El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-07-20
Conservative Party Most
Prominent Factor In England
XV.-THE BRITISH CRISIS.

Z ONDON, Eng, July 2O.-The Brit
L ish constitutional system recOg-
- nizes political parties as neces-
sary factors in the machinery Of gov
eminent. In the United States, the con-
stituttau and the theory Of government
utterly ignore the existence or neces
sity of political parties. Yet as mat
ter of fact the parties in England,
where they are part of the cOnstitu-
tiOnal machinery, are not so compact
~ organized and sharply defined as
they are in the United States, where
| they are unknown to the letter OF the
fundamental law and where the fOun-
ders of the republic endeaVOred TO pre-
vent their institution.
The Conservative party in Great Brit
ain boasts of no such organization as
the Republican and Democratic par
ties in America have developed. There
IS no national committee, with its sub
sidiary and contributing provincial and
local committees There is no party
authority in the sense that we know
it in America. There is no boss. Such
thing as organizing for the capture
of a primary election or a preliminary
caucus is not known. But lest the
reader should get the notion that Brit
ish politics is pure as snow while
American politics Is rotten with cor
ruption it is well to remind him that
the British political leaders need none
of those American inventions for con-
trolling, and perhaps perverting, the
public will.
Selecting Candidates.
The people of England never have
had, either in practice or theory, any
thing to say in the selection of party
candidates for parliament. Therefore
Ia 1n- hna +oly
traordinary means to control the people
The candidates are selected by group
of men higher up, the constituency ac-
cepts the choice without question, even
when the proposed candidate never has
SO much as visited the constituency
Give either American party a system
so simple, and lot Of voters so tract
able, and there will be no need for
bosses and rings and machines in the
United States.
The Conservative party, TECHNICALLY, is
| made up Of two principal groups, the
Conservatives proper and the Liberal
Unionists. The party as a whole is
| called the Tory by its enemies. and for
the most part is referred to as the
Unlon1st party by its friends. The name
Conservative is gradually dropping out
Of use in England. The Conservatives
proper are the old line Tories and the
Lioeral UnlonlstS In the beginning
were those Liberals, such as Mr.. Cham
berlain, who bolted the Liberal party
! because of Mr.. Gladstones advocacy of
Irish home rule. These boiling Lib
erals, % years ago, were unwilling to
give up their old party name, so they
added TO II the word 'Unionist' to
signify their loyalty to the union be-
tween Great Britain and Ireland Be
cause or the more cOnciliatOry sound OF
the word "unionist," many Tories OF
the old line type adopted the name.
But In actual practice, at the present
time, while there is a distinction he
tween Conservatives and the Liberal
Unionists there is no difference Only
| one of the London newspapers con.
sistently indicates the division.
Organized Cor1rol.
The party organization is controlled
entirely by the leading men of the
Conservative faith in the two houses
or parliament, Just as the political ma
chinery in the United States before
ADVENT OF Andrew Jackson was con-
troled by the party leaders in con-
gress The Conservative party has no
definite authoritative general organi-
cation 1t does its work through the
National Union Of Conservative and
Constitutional Associations. assisted
by the ultra-Tory Primrose League"
and Mr.. Chamberlain's Tariff Reform
league The work OF these organi-
| cations is confined practically to what
is known in America as publicity and
speakers's bureau work The National
Union arranges lists of appointments
for speakers, furnishes political state
ments to the press and acts as the lit
erary bureau for the Tory party.
Their Methods Differ.
The American custom of sending out
hundreds of thousands of dollars worth
Of printed matter at the expense of
the party committee, often under the
frank of some obliging member of con-
gress, would shock a British party
worker to DEATH Literature Of all
kinds, including posters, leaflets, pam
phlets and books, is used in Great
Britain on a caIe~never dreamed of in
the United States But the queerest and
oldest feature OF the business is, in the
estimation OF an American, thai the
National Union not only does not fur
nish this literature free, but charges
enough for it to make an actual profit
above all campaign expenses The can
didates in the various constituencies
and the people, buy leaflets and post
| ers and pamphlets from the National
! Union.
During the last campaign the Ma
tional Union sold such a great GUAM
tfty of literature that. at a small profit