LECTIONEERING IN ENGLAND.

Evening Star, Issue 14535, 10 December 1910, Page 13

LECTIONEERING IN ENGLAND.

[By Morton Alois.] j I. Bainc; in England last- year, at the lime. *when it had become clear that a Geueral Election -was imminent, I offered my seivit€s to the various organisation* working on behalf of the Liberal cause, and ;vu; nltimielv accepted bv the Freetiado union. In Fnglantl, as in New Zealand, the amount that a candidate may legally spend on ai: election is limited, and my impression .is tha> he is absolutely prohibited from paying his speakers or'canv;:s.-or.>. ' But. hke aiest laws, this can be circumvented it only there arc enough people who want to do it; and of late" veais this has been cx>n;ivelv accompliiilied bv means of the operations ot snch bodies, technicallv non-parti-san, as the Tariff Reform Lea'.:a-.;, the Coal Consumer*' League, the Xavv Leamie. tho Budget League, the Free trade I num. etc. These societies earrv on tli-:-ii- work, cstensiblv at least, independently of the candilates. and of the regular p.uiy c.rganiaalions. Th/ur object i.s to Kippuit causes, .lot candidates, and if ineidcatallv any parlicular candidaio happens to beueiit by ;heir exertion*;, well, so much the better ior him. 1 believe the Tariff. Reform League were the pioneers of the modem development of this form of political activity in England ; but it proved so formid,«hle"a weapon in their hands that their opponents soon found it necessary to have recourse to it also, though the necessity ifl one that manv Liberate view with 1 egret. On the Uee of it, it is a perfectly legitimate thing for people who hold strong views on any subject to band theinselvc* together in order to convert their tellowcithxr.s 'o their way of thinking: but the operations of these societies, on the scale on ■which they a-.e carried on in F.ngland, practically nullify the provision* of the Corrupt i'Mctiics" \ct with legaul to election expenses. They add one more to the advantages, alreadv too numerous, enjoyed by the" posressors of the longest purs.'. and it is obvious that there is a mi ions liabilitv to abu.ic in a -y;tern under which. at election timet, the tountiy is overrun with rival armies of hired tweakers. However, as these armies were taking the tield, and I did not wish to remain a passive spectator of so momentous a conflict, I thought the best thing that I could do was to enlist in one-of these lighting for what 1 held to he the cause of truth and light. The claim of the Frcelrade I'num to be a non-party organisation is prihaps lees shadowy than th.it of most similar bodie.-. a* there are several pioniinenl Coiueuitives. ~,. al all ev.-nti-. Unionists, on us ( oiumittee. But under the circunisiam. s id last election it w:;.> inevitable that its whole inthmnte should be excited on bvhaif of the Liberal and Labor Alliance : and

lltliough we eaietully abstained from at learing on the same' plal'orm with cand kites. Vr even mentioning their names i

>m- speeches, it iis not to he wondered ,ir iial our audiences ~.- a nile peisislod in >■- .ending our meeting as Liberal meciiii.:. pine and simple. (As it happened. 1 w;.-. working lor the mo-l par: in coii.-tituerieic.; ia winch ther" '.v;i- no l.ab.ir candidate:. At on" village meeting " hic'n 1 addressed one ot our local helpers began advocating ihe claims of the Libera! candidate, and on liiv explaining that this was mudimssuhe Horn our platform he cheerfully lemarkcd: "Oh. well, that's; all right. I »»ii'i L.ay anv moie; you all know who votive cot to vote for." and the audience made it clear that thev did. Tin. eieciioii.'ej-irif; activities el the t recti ade I'nion coe.si-t pvirwipaUy iu holding mettings and disuilmting litoiatute, and 1 .-hould suppose tiiat this with must-"similar bodit* : 'out the larilf lb-form League send out in addition secret emissaries, who travel about, the country and enter into conversation v.ith people thev meet in trail's and dsewhere—-if they iire net very much maligned, public-house liars are favorite hunting grounds ot theits —bunging the conversation round in an apparently ta.-u.il way to the tiseal and doing their best io instil the doctrines of TariUf Reform. This, however, is not a form of mi.-tfioiiury enterprise that appeals to the ordiuarv Knglishmaii. and I -:i>> not think anv ot the Liberal <u Fieetuule organisations ar,i likely to dispute the Tariff Reform League's monopoly of it.

