The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-05-04
THE EXPURGATED BUDGET.

But little acclaim accompanied Tie
passage of the British budget. and the
Welding of the House of Lords IN ac-
cepting the bill This was no doubt
because the victory was only partial;
tho budget had been expurgated; the
twenty per cent increment value duty
ON agricultural land was eliminated by
the House of Commons. and so the
Lords, standing so strongly on their
rights as landholdcrs. foun The bill
as changed vastly more acceptable. And
the Commons were not in a position to
insist with strcnuosity on the original
budget as n whole. since both sides
necessarily looked upon the Parlia-
mcutary election Of January as drawn
battle. AS passed, the budget calls for
the collection of considerably more than
a hundred million dollars of back in.
come INK, this ono item being over
two-thirds of The uucolccted revenue
of last wear
With the passage of the budget in
its subdued form, on April 2eth. there
was an adjournment of Parliament
taken 10 May Goth At that time. the
case of the House Of Lords is expected
TO como up for effective treatment.
though extraordinary efforts are being
put forth to have the crisis postponed
till after the January registration of
next year. II is argued that 10 havo
another general election this year
would play havoc with business and
ruin multiplicity of projects.
With respect to the reformation o.
the House of Lords, which is the next
burning question, that body itself has
gone on record by adopting Lord Rose
bery's resolution in favor of strong
and sufficient second chamber for
Parliament, this 10 be obtained
best by reforming and reconstitut,
ing the House of Lords; and that
"a necessary preliminary TO such re.
form and reconstruction is the accept
ance Of the principle that posses
sion of q peeragc shall no longer i'm
Itself give the right 10 sit and vote in
the House of Lords 1t was easy for
Lord Rosebery to formulate that cx-
podienti for as he is Scottish peer
he sits among the Lords on precisely
that basis himself The Scotch peers
select a given number of their own
members to sit in the House of Lords,
and under the Rosebery resolution, that
would he the rule for the United King.
dom. This method is reforming along
the lines Of least resistance, and isl
indeed practically agreed to in advance
by the upper house,
The Asduith Ministry proposes an
other sort of reform, not one going
TO the reconstituting of the House of
Lords, but one limiting the functions
of that branch of Parliament in a way
that would Immediately destroy il as
a coequal body, and perhaps ultimately
paralyze it altogether. This Minis
terial reform seeks to deprive the House |
of Lords of any power to reject a |
money or revenue bill. and to vest in !
the Speaker Of the House Of Commons
The right TO determine whether any
gwen bill falls within the scope of the !
Lords could be practically shut out
from participation in legislation under
this rule, by the insertion Of somc
money or revenue proposition in any
measure that the Commons might be
at variance with the Lords upon, and |
the right vested in the Speaker could
at will be assumed by the Commons
themselves
The Ministerial demand is, further,
that when bills of any sort have been
passed by the Commons,
they shall, under conditions fixed, be
come laws in spite of the refusal or
neglect of the House of Lords to con
cur in their passage. Another point
demanded by the Ministry is that no
Parliament shall endure for more than
fve years.
1t is evident that right here is as
clear and sharp a difference as there
was on the budget The Lords want
r strong upper chamber, the Commons
want to weaken it as much as posi-
BILE and In the most important leglsla-
tion to eliminate it altogether. 1t
will be n noble fight with precedent
aud rule both ways, and stubborn
and unvielding defense.
There is also back of all that the
fight for protection against free trade.
which will come on hot and heavy at
almost any time.