Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-27
MACDONALD FACES
/ TEST OF STRENGTH.
Premier Hopes Naval Farley
WIN Help Labor to Ride
Storm Seen Ahead.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.
After three strenuous weeks in North
America Prime Minister Ramsay Mac
donald Is on the high seas, bound for
home and for a Parliamentary siege
in London which will speedily de-
terfnine how long Labor is TO hold
,iffIce
l. is the understanding Of we'll
informed personageS In Washington
that Mr.. Macdonald will seek to present
the British Parliament with naval
limitation agreement, to be negotiated
at the London five-power conference in
strength with his minority government
In House of Commons vote.
Expects Vote of Confidence.
The Labor premier counts confidently
on an overwhelming vote of confidence
for any naval agreement he submits
Such vote, following the victory which
the Labor chancellor of the excheuuer,
Philip Snowden, won at The Hague on
the reparations issue. would, Mac
donald's supporters feel, immensely
strengthen his governments position.
It would then proceed to more con-
troverSial iSSues-domestic questions
in the conviction that it could risk its
existence with far less risk than would
otherwise have been the case.
While Mr.. Macdonald commands the
largest individual group of strength in
the House of Commons, he does not
control it by majority. David Lloyd
Georges Liberal bloc of so or so seats
holds the balance of power. 1t can vote
Labor out of Downing street whenever
it pleases AS long as the Macdonald
government seeks support for foreign
programs like separations and naval
limitation). on which all three parties
Labor, Liberals and Conservatives
are virtually united, Labor is in no dan
ger.
Trouble Sets in at Home.
But when the government party in
vades the British home field, with its
various panaceas for unemployment
and correlated problems, then Ramsay
MacdonaldS troubles will set in. His
lieutenantS, who were with him in
Washington this month, made no bones
of the fact that his hold on the pre-
miership from that moment forth will
be precarious in the extreme. If he
manages to survive the pitfalls which
await him on many sides, Mr.. Macdon-
aid will establish a reputation for po-
Gtical master-craftSmanshi
The Labor statesman'S fate may be
decided by an issue he is pledged to
raise at the earliest possible moment.
When Mr. Macdonald was prime min
lister in the early months of 1924 his
government enacted a law requiring
members of British trades unions to
contribute regular percentage of their
weekly wages to the upkeep of their
organizations. The law was designed
especially to maintain the miners
unions. AS soon as the Baldwin Con-
sentative government ousted the Labor
government five years ago, it amended
the trades union law so as to make
workers contributions voluntary instead
of compulsory.
Robbed of Campaign Funds.
The result was a disastrous slump in
union revenue, amounting to hundreds
of thousands of pounds per annum. In
effect, the British Labor party found
itself robbed of the sinews of war for
campaign purposes. In the 1929 Spring
general election campaign, from which
Mr.. Macdonald emerged triumphant,
one of the paramount issues was the
promise of the Labor party to restore
the compulsory trade-union contribution
system Baldwin's great bloc of Con-
servative votes is sure to be voted
against the proposal as soon as the
Labor government submits it for adop-
ton. In general the plan resembles
the celebrated American "check-off"
system as it works in some Of the