The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-11-07

ble to the President and the King; they
 are still in theory responsible to Par
 lament But, as far it affects the
 conduct of war, responsibility is not
 the essential feature of the democratic
 system The essential feature affect
 ing the conduct of war is the instability
 of cabinets, the changing of ministers.
 This makes steady war programmes inn possible. In France and England this feature of European democracy has
 been drastically got rid of For 20 years before the war there was never a French cabinet which felt safe week ahead; cabinets which looked unsafe lasted perhaps a year, and cabinets which looked safe fell next day. Today France has got permanent war cab inet, which opponents leave alone. Un- less there is a bad defeat, which would
 bring an internal cataclysm, the cab
 inet of M. Viviani will probably sur vive the war.
 England has not suffered from cab inet instability as France has suffered. This is because she had the two-party system. Cabinets have lasted longer. But England has needed a strong cen tral power as badly as Frence. The English liberal party cabinet lasted for nine months. When war broke out, mo- lives of patriotism prevented the union | ists attacking. But criticism could not be kept down, and now criticism has been got rid of by taking members of | the unionist party into the govern ment. Party government with its germs | of instability has disappeared In Par | liament there is no party to oppose; | the country cannot oppose except through Parliament; the press is sat | isfied by the division of power, and mo- | body is left to oppose.
 | This gives England semi permanent | cabinet. But England is not satisfied with that. The cabinet is preparing l bill to secure itself still further. The l bill will prevent the possibility of the l government being upset by general election. A general election is due next i year. The election will not be held l The people lose the power to upset the cabinet; and the German system of an
 unshakable cabinet, independently of voting, is attained The difference is that the British people lose only for
 limited time their power to upset the cabinet: and the German people have
 no power to upset their ministers at all. Will Become Chronic
 l Nobody believes that this is a temporary war tendency. It will become chronic ! The war will last long enough to make 1 the "strong state power a habit; and l when the war is over the need for pre- pairing for new wars, the need for de- fense or revenge will keep the new sys- l tenn in being. The countries which had | ca binets responsible to Parliament will 1 agree with M. Clemenceau that "the i changes of ministers were the chief cause | why France was not prepared for the war" M Clemenceau. the greatest cabi-
 net-breaker in history ought to know. l If changing ministers prevented prepara-
 ton for the war of 1914-15. if will prevent 1 preparation for the war of -? So it will
 be impossible to restore the lost system
 of parliamentary control. The same will l be true of England. The loss of lb-
 erty and the strong control taught by | the war to be necessary will remain.
 1 Other war legacies will remain. In | measure as the belligerent countries are ] free or un-free. the censorship, the open- ! ing of correspondence the control of trade
 will remain In some countries, for in-
 | stance, Russia, these things existed be-
 | fore the war; they will be accentuated
 after it. In some countries the idea of
 censorng newspapers was incredible, and
 the idea of opening private letters was
 unthnkable. Today everyone Is used tc
 these ideas; no man cares much whether
 his business letters, or the letters to his sweetheart with the crosses at the end
 for kisses are read The bureaucrat whc
 reads them won't tell anyone; the busi- ness letters are dull and there are toe many letters with crosses and kisses to awaken interest in the bureaucrat' i soul. About the censorship of newspa- pers no one cares The belligerents news papers are discredited by their sensation alism, lying, causless optimism bad lan- guage. illiteracy and stupidity. The bu- reaucrats have tasted the joy of cen soring newspapers; and they may con tinue. It will be done on the quiet The war will peter out gradually; it may be necessary to keep a censorship dur ing the peace negotiations; after tho peace negotiations the beaten sides ter ritory may be occupied by soldiers; anJ there must be a censorship about that in fact there are 10 reasons for contin- uing a modified censorship. Then it vii be necessary to prevent newspaper in elements to fresh wars until the diplo