Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



101 



THE RIGHT HON. F. E. SMITH 



A.ND His CONKKDERATKS. 



Thirty years ago the Conservatives rejoiced in 

 the possession of a Mr. Smith. The name of that 

 Smith was W. H., the founder of the great firm of 

 W. H. Smith and Son. Now Smitii, \V. H., has found 

 a successor in Smith, F. E. 



It is difficult to imagine two persons more dia- 

 metrically opposed to each other than Smith, W. H., 

 and Smith, F. E. Mr. W. H. Smith was solid, some- 

 what stodgy, intensely respectable, a very heavy 

 weight, and in every way a man who drew upon 

 himself the attack of that Puck of politics, Lord 

 Randolph Churchill. Mr. F. E. Smith is not a 

 tradesman, he is a K.C. He is not a stodgy, 

 supremely respectable representative of the virtuous 

 middle classes, neither is he a heavy-weight. He is 

 a very light-weight, and he has modelled himself upon 

 Lord Randolph Churchill, although it is true that he 

 has shown himself more adept in imitating the 

 excrescences of Lord Randolph Churchill than of 

 appropriating his more valuable qualities. 



It is interesting to have an account, not only of 

 this coming man of the Tory Party, hut a statement 

 under his own pen a^ to what he considers to be the 

 programme of Unionist Social Reform. We find 

 both in T. P.'s A/,r-<iZ!>ie for January. " T. P." tells 

 a good story to the efTect that Mr. Balfour one day 

 inquired the age of Mr. F. E. Smith. When he was 

 told that he was thirty-nine Mr. Balfour commented, 

 " I am si.\ty-four. Don't you think he might wait a 

 bit for the leadershijj? " To wait a hit, however, 

 is never a characteristic of young men in a hurry 

 who model themselves on Lord Randolph Churchill. 

 "T. P." says that .Mr. F. E. Smith has a curious 

 family resemblam :«_• to Lord Randolph :— 



The lung, hatchet -^Inpi,-!! face, the glittering black eyes, the 

 nhott, scornful upper lip, with its suggestion of inexhaubliblc 

 bitterness and fluency, the light, alert, anri powerful fr.itne, the 

 impassive expression, all reveal him as the born and instinctive 

 swashbuckler. 



Round F. E. Smith have gathered several young 

 Tories whom Mr. T. P. O'Connor credits with the 

 conversion of the Inionist Party to Tariff Reform. 

 Behind him staivls Mr. "Archie" Salvidge, who 

 deserves all the goml things that .Mr. O'Connor says 

 of him. The confederates include Mr. Edward 

 Goulding, the nienibi-r for Worcester ; Mr. Hills, the 

 member for Durham ; Mr. Remnant, the member for 

 Holborn ; Mr. Page Croft, member for Chrislchurch ; 

 and Sir W. Max .Aitken, member for Ashton-under- 

 Lyne. Sir William Max Aitken is the most interest- 

 ing of the group. He is a Canadian who made liim- 

 sclf a millionaire hi-fore he was thirty. So much for 

 Mr. F. E. Smith .uid his confederates. Now let us 

 turn to Mr. Smith's <rxix)sition of the Unionist pro- 

 gramme on Social Reform. 



He begins by saving that the watchword of the 

 Unionists is Class union against Class hatred. Class 

 union is to be made to triumph in some mysterious 

 way by Tariff Reform, and the poorer people of the 



country have to be made richer by a process of 

 gradual amelioration, although how the poorer classes 

 in the country are to be made richer by increasing 

 the cost of the necessaries of life is not exactly clear. 

 " The Tariff",'' says Mr. Smith, "is to be founded 

 upon the basis of the Party's Social Reform.'' " With- 

 out the Tariff indeed," he frankly says, " I do not see 

 that we could do mucn better than our opponents " — 

 which, being interpreted, means that the Social Reform 

 of Mr. F. E. Smith and his confederates is practically 

 identical with the Social Refortn of Mr. Lloyd George 

 and his allies, with the sole difference of the Tariff. 

 Mr. Smith says : — 



The Unionist P.irty should, I think, then m.Tke a beginning 

 with the classes which need protection most — and this not only 

 because they need it most, but because the very miserable, 

 destitute, improvident, and unclean are a source of contamina- 

 tion to their neighbours. 



Vou cannot touch some of the most important parts of Poor 

 Law Reform until you can give a reasonable chance to the hard- 

 working, unskilled labourer ; nor can you give him his chance 

 without a Tariff. 



To touch the problem at its heart one must follow the 

 precedent of the Sweated Industries Boards esl.iblished mainly 

 by the instrumentality of Lord Milner. By establishing, in 

 slow experiment and gradual degrees, a living wage, even of 

 the smallest kind in these industries, and by protecting them .as 

 we move upwards in the scale against sweated foreign competi- 

 tion, we shall be creating a British charter of living. 



Conditions, however, are as important as wages — and a vast 

 amount remains to be done in the housing of our urban popula- 

 tion. On this point, as on Poor Law Reform, on Land Reform, 

 on Emigration, on the improvement of Licensed Premises, on 

 Local and Imperial Taxation, on the control of the mentally 

 defective, and on the Tarift', the Unionist Party is engaged 

 ste.adily an<l without flurry or passion in building up a body of 

 doctrine which will afford work in the future .for the ameliora- 

 tion of the condition of the people. 



Mr. Smith's article does not produce a very deep 

 impression upon the reader. It amounts to little 

 ,*.iore than a proclamation once more of the determina- 

 tion to combine the Tory principles of Protection with 

 the Radical principles of Social Reform : but he fails 

 to remove the conviction, entertained at least by the 

 majority of the nation, that Protectioti does not pro- 

 tect and that Tariff Reform would inevitably 

 diminish the purchasing value of the wages of labour. 



THE ORANGE FREE STATE GROWING BLACK. 



TiiK Colonial Olfue Journal 'iXAXii'i that : 



The Orange Free State Census returns show that the whites 

 have incrca.sed by 22 96 per cent, and the blacks 43 67. The 

 disproix>rtion is the more significant as the Free State was not 

 originally a bl.ick man's country. When the V'oortrekkers 

 came in, in 1836, the country was practically uninhabited. 

 There was a clear fiehl for both races. But the blacks show a 

 rale of increase of two to one, and if this were to go on long 

 Professor Brown's theory that South .Xfrica will lie black in a 

 century would come near realisation. An omimius fact is that 

 the black race has triumphed in p.ist epochs. The while races 

 have inv(ide<l Africa time after time, and have penetrated far 

 into the interior. What I ccamc of them is more or less of a 

 mystery, but they di^ippeared. It is not likely that they lift 

 the continent : they were absorbed, probably in considerable 

 nimibcrs, by the indigenous laccs. All over the worlil climatic 

 characteristics seem to fix the local type, and in the long run 

 this type tends to prevail. 



