12 



The Review of Reviews. 



stantinople told me lliat although the 'I'urUs had not 

 ratified the Declaration they decided to respect it. 

 Therefore they rescinded their decision to stop grain 

 ships passing through the Bosphorus. Had they not 

 had regard to the Declaration of London Russian 

 grain would have had to come by rail, which 

 would have sent up the price of bread by ten per cent, 

 all over Europe. 



The Insurance Bill, thanks to the 

 extraordinary, almost .superhuman 

 energy and tact of Mr. Lloyd 

 George, was forced through Parlia- 

 ment, despite all obstacles, and is now the law of the 

 land. The Tories dared not vote against it, and the 

 Lords excused themselves from postponing its opera- 

 tion. They would have been within their right, both 



The 

 Insurance Bill. 



/'-(■ tAi'eral Monthly, \ 



Quite Safe. 



Mr. Lloyd George (ihe proud fatlier, to his child, tlic 

 Insurance bill) : "It's all right, my liule man, you need not 

 be frightened. The Lords upslairs may not like you, I)ut they 

 will take good care not to hurt you, whatever they say al)Out 

 you." 



legally and morally, had they insisted upon sending 

 it back for further consideration. But they flinched 

 when the time came, having an instinctive sense that, 

 despite all the Daily Mail clamour, the measure was 

 popular with the mas.s of the people. The interview 

 with Mr. Lloyd George, which I jjublish in this issue, 

 gives a clear, broad, popular exposition of the eftect 

 of the new law. The provision as to the abolition of 

 slums will come to many readers as a welcome surprise. 

 There is great talk of passive resistance to the law. 



Mr. Lloyd George's 



Sermon 

 to the Well-to-do. 



hut it will come to nothing, and for this reason. 

 .-\ny employer can, if he pleases, refuse to insure his 

 employe's, but he must take the consequences. Apart 

 from criminal proceedings, he renders himself liable to 

 civil action by his employes for the benefits secured 

 them by the Act. That is to say, if my Lady Betty 

 Tiltnose refuses to lick stamps, her housemaid, if she 

 falls ill, can sue her ladyship for the cost of medical 

 attendance, and ten shillings a week for twenty- 

 six weeks, if the illness lasts so long, and if she 

 should be permanently laid up, for fiv;; shillings a week 

 until the housemaid qualifies by age for an Old Age 

 Pension. The doctors are threatening to strike, but 

 as the requisite two-thirds majority cannot be obtained 

 they will make the best of it. With all its many 

 defects and its dangerous concessions, and still more 

 dangerous invasion of personal liberty, the Insurance 

 Act deserves to be regarded as the second article in 

 the new Magna Charta of the Poor. 



Mr. Lloyd George's Cardiff dis- 

 course to the representatives of 

 the Christian Churches on their 

 duty to the poor is a worthy 

 sequel to the address delivered by him some months 

 ago at the City Temple. It was a soul-stirring 

 appeal to those who call themselves by the name of 

 Christ to bestir themselves vigorously in the cause 

 of those brethren of His who are in want, not merelv 

 of the bread that perisheth, but of the health which 

 alone makes life tolerable. Jane Addams once said 

 to me that all the trouble in the world arose from 

 the lack of realising imagination. No one, she said, 

 could possibly enjoy a sumptuous repast if he saw 

 all the time he was being served the spectacle of 

 children starving for want of a crust in the nex^ 

 street. Anything more calculated to make every man 

 uncomfortable when he sits down to a good dinner 

 would be difficult to conceive. But things unseen 

 are unrealised. This was the note of Mr. Lloyd 

 George's [)eroration ; 



I wonder what woulrl lui|)pen if cUiring this Christmas Iho-., 

 who have hien sitliiiL; i i>ni|orlal)ly enjoying their Christm:'- 

 dinner found at the 1uml;Iii of the festival an invisible hand 

 sliding a panel in the wall and opening a window and showing 

 them another liouschold of men, women and children like iheiii- 

 selvos, no worse, sonic <>l them ])robably better in all tli' 

 cs.sentials of character, huddled shivering in wretched dens. I 

 tell you what would liapp.n. McrTiinent would be fri-zen in 

 every heart. The coTiMii-mc of the nation would be roused in 

 a way it has never been loused before. The demand would 

 rise from every quarter in this country that our rule.-s should do 

 something to rid the land of this pestilence of wretchedness. )i 

 is the business of the (_ liunh to open that window, to keep it 

 open, to keep our eyes steadfast until that spectacle of ivrelehed- 

 ness, woe, and despair shall have been transfigured into one of 

 happiness and of ho])e. 



