Pioneer

The Theatre Royal The performance of the Lyceum sensation "Seven Days' Leave" which opens at the Theatre Royal to-night (Wednesday) fgr a run of ten nights-including Christmas nightt--and three special matinees—Boxing Day, Saturday and New Year's Day—promises to excel the per- formance that twelve months ago sett the town by the ears in adulatory praise. The company is, I think, stronger in Howard actors, the staging is more elaborate, and the general unity seems to me to be happier—though I am free to confess that that last may be due to the fact that I my- self am in merry Christmas mood at the moment. Then so is everyone else, even the last represen- tative of morose pessimism had a child by each hand and radiated joy for yards ahead when I met him last night; and that being the general accord of the day, my mistake should be a com- mon one if mistake it is; and so what is but in ouraelves will from its seeming, become objective reality, and the play will go the merier for it. And that it will go merrily at this season, that stage tradition has allocated to pantomime, will be found to be true, for after all the romance that goes to the compounding of a Howard drama, is just the romance that we all enjoy at Christmas-time. Everyone reads light romantic fiction then, except the few poor wights who think that they can only be Christmassy by maudlin over the minor poets. It lis the time when even faries are possible, and when the gallant deeds of 'daring do that Walter Howard and the school to which he belongs rrevel in be- come exceedingly probable. And the way it is to be played this week and next at the Royal will be realistic. The spy and his assistantr. will be spies to the life, and the heroism of the Bri- tish sailor, his plucky little lady, and that mid- ship mite, will be a gallantry so real that we sihall all know its counterport in everyday life. That is as it should be. For the first full week in the New Year Oh! I Joy," the great musical comedy, comes to us from its triumphant London run, but I can deal with that next week. PLAYGOER.

—~ I AN INDUSTRIAL VICTIM. A verdict of "Accidental Death" was returned at an inquest at Swansea on the body of Morgan Davies, who was crushed between two waggons whilst working at the New Cwmgorse Colliery last week, and who following an (operation at the Swansea hospital the day after, died. His daughter, Myfanwy Davies, told the Coromers' I jury that on being taken 'home deceased had told her that he had had a lucky escape. I

I n _un un _un. un I Retrospect. IN the last issue of the year it is traditional to glance back in retrospect upon the year that's away,. and to find the seeds of hope and bright- ness nestling just beneath the skin of the year that is next to be. We who live and move and have our beings in the times, are essentially of the times, and by reason of contiguity in time, place, and our active participation, consciously or unconsciously, in the ovents (that to-morrow will be surveyed from the coolly dispassionate heights upon which historians stand to take their surveys, are least of all fitted for the task of assessing those things that the yea/r has seen accomplished, or begun. Nineteen-nineteen, which in the Capitalistic optimism of the editorial surveys of the closing days of last De- cember, was to ibe the year after the war—the year of reorganisation, reconstruction 'and pro- gressive, democratic reform, is much more likely to occupy an important page in the history texts of the future by reason of the fact that in it for the first time to lany considerable degree, the forces of Democracy and of Capitalism began to align themselves in definite battle array for the social war that is to determine the whole future of world-history. In Russia, where the vanguard of Democracy had stormed and taken the Capi- talist position before the year was born, the period has been one of temporary halt, whilst the ground won was consolidated and organised strongly as a new base from which the final of- fensive should surge forward to complete vic- tory. In Italy, France and Belgium the progress has been marked though disproportionately mis- coloured by the anomalies of electoral machin- ery. Germany, about which the news is scant and unsatisfying, has probably suffered more of reverse than elsewhere, through faults of leader- ship, more than from facts of occupation, whilst the dread spectre of an unimaginable hunger allied to reactionary intervention 'has served to make the twelve months a long-drawn-out agony of misery for the Austrian Empire, in whose count of days that brief reign of Bela Kun in Hungary alone counts for brightness. In the Anglo-Saxon nations on both sides of the Atlantic the year lias been one of acute class- division and class warfare. In America the ex- pression has