LABOUR WARCRY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 683, 7 December 1909, Page 7

LABOUR WARCRY.

LORDS AND BUDGET. THE VALUE OF PARTY INDEPENDENCE. "FEUDALISM" INDICTED. (Reo. December C, 9.45 p.m.) London, December C. The Labour party, in a manifesto to the electors, states that tho great question is whether tho Peers or the people are to rule.' Tho party welcomes the opportunity to prove that the feudal age is past, and, that tho people are no longer willing to live on tho sufferance of the Lords. The present system of land ownership,'■ adds the manifesto, has devastated tho countrysido. It has imposed heavy, burdens on industries, has cramped ■ the development of towns, has crippled capital and impoverished labour., The experience qf tho last'four years has demonstrated the value of the Labour party acting independently. The right-to-work has still to be iron,'but it is now within tho rango of practical politics. The Poor Law must bo broken up, pauperism must be. abolished, and' the' old ■ age pensions must be . extended and increased' on the' present. non-contributory basis. Pranchise restrictions, including the,sex bar, must be swept away. The manifesto concludes: ' • working and the middle classes are still overburdened with rates and taxes. Vote for Labour candidates, the, land for tho people, wealth for tho wealth producers, Down with Privi- .; lege, up.with the People!" .

LIBERALS AND LABOUR. LATTER NOT CONTENT VWITH PRESENT SEATS. NO PACT: WITH THE GOVERNMENT. • London, December 5. Mr. Arthur Henderson, chairman of tho Parliamentary Labour party, speaking at Shefindignantly, denied , that there was any election pact between the Labour party, and the Liberals. Hitherto it had been expected that a general election would not'occur, before 1911, and therefore the Labour party, simply from the standpoint of organisation and money; would bo unable in some. cases to fight successfully; for that'reason, some few candidates had withdrawn. There had, he added, been no proposal from the other side, for, a deal. The suggestion by Mr, Pease, chief Liberal Whip, implied a [ surrender by. tho Labour party—namely, withdrawal of nearly all the now Labour, candidates. Needless ;to say, that .would not bo dpne.- If the Liberals were anxious to avoid hopeless contests, said 'Mr. Henderson, thoy should follow the Laboiir party's example. "R& a speech on November 22 Mr. Henderson said it was one thing to desire to avoid a conflict between. the Liberal and tlie Labour parties 'in contesting seats at*a general election, but it was another thing to know how to do it. Three-cornered' contests, tho outcome of'the democratic power;, were inevitable, especially at the transition period,. The Labour party had two million members . paying, into, it-] • Parliamentary' fund: for securing direot representation in the Houso of Commons, and they had not anticipated a ■ fight upon the. present issue. Tho Labour party's'national .executive, said Mr. Henderson, must decide as to tho letter written by the Chief Liberal: Whip (Mr, J. A. Pease) suggesting that the Liberal and the Labour parties should respect each other's seats j but.he (Mr. 1 Henderson) did not think that the letter offered any/bqsis of agreement, since it required: Labour to rest.' content i with its present . .strength during the next Parliament,', Mr. Henderson'approves, a suggestion that the Government should carry a Bill before the ; dissolution providing for a.second ballot, and that all' elections be held'on' the sam'o ,day.]

BEST CHANCE FOR TWO HUNDRED TEARS.' Inve'rcargill, December G. - Mr. Will Crooks.. Labour M.P. for Woolwich. interviewed by. a "Southland Times" reporter on his way to catch the .Melbonrno boat at thi. Bluff i said ' that he would bo back Home in ' time for the i British elections;, and. would be-in the thick of Vthe fight.s He hoped to reach Homo by January 10. The earliest polling in the boroughs would not begin until , January 13, and ; British elections ..were! usually spread out over a-'period ; 6f six weeks. ■Whatever was the result of the' coming elec-, tioiis, he said, heidid not think that there had been for two hundred years or more such a chanoe for the people. He declared that the; Lords .were an' irresponsible body, and'.this last act marked the end of their power. ■It was the merest rubbish to talk of their rights as arevising Chamber: They ■ had violated that principle time, after, time. "It they beat Us at this election," he added, ."then representative government Ceases, to exist, and all your democratic sentiment goes by the board."

