Evening star., 1932-10-30

y
the working class rank and file-not-
wlthstanding their sufering-Were con-
yinced that the leader meant business.
A few months after he had gathered
together his national government there
was. | admit. a danger that the public
would be dislllusloned, for it waS-and
still is-naturally most difficult for any
government to deliver the goods of in
dividual prosperity into the workers
homes when the whole world was still
creaklng with crisis. But that reaction
soon steadied itself, and If we may as
sumo. as l think We may. that year or
two from now there will be far Surer
indications of a return TO national and
world prosperity, then the solid support
behind this man will be greater than
ever. BY then he will have proved his
integrity and courage a second time-in
war and in peace.
! Often during the last IS years. as
have watched him closely. have l seen
him turn back the attempts Of those
who desired to commit the British labor
movement to some form of revolution
ary policy. There was even time when
I myself in the Independent Labor party
felt impatient with him, and yet over
and over again he has brought us Ia
heel. made US think as well as feel. and
all the time and how short time it IS
for the Labor party is only 80 years old
has kept us steadily advancing.
/ Liberal Legislation.
! He has known there would be set
backs, temporary wage reductions anC
/ many other causes OF grave disap-
! pointment. but he has never allowed
| US to lose sight of the steady de-
! J-aI of &c
through liberal legislation. such as
/ health. old age and unemployment in
/ surance. free education and vast
range of other social services. Not only
/ this, but he has made us see the in
evitable manner in which, by Our prop
aganda and educational efforts, the
| very structure of that new economic
/ organization which We desired would
! come to be favored also by public
/ opinion. He wished us to capture the
/ sources of economic power, but he in
| sisted that We could do so successfully
and without waste and destruction only
| if at the same time We captured the
minds, hearts and intelligence of voters
/ in all classes.
! 1 admit that he is a difficult man
| aloof. shy and hard to be intimate with
! There are many reasons for this: His
| early life and struggles and the bitter
! attacks made upon him by envious, even
/ though intelligent, theorists. Nor,
/ think. has he ever lived down the Bit
/ ternesS of his treatment during the
war. I think he has often failed tC
make use of men of talent who were
ready to be enrolled. put he may have
been justified more often than is
realized in suspecting the quality OF
that talent. for those men have beer
/ quick to show their chagrin when they
were not Immediately used.
! I have felt all this myself during q
years imprisonment inside the political
machine. But l have realized We must
take men as we find them and I have
known that other great political leaders
have behaved-as Parnell did, for in
stance-in this aloof. shy manner. And
therefore l have Seen-more especially
since there has never been any one
| approaching him as an alternative
| leader-that the Labor movement and
! the nation would gain more than our
| generation yet fully realized from this
! stern. dramatic personality than We
| should lose individually from his shy
half-arrogant aloofneSS.
He is. in fact. leader for whom we
must work and from whom we must
expect little either of encouragement
or even, perhaps, of full opportunity
| far less of simple intimacy. And YET
! 1 think l have never known him tc
| be disloyal, although I have seen him
make unnecessary enemies. I have
never seen him finch, though I may
| have wished him to show a different
kind of courage Of one thing l am
| quite confident-and I speak with some
knowledge and with at least that de-
gree OF friendship he has permitted me
He will never surrender to the "aristo-
cratic embrace"
He has profound love of beauty and
culture; he needs it as a rest from that
hard work for which he has a capacity
never equaled or at any rate surpassed
by British statesman. Once, as
walked with him in the country, I was
irritated when I found myself losing
| those precious minutes for political dis
CuSsion: and then I realized how many
hours in my own day were available for
the recreation of trivial thoughts or al
| Tentatively for talk of pictures and
books. as compared with the days of
this giant for work. who is at his desk
in the early hours before his breakfast,
and when I am asleep.
The People Are With Him.
I can see how he has been almost
driven to men and women in society
for ease, just because I and others were
so inhuman. I think perhaps he may
have been a little wrong here; think
if he had let more of us into his mo-
ments of leisure he would have found
that we had more to give beside politics
than he thought. But I am as conf
dent as I am of anything that he will
never succumb to the influence of men
and women of that social world with
which he and his Socialist friends have
little in common. His love for the work.
ing class home from which he sprang
is far more significant than his holidays
and week ends with the rich. He is Of
end.
Britain today has a government which
has almost taken our breath away by its