Pioneer

-The Late Dr. Webster. I QUIET FUNERAL AT VAYNOR. Before proceeding with the business at the Merthyr Police Court last Friday, the Stipen- diary (Mr. R. A. Griffith) said he wished to say, on behalf of the Bench, that they had heard with deep regret of the death of Dr" T J. Webster, Merthyr. Although he had not known deceased long, he had learned of his excellent qualities as a gentleman and a magis- trate, and he always valued his co-operation on the Bench. The funeral, which took place at Vaynor Churchyard on Monday, was of a strictly pri- vate nature, the mourners being all relatives-. The chief mourners were Dr. Vivian Webster, son; Mr. G W. Harrap, son-in-law; Mr. J. T. Harrap; Mr. Leighton Pearce, nephew; Mr. Henry Martin; Mr. W. Blythe, brother-in- law; Dr. Stuart Oresswell; and Mr..Frank T. James. The officiating clergymen were the Revs. J.L. Davies (Rector of Vaynor) and J. Da-vies (Vicar of Cyfarthfa). :c«' <  

Conscience and Compulsion I By THOMAS THOMAS. .1 I The Military Compulsion Act has emerged from the House of Commons with the blessing of redoubtable exempted priest and layman, Uld freedom-loving Britishers who boast that "Britons never, never shall be slaves," have been shackled with fetters so firmly rivetted as ever enslaved a gullible people. The country went to war to safeguard the cause of liberty, and will emerge from the war an enthralled nation—to the sabre-rattling militarism of Germany, but to the equally pernicious milit- arism of British Imperialists. In allowing this measure to pass through Parliament, Labour has consented to a yoke that will eventually prove a millstone round its neck. Assurances to the contrary may have been given with the best faith, but experience in connection with previous Acts of Parliament demonstrates that a. good Act badly administered reacts as inju- riously to the workers as a bad Act well administered. With all its protective clauses, loopholes have been left in the Conscription Bill through which the rights of Labour will filter as through a sieve, and through which the advocates of the Act will wring dry every vestige of Trade Union liber Uy. Of course, it is no use pointing out the palpable defects of the measure to Trades Unionists at the present moment; they have their eyes concentrated on spectacles more in harmony with the spirit of Imperialism than with industrial progress, and their future wel- fare must be subservient to the all-important demand of supporting the Government. Prob- ably they will awake to their danger when it will be too late. Were the destiny of the war dependent on the Compulsory Military. Act, there would be some justification in passing the measure, and the workers could be extenuated Tor their zeal- ous care in supporting the Government; but by no stretch of the imagination is it possible to believe that a few additional thousands sol- diers can affect the result of a war in which millions are engaged. Moreover, the inclu- sion of indispensable munition, workers and at- tested men in the operations of the Act has rendered it of sinister portent to Labour. The instigators of Conscription who have incessant- br schemed, threatened, and plotted to attain their unprincipled object are known to be ene- mies of Labour, and are known to have ulte- r ior motives for Conscription beside military compulsion. Some of them have openly boast- ed that a conscript army would mean a cheaper army, and that the workers needed some effee- tive restraining influence. However, the die is cast; the measure has become law; and although Mr. Asquith has, with grim humour, permitted the legality of measures taken for the repeal of the Act, nothing more. drastic than a pious restitution will emanate from the Trade Union Movement. Apart from its power to subjugate the wor- kers. this iniquitous Compulsion Bill will do more to retard victory on the field of battle than otherwise, for though the Act may add a few thousand recruits to the Army, its opera- tions will prove detrimental in so far as it will engender more Labour troubles, and take awav from productive employment thousands of young men pledged to sufferr the penalties of the measure rather than take the military oath. Let there be no mistake about the atti- tude of the conscientious objector to war, for lie is not going to be intimidated by any Aet of Parliament or by any Star Chamber tribu- myal, into participating in the evil-not as combatant nor non-combatant. Such a.n atti- tude may be consiclA-ed as unpatriotic and cowardly, but to sneer at, or ignore the object- ors will not make soldiers of them. There has been so much rejoicing lately among Consoriptionists over the supposed down fall of the anti-Conseriptionists; there have been so many congratulatory expressions over t he anticipatory enforcement into the Army of refractory I.L.Peers, and the recalcitrant members of the No-Conscription Fellowship, that it has become necessary to emphasise the obvious fact that an Act of Parliament may mortgage a. man's body, it cannot enslave his soul. All the devilries of an Inquisition have failed to convert men against their con- victions. The resistance to the Military Compulsion Bill entails penalties, but do the promoters and abetters of the Act for a moment believe that such penalties are going to frighten the objectors into docile submission? If such views are held, they are going to be subjected to a rude disillusionment. Beliefs