The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-01-17
THE NEWS FROM LONDON

campaign Tn advocacy of his protection
 theories. Hi5 meetings everywhere are
 crowded, and the newspapers of all par
 ties are compelled to report his addresses
 In full, which means that they have to
 surrender couple of pages of their valu-
 able space to each one of them. His op-
 ponents charge him with appropriating
 his most forcible points from the high
 tariff literature of some of your public
 men. l am not familiar enough with the
 subect to say whether the charge is true or not. Here are some extracts from a
 recent speech of his. They may enable
 my American readers to decide whether
 MT. Chamberlain Is guilty of plagiarism. At Leeds last month he said:
 T lay down the proposition. which do
 not think any one has hitherto had the
 hardihood to dispute. I say that free
 trade Is not inspired doctrine. It was, and
 It Is, policy brought by reasonable men
 before the public for their consideration
 and adopted at the time because in their I opinion 1t was suitable to the then exist ing circumstances and conditions. Nor I IS there any policy or system or institu- i ton in this world where everything is | changing, l hope, progressing. which does
 not at least require revision in 50 years;
 and yet there are some of my opponents, some very young men among my oppo-
 nents, who are so modest that they be-
 lieve that their ancestors possessed all the wisdom to be and to come. Now this particular policy that we are considering
 was policy which experience has shown
 was adopted at the time on the faith of
 promises, predictions, and expectations l which have not. been fulfilled I think l there Is another reason for reconsidera-
 ton Nothing is more certain, nobody de-
 nies that MT. Golden believed, honestly
 believed, that if once we set the example l every other nation on the face of the 1 globe, every great nation, would follow. I our example. and if they did not follow it they would be ruined Mir Golden be- lieved. and told the people, that England would become the workshop of the world, l that all the rest of the world would dig and delve and plough for us. that we
 should take our raw material and food l from them, and they in return would ex- 1 change with our manufacturers. But all 1 though we were to take food from them, l in Mir. Cobden's opinion that would be no 1 Injury to the agricultural interests. He promised that the farmers profits should not be reduced, and that not single acre
 of agricultural land would go out of culti-
 vation That was the idea. When we talk I of MT. Cobden's views, and attach, as we
 ought to do, considerable importance to
 the views of a man so able, let us remem- Der on what they were founded. If we
 could see that all these statements had been fully fulflled-well, in that case we
 might not be so anxious to see any change in the policy which was adopted on the
 faith of them; and 1t is only fair to MT. Golden to say that for some years even after his death his policy did appear to-
 produce the results which he expected from 1t. We know now that the great
 prosperity and expansion of our trade
 which took place between the nfties and
 the seventies were due to various causes
 independent of free trade, such as the dis
 covery of gold, the development of inven- ton and industry-causes which affected the rest of the world as we'll as ourselves. but which undoubtedly did produce pros perity in this country which justified those
 who lived in those days from being con
 tent to rest and be thankful
 But although there was one fatal fail-
 ure in MT. Cobdens policy, one fatal error.
 one mistake in his prediction. which is
 now evident to all of us. Foreign nations
 did not, as he supposed they would. fol- low our example, and although they have
 not followed our example they have not
 been ruined. Foreign nations have pro- ceeded upon totally different lines. They have thought 1t was to their interest to encourage their home trade. to strength
 en their home trade They have not been
 content to dig and delve and plough for us; they have wanted to have a more va- ried life, and they have wanted to develop industries for which they thought them
 selves as well qualified as we were, and
 accordingly they have shut us out from l their markets. They have built up indus tries behind the protection which they es- 1 tablished and strengthened their home in- dustries. they are beginning to use the power thus acquired to invade our mar kets. That Is a state of things which | took time to accomplish. It was not until the early eighties that we began to find out what they were doing, and even after | that 1t was some time before 1t was eVi- 1 dent to all of us. You in Leeds had the | honour of being represented some time | ago by a great friend of mine, then Sir | Lyon Playfair. afterwards Lord Playfair. | There was no man with whom have ever | been acquainted who had a lvelier Inter 1 est in discussion. a more generous feeling | to those who differed from him, and was more anxious In his desire to ind out the | truth Lord Playfair in 1890 addressed | meeting of his constituents here It was | the year of the Mckinley tariff, and Lord l Playfair stated the reasons which led | him at that time to believe that the Me l Kinley tariff would be an utter failure, l that 1t would be injurious to the United | States that 1t could not be other than A temporary measure. In giving that ad- dress he used these words: If they (the l American people, be right in their prin- | cipIes and successful In their practice | inc whole commercial policy of the United Kingdom is founded upon gigantic error and must lead to our ruin as an Industrial nation What has happened since then? Has the United States been ruinedg | (Cries of 'No.D Has any protected na- ion been ruined? (No) affirm with ont fear of the affirmation being disprov- ad, that there is no one of them. from the largest to the smallest of which 1t is not true to say that in everything that makes for the prosperity of the nation they nave increased, and increased more rapidly than we have. since they became pro- tected country
 + is curious sign of the times that
 the first avowed supporter of Mir. Cham
 berlain's policy returned to parliament
 should be MT. Rutherford Harris. Prior
 to this. he had chiefly been known to us
 as tbe agent of MT Rhodes in the nego-
 t,ations with the Colonial Offtce over the
 Jameson Raid. and as having been elected
 at Monmouth on the "vote for Liberal.
 vote for the Boers" ticket. and then un-
 seated on petition for having applied
 Rhodesian methods little too freely in
 that constituency. He next presented
 xsoOo to the Chamberlain Tariff League.
 and apparently in consideration oi tn's
 service was selected as the government
 R~oto oofa