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Bush Advocate, Volume XX, Issue 1027, 15 May 1908, Page 2

BRITISH POLITICS. (To the Editor.) Sir, — In your notes of last Saturday you dwelt on the Wolverhampton election, and the recent elections in England, and I think it was wisdom on your part to say no one could state to what particular cause -'..you ■ could place the great change that is ;.j now taking place in English politics^ j It would be useless to say it was from '• this particular cause or that, but one would not be far wrong- in saying that generally it is because every selfish feeling is appealed to. .One or two specimens I will give you. The chairman of the South Metropolitan Gas 'Company told the electors of Peckham that if ,the Miners' Eight Hours' Bill was passed it would mean £20,000 a year difference to the Cony pany, and that it would end in the price of their gas being raised, and as the Gas Company employ a great number of men in. Peckham the chairman also told the electors that if : the price of coal was raised through the Eight Hours-Bill being passed it would put a great many men out of employment ; and again every householder and evry room-dweller was told that the price of coal would probably be raised to 2s 6d per cwt, and when you "bear in mind, that many poor people buy their coal a j penny-worth at a time, you can at once see what effect such an appeal would be likely to have in a community where so .many are living on the poverty line. Sir Charles Scotter, the chairman of the South Western Railway, in a deputation to the Home ; Secretary, said in 1907 the railway companies alone consumed 16,101,000 tons of coal, and if the Bill was passed it would raise the price of coal at the least Is 6d per ton. He said if- it was only Is 6d per ton it , would mean £805,000 a year. They j would have to pay more for pig iron and rails. Sir Alfred Jones, a gentleman who probably controls a greater output of coal than any man in : England,, and who is largely interested in snipping, said the cost to the Cunard Company would be £100,000 a year, and to shipping that he controlled £75,000 a year. He told a ; tale of woe about the shipping companies and shipowners who would go bankrupt. Sir George Livesey said the various gas companies consumed about 15,000,000 tons of coal a year, and if the Eight Hours' Bill passed i it raise the price of gas 2d ■ per 1000 feet. Now, when the people throughout England are appealed to in this manner need you wonder at the way the elections are j going. It has never been suggested by any of these good and God-fearing ' men that the proprietors of the land over which a coal mine is situated might have their royalties taxed for the benefit of the coal trade, and yet a few years ago, and I dare say it is the same now, the royalties on the coal used on the big Atlantic steamers cost the owners as- much as the ' wages of the crew. So much, then, for coal and gas. Now, a few words concerning ..beer and gin. Since the introduction of the Licensing. Bill j every pub has been an unofficial com-mittee-room for the gentlemanly party. In addition to this, the Education. Bill has aroused the ire of the church parsons. It is the same old game— beer and Bible. Every, political and monopolist parasite has fastened himself on to John Bull's body and they intend to suck, suck, suck until they suck alj the blood out of him. Mark the difference in the appeals to the people by John Bright and Richard ! Cobden during the time of the Amer- ! ican Civil War; those gentlemen asked the people to stand by truth and liberty ; they asked the people to help I to strike the shackles from the wrists of the slave. The people responded nobly, with the result that England was prevented from recognising the slave holding States as a nation. The English people suffered, but slavery was doomed. Cobden "and Bright apealed to the noblest instincts that man can aspire to. Look on England then and now. Now every selfish passion is played upon— religion and beer, the Bible and gin bottle. England is now paying for her great South African crime, and South Afrii can millionaires are paying the piper. j I am, etc., DEMOS.