Iditarod pioneer., 1917-02-03
SKETCH OF LLOYD GEORGE, THE ENERGETIC WELSRMAN
 AT THE HELM IN BRITAIN


 land,' particularly among the aristocracy, 1 but on more numerous occasions he looluet.
 up as "the mQn Of the hour and his per.
 5on&lity sometimes overshadowed the wroe C ! Asquith ministry with which he was it.en- 1 tihed
 { lie was pre-emlnently the British gov ! arnment's "man of push and go,' energetic, { determined und fearless. Though a little
 man, slmost frail in physique, he was such a successful fighter that he scarcely knew he meaning of defeat
 , As chancellor of the exchequer he was the author of the budget reforms which opened new era in the fiscal history of the United Kingdom, and which, by putting new levies of taxation on the propertied classes, led to the great constitutional con liict between the commons and the lords and the curbing of the legislative veto power of the peers. This political rcvolu- ton, and other great causes in which he figured as the popular leader, notably his successful fight for the insurance act for protecting the working classes against ill ness and unemployment, and his old age tension scheme made him dominant figure
 n the Liberal government.
 When, with the sudden outbreak of the lGuroDean war in 1914, internal politics was echpsed by Englands entrance into the war, Chancellor Lloyd George WAS shouldered with the chief responsibility of financing he empires part in the gregt conflict, Though he had been one of the chief ob- structionlsts to great military exDen@I- lures on the part of Great Britain, in peace times. face to face with the war he tackled
 he problem of raising money with his whole }trength, and set in motion the first of the great l0anS which were hosted to meet Brit ein's war cost estimated at ten billion dol lars year.
 In the midst of these financial problems Lloyd George was called to assume new rvla. as minister of munitions when, in May, 1915, 6 coalition cabinet was formed and
 cn 1t was charged that Lord Kitchener he secretary o1 state for war, had failed to supply the army with sufficient guns and ammunition It was agreed that the occa- ,iOn called for one of the strongest men in England to awaken the country to the para mount necessity of providing war materials on a huge scale The battle of Neuve Chapelle," as Lloyd George said, had con Sumed more ammunition than was used in the whole Boer war
 The manner in which Lloyd George tackled this new problem was typical of his energetic career He hurried the passage through parliament of a special munitions bill which gave the government broad pow. CTS of control over all factories that were making or capable of making war munl- tons The bill made strikes and lockouts illegal. gave power to fine "slackers' Jim tied the profits of employers, and provided for volunteer army of workers who should
 ledge themselves to go wherever the gov ernment required them to work in the fac tories
 Exaggerated by the slowness with which workers rallied to the factories, Lloyd George gave the labor leaders just seven days in which to make good their promise of getting sufficient men to man the plants for maximum production. During the week the newspapers all over the United King dom were flooded with full page advertise ments. and the labor leaders turned town halls throughout the country into recruit ing offices, with the result that women as we'll as men workers enlisted in even greater numbers than were necessary, and the nut nlIlODS
 Lloyd George was one of those who found intoxication to be a serious handicap in intaining efficiency at the munitions plants, and it was through his vigorous han ding of the situation that new legislative restrictions on liquor sales were put into effect.
 In strange contrast to Lloyd Georges lead ership in the prosecution of the European war Is the fact that his first political proml nence came through his attacks on the pro war party during the South African cam paign of 1899-I900 He carried his OppOsI tion to that war so far that he even re fused to vote for the supplies necessary to maintain the army. His disparagement of the British cause was so unpopular, how ever, that he put his life in jeopardy by expounding his views,
 At Birmingham, for one instance his life was sought by a riotous mob which the police were unable to handle and Lloyd George was able to escape from their hands only by disgusting himself in pollceman's uniform In later years he was the object of physical violence on the part of the sui fragettes who hurled missiles at him on several occasions, and who, in February, 1913, destroyed his country house with dy- namlte.
 Lloyd George was born in Manchester, England, January F, 1863, but his parents were Welsh, and throughout his life Lloyd George, whose bringing up was Tn Wales, was a champion of Welsh nationalism, and had such grip on the affections of his ad- mirers in that country that they called him sometimes "the prince of Wales The son of 8 schoolmaster, who died while Lloyd George was an infant, the future chsncelior knew the extremes of poverty as a youth. He hardly tasted fresh meat, and his great est luxury in those days he said once Tn public speech was an egg which he had to halve with his brother on Sundays. He received only limited education, but ob- tained an apprenticeship with firm of law yers, and finally succeeded in establishing his own little practice in Wales.
 He gained his local reputation by defend lng the right of non-conformists- hlm- self was Baptist-to burial in the Anglican parish churchyards without the usual rites of the Church of England A law estab- Ecbinp this right had been passed, but an