Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Rhondda Leader Maesteg Garw and Ogmore Telegraph

Nid yw statws neu berchnogaeth hawlfraint yr adnodd hwn yn hysbys.
Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

12 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

. Fallacies of Protection.

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

Fallacies of Protection. Why it is Bad for Miners. Speech by Met. Edgai* Jones, M.A. The first of a series of meetings (held under the auspices of the Rhondda Labour HT 1 Association) to be addressed by Air. Edgar Jones, M.A., the newly appointed lecturer of the Welsh National Liberal Council, was held at Bethania Chapel, Llw)"nvpia, on Monday evening. The Rev. E. Richards (Ebenezer) pre- sided, and said that he felt very grateful •J-U Association for presenting him with, an opportunity once more to take his place on the political platform. He had been in seclusion far some time, and he again welcomed an opportunity of saying something on behalf of a Govern- ment which had been unequalled in the annals of Great Britain. This was the first Government which had a working mail—Mr. John Burns—in its Cabinet, and it was also the first Government whose Cabinet contained two distinguished Welshmen—Mr. Lloyd George, who had succeeded to the second post in the Empire—(applause)—and Sir S. T. Evans, the Solicitor-General (applause). Mr. Edgar Jones, who was cordially received, speaking on Tariff Reform as the Tory Trick of Making the Working Man Pay," said that having divided the political constitution into a series of difrereHt subjects, lie had that night to deal with the driest and heaviest, and yet the most important political question of the hour—the great question of Pro- tection and Free Trade. When the Tory Government was returned to power, they went to the cupboard, like Old Mother Hubbard, and when they got there The cupboard was bare, And so the poor dog had none." (Laughter). So Mr. Chamberlain brought out Protection to revivify the Tory Party. WHAT PROTECTION IS. Protection, said the speaker, meant a system that placed duties on articles of food and commerce that were brought to the ports of this country from other countnes, so that the farmer or manu- facturer could charge anything he liked for his commodity, and thus keen the market for himself and keep the foreigner out. Up to 1842, the people of this country were born into and lived under a system of Protection, and they got to think that it was part of the natural law of the universe—thAt it was right in the order of thingscthttt England should be under Protection, as the earth was within the Solar System. Thus it was until 1842, and as to the. effect of Protection upon the people of the country, lie had been very fortunate in securing a. very interesting message to read to them. It was part of a speech delivered by Mr. Chamberlain when he was a member of the Liberal Party, in which he said that it was necessary for them to read once more of the bad times in the history of this country before Mr. Bright and Mr. Cobden persuaded Parliament that the J^orn Laws were an iniquitous tax. At that time the whole of the labourers in the agricultural districts were on the verge of starvation, whilst the poor rates in some districts were 20s. in the k. The large towns were described by witnesses as "beleaguered cities, so dreadful was the misery that prevailed in them. The people walked/ the Greets like gaunt -shadows, and not human beings. There was only one class that profited, and one landlord—the Duke of Norfolk-had re- commended the people to take a pinch of curry-powder to ward away the pangs or hunger. It was well to remember these things, said Mr. Chamberlain and if wo are going back to those times, let us do it with our eyes open." If we are indeed going back to tnat time," added Mr. Jones, a time which we have to. call to our imagination the gliosts of hauiitect spectres, let us reiterate the words of Mr. Chamberlain, Let us do it with our eyee opel, (applause). FREE TRADE NOT YET COMPLETE. Mr. Jones then detailed the story of the introduction of Free Trade into this country, but, he said, Free Trade is not yet complete, and it is because wo hope that the fiscal development is going to be an accomplished fact in the next Budget that we, as Welsh people, are preparing our pleans of praise and ap- plause for the Chancellor of the Exchequer (applause). Continuing, Mr. Jones said that Mr. Chamberlain and the Unionist Party a few years ago joined the prophets, and prophecied that the trade of the country was on the down grade, and that, unless we accepted a system different to the. one we had had since 1860, ruination was facing us in the near future. It was a remarkable thing, said the speaker, that in the last-three years of the Tory Government of Mr. Balfour the total trade of the country was less than 1,000 million pounds sterling, but during the three years the present Government had been in power the total trade had in- creased to considerably above 1,000 million pounds. But that was not the most im- portant thing. It was the promises that had been made that constituted the most serious menace to Free Trade, and some people had an unlucky