On Friday evening last week Mr. Chamberlain addressed a great
meeting of his constituents in Birmingham. With the most significant part of his speech—his attack upon Lord Londonderry and his demand for an early Dissolution—we have dealt at length elsewhere. The rest of the speech covered familiar ground, and in one passage on foreign policy towards the close attained a considerable height of eloquence. We would call attention, however, to his curiously perverted use of the Board of Trade statistics of employment. He makes a great point of the fact that in Germany the ratio of unemployed is only one-third of the ratio in this country, and uses it as an argument in favour of a Protective policy. But he does not quote the case of France—another Protec- tionist country—where the ratio is all the other way. In any case, it must be obvious that any such argument on this subject is impossible. There is no common unit of " un- employment" to form the basis of comparison. Another point is worth noting as a stage in the development of Mr. Chamberlain's doctrine. He no longer says that Protection will give higher wages, but that it will give better employ. ment. In his own words, he aims, not at "wealth," but at "welfare." For ourselves, we find a difficulty in under- standing the relevance of the distinction to this particular question.
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