A MAN WITH A FUTURE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 147, 14 August 1911, Page 8

A MAN WITH A FUTURE.

Mr F. E. Smith, whoso name lias figured prominently in our English political cables for some time past, is perhaps the most interesting of the younger men on the Unionist side (remarks an exchange). His vitriolic speeches in tho heated debates on the Government’s policy regarding the House of Lords arc in keeping with his reputation for stinging sentences. No man on the Unionist side, and no one on tire other side, save Mr Lloyd-George and Mr Winston Churchill, can bo so severe, so biting, so provocative in a few words, and neither of these Ministers has Mr Smith’s gift for striking phrase and epigram. His success has been gained by sheer hard work, combined, of course, with natural talent. His people were obscure, and not well off, but he won his way to Oxford by a scholarship, and there had a very brilliant career. He was an unknown man when one night in March, 1900, ho rose in the House of Commons to criticise tho Liberal Government, then in the first flush of their tremendous victory at the polls. He sent shaft after shaft of pointed criticism and ridicule into tho host opposite him, and when ho sat down his reputation was made. The effect of his words is heightened by his boyish appearance; the performance has an arresting air of precocity. Already tho cartoonists are drawing him, a sure sign that a man is prominent. When the Unionist Government is formed ho will, like Mr Asquith and Mr Lloyd-Goorgo, go straight into Cabinet without any apprenticeship ;f an un-der-secretaryship.