are not held so lightly that they can be denied at the on- slaughts of persecution. Professional politicians of the Tory and Lib-Lab schools, whose princi- ples are subservient to expediency, are in- clined to measure others f-rom their own pat- tern, and thus are lulled into a, false security regarding the opposition of men who place convictions before everything. If the Gov- ernment persists in its follv of enforcing the operations of the Army Act, then it is faced with a problem the solving of which will cause no little trouble. A man's productive labour is estimated at present at an average annual value of CIOO. There are, approximate- 1 -?, 30,000 men of mFit:ary age in the country In the various organisations of an anti-war i character-men pledged to abstain from taking the military oath, so if these persons are im prisoned, it will mean a, loss of £ 3,000,000 a. year, plus the cost of their maintenance whilst guests of His Majesty, Will this be a wise policy to pursue ? Will the country be able to afford this loss at the present time? To wildly rage against these erring individuals, to shout "shirkers" and" cowards" from the house-tops is not solving the difficulty. The men are determined not to serve in any capa- city in the Army; what, then, is the sensible course to adopt: to leave them in the work- shops, or to incarcerate them? True, they are punished bv being imprisoned, and their pun- ishment will be a salve to the outraged feel- ings of the patriotic married man whose pat- riotism gushes from his throat, but never from his pocket; but, in the process of in- flicting the punishment, the country will be the greatest sufferer. Revenge is sweet, but when it takes the form of cutting one's nose to spite one's face, then it is apt to react unpleasantly. In a war of attrition £ 3,000,000 mar easily prove of more utility in the end than the unwilling services of conscript soldiers -TInt to mention coaascript prisoners.

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An Open Letter to Mr. C. B. Stanton, M.P. COMPULSIONIST AND PUBLICIST. Dear Mr. Stanton,—Being a common coal miner, and, consequently, one of the illiter- ate horde" who somelimes reads the Herald" and the Daily Express," it is with extreme and the DallN .'fifctexQe that I venture to com- hiiiii I I by a-" d ( 1 ,1 municate with you in this manner to inform you that I. in common with many others, read your article entitled "Plain Words by a Plain Man," which appeared in the Daily Express" of the 28th ult. Now, after due and mature consideration, I have come to the conclusion that the article in question has been mis-named, and that its title should have been Brutal words by an outrageous brute," for if the article is a true revelation—and you say that it is-of your al- titude and opinions to those who differ from you, then every persom who has an atom of common sense left in him can only express him- self in terms of disgust at 'the brutish intol- erance and tyranny exhibited in your article. The contents of that article reveal you to be a different Stanton to the Stanton of old, who considered it to be a duty and pleasure to stand on a platform or street corner, to plead for tolerance and the rights of individuals or groups to hold beliefs and opinions which were contrary to the beliefs and opinions of others; and, further, that they had the right of public expression and propagation of those opinions. Your attitude to-day is to shoot, hang or de- port all those persons who happen to differ with you in your opinions, and the suppression of all means of public expression and propaga- tion of those opinions. Of course, you will un- questionably agree that the situation you have placed yourself in is not an enviable one, for if your conduct of to-day is right, then your attitude of a few years back must have been all wrong, and was simply cant and hvfcnbug* in order to obtain hypocritical notoriety. Or, is it that your attitude was then right, and to-day all wrong, and that your adoption of this attitude is merely hypocrisy? Your adoption of this attitude is not very admirable, although you have some novel me- thods in disposing of arguments, as, for in- stance, when you refer to "Will Dyson's" car- toon in the He*ald," you do not attempt to meet the argument, hut simply brush the contention asidel by saying it is a "lie," and in order to be emphatic, you repeat it is a I lie." I know that you will pardon me for not being able to dispose of the contention in a like manner, inasmuch as I happen to belong to that illiterate and seditious mind- ed horde who happen to read the Herald," and consequently cannot lay claim to any degree of that omniscience which you seem to possess. Your powers in that respect appear to be marvellous. Every objection and contention lavs itself bare, and in its nakedness reveals its truth or falsity in consequence of your orn- nisience. You have no need to examine and compare, as befalls the lot of that illiterate and seditious horde," who, because of theiii limitations, are compeMed to examine and com- pare every contention. It is because of these limitations that they are so jealous of their liberties, which you, of course, know have been dearly won through the sacrifice of many lives. It is because of these limitations that they are prepared to guard these liberties with their lives, and you, even you, with your omnisci- ence, oann'et dispel their fears that