Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-10-25
CHAMBERLAIN REVERSES
NOTED FATHERS TRAITS
Son Is Gentle and Uncritical of Persons
in Contrast With Parents Biting
Tongue, Says Writer.

| questions which filled the first half
| Of his parlia mentary life he has pub
| licly recanted by word and deed. He
was one of the cabinet that gave home
| rule to Ireland He was, / believe. the
member of that cabinet who most de-
/ cisely revolted against the blackand-
! tan shame, and whose revolt turned
| the current of policy into the home
| rule channel. And on that noblest
achievement Of modern statesman
ship, the grant Of self government to
| South Africa, he has pronounced his
own judgment upon himself:
| There came a change of govern
! ment, and by a great act of daring
/ faith they conferred upon our recent
enemies full self-government.
voted against them. That is the vote
! | would undo If l could undo vote
J once given"
! That was nobly said, and the two
| incidents make fairly complete repu-
diation of his own past and of his
| fathers craftsmanship. There re-
| mains tariff reform, and here his
record is more equivocal. In 1922 he
seemed to have emancipated himself
| from this last rag Of thraldom to his
| fathers imperiOus but mistaken judg-
ment. He said:
Reversal on Tariff Policy.
| III ID "OIIu where WHAT you WALT
| is not to defend yourself against com
| petition, but TO find any one who is
! in position to purchase your goods
and to place orders with you
to go out with the old program Of
/ tariff reform seems TO me
! perfect madness"
But a year later. when Mr.. Baldwin
made his memorable plunge into pro
lection, he retracted his retractation:
I'm the face of the existing situa-
ton, I agree with the prime minister
that our first duty and the essential
duty is to protect our home market.
There is one other incident of his
| career which reflects credit on his attt-
! tude to public life. When the eX-
posture of the administration of the
Mesopotamian campaign during the
war was made he resigned his post as
| secretary for India, not because he
was personally responsible for the
administration, but because he
! was the official head of the depart
ment which was culpable. And final
ly, before we come to what all this
signifies, it has to be put on record
that his loyalty to his colleagues-no
mean part of craftsmanship If II is
duly subservient to the still higher
loyalty to the public interests above
reproach. He has never played for
his own hand.
w men Mr.. BdHOuf was hOOIeQ OUT Oh
the Conservative leadership by the
press, he might have regarded the re-
| version as his own, but Walter
Long wanted ii, and he yielded to
tertium quid solution in the person of
Mr.. Bonar Law without a murmur
and with perfect good temper. And
again when the coalition fell he stood
by Mr.. Lloyd George, and once more
saw the leadership of his party pass
| Mr. Rnnar
and then TO Mr.. Baldwin. He is not
self-seeker. And if he were his men
tai operations are TOO slow and his po-
litical strategy too negligible 10 en-
able him to succeed.
Shadow Cast by Father.
What valuation are we to put upon
the personality that energies from this
survey? 1t would obviously be unjust
to regard him as being wholly respon-
Sible for the mistakes OF the first half
of his career. He had the misfortune
to be the son od famous man who
had an unrivaIed power of imposing
his will on others. Until that father
vanished from the scene Austen
Chamberlain was only the obedient
echo of his voice. When the father
preached ransom the son preached
ra nsom too. While Joseph was rails
ing the waters against the Lords in
the country with They toll not
neither do they spin" the SON at the
Cambridge Union was boldly declaim-
ing: Sweep them away. Why cumber
they the ground?" And 20 years later,
under the same sway. he was de-
nouncing the Parliament acts modest
discipline of the Cumberers as this
revolution, nutured in lies" TO which
he would not submit now or here
after"
1t was not until 1914 that he may
be said to have been emancipated
from leading strings, and to have
lived a separate political existence. He
has earned the respect of men for his
character rather than their admira-
ton for his powers. His industry is
great, his sense of public duty is high,
his word is respected, his honor is
above reproach. He speaks compe
tently, if a little cumbrously. as one
who has learned the art against the
grain. but has learned it. He rever-
ences the House of Commons and the
wisdom of the past, and he has neither
an adventurous nose nor a gambling
spirit.
View of His Abilities.
But he is commonplace, uninspired
and uninspiring. He does not say
foolish things, but he does say plati-
tudes with aggravating solemnity,
and he is one of those people who talk
of CHEEKY optimism" He is not
happy With new ideas and realizes
them slowly and a little painfully.
And, lacking originality and force,
and numbed by so years of subsection
to despotic mind, he gives the sense
of a timorous spirit that takes refuge
in the bureaucracy and DISCUSSES its
dependence on the permanent official
under the mask of a stiff and un-
yielding public bearing.
! He has the hauteur of conscious
weakness and works timidly within
the limits of departmental sanction.
His contribution to public life is that
of a conscientious and painStaking
; rectitude, but he belongs to the past
and has no vision of the future. He
was born under the shadow of a
) great name, and from that shadow
he Will not emerge.
Copyright. 1929