Pioneer

Bargoed Notes. I Bisinesswoman's Failure. I Mary Edwards, fruiterer, etc., of High-etreet, Bargoed, whose statement of affairs showed a deficiency of 2722 17s. lid., explained her failure to the Merthyr Bankruptcy Court on Tuesday as being due to illness, scarcity of fruit and the fact that she had to discontinue her fish business. The examination was closed. Rescuer's End. I A lad named George Barnett, of Pieton-oourt, Pontlottyn, was injured by a fall of roof at the McLaren Colliery on Thursday. A haulier, David Brady, of 38, Alexander-street, Aber- tysswg, went to his assistance, and was himself irjured, and succumbed from shook the same evening. Personal. I Lieut. J. Percy Jenkins, Welsh Regiment, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins, Uppes High-street, Bargoed, is in hospital in London suffering from skrapnei wounds in the back sustained in Ftew. it- • ■

Socialism and Technical Instruction. NOTHING could be more timely than the discus- sion on the right aims and ends of Democratic education, that has arisen out of the Trades Council's decision to co-operate in the provision of funck for the establishment of an efficient technical education centre in Merthyr. The problem raised has an universality of appeal and significance that lifts it well above the parochial basis of the locality that happens to be the storm centre of the contesting factors in the ranks; of the Democratic educationists. The whole ques- tion of the Labourites, and more especially the Socialists', conception of education and his duties towards education are involved, whether the democratic habitate John of Groats, Land's End or any nook or corner within those limits. And there is no more important question, than this. Personally we cannot take the doctrinaire vi(i,w of some of our more enthusiastic friends, that the limits of working class active participa- tion in education should be that of inculcating the class conscious idea. Education is naturally divided into the three component- parts of ele- mentary instruction, which gives the broad basis o' all education; technical education, embracing all applied education on the industrial field from the elementary sciences of the bricklaying stu- dent-worker, to the complex researches of the scientist; and cultural education, the education in knowledge for the sake of knowledge, for the sake of the power that knowledge contains, and for the pleasures of knowiedge. All three are ir terlinked, all three are imperatively necessary, none of them are dispensable to Labour. The argument of Capitalistic responsibility for and sole benefit from technical education, whilst superficially attractive when so powerfully put as it was by Mr. Mark Starr is our columns last week, is only possible by a narrow view of the workman's responsibilities to himself, to the community and to his craft as a workman and by a. misapprehension of the function of tech- nology. To argue that technical science is wholly and solely a. necessity of Capitalist pro- duction, and a manufactory of bosses, super- visors, and overmen, is to argue falaciously. We grant that the outline scheme presented by Mr. Morrell to the Trades Council—a purely per- sonal outline as he was careful to point out- seemed to point that way, and for that very reason we attacked it at length in these columns. There is the world of difference between the technological departments of our universities; where the intention is to produce the controllers of industry, and a properly conceived scheme of technical education in the town or city institute and schools. The latter offer a man the oppor- tunities of assimilating the rudimentary scien- tiic theories that are the basis of his occupation, rudiments that he will never acquire in the rule- or thumb practice of his apprenticeship and jour- neyman days in the workshop or on the job. Technical schools that are provided for the edu- cation of a handful of students, for the purpose of manufacturing experts, are purely beneficial to that handful and the capitalist employers, but technical schools that train the man in his trade and calling suffer from, this disability to so slight a degree that it is not worth considering. Tech- r.ical education that provides the man at the boncrt or in the yarfi witli an appreciation ot the why and the wherefore of his operations, that enable him to understand the reason why a cer- tain elevation is given or certain specifications drawn up is communally beneficial, whatever icay be it.? auxiliary results in stimulating Capitalistic production. Such technical educa- tion, the kind that seeks to educate the whole working world, and not the select few, is to be welcomed and assisted by the people as units, as well as bv the people collectively as the State. Moreover, from the more selfish viewpoint of the Socialist, as the ultimate conimandeerer of the means of production, such education is impera- tively necessary. We must be prepared with our trained workers with our skilled technicians to uannage and control industry, and our workshops must be manned by workers sufficiently acutely alive to the fundamentals of their craft, industry or calling to realise whether or not those indus- tries are being run in a manner beneficial to all; or are being wrecked by reactionaries pathetic to the old order of production and anxious to prejudice the nation to its re-enact- ment by bad returns. "State Socialism," with its bureaucracy is teeming with dangers of this kind; only a technically trained populace can prevent the farce of the Louis Blanc workshops being repeated when that time comes.

