Rhondda Leader Maesteg Garw and Ogmore Telegraph

The Dominant Issue. Lords or Peopl-e "I Great Budget Demonstra tion at Porth. Sir Alfred Thomas, Mr. Leif Jones and Mr. Brace at Porth. The steady drizzle of rain on Saturday could not damp the enthusiasm of thou- sands of Rhondda miners for Mr. Lloyd George's Budget. Preparations had been made to hold a, mammoth open-air meet- ing in Brynbedw Field, Porth, but owing to the inclement weather, this had to be abandoned, and instead the two largest buildings in the town—the Palace Theatre and Salem Chapel—were requisitioned and overcrowded. Processions were formed from lony- pandy, Pontygwaith. Trebanog. and Tre- hafod-each contingent being headed by its respective band, Hibernia, Ynyshir, Cymmer, and Hafod, The chief marshal of the processions was Mr. D. Watts Morgan, and the demonstrators made an jmposing spectacle as they marched throttgh the principal streets, waving scores of hnnners. Many of the mottoes were strikingly appropriate, such as, To free our dear, dear land," Tax land, not food," Free land and real Free Trade," "Idle hands mean idle lands." The Chancellor's name was borne on high, and as the crowds who lined the route caught a glimpse of this banner, loud cheers were raised. The meeting at the Palace Theatre was presided over by Dr. R. D. Chalke, M.A., who was supported by Sir Alfred Thomas, M.P., Mr. Leif Jones, ^I.P., Mr. Wm. Brace, M.P., Mr. Tom Evans. Rev. R. E. Salmon. Mr. W. D. Jones, Mr. Fred Edwards (East Glamorgan Liberal agent), Mr. Cyril Thomas, Mr. John Hughes, &c. Dr. Chalke, in opening the proceed- ings, said that day's demonstration de- clared very emphatically what Porth people thought of the Budget (hear, hear). He was proud to think that Gallant Little Wales had produced a Chancellor who was not afraid to tackle the great anomalies under which the people of the country had been smarting for so many years (applause). MR. LEIF JONES M.P. Mr. Leif Jones, M.P., who received a splendid ovation, said he esteemed it a great privilege to be asked by his friend, Sir Alfred Thomas, to address such a splendid .gathering on the People's Budget (applause). I think," he said, it is a true instinct that makes the people of England and Wales see in this Budget a real fighting ground between the forces of progress and social reform and the entrenched powers of privilege and injustice. I hear people ask whether this is a popular Budget. It is a strange question to ask about a Budget. I have never heard of anybody who liked to pay rates and taxes (laughter). Most Budgets are very unpopular, especially with those who have to pay the taxes. I think that the question that should be asked is, not: Is it popular? but Is it just? (applause). We are here to say that the Budget of Mr. Lloyd George is a just and equitable Budget, distributing the necessary bur- dens of taxation fairly and evenly between all the classes of the community, placing the greatest burdens upon those who can bear them, whilst all have to contribute towards it." LORDS HAD GONE TOO FAR. Proceeding, the speaker said that cer- tain sections of the community were com- plaining of their being taxed under the Budget. Personally, he was not surprised at that, but he thought that the lords, dukes, and the rich men who complained so much had gone a little too far in the matter, and would not strengthen their case when the Budget passed (cheers). "The Lords may try to stop it," he de- clared, but let them try ever so much, we are engaged in a warfare to which there is only one end—the victory of the people (loud applause). The Dukes are not helping their cause by saying that, when the Budget becomes law, they will stop the pensions given to the workers on their estates, that they are going to do with fewer gardeners, that they are going to cut down the wages of their workmen and limit their subscriptions to charities. There has been too much talk about charity as if the workmen live on the charities of the rich. The workmen earn their wages (cheers). They don't live on unearned increment—(applause)— and if every gift the rich man gives to charity is to be regarded as half-justice to the workmen, and that they are all like Lazarus watching the crumbs that fall from the rich man's table, we say, Keep your crumbs, and let us have justice (loud applause). Continuing, Mr. Jones said that the Budget was a demand for money, and if they wanted money, they had to go where there was money. It was no good going where there was no money, and, there- fore, Mr. Lloyd George—(great cheering) Mr. Jones: You do well to cheer him (renewed applause). I have not had a finer sight than that of the Chancellor of the Exchequer—(cheers)—handling financial questions in a most dexterous manner, and out-arguing the lawyers on their own ground with the skill of an expert, and beating every interest opposed to him, and still keeping them in good temper (laughter and cheers). However they talk about him outside the House, they cannot help liking him in the House." WHY THE MONEY IS WANTED. They were all agreed that money was