LABOUR PARTY'S POLICY

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 85, 9 April 1924, Page 13

LABOUR PARTY'S POLICY

PRIME MINISTER'S OPEN-

ING SPEECH

ABSENCE OF SOCIALISM

CRITICISM BEGINS.

(FR01! OUR OWN COItSrepoNDENI.)

LONDON, 14th February

For three weeks the Labour Party "has had a very encouraging reception from the Press. Everything pleasant that could be said of Mr. Mac Donald and his Cabinet has been said. They have been taken largely at their own valuation. Recriminations based on their wild statements of the past have been almost entirely absent. There seems to have been an unexpressed, determination to judge the new Government exclusively on what they say and do in the present and in tho future. Tho Prime Minister himself lias several times assured audiences that they can dismiss from tlieir minds the apprehension that the Labour Government will plunge iuto all sorts of wild schemes. Now, however, Mr. Mac Donald has made his first important speech as head of the Government, and the full flood of criticism from the Opposition and from tho Press has begun. "The speech co-vered far too much ground for an oratorical triumph to be possible," says the Parliamentary reporter of the "Daily Telegraph," ."but the tone was that of a harangue. Mr. MacDonald raised his voice continually, and kept .\i raised: he shouted Whole paragraphs. But still the two hours did not feel like three, which is the best tribute that can be paid to it. He had the advantage, however, _of an occasion when his audience were kept, if not on the tip-toe of expectation, at least on the full stretch of watchfulness lest they should miss the more sensational announcements which, as a matter of fact, never came. Whole tracts of the speech might have been delivered with few alterations by Mr. Lloyd George, and, if a liberal dash of caution and modesty had been added, by Mr. Baldwin himself.

A SERENE CONFIDENCE. "The main impression left upon the mind of, at any rate, one person who listened closely to the Prime Minister's harangue was that he and his Government mean to be grander, finer and better, and much more moral and just, and, of course, infinitely more successful thau any ot their predecessors. For they are not as other men—their motives are purer, their hands cleaner, their consciences not so burdened. Faith, it is written, can move mountains; Mr. MacDonald alps. The speech smacked of the ethical sounding board, but it smacked no less of the tradesman's circular who says that by unremitting attention to business, etc.. lie will strive to merit the continuaii'jc of favours to come. There was onco an eager Anabaptist who set out cheerily for Rome to convert tha Pop.c; Mr. MacDonakl seems to be entering on his task.with the same serene confidence that all must be well because he is so very sure of his own unblemished character and grasp of the truth. NO WORD OF SOCIALISM. "No word of Socialism, of course. Throughout the long, review of domestic problems Mr. Mac Donald never mentioned the word except to claim as 'sound Socialist doctrine' some statement of view or position which' had just been laughingly greeted by Unionists and Liberals alike as the expression of their own non-Socialist opinions. It came to be almost ludicrous at times. For example, tho Government would have jioth-' ing to do with bounties for agriculture because bounties mean 'oppressive State ■ control,' and Socialism is opposed to control. Or, again, as regards the unemployment, problem, the Government would.not think of drawing off any capital that was required for the stimulation of trade. No, they wanted to preserve all the ordinary financial resources of industry and not' trench upon them in the slightest. Esan had not merely put on kid gloves. He Jiad even shaved his wrists for the occasion." CONFERENCE RESOLUTIONS. "Since the list of his Ministerial appointments was made public nobody with his wits about him was ever' afraid oE this Government's programme, cr credited it with any wrecking intentions," says "The Telegraph" in a leading article.- "At the same time, it will not tlo for the Prime Minister to pay himself compliments on the general recognition of his innocuousness. He intends to be harmless because he. has.to be; and if he were tho leader of a majority in the House of Commons there would be a very different tale to tell. In administration there are plentiful possibilities of mis-government, and Mr. AVheatley's disastrous plunge in.connection with the Poplar^ scandal will prove 'to be only the first, we are afraid, of a long list of blunders that will- cost the country dear. Mr. Mac Donald had already stated his intention of .leaving the resolutions of the Empire Economic Conference to the free decision, of the House. He shrinks front the odium of a direct attack upon them, and adopts :t course which he presumes will end in their destruction. If that happens he may be quite sure that the Dominion Governments will know how to apportion the responsibility between the antiPreference parties. With regard to unemployment, Mr. Mac Donald declared that the rehabilitation of trade must be the first consideration, and that' ' ade.quate maintenance ' must be given to th», workless in the meantime. This is his predecessor's policy. Mr. Mac Donald has not gone back upon the extravagant promises held out by his party before the election, when it contemplated a gigantic programme of development of all means of transport, of electric power supply, of land reclamation, and all the vest; but he really disposes of it when he announces the truism that what is needed is the putting of men and women back tD the work that they can do. As to his announcement with regard to agriculture, we could expect nothing better than the disguised declaration of helplessness which Mr. Mac Donald made. His party will not move a finger to help Hie farmers, ascl he dare not suggest doing so. (What agriculture requires is a stimulus 'to fight its own battles is an empty phrase and nothing more.) BIRTHRIGHT SOLD. ." Mr. MiicDjnald." says the " Morning Post," " belongs to a party which has sold its birthright for a mess of international pottage. His party, faced with unexampled unemployment in tho class it professes to represent, hus tied itself by inhibitions much more drastic than now shackle the Conservatives. Mr. Humsay Mac Donald and his fellow-dele-.j gates promised at Hamburg to work fir Free Trade and the free entry of forei"ii labour, and until they repudiate those pledges they are not in. a position to look al, this great question with the eyes of practical men, ready to use any and every remedy which may help [o a solution,' if Mi\ lUrtiuuy MuuUonjiltl ' ( . 14t |

