Mr. S. F. Edge and Tariff Reform.
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Mr. S. F. Edge has given yet another evidence of his versatility by his appearance on the 9th instant at Reigate as a supporter of Captain Rawson, the Conservative candidate. In it relnarkably pithy speech, throughout which each point was driven home in a straight and telling manner, Mr_ Edge raised the packed hall to an enthusiasm seldom to be seen in the quiet Surrey town. Many of the townspeople were unable to gain admittance to the building, and hundreds lined the approaches and corridors. A number of the opposite party did their best to prevent the speakers from being heard, but Mr. Edge's powerful voice, forceful personality, and sympathetic manner ensured for him an attentive hearing, punctuated only by occasional interruptions. At the outset of his remarks he touched upon our great foreign trade and mercantile marine, our export of woollen goods, and our glass and silk trades,
Coming to the question of the motorcar, he pointed out that he was a large employer of labour. ("Ah !' and boos.) He had worked his way right up from the bottom. (Loud cheers.) For many, many years he worked for other people only, but was now working for himself. He had built up in this country a great business in motorcars. His firm had a particular speciality, not made at present abroad, and there was a demand for them abroad, but he was met by this statement : " You have to erect factories in our country, or else Protection will kill you." In America 45 per cent. duty was charged on motorcars, and it came to this—that they could manufacture cars in America and send them to this country at a cost very little, if any, more than they could be produeed by British labour at home. (Shame.) Laying down works out of this country at once diminished the labour at home. It mattered little to him as a capitalist —("Oh!")—where the cars were made, bul it made all the difference to the working men. (Applause.) He contrasted the condition that prevailed sixty years ago, when we had a monopoly of steam power, with that of the present time, and declared that, from trade unionist returns, whereas in this country six trade unionists out of every ion were out of employment, in Germany only one out of 100 was similarly placed. In conclusion, he made an eloquent plea on behalf of fiscal reform, declaring that the great object of the Unionist party was to put the British workman in a better position than he had ever been before. (Applause.)