The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-05-24
Nobody Knows Just Where the King
of Great Britain
Stands In
Politics.
ALL SIDES CLAIM HIM
There Seems to be no Way Of Fig
uring Out Toward Which
Party He is
Leaning.

! by Ed. l.. Keen, London correspon
dent of the United Press.]
LONDON, May 23,-King George has
his subjects guessing. HIS grandmotn
or was a pronounced whig: his father
was a borad-minded liberal, and sym
pathetic toward home rule; his wife
! couldn't be anything but a tory;
George is mystery. In the present
political turmoil, in which the democ
racy and the aristocracy are each
striving to enlist the sympathdes Il
not the active support OF the monarch
he has managed with amazing skill
and despite the fierce light that is
now beating with unusual intensity
upon the throne, to keep his real sen.
timents concealed Theoretically, &C
cording to the British constitution
the king has no politics. Upon this
basis George is undoubtedly the most
constitutional monarch Great Britain
ever had.
With equal positiveness and ap.
parently with equal show of authority
conservatives and liberals each have
baen claiming him for their own-but
they haven't produced the proofs.
George Bernard Shaw says he is q
syndicalist. but that is just G. B. SIS
ways Of expressing his belief that
the king is the rankest kind Of a
tory. Whether he is personally for
ar
against any OF the various progress
sive measures of the present liberal
government to which he has given
his Official approval, no one knows
except perhaps the members Of the
cabinet, and they are bound not to
tell, under the oath of secrecy which
places all discussions with the SOW
erign outside the public ken until his
death. The fact that he will give
the royal assent to the home rule
bill is no indication that he is not at
heart unfonfst. For a great many
years the British people have not CON.
sidered 1t good form for their king 10
veto an act OF parliament, and Georgs
is not the sort of monarch to frac-
ture precedents with impunity.
The suggestion that a man is
known by the company he keeps gives
no line at all on George. Whether 1t
was for the express purpose Of puzz-
ling his subjects, 1t is striking fact
that he has picked his social init
mates in almost equal numbers from
both the political parties. For in
stance his closest personal friends in
cluds the dukes of Devonsh1re and
Portland, and the earl of Derby, all
hide-bound conservatives and the 33rd
degree aristocrats, but there are also
the liberal earl OF Granard,, his mas.
ter of the horse (who married an
American girl. Beatrice Ogden Mills)
and Sir William Lever, England's
great soap king, who is sufficiently
democratic to suit the most radical
taste. AS for the attaches of the royal
/ household, none Of them has taken a
conspicuous part in politics, and near
ly all may BE- classed as non!partisan.
The kings movements and occupa-
lions furnish no more Illuminating
democratic by temperament than his
son, King Edward, never evinced any
great concern about the lives and
conditions of the masses. But while
doing his full share of visiting among
the upper classes, George has shown
himself to be a practical and earnest
student Of sociology. He has made
numerous personal inspections OF coal
mines, factories, docks, hospitals, and
humble homes OF working men. In
many instances he has come unan-
nounced and without retinue. Not
long ago the king and queen paid a
surprise visit to the homes Of some of
the prince of Wales tenants In the
poor Remington district All the
warning they had was knock on the
door and pleasant: May the queen
and I come in for q minute? We want
to see if your house is comfortable
and kept in good repair One good
housewife was dreadfully flust cred
when she found that the remains OF
her husbands dinner, including an
empty beer bottle were still on the
table, and their majesties laughed
heartily over her futile efforts to hide
the bottle.
His attitude in the Ulster crisis
and the army row only served to in
crease the puzzle as to his real views
on vital public questions. That ii was
at Georges suggestion that Premier
Asquith made the offer of six years
exclusion for Ulster is now generally
admitted. but he did this in the hop.
OF saving the country from civil war,
not because he had necessarily be-
come a convert to Carsonism, De-
spite the fiery declarations of John
WARD and Col. Arthur Lynch that the
king had interfered in the affairs of