The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-02-08

tilS WIIIeT uOeS not uOuDL that III say
 ing this Sir Sidney speaks the truth l MT. b. H. Watts, a great ship building man, uses upon the same point, Ian | guage that is still stronger, England l he says, is going to be killed by tht | Trade-unions. The working man, he adds, is the greatest tyrant on the face of the earth, and such strong denuncia- | ton of working-class methods is all the more surprising in the case of MT l Watts, because he has just bought and | turned over to pr. Barnardo's Homes l the Norfolk County school, which
 through the generosity of this ship l builder, is to be used hereafter as a | naval training school for four hundred 1 boys.
 On the larger question of foreign com- | potion MT. Watts says that what Is happening at the present moment Is that the markets of half the world are being closed against England Golden
 predicted that foreigners would follow the English example and adopt free trade, but the reverse has been the case. , "We are suffering" he says, for a lack of fair play. For inst ance, an English ship cannot take a cargo from one
 French port to another, nor are we al-
 lowed by the Americans to join in their
 coasting trade. But France or Amerl-
 ca can send their ships to Calcutta and
 load for London, thus competing with
 English ships" MT. Watts added that
 he did not want protection. but he
 thought they ought to have fair trade,
 rather than free trade, and that the
 colonies and the empire ought to be
 brought together under one customs
 house.
 This yelled reference to protection IS
 a reminder that there are some very in-
 fluential men in this country who do not
 in the least veil their views on this sub
 ject, but who blow boldly on the pro
 tectionist trumpet as one of the means
 for waking up England. Last month
 there was a joint meeting of the cen
 tral Chamber of Agriculture and the
 Farmers club of the United Kingdom,
 and the speeches on the occasion were
 of kind, one would think, not only to
 rouse the nation, but to even stir into
 some semblance of active life the som
 nolent occupants of "The Cecil Family
 Coach,' otherwise the Salisbury gov
 ernment. One of these was made by
 MT. Hanbury the minister for agricul-
 ture, who said that President Roosevelt
 had occasion lately to congratulate the
 American farmer upon his prosperity
 Why was not the English farmer sim-
 liar subject for congratulation? It was
 because the British government was
 not helping agriculture as it should, or
 as the American government was. In
 England the land devoted to crops was decreasing and the amount of stock was
 decreasing. Every agricultural Inter est, said MT. Hanbury, was on the down grade. Fifty years ago agriculture was sacrificed by free trade to the manufac- turing interests. The farmers and farm
 laborers were the first to suffer, but now the pinch was being felt by the manu- facturers and mechanics, and there was, perhaps, in this fact, some ground for hope. The time had come, in his judg- ment when the policy of letting every thing slide would have to be aban- doned. This feeling, MT. Hanbury thought, was not limited to the rural districts The towns were beginning to realize that the distress of rural Eng land was reacting upon them Towns people did not like the influx of rural labor into their midst, and above all, said this English minister of agricul- ture. the manufacturers had to consid- CT that in these days, when the world was closing it's markets to England on every side, it was to the home markets they would have to look in the future.
 ,,tt i.yr h d speech from a minister of the crown | was discosed at the same meeting by MT. Henry Chaplin, M. P, an ex-minis- l ter The condition of agriculture was, he said, a source of great national dan ger. The physique of the people was being lowered by the exodus into the towns and every acre going out of cul- tivation added to the danger of starva- eion in case of war with q maritime power. The government would be com ing to parliament shortly for more and his hope was that the fresh taxation imposed would help, instead of injure, British agriculture. The re- imposition of shilling duty on import ed grain would bring in twelve and a half million dollars a year. It would | not be felt by consumers, he said, and l ,ould only be opposed on the ground of | sentiment, and in present circumstan- 1 ,es sentiment was out of the question. | All of which spells protection in big, | clear letters, though, of course, only in forecast. But it is almost certain to ,ome finally
 To wake up England to her social reeds, to the sufferings of her working, 'et almost starving, poor, and the ur- rent demand there is that this worthy
 md distressed class shall have a better nance to live, is just as necessary, and will, no doubt, prove just as difficult, as he effort to arouse her to a true view of Ter commercial and military require 1ents Upon this subject a bugle blast f blended alarm and appeal was sent orth, to be heard surely in every ham, et of the land and to penetrate, let us ope, into the secret chamber of His lost Excellent Majesty, King Edward t the opening of parliament. 1t took he form of an amendment to the ad- ress in reply to the kings speech and as backed up by rousing talk from nat perennial pleader in behalf of the GOT, Dr Mcnamara. The debate on lis subject was so we'll sustained, and ! le demands had such obvious justice recommend them, that the govern l lent promised a royal commission to lrther consider what was needed. l