The distress in South Wales is frightfully severe. There is
a collapse of the coal trade, which has fallen off at Cardiff alone by 100,000 tons a month, and the resulting poverty is deplorable, both as a fact and as evidence of the impro vidence of the population. In some place people are feeding on potato-peelings, raw cabbage-leaves, and brewers' grains. At Merthyr there are hundreds, reports the Times, "in a state of semi-starvation," turning over the refuse of the streets for food. Of five hundred collieries in Monmouth and Glamorganshire, only twenty are working full time. Lord Aberdare distributes soup in hundreds of quarts a day, but a national subscription would appear to be required. It is most disheartening to find how slow the progress towards thrift is in the trades which require strong men. A little economy during the five prosperous years would enable all colliers to tide over the two unprosperous years without difficulty, but at present the only hope is the Poor Law.. Those few who save have to give up their savings to those who have spent.
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