Evening Star Newspaper, April 7, 1929, Page 33

(Continued From Third Page.) first Labor government wanted to 'in- * gmgurate a four-day week, but the Lords k council among themselves and re- plied that “it appears preferable to find any extra time which may be requirsd by an e of the sitting on three days week on which the House now sits than by adding a fourth day . . Ji is not unreasonable,” they con- cluded heroleally, “that the \ House of Lords w] out of existence ride should be prepared to sit normally until | gove: prepar 8 o'clock when the amount of #0 requires.” " Av the House meets about 4 in the afteérnoon, which allows time for a siesta at the club or in the library after lunch, with the old port and a cigar, the Lords can y complain they are sweated. But they do complain that they are treated as if they already had ceased to exist. The late Marquis Curzon, magnificent, pompous, able, an eight- eenth century great noble born by some mischance into the twentieth century, arose one day in wrath because the Commons would throw bills into the Lords at the last minute, making proper and dignified examination impossible. He demanded that all business should be in their lordships’ hands by 6:15 .m. (which would at least allow their lordships three-quarters of an hour with the bills before it was time to go and dress for dinner). “We cannot go on quibbling here,” eried the outraged marquis, “while they are discussing what their Irish policy is —if they have one,” he added crush- ingly . . . “A distinguished man in an- other place used the term ‘patient oxen' in reference to another party. That is the way we are treated here” . . . Not a Ripple Caused. In another century these words would have caused a sensation, but now they did not even make a ripple upon the | P¢ complacent surface of the busy Com- mons. Down there they went on de- bating and examining bills in commit- tee and shouting at one another across the benches and telling stories in the smoking room and intriguing in the lobbies, and no one worried about this other in the Lords at all. Once a cabinet minister said scorn- fully as he dined late with a crony at his club: “Lords? What do we care for | lords? We make 'em. Two a penny.” “Come, come,” chided his friend. “You speak loosely. Not two a penny, or even one a penny. The price of peerages is high. You people have manipulated the market disgracefully.” This was in the days of the coalition government, when Mr. Lloyd George's party chest was bulging with the gold extracted from the fat coffers of whisky distillers, brewers, newspaper magnates 2nd heavy industrialists, whose desire to be ennobled the wily Welsh radical was always prepared to gratify at a price ranging from $100,000 to $500,000. Battles between the Lords and Com- mons have been frequent in the long story of the mother of Parliaments. Even when the Commons were strong in power and temper, the Lords haughtily kept the great statesman and crator, Burke, waiting three hours with the bill he was bearing from the lower to the upper chamber. Burke waited, but reported the indig- nity to his fellow Commons, who were 80 indignant that they unanimously re- jected the next bill the Lords sent down. The Speaker threw it on the floor and a crowd of members kicked it to the door of the House, and out. Intrenched in Their Right. Intrenched in their right to veto, the peers could afford to laugh at these ebullitions of the lower house. They packed the ministries and often headed them. Even the old radical, Gladstone, had to dress his cabinets, which so alarmed the die-hard Queen Victoria, with a good showing of Lords. But by the time the nineteenth century turned the corner into the twentieth, the tide of democracy was already lapping the outer moat of the Lords’ house, and 10 years Jater it crashed against it in a tidal wave of irresistible force. The wave was rolled up by the long- standing quarrél over home rule for Ireland. The Lords would have none of it. Asquith vowed he would make 600 new peers in order to secure the requisite majority in the upper cham- ber. He could plead a precedent. When the Lords in 1832 rejected the first great bill for the extension of the franchise, which ushered in the era of democracy, ‘William IV, alarmed by riots and blood- shed and the prospect of & popuiar rising and civil war, forced the Lords hands by threatening to make new peers to pass the measure if their lord- ships would not do so. Their lordships capitulated. But over Ireland the Lords were adamant. So were the Liberals in power. The ding-dong struggle went on for two years. The peers used the weapons of social favor and obstacles, and lost; the Liberals fought a couple of general elections, and won. Lloyd George solved the constitutional crisis by suggesting that the peers could buy off the threatened assault upon their order and chamber by agreeing te yield their. ancient right to veto measures passed by the Commons. 