AN APPRECIATION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2919, 3 November 1916, Page 11

AN APPRECIATION

OF A BRITISH POLITICIAN AND, COAL MASTER (From the "Westminster Gazette.") [A. recont cablegram announced the death of Sir A. B. Markham, M.P., ■ "whose name is familiar to colonial readers as a persistent interrogator of tlio British Government in questions of national importance.]

In recent months the public has heard most of Sir Arthur Markham as a politician, and it has judged him rightly to be exceedingly honest and unpotuous. Ho was one of the few men whoso indignation was really righteous. No victim of ail injustice could appeal to him in vain. He gave himself infinite pains in examining tho case of tho humblest petitioner, and, when he had convinced himself, no would pursue it to the end. It was a great refreshment to meet a man who, like Markham, had a passion for justice, and was entirely, fearless in pursuit of it. He believed, that there was no wrong without a remedy, and that for every offence someone' ought to be hanged. The official method of covering things up, the official answer that mistakes were inevitable, and that no one. was to. blame, left him exasperated, and sometimes in collision with the Speaker. Yet the House of Commons greatly liked and respected him. It knew him to be entirely lionourablo and disinterested. If ho sometimes drew his indictment against tho wrong culprit, his case was generally true iu substance and in fact, and thoso who supposed t)iat_ his questions could bo neglected or his attacks loft unanswered made a serious mistake. His manner might be impulsive, but his method was painstaking and laborious, and I have never known a man who fortified himself more carefully with facts and documents. Since the war broke out his campaign l against the 'recruiting o'f boys, and Lis zeal for the wounded in the Dardanelles and Mesopotamia, were entirely salutory and according to knowledge. He had none of tho arts and graces of the politician, and was one of. those fervent, self-reliant men who chafe against the discipline of a party, or even of a group. - He was, by nature, a solitary worker, and hated the concessions and compromises which association with others imposed on him. Politics took a great deal of his time and more of his strength than he could spare. But the world in which he most lived and could find fullest scope for his great ability was tho industrial world, the world-of the coalowner. Here,he was one of tho master spirits of the country. No one not- in that 'world can pretend to speak of his technical knowledge and achievements, but his name was a power in the Midlands, and | those who worked witli him declared his flair and his knowledge of all the details of coalmining to bo positive genius. Markham was no idlo capitalist, reaping the profits that others earned for him. - If he was in the Commons at midnight he would as likely as not, be below ground in one of his own .pits before noon the next day, Ho took all the risks of. the trade, ftlld was a pioneer and most , careful scientific student'of all precautions against explosions and accidents in mines. He was 011 the best terms with his men, and time after time they returned liiin by immense majorities to Parliament, notwithstanding ■ that ho spoke his mind quite fearlessly to them as indeed ±hcy did to him. They knew that he honestly had their interests at heart, and could be relied upon to join no ring or combination to keep them under. Time and again he advocated measures which were against his own pecuniary interest, and from the first months of. the war he took the lead in protesting that the Government should control tho icoal trade and provont 'excessive prices being I charged to tho public. No man could have helped more to adjust the differ-' ences between capital and labour at the end of the war, or have been relied upon to give sounder, juster, and shrewder advice. His early death is in that respect. a roal loss to tho counr try. His deep sympathies were with the workiilg people, and tho miner never had a better friend among the mineowners. When, a few months ago, lie was known to bo seriously ill, his friends begged him to rest and to givo himself a fair chance of recovery, or at ieast of prolonging tlie valuable life. But he was incapable of resting, and tlio idea of living a half-time or invalid existenco was altogether repugnant to him. In spite of all warnings, he took on new and anxious responsibilities, and died with -his old passion for fighting a wrong full on him. Ho was tho kind of man who can ill bo spared in tlieso times, sterling, warm-hearted, zoalous, and unpuenchable in spirit,