A HARD TASKMASTER

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 736, 8 February 1910, Page 5

A HARD TASKMASTER

THE IRISHMAN. MR. CHAMBERLAIN ON LIBERALS' POSITION. TIMIDITY THE WEAK POINT OF TARIFFITES. By Telegraph—Press Association-Copyright. . (Rec. February 7, 10.30 p.m.) • / London, February 7. Prior to his departure for Cannes, the "Morning Post"/ had an interview with Mr. Joseph ; Chamberlain. It : was Mr. Chamberlain who, in a message to, Mr. Balfour's Birmingham meeting .in September last, wrote r-"I. hope that the House of Lords . will see their way to force a general election, and I don't doubt what the' answer of the country will-be." Later, in November, Mr. Chamberlain was reported as saying, he expected that, largely owing. to Tariff Reform, the Unionist party .would regain the position-: in the English constituencies which it held before the 1908 general election (that is, a majority of 74).'

Food Duties Must Be Explained Boldly.

In the "Morning Post" interview, Mr. Chamberlain said that tlie Tariff Reformers had not-'done" as well as'he ex-, peoted, but there/had been an enormous inorease in the votes recorded for them. He added:

"Thoy fared worst where the local 'leaders were 'most vacillating and .timid. Food duties must be explained boldly and straightforwardly. The Imperial ride is the stronger side of tariff reform, and the working classes' aro Imperialists. '

fTjand taxes are popular in the North of England and in Scotland.. The Unionist set-back there showed the necessity of a progressive land policy, particularly the encouraging of co-operation.

Brtorm of the Lords.

\Yftile the Liberal tendency is towards a/, single Chamber, the Unionists must aim,, at strengthening -the House of Lords by-reform in its constitution/'. ..

Mr.' Chamberlain', atM'ed --"Mr. Asquith will find tho Irishman a hard taskmaster." [The idea of opposing tho Liberal land ,taxes ,by a . progressive■'land poliov has been .strenuously advocated, by many unionists, 'including Sir Gilbert Parker. It is proposed that land bants shall lend monejr security of small freeholdsfor ths Unionists look to. the small freeholders to check the Socialists,. • For a goou deal of the proposed agricultural cooperation, the Irish" . system .identified with : the ; name >.of' Sir 'Horace. Plunkett l^n-studied. ;. In' November Sir Gili hifl ideas into a pamphlet,. The lajid: for, the People,"/ and Mr.' m, ■ i lT i/ rote a P^ fno ® it-'" In this Air. Balfour. remarked that more is remnred for the' full sucocee of the' small: larmer'than the'magio nf ownership, and « m >L be , "wribed . : in two wordsoredit and - - co-operation." . Sir : Gilbert Parker, in. a .letter, to' ,"Tho Times," olared-. that Mr.,-Balfour has embodied in his programme as the "Unionist policy the Ho added thai the iiadical party, had committed :itself tenancy] 'to . Principle' of perpetual FREE-TRADE. I SINEWS OP WAR INCREASING. .•■ ' . London, February 6. I . -The Free-trade, Fighting, Fund . organised by the "Daily Chronicle? (Liberal) now amounts to nearly .£3OOO. -. - , labour in parliament. ENGINEERS DECLARE FOR _A XBVY; ; (Rec. February 7, 1U p.' m .) . . i • i London, -February 7. By .'an overwhelming . majority, the 1 Amalgamated Society of -Engineers loted in favour of a levy.of:one nhillW towards the Parliamentary Fund; ■

RM3HT TO WORK BILL. ESTIMATED TO COST ,£30,000,000 PER ANNUM. ...London, February G. . • The "Daily Telegraph" (Unionist) calculates, on data-furnished by Mr. John Ward (Labonr member "for ' Stoke) . and statements, by. Mr, Ramsay Mao Donald (Labourmember .for -Leicester) that the wst of the Right to Work Bill will be thirty millions annually, •

LABOUR'S DEFENCE OF THE BILL o.The; Labour,, party*s Eight' to Work Bill the old Housaof Commons in 1908,. and again in 1900, in the latter year,by a majority of 113 (225-115). Tho President of the Board of Trade, Mr Jolin auras, strongly opposed the Bill. ' T Mr. Eansay Mao Donald, the well-known Labour .-» member, writes .--"The: Labour party,-recognising that.palliatives: only ™..°® tho evil, for a time, and 1 seeing that insurance is impossible for very large"' numbers of workpeople; impose upon the .btßte.the responsibility; of providing work ™we Ufojnployed, and their Eight to Work Bill has -figured largely in' recent controversy., -. ..The Bill: has, been- much misrepresented.. .; ; ' "It-does not recognise, right of .a man'to soleot what work suits him. 1 It assumes a difficulty in providing work, ana creates .the .best- possible machinery— local* distress committees,.: an advisory body; of experts at: Whitehall; it .can bo either national or local,'or both.' The genuinely _ -unemployed, man: will ' then register himself and his'caso'will be inqniied into,; -If - a-form of ' out-relief is best for him and is' necessary,* he will have it This wonld be given in practice, no:doubt, on condition tnat the;man submitted to some educational discipline during his unemployed period,: 1 si) that he would emerge' from it better than he eritored.it, Or ,the proposal; might be made part of an insurance scheme. ; "No shirking would be tolerated. Shirking is possible only on temporary relief works, which are closed bofore they are properly organised. A clause in the Bill also.provides that if a man .will not work he may ibe sentenced to a .working colony. We full .Bill, with comments on its-vari-ous, provisions, baa been published by the Independent Labour/party. The-Eight to Work proposal has besn for a long time the speoiaL proposal of Socialists, but:it has: now; been accepted by .the. Trade Union Congress, tbe Labour Party Annual Conference, and every important gatherings of organised labour.":