County Observer and Monmouthshire Central Advertiser Abergavenny and Raglan Herald Usk and Pontypool Messenger and Chepstow Argus

Mr Joseph Chamberlain at Newport. Saturday's meeting in the Tredegar Hall, Newport, was one of the grandest political gatherings ever held in the County of Mon- mouth. This is the opinion of political friend and foe alike. Indeed it was a remarkable sight to see the Hall packed with an audience vitally interested in the matter to be dealt with, horny-handed sons of toil, prejudiced or unbiassed, who had come to listen to one who has, with the British courage which has always brought us victory, sacrificed office and self-interest in order that he might devote himself to the education of the electorate to a I SENSE OF THE NEEDS I of Empire as revealed to him while holding —and holding with incomparable ability- the reins of office as Colonial Secretary. It must be evident to all that Mr Chamber- lain's mission is progressively successful. Wherever he goes flouters of his policy be- come waverers, and waverers enthusiastic converts. It is not to be wondered at that in a town like Newport, with colossal in- dustries within and around its borders, where industrial problems are the problems of a very large proportion of the population, Mr Chamberlain should have been listened to with such keen, intelligent interest; nor is it surprising that the right hon. gentle- o, man, influenced by his surroundings, should have made PERHAPS THE BEiT SPEECH I of his campaign. There could be no doubting the spirit which prevailed, as point after point was made, and was received with the acclamation which demon- strated that the orator had struck home. There was a wonderful sympathy between the ex-Oolonial Secretary and his working- men audience. It was because he showed by his observations a knowledge of their strength as well as of their weakness. He could talk to them as man to man. We commend his speech to the perusal and consideration of all,

[We do not necessarily endorse all our correspondent writes.—ED. OUR TRAIN SERVICE. In another column will be found a letter on our train service from the general manager of the G.W.R. and a reply from the borough member. Mr Inglis's letter cannot be satisfactory read- ing to Monmouth and to Usk, conveying, as it does, the intimation that at the beginning of the year we are to lose a train, and that a most con- venient one to many. It is absolutely dis- appointing. ■ All must thank Sir Joseph Lawrence, M.P., for pointing ant to Mr Inglis that facilities beet trade," and that we have the most beautiful residential district in Britai n, which many would like to avail themselves of if ouly railway com- munication were adequate to the commercial necessities of their case. # Perhaps the railway company will act on the suggestion of providing au auxiliary motor car service. This has been done elsewhere, and no doubt in the course of time these cars will be used to carry passengers short distances, while the trains will be kept on the long distance journeys, Let the company forestall time and commence trial trips on the Usk-Moumouth journey.

|v H^ARCHER&C^i j| GOLDEMRETURHS I REGISTERED I j mM 111,1 u ""i;.t:¡;¡;¡¡r;ilm;¡¡lllltJU iH1h,i facsimile of One-Ounce Packet. Archer's Golden Returns The Perfection of Pipe Tobacco. L COOL. SWEET, AND FRAGRANT.

m mr MR. CHAMBERLAIN AT HUB. w- Grand Meeting in Tredegar Hall. IV DEFINITION OF DUMPING. Half-a-Million Pounds Wages Lost Locally. The Right Hon Joseph Chamberlain, accompanied by Mrs Chamberlain, paid a visit to Newport on Saturday afternoon, and addressed one of the largest political gatherings ever held in the town. They arrived from Cardiff by train about three o'clock, and were met at the station by leading Conservatives. Mrs Chamberlain was presented with a beautiful bouquet of orchids by Mr T. Parry. They proceeded to the Tredegar Hall, leaving the Gold Tops exit to the station, via Mill-street, Shaftes- bury-street, High-street, and Tredegar- place. The carriage was drawn by a number of men, and was preceded by a band playing See the conquering hero comes." The thoroughfares were crowded, and the right ion gentleman was cordially greeted, cheers and the waving of handker- chiefs accompanying his progress. Long before the ti ne for the commence- ment of the meeting, the Tredegar Hall was packed from floor to ceiling. Only men were admitted, and working-men were a very great proportion of the audience, who beguiled the time singing popular and political songs, a band on the platform pro- viding the accompaniments. Then the principal seats on the platform began to be occupied, and ovations were given several well-known and popular gentlemen as they entered. At length the appearance of the Chairman of the meeting, Lord Tredegar, roused the audience to a high pitch of enthusiasm, and, Mr and Mrs Chamberlain following, they were greeted with deafening roars of applause, the audience rising and emphasizing their welcome by the waving of hats, handkerchiefs, and umbrellas, con- cluding with the singing of For he's a jolly good fellow." 