Liberalism as a "washout," and are nowadays divided between the Conservatives and the Socialists, who, though violently opposed to each other, are both genuinely concerned with "the great condition of the People question," as it used to be termed. None more so than our Prime Minister, and both Party and Country look to him for a bold policy on Housing which, with Unemployment, is the crying social need. He must not allow himself to be paralysed by the many "do-nothings" by whom he is surrounded, any more than by those vested interests which invariably crop up to obstruct every vital measure. If our "First Class brains" would apply themselves to this terribly complicated problem that has beaten every Government they would render first-class service to the community. With such a Minister of Health as Mr. Neville Chamberlain we are entitled to expect a serious attack on the Slums, which are the seed-plots of Bolshevism, and as such a danger to the State. Helping the IN one of two ways loyal supporters help a Government, the choice being a matter of temperament and taste. The first is to open their mouths and shut their eyes and swallow whatever political sustenance Ministers may care to administer, happy in the knowledge that, however unpalatable, it will be received with enthusiasm by those who for convenience may be termed the "Dittoes." On all occasions they can be relied upon to say "ditto " to their Leader. This faction is strong in all Parties, because to follow the Party Whips is necessarily the line of least resistance, besides possessing other attractions. The other way, and we believe the sounder, however keenly resented by Tapers and Tadpoles, is while loyally upholding the Government against hostile attack, and under no circumstances allowing themselves to become involved in manoeuvres designed to injure the Conservative cause, is for a sufficiency of Ministerialists to retain their independence to the point of preserving enough liberty of action to apply pressure to the Government-even in the Division Lobby-when there is a clear departure from the principles of the Party. Especially is VOL. LXXXVII 3 that attitude useful in the present situation, in which a Cabinet largely composed of Coalitioners, has no Opposition capable of keeping it up to the mark. It is consequently liable to become demoralized by its own Parliamentary success, and to contract the fatal habit of aimless drifting which leads nations to Wars and Parties to débâcles. It is the tendency of all Governments to deteriorate, and with a Prime Minister of Mr. Stanley Baldwin's attractive personality, who has the gift of creating a friendly atmosphere wherever he finds himself, there is obviously a risk of the Conservatives becoming a Kid-glove Party and imagining that everybody else wears kid gloves and that none others are needed. A Menagerie of Mugwumps INSTEAD, therefore, of being annoyed with Conservative Members of Parliament who occasionally "kick over the traces," and abusing them as "disloyal," Conservatives in the constituencies should welcome such manifestations of public spirit and do whatever they can to encourage them-always provided, of course, that they are inspired by a disinterested zeal for Conservative principles, that they are not the product of disappointed ambition, or conducted in collusion with outsiders who are working to destroy the Government in order to put in something worse. No Conservative worthy of the name can conceivably wish this Government to fail, because from the Conservative point of view any alternative on the horizon would be immeasurably inferior both in Home and Foreign Affairs. His Majesty's present Ministers, like most previous Ministries, and presumably most Ministries to come, are decidedly flabby, and in some respects exasperating. They stand in need of constant doses of "Ginger" which they can only obtain from their own followers, because both Oppositions, Radical and Socialist, need the small stock of Ginger on their premises in order to keep alive. Such criticisms as we hazard of the present Government are exclusively due to our hope that the present régime may be so satisfactory that the country will gladly renew its mandate at the next General Election, but it is not enough to mean well, Ministers must do well, and their record will depend on the intelligent pressure of our Party in Parliament. We trust, therefore, that a powerful Ginger group will emerge in the House of Commons composed of men who realize that a blank cheque is bad for any Cabinet, and would be fatal in the case of one that contains so few Ministers with settled convictions on any public question. The Liberal drift in a Conservative direction is an additional reason for watchfulness. Otherwise we shall relapse into a menagerie of Mugwumps. MR. WINSTON CHURCHILL'S Chancellorship of the Exchequer (from which great things must have been expected by the Another Prime Minister when making the appointment) is proving as disappointing as his tenure of several other great Offices of State. Each of these was entered upon with a prodigious flourish of Press trumpets, but after a few months it was plain that another square man occupied another round hole. So it is with the Exchequer. We get elaborate orations, in