The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-12-12


 With the elevation Of David Lloyd George to the Premiership of Eng land, the world has witnessed. in the past week, triumph of democracy over conservatism.
 A man of the people, sprung from poverty and the humblest walks of life, became the dictator of Great Britain. Lords must bond their will lo ,his; tho belted Earl must pay him homage as a leader; the King has power not 60 great as this commoner, who holds In his hand the destiny of the Empire.
 New power comes to the Premier ship with Lloyd George because of the personality of the man. Author lty divided among numerous Cabinet members has nearly wrecked the cause of England. Now authority will be concentrated in the person of h man who will not hesitate to use It.. He will brook no divided counsels in the Cabinet. He will direct Eng tand.s pursuit of the war.
 Proved It Could Be Done.
 proxreesiveness Is the keynote of < tn0 3Cn81aCI0T CI IukS A0W ACebN04 VI the English people.
 If the habitua1 English of1cial at titude could be summed up dn the traditions of Dickens Circumlocution JO1ace. the motto of which was Tt { can't be done. you know" the atti- .tude of the Lloyd George school of t%tatecraft may be expressed in the statement that 1t can be done, and @hal1 ho ny1fcklv and well
 Lloyd George has given recent evil denoe of this. His first great task in the war was to show the British peo- ple that their boasted efnciency and security were dreams. This he did by oratory that jolted them out of their superior calm into a sense of their danger. N
 Here are a few of the softer lines from ono of his speeches at this time: ss rye have been living in a sheltered valley for generations. We have been too comfortable and too ,indulgent, many perhaps too selfish. and the .stern hand of Fate has scourged us to an elevation where we can see the everlasting things that matter for a nation the great peaks we had for- gotten, of Honor, Duty, Patriotism, e.nd, clad in glittering white, the tow ering pinnacle of Sacrifice pointing like . ruggsd finger to Heaven"
 The labor unions found arguments with which to obstruct the speeding up of munitions manufacture. Lloyd lGeorxe, as Minister of Munition, re- piled, Planting tho flag in the shops." A
 He told the laboring classes that their duty to their country stood above all union rules as to restricted output. He secured from Parliament a Munitions act, which put factory workers under military discipline, with the choice before them of work or punishment,
 ;These were things that might not have been accomplished yet without Lloyd George If, indeed, the Ger mans had allowed Great Britain SO much time in which to muddle through the matter.
 Lloyd George saw what was need ed, did tho right thing. and gave the British Army shells while the Nation was Sstill scratching its head over the problem.
 Oaned to save England. England appears to believe that the. man who t1aus saved her from the toonseQuences of her own indifference. Ipre1udice~ and conceat . year or so 'aEo, can now suve her from the wreckaSe of her var plans.
 How btttsr the pin of calling Lloyd George to tho helm in this dark storm, to the conservatives of Eng land, can only be- appreciated in the light of knowledge of how he has been conddered in tho past among his countrynen.
 Until the war began he was known for, more than . decade as the most hated man in England. Tho solid Britigh citisen of property could ecarcely speak his name without choking. To the ar1stocracy he was the Devil personied.
 When. as Chancellor of the Ex- ohe4ues, he produced his famous budapt In 1eoo-10. devised for gar nsring in taxes from the rich ., lib eral shoxe of their. wealth he was de- nounced as robber, q revolutionist II destroyer Of the corner stones Of 1ociety.
 When. in the munftions fAanine, he began orEantxtng the nation's indus tries for shell making. vested inter- ests began to smile covertly at the discomffture of labor. Lloyd George w1s changing. satd the interests. The working classes were feeling the snap of his whipi He was becoming con- Dervok4ve, government man that even . Tory might comInsnd for his e6icaency. Now that the srsatsst change that could come In the Welsh leaders career is an accomplished fact, and he is the head of the government, England is asking if he will change sttll further toward conservatism.
 But the student is asking if it is l not England, and not Lloyd George, that has changed.
 z In America. where the path from the log cabin to tho White House is the accepted ideal of every ambitious 1 boy, the story of Lloyd Georges rise may not appear as extraordinary as | in Eng1and,. where the walls of class rise high across the road of the poor | lad who would be something that his i father was not.
 It chances, however, that Lloyd | Georges father was not woods | man or a farmer, but a schoolmaster, and the son of minister; and for l that reason the present premier is in- dexed as not from the working class, l (as Abraham Lincoln would have been in England), but as . represen- tative of the more presentabie middle class.
 This has been a source of some satisfaction to the class-loving in his Y-