Political Notes. BY F. W. JOWETT, M.P. The "Times" articles on "The Ferment of Revolution are no doubt expected to make a sensation. They appear to have been written by some respectable old gentleman who has only a very slight acquaintance with the working class. Somebody, however, has made his flesh creep by telling him of people who really believe that Labour always and everywhere pro- duces more than is needed for its bare subsist- ence," and that these strange people also be lieve that this surplus product is annexed by Capital, which lives thereon idly and in luxury." Of course, the old gentleman who has written the Times articles must have received his information second band, for nobody believes that "capital" annexes the surplus product. Capital annexes nothing, but the capitalist profiteer is very busy in that direction and at present he is doing very well. He is far from being "idle," this citalistio profiteer, although he is surrounded by many idle and uselessly busy people, who share luxuries with him that are paid for with a small fraction of the surplus pro- duct stolen from Labour. The bulk of 'the sur- plus product is invested to obtain more surplus product. 1: The action of the old gentleman and the pro- minence given by the "Times to his dismal dirge and his very welcome threats prove, at all events, that "the intellectually inclined young men and young women of the well-paii wage- earning class (and we will add others who are not of the well-paid wage-earning class) to whom he traces all the propaganda he regards with such horror, are making progress. Therefore, we are obliged to the old gentleman for his testi- monial. As the Times" recommends its readers to give careful attention to the articles on the Ferment of the Revolution," and, having re- gard also to the fact that the Capitalist pro- fiteers who do indeed annex the surplus product of Labour probably agree with the writer of the articles, it is advisable te state their ratatanoe. 1\ writer of the articles is disturbed in his mmd, as all the Capitalist profiteers are, over the behaviour of certain large and powerful unions during the war. They have threatened to strike, in some cases, have actually struck, and the Government has had to give way to them. The Government ought to have defied and fought the unions, so the writer of the ar- ticles contends. The result of this weakness oil the part of the Government has been, in the opinion of the writer of the articles, disastrous, for it has created a privileged class that is exploiting the war, and not taking itf; share of the risk which the' war has imposed on the re- mainder of the community. This privileged class is composed exclusively of highly-paid workers in receipt of wages of from -62 to t5 a week belonging to unions that have protected Ing to uni their members from the full scope of the provi- sions of the Military Service and Munition Acts. The writer of the Times articles maintains that the people of this country have been divided into two nations by the militant policy forced upon the well-paid trades unionist* by the intellectually inclined young men and women whose power is altogether out of proportion to their numbers," aided by conces- sions on the part of the Government which never ought to have been made. On the one hand there is the nation of organised labour with its well-to-do wage-earners, of the t2 to C5 a week class," and, on the other hand, there is the nation that represents Old England," which includes the whole of the propertied, pro- fesional, trading, and agricultural classes, and the wa.ge-earners who loyally support the "ex- isting form of Government," viz., the cotton operatives of Lancashire, the pottery workers of Staffordshire, and the low paid workers down to the agricultural labourers, with their btatu- tory minimum of 25s. a week. Having divided the community so as to fit in with his own theories into two nations, the writer of the articles in question leaves his readers in no doubt as to which of the two na- tions they ought to make common cause with. His own affections are clearly with the nation of Old England," which includes every extreme of wealth and poverty. As for the other na- tion, the £2 to £ 5 a week folk, it is socialis- tic in its theories, and gives its practical allegi- ance to the power vaguely defined as labour," end it is swayed from time to time by gusts of opinion or by the concerted action of a, few schemers," whose aim is to bring about a re- volution by the policy of "demand upon de- mand, strike upon strike, blow upon blow, until the capitalist. State is destroyed." As the average cost of food for a family where there are three of four children on June 1st, this year, was 51/6 per week as compared with 22/6 a. week in 1904, and 25/- in July, 1914, the well-to-do wage-earners with ;C2 a week must be existing on short supplies, and, chiefly, on substituted or adulterated food. The crimes alleged against the labour nation," to which the well-to-do n £ 2 a week people belong, are, that the Labour natien has driven the War Cabinet to repeal parts of the Military Service and n Acts, it has defeated the whole scheme of National Service by which other la- bourers of the docile "Old England" sort