LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
MR. BONAR LAW'S SPEECH. (To Tea EDITOR or THE " Br acrArou."] Sin,—The speech of the new Unionist leader OM% Bonar Law) at the Albert Hall shows how short political memories are and bow very quickly we forget the lessons of the past. I think it is therefore important that we should at this juncture recall what took place at the last General Election in December 1910. We Unionists entered upon that fight with light and buoyant hearts, feeling that, even if we failed to win, we should largely reduce the Liberal majority of 124.
Mr. Balfour, however, in his speech at Nottingham, nailed the Tariff Reform colours to the Unionist mast. Prom that moment the Unionist cause began to wane, and quickly accounts came from all parts of the country that Tariff Reform was doing serious damage. Great pressure was brought to bear upon our leaders ; the counsels of the " Veiled Prophet of Highbury " wore brushed aside; and at the great Albert Hall demonstration, held on November 30th, Mr. Balfour said :
"I have not the least objection to submit the principle of Tariff Reform to a Referendum." (Loud cheers, the audience standing.) And again he said, " If Tariff Reform is anything it is a great national and Imperial policy. That is what I believe it to be, and I am perfectly ready to submit it to the judgment of my country- men." (Cheers.)
The sense of relief felt by Unionists throughout the country at this declaration was extraordinary ; a great load was lifted off their backs. Candidates (even Mr. Bonar Law) put away their carefully prepared Tariff Reform speeches ; the word quickly travelled everywhere that Tariff Reform would not be adopted until the electors had had an opportunity of expressing their opinion upon it. A few seats were saved,
but unfortunately this declaration came too late ; the mischief had already been done ; the Unionist Party just managed to hold its own ; but no one doubted that had Mr. Balfour made
his statement a fortnight earlier at Nottingham we should have gained thirty or forty seats.
Mr. Balfour is dethroned after making efforts to serve and to save his party which history will assert have scarcely a parallel. The new leader of the party at the Albert Hall again nails the colours of Tariff Reform to the mast and calls upon Unionist Free Traders in conciliatory terms to make their choice " between Tariff Reform, which they dislike, and Lloyd Georgeism, which they detest." "I know also," be says, " that the leaders of our party if they show any hesitation on this question will shatter that party to its foundation, and by shattering that party we should destroy the only bulwark against the present Government."
What has happened since the last election, when Tariff Reform was thrown overboard to save the Unionist ship P It did not shatter the party, it closed up its ranks; it did no in- jury to the trade of the country—the country has never been 111 ore prosperous. There has been a general advance in wages of from fifteen to twenty per cent., and all those trades with- out exception which Mr. Chamberlain prophesied in 1906 were doomed to speedy extinction have not only flourished, but have shown a vitality which has taken even Free Traders by surprise.
Mr. Bonar Law supplies the answer to my question, and a very feeble one it is. " We cannot," he says, " abandon Tariff Reform because we believe in it, because we believe the greatest of all social reforms, far transcending nineponces for fourpencos—(laughter)—would be a general rise in the level of wages in this country, and because we know, at least we believe wo know, that such a rise is impossible without a, change in our fiscal system."
It is vain to set a snare in face of the bird; the working man is no fool. Ho does not suppose that the duties collected.
under Tariff Reform will flow directly into his pocket ; he knows that the manufacturer will at first derive all the benefit, and that he, the working man, will have to fight by the slow process of strikes to obtain his share if be ever gets it ; and while all this unrest is going on, the prices of all the commodities he consumes will rise, and ho will probably find himself in the end much worse off than he is to-day, with the prospect of less labour being required as the increased cost of our manufactures closes foreign markets against us; and he further realizes that Colonial preference is only possible by taxing many raw materials, and the dearer we make the raw materials the smaller the margin left for wages. He therefore hesitates to accept a policy the advantages of which to him are remote and uncertain.
The only occasion when Tariff Reform was placed as an issue before the country was in 1906, when we were defeated by a majority of 354. At that election I remember the people of this Tory village voted Liberal because the old men told them that in the days of Protection wages were low and food dear, and they and their children were " cleinmecf," and this tradition still lives. I do not wish to be a prophet of evil, but I feel convinced that the Unionist Party will not be returned to power so long as we cling to Tariff Reform, much as the people detest the ways and works of the present Government. Surely the Unionist Party had never a stronger cry or a more sympathetic electorate to appeal to than at present. The country feels that all the best traditions of free government by party have been outraged, and that its destinies are ruled by the caucus of which the Radical " Bunty " (Lloyd George) pulls the strings. It sees the religious life of the country threatened by the dis- memberment of the Church in Wales, and the integrity of the United Kingdom placed in the keeping of Mr. Redmond as the reward for party services; while employer and employe are alike up in arms against an Insurance Act which is to levy a vexatious tax in the most irritating way, which will destroy social co-operation and sympathy, and will not insure. The Welsh Church and the Home Rule Bills contain sufficient points of friction if properly handled to destroy the strongest Government. Surely the Unionist Party had never a better cry or more favourable opportunity to appeal to the electorate. Why fetter it then with a fiscal policy which is still largely academic, and can well afford to wait until the country had been consulted P A few years in the life of a, nation is as nothing ; the hasty adoption of an ill-considered fiscal policy may be fatal to its best interests, and this for all
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