LABOUR'S CLAIM

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 125, 31 May 1927, Page 4

LABOUR'S CLAIM

THE RIGHT TO GOVERN

IDEALS ROOTED IN mil PAST

SIR HENRY 3LESSERS VIEWPOINT

What is Labour's true objective 1 Does it seek to establish an economic millennium with the realisation of Ideals which have never hitherto been put Into prßtHioe, or docs H merely dcslro tho restoration of » state of affairs which prevailed before tho exploitation of industry for private gain become a dominating Impulse? Support for the latter view is contained in »n article in the April number of th« "Nineteenth Century and After," by Sir Henry Biessor, iLU., MJ?., who was Sollcltor-Oeaeral ih the ttatnsay MaeDonald Ministry. But the purpose of the article, which i» entitled, "The Politic* of a Labour Member," Is not simply to discuis in academic fashion the aims of the Labour Party. It is intended to provo to the British elector that the Labour Party is as fit to be entrusted with the reins of government as any other party. Sir Henry Olesscr admits that hi* party is comprehensive enough to embrace many viewpoints, while the objective ho puts, forward i« but the individual aspiration of one who frankly admits possessing "tho Front Bend mind," otherwise the responsibility of a member who has once held office; but he claims for his party as a whole a broad outlook on social problems that is worthy of publlo confidence.

At tho outset Sir Henry Slesser deohnos to accept the word "socialist" as correctly characterising the Labour Party, write* a Melbourne "Arns" correspondent. "First," he says, "the word ig of such varying connotation that it is often almost meaninglessand, secondly, whatever definition may i? P'T?" V the word ' the fact remains tliat the Labour party is a vast federation of trade unionists and co-opera-tors with but a small proportion of avowed socialists added thereto. It is therefore necessary to find some wider notion to define the limits of Labour Party policy. I rind this criterion in tho opposition to that overpowering dominion of money values in iocial and economic life which we have come to call plutocracy. There are those in the Labour Party, probably a majority, who beheve that the morality of a aocietv exempt from the imperium of Mammon w to be found in some progressive evolution in the future; there aro othersincluding myself—who believe that a sane human society was in process of being achieved in medieval times, and that this development has been distorted by_a false philosophy into a heedless materialistic pursuit of individual enrichment. In the reebyery of this I believe the Labour party should prove an effective instrument. In the economic theory of the Middle Ages three great necessities of a Christian economic are laid down—that industry and commerce should be carried on so that they satisfy the requirements of vocation, of fraternity, and of justice in commorcial^ dealing. The' Labour i'arty, albeit unconsciously, in. criticising the commercial anarchy bf the age displays "a happy tendency to resurrect theso medieval standards. The notion of vocation in medieval thought was an outcome of the idea of the santification of the individual; .those wio oppose plutocracy: can ohly-'do-soVonsistently by assuming that! thd indiyidnalhuman being has inalienable tight, of development and culture which his more employment as an economic or profit-mak-ing expedient tends ■to dofeat."

BASIS OP LABOUR POLICY. Recognising that {his individualism has been benefioeutly modified by fraternity. Sir Henry- Slesser commends the guild system, embracing both masters and men in the one vocation, but sounds a warning against vast aggregations likely to imperil individual liberty Dealing with the doctrine of a "just price, »r he says: "What it vital w the view that the price of a commodity shall not depend upon its scare, lty in the market, but upon the reasonable cost of its production. Here, again, in recent )retn vo have seen signs of a reversion to earlier and better standard*. In the demand for the correction of profiteering, for reasonable rents, and in the increasing dislike ! of corners and rings and unconscionable money-lending, we see the medieval principle again emergent. In the days when canon law preserved its independence, when legislation proceeded from Christian theory to political fact, we find statutes dealing with forestalling, regrating, and usury as the consequential expression of the Catholic economic expounded in the spiritual law. The Labour Party % , even if often it does not fully reoognise or appreciate its indebtedness to the past, v endavouring to legislate upon principles more or less akin to those of the canonists and fathers. The suspicion of the power of finance displayed by modern Socialists is essentially an attempt to restore ancient and sweeter conditions. Internationalism, which is ao offensive to a certain type of military mind, is but the revival of the notion of the universal empire. It would be idle to suggest that the Labour Party to-day is consciously animated by any coherent desire to restore that dyarchic theory of the blend of spiritual and material kingdom which was displayed in tho Holy Roman Empire; but, despite all apparent aberartions and exceptions, tho Opposition fundamentally stands for the restoration of medieval Catholic qualities, while the modern Conservative, who must by ho means be confused with the old Tory, is wedded on the whole to commercialism, to acquisitiveness in economics, and to imperial or national absolutism. There are many members of the Conservative Party, I have reason to believe, who would accept the bulk of the propositions here maintained; there are members of the Lab.our Party who would, and possibly will, repudiate them."

FUNDAMENTAL OBLIGATIONS. Passing from astractions to problems of current policy, Sir Henry Slesser observes: "Those who have served the King in government can never, it is hoped, be wholly irresponsible. This must neecssarily result iv an identity of policy in certain matters. The maintenance of the Constitution, the sane-" tity of law and respect for individual | right and obligation, where they do [ not menace the social interest, must be the: common' characteristic of all government; and nothing is more dis- } quieting than to observe the attempt of the Ministerialists. (themselves the only party who, in the case of Ireland, undoubtedly toyed with sedition) to claim a monopoly of organised traditional action. While the Labour Party cannot be said to have for ita ultimate I object universal nationalism of the I means of production, distribution, and I exchange, xt is undoubtedly true that } the party, witnessing the vast power which is being accumulated by our great trusts and combines in the essential* of life, definitely has declared and made it its policy that such monopolies shall come under direct social control; but the whole tendency of the times is to abstain, from dogmatic and rigid formulae, and to -consider, how beat ach industry may be reconstituted to serve a social purpose. Thus, in the matter of transport^ mines, and the land, and foodstuffs, to quote some basic instances, the party has devised a policy of social control . which varies with each undertaking.' The tenacity of the Labour Party is to b» found in prin-

oiplo rather than in application. It does not hesitate in a relative and fluctuating world to use opportunity and oxpedient as circumstances may dic j tato. Confronted with the duties of government, it can hardly be denied that tho Labour Party showed itself as concerned for tho prestige and dignity of this realm as has any preceding Administration. There is no reason' to suppose that if Labour be given another opportunity it w3l do otherwise than pursue the, same objective. Bolshevism and Fascism, revolution and plutocracy, are alike alien to its spirit and signs are not wanting that, despite manifold misrepresentations and plenteous folly on the part of heedless propagandists, the heart of England itf turning to that party which so essentially represents the common sense and common demand for justice which charactorise the English people."