were to take the place (by way of dilution) of muni- tion workers and set them free for military ser- vice, and it has causer! restraints on the wage- cainers' freedom robe abandoned. ft- All this evil work on the part. of the Labour nation has been accomplished by means of strikes and threats of strikes. Consequently, the Goveinntont has been defeated and the Capi- talistic State is in danger of being destroyed. This is the limit," and immediate action has become necessary, and the writer of the "Times" articles is kind enough to indicate the sort of action that, in his opinion, is required to defeat the T-m.bokii- iiitioi-, i,ii(i give to the nation of "Old England," the "Old England of the glorious days of the Nineteenth (Vntury the victory, once and for all. It is a simple thing, this plan of the Times' special contributor for defeating the "Labour nation." All that the Government needs to do is to wait for the next threat of a strike with the settled determination of opposing it. The method of opposition is equally eimple. If a strike takes place there is no need to compel the strikers to -o back to work. Even the "Times" contributor sees the impossibility of that. What ho advises is that those who are loyal to the nation should do the work the strikers refuse to do, and that no one should be allowed to im- pede them. In other words conscripted workers, armed with guns and bayonets, are to help the "Old England" nation (the extremely wealthy and the extremely poor) to defeat the La bour nation," the £ 2 to £ 5 a week people. The writer of the Times" articles does not' directly face the difficulty of replacing, say, 600,000 skilled and experienced miners with an equal number of unskilled." Old Englanders," although he purely had this difficulty in mind and another proposal of his is directed towards making such a formidable transference unneces- sary. He proposes that the State should boycott the strikers, and, without saying so, he clearly irdicates that by means of a complete boycott of the strikers the strike would be prevented from becoming general and the whole of the strikers would be driven back to work in less than a week. The threat of replacing strikers with Old Englanders 51 on a large scale is not seriously meant. It is the State boycott of strikers that constitutes the essence of the plan advocated by .the Times special contributor. The cat is now out of the bag. The Capitalist plan for defeating organised Labour if it cannot be bluffed' ,-the plan favoured by the "Times" and pro- bably backed by the governing class, which is in a state of panic at present over the prospect of a class-struggle to settle who is to pay for the war—is disclosed. ;II This is how the Times special contributor pictures the situation in the event of a strike being threatened. The Government is not to parley with the strikers' representatives or trades union officials. The strike must be de- clared illegal at once. Trades Unions are to be fcrbidden to contribute to its support, and pic- ketting and agitation must be prohibited. Loyal "Old Englanders" are to be called upon to volunteer to fill the place of strikers, if neces- sary, and the Military Service Acts used to de- feat the strikers. Trains are not to run, or goods or commodities be carried, or coal dug, for the strikers. All the services carried on during the strike and all the resources available will be reserved for the loyal members of the community. Even the paper money which the strikers hold 11 will oease to have any purchasing power." Only those of the working-class who continue to work are to be allowed to make calls oe. the Labour rwowrceB of the eommunity. 01 If it were a miners' strike, therefore, no trai. ould be run to the mining villages except traJa- loads of soldiers and Old Englander black- legs and their food trains, the latter also e6' corted by conscripts with their guns bayonets. In less than a week, in the OpJnllO of the respecttable old gentleman who has been employed to express the mind of the Times, the eaptialists, and the governing classes, itt re" gard to the coming Labour struggle, the higSeS strike, ?f it were met in this way, would end favour of the capitalists. Furthermore, there would, in his opinion, be no more strikes for a gcnenrtioM. But two things, the respectable old who ha.s explained so clearly what is in the rrund of the Times," the Capitalists and the paIlle stricken bureaucrats of Whitehall, has Over- looked. One is that he knows very little aboil the workers and cannofT say how they would at if they were faced with such a situation as io has described. The other thing he has forgotte* is that if the State were to act according to lal plan it would have to he born again" very soon afterwards, and would emerge, after its r; birth, as little resembling the "Old Englander State he favours as the present Russian Govern- ment resembles that of the Cza.r which is no") happily, defunct. Under ci rcumstances of extreme difficulty oil three separate occasions the minority section of the Labour Party has felt it necessary to opp068 with the utmost vigour the Munitions Act an it> amending act- The chief difficulty on eac of the oocasions referred to was dufe to the .farl that the majority