their liber- tie! are not assailed in the Compulsion Act. You say that the opponents of Compulsion "lie, lie," when they say that precious liberties are to be suppressed, and to prove that they do lie you swathbuckle and throw mud and every conceivable form of filth at your op- ponents. Your method of argument may be correct, after tftie ways of the Gods and the super-men of the Northcliffe Press, but the illiterate and seditious minded horde" prefer to meet argument with argument, and though they are experts at shifting muck with a shovel, to sling muck in your bOllI teous fash- ion is beyond their powers, even with the aid of a fountain pen. I quite agree with you that the Compulsion Act is not the only form of compulsion in our midst, for when they were told that if they did not enlist they would lose their jobs," is a form of compulsion quite as compulsory as the Act; one is the economic bayonet; the other is the legal one. You, of course, remember that prior to your elevation in f he social and politi- cal circle, you were a Trade Union leader; in fact, a miners' agent for the Aberdare Dist- rict of Miners. Now, -as a Trade Union lea- der, you were in honour—if not in duty bound to protect the Trade Unionists of that district against that economic bayonet. Did you do it? Why, man, on your own showing you admit this form of compulsion was in exist- ence, and yet you did nothing to oppose it; not even in your own district, where' probably many were forced into the Army at the point of the economic bayonet. Of course, we know that you are an out-and-out Consoriptionist. for you have lately declared yourself as such; therefore, we can now realise how it is that you were so quiescent during the operations of the wielders of the economic bayonet. It is very well known that you could not bear this form of compulsion, so in order that the ope- rations of the economic bayonet should cease, you "Speaking as a democrat, would sooner welcome the most drastic Military Compulsion Bill imaginable," and thus add insult to in- jury by your brutish and cowardly action. It would have been nobler on your part to have defended those persons who experienced the prods of the economic bayonet, than to inflict further tyranny and outrage on others. You say that the objections of the Anti-Oon- scriptionist to the Compulsion Act is rank hum- bug. That, of course, is dependent on the point of view. If it is viewed from different standpoints, the relative merits appear differ- ent. If viewed from a point of identity of in- terests and political unity of the nation, you may be justified in your conclusion. But if, on the other hand, it is viewed from its real point, i.e., that there is not an identity of in- terests between the varous classes comprising the nation, and that there is a keen and grow- ing struggle for political supremacy, then you have to drop your swashbuckling, and face the hard facts. We know that you are willing to hand over the rights and liberties of the work- men to the tender mercies of the militarists, who have tried for years to get the system forced on us. You say that compulsion is to be used for the war. I, in common with others, say that they are using the war for Conscription, and we can put up a good case. You say we lie, and prove that we are liars by slinging mud and filth, which is a rather novel method of argument even for an M.P. As a legislator, you were possibly present during the Committee Stage of the Munitions Act, and, if so, then you heard Mr. Lloyd George making this statement:—"That it de- pended upon the workmen of this country do- ing the same as the workmen in France. They must throw aside all their Trade Union condi- l"'="2"¡'2i;' tions and stick to the workshops." You, of course, are prepared to do that, but what are the conditions in .France? Are you prepared to teM the workmen in this country what are the actual conditions of the workmen in France ? Are you prepared to give four years' hard labour to a man who absents himself from pit or factory for a few days? And, further, are you prepared to institute French condi- tions here in support of that class who say that Compulsory service was necessary at his time when the people were getting out of :land ?" In the name of patriotism you are. prepared to hand the workers over to their exploiters for their complete subjection. You do not be- lieve that there is a class struggle. It is a false theory, and you would eject it neck and crop from our midst." According to your new theory, there ie complete amity and concord between the exploited and their exploiters. Your theory makes it possible for the Hon and the lamb to lie down together, and thus do away with all strife between them. It is a grand theory, and one might almost say that it is a noble one, but I am sure that you will pardon me—considering that the lamb is sym- bolical of the class to which I belong—for daring to suggest that I have the right, not- withstanding the threat of being "shot or hung," to put forth all the efforts at my com- mand in order to ascertain whether I should find the Iamb inside or outside of the lion. In the name of patriotism and freedom you are considering the betrayal of your class, just as some 100 years ago, when. in the name of freedom and patriotism, the manhood of this nation was engaged in the Napoleonic wars, the historical records show us that when the lion and the lamb lay down together during