Show r T ne BRITISH CRISIS 4 I I DAVID LLOYD GEORGE By FREDERIC J J HASKIN H SKIN I I I LONDON Jury juI 21 28 Ho lIe Is IB said saida nEd nEda 11 a great British journalist of David Dald Llo tho lie symbol of a n aage now n age the herald of a anew new nes time the lie outward out and an visible Sign that the common people are arc coming Into their I own It is difficult to to place Lloyd Llod George We have huo had bad nothing like him In British politics before Per Pcr Perhaps i traps haps ho cornea comOR neatest nearest to Abraham of or any of the lead lend leaders lenders leaders ers of tho thu democracy Unlike Jefferson unlike Gladstone IK Is I like hiko Lincoln In that lint linthe he ho Is a U democrat through timid and through Being of oC the time plain people he knows the plain people he ho loves lovOs lov s the plain people arid and he lie always is the tIme champion of the lie plain people believing with tho the great emancipator that God must have loved the plain people for lor he made so ninny many mun of af them Ul m Like Lincoln he lie Is abhorred of the theL L classes anu au orca ui 01 mu Lw mu o Ii i There has hns been nothing like him in nil all a ll the history of pf British polities politics s He lie HeIs HeIs lies Is i s the lie head and antI front of the revolution lion ion t In Britain and as ns such he lie is the most hated hate and the lime most loved loed man maria manin manin marian in i n all the time realm of George Goorge V Y I That such iichi a man nina holds the time high I office of Chancellor of the Exchequer that i such a man is ts the leader lender of oC the t h party part in power In Great Grent Britain that hat t such a n man seems destined to rule over the British Empire as the Prime Minister of the tho crown crOWD that such stick a man has power to sway swa n a ErR Brit British ish sh i Cabinet and command a Parliament Is IB In the estimation of the he t ruling classes who have hae governed England for fo a thousand years an out outrage outrage outrage rage and a desecration S That such a man has able to reach this high position and und to wield wi old this thia great power Is to tho the struggling and auth starving masses mIJ of ot average men mell j and plain people tile the promise of or the dawning of a new ne and n it better day dar daya dara a day In which the man who works shall be equal before the law and In political power with the lie man who shirks Tho story of Is a story that might seem commonplace In American political annals but It is iM unique and unprecedented among the tho tales of oC British political successes David Dald although a Welshman of oC Welshmen Wels men was not born In i ii Wales Vales He came Into the world at Manchester on January 17 1863 and Is therefore not yet et I years old His rather father William George came of Welsh yeoman stock hut but 1 Ut had engaged in the business s of teaching leaching t school and as ns such was wm washy liv living 11 ing i ng in England Englan Tho The mother of oC the Chancellor of or the Exchequer was Eliz Elizabeth Elizabeth Elizabeth abeth Lloyd daughter of the Rev Ro David Lloyd a n Baptist minister Soon after young Qun David Dald was bom his father and mother returned to Wales Vales and before the tIme boy was throe years ears old his father The Fire home homo was as broken up and the first timing thing David DaId can remember IB is the he sale of his widowed mothers fur Cur furniture to satisfy a debt owed to an absent and Impersonal landlord Tho The widow WIlOW could not take tako care of all the thc children childreD and David was given glon to her brother Richard Lloyd d Richard Lloyd was a shoemaker In tho the of for six ix days In the week and on the other he was wa nastor I of an Impoverished congregation n of J I Baptists Lloyds cobbler shop was the time village forum and In It every een day dar gathered the village worthies to discuss politics and an ion lon and to lo hear from the lips of the tho educated Richard Lloyd Llod translations of the news from the th Liverpool and andL j I London L papers for In this village most of the time people spoke only Welsh The shoemaker was also a sort of poor or mans lawyer who gave ae advice without charge to tho the tenants and la ha laborers borers of the community S Tn In this shoemakers shop the tho young Davids heart was set on fire with zeal yeal for or the tho cause of his people Tales of or landlords oppressions stories of oC starvation living witnesses of oC tho time of a peasants life lif into his consciousness ss along with tho epics of or his own on Welsh nation nution Ills His sacrificed tho the meager savings of his lifetime to give the tho boy hoy ho tho tIme host best available education to fit him for the th lie life of a lawyer lawer At the age of lout four fourteen teen ho he had hail passed the thela law preliminary ary fIt examination and at sixteen ho how was vias w s articled to a firm of solicitors II I At AL l he lie qualified as u ii so solicitor s and In ill Ii the first year of his practice took a case caso which gained brained him hima a national reputation A poor quarryman ryman lyman nt at the tho t o point of death sent to I his hii NonConformist minister and amid ex expressed expressed I pressed his desire to he burled buried In tIme the I grave In tho the churchyard of tho the es established church where whore his little daughter daugh t r had hud been burled buried years ears be before b I fore foro ore and he expressed the tho further de do desire I Isire Isire sire that the tho burial of his own NonConformist 1st Chinch Chuh should I d he be Ii C used use Tho Tim mann man died and nn the tho old grave grao was as opened ready read to receive Ithe the tile corpse The NonConformist min minister minI I I ister Isler mindful