Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-07-04
Joseph Chamberlain

Britain or tarlH REFORM, ana the great
advocate of imperialism. For 3s years,
with a brief interregnum, he repre-
scented Birmingham in Parliament. In
1906 his career of stormy activities
was ended by a stroke of paralysis.
The blow fell when he was in the
midst of strenuous campaign for the
establishment of a protective tariff
with preference for the British col
onies, and just after his constituents
had celebrated the 30th anniversary of
his first election.
Since that day the strong fighter
had been an invalid, a pathetic on
locker at the politicai game, pictured
always with his loyal wife, daughter
of w. c. Endicott of Massachusetts,.
who was President Cleveland's secre
tary of war, beside him. His chief
consultations were the growing politi-
cal prominence of his son Austen
Chamberlain, and the loyalty of his
constituents. Birmingham would not
dispose her leader, although he was
no longer able to represent her upon
the floor of the House of Commons
In each election he was returned to
his old seat, and appeared afterward
in the House but once, where amid
respectful silence, he made. his way
to the Speakers desk on the arm of
his son and took the oath of office.
January 5, 1913, Mr.. Chamberlain
wrote to his constituents, resigning his
seat and saying:
I cannot hope again to do my work
in Parliament, and 1 feel that our
city and the constituency need the
of n
Il cannot hope again to do my work
in Parliament, and l feel that our
city and the constituency need the ser
vices of a younger man,
While his greatest claim to fame
was his determined andb rilliant adj
vocacy for years of protective pol
icy for Great Britain, the citadel of
free trade, he will also be remembered
as the bitterest and most forceful OPP
ponents of Gladstone in that state
mans efforts for Home Rule for Ire
land: as one of the founders of the
Liberal-Unionist party; and as the
minister whose policy in South Africa
involved his country in the greatest
war it had experienced since the Cri-
mean conflict. but blotted out the two
Boer republics and made South Africa
"all red
From the day he left University
College, London, to enter his fathers
screw factory at Birmingham, Joseph
Chamberlain devoted his best ener-
gies to the principle of constructive
reform" 1t was in 1868, just 80 years
after his birth in London, that he re-
ceived his baptism of public life. as
town councillor of Birmingham, later
serving as mayor for successive terms.
He gave his whole time to the cause
of municipal reform, and what had
been previously one of the worst gov
erned cities in England, became
model for municipal reformers.
In 1876 he entered Parliament, being
elected without opposition as a Liberal
from Birmingham. In his early years in
the Commons he sat among the Home
Rule Liberals with whose aspirations he
was supposed to sympathize, but few
years later he emphatically disabused
his associates in the House of any no
ton they may have had of his belief in
separate government for ireland.
In less than four years he was a cabi-
net minister, entering Gladstones gov
eminent in 1880 as president of the Board
of Trade. and in less than decade his
hold on popular opinion was almost as
great as Gladstone's.
After the general election of 1885 he
became president of the Local Govern
ment Board, but by the spring of 1886
his and Gladstones relations on the lat
ters Irish policy had become so strained
that he broke with the great premier, re-
the Liberal party never to return to it.
He. Lord Harrington afterwards the
Duke of Devonshire), 6. j. Goschen and
others high in the Liberal party who saw
in their former leaders home rule pro-
posals and propaganda a menace to the
integrity of the empire, formed a new
party to resist them. They called them
selves Liberal Unionists and anti-home
rule was, in the beginning, their main
tenet. Lord harrington was the first
leader but when he was elecated to the
peerage through the death of his father,
Mr.. Chamberlain was chosen the partys
chief.
Meanwhile Mr. Chamberlain had visited
the United States, November 1887 to Feb
ruary 1883, as the head of the British
representatives upon the American Brit
ish joint high commission which was to
negotiate treaty for the settlement of
the long standing fisheries dispute.
A treaty was signed but the United
States Senate refused to ratify it.
Late in 1883 Mr.. Chamberlain returned
to the United States, this time to be
married. Having been twice a widower
he h to irI
dicott. daughter of William C. Endicott,
President Cleveland's secretary of war
During the campaign of 1892 Mr. ham,
berlain worked with great effect and SUBJ
sequently in the Commons ne was to the
forefront in all the assaults on the Irish
government bill and clashed frequently