The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1910-07-30

Burns (the Right Honorable John
Burns now, had the greatest chance
of any man in England The work.
ing men believed, in him and he had
the full force of the peoples move
ment behind him. He was red
Republican in those days, and he used
to talk very violently of what he
would do if he got the chance. Now
he is one of the weakest members of
the Cabinet, and he hangs round roy
atty so much at public functions that
you would think he was always cheek
by jowl with them.
There was a time when Kerr
Hardie was almost the only represent
tative of labor in the House, and then
he used to make more stir than the
total party does now. Some of US
thought that when we got some fifty
representatives of labor in the House
we would be able to do something,
and that the movement would go on
more and more. But most of our men
are as weak as water They are
afraid of offending the Liberals, and
they are afraid of losing their seats
so they have no pluck to take an in
dependent stand
Government In Intrigue.
l give my friends ideas as he ex-
pressed them, and although the tone
is rather pessimistic, his words help
us to understand the way things hang
difficulty of making progress. The
Government is, in fact, at the present
moment engaged in little intrigue,
of which the only valid object can
be to join with its avowed opponents
in order to dish" it's own more rad
cal supporters, the Irish and the La
Dor party. That is what will happen
if the veto conference comes to a
working agreeh1ent Any compromise
with the Lords, even such q so-called
reform IS to have half the members
elective. would be really to strengthen
the actual pow r of the second cham
Der.
In such case the Irish would be
in full hostility against. the Govern
ment. They vnuld., moreover, have
a chance OF showing their power ir
November, for the SECOND reading OF
the budget is postponed to that ses-
sion. And that is why the Govern
5 ment thought of keeping in reserve
till that period it's royal declaration
bill. If the Tories vpted against the
budget and the Irish wished to throw
| in their weight with them the Gov
: eminent would be defeated and the
royal declaration bill would go by the
7 board. In that case 1t would be pos
: sible in some quarters to make great
, cutlery against the Irish party for
having sacrificed this measure of rel
gious liberty. That was the neat plan
now abandoned for other tactics, in
Guiding the grant to Irish cottage i'm
( provement
The strange thing in all this is that
If the Government had set boldly tc
work from the beginning to carry out
their own program, they would have
had majority of the English people
at their backs, enthusiastically cheer
ing them on to victory. They have
chosen the cowardly part and have
landed themselves into endless trouble
, And it is a curious comment on the
} whole system that what broke tho
back of the Liberal party and tool
t all the steam out Of their movement
, was the simple accident of the death
3 of the King. The power of royalty
must be great when even the demise
). of a member of it can alter the direc.
ton of our civilization.
Even Budget Sounded Tame.
The Budget itself sounded tameJ,
this year, although it was the sam,
I Budget which had convulsed all Eng
!. measures which are secuted as revo
: lutionary and the beginning of tn,
end of all things seem, once they hav'
I passed into law, to be quite in tn,
normal way Of business.
= This fact enabled Lloyd George t,
fire off an cpigram which had grea
success and which will probably be
4 come famous. N expounding his Bud
get he showed that the prosperity o
this country. and its power Of payin,
y its debts compared favorably WITH
that of any other great power. Thel
the Chancellor, who is q dapper 'littl
: man, with a fluent but mild utterance
paused and by a gesture drew atten
y ton to himself and to. the statemen
3 he was about to let fall.
"And so," he continued, pointing t.
the Tories, there has been no occa