15 Among those on the platform were-Lord Llangattock, the Right Hon. H. H. Chaplin, Sir Joseph Lawrence, M.P., Mr Pryce Jones, M.P., Dr Rutherfoord Harris, Sir Arthur Mackworth, Mr A. E. Southall, and Mr r. Butler. LORD TREDEGAR, who was loudly cheered, said he thought they would allow that Newport was receiving a very great honour that afternoon. (Cheers.) They had had on many occasions very great men to address them, but he did not think that they had ever had a greater man than Mr Chamberlain. (Cheers.) They must look at Mr Chamberlain's history, taking him as their late Colonial Secretary —the greatest Colonial Secretary they had ever had. (Cheers.) He had come there that day to explain and expound to Newport people, in that forcible and plain English of which he was such a master the policy which he was trying to educate the country upon by means of a series of great meetings. (Cheers.) They admired in Mr Chamberlain his great talents, his great power of oratory, and his great courage. What was he doing now ? He was going practically alone through the United Kingdom expounding to the electors the policy which he advocated. Ranged against him was all the talent of the Opposition. (A Voice: "They want it, too.") One of the late Prime Ministers was once asked what he most feared, and he replied, I stand in awe of the power of falsehood." On the previous night Mr Chamberlain referred to some of the falsehoods which had been written and spoken about him, but he did not appear to be in the least awe of them. (Cheers.) That was where his great courage came in: he did not stand in awe of even the power of falsehood. After paying a tribute to the working men of the town, his loraship said he was sure every one in the hall would listen with attention to Mr Chamberlain's address. MR. CHAMBERLAIN was enthusiastically greeted when he rose to spgak. When, he said, he accepted, some time ago an in. vitation to speak at Cardiff, he was pressed to come to Newport also. He resisted, (Laughter.) They would, he was sure, excuse him. They would understand that to attend two or three great meet- ings at short intervals was a great strain. He bad to deal with a very complicated and abstruse subject, with facts and figures which required the utmost attention, and all the time he knew that if he made a mistake, were it only of It commcl-(laughter) —there would be scores of critics who, ignorant of everything except commas, would denounce him, and say "See! That is the kind of argument to which you are asked to listen, and you must take this comma in the wrong place as a sample of every- thing else." Thrdore he hesitated to multiply meetings. But when he found that there was a strong wish on the p trt of the working peop'e of Newport to hear something of this griiat matter, and to try and understand how it affected them, he felt that it W'1H impossible any longer to refuse the invitation. (Cheers.) Therefore he was there to ask their attention to a matter which INTERESTED THEM A GREAT DEA" MORE I in one sense than it did him, because their prosperity was entirely dependent upou their coming to a right conclusion upon the poliey which would be placed before them. (Hear, hear.) Lord Tredegar had been kind enough to introduce him in very friendly terms, aud he had said that he was not atraid of the abuse which was lavished upon every body prominent in political life. He was quite right. He was not afraid of it. (Liughter and cheers.) It amused him sometimes, and it bored him very orcen-Chear, hear)-but he always remembered thtt Elstern story of the man who stid that if he stopped at every moment to throw a stone at every dog thtt barked at him he would never get to the end of his journey—(laughter)—so he did not stop often to notice the attacks that had been made upon him. (Laughter and cheers), fie continued —Take it for granted, gentlemen, that I am the worst of men —laughter)—and that being accepted, then proceed to consider the arguments which I ahull address to you, aud whica must be absolutely independent of the character of the man who uses them. Now I havo twu objects which I want to recommend to you. In the first place, I am anxious to secure more employment for the people of this country- (cheers)-and, in the second place, I am anxious to secure a closet, more complete union between this country aud the sons whom she has sent across the seas. Those are the two objects THE TWO MAIN OBJECTS of this great agitation, and you will find that they are closely counected. But let us, in the first place, clear the way. When I propose a reform [ expect that the first argument of my opponents will be that no reform is necessary. I am not lisappointed. Every speaker on the other side tells you that the country never was so rich; never was so much income-tax paid never were there so many cheques passed through the c; =: I Clearing-house never was there sach a satisfactory state of affairs with regard to the condition of the working men and that if you would only get rid of a certain pestilent ex-Colonial Secretary- (laughter) —why. then you might be happy ever afterwards and you would have nothing to wish for. (Laughter.) I don't know whether you ever heard of the lidy who complained to her housemaid that there were spiders' cobwebs on the ceiling. The housemaid