Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-02

lively easy to convince the workman that
he is suffering because of this free and
untrammeled foreign competition.
If the tariff reformers had contented
themselves with demanding a moderate
revenue tariff, with Incidental protection,
upon manufactured articles, it is prob
able That their propaganda would have
been even more successful But it was
necessary to convert the tory landlords,
who can be reached only by one argu
ment-prOfit or its equivalent And, there
fore. the tariff reformers promised
tariff duty on wheat and other bread
stuffs, saying it would increase the value
of the farm products of Great Britain,
said farms being owned by few land
lords and that it would. therefore, bring
about a revival of agriculture in the
country.
The free traders replied that the tariff
on wheat, if it aided the landlords at all,
simply would raise the price of wheat
and therefore of bread, to the great in
jury of the 80 per cent of the British
people who forced to buy their bread.
1t was pointed out that Great Britain
now, under the most favorable circum-
stances, can only grow about one-fourth
of the breadstuffs it uses, and that all
of the colonies together do not yet pro-
dGce Il sufficient surplus of wheat to
make up the other three-fourths of the
British consumption.
Bread is very much cheaper in Great
bfitdlb tildH III lilS u Ileu States.
Britain produces smaller proportion of
its own bread than any other bread-eat-
ing nation. The--cheap white bread of
England is cheap because England has no
tariff. That this is true was proved dur
ing the horrible days of the hungry
forties,' when Englishmen revolted and
forced the repeal of the corn laws.
It happened that in the January cam
paign the bread question became the
principal theme for speak
Issue Made ers on both sides of the
=, preod tariff issue. The lib
VII oAo""' erals told the people
that if there was tariff reform, poor peo-
pie would have to eat black bread. such
as is eaten by the protected workmen of
Germany The conservatives replied
that it wasn't true; that black bread
was better anyhow, and that King Ed
ward ate German black bread every day.
proving the last statement by the baker
who supplied bread to buckingham PAL
ace. The great black bread issue was
proof of how important trivial matter
may become in British politics.
The tariff reformers on the stump, not
possessing either the brains or the bold
ness of Mr.. Chamberlain, who was i'll at
MS hume, Iell DdCN upon
phrases in lieu of argument. On every
stump the tory spellbinders offered tariff
reform as q substitute for the land taxes
and the liquor taxes imposed by the
Lloyd-George budget, admitting that
more revenue was necessary, but propoS-
ing to make the foreigner pay" With
the exception of two or three of the most
prominent men in the conservative party,
all the tory campaignerS declared that
under the protective system the foreigner
pays the tax. They proved it by quota
tons from republican newspapers pub
lished in the United States thirty years
ago.
Both sides referred often to the United
States in discussing the tariff question.
The tories said that the United States
was the most prosperous nation in the
world, and that it's workmen received
fabulous wages and paid no more for
what they bought than the English. The
radicals admitted the high wages in
America, but made much of the Ameri-
can cutlery against the high cost of liv-
ing. Speakers both sides quoted for
their purposes from the debates the
Payne-Aldrich tariff bill.