The Daily Alaska empire., 1937-11-10
THREE TIMES PREMIER, BRIT.
 EMPIRE, DIES
James Ramsay Macdonald Passes Away on Steam
 Was Seeking Rest

LONDON, Nov. 10.-The death of James Ramsay Macdonald, son of poor Scottish farmer, who lived to decline an Earldom, divided Great Britain in appraisal of his life against those who lauded him; three times Prime Minister, and known as a savior in the dark days of 1881, and by others as traitor and was the Empires first Labor Premier, also the first Prime Min ister to visit the United States, is dead.
 i The seventy one year old British statesman died last night aboard a South American bound ship on quest for peace and happiness, which he failed to find in his unique and stormy political career. He sailed last Thursday in search of what he called the most elusive of all forms of happiness-rest."
 Death apparently was due to 8 heart attack following a long period of poor health.
 ] Man of Destiny
 James Ramsay Macdonald, man of destiny of the British labor movement, was probably one of the select few who will be remembered when the ages have selected the sig nificant from the insignificant of his time.
 From obscurity and abject pow erty, as dire as ever faced back woods American boy dreaming of the White House, this Scot struggled from the bleak North Sea fishing village of Lossiemouth on Moray Firth, to become thrice prime min- ister of Great Britain, director of the destinies of a worldwide em- pire. His first cabinet was formed in 1924, the second in 1929, and his third in 1881.
 fluence as an outstanding statesman, worker for the common veal, a crusader for enduring peace and disarmament after the cataclysm of the world war.
 His career was unique in British history No prime minister before him had been born into such pov- erty. None had ever entered the historic portals of No. 10 Downing street as bearer of the political ban ner of the laboring class
 Tn Great Pageant
 Passing years, it has been pre- dicted, may give Macdonald place in the Anglo-Saxon pageant along side that of Abraham Lincoln. Agon- izing misery and unremitting toll finally rewarded both; humanitari- an characters touched with genius, mellowed by romantic love and darkened by personal tragedies, their stories seem strangely woven from the same life thread. Each, steadfast to an ideal, sought a new social order, Lincoln as the liberator; Macdonald as the prac- tical idealist who worked lifetime for a socialistic Britain and paci- fled world
 Ramsay Macdonald, as he was generally known, was combined prophet, organizer and administra- tor of the distinctive brand of so- cialism that is British. It differs from the Marxian creed of Russian communists in that it is evolution ary rather than revolutionary. It denounces capitalism and commun- ism in the same breath, supplanting the violence of class war with the doctrine of the "inevitability of gra- dualness" toward universal democ- racy.
 An example of this doctrine, Mac Donald was active in politics for nearly 20 years before he got to par liament; it was Is years more be- fore he captured the highest prize in the gift of the British people. He trudged down the middle of the road, denouncing the 'socialism-in our time" slogan of the British ex- tremists as flashing futility, and fighting communism at every step. Lifelong Pacifist A lifelong pacifist, he announced on the eve of August, 1914, that he would have nothing to do with the world war. Through 1914-18 he was
 Continued on Page Five)