Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1910-07-24
Some Things You Want to Know
The British Crisis-David Lloyd-George

He u.s." said the great British journalist,
Of David Lloyd-George. "the symbol OF a
rev age: the herald OF new time; the
outward and visible sign that the common
people are coming into their own. 1t is
difficult to place Lloyd-George. We have
had nothing like him in British politics
before. Perhaps he comes nearest to Abra-
ham Lincoln OF any OF the latter day
leaders of the democracy"
Unlike jefferson, unlike Gladstone, Lloyd
George Is like Lincoln I'm that he is a
democrat through and through. Being OF
the plain people, he knows the plain peo-
pie, ne loves the plain people and he al
ways Is the champion of the plain people,
believing with the great American emanci-
pator that God must have loved the plain
people for he made so many of them. Like
Lincoln he Is sbhorred Of the classes and
adored OF the masses. There has been moth
ing like him in all the history of British
politics. He is the head and front of the
revolution in Britain. and as such he is
the most hated and the most loved man in
all the realm OF George V.
That such a man holds the high office
Of chancellor of the exchequer, that such
a man is the leader OF the party in power
in Great Britain, that such a man seems
destined to rule over the British empire
as the prime minister of the crown, that
such man has power to sway a British
cabinet and command a British parliament,
Is. in the estimation Of the ruling classes
who have governed England for 1000 years.
an outrage and Dissertation.
That such a man has been able to reach
this high position and to WELD this great
power, is to the struggling and starving
masses of average men and plain people,
the promise OF the dawning of new and
a better day-a day in which the man
who works shall be equal before the law
and in political power with the man who
shirks.
The story OF Lloyd-George is a story
that might seem commonplace in American
political annals. but it is unique and I'M
precedented among the tales of British
political successes. David Lloyd-George al
though a Welshman Of Welshmen, was not
born in Wales. He came into the world at
Manchester, on January II. 1868. and is
therefore not yet As years old. His father,
William George, came of Welsh yeoman
stock, but had engaged in the business Of
teaching school and as such was living in
England. The mother OF the chancellor OF
the exchequer was Elizabeth Lloyd, daugh-
ter Of the Rev. David Lloyd, a Baptist min
lister.
Soon after young David was born his
father and mother returned TO Wales, and
before the boy was 3 years old his father
died. The home was broken up, and the
first thing David Lloyd-George can remem-
Der is the sale of his widowed mothers fur
niture to satisfy debt owed to an absent
and impersonal landlord. The widow could
not take care of all the children, and David
was given to her brother. Richard Lloyd.
Richard Lloyd was a shoemaker In the vii
lage OF Llanystundwy for six days in the
week, and on the other he was pastor of an
impoverished congregation of Campbellite
Baptlsts. Lloyds cobbler shop was the vii
lage forum, and in It every day gathered
the village worthless to discuss politics and
religion, and to hear from the lips of the
educated Richard Lloyd TRANSACTIONS of the
news from the Liverpool and London
papers. for in this village most of the peo-
pie spoke only Welsh THE shoemaker was
also sort OF poor mans lawyer who gave
advice without charge to the tenants and
laborers Of the community.
In this shoemaker's shop the young
Davids heart was set on fire with zeal fol
the cause Of his people. Tales of land
lords expressions, stories OF starvation, liv
ing witnesses of the hopelessness of g
peasants life, came into his consciousness
along with the epics of his own Welsh ma
ton His uncle sacrificed the meager saw
ings of his lifetime to give the boy the bos
available education to fit him for the life Of
a lawyer. At the age of IL he had passed
the law preliminary examination, and at II
he was articled TO a firm of solicitors.
At u he qualified as a solicitor and in thu
first year of his practice took case which
QUarryman, at the point of death, sent t
his nonconformst minister and expressed
his desire to be buried In the grave In the
churchyard of the Established church
where his little daughter had been buried
several years before. and he expressed the
further desire that the burial service Of
his own noncomformist church should b,
used. The man died, and the old grave wal
opened, ready to receive the corpse. Tit
nonconformist minister. mindful Of tn,
dying mans request, gave notice under th'
newly enacted Osborne Morgan burial act
which gave nonconformists the right t
bury their dead under the exercise of theii
own minstrations, that the rector's ser
vices would not be required. The rector
was furious, and although under the new
law he could not forbid the burial in III
churchyard, he claimed the right to decide
where the body should've buried. He or
dered the sexton to close up the grave ant
open another in a desolate corner of tn