The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-10-22
RELIGIOUS SFERV0R . GRIPS POOR IN
 WELSH VILLAGES
Revival of Religious Party Caused by Fear That Win ter Will Bring Suffer-
 ing to All
By NORMAN B. WATSON Sueciai Correspondent of The Age Herald (CoDyriKht. 1929. by The Age-Heiald

eCopyriEht 1929. by The Age-Heiald)
 London, October 21.-A strange. almost hysterical religious enthusi- asm is rising in the Welsh villages. In the towns of the Aber valley, in Swansea and other parts of south Wales, crowds in churches and on street corners are praying, singing and shouting "Hallelujah." Hundreds of converts have already been bap- tised and their number mounts daily.
 Wales is seldom long without revival movement which spreads rap idly and mysteriously until It aftects whole communities. and the preseh' movement promises to equal the Wllo est manifestations of the past.
 Nightly services are crowding the little stone chapels of the Albertridwr and Senghenydd mining district, near Cardiff. Even the little children are not unaffected and if you ask your direction of one the answer will De followed by soft spoken Hallelu- jah.' On street corners knots or miners give rapt attention to speak CTS who promise them eternal tor ment if they do not repent.
 Pastor Jones, one of the leaders of the revival, exercises a control over his congregation as extraordinary as that of some of the negro evangel- ists in the south. The fervent shout ing of his listeners can be heard at q distance from his church. Old men and women, youths and children sway rhythmically as if hypnotized by his half-chanted descriptions of sfYntf lanRh self into he'll" he tells these somber people, but you can't laugh yourself out"
 Much Poverty
 Tho converted preach in the streets of the Miracle; and women publicly pray for the sins of sons and hps- bands.
 One of the obvious reasons for the revival is thaat because of almost unprecedented poverty the winter is awaited with apprehension.
 The town of Eddw Vale (pro- nounced as if the w. were a short a) Is hardly typical, but it is an ex treme instance of conditions prevail ing in one of Britains basic indus tries. Because the employers and the workers have not been able to agree on mining price list. the steel works and the mines of the NdJlty HdN6 DoeIl suul uOWn anu ous- 900. the entire population, are with out income.
 Cyrus Davies, chairman of the district council. declares that the valley is facing the blackest period in it's troubled history.
 We are, indeed, In such distress that 1t looks as if we will have to feed not only the children, but their fathers and grown-up brothers as well. The warehouses are full and officias declare that many Eddy Vale people are without food. bedclothes or coal"
 On rainy days school attendance is halved because so many children have no shoes. Hungry and ragged chill dren, may be seen digging In refuse < heaps. .4i-s4 lla@ gre
 School Hampered
 local school teacher tells how one of her smallest boy pupils came to school in a ragged overcoat, gro- tesquely too large for him. when she asked him to warm himself at the fire and remove the coat, the little fellow burst into tears She found that had he obeyed her he would have been all but naked.
 London was amazed to learn how recklessly Americans speculated in German marks and there was consid- erapiei press comment, but none so mordant as that of the Dublin cor respondent of the Morning Post. He points out that the Free State cannot raise any more than half of the S2oO g oOo,000 necessary for running the Care Free State" during the current year, and prophecies that the deficit will be greater next year. He sees one way out of the difffculty-to hurry up and print a sufficient auan- tlty Of Irish paper money and then send MT. Desmond Fitzgerald to tbe united States to persuade the Irish Americans to speculate in 1t. But the suggestion, he admits, has not so lar received the attention if desarua.