British Labor Seen Falling 69 Seats Short of General Election Majority
Tracey, Herbert
British Labor Seen Falling 69 Seats Short of General Election Majority By HERBERT TRACEY IONDON.—Bones of contention, gnawed upon by the ..British Labor Party for many weeks and months,...
...But the munition makers, the mine operators in Great Britain and France, are playing the same game they enjoyed so thoroughly in 1914-1918...
...The Cre* wag asserted by Kjelinf ad others to be the golden •* which kept that very hetstejie ous collection of domiaiew ** dependencies together...
...England is the first country to strike the nodem capitalist trail was ever he land of compromise, of rulef-thumb methods, of freedom slowly broadening down from precedent to precedent...
...The problem note is to determine what manufactured goods the' Reich could send to Russia—which now has a credit of some $12,000,000 in Germany for manganese and timber supplied throughout the past five years...
...Count von der Schulenburg has been in Berlin for some weeks confering with industrialists and bankers on the possibilities of delivering goods, and the demands to be made on the Soviets...
...i • • * A CLEAR majority of the con' m stituency parties was also revealed by their votes to be in accord with the National Executive action in expelling Sir Stafford Cripps and his friends...
...With a king as a rubber stamp, a symbol who cannot marry without the official okay of the premier wielding the real executive power, whose "King's Speech" is written for him by the Cabinet, and with a House of Lords which fears to take action, constitutional changes and measures of far-reaching social reforms can be adopted in smaller England in less time than is necessary for the 4X state legislatures...
...We seek for escape from the drudgery of our work and from ourselves...
...If Britain were to become a republic, the Associated Press would have to invent a king to keep the cables busy with the usual "news...
...Tired by nearly three years of burning war on scorched farms and stump-filled forests, the Poilus are turning back towards Paris...
...Rule Britannia King Fronts for Needs of Empire Briton's Love of Fancy Dress Saves 'Nobility' Bv MARK STARR Educational Director of Intemat'l Ladies' Garment Workers' Vmm THE replacement of the British King Edward VHI bj King George VI and the unprecedented visit of fee British monarchy to the American continent pose on again the question why an allegedly progressive nttin retains a monarchy...
...English Munitions Makers Arm Berlin WT~is March, 1917...
...Much therefore depends upon the time, the occasion, and the appeal which the managers of the government combination of parties will seize upon to reverse the present trends in British politics...
...So that it can be said that these constituencies are a fair sample of the nation...
...The first week of October is named by some more or less inspired prophets as the date advocated by the Prime Minister's advisers and party managers...
...While Paris and London spend millions for air raid precautions, French producers sell thousands of tons of bauxite and aluminum oxide—the vital ingredient of air planes, and aluminum, without which the German air force would be crippled...
...In 1935, two years after the establishment of the Nazi regime, Germany and Russia agreed on a five-year trade pact...
...Readmission would also relieve some affiliated organizations of embarrassment, where they have supported the dissidents and have, in one case at least, been responsible for maintaining a Crippsite in Parliament, or as a candidate for Parliament...
...It has been reported in the House of Deputies that every hour of the day and night a full train of 70 cart leaves the Lorraine mines to cross the German border...
...in 1939, after helping to arm both Britain and Germany, it is paying its directors, all friends of the Cliveden Set, a 10% dividend on a $10,000,000 profit...
...During the South African War, the English troops found the Boers equipped with the early type of machine gun Zaharoff took so much pride in...
...The outstanding inference from its investigation is that no marked turnover of votes, and no strong current of popular feeling can be discerned in the by-election returns...
...British Labor Seen Falling 69 Seats Short of General Election Majority By HERBERT TRACEY IONDON.—Bones of contention, gnawed upon by the ..British Labor Party for many weeks and months, were thrown into the ashcan and the lid slammed down by the -delegates to the party's Whitsuntide Conference at Southport...
...The proposal, which is finding favor in tome countries—Poland, France, and the Toledano-dominated Mexican labor movement— will be the chief item on the agenda of the IFTU's Zurich meeting scheduled to take place from July 5 to July 8. - Should the Soviets be admitted, the American Federation will withdrawn immediately, probably to be followed by the Swedish, Danish, and Belgian labor centers...
...T may be useful on this occa* sion to show the trend of popular opinion as revealed in an analysis of by-election results...
