The Daily News THURSDAY, JANUARY 25 CHAMBERLAIN UNDISMAYED

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8036, 25 January 1906, Page 2

The Daily News THURSDAY, JANUARY 25 CHAMBERLAIN UNDISMAYED

Mb Joseph Chamberlain is undismayed at the result of the Liberal win in the Home elections. He is getting into the habit of being undismayed, for the South African war, J partially owing to his fervent loyalty —to the pockets of the iinproiiotiiice- I able Rand robbers -left him undismayed, he even going so far, after it was all over, ns to shed the light of his monocle on Africanders at large. He continues to call this sort of thing " being undismayed," while the world outside Birmingham calls it " blull'." He does not care whether he goes to one election or live, according to the cable. What sort a fight the septuagenarian tariff reformer will

put up nt the fifth election, in thirtyfive years' time, is, of course, difficult to foresee. The most hopeful sign is the present fact that, outside the walls of Birmingham, the rider of the tariff hobby-horse is unable to get a sympathetic healing. I * * * *

Ciiamheruin is very much at home in Birmingham, although he is so seldom in that huge hive of industry, and as he is a person who has won his great wealth in that city, he continues to be the " white-haired " toy of the masses there, especially as he controls a very large number of people in the said masses, by the mere fact of paying their wages. The fact! that ho is undismayed by the " gust' of public opinion that laughs at his fiscal furies and retaliation, is his bluff way of saying that the gust will soon pass, and it steady and fair Chamberlain tariff wind ultimately set in. He affects to believe that, many seats won by the Liberals were won entirely through the Chinese l; libels" circulated, and that the election was not fought out on ihe fiscal issue. We are of opinion that the people of England, having little knowledge of Asiatic races, have been little affected by the C-iiue.se Rind iniquity, hit Ihat they have become alive at last to the urgo.it necessity of a Parliament of me:i not actuated by tlie spiiit of the boodler, the gold monopolist, and the land-shark.

Or course it, is a " libe!" on the gentle Mongolian slave of the Enid to say he is a vile creatine, merely because lie murders women and children, mine-managers, and others. Why can't a poor Chinaman have a bit of spoit, anyhow, especially as great humanitarians like Lyttelton, Chamberlain, and others, who have never risked their valuable skins, say that it is the correct thing >. There is too much absolutely reliable evidence of the blackness of the iniquity for any sane person to doubt the villainy of the Rand lords over the Chi ie.se business. And suppose the English elections were won by reason of the sentiment of a people svbo hated murder and slavery, it was won on very excellent grounds indeed.

liAi.i'ofaisM and Cbamberlainism and the. two are inseparable seeing that Palfour is led by the string held by " Joe "—mean retaliation, and the heavier taxing of all that Britain does not produce; Britain produces nothing that is really appreciable in the way of food supplies. Retaliation means dearer clothes and dearer bread. It menus Wit you need not call it " retaliation " in this connection - preferential treatment of the colonies by Britain, and preferential treatment to Britain. All of which would go to make the lot of the British worker very much harder than it now is, simply because the colonies cannot supply the food needs of Britain nearly sj cheaply as outside countries can under free trade. The colouial who supports Cluuiiberlainistn and the tariff of the man, is willing to steal from the pockets of his British cousin to increase his own colony's trade. This may In: a more nutter of sentiment, of course. Why not make poorer the poor of Britain, nht You may do this by establishing a retaliatory tariff against foreign countries and a preferential compact between the colonies and Britain. Such a course would have an enlivening effect on the trust industry, and Chamberlain might do something even more kind to the masses than he did in forming a screw trust. He might corner the food supplies of Britain, and till the cotton mills of Yorkshire with Chinese spinners.

Only one of Chamberlain's recent, utterances strikes the tliinkm- as a little unselfish, ami not inspired by the boodler. Ho was anxious to protect the finals of the trades unions, but unwilling to giant them the freedom of the great mass of workers who were outside the unions. Wherein the humane person will readily agree. There is no doubt as to the benefits to the workers of trade unionism, but legislation, after the colonial pattern, which seeks to prohibit an artisan who is not a unionist from obtaining a jot), when there is a unionist available, is cruel, an interference with pei sonal liberty, and is a brutal way of lighting a worker's wife and family. Preference to unionists, upheld by some colonial courts, is a bl.it that should be wiped out in the colonies, and one that

should not be permitted to sully any labour legislation that may be jctsscl at Home. It, is the one thing that kills ambition, and makes it nnnoees sarv for a worker to excel. The unionist may have the hull mark of ability conferred on him by merely joining a union, and while he may not have any real ijualilieations for

work, a judge may order him to get :it the expense of a good worker who i' s nut a unionist, We have no faith in tlie genuineness of Cliaui alleged love for the white worker, while he advocates the employment j ol Chinese coolies in place of them, but it even he were instrumental in preventing preference to trades unionists, either in Jjritiin orauy.vheio I else, he might atune for a little of ] his huge load of sin.