Pioneer

It It PRELIMINARY ANNOUNCEMENT. NO=CONSCRIPTION FELLOWSHIP. National Convention Will be held in London on November 29th and 3uth. Chairman CLIFFORD ALLEN. First List of Speakers at different Sessions: Rev. Dr. John Clifford G. D. H. Cole George Lansbury J. Ramsay Macdonald Rev. Dr. F. B. Meyer Lord Parmoor Hon. Bertrand Russell Robert Smillie Philip Snowden Mrs. H. M. Swanwick All Conscientious objectors are invited to attend, and are requested to communicate either with their local Branches or with Ernest E. Hunter, at. Head Office, 5 York Buildings, Adelphi, London, W.O.2. It It

A Socialist Dolly's Dialogues! (WITH APOLOGIES TO ANTHONY HOPE.) VI. ON SHELLS AND SLAVES. BY KATHARINE BRUCE GLAZIER. Dolly," said the Professor, glancing yet once again round his new-made study. I want to bid you discourse as you in- vited us in the old .song this evening. What uncanny wisdom have you for guide that has helped you to make this study so-so perfectly restful both for mind and body ? That's soon answered," laughed Dolly from her yellow linen-covered cushion on the red-tiled hearth corner. It's the shell theory—not mine, of course. It is worked out in detail in a book called the Art of Building a Home,' by Raymond Unwin, the Garden City architect. I just shut my eyes and tried to think of a room that would fit you, and Auntie too, when she wanted a quiet corner,-fit you like a shell fits the whole need of the fish inside it. And ¡ with a suspicion of Irish blarney in her coaxing voice, and a hand outstretched to Mrs. Lane who sat in a low seat beside her, happily knitting—" When there were two such dear gentle folk to fit-beauty was bound to be." Hm," said Mr. Lane. Would you mind descending from the abstract to the concrete? '4 I think you ought to call it ascending in this case," said Dolly, wrinkling her nose. Its such a lot more trouble to ex- plain. But take the size of the room first. For winter-time its two windowed length was too. big and with your desk in the space between the windows, flat against the wall, you were always cold and had nothing in front of your eyes but that tiresome! Raphael cartoon of The School of Athens.' And you couldn't even see that for the pat- tern on the wallpaper! "I certainly was cold," admitted the Pro- fessor. Well, I just called in Nursie, and asked her—couldn't we just make a cosy wee room at the hearth end of it by pulling your desk round at right.angles to the window nearest the fire ? Light on your left hand-fire near enough to warm your right hand if you hung it behind you, and all your dear books shining out their thoughts at you in front and om the right. ,The grass and trees and sky if you looked to the left. Then when we liad made the wee room, Nursic suggested how much warmer the linoleum floor would be with the cocoa-nut matting on it that was doing nothing in my flat all day. And then it began to look so cosy that I ran and fetched Auntie's favourite low chair, and it just filled in the corner behind your desk when you are working as if it had been measured for it. Oh, but I shall never think of sitting in your Uncle's study when he is working," said Mrs..Lane. I know too well how sensitive he is. Why, when he has been finishing an article I have sometimes been afraid to walk across the hall for fear of dis- turbing him. I trained Willie, our son Wil- frid, to go about on tip-toe, when he was little,—didn't I, my dear? Poor Professor," said Dolly wickedly. It's a wonder you haven't ended up a neuro-maniac with such a fearful amount of sympathetic suggestion. But I tell you can- didly that the coal and gas ration in these days won't run to decent fires in the dining room and study, as well as the kitchen, even with a well-fire. \Ve had better try the suggestion that the Professor can work ever so much better when he knows you are sitting cosily behind him, knitting for Willie and his soldiers:" I am sure I shall," cried the Professor, shattering the cherished illusion of a life- time without even realising that he had done so, and doubling his wife's daily quota of happiness and halving the upstairs' coal bill into the bargain. But let us come back to the shell theory. What about pat- terns? Why do you exclude them so—so almost savagely? I could show you some wonderful cotour schemes, patterns even among the shells." Yes,—but the creatures made them for themselves," cried Dolly springing up to fetch the Mollusca volume of the big Encyclopaedia and flying over the leaves until she found the coloured plate she wanted. Look at those wonderful spirals, the flesh of those colours, Auntie Whether you call the shell a shield, or a mantle, or a roof, or even an outside skeleton, they tell of life and growth within them in, every particle. You can't imagine shells like that being made in tens of thousands, by wretched, wriggling slaves who lived them- selves in horrible dark holes, can you ? or compelled by hunger to feed machines to turn out ornamented walls and floors and curtains for other lives till—till—they grow so dull and blind that they don't even know that the flowers are beautiful or their own children ugly ? My dear Dolly—I really cannot follow you I suppose it is the slums again but what have they got to do with patterns? Mrs. Lane's face was pathetic in its be- wilderment. Dolly crossed the room to put the Encyclopaedia back in its shelf. She was tired, over-tired with her. day's work and the pain at her heart was an old one. Do you know what made Nursie's hus- band the wreck he is? It was just breathing in the dust from a machine that cut out gold leaf to ornament the wrappers of cigarettes And he is only one of tens of thousands—toiling painfully till they drop and die-not for any decent result-not that people should have honest food or clothes or warmth or real beauty—but for idiotic patterns on the top of idiotic ornaments and draperies, bric-a-brac, fringes, beads She stopped half-choked. The Professor came over to her and draw- ing her to him kissed her tenderly, solemly on the forehead. My dearie," he said, I believe I have read all you are trying to say to us—all that we ought to have learned long ago, in a chapter of Ruskin's Stones of Venice, called The Nature of Gothic." Yes," cried Dolly eagerly brightening. And William Morris—you know what beautiful furniture he made—and designs too--lie wrote a wonderful introduction to it in a little book, printed in his own Kelms- cott Press—" I haven't read that," said the Professor, but I don't think a thousand chapters of theory could have made the secret of beauty as clear to us as a single day of living it with you, Dolly." "But what is the secret?" asked Mrs. Lane, whose perplexity still possessed her. Joy in Labour quoted the Professor with a triumphant rush of memory. "And Fellowship and Freedom!" chimed in Dolly. Do let me bring the Morris-Ruskin book. We can read it through together easily in a couple of even- ings. Why we might start a reading circle We will," said the Professor.