wanted. Fourteen millions were wanted this year more than last year. It was wanted, firstly, for the Navy, and secondly, for Old Age Pensions. He did not know whether anyone could suggest that the money could be better spent. The Tories clamoured for more expendi- ture on the Navy, but he (Mr. Jones) was one of those who believed that too much was already spent on armaments- (hear, hear)—and if the amendments pro- posed on the other side were carried, it was not fourteen millions that would be required. The only way to get money was by revenue, or by borrowing. The latter was the way adopted on the Con- tinent, and Great Britain was alone among the nations of the world in defray- ing her annual expenditure out of her annual revenue (applause). The Budget did not tax necessaries (applause). It did not impose an undue burden upon any one class, and yet every individual in the country had to contri- gute something towards the money re- quired. What were the taxes they pro- posed? They did not tax necessaries, but luxuries. They taxed windfalls and mono- polies (applause). Those were very fit- ting subjects for taxation. Tobacco to some people was a necessary of life, but if they had to choose between taxing tea and sugar, and tobacco, it was a great deal better to put it on tobacco than oh tea. The interesting thing about it was that those who had to pay this tax were the people who grumbled least. The poor people of the country recognised that a nation .required taxation, and that it was only fair they should pay a weekly con- tribution towards it (applause). He was not aware that anyone would say thati whisky was one of the necessaries of life (laughter). The tax unon whisky was a heavy one, amounting to one-halfpenny per glass., but they had no need to pay it if they did not drink whisky (laughter). The revenue, no doubt, would suffer, but the whisky drinker and his family would be better off. He was told that the Scotch were the most thrifty people on earth, and in Scotland there was a marked dimunition in the consumption of whisky. He had been informed that there had not been seen a drunken Scotchman since the 30th of April last (laughter). BUDGET DESERVED IMMORTALITY. The Budget taxed land values. As cities and towns extended into the country, the municipalities expended money on making roads, draining, &c. All the while the people gave, and the owner of what were once rural fieldg now possessed land, the buildings erected upon which had enhanced its value thousands of pounds per acre. The landlord had done nothing towards it. He consented to own the land—(laughter)—and while he slept, or travelled and enjoyed him- self, others were working and others were spending, and Ills property was increasing in Value. Could anything, be fairer than that the State should receive a portion of the increment value which had been created by the people? (Applause). The Budget deserved immortality (loud cheers). For the first time a Chancellor of the Exchequer was found with courage enough —(cheers)—to make the landlords contri- bute something out of what they got for nothing towards the revenue. They heard of spoliation and confiscation. He would not ask the landlords how they came into possession of the land, but in future, if the town created the value of the land, a percentage of that value was to pass into the public purse (annlause). Was the tax on mineral royalties right? (Cries of Yes," and applause). If a small tax of 5 per cent. was going to be a burden on the country, what about the royalty itself? If a tax upon rents was going to ruin agriculture, what of the rents themselves, which were twenty times a greater burden? He maintained it was just and equitable to tax mono- polies, windfalls, and luxuries. The alternative to the Budget was Tariff Reform, which taxed the neces- saries of life and not luxuries. It was, a tax upon industry, not royalties; a tax upon what the people earned, and not upon unearned increments and windfalls. The essentially unfair thing about Tariff Reform was that the burden of taxation would fall ten times heavier upon the poor than upon the rich. Tariff Reform was nothing more than a conspiracy of the rich men against the poor of the country. It taxied them for the benefit of monopolists and landowners. HANDS OFF! LORDS. The speaker then turned to the House of Lords, and said that before the Budget became law there was the question of what would the House of Lords do. (Cries, Down with it "). There could be no doubt, said the speaker, as to the con- stitutional position. The Lords had no right to meddle with the Budget (loud cheers). There was no article in the British Constitution more firmly estab- lished than this. The King and Grown asked for supply, the Commons granted, and the Lords assented to it. Their only function was to say, "Aye, aye, sir," to the Commons. The Lords had never been mentioned in a Finance Bill since the time of Cook and Selden in 1688, and every statesman from those days down to the present day admitted that taxation was the work of the Commons alone. The Tory