Snowden V. Churchill

A frail, twisted figure of a man hobbles into the House of Commons. Doorkeepers pity his crippled body, and portals open as the tapping thump of his two rubber-tipped canes approaches. But statesmen do not pity the Right Honorable Philip Snowden. They respect the power and swiftness of his mind, fear the sting of his unpleasant, rasping tongue. He, as Britain's only Laborite Chancellor of the Exchequer, presented a maiden budget (TIME, May 12, 1924), so clear and masterful that cheers rang from every quarter of the House. Now, since Labor has gone out and Conservatism come in,-- Philip Snowden has rasped and torn at every budget presented by his successor as Chancellor of the Exchequer, big, humorous, dynamic Winston S. Churchill. Therefore, because Chancellor Churchill has just presented his new budget (TIME, April 18) onetime Chancellor Snowden hobbled in last week, like a malignant witch doctor and rapped seering words: "The Chancellor [Mr. Churchill] is a costly luxury. . . and a ghastly failure. . . . "His first/- budget was a rich man's budget, his second-- was that of a profligate bankrupt, and this, his third, is a combination of both with jugglery and deceit added .-- "I believe that the present budget offers us at best but a temporary reprieve by means of artful dodges. . . . I predict that, even if no unforseen events happen next year, the Chancellor [Mr. Churchill] will find himself having to face the country with a deficit. . . ./- Finally, the blame for this deficit will rest upon the Government because of its policy during the coal Ktrike [TIME, May 10 to Nov. 29]." Significance. Behind the Conservative Cabinet supporting Chancellor Churchill is a parliamentary majority so large that the attack of onetime Chancellor Snowden did not even draw a reply last week from the Cabinet Bench. The Government's attitude toward the coal strike, and consequent extra loading of the taxpayer, was pontifically voiced by Chancellor Churchill as follows: "Our role is to apportion the burden, not the blame."

--The Macdonald Labor Cabinet gave way (TIME, Nov. 17, 1924) to the Baldwin Conservative Cabinet.

/-TIME, May 11, 1925. At the time Chancellor Churchill had just re-established the pound on a gold standard, and reimposed the McKenna duties on foreign imports, a reversal of Mr. Snowden's policy, felt by him to advantage chiefly the rich.

-- --TIME, May 3, 1926. This was the famed "coal budget," the alleged "profligacy" of which consisted in expending -L-20,000,000 ($97,200,000) on a subsidy to the coal industry which delayed but did not prevent .the general strike and the coal strike.

-- Presumably referring to a clause in the present Churchill budget making the landlords' property tax payable in yearly instead of half-yearly installments, thus juggling an extra half year's installment into this year's revenues .

/-A sharp dig because Mr. Snowden's own budget went through with a comfortable surplus.