8o the Lords were left in hereditary possession of their House, but with their teeth forever drawn. After the passage of the Parliament act any bill sent up from the Commons became law auto- matically after a certain lapse of time, whether or not it had been thrown out by the Lords. Weakening Gives Alarm. ‘The weakening of the upper chamber pleased all liberal-minded men then; it alarms them now. It may be a boom- erang when a Labor government swings into power with & program of natnional- ization. At its best the House of Lords, not being under the necessity of offer- ing bribes to voters or dering to the crowd, has rescued nation from some tight corners. For example, more than a centun;fio they did battle with the cynical and wily coalition of Fox and North and defeated an astonishing bill the purpose of which was to place so much patronage in the t | House, middle peerage, of sympathetic war lords already in the H sat in grotesque state in the of the front bench and held the Labor fort. Meantime the Lords ere being at- of the peeresses in their own right are —th the Commons there i¢ no logical rea- son—save their lordships’ innate con- servatism—why they should not be in the House of Lords. But this is a matter for the Lords alone to settle, and so far—thanks mainly to Lord Birkenhead's trenchant and at times savage oratory—the bills which Lord Astor has brought in for the admission of peeresses have been defeated. An Old-Time Defeat. There is one recorded occasion—two | centuries ago—on which peeresses | closed with the lords on this issue and defeated them handsomely. An im- | portant debate was due, and it was unanimously resolved that women be excluded and the gallery reserved for the sole use of the Commons. This annoyed certain politically minded resses. Lady Huntingdon, the Duchess of Queensbury, the Duchess of Ancaster, the Duchess of Westmoreland, Lady Cobham, Lady Charlotte Edwin, Lady Archibald Hamilton, Lady Saunderson and one or two others presented them- selves at 9 o'clock at the door of the | House of Lords. 'They were met by Sir Willlam Saunderson, who respect- fully informed them that the chan- | cellor had made an order against their admittance. “The Duchess of Queensbury.” says Lady Mary Willlam Montague, de- scribing the incident, in a letter dated 1738, “pished at the ill breeding of a mere lawyer, and desired Sir Willlam to let them up the stairs privately. After some modest refusals the guardian of the door swore by that he would not let them up. Her grace, with a noble warmth, answered by G—— they would come in, in spite of the chancellor and the whole House.” This being reported, the Lords resolved to starve them out, and an order was | made that the door should not be ;opened until the siege was raised. The ladies. kept on till 5 o'clock, “every mow and then flinging volleys of thumps, kicks and raps against the door, with so much violence the voices of the speakers were often drowned.” At last the duchess, who had some knowledge of military stratagems, com- manded silence for half an hour. The stratagem was successful. The chancellor thought they had gone (the Commons had been kept waiting and were impatient to enter) and ordered the doors opened. Then the foe rushed in, pushed' aside competitors and oc- cupled the front row of the gallery, where they stayed until 11, when the Lords rose. During the debate “they approved or showed marks of dislike, not only by smiles and winks . . . but by noisy laughs and apparent con- tempts,” thereby putting several of the more nervous peers out of their stride when they got up to speak. Oceasion for Peerages. It is hard for an Englishman to imagine an England without its auguss House of Lords and the periodical im- pressive pageantry of the state open- ing of Parliament by the Kin E Tt‘;ll: is the only occasion on W hemdluryupeerlges we‘:rd '.‘I:;ix t.l{:llll' habiliments, accompan ladies, tiara’d m& coroneted, with fur Wraps over evening gowns. the scarlet-and-gold, Tg:y poec marshals and collars and stars of the various orders of knighthood, they gather in the great central chamber, with the purple wool- sack, the lord chancellor's seat, in the center and the great state thrones under gilded canoples at the south end. They sit in order according to the dates of their creation—the dukes near- est the throne, the marquises and earls next, viscounts and barons in a jumble with the spiritual peers and the war lords. White and gold bars, striping | the crimson robes back and frent, indi- cate the wearer’s rank—two for barons and viscounts, three for an earl, three and a half for a marquis, four for a duke. ' The bishops don't sport , but have larger hoods. The judges wear black robes embroidered in gold. A stir. ‘The rustle of a thousand robes and voices still abruptly. - Scarlet-and- gold men in plumed helmets and long white gauntlets appear, the gentlemen- at-arms heralding the procession pre- ceding the sovereign down the great corridor between the King’s robing room and the Lords’ chamber. Lord Chancellor’s Position. Now, preceded by mace-bearers, comes the first man who really means some- thing in terms of power, the lord chan- cellor, head of the judiciary, with much patronage in his pocket, carrying the ‘mll-n‘tml of England in a gorgeous sachet. 3 Finally, behind the sword of state and the crown and emblems of royalty, come the xln‘. and Queen, pacing slowly in robes of crimson velvet, starred with of black fur, their trains of the government of the day that | uniform it would be able to buy off Hague Peace Conference. But for that obstruction England would have found herself, on the out- break of war, committed to the doc- trine that the flag covers the goods and the British sea le hold on Ger- g £ : E8..258 o it 3 fiil g s 4 e : E i : g H g tacked from another quarter. Severa:|their St § §§Eg§ feled i it Lords, but it must pass, Even as a show lzrl:.' chronism. A new 15 pening ol coches anthe ‘High d brig coaches on the ways an an- tines on the ocean routes. Court Deals Blow To Theater Claquers A severe blow has just been dealt the ancient theatrical institution of the claque, which is the band of hard- boiled gentry who for a consideration applaud enthusiastically the operatic efforts of those who have provided the consideration. No one in Italy objects to the plaudatory aspects of the claque, but the courts have frowned on the more potent practice of claquers, con- sisting of boos and catcalls for per- formers who fail to