Party arrogated to them- selves the title of being the constitutional party, but in reality they were the party of revolution. They revolutionised the educational system in 1902 and the licen- sing system in 1904, and now they were going to revolutionise the financial system. (" No, no "). It remained to be seen. There was nothing in the past history of the House of Lords which made one hope- ful. He could not remember a politicflJ mistake that had not been reflected in the House of Lords. If there was a wrong to be defended, it could be done in the Lords. He had no hope, therefore, that they would act wiser on this occa- sion. Mr. Chamberlain advised them to throw the Bill out. He was, perhaps, not a very safe adviser. He did his best to wreck the Liberal Party in 1886 he wrecked the Tory Party in 1906; and perhaps the crowning, achievement of his career would be the wrecking; of the House of Lords (laughter and applause). Then again, there was Lord Rothschild, but he had been very quiet for some time, since Lloyd George had spoken to him as a father (laughter). But he had since broken out. The brewers were also in opposition, and were seeking the offices of Lord Lansdowne to throw out the Bill —and no doubt he would. If he (Mr. Jones) thought only of the future of the Liberal Party, nothing better could hap- pen than that the Lords should throw out the Budget, for he had confidence in the decision of the people (loud applause). But there was another and a more serious issue. THE FINAL ISSUE. How long would the free people of the country endure 520 private gentlemen to maul the laws of the people in the future? (Voice: "Time's up," and cheers). This was an issue in which the people must prevail (loud cheers). Who is to tax the people," asked the speaker in stirring tones, the Commons or the Lords?" (Chorus: "The Commons"). You may differ as to the wisdom of the Budget; you may differ as to the merits of any particular1 tax but as free men, the question I submit is, Will you be taxed by your representatives or by the irresponsibles of the Lords ? and every man will answer that the taxes of the country are a free gift of the Commons of England towards the purposes of the nation." (Loud cheers, during which the speaker resumed his seat). SIR ALFRED THOMAS. M.P. Mr. Balfour alluded to Wales some years ago," said Sir Alfred Thomas, M.P., as too little to be noticed. To-day there was nothing too insignificant that a dis- tinguished son of Wales—(hear, hear)- uttered in the House of Commons upon which Mr. Balfour was not provided with texts for long sermons (laughter, and hear, hear). Liberal statesmen," he con- tinued, had been charged with being incapable of conducting the business of the country. Let them see. In the last three years the Liberal" Government had reduced the National Debt by £ 47,000,(XX), and remitted in taxation j67,500,000 per annum. What had the Conservatives done? In one transaction—the Boer War —they piled up a debt of C250,0,00 000-a burden for which they suffered heavily to-day. Fortunately they were recover- ing from the resultant terrible set-back in trade, and their prospects, were brightening. The extra taxation required this year-16 millions—was a big sum. But it was not a large amount for a wealthy nation—a nation that could spend more than ten times that amount in intoxicants annually. A country that could waste £ 300,0'OO,000' in drinking, gambling, and so-called sports could surely find a twentieth part for Dreadnoughts and old-age pensions (hear, hear). The Budget was worthy of a Christian country. Its chief characteristic was the provision of pensions for nearly a million aged people. The people who complained most bitterly about the Budget were those who had been made rich at the expense of the community. Surely they should be the last people to cry out (hear, hear). They were simply asked to pay a small percentage on the increased wealth that the trading and working community had given them. The way some of the landed proprietors were wailing one would imagine that there was nothing but star- vation in front of them (laughter). The country had not yet realised all the blessings in store for the workers under the Budget. There were Labour Exchanges to be established and casual wards to be abolished (hear. hear). Indus- trial insurance, which made provision against sickness, infirmity, and unemploy- ment, was a great reform, and this alone would be worth all the extra money demanded by the Budget (applause). The more the budget was considered the more contemptible was the opposition offered to its happy consummation (applause). The Budget League resolution Iwas moved by Mr. Cyril Thomas, and seconded l>y the Rey. R, 33, Salmon, and was car- ried without a single dissentient. Votes of thanks to the proprietors of the theatre "were moved by Mr. William Brace, M.P., who had just returned from the other meeting, and enthusiastically endorsed. The overflow meeting at Salem was addressed by Mr. Wm. Brace, M.P., Rev. Daniel Hughes, Pontypool, and Mr. Edgar Jones. Mr. D. Watts Morgan presided.