Election Campaign

COMMONWEALTH

(British Commonwealth of Nations)

Britannia's brow was furrowed with frowns last week. The three prongs of her trident -- Laborism, Conservatism, Liberalism-- absorbed her whole attention.

Issues. The "trilemma"which the electorate had to decide on polling day was contained in the manifestos of the three big parties, of which the following are excerpts:

Labor. The Labor manifesto, which is entitled Labor's Appeal to the People, reviews what the Government has done for peace, housing, education, agriculture, unemployment.* Then, under a paragraph called "What the Liberals and Tories have combined to stop,"a list of bills introduced or which were about to be introduced are cited, chief of which are:

1) Nationalization of the mines.

2) Taxation of land values.

3) Prevention of profiteering.

4) Development of transportation facilities.

5) Prevention of excessive hours of labor.

7) Votes for women on the same terms as for men. /-

The manifesto ends:

"We appeal to the people to support us in our steadfast march--taking each step only after careful examination, making sure of each advance as we go, and using each success as the beginning of further achievements towards a really Socialist Commonwealth."

Conservative. The Conservative manifesto deals with the Campbell case (TIME, Oct. 20), the Russian Treaty (TIME, Aug. 18), unemployment, safeguarding of industry, economy, juvenile employment, imperial preference, imperial unity, imperial foreign policy, imperial defense, agriculture, cost of foodstuffs, housing, slum improvement, insurance for old age and widows' pensions, education, women and children, ex-servicemen. It might be termed a broad social policy.

The manifesto ends: "In conclusion, I [Stanley Baldwin] would appeal to you to help to secure for the country, in this difficult and anxious time, a strong and stable Government, based on an independent majority in Parliament, resolved to maintain the existing constitutional and economic liberties under which Britain has grown great and prosperous, and empowered to solve on practical and common-sense lines the urgent industrial and social problems of the day. ... I appeal, therefore, to all men and women who desire stable government to support the broad and national policy that I have outlined and to ensure the return of a House of Commons that will have the will and power to carry it into effect."

Liberal. The Liberals start out by defining their position in the last Parliament, referring to the "Russian Blunder"(i.e., promising to guarantee a loan) ; it then deals with unemployment, housing, land, agriculture, coal and power, education, free trade, industrial peace, social insurance, prohibition, electoral reform, and ends: "The people have now a choice to make between three parties. It has an opportunity of putting in power a Liberal Government, which will pursue the path of peace, social reform, and national development, avoiding, on the one hand, unthinking resistance to progress, and, on the other hand, unbalanced experiments and impracticable schemes which will destroy the whole social and economic system upon which the prosperity of this country has been built."

It is thus easy to see that the predominant issue of the campaign is Socialism.

Campaign. The week's campaign;

Labor. Premier MacDonald, speaking in support of his son's* candidacy: "We must give young men a chance. It is not much use going into the House of Commons when you are 40, 50 or 60. If you are going to do your work from a national point of view and give to the nation and to the people of the nation all that is in you, you must begin young and master the House of Commons, its ways and its opportunities while your blood is still vigorous in your veins and while the best of your life is still in front of you."

Miss Ishbel MacDonald, daughter of the Premier, who was canvassing on behalf of her brother: "My line is social work, like my mother's, but I'm doing this because I want to do all I can to help the Government."

Premier MacDonald, at another meeting : "Go on, my Liberal friends, and do not look behind. In the Labor movement we have the spirit that used to animate your souls, widened, brightened and heightened."

George Lansbury, referring to charges made against him by Sir Alf red Mond: "The whole thing is simply poppycock so far as I am concerned."

J. H. Thomas, referring to Lord Curzon's speech (see under) : "Lord Curzon did not tell the country that when he resigned his position and the Labor Government came in, by his own action at Lausanne he had so strained relations between Canada and ourselves that several alternatives were discussed in the Canadian Parliament, and that one of the alternatives--happily rejected--was even that of separation.

"That was the position which Lord Curzon and his method brought about. The Labor Government has had to refuse to issue a white paper in connection with that conference, because of the strained relations it might cause in the colonies themselves."

Conservative. Ex-Premier Stanley Baldwin to the ladies: "I place first in my appeal to the women of Great Britain a confident hope that they will give themselves heart and soul to a policy of encouraging mutual trade within the empire by means of Imperial preference."

