Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-10-22
WILL CHURCHILL
RULE ENGLAND?
Minister of Munitions Makes
Strong Bid for Labor
Support
By GILBERT VIVIAN sELDEs

LONDON, Oct. 5.
ONE of those things which, according TO
~ Lord Dundreary, mo fellow can find
| out" is why there should be a renaissance
/ Of political interest at just this acute and
| sour stage of the war Because we all
| recognize more or less fully that the winter
| OF our discomfort is drawing on us re-
| morselessly, we realize the falsity OF our
| hopes and the grim reality of our dangers.
And yet II must be noted that politics Is
| coming In again.
| The English are, 60 be sure, an incurably
| political people not even the war and the
semidictatorship Of Lloyd George have
| shaken their fundamental faith in parlia-
| mentary and party government. Two weeks
| ago a new party was formed. with varied
| blessings from undistlngushed people
| week later that party was scheduled Tor
| amalgamation with one OF the strictest
| party organizations in Britain; few days
| later it was rumored that the marriage
| must not take place. on the whole, silly
| procedure from which no germ OF inspra-
| tion could fall Yet people were Interested
| In It.
And at the moment Of writing tho polti-
| cal situation begins to overshadow nearly
everything else, except the moon, which
kindly and sou-chilling rain has driven
off, making the nights free of terrors for
once in a way. The good fortune which
dogs Winston Churchill gave him
dark night for still another excellent
speech, so that the papers had no air-rald
casualties to play up and gave him his
due 1t was a speech made for legitimate
occasion il told none of us anything new
it reminded us that we had repulsed the
U-boats, but not yet defeated them; II
called upon Britons to be Britons stu and
said warm and meaning things aboGt us
Americans And yet, without word OF
politics, Mr. Churchill had thrown his hat
into the ring with as sure and certain
gesture as ever Mr.. Roosevelt knew
on the nineteenth Of last June l ventured
70 write an article predicting Mr.. ChurchilPs
immediate return to power, and trick OF
censorship plus the malls brought that ar
ticle to the columns of this paper almost
exactly on the day of Mr. Churchllls APP
pointment as Minister of Munitions. This
time l am not going to predict MI
Churchills immediate elevation to the pre-
mership for fear my luck will not hold,
But I do seriously suggest to those Ameri-
cans who like to keep a little ahead OF the
game in politics to watch Mr.. Churchill with
a keen eye And incidentally I commend
his methods TO politicians generally.
Churchill's Courage
Analyze his situation: On the face Of 1t,
dlscredited abhorred, accused Of the hor-
rible sacrifices of Antwerp and Gallipolt;
unstable as party man; possessed or an
imagination and vigor which set nm
apart from the run of Britons and make him
he to make him so strong?
Well, courage! See how he handles the
Galllpoli disaster. In the midst OF 1t ne
said il was a gamble" the truest word
spoken of any military enterprise. Today
he looks back at it, with its thousands DEAD
with almost the disaffection of Australasia
as the price, and says: "At the moment when
as 1t seems, one spurt, one more thrust
would have secured complete results, an
was allowed to clatter down in hopeless and
absolute ruin" He couples the Dardanelles
with Spion Kop; he warns against another
failure of energy and imagination. And he
fires his audience so that II believes nm.
Recent disclosures from Turkey indicate
that he is right when he says that the
British began to retire in one direction Just
as their enemies were about to retire III tne
other. So he says, Garry on until thls
push of ours, the whole war, is won
At the end Of his speech he takes occasion
to speak well of Lord Northcliffe. lie Is
good politician.
He has a rival Not Lloyd George,
who is in power, who cannot resist the
dynamic rush, who appointed Mr., Churchi,i
10 his ministry. No, Lloyd George VIII
or will not see the war through as Prime
Minister; It is no great matter "After-the-
war" counts heavily So far, two persons
are playing for the postwar mastery OF
Britain, and Mr. Churchill has the lead on
Mr. Asduith Again, note the unerring ca
Asuuith is forbidden by his lack of official
capacity from doing anything and by his
inherent decency from saying much Mr..
Churchill puts the first stitch in the bag
wherein he will "sew Labor up lie enters
the Ministry of Munitions at a time when
welfare work and joint councils have left
the workers in a state of profound irrith-
tion, when Sir William Robertson finds
difficulty in speaking to an audience at
woolwich, when revolution in the condl-
tion Of labor is freely predicted. Mr.
Churchill has no scheme he recognizes
grievance And at a risk which is perilous
to the whole production of munitions he
abolishes that grievance He restores TO
labor its freedom of movement; he scraps
the "leaving certificate which hampered the
worker in moving from a munition factory
to another employment. He throws on labor
itself the burden Of seeing it through; he
announces his trust in labor.
Now consider the political situation which
compels Mr. Churchill to play this particu-
lar hand The old Liberal party is stll
rich still has power and still has Mr.. AS
ouith; whether it still has principles must
remain a secret because the war has
drowned all political principles Free trade.
perhaps? That will be determined by the
economic condition Of the country after the
war. A league of nations? That is the
commonplace Of all political organizations.
Honesty, fair dealing, a near and nearer
approach to democracy in social and eco
nomic conditions? That is where the Labor
party holds the high hand And that is
where Mr.. Churchill Is playing
Tremendously Alive
So the thing to expect is a political
crystallization Of workers, not necessarily
in the official Labor party, with a strong
program for after-war reconstruction with
a definite social ideal One man outside
the labor organization has foreseen. II is
likely that he will keep ahead Of the game,
will again anticipate, will come through
with the banner in his hand. Mr..
Churchill.
To consider this merely as a domestic
problem would be 20 close our eyes to the
very thing which the war has taught us, the
continuity of our interests across the At
lantic, across Europe into Asia and back
home again. If democratic labor wins it's
way particularly II II wins its way with
out violence and by parliamentary methods
to the domination Of Britain, even II II take
a century, we shall know the result and we
shall feel the effect of every single step as
II is taken. And the leader of the Labor
party, whether he be in opposition or
Prime Minister, will have much to do with
the future Of the world. II seems hard at
times to consider Mr.. Churchill as a world
figure, but we may remember that Mr..