JOE CHAMBERLAIN.

North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17164, 22 March 1927, Page 2

JOE CHAMBERLAIN.

HIS HOLD ON ENGLAND'S HEART SIR AUSTEN'S FOLLOW-UP.. On November 16 last the Unionlsts of West Birmingham celebrated the 50 years' unbroken representation of the division by the late Mr Joseph Chamberlain, and, since his death, by Sir Austen Chamberlain. On the same day the following article by Com. O. Locker-Lampson, member of the House of Commons for the Hansworth Division of Birmingham, appeared in the London Daily Mail: — Young people can do worse than make a god of some meteoric public contemporary — and my sisters, my brothers, and I were. assuredly wise when, as maidens and youths, we singled out Joseph Chamberlain as our hero. True, we owned a step-brother-in-law, Augustine Birrell, who as gladitorial Gladstonian delighted to smother our adolescent piety in draughts of icy disparagement. But it was really his portrayal of 1 the portent "Joe" which first whetted our fancy, and I can still catch the notes of involuntary admiration in our relative's narration of how he first came to hear this faraous Englishman speak. He had walked miles to the meeting; he was smuggled in without a ticlcet, and he stood at the back of a vast palpitating concourse which the speaker took captive at the start and released at the finish intoxicated with zeal. Chamberlain was a Radical thep, and Birrell bore off for life the memory of the final appeal. Horses and Votes. "Let me tell you this," sald the j speaker in deadly level tones, "that j some of the poor of England are •; not as well cared for as the horses ; in these noblemen's stables. The j horses have a roof over their heads, • they have straw to Iie down upon, I they have corn to eat. But," he sud- j denly shouted, raising both hands 1 and stopping a full hreathless min- j ute, "There is one difference! The -j horses have not got votes." No wonder the impressionable . enthusiast left feeling that he could burn down the mansions of the rich. It may have been demagogy. It may have been an early regrettable style.' But it was the "real goods," compared to which Mr G'obk's epileptic bleating is hut mildewed straw and smoke. But the Joseph Chamberlain of those days had become the Imperialist of my early manhood and had launched Tarift" Reform when the chance came for me to hear him. My sister was a guest of Lord Kelvin in Glasgow, where he and Lord Rayleigh argued in to the night as to the respective, effect of Joe's campaign or Mme Curie's recent discovery of radium upon the destinies of the world. So up to Glasgow I sped for the inaugural meeting on October 6 at St. Andrew's Hall, and became a ticketless stowh,way in the top gallery, only daring to emerge when the gathering began. Dominating Figures. It was historic. The domination of that diminutive figuro was unforgettable. He stood out — smart, spare, alert, frock-coated, an eyeglass sparkling in his right eye an orchid blooming in his buttonhole, and his adventurous nose tilted to defy the universe. He was nigh upon seventy then, without a grey hair, and single-handed he had sallied ofrth to carry a citadel which by the nature of things' was impreguable. He failedL Yet in his own town among "my people," in Birmingham,' he not only- field every seat against the raging tide, but increased the majorities. No wonder that an historian declared it to be the greatest fribufe ever paid to an English public man. Indeed, his hold upon the heart of England was perhaps the most notable achievement of his life. Mr Manchester might drive out Bright. Balfour, Winston Churchill, and other cities emulate it in infidelity. But Birmingham, through thick and thin, stuck to the "Brummagen Bagman." He was not hers by birth, but their lives became early interlocked. There were only Conservatives on the council when this lean monocled young fire-brand began: but in a few years he had driven them out and established himself as mayor with a Radical majority. The rumour of his "Republicanism" even reached London. and in trepidation t.he Prince 'of Wales paid the Midlands an official visit only to receive the welcome of his life.

Unusual Bni'gomaster." We catch a glimpse of Binningham's unusiial Bburgomaster in a contemporary letter of Leslie Steph, dated Deceimber, 1874.: "On Sunday a Birmingham friend gave me a gorgeous dinner, and invited me to meet the great Republican, Chamberlayn (or lain), the mayor. He is a very pleasant and intelligent person, in .spite of his Republicanism." Leslie Stephen might not know how to spell the name then, But Europe- and the world were not long in finding out, and for a generation no other English name appeared more often in print. He became the mosit famous statesman of his age. I have heard Mr Churchill say that Joseph Chamberlain's mental vision was like his physical vision, crystal-clear within its radius, hut narrow; and I have heard Mr Lloyd George declare that for force and pace along the ground, Chamberlain was like the ostrich, not to be matched; but that he seldom rose eaglewise into the air. Yet the greatness of Colonial Secretaries only wanted occaslons to spread his wings. As it is he will be bodied . forth to posterity as the first interpreter of dominion nationalism and the misSiopqry of Empire who taught a quarter of the globe to think Imperially. He was not lyrical or oracular in utterance-. on the contrary, he developed a simple severity of style Mfhich was a revelation in debate. Armed with this keen rapier, he stood up to the bludgeons of the greatest dialecticians in the land, and he laid them low. Force in Action. But n>, force dwelt less in speech than in action. He developed a mechanical as well as a sentimental grip upon the Birmingham electorate which . has never relaxed. So that although he has been dead thirteen years, and the number of seats in his city have almost doubled, the legend of his name avails more to1 day than any other one factor. Two | of his sons sit there as members, I and out of eleven seats no fewer ' than four are held by Cabinet Ministers. A back bench Birmingham member like myself has only to refor to "Our Joe" to bring down the House in 'tumultuous applause. This is fidelity indeed.

Those who knew him trusted him and there never was a stauncher comrade or a more loyal friend. | He felt so profoundly that he dare not rislc revealing his emotions. Yet ' once, 'when his son Austen made his maiden speech, and Mr Gladstone : rose to congratuate him upon a performance "which- must gladden a father's heart," M.P.s turned to find the father OA^ercome. How rejoiced that valiant heart Avould be to-day over the joint success of the two sons through the mediunY of the old Midland city, a family record unparalleled in English annals. One, Neville ,has graduated through the same business and civic school to distinction as our first anthority on municipal affairs, and is the greatest Seeretary of State for Health. The other Austen, after years of eminent public service, has cmerged as nothing less than the Pacificator of Europe at Locarno. So there is virtue in the Brummagen touch still. I