of tho the dying flying mans Ie quest q gave notice under time tho newly newl enacted burial act I which gave NonConformists tIme the right to bury their dead under tinder the exercise Of their own ministrations that tho thu rectors services would not be he re required required required The rector was furious and anti although under the now new law he could not forbid the burial In the church churchyard churchyard yard rard he claimed the time right to decide I whore where he body hody should be burled buried He ordered the sexton to close cloie up UI the themo I Stave giave mo and amid open another in iii a desolate corner of 01 tho tIle churchyard which hail had J I been sot aol aside for the tho Interment Intermont of suicides Tho Time relatives of time tIle dead man conS con consulted suited stil ted tho time 1 He le found that the iho churchyard had been given to the tho church by the com coin community and that It was enclosed by bya b ba a stone wall erected at tho the cost of the tho and that it if undoubtedly was parish property The Time young solicitor advised the time vii vil villagers lagers to 10 assemble In force at the entrance of the time churchyard and de do demand domand mand admittance as a And then said he ho should tho the vicar icar refuse to open the time gates then break brenk down the wall wan which your jour subscriptions have built huitt force your way Into the J churchyard which you own reopen the grave gravo and anel bury hUIj the old man by his daughter This heroic advice ad Ice ap appealed pealed to the Infuriated quarrymen and It was obeyed and carried out to tho the letter r The rector brought an action for trespass and damages In tho the county count court Llo made a brilliant speech In defense and md under und r the th spell RN of or his eloquence the tho jury brought In Inan Inan Inan an Immediate verdict In favor faor of o his clients cHen ts But the judge waived the lie verdict on ona a point of law and awarded damages to the rector An appeal was taken tal cn before Lord Thief Chief Justice Col Coi Coleridge cridge who quashed the Judgment of the tho court below and Justified the vio iIo violence 10 lence of or the Infuriated villagers as tho time legitimate assertion of their legal I rights rl This case attracted great preat attention in NonConformist circles all nil over oYer the time country and It was the time beginning of oC Mr professional fame He became secretary of the Anti Tithe League J a le an organization formed to resist the enforced payment of tithes to the clergy of the thc established church A tour of the time In fn be behalf behalf behalf half of this organization was his first speaking campaign Ho TIo was elected to fo the first county council connell choson chosen In and was known as time the youngest alderman in the King dom thorn In 1890 when he h was twenty seven years old he was elected to J I Parliament as ns a representative of or Car Carnarvon Carnarvon narvon nanon Buroughs which seat scat he lie has hold held for twenty years He has bas been elected six limes times and each time tImo by byan byan byan an Increased majority His first In the time House of Commons was delivered In the debate dehate upon the tho Budget of 1890 1800 and was an attack upon the privileges es of the liquor r trade It was a terrific arraign arraignment ment of Mr Nr Joseph Chamberlain and Lord Randolph Churchill and In this initial effort the tho young Welsh mem morn member member ber her won praises from the tho press presa gal gallery g gallery l llen lery len and amid predictions ns of oC a great career car er Lator Later In his first session ho he took up lip the fight for Welsh disestablish disestablishment ment and with ith two t other Welsh mem mom members hors hers undertook a series Serles of filibusters which forced oven even Mr Mi h Gladstone to J attempt to discipline him But Dut the young Welshman declared that he lie had imad hadas hadas as ris much right to act according to his conscience as Mr Mm Gladstone and he did not hesitate to cross swords with the great Commoner who It must be he confessed was not much of a demo clemo democrat crat when the church was Involved Before his first session was ended was the tho acknowledged 1 3 95 leader of a new party part In the thO Commons tho ho Welsh NationalIsts During the short career of or the tho last Gladstone government I did not hesitate to oppose the policy I of oc his n party In power and ho lie oc DC occupied occupied a n position In that body bod Judged by comments of the contemporary press almost exactly the same as that lint held by tho Insurgents Norris and Murdock in tho the last session of the time American House of Representatives Then followed time the long Jon and rulo rule of the Tories during I which always was the tho head mend and front of or the active opposE Ho He was WM tho ho principal protagonist I 1st of o tho th faction during the J South African war He that the tho war ar was a crime against lib hib liberty erty and civilization and not all of the tho harsh criticism of the patriots nor even en the lie fury of oC a mob moh which at attempted attempted attempted tempted to lo do him personal Violence could him from rom his purpose I of or denouncing tho government and up I holding the tho cause causo of tho the Boors Boers That j I was only a decade ago and at nt that time had anyone ln one predicted that Lloyd I George the tho traitor coward and I little Englander would ono one day be Chancellor of or tho time Exchequer and act actual actual ual mini loader header of the time dominant political party ho lie would have been heen sot down as crazy But that was before the i j of o the time British democracy rac had sot s t In Tomorrow The British Crisis r Democrat or ot Demagogue i |