Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-24
SHAW FOR HOUSE REFORM
AS LABOR PARTY'S HOPE
New Parliamentary System Advocated,
Disappointment Admitted and Russian
Course Held Impossible for Britain.

It has caused and rally the enthusiasm
In the proletariat rs ut the last election.
The Liberals will be enthusiastic for
reform bill; 1t is in their blood. They
will Jump for It.
a. I deplore the fact that al
though Labor government is in power
people who advocate socialistic meas
ures, such as the naturalization OF in
dustry, are dismissed as dreamers. Mr..
Maxton was put aside when he sug-
gested that the coal mines should be
tive to q bill which simply made the
men work q little longer for the capi-
talist and arranged for the state TO
help the proprietors out Of their mess.
What the older Socialists preached
about the ease and economy Of the
naturalization Of the mines was ruled
out as old Fabian junk and he was
foggy shibboleths Of the sos.
Nationalized Banks Urged.
90. Now, coming TO the ma
tionalization Of the banks. Why should
not Mr.. .Snowden declare that he Will
as soon as he is in 2 sufficiently strong
position nationalist the banks? At pres
ent the poor devil with few thou
sands cannot get capital. The banks
won't listen to him. Industry Is In the
hands OF financiers who deal only on
q big scale. There is no difficulty about
Matchmaking the banks. The real work
of the banks Is done by the managers Of
the branches, who viii be In much
better position as government officials.
AS to the great f1nanciers, whose brains
are supposed to direct the whole thing.
the history Of Europe since the war
proves that they do not understand
their own business and ought to be got
rid Of. They have ruined the finance
Of every country with their mad tnfia-
ton and then think they have supplied
SUFFICIENT capital for industry.
THE Labor government cannot hope
to reconcile the people who say: What
Is the good Of reforming the old ma
chine? Why not smash 1t? Why not
do as Trotsky and Lenin did and get
rid Of the whole damned thing?'
This Is what viii happen II q con-
ton is not made by some party .
We certainly cannot 60 on with the
old Parliamentary machine stopping
everything, the most extreme govern
ment finding after an election that It
can 60 no further than the most re-
dictionary government. But the reason
why we cannot get away with q rev.
olution, as Lenin did, is that the RUS
slams took his advice in his Common
Sense About the War'-that the soldiers
should shoot their officers and 90 home
and mind their own business. do not
insist that they should shoot their
officers.
Russian Examples Ruled Out.
But until the same situation Is
created here as In Russia at the time
of the revolution 1t is the widest folly
to talk as II what happened in Russia
can happen here. It cannot be done
without an army coming home de.
moralized and starving. You must ad-
init that Mr.. Macdonald and the Labor
leaders have got to rule the Russian
example out. AS practical statesmen
they cannot count upon anything of
the kind happening any more than
you can count upon an earthquake
happening. You might as well depend
upon backing the right horse for the
| Derby next year. It is utterly idle to
expect Mr.. Macdonald to do the Rus
sian trick.
what Mr.. Macdonald can do Is to
show what can be done II he has an
I effective majority and to bring In Q
reform bill. He should also pay more
attention to the proposal made by MIR.
q. d. II. Cole for national labor corps.
just as the country has q fighting
army, SO 1t ought to have an army in !.
the direct employment Of the govern-
ment to carry out works of national
Improvement, which the capitalist sys- !,
tenn cannot do. The capitalist system
Is breaking down In all directions. 1t
has had great success In the or
ganization of production, but . COM
plete failure in distribution.
Promises Never Fulfilled.
''No one can defend the distribution
OF the capitalistic system. The secret
80 = a1kw d. hat NzfA TaaNJ
an enormous store of goods waiting TO
be consumed. The capitalist system.
thoroughly worked out and consist
ent system of political economy, was
accepted originally because the MANI
chester economists promised that II the
state would maintain private property
in land and capital and see that con- :
tracts were enforced by law the re-
suit would be tremendous activity in
| industry and every person willing 70
work would have subsistence wage.
"The capitalist system has not only
never fulfilled these promises, but has
to confess that an essential part OF the
system is that there should be O re-
serve army OF unemployed. Now, we
have q prominent mass Of unemployed.
not because there Is no work-there Is
plenty Of workout because there II Z
no profit making work for the capi-
talist
what can be more reasonable than
to organize that body Of labor as Q
national labor corps to do things
which win not provide profit for the
capitalists, but will be Of enormous
profit to the community? At present
children are taking any employment
there is TO spare from the adults. Pro-
longing the school age Is simply de-
vice for keeping them OF the labor
market for year. It would be much
better to extend the national labor
corps in connection with the Scout
movement and the beginnings Of or
ganization of child life and employ
boys and girls in the corps and train