The Pontypridd District Herald and Rhondda Valley, Llantrisant, Caerphilly, and Mountain Ash News. — 1879-05-31 (Pontypridd, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

SATURDAY, MAT 31, 1879.  LOCAL JOTTINGS.  BY COESULYATOE.  " Aooordlog to the fair ploy of the world,  Let me have Ludlam*. lam seat to 'peak." King John.  On Monday, Pontypridd was the some of unusual movement. The streets were crowded with collient, whose garb, if it did not indicate • ismagimas state of things, at leaskshowed that the mon rate of wages wee equal to reapeotability chimpanzee. The great event of the day MA MIMI meeting of the coition on the oommon. The main objeot this important class of our work. lag population has in view I, one with whioh every. one can sympathise. It is not only to prevent the Present rats of wages front falling to a lower point than it is now, but if I risible to secure an advanoe. At any rate, the great straggle is to prevent a farther reduction. Lowering wages means, to a working mm, a restriction of his domestic comforts, if not a positive infliction of diecomfoata. The question of the hour is veto the mean 'to be employed to carry out this end. I The country at large /offers from • trade paralysis. To galvanise a paralytic member into a sem. blance of active life, and theli call that life real and healthy, would by every man possessing common cease be deemed absurd. To close the collieries throughout the country for six weeks, even with the consent of the os ,era, for the pos. pose of creating a demand for coal, is too artifloiel • stimulant to be healthy, and in the vary nature of things is impouible. We a" depond one upon another like links in • chain. Destroy one link andithe value of ,the whole, for,the Vms, is loit. During these six Weal of enforoed idleness how are the colliers and their Wellies to live? Is it not suggestive of the old story of the mouse in mice meeting assembled, pointing out the pro priety of putting a collar with • bell round the neck of the oat, so that her approach could be known? Could they depend upon the grocers for subsistenco during that time? Such an &Wilma. tine would close every grocer's "hop in the mioing districts, for, as every class suffers under the present extreme depression of trade, it would be impossible for them to give six woks' °relit t hundreds of customer" with • vet, feeble prospect of being re.Ped 0•1111 the interest on their outlay, and it would be highly unjust to ask them to do it. Do they expect to get relief from the parish during that period? Well. the enforced suspension of the noel output would disorganise the other great industries of the country, and ifa nerico of these enepensione were to come, the country would be absolutely ruined, trader and customer, master and work. man. Now six week's of compulsory abstention from work means a proportionate weakening of the mesas at the disposal of the taxpayer to pay his rates towards the ma4itenanoe of the poor of his district. To mak a man to assist you when you deprive him of the mesas to do so is some. thing Vire killing the rose to get the golden eggs. fhe Halliday:scheme is simply impracticable, and, If it were practicable, it would be in the last degree foolish and suicide. Now, with regard to the contemplated reduction. There seems to be a general desire on the patt, of the men to ire 31) the wages of the colliers working under coal. masters at the same level as the wager of the cell 'us working under lionmasters. The salaam is certainly one that, if it favoured any one, would favour those of the iromaaters, who comma a portion of the coal they rese for their own purposes, and sap ort the rest, for it would ensble them to undersell the coalmasters simply in the market, the latter not being in a position to utilise' the coal they could not sell. This one great feet stares WI all in the face, we are in the midst of an extraordinary prostration of trade, and we are struggling to get ourselves out of the Slough of Despo,r, if we can. It is not tabs wondered at that in the Woggles to effect this end, we should occasionally deice blindly and perversely. The laws of supply end demand are fixed, and cannot to evaded by any trifling attempt at using the galvanic battery of industrial economy to restore a shoil lived existence. It would, therefore, tea thousand pities were the bond that has hitherto worked so well between ma -tars and men, that is, the Conciliation Board, go the wall, and be relegated to limbo as abortive and useless. We must look at things as they are, and deal with them in the bast way we can, bringing to bear upon their discaseion, common wive, coolness, fair play, and mutual forbearanc 3. If a reduction is inevitable, we .must bow to the inevitable, and wait the progress of event", until the dawn of brighter times shall gladden our weary eyes and raise our drooping spirits. In the meantime, with an overstocked coal market, within overstocked labour market, the most practical coestion for young miners to consider, in the expediency of leaving the old country to seek their fortune in a new one. It would not be difficult to devise • plan by wiroh emigration to the colonial could he initiated. It would be like mercy" twice blessed," for it would benefit those who will find plenty of room and plenty of work in other lands, and benefit the stay.athomes, who would find more room and more work, with bett ir pay than ever any of thetwo lotuses would be likely to obtain as long as things remain ea they are.