COMMONWEALTH: The Coming Election

British Commonwealth of Nations

The election campaign which is to end at the polls on Wednesday, Oct. 29, began its display of oratorical fireworks.

Issues. All the issues, none of which is, per se, important, have been coalesced by Conservatives and Liberals into one: anti-Socialism. The Labor candidates stand on the record of the Government during its nine months of office and seek votes on the plea that the “unholy alliance” (Conservatives and Liberals) is trying to keep the Labor Party out of office.

Date. The fixation of Oct. 29 as the date for the general elections was made, according to The Times of London, to avoid clashing with the municipal elections, the date of which is fixed by law for Nov. 1.

Coalition. Much talk has been heard during the past seven days concerning a possible Conservative-Liberal coalition against Labor. For some time past, Winston Churchill has advocated a similar policy (TIME:, Oct. 6). with this difference, however: Churchill wants a complete fusion of the two old parties, whereas the Liberals seem only to wish for a modus vivendi coalition.

Nominations. There are 615 seats in the House of Commons. For these seats there are 1,425 candidates:

Conservatives . . 534Labor 509 Liberals 330Constitutionalist 10Other Parties . . 33

Total 1,425 Of this number. 32 candidates have already been returned unopposed, leaving 1,393 in the field. The unopposed were distributed thus:

Conservative 16

Labor 9

Liberal 6

Nationalist 1

Total . . 32

Chief among those thus elected: Ex-Premier Baldwin (Conservative) ; J. H. Whitley. Speaker of the House of Commons (Liberal); T. P. O’Con-nor, “Father of the House” (Nationalist).

Manifestos. The following are excerpts from manifestos:

Conservative: “The Unionist Party is in favor of equal political rights for men and women and desires that the question of the extension of the franchise should, if possible, be settled by agreement.

“With this in view, they would, if returned to power, propose that the matter be referred to a conference of all the political Parties.”

Liberal: “Sooner than keep to the paths of sane and careful government, in which the Liberals were ready and willing to support him. the Prime Minister has chosen to appeal to the country. Like Mr. Baldwin, a year ago, he yielded to the hotheads in his Party, who prefer to stake all upon an election rather than forego their cherished nostrum of Socialism in the one case and of Protection in the other.

“I believe that the country will reject all such illusory remedies, from whatever quarter they may be advocated. What it looks for and, from a Liberal Government, will secure, are sound administration, practicable reforms and freedom from constant appeals for its opinion upon fantastic proposals of the extremists on either side.” (Message from H. H. Asquith to Scotland.)

Labor: The Labor manifesto was not published in the U. S. Premier Mac-Donald in a message to Reynold’s, London weekly newspaper (Democratic), said:

“Labor in this election is faced with a combination of interests, parties and newspapers which has never been known before in the history of political contests. It stands alone and, single-handed almost, fights its battle. This should win for it devoted support, not only from the working classes but from all who see in such combinations a menace to freedom of thought and independence of political action.”

Posters. Almost within 48 hours after the dissolution of Parliament had been proclaimed (TIME, Oct. 20), the three big parties started to paste posters in the cities, towns and villages of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland.

“Bewildered Bolshies” are the subject of most of the Conservative placards. These usually show “a brutal Bolshevist with greed in his eye” stretching out for the money of “the good old British voter.” The captions are: “It’s your money he wants. The Socialists say he can have it. Don’t let him vote Socialist” ; “Russia already owes us £722,-500,000. Don’t vote another £40,000,000, but vote Unionist [Conservative].”

In music halls, British Money for the British, a quasi-patriotic song, became popular overnight.

A Conservative campaign poem reads :

Bolshevik, Bolshevik, where have you been?

Over to England, where the Reds are still green.

The Labor cartoons ridicule those of the Conservatives and Liberals, mock them for calling up a fantastic Bolshevik spook. The captions: “The weather will be dreadful under Communism” ; “The Communists will stab poor grandpa.”

