The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-10-22
THE POWER OF CHAMBERLAIN
HE rs ONE OF THE REAL RULERS
OF GREAT BRITAIN.
A Tower of Strength In the Trans
action of the Affairs of State For
the Queen of England.

Joseph Chamberlain-"Joe" Chamber
lain, as he is Familiarity called-who is
dividing conspicuity with President
Kruger in the Tpansvaal war troubles,
is one of the real rulers of Great
Britain and the one Englishman on
whose shoulders fails most of the stress
IN the contention with the Beers. MIR.
Chamberlain is also one of those Eng
llshmen who have felt the need of an
American wife Mrs. Chamberlain was
Mary Endicott), and he is, therefore, in
tereSting to his Yankee" cousins. He
had scarce begun his public career ere
he became famous for his reform work
He entered parliament in the res as a
radical Of radicals; he was styled a
socialist and the masses" cheered his
Vltrlolic vituperation Of the classes. "
In 1886 he would have nothing Of his
chiefs home rule and he departed from
the liberal camp with the claim in his
mouth that not he. but Mr.. Gladstone,
had forsworn true democracy, in much
the same fashion, indeed, that Mr..
Cleveland and Mr.. Carlisle repudiated
Bryan and the Chicago platform. Then
Tor six years he remained out of Of
ice, fighting home rule and Mr. Glad
stone on the hustings and supporting a
conservative ministry in the house.
The boss of Birmingham" as his foes
love to call him, made possible by his
votes the continuation of Lord Sails
bury in power But it was the
period also in which he assured his
constituents that he was still a lib
eral, but that until home rule was final
~ beaten, liberal measures must take a
back seat and a tory government must
be supported, as far the less of two
evils.
When England turned heavily against
home rule in 1896 Mr.. Chamberlain and
other unionists took office with the
tories. He accepted the great post of
the colonies. He struck hands with
Lord Salisbury and Mr.. Balfour and
with Sir Michael Hicks-Beach. The
quartette today form the inner govern
ment of the empire, the final depository
OF power. This was his chanc of sue
cess or of ruin. His enemies, and no
man had more, declared his act af-
filiated him forever with the tories, and
that he could never again be a liberal
and hope for aught from that party
But in the short time of four years
Mr.. Chamberlain has contrived signally
to cofound his enemies and sometimes
even to astonish his friends. Whether
he made an ante-nuptial agreement
with Lord Salisbury or not, he has sue
ceeded in foisting on a tory government
certain liberal measures which he has
advocated for years. A tory govern
ment has introduced and made into law
an employers liability bill. whose prin-
ciple tory platforms had denounced as
sccialistic Then there was a bill for
the local government Of Ireland, whose
notion aud details Mr.. Chamberlain set
forth long before Mr.. Gladstone's Pau
line conversion to home rule.
In these liberal matters Mr.. Chamber
lain has succeeded where Mr.. Glad.
stone failed. BY these measures Eng
land perceiYes that the minister of to-
day is not a convert to toryisIn, but q
practical and liberal statesman, who
not only can champion caus eS. but can
construct efficient and wise legislation.
He has not forgotten that he is a man
of the people. now that he has power.
He has not forgotten what he advo-
Gated in his youth, for he frames bills
to embody his old theories. But Mr..
has appeared in a new
role. He has brought a new creation
on the stage. If he shows himself a
disciple of that tribune of the people,
John Bright, he is bringing into actual
discussion the imperialistic dreams Of
Disraeli. If as q home minister he is
an advanced liberal, as a foreign min
lister he is an advanced tory. He is for
the democracy in local government. but
for the empire at large. He would
the masses at home; but
he would support Cecil Rhodes and
Lord Cromer abroad, as the Pitts in
their day supported Wolfe at Quebec
and Give and Hastings in India. He
would enlarge the bounds of empire,
for he believes that offense makes the
best defense.
Lord Salisbury is a conservor; his
ideals are in the past; he thinks more
Of what precious things have been
gained than of what doubtful good is
TO be achieved. So if he can leave Eng
land strong and solid as he found her,
he viii be content. But it is piercing
even 20 his consciousness that it is not
enough to hold fast what the nation
has, but that more must he tai ia that
what is already possessed may remain
secured. 1t is not enough to halt; one
must go forward unless he would be
pushed back. But where Lord Sails
bury hesitates or reluctantly consents,
his nimbler colleague halloes as to a
hunt and the spectacle the world now
enjoys is of Disraeli'S successor being
taught his own game by former
'black-coated Brurmagen radical" 1t
may be the clear-eyed politician recog
lizes that the ammunition of the liberal
party is well-nigh exhausted; that
has become virtually de-
under the crown, and except
hat it be church establishment or the
house Of lords, nearly all the privileges
against which orators have ragged and
statesmen legislated are now swept
away. Anyhow, the eX-reform mayor of
and erStwnile radical has
struck out upon a new line. He has
;taled his future upon one issue, that
If imperialism; he has put his fortunes
nto one boat, that of Greater England.
Does he dle2m, this practical man OF
lffairs? Has he become a visionary, |
his former manufacturer of screws and |
upon commercial matters !
Has he who has ever been renowned |
or his lucidity, his eXactness, his real |
SIN. developed since he became a great !
minister d fauciful ilnaginat; n? He |
las had such a grasp upon FL he has |
liSdained so scornfully the la. ST the
Try; he has been man Of details, of |
satisfies, of immediate interests, and |
le has never been given to flights like |
3urke and like Gladstone. He has !
eemed commercial to the core. But |
lie has startled England not long since |
" advocating a vollverein, an imperial !
ustoms union. to draw the scattered |
empire together and make of it a COM |
nercial unit as against the world. |
men pronounced the |
scheme chiIslerical and it was imme- |
lately relegated to the limbo of i'm |
possible vagaries, If he startled Eng |
and then, he has startled the whole |
world later. In Birmingham he came |
nut roundly for an Anglo-American al |
lance. Was it a grandstand play, or |
: forecast into the future? Was it the |
udden candor of genius, which, fore
asting the inevitable future, puts itself |
4 harmony with the march of events,
Il was it the within of the archdema- !
,ogue playing on the emotion of the
moment and counting cheap notoriety
y audacious inuiscretion?