Page:The homes of the working classes and the promises of the Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, M.P.djvu/12

8 property owners, a depression in the property market in Birmingham such as was never before experienced, and the gloomy foreboding of future heavy loss. Under these grave circumstances is it not astounding that, in the face of facts such as have been detailed, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain should again dare to pose as the champion of the working classes? That he, of all other men, should presume, in face of his gigantic failure, to reply to an article by a statesman like Lord Salisbury; that he, in the face of his broken promises, in face of his absurdly ridiculous miscalculation in finance, in face of the sanitary failure which has resulted from the non-provision of dwellings for those destroyed and the consequent overcrowding in other unsanitary areas overcrowding which has rendered such dire diseases as scarlet fever and smallpox chronic instead of epidemic in the town, should publicly set himself up as an authority on the subject is barefaced audacity. In view of all these fallacies, will the working-men of Birmingham again trust their welfare in the hands of one who has so grossly deceived them, who has abused the trust the town of Birmingham reposed in him, broken promises to build artizans' dwellings, solemnly-made promises, on the strength of which the town endorsed the scheme? If ever there were a flagrant case of false pretences it is this, and the only punishment is the arraignment of the pretender at the bar of public opinion, and the withdrawal of the misplaced confidence with which he has been honoured. Mackie & Co., Limited, Printers, London; Works: Warrington.