To tell Mr. Baldwin that what he sincerely believes to
be the one and only cure for unemployment could not be discussed at all at the Conference was to court a refusal. Even the most unbending Free Traders have never denied that tariffs for revenue purposes arc admissible. Mr. Snowden was reluctantly compelled to retain the McKenna duties for this very reason. The least that the Government might have done in order to make the road for Mr. Baldwin into the conference as easy as possible would have been to say that the McKenna duties and the existing Safeguarding duties would not be disturbed till further notice. Then there would have been a fair chance of Mr. Baldwin trying to persuade his Party to join the conference, for everybody knows that he is nationally-minded rather than party-minded. As it was, he could not have accepted the Prime Minister's invitation without being unfair to his followers.
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