Evening Post. SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 1912. THE CHOICE OF LEADER.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 71, 23 March 1912, Page 6

Evening Post. SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 1912. THE CHOICE OF LEADER.

The Liberal caucus, which was able to absorb for this purpose three of the four Labour members and the two so-called Independents, concluded its deliberations yesterday. Its choice haa fallen upon Mr. Thomas Mackenzie as Sir Joseph Ward's successor in the leadership of the party, and practically, though not technically, in the Premiership also. We congratulate Mr. Mackenzie upon his elevation to a position with which nobody had ever dreamt of associating him cix months ago. At that time Sir Joseph Ward was still going strong, and though neither he nor the Liberal Party was as strong as they had been, the 'prospect of their defeat at the General Election seemed very remote. Had they been defeated outright, Mr. Mackenzie must, . of course, have gone down with his leader ; but the dubious verdict of the electors has combined with a number of other accidents to put Mr. Mackenzie right on top. By the aid of two broken pledges, his own undertaking to resign, and the Speaker's casting vote, Sir Joseph Ward saved his party from defeat and threw the Premiership opetu Sir John Findlay, who, before the General Election, had appeared to be his most probable successor, had been put out of the running by the strange choice of the Parnell electors. Mr, Millar, even before hie colleague's defeat, had asserted his own claims to the leadership if there was a vacancy, and his chance seemed to have come when it was known that Sir John Findlay'e defeat was to be followed by Sir Joseph Ward's resignation. -By' seniority Sir James Carroll had still a higher claim than anybody, but though an excellent speaker and a valuable lieutenant, he was generally recognised as lacking the energy, the industry, and the familiarity with other subjects than Native land which are among the essential qualifications of a leader. How then has Mr. Millar been passed over ? The luck has been ■ against him, but he has also himself to blame. We ascribe it mostly to the malice of fortune that one who was a pioneer in. the Labour cause more than twenty years ago, when the status of a Labour agitator was not the respectable thing that it is now, should have had to encounter the bitter hostility of Labour just when the highest prize of politics seemed to be within his reach. No Labour leader in this country ever had to show the courage, the nerve, and the determination that Mr. Millar's responsibility for the great maritime strike of 1890 demanded of him. A few years later he was representing the workers in 'Parliament, and until he took office he remained their most conspicuous Parliamentary champion. But office brought the inevitable estrangement. The obliI gations of a Minister of the Crown are different from those of the secretary of a Labour Union, and the conflict resulted in suspicion, ■ ill-will, and charges of bad faith. The bitter hostility of the British Labour Party to Mr. John Burns presents a parallel case. Friends who have fallen out become too often the worst of enemies. "You shall read," said an Italian statesman, whom his conI temporaries regarded as the incarnation of Machiavelli's Prince, "that we are commanded to forgive our enemies, but you never read that we are conimauded to forgive our friends." Mr. Millar has never been forgiven by > his friends in the Labour Party, and to their implacable hostility and the opposition of the partisans of Prohibition his disappointment must be in largo part attributed. But, as we have said, he has also himself to blame. His abilities are such that if he had brought their full weight to bear he could have made himself indispensable t,o his party, and worn down all sectional opposition,- but this he has failed to do. Tjie impression of vigour which he made when he first took office has not been sustained, and he has recently given but fitful displays of the remarkable Parliamentary power with which he won golden opinions by his management of .the Tariff Bill in 1907. The man who in our opinion is best qualified by nature and by experience to lead the Liberal Party cannot throw all the blame on to fortune for liis failure to realise his ambition. Except for the honour and the glory of it. neither the leadership o£ the Liberal Party nor the Premiership is tt very enviable billet just now. The party received a very severe shaking at the General Election, and th* fact that it has not been shaken out of power is | due to tactics which have damaged its reputation fur woie seriously than many a defeat, and are bound to be very senoubly resented by tlio uleutuia when they

To all appearance that day cannot bo very far off. It would require all the genius of ,a Seddon, and perhaps something more, to evolve a stable Government out of the Liberal Party in tho present House. For the present the adherence of the Lo,bour members has been secured, and the compact was formally ratified by the unanimous vote of tho caucus yesterday in favour of that marvellous Radical programme wnich v/aa announced in the Governor's Speech. But to justify the hopes that Labour is building upon that programme would be a difficult matter under the most favourable conditions, and in the present state oi parties in the House the task is surely impossible. A severer test of the mettle of a now leader could hardly have been devised. It will be no discredit to Mr. Mackenzie* to fail where nobody could have rucceeded, and it, is distinctly to his credit that his party has r-hoaen him as tho likeliest of its inemlers to essay th© forlorn hope. As a good business man, an old Parliamentary hand, and a vigorous and attractive speaker both \a Parliament and on the platform, Mr. Mackenzie has many qualifications. As Minister of Agriculture, he has, undoubtedly, done good work, and it remains to be seen whether he can run a Cabinet and the House of Representatives as well as ho has run a department. From the present House he will be wise not to expect much. His principal aim will probably bo to prepare his party to make a better showing after the next dissolution than tney made in December last.