The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-13
LABOR'S FIRST . PREMIER TELLS
 PARTY!'S PLANS

Ramsay Macdonald Out lines Policies Of New
 Government
 tcontinued From Page D
 has made itself responsible for the gov ernment of the country and the mos violent efforts were made to creat, panic as soon as it looked likely tha we were to come in.
 Grateful To Sane.Minded''
 T want to offer my sincere thank to those calm and sane-minded, re sponsible men of business, who told tn, electors not to make fools of themselves and not to play into the hands of mer, mischievous panicmongers. The result was that security which Mir. Baldwin tried to get and failed has been giver to us (laughter). That laugh means dis agreement, but it also indicates that nc honorable members opposite are pos sessing gilt edge securities in this coun try because if they were they would know perfectly we'll that since the Ia. Dor government came into power the value of those securities has been sub. stantially enhanced. I want to appeal to the country to keep steady.
 "1 see in the newspapers from day to day all sorts of stories about the enormous loans that were to be floated in the market if we were to remain in office for a week or two. No such in. dication has ever been given. I am teld also that the cancelling of a cer. tain order by the minister of health was the signal that the red flag was to be flown from John O'Broat's to Lands end. I am perfectly amazed at it. Everybody knows perfectly well that the order had ceased to operate, that the question of cancelling the order had been again and again under considera- tion in the department concerned, that as a matter of fact the order has never been effective, and that an act of Par liament was passed in 1923, which changed the methods by which the ex- travagance of boards of guardians was t. be checked. So small did the opera. tiGns seem to the department itself and so insignificant was the whole thing that it took for granted that the re. scinding of the order was nothing but n mere mechanical operation. At any rate I can assure this House that what was done by the minister of health was ID indication whatever that we were going to encourage an economic extrava- gance on the part of boards of guard ians or any other spending authority in the country.
 'The country sooner or later had to become acquainted with the driving na- tdre of labor. I am very glad that it has come sooner. I feel perfectly cer- tain that the sooner such stories as those told by Sir R. Horne on his ar rival from Canada regarding not what was in our minds, but in our nature, when he deliberately set out what we were bound to do by the law of God, being labor, will be proved to be sheer rubbish and the better for everybody concerned.
 To Pursue Policy Of Confidence
 T hope that the experience that the country and the empire are going tc have O. labor government will make 1t absolutely impossible for such state. nients to be made or such ideas to be entertained. The question arises, are we going to have some policy of tran quility? No, we are not we are going to pursue a fuller policy-a policy of confidence on the part of the whole nation that will enable, for instance, all sections engaged in the building of houses of put their hearts and energies into the work-and aim at an ideal that honorable members opposite might have been in office for half a century and never attain.
 ''The confidence which is required to build houses is a confidence that the people who build the houses will in- habit them; it is a confidence required to enable men and women to work wholeheartedly it is confidence that can be secured only when the reward of their labor is just, is fair, is equi- table. That confidence, hope, the labor party will give. The national life today is far too much like an oasis here and an oasis there, placed in the middle oi the great surrounding desert of dis tress. I do not want the desert tt swallow up the oasis. I want-mJ gov ernment wants-the oasis to spread and spread until they swallow up the desert. That is the distinction betweel honorable members on the opposite sidt and honorable members on this side. 1T that spirit we are going to do our work The spirit in which the work is going to be done is more essential, and ough to be more essential, although capitalism has deteriorated so badly that cam! has become a part of it's policy.
 Must Carry Administration
 "The spirit is to be of most profound importance if this country is to b' pulled together and if everybody IS t' work his best for the common good First of all, we must carry on the ad ministration of the country. There ar' a large number of things of no party import at all but of national import and these we shall carry one. Up tt the end of March we shall have to asl the House to give up most of its timt to financial business we have inherited from our predecessors, for supplemen tary estimates in the main. We shal place before the House those resolutions carried at the imperial and economic conference. Every one of them will fint a place on the order paper. We shal indicate views regarding each, but th' House itself must decide what it's de cision is to be with regard to 1t. We shall place at the disposal of the House every item of information on the sub jects without regard to the conclusions which may be drawn from it in tht possession of the departments, ant having done that, we shall have dont our duty and being a minority here WI shall have to leave the responsfbilit! to the members of the House of Com mons.
 "There are two important treatie that have been signed and have to b' ratified. There is the treaty witt ~Qurkey signed at Lausanne, and th' nlore recent treaty which I am glad t' sax has just been signed between France anA Snain rerardinr Tanyier