in politics, they • would throw to the winds all their political preconceptions and prohibitions; they would thereby make themselves a great and truly national party." .

TARIFFS AND BOUNTIES. In the matter of the restoration of trade, ■" ho had no better remedies than those already devised by his predecessors The Trade Facilities Act is to be speeded up, and export credits were to be extended, measures foreshadowed by Mr. Baldwin in the swan-song of his CSovernment. Indeed, it is evident that Mr. Mac Donald has been studying the recent Speech from the Throne to some purpose, although he had not the wit to take up the pearl which his predecesI sors threw away. ' Tho Governemnt,' said Mr. Mac Donald, ' would not touch tariffs or bounties; both these were wrong and only encouraged inefficiency.'. It is a sweeping statement, considering that such modern and efficient industrial ;-.nd agricultural systems as the American and German are founded on Protec- j tion; but it is good Radical doctrine which will no doubt be paid for by the support of the Liberal vote. ...

NINEPENCE FOB FOURPENGE.

"Nor can we see much, hope for the country in the problem which Mr. MacDonald sets himself of ' how to provide houses for £500 at a rent of 9s a week, including rates ! The new version of our old frifind ' ninepence for fourpenee' means that money is to be taken out of one pocket in order to put into another. The provision of houses is less important than the provision oE work for those who are to live in them. If we get Tfifl industries going, houses will spring up as part of the industrial revival. But such measures are interesting, as they suggest to us that the Socialists are filching their policy from the .older parties. Socialism itself is not a policy, but an error which a Socialist Government could not put into practice without disaster. In these circumstances the alarming redness of the Socialist dawn is becoming the rather drab and grey day of a 'progressive programme.''

SHORT LUTE FOB THE GOVERNMENT. " Not even the tiniest corner of the red flag was displayed," says the "Daily Express." " The speech satisfied only the very mildest members of his party. It left the Clydesiders and tho left wing generally in a state of sulky angei'. It was a speech which might have been delivered by any leader of any party. As a speech, notwithstanding its many platitudes, it was a relative success, but as a declaration of policy by a Socialist Prime . Minister it was a failure. ' A ! couple of score members had left the House before the new Prime Minister had finished. The House was gripped by the drama of the occasion, but not by the speech itself.- The circumstances were too much for the new Prime Minister. Mr. Ramsay MacDonald'g speech did not tell a tale of long life for tho first Socialist Government."

OPPOSITION'S SATISFACTION.

"Mr. Mac Donald's speech - created a greater amount of satisfaction among the Opposition than among his own followers," writes the political correspondent of the " Daily Chronicle." " Its moderate, even cautious, terms and the diffusiveness operated together to allay hostility from the "Opposition and to disappoint more eager spirits behind the Treasury bench. The "speech was regarded in the lobby as too much of a sedative to be useful to the new. Ministry. In form as well as in substance it was rated below Mr. Mac Donald's best record. " Perhaps the weakest part of Mr. Mac Donald's programme was that relating to unemployment. Here the whole House was disappointed, because it had been led to expect from the Prime Minister something like a practical policy. When members came to talk this part ■A his address over in the lobby they found that the present proposals'of the. Labour Ministry were no advance upon those of the last Government; while the housing policy, revealed no new plan % or the realisation of the common effort% of successive Ministers of Health to bring the building trades into line." TROUBLE ONLY BEGINNING. '" The formation of Mr. Mac Donald's Government," says the. " Evening Standard," " illustrates at., once his qualities and defects. It was a mai-vellous feat, perhaps unparalleled since the days ot Noah, to bring together and harmonise so strange an assemblage; but Mr. Mac Donald could hardly, have accomplished the task of constructing such vn anomalous Ministry had he been the kind of man from whom a great, clearcut policy could be expected. " The speech was a collection of ideas borrowed from the older parties, and not even ■ co-ordinated. Two notable points were that a committee is to be appointed to consider the question of the National Debt, which no doubt implies the final disappearance of the capital levy policy, and that Mr. Wheatley's Poplar policy will be defended. The first proposal will anger the Labour left wing; the second will evoke opposition from Conservatives and Liberals alike. The new Prime Minister's troubles are already beginning."