The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-10-06

London. October 3.-Former Colonial
| Secretary Chamberlain has written
manifesto, forcbly enunciating the car
dinal features of his fiscal policy. AS
the document will not be published in
| the United Kingdom until Monday
morning, the effect on the public and
| the press can only be estimated. 1t is
| certain, however, that the aggressive
| attitude which The Associated Press
| is able to announce Mr.. Chamberlain
adopts will add bitterness to contro-
Esrsy that already RACES with a vigor
| almost unequalled in the history of En-
glish politics.
Mr.. Chamberlain now not only reiter-
| ates his belief that the federation OF
| the empire depends upon fiscal retalia-
| ton, with it's consequent taxes upon
England's food, but openly classes the
| out and out Cobdenites with the Little
Englanders,' whom he derides with aH
the force of ridicule and argument OF
which he is such a master.
Not only does he adhere to his taxes
on wheat and meat, but through the
medium Of Mr.. Vince jus,lfies them aud
declares that they will not add a fartn-
ing to the Workingman's family ex-
penses.
Every other nation and all our own
self-governing colonies have refused
to accept the gospel of Golden, and YET
although thev ought, according to Gs
dOgmaS, to be in the last stage Of de-
preston and decline they have grown
during the last twenty years in wealth,
population and trade and in everything
that goes to make up the greatness OF
a nation
That is the keynote of the manifesto
which will be published October 5th, in
the form of preface to a shilling PAM
phlet by c. A. Vince, secretary to Mr..
Chamberlain'S tariff organization
Mr.. Chamberlain points out that the
! prosperity OF the working classes has
Increased in greater proportion in the
protected countries than in the United
Kingdom and says:
Free trade, if it had ever existed,
might have secured for us all that rs
promoters promised; but free imports
| without free trade have brought US
| face to face with problems which never
! entered into CObdens calculations We
| know that the idea of q United Empire
| did not appeal to him and that he re-
garded the colonies as an encumbrance,
| to be got rid of as soon as possible. Bus
| what would Golden have said if he had
| foreseen that the trades union, whose
| existence he deprecated, would be Sue
| Cessful in protecting labor in q score
| Of ways, tending to increase the rate OF
| wages and to raise the standard Of liv-
| ing Would Golden, AZ the representa-
| tive of the manufacturing class, have
| E-:u maintained that while the manu-
| facturer was artificiaIly prevented from
| obtaining labor at the lowest rate, he
| ought to rest content when the products
| of foreign labor, untramneled by any
| regulations and legislations, to which
| he has to submit, undersel1 him in his
| own markets? CObdens scheme was at
| least consistent. 1t was free labor as
| we'll as free imports. but free imports
| combined with protected labor is neith-
| er consistent nor profitable to any Of
| the parties concerned"
| Mr.. Chamberlain holds that the
| theory that other countries are ruin
| ing themselves by bOuntieS and import
| duties hardly comedies with the fact
| that British exports have been prac-
| tically stationary for twelve years,
| while those of other countries have in
| creased SO rapidly that IF the re1a-
| tive progress continues for few years
| longer, they will have left us far be-
| hind"
rs 1t not childish to ignore the fact
| that by bargaining on equal terms,
| other nations have been able to pro-
mote their special interests. and that
If we also had in our hands weapons
| Of retaliation we should probably be
able to bring the world much nearer
a universal free trade system than it
has ever been since Cobden's time?
| Our free food friends VIII have to be a
little more definite and more accurate.
| Thew will have TO explain why the
| transfer Of taxation. say from tea to
bread, would be disastrous. even
though it benefited our industries and
restored them to something like the
relative position which they enjoyed
twenty years ago.
! Dealing paSsionately with the ac-
t cusation that his nolicy is intended to
reduce the workman and his family
to starvation. Mr. Chamberlain writes:
Let them at least admit that. rightly
or wrongly. this policy is propounded
:, In the interests Of the masses of the
e people Of the Door much more than of
h the rich and that those who are Re
sponsible for it have earned by stren-
. uous endeavor in the past the right to
assent to the charge of neglecting the
interests Of the industrial population.