Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-05
Lloyd George Is Recognized
AS Power Behind cDOnald

far more than the head Of o party with
reckon with. He can press his ideas On
unemployment relief and election reform.
and he may be able to amend the trades
dispute bill. For Lloyd George it Is far
better for the Labor ministry to be In
pow:r than possible Tory government
with which he would have no weight,
but it may be embarrassing to the Labor
ministry"
That the Macdonald ministry sis
hanging by q very slender thread" Is
the conclusion Of the Erie Dispatch
Herald, though it is convinced that.
while the electoral reform bill is before
Parliament, there is every reason to
believe that Mr.. Macdonald can con-
tinue to command a Labor-LibeFal ma
jority." The Madison Wisconsin State
Journal points out that ''the Lloyd
George Liberals do not want new cleo
ton, as they see no chance of securing
majority, and the Conservatives are
playing waiting game In the belief
that MacDonald's continual failure TO
mast-r the unemployment problem viii
return them to pow@r with solid ma
jority in the end" The Journal, how
ever, feels that Macdonald would
probably prefer an election now"
Recognizing that tine British Labor
party's LIT wing frowns upon the
scheme of electoral reform, which is Mr..
Lloyd Georges price for letting the
Labor government carry on" the New
York = mes suggests that the Liberal
leader NAV be said to have thrown
himself back upon thu bosom of John
Stuart Mill" who thought that "the
great need of democracy was the proper
representation of minorities," The
Times offers the comment on the
scheme: Afraid that the Conserva-
tives are sure Of a majority if q gen.
eral election were held, these ingenious
electoral reformers are trying to keep
in power government that Is a minor
ity in the House of Commons. Curiously
enough, some of the enthusiastic advo-
Gates of one change or the other frankly
support it on the ground that 1t permits
a majority in the House to govern,
though it NAV be supported by only a
minority of the electorate. 1t s. ems
queer sort of democracy in which such
a condition is regarded not as an un-
happy and temporary accident, but an
advantage and boon. The tendency
of proportional repr Sentation to swell
the number of little parties, make par
liamentary government unstable, pro-
mote intrigues between shifting groups,
hedsvil a composite government having
no clear and single majority, and alter-
nately beaten by or reinforced by ele-
ments from an opposition as heteros
geneous as itS:lf, has been admitted by
its candid advocates
If the Liberal purpose seems on the
whole better served by the Labor gov
ernment than by the Conservative OPP
position, there is no occasion to accuse
Liberal leadership of unworthy iobbery
because it adopts p course calcu'ated to
forward Lib raj policies" in the judg-
msnt of the Baltimore Sun The
Springfield (Mass.) Union states that
while repeatedly censuring Macdonald,
Lloyd George is frank to say that con-
ditions would be much worse If the
Conservatives were in power" The
South Bend Tribune concludes that ut
Is generally believed that the Labor
government will not endure for another
year without q general election" and
that "the next crisis may not develop
until the Labor governments budget
has been proclaimed"