The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1914-03-12
Lloyd-Ceorge and the Landlords

For the past half century, John Bull has been
obliged to stand by and watch the emigration to
ether countries of 100000 of his land laborers
and farmers. During this period his of tila-
BILE soil has shrunk until at the present time not
much more than five per cent is under cultiva-
ton. He has but forty farm laborers to take
care Of each 100000 acres. Fifty years ago he
had total of 2, 1872, 900 men engaged in agricu-
tural pursuits while today this number has melt
ed down to 100000.
Not only is he short of hands and lacking in
farms, the laborers that remain are half starved.
Ninety per cent of them draw weekly stipend
even less than that paid the inmates of British
poor houses.
Of course, the hundreds Of thousands of acres
removed from cultivation have not been swept
into the ocean. They have been gobbled up by
the great landlords who have transformed erst-
while flourishing territory into wilderness for
game preserves While the number of farmers
has been diminishing with amazing rapidity the
number of game keepers has advanced $50 per
cent. Those landlords who have climbed into the
House of Lords actually own one-third of the
arabic territory of the country.
This is very delightful situation from the
point of view of the landlords, but not very sat
isfactory to John Bull. His husky Britishers on
whom he depends for support in peace and de-
Tense in war have been driven overseas while
those remaining behind have piled up in the
cities with all the evils subsequent to such a
condition. The great mass of England's poverty
crime, disease and unrest can be traced back to
the peoples alienation from the soil.
The landlord is, inside his dominion, a lord in
deed. Even the king is vested with less power.
This despot wipes out villages, returns farms to
J. IL
politics and religion of those in his employ In
order that he may hunt cartridges or ride with
the hounds, he depopulates vast territories and
he gives precious little thought to the welfare of
"Merrie England as he sits behind his foaming
bumpers at his hunting feasts
But stumpy Welsh lawyer Lloyd-George by
name, through peculiar political fortunes, got
elevated to the responsible position of chancellor
of the exchequer And this same Welshman has
proceeded to hang the sword of Damocles over
the head of his landlordship. The chancellor has
planned and launched the land reform campaign
which is precisely the sort of thing that Henry
George would have welcomed with enthusiasm
had that stalwart prophet been living to witness
the scene. The fact that Lloyd-George conseled
with the late Joseph Fels, the most prominent adj
vOcate of single tax of the last decade shows that
the spirit of the great humanitarian has been
lowering England
! In spite of the fact that political economists,
politicians and sociologsts have pointed out that
the relationship between landordism and poverty
in England is plain that he who runs NAV
read, the great London dailies have started in on
a campaign of opposition. They have declared
war against Lloyd-George and are determined to
put him out of business.
But it is very significant that their attacks
on Engand's great commoner are directed solely
at the pecuiarities of his personality. They
don't like the kind of grammar he uses They
abuse his rhetoric. They don't like the cut of
his clothes and they call him common middle
class lawyer"
1.-THE country is being strangled by landlord
ism' declares the chancellor: to which the journ-
ais make reply, "You talk too loud. Your clothes
don't fit. You are mere Welsh lawyer" These
journals utter inability to upset Lloyd-George's
arguments alt sheir chldlike, puerile way of be-
couding the issue by haggling over non-essen-
tials is easily explained They are controlled by
the landlord class.
! CONSIDERABLE Noise LEFT.
Louisville Courier-Journal.
The Hobson senatorial boom in Alabama seems to
have died and dried up, leaving fragrance.