...Apathy explains this perhaps less convincingly than is commonly the case in these matters of political arithmetic...
...but whereas the Labor vote in 1935, in these constituencies totalled 881,600 the score of Labor in the by-elections was 863,300...
...The Cripps group hoped that the National Executive would deal with their application during the Conference week...
...Shvernik, the present leader of the Russian unions, also stressed at the recent Congress of Soviet Trade unions that thev arc ..«Ub UIUVI1C LIlrtL .ill...
...It remains for the National Executive to deal with the application at their next regular meeting...
...PHE political situation, of " course, helped to reinforce the authority of the National Executive...
...In Le Havre of that year, while some of France's 1,364,000 war dead were being destroyed, a ship weighed down far below the safe water mark by tons of valuable French nickel was being searched by the military police...
...but this the National Executive declined to do...
...where it is in power, officially joined in with the recent coronation distribution of free meals, commemoration cups, etc., to rob its' opponents of the cry of "Down with disloyal Labor" at any future elections...
...Final decisions have not yet been taken...
...There is the danger that bowing down "in the house of Rimmon" may become a dangerous habit...
...But the ship sailed later that day when one of France's 200 Families called the proper Quai d'Orsay authorities...
...Few mines in the Lorraine area were hit by bombs dropped by enemy planes...
...on democratization of the armed forces...
...CO much for the hawk**-** here is where UMOStSBS anwfrailty comes in...
...It begins to appear that the Axis will revolve in Well-oiled war grooves this year...
...The net result has been a turnover of about 5 per cent of the votes, from the government to the opposition...
...Count Friedrich von der Schulenburg is now back in the Soviet capital to complete negotiations for the new GermanSqviet trade treaty which will give the Reich's military machine an "$80,000,000 credit with which to continue purchasing timber, manganese ore, flax and tobacco...
...France is the greatest bauxite producing country in the world...
...The constituencies m which by-elections took place can reasonably be treated as fairly representative of the counwy, as a whole: in them the balance of political forces was fairly even...
...This tendency to revel in a uniform has been and will be exploited by every militarist and fascist unless the Labor Movement can sublimate this human tendency and put life and color, band and banners into its own activities...
...Vickers-Armstrong, a corporation which owns iron mines, steel mills, gun plants, shipping lines and rairoads—a company lirected by many army men—is now selling millions of dollars vorth of guns to Germany...
...The World War was no exception...
...The Tndor monarchs allied hemselves with the traders as gainst the feudal barons and so iaved the way for the rejection n the 17th century of the divine right of kings...
...In 1933 it paid a 4% dividend on a $3,640,000 yearly profit...
...That shipload meant the death of thousands of Frenchmen...
...Sections of Schneider-Creusot are nationalized...
...They assume a measure of support for the personal policy imposed upon the country" by Mr...
...Bfbat set up only a limited mount...
...They have probably not influenced the by-election results in the fullest measure...
...More recently every new tooth cut by the royal kids has been faithfully cabled...
...Of course, royalty does not loom so large in the British setup as the papers in the United States would have us think...
...By ten-to-one majorities the Conference cleared away the Popular Front issue and upheld the action of me .National executive in exeluding its advocates from membership...
...Human frailty and conservaism plus certain historical facors explain the continuance of he British monarchy...
...next in line is the United States...
...A sharper reply to the British "feeler" was voiced by the Belgian unionists...
...Congress...
...A CLEAR majority for Labor ¦* m requires the capture not of 73 but of 142 seats...
...On the same calculation the opposition Liberals would increase their number by four...
...Deeper currents of political feeling are moving below the surface...
...a. Such advertising fct **5 more than the $2<M%\»*' "* yearly by the taxpayer* ** royal family's upkeep...
...I f the court became a center of anti-democratic intrigue Brrtmh Labor would have to take steps to cope with the danger and abolish the monarchy...
...Sfnee they survive, the Labor Party ia h terms of office has had to cran peers to be spokesmen in Ik emasculated Second Chink which for the last 26 yean, ¦ a matter of fact, ha* had In teeth and fears to qaj Jh» against the House of Cpam » » • THE common people, Betatt* nately, still dearly low a lid to look at and to have at Beatings and on a -nirersjfrn pnspectus...
...The late King George...
...Very little aluminum oxide leaves this shore, so a French embargo now could save millions in air raid precautions by halting German plane manufacture...
