Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



371 



LLOYD GEORGE THE HERALD OF REVOLUTION! 



In Blaiku'omi's for April .Mr. Arthur I'agc relieves 

 himself in an alarmist paper on "Our lot Magna 

 Charta." The Trade Disputes Act he describes as the 

 charter of revolution, and he demands its early repeal. 

 He declares that the principles underlying the pro- 



Pail Mall GaxtHt.] 



The Avalanche. 



Mr. Ll.ovn Gkoroe: "Heavens! ^V^lat is this ? " 

 The Avalanche : "The Echo of Limehouse is the Voice of 

 my Sloncs." 



gramme of the Social Democratic Federation, the 

 Independent Labour Party, and advanced Radicals 

 are substantially the same. They may possibly vary in 

 degree, but not in kind. He recalls— and it is interest- 

 ing to recall at this present juncture — what Mr. Lloyd 

 George said at Limehouse on Friday, July 30th, 

 1909 :— 



The laniilortis are receiving millions a year by way of 

 royalties. What for ? They never deposited the coal there ; it 

 was not they who planted these great granite rocks in Wales. 

 Who laid the foundations of the mountains? Was it the land- 

 liirrls? .\nd yet they by some divine right demand, for mcrey 

 the right for men to risk their lives in hewing these rocks, eight 

 millions a year. . . . When the Prime Minister and I knock 

 at the dnor of these peM landlords and say to them, " Here, 

 you know these poor fellows have been digging up royalliirs at 

 the risk of ihcir lives : sonic of them arc old, they have survived 

 the peril-, of the tr.ide, they are broken, they can earn no more. 

 Will you give something towards keeping them out of the 

 workhouse 1 " They scowl at you ; and we say, " Only a h.ilf- 

 penny— just a copper." They say, " Vou thieves ! " .Vnd tlu y 

 turn their dogs on to us, and every day you can hear them bark. 



be that legislation will be necessary, rendering it illegal 

 for agitators to recommend the breach of existing 

 contracts." In the Nineteenth Century he traces what 

 he calls the true lines of temperance reform, with a 

 view to establishing his ideal public-house. Here, again, 

 he commits himself to " the removal of a few usele<-- 

 restrictions from the Statute Book, a change in tlv 

 methods and extent of taxation, and an end of con- 

 fiscatory attacks upon the trade to whose enterprise 

 the carrving out of the improvements will necessarily 

 l>e entrusted." In the National Review Jlr. Smith 

 commits himself to universal military service, and 

 looks forward to a lime in the not far-distant future 

 when a political party may find itself in a position to 

 cement with a system of national training a very bad 

 fissure in the dyke of Imperial defence. These are all 

 formidable undertakings for a Front Bench politician. 

 The freedom with which they are given forth to the 

 world suggests rather the irresponsible private member 

 than a serious Minister-in-Waiting. 



THE CHANCES OF MR. ROOSEVELT. 



Mr. Sydney Brooks, writing in the Fortnightly 

 Review upon Mr. Roosevelt's reappearance, takes a 

 more sanguine view of the late President's chances 

 than that prevailing in the United States, He is,, 

 however, very non-committal in his final judgment : — 



It looks on the surface as though Mr. Roosevelt, in compet- 

 ing for the nomination under all his many di.sadvaniages, were 

 attempting an almost impossible task. But it is worth remem- 

 bering that the ex-1'resident is not only the biggest and most 

 vital personality in American public life, but is also aii uncaniiily 

 shrewd campaigner. There may be forces and conditions telling 

 in his favour which are invisible three thousand miles away. If 

 he cannot secure the nomination for himself he may yet be able 

 to prevent its going to Mr. Taft, and so oblige the Convention 

 lo fall back on a compromise candidate. If he cannot achieve 

 that much, he may still be able to commit the Convention to an 

 tnilorscmcnt of the initiative, the referendum and the " recall," 

 and so force the adoption of a platform on which Mr. Taft, even 

 if nominated, would probably, indeed almost certainly, decline 

 to run. 



MR. F. E. SMITH WRITING HIMSELF OUT. 

 Mr. !•'. E. Smith is very much to the fore in the 

 current magazines. Not merely does he write much, 

 but he commits himself to a number of positive 

 me.isurcs that recall the exuberance of .Mr. Chamber- 

 lain's unauthorised programme. In the Oxford and 

 Camhridf^e Rrvuw. for example, he insists on legislation 

 to enforce the claim that the funds of trade unions 

 shall be made responsible in damages for breaches of 

 contract procured by the men's leaders, and " it may 



S^WtmaH-RrvirUf.i 



The Duel. 



