The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-09-27
Joe CHAMBERLAIN OF BRUMMAGEM.
An Agile Statesman Who Began
BY Inventing Screw.
4 Il

When an Englishman wants to call
thing shoddy he says it's "brummagem.'
-Brummagem" is the pronunciation the
plain people of the English Midlands give
to the word Birmingham, and Birmingham
in its time has made and sold heap OF
Cheap John merchandise.
About thirty years ago politician from
Birmingham began to loom up large on the
..o1zon of British public life, and when
folks got to calling him -Brummagem Joe"
YOU may depend upon it that they intended
no compliment
People of the same kind have at different
times varied the phrase to ATattered joe"
Joe the Slasher," Judas" and other epi-
thets, but mere words have never been
sufficiently barbed to get under Joe Cham
berlain's skin and stay there. He has had
ever ready sneer and retort. all the more
cutting because never vulgar. for every
bitter taunt and insinuation.
They're not calling him out OF his name
very much nowadays. except in Birming-
ham. There he's still .Our Joe" to good
many folks. and he likes that.
But when man, in the face OF ridicule
and class hatred and party hatred and
personal venom has fought his way clear
to the top Of British politics and so domi-
mated the situation that, in or out OF office,
where Chamberlain sits is the head OF the
table, "Brummagem Joe" doesn't seem
to be Just the right term with which to
label him. Like Macbeth's amen it sticks
In the throat of those who try to utter it.
Forty years or more ago Chamberlain
did very characteristic thing He had
been sent to a good school by his well-to-
do parents, and then, at the age Of sixteen,
had been set to work at the business Of
screw manufacturing, in which his father
before him had prospered.
1t was good business, profitable but
not enormously remunerative. and il it
had been left to take its ordinary course
Joseph Chamberlain would have been a
respectable Birmingham screw manufact-
urer to this day.
But Chamberlain hadn't been nosing
around the works great while before he
made up his mind that every screw ought
to be able to bore it's own way, instead Of
having a hole started for it with a gimlet.
So he set his wits to work and invented a
screw with point so sharp and cutting
edge 80 keen that it could be driven into a
hoard or plank without an auxiliary and
preparatory gimlet.
The result of that little turn Of thought
and Of the energy with which the inventor
placed his goods upon the market was that
Joseph Chamberlain. at the age of SO, was
able to retire from the counting room a
rich man and take fling at public life.
From that day to this he has been invent
ing political screws with point and edge
sharp enough to bore into the toughest
kind of Liberal and Conservative and
Unionist panks and Understand he has
never asked anybody to be gimlet for
him, either,
Just now he is cutting the thread on the
very biggest and finest screw that ever came
out of the works, and when 1t Is all ready
and he is satisfied that the time is ripe he
hopes to drive it into pine knot called Prime
Minister of England and hang his hat on it,
Nearly every one who has observed Mr.
Chamberain's famous collection of screws
believes that this final product Of the mill
will do the business for which it il intended
Just when Joseph Chamberlain first fixed
his eye on the Premiership would be hard
date to determine, but it would be safe
thing to 60 back long way for it. Over
abundant modcsty of ambition has never
been one of his faults.
He set his own valuation high in the be-
ginning and waited for his fellow country
men to take him at his own price. and they
have done it.
There is pretty good evidence that before
he was old enough TO vote he had some sort
of purpose to take part in the government
OF England, So he began to get ready for
the job
Like many another man who has become
handy with his parts Of speech, Joe Cham
berlain had in the beginning to force him
self to his feet. To see him now you d
think he was a born debater. but in the
early Birmingham days he used to prepare
his remarks with good deal of care, and
he rose to express them with considerable
misgiving, which you may be sure he never
let on about TO anybody
But tongue as ready and mind as alert
"a his were not long in gaining confidence
and not much longer in taking on a tinge OF
audacity. Before the sharp edged screw
had made it possible for him to shift from
private to public business Mr. Chamber.
lain had achieved reputation for Radca
opinions of the most advanced kind and
for remarkable iuency in stating them.
This early training he acquired in the
Birmingham and Edgbaston Debating So,
ciety. He wanted to attend school OF
public speaking, and that was the nearest
and most convenient one for the purpose.
When the debating society had done
about all it could for him Chamberlain
tackled local politics in Birmingham-frs
in the schools, then in the Town Council
then as Mayor.
Birmingham politics had till that time beer
as grimy as it's soft coal atmosphere, Blu,
Chamberlain got the right sort OF folks
TO go in with him and transposed the whole
business This is no biography of the mar
and no place to tell all that he did in Bir.
mngham or anywhere else, 80 it will be suf'
ficIent to say that he made Birmingham
famous among the cities OF the world az
wel-governed municipality.
And he made himself famous, too, as 6
man of ideas and an administrator and af
a Radical with a big and an exclamation
point.
The common people were Chamberlain
stronghold then and have been ever since
through all his ups and downs. They hoot
him to-day and idolae him tomorrow anC