said, That is not my fault: it is the nasty sun which is always i-howing up the dark corner." (Laughter.) Well, if you are satisfied, if you don't mind cobwebs, there is no place for me. If you think that everything is for the best in the beat of all possible worlds, that we have reached the conclusion of all reform and all change, and can afford to stand still while all the rest of the world is moving, I might as well sit down. But I do not believe it, and I know some- thing of the working men as well as thoee people who talk about them, but who have never lived among them or spoken to them, or reilly put themselves into any kind of sympathy with them. Now, I ARE WE SO PROSPEROUS? (Cries of "No.") I do wi,h that some of my opponents—Mr Asquith, for instance, seems to have had a brief-he is the leading counsel in this case against all reform—and I wish he would spare a little time, and would attempt to answer some of his own colleagues. I would like him to begin with Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. Remember, here is Mr Asqnith telling us that you cannot improve your situation, that everything is so prosperous and -o satisfactory that really it is almost wicked on the part of anybody to suggest an amendment, and here Sir Henry Campbell- Bannerman goes down to some phce in the North of England and says that there are one-third of the population of this country who are underfed and on the verge of hunger. Thirteen or fourteen millions of people, according to Sir Henry Campbell-Banuerman, are on the verge of hunger, and yet everything is for the best. Now. ever since Sir Henry Campbell-Banuerman made that statement he has been trying to wricrgle out of it. He used it for his owu purpose in order to create a prej udice against me and in order to be able to say, Here are these thirteen millions actually on the verge of a precipice, and here is Mr Chamberlain who is going to add to the cost of their living, and to shove them over the precipice." That is what he wished to say. but he has very often forgotten that there are two sides to an argument of that kind. Whether I am going to push them over or not I will come to later, but in the meantime, if there be thirteen millions of people to whom such a trifle as one-eighth of a penny upon a two-pound loaf would make all the difference between living and starvation, then I say there is something rotten in the state of Denmark and it is time for some one to put it right. (Cheers.) It doesn't matter to me whether they be thirteen millions or whether they be three millions. It is quite enough to know that in this country, in which we are told that everything is so prosperous, there are still so large a number, counted by mil ions, of our fellow-citizens and fellow-creatures in THIS DEPLORABLE CONDITION. Then our opponents have a second statement to make. They say, Oh, yes, that is true, but it is their own faulc. It is due to their idleness, their i thriftlesaness, or their drunkenness." It is very eaiy from a comfortable position to denounce those who have never had the same advantage. I don't doubt that drunkenness and thriftlesqness are great evils, and that many people suffer from their own fault; but I know—1 have had experience enough to kmw—that all these things are con- nected; that drunkenness, for instance, is not always a ciuae but is sometimes a consequence. If you take a man in constant employment at good wages, and take that employment from him at middle age, he can find no other employment, and he drops into the class of the casual worker, and gradually finds himself sinking further and further. Do you wonder that sometimes he takes to drink in order to fjrget his misery? For myself I should never be satisfied until in this country there is full employment at fair wages for every decent, honest, and industrious man. (Loud cheers.) Work is taken from you working men of the United Kingdom in two ways. In the first place by the hostile tariffs of foreign natious, who, when you are sending the product of your labour into their country, having probably some special aptitude for the work which you send, close their doors, shut you out, by a tariff which amounts to from 20 to 100 per cent., with the deliberate object of preventing you under any circumstances from gaining work and employment on goods which are to be imported into their country. Then, in the second place, YOCR WORK IS BEING TAKEN FROM YOU at home by the constant import in continually increasing quantity of the goods you make here. Very well now, take the tariff. You are being shut out from business which you nave done in the past and which you c-juld do in the future by foreign countries, and when you appeal to them they take no notice. They sav "'You have nothing to offer us in return. We think it to our interest to keep our trade for ourselves, and you must be content with the advantages which you think you derive from your system of free imports." VHry well, its *we stand at present we have to take that answer. I refuse to take ir. (Loud cheers.) I would Hay to these gentlemen All right; you shut us out of your markets, we will shut you out of ours if you don't like it, there is room for a bargain." You must meet these people on their own ground. Then you are told, •' Oh, but that would mean a traiE war, and what would liappe)19-till th.se Great Powers would attack ns." Poor little England, poor little Great Britain we should be bea'en in the war, we should be worse off than before, everything that is bad would happen to us. I am impatient at this cowardly doctrine. These people are always afraid of something they are always running out of the ring and throwing np the sponge. I don't believe in any tariff war, and if there wei-e a war, well, I suppose we could get out of it, as well as we have done on other occasions. Why should there be a war? What is our experience ? 