largely been on the industrial field, and the reaction that the employment of the legislature, the courts and all the powers of a Capitalist State in a. high state of conscious- ness and organisation may well prod uce a re- action on the Democracy of the states that, more than any theoretical propaganda, will turn the eyes of the workers too much aii-ay from or too much towards the accurate poise for correct fighting. In English industrial history during the past century a policy differing only from that of the American Capitalists' unbridled policy of ruthlessly using the whole armoury of the State has at different times produced both effects, with the result that for the time being Democrsicy has allowed one weapon to rust whilst 'relying too much on tlhe power of one- armed work with one weapon. In England, de- spite the pessimism of those who prophecy with melancholy con/tentmenfc that "England will be the last nation fto become Socialistic," the year that opened with rtbeftood gates of passion so widely opened that on the surging waters an absolutely reactionary Parliament was swept, into power, and that closes with the ghastly horrors of Amritsar, and the nihilism of Irish political action a chapter of political inefficiency such as noother period so short can equal, the year has been one of isteady progress towards the realisation of the great ideal of Collectivism. Politically, the year that opened in an apparent rout, has found the democracy still more and more intently using its politicalwer conscious- ly as workers. The bye-elections have shown an enthusiasm that is enheartening, the municipal contests have advertised the readiness for the change that is to come. Industrially the know- ledge of the destiny of the workers to be the direct servants of Society as producers, clad with the full responsibility of production, and assured of an equitable share in distribution has a-noi-e and more permeated the inind of the workers, .In, «JH> brought with it a dignity that has steadied the movement, and drawn together those lines that in the past have been too loosely held and too selfishly regarded to allow of a vision transcending the purely personal side of a narrowly craft-defined life in the workers themselves. And the vision has gone forth from them to stir with enthusiasm the hearts of all whose eyes have not been beclouded with .pre- judice, whose hearts have beaten warmly in human breasts, and whose heads have craved the days when the scales of justice shall weigh in equity between man and man. The pedantic questions of theorists have been drowned in the glorious urge of the great ideal, and uncon- sciously the theory has been incorporated in the practice. The workers themselves have proved themselves in the main more conscious of the times than those who but a few short years back were voices crying in the wilderness ahead. The co-ordination on the industrial field has been ac- companied by a growing recognition of the ur- gency of political unity and consciousness; the discipline of the one has reacted beneficially upon that of the other, and as never before in our history there begins to emerge the true force of Labour, grim, buft joyously rather than sourly, for 'neath the grimness burns the fires that perenially spring from the sure knowledge of the goal, and from the enthusiasm that the loftiness of the goal kindles to the brightness of a holy quest. That has been the history of the year, that in dry dates and deeds would seem but the story of political futility and industrial discord. True, the consciousness can not be stated by all and sundry R-ith the exactness of a student's rigourous demands, but for all that it lives. It not only lives, but it has compelled the enemy into defensive surrenders. A share in management is offered, the co-operation of Labour so long denied is offered on what ap- pears to be advantageous terms by a class .that has seen with surety that the tramp of the myriad feel for Labour tiliat is changing from the shuffle of the mob to the alert precision of an army in movement, spells the end of their domination. It may be that 1920 will provide a period of experiment in these schemes maybe the year to be is to be one of the education of the workers for the final task of complete man- agement that Socialisation will entail, but whether it be or whether it be not matters little for the city on the hill is within sight; the momentum of the iarmy quickens; the eyes of the hosts fla.shstill more radiant in the vision of the Promised Land in sight; and the throats will ere long burst into the jubilant song of than triumphant; man the master of his destiny at last; man privileged to express the glorious in- equalities that nature has bestowed in the full free service of the brotherhood of Humanity the world over.

