Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-01-25
The English
Elections
Politics on Bin Boards
Frederic J. Haskin.


extent never before heard of in any
| country, and the bill-posters' unions
have not complained of lack of work in
England since the lords rejected the
budget. While the speakings and the
canvassings and the newspaper leading
articles" and all of the ordinary methods
| of campaigning in England have been en-
ployed as usual both parties to the con-
| test have pinned their greatest faith to
| posters.
Anywhere in England, town or country,
| city or province, every available dead
wall was pressed into service. A huge
| six-sheet poster reproduces an artistic
| painting showing starving woman with
a dead baby at her breast. The famished
mother is gazing with hollow eyes at her
starving husband crouched in utter de-
| lection and despair. And this is labeled
| in letters three feet high, free trade :"
1t is a horrible thing, but it fixes the
| eye and compels the attention. The ap-
peal it makes to the unemployed and
penniless Englishman cannot be less
than gripping. Next to it, to drive the
| lesson home, is another poster declaring
in letters of flame, tariff reform means
a job for every man."
Across the street there is a different
story. A poster shows an empty-pated
peer in his ducal robes whining: Tax
your loaf but do not tax my land"
| Alongside is an argument to prove, in
| box-car letters, that a tariff tax will in
crease the cost of living and that a tax
| on wheat will lessen the size of the work.
| ingman's loaf of bread. Tariff reform
means happier dukesI'
1t was a very duel of the bill-posters.
A liberal poster depicted a sturdy Briton
in shirt sleeves looking earnestly toward
heaven and. with outstretched hands, ex-
| claiming I'VE want land!" Two days
later the conservatives retaliated with a
poster showing a starving man, in exact
ly the same attitude, crying 1--WE want
work. 1t was an effective stroke, but
the Liberals countered with a picture of
the starving wife of, the starving man,
| crying do not tax our last Loaf"
The Tories, as the Conservatives are
| called by their opponents, make the most
of the alleged socialistic tendencies of
the budget but their posters have little
to say about the land tax question. One
of them shows John Bull fighting a
desperate battle with blood red monster
labeled Socialism" 1t is the most pop
ular Of the Tory posters.
The Radicals, as the Liberals are called
by the Tories. forced the fighting on the
question of the house of lords, so far as
| the posters were concerned. notable
| picture, put up In every size from a small
handful to a 16-sheet poster, shows
Lloyd George flying through the air in an
aeroplane labeled 1.-The Liberal budget"
In the foreground are two dukes, clad in
| the ermine of their station and wearing
coronets, grasping in their hands bank
notes labeled LAND revenues" The
dukes cry out: Hi therel Come down.
That's our air!'
Another perpetrates a pun under the
headline 1.-THE Peer Glass" noble lord
Is shown dressing in robes of state be-
fore a pier-glass and the poster bears the
inscription: "a member of the house OF
lords consulting his constituents. Where
do you come in?'
Still another Radical poster on this sub
ject shows a duke seated at table rich
lily provided with Wines and liqueurs. He
is smoking a cigar and he wears mon
ocle, his coronet, and a diamond shirt
stud which is libel per Sc upon all the
house of lords BY his side stands a work
ingman, dressed in that miserable fash
ion common to English workingmen.
Above is the caption, Which Shall 1t
Be?" Beneath is the dialogue: Duke-"lf
you demand your rights, no more crumbs
from my table" Workingman-"Give me
my rights and keep your crumbs"
One may See on a huge wall two
groups of life-sized figures; one compos-
ed of every sort and condition of men
and women and the other made up of
dukes in their ermine and silk. Over one
group, floats a banner with the legend
''The Peoples Budget" Over the other
is flag with the appeal: "Pity the poor
but honest dukes" Another has the
phrase quoted from Lloyd-George' s
speeches: More cottages, no more
dukes"
At first the Tories did not respond in
kind along this line, but opportunity came
to them at last. A newspaper went into
the files and reprinted, under the head
ing, Lest We Forget" an article pub
Ilished during the Boer war about Mr..
Lloyd-George. The present chancellor of
the excheuuer was not a supporter OIL
the war and he was billed to speak at a
pro-Boer meeting in Birmingham. He got
To the hall. but was not permitted to
sneak by the crowd. The article alleges
that he escaped bodily injury only by
leaving the hall disguised as a police
man.
The Tory poster is divided into two
narts and bears the command: Look
ON this picture and then on that!' One
half shows Lloyd-George in a police
mans uniform sneaking away from the
BIRMINGHAM hall, and the other half
shows a South African kopje with the
graves of the titled soldiers VINO gave
up their lives for England in the strug-
gle with the Beers. No poster issued
during the whole campaign so much de-
lighted the Tories as this one. little
later the Conservatives issued poster
showing a peer at the telephone, con
nected with the British voter, and say
ing: "Hello! Are you there? We will put
the budget up to the people for their
verdict"
Each party issued about 500 different
nosters each one being sent out in dif-
ferent sizes There was much rivalry TO
obtain positions on the hoardings, ana
the English landscape has been marred
bv flaming posters in many places hereto
fore sacred from the intrusion or the
man with the paste-bucket The lords
did their part by giving up their walls.
The poster campaign was very eX-
pensive. Series after series was issued and
new posters were put up almost daily IL
Is impossible to estimate the total cost
NJ the work in advance of the publica-
tjon of the election expenses, but 1t will
amount to several hundred thousand dol
lars - A.,
Each candidate for parliament buys the
literature for his own constituency and
pays for it, In the United States each
candidate for congress demands the Ut
erature from the committee and asks for
money besides. Not only the candidates