Evening star., 1951-10-21
The Issues


less socialism. The Labor govern
ment has been in power since July
of 1945-longer, under single
Premier, than any party in this
century, and has put many Socialist
reforms" into effect.
But the issue is not so simple as
a mere AYE" or may" on socialism.
Foreign policy hogs a large share
of the spotlight, and the question
of how to deal with the United
States will be a big consideration
on election day.
Probably a dozen parties will take
part in Thursdays elections. Each
has published its manifesto-its
platform-for the edification of the
voter, and has bound itself to put
those ideas into effect if elected.
Actually, only two parties have a
chance of winning control. They
are Labor, personif1ed by Prime
Minister Clement r. Attlee, and
the Conserva a tives (popularly
called Tories), headed by Winston
Churchill.
Labor, being Socialist, tradition
ally stands for public ownership of
means Of production and the
furtherance of the welfare state"
The Tories, on the other hand, ira
ditionally advocate private enter
prise.
Both Must Compromise
Yet each party realizes that in
this election it cannot completely
hew to first principles. So in
Labor's manifesto, the Socialists say
vaguely that they will take over
concerns which fail the nation and
start new public enterprises wher-
ever this will serve the national
interest" And the Tories, while
proposing to stop further nation
alization and to return the iron and
steel industries to their former own
ers, say nothing about a full roll
back to prewar days.
Both parties are for the Age of
Plenty and against profiteering-
sound politics from Bangkok to
Boston. Both parties are against
war-which is equally smart politics
anywhere, and especially in Britain,
which hasn't yet crawled all the
way out of the rubble of 1939-45.
War, in fact, is the big question.
Both parties consider Stain i'm
possible to deal with, and are con-
centrating on the United States as
more malleable war-or-peace
factor.
Atom-Hoppy' America
Attlee's Laborites profess to fear
an atom-happy frame of mind in
America and put themselves for
ward as the best balance wheel
for the Western bloc. They bill
Churchill as the next thing to a
warmonger. The Tories, on the
other hand, see in their leader a
man who has in the past and can
in the future work with the United
States. The Conservatives, too,
assert that Labor blundering has
brought the nation unnecessarily
near the danger of war, and Mr..
Churchill capped the climax re-
Gently by saying that the three
worst things that have happened to
Britain are "Abadan, Sudan and
Bevan."
For British campaign, this one
is being fought on pretty low level,
with the major action centering
around Laborite question: Whose
finger do you want on the trigger?"
OF course, there Is no more candor
in the average British candidate
than there is in the American. The
Socialists are laying it on the peace
or-war line because they know mil
lions of Englishmen are discon-
tented with austerity and might
not hold still for talks on Socialist
theory. On the other hand. the
Conservatives are stressing the
bureaucratic shortcomings of the
Labor regime in all fields, foreign
and domestic, because there are
too many Britons alive who still