The Evening Star. MONDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1908.

Evening Star, Issue 13144, 28 December 1908, Page 4

The Evening Star. MONDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1908.

There is much difference of opinion as to how far the reaction Tariff in favor of the OpposiReform. tion party in England is attributable to the progress of the Tariff Reform movement. That there is a reaction, "and that it bids fair to develop, no one questions. Parliamentary by-elections and municipal elections tell the same tale, and the bold attitude of the Opposition majority in the House of Lards points to a conviction, or at least a confident hope, oo the gart of triml jfcMmrinfflrnn

and Mr Balfour that ttfe days of the' Government majority in the House .of Commons are numbered. On the other hand, many acute observers are of opinion that the change in popular feeling represents a general Conservative revival of the old type—dissatisfaction with the performances of the. Liberal Ministry, and a reconsideration of the too emphatic verdict of January, 1906—rather than any deliberate acceptance of the Tariff Reform doctrines. It is suggested, by people who take this •view, that if the Unionists are recalled to office it will be in spite of, not because of, the fact that they have made fiscal readjustment the central plank in their platform. The reformers retort, plausibly enough, that the Chamberlain policy, as modified by Mr Balfour, has been the main issue In the majority of by-contests that have gone against the Government. In one way, perhaps, the point is not of material importance. The Unionists are pledged to Tariff Reform, and if they come back to power the meaning of their return will be that a majority, of the electors are willing, even if they are not anxious, that the question should be tackled in earnest. In other' words, though the Opposition reaction may not be mainly caused by the fiscal movement, the converse holds good: . the movement gains impetus from the reaction. Certainly the reformers appear to be in good spirits. The great protagonist himself has not been able to return to the arena—and, to speak plainly, nothing is to be gained by affecting to believe that he will be able at some future date—but there is no lack of able substitutes. The work of propagandism proceeds steadily, though it may be that the strength of the arguments does not increase in a highly appreciable degree. There are obvious fallacies on both sides. . Just as the " small loaf " cry raised by the Liberals at the general election three years ago was wretched claptrap (like the cry about Chinese labor), so some of the contentions and illustrations employed by the opponents of the Freetrade system fail to make any effective appeal to the reason or intellect. One of the very best advocates of Tariff Reform at the present time is Mr Bonar Law, M.P., who was Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade in Mr Balfour's Administration. Perhaps it is rather too early in the day to be playing at Conservative Cabinet-making, but we notice that Mr, Law is already mentioned as the probable successor of Mr Winston Churchill as President of the Board of Trade in the event of the Liberals losing power. New Zealanders who recently returned from the Home Country, and who had an opportunity of listening to Mr Law on his favorite subject, speak in very high terms of his power and promise. , He is fifty years of age—the prime of life, as politicians go; he easily commands the ear of the House of Commons, as well as of popular audiences; and his skill in marshalling his facts, drawing logical inferences, and exhibiting the salient conclusions of his argument is of a quite exceptional character. In another column we print a condensed report of a speech delivered by Mr Law at .Sheffield in the early part of November, and in the same connection we invite the attention of our readers to a paragraph in our commercial column dealing with the latest statistics of British trade. We do not say that Mr Law's arguments are conclusive, nor do we say that the import and export figures necessarily bear out the claims of the Tariff Reformers, but there can be no question as to their suggestiveness, and the uncompromising Freetraders may find them a rather hard nut to crack. Mr Law's final allusion to "thecolonial offer " is slightly misleading—theie has been no "colonial offer" worth, mentioning—and, indeed, the Tariff Reformers are always at their weakest dealing with that aspect of their subject which is specially related to the British Dominions Beyond the Seas. On the other hand, it is impossible not to be impressed by the conviction of this shrewd, clear-headed, and transparently sincere politician that Tariff Reform " would go a long way to cure the evil of unemployment." Should the reform doctrines be adopted by the country, it will probably be in the halfdesperate hope that this belief may prove to be well founded.