I was li«[ .-out U> I'urts.nouth. where a preliinimuv skiniueh was taking place owing to the'death of one uf the .-itting men■bers. thuujh ultimately the writ iv.-i- the aye-election was not i.-stied. On arrival I lWovtrul, rutin r to my dismay, that all .lit' Frejtrauc I'lii-'M meeting.-, ivi'li' lieili,' ield out uf tiling. Open-air meetings an* nw ;; great feature o? ea'-tioas ia Kn--and. 1 ii:ia i ever fip.A-.-ii i:i the open-air n my life l.ei'ore, a;:d naUuallv felt ratlcr .icrvotis at fi:.-t ; hut I boon l.i". anie hardened to ii. ;••:;! I.y the nil of the we.k ua.- even c(|U.iL to .-t.irtii.g a. nicotine;, lhat is much tiu> in".-: trying part of the husi-ne.-s toil beginner, ami 1 niu-t own that t;> tiii* end I was alway.- glad t-> !e ive '.t to the more experienced li.f.n'r-. V«.u do not. as a rule, liiul your audi--m.c wailing for von : and eim-erpieiitly the lirst spe.ikei haii to addf'is his nma'lk.- !■> the kerbstone for jonie minute-—:i pei foramina*- which makes him teel Mtlur ri lirukui, tiil he -ft.- feed to it. One feels tli.il th"ie wmi'il lie Mime thing t'-> he said in t iVor of having a hand t" iii tt .1. t the irowd u cJi. The Co::.-,er\\;tive c.n.aid.ile for IYttimotith w.i.- Lad (hoi"/ IV-.r-fool. ..ml irom what I viw and h'-ird I ranie to the naie'ti-ioii lira! he was not ipi'ile .-■; p"pulo with all rank- of 1 •!<• Navy i- one is *omctiniPi led to heliive. Sena' ..I oin hcti- int.... ear fill t < al.-t.iin from yr.oualit'nv a.-> might have !-".n wi-licd. at.l M , struck liy the ta.l thai no miller -io\v vigoiouidv the Admiral was .ittatk.-.1. Ihe hlile.jatkeis. of v.lioni there W'.ae ;:1

.itiy sign of relenting it. ! ii wa.s oniy ;i. few v.vck* alter my vi-it | t.. Pull-mouth tliat the lieneial Klcctio'i j i impugn fame on. Mv sphere of work vav . iu lamhiidge-hiro and .Norfolk, and L received in.-tructions to reiiort inysoU" el Cambridge imiiii'diately at'tt'l Christina.*., which I accordiuuly <lid, anil, with two or three orhcrs. addlc-sid a uu'Ctiir; in the I Market place U'.ere in the evening. V.'o j began witii iiii audience of one policeraau hut although it was- rainiivj: .-teulily a .small | iiowd gathered by ilcgiee-—perhaps a couple of hundred in all. Wc tact with a wots- reception heie, 1 think, than at an\ i.tlu-r meeting 1 addressed throughout the. tuaipaign. Some of th<w present woie evidently favorable to us. hut the hostile element was in too great force to be kept in check, 'The. interrupters were mostly half-grown lads, and they did not itttempt anv violence —perhaps because our one policeman had been joined by ticvera.l of hio comrades—but they gave us no (.haute to state our ea-e. Kverything we tatid v.n.s gietted with blmuU of "Liar!'! or other funis of abuse. I have often wished .since tlir.t I had had the presence, of mtiul to remark that two and two made four. 1 i'cel aire, somebody would have ehouted "Liar!" The next day I went witli another man to Yarmouth, where we spent three days. We hud good meetings and* friendly audiences, except for one or two individual interrupters, ] mostly drunk; and there was evidently a Urong Freetrade element among tho working men in the town. The Liberals with wtnau we csiitc in contact, however, i-eemed to be in a depressed state of mind, and to entertain very little hope of victory. There are two things that yon ran buy at Yarmouth—bloaters and votes; tho former, if I remember rightly, at two a penny, and the latter, generally speaking, at half a crown each, though you may occasionally pick one up at cighteenpence. I need hardly add that I am only speaking from hearsay; I did not purchaao either commodity myself. Political corruption appears to be very much localised in England, and most of the places specially notorious for it are either seaport towns or cathedral cities. We were told tha> ihero were some hundreds of electors in Yarmouth who would not vote unless they were paid for it—quite enough to turn the seal* if the election were closely contested. Apparently their honesty is above suspicion; it .seems to be taken for granted that ohce they have received the purchase money they may be relied on to deliver the goods. It seenw also to be taken fv>r granted, by Liberals at all

