Evening star., 1924-11-03
FLAYS MACDONALD
FOR LABOR CUSTER
Editor Declares Vanity Of
Premier in Ignoring Lib
erals Cost Him Power.
By A. G.. GARDINER.
Sy Radio TO The Star

BY 4. &. GARDINER.
BY Radio to The Star.
LONDON. November 3.-The elec-
toral hurricane which has swept the
country from John O'Groats to Lands
End has been of almost unDrecedent-
cd intensity The victory of the Con-
sarvatives exceeds the widest dreams
Of their own organizers. Labor has
been reduced by more than quarter.
The Liberals have been almost oblit
Grated There is profound regret at
the disappearance of Herbert A. AS
Guith, the last representative of the
classic school of British parliament
tariSm.
1t is important to observe that the
members of the various parties
turned bear no relation to the num-
Der of votes polled. Every Conserva-
tive represents an average of less
than 10000 voters. every Labor rep
reSentative 3S, 600 voters and every Lib
eral $4,000. The united poll of Labor
and Liberals exceeds the Conservative
poll by d million votes. But the Con-
Servative members returned exceed
the united opposition by two to one.
This is true to the antiquated cleo
toral system. which is untitled to Sc
cure a true reflection of opinion un
der the three-party system. An
enormous number of members were
returned by minority votes.
Letter Caused Stampede.
Allowing for this fact, the Con-
servatiYe sweep nevertheless is i'm
mense. 1t represents a tidal wave
against socialism. just as last years
election. which swept the Conserva-
.tives out of office, represented a tidal
wave against protection. The pro-
posed loan to soviet Russia reused
universal hostility. and the publica-
tion of the Zinoviev letter to the
british Communists turned the feeling
into a stampede against socialism.
Prime Minister Macdonald handled |
that letter very clumsily. At first he
treated is as genuine and demanded
an explanation. Then he declared it
was a fake, Then he blamed the for
cign office for publishing his reply |
prematurely. The total effect was
that the public, puzzled and suspi- !
,ious bolted helter-skelter into the
Conservative camp.
Mr.. Macdonald alone was the au-
thor Of the calamity. His leading
colleagues all wanted a reasonable
working arrangement with the Lib
erals, who put them into power. but !
Mr.. Macdonald throughout treated /
the Liberals with contempt and Selz-
ed the Campbell issue as occasion
10 break with them and force an cleo
ton in the hope of crushing them in
the country. He certainly succeeded
in that object, but he cut off his own
nose TO spite his face. He has put
his own party out of office, imperiled
a European settlement and establish
ed reaction in power for years. VAN
ity and venom have been his undolnS
Liberals Bear Brunt.
1t is curious irony OF the situation
that the brunt Of the disaster has
fallen on the Liberals, who put the
pnV
hostile to socialism the Con-
Servatives and they represent the
overwhelming opinion of the country
on free trade. But in the stampede
the argument that it was Liberal sup
port that had put Mr. Macdonald in
power swept the fuctuating element
into the ranks Of the Conservatives,
the plea that only a Conservative
majority could put the Socialists SC
,urely under the matches.
What becomes OF the tiny remnant
Of the Liberal party? David Lloyd
Georges calculations are all gone by
the board. He had hoped the Lib
erals would have been the balancing
power and enabled him to bargain
with the Conservatives for restora-
ZION of the coalition. But Stanley
ia ldwin can snap his fingers at Mr..
Lloyd George. He has made peace
with Winston Churchill and Lord
Birk and can get up a homo
generous Tory government regardless
of anybody. Mr Lloyd George is left /:
the lonelieSt figure in political life.
The Liberals can neither shake him
off nor trust him. They regard him
the man who assassinated the
party and who cares nothing for it
except as an instrument for his own
political maneuvers. Now it has gone
10 pieces SO completely that it is no
longer an instrument for anything.
it VIII linger on, but many of its sup
porters will go to the Conservatives
and others to Labor, and if the latter
thoroughly sheds its Communist wing
il may become the real inheritor of
the Liberal tradition.
Meanwhile. England awaits the for
nation of the new government and
the meeting of Parlia ament. London
has acquired new life at the prospect
and all industrial shares have risen.
The writer's impression is that the :
character of the new Parliament is
wisdom abroad and sagacious han
home.
Copyright. 1924
The site of the first institution for :
the higher education of women in
the South, a college established by +:
Elizabeth Roach at Washington,
Miss, III years ago is to- be marked
with a tablet by the Mississippi So :
ciety of the Daughters of the Amer
t,..y nIt,ti~ .