The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1922-11-21
IN BRITAIN AND HERE.

The Speed and facility with which
the British government has just pass,
ed from the control of one school OF
political thought to that of another
serves again TO call attention to the
undergraduates of our own cleo.
toral system.
Approximately one month ago the
Lloyd George cabinet, finding itself
hopelessly at loggerheads with the
majority in commons over fundamep-
tai questions of policy, resigned and
a new cabinet was Immediately form
ed temporarily to take its place.
A parliamentary election was call
ed, and the people given an emporium
ity to express their preference as be-
tween the two eontending parties.
That election was held last We'd
nesday, and on Monday the new par
lament will assemble, ready to car
~ out the popular will, says The At
lanta Constitution.
On November Z the American peo-
pie elected a. new congress, the re-
suit of which election attested marked
ed disapproval of the policies of the
present congress and of the incum-
bent administration.
But the congress which the people
elected on November will not con-
vene until thirteen months from this
time unless it is called together in
extraordinary session.
Congress assembled on yesterday,
but it will not be the congress which
the people have just elected.
1t will be the congress which has
justb cen repudiated by the people.
1t will be composed in large part
of members, who were candidates for
reelection, but who were defeated by
the people.
And yet, under our system of dem
ocratic government, those members
who were repudiated are still to go on
exercising a voice and vote in the
shaping of laws for the people who
have repudiated them.
All of the members of congress who
were defeated ON November Z are
going back to their seats to pass APP.
bills and tax laws, if they
see fit to do so, and to formulate gov
eminent policies regardless of the
fact that the people have expressed
of their past records.
Commenting upon the contrast be-
tween the British and the American
system in this respect, The Kansas
City Star said in a recent editorial:
THE British system contemplates
no. such Inconsistency as allowing
defeated parliament to reassemble
and legislate for an electorate that
has repudiated it. The existing par
lament is always dissolved before
the election is ordered. Then i'm
after the election the new
parliament meets, the government is
formed and the will of the voters is
acted upon. Parliament acts while
its mandate is fresh, but in the case
of congress there is no way of tell
ing what the mandate of the voters
is thirteen months after they have
given it. Maybe they would like t6
give different one by that time
but they have no chance. Congress,
elected for two years. must go on
with the best guess it can make as
to what the country wants; the iron
zeal thing is that when the country
does say it doesn't want congress
that congress comes back and legis-
Iates for four months"
In many respects our system OF
government PROFESSIONALLY is super
iof' to that of Great Britain.
But in point of quick responsive
ness to the expressed will and man
date of the electorate the British
system unquestionably is vastly su-
perior to ours.