IMPORTANT SPEECH.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 23, 22 October 1907, Page 5

IMPORTANT SPEECH.

MR. ASQUITH IN FIFE.

LIBERALS ALONE CAN FIGHT THE ~ ; r . .SOCIALISTS. '~..... "EQUALISE THE BURDEN." ..•ABOLITION OF. THE COAL DUTY. ; BY TELKinAPH—iBESS ASSOCIATION— COFTRIGHT. :... (Ree. Oct. 21, 10.50 p.m.) \ '....'•. ■';[ .. London, Octobor 21. , The Right Hon. H. H. Asquitli, Chancellor of;tho Exchequer,, speaking at Ludybank, Fife, Scotland,: emphasised tho.great loss, counterbalancing nil apparent gains, which would -result,; from' I the , reconstruction of society, : on .Socialistic ; lines. . Liberty would be. slowly and,surely,starved to death. Ho 'claimed jthat; the,. Liberal Party alone, was capablo of. combating oxtremo. Socialism, bocause it ■ was.;frco and ~ unfettered. by entangling .alliances; with interested. monopolies and class, privileges, • which J with a : network of interdependence covering - tho,. framo -if 'society,': made .progress, with social. reforms seem somotimes.'Woll-nigh. desperate. - ' : '■'[■■[ '-ECONOMIES DEFENDED; ; r ' ■'■ Mrf AsqHith' { ]nstined ; Liberal finaricb.: The: -Govern'mon't;"he.said, had substantially reduced.the/ebst'of the Army.arid the .'Navy. '.Ho hoped' 'to make. mbrp 'progresSj in that direction. es-.[ :pqrt' duties '(wliich;. tie has' abolished), as an unjustifiable' burden upon j a jgroat industry. ;j'.i r : , .CAUSE OF 'LOW STOCKS^, - : , : Regarding'the''eyeuts'on. tho Stock-Ex-change, the.-inflatisd; supply .of. gilt-edged '.securities 'during the- past ten years had been'accompanied by a transfer of capital ;l to' the.'more:• remunerative field, cf :the abnormally''' ac.tivo' ::, industries'' of the United Kingdom.' '■'•:• ;:; ; ','■.'•' ■•'.'. '■;''.. ' ■ THE 'BEST SECURITY:' pFIPROPERTY.,' ;,' Mr. , Asquith; concluded, by ~r ebutting -the' charge that tho. Liberals 'arc .coquetting with ■ .tho' Socialists. Ho-declared .that -propbrty 'and liberty,were every stop ; that, was ..takeii -to', removes .sonso ;,of. injustice,,, to :difFuse : and oqusliso. the, pressure of the:.common ilnirden,. and to keep, evory particular .interest in subordinationi to tho; interests of the whole. ■■[■':•■!■'■<':

' It lias been argued that the abolition of the export duty on ■ coaK has, ; by encouraging oxports, raised the price at; Home, both to the householder and to consuming industries. This view was ■ recently adopted by Mr. Snowden, Lab Pur '.-M.P.' and ' freetrader.'' Mr. Afiquith J s speech.: seems, tot be not,altogether' destitute of a resoniblahce to sonin of President Roosevelt's. : As the President will not tolerateveithor plutocracy or: mob, rule,, so 'Mr. 'Asquith' equally condemns monopoly and.Socialism; each standing: for' the security, of property, .consistent 'with iju'sticb arid social 'reform!'"_ The refutation ,of Socialism is not surprising,' in view 'of recent .events and utterances, both'" within the liberal party and without. - ',_■ In the = "Fortnightly Review" "Calchas" writes as [follows, oil. the :proptiesied: "doom of •Liberalism":—"Socialism ; is, : undoubetdly, ■ gaining.' Tariff Reform, and the whole ,spirit■ ofthb new'Jmporialism are undoubtedly gaining., ' But'vnothiug that Liberalism- separately stands "'for, ''.'is '<[ gaining.",, A.'largo portion . of the Liberal; party friust;'"Calchas"' contends, capitulate/to .the Labour party,'and the rest will secede'. -. The writer .sums up-. this, attack by. l saying':—" The campaign against the House of. Lords is 'leading straight to a trial of strength, whichv seems, 'tolerably- certain to reduce, the numbers of .the Liberal...party; to place it in ' a"positibn : of dependence, upon Irish Nationalism.of 'Labour' Socialism, even if it•'remains.in' office; and to';increase the' /tension between its. sections. Old a;to pensions, in. the''nearer, ; not the. remoter, future will raiso, the question, of -national -finance, in its full gravity. Between -resolute, Imperialism and . ariti-Impprialisf, : between' economic .efficiency -innd." -blind ■ nnti-capitalism. "between tariff; revonue . and ..Socialist,.taxation, there, will be found no half-way' house. The Liberal party, as it exists," can movo'decisively 'n' neither direction, and, its disintegrating elements 'are'.bourid .to "seek at opposite, poles •their .effective! affinities:" : ."■' "."-:'■: ■ '-•'■■