that period, the lamb was snugly onsconsced inside the lion, and the rulers quietly confiscated the properties of the lamb. But you may argue that they cannot do that now. owing to the changed conditions. I agree that they will not enclose more land, for there is nothing left worth pinching, but what of the rights and liberties that have been so dearly won on the political and industrial fields; are they of any benefit to us as a class in the forward march to economic freedom? Do they militate against the privileges of the exploiters ? Do the ex- ploiters love Trade Unions? Are the Trade Unions expressive of the class struggle, or of that policy of amity and concord of which you are the, exponent? What rights have the Trade Unions already lost? Will you be .kind enough to tell us and also when are they likely to have those rights restored to them ? Your theory of complete amity and concord is not good enough for the "illiterate horde they know what the words Liberty, Equal- ity, and Fraternity" imply, and they also know that these principles are not applicable whilst there is a class struggle in existence. These are the sacred wolKls that you flaunt in the face of mankind as a catch-phrase to conceal your intentions or duplicity. These sacred princples of Democracy you prostitute; for you can have no conception of their meaning. Did you even for a moment dream of finding these sacred principles of democracy down low in the barrel of a rifle, or at the noose end of a hangman's rope? Surely your elevation has been too much for you, and consequently you have lost yourself in the maze of unreality. It must, of course, be a source of congratu- lation to yourself, when you find such a goodly company, consisting of lords, etc., ex- pressing the same opinions as yourself in re- gard to shooting and hanging all those person* who hold different opinions to yourself, and inas much as Lord Derby suggested the shooting, it may devolve upon you to press forward the desirability of attaining that object. I know that you will do so, for you have said so much and that you mean what you say; and, fur- ther, we may presume that you will do this in the sacred name of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. So be it, for your arguments are most convincing, inasmuch as dead men can- not argue. When you referred to the operations of the Compulsion Act as being on a par with Trade Union operations, you undoubtedly had not emerged from the maze. and consequently was sti n groping around for an outlet. Y ou s that considering compulsion is brought to bear upon persons to become members of the respec- tive Trade Unions, then no one has a right to complain of Compulsion being used to find men for the Army. It is just here that, you forget yourself. A Trade Union, just like the Army, exercises its disciplilla-ry force, oaly within its sphere of action. It does not go outside that sphere. It does not exercise any form of compulsion upon any person to become engaged in that particular industry, so that it may compel him to become a member of that organisa,tion. All that it does is to demand that when any persons enter into that branch of industry, and the conditions prevailing there being due to that organisation's efforts, and that these benefits are for all, then natu- rally all must contributo:, just as the soldier has to conform to discipline only after he en- ters the ranks. The Compulsion measure is not for disciplin- ary measures in the army. It is for the pur- pose of compelling certain persons to ented the army and become subject to the disciplinary forces prevailing, so as to be able to become efficient in order to be at the disposal of the Government. And the person who can see any analogy between the Compulsion measure and' Trade Union operations must, to say the least, have dined "not wisely, but too well." Your blatant trumpettings against anti- Oompulsionists prove of no avail; they know that there is no logical resting place Between this measure and one of full military and in- dustrial compulsion. The one who supports this measure must, of necessity, go the whole hog; for if it is right to compel men into the army, it is only right that we should compel others to supply them with a sufficient quan- tity of munitions, and all these necessary in- dustrial products. So you see that when vou say this is an innocent measure, you have for- gotten the old adage "that you can fool most of the people some of the time, you can fool some of the people most of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." And that is, or should be. worthy of your con- sideration, whilst I subscribe myself, Yours res- pectfully, Penygraig. J. EVANS.

  r" 1 I j Trade Unionists! j You are —aware tr hat, at t, his 8 period of the year, your Fed- I | erations and Lodges have a good 2 I deal of Printing Work to give I I j j KEEP IN MIND KEEP !N MtND j I The fact that every Penny of I ) Profit made in our Jobbing De- I Ipartment goes towards helping to I ) strengthen the ? PIONEER." ) I The Paper that is run by your 1- ) Fellow Unionists in your Interests. I I The PIONEER imprint on your work is the I surest index to the vitality of your Trades I I Unionism and its absence will, in the future, I | be regarded as your failure to recognise your s I broader duties as Trades Unionists. t j broader duti.es as Trades Uni. onists. ? Lee II It Ii It It .i MT HELP THOSE WHO HELP I" YOUR PAPER.