Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-24

pendent Labor Party Summer School
at DtgsiceH Park, near Wel,Dyn, Eng
land.
ONDON-"I can imagine now
how I would feel If had been
alive at rs years Of age in the
IL year $50 Adam old Christian,
Just as am now an old Socialist.
As q member of O prosecuted ana H.
spoken-of sect, I should have lived TO
see the Roman Emperor become Chris
tion-a thing that would have been
wildly impossible when I was a young
man. should have said to myself,
The impossible has happened; here is
Christ triumphant. Yet It does not
seem to have made any particular DIFF
ference. should have seen little Diff
ference between Constantine and Do
cletian and much less between Jupiter
and Christ than / have led the Romans
to expect. should conclude, like q
later Frenchman, that the more things
change the more it Is the same old
game.
at can recall the time when was
preaching Socialism at every street cor
ner and explaining the advantages OF
having q Socialist prime minister and
chancellor of the exchequer. Well, we
have Socialist prime minister and I
feel myself in the position OF the OLD
Christian. I feel afraid OF some one
who listened to me in the old days COM
ing to me and saying, What difference
has it made? What am ! better on?
How many of the wonderful things you
said would happen have happened?
And I would be obliged to reply that
they haven't happened.
Conservative "Folly" Recalled.
". will now deal with Mr..
Baldwin and the Conservatives, owing
to whose prudence and intelligence the
Labor government is in ONCE. But the
Conservative party can only be depend
ed on to act with prudence and tntelli-
gence when their leader is the school,
master type of person who can bully
them like q pack Of boys. Mr.. Baldwin,
with all his virtues, is too amiable 70
do that. When he was in ONCE his
Government distinguished itself by an
extraordinary series Of acts OF folly.
Their first act after the victory which
they owed to the Russian scare was TO
threaten to cut off the water supply OF
Egypt by damming the Nile. The Egypt
ian people, known Z they were not do 1t,
simply damned their impudence. Then
there was the ARGOS burglary child
ish, schoolboy thing which 1t was I'M
possible to take seriously.
party that Mr.. Macdonald Is depending
for his tenure of office. 1t Is their
business to keep him in because OF the
Indian situation--no prime minister can
get out Of that great difficulty without
unpleasantness and discredit-and be-
cause of the unemployment situation.
Every intelligent Conservative knows
that he is no more able to solve url-
employment than Mr.. Macdonald Is
and consequently the Conservatives do
not want to get In.
Eat the last election the Conservative
window-dressing was bad and the Labor
window-dressing was not at all bad.
A very great deal was promised to the
proletariat, but what was promised has
not happened. If Mr.. Macdonald faces
an electorate In q state OF disappoint-
ment on issues chosen by the Conserv-
alive party without the prospect of
something different happening If he is
returned again the results will not be
satisfactory for the Labor party.
Reform BIN Advocated.
"What can be done to get over this
disappointment and disillusion? The
constructive Labor program necessitates
business done rapidly. But, un-
they have to work Is admirable for its
purpose. But that purpose is to prevent
anything being done at all. The par
liamentary machine has been perfected
so as to make 1t impossible for anything
to be done except police work, leaving
the capitalists virtually free from inter-
ference and leaving the livelihood Of the
people In their hands.
1.-THE Labor party is expected to pro-
duce with this machine all the results
which the machine is designed to pre-
vent-to put industry under public
control and to make the community
supreme. This is the secret of the
disappointment OF the proletariat. Mr..
Macdonald is tied to this machine and
any prime minister would be in the
same predicament. The only thing for
the Labor party to do in these ciscum-
stances Is to produce q reform bill.
The average Englishman always gets
wildly excited about any reform bill
and he will make bets and speeches on
it SO long as he feels 1t will make no
difference to him.
I'VE must get rid of the system alto
gether. 1t is an impossible thing to
work. We stick to the system simply
because 1t is useful in preventing any
thing being done. The system has no
real effect in local government, which
is done through committees.
Home Rule Called Need.
eff Socialism is to be operative there
must be home rule for England, Scot
land and Wales. Parliament will survive
as body to deal with the big things
of foreign policy, currency and finance,
which few people have any notion of.
and those people are not in the House
of Common and have little chance of
getting there.
"Only by bringing in a big reform
making that the issue can the govern
ment explain away the disappointment
Es