Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-19

British world, the present moment Is
decisive. Unless he can now show that
the Liberal party, under his leadership
has at last enjoyed long-forecaSt rem
aissance, he must face the alternative
between actual withdrawal as party
head and new and probably fatal
split.
1t is now but six years since Lloyd
George was driven from political power
by the famous Carlton Club conference.
which dissolved coalition. 1t is but a
bare decade since, in the famous khaki
election of 1918, shortly after the arm
istice, he won a victory that seemed to
make him, as the indispensable man."
perpetual Prime Minister. Yet today
in the Parliament that is now to be
replaced he was the leader of a minor
ity counting hardly more than 40 MEM
bers in a House of Commons of els
members. and even in this minority he
was faced by stable opposition.
Despite the steady diminution of his
own political power and the decline of
/ the party that he heads, Lloyd George
remains easily the most interesting fig
IRE in British political life. Only Bryan
and Roosevelt. in our later political his
tory, have rivaled his hold upon popular
imagination and interest. And in his
genius for "paramounting" he GER
tainly wildly recalls the "Commoner."
Seventh OF Country on Dole.
. It is characteristic of Lloyd George
i @hat on the eve of a new national cleo
Sion he should once more have captured
popular attention. For 10 years. ever
since the war, Britain has wrestled with
/ the tragic problem of unemployment.
Coalition, Tory and Labor cabinet and
again a Tory government have tried
4, and failed. Last Winter the toll OF
| those out of work mounted almost to
( 100000, the highest since the early
evil days. This means, counting women
; and children dependent upon the un-
, employed, that upward of a seventh of
| the population of England, Scotland
and Wales are actually a charge upon
the treasury. supported by the dole
After four years OF power. marked by
the great general strike of 1926, the
, Tory party has at last proposed the now
famous "derating" scheme, an intricate
and technical system for encouraging
industry by equalizing local taxation.
But the plan is so involved and tech
meal that it has failed to touch the
popular mind. 1t is a product of the
expert mind, comprehensive, If at all,
only to small percentage of the Kings
subjects.
This Tory gesture Lloyd George has
met Enthusiastically. Floating his
program upon an elaborate but never
I0eleSS Simply RTaSp6Q IeFlSW Oh blc
British situation, he has said in plain
words: Elect me, return Liberal ma
jority, and I will solve the unemploy-
ment problem in year." This start
ling promise has ell the character of
Henry Ford's proposal Ito get the boys
out of the trenches by Christmas"
Viewed in cold blood and in the light
of all of Lloyd Georges other famous
promises, notably those Ito hang the
y1;e owaI be- fhA
last penny" such campaign promise
naturally arouses an immense amount
of scepticism. Most thoughtful people
regard it as little more than 1.-The bunk"
pure and simple.
Nevertheless. it remains true that
from the public point of view the Tory
party has already totally failed to end
unemployment. And it is equally true
that there is very widespread distrust of
Labor proposals, which go to the lengths
of Matchmaking certain key industries,
like coal and transportation, and at
least play with the idea of new CAPT.
tai levy. In this situation. while no one
really believes IL. G." can keep to his
time schedule, there is a feeling that
the welsh wizard" might do something
and that what he did would not be
revolutionary.
He Might Repeat Miracle.
Lloyd George has rather cleverly cap
italized his achievement as minister of
munitions in the worst days of the
war. when the failures of the Asquith
ministry had resulted in the notorious
shortage of high explosive shells. At
that moment Lloyd George took over
the job, and in a few months galvan-
tied the whole work of supplying the
new army with munitions. Could he do
j 1t a1ain? In a situation not wholly
ri-cirai1ap would hic orH I'm OIL
nation prove adequate to perform an
other miracle? At least in this ques-
ton Is revealed his real strength at the
moment.
Again, viewed in advance, the present
outlook for the election Is that neither
the Tories nor Labor will get a clear
majority; that they may fairly equally
divide some 500 seats, leaving the bal
ance of power to the Liberals, who
might collect upward of 100 seats. In
that situation the choice would be be-
tween the formation of another coali
ton government and still another cleo
ton, which might simply repeat the
last result, for measured by statistics of
votes no party in Britain today has
clear majority.
What would you do In that case?
Would you make coalition with La
bor?" Stanley Baldwin has asked of
Lloyd George. But for answer he has
/ met the question, Whom would you
advise the King to call to make cabi-
net when you found you could not?"
For In such situation the first move
would rest with the outgoing prime
minister. And in this. as in every other
exchange of wit, the slow and heavy
Baldwin has come off second best.
No one quite knows what Lloyd
George would do, and 1t is probable that
he has no plan ready. He might make
deal to the right with the Tories, or
to the left with Labor, but neither Tory
nor Labor cabinets could last a day
without Liberal votes. On the other
hand. 1t may fairly be questioned
whether Lloyd George could carry a
united party into either combination.
Combination May Come.
"a prediction gossip you may hear
ELL sorts of forecasts. There are those
who believe that If the expected hap
pens and the Tories and the Labor
party both fail TO get majority, there
will be a new coalition, which will
amount to an alliance between Winston
Churchill and Lloyd George, Churchill
becoming prime minister and Lloyd
George the leader in the House, with a
cabinet post enabling him to carry out
his unemployment program. In such
case Stanley Baldwin would disappear
but Austen Chamberlain, who stooo
with LLOYD George in the famous Carl
ton Club fight, would doubtless remain
Nevertheless, it is clear that such &
combination would split the Tory part!
badly, for while a majority OF the lead
ers were friends and allies OF Lloye
George in the old coalition days TIT
rank and file of the party members arr
bitterly hostile Nor does Winston
Churchill, who has already changed
~