Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1923 A VICTORY THAT FAILS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2674, 20 December 1923, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1923 A VICTORY THAT FAILS.

“NO question is ever settled until it is settled right,” so wrote Ella Wheeler Wilcox. The regretful feature of the recent British elections is that there is nothing settled. It has rather been an instance of unsettling than settling. True, the Labour and Liberal parties have won a victory but as such victory accomplishes nothing from a national standpoint it can be said to be a failure. What a gamble after all is a populr election? We learn that Mr Baldwin’s party actually polled more votes than at the previous election and loses about 100 seats. Nothing is settled and the poor Old Mother Country is faced with the greatest of trials. What will become of Britain’s industries? What is to be the fate of the millions out of work, or only partly employed? How is the country to carry on with the conflict or party interests and no party strong enough to carry on stable government? These are serious problems to contend with. Then the young giant Dominions of Canada and Australia are restless as to how Imperial preference in trade will fare. The new nations of the British Empire will, we feel sure, do all they can to assist the Mother Country, for their patriotism is not that of mere lip-service. But, then, each country has its own domestic problems of trade and commerce, which it must attend to. What has taken place in Britain is that temporarily power and responsibility have been divorced. The Government has been saddled with greater responsibility and given lessened power. The other two parties have increased their power but are not held responsible for governing. This issue of the relation of power to responsibility is one of the most grave difficulties that modern democracy meets with, ft becomes a test of the soundness of democratic rule when the Nation is laced with the fact that the’majority has declared for a negative and the power of control is placed in the hands of those who are not charged with the duly, or capable of exercising the function, of controlling. The danger of this situation arising is most potent where there are more than two political parties in the field. With only two, the majority may shelter from its duty or, from expediency, adopt lines of policv it does not honestly believe in.

TX this connection there is a serious lesson to our Xew Zealand politicians in the British elections. After all. the majority in Britain voted ‘-as you were” in national and imperial principle. We are not surprised. For a hundred years the people at Home have been taught to regard cheapness as paramount. Instead of a nation of shopkeepers they may be looked on as a nation of customers rushing the bargain counters. Seemingly they would prefer to have shirts at a shilling each even if they have not the shilling to purchase with. To the average Colonial England’s fiscal system appears as free-trade in extremis and there is a widespread opinion that some day this must change even if doctrinaire eonvictons are sacrificed. The paradox stands that Radicals and Liberals voted conservatively for no alteration. To break down this wall will require greater force than that of any single Statesman although the courage and honesty of Stanley Baldwin has been recognised even by his political opponents. He is a plain business man —busincs and politics, however, are much apart from each other. There are too may who make a business of politics alone. We see it in the Labour Party. It stood neither for free trade nor protection, but ready to collect votes from both sides. This party has more professional politicians than any other. The lessons to be learnt both by Liberals and Conservatives at Home, and here too, is that the Socialist Labourites introduce a new factor in politics that must be dealt with. This party challenges the structure of society; not this or that policy; it makes politics a distinct profession and specialises constantly in that direction. It has power through Industrial Union, to conscript the earnings of thousands who do not agree with its doctrines and finally it is prepared to promise almost anything to the masses in return for votes to place it in power. Can it be wondered at that it is succeeding, more especially when the other parties forget the nation and remember only their party differences.

THE British Elections force into sight the new line of political division. It is national solidarity versus class internationalism. Organised personal liberty and rights on the one side and class directed socialist bureaucracy on the other. The old feuds must give place to new friendships on the basis that the national life comes first and personal freedom in industry, trade, commerce, and social relations is its sure means of defence. That is the lesson of the British Elections.