Ex-Service Men and The Western Mail." THE sensational methods that the Western Mail a.dopts for the purpose of doing good by steaLth are generally sufficient in themselves to dispense with the bush of further advertise- ment. Occasionally, however, we feel called upon to express to that journal and the cla/ss it represents the thanks of some section of the La- bour movement to whom it has called marked attention, and by stimulating ■enquiry and dis- eussionha.s furthered them. Last week the ser- vice was performed for that sturdy babe of the Labour world—the Ex-Service Men's Union. Of course, according to the Western Mail," die Union is some sort of a Bolshevist organisation, in the popular sense of the. word Bolshevism, to the building of which strange and sinister ingre- dients have gone, including, naturally, the l.L.P. But the time lias gone by when men can be frightened by a childish bogey cry, that has lost its significance from the fact that it has been too broadly applied by the enemies of the workers. It is not abuse t'liat any section of the Labour movement has to fear so much as a con- spiracy of silence; and the rapid progress that the Ex-Service Men's Union has made in face of a wise ignoring of its existence and purpose, probably occasioned the" Western Mail" in- vestigations, and will be stimulated at an early date as a result of the interviews that have been twisted, from the complaints we have this week received. The Ex-ServlCe Men's Union, according to the humour of the articles, is a revolutionary organisation of discharged and demobilised men called into being by revolution- ary organisations, for revolutionary ends. If we were clear that the word revolutionary was pro- perly understood by the Western Mail" we should let the description of t'he body pass as an accuraite one; but, unfortunately, the "Western Mail" in the past has always mistaken blood and murder and anarchy for its very opposite—revo- lution. It is because the mem bers of the Ex- Service Men's Union possess much more practi- cal minds and are better politicians' than the neurotic reporters of the Capitalist Press that they have founded themselves in definite attach- ment to the rising forces of industrial and poli- tical democracy. They realise, as does the La- bour Movement as a whole, that whilst the de- mobilised man 'has special problems that will be best investigated inside a special organisation of such men, he is totally without povVer to enforce the solutions that wisdom suggests and justice endorses—apart from his economic and political power. Both powers so far as their effective use is concerned are consolidated for the workers, from which the prepondeJ rtting mass of tlhe ex- Service men is drawn, in he Labour Party, and its allied trades unions. Without that organised power at his hand, oommandable -by him as a constituent part of it, the ex-Service man has seen that this hopes of redress at the hands of politicians are remotely 'small. Yet the griev- ances are genuine, and their ignoring might very well lead to serious feeling and demonstrations of a dangerous character in the present state of things. Denied a constitutional outlet, the movement would follow all history in producing unconstitutional methods in its expressions of resentment. That would be regrettable, both for tihe public and the ex-servicemen-—particularly the ex-service men. To avoid that the or- ganisers of the Ex-Service Men's Union gave a definite political class expression to their propa- ganda and their platform. Experience and com- monsense has taught every ex-service man inside or outside the union that he will get from the Government ii,hat he can force from the Govern- ment, and the Ex-Servioe Men's Union has pre- sented the one constitutional and effective pro- gramme of securing a just treatment. Two courses are open to a movement that pretends to a non-political bast--it,can cringe, beg, and buy minor concessions that will never solve the major problems of the ex-service man, ior it can genuinely strive for redress unJtil repeated fail- ure has ,engendered dispair and desperation, and the counsels of despair and desperation. Both are menacing and underisable. To avoid them the Ex-Service Men's Union has adopted a con- stitutional expression of its class nature, class hopes and class faith-amd, naturally, it is dubbed revolutionary. It is, but it is the revolu- tion that the evolution of ideas represents, and not the chaos of an absence of clear conception and frank despair, that hack-writers of cheap criticism in cheaper organs of Capitalism would have us infer.