section of the party declise" to oppose the main provisions contained in tbe Munition Acts, and there was, consequently* some friction between the two sections. The pro- posals regarding dilution, of Labour and leaving certificates were the chief points in dispute alla the minority section of the party opposed bot. or them. The Government has been in conflict with the hade* unionists of the country in regard to dilu- tion and the ticket -of-leave system from the first. One Minister has made his position un- tenable by his unavailing efforts to enforce the policy in dispute. A new Minister has recently been appointed in his place, who has made no spteches on the Munitions Acts and, therefore, could reverse the Government's policy without losing any personal dignity over 11. He has al- ready abandoned the dilution policy so far private work is concerned, and in a fortnights time, the hateful tieket-of-leave system will ('ad and buried. We are entitled to claim that the minority section of the Labour Party has been amply justified in this matter. The Prime Minister, in his published letter a11' nouncing the decision of the War Cabinet on the subject of pay in the Army and Navy èn- dcavours to) alone for a most inadequate selierile by a liberal supply of fine phrases. There are small concessions in regard to the date on which prohoency pay will C(;llm('nCt' and a penny day increase ? promised for each complete? year of service during the war. There is a'L? a. concession to soldiers who become entitled tO pensions whilst on active service. They will bÐ entitled to draw their pensions in addition their pay, at once, instead of waiting for it until they leave the serv ice. !H ¡. The mam concession, however, announced by the Prime -Minister, is that of relieving the sol" (II(,t- of' tl)o allotment he has .had to make out his own pay in order to claim Goveinment separ- at ion allowance. This means that instead of aJl increase bringing the pay of an infantry private up to at least 3s. a day, as was expected, the n ost he will get is an increase of sixpence a dlyi bringing his normal pay up to Is 7d. a day. BU1 only the married soldier and the soldier whose dependent is entitled to the full 12s. 6d. depen- dant's separation will get the full sixpence ad- vance. V If the pre-war dependence of the relative for whom a soldier has claimed dependent's separa- tion allowance has only been dependent on hio, prior to the war, to the extent of 3s. a week, a, penny a w(!ek, of his allotment will be added t. his pay. If the pre-war dependence was .56. a vveek 2d. a. week will he added to his pay, for /s. 6d. pre-war dependence, threepence a week villi be added,, for ')s. 6d. fourpence a week, <? for Tl,L(Ided, foi- 1), 6ci. f(,iii-perice a week, Sohhers who have claimed no separation aUoW- anco for their parents or other relatives, ah* soldiers who were apprentices or were in receipt of low wages when they joined the army and who have been, therefore, unable to prove that their parents were dependent on them at all, will re- ceive no benefit so far as their normal pay is con- cerned. This is a mean and contemptible dodge to avoid an all-round advance, and thereby a little extra. taxation at the expense of the søl- dier. A little less butter of tine words and mo.r. substance in the Prime Minister's message to the soldiers and sailors would have been more suit- able to the occasion.

I The Electric Theatre. The two Triangle dramas that have headed tJae Electric lists this week mark a distinct iml)rofe" ment in these luxurious star features. Alike i* story and handling they are distinctive and dis- tinguished by the genius of their power to hold and entertain. In particular do I feel this to be the case respecting the Thursday to Saturday feature, Martha's Vindication." It is not sel- dom that one does not feel that at least two af the five reels are superfluous; but here one would welcome two mol-e-a contrast that best adver- tises the merit of the. production. There ar- two more than usually fine comedies in tb* Lupino Love scream, Who's your lady friend, t and "A case of Poison," while all the favourlte features are retained at full strength. But next week is to be the great week. From Monday the best player on the films to-day; Douglas Fairbanks, is topping in The Habit of Happiness," the story of a grouchy millionare, a doss-house entertainer, a cure and a brIde, that is done with all the breeziness of Douglas at his best. The same programme holds a superb new Keystone Triangle comedy, Her Naturg Dance," a delightful burlesque crammed with laughter. From Thursday an exciting story Of adventure and peril is heading in the Fliing Torpedo," with a Billy Merson comedy as saUce f erf4on comedy as satico to a big dish of delightful edibles. Serials-one of the Electric's strongest de- partments—are always looked forward to h?'? and it is with pleasure that I am able'to 2" nounce that the management has succeeded ? booking the outstanding production of the booking the outstanding productions of the recent day, October 15th, will open Pearl of ?e Army," the feuillton of the year, ?eatur?S Pearl; whilst the following Thursday will '? '? irst insulment of the wonder-play, H Jude. I PUY$OBllo ■ v ■ ■ v- /♦