CARDIFF IN AGONY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVI, Issue 119, 17 May 1912, Page 2

CARDIFF IN AGONY.

STARVING PEOPLE IN DESO-

LATE HOMES

WANT THAT CHARITY DOES NOT COPE WITH.

- CARDIFF, March 29.One has only to walk about the mean struts of Cardiff to see_the Shockingdamage which is being done to hosts of unprotected laboring folk who find themselves inextricably volved in this coal war, and have had to takejtheir chances of being hit. ..Most of them—men, women, and -children—have been ; hit. My tour to-day of their ruined homes leaves; no doubt 'is to the deadly character of the industrial strife. This business is ■war in every seose of the word. One needs btit little ■■imagination to see -the vitality of a town draining away to the irreparable damage of the national life—the smash already ' comer',; '•-. •'■"■ ':■■ ■.■■■'■'- ' '■•- ■■'-. •... •■'.'•■. . A tour of Cardiff now forces one to reconsider what is meant by the ■phrase, "wealthy town." Cardiff is. a wealthy town as the phrase goes. It shows a visitor every evidence of ■that. ; There are . palatiari offices, where the highly profitable business of coal export is transacted. , There Cardiff castle in the town's centre, the seat of the B«+e family, and really awe-inspiring in its size and in jbhe bland acceptance of its dominion and its, wealth. ■ Coal has dor»e something for Cardiff. For Cardiff. -it must be remembered, lives by coal "5!&ne"l and lives^ very well if these evidences alone' are taken. Cardiff .'is a: seaport ; with an export trade, which is almost entirely cool. Practjcallv it has no imports. So when coal, ceases its life ceases. And tha.i is what "has happened.

TSGGKS. FULL OF IDLE SHIPS

The docks are full of idle ships, and so the streets are full of idle men. The; weafth of this city means nothing whatever to these men who represent the. vast bulk of the-life'of Ca-r-----diffi. ; 'They ap& the hosts of kborers, each with' "an a*-erag©[ wage of - but -a pound a week, who live.normally' on the brink of starvation. When times; like this come they are instantly destitufe. The Dockers' TJmoa, for instance, has a membership of 4500. To<lay about 600. found work', v The Lord Mayor arid a ba-nd of willing workers have taken tne -eight wards of the <jity-j' aiid ai"© heartily at work suc--ooiiring those whom this ..strike has Utterly.ruined. There are thousands of hoiries here where there is not a scrap of furniture either, for that has gone" into the pawnshop or into the grate. . BURNED HIS LAST.CHAIR.

One man told me, for instance, that' yesterday he burned his last chair. .The suffering here, indeed, is so widespread and intense that no artifice of words would convey it. Mr Griffiths/who is on the executive committee of the trade council, ■to-day-took me;round a slum area of the city not more than five minutes' Tvalk from Oaidiff Castle, to show me the sort of homes which; this city has in its midst, and where,1 naturally, one would find the -first victims of the Industrial war; for,' of course, such people, .are defenceless. In the first house wo found s'xteen people living in six rooms. On the ground'floor the front room is ooby a mother and father and twol children." '■-■■ The room is occupied by a man and wife and four children, aad the back kitchen also is the shelter: of another family of parents with four children. There are three families unstairs. Such ■cases, could! be multiplied. The men are casuals and ■, (lookers earning, when in* work, from 17s to 23s a week. ..■ ' . ■ -■ '•■.. ' • •- ■ :

I found one docker, .a l-espectable man, who used to support eight ■children on 28s per week. But there has teen no momoy for nearly a month now except what came from-the 4-e----lief committee.

In,, another case the man and woman had fourteen children to support on, 18s a week when they could Stet it. Some other children nave to forego the school.meals .nbw because -they have; ho boots to wear. That "house is bare. The furniture and; bedding have been pledged. There was a table and. a few ohaia*s in the Idtcben, and in the bedroom I saw nothing but. a., mattrass. on the floor. There were ho "bed clothes.

PBBDINa THREE THOUSAND

It is ■ significant that it had been found necessary to feed 3700 children. In one case whicih was reported to the Lord Mayor it was foucid there were "seven young children in the family. There was not even a crust of bread in the house. The house was,bare. ■As in so many other instances these people shrank from, reporting their privations, and it was, the crying of the mother at night which betrayed them. The .-neighbors heard her, and went in. The young baby had been put to bed hungry because there was no more milk, and this final proof of •their utter misery was more than the mother could bear.

In another instance the husband nad.-had no work for fifteen weeks. His wife is in consumption, and his baby ill. There was no. furniture in that house, no food', ami no fire. This does but barely; indicate the state of affairs in the. city which coal ha,s made so wealthy, _ for columns could be filled with similar instances of families who have now nothing between t/heift and starvation but the few shillings of the relief committee and the free meals for the children.

A Pwris coiitemporuiry has been, in • moiiifjlifang a number of persons noted for odd re-cords. Here are n few—M. Dnpbnt, of Gonrdon, is the champion liut-orackoi-, having cracked 2844 in 60- minutes. Without our knowing it, th&i-e is a Mir. Clocks <lv,'olling in our midst who holds -he record1 as'potato-poeler; His achievi:ment is preparing 311b« in aevon Tnlnutes. Herr Ludwig Wolging, or Berlin, has smoked 19 cigars in-t<\-o hours, without drinking. Hi^ ri.ntithesiis i« Loys Bi-.llaqst, of Bru.v rf.els, who can .-maisd v ciga.r.. last for two houre. Mr LoAvney;, an Amcrj<?;m, is credited with "opening; 104) oysters in four minutes. Mm'e. Bubliv the queen of s.-uidwich-m.akers/ p.rf pared 2007 in 19 hours:

Mr H. .Wilson, secretory to tl.o Gwrdnor Tmst for the Blind, speak ing: at a oonfereri<yv of the After CVarv* As'vooiation -for Blind, D'etaf, ?o-3 Crippled' OhiWren, described trades for blind neoplc. "In Nf v Yrirlv/ he ft-ud, "there is a oliinl V.fwirber:,who .-..is. .doing very woll. T one in th© West cA \■• Etf^ahdr'^;;.^e',?n<;?a>Jj^'« ( to slinve oM vrsha^'^ftth^^iia^Sy'jwt .^Tie^; .c,n'«.t<>m- ii '■ 4>rs^ri&v&z'~:ptQ I''w 'edciontr. time.'-■ Thc*;c' • woiiW/:be' of wjrk to be o^>;'ifafnesspy ib^litsa people in; London if [$rik 'only luvdi'more workshops.", .