New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-06-19
MR.. GLADSTONE.
"A FEW OF THE SOCIALISTIC POINTS IN HIS
MEMORIAL HALL SPEECH.

11cHofidl Ibl ana MS speech Is appalling. i
mean to use ne word about it or him which shall
pass the limits Of the respect due to his past,
or to his personal character, or to his immense
authority and position. True, he has broken
with the past; true Also that when history comes
to deal with this latest performance, it will speak
out But there il little use In anticipating the
condemnation likely then to be pronounced. The
chronicler Of the day may be content TO note the
points OF this new departure. and the circum-
stances. The reader will do the rest To some
extent the speech IA known TO you. But there
are passages in 1t which ought to be put before
the American friends of Mr. Gladstone in full, and
In their true light.
Let us see how Mr.. Gladstone stands on the Eight
Hours question. lie was known TO be opposed
not long ago to the legal Eight Hours day. Asked
to express an opinion he gave very cautious
one. as his manner is, declining 10 commit him
self in favor Of it, declining to pledge himself
definitely against IL. Then he was asked to re-
ceivo a deputation from meeting held subse-
quently to the huge Hyde Park picnic Of month
ago. lie declined. No good could come Of dis
cussing the matter, he wrote. The Council took
this in dudgeon, and one member moved that
his letter be put in the wastcpaper basket Lord
Salisbury, warer for once than his great an
tsgonist, agreed to receive the deputation, and
did. 1T was felt by Mr.. Schnadhorst, and by
the whips and the Gladstoniat bosses in general,
that the Prime Minister had scored point at
Mr. Gladstone's expense. He labored with
privately. lie was induced to write letter to
Mr. Shipton, the Secretary Of the London Trades
Council. He said TO Mr.. Shipton, with some
humility that he had been hoping TO receive
from the Council such documents on tile subject
as might enlightcn bis mind. Documents were
RPnt him. Tho uOcumppfs consisted Of no
lutions passed AT the Hyde Park Eight Hours
picnic, and at the May-Dsy picnic, with other
explanatory information, mature of the other en-
planatory information not stated brief inter
val elapsed. Then Mr.. Gladstone writes 10 Mr.
Shipton that he thinks he has q sufficiently
definite view of the desires expressed by the
Trades Council to enable him 10 enter into a Con
ference With advantage. lie will be NEST happy
TO see them on one Of the earliest days after
Wbitsuntide.
The substance of this correspondence was stated
to the Memorial Hall meeting. 1t is the basis on
which the new declarations are founded relating
to Eight Hours and TO other points of the labor
programme. Then he goes on to speak of the
Eight Hours scheme as very large scheme
But" adds he, do not let that scheme, and
especially do not let the promoters of that scheme
be harshy judged. lie reminds them that many
impracticable schemes have been proposed
But you must distinguish between the fern
and the substance, you must look at the general
purpose which is in view, you must ask yourselves
whether it is good, and, if it Is good
You think he is going to say that. if il is
good, the means matter little. lie saves himself
just in time, turns bis sentence abruptly, but
sdroitly, and ends
If it is good, do not he too critical, and 60
mo- no fosfflinue in DoSSinu iu0ymapfs m fl,p
men who express as best they can, according 10
their conscientious convictions, what they think
as 10 the means of attaining beneficial end"
And with that safe generality he slides out of
the Eight Hours business. and into the deeper
slough Of land naturalization.
Mr. Gladstones anathema against Mr.. INnry
George and his land naturalization is fresh in
most memories Robbery folly is phrase
easy to keep in mind IL did much anything
else to quiet the feversh hopes of the working
man, inf1amed by the rhetoric Of the California
charlatan. He secuted the George gospel with
energy. What does he do now? lie still de-
nounces it as "extravagant and UNJUST but he is
now all for discussing afresh, with an open mind,
what be had once dccisively condemned. lie
hopes the discussion of it may be uscful-the dis
eussion of robbery and folly-and then says:
Therefore l can look with great equanimity
upon inc eager PTopVSui duu PtVPouh"'pB vi
schemes which have not as yet made good IL
me their perfect practicability'
Note the "as vet lie is not as yet ready
to admit the perfect practicability' of robbery
but he holds his mind open. Why? Not,
think, because any great number OF workingmer
want land appropriation in the George fashion
But there was O proposal the other day in Par
lament for enabling county and district councils
Ia Nd cnoculofivplV the benefit
the community There is a strong party who vii
20 that far, and that party Mr.. Gladstone wishes
to concilate. He wishes to conciliate another
party, the majority Of the present London County
Council, who want TO put fresh taxes on land
and to confscatc the uncarned increment. HOS
tility TO landlords is O part of the Progressive
creed, and what Mr.. Gladstone had to make clea
was his adhesion to the Progressives, through
whom and by whom alone he can hope to VIII
those dozen metropolitan seats in the House
Commons which Mr. Scbnadhorst tells him arr
necdful.
Having bowed to the Trades Council on tht
Eight Hours question, it was perhaps the easle'
for Mr. Gladstone TO bend his neck on the wages
question. lie bent il TO Mr.. Burns. IL Is 1l"
accomplished demaaoguc who moved and carried
in the London County Council the resolution
enforcing upon the Council, and upon the con
tractors for the Council, the scale Of wages i'm
posed by the Trades Unions That also MT H!ad
stone swallowed. He describes 1t as looking
in tho direction OF more equal balance betweeT
the competing powers Of capital and labor Tht
phrase is Enthusiastically GladstOnian and *
i. the point of view II ID were what the great
rhetorican describes it, Mr.. Burns and his com
radcs would not care a straw for it, They carr
for it because il makes the balance uneven
because it puts capital, so far as it has to do
with the County Council, at the mercy of labor
because 1t makes labor the master and capita
the servant One party TO the contract is hence
forth 10 dictate the terms of the contract; The
laborer is to fix his own wages That, cries Mr.
Gladstone, appears to me sound in principle. ant
there "a no reason why it should not gradually
find acceptance among the municipal bodies an(