Evening star., 1934-10-14
Britain Is Reacting
Against Radicalism
BY A. G. GARDINER.

BY A. G. GARDINER.
LONDON, October 13. President
RooseVelt's complimentary references
to the means by which Great Britain
is weathering the storm of depression
continue to be cited here as a tribute
to the success Of parliamentary gov
ernment.
Whatever menace there may have
been to freedom and representative
institutions in this country, it is Wis
IDLY passing. The spectacle of Europe
under the heel of the dictators is
having a salutary effect on public
opinion, and there is a decided re-
vulSion from Fascism and Nazism on
the one side and from Communism on
the other.
Sir Oswald Mosley's black shirt
movement, never very formidable, has
become little more than subject of
amused derision, except among the
revolutionaries of the rival school,
who affect to be alarmed by it only
in order to give a flip to their own
brand of catastrophe.
That brand, too, is very much under
the weather, and the Labor party
conference has Just administered, by
an overwhelming vote, a severe rebuke
to the extremists who are coquetting
with Russia and Communism. This
group, Of which Sir Stafford Cripps
is the parliamentary leader and Prof.
Harold Laski sort of prophet, formed
itself into a Socialist league to put
ginger into the labor movement and
provide it with policy to overthrow
capitalism. and incidentally parlia-
mentary government, by one irresist-
able blow.
1t was great scheme-beautifully
simple and drastic enough to satisfy
Stain or Hitler. All the obstruc-
tions Of constitutional government
were to be swept away on the day
that the Labor party came into power
The second chamber was to be abol-
ished with a stroke of the pen, the
parliament act was to be ridden over
rough-shod, the crown was to be
called upon to stand and deliver
or suffer the consequences.
With these trifling preliminaries
carried out, the real business was to
be taken in hand. Parliament was to
60 into cold storage and the govern
ment was to be authorized to govern
by administrative decree-for all the
world like Russia or Germany or Italy.
Capitalism was TO be rooted out and
brand-new structure of socialism was
to be run up with headlong speed. In
tho words nf If ha irH,f
organizers Of the movement, the cap
italist eggs were to be so effectually
scrambled that they could never get
back into their shells Banking, in
dustry, farming, everything was to be
nationalized in one grand tour de force
and the state was to reign supreme,
under the gentle sway Of the Socialist
League. over all the activities of life.
1t was an heroic plan, but the only
people it seems to have seriously
alarmed are those in the Labor party.
That party owes its voting power and
its finance to the support of the trade
unions and the cooperative movement,
neither of which has a passion for
revolution and neither Of which takes
kindly to being exploited by a little
group of irresponsible intellectuals,
who hate tyranny in Nazi Germany
but condone it in Communist Russia.
The trade unions naturally do not
seems an inevitable corollary of die
tatorship, and the cooperative move
ment views with apprehension the idea
of being taken over by the state.
Neither is labor anxious to stage an
election in which the crown and the
constitution would be the battle cry
on one side and revolution the battle
cry on the other.
Hence the repudiation of the So
cialist League policy at the Labor
party conference. The Executive
Council by an overwhelming majority
carried a report condemning the asso-
citation Of Lord Marley. Prof. Laski
and Ellen Wilkinson with certain ac-
tivities of the Communist party, and
repudiated the proposals of the So
cialist League for abolishing the House
of Lords out of hand and for govern
ing by administrative DEGREES. The
spirit of the conference was dead
against a provocative and revolutionary
policy which would lead to a quarrel
with the crown, and, while affirm
ing advanced Socialist aims, declared
that they could only be accomplished
by constitutional and parliamentary
processes.
The significant fact is that Sir Stat
ford Cripps and the Socialist League
took the defeat with lamb-like humil-
ity. They remain inside the Labor
party, but they remain as prisoners.
The revolutionary fangs of Sir Stafford
have become as harmless as those of
Sir Oswald.
(Copyright. 1934)