LITERATURE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17942, 22 May 1920, Page 2

LITERATURE.

THE MINER'S RIGHT.t A SENSATIONAL STORY. By Conbtant Reader. Among tho many essential articlrss of daily coxieumption which keep oil rising in price, tho now uoved takes a prominent place. There was a time before the war —now fast receding into tho dim and dusty past—whon the pick of new English and American stories wero procurable in this dominion at 3s 6d per copy. To-day tho'lowest prioo for tho commonest sort of Btory is ss, whilst anything out of tho ordinary entails .an expenditure of anything up to 10s. The increase in the cost of book production has led to a discussion among the publishers as to the advisability of publishing first novels by now authors, since novels can only be mado to pay by issuing largo editions. One of tho more enterprising of the younger publishing houses —Herbert Jonkinsl Ltd.—decided 'to put the thing to a test by issuing a full-length seven shilling novel in crown octavo size at tho popular prioe of 2s 6d, and he has printed a first edition of 20,000 copies and given orders to bind the whole edition. The title of this book is "Tho Underworld," and the author is Mr James C. Welsh, of Douglas Water, Lnnnrk, who, in tho preface to tho story, says:—

I havo tried to write of the life I know, tho life I have lived, and of tho lives of the people whom, above all others, I love and of whom I am so proud. My people have been miners for generations, and I, myself, beoamo a miner at the age of. 12. I have worked since then in the mine at every phase of coalgetting until about five years ago, when my fellow-workers made mo their checkweigher. I say this, that thoee who read my book may 'know that the things of what I write are tho things of which I have first-hand knowledge. ,

"The -Underworld" is an example of a type of propagandist novel which is notably an the incroaso. These had their prototypes in the early part of last century, when Dickens sought to awaken the interest of this public in the social condition of England after the Napoleonic wars; when Di£raeli ■ drew attention to the condition of labour; when Kingslcy was preaching impassioned sermons to th© Ohfirfcists and oxposing in his stones the barbarism of the sweating system; and when Mrs Gaskell was depicting the life of the operatives in the manufacturing towns of the North of England. To-day all these writers are revered for their efforts in the caui» of suffering humanity. Just before the war there were signs of an outbreak of realistio; fiction similar to that of a oentury before. In "Tho Story of a Ploughboy," in 1912, Mr James Bryco shed a lurid light upon the terrible' conditions under which the English agricultural labourers live o®d movo and have their being; whilst in ' The Royal Road" Mr Alfred Ollivant did a similar Eorvice for the labourers of the cities,, in his cas3 championing the cause of a Cockney cast among the river-edge tanneries. Both Mr Bryce and Mr Ollivant preached Socialism as the cure for the evils they ventilated. Two years later—tho very year of the wax—came out "Tho Ragged-trousered Philanthropists," the work of Robert Tfessall, a Socialistic house painter and signwriter, who, having recorded his criticism of the present scheme of things, wearied of the struggle, and slipped out by the door lof death. In the same year Mr Patriok Macgill made a wonderful sensation with "The Children of tho Dead End," that tragio autobiography of a Kinloch Leven navvy, of which 10,000 copies were printed within'' 10 days of its publication. Mr Macgill followed up his first success with another version of tho same story in T.he Eat Pit." In 1918 Mr Joseph Whittaier, in "Tumbalford," drew a pathetic picture of slum life in a big city, in the Homeland. Mr Ben Tillet pointing tho .Socialistic moral in a foreword; and now comes Mr James Welsh, lifting the veil which ccrveTs the hardships and wretchedness of the lot of the Scotch coalnrinsr, and giving a glimpse of the work done by men like Mr Robert Smillie to ameliorate the condition of those who labour underground. For Mr Welsh and'Mr Smillie both htiil from Lanark, and .it- may help the 'reader of tho novel to a better comprehension of the truth of The Underworld" if first of all he tjirns to Mr E T Raymond's sketch of Smillie m All and Sundry." Writing as a Londoner, Mr Raymond says:— At bottom the Socialism of Mr Smillie is a very different thing from the variety current this side of the Tweed. There would be nothing fatuous- or ineffective about it. It would work harshly, tyrannically, unjustly, but it would work. The Kight Honourable Robert Smillie who might have been (had this country possessed any tolerable systeir} of discovering and training for its higher purposes all _the talent bom in it) would have doubtless shown great talents for administration, and the Citizen Robert Smillie who may possibly be, .would make the wheels of his iron world revolve in earnest. It is too - late, no doubt, for society to secure the lost ally; and if it is to make Citizen Smillie'impossible, it must'do more than rail at him. It should study with care certain words of his. " I have beta one of seven persons," he said on one ocoasion, "who have had to ivash in a small kitchen, one little tub serving all of us as our only bath, and a change of water taking place only when the water would no longer serve the purpose of removing dirt." . . . One thing is certain. It may not be specially dangerous to allow stupid men to live in stupid dirt; it may be even dangerous to deprive them of their dirt by force-but to o allow the clever and ambitious to grow "up to manhood in such conditions is madness. Every vivid nature that grows up warped and embittered by Robert Smillie's experiences is a social Sanger, and more dangerous, perhaps, if he becomes an honest man than he would if he joined the ranks of scoundreiism. It is easy to understand a lack of passion for social, justice. It is less? easy to understand the carelessness of the comfortabla classes concerning social security. One would think that the mere instinct of selfpreservation would lead to the _ construction of some educational net which would make sure that youths of brains and character are not permanently ranged against, the existing order by the bitter contrast between their potentialities of mind and soul and the degradation of their physical life.