Mrs. Stanley Baldwin: "We are on the eve of an election which must seriously affect, for good or ill, many things which we women hold most dear. The future of our homes and our children depends greatly upon how the women of Britain use the power of their vote.

"The choice that lies before the British women is clear. Do they want their country to go forward in the British way, holding to British ideals of honor, freedom and justice, or do they want it to be destroyed and rebuilt on the model of Bolshevist Russia?

"The Socialists say it must be destroyed. They say we can do nothing for unemployment or any other trouble until we get a 'new and recreated society.' If you want to know what this means, you have only to look at Russia, which is now a Socialist country."

Lord Birkenhcad, referring to Premier MacDonald whom he called shifty, evasive, disingenuous and anti-British: "I charge him deliberately with this, that from the first moment of the War to the armistice there was nothing which he could say to embarrass the cause of the British arms that he did not say; there was nothing that he could do to assist the German cause that he did not do. That is the man I am asked to take as the spokesman of the British Empire."

Lady Frances Balfour in a letter to The London Times: "Class hatred is abroad everywhere, the most sterile of all passions. ... Do not let us add to it by separating the classes of citizens. Let women vote in their strength, but let their ruling purpose be to establish righteous government among a free people, of whom they now form a large part."

Lord Curzon, apropos of the Anglo-Russian Treaty: "The whole annals of our country contain nothing more humiliating or more disgraceful than this treaty. It and the Campbell case show that the Labor Government is not master of itself; it is in the hands of its gunmen. As soon as the automatic pistol is raised, up go the hands of the Prime Minister.

"It is the Labor extremists who have compelled the holding of this election. They think that by taking the appeal to the country in a hurry they may have a better chance.

"The Prime Minister is in the hands of the desperadoes of his party. The country is revolting against this form of Government, as it is not Government by the better men of the party, but by men in the background, who pull the strings and dictate the policy and hold the Prime Minister in bondage."

Lady Astor, asked about the old cry of "hang the Kaiser" : "I think it is far worse than death for a man who thinks he was sent from Heaven to rule the world to be locked up in a Dutch village with a dull wife."

Sir William Joynson-Hicks: "We shall reimpose the McKenna duties in order to give some fairness between our own people and the Belgian and German nations."

Liberal. Ex-Premier Asquith: "There is nothing whatever in the nature of a compact arranged at the headquarters of the Liberal and Conservative parties. All that has happened is that in a number of constituencies there has been a strong feeling that at this election only, when Socialism is being made the dominant issue, some steps should be taken to avoid a splitting of the anti-Socialist vote and the return on a minority vote of candidates pledged to Socialism.

"With this sole object, Liberal candidates have been withdrawn in some constituencies, and Conservatives in others, but there has been no bargain of any kind as to how the votes of the party whose candidate has been withdrawn shall be cast. There has been no agreement and no recommendation to the individual voter, who is left to make his own choice."

Ex-Premier George: "Mr. Baldwin had been in office about six months and had made a thorough, mess of every big business that had come into his hands. Mr. Baldwin went to America and made arrangements by which we were to pay over -L-30,000,000 a year for 50 years to the U. S., without making any arrangements for getting a pennypiece from the people who owed us twice as much as we owed America. I happen to know, and I have said it in public and it has not been contradicted, but Mr. Bonar Law, who was then Prime Minister, thoroughly disapproved of the transaction and was almost on the point of resigning as Prime Minister rather than agree to it. But it went through.

"Mr. Baldwin having given -L-30,000,000 to America, Mr. MacDonald said: 'Well, I don't see, if money is going like that, why I should not do the same thing.' So he gave -L-12,000,000 to the Germans and -L-30,000,000 to the Russians, so as to level with Mr. Baldwin."

Rowdyism. Not since the days of the militant suffragettes has Britain seen such a violent and unsporting electoral campaign.

Some of the rowdyism came from the Laborites, a little from the Liberals, still less from the Conservatives, but most from the Communists and those elements that were mistaken for Labor followers.

The Labor Party was forced to answer frequent charges of having organized the rowdies: "As far as we are concerned, we have no knowledge of any organized rowdyism of any kind. We strongly deprecate disturbances at meetings, either by Socialists, Liberals or Tories."

Premier MacDonald declared: "I see in the newspapers that an attempt has been made to repeat what happened last year, and that our opponents make a great grievance about rowdyism at their meetings.

