The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-08-15

Io~NAtts btlOit lilt war WIS llit nOdSl Oi
 personal and political freedom so often
 tipped. As a matter of fact, before the 1 war there was much more political free dom in the United States and infinitely
 more personal freedom in Russia. But in an Englishmans mind and in the minds or many others who took him and his in- stitutions at home valuation, this was country apart in the matter of free dom. All the more amazing. then, is the change that immediately followed the war. Quite aside from the merits of the war and the events that led up to it. it is now evident to all but the wilfully blind that Gray and Asquith, without the consent either Of the voters of the country, Parlia-
 ment, their own party CT even their im- mediate colleagues of the liberal cabinet,
 so involved the country in the continental maze that 1t was impossible for England. with honor. to remain neutral
 Once in the war Kitchener was made
 war minister with practically despotic powers Under the defense of the realms orders, passed, not by Parliament but by the privy council habeas corpus was abolished. Magma Charta was suspended, and the war minister assumed unlimited
 power over the life and property of every Britisher Under the martial law pro- claimed in various districts and under the
 power to proclaim such law in any dis
 trict, the military authorities had the right
 to take a man from his bed, try him by
 secret courtmartal, and have him shot
 at sunrise. No need be the wiser while this was taking place. and no court in the land could interfere to save the un- fortunate offender The oligarchy that ruled the country was accuser, judge and
 jury of the press and, for any offense
 which it saw fit, could suspend the free dom of the press, and punish the respon- sibe editors and even the reporters and rfv tnrp 11trf fIa Oot two
 Parlia ment, the very Parliament whose
 rights Cromwell established and which so emphatically asserted it's "indepen- dence." and it's power in the famous fight with the House of Lords over the
 budget meekly allowed itself to be ad- journed during the early critical months of the war Even now when 1t is sitting its claws are clipped This voice of the nation is as voiceless as fish and as powerless as a tortoise on it's back. By
 general consent the first year of the war has been horribly bungled by those in command in England, yet recently,
 when few of the members in this free Parliament in this, supposedly the freest of countries, put some questions to the
 prime minister with the intention of un- covering the incompetents, the headlines of the report in one of the morning papers read as follows:
 MT Asouith's Short Answers. All In- formation Refused. Master of the House of Commons"
 NO one believes that the present coali- ton government is any stronger than the last liberal government and many there are who believe it to be weaker because of it's mixed party elements. The object of Asquith in forming 1t was not to strenNthen the conduct of the war by the inclusion of new brains. because the ser vices of all the unionists included have, since the beginning, been at the disposal Of the government. The plain purpose was to muzzle criticism by the inclusion of all the powerful critics. By this maneuver Asquith snuffed a probable investiga- ton of the sorry muddle that marked the first eight months of the war, an inves- tigatioi, that would have given the com mon people the very information to which all preoepts of representative government enttle them, and which would probably have hurled the liberal government from office with a resounding thud.
 A remarkable feature of this change from a liberal to a coalition govern
 nent is that 1t was effected by Asquith without the consent of the voters and without the consent and indeed against the expressed wishes of scores of the liberal members of Parliament As a matter of fact these discontented mem bers met to formulate a protest and it was only by a display of his powers as a dictator that Asquith was able to ward off the dangerous opposition.
 This dictatorship Is extending to every corner of the country. Members of the government have declared again and again that they would not hesitate to use compulsion for forcing men into the army, or into the munitions fac tories should the voluntary system prove inadequate, and Bonar Law re- gently declared that if the current war loan was a failure there would be a compulsory loan.
 Now no one is urging that these evidences of autocracy are wrong m the circumstances. The writer instead is only pointing out that in this great
 hour of crisis England finds its chief
 support and salvation in the very form of government against which her peo- pie, in common with the people of most other enlightened countries, have been fighting for generations; indeed, in the very form of government against which, in the present war, they claim to be battling.
 Nor is it probable that in England we have yet seen the extreme develop
 ment of this theory of absolutism. On
 every side among serious minded and highly placed men and women one hears the suggestion that we shall never attain efficiency until the in- evitable dictator-in- name appears Many organs have plucked up courage l to compare. disparagingly to the first the present position of England with that of Germany after year of war and have not hesitated to find in the | war absolutism of the Kaiser the l cause. Within few days the late Joseph Chamberlain has been quoted I as saying that England would have l.. have dictator in the case of war with Germany.
 Some of the most influential papers | In the country are almost openly boom- 1 ing Lloyd George as the coming dicta- tor and 1t Is not long since Asquith was urged to rule with the ungloved l hand of iron. The government ia blamed on all sides, except among the working classes. for not hesitatng to l take the strongest action against the striking Welsh miners, irrespective of the merits of the case.
 This spirit of despotism is even more pronounced, although not so unex- 1 pected, in France. For although France | Is democracy In name and in normal I