events, that tho Conservatives are the chief purchasers. 1 have been told this deihtitelv bv at least two men who were, in a position to know what they were ttdkin/ abont. but I must own that I have not obtained a. Conservative opinion on the point. Tho Yarmouth Liberals therefore felt that they Mere lighting against heavy odds, and they seemed to despair of uriv cllective remedy. One naturally asks, "if it is so certain that bribery is carried on, why not take tteps to upset the election afterwards? 1 gathered, howover, from what I heard at Yarmouth and elsewhere, that bringing election petition.; is an unpopular thing to do, and is only resorted to vv.L'Ji reluctance in the most extreme cases. If the petition fails some discredit attaches to tho petitioners, and bribery is a. very difficult thing to prove to the satisfaction of a court of law; while, if the petition succeeds, tho constituency may be disfranchised for a time,. I srisneet. also, that in places where bribery 'has become such an established institution as at Yarmouth, it is very seldom that either party could come into court with perfectly clean hands. Some of our Liberal friends at Yarmouth, indeed, raid openly that tho only thing that they could "tee" to do was to tight tho enemy with his own weapons. Possibly, if I' ind been mixing with Conservatives, they would have told me that thoy were compelled to buy vote 1 .; in order to forestall the Liberals.

It is curious how, in the country disthroughout England), one place will be strongly Liberal, and another placo, oidy a, few 'miles away, as strongly Conservative, for no reason that a. casual visitor can discover, except that they have always been so-—which is the reason for a great many tilings in England. _ Two of my comrades made an expedition from Norwich to East Dereham, and it Was only at the Inst moment that I was prevented from accompanying them. East Dere-

hum's Ir.-wlitions are Conservative, and m invading it iv, 1 were stirring up a wasp's nest. Tim mob there took chargo of the joriv from which mv friends attempted to speak, chased them "into the Liberal Club, and besieged them there, breaking all the windovs. so lh.\t at hist they had to get out at the hark as best they could, and escape over hedge and ditch.

i was rather fortunate in escaping experiences of this sort. At Diss, a little, country town which I made my headquarters tor about four days, T had ;i quiet enough time; while one of our speakers who came there the following week, on attempting to hold an open-air meeting at a place with the euphonious name of Diekloburgh, was pelted with rotten eggs —lie wore a flowing beard, to mako things worse. However, he pluckily went back there, engaged a hall, and had a successful meeting. Again, a week or two later I went to a village near Cambridge, where I was told by the local Liberals that we. were almost sure to get things thrown at us; but it came on to rain so heavily that only about four men (all supporters of ours) I'iid'liali a dozen boys fumed up, and the meeting had to be abandoned—a most unusual occurrence.

From Diss 1 went to Downliam Market, at the other side of Norfolk, on the edge of the Fen Country, and stayed there for a week. AVc saw and heard here a good deal of the state of feudal subjection in which the poorer i lasses in many of the agricultural districts of England live. We were given to understanl that if was not advisable to put resolutions, however favorable our reception might have been, as there might be many of those present for whom it would not be safe to be seen voting; and at more, than ono meeting some of the upper servants from the neighboring hall wei'3 present, presumably with a view to noting who was there. A remark that was made io me by an official of an agricultural laborers' union throws some light on the position of the Liberal farm hand in Kngland. I" had been saying how much pleasanter it would have been if the ek-cliou had beeu held ill the