This is the characteristic of all the novels to.which reference has been made. "The plough boy, the house painter, the navvy, the cockney labourer, the miner, from their youth up were made conscious of the degradation of their physical life, warring against their mental and spiritual development, and definitely ranged . themselves afiainst the existing social order which permitted and encouraged suoh conditions. Mr Welsh, a practical miner, tells tho story of Robert Sinclair in a style so dramatic and forceful aa t.o stamp this miner-norveiist as a man of keen observation and possessed of imustua.l power of expression and talent far description. The boy is seen growing to manhood amid circumstances of the most degrading sort and surrounded by a sonldeadorung atmosphere. Yet tho consciousness of something within himself causes Robert Sinclair to survive the adverse environment and to surmount the untoward circumstances, and finally he makes for himself a nanw and dies the deaih of a hero. Throughout his uphill fight he ia helped by his mother, who typifies a miner's wife striving to keep a cleanly home and to bring up a decont family amid scenes of sordidness, obscurity, and profanity which, pictured in detail, shock and homfy. * Underworld" is a tragic story, told without tho slightest attempt at repression, containing chapters cf raro pathos and beauty, with others so melodramatic in their horrible realism as to excite the question, "Can such things be?" Yet Mr Welsh carries conviotion in every line he writes. It would be a pity to spoil the story for the reader by even outlining the plot. Sufficient to say that it is engrossing enough te make the book worth whita even as fi story, altogether disregarding its grim moral. Behind the gloom and tho squalor of the coal miner's life there are given glimpses of the slowly-gathering consciousness of the power of labour, once united nnd moving under skilled leadership: — About time much interest was being manifested in mining circles. The Labour a movement was beginning to. shq.pe itself ® the late J. Keir Hardie and maty other tireless spirits had succecded in moulding the newly-created Labour party, infecting it with an idealism whoh had hitherto not been so apparent, and this work was making a deep impression upon the minds of the workers, especially among the younger men. The Miners' Union had been linked up into national organisations, and a consolidating influence was at work, moulding

f "The Underworld: Tho Story of Bobert- Sin- ' olaiT, Miner." By James C. Welsh. Louden: Herbert Jenkins. (2e 6d neb.)

tho workers generally, and the minora I particularly, imbuing thorn with a newer hope, a greator enthusiasm, and a wider vision. Tho description of the oonforenco between tho mine-owners and the miners held m London with tho objoct of averting a strike —a oonferenoo at which tho Prime Minister und other Ministers* wero present—mokes good reading. It .was when Mr Asquith was he-ad of tho Oovernmcnt and Mr lioy-I George Chancellor of tho Exchequer, and the ancounit is from a miner delegate's point of view, with tho dialogue in braid Scots. Of Mr Lloyd Georgo tho remark wns made: "He's a we© eatin' an-spued' lookin' tiling when you see him sitfcLn' there, isn't lie?" Tho Ministers as a body aro described as "jist a lot o' oily tonffuod wheodlras." Mr Asquith in severely summed up: — Look at that auld fermer-collier lookin' cliiel, \vi' his white heid an' his snipenose, an' a smile on his face that wad mak' you beliovo he was gaun to doe you some big service. That's tho smjlo that has made him Prime Minister. You'd think frao his face that he was just a solid, easy-gaun, kindly old former, who took a constant joy ju givin' jeelie-picces to hungry weans. But when ho speaks and gets a grip o' you, he's yin o' the sooplest lawyers that ever danccd roun' the rim o' hell without fallin' in. He'd do lila faither, that yin. Ho wad that." Despite the unfavourable impression mad 9 upon tjho minors' delegates by tlio outward seeming of the members of the Government present at the conference, "it was ail a masterly bit of wheedling designed to win them over to a compromise settlement. ' And a special tribute is paid to Mr Lloyd George's part in the wheedling: — Ho began jocularly with a broad jest, which set the delegates all rocking with laughter, telling how glad ho was to be thorp to talk over with* them tho difficulties which had arisen. It always gave him pleasure to meet them and to get to know their point of view; because usually their good sense and their large stock of prudence made them amenable to listening to' a reasoned argument. He was glad they always recognised thoro wero two sides to mosit, disputes; and ho felt suro whatever the outcome of this conference might- be they would not allow their good sense to stand in the way of a possible settlement. Gradually he worked into more serious lines, and with vivid language putting tho case for tho opposite side, gently bringing their minds by degrees further amd further away from the point the real point at issue. Then finally, when sufficiently developed, he gathered all tho threads together, and in a great burst ol poetic eloquence and fiery fervour he swept along like a tornado in a ground burst of superb oratory, his eyes rolling and flashing, his hands and head poised into beautifully effective gesture v and appealed to them in great rolling fiery sentences that completely swept the conference like a whirlwind, and sat down amid a gTeat burst of applause. Mr Welch has made out an effective case for what he believes to be "the Miner's Eight,"—tile right to live' and work underdccent conditions. He says of Mrs Sinclair, the miner's wife who figures so prominently in this moving story of love ai.d hate, of oppression and efforts after freedom, '' All the years of her existence wore jjound up in the production of coal, and the spirits of her husband and her sons call to-day to the world of men —men who have wives, men who have mothers, men who have sweethearts and sisters and daughters, stand firm together; and preserve your women-folk from these tragedies, if you would justify your manhood in the world of men."