Mr Gladstone on Home Rule and Labor

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 88, 23 January 1892, Page 3

Mr Gladstone on Home Rule and Labor

On the 28th of November Mr Glad stone was a participant in the exer cises attending, the /formal, opening oi the hall at Port Sunlight, near Bir kenhead: He made an address oi considerable length, devoting much attention to reviewing Lord Salisbury's argument in the Birmingham speech. He said Lord Salisbury had talked of coming massacres and cruelty in Ireland if the Home Rule Bill passed. The ', Premier ?was 'like, a silly nursemaid who, when unableto. pacify a child by rational means, tried to frighten it with 'stories of .goblins.: They must be patient till Lord Salisbury gave them the opportunity of deciding the question, then they would see such bubbles blown into the air and the reign of justice and good sense restored in politics. Two reasons for placing Home, .Rule in "' the van of Liberal policy were justice to Ireland and the necessity of clearing the road for other legislation. Speaking on the labour question, Mr Gladstone said the problem could be ; solved only by sound civil, secular, and Christian feeling, and respect for mutual rights. Profit sharing is attractive, but; there was the question of what to do when there was loss instead of profit. Strikes were only adapted to what he might call a rude state of industry. Much might be hoped from co-operative distribution and production toward the solution of the problem* because this would give the labourer the same position and feeling as the capitalist. In an eloquent peroration Mr Gladstone appealed to his hearers to give the workers besides an increase of wages and decrease of hours, a sense of common feeling with their employers ; to establish a brotherhood of man and man ; to look *,tp the heart and conscience as well as to the appetite and ambition for a solution of these difficulties ; and, above all, to look to Providence : that ; shapes our ends and and recollect the sacred words, " Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." .■■... . ■• . ■