Evening star., 1929-10-06
M'DONALD'S VISIT HOLDS
KEY TO FUTURE RELATIONS
Success or Failure of Mission Will Weld
Great Influence ON Anglo-U. S.
Problems for Many Years.

Yet Macdonald is the recognized
leader because he has had the courage,
the steadfastness and the strength to
hold fast to his faith, which is that OF
Labor. During the war he was a paci-
fist. After the war he steadily opposed
the peace treaties, denounced the moral
as we'll as the political and economic
isolation of Germany. He recognized,
while the mass of the British people
were still under the empire Of war
psychology, the necessity for interna-
tional reconciliation.
He's Like Wilson.
1t was thanks to Macdonald that the
Dawes plan was adopted, that the Ger
mans were received as equals at Lon
don and that the way to Locarno was
cleared 1t was due to him that the
occupation of the Ruhr, which seemed
to forecast the collective ruin of Eu-
rope, proved the prelude to a peaceful
adjustment that has recently culmi-
mated in the Young plan and the
agreement to speedy and complete
evacuation OF German territory by
allied armies
About Macdonald there Is much that
must suggest Woodrow Wilson; he IS,
in fact, a Wilsonian, as his recent
speech at Geneva indicated. Some Of
Wilson's limitations are his. He Is over
vain, tends to be autocratic in his ac-
tions, does not give his complete conf
dence to his associates, is intellectually
isolated. Yet along with these defects
go a great simplicity, directness and
sincerity, which do much to counteract
the impatience and irritability that he
frequently displays.
In appearance Macdonald is at once
handsome and distinguished he would
attract attention and enlist interest in
any group. Seen in the House of Com
mons his mass of gray hair, now rap
idly whitening, seems almost like
battle flag. Intellectually he Is an aris-
tocrat, in manner he has nothing to
suggest Labor or Socialism. His speech,
in which the Scotch burr fingers slight
ly, is that of scholar. In personal
conversation he gives a rather surpris-
ing sense Of sadness, heightened doubt
less by the fact that he Is not physically
overvigorous and is always working be-
yond his strength.
Difference Made by Eleven Years.
Eleven years ago Macdonald was
hardly safe from physical violence in
any British city. In his own native
village of Lossiemouth the local golf
club expelled him as a traitor (they
have just rescinded the action). H.
had been defeated in the elections OF
1918 and was the discredited leader of
a political party almost without repre-
sentatives in the House of Commons.
Even acquaintances and friends of the
pre-war period avoided him.
The fact that he is prime minister
today, that he is now greeted with
cheers when he Is recognized in the
street or even at a theater, is equally
an evidence of the tremendous psyche
logical change that has taken place In
Britain and the ultimate appreciation
of the sincerity and honesty of the man.
In Europe only BRAND may be counted
a rival In the noble cause of pacification.
and in Britain itself he has no rival
That such a man should come on s,cll
mission is perhaps the most striking
as well as the most hopeful sign Of the
time.
It is true of Ramsay Macdonald that
he is profoundly British and, despite the
obvious paradox, at heart an imperial
ist, although not in the conventional
sense: but he Is also an internationalist
and, better than any Briton of his time
who has held important political office,
he knows the Dominions, the European
countries and the United States as well.
And his whole career, like the character
Of the British statesman, must give the
lie to any charge that he comes seeking
unfair advantage or for any other pur-
pose than to restore Anglo American
relations to sound basis.