engage their serv- ices at an extortionate price. The appellate court of Rome has up- held u:‘ ‘f,‘,“;mfie, um years nx;d four mont jail im upon Giuse De Micheli, self-acknowledged hndpgg the claque at Palermo in Sicily. De Micheli collected money from artists scheduled to appear at the Politeama Garibaldi theater there. Some of the artists refused to engage the services of the De Michell claque and were thereupon informed that they would not be permitted to perform in any Si- cilian theater. ¥ The threatened artists obtained De Micheli’s arrest and conviction. The head claquer argued that the claque was a century-old institution and that he himself had been head of the Palermo claque for 25 years, earning his livelihood thereby. The court was un- move. by this vested interest and De glchell is bound to serve his jail sen- o sible for ON YOUR AN ARDLESS OF BED, SIMMONS GUARANTEED green ‘walnut Egs H ix A Ohio Politicians Surprised. Also, it is the curiosity of Ohio that its political world consists of what you might call & number of principalities, ruled by its own political duke like & medieval state. W these political dukes get ther Ohio traditionally swings in the direction they into exciting notice in unlemniz;he calcula- tions of the dukes and at gth becom- i.nsa duke himself. y 1898 he was already a member of the State committee. He was one of those men, then young in years and g:lmu. ‘whose tions were in- med by T. R. In 1903, when T. R. was looking for the indorsement of the Ohio State Convention, only Brown's “regularity” and his devotion to Hanna revented him from throwing all he had to the Roosevelt movement. Hanna, a year in advance, was investigating the Emhbumeu of the coming convention. jobody then knew who was Hanna's candidate for President, and Hanna died without ever revealing it to any one. But Roosevelt wanted a resolution in- dorsing his own candidacy put through the coming Ohio State Convention. na was opposed to that resolution. “Do I get your vote against it?” he said to Brown. “Yes,” Brown answered. “But it's a mistake. Roosevelt has the imagination of the people. He will be elected.” Brown was one of those who shortly after met with Hanna when, at 3 o'clock W YC LD SUITE O QONDITION. SPRING $17.50 GUARANTEED 90 - COIL and years to the Toledo Humane Society, of which he was president, and to work for the children’s home. On the river bank near Toledo he hen enough of | mee! dens, ane flock of white Wyandotte chickens. He fancies himself (and with some reason) as a try Hoover wired come and Commerce, he just couldn’t leave his incubators, where a new hatching was due in a few days. In short, Brown, politician new style, has other means of support and many other interests than politics. Yet poli- tics retained its fascination. Go back once more to 1906. v Foraker had been pretty rough in his methods. That sts alliance, still remembered among Ohioans, between Burton (now Senator), Harry Daugh- erty (now out) and R. F. Wolf, news- per publisher, led a revolt against raker. Brown, “the regular,” was in- dependent of that coalition and stuck to_Foraker. By the one vote of a man well known in Ohio politics, Duke Morris Maschke of the twenty-first district, Brown won the chairmanship of the State conven- tion of 1906. Joined Taft Forces. this is just preliminary to All big episode of 1908. Foraker, Many reasons why your FURNITURE Should be bought here! oor leader for Harding. Johnson Refused Post. We all remember those wild days and nights of the Chi convention, with H&lfll Johnson in the midst of it like a time fuse whose explosion point no one guess. Brown asked him to take the nomination for the vice presidency. “Sing your siren song to some one else!” Johnson replied—and fate was I.hx;t e n-nl Calvin Coolidge’s success as sal Harding went ‘back to Washington. The last thing Brown said to him was, “See Hoover.” i ‘ ‘There were not many Republican liticlans then who'were clearly l})ecu- mlnl about the ces of the woman vote and the future possibilities of the poltiical choices of the late food administrator under Wilson. Brown came shortly afterward to Washington himself to work with the cabinet as chairman of the joint con- nal committee on reorganization. He had refused Hoover's offer of an assistant secretaryship. He did not refuse Hoover's renewed offer in 1927. For again he was looking along what, to him, was a clearly lighted path. Now all this story and many others which might be told are reminiscent | {lluminations of what seem to the public to be a natural appointment of a lead- ing litical lleutenant to the leading! administration political post. We remember that the Postmaster General heads up an organization of 360,000 employes. We remember that the President, at his recommendation, has the power of appointment to all post offices of the first, second and third | class—15,689 in all. ‘We observe that Brown was one of the lot of unless For he intends to THE SEDGEWICK 1722 Nineteenth Street Northwest This new and modern fireproof apartment house just completed and ready for occupancy 1 Room, Alcove Diner, Kitchen and Bath 2 Rooms, Alcove Diner, Kitchen and Bath 3 Rooms, Alcove Diner, Kitchen and Bath ELECTRIC REFRIGERATION OPERATED ON HOUSE METERS ALL BATHS TILED AND EQUIPPED WITH SHOWERS P SEE RESIDENT MANAGER Apt. 111 or SWARTZELL, RHEEM & HENSEY CO. 727 Fifteenth Street Northwest $219 4-Piece BEDROOM SUITE 12 Large size 2 French vanity, your el t drawe grained genuine walnut veneers. First construetion. THIS $30 CASH ALLOWANCE OFFER IS AN EXAMPLE OF PEERLESS LEADERSHIP. It's just like getting a “top price” for your old furniture before buying new pieces. 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