Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-29
The English Elections
VTIE-The Tariff Reform Issue
Bv Frederic j Haskin

plenty of jobs, in support of which
statement they referred to the work
ingman in the United States, always
with work to do and always getting
fabulously high wages. The Liberals
retorted with the statement that the
cost of living was so high in America
that the difference in wages was real
ly in favor of the British workman
and denying that the Americans al
ways had jobs. Some of them went
far enough to say that there We're as
many unemployed in the United States
as in England. To this the Conser-
Vatives replied that the farms of the
south and west in America always
needed laborers: thereby bringing
down upon their heads the wrathy de-
mands of the Liberals that the land in
England be opened to opportunity for
small farmers.
At the close of the campaign the
whole issue seemed to be centered in
the great black bread question. The
Liberal speakers and press charged
that protection would mean black
bread and horse flesh for the work.
ingmen, as is eaten in protected Ger
many. Ignoring the horse flesh the
entire Conservative campaign took up
cudgels in defense of black bread.
grocer, "by special appointment to his
majesty, the king" testified that the
king ate black rye bread. The Con-
servative papers all said that what
was good enough for the king was
good enough for the likes of Lloyd
George, and that that ought to settle
it. But the radicals kept up the out
cry against black bread, and appar
emily the entire English public CEN
tered all its thought on the relative
merits of wheat and rye bread.
A feature of the tariff reform cam
paign was the opening of dumping
shops" in various cities ali over the
country. An empty storeroom would
be hired and it's windows filled with
all sorts of imported manufactured
goods, all of which came into England
free of duty. The public was invited,
by placard; to estimate how much
British workmen got for making these
American shoes, or these German
cooking utensils, or this French fab
ric, and the like. The argument was
clinched by placards showing how
many jobs would be given to British
workmen at so much wages if all these
things were kept out by protective
tariff.
These dumping shops made pow
erful appeal to the people and they
set the other side wild with anger and
despair. There has been a long cam
paign of advertising in England in IA
vor of British made goods and it has
had profound effect. Everywhere one
sees appeals for patronage on the pa
triotic grounds of supporting home in
dustries and employing home labor
The dumping shops took advantage
of this sentiment.
In Leicester the Liberals played a
sharp trick on the Tories They rent
ed the upper story Of the dumping
shop and covered it over with pla-
cards which explained the exhibits in
the window to be a powerful argument
in favor of free trade The voter
might stand outside, see the foreign
goods and then by the two sets of pla-
cards reach the conclusion that tar
iff reform would either save or wreck
the nation.
In London one dumping shop" dis
played a chair marked with a card,
Made in u. S. A" 1t developed that
the chair was of a particular sort
made only in a factory in the imme-
diate neighborhood. Workmen from
the chair factory identified the chair
and forced the tariff reformers to take
it out of the window. That particular
dumping shop" at once fell into dis
repute.
Almost every Englishman who has
been in the United States has written
a card to the newspapers some time
during this campaign for the purpose
of comparing prices in the two coun-
tries. They were about equally di-
Vided in the opinion as to which coun-
try has the higher prices. One letter
writer said that he had lived in the
United States with his family for sew
enteen years and that while he al
ways had his clothes made in England
because he liked the fit his old London
tailor gave him, yet he had bought a
suit of clothes in Atlanta for 1915
which was perfectly good. He did not
give the Atlanta tailor's name and ad-
dress.
OF course each side has accused the
other of all shades and degrees of
demagogy, perhaps not without reason.
The Liberals used hundreds of thou
sands of a leaflet which reads, after
giving statistics from various coun-
tries: Protection means less wages for
a longer days work" And the Con-
counted as a trump card
their leaflet which bore the legend;
"Dearer baccy, dearer bread, dearer
living, dearer dead; dearer whisky,
beer and gin, is what you get when
the Raids are in." "Vote for tariff re-
form. The foreigner pays the tax"
Tariff campaigns appear to be con-
Quoted on the same general lines in
all countries.
Tomorrow--The English Elections.
IX-HOw the Parties Fight.