1 tell you that WHENEVER Wg HAVE HAD THE COURAGE to hold our own, we have always had very satisfactory results. This country and the Colonies have been for thirty years sufferers by the abominable bounty system. In the case of sugar the result of these bounties and the treatmeut received by us has been that our West Indian Colonies have been nearly ruined. One of the greatest and most promising industries of this country—the industry of sugar refining—has been practically strangled. For thirty years statesmen, Liberal as well as Conservative, have protested against this state of things, and we have made representations to other countries, we have tried to imp; ess them with the fact that it was not in their interest, we have tried to tell them that it. was not, fair to us, we made representations of all kind. and for thirty years we failed. At the end of the thirty years we said: "Look here. we are getting tired of this, and if you don't stop we will put a heavy duty upon your sugarand the thing has gone. No tariff war! That is one case. You know the story of how our great Colony, Canada, gave us a preference of 33 1.3 per ceut., and Germany resented that preference. They would put a stop to such a thing at once. So Germany penalised Canada and! placed her under a less favourable scale. Well, Canada is not so much afraid of fighting as some of my opponents are. Canada met it by clapping an additional duty upon German produce. I know who got the worst of that. But then German newspapers began to threaten. "This won't do," they said; if Canada is allowed to give this advantage too British industries, we shall have South Africa doing it next." Well, they have done it. "Then," said they, "we shall have the Australian Colonies doing it." Well, New Zealand has done it. and others are going tn follow. Germany would penalise the United Kingdom. All this was in the German papers. Well, some remarks were made by a gentleman who was then a member of the Government—(cheers, and a Voice: And will be again" )—and the Germans were warned that they could not play this game with impunity. Who has heard since a single word about any further penalisation ? (Loud cheers). I could give you. other instances, but surely that is enough. We are not so weak, we are not so poor that we have to accept whatever these gentlemen please to give us. (Cheers.) Now, WHAT IS DUMPING? Any kind of fair competition of which I have spoken, which results from this—that foreigners have better opportunities, are more intelligent, or have any other advantage which enables them fairly to compete with us— does not constitute dumping. That is not the thing of which we complekin. We must try to hold our own against all fair competition. Dumpings is where there is importation of articles into this country at prices below their cost, below the natural cost of the article itself,and intended-after a time at any rate-to destroy, by this unfair com- petition, our trade. That is the dumping against which we protest and which never can take place in a protected country. We are the only free country that admits these clumped goods, and we become in consfquenoe the dumping ground and the dust heap of all Europe and America. They can afford to dump because it does not cost them anything; but we, who have to take the dumped goods-it costs us our employment, our profit, our trade. (Obeerfr, and a voice: c. Let us alter it; it is time.") Now,. Mr Asquith said the other day, Suppose there is some dumping done by the foreign country. It ia at a loss, and can't go on for ever." But that is pretty poor comfort. I don't suppose I can hold Mr Asquith's head nnder water for ever, but I can hold it there long enough to drown him. (Loud cheers and laughter.) Those gentlemen don't understand the A B C of business. Had they never heard the business motto, It is the quanfity that pays." What does that mean ? If you can make a thousand articles and sell them for a pound at a profit-if then you can make a thousand articles more, ft second thousand, you can make and sell for perhaps- 15s or 16s, because the first thousand had paid for all your administrntive charges. And therefore if an American or German, having a demand for a thousand articles at home, sells them for a pound in his own country he can very well afford to increase his work, to make a thousand more articles, and sell them for 16s in this country, where we can only make them for 20s. That is the explanation. But then it is said, c, Why don't you make 2,000 articles, and then