Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-05
THE NEW LABOR LEADER
SPECULATION AS TO WHO WILL
so FIGURE IN PARLIAMENT.
Special cablerram to The star.

| Special Cabiegram to The Star.
LONDON, March 5.-There is much spec
| uiation as to who win finally evolve as the
new labor leader in parliament In point
| of parliamentary service Mr.. kier Hafuie
should have the first claim, but ne Is
strongly opposed by members OF his own
party. Other men who may fight their way
| to the front and become leaders are Messrs.
Henderson, Crooks, Barnes and Shackleton-
Voting a man q leader in a rough ana
tumble organization like the labor repre-
sentation committee. whose meetings may
be attended by perhaps thirty members Oh
the new parliament. does not make man
| a leader in reality. Leaders are born. not
| made and while there are some excellent
| fighters among the workingmen recently
Elected to parliament 1t should be remem-
bered that few of them will have more
than fighting chance For 1t takes years
to learn the ropse in parliament and the
labor advocates being poor men ana en-
tirely dependent upon their unions for their
salaries must of necessity come pretty
nearly taking orders from the organizations
which furnish them their means OF living.
Hence they become mere representatives
of the organizations. and are not foot loose
and fancy free to fight whom they Will,
where they will and when they will
Among the newly elected labor members
of parliament who are quite likely to make
record may be mentioned Mr.. Charles
Duncan, the representative of Barrow-1n-
Furness. He was educated at a church
school, where, according to his own state
ments, he was chiefly distinguished as a
fighter. His fathers means enabled him to
remain in school until he was sixteen thus
receiving good all-around education He
attributes his success to the fact that he
has concentrated his attention upon trade
unionfsm and labor questions and the work
OF cooperation. He Is teetotaller, and he
says that his watchword In life has
a I'll nc pra n 1at ,rhr- o%.l,-
thorough"
Libel During Municipal Elections
A socialist. Mr.. Dan Irving. the I'M
successful parliamentary candidate for the
Accrington division has just sued Mr.. Sam
uel Hargreaves and Mr.. James Dixon for
alleged libel during the municipal elections
IN Burnley last November. Mr.. Shee, X. c..
for the defendants. in criticisng Mr.. Iry-
ing's public utterances. asked: sfWhile Won
were member of the Burnley town coun-
Gil We're you not reported to have said that
MI Carnegie had murdered some of his
work people, and that you would be less
than a man If you took bIoodstained
money? This had reference to a free library
proposal"
Replying Mr.. Irving said that he had en-
ployed the word murderer In the same
sense as it was sometimes applied to Mr.
Gladstone when spoken of as the murder
err of Gen. Gordon
Again he was asked, Did you say that
the liberal party were the most saucti-
monious hypocrites on the face of the
earth?'
TO this well as to the question. Did
you say that their whited sepuchers con-
cealed rottenness inside?" Mr.. Irving re-
Piled with an affirmative answer
Then how much worse is the tory par
tyr asked Mr. Shee.
Il never met with the same hypocrisy
in the tory party" replied Mr. Irving. The
liberal party has in its cabinet a man who
talked of sending cabinet ministers to
heaven by chemical parcel post, and for
the associates of such man to charge me
untruthfully as they did during the parla-
mentary campaign with advocating the use
of bombs and violence was hypocrisy"
Who was the cabinet Minister in
qulred Mr.. Justice Granthan.
John Burns" replied the plaintiff
The jury returned a verdict for the de-
PENDANT.
Fight Against Free Trade.
The tariff reformers are making strenu-
Gus efforts to keep up their fight against
free trade. Joseph Lawrence. one of the
most influential members of the Carlton
Club speaking upon this subject said:
Tariff reform in the late contest was no
more rejected than home rule was ac-
cepted. Though we lost a great many seats,
yet in the majority of places the conserva-
tives and unionists polled more votes than
Mr. c. r. Krimshire one of the Bradford
leaders, is quoted saying:
1T might at first sight appear that our
cause has received a crushing blow. Free
traders are anxiously explaining that the
large liberal majority means the death of
protection; If they genuinely think it
seems curious that they should waste their
energies in belaboring what they regard as
carcass. My complaint is against the
unionist party, which had a great cause
to put before the country and yet took but
little pains to educate the country In that
cause. l believe that 1t was a great tac-
tical error to stand merely the defen-
sive and to attempt to fight better or
ganized and more determined party on its
own level"
Discussing tariff problems and the results
of the elections in general, the much talked
of differences of opinion between Mr.. Bal
four and Mr.. Chamberlain, the London
Times itself says: These differences are
natural and likely to occur between the
leader of a party and the apostle OF an
idea. Mr.. Chamberlain says general tariff
| is the only way of effectively lighting the
| hostile tariffs of other countries, and COM
plans-in quite a friendly spirit-that Mr..
Balfour will neither explicitly accept ii nor
offer an alternative method of his own