New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-10-29

the forum; who can appeal to the reason
and also to the hearts of men If they
happen to have either. and sometimes
when they have not The mildness Of
his manner need not mislead you. The
British officer ofte1 has that, when not
on duty. But the mildness in both
cases, in Mr. Askwths as in that of the
soldier to whom he is essentially unlike,
is apparent only. Both are men of
tough fibre and Of firm purpose
But / imagine that Mr. Askwith, with
or without eyeglass and his misleading
mustache. would remain a Sphinx. In
this business of continual arbitration he
has trained himself 70 the repression of
his thoughts. II he has partialities-and
he is after all, human and therefore not
, always governed by pure reason-they
are invisible and undscoverable. He
must hold the scales level till that last
moment when he filings into them the
weight Of his own authority. l gathered
that it was his habit TO invite frankness
but not 10 use il: TO wait till on one side
and on the other enough had been said
I
ment. Then it was that the real diff
Guilty Of his task began, and then it was
that his power of divining human nature
and of getting inside the minds Of the
men in front Of him gave him the means
of bringing these hostile minds together.
First a mastery Of the facts, Of the con-
/ ditions which had brought on the strike,
Of the real motives underlying the pro-
/ LESSONS Of one or the other party; then
a sort of intuitive perception of the
means by which compromise was TO be
/ reached. As I said just now, patience
above all things, that patience which
( Lord Salisbury declared to be the chief
/ element in successful negotiation.
/ Ihave renewed these impressions within
/ the last few days; meeting Mr.. Askwith
/ again at a house in Sussex; the laurels
of a new settlement" adjoining his brow,
/ a we'll shaped brow, full over the eyes
! like the forehead of man trained 10 OBJ
serve with other contours Of a more
reflective kind. 1t is perhaps these latest
achievements which directly induced the
King to send for Mr.. Askwith 10 Bal
| moral. receive him in audience, and in
his own royal person confer upon him
! the high honor Of knighthood, and of
/ knighthood in what is perhaps its most
coveted form. Most men, it Is thought
/ If they had 10 be knights. would rather
/ be Knight Commanders Of the Bath than
any other kind of knight; and to this
distinction Mr.. Askwith, being already
/ Companion of the Bath, was in the nat
ural line Of promotion.
/ The King had already signified 10 MI
sydney Ruxton. the amiable President
of the Board Of Trade, his kingly APP
proval of the efforts toward settlement
which Mr. Buxton himself had made.
/ Whether His Majesty knew the inner
history Of the business may be d cues
ton: a question which need not be an
swered. The present King Of this world
wide realm has shown himself man
of quick sympathies. He has often eX-
pressed them. Entombed miners. victims
.. OF a railway accident or motor smash
Mrs. Ramsay Macdonald during her fatal
illness. and last Of all Mr.. Burgess on
his victory over the English Channel
have had the benefit Of them. All these
and many other kindly messages from
+ the King reach the British public
through the Press. His message to Mr..
Buxton seemed therefore natural enough
and Mr.. Buxton became at once an OBJ
/ iect Of interest TO his fellow subjects.
To some OF them he had long been
an object Of interest, for he has long
been in public life He is. moreover.
member Of that prolific Buxton family
hich for generations, and perhaps espe-
ciallv I'm the present generation. has been
distinguished in many ways; OF which
brewing beer has been one and con-
sistent regard for the public welfare an
other You cannot come 10 England
without knowing a Buxton, or several
Buxtons or thinking this knowledge one
Of the many examples Of good fortune
which await the American in his mother
country. There are dozen Buxtons in
Who's Who. though l cannot say Off
hand whether they are all Of the right
brew. Mr.. sydney Buxton, at any rate,
is: and now perhaps the most eminent
Of them all
He. too. like Sir George Askwith, has
mild manners and is agreeable TO other
men and popular and respected. When
I first met him. some thirty years ago,
thought him a man who would do much
10 dispel a notion then not uncommon
among Americans, that the Briton had
a rude outside. Rudeness is the last
thing you could impute 20 Mr. sydney
Buxton. He has long been an NJ p.
and long held high Office AS Postmaster
General he has the credit Of having in
troduced penny postage between Great
Fritain and the United States. OF most
men thus successful YOU say they made
their way. but he seems rather 10 have
had the way made for him. md 70 have
s.ipped smoothly over smooth road.
He has written books also; books on
Finance and on Politics and on Mr..
Gladstone and other high subjects. His
hooks are smooth reading, and he will
talk 10 you smoothly. and perhaps his
sp,oothness was one reason of his sue
cess in bringing together the representa-
tives Of the railway companie and those
Trade Union strike leaders whom they
hal before eteadfastly ana rightly re-
fused 10 meet But that is story by
itsalf. very curious story and an incl
don't Of political life without precedent
which will tell another day.
nv" G. ". s.