...Dressing-up runs such a riot that a large section of the American male population has a fez, a scimitar, a hooded robe, a funny cap and apron or such like so that occasionally they can enter into a solemn game of make believe...
...neither is the coming war...
...nor is a gain of 4 per cent of total votes, enough to place Labor in office...
...Some of the Liberae «f •» 19th century (DUke, Bradlasd...
...This is not an unthinkable change...
...A notable feature of the1 votes recorded in Conference on the decisive issues under discussion was the exceeding tenuity of' the dissident vote in the Constituency Party...
...These mines are owned by men who direct the Comite de Forges and control the French Senate which has broken more cabinets than have a thousand crucial political issues...
...Labor in the town...
...The English scene was not so lear of feudal junk as that in rhich the founding fathers of :he American Republic found themselves when by the Coeetution they made all men fonaafe equal—and then gave final aaaa to the Supreme Court...
...during the JapRuseian fracas, both sides found Vickers' guns among the dead...
...on the creation . of a genuine peace front which will give security to every threatened nation by collective action in its defense, and will seek a just settlement of every international grievance by methods of negotiation...
...J u d g.m e n t was pronounced upon Sir Stafford Cripps and his associates ty a virtually unanimous tribunal...
...The strength of the opposition would then be 276 against 339: the government majority, that is to say, would be 63 in the House...
...Thus coronation and king's visits are made by our astute never-sleeping masters into huge Imperialist propaganda campaigns in favor of social and political schemes against democracy...
...Chamberlain of which there is no evidence in the totality of by-election results...
...But most important is that the Russian government has conceded the sale of oil to Germany—oil which has in the past been going only to Italy...
...In other words a turnover at least half as much again as the by-elections have recorded is necessary if Labor is to win the next election...
...Not for many years has the party leadership received such a clear mandate from the constituency organizations and the trade unions...
...That it why the whiskey, coal, ires and newspaper magnates and their wvm have thought it wiUhehili to buy feudal flour>»hssOHfci thap> of titles paying eeaedcrabk sums of money into the teas funds of the Ltiieiei aed Tor Parties...
...They feel that no change has occurred since 1938 in Oslo when only the Mexican, Spanish, and French delegates voted to accept the Russian term of admission...
...The Belgian note pointed out that only recently Russian totalitarianism was "reaffirmed by a highly placed spokesman of the Soviet regime who stated that the dictatorship of the proletariat is the soul of Leninism and Stalinism...
...A STILL larger section no •** doubt is confused and puzzled about politics, and awaits the emergence of some clarifying issue which will determine its vote in the coming general election...
...The House of Lords tad tat official Church of England an other anachronisms...
...Of the 4.3 billion tons of iron ore in the Lorraine mines, some 6,000,000 tons a year are shipped regularly to Germany in installments of 500,000 tons a month...
...In the general election of 1&86, the Labor vote in these constituencies constituted 38 per cer.t of the total vote recorded, which is approximately the proportion of the Labor vote over the whole country on that occasion...
...its bourgeoisie newt**less secured control ewer th money bags and the penal «| taxation which had .in Staan hands been used to hamper trade...
...The Prime Minister's own preference is understood to be for an election in the Spring of next year: but it is alleged that he has been persuaded to consider an autumn election this year, on the calculation that the international situation will remain sufficiently tranquil to allow the election to be held, and sufficiently unstable to justify the government's claim to the support of a united and resolute people...
...The government vote in these constituencies was 58 per cent, which comperes with the government average over the whole country of 54 per cent in 1935...
...A section of the electorate holds its judgment in suspense on the merits of the Chamberlain policy...
...OIC designed to be devoted "supporters of the Bolshevist Party...
...Earlier in the month, the Swedish Federation of Labor unanimously rejected the British proposal on the ground that it would open a violent ideological war with the Stockholm unions...
...But a turnover of 5 per cent is not enough to oust the government...
...whereas the combined opposition vote rose from 42 per cent in the general election to 47 per cent in the by-election series...
...Out of all the biahepi mc peers (by blood or bankroll) W 100 bother to attend regalarij» the House of Uatfc *H House of Lords ever ttoesteei trouble, the Labor premier caak simply ask the King to «e* enough new peers from » h* supplied by labor to ewrtee the opposition...
