"ONE PILL AT A TIME"

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 100, 30 April 1930, Page 10

"ONE PILL AT A TIME"

"It is pathetic to see the position into which the political life of this country has drifted," said Mr. R. A. Wrfght at Parnell. "It would be bet,ter to have a Labour Government, because the Labour Party would th'en have to accept the responsibility." One can picture the emotional effect on Mr. Wright of his. contemplation of the political position—a strong, silent man shaken with sobs. He is so powerfully affected by the pathos that he mixes his metaphors and speaks of Labour holding the Government's head in Chancery and pouring Socialist doctrines, one pill at a time, down the Government's throat. But if the pathos has stirred Mr. Wright's imagination it has not quickenedhis perceptive faculties/though it has certainly led him to make a refreshing and vigorous contribution to a dull campaign. It would be better, he considers, to have a Labour Government. ■We trust that Mr. Wright is not joining the band of diehard Reformers who have taken a leaf from the Communist book and hold that the best'preparation for an improvement in the political position is to make it worse. To borrow Mr. Wright's own figure of speech, they would'give the people Socialism in homeopathic doses, "one pill at a time." Let them have a Labour Government for a while and see if that would cure them. Such homeopathic treatment we are firmly convinced would be a grave mistake. The people have not asked for a Socialist' Government, and until they do ask for one it should not be inflicted on.1 them. It is not as if there were no alternative. The political position is neither pathetic nor hopeless except in so far as the moderate parties are making it so. If they would face the facts they would see at once that Labour maintains its grip on the Government only because the moderate parties allow' it. They can at any minute shake off that grip. The Government's head is kept "in Chancery" (as Mr. Wright describes it) because the hands of both Government and Reform parties are engaged in a sparring bout, each,party hoping that the electors will give a verdict on points. The Labour grip could not hold if the parties. ceased this sparring and freed their hands to deal with the common opponent.