HEREDITARY PRINCIPLE MOST GO. SIR E. GREY'S DICTTJM. AN TOPEE HOUSE BASED ON POPULAR • ELECTION. London, December 5. . The Secretary of State; for. Po'reign" Affairs, Sir Edward Grey, addressing ihreo thousand! Liberals at Leith, said tho country was in for the greatest' fight for generations. /; ,; Liberals Might Have Fought Before. Tho Government, he said, might havo fought tho Lords,on education (the Government's I'JO6 Education; iiill having beeu passed by ' the iiouso or Commons audi destroyed by tho House o£. Lords), .but they were' justified in remaining in oilice because they:had saved the country from great damage in South ' Africa, and had'established a scheme, of Army'.'re-, form which had; appealed, to the. w.hole country, and enlisted its spirited support 'of the voluntary principle! Now that the/fight with the Lords had come there was no choice but to light it through, and he was glad thero was no choice. ;

They Have Burned Their Boats. When the Lords, in 1884, obstructed franchise reform, rejecting Mr. Gladstone's BUI, thoy recoiled later, owing to. the country's rising indignation, and passed the Bill. Now, howevor, no retreat was; possible; there was no opportunity for repentance; The Lords had burned their boats. Tho Liberals wero determined to assert for over tho right of tho House of Commons to bo uncontrolled with regard to finance,, and wero also determined to assert the Liberal Government's right to hold office on fair termt, having a House of Lords reformed so >s to bo; responsive to : the feeling of the country; or, if unreformod, they were determined; that there, mufefc be somo mutual settled - arrangement betweon the two Chambers ensuring that the will of the Commons in the long run shall provail. , ; "Superior Persons." , Referring to Lord Curzon'B idea of reformthat'the House of Lords should be a smaller body of superior persons chosen by themselves —Sir Edward Grey - added i— , V, "There can bo no real reform unless the hereditary principle is abolished and popular election substituted." Loud cheers followed this'statement. [Sir Edward Grey's retort to Lord Curzon recalls—and \is no doubt-meant' to recall—the well-known couplet supposed t6 ; havo been invented at Lord. Curzon's expense. It has boen 1 variously rendered, but the following is tho popular version: ■ Pity that George Nathaniel Curzon Is such an infernally superior person! The lines-have been attributed to the late Dr Jowett, Master of Balliol, the: college that Lord Curzon attended, but the authorship as well as the application has been challenged.] AN ANTI-LORDS DEMONSTRATION IN LONDON. A GIBE AT PRIMOGENITURE.. ' London, Dccsabtr 5. - The National Democratic League held a demonstration, in Trafalgar Square. 'XHere were 7000 present. .Tho .gathering protested the. Lords' rejection of tho Budget.

Tho. Nonconformist divine, Dr. Clifford, ami a dozen Liberal and Labour members , novo , tho chief Bpoalcois. f: There were many bannara in the'demonstration,, aod an offigy ol a p6cr was.paradod. it consisted of a tnrrrtp cot .lata the likeness of ' ' ''i a'face, with a paper crown. It was earned v > jon a red-robed polo, tobelled "The First-born," :.■ t* land caused merriment and booiug. ■ LIBERALS WANT FULL POWERS. PAYMENT OP TAXES. London, December 5. . »V; The President of the Boai-d of Trade, Mr. Winston Churchill, Bpeaking at' Preston, 6aid , the Liberal party did not intend to undertake , 'mi tho.'burdens of government again unloss full >" and offectivo powers wero given them. .■■■..■■- ; - f ■ >;. The Radical newspaper "Nation" calls upon hundreds of. thousands of Englishmen to. rev • fu6o to pay taxes should tho Government be overthrown at .this elections. 1 Tho Wine and Spirit Association and ■ the . Wholesale Tobacconist Protection Association ' v havo agreed to. pay-duties during tho interrog- ■' i■' num,

-[It was cablcd yesterday that tho Tea Buyers' Association, including all the. largo firms, has also agreed to. pay duty during the interregnum ■> m . Understanding that it shall be returned;.tive ] 1S n rc ' m^ or wade retrospccPROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION, A MANIFESTO. SIGNED BY ALL CREEDS AND PARTIES. London, December 5. • - Tho Primate .(Dr. Davidson), -Archbishop' Bourne (Roman Oatholio), Lords Cromer, Avobnry, Balfour of Burleigh,-Courtney, and Hugh - Cecil,, the Rev. Dr. Clifford, and others have issued a: manifesto to the electors, pointing oat .the. advantages of proportional roprosehta-.v tion.' r