summer, and ho agreed that it would. | "But I don't know," he added, " hut what it is beat for us as it is. A lot of our | pcoplo prefer to vote after dark." 1 My engagement with tho Freetrado Union concluded with "a meeting in tho Corn Hall at- Wisbech, where the audience must have numbered twelve hundred. As elections would still be going on in various places for over a week after this, and I did not want to retire from the fight be- ; foro it was over, I again offered my services to tho National Liberal Federation, i and received a telegram from llieni asking me to go to Devonshire as 60on as 1 was> at libertv. Before doing so I paid a vist I to Bicester, where 1 bad undertaken to give a hand on polling day. Bicester is a. little country town in Oxfordshire, hardly moro than a village—a sleepy sort of place enough, as a rule, 1 should judge, but there was "plenty of bustle and excitement there on this diiv. I saw very little of it, however, as J sixjut the who'le day at the committee room helping to check the list of voters. In England an elector does not, a.s in New Zealand, have a choico of polling booths; he can onlv vote ~t one, which enables the party managers to exercise a closer supervision over their supporters—and sometimes it may bo over their opponents—than would be possible v>ith us. It was only twice that 1 h:.ppciwJ to bo at a place where iiolliug was ar.ually going on, but 1 think it may safely be presumed that the plan I saw in operation <>n those two occasions was the one regularly adopted throughout the country. The electoral roll had been carefully gone through beforehand, and the names marked of all whose votes could bo relied on, and also of all known opponents. Scouts were, posted to watch tho poling booili in relays, and all through the day these kept eonjng in with lists of those who had voted, which were marked oif by Iho workers in tho committee room ; and an Ji'tir < :i two before the closing of tho poll eanytssers were sent in quest of all tuose <f "tho right color " who had not yet been .seen to vote. It sometimes happened tliat when found the supposed delinquents protested that thev had voted hours ago ; tutt it is obvious that this method, etlicieutly carried out, must do a great deal to ensure that the part-v shall poll its full strength. Tho division of Devonshire to which I was sent was the north-west-, tho chief town of which is BarnsLiplo. A fellowpassenger from Taunton Told mo that feeling was running very high in tho electorate, and that there had Veen lively scenes at sonio of the meetings. Political excitement, however, affects . o.ifforenv. people in different- ways; and if I may make a. haslv, and probably an incorrect, generalisation, from what I myself saw and heard, I should say that it- makes East Anglians throw things at the speakers with whom tliev disagree, while tho West Country men leave the speakers idono and fight one another—a. much better way, from the .-peaker's point, of view. Nobody was obliged to tight if he did not want to, but anybody who did could have .ill he wanted —1 almost began to regret that I was not a lighting man myself. The people here seemed to take to il so naturally that 1 supposed it to bo the tegular thing at elections in North Devon ; but I was assured that, liko several other features of this election, it was quito a novelty. On arrival at Barnstaple 1 introduced mvself to tho Liberal candidate, and m the. evening motored over with him to Bidoford. 1 was sorry that it was too dark for me to see anything much of a place so famous in song and story. He handed me over to some of his committee there, and went off to speak at places further on. while I went down to the quav and addressed an audience of something like a thousand people. 1 had for colleague a young railway porter from Exeter, a very good speaker. He was a nativo of Bideford, but the warmth of his reception showed that there, are exceptions to the rule, that- a prophet- has no honor in bis own country, Indeed, the temperature, which was below freezim>- point, was the only cold thing about the meeting. They punctuated our speeches with cheering, and when we Stopped they clamored for more. This was the onlv time 1 was ever asked tor an encore "for a performance of that

sort. . From Baiiistaple I went to Tlfracombe, ■where I stayed till the polling <lay. On the day after the election 1 returned to Loudon, stopping at Barnstaple for an hour or two to hear the declaration of the poll. We won bv a comfortable majority. There were, several other passengers in the same compartment with me when I left Barnstaple, and before long wo cot into conversation, and all agreed That we had had quite enough of politics for a time, and should be glad to be able once more to think and talk about something else, but in a minute we were at it, hammer and longs. It turned out that we had only one Conservative in our compartment, so" we all set to work to convert him. but failed. However, we kept our temper*!, and were none the worse friends for the dt*cu«-ioiK Two (if the partv were "plural voters." .In England, if a'man has properly in fifty constituencies he has fifty votes, if he can manageto »ot to the different polling places in time to c.\eni.,e them. One of these, pluralist* was our solitary Conservative, who had come from Oxford, while another had come from Xewbirry to vote for the Liberal candidate. I suggested to them -that next tiniß they should pair, but. neither of them seemed to take to the. idea.