knack of swallow- ing these things. The Tory Party pro- mised Tariff Reform and work for all. They repented of that later, and were now most anxious to do away with that cry, declaring that they never promised anything of the sort. They had also pro- mised that the coal-tax would be paid by the foreigner, but Mr. Austen Chamberlain had since admitted that the coal-tax was a great mistake, and that it was the coal- owners and colliers, in South Wales who had had to pay this tax. Then some most wonderful things had been promised the farmers, and Mr. Chamberlain himself had gone into an agricultural constituency and endeavoured to convince the farmers of the benefits that would follow to them of a change in the fiscal system. But Mr. Austen Chamberlain, in March last, declared that, speaking for himself, he had never pretended that farmers would ever get anything from the 2s. duty on wheat. MEN IN DESPERATE STRAITS. These promises were passing in a wonderful manner, and how were they to account for them? It was very simple. These men were in desperate straits, and men in desperate straits would do desperate things. The wave of enthusiasm III the last General Election was so tremendous that it had swept a great number of the Unionists out of the craft of Toryism, and the few that remained 11 the House of Commons found it very difficult to manage the ship. In 1885, and every election since, they had put on iIr cards, Old Age Pensions and Three acres and a cow," but the People never got them. It was because woX- the selfish interests of the 1I?en of the country that they If M* to win their support. „flnf 3'\ Chamberlain's system of 10 per /t.v were placed on amy partly manufaotured article, the people of this country would have to pay at least 8 per cent. more than they would have to pay under open competition and Free Trade. woukl be another tithe, and the armers of North Wales saw it in a mute when it was explained to them. Germany had the same problem to-day I as England. It was the same cry, Back to the land," and in Berlin there were scores of unemployed parading the streets. The Liberal policy was to deal with the land so as to enable people to return to it, instead of being huddled into slums, and to enable them to obtain a livelihood on the land that would be both healthy and remunerative. WHY PROTECTION IS BAD FOR MINERS. The speaker then proceeded to demon- strate how, under any system of imports, the working people of the country would suffer. A tax on steel would affect the Llanelly tinplaters, taxes on cement, &c., would not expedite the building of houses or create more employment, whilst the collier could not benefit because coal was not a manufactured article. Britain to-day was the carrier of more than half the world's goods. In 1907, we built more ships than all the other countries in the world put together. If we eon- tracted the amount of stuff that went out of the country, we also contracted the amount of stuff that came into the country, and thus we would ruin the shipping industry, and immediately that was done the South Wales pits could shut up (applause). After dealing with the taxes on sugar and tea imposed by the last Tory Govern- ment, the speaker said that Protectionists said a great deal about the poverty, privation and unemployment in the country to-day. He would ask, Who were in power for nearly twenty years before 1906? These men could not and would not understand Free Trade. They never carried out its mission, and they now had to face a party that was not merely sitting down with arms folded and content with things as they were, but a party that was not afraid of going for- ward, and whose policy was, Don't' shift the taxes from the sugar on to the tea, but sweep them away altogether" (ap- plause). men who were at the head of the tariff Reform movement had so much to gain from its introduction, that they were perfectly unscrupulous. They were willing to sacrifice any amount of energy, money al- tv 1?e ,tn orcler to fasten the shackles or 1 rotection upon the people. They knew what they were about; they knew that Protection had been like a hothouse to the trusts and millionaires of Aijjerica and Germany, and they were joined by the marquisses and the great landholders of the country. The Conservatives said that we must broaden the basis of taxation. They have always done that," said the speaker, "they have broadened T -I,0N I 8 loul^eT S of the masses. The Liberals say, No vou must narrow your basis of taxation. Too long have the toilers been ground down under the heel of taxation too long has property escaped its just and righteous quota, but we are going to tax land values: to tax idle property and shift it off the shoulders of the people.' The speaker then pleaded for unity amon-v the ranks of Progressivism, and said that if this could be effected, he had no doubt Mr. Lloyd George would be able to give such a twist to the tail of the House of Lords Bull that it would be glad to run away (loud lunso).

[No title]

Advertising

O. M. Edwards' Message.

"Cofio Ben Bowen."

Gems from the Speeches.

Mi*. David Bowen.

Advertising

Social Gathering at Pentre.

Cardiff and County Horticultural…

Leg Swollen and Inflamed.

Advertising