PERSONALITIES

Southland Times, Issue 19123, 15 December 1923, Page 9 (Supplement)

PERSONALITIES

RAMSAY MACDONALD.

(By

“ZEdile”).

To-day the most prominent Labour politician in the world is Ramsay MacDonald, the leader of the Parliamentary Party in Britain, who is being considered as a possible Prime Minister. Opportunity has its hand on the door-knob —within a year the hand of Fate may have- whisked MacDonald out of the way whatever it may do for the organisation. Ramsay MacDonald attained the leadership only a few years ago. Arthur Henderson, J. R. dynes and G. N. Barnes had been tainted by their association with the War Cabinet and in the post-war period the wave of Radicalism, inspired by the as yet unprickcd bubbles of Bolshevism,-- found these men “too safe” for current requirements. To-day we hear a lot about the danger of Red revolution in Britain; most of that is imagination, because hundreds of thousands of people were infatuated with Bolshevism and refused to listen to reason, and were impatient even when they were asked to stand by and watch the outcome of the Russian experiment. To-day Bolshevism is discredited and Labour’s political leaders in New Zealand and Australia as well as Britain are buSily engaged in turning their coats inside out to show that there really never was any Bolshie Red about them. Men who stood up with chest expanded, fiery light in eye, and declared they were proud to be called Bolsheviks, now denounce the application of the word to themselves as derogatory, as insulting, as misrepresentation and libellous. What greater proof of the failure of Bolshevism could be required? But a few years ago things were different, and the Labour Party took on a redder tinge to appease the Radical elements and took on Ramsay MacDonald as leader. Strategically it was a good move. Of the Labour leaders then in the field Ramsay MacDonald was best equipped for Parliamentary leadership, adding to his knowledge of political tactics and tremendous sincerity, a picturesqueness which is so valuable in angling for the suffering people’s suffrages.

Ramsay MacDonald is a Scot, who enjoys the additional advantage of having been born in Scotland. This event occurred sixty-three years ago, but in spite of a lifetime of fiery activity he does not look his years. Grizzled about the temples and careworn in the face, which is adorned by bushy eyebrows and a heavy moustache which looks as if it had been inherited from some villain of the ancient. Adelphi melodrama, Ramsay MacDonald stands straight, and tall, suggesting persistence rather than magnetising vigour. It is recorded that he lacks humour, and this is probably a just estimate, because in all the publicity stunts connected with politicians one never comes across a sign of wit in the Labour chief. His speeches are fiery, they read like the deliveries of a man of great spirit, but men close to him find a dullness, a coldness which is strangely contradictory. His job, of course, is calculated to tire a man. Every week he has to face an executive which bombards him with questions and complaints concerning the operations of the previous seven days —one may feel sure that praise is sparsely used—a proceeding which in time must blunt a man’s edge. Labour has such delicate confidence that it fears a leader and therefore does not get one—or getting one, does not keep him long. Ramsay MacDonald more than his predecessors, has shown independence, particularly when he excoriated his unruly followers who worked havoc with the forms of the House of Commons and gave their political enemies a chance to direct attention to their lack of responsibility. Sure in the British distaste for anything suggestive of the “wrong thing,” MacDonald, who is fond of the House of Commons for its own sake, came down heavily on the offenders, who have kept fairly well to heel ever since. One thing the party has in Ramsay MacDonald is a good tactician and a speaker and writer of good English: he is a man widely read, and a keen traveller ; he has in his hands the string of a net which, extends through the political world and at times has shown itself to be extraordinarily effective. He is a parliamentarian out and out and likes the craft. Lloyd George and he are very friendly, a fact worth remembering in these times. It should also be remembered that both men are personally ambitious. The canny Scot who in private life rather repels than attracts, is yet ambitious for power, and the chance of the Premiership would be a tempting bait.

The Premiership for a Pacifist! One can hear the gasps of the “loyalists”!' Ramsay MacDonald was and is a Pacifist. He was against the Boer war—as were the prominent Liberals—and he opposed the war of 1914; but there is one statement of his reported in the House of Commons which sticks. He was speaking during one of the “dark” days, and he told the House he was against war, and he believed Britain should have kept out of the conflict in 1914. Then he told the House: “But we

are in it, and we have got to win.” That remark explained much when later the War Cabinet agreed to Ramsay MacDonald going to Stockholm to attend a conference of Socialists—the Seamen’s Union declined to allow him to leave Britain. Ramsay MacDonald made many enemies by his Pacifism, but it is entirely wrong to accuse him of having been a pro-German. In his heart he hated the Junkers and gloried in their downfall—that is . why he said Britain had to win—but, perhaps, like many another politician he had to run to form. Look to the Labour side of the Chamber, and you will find as much posing and preening as you find elsewhere; the representative of the proletariat must be an actor as well as the chief of the Whites. Ramsay MacDonald maintains all the trappings of plebeianism, and as he is a professional politician one must look on these with suspicion. He deliberately went for politics. Recently in a talk he said: “I came to London from Glasgow when I was sixteen to make my fortune. I searched the advertisements of the newspapers, and at length I found a position as a clerk at 15/a week. I was not satisfied, though, I remember asking the conductors of the omnibuses if it were possible to get a job as a conductor and they told me to go back to Glasgow. But I persevered and at length gained part of my desire. I wrote political articles for various newspapers, and so, as the years passed, wormed myself into politics.” He has all the technical equipment required for politics, and as a citizen he has the virtues burgesses admire. He can swing an audience with his rhetoric, can take punishment imperturbably, but there is something missing, something which might have put him at the goal of his ambition before this. One man describing him has written; “And if you were to see him in the House, tall and straight, with | his eyes lighted up with the fire of his - own rhetoric, hammering out a point and nailing it down with confirming, sound, callous reasoning, you would greatly admire him and at the same time say to yourself .* ’What is there that is just missing in this man whose speech is holding me spellbound?’ After a long time you would find the answer. Ramsay MacDonald is a man whose soul lies buried so deep behind his flannel shirt that you seek in vain to find

it.” The writer might have added that it is hard to get to the top in politics without a sense of humour. A man who takes himself and his affairs seriously all the time is dull, and MacDonald, except when he is making a fiery speech—carefully prepared and measured before delivery—is dull.