The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-07
UNIONIST TACTICS AGAINST
 THE HOME RULE BILL
By F. I. MONKS

no fear. The hand of friendship is ex-
 tended to them; the terrible past will be
 forgiven and forgotten; they will not be
 disturbed in the possession of the property
 they hold, no matter how acquired; they
 will be welcomed and treated with honor in the councils of the new Ireland, if they come there as Irishmen, proud of the independence of their country and
 not feeling degraded. as some of them
 have said they will feel, if they had to live under laws made by their own coun- trymen.
 According to cable dispatches the vote on the second reading will take place about the latter part of this week and the indications are that there will be bigger majority for 1t than on the first reading. After the second reading the bill goes into committee, and the whole house acts
 as committee on government bills- Dur
 ing it's passage through committee the bill
 is read section by section, almost line by line and all sorts of amendments are of- fered and votes taken upon the amend-
 ments All this is done to delay and ein-
 barrass it's passage. and with the object in view that something may happen to put the government in a minority. Dur ing the committee stage every parliament tary trick and dodge is tried. Interest will be allowed to flag so that members
 will leave. and then suddenly division
 will be called, when it will be found that the opposition forces are all at hand while the government forces may be scattered. This is one of the dangers attending the
 committee stage. but there are many others equally as dangerous and might even prove fatal On such a bill as the home rule bill the committee stage may last a month but if the government comes to the conclusion that discussion raftf fa1n Is applied, the effect of which is similar to the effect of the steam-roller in Con. gress.
 After going through the committes stage the bill comes before the House for the third reading. It. may come up in its original form or it may have been amended to it's improvement or injury. but in whatever shape 1t comes back 1t is upon the bill in that shape the vote is taken. and in the shape 1t must stand or fall, and upon it's standing or falling depends the fate of the government. In this respect the English Parliament dif- fers from the American Congress: an ad- verse vote which puts the government in the minority is called a defeat of the
 government and is followed by the resig-
 nation of the ministry, which calls for
 general election. r.
 If the bill passes the third reading in
 the House of Commons it, goes to thd
 W an ordeal similar to that it has already
 gone through in the House of Commons,
 but with this difference. that in the House
 of Commons it's friends were in the ma-
 jority while in the House of Lords It's
 enemies are in the majority. The bill
 may get through the first and second
 reading in the Hoiise of Lords, but what
 they'll do to 1t in committee is more easily
 imagined then told. When 1t passes the
 third reading in the House of Lords It comes back to the House of Commons Tn its new shape for acceptance or rejection. and its new shape Is almost certain to be
 such as will insure it's rejection. The
 unionsts have won the first round and
 naturally there will be great Jubilation. Home rule has been knocked down, but not knocked out, there are two moro
 rounds to come and preparations are
 made for round number ?, which is simply a repetition of round number 1. Muti- lated and rendered absolutely worthless the second time in the House of Lords
 back it comes to the House of Commons and is again rejected. More and greater
 jublaton among the unlonists, also anx- iety The House of Lords has played it's last card, fired it's last shot. It Is now up to the House of Commons alone ana from there to the King for his signature. 'Oh, Sister Anne, Sister Amer cried Bluebeards wife, "do you see any one coming?
 "Oh, sister suffragettes, sister sulira- gettesr' cry the unionists, why don you come to our assistance? Why don't you smash windows.ecreate disorder and get a few of yourselves shot or clubbed so as to rouse the country against the gov ernment? Oh. you socialists and anarch- ists and syndcalists. why don't you get m mobs and do some rioting and footing and burning? We want your help, and u,tbout if this government will pass the horne rule the third time and then it will become law" Vain, in vain. poor deluded unionists, your cries are drowned Tn tne cheers of the millions who hail the solu. ton of the Irish question as the greatest event in English history. Go ye impene- tants, and in sackcloth and ashes read the speeches you made and the foul slam ders you uttered in trying to stir up pas- sion and prejudice. Go out in the desert and consort with wild beasts. and in the jungles find companionship with reptiles. You were the blighting and blasting influ- ence, the tapeworns that grew fat while your host starved to death.