What We Ask Readers to Do in Aberdare
ripHE Family Adoption plan is hanging fire a little. _L Let me see if I can interest you in it-you, I mean, who haven't yet subscribed. Tolstoy once said that we all put ourselves comfortably to bed, but " how many of us," he asked, " think about other people having COnifortable beds to put themselves_into ? " There is - in that the essence of Christ's teaching, I think. All of us who are fortunate enough to be well-off take care to get' our meals regularly, to see that they include 'plenty of nourishment as well as agreeable flavours. We all take care to be well wrapped up in cold weather. We sity (if we are old-fashioned) " Keep up good fires " or (if we are up to date) " Turn the gas full on." But is that enough for happiness, for duty, for comradeship? Tolstoy said " No." A greater than Tolstoy said " No." Unless we give heed to other people's wants, and try to satisfy them, we are under that terrible condemnation : " I was an-hungered and ye gave Me no meat, I was thirsty and ye gave Me no drink. Sick. and in prison, ye visited Me not." If -we think only of ourselves, we pass surely to "! where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth."
Well, we want 1,500 families or individuals who read the Spectator and who have enough with a bit over to think about the wants of 1,500 families in Aberdare which really do not get sufficient 'food to eat or sufficient clothes and fire to keep them warm. Five shillings a week till Easter--Ithat will help these shivering hungry comrades of ours a good deal. That is what we ask you to provide. Take up a collection at the breakfast table every Monday morning—or Tuesday better still, for then the 'week- enders will have returned. Give up some little' thing-- that expensive fruit, a bottle of wine, a box of cigarettes, a cigar or two ; let a new hat or frock be a shade cheaper than usual—and there you are ! You'll be surprised to find how easy it is and what a real glow of pleasure it gives.
Here is what one of the .Aberdare helpers tells me of one family that is being helped in this way It isn't only that,they have a little more on their table at meal- times, that they are able to vary their monotonous diet of tea, poiiiines;'b 'read "and. margarine. That's a benefit,- of course, and the iifiiiints den' hhve td* lefixie off still craving for food so that the: children may have those other slices they ask for. Rut beyond ail this;here is a new spirit in "them because they know they aren't forgotten. 'fey .don't feel tiny longer that they are left to dree their. weird ' alone.", - That new spirit is spreading throughout South Wales. ".: Something is -going to be done for us " the peOpre say. ‘‘. Wt. *Alm' do:sorqc:thing- for ourselves if we could, but how < can- we t,"-. HoW can they, indeed ? The help they heed' most, after the tiding-oVer of their immediate necessities;' s chance- to work, to earn their. living, to become again busy, self-respecting meinbers of the community. (It's hard to respect yourself when you are told you aren't wanted, that your occupation is a back number, that you are no use in. the world.) This is the most important aspect of the problem ; to this Aberdare is bending its thoughts. A number of projects are being considered, some suggested by the SPectator; some by those on the spot. Fifty boys are to go" to Canada, with the aid of the Overseas League and Y.M.C.A. There is a scheme for using the old Aberdare ironworks' slag- tips for metalling roads. There is hope of employment for a number of men, on improving communication with the Rhondda Valley across the hills—or the " mountain," as they call it here.
Two readers of the Spectator haVe generously offered personal assistance—one with rabbit-breeding for fur, the other with making leather coats for women. These might be profitable :little industries ; they could be set going without heavy expenditure. Then there is a move : to get a well-known artificial-silk company • into the Aberdare district ; a factory here would be a godsend to men. and young women alike. No one need Le afraid, therefore, as some are who have written to the Editor. that they will be " pouring money into a sieve." Our 'aim and the aim of the Aberdare folk is to do away with the need for feeding and clothing, to put all in a position to feed and clothe themselves. One other letter on another topic I must mention. The writer, Miss K. Rackham, Great Witcombe, near Gloucester, beigins, by paying me as pretty a compliment as I ever received in my life. " I think"- she says, " your -Special Commis- sioner must be .a very tender-hearted, but inexperienced young man." I never hoped to be called a young .man again ! What Miss. Rackham goes on to say is this..;.
"Even on sixteen shillings a week a poor woman could provide a more nourishing fare for her husband and (only) two children, if instead of living on breed and margarine (bread is very expensive and very unsatisfying especially the white bread made from foreign flour) she would buy lentils, 2d. a lb., or beans and make a good thick soup, to be eaten with bread fried in margarine or lard. Oatmeal is cheap, 2d. or 3d. a lb. and makes a good and satisfying breakfast. . . . I hope in this time of distress that a lead may be set by the custodians of these large sums contributed, to teach the. people a wiser expenditure of even their small weekly wage."
Now, what Miss Rackham says is true. The feeding habits of most people in this island are deplorable,. But have enough experience to tell me that you can't sudderdy change those habits. If we were at this .nr.tirient to preach " reformed diet " in Aberdare, we. should Jr suspect. We . should be: looked Upon as e'ranks. Personally, I like beans (I can't go so far as to say I like lentils), I can breakfast. contentedly off oatmeal, lunch off raisins and broWn bread, dine off baked beans. But I am not so young (unfortunately !) as to, expect others who have different likes and dislikes to give up their own ways instantly and folloW mine, . , So, dear Miss Rackham, I am 'afraid we mustn't try to push our food-reform "views among tirOse lame dogs who are being helped over stiles in the mining areas. They wouldn't understand it. They would think we wanted to do them good. And in our country that is the worst anybody can think ! Let us first adopt those one thousand five hundred families ; then later perhaps we can shnw them the more excellent way.
YOUR SPECIAL COMMISSIONER,
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