The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-11-11

session with . pretty clean record Of "fol-
lowing little DAVID could be pretty GER
tain OF standing we'll with his constitu-
ents as a boly: but his social prospects.
great houses and to cross his legs under
mahogany bearing a coat OF arms, would
not be very good.
And SO when, In 1906. the liberal party
swept the genera, elections, the unionists
went out Of power, and Sir Henry CAMP
bell Banerman became premier of Great
Britain. Little David" suddenly became
an important parsonage. Wales was lib
eral. and Mr.. David Lloyd-Seorgc was its
leader in liberalism. He was. In sooth.
what American conservatives good ma
turedly call an anarchists" not tho bomb
throwing sort. but a radical of the most
iconoclastlc notions as regards Institutions
supposedly sacred by reason OF mere an
tiquity. lie must be taken into the gov
ernment, III order to keep his Welsh fol-
lowing in line: n he was made chairman
of the board Of trade. That means much
the same Us It woufN mean in this coun-
try to be secretary OF commerce and la
Dor, only more.
Gains High Promotion.
On the whole MIR. Lloyd-George made a
very good secretary of and la
Dor: but It manifestiy wasn't the place he
wanted, and his successes wasn't striking.
Then Sir Henry died: Mr.. Asquith became
premier: there was a cabinet reorganiza-
t!on; and for various reasons the little
Welsh barristcr became chancellor of the
exchequer-secretary of the treasury. only
a good deal more.
The liberals had come in with a huge
majority. and from the day they got i'll
they failed to make good. The labor UNI
~io.ists soon became disgusted; the social
istically inclined deserted because they
were not radical enough: the imperialists
49,, L~-- r. n-,
dealings. as liberals are always accused
OK m foreign policy; the German
Wal scare was magniicently promoted as
Il diversion. The British tories always get
up u war scare of some sort about the
time there is prospect for some radical
treatment OF the domestic social and eco
uonlic problems. and manage to divert at
tentton by soaring the country half to
Death. The game they are working just
now is very old, but very commonly sue
cessful.
The liberal regime tried to be radical
without being too radical. 1t undertook.
oy the education bill. to shake off the grip
ness of public education in the United
kingdom. The country shifted, and the
lords amended the bill into insigniicance.
The liberals tgied some reform of the Scot
fish land laws. which certainly needed it,
:or most of the land in Scotland is owned
oS less shan a dozen great titled landlords,
he tillers being their tenants. But this
oian't touch the SPOT: it was too radical
For the conservatives, but not radical
enough for the real radicals.
Between the fears of the tories md the
Interests" on one side. and the disgust of
The real progressives on the other, the lib
eral government lost ground with marvc-
lous regularity. Every by-election resulted
IN losses FOR the party, in power. Constit-
ucncies which they had carried by almost
unanimous p~ollings at the election of 1905,
turned against them and sent up conserv-
atives. Everybody predicted present de-
feat for h government. despite that it's
normal majority in the was yet
very large. There was no spirit, no effec-
tiveness. no adhesive policy.
We:shman Tackles Problem.
Then came the death of Sir Henry and
the emis ration of Mr.. Lloyd-George from
the board Of trade to the treasury. The
Welshrnan was willing to tackle a very
bad situation that nobody else yearned for.
ne had a theorT about it. TIN new pre-
mier with some missivinss decided to let
him try. .AS
The eSchcqucr faced a deficit of about
$C5.uh1,0G0 in the 1t was partly
caused by the tremendous spurt in navy
building to ovcrmatch. Germany: partly
by the old-age pension legislation which
the liberals had passed, looking to the ul-
tlsfllte CistTloutfoD OIL ABOUT ]4V.VUU,NV an
nually IN ago pensions. The country was
frightened out OF Its wits over Germany
and airships and all sorts of scarecrows
that the conservatives had set up. The
conservatives demanded bigger and yet
bigger naval! expenditures. Mr.. Lloyd
George had once voted against a big naval
program, and everybody thought as
chancellor he would be violently against
IL, to the great injury of his party.
But he fooled them all. L~loyd-Georse as
chancellor was a new man. Eattleships:
He was willing. HID get EN- the money.
too. Deficit? He wasn't afraid. He would
wipe it out all at cncc: he would raise