...The egomania of the pitiable MacDonald was skillfully exploited by George V who allowed (to quote the official paper "Labour") the ministers "to break one ftivernatcnt and make another behind the back of , Parliament in 1931...
...This analysis has been made by a research group of the Manchester Fabian Society...
...With equal vigor and emphasis the Conference endorsed the party's leaders line of policy on conscription and the organization of civilian defense...
...On the western front, big guns from Krupp *are- blasting the allied line...
...on conscription of wealth, control of prices, and the limitation of profits...
...and more than 10 per cent of the adult population of the Island had the opportunity of defining kit pviiuc*< attitude at the-halUtt box...
...Fancy dress bells, lodge regalia and academic gowns indicate that a love' of dressing up is not confined to childhood...
...Skoda belongs to Hitler...
...Britain's Vickers-Armstrong, created in 1860 and later taken jver by mystery man Zaharoff, has been selling munitions to both <ides in every war since 1890...
...Tall stories about the ex-king Duke of Windsor, when Prince of Wales, either falling off a horse or falling in love, about his hat and the cut of his pants—these were presumed to be of prime interest to the general American public...
...Such calculations are, in this reporter's opinion, facile and superficial...
...But whatever happens in the liquidation of the Cripps campaign, it is true to say that not for many years has the party leadership received a clearer mandate than the one they derived from the Southport Conference...
...The gfteited crowds are escaping from a dull world and unconsciously glorifying themselves by identifying their personality with the object of so much homage...
...but even this was not done...
...The question of their readmission remains the outstanding question of domestic policy not disposed of at the Conference...
...He has also arranged for a trade delegation to follow him to Moscow...
...By Dick Reynard Workers Abroad DEVERSING its position completely, the British Trade Union *^ Congress now advocates re-inviting the Soviet Unions into the International Federation of Trade Unions...
...Five per cent of the government vote has been transferred to the opposition — but not to the Labor Party...
...An attempt was made to secure an opportunity for raising the question before the Conference adjourned, with the object of evoking a declaration of opinion from the delegates that the application of readmission of the excluded men should be sympathetically considered by the National Executive...
...This will be over, probably, before these lines are in print, and this reporter will not waste space in speculating upon the National Executive's decision...
...Russia Sells Oil to Reich ^%NLY Germany's inability to deliver goods to Russia prevents immediate sealing of a new wide trade pact between Moscow and Berlin...
...certain ships sailed with immunity...
...It is now practically certain that a general election will be held in the fall of this year...
...Nothing -hut a Ruling Monarch, a Maharajah, a Great Grand Chief will do...
...gainst this background, silhouetted in th/*-redness of 1917, the munition makers, Zaharoff, Krupp, Thyssen, Von Hugenberg, Skoda directors, Mandl, Schneider-Creusot the Comite de Forges, and the entire coterie of mine operators, steel producers, railroad men and shipping magnates, met regularly, drew up pacts, made treaties—all of which were respected by the high commands of both sides...
...If self-government Je-eT** * Egypt, Indian and other s*a» presumably an enlightened Bw> ish Commonwealth of Ned* will not need such a royal <•* But at the moment the any able British ruling class eaniw monarchy for its owe serf** The Duke of Windsor, Prince of Wales, was a *•* worth as a tracing-¦sale** and as a sort of masset ¦ British trade...
...Because they remain full with what they are stuffed.' Human beings, lazy and nnately conservative in the nass, born into a society with a cingly head (whose sole title to )ffice is the excellent discretion jy which he chose his parents) io not feel impelled to tear up he oilcloth to change that venerable system...
...The total opposition vote in these ?1 constituencies was 42 per cent as against a national average of 46 per cent...
...On these figures the Labor vote can be seen to have risen only about 4 per cent, from 38 per cent to 42 per cent...
...Since the general election of 1935 there have been 61 contested elections, not counting contests for university seats...
...Its spurious papers hid—hardly subtly—the fact that the shipment of future fuse caps and gun shells was designated for Hamburg...
...They lost no time therefore in deciding to wind up their campaign, dismantle the machinery set up at some expense, to discharge their field officers and staff, and to apply for readmission to the party...
...While France and Britain, a trifle belatedly, are threshing about to stop Hitler, French and British arms, iron and steel companies are supplying the German war machine with the necessary ores and guns...
