The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-06-07
THE NEWS FROM LONDON
BY HENRY pEvEREAUx.
England Much Agitated Over Chamberlain's New Policy Overturning National Policy of Many Years

London, May 3o.-England is alive to the fact that Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain is about to force the nation To the consideration of new problems and to embark it on new paths. Of course, Joseph holds the center of the stage which delights him vastly. Old, conserv- Rtive merchants are not inclined to re- joice at the suggestion that the time hon pred policy of the nation, that which has made this tight little island potential In the family of nations and its people re- be changed.
 | The government has lost the confidence of the country. It Is not Imperialistic in the Chamberlain sense of the word. It wants to revert to the policy that made us prosperous before those grandi- cose ideas of merging the United King dom in some great and aggressive em- plre passed current as patriotism. We have seen its cost. and we have, too real- ized that If attention Is diverted from home issues by empire making, this means the subordination of the masses to the classes If our working men had read history carefully, they would have known that this has ever been the game of oiigarchles threatened by the advance of democracy. They have now had their object lesson, and believe that 1t has been a valuable one to them. Cleri- calism and landlordism have been trl- umphant. We have been the paws of cosmopolitan adventurers. We have bur- dened ourselves with many debts to a mill q of savages We have tempered with free trade We have raised millions from those the least able to bear the burden. We have relegated to the dim and dis tant future all social legislation, because we are spending so much on armaments. That taxation should go hand in hand with expenditure, is declared 10 be folly. that the state should pay for the edu- cation of sectarian religion has been adopted as our rule. That prime minis ter should pitchfork into a cabinet any peer or cousin who wants salary. or imagines that he is a heaven-born state man. is now the basis of a ministry. That the power of the sovereign should augment Is openly preached. For any one to question the almost divine char acter of the House of Lords Is regard ed as akin to sacrilege. Even when folly and incompetence are too gross not to be apparent 10 all, we are tOld that fOOlS and embeciles are better rulers than those who will not accept Chamberlain Imperialism. If all this Is not to con tinue, Radicals must hot rest satisfied with mere passive disapproval. They must make their undoubted power felt, and neither allow themselves to be crushed by open enemies or fooled by se- cret enemies in their fold. No longer must liberals allow themselves to be open to the sneers of MT. Balfour. They have no policy; they blow hot one day and cold another, says MT Balfour
 So much has been written and talked about the so-called "American Invasion" that the feeling became 80 general that the country was going to the dogs Mir Mark Warren has written fine paper illustrated with charts made from sta tIstics which has cheered England won- derfully. He shows at glance how ut- terly fallacious and inconsistent with Ameican Invasion" and the crushing of our industries by foreign state aided competition. as well as the taunts and the abuse flung at the press and on plat forms at the blindness and stupidity of British manufacturers and workmen. Only the other day I was discussing. in answer to one of the latest Protectionist painphleteers. the theory that England