The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-25
Jeers and Hoots of "Trai- tor" Drown Voice of
 U Premier
MOS . . v.SORDERLY
 % SCENE IN YEARS 9
First Time in History Speaker Is Compelled to Call Adjourn ment When Asquith Be-
 gins Veto Speech

-
 London, July 24.-The last act of the
 parliamentary revolution was ushered in
 today with a revolutionary scene. For the
 first time in it's history the house of com
 mons refused to listen to a speech by | the prime minister. For the first time m
 it's History the speaker was compelled to
 invoke the rule which empowers him, fin
 case of grave disorder" to declare the
 sitting adjourned on his own responsi-
 bility.
 | No such hostile passions have been I given freeer in a chamber which tradi- | tionally carries on it's debates with chival- rous courtesy, since the stormy days Of the Gladstone home rule bills. Probably
 there has been no such passage in the American Congress since the reconstruc- tion era. During three-quarters of an hour MT. Asquith rose at short intervals and read sentence or two from a manu-
 script only to be overwhelmed by jeers, hootngs and cries, among which traitor
 was the most frequent, but with Red
 mond,' Patrick Ford and American dollars often distinguishabe.
 Again and again the prime minister tried to speak, but his voice was drowned. or two of which could be heard. Finally his mouth hardened and he glared at his tormenters like a lion at bay--an inn
 pressive figure, with straight-cut features
 flushed with anger.
 He closed his manuscript and cried T am not g ,ing to degrade myself.
 shall simply state the conclusion at
 which the government has arrived" " Having announced the government s inten tions as briefly and as hurriedly
 as possible although they were not heard--the premier sank back into his 1 seat
 The leaders in the outburst against | the prime minister were Lord Hugh Cecil an inrsnsely unpopular mem- | ber of one or the most patrician fam | lilies and yourg barrister; F. E. l Smith, who recently achieved pronai- hence in the cons servatIye party. The | former kept up a constant fire of mon- | otonous cries and the labor member | Will Crooks, in rough clothes and a slouch hat, sitting across the aisle. several times Jumped up as though
 about to assault him, but was pulled back by friends.
 Speaker Ignored
 The speakers Headings to Observe the decencies of debate,' were drowned in the turnult. The wonder was that
 the crowded house did not come to
 blows, but the belligerent members wer pulled down by, neighbors. Every means short of physical violence was ca, 1ccF,, -n1 fn tara S.
 quth from explaining the views of the
 government
 Suspension or the session came two
 hours after the tumult began, The mem
 oers dispersed amid a scene. of violent
 excitement, shouts of traitor and coward" following the prime minister as he departed, to which the mnisteHalsts hurled back cries of You're beaten; we will win"
 Mir Asquith tonight issued to the news papers a summary of the speech he was prevented from delivering He contendel
 the principles of the machinery of the bill had teen before the people at two cleo tions By no form of referendum devis- able could the opinion of the electorate have been more carefully ascertained. | The government had accepted their in- l portant amendments in the house of com mons the purpose of the lords amend ments was to set the machinery aside. l The government had proposed specifically | to describe what were finance bills; the l lords proposed to create a committee which the premier described as a jun+a l to determine what were finance bills and what were matters of great gravity whatever that might mean-which should l rut them before the country by referen- dum There was not a great budget Of i the last 70 years which could not plausi- bly, nave been thrown out by such a junta. a
 "When you have unionist majority
 in both houses" continued the prime minister, ''the whole thing becomes a
 dead letter. Measures of the most far
 reaching effect may be passed in de- fiance of public opinion and over the | heads of the electorate. You live under
 an unchecked and undiluted single cham
 Der government, but with the liberal | government in power you would have house of commons, fettered beyond all its predecessors in control of finance, and in all cases where an irresponsible and non-representative body, independent of
 both houses, should so determine, every
 deadlock will be settled only by refer
 endum. -4..-
 l Amounts to Rejection
 l "These amendments" added Mir. As auth, taken as whole. amount 10 reflection of our bills" After quoting constitutional writers and the history of the passage of the reform bill by Will l liam ", he gave his promise to create enough peers to insure the passage Of the present bill.
 A. J. Baulfour, leader of the opposi- l tion, in reply to the speech the premier was unable to make, received quiet hearing. He was somewhat apologetic,
 saying, 1T frankly regret that was un- able to hear the prime minister" 1 Tle then went on to denounce the pol 1 iay cf the government when he was in | terrupted by the home secretary, Winston Spencer Churchill. MT. Balfour turned boi;y upon the home secretary and said
 he remembered him as the ringleader of a gang of disturbers who, when an un- constitutional question was at stake, kept Il minister standing an hour without al- lowing word to be heard. ss 1 Mfr. Balfour reminded the house that the parliamentary bill had not been re- | Jeated by the house of lords. "The prime | minister seems assured that the constitt,- tion ri ovides for the creation of peers as the ordinary machinery for dealing with a
 deadlock between the two houses" he continued. T admit that revolutions may
 be necessary, but the prime minister is destroying the prerogative of the crown and the independence lot the house of lords at one stroke not to avert war or to carry measures which the masses of the people ars ] pa sionate1y desiious of, but fdr one obiect only, tC prevent the peon1e ot