New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-12-27
SOCIAL REFORM9
WITH SOME FURTHER ACCOUNT OF MIX
CHAMBERLAIN'S NEW VIEWS.

r LONDON, December 4.
Mr.. Chamberlain has become so conspicuous po-
litical figure that Lord George Hamilton has been
describing him with some particularly oil Diograph
ical detail to an audience of his constituents III
Middlesex. Lord George Hamilton. hope 1 need
NOT explain. is one of the rising young men of the
Conservative party son of the Duke of Abercorn,
and therefore brother to Lord Lansdowne,w held
two important offices in Lord Beaconsield's last
Government, and this is what he says of the Presl
dent of the Board of Trade:
Who is Mr. Chamberlain He would tell them
Mr. Chamberlain was gentleman who belonged 70
firm of screw makers i'll Birmingham. he alT n us
firm found out that they had few competitors Ihey
made use remorselessly OF their caplta LOT tne pun
pose of crushing every competitor and every com ~
was ruined Having thus obtained monopoly,
Mr.. Chamberlain and his firm raised the price oi
screws and on the increased price which his monop-
sai Ss. ont Since he had realized that gigantic
fortune Mr.. Chamberlain bad built a nnge paiaco
at Birmngh where he lives like Sybarlte
One of those kind friends who are ever ready TO
draw ones attention to hard things said about one
communicated this elegant extract to MI. Cham
berlan, who replies:
The yuIearity and insolence of the remarks to
which YOU call my attention do not surprise me IN
the least. Personal SANDER is the weapon always
resorted to by the baser kind OF Tories In poitica
conflict.
And so we have it on Mr.. Chamberlan's author
ity that Lord George Hamilton is one of the baser
kind of nsoent and vulgar Tories, just as we have
ii on Lord Georges authority that Mr. Chamberlain
is monopoist and Sybarite. 1t is, perhaps, to be
noted that the eminent Radical of Birmingham
does not expressly deny the accuracy OF the ac-
count given by his Tory assailant Nor is TINS tne
first time nor by many the first in which similar
stories of the origin of Mr.. Chamberain's fortune
have appeared in print. The most thorough-going
of Conservative prints observed last week;
Mr. Chamberlain wants to decry, and destroy the
existing institutions of property though II Is har9
to see how family estate honorably descehuteu
from father to son, can be less legitimate than the
africa which has perhaps ruined fifty small dealers,
in order to swell the money bags OF one mohoPohN-
ing firm.
This it may be said, ismere personality, not worth
writing and not worth quoting. Quoted II would
not be in ordinary times but these not ordinary
times. Mr.. Chamberlain has rushed to the front as
the Friend of the Poor He advocates sweeping
measures for their benefit at the public expense,
or at the expense Of one section of the public. Ana
that, suppose, is why men like Lord George Ham
ilton who does not deserve Mr.. Chamberalns ep-
ithets, think it good time to inquire how MI
Chamberlain in his private capacity, dealt win
the poor or rather those poorer than himself. III IS
not necessary to approve the taste or tone OF such
passages as those have copied in order to inquire
whether Mr.. Chamberlain gave any provocation LOT
them. The article which he published IN tins
months Fortnightly contains, it must be admitted
| some singular doctrine. In commenting, the other
day on that article, dealt with the remedies ne
proposed for an admitted evil rather than with the
| spirit in which Mr.. Chamberlain had approached
| a difficult subject. But the spirit is worth noticing
also On the first page occurs this assertion:
The vast wealth which modern progress has
created has run into pockets y; individuals ana
| classes have grown rich beyond the dreams oil ava
| rice and are busyng themselves IN inVentlhg meth
DDS of wasting the money which they are unable TO
enjoy. But the great majority of the "tollers anu
| spinners" have derived no proportlonate auNa. :.
tage from the prosperity which they have helped 70
create while population equal 10 that OF the WhOle
| metropolis has remained constantly III state Vi
| abect restitution and misery.
| Mr.. Chamberlain began this extraordinary paper
with the remark that Social Reform is in the al
If he had said that Socialistic Radicalism was in
vading the Liberal Party, the remark would have
been equally true and perhaps more apt. But he
| proceeds:
! What manner Of men and women must these NIL
lions of paupers be if they can see without repln-
ing resentment the complacent exhibition OF 3pu
| lence and ease which is forever Haunted in their
| faces within few hundred yards OF the noisOme
courts and alleys in which they huddle for warmth
and shelter without ngle comfort. and III hourly
| anxiety for the baTeSt necessafies OF lie.
Perhaps the best excuse for this sort of writing is
1
is published is sold for half crown and has not
large circulation in the noisOme courts and alleys
| in which millions Of paupers huddle for warmth
| and shelter without single comfort and in hourly
anxiety for the barest necessanes of life. Bat sup
pose some socialist of a typesghtly more advanced
than Mr. Chamberlain's present fOm should choose
| to print those burning sentences in brOadside
and scatter them among the millions of paupers, tC
teach them that they are in state of AFFECT des
| ttution and miseryf In the present ferment. moth
| ing is moro likely. And suppose they add to MI
| Chamberlans account of the origin of the misery
of the millions Mr.. Chamberlain's proposal for q
remedyf The President of the Board of Trade de-
clares that the great majority of the toilers and
spnners have not had their fair share of the wealth
they have helped to create. IL is because they have
| not had their fair share that they are doomed Il
dwell in noisome courts and alleys without single
| comfort. They ought not, says Mr.. Chamberlain
to be doomed to dwell thus any longer. The towns
| ought to be made habitable and the expense o.
making them 30 "must be thrown the land
which their toll makes valuable, and without any
effort on the part of the owners"
| have drawn together Mr.. Chamberlain's propo'
stons in little closer order than his are, but they
are his own In what other sense could his misera
BILE millions read them than as anindctment against
the owners of landed property Theyare an indict
ment against the of landed property because
they are owners of landed property, and especially
against those whose property depends in whole oil
In part on "unearned increment" description
which, if you accept Mr.. Chamberlan's view, would
include every landowner in tho kingdom. There il
not an acre OF land in Great Britain, whether arabic
or building land, the value Of which has not beer
increased by causes with which theOwner had moth
ing to do: by railways for instance, many of which
pay no dividend, or very poor dividend. Would
Mr.. Chamberlain distribute a part of the unearnet
increment among the railwaysl He would proba
bly, answer no. the millions of paupers are to have
it not because their logical claim is greater, but
because their actual needs are greater. The meas
ure of conscaton is not to be the increase in value