Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-12-12
THE ENGLISH ELECTIONS
The Tariff Reform Question.
By FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

| While the controversy between INT
house Of commons and the house Of lord:
is the real reason for the present genera
elections in Great Britain, and thu
only question likely to be decided
in the result, it does not follow
that it is the only issue presented
to the voters in the campaign. Last Jan.
uary the liberals insisted that the CHIEF
question was whether or not the com.
mons had the right exclusively to control
money bills in parliament. The con-
servatives insisted that the chief issues
were imperial defense and tariff reform
After the election was over and the lib
eral government was returned to power
the conservatives were unwilling to ad.
init that anything had been settled, ex-
cept the power of the commons to pass
the money bills. The house of lords
without further ado approved the budget.
land values, taxation and all. They did
not admit that the liberal triumph was
a reputation Of the conservative doc
trines Of tariff reform and imperial de-
Tense.
So in the present election campaign
there have been many prosecuting is
sues-tarif reform, Irish home rule, wom-
ans suffrage and. injected in the eleventh
hour, the referendum.
The referendum, representing democ-
racy pure and undefled in form, was
espoused by the tory party because it
was necessary not only to defend the
institution Of the house Of lords, but also
because 1t was expedient to throw over
board the conservative doctrine of tariff
reform. The referendum was limited at
In the Lansdowne resolutions adopted by
the house of lords and was proclaimed
and accepted as party shiloboleth by
Mr. Baifour IN great speech at Albert
Hall when the campaign was well on. The
Lansdowne resolutions proposed that
questions OF great gravity upon which
the two houses Of parliament could not
agree were to be referred to the country
in direct referendum Mr.. Balfour in
his speech said that If the tories were
successful they would submit their doc
trine of tariff reform to the people, and
he demanded in the same breadth that
the liberals, II successful, should submit
the home rule question to plebiscite.
sx
The radical ministerialist leaders at
once denounced this proposition for
referendum as a
Advantage to Tories, delusion and a
Radicals Declare. IT, res.n. s,no au
that a tory government in power would
be able to pass its measures through both
houses without any trouble, while radi
cal government would be forced into a
disagreement with the upper chamber.
and then would have to submit its meas
ures to q referendum campaign. at cost
of not less than so. 100000. and with all
Of the dangers of. mourning popular re-
sentiment against oft-repeated elections.
Mr.. Balfour's referendum proposition
was hailed by men OF both parties not SO
much as q declaration in favor of direct
legislation by the people as a very clever
means Of getting rid Of the embarrassing
issue Of tariff reform. In England tariff
reform means protection. England has
been q free trade country for about
seventy years, and until Joseph Cham
beriain a few years ago began his agi-
tation for tariff reform, neither party
for half a century had dared to espouse
the cause Of protective tariff Chamber
lain and the militant beral-unionist ele-
ment forced the fighting, and almost be-
fore the country caught its breath the