which nothing is lacking from the exordium to the peroration, and though tiresome to hear (because the speaker is too heavily charged with matter), they provide 66 copy " for editors. But there the matter ends, and one Budget succeeds another without any appreciable expansion of revenue or curtailment of expenditure. This must be due to a lack of ideas or a lack of initiative. There is abundant scope for reducing our huge outlay as for increasing a revenue collected from comparatively few sources. The avenue of indirect taxation has never been properly explored, and when a tax on so universal a practice as betting is vetoed on moral grounds, we realize that our politicians are unteachable on most matters in which a little common sense goes a long way. Mr. Churchill's journalistic admirers are already preparing the Public for the painful fact that all the efforts of all the economists will saddle this unfortunate country with the second £800,000,000 Budget of the present régime in Whitehall. The only retrenchment that Respon sible Statesmen seriously contemplate is at the expense of the Fighting Services-at a time when, under the obsession of the League of Nations, they are indefinitely extending our fighting obligations. What the nation urgently needs is a drastic retrenchment of politicians, of whom there are far too many costing far too much. Coal and Politics WE have no desire to compete with enterprising contemporaries which publish forecasts of the Coal Commission Report. Nor are we much interested in those intelligent, or unintelligent, anticipations. Frankly, we do not admire the modern practice of prejudicing the labours of such bodies by premature accounts of their conclusions, which are either pure guesswork or the result of some indiscretion or, maybe, disloyalty. It is a great, if not irresistible, temptation for any editor who is offered a scoop" to close with the offer, which he knows will appear in some competitive journal if he is over-squeamish. Nevertheless, from the public point of view this particular manifestation of enterprise is unfortunate, and we wish means were adopted to prevent it. At one time it was asserted that the Coal Commission would report in favour of naked Nationalization--the Miners' Federation, by dint of denouncing every alternative, persuaded themselves that this was inevitable, and "Emperor Cook" and Co. declared they would entertain no other solution. At another time it was asserted with equal vehemence from the mine-owners' side that the facts established were so overwhelming that whether they liked it or not Sir Herbert Samuel and his colleagues had no option but to plump for longer hours and lower wages. Thirdly, it was predicted with equal confidence that neither of these courses would be adopted, as Nationalization was no cure for the major problems and the working miner is not overpaid— therefore the Commission would propose their own re-organization of the industry on the lines of a grouping of mines so as to reduce the overhead charges, coupled with the closing of uneconomic pits. We have no means of knowing whether there is any substance in any of these suggestions, but we shall all know before many days are over. Meanwhile, Lord Londonderry and other Mining Magnates are labouring for Peace, and there is some evidence of an improved atmosphere, but the Duke of Northumberland does well to remind the public that a powerful, if not a dominant, section of the Miners' Federation care little about the miners and less about Peace, because they regard the crisis as a Heaven-sent opportunity for promoting the purposes of Moscow. No Government, however amiably disposed towards all parties, can afford to ignore this sinister element in Coal Politics. Ministers would have no excuse for being taken unawares or for neglecting to discharge their plain duty to the community in the event of any attempted upheaval. Sir Alfred WHEN We last went to Press it looked as though Sir Alfred Mond-a lifelong mainstay of the Liberal Party--had had about as much as he could "stick" of Liberalism as preached by Mr. Lloyd George and acquiesced in by the Earl of Oxford and Asquith. Sir Alfred Mond had always made it clear that he was definitely and uncompromisingly Anti-Socialist. He has delivered notable speeches in Parliament in that sense, one of which was annihilating. Mr. Lloyd George, on the other hand, has no fixed principles on any subject except one-namely, his duty to be in office. He has always been prepared to embrace any combination that would serve his purposes. He has been in turn Radical, Imperialist, Jingo, and would be any of these things again to-morrow in order to gain his objective. He has developed grave doubts as to the ability of his Coalition friends in the present Cabinet to place the Conservative Party once more at his disposal as several of them desired, and thought possible, until the other day. The remaining avenue of advancement lies via the Socialist Party, and latterly Mr. Lloyd George has been busily engaged in dragging Liberalism into the Socialist camp by means of an agrarian policy that is rank Socialism. This was more than Sir Alfred Mond could stomach, and having exhausted the resources of private argument and personal remonstrance |