-Women in the House of Lords The Sex Disqualification Bill, which was introduced in the House of Lords, was con- sidered by the House of Commons in Com- mittee on Monday. An amendment to allow women to sit and vote in the House of Lords was carried by 171 to 84. It was resisted by the Solicitor General, but the Government Whips wefje taken off. The clause of the bill had left to Ministers the right to advise the King to grant to any peeress in. her own right the privilege of sitting in the Lords.

Labour Abroad. CANADIAN TRADE UNIONISM. I The thirty-fifth annual session of the Canadian Trades and Labour Congress at Hamilton, with its record attendance of nine hundred delegates, marked a consoli- dation of the movement after the disturb ing experiences of the earlier part of the year. The One Big Union proposition was decisively voted down, and the Executive reported that the storm seems to have passed, that the workers are again recover- ing their equilibrium, and the international trade union movement seems to be estab- lished once more in the centres where the One Big Union advocates made their strongest attacks." The secretary reported that the membership had doubled in the last two years and now reached 160,605. The latest volume of the Dominion Depart- ment of Labour's annual report on La- bour Organisation in Canada calculates that at the close of 1918 the membership for all classes of trade unions in Canada was 248,887. at The Teachers' Union recently formed in France, as a result of the decision of the Teachers' Congress to transform their or- ganisation from Friendly Societies into Trade Unions affiliated to the General Con- federation of Labour, have rejected a sug- gestion of the Confederation of Friendly Societies to enter into negotiation with the view to forming one Union, comprising the staffs of primary and elementary schools. « A split is reported in the French Social- ist Party, some ten dissenters among the re- tiring deputies at Paris and six or seven deputies from the provinces having decided to secede because some of them are exclud- ed from the parliamentary list and because others are dissatisfied with the extremist tendencies revealed in the choice of candi- dates. The strike of the tramway-men in Alex- andria has ended by substantial concessions in the form of a 40 per cent. increase in wages and an S-hour day with a fortnightly holiday. + Tramway men have been on strike in Brussels for a fortnight for recognition of their Union, and most of the Tramway Companies have conceded the claim. The navvies employed in the Department of the Seine struck work to enforce their demand for a six-hour day at a daily wage of 311 francs and the Paris Unioli has appeal- ed to the Navvies' Unions throughout France to make the demand a general one The Federation qf Trade Unions of the Seine is urging Trade Unions to take action to prevent the manufacture and despatch of supplies to the Anti-Bolshevik force in Russia. 81: Paris newsboys struck work in support of the booksellers' assistants and newsven- dors, who demanded a monthly w age of 450 francs, and only the Socialist journals were francs, and only the Socialist journals were distributed in the city. The newboys have resumed work, but the publishers' em- ployees are continuing the struggle.

