264 



The Review of Reviews. 



Septe^nber I, 1906. 



CHAMBERLAIN TOWN. 



Birmingham and Business; Business and 

 Birmingham. 

 In the Fortnightly Review Mr. G. Benyon Harris 

 writes on Mr. Chamberlain and Birmingham, the 

 political riddle. The writer remarks t±Lat the men of 

 Birmingham have long been remarkable, and are 

 now famous, as the most militant, solid, powerful 

 and democratic entity this country has ever known. 

 " That this concrete and puissant body should have 

 become deflected from the main body of the demo- 

 cracy of the nation on a question that is of all ques- 

 tions supremely democratic, is the problem." He 

 proceeds to discuss it in the light of the character of 

 the townsmen and their chief. Mr. Harris does not 

 spare Birmingham. He denies it the title of having 

 been always the great pioneer of municipal progress. 

 Its title to municipal distinction, he says, has only 

 accrued within times which are too recent to be 

 complimentar)-. It has never justified its motto, 

 " Forward." The City of Birmingham as a cor- 

 porate thing was only rescued from derision and 

 obloquy by the refracted glory derived from un- 

 official men of Birmingham. For, he says: — 



Birmingrham men were all born to business, and to 

 politics, as the sparks fly upwards. They were cradled in 

 businesa-like cradles. They were nurtured on methodical 

 and business principles. They wore business-like clothes. 

 Everything tliey touched was touched with an eye to busi- 

 ness. They wooed without sentiment, married tor. lived 

 to make, and died to leave, money. That was always the 

 way in Binningham. During their lives they interfered 

 in nothing but tlieir business, their religion, and tlieir 

 politics. Indeed, even their religion and their politics 

 were as much matters of business as were their means 

 of livelihood. The affairs of their religious denominations 

 were conducted on strict,ly business lines. The balance- 

 sheet was as much an article of their religious, as of their 

 secular, rubric. ... It has always been a peculiarity 

 of their commercial life that their nearest friends are 

 never quite sure what their particular busine^es really 

 consist in. Often, indeed, they themselves are not qtiite 

 sure. The general impression is that they " have some- 

 thing to do " with iron, brass, or gold. . . . Iron and 

 brass are their staple material. Anything that it is 

 humanl.v possible to make out of that material the men 

 of Birmingham can and do make: and the kind of thine 

 the.y make out of it depends entirely upon whether the 

 demand at the moment is for a tubular bridge or a 

 trumpet, a toy for the hand of a lady or sheet armour 

 for a belted cruiser. . . With Birmingham men the 

 only indication of sterling, abiding talent is the rapid 

 accumulation of wealth from business. To them there is 

 only one raison d'etre of talent^to amass wealth quick and 

 early. The abstract kind of talent which leaves its pos- 

 sessor in a small house they not only do not understand 

 but entertain great contempt for. They only look at 

 material results. 



With such a people Disraeli, Gladstone, Rosebery 

 would have been powerless. Even " John Bright 

 never took root in Birmingham." So the writer 

 proceeds : — 



The man for them must be a practical man, one of 

 themselves, possessing all the qualities which they pos- 

 sessed, but possessing also a talent wliich they them- 

 selves never had, the talent of lucid, sustained, unadorned 

 articulation. 



Like the tallness of tlie pine upon Norwegian hills, the 

 political altitude of Mr. Cliamberlain is not due to the 

 depth, but rather to the congenial nature of the soil in 

 which the tentacles are fixed. But the unerring instinct 

 by which in those early times he lured and won the rc- 

 Inctant confidence of the men of Birmingham, pales into 

 insignificance before the sagacity by which during thirty 

 years he has been able to maintain it against the assaults 

 of enemies. 



Mr. Harris in this paper has evidently relieved 

 much pent-up feeling, and those who have felt like 

 him will be grateful for this characterisation of the 

 Midland metropolis, though they may feel that what 

 it lacks in justice is more than made up in vigour. 



FOUR ACRES AND TWELVE PIGS. 



A Xew Variant of an Old Cry. 

 In the Economic Journal Mr. R. Winfrey, M.P., 

 describes the small progress of the small holdings 

 movement. The absence of compulsory powers and 

 the lack of sympathy on the part of the County 

 Councils are the reasons he suggests for the slow- 

 ness of the movement hitherto. Nevertheless, cer- 

 tain experiments which he describes have been a 

 success. In nineteen agricultural parishes of Lin- 

 colnshire, though not 2 per cent, is under small 

 holding cultivation, yet sufficient has been done to 

 check rural depopulation, which before the era of 

 small holdings was proceeding at a great pace. 

 From what he has seen of five hundred or more of 

 these small holders, he has no hesitation in saying 

 that all but a very small percentage greatly increase 

 their material prosperity. He adduces the balance- 

 sheet of one who cultivates four acres of arable land. 

 He says : — 



This labourer works regularly for the neighbouring 

 farmers and manages his small holding in the evenings 

 and on spare days now and again. As will be seen, he 

 hires his horse-labour from one of the larger small 

 holders:^ 



BALANCE S.HEET ON SMALL HOLDING OF FOUE ACRES. 

 OUTGOINGS. 



Kent (including rates and taxes) £9 



Hired horse labour: — 



Ploughing £13 



Drilling 3 9 



Harrowing 3 



Drawing potato rows 5 



ilanure carting 10 



Carrying barley 8 6 



2 13 3 



Artificial manure 2 



Seed potatoes 1 17 6 



Seed barley 12 



Seed mangolds and carrots 2 



£16 4 9 

 Balance, being profit 42 17 6 



£59 2 3 

 EETUEN 



6 tons 7J cwt. potatoes sold at 503 £15 18 3 



6 tons ditto at 60s 18 



4 sacks consumed at 68 14 



Ditto, sold for seed 5 



Ditto, kept for next year 2 10 



Ditto chats, eaten by pigs 10 



Barley sold 6 



Barle.v consumed 6 



Carrots consumed 1 10 



Mangolds 2 



£59 2 3 

 Half the barley, all the carrots and mangolds are being 

 consumed by twelve pigs, and will therefore bring more 

 profit than the market value charged in the balance- 

 sheet. The pigs will turn the barley straw into valuable 

 manure for next year. 



Mr. Winfrey urges that the large land-owners of 

 the country, and especially the public land-owners 

 such as the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, etc., 

 should encourage smaU holdings. They would in- 

 crease the rental bv twenty-five per cent. 



