The Press Monday, June 22, 1925. The Parties and Fusion.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18414, 22 June 1925, Page 8

The Press Monday, June 22, 1925. The Parties and Fusion.

The main lesson of tiuv result ot the Franklin election is that the moderate section of the Liberal Party is ready to join up with Reformers without waiting for the Liberal politicians andwithout caring very much what the Liberul politicians may do. The election made'another point clear —namely, that the Red programme makes no Strong appeal to electors outside the cities. Before the election the Labour leaders were confident of success. The Labour organiser in tho Franklin campaign was so certain of victory that he felt ho could afford to say that Labour " could not hope for such suc"cess at the General Election as now, " when wo can throw our whole weight "in the scale." Mr M. J. Savage, M.P., predicted that Sir Mont&omerie would win, and Mr Fred. Bartram, M.P., was not less enthusiastic. It is hardly surprising that - the crushing defeat of Labour has set the Party's arithmetician" working out eomo unintelligible sums designed to prove that the defeat at Franklin guarantees a great victory for Labour at the General Election. But the pain and astonishment of the inaccurate and shortsighted guides of "Labour need'not now detain us. Of much more interest is the attitude of the more aggressive and less teachable of the guides of the Liberal Party. Mr, Wilford has hastened to explain away the Franklin declaration for Reform by claiming that the Liberals fis a whole are above all things anti-Socialist, and that they voted solidly for Mr McLennan. Some of the Liberal Party organs have consoled themselves by calling the Reformers Tories, and by claiming that the Franklin result is as great a victory for the Liberals as for the Government. Everyone knows that the fact is that the Liberals were divided in Franklin. About Half of them voted for the Labour candidate, aM half for the Government, and this is what might have been expected. The Liberal; Party lias f<Jr a good many years consisted of two main sections-—moderates and Socialists—and !£or years it has been losing votes to-the Reform and Labour Parties. This jjroaess, touch accelerated, will continue, and if there is no fusion tho Liberal vote will shrink still further. It is plain that if there is no .fusion tho Reform Party will have little, cause for anxiety concerning its majority, and if we were thinking only of the Reform Party's interests wo should see no need to advocate any arrangement between the Parties. But it is obviou£ that it is to the country's advantage to get rid of artificial arid irrational lines of division in its politics and in its Parliament. For this reason we, in common with most friends of the Government, would be glad to see the moderate Liberals join up with the Reformers in a formal way. They arc only a small section of the Liberals who would oppose the merging of the Liberals in the Reform Party. . Some of them, of course, are still relying upon what they believe is their power to put a price upon their friendship, and somo of them are uttering threats, and even saying that if the fusion negotiations come tonothing the country will punish the Reform Party. We are quite sure that if the Liberals remain a party of opposition the country will decide merely that for narrow personal reasons the Liberals have preferred to perpetuate a division which everyone knows is irrational and without any justification from any standpoint of principle. The country is not troubling itself about the position of individual Liberals. It wishes to see the "moderate forces acting together, and it sees the Reform Party inviting the Liberals to join them, If the Liberals refuse, and insist upon being paid a price, the electors will know what to do. In the meantime tho preliminary conference of Party delegates has not been a failure, and this is a hopeful sign, indicating that the conference was not insensible to the growing feeling in the country in favour of an unconditional junction of the Parties.