Evening star., 1927-08-28

| NV of Prime Minister Stanley
Baldwin to Canada has
found place in the Amer
lean press, there has been little dis.
| cussion of the political significance or
this highly unusual adventure.
| Literally Baldwin's expedition repre-
sents an earnest and almost desper'
ate effort to revive by some success
in the empire the fading domestic for
tunes of the present Tory govern
ment.
Ii one except the latter phases OF
the Lloyd George experiences, it may
lwell be doubted that any British
cabinet has ever in our own time
approximated the record of unrelieved
failure and uninterrupted blundering
Of the Baldwin cabinet. AT home it's
surrender to extremists led to the
precipitation of the general strike and
the later prolongation of the coal
strike which dealt blow alike to
British prosperity and prestige hardly
to he exaggerated.
Thanks to the ministry of Baldwin,
who came to power promising to
bring about peace between capital
land labor, Britain is nearer to class
war in the extreme sense than ever
lin it's history. Honestly and publicly
proclaiming a policy Of conciliation,
Baldwin has been driven and pushed
into q series of extreme measures OF
which the trade unions bill and
the House of Lords reform measure
are interesting examples.
Transferred to Inept Man
| Having suffered terribly from the
evil consequences of bestowing well
nigh absolute power upon clever
Imam, Lloyd George, the British nation
is now experiencing even greater
misfortune because it has with equal
completeness transferred the relns
of power to an incredibly stupid and
inept man, whose honesty and good
intention are only equaled by what
the New Statesman describes as his
genius for permitting himself to be
pushed in the wrong direction.
The recent failure of Geneva is only
one more in the long list of ineptitudes
Of Baldwin and his associates. AS to
the responsibility for the Geneva
collapse it may we'll be argued that
it is divided, but as to the con-
sequences it is patent that while the
United States may have to expend
large sums of money upon naval
expansion, which is perhaps un'
necessary but can be borne with little
effort. the British may just as easily
be brought to an expense which they
cannot bear and involved in naval
competition which they cannot long
| maintain.
In the long list of undertakings of
Stanley Baldwin and his Tory as
cess has been Locarno, and for
Locarno all the credit belongs
to Ramsay Macdonald. Austen
Chamberlain did no more than follow
in the footsteps of his far ADLER
predecessor, who was truly great for.
eign minister as he was just as clearly
a very poor prime minister. But no
| sooner was LoCarno agreed upon than
Chamberlain permitted himself to be
| involved in Polish aspirations. German
entrance into the League was post
poned and all the benefits of Locarno
compromised as a result.
Misgivings Over Russia.
The recent Russian affair has
awakened grave misgivings both with
in and without the British Islands.
What was done and perhaps had to
be done was done with a violence and
| an apparent lawlessness which rather
suggested Fascism at its highest
point than anything characteristic OF
British tradition. The manner in
which the thing was done, too, while
it had consequences at once In re-
ducing British trade and increasing
British industrial trouble, was even
more unfortunate as it provoked ap-
prehension and unrest from Archangel
to Nalona.
At bottom the difficulty in the Brit.
ish political situation lies in the fact
that while the whole world system
upon which British prosperity and
power were founded has been modi-
fled and even permanently trans.
formed by the war, Britain has not
yet found a man or party able to
lead along the difficult, but not inn
possible, pathway to new prosperity
and restored influence. While the
| United States and Germany are max
| ing enormous strides forward indus
trially, while even France is breaking
with the traditional sluggishness and
routine inefficiency of the past. the
British have so far been unable to
perceive the change which has come.
Baldwin had great chance. The
! pity of it is that within limits he
seemed conscious of the chance and
quite honestly set himself to the task
of establishing peace and cooperation
between capital and labor. At home
the mass of Englishmen were quite
| ISduy W dCCepL d SIi OIS Dul CiiiiSiiN'
ened conservative control after the
| foreign follies of Lloyd George and
! the domestic uncertainties of labor.
Surrounded by Tories.
Unhappily Baldwin's sound instincts
| were not shared by the more consid-
cradle of his associates. He was
| little man with good intentions. but
he was surrounded by Tories, who. so
far as the more considerable were
concerned, saw the future of Britain
in the light of Fascimo and Mussolini
rather than of any liberalism. Little
by little these men. Churchill and
Birkenhead among the more inf1uen-
tial, pushed Baldwin to the fatal de-
cision which insured the general
strike and the fatal policy of reprisal
after the collapse of this strike.
AS consequence Baldwin has en-
tirely lost the confidence of the work.
ing classes. He is denounced by some
as having betrayed cause. But far
more accurate is the perception of the
fact that not clever dishonesty. but
rather stupid weakness explains the
collapse. Baldwin has surrendered to
the extremists.
The consequences have been appal |
ling. Every by.election discloses the |
extent of popular disaffection. While |
the Tory party still retains a colossal |
majority in the House of Commons, |
as a consequence of it's victory of |
1924, each new appeal to an electorate |
shows the almost incredible decline in |
voting strength. And each such rev. |
elation seems to push the extremists |
in control to a new attempt to soften
the inevitable defeat of the next gen.
eral election by some device such as