The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-03-09
THE LONDON ELECTION.

THE LONDON ELECTION.
 So great a political oyerturn as that wrought by the elections to the Lon don County Council on Saturday, was not expected even by those who ar dently desired it, That the Progress sives, with their policies of municipal trading, would meet with a check was pretty confidently counted upon; but no one fcresaw that they would be so nearly crushed and, even with the aid of their hold-over members, would lose control of the council. In the last council they had eighty-three members to thirty-four of the Molerates. Now the figures are practically reversed. The Moderates, or Reformers (they have various names), have elected sev- enty-nine members, while the Progress sives save only thirty-six. This result is one of capital and far-reaching im- portance. It affects not merely the ad- ministration of London, but will have serious political consequences through out the kingdom. Indeed, it will have its influence throughout the English speaking world,
 The Liberals had tied up their for tunes with the London Progressiyes. Hence the great defeat will be taken as solemn warning to the party in pow CT. The Conservative press is already saying that, if there were now to be a general election the Liberals would lose all the seats which they so uneX- pectedly ganed n London last year. Doubtless there os truth n the predic- tion The government will be more on it's guard hereafter. Radical legisla- tion will not be so much in favor. for a time at least. The talk of moving viz or3usly against the House of Lords will probably die down. No prudent minis try could ignore the ominous signii- canoe of so marked a revolt of the elec- tors as that just effected in London.
 Through all the issues of the election there ran one dominant charge-mu- nicipal Socialism, as practised in Lon- don, proving terribly expensive. There were minor allegations. Inefi- ciency and waste were charged, and in some cases proved. Several freak eX- periments, with their ludicrous failures, brought the Progressives into discre1it. They tried to make bricks municipality and turned out an unstable product, Their works department became syn onym for faulty and costly engineering, and unduly expensive construction. Then, too, they ran into absurd ex- tremes. Some of them put out a pro- gramme which included municipal cir r. shops. dairy farms; free traveling for workmen to and from work, municipal coal stores and collieries; municipal farm colonies and municipal clothing factories One bold man stood on platform calling for municipal billiard- rooms. Such extravagent proposals as even the Chronicle, Progressive or- gan, admits, did immense harm to the Progressive cause" But above and be- yond all such questions of theoretio policy stood the practical fact that the financial burden of all this municipal experimenting was becoming greater than the backs Of the taxpayers could bear.
 A good concrete example was offered by the councils fleet of steamboats on the Thames. They have proven nearly dead loss. This was in spite of glow ing prophecies to the contrary No less an authority than Sir E. Cornwall, in his report on the project to the council, stated that the steamboats would bring in a revenue of $45O,OOO a year, For the first nine months they lest $256.O00, and the estimated deficit for l906-7 is $260,- 000 more-all this on capital outlay of S1,500O00. It was not strange that debts and taxes mounted. The French economist, Leroy Beaulieu, has com mented on the extraordinary increase of local indebtedness in England. Bor- rowings often amount to $20O,O0O,OO0 a year. London's debt has climbed up portentiously. And with it the rates have gone soaring. A table worked out by the borough treasurer of Islngton, and printed in R. P. Porter's recent book on "The Dangers of Municipal Ownership" shows startling rote of taxation. It runs, in the various bor- oughs, from thirty to sixty per cent of tho rental value.
 This was undoubtedly the aspect of the matter which had most to do with causing the Progressive upset John Bulls pocket-nerve was at last reached. All the socialistic theories he did not bother his head about; but when he found that their execution was turning out fearfulIy extravagant and burdensome, he said angrily: This has gone too far"' Now that, be 1t remembered is the Anglo-Saxon way. We are naturally weak on logic, and hate with Burke to see 1t carried into politics. The French fashicn of laying down abstract principles and then vigorously deducing and applying every political inference from them, Is not for us. We go by rule of thumb. We try one experiment here, and an other there. approving the one that succeeds, scouting the one that fails. and never admitting the necessity of connecting them all by one logical sys-