Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1903-09-21
JoEsEPH CHAMBERLAIN.

Derlain twenty years ago w. n. Stead
wrote 20 a friend: In a nutshell il
can4e TO this. | said to ]. G.. Behold
/ see in you q radical Lord Beacons-
field TO which j. G. r~eioined, Not at
all, | am the radical apostle Paul. "
Iii other words, Mr.. Stead regarded
this radical leader as d man whose
political utterances were dictated by
policy rather than by conviction.
In the light Of Mr.. Chamberlain's
subsequent career, the Kansas City
Star thinks, this judgment seems I'M
duly harsh. On at least one occasion
when he left Mr.. Gladstone's cabi-
nct-he showed the highest courage.
BM his attitude on many questions
leaves him open to Mr.. Steads char
acterizatIon, modified, perhaps, by a
later remark by that editor that he
had found Chamberlain IA much hon,
ester man than he had al first sup
posed, but by no means 80 clever 4
degilr as he had assumed.
Mr.. Chamberlain began his political
career as a tribune OF the people
ny birth a plehean and a ~dissenter,
he hated everything aristocratic. As
mayor of Birmingham from 1873 to
1876 his administration was famous
ior Its Bocialistic tendencies. He IN
troduced municipal Ownership OF wa.
Ter and gas, cleaned out the slums and
remodeIed the whole municipal sys-
TEN. When he entered the house oi
commons The radicalism Of Gladstone
paled beside Chamberlaln's advanced
views. Lord Salisbury, with his pa
tfieian arrogance he denounced as
the spokesman .of a class who toll
not, neither do they apin." He warned
the house Of lords that It's cup Is
nearly FUR and that IFS career 81
high-handed wrong is coming 10 an
end" AS d %dissenter,' he once ex'
claimed, Il have an account to settle
with them. and promise you | will
not forget the reckoning
10 Mr.. Chamberlain the whole Tory
party was anathema, and its govern.
ment uncomfortable. He opposed the
aggressive policy in South Africa Of
Sir Bartle Frere. the prancing pro.
consul and he defended the restora.
ton III independence to the Transvaal
even after Majuba Hill as an act Of
justice. In his speeches he outlined
a liberal policy that was In advance
Of anything the party was ready to
accept. His program included the
abolition OF the house Of lords, the dis.
establishment Of the Anglican church,
manhood. suffrage. universal nnde.
nominatlonal education and a more
equitable distribution of land. He
was against the whole established
order, including the monarchy itself.
fiis one aim, he asserted, was to ip,
prove the wretched lot OF the Have.
nots Of the world, the disinherited Of
humanity"
Thus he came TO be regarded as the
legitimate D OF Mr.. Gladstone,
although that statesman, d~istrusting
Chamberlain's sincerity. once remark
Cd that he WA the first politician Of
the American type that England had
had, and that he was destined % give
the country considerable trouble"
but In 1856 Mr.. Chamberlain show
ed his willingness to sacrifice his hope
OF tho succession by leaving the Glad.
stone cabinet on the home rule Is
sue. Then, as now, he subordinated
HIS personal interest to his fetish
the unity Of the empire. He feared
that home rule would tend 10 disrup.
ton. hut his opposition TO an Irish
parliament does not explain his
change Of heart on all his liberal pro
gram. The things which once he
loved he now hated The house Of
lords suddenly became a righteous
institution: his old principle Of zone
man. one vote" a "trumpery reform;
the South African policy Of Gladstone
an awful mess He came TO the sup.
port OF the established church and
helped put through a UNCONVENTIONAL