Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-16
CLASSES OF YESTERDAY
LOSE POWER IN BRITAIN
Breakup of Empire Is Seen as Result of
Labor Victory; Macdonald May
Release Hold on Colonies.

program was to "muddle through" with
out change, their single method Tor
meeting foreign competition was to re-
duce wages. But this method was use
less in itself. since low wages were no
counterbalance to improved machinery
and rationalized methods, and in addi-
ton reused Labor to revolt and to the
fatal general strike. British Labor was
reduced to the starvation point, but
British trade was not revived, urern-
ploynent continued, depression in the
coal and iron industries attained new
records.
As a consequence Of the application
of Tory policy-with very brief inter-
ruption-for more than 10 years,
Britain is today the single nation OF
all the great powers that engaged in
and survived the World War that re-
mains crushed by its consequences.
France, Germany. Italy, in varying de-
grees have regained normally; the
United States has gone forward with
incredible speed; but Britain is unable
to find work for its unemployed, it still
loses ground in world markets. Wall
street, and not The City, rules the
money world.
France Is Dominant Force.
Politically. too, the effort to retain
naval supremacy has broken down and
has led to very disturbing Anglo-Arneri-
can tension. The United States has de-
manded that Britain resign her pre-
tension to rule the waves, has demon
such pretension and visibly possesses
the resources as well as the viii
to end British supremacy. On the con-
tinent, too, playing the old, familiar
great power game, Britain has more
and more visib1y become dependent
upon French policy; France, and not
Britain. has replaced Germany as the
dominant force on the continent.
Economically and politically, then,
down. The effort to restore British
prosperity over the backs of the toiling
millions has led to peaceful revolu-
ton which has given the working
masses control OF the machinery of the
British government. The attempt to
re-establish British political power
abroad has precipitated American difi-
culties and brought about the dininu-
ton OF British influence in Europe.
Misery Comes First.
Newly come to power again, Il is
plain that Labor will turn its attention
not to the restoration of British power
in the world, but to the foundation of
possible conditions for the masses In
Britain. World power and imperial as
ISOLATION are secondary matters for a
party that has for its first task to
abolish the awful burden of poverty.
misery and Unemployment In coteni-
porary Britain.
Manifestly Labor could not II II
would. resort to revolutionary legisla-
ton to accomplish its ends, But the
taxation which the Tory geperru,ents
resorted to In the vain effort to restore
the traditional British position In the
world is accomplishing its purpose.
Death duties are distributing the for
tunes OF the wealthy, income taxes are
breaking the backs of the prosperous.
The real revolution Is. taking place,
peacefully, but with astounding COM
pleteness
The chief opportunity of Labor is In
the foreign field It can bring about
an adjustment of the Anglo-American
naval dispute. 1t can transform Brit
ish foreign policy In Europe. from the
old-fashioned great-poWer system of
alliances and ententes to real League
used Geneva as means, in partner
ship with the French and the allies of
France, to dominate, control, restrict
Europe, to put brake upon any real
development of solidarity and irterna-
tionalisrn.
To abolish the Anglo American
naval dispute, Labor must abandon the
last senblance of British claim to sea
supremacy and accept a real League of
Nations method. 1t must just as. pa
tiently drop the French entente, aban-
don the extra dances" with Italy and
come to real adjustment with Ger
many on the basis of evacuation of
German soil and resignation of all con-
troll lof German domestic liberty.
Finalty, there is also imposed upon
Labor, as the party representing the
masses. policy Of free trade, which
in rejecting all proposals to give the
colonial raw materials preference in the
British markets-abandons the eco
nomic tie of imperial unity.
Empire Must Go.
In sum, from whatever angle one
may view it, Labor seems inevitably
bound, not Immediately and impulsive-
ly, but by the gradual application Of its
principles, to set aside the old nine
teenth-century imperial Britain, to neg
lect the. empire on which the sun
never sets and to concentrate its eff
forts on seeking to provide-for some
forty-five millions of peoples In the
British ISleS-conditionS that will make
an end to the terrible Slums and the
appalling misery of cotemporary Brit
ish municipal existence.
I suppose it must sound absurd to
say that the rise of Labor, the steady,
sustained and now triumphant rise of
Labor to power and to office, spells the
end of the British empire, the gradual
dissolution Of the imperial bond. the
evolution of the British Isles into o
self-contained nation like France or
Germany, with a materially decreased
and stationary population. but do not
see how one can escape the conclusion
that this is to happen.
(Copyright, 1920