Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-07-07

s Copyright 1919. by
London, June 13.-(By mail.) i
HE talks like one of the major pro
/. phets and acts like Lloyd George the
English have come to say of President
Wilson.
This is not meant as compliment
The Englishman, in the presence of n
foreigner, is always a little ashamed
of LLOYD George. The British premier
is a national weakness. Parties hight
for him. Men claim him on their side.
The radicals cannot conceive OF them
selves as having any other leader and
8 tel! you with confidence that when the
break-up Of the coalition comes ldoyq
George will be found on the radicaI
side. at the same privately admitting
that they don't know just how far
he will 90 toward radicalism in prac-
tice. Conservatives equally claim him.
They cannot conceive of themselves as
entering the lists with the present pre-
mier arrayed on the other side.
Northcliffe and Lloyd George fell out
after n long partnership lasting since
the fall of Asauith. and the two attack
each other publicly. one through MS
newspapers, the other through speech
in Parliament. All the while agents
of tho two wear beaten path between
them.
"You Never Can Tell
A leading English Liberal per
.onol friend of the premier, tells you
.'you can never tell what Lloyd George
viii do" He means what he says when
he says it. but he does not take the
trouble to find out just what his own
words mean. He is capable of doing
things perfectly inconsistent with his
hrofessions. He does not think out
b;s own position. He does not under
stand its logical implications. When
some course seems to him likely to be
nonular he takes it unhesitatlngly.
rrieying his friends, but not himself
conscious of giving them cause for
grief. j. ,r
;rterested in results and his profes-
! ,ions nre only means to an end. Mhen
soyne other means inconsistent with them
,annears more likely to reach that end he
Sskes II without question. Consistency
{ n him is nrobably quality OF result.
rather than courses. That is what an
Enplishman means when he says he
acts like Lloyd George 1t is not
flattering.
No One to Replace Him
Men saw he has not any convictions.
But for all that both sides want him
in England, each being sure that with
him they can win. He is the lndis-
pepsable element that will contribute to-
ward victory.
Until England breeds another Lloyd
Z George it is difficult to see how any
party can exist without him. He re-
mained premier through the war be-
cause there was no one to put in his
place. Equally there is no one to put
in his place today. Poverty in public
men of the first rank is not confined
to America. If the Democrats have no
one but Wilson to name for President,
the Liberals and Laborites. on the one
hand, and the Conservatives. on the
other, have no one to make premier.
One thing seems sure: England may
4 go conservative. That is the normal
tendency of country after victory.
Put 1t will be Lloyd George, conserva-
tive, who will be premier. England
may go radical-signs point that way
& but if it does. it will be Lloyd George
radical. who will be premier. Or. bet
ter still whichever way England goes
. it is not at all clear that Lloyd George
will not occupy middle of the road
position, supported by Northcliffe and
holding together a combination from
six other parties and making himself
premier, being alternately radical and
conservative in Office as popular senti-
ment seems to require.
More Than Roosevelt or Wilson
Thus Lloyd George is in England
more than Roosevelt ever was in the
United States. and more than Wilson is
there now. There remained parties in
the United States in spite of all Roose-
velt did TO break them up. and there re-
main parties there now in spite of Will
SON But in England there are really
no parties. There is only Lloyd George.
There is for the first time in history no
opposition. worthy name in the House
of Commons. There is only Lloyd
George.
The great coalition of which he is the
head would break up-it has been pre- :
dicted over and over again that it would
break up of its own weight-but there
remains Lloyd George. How divide him :
How get on without him? If the pre-
mier could be apportioned as Solomon
proposed to apportion the baby between
the two claimant mothers in his fam
Gus decision there might be again two
u parties in England. If some new Solo
mon moved to do this. which would dis
close her true maternal sentiment by dis
claiming the child to spare its life
Mother Radicalism or Mother Conserv =
afism? No one knows.
Only Greater Can SuppIant Him
Only one of two things can end Lloyd
George. short of death-the appearance
of another greater Lloyd George one
who. like the American President. can
mot only act like Lloyd George but talk
like major prophet, or the recovery by
England of some of it's old confidence
ard stability Short of these things tn,
English premier has perpetual occupa
ton of Office in democracy, which il
something like perpetual motion. Fo
all one can see today he may go righ
on governing England. being copserva
" I 1. q. - Al. 4