Oratory. The following are brief excerpts from speeches of prominent political leaders:

Premier MacDonald: “Tittle-tattle will play a great part in this election; and the trouble is that, being without a great and widely read press, we are going to be at the mercy of those who speak recklessly and tell what is not true.”

Ex-Premier George, referring to the Laborites: “They have no more orig-inality than the Chinese tailor who imitates the very patches on a garment.”

Ex-Premier Asquith called one of Premier MacDonald’s speeches a “rodo-montade.”

Ex-Premier Baldwin described the Labor Ministers as “cheap-jacks of politics, always full of enthusiasm but never doing anything.”

Lord Wargrave, referring to the Premier, described him as the “stan-dard-bearer of the white flag during the War and the red flag after it.

“Lord Birkenhead, speaking of the Premier, called him a “lachrymose pilgrim in a motor car and declared the Russian Treaty was an agreement to give “£40,000,000 of English money to a band of murderers who have already robbed us of £800,000,000!”

Winston Churchill, in an attack on Premier MacDonald, demanded: “What became of all these lofty lectures from the Socialists about the unfairness and immorality of rent and interest when they say, at the first opportunity, that the Prime Minister did not hesitate to become an important shareholder in a great manufacturing concern con-nected with the food of the people?”

Broadcasting. The British Broadcasting Co. put their equipment at the disposal of Premier MacDonald and ex-Premiers Baldwin and Asquith. Both Mr. McDonald and Mr. Asquith spoke into the instruments from an election platform; and the heckling and cheering was such that it made their speeches inaudible to millions of the radio-audiant. Mr. Baldwin was more successful. He hied him to the office of the Radio Co., sat him in a comfortable chair and talked quietly to millions. The keynote of his speech was an inversion of the late President Wilson’s famous dictum about making the world safe for democracy. It left Mr. Baldwin’s tobacco-hardened tongue as “making democracy safe for the world.” Avoiding controversy, attacking nobody, he gave his listeners what he termed “a heart-to-heart talk.” Said he: “You cannot all make speeches, thank God. . . . We are all going through a pretty bad time. Prices are high; jobs are few; and taxes are heavy. The country simply can’t afford, at such times, experiments with either academic socialism or revolutionary mitigation. The Conservative, Party is no patent medicine vendor. It does not profess to have a remedy for every evil, but it is the only Party which offers you the least hope and knows how to make democracy safe for the world.”

Incidents. The most noteworthy of the incidents which befell candidates, during the past week, was the persistent bad luck which dogged Premier MacDonald. Dashing about the country in his now notorious automobile (TIME, Sept. 22), he was able to make many speeches—too many; the result being that, at the end of the campaign’s first week, he had lost his voice. He had said previously: “I was never so tired in my life.”

At Wolverhampton, a woman dashed onto the platform and hit him over the head with a Union Jack crying: “This is the flag; never mind Russia.” She was led away by police. The New York World wrote an editorial on the incident calling the flag-whacker “Britain’s Barbara Frietchie.”

At Leeds, the Premier spoke to the plebs from an improvised platform on which he and 30 others stood. In the middle of his speech, the platform collapsed, precipitating most of the occupants, including the Premier, to the ground. After picking himself up, Mr. MacDonald resumed his speech from a part of the platform left intact. He said that the collapse was an example of the weight with which Labor would bring down its opponents.

Forecast. Lloyd’s, the world’s most catholic insurance company, offered odds of 2 to 1 that the Conservative Party would gain a majority over all other parties in the House of Commons. It was later reported, but not confirmed, that the odds had been lengthened to 10 to 1.

Everybody, including Liberals, forecast defeat for the Liberal Party; but Conservatives and Laborites each expected to make handsome gains.

It appeared probable, owing to the Conservative-Liberal arrangement of non-opposition in questionable constituencies, that the former would be returned with a majority.

It was considered as certain that the first Ministry of the next Parliament would be either Conservative or Conservative-Liberal, united on anti-Socialist policy.