alr. W.. Evans, at a special meeting of the Newport Town Council on Tuesday. proposed thd-t the Talvbont w ater scheme, which had been rejected by the ratepayers' ballot, be deferred for two years, as in that time there would be an opportunity of showing the public that the cor- poration was in earnest on the housing question. There was no seconder. Alderman T. Parry (chairman of the Mater- works committee) said the question ua-s to" s^-ijios to be trifled with. The water '-ounnittee xt^sfno; discouraged, except at the apathy of the ratepayers, 26,000 of whom had not taken the trmfble to vote. The eommjittoo "wore the opinion that the Talvbont scheme was the only I)Ilt t,ilt" had no objection to an independent expert being called in, ami they thought there should be an extension of the options on the lalHI. No resolution was passed. I

Education by Experience. WHAT THE WAR HAS TAUGHT THE WORKERS. REFLECTIONS ON A CARDIFF SPEECH. I TO I t IK EDI TOR Sir,— Rrofessor Lester Ward enumerated five kinds of education, and in his opinion the hard- (?st of them a" is. the ed ucation of experience. •I1^ he workers, as a class, have learned far more by this method than any other. Very few of tlieni have sufficient leisure to adopt any other method, while the majority have been too indif- ferent to their own welfare, to learn in anv school other than the bitter one of experience- 1 his fact is very clearly borne out bv the result of the last election. The workers, in their ignor- ance. listened to, and believed the specious pro- mises of the Coalition candidates, viz. better houses, higher wages, shorter hours, educational equality, etc. Never more were we to go back to the drudgery and squalor of the days beforn, the war. The capitalists wore our greatest bene- iactors. and under their protecting wing wo were going to enter upon the long-'promised mil- Jenium. Ahls alas how little truth there was in those promises can be seen by the report l)f statements made by some of thpse modern des- (■•endants of Ananias. In the "South Wales liaily News," Jaiuiarv anl. 111-, .J. C. Gould. :\1. P' the recently elected Cardiff shipowner who (liti-ilig t-lit, four years of war, while the workers were fighting and j suffering all sorts of privations, addressing tin Cardiff Chandler of Commerce, is reported as fol- low. Kefcrring to the industrial unrest," he said, they (the capitalists) had to face the fact that in the past they had temporised too much with democracy, sometimes at t h-' expense of their just and righteous position. This had re- sulted in men demanding far more than what they once thought themselves entitled to. and it \\as offi- cial1- that they got it. He stood for fair deal- ing. POOR CAPITALISTS? No doubt. Air. Gould, you do. from the capi- talist point of view hut evidently not from the workers! Poor suffering capitalists, what an aw i ul time you have had, flt-ecing the workers 111(1 then having to- pay excess profits tax. Doubtless had you been permit.t«-d you would have accu- mulated a much greater store of the "filthy lucre, and starved the workers in doing it! 1r. Gould and his friends had better understand at once, that it was not the weakness of Govern- ment officials which prevented them from carry- ing on in their own sweet way and ga.ve some measure of fair-play to the workers. Weakness cannot accomplish great things at any tliiie! It was rather the unity and strength of the workers which, in spite of the false cries of anti-patriot- ism from the yellow press, insisted on securing a living wage. EXPERIENCE'S ACCOMPLISHMENT. ,I,I'(' (,f the workers during the war ha?. taught them the greatest tes?u thev h;.v? learned since the days of Wat Ty?r and the Ro- lorm Act of ] ;:2. Relying un' this experience k(?t of ll,12. lt.(,Ivlng -,n th, exp(-ri-elielc (■ease, not only in ^ar-timc. but in peace time ?) <o. and every man ami woman shall get th? f"II measure of tbt'tt labour. We can do veTV well wit hont such parasites as shipowners, col- liery proprietors, and railway magnates, "who. toil not. neither do they spin," thev have served their function in the past hy speeding up production, but. their time is at hand," the sword of retribution is hanging over, their heads. wielded iiy the mighty power-of the united forces oi Labour. In all patt.sof the world the great wave of revolution is rolling irresistibly to the hereof the workers' emancipation. Evervwliere we can see the signs of the engulfing of the ex- ploiting class. Alore and more the workers are voicing their determination to unify their forces internationally for the extermination of this class of parasites, who live by sucking the blood of the workers, and whose sole p.im is to keep them in subjection, and deprive theii of the right and freedom which is their natural birthright. „T. YOUNG. loiiyreiai

Another Lie Nailed. SOVIET DECREE ON MARRIACE AND. CHILDREN. Much has been written against the attitude <?t tbr Soviets toward s luarria?e and children^ whd.st pernicious use ha.s h?en made of an -article IN I] ll.t ()Ils Ilse lits inid(, of an ai-ticlt^ in. the organ oi ;> small local Soviet in the Ural District. Titc Soviet Marriage Decree in reality differs lIot at all from the laws of this country, unless in the follow ing paragraph :— lit entering upon wedlock the couple mav freely decide what surname they will adopt, the name of the husband, the name of the wife, ot the joint surname of both." On the subject of children the following clause nta.-k.s th<- onty d.fterence from the British regu- Illegitimatc children are to be treated in a. ^iini ar manner as legitimate children in regard to their parents and a Uo in regard to the rights and obligat.i01Js of the parents towards those chil- dren. 'the persons who notify and give their signatures as the parents of the child are re- cognised as the father and mother of the child "In case of an illegitimate child, where the father omits to give the above-mentioned noti- lieation, tltø IIllotlwr, the guardian or the child itself has the legitimate right to prove the paternity." This idea is one constantly advocated by the progressives in this cotiiiti-v, ind might be copied with advantage. The machinations of the Anti-Bolsheviki can be counteracted in a samilar way in almost evorv instance.

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