New Britain herald., 1929-08-28
CRIPPLED SN0WDEN
 ROSE LIKE METEOR
Career Of Self-EduCated States
 man a Political Miracle

 self today in the totally unexpected role not only of hero of his own party, but one enthusiastically back ed by the opposition parties, lauded with unanimity by the entire British press and the entire British nation.
 He is the miracle man of latter day British politics. If six years or even six weeks ago, anybody had been rash enough to predict such thing, he would have been marked as crazy. And it is all because, for the first time in six years, states man is battling for the hard-press- ed British taxpayer and telling Brit aims late Allies that Britain is not going to be the goat of their financial plans
 A Contrast in Men
 It is the turn in the long lane. For five years, in every conference de- signed to liquidate the debt and mol lify old hatreds, Britain was repre- sented by Sir Austen Chamberlain, foreign secretary in the Tory cabi net. He came to be considered wooden lath painted to look like steel. He was deemed the tail to Briand's kite. What the French wished, he largely o. K.'d.
 So when The Hague conference of the powers was called to take up the Young plan for the final settlement of separations Germany was to pay nobody looked for much trouble from England.
 But they forgot Snowden. He is no wooden lath. He is all steel. Where Chamberlain, in highly polished diplomatic language, was accustomed to call spade an agricultural in- strument with which one loosened and removed earth. Snowden in plain language called a spade a spade. It shocked the French. who called him a cad, and the more they insulted him in their press, the more the British cheered their champion.
 What Young Plan Provided
 The high spots of the Young plan were three:
 It altered the percentages of separations the various nations were to get from the figures adopted at Spa-and to Britain's loss.
 It divided the payments Germany was to make into two classes, uncon- ditional and conditional. The former were to be paid by Germany in any event. The latter were to be post poned or suspended in case Germany had financial difficulties. The pay ments to France, Italy and Belgium were to come largely out of the un- conditional separations. Those of Britain were to come largely out of the conditional payments. The other countries were, therefore, sure of their swag. Britain was not. And, furthermore, part of the repara- tions was to be made in goods largely to Britain
 Snowden plainly told the confer- ence he was not having any. He would not agree to any alteration of the Spa percentages, which meant net loss to Britain of over SIP ,000,- 900 year. He wanted a larger per
  ments to be allotted to Britain. And he was unwilling that Germany-a keen industrial competitor of Britain should dump reparation goods into Britain.
 Champion of the Taxpayer
 The British taxpayers rubbed their eyes in amazement when they read all this. Here was somebody at last battling for them. And, of all things, the hero who was doing it was the man they had been taught to fear the most. When the Labor Socialist party was going on from strength to strength, the Tory and Liberal leaders respected the emotional and romantic Ramsay Macdonald, but they dreaded Snowden as man who worked according to logic and carried his logic to the point of ruthlessness.
 SnoWden's career is one of the romances of world politics. He was born 65 years ago, his father being a poor weaver of Bowling. The son had an aptitude for books. Largely by his own efforts, he educated himself and entered the British governmental service through it's civil service ranks.
 But when he was 20, one day while riding bicycle, he had an ac- cident which broke his frail body. He hovered between life and death. His former work now was impossible, and for year he lay in bed passing the long hours by reading. He had been a Liberal in politics. His studies made a Socialist of him.
 His Political Rise
 When Snowden was able to leave his room. he was doomed to go through the world with the aid of a pair of sticks. He made his living by lecturing and writing. He be- came chairman of the Independent Labor party for a long period of years. He contested the House of Commons seat in the impregnable Tory town of Blackburn.in 1900, but was defeated. He was elected in 1906 and held the seat until 1918, when he was defeated, because. like his chief, the present Premier MacDon- aid, he was convinced pacifist and said so all during the war. In 1922 he went back to parliament.
 His greatest triumph hitherto came on April 12, 1924, when, as chancellor of the exchequer in Eng lands first Socialist government, he introduced his great budget in which he took the tax off the peoples breakfast table.
 Wins Epic Tribute
 It was a dramatic scene He stood there in the house of commons, his sticks by his side. His face attracted attention with it's blue eyes hollowed by suffering. his strong, we'll formed nose, his thin, determined lips. He