Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-06-15
POL|T|C Al] PARTIES
Entire Reorganization in Eng
land Shortly.
MR.. PEARS0N'S VIEWS
THINKS THERE WILL BE SHARP
DIVISION oFvoTERs.
One Set Will Be for Free Trade and
the Other Favoring MI. Cham
berlain's Policy.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

i Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.
| LONDON, June 2, 1904.
"There will shortly be an entire reorgan-
| ization of political parties in England, re-
| sulting in sharp division Of the voters into
| two great parties, one favoring free trade
| and the other the policy advocated by Mr..
| Chamberlain" This Is the opinion ex-
pressed by Mr. C. Arthur Pearson to your
! correspondent today Mr.. Pearson Is vice
| chairman of the tariff commission and
| chairman of the Tariff Reform League, I'M
| der the auspices of which the campaign OF
| education in favor Of import duties Is being
| carried on. Mr.. Pearson is also the owner
and active manager of half dozen big
morning papers and number of magazines
| and other publications which reach vast
| number of British readers. He has been
| offered seat In parliament, but prefers to
| devote his energies to active newspaper
and political work. He is very much of an
American in his methods and manner OF
doing business, and is Mr. Chamberlain's
most active and effective supporter. Hon
est in his belief as to the future benefits to,
the British people of protective tariff.
full of enthusiasms and an indefatigabe
worker Mr.. Pearson has conducted cam
paign which has astoniShed the older Brit
ish politicians and put the opposition party
entirely on the defensive.
Next General Election.
"a general election will take place in
England, 1 am sure" said Mr.. Pearson,
within year, and the liberals will very
possibly be returned to power The pro-
posed fiscal policy will undoubtedly be one
Of the issues, but by no means the only one.
We would not look upon defeat at the next
election as defeat for Mr.. Chamberlain
labor regulations in South Africa and the
licensing law will figure very largely In in
fiuencing the voters against the party now
in power and may result In our dereat
The liberals would come in as the free
trade party. and there does not seem to be
much probability of change of position on
that question. I do not believe that they
would be able to hold themselves in power
longer than two years at the outside, and
then would come another general election.
fought out almost entirely upon the tariff
issue. and I am entirely confident that
England will then adopt a system of i'm
port duties making it possible to give pref
erential tariffs to the colonies to offer
reciprocity to foreign countries and to az
ford incidental protection to British indus
tries"
When asked to the progress being
made in the fiscal campaign. Mr.. Pearson
said: The fiscal campaign Is making
steady progress. Much useful work is be-
ing done throughout the country by agents
of the Tariff Reform League. who are talk
suit that the British, VOTERS are getting a
very intelligent idea Of what is proposed.
At first the DOGGY of dear, food as posi-
BILE result of import duties alarmed great
SO eficacious as 1t was. The British work
man is beginning to ask himself wherein
lies the advantage of cs1aap: food II he has
no money with which. to buy it. The reit-
Grafton of Mr.. Chamberlafn's assurance
that, the whole, food Will cost no more
is getting home
When asked whether protection to Brit
ish~industry was looked upon the prin-
cipal argument In favor of Mr.. Chamber
lain's policy. or whether the sentiment in
favor of commercially consolidated en-
pire took precedence, Mr.. Pearson said:
THE workmen Of England will. of course.
decide the outcome of the election, and
believe that protection is uppermost In the
minds of the people in their advocacy of
our proposed tariff policy. 1t is surprising
also to find how universal is the feeling
that something of the kind proposed must
be brought about If the British empire is
to remain consolidated and harmonious in
every way.
Effect of Retaliatory Measures.
When it was suggested that the adoption
of retaiatory tariff measures by England
might lead to some friction between Eng
land and foreign countries Mr.. Pearson
expressed lis disagreement with this idea,
II do not see.' he said that the adoption
of Mr.. Chamberlain's proposals should in
any way affect the friendliness of relations
between England and the United States. A
great majority of Americans with whom l
have talked on the matter have expressed
surprise that our present syestem should
have continued for so long. They have
; again expressed the view that Americans
would not be less friendly toward this
country because of any changes in the
tariff policy, although such changes might
affect them materially from business
point of view. AS a matter of fact 1 be-
{ 'h1 onarl3 in Sa1C
would il put into effect tend, to draw Eng
land and the United States nearer together
for l know many cases in which Americans
will Immediately build factories in Eng
land If England adopts system of import
duties. American capital will thus come
to ENGLAND for Investment, the same
English capital has gone to America for
investment in the past. 2
The point has been made that system
of import duties, would interfere with Eng
lands brokerage trade with the continent.
This trade would probably suffer but it
can not be helped. No change in national
Policy of the magnitude proposed could pos
sibly come abontwith out some one being a
little the worse for it, The general good
which would result would. I believe, far
outweigh any considera tons of minor losses
in special directions
Effect of Commissions Report.
In speaking of the work Of the tariff COM
mission, Mr.. Pearson said: 1.-The report of
the commission should have great weight
| in influencing the English people. The COM
mission Is absolutely non-part isan In char
acter, and the status of those who compose
| it is such that there ealVbe no question as
| to the honesty or Intelligence of the con-
clusfons reached. The Investigation of the
iron and steel trades1fssnsw complete, but
L can not say anything atSto the testimony
collected. for this will SHORTLY be published
in official form. ThesWork of the commits
sion will probably benoompleted within this
year. 1t is most comprehensive in charac-
ter and will enable 0snsrt British voter to
arrive at an Intelligent sessimate of the con-
dtion OF any particular British industry in
relation to foreign 9dorhRetition and the