The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-10-07
JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN
BY F. |. MONKS.

|
 Joseph Chamberlain, the great English statesman and parliamentarian, is re- ported dying. The news will have many and varied effects upon all who have watched English politics for the last hait century. The career of such man IS | certain to have attached to itself and him worldwide attention, and it's close will be a subject for much comment. Joseph Chamberlain was born in Lon don in 1S36 His father was the owner Of screw fa. ory in Birmingham, the firm name being Nettlefold. The business at tained it's greatness something on tine same lines as the Standard Oil company | by purchasing or crushing out eompeti- l tors. It was in this business that Jo- seph Chamberlain started in life and from which he retired a very wealthy man in 1874.
 | During his residence in Birmingham he | took very active part in municipal af- | fairs; was mayor of the city and chair man of the school board. He was elected | member of parliament for Birmingham in | 1876 being then just 40 years of age. l At that time historic events were taking | place In England. Gladstone was making l the great reform which almost amounted | to revolution. Voting by ballot eXten- | sion of the franchise. disestablishment and disendowment of the church. the abro- l gation of the laws of premogeniture were being debated. The toiling masses of the English people were being awakened to | sense of their rights by the great voice l of Gladstone.
 The, situation appeals to Chamberlain, who was then and for many years afte, next to Gladstone himself, regarded as 1 the hope of democracy and it's future l leader In 1880 he was made cabinet min ister in Gladstone's government and was | president of the Board of Trade. His pop l ularity was increasing by leaps and | bounds he was every day becoming more extreme in his views and more hostile | towards the aristocracy and landed gen. 1 try He advocated the restitution of the land to the people; he said the way to mend the House of Lords was to end it; he wanted to give every farm laborer in | England three acres and a cow in fact, Joseph Chamberlain had become the idol of the masses in England: and in Ireland his views upon the system of government existing there met with the heartiest en- dorsement by the nationalists and hope rulers His speeches upon all these mat ters are still extant and furnish the 1 finest reading for the student of reform. On February 1, 1SS6 Joseph Chamber | lain stood on the pinnacle of his great ness. He had been reelected member of 1 Parliament for Birmingham free of ex | pense; he had just issued a programme of reform legislation in which he, almost went to the extent of promising to sup | ply the masses with free meals; he was a radical of radicals; his great popularity secured for him the portfolio of presi- l dent of the local government board with seat next to Gladstone in the cabinet; all this, as said before, was ir February, | 1SS6
 | In May of the same year, less than | three months after, Chamberlain had fal- | lem
 Since he, mlscalled the Morning Star | Nor man, nor fiend hath fallen so far. He had fallen from his high estate; fal- | len ou. with his own party; fallen out | with Gladstone; fallen so low in the esti- nation of the Irish that he has been | known and called ever since Judas | Chamberlain" O, what a fall was there,
 Naturally the question will be asked l how Chamberlain came to fall or what | caused it. How easily Lucifer could an- | swer that question. Mark but my fall, " says Wolsey. and that that ruined me. | Joseph Chamberlain had reached point in his career where he thought Hone step higher would set him highest" High as | Chamberlain stood, great as was his popu- | larity. there was one who stood step ! higher. whose popularity went a step be- | yond his. and that man was Gladstone l But Gladstone was old. Under Chamber
 lains old-age pension scheme Gladstone l should be superannuated and sent Into
 retirement; but the grand old man." as
 he was called, thought otherwise. He
 had still the crowning labor of his life to do. He had said in the house of commons,
 in reply to a speech of Parnell, When the majority of the Irish representatives | come to this house and ask for home | T t.,tr q that effect" That majority sat in the house-a four-ffths majority of the whole | representa- ton-and Gladstone, with a | powerful government behind him. saw
 the time and opportunity had come to full fill his promise to Parnen
 The home rule bill was introduced by | Gladstone in the house of commons in
 February 1886, and conjointly with it the
 land purchase bill These two popular
 measures had the effect of securing to
 Gladstone the support of his party and
 the applause of the world. Chamberlain
 felt the ground cut from under his feet:
 his radical but impractical programme
 was set aside for the saner and safer one
 of Gladstone; he saw he was checkmated
 by the ''old parliamentary hand who had not failed to notice and understand the
 bold move Chagrined over the disaster
 of his plans and disappointed of the ob-
 ject of his ambition. Chamberlain allowed
 his temper to get the better of him. He
 secretly entered into an alliance with sew
 eral other discontented spirits, and at the
 fateful moment when the division on the
 second reading of the home rule bill was
 called, Joseph Chamberlains at the head
 of his troup of malcontents. went into
 the lobby with the tories, defeated the
 government, killed the home rule bill and
 brought down upon his head the execra-
 tions and maledictons of an outraged and
 betrayed nation. He attempted to Justlfy his treacherous act by saying that Glad
 stone meant to destroy the entegrity anu greatness of the British empire. to wnich