"Now, last year we had all these stories told. You remember a lady in Glasgow who was kicked on the shins and fainted, and who three or four days after the election was discovered to have been, at the moment of her faint, addressing a meeting two or three miles away from the place where she was kicked.

"At the same time, I do hope that the great enthusiasm and strong moral ideals of our people are not going to induce them to become vociferous when they hear the other side talking nonsense or uttering slanders. I am not in favor of any of that sort of manifestation at all.

"I know that bad chairmen and provocative speeches on the part of the other side do try the patience of audiences. Then, my friends, if your patience is not equal to that trial, stay away from their meetings and leave them alone together."

Still rowdyism, increased. H. C. Hogbin (Constitutionalist) was struck in the face by a stone while he was convassing. Ex-Premier Asquith (Liberal), "paternal and pedantic," was frequently called a liar and many a time he was booed. His speeches were frequently drowned by catcalls and screechings of The Red Flag. Mr. Asquith called them "a set of unintelligent hooligans" and stated that he might just as well address a menagerie.

The worst case of rowdyism was reported from Monmonthshire when Major Beaumont Thomas (Conservative) was hit about the legs, had one of his arms twisted. His coat and hat were torn from him and his wristwatch was smashed. An attempt was even made to overturn his automobile. Eventually he managed to get away, but was forced to cancel several engagements on account of his injuries.

Sir Robert Home in desperation said: "Free speech is the foundation of democratic Government." But this dictum merely incited the unruly toughs to renewed disorders. In a lull of boos and countercheering he declared: "You may try to reduce this old country to the condition of Russia, but you will never succeed."

Sir Laming Worthington-Evans (Conservative) was successful in foiling the rowdies by speaking into a portable microphone strapped about his person. In vain they tried to shout him down. Then, stopping at nothing, they produced drums and cymbals and completely defeated the loud speaker.

Sir Alfred Mond (Liberal) berated the interrupters thus: "We are not go- ing to be 'Bolshevised' in South Hackney or anywhere else. The Labor Party had better learn that very soon or they will get some rough-houses they won't like, both there and in other constituences."

Constitutionalists. One of the features of the campaign was the emergence of Constitutionalists under the leadership of Winston Spencer Churchill. This party, which has identified itself with the Conservatives, champions the British Constitution against the Socialists.

Posters. Labor headquarters said it had supplied 40,000,000 pamphlets. The Conservatives talked about having sent out 20 tons. Liberals said that hourly they were being requisitioned for further supplies which were being promptly sent.

A Labor poster shows a player "heading" a football. Underneath is the inscription "Use your head and vote Labor."

Another shows MacDonald as "the hope of the world" being led by the Angel of Peace, while the satellites France, Russia, Germany look on admiringly.

A Conservative poster shows Hubert Herkomer's famed Worker on Strike. He stands glowering at the door of his house, while his wife with her child in her arms hides her face in misery on his shoulder. The caption is "The Socialists promised me work, I've not got it."

Another is a reproduction of Harold Speed's painting showing a dock laborer looking up from The Daily Herald (the Labor journal), exclaiming "Socialists! They've done nothing for me."

The Liberals have the hardest task, for they have to fight both Conservatives and Laborites. Their best poster showed a stalwart Liberal marked "It." On one side is a dapper bald-headed Conservative with a gouty foot, labeled "Past It"; on the other side is a shabby Communist, tagged "Beyond It."

Next Parliament. The date of the opening of the Sixth Parliament of King George V was set for Tuesday, Nov. 18.

Forecast. Betting continued to favor the Conservatives. Many thought that the Conservatives would obtain a clear majority in the next House of Commons. Lloyds offered 3 to 2 on the Conservatives.

Parties. At the Dissolution of 1923 the state of Parties was:

Conservatives 346

Labor 144

Liberals 67

National Liberals 50

Independents 8

At the last Dissolution:

Conservatives 258

Labor 193

Liberals 158

Independents 5

Vacant (London University) 1

*Unemployment figures in Britain were 1.215,600 on Oct. 6, a decrease of 70,023 over the figures for Dec. 31, 1923.

/- At present only women of the age of 30 or over are eligible to vote.

* Premier MacDonald's son, Malcolm, was in the U. S. as a member of the Oxford University debating team.