The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1910-03-26
" a week, at once surrenders its pres

~ q Wcch, u OtiCc SuITeHQerS 1IS pres.
ent composition, but at the same time
shows by it's fierce adherence to most
of it's old and worst abuses that any
reform from the inside of the house
of lords itself is impossible.
This exhibition. greatly increases the
determination Of the Radicals against
the house of lords, and unless some
foolish action by the cabinet destroys
the present combination between the
Liberals and! Irish the great battle
against the house of lords will come in
few weeks, and will end in q demo-
cratic victory.
Already some of the young bloods of
the Tory party are attempting to do
the fighting which Balfour for the mo-
ment has ceased to do. One of their
pet proposals Is to get the government
to propose the budget bit by bit. One
bit they would take; one bit they would
throw away.
One bit the Tories are ready to
swallow at once is the income tax.
OF course, they are ready to swallow
the income tax; they will swallow
anything which prevents them from
having to swallow the land taxes.
These are the things they most fear,
because these would break down the
land monopoly and give to the world
of democracy q new glimpse of hope
for successful war against the slum
and the alley OF the towns and liberia
ton from the thraldom to the ground
landlord. :.
The Tory object is more subtle still.
If the Liberals Were mad enough to
accept the proposition of dividing the
budget up into different bits they
would thereby establish again the
whole pretension$ of the lords-name-
ly: that the. LORDS have the right to
pick and choose in a budget and to
say which tax shall pass and which
shall not.
| Besides, such a proposal as taking
the budget at this moment in whole
or in parts would Immediately bring
the government and the Irish party
! into st.lllslon, thereby destroying the
government, annS whaf Is more serl-
Gus. breaking UP the. combination be-
tween the democratic forces of Eng
land and Ireland which is so neces-
sary to abolish the lords veto and
pave the way for home rule.
For the moment, then, the sky ia
clear, but there are clouds on the
horizon which must not be ignored
The budget difficulty still remains.
The budget difficulty, too, is real
one from more points than one. In
the first place there is passionate
desire among the Liberals that they
should get the land clauses of the bud
get. Many of them declare that they
dare not go back to their constituent
cies without having got the clauses
The second and even more pressing
difficulty is that the state of the
finances is appalling. Every day adds
to the amount Of the unpaid tax. II
looks as if in Il few weeks time. the
state would be face to face with q
deficit of $125,O00,O0O. OF course, this
means great dislocation of business
and all the city agencies are being
used to force the government to reg
ularize the situation.
= And the more Whiggish section OF
the cabinet, which loves orderliness
and decorum and is unsuitable for q
revolutionary situation, presses or
Asquith constantly the desirability OF
getting the budget through, or at least
of making the attempt to do so.
On the other hand, Redmond stands
where he stood from the beginning Of
this struggle He wants the fnancia
chaos to continue as the biggest wea-
pom in the hands of the anti-lord par.
ty And unless he is certain that AS.
auth can get the guarantees to pasi
the veto bill, which is now unlikely
he is pledged not to help the govern
ment or the Tory party out of tn.
mess into which the action Of the lord!
has thrown the country.
Redmond and the Irish party want
in short, to perpetuate for the mo-
ment-to be raradoxical-the thini
which many of the Liberal minister
and all the Tories want to bring to al
end. Redmond's desire is that th'
Tories, if they should come into off1c'
on the refusal Of the king to give tn
guarantees, should come face to fac
with this gigantic deficit. How coule
they meet it? The protectionist wini
of the Tory party would propose t.
do so by high protective tariff. Blu
l Balfour does not want that; the hous
. of commons with a Liberal and Irisl
: majority would not stand for 1t;