The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1919-07-03

cence in London a I seen a season
gayer han the present. John Bull or
dinarily Is a grumbIer, but he also In
sists on having his good time. never
did he insist SO strongly as on
fancy dress balls and big weddings.
Derby day was unexampled for attend
ance and a reported more fully IN the
papers than the proceedings OF the
peace conference. On the opera sea-
son where a new tonor or new prima
denna is introduced. every week young
ladies are displaying leap year initia-
tive of love making to h despair or
old fashioned parsons and prim dow
ayers. And with regard to dress this,
for instance, is what I find In the chaste
columns of the Daily News:
There was no back in her dress;
there was very little front, and moth
ing to speak about in the way or sides.
Th skirt came to an abrupt end well
above the knee. The only articles OF
dress were a pair Of black stockings
and a pair of Shoes"
Reaction From Wars Stress.
Such is London today. II reminds
one Of that orgy of enjoyment which
followed the execution Of Robespierre
and tho end Of the reign of terror In
Paris, when Napoleon. and Barras were
rivals for the favofs of Josephine, and
1t comes from the same cause, namely,
tho cessation of the prolonged anxieties
Of foar years and the spring tide OF
relief and joy Of life which nothing can
now dam.
You will, therefore, form a wrong i'm
preston of what London thinks and
feels IL you take too seriously any pic
ture, of a~nxieties about the terms or
peace or jercmiades about u financial
position. Northcliffe's organs try in
vain a new stunt against Premier
Lloyd George. Even Horatio Bottomley
cannot raise moments of emotion in the
house of commons by long :'eremptory
demands for a bigger indemnity from
the Germans.
London still feasts n dances. Yet,
aof course, there is tho specter OF many
coming troubles, such as inslstcnt
voices that the rise in the price OF coal
foreshadows a hard winter. with freless
CRATES. Paris is breaking out after a
serf-restraint of five years of war; that
Did feud between capital and labor,
which often held up French capital In
pre-war days with demands for wages,
is soaring above anything the widest
agitator suggested in pre-war days, and
here in England labor unrest receives a
certain impetus from the strong diyi-
sion Of opinion between the govern
ment, represented in this respect main
ly by Churchill. with lingo militarist
speeches, and tho working classes and
some liberals on the question Of sup
port for Admiral Kolchak in Russia
against h b~olshevists.
Public Remains Uninterssted.
There may be a volcano, but we in
London are dancing gayly upon it. 1t
is significant at present Of the rather
disheveled and absentminded public
opinion that wen IN controversy be-
tween Asquith and Lord French sxcites
but a tepid interest. Over this and all
other controversies there hangs the
overriding fact of the entire disappear
ance of the old party spirit, and that
destruction of all old party lines which
Lloyd George, for good reason or bad,
from personal conviction or personal
ambition, has managed to accomplish.
Lord French's proceedings, especially
in his free attacks not only IN the e
Lord Kitchener. but on living officers
like Smith, orrien, whom military dis
cipline does not allow to reply. and h
raking up again of old feuds in the ag-
n of war time does not commend it
self as good tactics or good
But though some liberal papers attempt
to utilize Asquith's brilliant retort as
ammunition against Lloyd George for
his share in the intrigue that brought
down Asquith and set him up, and
though Lord Northcliffe, who was the
chief agent for producing that result,
attempts to renew the campaign
against Asquith. the public remains IN
interested.
One of the most curious symptoms Of
this strange unprecedented temper Of
narcotized opinion was revealed in the
debate in the house of m on the
proposal 20 substitute federal for the
present unitary parliamentary system
in the British isles. The debate was
allowed by the government to occupy
nearly two full nights, and even Waiter
Long, the most typical tory of the rev
dictionaries, save his blessing to the
scheme.
What happened in the debate would
have been impossible five years ago.
1t is almost Incredible even today. Here
was a proposal in his most conseTaa-
tive of nations to pull to pieces the
thousand year old parliamentary ma
chine, and it was discussed before emp
ty, ~listless benches with perfect trap-
guilty and. more remarkable. with vip-
tually universal assent to he urgent
necessity of the entire transformation
of the whole machine at Westminster
Il few Orangemen n a few little rump
English r~eactionaries alone opposed,
but it sounded like voices from the
grave of dead policies and a dead -
| gone epoch of English history. New
parties will, of course be formed in
time, bat for the moment party spirit
and party organization in cheth ouse of
commons is as clean a sweep away as
San Francisco after the fire
Irish Question Broods Over All.
There will evidently come in time IN
the United Kingdom local legislatures
after the OF your state legis-
latures, but it will be some time yet.
| In the meantime, as all the members
| thought and most members said. there
Is the question of Ireland, different in
| character and more urgent in demand
than the somewhat uniformed tepid de-
sire OF either England. Scotland or
Wales. for local parliaments. Ireland.
| In fact, brooded like q black specter