Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1937-05-16

4A1>bG1 oaLOW LIN . IoSlRlld-
ton as Prime Minister Of Great
Britain. though long expected,
- will make profound difference
to British politics and, therefore, in
directly to international politics.
Baldwin Is perhaps nearer In men,
tally to representative American
statesmen than any British prime
minister for more than century.
Yet he was brought up and nurtured
In big business, his father being a
prominent steel manufacturer His
own fortune is in the steel industry.
Though he has the clannishness Of
the English public schoolboy, having
been educated at Harrow. and pre-
ferring to be surrounded by men Of
like upbringing and culture, he
nevertheless has kept what his cousin,
Rudyard Kipling, described as the
common touch" There is a strong
streak Of liberalism in his makeup;
in fact, if he had been in active
politics so years ago he could not
possibly have worked with the Tory
party Of that day, but would have
been regarded as the typical Wing,
with even radical-using radical In
the English sense Of an advanced
Observation-Disclosures
He has always been compromiser.
has always seen both sides Of q ques-
ton. He is not a violent partisan,
and therefore his whole policy has
been directed toward the middle
course. This has had disadvantages,
for it has meant wobbling and appar-
ent inconsistencies in the foreign
policies OF the governments that
have been under his leadership.
Nevertheless, his makeup contains
some idealism, and he prides himself
on his just dealing. He it was, above
all men, who strove for Britain to
shoulder the burden Of her debt to
the United States as long as possible.
He it was who made the original debt
settlement and persuaded his cabinet
colleagues to indorse it.
Coalition Inclination.
He broke up the Lloyd George coan-
ton formed during the Great War and
responsible for the peace settlements;
yet he has the coalition mind himself.
Without him the national govern
ment In Britain would never have
been formed tn 1881, when Mr..
MacDonald's second Labor admins
tration broke up. And with his depar-
.ture, British politics will revert to
the old-fashioned party lineup.
No other leader of the first rank OF
the Conservative party could have
worked so long and so tremendously
with Mr.. Ramsay Macdonald. No
Conserva tive statesman of first rank
has the same notions for dealing with
organized labor. The firm of steel
makers where Stanley Baldwin served
his apprenticeship was run On
patriarchal lines. AS he himself
boosted in public, they never fired a
man and they never had strike.
Yet it was under his premiership
that the worst labor troubles Britain
has ever experienced broke out-the
great strike of 1926. Once that was
over, his whole idea was to placate,
molhfy and soothe organized labor.
So with tariffs. He believed IN
tariffs, but he chung to free trade.
When he had to accept protection on
a large scale for Britain he resisted
straight tariff on foodstuffs. Under
his successor we may expect that
American wheat, pork and other
foodstuffs will be subjected to d tariff.
So III foreign affairs Baldwin's
whole attitude has been one OF caution.
He shrank from MORALLY offending
the japanese at the time OF the
original aggression in Manchuria in
1912. He could not bring himself
to choose between the United States
and Japan. In European affairs he
could not make the choice between an
alliance with France and friendship
with Germany. He hoped to bring
Britain, Germany and France together
and help in the pacification OF Europe
by that method.
In the 1talo-Abyssinian dispute,
Baldwin tried to stand BY the cove
uant Of Tho League ct Nations aaad at