Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-02-24

mines may break away. II Macdonald yields
to 1t. he will go out promptly. II he puts
his foot down, the extremists may desert
him and with their assertions the party may
become middle class instead of labor. No one
can predict. If Ramsay Macdonald can con-
troll wild men he may yet prove the greatest
after-wer statesman Britain has had; but II
you are to understand the British revolution
"a revolution only you add the national
adtectfve-you must see that with all Its
limitations within and without 1t goes very
very deep; II arises out Of specific grievances
inadequate housing, inadequate education,
subnormal standards of living; It arises out of
national discomfort, orderly not violent in
stinctive rather than articulate. The tories
recognize 1t as readily as the radicals. only
arguing that they are better qualified to ex-
press 1t, which may in the end prove true;
but for the moment they have lost their turn.
Nation Wants a Change.
II one may judge specifically, there is stir
ring in Britain profound desire change.
spontaneous, nationwide a force revealing
itself net to destroy the England that was but
to make a new England. a feeling among the
masses that they have higher conception, a
finer idea for their country, than those who
have led them have been able to express in
action.
War, its agonies and sufferings. after war;
with Its stark miseres, for the moment para
lyzed Britain; her nerves and senses were dead
ened. first by her Affections then by her dis
appointments But from the bottom rather
than from the top there is evidence Of a new
spirit, a moving spirit, which moro than once
before has brought youth to this old land
another period of greatness when decay and
ruin were foremost.
Labor may or may not express this British
renaissance which is, I believe. the outstand-
ing fact In England today. but labor has been
invited to do it within the rigid limits of
British character. because neither Of the older
parties has felt the breath Of this new.old
England. But along with the spirit goes
the great solid common sense of the people
which has not been shaken
Neither the prestige nor the ultimate prog
perity of the country Is in peril will be.
British securities ought to go up not down. in
the face of this new vitality. because 1t Is in
all party members. although labor has the
first chance to express 1t. What the country
thinks Is perhaps best expressed In advice
the crowd he passed the house Of COM
mons: Good old Mac. get with It,"
At home and abroad this new Britain does not
mean that the ineffable suffering and sacrifice
of the recent past shall go for nothing and
1t has felt dumbly that 1t might be. not that
1t was beginning to be- SO perhaps for the o.
ment 1t has even submitted in grim. bitter
has been a sense of enormous Illustration, fu-
tiity. failure. accepted at first, then finally re-
jected.
Was it after all quite in vain?" men and
women have been asking of the ten terrible
Years that have passed. Somehow. almost In
articulateIy you feel that the British people
are at last responding with a categorical
negative The great fact in England today Is
this new spirit. 1t Is revolution labor may
express 1t. but, labor failing, it will still get
itself expressed.
Copyright 1924 By the Mcclure Newspaper syndicate)