There is a tramway strike in Brussels, 3,456 members of the Tramways Federation voting for it, and only 91 against the deci- sion; the tramwaymen of Charleroi also struck, but agreed to accept arbitration.

4t Be Audacious I THE URGENCY OF A WORKERS I CONTROL. IX MUNICIPAL AS ALL OTHER I MATTERS. BY T. J. EVANS (Candidate for Park Ward). On November 1st next, the electors of Merthyr will have an opportunity of show- ing whether they are keeping abreast of the spirit of the times. Labour is making an attempt to increase its representation on the local Borough Council. Since the termina- tion of the war it has become evident that Labour is determined to exercise much more influence upon legislation, local ad- ministration and industry than it has ever done before. No longer will it-remain con- tent to see the laws made by people whose only concern is their own financial interest. No; it is becoming audacious, and demands that the workers themselves, meaning the word "workers" in its most comprehen- sive sense, should be the principal concern of legislators, and that the legislators them- selves should be selected from amongst the workers." Therefore every bye-election sees a Labour candidate in the field with remarkable results. The same is true of local politics. Big Business people, auctioneers, lawyers and representatives of big industries have in the past ruled our local bodies. But now La- bour is coming forward to demand its share, which is a big one, and all over the country a great awakening has taken place. So much so that Labour on many Councils is now in a majority, while it has increased its strength considerably in very iiiail- places. In industry the workers are actually de- manding a share in the management of the concerns from which they obtain their live- lihood. There's audacity for you, if you please. Higher wages, fewer working hours, more holidays, better conditions o labour. Yes, yes; and much more. A share; an adequate share, in determining how the industry shall be carried on. The worker is at long last, realising that he is actually the most important person in the country.; that without him the country would be nothing. And he is asserting himself. That is the spirit of the times. What about Mer- thyr ?. Are the workers here imbued with it, and inspired by it? The elections on November 1st will provide the answer. There never was a time in the history of Merthyr, when Labour representation was more urgent. The superior people have governed the destinies of the town up to now, and a fine mess they have made of it. No fine public buildings, no Town Hall, no public library, no public baths, no pub- lic abbatoir, no refuse destructor, no public service whatever (except water); mean, nar- row, squalid streets, in plenty, slums in plenty; dust, mud, and pungent smells from ash-tips at all points of the compass. And 011 top of all, rates approaching 20/- in the £ with the prospect of rising to 28/- in the What about the great economists of Mer- thyr, those people who have always en- joyed the confidence of workmen and others, and have been given seats upon our local bodies because they promised to "keep the rates dowu ? The fact is that we have been deluded. The great advocates of economy have turned out to be either gross- ly incompetent or grossly dishonest. The big works in the district have been scandal ously under-assessed for rating purposes. A private company owns and controls the electric traction and lighting service. The local wiseacres should have and could have seen that the service should be owned and controlled by the Council. The profits [therefrom would materially help us in these expensive times. They refused to buy out the Merthyr Gas Company (another profit-paying concern) when they had the chance; they neglected to carry out neces- sary works until such time as they were compelled to do so at an enhanced cpst. They have failed to bring about a financial adjustment between us and the Glamorgan County Council. (We have since receiving the charter paid upwards of ^30,000 to the above Council). Quite apart from the in- creased cost of everything consequent upon the war, can we wonder that rates are going up? Yes, they say, but it is the Labour members who are responsible. No it will not do. There is no way out there. There are 12 Labour members and 20 anti- Labour members. Where does the respon- sibility lay?—With the 12 or with the 20? Electors, let us put an end to this fooling. They whom you have trusted in the past have been weighed in the balance and have been found wanting. The few Labour members have proved their capacity, if they arc given the chance. Add to their number. Give the Labour men an opportunity ot proving that there is plenty of talent and diligence among them. They can not do worse than the others, and believe me, with their programme they will do immeasurably better.

Industrial unrest in Upper Silesia has led to the proclamation of a state of siege in- an intensified form, as a preventive mea- sure in view of the threatened general strike.