SOCIALISM'S CHALLENGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18381, 23 April 1923, Page 7

SOCIALISM'S CHALLENGE.

GREAT STRUGGLE COMING.

LLOYD GEORGE'S WARNING.

TIME OF STRESS AND STORM.

By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright A. and N.Z. LONDON. April 20. Mr. Lloyd George, in his fortnightly article on current affairs, writes:— A few weeks ago I predicted that the comparative calm prevailing in British political seas during the past few years was coming to an end. Recent Parliamentary leave no doubt that the prolonged political depression will be followed by a period'of storms may bo hurricanes. No amount of organisation or propaganda can excite real feeling in the electorate over trivial and unreal issues. The war was real enough but the war was supported by men of all parties, and therefore provoked no political controversy, the minority .opposing it being negligible. The Treaty of Peace, on the whole, was accepted by all parties when first submitted to Parliament. Political Passion Returning. The Coalition legislation, although in ordinary seasons much of it would have aroused angry passions, coming as it did after the war had exhausted the emotions, passed with no more than feeble murmurs of protest. Take for instance the adult suffrage and the enfranchisement of women, the wholesale reduction of hours of labour, representative government in India. a>nd notably Home Rule in Ireland, more complete than any proposed by Mr. Gladstone. Any of these subjects before the war would have led to heated discussions throughout the land. Ireland's case is most significant of the changed temper of the nation immediately after the war. Fiercer political passions were stirred over Ireland than' by any political question of modern times. The causes underlying the conflict dealt with the most powerful motives which make the human heart throb— and religion. There was the old feud between Saxon and Gael extending over at least seven centuries. When Gladstone proposed to settle this raging tumult by wresting the supremacy from the race which hade been dominant for 700 years, passions were raised deeper and angrier than any witnessed in British politics for many a day. It led to scenes of physical violence on the floor of the House. It shows what we may expect when ■ genuine divisions of opinion profoundly move masses of men and women in a democrat'. For years political contraversy had' been suspended in the presence of a common danger. Reaction is inevitable, and the greater the suppression the more violent the rebound. ■ s Recent Omens in Parliament. That does not, dowever, altogether account for the omens visible of a coming struggle unprecedented in gravity. Fundamental issues have been raised of such moment to millions thai they connot be settled without a struggle that will rock socioty. The scene enacted in the House of Commons a few days ago gave me an uneasy feeling that the period of calm is definitely over, and that 'Parliament henceforth must expect gusts and gales and worse. There are signs that, a great stir •is coming rin British politics. The cause is easily explained. The sense of exhaustion is passing away, and issues containing a serious challenge to the privileges and rights .of powerful classes of the . community, and vital to the interests of all classes, have been raised by one of the great political parties .that, divide Britain. The momentous character of that challenge may be gathered from the terms of Mr. Philip Snowden's motion. Few men outside the . Socialist Party are quite prepared for this demand of a complete change in 'the organisation of society, and even for students of Socialistic literature the actual introduction of the resolution came as a surprise and a shock. •'•."'v'"' : Last election the Socialist poll aggregated the imposing figure of 4,251,000 votes. Mr. Ramsay Macdonald states categorically that he knows that the Independent Labour members, exclusive of the leaders, favour nationalisation and a capital levy. Thus nearly onehalf of the British electorate is already prepared to assent to Socialism in easy stages, which is ~' the purport of Mr. Snowden's amendment. Hence the new sense of struggle with which the political atmosphere is palpitating.' ; Capitalism is to be arraigned before the Supreme Court of the nation, condemned, sentenced, , and executed by instalments, Chinese fashion. The composition of that Court to-day is not favourable to the prosecution, but who will be the judges after the next general election ? The average comfortable citizen is still inclined to think these socialistic schemes so crazy as to be impossible. They cannot believe that 21.000,000 sane people can possibly contemplate giving sanction to such fancies. There are two cardinal facts constantly overlooked by the complacent, the first is that the propertyless men and women constitute the overwhelming majority of the electors; the second fact is the great preponderance of the industrial population over the steadier and more stolid agricultural population. The Seeds of Revolution. Sixty ' per ' cent, of the population of the United States, France, and Italy is still agrarian; barely 10 per cent, of the British population is engaged in cultivating the soil. Most of our workers have their being in the crowded, excitable atmosphere of factories, workshops, and mines, hence the rapidity with which fever spreads. Can it be arrested ? Nothing will be done until the danger is visible to every eye. Trouble can only be averted in two ways: one is by systematic inculcation of sound doctrines of economic truth into the minds of the workers; and the second, and more important, is by rooting out. social evils which jjurnish the -revolutionary .with striking and indisputable object lessons of the failure to the capitalistic system as an agent for human happiness.. Without the latter the j former effort would be futile. Meanwhile let the champions of the existing order take note of the Socialists' efforts to advertise their eagerness to redress the wrongs of ex-service men, and to soften the asperities of discipline for soldiers. The Socialists have shrewdly noted the causes producing the overthrow of their Italian brethren, and mean to ensure that if Facism : comes to Britain it will be an ally, not a foe.