I The Dowlais Elections- I REFLECTIONS ON THE RECENT VOTE. I ARE THE WORKERS POLITICALLY BLIND? I BY E. ROBERTS. The recent Dowlais Elections give cause for reflection upon the influences that decide voters in their selection of the persons who shall re- present them on public bodies. The Dowlais Ward is one in which the overwhelming majority of the electors are working men and the greater number of them employed by Messrs. Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds, Limited. As a matter of history the working-class movement in Dowlais is nothing more than a series of long struggles on the part of the workmen to secure better conditions of work, more wages from Guest, Keen and Co. and its predecessors. The fight was not only in the works, but in the Council Oh amber. Had conditions in the factory and in the mine have their counterpart in the condi- tions under which the workmen have to live when not actually at work. Years of agitation has to some extent resulted in improvement in both spheres. Even to-day there is nothing in the town to show that the Company has ever taken any interest in its employees. There is enough evidence of the cold indifference of the employers to the conditions under which their workmen live. They have never of their own free will ever granted anything, it has always had to be wrung from them. What decent em- ployer would. if he knew, suffer his workmen to live under the horrid housing conditions which exist in Dowlais. The Company have full know- ledge of these conditions, but they have con- sistently opposed the extension of housing schemes by the Town Council. It is not many years ago since the Company actually allowed people to live in the works. The low wages paid by the Company in the past has been a by-word. ITHE CONCLUSION. The sum of all these things would lead one to believe that this memory would live in the minds of the workers, and when occasion would arise they would express their disgust at such treat- ment, and in a practical way by their votes re- cord their indignation. What, however, do we find ? In a clirect fight between a workman and a chief official of the Company standing as a de- clared nominee of the Company the workmen is placed at the bottom of the poll. What is the explanation ? Is the outlook of the workmen confined only to the excitement of the moment regardless of his own interest In the election address of the Company nominee reform was promised. The main plat- form was a plea that the Company should have one lD. TJutt idea. was put forward at every meeting, pressed by the canvassers and assisted by the majority of the electors. The average elector never seems to have asked him- self or herself as to what claim the Company had to representation. If they have a right every "direct" (?) ratepayer has an equal right, and if the claims are admitted, there is no room for any other representation. The condi- tions under which workmen should live is a mat- ter for working men and'not the business of the Company. The Company would not allow the workmen to interfere in what they call their business, for instance, the distribution of the three million bonus shares; and working men ought not to aid the Company to interfew in the affairs of the workers. The one outstanding feature of the election is the slow progress of Labour in the political field. Election cries confuse the workmen. He sees no rallying point on the Trade Union side, only that the worker thinks and acts in any- thing like unanimity. There is union Iwhen the platform concerns work, but a very u-neeitain outlook when the appeal is to an elector. Has this not a lesson?

I A Kindly Gitt. I COAL OWNERS CRANT £ 5,000. I TO MINERS PROVIDENT SOCIETY. The Miners' Permanent Provident Society, upon the funds of which there are many depen- dent, who in its absence would have to submit to extreme hardship, has been compelled 'to send out an S.O.S. on account of the serious depletion of its funds due to the fall in the value of the securities in which its funds were invested. On Saturday the Board of Management received its half-yearly statement of accounts showing an in- come—inclusive of a special donation of £ 7,590 from the S.W.M.F.—of £ 9,190. There was an expenditure of £8,850 for the same period in benefits to 516 widows, orphans and disabled workmen on the funds. An. appeal had been addressed to the South Wales and Monmouthshire Coalowners' Associa- tion, and on Saturday the Board of Management had the satisfaction of receiving a letter recog- nising the value of the work done by tlhe Society, and enclosing a draft for t500 unanimously voted by the Owners' Association to assist the society. On the motion of Mr. Jas. Winstone the thanks of the Society were voted to the Coal- owners' Association for this munificence. During the 38 years of its existence the Society, by December 31st this year, will have Contributed more than a million pounds in bene- fits to the widows and orphans of men killed whilst following their calling in the mines, and to men injured whilst engaged in their industry. Votes of sympathy were passed at the meeting with Sir Walter Nicholas, and Mr. Evan Owen, the secretary, who were both unable to attend owing to illness.