Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-07-24
AMERICA AND ENCLAND's
MAN.POWER PROBLEM
Political Situation Which Gives Rise to an
Extraordinary Suggestion

report 10 tUlS HeWSpupSi sSs'SiN"s '~
tive to an impending internal crisis in
England. This was due not so much to
the censor, perhaps, as to the corre-
spondent's exacting regard for situa-
ton which he recognized as uncertain
and perilous. His dispatch referred to
movement Of option in England for the
incorporation of American military con-
tingcnts for indefinite periods as parts
of British commands. By some such
means. apparently, Lloyd George and
his associates would hope TO relieve the
confusion which has followed upon their
recent handling Of the man-power issue
at honle and in Ireland.
The British Premier is unquestionably
facing a situation not CT his own crea-
ton. He is caught between opposing
forces in English wa politics. And it
is remotely conceivable that he really
might turn to the United States in this
way as a last reso't. with the hope that
we, by some unprecedented gesture of
self-sacrifce, might help in solving the
question of British man-power.
Englishmen and Englishwomen in the
mass feel about the war as Americans
do. They have fought and endured in
manner too noble and too magnificent
for praise for a cause which they con-
sider universal and above the interests of
any one portion Of the community.
There is an Isolated opposing group
which still preserves the remnant Of its
former infAence in England. 1t speaks
as a rule through the British Board of
Trade. This group still regards war as
a matter of trade routes and spheres Of
commercial influence. Millions of dead
men and cripples and d continent in
flames have not served to mitigate its
logic. And so, while virtually the whole
Of England is warring to vanquish Ger
many because Germany is menace to
civilization, some of the men who have
membership in the British Board Of
Trade are out to vanquish Germany
because Germany has been and may be
again a dangerous competitor in foreign
commerce.
The British Labor party has waged a
furious warfare on this point of view.
Lloyd George, himself Liberal, has felt
the necessity of holding all the spiritual
and material resources of the country
together. He has done his best to please
all interests. That has been his great
error, since he has been unable wholly
to please any.
An isolated group of influential indi-
viduals in England, whose prestige has
been heightened because the Government
required and accepted their services, has
managed by insistent interference in
public discussions to fill the mind of the
British workers with suspicion and to
confuse the already colossal tasks of the
Premier. A certain section of British
labor has opposed the new man-power
bill because it was looked upon as an
effort of the reactionaries to force more
women into the English factories and to
eliminate for all workmcn under the age
of ffty-one the wage benefits that they
enjoy in the war industries. The Gov
eminent was at once placed in false
position which made it appear antago-
nistic to labor. Lloyd George is still
threatening labor and. labor is still
threatening Lloyd George. And the
Allied nations at this critical phase of
the war must support the present British
cabinet or face the alternative of a new
Government dictated largely by the
| British Labor party, which will hold the
balance of power at the next elections.
The present British cabinet is ex-
| perienced and conservative. A new Pre-
| mier, were he to be named or helped By
| Arthur Henderson's labor organization
would be Liberal of internationalist
tendencies. But the British Labor party
has agitated consistently for state
ment of aims such as President Wilson
has always suggested and it has declared
for war to the end along such lines.
These are some of the outstanding
factors in the political problem which
faces Lloyd George. In all fairness they
ought to be thus stated as corollary to
Mr.. Grasty's dispatch. They explain
why such an extraordinary suggestion is
made, even if it is only as "feeler" of
American public opinion.
The British have given immeasurable
aid to this Government in furthering our
plans for war. Without their assistance
in shipping, in aircraft and artillery, to
mention only a few items of the count,
the United States could not have made
the remarkable record it has.
There is no doubt that the mass pur-
poses of the British and the American
people in this war are Identical 1t is only
the political expedients which get in the
way. America stands ready to supply
all the man-power necessary to win a
victory on the western front, without
stint or quibbling. But it is too much to
slIGpest that we sInnlu dnfcianciaS in tho