The Union Daily Times

Merthyr-Tydfil, Wales, May 23.—(By the Associated Press).—The grimly determined demeanor of the women of the mining village at the head of the Merthyr Valley with its largely Welsh population, is a constant reminder that women and children are bearing the brunt of the miners fight for what they consider a just wage.

Without grumbling and almost savagely cheerful, mothers go about the task of feeding large families even though wages or strike pay is not forthcoming.

Where the average income is approximately $10.50 weekly when the men are employed, there now is $2.75 weekly allowance to the strikers wives from the county guardians. There is no strike pay anywhere in South Wales, although the miners daily besiege union headquarters in the villages for relief.

Local strike committees say their funds are nearly exhausted. Few admit the desperate condition, but evidence is everywhere of hunger in the homes, particularly among those children whose parents will not allow them to eat at the school soup kitchens. These youngsters are forced to watch their playmates satisfying their hunger while their own appetites go unappeased. Schoolmasters tell of cases of children boasting of the splendid meals provided them when the neighbors know the families are living on bread, margarine and tea.

In many cases children are unable to play in the stony school yards because their shoes are without soles. Dozens of half-naked tots are to be seen in every village.

Miners who were not employed when the mines closed on May 1 are in better condition than those who were at work, for they are drawing doles of 18 shillings weekly, with five for their wives and two for each child. The average is about $5.50 weekly.