The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1916-12-26
England'S Man of the Hour.
(The Independent

Lloyd George has been execrated in
turn by every party, yet he now has
the support of them all He ruined his
career at the start-one would have sup
posed-by espousing lost cause, that
Of the Boer republics against the EN-
pire. To take part in a peace meeting
was then as dangerous as it is now
and Lloyd George once had to disguise
himself as a policeman to escape the
mob. His fiery denunciations of the
lords in his Limehouse speeches gave
him the reputation of an unprincipled
agitatOr, and when he attacked the en-
trenchment of aristOcracy, the unearned
increment of the land, there were no
words too foul to be applied to him.
The curse of the church was launched
at his devoted head because he discs
tablished the church in Wales. His adj
vOcacy of temperance and woman Suf-
frage brought upon him the hatred of the
liquor interests and of the conservative
classes. His scheme of social reforms
involving old age pensions and nsur-
ance against sickness and unemploy-
ment might have secured for him the
gratitude of the workingmen but when
they found that these benefits were
not a free gift, but that they would
have to contribute something toward
the fund, they, too, turned against him,
and when he proved that by their dila-
tory tactics and their drinking habits
they We're failing to supply the army
with ammunition, their resentment rose
to furious wrath.
! Yet now as Prime Minister I4Iovd
/ George commands the support of Union
| lists, Liberals, LaboriteS. Obstetrics and
| Nationals, Chufchmen and Nonconform-
I lists. and he is the only man in Eng
J land who could. His courage and out
spokenness have won the respect of his
! opponents; his executive ability and
| tact have enabled him to carry out re-
forms that We're thought impossible 1t
was he who, as the first minister of mu-
nitions, brought order out Of confusion
and supplied Kitchener s army with the
shells it lacked. When Kitchener was
drowned Lloyd George succeeded him as
minister Of war, though here he has
been hammered by an unwieldy cabinet
Of %. When the Irish rose in revolt
Lloyd George was called III to arrange
a compromise, and he actually succeed
cd in getting Carson and Redmond t.
agree upon n plan for home rule. only
TO have it disavowed by his colleague,
of the cabinet He has settled strike,
and brought corporations to terms. He
has speeded up and to a considerabl,
extent sobered up the British working
man. He has had the spending of a larg
CT amount of money and has been tht
employer of a larger number of mel
and women than any one else since thu
. world began. In all these various activ
? tiles he has been able to inspire thos,
5 who worked with him or under hin
, with something of his own energy an,
progressive spirit.
Now he is called upon to speed IL,
the war. Rightly SO, because he wa
e one of the first to point ont the faul
of the allies. On Dee. 20, 1915, h
stirred the house of commons by
courageous and eloquent speech, on
r. passage of which made an indelible i'm
I tpression:
l.. Too late in moving here, too late i
. arriving there, too late in coming t
this decision, too late in starting wit
enterprises, too late in preparing i
: this war the footsteps of the allie
o forces have been logged by the mock
Y ing specter of "Too late!' and unles
we Quicken our movements damnatio
viii fall on the sacred cause for whic
I so much gallant blood has flowed
i The year that has passed since thi
v warning was uttered has unfortunatel
. confirmed its truth and added new in
. rtances. 1t remains to be seen whethe
Il the call of Lloyd George to the leader
It ship has also come ''too late"