Omaha daily bee., 1910-01-22
Some Things You Want to Know
The English EIectiOns POlitics On BillbOards.

4
This great campaign has been fought
principally upon the biIlboards. Posters
have been used to an extent never before
heard of in any country, and the
bill posters' unions have not COM
plained Of lack Of work in Eng
land since the lords rejected the budget.
While the speakings and the canvassings
and the newspaper leading articles" and
all OF the ordinary methods Of campaign
ing In England have been employed as
usual, both parties to the contest have
pinned their greatest faith to posters.
Anywhere in England. town or country
city or province, every available dead wall
was pressed into service. A huge six
sheet poster reproduces an artistic paint
ing showing a starving woman with dead
baby at her breast. The famished mother
Is gazing with hollow eyes at her stRrv-
ing husband crouched in utter detection
and despair. And this is labelled in let
ters three feet high, Free Trade" 1t is
horrible thing, but It fixes the eye and
compels the attention. The appeal 1t makes
to the unemployed and penniless English-
man cannot be less than gripping. Next
to it, to drive the lesson home, il another
Tariff Reform Means a Job for Every
man"
Across the street there is q different
story. A poster shows an empty-pated
peer In his ducal robes whining: Tax
your loaf but do not tax my land" Along
side is an arument to prove, in box-car
letters, that a tariff tax viii increase the
cost Of living and that tax on wheat will
ha afu nf ha nj aVio
of bread Tariff Reform Means Happier
Dukes!"
1t was a very duel Of the bill posters.
A liberal poster depicted sturdy Briton
in shirt sleeves looking earnestly toward
Heaven and, with outstretched hands ex-
claiming, I'VE want land! Two days
later the conservatives retaliated with
poster showing starving man, in exactly
the same attitude. crying. I'VE want
worlp 1t was an effective stroke, but
the liberals countered with picture Of the
starving wife of the starving man, cry
ing, DO not tax our last loafi
The tories as the conservatives are
called by their opponents. make the most
of the alleged socialistic tendencies of the
budget. but their posters have little to say
about the land tax question One of them
shows John Bull fighting desperate battle
with blood-red monster labelled Social
ISM" 1t is the most popular Of the tory
posters.
The radicals as the liberals are called
by the tories, forced the fighting on the
question of the House of Lords, SO far as
the posters we're concerned A notable
picture, put up In every size from a small
handbill to a sxteen-foot poster, shows
7 n
aeroplane labeled 1.-The Liberal Budget"
In the foreground are two dukes, clad in
the ermine of their station and wearing
coronets, grasping in their hands bank
notes labelled Land Revenues" The
That's Our Airl"
Another perpetrates a pun under the
headline THE Peer Glass; A noble lord
is shown dressing in robes of state before
pier-glass and the poster bears the in
scription: "a member of the House of
Lords consulting his constituents. Where
do you come in?'
Still another radical poster on this sub
ject shows a duke seated at a table richly
provided with wines and liqueurs. He is
smoking cigar and he wears a monocle,
his coronet, and diamond shirt stud
"uiOh ls u nDel per Sc upon all the House
Of Lords. BY his side stands a working
man, dressed in that miserable fashion
common to English worlcingmen. Above is
the caption, what Shall 1t Be?" Beneath
is the dialogue: "Duke-"If you demand
your rights, no more crumbs from my
table" Workingman-"Give me my rights
and keep your crumbs"
One may see on huge wall two groups
OF lite-sized figures; one composed of every
sort and condition of men and women and
the other made up Of dukes in their
ermine and silk. over one group floats a
banner with the legend, THE PEOPLES 8
Budget" Over the other is a flag with the
appeal: 'Pity the poor but honest dukes. -
Another has the phrase quoted from Lloyd
Georges speeches: More cottages, no more
dukes"
At first the tories did not respond in kind
along this line. but opportunity came to
them at last. A newspaper went into the
files and reprinted. under the heading.
Lest We Forget" an article published
during the Boer war about Mr.. Lloyd
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