you would make as cheaply as the Germans." It is because we are not so big—our market is not so large. We have only our own market, they have THEIR OWN MARKETS AND OUB3 TOO. Here is the case of America, for instance. In America they have their own market of eighty millions of people from which we are absolutely shut out. They have a free market of fortv-two millions of people in the United Kingdom. Thay have 122 millions that they can supply under our condition of free trade. The Germans have a population of between fifty and sisty millions, and they have ou r market of forty-two millions. They have. there- fore, a free market of ninety-two millions, while we have only forty-two millions. I am not speaking now of our colonies or neutral markets, but taking only our own markets, we have a permanent dis- advantage as long as we are shut out from any possibility of sending our goods to foreign countries and they are admitted freely into ours. During 1903. Mr Chamberlain explained, 250,000 tons of steel had been dumped in Newport and South Wales. This represented a loss in wages of half a million sterling. You will have lost in 1903 in this district of South Wales XioO,000 worth of wages. I ask on all these occasions, where does the individual eome in? What becomes of the men who lose their employment ? They are always supposed, on the happy-go-lucky theory of Mr Asquith, to find other employment. Well. they do not. In many cases the ouly employment they find is at the workhouse. In other cases they emigrate. In others they go into inferior employment. The other day I had a story told me by a railway servant, and it seemed to me rather pathetic. Ho was at a station near Birmingham, and he saw three men unloading trucks, and the trucks contained German wire. As he passed one of the men said, "This is rather hard. We used to make these." These were men who had been in Birmingham or elsewhere as wire makers. They formerly got good wages, and had acquired a special aptitude, but THEY LOST THEIR EMPLOYMENT. and then, according to Mr Asquith's beneficent theory, they have been transferred to other employ- ments, being now engaged like common labourers— all their skill thrown away and no longer of the slightest advantage to them, as they worked at un- loading German wire. Who profits bv this ? Look how this business affects the shipping industry. Mr Asquith would say that it affects them to some ad- vantage. Here is this dumping of steel coming into Newport, and they have the freight. Havo they ? Mr Lysaght has told me in a letter he has been good enough to address to me that he has gone into the question, and found that of the steel dumped into his works 63 per cant. coma in foreign vessels. (A. voice: "So it does.") I am told that the shipping trade of Wales has increased enor- mously in tha last few years. But is that the only thing to look at? Take this, and see if it does not contain a warning to every shipowner in South Wales. In the course of the last six years the net registered tonnnge of foreign ships entering South Wales ports increased 1,700,000 tons, aO.1 mean- while the British registered tonnage decreased 10011,000 tons. The British is deoreasinir, the foteign is increasing. And yet all is well Onjy & a day or two before I came here I received a telegram from the Hon, Mr Wise, the Attorney- Gt-neral in the Federal Government of Australia, and in this telegram he says that in twelve yenrs the British imports into Australia have declined £ 22 200,000, although foreign imports have increased £ 4,100,000. Therefore, you are not even safe in your colonial markets unless you can make such arrangements with the will senure British trade in Imperial markets. Then I come to one more point. We are told by some speakers on the other side that the whole of my policy rests on the assumption that the colonies will meet us half way. They say that the colonies will not respond to our appeal. Gentlemen that is a slander upon the colonies. It is absolutely untrue. Not a day passes th.t I have not lately received resolutions from boards of trade, from manufacturers' associations, and from meetings, and private letters from statesmen and others, approving of the policy that we are- that I am—proposing to you, and assuring me of reciprocal support. When our sons and our kinsmen who hnve helped us in our straits, who have given us in our tima of need not only the material assist- ance which we desired, but have I GIVEN US THAT MORAL SUPPORT which nil others denied to us—when they come fo us and say, "Lat us draw closer together the sympathy that exists, the affection that is with us both, let us make a material tie, let us biud our- selves—aye,as Yorkshire and Lancashire, are bound to M.ddlesex and Surrey, so let Australia aud Canala be bound to South Africa, to the Un t'd Kingdom."—when they say this will you turn your backs upon h.? (Crips of "{1.) No, we sha'l meet them at least half way. We h 11 m et thf.m not in a peddling and huckstering spirit, quarrelling with them about farthings when the existence of the Empire is at stake we shall meet them in the spirit they would show to us, we shall grasp the hands that they offer to as across the seas.