...Believing as we do that there is nothing on earth more sacred than humanity, we deny all allegiance to this institution of royalty . . . The mind accustomed to political kings can easily be reconciled to social kings—capitalist kings of the workshop, the mill, the railway, the ship and the docks...
...There will be time enough in future dispatches to examine the position of the Chamberlain government in relation to the accomplished facts of the Chamberlain policy...
...Senate, President and Supreme Court to function in the United States.V T K T changes in "this king * business" are likely to come eventually in England as elsewhere...
...All down through tat lttk tentury the interventiet of the Crown in politics rwrttnatrt to diminish...
...One British"* nal after a visit Of' tt» 'lb* to South America reckoned each smile made by him ***** at over $1,000 of extra tra» When Queen Mary wear for her \*lh4MFW** the whole world was I*"* * tip to go shopping and *m British...
...It is indeed asserted that books about the British royal family have a larger sale in the United States than in Britain and there are always some sycophantic American citizens anxious to be presented at the Royal Court ind they always make the front page on this side of the Atlantic...
...The strongest argument for the readmission of the Cripps group is one that is likely to weigh considerably^ with most members of the National Executive: namely, that readmission of the dissident group will put a stop peremptorily to some wild talk of forming a third party— talk to which (to do him justice) Sir Stafford Cripps himself has given no countenance...
...certain lines were always safely traveled...
...The Popular Front policy, for instance, was rejected, not exclusively by the "block vote" of the trade unions...
...Puny limited human beings, fettered by circumstance, find release and compensation in a ruling monarch , "whose word is law...
...Only Krupp rules...
...A NALYSIS shows no marked ' ¦ change in the relative position of the government coalition and of the opposition parties...
...of the 545,000 constituency party votes controlled by delegates in the Conference, only 80,000 were recorded in support of the Popular Front policy...
...A significantly large proportion of the citizens who went to the polls in 1935, in these constituencies, have not troubled to vote in the by-elections...
...The Allies are disintegrating and pressure is terrific in Washington where a former college professor, tortured by grim pictures of front-line trenches, is about to call for war on the Reich...
...And why even the British labor Party shows no republican tendencies...
...These members) were quick to realise the significance of their defeat...
...Zaranoff is dead...
...modest little man, bagai •» reign in 1910, be it i uaiebed by agreeing at the esses* * Lloyd George to make eaeed new peers to override the »ea»d the House of Lords ¦Mek tt not like the mercurial WeaV man's "new deal...
...Atlee in the House of Commons has already protested the fulsome .-^oration, fecrful snobbery, refincd servility and vulgar boosting of royalty by the British press and radio which "indoctrinate the public with an enlirely false idea of the importance of the throne...
...It was obvious that they had no such following in the constituency parties as their propaganda had assumed to exist...
...Today Thyssen, Von Hugenberg, Mandl are exiled...
...Joseph Chamberlain) in the* extremist days, wanted t» * move the monarchy, bat it** argued that the British Eesb» needed an Emperor...
...N part the question of the retention of the British monarchy can be answered like the riddle: "Why are human beings iike sausages...
...Assuming a transfer of five per cent of the votes in every constituency, the Labor Partycould count upon adding 73 seats to its present total, which would give it 239 seats in the new Parliament...
...or to put it another way the wresting from the government of all the seats it holds with majorities of less than 6.000...
...James Connolly, who wrote: "The Socialist demand that the only birthright necessary to qualify for public offiee should be the birthright of our common humanity...
...The total government vote in the by-elections is 1309,400, as against 1,362.700 in 1935...
...An official IFTU correspondent writes that as long as matters stand like this (Soviet trading with Germany and Italy) in the decisive field, any (Communist) demand for -concrete unity of action is bound to remain a pious wish...
...Taken one by one, the majority of the members of the Labor Party would privately endorse the sentiments of the Irish Socialist leader...
...and retained the Heose al Lords...
...The British papers reciprocated by making the Al Capones, Dillingers and Hauptmanns into the most widely nown American citizens...
...Even democratic America does not have mere presidents and chairmen for its multitude of fraternities and s e m i - secret orders...
...The total opposition vote in the by-elections was 964,600, as compared with 974,600 in 1935...
...A relatively harmless vestigial appendix in times of social C T I S I « may become diseased and demand an operation...
Vol. 22 • July 1939 • No. 26
