The Irish standard., 1909-11-06
Mr.. LLOYD GEORGE ON
THE TORY LANDLORDS
Portions of a Speech Made
at Newcastle by the British
Chancellor in Which he
Asks Who Made Ten Thou
sand People Owners of the
Soil and the Rest Trespass-
ers in Land of Their Birth
A Rafting Talk.

The following report of Lloyd
Georges address on the British
Budget at a mass meeting in Man
chester is given in part as it appears
in our esteemed contemporary, The
Public, of Chicago:
What is the chief charge against
the Budget by it's opponents? That it
is an attack on industry and an at
tack on property. I am going to DEM
onstrate to you that it is neither.
(Cheers.) 1t is very remarkable that
since this attack on industry was first
promulgated in the House of Com
mons trade has improved.-(Heur,
hear)-It is beginning to recover from
the great crash which first of all came
from America, the country Of hign
tariffs-(hear, hear)-and it has i'm
proved steadily.
Only one stock has gone down bad
ly. There has been a great slump in
dukes.-Gaughter and cheers.) These
used to stand rather high in the mar
ket- Qaughter), - especially in the
Tory market; but the Tory press has
discovered that they are of no value.
-daughter.) They have been making
speeches recently. One specially ex-
pensive duke made speech, and all
the Tory press said: "Well, now, real
$Iy, is that the sort of thing we are
Spending 25O,OOO pounds year upon p"
Because fully equipped duke costs as
much to keep up as two Dreadnoughts
-Qaughter),- they are just as
great a terror-(renewed laughter)
and they last lon'ger.-(More laughter)
AS long as they were contented to he
mere idols on their pedestals, preserv-
ing that stately silence which became
their rank and their intelligence
Qaughter)-al went we'll, and the ay-
erage British citizen rather looked up
to them, and said to himself, "Well. if
the worst comes to the worst for this
old country, we have always got the
dukes to fall back on" (Laughter)
But then came the Budget. They
stepped off their perch. They have
been scolding like omnibus drivers.
purely because the Budget cart has
knocked little of their gilt off their
old stage coach.-Gaughter.) WE'LL
we cannot put them back again. That
is the only property that has gone
down badly in the market. All the rest
has improved. The prospects of trade
are better, and that is the result of
great agitation which describes the
Budget as an attack on industry and
on property. ... ...
The chief objection Of the great
landlords to this Budget lies in tha
fact that it has got valuation propos-
als.-(Hear, hear) Why do they OBJ
ject to valuation? I will tell you why.
1t goes to the very root of all things,
the land question. - {Hear, hear.)
There has never been a public under
taking in this country, municipal, state
or industrial, there has never been an
enterprise, q commercial one, but what
the landlord has generally secured
anything from four to forty times as
much for the value of the land as its
agricultural price. And when I come
along and say, Here, gentlemen, you
have escaped long enough-(Cheers
1t IL your turn now," they say to
me: "You are thief-Oaughter) -
you are worse, you are an attorney
Sloud laughter) worst Of all, you arc
Northumberland laughter and
cheers) That always is the crowning
epithet. WE'LL gentlemen, don't
apologize-(hear, hear),-and I don't
mind telling you that if I could i
would not-(Cheers.) am proud Of
the little land among the hills
(Cheers.) But there is one thing I
should like to say whenever they hurl
my nationality at my head. I say to
them: You Unionists-Ooud laughter
and cheers), Il hypocrites, pharisees,
you are the people who in every peror-
ation'-well not in every case; they
have only got -Qaughter)-"al-
ways talk about our being one kitr
and kin throughout the Empire, and
yet If any man dares to aspire to any
position. if he does not belong to the