The Evening Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1917-1920, 1918-12-05
REVOLUTION IS SEEN
IN ENGLISH POLITICS
Clear Line Drawn Between
Administration and Oppos-
ing Labor Party.
REFORMS PLANNED
Government Prepares to Care
For Unemployed Persons
In Near Future.
BY K. WAITER

Dg ~ " All liz
LONDON, Nov. 3O-The stage is be
ing set for the English revolution
not on the continental model, how
ever
Not even in revolutionary labor cir
Giles is there any feeling whatever
against the present form of govern
ment. The king and the queen have
never been so popular as they are
today and this is not artificial popu-
larity but springs from genuine per
sonal respect and a conviction that
is instructive even among the unthink-
ing that democracy is just as safe
under an hereditary president as it is
under an elected sovereign.
Parliament, the real sovereign pow
er of this empire, is going to be much
more affected than the crown. Already
a revolution has taken place in the
alignment of party forces. This has
been caused on the one hand by the
political necessity which brought
Conservatives and Liberals together
under the leadership of Lloyd George,
and on the other hand by the resOlu-
ton of the Labor party to resume
its independence.
AS l suggested some time ago this
situation involves the disappearance
of the Liberal party and the estab-
lishment of the Labor party as the
Parliamentary opposition. The As
u.rith I lC haua co r11rrab N
both directions, to Lloyd George and
to Labor, that only most vigorous
leadership could reinstate them.
The Line of Cleavage.
What is revolutionary about this is
that for the first time in the history
of the mother of parliaments the cleav-
age between the administration and
opposition will not be on the line of
political principles but on social and
economic issues. 1t would be an ex
aggeratiOn on both sides to label the
parties Capitalist and Socialist, but
the Labor party claims TO represent
those whose capital is in their muscles
or their brain and they regard the
combination of Conservative and Lib
eral as a challenge from the aristocra-
cy and capitalists.
The social reform program with
the government. although lacking in
definition, is generous and itself al
most revolutionary in outline. I'm
mersed as the government is in the
problems of international peace, it
is handicapped in dealing with the
domestic situation, particularly since
the Labor party called its members
out of the Cabinet That is the dan
ger on its side.
But as Lord Curzon recently stat
ed that he expected to see a million
people unemployed in England in the
next few weeks, the government is
possibly making greater preparations
to deal with this condition than have
been announced
On Opposite Side.
The danger on the Labor side is
that this party, founded on labor
union representation and a combina-
ton of socialist societies and draw
ing into its active ranks now such
popular men as Shaw and such able
men as Chiozza Money, will not get
the representation in the next Par
Lament which the three or four mil
lion members expect.
If Labor had remained in the coali-
ton, the party would have had con-
siderable influence an responsibility.
Thus is the stage being set Other
properties for act one are: General
dissatisfaction because the soldiers
will not be able to vote with full
knowledge of alternative; critical at
titude of the Daily Mail toward Lloyd
George; attacks on Lloyd George by
the Moderate leaders.
But the business of an opposition is
to oppose and in that role the Labor
party will constantly be driven by the
extremist minority. Without power or
responsibility the Parliamentary La
Dor leaders may very easily be over
thrown By the industrial leaders who
think they can get more by strikes
than by elections.