The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-02-12
Lloyd Georges Victory.

A victory for the coalition parties
headed by Lloyd George has been taken
for granted, and under the conditions
was almost inevitable. Whether the de
gree of its success as revealed yester-
day by the counting of the votes, was
greater or less than might reasonably
have been expected ii is difficult to say,
for even the political managers who have
made the largest claims have admitted
that there was a considerable uncertain
ty, due specially to votes cast for the
first time by women,
The most obvious and striking aspect
Of the election, therefore, il the wreck.
ing Of the liberal party. MFR. Asquith
himself has failed of election to Parlia
ment, and so have two Of his chief lieu
tenants, Sir John Simon, formerly soil.
citor general and home secretary, and
Reginald Mckenua, formerly chancellor
Of the exchequer. Places may later be
found for these liberal leaders, under
the flexible British system, but what is
left for them to lead? The most de-
pressing part of the defeat, for the lib
erals, is that they had no chance or fair
fight ii they had pulled out altogether
and refused TO present candidates under
such conditions, they would hardly have
been worse off, and the silent protest
would have had force.
It ia q pity that Mr. Asquith did not
rise to the T.ortunity at least to@give
the country a clear cut issue With de.
feat in any case inevitable, he might at
any rate have broken ground for a new
liberal party, following the same course
as the labor leaders. They withdrew
from the coalition, not with the hope Of
getting at present great representation
in Parliament, but for the sake of put
ting boldly before the country their prin.
ciples and their program and getting
a solid footing as a permanent and grow
ing political party. In consequence the
only real issues in the election have
been those called by the labor party;
the noncoalition liberals have had no
leadership, and Mr. Asquiths weak ac-
quiescence in some of the least desirable
parts of the Lloyd George program went
far to deprive their vote of what moral
value it might have had as a protest
Under these conditions it is not very
surprising that the labor party should
take second place and become for the
first time being the chief opposition
party. 1t also has suffered heavily from
the defeat of some of its leaders, in
GLIDING Arthur Henderson, J, Ramsey
Macdonald and Philip Snowden, Let la
Dor has to so great an extent had to
organize outside of politics that its lead
ers do not lose 50 much as those of other
parties by a political defeat and can
have great influence outside of Parlia-
ment The election may throw the par
liamentary leadership of the party in
creasingly on J. r. Clynes, who is among
the II labor candidates, including viii
Croker, who are returned unopposed
On the face of it the election gives
to Lloyd George and the coalition I'M
limited power to do as they will, but
the real case may be far otherwise. Even
those liberals who fell in with the pro-
iect have been Increasingly unhappy at
the wav it has worked out, and the pre-
mier himself may not feel specially sat
isfied with his position, which is I'M
pleasantly like that of a trainer in a
cage of particularly hungry lions. He is
supposed to be still radical, but the
government which he heads is the most
tory in its complexion that Great Britain
has had in our time. Even on a pro
gram of speeding-up the war he encoun-
tered opposition enough, and in his cleo
ton speeches he has concentrated on jim
themes like Furnishing the kaiser and ex.
ecuting a huge indemnity from Germany.
To what extent he could urge the reac-
tionary elements on which he depends
for support to undertake such a demo
cratic constructive program as Great
Britain needs is yet to be seen; If he is
not like Joseph Chamberlain to go over
to the tories, his position may soon be-
come untenable in spite of the tremen-
dous majority which the election figures
indcate.--Springfeld Republican.