Evening star., 1924-06-22
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Continued from First Page)
minority Labor government has been
in power for nearly five months be-
cause the majority, belonging to Lib
eral and Tory parties, is afraid to
turn Labor out lest it come back
with a majority all its own.
Voters Have .Gone Left,
In Britain the revolt, the popular
revolt, has expressed itself in the
rise of a new party, led by a man
who represents the antithesis of all
that both old parties stand for. In
France the movement has been more
normal and the voters have simply
gone back to those parties which
were both radical and dominant be-
fore the war and at the moment when
the great struggle broke. Coalition
in Britain and blac National in
France have come to the same end.
In both nations the voters have gone
left"
Are the causes of the two national
transformations peculiar to the Euro
pean environment to the totally diff
ferent degree of war strain and war
exhaustion, to different racial and
political conditions, or has the effect
of the war and the turmoil of the
years following the making of a
peace which is not yet peace been
the same upon all western democra-
cies? 1t it has, then in our turn we
are likely to see some manifesto
ton at least remotely suggesting
what has still recently happened in
France and in Britain.
And it is worth bearing in mind
that in neither country was there
any superficial evidence of what was
coming in advance of election. In
England the Tory party calculated
upon losing a few seats at most; in
France every political prophet agreed
that Poincare and the bloc National
would prevail. Yet in two houses of
almost equal siZe-615 in the House
of Commons and 5S4 in the Chamber
of DeputieS-the right could obtain
about 25S and 249 seats, respectively.
In both cases there was what we call
a landslide and in both there were
no preliminary warnings.
Break Awny From Parties.
In the recent elections in France
and in Britain the people in large
masss broke away from the dominant
parties In both cases they moved in
the direction of radicalism, toward
labor in Britain and toward social
ism in France, and the present British
ministry is supported by combina-
ton of the Laborites and the Liberals
that is, of the Moderates and the Radi-
cals-and in France by the Radical
Socialists, which amount to the same
thing. If in the forthcoming election
in the United States the Democrats,
having named a radical rather than
a conservative, should win control of
Congress only by combination with
the out-and-out radicals of the La
Toilette stamp, as they have prac-
tically held control in the last ses-
sion. the situation would be quite
similar, would Democratic-La Fol-
lette combination in the House or the
Senate to name the President if there
were no choice at hte polls.
Naturally, ] am not attempting to
forecast any such result. What l am
striving to make clear is that certain
things have happened in both Britain
and Frances, the democracies which
most resemble our own, and that in
our own ante-election situation there
are discoverable elements which make
it possible that a similar thing mis- ght
happen at nome. Ole might Sdy lndl
Germany by contrast has at a recent
election chosen reactionary majori-
ties, but after all Germany is demo-
cratic in form rather than in fact or
experience and was largely influenced
by the Ruhr episode. Italy, too, has
gone in for a dictator and confirmed
his sway at an election which has
also taken place very recently, but
Italy had her attack of extreme radi-
calism early and is having her re-
action with similar promptitude.
! In SUM- thens- without trying to